Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les has raised con­cerns about what she de­scribes as a lack of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic con­sul­ta­tion af­ter re­veal­ing that the Op­po­si­tion was not en­gaged ahead of to­day’s Shields of the Amer­i­c­as Sum­mit in Do­ral, Flori­da.

Caribbean an­a­lysts are urg­ing re­gion­al gov­ern­ments to safe­guard col­lec­tive diplo­ma­cy as the Unit­ed States to­day hosts the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as Sum­mit, fo­cused on hemi­spher­ic se­cu­ri­ty that in­cludes on­ly two lead­ers from the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com).

A heat­ed con­fronta­tion broke out in the Low­er House yes­ter­day, af­ter the Gov­ern­ment moved to abrupt­ly end de­bate on a pri­vate mem­ber’s mo­tion, trig­ger­ing a dra­mat­ic Op­po­si­tion walk­out and ac­cu­sa­tions that the ad­min­is­tra­tion was sti­fling dis­sent in Par­lia­ment.

While Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar may have some age, she’s well re­spect­ed and she has done more for T&T than any Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) MP, says Min­is­ter of the Peo­ple Van­dana Mo­hit.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is de­fend­ing its La­dy Vice Chair­man and head of the par­ty’s Na­tion­al Women’s League, Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, af­ter she faced crit­i­cism for sharply re­buk­ing the Prime Min­is­ter’s call to ex­pel mis­be­hav­ing stu­dents from school.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) will hold elec­tions for its PNM To­ba­go Coun­cil on April 19, as the par­ty be­gins a re­build­ing process fol­low­ing its sweep­ing elec­toral de­feat in To­ba­go ear­li­er this year.

Hun­dreds of work­ers from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Na­tion­al Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTNNA), Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) and rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Con­tract and Gen­er­al Work­ers Trade Union staged a lunchtime protest yes­ter­day as they con­demned the gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to pay long-over­due salary in­creas­es.

The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty says the Mi­grant Reg­is­tra­tion Frame­work is be­ing im­ple­ment­ed in three phas­es as part of a process to reg­is­ter mi­grants.

For­mer work­ers of the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre (IDC), in­clud­ing re­tired po­lice of­fi­cers, have giv­en Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der sev­en work­ing days to ad­dress long-stand­ing com­plaints about un­paid gra­tu­ity and oth­er ben­e­fits.

Fa­cil­i­ties have been es­tab­lished to as­sist the 324 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als re­sid­ing in the Mid­dle East in com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the Gov­ern­ment.

As ten­sions in­ten­si­fy across the Mid­dle East fol­low­ing mil­i­tary strikes in­volv­ing the Unit­ed States, Is­rael and Iran, at­tor­ney Nafeesa Mo­hammed is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to ur­gent­ly as­sist Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als seek­ing to leave the re­gion.

A woman who has spent 30 years in prison for help­ing to kill two men in sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in 1993 has failed in her bid to have a judge re­view the life sen­tence she re­ceived for the death of one vic­tim.