En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal says rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the In­di­an Oil Cor­po­ra­tion (IOC) are ex­pect­ed to vis­it Trinidad and To­ba­go af­ter the Car­ni­val sea­son to pro­vide tech­ni­cal ad­vice on restart­ing the Pointe-a-Pierre Re­fin­ery.

Pro­test­ers gath­ered out­side the of­fice of Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro yet again yes­ter­day, call­ing on him to re­sign or face their in­creas­ing wrath over the po­lice killing of Joshua Sama­roo and wound­ing of his wife Ka­ia Sealey.

For­mer na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les is call­ing on Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der to be trans­par­ent with the pub­lic and re­veal any ad­di­tion­al ev­i­dence in the po­lice chase and killing of Joshua Sama­roo if it ex­ists.

Rel­a­tives of Michael Ale­jan­dro Es­pana Ram­nath, who was ab­duct­ed while re­turn­ing to his home in Pe­nal on Tues­day night, had not heard from his cap­tors up to last evening, po­lice said.

With Car­ni­val days away, the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) has is­sued an un­usu­al pub­lic state­ment dis­tanc­ing it­self from pol­i­tics and re­ject­ing claims that Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta is be­ing used as a po­lit­i­cal plat­form.

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar yes­ter­day as­sured that since her ad­min­is­tra­tion as­sumed of­fice in April last year, no pub­lic ser­vants have been dis­missed.

Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine says a barge has been se­cured to move car­go to To­ba­go as an in­ter­im mea­sure while re­pair work on the MV Blue Wave Har­mo­ny con­tin­ues.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice is be­gin­ning to fill the equip­ment gap with the ar­rival in the coun­try of six new fire trucks, al­though some re­sources re­main stretched across the coun­try.

The gov­ern­ment is set to spend just over $5 mil­lion on short-term con­tract­ed work­ers un­der the Up­keep of Pub­lic Spaces Pro­gramme, as prepa­ra­tions for Car­ni­val 2026 in­ten­si­fy, with pro­duc­tiv­i­ty of both new and ex­ist­ing mu­nic­i­pal work­ers now un­der close scruti­ny.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der an­nounced that 7,324 mi­grant chil­dren have been reg­is­tered in Trinidad and To­ba­go as part of the on­go­ing mi­grant reg­is­tra­tion pro­gramme.

Labour Min­is­ter Leroy Bap­tiste is urg­ing mi­grants and work­ers to re­port cas­es of work­place ex­ploita­tion, af­ter a reg­is­tered Venezue­lan mi­grant, Suyin Escalona Salazar, al­leged she was dis­missed and de­nied wages fol­low­ing three months of work at a Gulf City restau­rant.

Par­ents of Rio Claro East Sec­ondary School stu­dents staged a protest out­side the school yes­ter­day, vow­ing they will not rest un­til the per­son re­spon­si­ble for a se­ries of vi­o­lent on­line threats is ar­rest­ed.