Staff Editor

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – This year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) was officially postponed until further notice because of the COVID-19 pandemic today but the Indian cricket board believes it can find a “safe” window later for the lucrative Twenty20 tournament.

TOKYO,  (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to include the entire country on Thursday and said the government was considering cash payouts for all in an effort to stem the coronavirus outbreak and cushion the economic downturn.

(Trinidad Guardian) T&T’s healthcare system has been given a shot in the arm as the country will receive from the CAF—Development Bank of Latin America a loan of $340 million (US$50m) to mitigate the COVID-19 health crisis here.

The number of positive COVID-19 cases in Guyana has risen to 55, an increase overnight of 14.5%.

The Head of the OAS observer mission at the March 2nd elections, Bruce Golding  today expressed concern that an accurate election result has not been determined six weeks on and he said that the proposal by the Chief Election Officer for a five-month recount of votes was “unheard of in any democracy and would be unacceptable under any circumstances”.

Stabroek News’ online edition today has been affected by internet problems at the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT).

The Health and Emergency Committee, Region Ten this afternoon confirmed its second positive case of COVID-19 in the region.

Since its last update on Saturday, the Ministry of Public Health today said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has risen from 45 to 47.

The Police say they are investigating a fatal accident which occurred today about 9 am on  the  No.

The Police say they are investigating the murder of Albert ‘Soldier’ Raghu, age 40 years, a labourer of Lot 218 Hope West, Enmore, ECD which occurred at the said address allegedly by a 29-year-old housewife and her 40-year-old husband , both of whom have been arrested and are cooperating with investigators.

Guyana’s economy could be pegged back by risks generated by the incomplete general election and the rampaging coronavirus, according to the World Bank’s latest semiannual report which also has more modest figures for growth of GDP in the next three years.

Six weeks after the March 2nd general elections, a crisis triggered by a rigging attempt in GECOM to hand victory to the incumbent APNU+AFC rumbles on with the way forward resting heavily with the Chair of the electoral body, Justice (retired) Claudette Singh.

Police in Berbice yesterday arrested the suspect in the murder of an unidentified woman whose battered body was found stuffed in a barrel which was found partially submerged in a trench at R and S Street, Belvedere, Corentyne, on Saturday. 

A forty-year-old labourer of Lusignan Railway Embankment, ECD, was caught yesterday about 6.30 am in the act of attempting to throw a bag containing two cellular phones, one hundred and four grams of suspected cannabis and other items into the Lusignan Prison compound.

BAKU/DUBAI/LONDON,  (Reuters) – OPEC and allies led by Russia agreed today to a record cut in output to prop up oil prices amid the coronavirus pandemic and said they had an unprecedented deal with fellow oil nations, including the United States, to curb global oil supply by 20%.

Region 10 (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) today said that a COVID-19 test on a six-year-old girl who died after breathing problems came back negative.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Stirling Moss, the British racing driver who ranked as an all-time Formula One great despite never winning the world championship, died today at the age of 90 after a long illness.

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) yesterday said that it had dispatched a letter to Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence expressing concern about the confidentiality of testing for the coronavirus and quarantine procedures.

“When will you make an end?” an impatient Pope Julius II calls up to Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the 1965 film The Agony and the Ecstasy.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he owed his life to hospital staff, in his first comments since leaving intensive care for coronavirus treatment, while his government came under mounting pressure to explain why the death toll was rising so fast.