In a rare di­ver­gence with­in the Gov­ern­ment’s ranks, a sit­ting sen­a­tor has pub­licly dis­tanced him­self from the Prime Min­is­ter’s po­si­tion on the es­ca­lat­ing con­flict in the Mid­dle East.

While a dis­sat­is­fied Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) re­turned to the Min­istry of Fi­nance yes­ter­day to press for pay­ment of out­stand­ing salary in­creas­es and back pay, its pres­i­dent, Crys­tal Ashe, said the union will not en­cour­age mem­bers to take in­dus­tri­al ac­tion.

A High Court Judge has raised con­cerns over a Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) pol­i­cy of pro­mot­ing of­fi­cers while they are sus­pend­ed for be­ing ac­cused of com­mit­ting crim­i­nal of­fences. 

As In­ter­na­tion­al Wid­ows Day ap­proach­es on March 8, an ap­peal is be­ing made to the Gov­ern­ment to en­sure time­ly and com­pas­sion­ate hous­ing for wid­ows.

An Ari­ma busi­ness­man was killed on Mon­day, as he drove in­to the garage of his home at Plum­rose Av­enue, San­ta Rosa Heights, Ari­ma.

An 83-year-old pen­sion­er, of Pe­tit Bourg, San Juan, was as­sault­ed and robbed by a man she knows in the neigh­bour­hood.

The 24-year-old vic­tim, of St Fran­cois Val­ley Road, Bel­mont, was shot at his rent­ed apart­ment at Benares Street, St James.

Chief Per­son­nel Of­fi­cer Dr Daryl Din­di­al has con­firmed that the 5% of­fer on salary and Cost of Liv­ing Al­lowance, ex­tend­ed pri­or to the 2025 elec­tions, re­mains in place, de­spite calls from Fire Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tions for a re­view of ex­ist­ing al­lowances.

The To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly has as­sured the pub­lic that the is­land re­mains safe amid the state of emer­gency de­clared by the gov­ern­ment to­day.

A for­mer First Cit­i­zens Bank man­ag­er who dis­cov­ered a mi­cro­phone hid­den in­side a smoke de­tec­tor in his of­fice was dis­missed weeks lat­er. Now, the bank has been or­dered to com­pen­sate him.

Two ve­hi­cles stolen at gun­point in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents were re­cov­ered on Mon­day af­ter­noon in the carpark of a St James busi­ness.

The Privy Coun­cil has cleared the way for nine men for­mer­ly ac­cused of the kid­nap­ping and mur­der of busi­ness­woman Vin­dra Naipaul-Cool­man to re­ceive over $20 mil­lion for ma­li­cious pros­e­cu­tion.