Poultry farmers breathed a sigh of relief yesterday with the diagnosis of aspergillosis, a fungal infection which has resulted in a large number of dead chickens at a farm in Cumuto.

There were no PNM officials in court when former energy minister Eric Williams appeared before a magistrate yesterday charged with corruptly receiving TT$75,000 from PNM Councillor Dansam Dhansook.

"God will vindicate me in the end," Energy Minister Eric Williams said yesterday, in his first public comment since police obtained a warrant for his arrest in connection with bribery allegations on Saturday.

Caribbean leaders yesterday welcomed the start of a free trade zone designed to allow goods, services and skilled workers to move more easily throughout the region.

"I don't go back on nothing I ever said, I stand by all of it," West told a gathering of local media at TSTT, West Mall yesterday.

Millionaire businessmen Ishwar Galbaransingh and Steve Ferguson have been indicted by a United States Grand Jury to face fraud charges in that country over the now infamous Piarco Airport project.

Heavily armed police and army officers swooped down on several illegally operated quarries in the Valencia and Wallerfield area yesterday arresting 12 men and impounding several pieces of heavy equipment used in the trade.

Former coup leader Imam Yasin Abu Bakr was yesterday slapped with a terrorism charge that could put him behind bars for 25 years if convicted.

Police and army are now demolishing the offices of the Muslimeen leader Abu Bakr, at Mucurapo Road.

There has been yet another explosion in downtown Port of Spain yesterday morning around 9:45 a.m.