The call was made by Dale Marshall, Deputy Leader of the Opposition,  on Sunday at a meeting of the Barbados Labour Party’s St George South branch at the Drax Hall Resource Centre.

Marshall said it was “wonderful” when a country like Barbados could proclaim its stars but his query was not about Rihanna as a performer.

He said it was in the interest of transparency, accountability and legality and in keeping with the public’s right to know

Trinidad and Tobago’s Civil Aviation Authority are “now satisfied” that the Barbados based airline meets the regulatory requirements including safety, new Transport Minister Devant Maharaj said in a statement.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar handed Warners Transport portfolio to Maharaj three weeks ago.

REDjet, owned by Irish businessman Robbie Burns, was launched in April and branded as “the Caribbeans first low cost carrier.”

But scheduled flights to and from Trinidad — starting from May 8 — were cancelled after then Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Works and Transport Jack Warner accused the airline of “lawlessness” in supposedly failing to acquire necessary permission. He also questioned the safety of its planes.

Maharaj said the wrangling between REDjet and the Civil Aviation Authority, which prompted a legal writ by the former company, was “settled on terms which are mutually acceptable to all parties” and REDjet would now benefit from Trinidad and Tobagos “open air policy.”

“We are certain that the consuming public in Trinidad and Tobago and the region would welcome a choice in air travel at this time,” stated Maharaj. “It is reflective of this countrys commitment to the region and to the development of our Caricom partners,” Maharaj added.

What has made it worse, said the field director of the Barbados Sea Turtle Project (BSTP), Darren Browne, is the apparent senselessness of the killing.

The gruesome discovery greeted walkers who were taking their morning strolls along the Boardwalk. One woman said it appeared as if the perpetrator had used a knife to slash the turtle and had then dragged it up the beach.

“I couldn’t look at her. I am so incensed,” she said.

One of the volunteers said the turtle was stabbed multiple times with a knife and a broken bottle.

Browne said the person attacked the turtle without any reason.

He explained some turtles are killed for their meat but this turtle was just killed for the sake of killing. “They wounded it around its head and neck and it bleed out,” he said.

“This literally seems like a malicious act because they did not take the meat or the eggs. It strikes me as someone being very cruel,” Browne told the WEEKEND NATION. The Hawksbill was killed before she was able to nest.

He described the butchered Hawksbill as being approximately 27 years old -relatively young as turtles can live to be 80 years – and said this was probably the female’s first time nesting. It was tagged in 2009.

Browne added that this was not the first time volunteers from the Sea Turtle Project had been called to such a find.

Last August, they found a turtle whose flippers had been cut off.

That, said Browne, was just one of “quite a few” incidents.

This year, there were two attempts at poaching, but volunteers were able to respond in time and flip the turtles back over. There were also two acts of poaching, where concerned people reported the turtles were being carried off.

“There was another one where all we found was a head,” he said.

This latest matter has been  reported to police but Browne does not hold out much hope of anyone being charged unless there were eyewitnesses to the event.

Only one in 1 000 hatchlings survive to adulthood.

Leslie Barker, a retired Government geologist, told the Coroner’s Court yesterday that the collapse of the cave was a natural phenomenon which would have occurred with or without the vibrations.

Overseas expert Hans Machel had earlier testified to the contrary.

“There is no doubt in my mind this cave would have collapsed sooner rather than later,” said Barker, whose team conducted a study on the caves in the Brittons Hill area after the collapse which resulted in the death of the Codrington family of five. (MB)