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Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis. –

PLANNING Minister Camille Robinson-Regis has said the work of the inter-ministerial committee overseeing this country’s 60th Independence anniversary celebrations was proceeding.

Speaking to Newsday on Tuesday, she said, “I will be having a media conference on it. We met and so on and are proceeding.”

Asked about a budget for the celebrations and for more details of planned events, Robinson-Regis said such details would be given at the media briefing, whose date was still to be set.

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said in a statement on July 13 that a year-long celebration of TT’s diamond anniversary would be organised by a working committee of several ministries chaired by Robinson-Regis.

This committee included the Office of the Prime Minister and the ministries of Tourism, Culture and the Arts; Youth Development and National Service; Sport and Community Development; and National Security; and Foreign and Caricom Affairs.

Trinidad and Tobago achieved its independence on August 31, 1962, with the 60th anniversary due in four weeks.

However, the OPM’s statement on “plans for a year-long celebration” said this would include diplomatic events; cultural activities, competitions and caravans; youth-based activities; school-based competitions; community-based activities, events, competitions; awards, dinners and ceremonies; television, radio and newspaper features and nationwide exhibitions.

It also said, “Among the events being planned are the launch of a national logo, 60th-anniversary commemorative stamps and coin, national parades, gala concerts as well as other sporting and cultural events designed to showcase the multicultural, multi-ethnic, and truly cosmopolitan nature of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Care has also been taken to ensure that these activities are spread throughout TT.”

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Jaikaran Ramnanan speaks with Newsday on the mysterious death of his nephew, Ramraj Ramnanan, of Boodoo Trace, Debe. – Photo by Marvin Hamilton

POLICE have not ruled out foul play in the death of Ramraj Ramnanan, 38, but are not treating it as a homicide until an autopsy is done later this week.

This will be done once the body is tested for covid19.

Ramnanan was found face-down in a pool of blood with a wound to his forehead, outside his home at Dianthus Drive, Boodoo Trace, Debe on Sunday night.

Valuable jewellery he usually wore was missing when a private security guard found his body.

Ramnanan was wearing only boxer shorts, giving rise to the theory that he may have been called out from his home to his death.

Speaking to the Newsday at his Thirst Quenchers Bar, Boodoo Trace, Debe on Tuesday, his uncle Jaikaran Ramnanan said a search had not turned up the missing items.

Jaikaran explained the police told the family there was no unusual wound (such as a gunshot wound) and only an autopsy would determine whether the death of his nephew was due to natural causes or whether he was murdered.

Ramnanan was recovering from recent surgery to his leg and suffered from diabetes,

Jaikaran said there was something strange about his nephew’s death and believes Ramnanan was killed during a robbery. He said he was not there when the incident occurred, but could only speculate.

“He was wearing only a pair of boxers, like if he just came out of the house, as if someone he knew called him out.”

If the theory that Ramnanan fell, hit his head and died at the entrance to his home is to be believed, he said, “How then did his gold chain, valued over $100,000, his cell phone and other valuables go missing?”

He said Ramnanan was wearing the thick gold chain, which had a pendant with the word SKY, his alias. He was also wearing other jewellery at the time of his death.

“I am not accepting that reason. If you fall and hit your head, the chain would not break off your neck and fall off. Your cell phone would not disappear.”

Ramnanan, a contractor, who rented out equipment, including a wrecker and tractor, always kept a money pouch around his waist, Jaikaran said. The pouch, he said, was found minus the money, his iID card, passport and other personal documents he carried with him at all times.

Funeral arrangements are being made for Ramraj Ramnanan, who was found dead outside his home in Boodoo Trace, Debe. – Photo by Marvin Hamilton

His home was also ransacked, Jaikaran said.

“I don’t know if the police ransacked the place while searching for clues, because they did not allow family members near the body or inside his house until after they completed their investigation.

“We went in after them and found everything thrown to the ground. I don’t think that is the way police should conduct their search, if indeed it was them who did that.”

Penal police are heading investigations.

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El presidente del Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos, Carlos Díaz Vélez dijo el martes que si el Gobierno de Puerto Rico y la Junta de Control Fiscal continúan sin darle la prioridad a la crisis de servicios médicos en la isla, los profesionales de la salud exhortarán a sus pacientes a expresarse en las calles.
“Los médicos hemos estado escuchando a los diferentes sectores de la sociedad y a los profesionales de la salud, y que la indignación y el dolor que sentimos y que siente el Pueblo y lo que padece, se parece cada vez más al clima que condujo a los eventos históricos del verano de 2019. No descarto la probabilidad de que decenas de miles de profesionales de la salud convoquen al Pueblo a expresarse a la calle, a las autopistas y en todo lugar, para acabar con la tiranía que han montado en conjunto las aseguradoras y los gobiernos de turno’, dijo Díaz Vélez en conferencia de prensa.

El doctor habló sobre varias iniciativas que se han presentado para atender la situación, pero no encuentran respaldo en los líderes electos.

Estas iniciativas propuestas por el Colegio de Médicos y Cirujanos de PR requieren que las organizaciones privadas, la Cámara de Representantes, el Senado y el Gobernador pongan la acción en la palabra. Algunas requieren legislación para enmendar leyes, otra requiere aprobar de nuevas leyes y otras se podrían aprobar por orden ejecutiva. La situación actual amerita acción urgente de todos los sectores.

“El gobernador tiene la facultad de declarar un estado de emergencia para atender la situación de gravedad del sistema de salud de PR y de ese modo justificar las acciones y medidas junto a todas las organizaciones de salud para resolver la crisis de emergencia del sistema de salud. De lo contrario, el sistema de salud colapsará y la salud de nuestra gente sufrirá las consecuencias y el deterioro de la vida de forma irreversible. El Gobernador puede hacer un llamado a todas las organizaciones de salud para crear el plan a seguir y la implementación de las soluciones que atiendan la emergencia dentro de sesenta días. Si existiera resistencia de la Junta de Control Fiscal a estas medidas entonces tendremos que hacer un frente común de todos los sectores gobierno y organizaciones de salud para juntos llevar la presión y los reclamos con fuerza y determinación para que entiendan la emergencia de la salud de nuestra gente”, expresó.

Entre otras, mencionó :
Otorgar la licencia de Médico por la Junta de Licenciamiento y Diciplinas Médicas (JLDM) tan pronto se gradúa y cumpla con las tres partes de la Reválida o USMLE, facilitando y agilizando el proceso con mínimos documentos.
Dar número de proveedor automático de los planes privados, Advantage y Vital en los primeros 30 días de terminar los estudios y tener la licencia de médico. Estandarizar y minimizar los documentos requeridos por las aseguradoras en este proceso.
No pago de contribuciones personal y/o corporativo por los primeros tres años.
No pago de patentes municipales por tres años.
Cubierta de seguro de impericia médica sin costo por SIMED por los primeros tres años.
Proveer a un costo especial y significativo un plan médico familiar por parte de las aseguradoras por los primeros tres años.

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The US drone strike that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri on the balcony of a Kabul safe house intensified global scrutiny Tuesday of Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and further undermined their efforts to secure international recognition and desperately needed aid.

The Taliban had promised in the 2020 Doha Agreement on the terms of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan that they would not harbour al-Qaida members or those seeking to attack the US.

Yet a mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, who has called for striking the United States in numerous video messages in recent years, lived for months apparently sheltered by senior Taliban figures.

The safe house where al-Zawahri was staying in Kabul’s upscale Shirpur neighbourhood was the home of a top aide to senior Taliban leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, according to a senior US intelligence official. Haqqani is deputy head of the Taliban, serves as interior minister in its government and heads the Haqqani network, a powerful faction within the movement.

Still, there have been persistent reports of unease among Taliban leadership, particularly tensions between the Haqqani network and rivals within the movement.

The Taliban initially sought to describe the strike as America violating the Doha deal, in which the US. committed not to attack the group. The Taliban have yet to say who was killed in the strike.

“The killing of Ayman al-Zawahri has raised many questions,” said one Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press as he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly to reporters. Al-Zawahri took over as al-Qaida’s leader after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan in 2011, in an operation by US Navy SEALs.

“The Taliban were aware of his presence in Kabul, and if they were not aware of it, they need to explain their position,” the official said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry issued a very carefully worded statement, which referred to a “counter-terrorism operation by the United States in Afghanistan” but did not mention al-Zawahri. “Pakistan condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,” it said. Pakistan has been lobbying for the world to give greater recognition and support to the Taliban government.

The strike early Sunday shook awake Shirpur, once a district of historic buildings that were bulldozed in 2003 to make way for luxury homes for officials in Afghanistan’s Western-backed government and international aid organisations. After the US withdrawal in August 2021, senior Taliban moved into some of the abandoned homes there.

The targeted safe house is only a few blocks from the British Embassy, which has been closed since the Taliban takeover in August. Taliban officials blocked AP journalists in Kabul from reaching the damaged house on Tuesday.

The UN Security Council was informed by monitors of militant groups in July that al-Qaida enjoys greater freedom in Afghanistan under the Taliban but confines itself to advising and supporting the country’s new rulers.

A report by the monitors said the two groups remain close and that al-Qaida fighters, estimated to number between 180 to 400, are represented “at the individual level” among Taliban combat units.

The monitors said it’s unlikely al-Qaida will seek to mount direct attacks outside Afghanistan, “owing to a lack of capability and restraint on the part of the Taliban, as well as an unwillingness to jeopardize their recent gains” such as having a safe haven and improved resources.

During the first half of 2022, al-Zawahri increasingly reached out to supporters with video and audio messages, including assurances that al-Qaida can compete with the Islamic State group for leadership of a global movement, the report by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said.

IS militants have emerged as a major threat to the Taliban over the past year, carrying out a series of deadly attacks against Taliban targets and civilians.

The Haqqani network is an Afghan Islamic insurgent group, built around the family of the same name. In the 1980s, it fought Soviet forces and over the past 20 years, it battled US-led NATO troops and the former Afghanistan government. The US government maintains a $10 million bounty on Serajjudin Haqqani for attacks on American troops and Afghan civilians.

But the Haqqanis, from Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province, have rivals within the Taliban leadership, mostly from the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar. Some believe Sirajuddin Haqqani wants more power. Other Taliban figures have opposed the Haqqanis’ attacks against civilians in Kabul and elsewhere during the insurgency.

Jerome Drevon, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst studying Islamist militant groups, said the tensions are focused on how to direct the new regime — “how to share power … who gets what position, who gets to control what ministries, to decide the general policies and so on.”

The timing of the strike also couldn’t come at a worse time politically for the Taliban. The militants face international condemnation for refusing to reopen schools for girls above the sixth grade, despite earlier promises. The United Nations mission to Afghanistan also criticized the Taliban for human rights abuses under their rule.

The US and its allies have cut off billions in development funds that kept the government afloat in part over the abuses, as well as froze billions in Afghan national assets.

This sent the already shattered economy into free fall, increasing poverty dramatically and creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Millions, struggling to feed their families, are kept alive by a massive UN-led relief effort.

The Taliban have been trying to reopen the taps to that aid and their reserves. However, al-Zawahri’s killing already has been seized upon by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as a sign that the Taliban “grossly violated the Doha Agreement and repeated assurances … that they would not allow Afghan territory to be used by terrorists to threaten the security of other countries.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid alleged the US violated the Doha Agreement by launching the strike. Afghanistan’s state-run television channel — now under the Taliban — reported that President Joe Biden said al-Zawahri had been killed.

“The killing of Ayman al-Zawahri closes a chapter of al-Qaida,” said Imtiaz Gul, the executive director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.

Al-Zawahri’s death coincided with the 32nd anniversary of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait — creating a sort of a bookend to al-Qaida’s era of militancy. Saddam’s invasion prompted the US military presence in Saudi Arabia, which in turn was one factor that drove bin Laden to turn his guns on America, culminating in the 9/11 attacks.

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By RAHIM FAIEZ and MUNIR AHMED Associated Press. AP writers Jon Gambrell and Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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