The pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry against two po­lice­men charged with the 2016 mur­der of San Fer­nan­do res­i­dent Adelle Gilbert be­gan on Thurs­day.

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith has re­spond­ed to the con­cerns of Las Cuevas res­i­dents, say­ing the com­mu­ni­ty has been flood­ed with crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty for years and that he was sur­prised by their re­ac­tion be­cause the po­lice were do­ing their job.

A war­rant has been is­sued for the ar­rest of a po­lice­man who failed to at­tend court to give ev­i­dence in a child aban­don­ment case on Thurs­day.

Min­is­ter of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Kaz­im Ho­sein said he has no part to play in the al­lo­ca­tion of re­sources to re­gion­al Corps. His re­sponse came af­ter claims of an “ur­ban bias” in the dis­tri­b­u­tion of re­sources to UNC-led Corps. But he as­sured cit­i­zens that there will be a more eq­ui­table dis­tri­b­u­tion of re­sources once lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form comes on stream.

Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tor Dr Lester Hen­ry who has a dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence (DUI) con­vic­tion, like for­mer PNM Sen­a­tor Garvin Si­mon­ette, has re­fused to say if he will fol­low in the foot­steps of Si­mon­ette and re­sign.

An­gos­tu­ra Lim­it­ed says this year it will have spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance for the com­pa­ny as the day marks its 195th year of op­er­a­tion.

Po­lice say that around 4 pm, rel­a­tives of Mofeed Baksh went to his home at Llanos Street in search of him and found him ly­ing mo­tion­less with the throat slit.

For­mer Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sub­has Pan­day wants the Gov­ern­ment to amend the An­ti-Gang Act to in­clude white-col­lar crimes com­mit­ted by politi­cians.

Twen­ty-two per­sons were ar­rest­ed, while two firearms, quan­ti­ties of am­mu­ni­tion and one bul­let­proof vest were seized Thurs­day dur­ing a joint an­ti-crime ex­er­cise named ‘Gold­en Tomb­stone’ in Las Cuevas, La Fil­lette and Mara­cas Bay.

Those were the words of Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley as he be­gan ad­dress­ing Thurs­day's post-Cab­i­net news con­fer­ence on the mat­ter of dis­missed min­is­ter Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald.

A strong thun­der­storm brought gusty winds and heavy rain­fall to parts of South­west­ern Trinidad, just af­ter 1 pm Thurs­day this af­ter­noon.

Res­i­dents of Las Cuevas say they have no prob­lem with the po­lice do­ing their job but say they are dis­ap­point­ed with the man­ner it was done.