Daily Archive: Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A New York fourth-grader, son of a Guyanese woman, fatally choked on meatballs in a Bronx school cafeteria last December as staff looked on and did nothing to save him, his family and a witness told the New York Post.

Four of six suspected gunmen who raided the Bollywood Night Club last night were held by police who surprised them on the premises and a M15 rifle was recovered.

After several weeks of assessing Statements of Poll (SoPs) handed over by GECOM, APNU on December 30, 2011 wrote elections commission Chairman Dr Steve Surujbally saying that it needed access to the original hard copies for further verification.

We enter a new year with a new President though it has to be said that that is where the newness stops.

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – The Commonwealth, Australia  and New Zealand called on Fiji’s military ruler, Commodore Frank  Bainimarama, to hold credible elections and restore democracy  after he announced an end to emergency laws imposed since 2009.

(Reuters) – San Antonio   Spurs guard Manu Ginobili   fractured his left shooting hand during a loss to  the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday and is out indefinitely,  the team said.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A British court today  convicted two men of the 1993 murder of black teenager Stephen  Lawrence, a landmark case that exposed racism in the London  police and led to a change in the law allowing suspects to be  tried twice for the same crime.

(Trinidad Express) Trinidad and Tobago’s latest unemployment figures show a 0.5 per cent drop in the number of people looking for jobs.

(Trinidad Express) Sunday was the third time that Marcus Cooper, a construction worker who lived at Madingo Road, Princes Town, was shot.

(Trinidad Express) Finance Minister Winston Dookeran will act as Prime Minister during Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s trip to India this month.

(de Ware Tijd) THE HAGUE – From January through September 2011 some 101,578 Dutch tourists have visited Suriname, over 30,000 more than last year.

The Antigua police today named former Antigua Prime Minister Lester Bird and Guyanese-born diplomat Sir Ron Sanders among persons of interest in a probe into a fraud case and made a special appeal for Sanders to make himself available to the police on the island.

(Barbados Nation) An Irishman socialite with an upscale villa in Barbados, Breifne O’Brien, has been accused of bilking investors in a Ponzi scheme.

(Barbados Nation) The economic recession is taking a toll on local bands, several of which did not perform at any of the massive shows on Old Year’s Night.

CGX Energy Inc today announced that the Ocean Saratoga semi-submersible drilling rig which will search for oil in Guyana’s waters departed the Gulf of Mexico on January 1st,and is now under tow to the Guyana-Suriname Basin to drill the Company’s Eagle-1 well.

The house of a Guyanese family was one of five buildings attacked by a suspected serial firebomber in New York on Sunday night.

(Barbados Nation) A football tournament came to an abrupt end on New Year’s Night after a shooting incident left one man dead and another – up to late yesterday – fighting for his life.

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – James Pattinson took four wickets  as Australia bundled India out for 191 on the opening day of the  second test today, before coming through a top order crisis  of their own to finish a frenetic day on 116 for three.

Trinidad and Tobago semi-professional football club Neal and Massy Caledonia AIA are the 2011/12 Kashif and Shanghai champions after they defeated Pele FC 2-0 in the final of the 22nd staging of the annual tournament On New Year’s Day at the Providence National Stadium.

The Kashif & Shanghai Organisation, reeling from the effects of an opposition boycott call and football fraternity feud between the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) is confident these will soon blow over and fans will be forgiving and return to the spectator stands.

For the second year in succession Alpha United won a football tournament on New Year’s Day following last year’s victory in the annual Kashif and Shanghai tournament.

The semi-nude body of 66-year-old Bebe Jahooral Banu was discovered in the bottom flat of her lot 5 ‘A’ De Willem North, West Coast Demerara home on New Year’s Day at around 15:00 hrs with a piece of cloth wrapped around her throat.

In light of the acrimony surrounding the choice of Speaker of the National Assembly, the elections for the regional council for Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) could further test ties between APNU and the AFC.

A 23-year-old goldsmith of Bush Lot, West Coast Berbice lost his life when he was struck down by a speeding car, PKK 252 around 10.30 pm on Saturday.

President Donald Ramotar

Part of the Guyana Defence Force’s fireworks display

The race by sports associations to be the adjudged among the best over the past year could see Track and Field ending up in the “also ran” category despite the strenuous efforts of those in charge.

By Emmerson Campbell ALBA Games bronze medalist and gold medalist at the Ronald Wilson Memorial boxing tournament, Imran ‘Magic’ Khan ended 2011 on a high note by defeating previously unbeaten Lawrence Singh in the headline amateur bout of a Pro Am card in Trinidad and Tobago last Friday night.

(Edited version of a New Year’s Day statement from the Guyana Cricket Board) “We take this opportunity to wish all Guyanese a bright and prosperous new year and trust that better sense will prevail in these troubling times.

Officials of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) and heavily-armed police evicted miners from the former Omai Gold Mines concession over the holiday weekend, sparking accusations of damage to property.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – The scandals that have plagued recent series with Pakistan must be forgotten when England play them in the United Arab Emirates later this month, captain Andrew Strauss said yesterday.

School reopens today and finds the huge fish pond in front of the Nismes Primary School still to be filled in with the piles of mud that were taken and dumped in front of the schoolyard after an intervention by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand last term.

Following complaints to the President that they were being affected by dust pollution, residents of Strathavon and Cane Grove, Mahaica met a ministerial team yesterday to discuss the issue and managed to come to a solution.

Scenes from New Year’s  Eve

President Donald Ramotar will seek the advice of the Attorney General in relation to the members of the National Twenty20 team’s appeal to him, Guyana Cricket Board’s (GCB) Cricket Development Officer Robin Singh said yesterday.

Scenes from New Year’s  Eve

The farmers of the north and south sections of Canal Number 2 Polder and also De Buff Village, on the West Bank Demerara are still awaiting word on compensation for losses suffered as a result of recent flooding.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Former England captain Andrew Flintoff briefly considered quitting the game after hitting an “all-time low” during the 2006-07 Ashes whitewash in Australia, the player told a BBC programme discussing the mental health of top sportsmen.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – Omar Khan said winning a warm-up Twenty20 tournament in Barbados this week would be the right tonic for reigning Caribbean champions Trinidad & Tobago ahead of the Caribbean T20.

Relatives of three Guyanese sailors who have been missing since last Wednesday after leaving Trinidad remain optimistic that the men will turn up alive as efforts to locate them and the cargo vessel, the MV Oliver L intensify.

Scenes from New Year’s Eve

MELBOURNE, Australia, CMC – Dwayne Bravo was a bust again in his final Big Bash League match before returning home for the Caribbean Twenty20.

Dear Editor, Over the recent years, there has been an increasing level of noise emanating from homes, weddings, funerals, churches, vehicles etc.

Scenes from New Year’s Eve

Commander of ‘A’ Division

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian police killed the leader of a powerful drug cartel that supplied tonnes of cocaine to Mexican gangs, the government said on Sunday.

Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) General Secretary Lincoln Lewis yesterday appealed to APNU and the AFC to end their sabre-rattling on the selection of a Speaker and to focus on principles and not personalities to reach consensus on a nominee.

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea called on its people to rally behind new leader Kim Jong-un and protect him as “human shields” while working to solve the “burning issue” of food shortages by upholding the policies of his late father, Kim Jong-il.

Dear Editor, As usual Christmas was a standing offence to the idea of economic rationality.

Boogeying down at the AOld Year’s Night Ball

(Reuters) – Venezuela’s PDVSA said yesterday it will pay Exxon Mobil Corp $255 million in compensation for nationalized assets – less than a third of what the US oil giant said it was awarded by an arbitration panel.

Scenes from New Year’s Eve

LONDON,  CMC – Gifted West Indies middle order batsman Darren Bravo has been named in ESPN’s Cricinfo Test XI of 2011.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has armed itself with some of the toughest sanctions yet targeting Iran but must carefully assess how to avoid catching energy-importing allies such as Japan, South Korea and India in the crossfire.

Bust a move

LONDON, CMC – British Conservative MP Damian Collins said Sepp Blatter’s conduct as president of FIFA should be independently investigated.

(Jamaica Observer) There was a bloody start to the new year in St James where two middle-aged men were on Sunday shot dead execution-style in that parish’s second double murder in as many days.

APNU leader David Granger has said the new year will challenge the opposition to deliver real change to the people through the parliamentary process.

Dear Editor, If I may borrow  a term from the Arab Spring media it’s that of “Celebratory Noises” which is a common practice of  shooting  live ammunition into the air as seen in Cairo  and Libya last year.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Humanity faces a decisive challenge – educating new generations in justice and peace in order to avoid the violent tragedies of the past, Pope Benedict said in his New Year address on Sunday.

The November 28 elections came and went without too much fuss or fanfare.

Dear Editor, On my way to the post office to purchase a postage stamp to affix on a late Xmas card for a friend, I met the newspaperman delivering the day’s newspaper, and so I collected my usual copy of the Stabroek News.

(Reuters) – The Miami Heat mauled the Charlotte Bobcats in a 129-90 blowout on Sunday to improve to a franchise-best 5-0 start to an NBA season.

Fireworks on sale

(Trinidad Express) Last month Lloyd Baptiste escaped death after his house was firebombed.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Armed Syrian rebels captured dozens of members of the security forces by seizing two military checkpoints yesterday, the opposition said, even as the Arab League chief reported cautious progress in a peace monitoring mission.

(Barbados Nation) The Globe Cinema, which started operating in 1956, is now a mere memory.

Dear Editor, In recent times I have had cause to hold my breath anytime Mr.

CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – South Africa must be mentally stronger in the third and final test against Sri Lanka, captain Graeme Smith said on the eve of the match.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Tens of thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest yesterday against the government and its new Basic Law in a show of anxiety over what they see as the ruling Fidesz party’s moves to weaken democratic institutions and cement its powers.

Hot Momma’s Advice: Use love and logic to bring in consistency along with the New Year!!!

Power has passed to yet another  Kim in the Democratic People’s Republic People’s of Korea.

I resolve to stop drinking

 Worshippers at the midnight mass

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – The green shoots of Australian recovery will be exposed to the full glare of India’s determination to level the series in the 100th test match to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground starting  today.

Michael Witter is a Jamaican economist and committed regionalist, who teaches at the Mona, Jamaica Campus of the University of the West Indies.

(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – ‘It is certain that military conscription will be reintroduced,’ assures Defense Minister Lamoure Latour.

Dear Editor, Things are looking comical for Minister Anthony’s IMC or we can say Clive Lloyd’s IMC.