Daily Archive: Sunday, February 19, 2012

(Reuters) – Whitney Houston was laid to rest today in a private burial before family and close friends near her birthplace in Newark, New Jersey, more than a week after her sudden death shocked the world.

The police say they are investigating a fatal accident that occurred at about 1025h.

MEXICO CITY, (Reuters) – Violence at a prison on the outskirts of Mexico’s northern manufacturing city Monterrey left at least 44 dead today, authorities said.

Allen Stanford’s attorneys on Wednesday began presenting their defence in his $7B fraud case and set about on Friday trying to blame his top deputy James Davis as around 40 investors listened intently and hoping that they would someday be able to retrieve their investments.

(Trinidad Guardian) As the police continue investigations into the alleged breach at the Integrity Commission the International Press Institute (IPI) plans to visit T&T as part of its press freedom mission.

BRISBANE, (Reuters) – Ben Hilfenhaus took five wickets as Australia’s pacemen ripped through India’s top order to secure an emphatic 110-run victory in the one-day Tri-series on a steamy night at the Gabba in Brisbane today.

(Jamaica Observer) Deeper economic union is at the centre of the Eastern Caribbean’s attempts to build a platform for sustainable growth, the Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank said on Thursday.

(Jamaica Observer) Wavell Wayne Hinds has two dates firmly etched in his mind — dates that could have yielded different results had luck not been on his side.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Cecil Beharie had always wanted a Land Rover. Not just any Land Rover, as the renowned rugged ride comes in a vast range of styles and trim levels.

(Barbados Nation) A project that is expected to revolutionize welfare delivery in Barbados is set to begin in another few months.

(Barbados Nation) There should be a regional resolution to the CLICO debacle.

(Barbados Nation) Police are looking for a “building contractor” who has allegedly defrauded several Barbadians of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and left a trail of bounced cheques at hardware stores.

After years of delay, the government is moving to line up its nominees for the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) in the face of continuing criticisms by the Auditor General and the opposition over breaches in the award of some contracts.

Story and photos by Shabna Ullah Residents of the mixed community of Cumberland, East Canje in Berbice have various occupations and some have undertaken businesses ventures which have helped with the development of the village.

Iwokrama is no longer receiving money from the British Investment group Canopy Capital after their ecosystem services agreement collapsed.

At 72, Guyana’s best known panist Roy Geddes is still as passionate about steel pan music as he was when he was just 14 years old and developed a liking for the music form that originated in Trinidad & Tobago.

After 25 years, Dr Faith Harding has resigned from the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) central executive, saying that the party has sidelined her.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – Positive half-centuries from Raymon Reifer and Chadwick Walton propped up Combined Campuses and Colleges and gave them a fighting chance, heading into the final day of their third round clash with Guyana here yesterday.

The Guyana Office for Investment (Go-Invest) oversaw $129.4 billion in investments between 2007 and 2010, according to Chairman Keith Burrowes, who says that the agency is working to help both foreign and local investors.

Former vice president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Bissoondyal Singh yesterday refuted GCB’s General Secretary Anand Sanasie’s version of the signing of visa application letters for two cricketers Marvin Munroe and Wasim Haslim.

Relatives of businessman Davendra Bholanaught, who was gunned down by a fleeing robber two years ago, are puzzled as to why police have neglected to charge a suspect more than a year after he was positively identified.

The initial results of the modelling exercise for the master plan for enhancing flood control capacity within the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) and the lowland drainage system are expected to be available in the first half of 2012.

While efforts to rebuild the Sacred Heart Church press ahead, vandals are making off with pieces of the cast iron fence and creating a setback for the ongoing works.

Dorado club swimmer Hannibal Gaskin achieved another four personal best times while Jessica Stephenson made another CARIFTA “A” qualifying time on the third day of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) annual Mashramani meet which continued yesterday at the National Aquatic Center at Pattensen.

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, CMC – Barbados and West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Smith stroked a typically robust half-century to power Khulna Royal Bengals to a narrow four-wicket win over Sylhet Royals in the Bangladesh Premier League on Saturday.

The Providence Stadium was on Friday night flooded with ecstatic fans of the three big names in the entertainment industry who performed at Digicel Guyana’s fifth anniversary concert.

For those who like trees in their immediate environment, but whose backyards are too small to accommodate a spreading saman because it would uproot the house, ehow has one or two suggestions.

Sunday’s Cartoon

The Burnham Foundation hosts a week of activities from today to mark the occasion of the 89th birth anniversary on February 20, of the founder of the PNC and first executive president of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the late Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham.

The Yellow Banded Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates leucomelas) is the largest of the Dendrobatid frogs and has been seen in the Burro Burro river of Surama and the Clarence Mountain Trail in Aranaputa.

To the multitude of troubles that undermine West Indies cricket on an almost daily basis, Joel Garner highlighted another last week.

I do not think the new, young, intelligent and opened-minded Minister of Education will mind me delivering little, well-meant lectures to her from time to time.

St John’s College’s ‘Beauty of Eldorado’

(Reuters) – Jeremy Lin coughed up nine turnovers in his first defeat as a New York Knicks starter with the lowly New Orleans Hornets claiming a surprise 89-85 victory at a sold-out Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Scenes from the Children’s Costume and Float Parade

Introduction Last week’s column briefly examined four of the nuts and bolts considerations which inform tax reform, namely, tax expenditures; tax level and structure; tax buoyancy and elasticity; and tax volatility.

When in the 1980s it became apparent that Europe’s preferential regimes for bananas and sugar were coming to an end, an impassioned debate began about a transition to other forms of economic activity. 

By Iva Wharton As the controversy between the Georgetown Football Association (GFA) and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) rages on, evidence is being unearthed by the GFA in its bid to prove its suspension was unjustified, that the suspension was a direct result of the GFA’s criticism of now banned GFF president Colin Klass.

(Reuters) – Kevin Pietersen hit his first ODI century for more than three years to steer England to a nine-wicket win over Pakistan yesterday to help them secure an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series.

Introduction In last week’s Business Page I indicated that I would be addressing the 2010 Auditor General’s report this week.

Dear Editor, When a sugar factory runs out of cane the factory operations don’t just stop, notwithstanding the fact that no more cane is being ground, and therefore no more bagasse is being produced.

Dear Editor, I was very disappointed to read Dr Roger Luncheon as saying that embattled Commissioner of Police Mr Henry Greene has “reached the retirement age of 55, but he agreed to stay on under an agreement [with the government] that he will not serve beyond 60.”

Scenes from the Children’s Costume and Float Parade

Bogota, Colombia— The US State Department wasn’t terribly smart when it rejected a demand by Latin American populist leaders that Cuba be invited to an April 14 summit of President Barack Obama with 33 hemispheric leaders in Colombia.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Thirteen wickets tumbled on a dramatic third day but Barbados were left scenting a win over arch-rivals Trinidad and Tobago in their Regional First Class Championship contest here yesterday.

Guyana’s children took to the streets yesterday in a sea of bright colours with music blasting out pulsating soca rhythms for the Ministry of Education Children’s Costume Parade 2012.

(Reuters) – Stars, family and friends mourned Whitney Houston in a spirited Baptist funeral service at her hometown church yesterday, a week after the death of the singer whose spectacular voice made her one of the biggest pop stars of her era.

Dear Editor, I note in SN of February 15, 2012, an advertisement by the Teaching Service Commission that is an Addendum to the Teaching Service Commission Vacancy Notice 2012.

Headed for Glory

Revelling:

The remnants of a Molotov cocktail were late Friday night found on the premises of the Campbellville home of politician Philomena Sahoye-Shury; the second such occurrence in as many months.

Dear Editor, SN, February 2, 2012  Eroded Timehri road repaired SN, February 8, 2012 Linden roads crumble despite million-dollar repairs KN, February 8, 2012 Dilapidated 63 Beach Entrance Road and embarrassment KN, February 10, 2012 Lengthy delay of work on breached Pomeroon dam creates havoc for residents KN, February 10, 2012    Good Hope road returns to disrepair two months after rehabilitation KN, February 15, 2012    This Lil’ Red Village road in Region Two is evidence of more shoddy work The above headlines seem to speak more to the ‘contraction’ than the ‘construction’ of our country’s roads.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Arsenal’s miserable week got worse yesterday when they were knocked out of the FA Cup in a 2-0 fifth round defeat at Sunderland while beleaguered Chelsea fared only slightly better by scraping a 1-1 draw against second tier Birmingham City.

(Trinidad Guardian) Petrotrin workers celebrated victory through the streets of San Fernando on Friday upon hearing that the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union had smashed the Government’s five per cent wage freeze, bringing looming strike action to a halt.

(Reuters) – Syrian security forces fired on a huge protest against President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus yesterday, soon after a Chinese envoy had appealed for a halt to 11 months of violence, opposition activists said.

This is the eighth in our series on new parliamentarians Essequibian Cornell Damon has been a member of the PPP/C for over two decades and he says he would use his new appointment as a member of the National Assembly to continue the work of the party and represent the people of Region Two.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Financial Investigations Division (FID) scored a major victory on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled that US$1.3 million which was found in a freezer at the house of a Jamaican woman in St Catherine must be forfeited under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Two suspects in the Tuschen mandir break-in were caught yesterday and have confessed to the crime after they were caught with some of the stolen goods.

Dear Editor, President Ramotar’s accusation that the opposition political parties were involved in rigging the November 2011 elections was a precursor for what occurred in parliament on Thursday, February 16, and has to be seen as a calculated tactic by the government to hold the society hostage.

Police yesterday recovered an unlicensed gun and a quantity of ammunition at Aranka, Cuyuni River and four

 (Reuters) – Greece’s cabinet yesterday approved a final set of austerity measures sought by the EU and IMF as a condition for a 130-billion euro ($171 billion) rescue package, raising the chances of a deal next week to avert a chaotic default on its debt.

There is a call for more to be done to help families first of all accept that a loved one is HIV positive and secondly and most important, to give the infected person the support they need.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Luckless Leeward Islands plunged to another embarrassing defeat yesterday, going down to rampant defending champions Jamaica by an innings and 201 runs at Sabina Park.

Dear Editor, The Ministry of Labour has been kind enough to offer guidance on the status of the contract of employment during periods of industrial action.

(Jamaica Observer) Jamaica will find it difficult to attract direct investments from Japan if the island fails to curtail its crime problem, says Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Yamaguchi.

(Reuters) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be questioned next week by police investigating an alleged prostitution ring in Lille, northern France, a police source said.

What is literature?  Definitions have gone far and wide and have included common misconceptions, and for quite a while, there has been a new understanding of what is considered literature where the academic study of it is concerned.

COLOMBO,  (Reuters) – A Sri Lankan bank has agreed to release 600 million Sri Lanka rupees ($5.07 million) to the country’s cash-strapped cricket board to pay its salary-starved players, according to the sports ministry.

The police on Thursday said they were investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of Skeldon watchman Kumar Plummer, whose body was found at Arimu Backdam, Cuyuni.

Dear Editor, As a young man many, many, years ago, my friends and I swam in most of the waterways around Mackenzie, Wismar and Christianburg, namely, Bucktown, Katabuli Creek, Lovers Lane, Blue Lake, Cara Cara Creek, Hymara Creek and many others.

 (Reuters) – Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger urged his players to fight on and salvage something from the season after their hopes of ending a seven-year trophy drought were effectively wrecked by FA Cup elimination yesterday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The US State Department said yesterday it deplored Cuba’s failure to free Alan Gross – a US citizen serving a 15-year prison term in a case that has stalled progress in US-Cuba relations – as part of an announced humanitarian release of some 2,900 prisoners.

Sophia Special School’s presentation at National Park

A 28-year-old man died after the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) he was driving topped several times at Baramita,

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum challenged President Barack Obama’s Christian beliefs yesterday, saying White House policies were motivated by a “different theology.”

Ruptured ligaments/tendons  By its more specific definition, a ligament is a short band of tough flexible fibrous tissue binding bones together.

Last week Guyana entered the realm of the truly absurd. The last vestiges of hope that anyone might have entertained that we could inch towards a more rational ordering of our affairs, now appear to have been dashed.

(Barbados Nation) First, there were the giant pawpaws. Then came the 26-pound yams followed by the 24-pound sweet potatoes.

(Trinidad Express) Machel Montano successfully defended his International Power Soca Monarch title and also dethroned Kees Dieffenthaller to claim the Groovy Soca Monarch title at the finals of the competitions which took place at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain, on Friday night and into Saturday morning.