Daily Archive: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

-businessman, maid beaten Three unmasked bandits yesterday escaped with millions in cash and jewellery following a ten-minute rampage at a Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara (ECD) residence during which a businessman and his maid were battered in their faces.

The fight for tobacco control will be more robust in 2010 with an intense focus on labelling and packaging, Minister of Health, Dr.

Magistrate Nyasha Williams-Hatmin yesterday issued an arrest warrant for a man charged with causing the death of a girl at Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara, after he did not turn up in court.

–Dr Gopaul Responding to a call in the Kaieteur News for him to disclose his earnings at GuySuCo, Chairman of the Interim Board Dr Nanda Gopaul said yesterday that his service to the corporation has been without compensation.

A Guyanese man who was the President of a Queens, New York firm fingered in a US$23 million loan fraud recently handed himself over to federal authorities and is expected to appear in court shortly.

Guyana’s “pioneering” work in climate planning was recognized at a forum yesterday on the sidelines of the United Nations global summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.

The shipment of H1N1 vaccines which was expected in the country yesterday did not arrive, but Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy believes the vaccines could be here “any day now” based on his communication with the World Health Organisation (WHO).

-US$257M allocated to agriculture Since beginning a partnership with Guyana in 1977, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has granted the country in excess of 58 loans valued at more than US$1billion, a recent report released by the IDB’s country office says.

Three men including a former employee of Channel Nine were arrested yesterday following another early morning break-in at the Mandela Avenue location and police have managed to recover some of the items stolen in the last few months.

There will be no Vybz Kartel show for Christmas. In a brief statement, PR Representative for Conscious Mind Promotions, Mondale Smith said that the show is off and persons have begun to collect refunds at the STVS offices.

-Ramsammy Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy says no final decision has been reached in the matter involving Dr Mahendra Chand and his treatment of a teenage boy who was tortured while in police custody.

The CARICOM secretariat is to work with member states to harmonise certain trade policies to facilitate intra-regional agricultural trade.

COPENHAGEN,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama  has expressed confidence a climate deal can be clinched as  dozens of world leaders gather today to try to break a  deadlock at U.N.

– King Pele on Brazil winning the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games over the USA and other countries On October 2 this year in Copenhagen, Denmark, the world was stunned when President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) IOC Jacques Rogge announced that the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil had won the bid to host the 31st Olympiad in 2016.

A Canadian bauxite mining company says that it is achieving significant progress as it moves to establish an operation here at Bonasika, Essequibo.

The IDB has approved $102M in partial financing for two wind power projects in Oaxaca,  Mexico that are a part of its strategy to diversify its energy matrix while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Action in the 20th annual Kashif and Shanghai football competition will recommence tonight at the Georgetown Football Club Ground (GCC) with what is expected to be an exciting double header which kicks off at 6pm.

COPENHAGEN,  (Reuters) – A price of $10 per tonne of  planet-warming carbon dioxide could be incentive enough to halt  greenhouse gas emissions from many land uses in Brazil and  Indonesia, a leading conservation group said yesterday.

Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday ordered that a 48-year-old man pay a fine of $30,000 or spend eighteen months in prison after admitting to stealing several machine blades used in shaving machines from a boutique.

By Orin Davidson Australians have been placing West Indies pacer Kemar Roach under the microscope but for Chris Gayle, the Perth Test match should be the litmus Test of his batting prowess.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The European Union and United  States initialed a deal  yesterday with Latin American,  African and Caribbean nations ending a decades-old trade war  over bananas.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil’s Senate yesterday  approved Venezuela’s request to join the South American trade  bloc Mercosur despite concerns over President Hugo Chavez’s  restraints on democracy.

Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday placed a 58-year-old visually-challenged man on a two-year bond to keep the peace after a man that he had allegedly beaten with his metal cane agreed to accept  compensation of $100,000.

Dear Editor, ‘Boy’s dream to build windmill transforms lives in Malawi’ – this is an article in the Toronto Star of Sunday, December 13, 2009.

In a radical move aimed at regenerating interest in regional cricket, four matches in next season’s first-class tournament will be played under floodlights using a pink ball, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) announced yesterday.

-transportation cited as major problem Teachers from eighty-one Rupununi schools on Monday had an opportunity to review their activities with a view to identifying their strengths and weaknesses and to plan for the coming months.

Dear Editor, I grieve with the families who have lost their loved ones on Guyana’s roads.

SYDNEY, (Reuters Life!) – Australian scientists have  discovery an octopus species that carries around coconut shells  to hide in when threatened, behaviour the researchers said was  the first example of sophisticated tool use in an invertebrate.

Should the West Indies beat Australia in the third and final Test in Perth to level the series 1-1, captain Chris Gayle contends “they should give us a trophy”.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – People who drink the most  coffee and tea, even decaffeinated versions, can dramatically  lower their risk of diabetes, researchers reported yesterday.

SYDNEY, Australia, CMC – West Indies players Stacy-Ann King, Deandra Dottin and Shanel Daley have been posting prominent performances playing professional women’s cricket in Australia.

Dear Editor, I share the concerns of all those who have expressed their deep concerns on ‘Use Diamond Land for cane to feed ethanol plant’ in Stabroek News, December 13.

As they contemplate Christ-mas without their loved ones, relatives of the men who died in a murky Essequibo River boat incident in August yesterday picketed the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s court where three soldiers, who they believed were involved, appeared for another matter.

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive  approved 230 million euros ($334.4 million) in aid to African  and Caribbean countries yesterday to cushion their social  protection budgets depleted by the global financial crisis.

BASSETERRE, St Kitts,  CMC – West Indies Under-19 coach Andre Coley has described as “satisfying”, Monday’s warm-up victory over Canada for next month’s Youth World Cup in New Zealand.

Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited on Monday held its 25th Annual General Meeting, after recording a 17% improvement in its financial performance over the previous year despite a $246.2M fraud.

Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited on Monday held its 25th Annual General Meeting, after recording a 17% improvement in its financial performance over the previous year despite a $246.2M fraud.

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive  approved 230 million euros ($334.4 million) in aid to African  and Caribbean countries yesterday to cushion their social  protection budgets depleted by the global financial crisis.

Dear Editor, Do the sugar workers’ unions, GAWU and NACCIE know something the general public does not?

Dear Editor, I was in Port of Spain during the just concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference.

(Trinidad Express) Nyla Khan, mother of a two-year-old boy, was tied up and tortured inside her home before she was chopped twice on the neck, relatives said on Monday.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department yesterday blacklisted two Mexicans and one Colombian, accusing  them of providing material support to the Sinaloa Cartel, a  Mexican drug trafficking organization.

Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett has said the Caribbean Community “will continue to support efforts for the full integration of Cuba in the hemisphere.”

By Marlon Munroe President of the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) Errol Tiwari claims that Guyana should regain its accreditation with the world governing body Federation Intern-ationale des Echecs (FIDE) by year end.

“Ow mammy please don’t send me to jail, ah gone pay yah back…” cried 24-year-old Carl Cato, of East La Penitence, shortly after acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment for stealing a refrigerator and a gas stove from his mother’s home.

-poll (Trinidad Express) In Sep-tember 2008, the Government appointed a Commission of Enquiry under the chairmanship of Prof John Uff to examine the operations of the Public Sector Construction Industry and the procurement regime with particular reference to the Urban Development Corporation (UDeCOTT), the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the Cleaver Heights Housing Project.

Dear Editor, World AIDS Day (WAD) on December 1, 2009, was commemorated under the theme ‘Universal Access and Human Rights,’ which will foreground global observances on HIV over the next year.

The Edwin ‘Chow’ Sealey Memorial Schools Football Competition concludes today at the National Gymnasium with the semi-finals and final.

TEL AVIV, (Reuters) – Israel is parlaying civilian  technological advances into a cyberwarfare capability against  its enemies, a senior Israeli general said yesterday in a rare  public disclosure about the secret programme.

Tipped: GDF Chief of Staff, Commodore Gary Best (left) decorates officer cadet John Barker yesterday at the annual ensigncy parade.

ROME, (Reuters) – An Italian man who broke Silvio  Berlusconi’s nose and teeth by striking him with a spiked  souvenir has apologised to the prime minister for his “cowardly  and rash act”, the attacker’s lawyers said.

-DEA says he attempted to buy cocaine from undercover cop (Jamaica Observer) The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that Reggae artiste Buju Banton and two other men were arrested in an undercover operation in Florida that ran over four days and during which the deejay made an attempt to taste cocaine that they sought to buy from an undercover cop.

Dear Editor, The government’s Regional Security Contract was awarded to our company as of November 16, 2009.

The first shipment of paddy, which was expected to leave Guyana for Venezuela several weeks ago under the US$18.1M rice purchase agreement, will now be leaving for the neighbouring country during the course of this week.

RAJKOT, India,  (Reuters) – India survived a thrilling  Sri Lanka run chase to clinch a three-run win in the first-one  day international as the teams piled up more than 800 runs  between them yesterday.

Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited yesterday made donations to several charitable groups at its New Market Street headquarters.

PORTO VELHO, Brazil, (Reuters) – Straddling one the  Amazon’s main tributaries and flanked by dense jungle, a  construction pit the size of a small town bustles with  bulldozers and nearly 10,000 workers blasting huge slabs of  rock off the river bank.

Dear Editor, As a PPP/Civic supporter over the last 17 years or so, I have found it very interesting to read the criticisms and unsubstantiated accusations about lack of transparency and accountability over the various expenditures and allocations for the rebuilding and extension of the socio-economic and physical infrastructure which had deteriorated severely under the PNC regime which kept itself in office through rigged elections, after getting into office through a coalition government imposed by a fiddled constitutional arrangement.

(Antigua Sun) Extradition proceedings against the former head of the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) Leroy King which were expected to get underway on Monday have been delayed.

Gavin Todd continues to be a force to be reckoned with this season when he captured the RRT Enterprises Medal Play Golf tournament last Saturday as the curtains draw closer to the end of the Lusignan Golf Club’s (LTC) 2009 season.

The Office of the President (OP) is mourning the passing of Brindley Benn and recalled his dedicated service to the nation.

President Barack Obama’s speech on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize has been the subject of as much critical attention as was the award itself.

The 22-year-old police constable who was involved in an accident on the Schoonord Public Road opposite the Demerara  Harbour  Bridge (DHB) on December  2 in which  two cars where badly damaged, remains a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

BEVERLY HILLS, (Reuters) – Film drama “Up in the  Air” soared away with six Golden Globe nominations yesterday,  more than any film, while Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep  surprised Hollywood watchers with two nominations each for the  major awards show.

The National Library yesterday unveiled $100 stamps to commemorate its centennial as a public library.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Trading card and memorabilia company Upper Deck said yesterday that it would not end its sponsor deals with Tiger Woods, who has admitted to marital infidelity and has had other sponsors back away from him as a  result.  

(Jamaica Observer) POINT, Hanover — Montego Bay cambio dealer Adrian ‘Ruddy’ Armstrong, who was arrested five years ago pursuant to an extradition request by the United States for him to answer allegations of money laundering, has been freed.

Dear Editor, For some time now, a larger than life figure has been swaggering around town casting long shadows.