The UNC won nine out of ten electoral districts in the P/Town corporation while winning four of the six electoral districts in the MRCRC,

Princes Town MP Barry Padarath observed that the UNC made significant inroads into the Moruga/ Tableland constituency currently held by the PNM’s Lovell Francis, the Minister in the Ministry of Education,

“The EBC conducted recounts at 3 pm yesterday (Tuesday). Two seats were recounted, Hindustan/ St Mary’s and Lengua/Indian Walk and both results remain the same,” Padarath said. “The Hindustan/St Mary’s recount was asked for by the PNM as this is a seat they usually win and now it has come over to the UNC. We won that seat by 273 votes. And then the other one, Lengua/Indian Walk, again another traditional PNM seat, the result remained the same where the UNC lost by 200 votes,” Padarath said,

He pointed out that the sprawling PTRC not only incorporates the PNM held Moruga/ Tableland but also segments of the Princes Town and Naparima constituencies, two traditional UNC strongholds,

“Now Moruga/Tableland is held by the PNM and the two new seats we have now won is from the Moruga/Tableland constituency,

And the one where we lost by 200 votes is also from the Moruga/ Tableland constituency…so the inroads we have made is recapturing the Moruga/ Tableland vote,” Padarath said,

Padarath said the Opposition party would use the Local Government election result as a platform to regaining the Moruga/ Tableland constituency in the general election. Mayaro MP Rushton Paray said the UNC lost the Cocal/ Mafeking electoral district following Tuesday’s recount. “The numbers remain the same so the official results remain four/two in the Mayaro Corporation,” Paray said,

Both men observed that no consultation had taken place with the elected councillors or constituents regarding the choice for corporation chairman, adding this should be done over the next few days,

Residents reported hearing several loud explosions and later notified the police.

On arrival, officers discovered Marin’s bullet-riddled body lying in a pool of blood in his apartment. Three spent nine-millimetre shells were found nearby.

District Medical Officer Dr Ishwarka visited the scene and ordered the body removed to the Forensic Science Centre in Port-of-Spain where it was scheduled to undergo an autopsy yesterday.

According to reports, the female officer boarded a “PH” taxi early Monday morning in La Romaine on her way to work.

She was expected to take up duty at a local government election polling station before it was opened for voting at 6 am.

However, instead of taking her to her destination, the driver took her to Berridge Trace, Oropouche, where he raped her.

The reports state she was robbed and shot at when she tried to escape. A report was subsequently made and the suspect arrested later that day.

He is expected to be charged and will appear before a magistrate in Siparia.

“We are investigating one more as we speak,” Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh told reporters yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad following the opening of a workshop on “Maternal Mortality and Near-Miss Audit Training”.

Asked to give further information, he said, “I have no details. I will not divulge the area. Families have been asking for their privacy to be respected.” Meanwhile, he said, the first baby born with microcephaly due to the Zika virus “was doing as well as can be expected.” An audiological testing was conducted on the baby and the parents got the results, he said. Asked what the results were, the minister said, “I cannot divulge anybody’s medical history.” All the systems were in place to treat with the growth and development of the baby, he said. He added that the Ministry of Health has made arrangements with the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services to get financial aid for the family and this has begun.

On confirmed Zika cases, he said, “There were quite a few.” The four counties with the highest numbers were St George East, St George West, St George Central and Victoria.

The major issue with combating the Zika virus, he said, was still the public’s reluctance to clean their surroundings. Deyalsingh said that public health inspectors hade served over 3,000 notices and the majority have cleaned up their surroundings. “If they do not clean up within a week, they are fined.

So a certain percentage have been fined,” he said.

According to relatives, around 1 pm the girls, both five-yearolds, were playing near a mounted blackboard when it overbalanced and fell on them. The girls were rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in Mt Hope for treatment.

One of the injured girls, Sofeil Clinton, was said to be recovering well, despite minor headaches.

Her mother, Soleil Clinton, said she had just returned home from running errands when she was contacted by school officials who informed her that her daughter was injured in an accident.

“I was very scared when the school called and told me what happened.

But fortunately the injuries weren’t extensive and the principal has contacted me to ask about her condition. All of the staff at the school were very concerned about the incident and were very helpful to me.” However, Nyta Clinton, Sofeil’s grandmother, said the incident has left her upset.

She could not understand how teachers left the children unsupervised.

“This is all very upsetting. I don’t understand how the teachers at this school allowed the children to play around a blackboard that they knew was a potential hazard to children. It’s very distressing to me, because these are the people we trust our children with,” she said.

A press release sent yesterday from the Trinidad and Tobago Blind Welfare Association advised of this.

According to the release, parents will drop off their children on a Monday starting at 6 am and collect them on a Friday no later than 6 pm within a given week.

“Parents who are unable to have their children attend school and return home on a daily basis can leave their children in the care of the staff of the Association at no cost.

The Association will be responsible for all children who are blind and visually impaired from 2.30 pm and will conclude at 8.30 am each day,” the release stated.

The Ministry of Education will be responsible for all children who are blind and visually impaired from 8 am through 3 pm daily.

Parents interested in using this service may contact, Asha Kamachee at 680-7025 to register their child or children, the release advised.

We never thought this would have happened,” said Lewis tearful aunt Cheryl Joachim. Delivering the eulogy at a funeral service at Gran Couva RC Church, Joachim said family members are having a difficult time coping with the teen’s death.

“I stand here in grief and anger to say goodbye to such a loving, blessed and unique child. I ask God, ‘why’, but God is good and I know he (Lewis) is in a better place,” she told mourners. Joachim in recalling fond memories of Lewis said that he filled the hearts of many with joy.

According to reports at about 6.30 pm Saturday last, Lewis was shot dead at Cemetery Extension off Carli Bay Road in Perseverance Village. Lewis originally from Freeport, was in the Couva district to attend a prayer service at the home of one of his friends.

Lewis was laid to rest at the Gran Couva Cemetery. Up to late yesterday, a 17-year-old suspect was assisting police in their investigations.

Addressing the opening of a three-day regional workshop on “Maternal Mortality and Near- Miss Audit Training” at the Hilton Trinidad, St Ann’s, Deyalsingh said, “We have saved three lives (this year) due to simple intervention” in the management of PPH.

Based on data available, he said PPH was the number one reason for maternal mortality. As such the ministry invited the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization representative, Dr Bernadette Theodore- Gandi, to provide assistance in training local obstetricians and gynaecologists in the management of PPH. According to Theodore-Gandi, 40 local healthcare providers from the Regional Health Authorities were trained in PPH, and over 200 healthcare workers were trained in perinatal information system to assist in better clinical management of pregnancies.

Noting that an ectopic-pregnant mother who recently presented herself “in a poor state” at the San Fernando General Hospital had died subsequently, Deyalsingh said he has asked PAHO/WHO to once more assist in the management of ectopic pregnancies as well. Saying also that gestational diabetes was “a big problem” of maternal deaths locally, he said the ministry has obtained an agreement with Prof Surujpal Teelucksingh, researcher in non-communicable diseases and the Helen Bhagwansingh Diabetes Education, Research and Prevention Institute to start a national screening programme in public hospitals on gestational diabetes.

Tackling gestational diabetes, he said, “will not only result in a healthier pregnant woman but in a healthier baby that will not grow up to be a diabetic child.” Infant diabetes, he said, was also a big problem.

Just over a year ago, when he took office, Deyalsingh said he had to deal with two maternal deaths within a space of three days and address a similar meeting at the same venue a few days after.

“I am proud to say that, one year later, I can stand before this audience, as opposed to 12 months ago, a little more relaxed, because I no longer have this recurring decimal every month of a maternal death,” he said.

Speaking at a media briefing at the front of the Victor E Bruce Complex in Scarborough which houses the Division, Phillips pointed to Moody’s downgrade of the THA to B++3 in April this year and the 2017 draft estimate of the budget as presented by Jack. “In June 2016, my dear Secretary of Finance and Enterprise Development published on the THA’s website a draft of the 2017 budget, the draft of that budget was in the sum of $5.3 billion.

“The THA has never received anything close to $3 billion from the central government in any budget, so, when one looks at the increase from the normal $3billion to $5.3 billion, one has to question the competency of the Secretary. Clearly, he doesn’t understand the implications of that Moody downgrade. Had he understood the implications, his draft budget would have been somewhere in the vicinity of $2.5 – $2.2 billion,” Phillips said.

He also questioned the holding of three different portfolios by a person employed in the THA.

There is someone in there doing three jobs, Phillips alleged. He claimed that person was an advisor, who is also chairman of an enterprise company under the THA. “This advisor and chairman is also an independent auditor.

This auditor, who is chairman and advisor, is performing audits in the public space, auditing the enterprise companies under the THA. That is a clear breach of his independence,” said Phillips.

Phillips called for all companies in the THA that has been audited by this specific auditor to be revisited. “I am calling on the Minister of Finance, as Corporation Sole in the country, to investigate and bring some closure to this situation because clearly, he (the person doing three jobs in the THA) is not independent and he should not be auditing these companies,” he said.

Contacted for a comment on Phillips’ claims, Finance Secretary Joel Jack said he would respond via a press release.

Up to press time, no release had been sent by the Secretary. Phillips also told reporters that the problem in Tobago was not a lack of money. “In Tobago, we have a lack of digression from financial responsibilities, the paradigms need to be changes.

We have to change the way we do budgets. We can no longer depend on an annual budget if Tobago is to go forward.

The Central Government must have an insight into the programmes that we want to institute over a long run, preferably three years,” he explained.

Phillips said he returned to Tobago from the United States in 2013 and since then, has been monitoring Tobago’s finances and prior to that, he monitored the island’s finances from the United States.

“I spoke to the Chief Secretary (Orville London) about ten years ago with regards the issues surrounding the auditor general’s inability to complete the audit of the THA and to date nothing has been done, we need to fix that,” he said.

Noting that today marks World AIDS Day 2016, Theodore-Gandi yesterday told a training workshop on maternal mortality at the Hilton Trinidad, “We must remember that while the virus is potent, the evidence and knowledge gained to prevent HIV is even more so.” Eliminating AIDS by 2030 worldwide in keeping with the UNAIDS objective, she said, “rests in our hands. We must, however, act on the evidence to do so.” She pointed to the steady reduction in HIV mother-to-child transmission in TT over the past decade, and said PAHO/WHO looks forward to continued work with the Ministry of Health to certify the elimination of motherto- child transmission in the near future.

Her organisation, she said, anticipates ongoing cooperation with the ministry and regional health authorities to strengthen TT’s capacity to test and treat HIV in keeping with WHO’s 2015 guidelines to further stymie its spread and to end AIDS by 2030.

Also addressing the issue, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said that to achieve the 2030 target it was imperative that the “90-90-90” sub-target of UNAIDS be first achieved by 2020.

TT has signed on to the 90-90-90 sub-target, he said.

He explained that the sub-target means that 90 percent of all people living with HIV must know their HIV status, 90 percent of all those with diagnosed HIV infection must receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy must achieve viral suppression and should be considered AIDS free by 2020