A 22-year-old stu­dent has in­tro­duced a mod­ern and safe al­ter­na­tive to tra­di­tion­al deyas dur­ing Di­vali. Shaz­ara Ram­nar­ine has launched wa­ter-ac­ti­vat­ed LED deyas for this year’s cel­e­bra­tions.

As Trinidad and To­ba­go braces for to­day’s na­tion­al Bud­get, cit­i­zens are voic­ing strong opin­ions on where they be­lieve Gov­ern­ment spend­ing should be fo­cused, with ed­u­ca­tion, crime re­duc­tion, and so­cial sup­port emerg­ing as the lead­ing con­cerns.

Some 279 pri­vate sec­tor work­ers have been re­trenched so far this year, fig­ures from the Min­istry of Labour show.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has vowed to con­tin­ue go­ing to war against the so­cial ills fac­ing the na­tion, pledg­ing to con­front cor­rup­tion, crime, and ne­glect with the weapons of law, truth, courage, and con­science.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Dave Tan­coo has ap­pealed to all na­tion­als liv­ing abroad to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go to help re­build the na­tion.

Po­lice re­port­ed that the man’s bul­let-rid­dled body was found in­side an SUV at Sou Sou Lands, San Juan, around 8 am.

What was ex­pect­ed to be a fun get­away in Ma­yaro with friends end­ed in tragedy for 65-year-old Ram­dath Pana, who was found float­ing in the sea on Fri­day.

Crim­i­nol­o­gist Dau­rius Figueira be­lieves the 18 mur­ders re­port­ed last week are be­cause the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency is leav­ing a void in the lead­er­ship of gangs.

Na­tion­als must deal se­ri­ous­ly with the de­cay­ing el­e­ments of so­ci­ety, says Na­tion­al Coun­cil of In­di­an Cul­ture (NCIC) pres­i­dent Su­ru­jdeo Man­ga­roo.

Lar­ry Lal­la, SC, has joined the grow­ing list of per­sons call­ing on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to re­move Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee from her Cab­i­net.

The Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple Na­tion­al Move­ment’s (PNM) walk-out dur­ing last Fri­day’s Par­lia­ment ses­sion marked an es­ca­la­tion of months-long ten­sions with House Speak­er Jagdeo Singh.

Caribbean Con­gress of Labour gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette has wel­comed the de­ci­sion by Bar­ba­dos, Be­lize, Do­mini­ca and St Vin­cent to al­low full free move­ment among them­selves un­der Cari­com’s Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME), and called on all Cari­com states to ac­cel­er­ate ef­forts to­ward full CSME.