Jesten Superville appeared before Ag Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle charged with being in possession $2,500 on July 1, at Picton Road in Laventille. The money represented proceeds of a ransom paid for the release of Laing.

The charge was laid indictably so Superville was not called on to enter a plea. In objecting to bail, court prosecutor Insp Wayne Mohammed said Superville has a prior conviction in 2007 and pending matters dating back to March of this year. He also indicated that investigations into the kidnapping are ongoing.

In her ruling, Earle-Caddle indicated that she viewed the pending matters to be of a serious nature and was denying bail. She however advised Superville of his right to apply to a judge in Chambers for bail.

At present the prosecution has eight potential witnesses and this number could increase as investigations continue. Superville is represented by attorney Criston J Williams and will return to court on August 7.

Superville was charged on Saturday, a day after a High Court judge ordered the police to lay a charge or release him. He was one of two people who filed writs of habeas corpus in the High Court to force the police to justify their continued detention. In an order following the hour long hearing, Justice Ricky Rahim said while he was satisfied that the continued detention of the two was not unlawful, if no charges are laid against either man by 11.30 am Saturday, they are to be released from police custody.

The other man was released on Saturday while two others were released on July 1.

Laing, 53, owner of Puff n’ Stuff chain of bakeries was snatched from outside his San Fernando branch around 3 am on Thursday June 29. Relatives were contacted by a kidnapper who demanded $270,000 for his safe return. Relatives first went to Phase 1 in Beetham and paid $30,000 to kidnappers and shortly before 5 pm that day, they paid $240,000 in Barataria. Laing was released hours later.

On July 1, a joint team of police officers swooped down on Alicia’s Guest House, located on Lady Chancellor Hill, surrounded two rooms and detained three of seven suspects in Laing’s kidnapping. Officers searched two rooms and detained the three suspects who were in possession of cash, cell phones and other valuables.

All seven suspects were taken to different police stations and were being questioned by a joint team of police officers.

The arrest of the seven suspects came after hours of surveillance following Laing’s release on Thursday afternoon

Speaking after delivering the feature address at the ministry’s, ‘Research in Education symposium and Knowledge Marketplace 2017’ held at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain, Garcia said he stands firm in the belief that the education system has been moving forward.

“Some examples, one __ is in the area of indiscipline. There has been a tremendous reduction in the incidents in our schools and that is not being said by me for political mileage, the figures are there to see.

“There has been a tremendous improvement in the quality of education that we provide to our children, there has been a tremendous improvement in the quality of work that is done by our teachers and in the performances of our students there has been a marked improvement.” He continued, “Again we have been able to ensure at the end of every school vacation programme when schools reopens, all our schools are able to open our doors, and that was something that was not seen for the last 25 years. Coupled with this, we have put in place a number of training programmes for teachers to be more empowered to deliver the curriculum.

“Therefore I am sure, I am confident we have made tremendous gains and you all are going to hear more about it as time goes on.” Responding to comments by former education minister Dr Tim Goopeesingh, who stated in a press release that Garcia and Minister in the Education Ministry Dr Lovell Francis had quashed a comprehensive package of measures that had led to the best ever SE A academic achievement in 2014, which was even bettered in 2015, Garcia said, “He has been disingenuous in some of the statistics that he has been producing.” “In spite of what the former education minister says, the ministry has been moving forward.

Those comments have been made repeatedly by the former minister and as I have been saying in the past, he seems to have a big problem in understanding he is no longer a minister.” He continued, “We at the Ministry are doing everything possible to ensure that our children receive a quality education which is their right.

And as I said before, we have made tremendous gains.”

“The matters selected are, in the view of Prime Minister Rowley, areas in which the Opposition should be engaged. “It is proposed that the meeting take place between July 12 and July 19 in a suitable room at the national Parliament. The request is being made against the backdrop that Parliament is currently in recess.”

The Minister in the Ministry of Education, Dr Lovell Francis, recently deemed this situation as “a crisis more serious than the oil and gas problem.” He is quite right, because the impact of low literacy skills among some of our students can be gauged as a barrier to learning, which impedes intellectual growth and development.

Data emanating from examinations held in the primary and secondary schools attest to very poor performances in reading, comprehension and other literacy-based subjects.

Mathematics is also affected because literacy competence is important to the comprehension of mathematics and mathematics- based subjects.

Moms For Literacy, being a solution-oriented organisation, recently launched an initiative which will enable parents to competently assist with the tutoring of their children in reading and related skills.

We have also been collaborating with the National PTA, Ministry of Education, inclusive of the Minister of Education, and regional council leaders as part of our effort.

We call upon the national citizenry to recognise the challenges in the literacy area and act on it.

TREVOR OLIVER PRO Moms For Literacy

At the last Conversations forum held in Maloney on February 7, Rowley evoked heated debate within the population when he made the statement, “I’m not in your bedroom. I’m not in your choice of men.” A subsequent statement from the OPM said some groups misinterpreted Rowley’s remarks and those groups claimed he was blaming the victim of a crime committed a few days earlier This statement said, “The Prime Minister was conversing with the people and his statement has been taken out of context. He categorically rejects this interpretation of his statement.” The statement added that the Prime Minister wants women to be empowered to make smart choices and does not blame the victims of domestic violence but rather sympathises with the victims and the families of both the victims and the perpetrators.”

The Act amends the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, Chap.

4:01, the Summary Courts Act, Chap. 4:20, the Offences Against the Person Act, Chap. 11:08 and the Criminal Procedure Act, Chap.12:02 and for related matters

According to reports, the vault was secured on Friday by a senior manager. Yesterday at about 7 am, a security guard arrived for duty and discovered a hole in the back of the building. When he made further checks, the guard also discovered the vault located on the eastern side of the building, had been cut open.

Arima police were alerted and ACP Radcliffe Boxill, Inspector Birch, Sgt Thomas and others went to the credit union. Fingerprint experts were also called to the scene and Newsday understands that the burglars may have feared detection which is why they decided to leave immediately after cutting into the compartment of the vault with contained the $443,000.

Yesterday, the $600,000 was removed from the vault and placed elsewhere for safekeeping. Police sources said yesterday that they are working on several leads and believe that arrests are imminent.

Well-placed sources said that investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the burglary was done with information provided by someone working in the credit union.

Minister Gopee- Scoon said the TIC provides an excellent opportunity for companies and entrepreneurs to assess feedback from clients, determine market potential, conduct research and also evaluate competition.

“The Government is committed to restore growth and facilitate the diversification of the economy of our twin-island state. Our well-developed manufacturing sector has been cited as an area of strength, and, if properly harnessed and incentivized, will enable us to achieve our development objectives.” She highlighted the importance of trading across borders to achieve the country’s sustainable goals and stated that the Government is developing several initiatives to increase market access for domestic goods and services under bilateral and regional trade agreements.

She reiterated that a healthy and vibrant region would be very good for business.

Minister Gopee- Scoon assured the audience that, “A tremendous amount of activity is taking place behind the scenes to open markets and create opportunities for our non-energy exporters in particular, and I firmly encourage our domestic private sector to make full use of these opportunities in the development and execution of your business plans.” The importance of the 4th industrial revolution featured prominently with the private sector urged to be aware of technological changes, be innovative and to incorporate cutting- edge technology in their manufacturing processes.

The Minister also stated that work was ongoing with CARICOM partners to develop a Regional Policy for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). It was noted that a healthy and vibrant region is good for business, and important if Trinidad and Tobago firms are to gain a secure foundation from which they can then expand to the rest of the world.

Addressing the audience also were Christopher Alcazar, President of the TT Manufacturers Association; and TIC 2017 sponsors Ambassador Brian Lara representing Telecommunications Services (TSTT); Karen Darbasie, Group Chief Executive Office, First Citizens Bank and Rakesh Goswami¸ Executive Vice President of Strategic Alliance, Enterprise and Tobago Operations in TST

Potts is calling on the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs, the Sport Company of TT and the TT Boxing Board to look at the Mexico module and make a decision on where they want to take boxing in TT .

Potts says the new boxing module in Mexico allows the Government to have full control of how funds are allocated for the sport.

Potts said, “Mexico recently took a decision to disassociate themselves from the AIBA (International Boxing Association) affiliated organisation in their country. The Sports Minister in Mexico made a decision to take the funding from the AIBA affiliated organisation and put it under his Ministry, so he could apportion the budget to create the growth and development for boxers in Mexico.” Mexico is a powerhouse in boxing, claiming numerous Olympic medals.

Potts said the WBC decided to get involved in amateur boxing because they don’t like the state the sport is in. “The WBC has made a conscious decision to get involved in amateur boxing in a big way to assist the youths of the world. We know we would have gotten some resistance from AIBA, but that is what is expected and that is what they are supposed to do. They have controlled boxing into the state that it is in today.

With that said a lot of Sport Ministers around the world are being fooled into believing that AIBA is the sole entity that could get boxers to the Olympics.” Giving his opinion on what else can de done to help boxing locally, Potts said, “We need to hold training courses, we need to certify coaches, the coaches that are certified must be put in schools to work alongside the PE (Physical Education) teachers.”

Laying the current demise at the feet of Cricket West Indies, Rowley said nothing proactive was being done to salvage the situation but rather, administrators were simply hoping for a “miracle” in order to turn things around.

“My perspective is that West Indies cricket is in dire trouble, in crisis, and if we are not careful, something is likely to happen in the not too distant future even though it is not being spoken about now,” Rowley told I-Sports radio programme at the weekend.

“I don’t know that the ICC (International Cricket Council) will continue to put this sub-standard West Indies team to play against the top five or six teams going forward into many more years.

“What I am frighten of is that somewhere in the not too distant future common sense will prevail at the ICC and they will create some kind of a premier league and a second division and West Indies cricket will end up in the second division because of the standard we are displaying and we will end up playing cricket against Ireland, Scotland, Kenya and Afghanistan and that is where we’re headed.” Rowley was speaking against the backdrop of the CARICOM Head of Government summit in Grenada last week when West Indies cricket emerged as one of the hot topics.

CARICOM chairman, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, used his opening speech to outline the challenges facing the sport regionally and to urge fellow leaders to find consensus on the way forward.

Rowley agreed with Mitchell that CARICOM had a vital role to play in helping to overhaul the sport especially since CWI seemed unable to find solutions to the current crisis.

“They believe that some miracle will take place and some superstar like Brian Lara or Andy Roberts will appear from the crowd and pull us back from this brink,” Rowley said candidly.

“But in the meantime we are handling large sums of money from the ICC, unearned money, and those monies are used to strengthen people who are in office, who literally dominate the game, not on the field but in their boardrooms.” The debate over West Indies cricket also appears to have caused a rift in CARICOM with Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne openly disagreeing with the regional nation grouping’s position on the “immediate dissolution” of CWI.

In a statement last week, Browne said: “Antigua and Barbuda as a matter of principle does not interfere in the internal affairs of institutions, and governments that are governed by democratically elected officials.” But in dismissing that argument, Rowley said Browne seemed to have “anchored his position on some discussion about democracy.” “We here in Trinidad and Tobago know that does not apply and that’s what in the court in Trinidad about the absence of democracy in the selection of leadership,” Rowley stressed.

He, however, conceded there was disunity among CARICOM on the contentious topic.

“I think there is tremendous confusion about the way forward,” said Rowley.

“What is happening at the level of heads at CARICOM should make it clear to the other people that the game is now and the management and the situation is threatening to destroy CARICOM itself.” (CMC)