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YET another eventful year in the life of Trinidad and Tobago comes to a close today. While the nine-day wonders of 2018 will fade with time, what will endure are the events that changed our perceptions of ourselves and our country.

For all the tough talk, Trinidad and Tobago became a more dangerous place in 2018 with the number of murders approaching 520 and random robbery escalating to near-epidemic levels. On the economic front, early signs of a revival after four consecutive years of depression have begun to dissipate with the Central Bank last week confirming a third quarter slackening of the growth momentum. The fourth quarter is unlikely to be any better given low oil prices and the still uncalculated impact of the turmoil caused by the abrupt shutdown of State-owned Petrotrin.

In economic terms, Petrotrin’s closure was the earthquake few saw coming, including, it would appear, those charged with implementing the shutdown. When the history books catch up with the present the disappearance of Petrotrin’s name from the business landscape is sure to be recorded as a watershed event of 2018.

TWO 20-year-old women, one from South Oropouche and the other from Siparia, remain traumatised at their respective homes after they were abducted, gang-raped and sodomised by four men in a white Nissan Tiida early this morning.

Police said one of the rapists had a gold tooth and the victims gave clear descriptions of all the suspects.

The women spent several hours on Friday night partying at Club La Vega in San Fernando and at around 3.15 am, they tried to get transportation to Fyzabad. While waiting, the four men pulled up and the one with the gold tooth took out a gun and ordered them into the car. They were taken to some bushes in San Fernando where the men took turns sexually assaulting them. They were then dropped off in Penal.

CONSTRUCTION labourer Ricardo Barclay, 28, had just walked across the road to meet a friend on Saturday night when occupants of a "taxi" pulled up next to him and began shooting. Barclay, also called Baby, was up to late today fighting for his life at the intensive care unit of the San Fernando General Hospital. His friend, Gebre Cordner, 26, is at the hospital in a serious but stable condition.

The shooting happened at about 9.30 pm at Charles Street, La Romaine, near their homes. Residents told Newsday that as soon as Barclay walked across the road, men in a silver Nissan Tiida car fired several shots at them. The car had a registration number plate starting with the letter "H" which is reserved for hire vehicles.

Camille McEach­nie

Glen Pe­ters, 45, is seek­ing an­swers from of­fi­cials of the To­ba­go Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (TRHA) fol­low­ing the death of his 48-year-old wife Mavis John-Pe­ters last week.

The death cer­tifi­cate showed that she died of stom­ach can­cer.

Pe­ters, who lives in De­laford, claims there were de­lays in di­ag­nos­ing his wife’s con­di­tion when she was ad­mit­ted to the Scar­bor­ough Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and he be­lieves this is why she en­sured “bad pain, sleep­less nights and then let her die.”

He said: “She was go­ing to the hos­pi­tal since Sep­tem­ber and every time she went they gave her Panadol and even­tu­al­ly high blood pres­sure tablets. I begged them to do tests to see what was wrong with her as she was in plen­ty of pain and vom­it­ing all the time, but no­body lis­tened to me.

“Every time we went to Ca­su­al­ty doc­tors and nurs­es treat­ed us as though we were no­body, even when we begged,” he claimed.

SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Shindlar "Sherene" Cuffy, whom relatives believe has been lured into a cult, may have been renamed Rainbow. That was the view of her mother who cited a voice note circulating on social media suspected to be from the people responsible for Cuffy’s mysterious disappearance. The voice, Shondel Shallow said, sounds remarkably like her missing daughter’s.

"I don’t know where they got that name from. The voice is sounding like hers but, as if she is being forced. I feel she is still in the country unless she left illegally by boat. I am praying and hoping for a miracle to happen," said the worried mother.

DEFUNCT oil company Petrotrin has promised to pay its former temporary and casual workers all outstanding back pay money on or before January 15, 2019.

OWTU (Petrotrin branch) president Christopher Jackman, who led workers in a protest demonstration on December 17, said over 1,000 temporary/ casual workers have not received their severance or back pay after the company’s closure on November 30.

In a telephone interview today, Jackman said the company issued a memo after that protest, telling the former workers that payments would be made by the middle of January.

“So we holding them to their word there. People went through Christmas without pay, but at least we have a date as to when payment would be made.”

A Fyzabad man was killed by a single gunshot fired from a police officer’s gun in Vessigny Village, La Brea early Monday.

Kyle Thompson, 23, of Dubarry Street, was shot in the chest. He was pronounced dead at hospital.

He is the 45th person to be killed by police this year.

A senior police officer told the Express that someone came to the Guapo Police Station around 2.30 a.m. and reported that a man was armed with a firearm at Dream Girls bar in Vessigny.

The report was relayed to the La Brea police and two constables responded.

TWO British tourists who were violently robbed at the Queen's Park Savannah safely flew home on Sunday, prompting the Government to re-think visitor security, said a Ministry of Tourism statement.

Michael Wilson, 74, and his wife Sally Wilson, 72, had taken a Caribbean cruise to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They arrived in TT on December 26 (Boxing Day) among 3,000 passengers on the MSC Preziosa cruise line and were due to leave later that day.

However, they missed the boat’s departure because Mrs Wilson was injured during a robbery at the Savannah. She was treated at the Port of Spain General Hospital (PoSGH) and expressed gratitude.

The Wilsons left on a British Airways flight to the UK, via St Lucia, at 7.30 pm on Sunday.