Homicide officers received instructions shortly before 7 pm and the two were jointly charged. The two accused, a 34-year-old joiner and his 32-year-old common-law wife of Seales Avenue, Morvant are expected to appear before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate today.

Sources revealed that police received key information from an eyewitness as well as camera footage which assisted them in identifying the two suspects.

Broadbridge was found dead at her Fondes Amandes home with her throat slit on September 2.

Sarika Bhageratty, president of the chapter, said, “Hurricane Irma was such a big disaster on the affected Caribbean counterparts that we, the students of UWI decided to come forward to assist.” Launched on September 11, the aid drive is expected to last two weeks and is asking for non-perishable items such as clothing, food, personal hygiene products, school supplies and bedsheets.

“We are hoping to reach a large demographic, as this is a collaborative effort. I am both happy and humbled by how many clubs within UWI want to assist us.”

The tree-planting was in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the expansive area dubbed by creative citizens as “the biggest roundabout in the world.” I am in a bit of historical confusion because as a boy I was under the impression that this former sugar estate was given as a “gift” to the people of TT by the Peschier family. Now I keep hearing it was purchased by the then town council for the people.

Nevertheless, I have fond memories of the Queen’s Park Savannah which I trampled as a boy, playing football and cricket.

I had the pleasure of witnessing great football teams and matches in front of the Grand Stand involving teams such as: Malvern, Maple, Colts, Providence, Sporting Club, Notre Dame, Dynamos, Casuals, Shamrock, Luton Town, Queen’s Royal College, College of the Immaculate Conception (CIC) and Fatima. Some players of these teams went on to wear national colours.

I also witnessed epic horse racing battles and rugby, as well as first class cricket matches. The Savannah is also an exciting space for walking, exercising and for “bird watching” — and I am not talking about the feathered kind.

Among my favourite vendors was “Georgie,” a coconut seller and street philosopher who could expound on any topic under the sun. Another joy is coming down the “bulltrack” or the paved “Carlos John highway” at Panorama semi-finals doing a slow wine.

I could go on and on like a “rah-rah” about the Savannah which is a place of great joy. Long may it live.

KEITH ANDERSON via emai

Ronquillo, who finished with a total of eight points, got the better of Juan Rohl Montes of Venezuela, who placed second, followed by another Venezuelan Oscar Zavarce and the TT duo of Mario Merritt and Kevin Cupid.

In the Female category, Gabriella Johnson topped the field with 5.5 points, ahead of fellow national representatives Shemilah James, Amy Ali and Shannon Yearwood.

OT HER RESULTS – 50-and-Over: 1.Anibal Gamboa (Venezuela); 2.Andrew Bowles (TT ); 3.Frank Sears (TT ).

Under-20: 1.Isaiah Mc Intosh (TT ); 2.Orlando Husbands (Barbados); 3.Joshua Johnson (TT ).

Under-16: 1.Alan- Safar Ramoutar (TT ); 2.Mikel Martin (TT ); 3.Sean Yearwood (TT ); 4.Varenyam Maharaj (TT ); 5.Angel Malle (TT ).

Under-12 Male: 1.Rayden Rampersad (TT ); 2.Juninho La Fleur (TT ); 3.Brad Munro-Brown (TT ).

Under-12 Female: 1.Zara La Fleur (TT ); 2.Athena Martin (TT ); 3.Chaya Johnson (TT ).

Blitz: 1.Ravishen Singh (TT ) – 6 pts; 2.Humberto Blanco (Cuba) – 6 pts; 3.Oscar Zavarce (Venezuela) – 5.5 pts; 4.Joshua Johnson (TT ) – 5.5 pts.

In contemporary time, the three estates refer to the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature.

The fourth estate in TT does have its shortcomings.

However, we must congratulate those who engage in investigative journalism and put their findings in the print media, on television and radio to the personal risks of journalists and financial risks of media houses.

The media’s role is not just to report what is given to them. Their role is to go beyond this. In the past 15-20 years or so, we have seen an increase in investigative journalism and this must be encouraged.

Quite often, many wrongdoings take place behind closed doors and the media have a very important role to uncover these illegal transactions and bring them to the public’s attention. Here I refer to matters that affect the public, taxpayers, customers etc.

The media must continue to be brave and steadfast in their mission to bring the truth to the people. The media must be free to fulfil their mandate and be prepared to defend their rights to the very end. Further, the media must not be bullied into revealing their legitimate sources of information and prevented from publishing valid information that comes to their attention.

IAN RAMDHANIE via email

Police investigators were able to determine that Rodriguez worked at a guest house in Chaguanas and was a frequent visitor to the suspect’s home. Police are working on information that Rodriguez arranged to meet with the suspect at the walkover on Monday night and was robbed of cash.

Police also received a video footage of the suspect and another man walking away from the walkover on Monday with one of the men being in possession of the woman’s handbag. The suspect allegedly told police he and the woman were attacked by two men and Rodriguez robbed of her handbag. Asked why he did not report the matter when the stabbing took place, the man said he became frightened and went to a friend’s home because he was in a confused state. Investigators said yesterday that Rodriguez may have entered this country a few months ago and had overstayed her time.

Yesterday efforts were being made by police to contact her relatives so arrangements could be made for her body to be returned to that country for final rites.

In an oral ruling yesterday, Justice Kevin Ramcharan held that although there was no dispute that the group DALCO were shareholders of CLF, DALCO advanced no evidence that it had sufficient interests to be heard in opposition of the petition.

He further ruled that the shareholders failed to show that the conglomerate was not insolvent, as claimed by Government and held that the 13 shareholders – which comprise two groups and who in July abandoned a move to change the composition of the government- controlled board – did not advance evidence that Government had ulterior motives for seeking to have the company liquidated, other than to recover over $15 billion owed as part of the 2009 bailout of the then cash-strapped insurance giant Clico, a subsidiary of CLF.

An appeal of the judge’s decision has already been lodged and a request for a stay of execution of the ruling was objected to by the State. The shareholders have been advised to approach the Court of Appeal for a stay even as hearing of the petition continues this Friday before Justice Ramcharan.

Additionally, up to yesterday, the shareholders still had not settled their legal representation. On Monday, hearing of the petition had to be adjourned when a group of shareholders found itself unrepresented because legal fees were not paid. Both groups may find themselves having to pay an additional order for costs, having failed to convince Justice Ramcharan that they should be heard in opposition of the winding-up petition being granted.

In July, Ramcharan deemed the hearing of the State’s petition sufficiently urgent to be heard during the court’s vacation and denied any further adjournment. On Monday, he ordered that the shareholders pay the State’s costs for the delay and yesterday reserved his ruling on the additional order.

Daniel said that while 60 body cameras were issued to officers in Northern Division, several are in need of servicing.

He also revealed that of the 12 police stations in Northern Division, only three – St Joseph, Tunapuna and Pinto Road – were selected to participate in the pilot body cam project.

“At the moment we have assigned a camera to one senior officer on active patrol. We were not given enough cameras to supply more and there are several issues we had with them…but our technical team is working on that aspect,” Daniel said.

In other policing news, Daniel drew a correlation between an increase in the number of illegal firearms seized this year to an improved detection rate and reduction in murders.

He said that between January 1 to September 13, 123 firearms were seized within Northern Division, a 48% increase for the same period last year.

This improvement, he said, was accompanied by a decrease in the number of murders by 17% and an increase in the detection rate by 21% within his Division. He credited the improvement in crime-fighting to a more innovative and community-based approach to policing which seeks greater dialogue between police and the public.

Making this announcement outside the Prime Minister’s office in St Clair, following several hours of talks, president of the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM) Ancel Roget, said the agreement included workers in all entities controlled by the government.

He said the agreement was that if government wants to retrench workers in the new year their plans would be brought to the National Tripartite Advisory Council (NTAC) for discussion although the government would still have the right to make the final decision. Roget said the unions pulled out of NTAC because they were not satisfied with the way it was operating and the way in which the mass retrenchment of workers in the government and private sector was taking place.

He added that unions and the prime minister also agreed that priority on government’s legislative agenda should be given in Parliament to amendments of the Retrenchment and Severance Benefits Act; the Companies Act and the legislation governing the Recognition and Certification Board and the process for granting recognised majority union status to trade unions as the representative for workers at companies. He said the process for obtaining recognition is too long and the unions have recommendations for speeding up the process to allow the majority of workers in the country to get representation.

He said there was also agreement on restructuring NTAC to make it more meaningful in serving its mandate and purpose and this will be tackled at the first meeting attended by the unions.

“And therefore at that meeting we will be able to determine who chairs it, how it functions and so on and give it a clear mandate going forward. We were not satisfied then (at the launch of NTAC) and we are not satisfied now, that NTAC is set up to achieve its stated mandate.” He said the unions will invite the prime minister to attend that first meeting of the council to give him an opportunity to be part of the restart of the organisation.

All three trade union federations – JTUM; the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC); and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non-governmental Organisations (FITUN) – walked out of NTAC last March in protest at the government’s decision to shut down the Tourism Development Corporation (TDC) without consulting the Communication Workers Union (CWU), the trade union representing the 114 employees of the company.

Emrit, who left Trinidad last weekend to compete for the Boost Defenders in the Shpageeza Cricket League (SCL) in Afghanistan, was in the field in the second match of a doubleheader against MIS Ainak Knights when the blast occurred.

The all-rounder, speaking to Newsday yesterday evening, recounted the terrifying incident which has left him and his family back home shaken.

“It had a suicide attack outside or close to the stadium. We don’t know how close it was. It sounded like it was right outside the stadium. They said it was three kilometres but it felt right there.

We were fielding and heard a loud explosion and the whole ground started to shake. When I looked up I saw the building shaking and glass shattered and smoke in the air. We just went off the field. They told us it was a glass cylinder explode, then they said it was a grenade. Inside the stadium was safer but after now we hearing it was a suicide bomber,” Emrit said.

The 36 year old said he is not taking any chances with his life and will be returning home as soon possible.

“My family uneasy home so most likely I’ll leave Friday as long as I get a flight. Trust me it’s the scariest thing I’ve experienced,” he added.

Emrit, recently competed for the Guyana Amazon Warriors in the Caribbean Premier League and has plied his trade in numerous cricket leagues around the world including in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Hong Kong.

According to an ESPNcricinfo story Shafiqullah Stanikzai, Afghanistan Cricket Board’s chief executive officer, the blast occurred during the fourth over of Knights chase of 202.

The other overseas players at the ground were Emrit’s teammates Cameron Delport (South Africa) and Morne van Wyk (South Africa). Delport was a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Red Steel in the CPL in the past. The Zimbabwean trio of Vusi Sibanda, Sikandar Raza and Ryan Burl were representing Knights. The match was stopped briefly, but once the Afghanistan government-appointed security gave the clearance, it resumed.

Afghanistan was recently inducted as the 12th full member by the International Cricket Council in June. The security situation has not permitted any international cricket to be played in the war-torn country. But for the T20 league, Stanikzai said the Afghanistan government itself was involved in security.

“For this tournament, a special decree has been issued by His Excellency, the president of the country, to look after the security,” he explained. “We heard a sound, but we were not sure exactly what happened.

The match was stopped for short time but resumed once the security heads told us we can carry on. The president’s special advisor was also present at the ground to assure the security.

They told us there is no threat to the players.”