According to reports, the woman left home at 6 pm and returned at 8.30 pm only to find pensioner Charles Samuel dead.

She noted that a door on the western side of the house was ajar.

The woman saw Samuel on the floor of the living room with what appeared to be wounds to the head.

The entire house was ransacked.

Officers of the Arima police station were alerted and they along with Homicide Investigations Bureau visited the scene along with the District Medical Officer.

A search was carried out for workable prints and other clues.

The body was ordered removed to the Forensic Science Centre. No arrest has been made.

Justices of Appeal Alice Yorke-Soo Hon and Mark Mohammed yesterday acceded to a request by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) George Busby, “in the interest of justice”, to obtain reasons of Magistrate Maureen Baboolal-Gafoor on December 10, 2012, in finding Montano and Roberts guilty of assaulting patrons during a fracas at the Zen Nightclub at the corner of Keate and Frederick Streets, Port-of-Spain on April 26, 2007.

The new hearing date set for the appeal is April 26; exactly ten years after the fracas took place. Montano was found guilty of assaulting Gerard Bowrin, Janelle Lee Chee, Brandis Browne and Russell Pollonais.

Roberts was found guilty of assaulting both Browne and Pollonais. Two other artistes Joel ‘Zan’ Feveck and Rodney ‘Benjai’ LeBlanc, also charged alongside Montano and Roberts, were found not guilty. Both Montano and Roberts were in court yesterday.

Objecting to the move to obtain the magistrate’s reasons were attorneys representing the two, who argued that not only were they surprised that efforts had been made by the prosecution to do so, without notifying them, but also that Baboolal-Gafoor has since retired from the bench and her judicial authority had ended.

Montano’s attorney Jagdeo Singh questioned the magistrate’s jurisdiction “after such an inordinately long period” to give her reasons, warning that to do so would be contrary to justice and judicial accountability and could lead to reasons being tailored around the grounds of appeal.

He said the statutory allowance for the provision of reasons by a magistrate was 60 days.

Roberts’ attorney Keith Scotland also relied on the Canadian authority provided by Singh to argue that the time between the magistrate’s decision to convict his client and the appeal was inordinately long. He also complained that his client, as a result of his conviction, was unable to travel to United States territories to perform and this has severely hampered his earning capacity.

When convicted, Montano and Roberts were spared possible jail time and instead ordered to compensate the victims as well as pay fines to the court. The magistrate ordered Montano to pay compensation totalling $13,500 and fines totalling $13,700. Roberts was ordered to pay compensation totalling $11,000 and fines totalling $13,000.

Montano faced an additional charge of using obscene language but was reprimanded and discharged for that offence. He has apologised to the assault victims. Also appearing for Montano were attorneys Larry Williams, Kiel Tacklalsingh and Vivek Lakhan-Joseph while Daniel Khan and Asha Watkins-Montserrin also appeared for Roberts.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Copyright Collection Organisation (TTCO) Dr Vijay Ramlal Rai made the confirmation yesterday afternoon saying the organisation was “pleased” that both parties came to an agreement.

The song ‘Ramsingh Sharma’ was produced at Bakyard Studios owned by Richard Ramnarine of the popular band Dil E Nadan. It is performed by his brother Raymond Ramnarine and Omardath Maharaj, and since its release, has been commanding the airways.

In a media release, Rai stated: “Richard was unable to recollect that he and his band used Super Blue’s melody from the song ‘Ethel’ but finally agreed when TTCO pointed out to him and Richard (Ramnarine) that he indeed used the melody.” The president added that yesterday Ramnarine “eventually accepted” that the melody was in fact taken from Super Blue’s Road March song.

“TTCO is happy for the clarification and awareness of what has to be done when someone else’s melody has to be used even when a denial by the user was pointed out,” Rai added. TTCO is a Non-Profit Organization and according to its official website, it is a a Copyright Licensing body that protects unique areas such as: Works of Mas, Live and Featured Performances under Neighbouring Rights and Author Composer Under Traditional Copyright.

In response to a question from Chaguanas West MP Ganga Singh in the House of Representatives, Gadsby-Dolly indicated, “No firm has been selected and no terms of reference have yet been developed.” At the first post-Cabinet news conference for this year at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Gadsby-Dolly first announced the conducting of this audit into Pan Trinbago.

While Pan Trinbago has received $87 million in Government subventions over the past three years, she said from now, payment to pannists will be made directly from the National Carnival Commission (NCC), bypassing Pan Trinbago, and will be subject to a verification exercise.

In a statement on Thursday, Pan Trinbago described the audit as a “hostile takeover”.

In response to another question from Singh, Gadbsy-Dolly stated, “There is a member of TUCO (Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation) and a member of Pan Trinbago on the board of the NCC.” In his second question, Singh claimed neither TUCO nor Pan Trinbago had representatives on the board.

Shortly after 7 pm last evening, the duo posted clips of the song to their respective Instagram pages and the song was available to be streamed on Montano’s YouTube account with an explanation that the duet symbolises them as “modern day” stick fighters teaming up as the ancestors did when the fought to stop the colonial rulers from banning Carnival in the 1880s.

Their message also praised the young writers and production teams, AdvoKit Productions and Badjohn Republic, who worked with them on the song.

In 2015, Montano and Alvarez appeared together on-stage at the annual Sunset Festival and were prompted by Major Lazer micman “Walshy Fire” to hold their hands together in the air as a show of unity.

Walsh also encouraged the massive audience present to cheer loudly if they felt “it was high time that Machel and Bunji did a song together” __ which they did.

Up to press time, all attempts to contact both artistes for comments were unsuccessful.

Dillon made the statement in response to a question from Opposition Chief Whip, David Lee, on behalf of Barataria/San Juan MP Dr Fuad Khan in the House of Representatives. After explaining that this was not his responsibility, Dillon stated, “However, I would surely want to inform the House that the CoP does in fact, based on individual assessments, allow police officers to retain their service-issued firearms outside.” In response to another question posed by Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial, Dillon said, “Joint (police) army patrols are currently being conducted in the Enterprise area where, on the basis of threat assessments and supported by the CoP and the Chief of Defence Staff, we feel that is where joint patrols should be at this point in time.” Dillon previously spoke about plans to establish an army camp in Enterprise.

The minister indicated that notwithstanding this, there are random joint patrols which operate in the Chaguanas area, including its commercial business district. He also said there are standard police patrols in these areas as well.

state.gov/content/visas/en/visit/visa- waiver-program.html to see the “complete list of countries whose citizens are currently eligible to travel to the US under the Visa Waiver Program.” The advisory came almost three months after the Embassy issued a similar one, informing TT nationals that this country has not been added to the US Visa Waiver Program.

As such, TT nationals were informed that they still require a valid visa to enter the US.

As Newsday reported, a spokesman for the US Embassy said the embassy had to post a notice about this on its Facebook page after rumours began spreading on the internet about TT nationals being eligible for visa waivers.

The rumours, posted on the CNNALIVE website, claimed that the US Department of State had updated the number of qualified Visa Waiver Program designated countries’ list from 38 to 39, with TT being the 39th country to be added.

The embassy’s post has been shared over 108 times with a number of comments.

Al-Rawi reminded MPs that, “during the debate on the SSA bill an undertaking was given by me that the bill will be attended to when the regulations for both the Interception of Communications Act (2010) and the regulations for the SSA Act (1995)were in fact in ready.

Justice Frank Seepersad was adjudicating in an injunction filed by the mother from San Fernando, who has been seeking, since January 10, to have her two children returned to her .

The 38-year-old woman stated in her lawsuit, filed in the San Fernando High Court, that she and her children’s father had been in a cohabitational relationship from 2009 to 2016. The relationship, she stated, produced two children who are now four and two years old. Attorney Martin Jadoonanan filed an injunction on behalf of the mother who stated that during the course of her relationship with her common-law husband, he verbally, psychologically and emotionally abused her, and he did so in the presence of their four-year-old child .

She said her husband has violent and abusive tendencies, such that on one occasion he verbally abused her parents when they tried to intervene in an attempt to protect her .

The woman stated that she separated from him and it was on January 10, she had given the her husband the children to spend the night with him. However, the next morning when she went to fetch the children, neither the children nor the father were at home .

She stated in her injunction that when she telephoned the man, he verbally abused her with obscenities .

She alleges that she returned to the home the following day, “but he told me that I have no children and that I not going to see them again” .

Seepersad ordered that the custody order is to continue and that the father is not to have access to the children until the adjourned date of hearing of the injunction on February 23 .

Imbert made this declaration in his contribution to debate on a motion by Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh in the House of Representatives.

He also disclosed that in the first half of this month, the country received $200 million in valuable revenue from the supplementary petroleum tax (SPT).

Indarsingh praised “Comrade Watson Duke” on his election as Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Minority Leader in Monday’s THA elections.

He then claimed the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) purposely choreographed the idea of a wage freeze/wage restraint in TT, there are 25,000 unemployed persons in TT and the Government is being run by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Indarsingh charged that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley “duped the population” in 2015, into believing the PNM cared about this country’s workers.

In response, Imbert quoted from a December 22, 2016 letter sent to Energy Minister Franklin Khan from Petrotrin.

Imbert, who is currently acting Energy Minister, said Petrotrin, “on the instructions of the ministerial committee of the then PP government, offered the union (Oilfield Workers Trade Union) for the 2011 to 2015 period, zero percent in the first year, zero percent in the second year, and zero percent in the third year.” He said Indarsingh, as a minister of state in the finance ministry, was an “active participant to institute a wage freeze at Petrotrin in the 2014- 2015 period.” As he declared this was “the height of hypocrisy” by the Opposition to act “like Caesar’s wife”, Government MPs thumped their desks as Imbert quipped, “What a tangled web we weave when we practice to deceive.”