Daily Archive: Sunday, January 20, 2013

GROS ISLET, St Lucia,  CMC – Mighty Trinidad and Tobago reduced the Caribbean Twenty20 final to a no-contest as they crushed out-of-sorts Guyana in a authoritative performance to march to their third consecutive title here Sunday night.

MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Defending champion Novak Djokovic survived an early onslaught and a late fightback from Stanislas Wawrinka in a pulsating fourth-round clash to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open early on Monday.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – A DNA investigation of bloodstained clothes and body swabs has linked all five men and a juvenile accused of the gang rape and murder of a woman in New Delhi to the crime, providing evidence the prosecution claims will be enough to convict them.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow has insisted that his administration did not negotiate with known gang leaders following last week’s murder of four people whose bodies were found in an apartment building.

(WICB) Gros Islet, St Lucia – It is not often someone can top Chris Gayle’s awesome power in the Twenty20 format, but Chris Barnwell proved he had the formula as he played the lead role in the Christopher Show on Saturday night.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama took the official oath for his second term today at the White House in a small, private ceremony that set a more subdued tone compared to the historic start of his presidency four years ago.

Guyanese in St Lucia celebrating Guyana’s victory over Jamaica in the CT20 semi-final on Saturday night.

Christopher Barnwell receiving his man of the match award last night in St Lucia for his swashbuckling innings which took Guyana to victory over Jamaica in the Caribbean T20.

LEICESTER, England,  CMC – Leicestershire are unnerved by Ramnaresh Sarwan’s selection to West Indies for the upcoming tour of Australia, and plans to speak to the right-hander about his availability during the upcoming English county season.

This morning, police ranks responded to a report of an abduction in Queenstown, Essequibo and managed to rescue the victim and arrest the suspect.

The police say they are investigating the murder of miner David John, 22 years, of Port Kaituma, NWD, which occurred at about 0630h yesterday at Konawaruk, Region Eight.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s government is open to improving troubled ties with Washington and is considering a U.S.

LONDON, (Reuters) – London’s Heathrow Airport cancelled a fifth of flights and airlines scrapped 40 percent of flights to Paris’s main airports as snow continued to blanket parts of Europe, with more forecast.

(Trinidad Express) The multi-million dollar Milshirv deal fattened the pockets of two families from the People’s National Movement (PNM) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said.

(Trinidad Express) Government yesterday signed an agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for the largest loan ever granted to any country in the English-speaking Caribbean.

ALGIERS,  (Reuters) – Twenty-five bodies have been discovered by Algeria’s army in the gas facility attacked by militants in the desert, private Algerian television station Ennahar said today, adding that the operation to clear the base would last 48 hours.

A guard is dead after he was beaten and gagged by two men who then raided safes in the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) building and post office at Lethem on Friday evening.

Guyana’s Christopher Barnwell played the innings of his life as Guyana overhauled a challenging score of 183-6 to defeat Jamaica by six wickets in the West Indies Cricket Board’s Regional T20 semi-final at Gros Islet, St Lucia last night.

An elderly woman was yesterday found bound, gagged and dead in her Guava Bush, Albion, Corentyne home and police have arrested two persons in connection with the discovery.

Canal No 2 Polder on the West Bank of Demerara is one of those rapidly developing communities in the countryside where movable shops on buses and trucks take care of residents’ consumption needs.

The Agriculture Ministry and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) are in talks to use locally produced ethanol to woo investors and sharpen skills that would be put into developing the fledgling non-fossil fuel sector.

Bai Shan Lin, the Chinese logging company, has been granted a number of State Forest Exploratory Permits (SFEPs) in addition to joint venturing with two companies – Haimorakabra and Wood Association Industries Company Limited (WAICO), whose Timber Sales Agreement (TSA) concession combined, comprise some 78,972 hectares (ha) in the Berbice area.

Governments yesterday in Geneva, Switzerland agreed to a landmark legally-binding global treaty to prevent emissions and releases of mercury, a notorious heavy metal that has significant health and environmental effects.

The Privatisation Unit/National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) has from 2003 to 2011 transacted land sales on behalf of the Guyana Sugar Corporation to the tune of $1.128 billion including land in Leonora sold to Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali for $7.1 million in August 2011 and land to Prime Minister Sam Hinds and his wife the year before.

Merlene Ellis has lived art all her life and while this is not an easy profession to follow in Guyana she would tell you that for over 12 years it has been her only means of income.

As it continues to investigate a fraud involving the sale of gun licences, the Guyana Police Force is seeking the assistance of licensed firearm holders who bought their licences during August and December 2012, at the Brickdam Police Registry.

The Miss India Worldwide (Guyana) committee has announced that it will shortly hold a selection/audition/ screening to find the best possible candidate to represent Guyana at the international Miss India Worldwide Pageant 2013 to be held in Malaysia in April.

The sixth edition of “Guyana Where and What,” a tour guide pocket book, was officially launched on Friday at the Ministry of Tourism on South Road.

Three differing interpretations of the Chief Justice’s ruling in the case of the Attorney General v David Granger and Raphael Trotman have been given.

Seven doctors have begun to read for Masters degrees in Internal Medicine through a joint initiative by the Institute of Health Science Education (IHSE), Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), University of Guyana and the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland.

Introduction Today I return to the article on NICIL (National Industrial & Commercial Investment Ltd) which I started two weeks ago but which I interrupted to conclude my 20th anniversary piece on the banking system.

The two sisters who were chopped on Tuesday night at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice by a drunken man, are improving at the Georgetown Hospital where they are patients, and their attacker will be charged shortly with the crime.

On civic matters in Guyana, while there are often opportunities for discussion or exchange, we have a marked tendency to eschew that route and simply make pronouncements. 

Pandion Haliaetus, more commonly known as the Osprey or Fish Hawk, or locally known as ‘Tanuwaka,’ can be found in forested areas near bodies of water.

Demerara sealed first innings points at the Demerara Cricket Club ground on the fourth and final day of their Round Two clash against the President’s XI of the Guyana Cricket Board Senior Inter County competition.

Hubern Blair scored the tournament’s first hat trick to power Tucville secondary School past St.

I have been reading a book of great beauty given to me as a Christmas gift by my wife: A River Runs Through It, by Norman Fitzroy Maclean.

Multilateral Diplomacy for Small States is the title of a book by former Guyana Ambassador and Head of the Foreign Service, Dr Rudy Insanally, that was launched on Friday at the Pegasus Hotel.

The Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T) sponsored Berbice recovered from losing first innings points to beat Essequibo outright in Round Two of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Inter-County four day competition at Wales.

Almost all of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDC) and most of the municipalities have submitted their 2013 budgets Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Ganga Persaud told the media at a press conference on Friday.

Eggplant or aubergine, commonly called boulanger or baigan in this part of the world, originated in India and eastern Asia thousands of years ago, and is now widely grown in the tropics.

Incumbent Vernon Burnett was yesterday re-elected president of the Georgetown Football Association when that body held its election of office bearers at the Sleepin International Hotel.

Clyde Butts and his selection panel had a couple of contrasting dilemmas to resolve last week as they sorted out the West Indies squad for the five One-Day Internationals and one Twenty20 in Australia next month.

In a few days time, leaders of European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean will meet in Santiago de Chile. 

Dear Editor, I received the annual report 2012, for Banks DIH entitled ‘The New Frontier.’

  A group of Bagotville children performing “Hymn for Guyana’s Children” yesterday at the launching of the Bagotville Life Skills and Vocational Project, being implemented by the Rotary Club of Stabroek.

Dear Editor, Unusually for Guyana, Mr Charles Ramson SC uses the honorific ‘Justice’ to subscribe his letter ‘Solicited opinion that the government share of the Lotto funds does not have to be placed in the Consolidated Fund has now been given the blessing of a High Court judge’ (SN, January 15).

The information on public indebtedness in Caricom revealed in the table which I presented last week, indicates that several Caricom countries have higher public debt-to-GDP ratios, than several of the beleaguered economies in the Eurozone area (particularly Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, the so called PIIGS grouping).

It sounds like a joke, but it isn’t: At the end of this month, the 33-country Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) — a two-year-old organization that lists promoting democracy among its top goals — will swear-in Cuban dictator General Raúl Castro as its new chairman.

ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) – The Algerian army carried out a dramatic final assault to end a siege by Islamist militants at a desert gas plant yesterday in which 23 hostages were killed, many of them believed to be foreigners, the interior ministry said.

PAARL,  (Reuters) – A superb rear-guard knock of 47 not out from James Franklin helped New Zealand pull off an improbable one-wicket victory against South Africa in the first one-day international  yesterday.

Given his subtle campaigning, reflected in the numerous media interviews given in recent days, Colin Boyce seems overly desperate to retain the presidency of the  Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG).

A section of the audience at the Banks DIH Annual general Meeting yesterday at Thirst Park (Photo by Arian Browne)

Dear Editor, Elsa Ann Mansell died peacefully on the night of January 17, 2013 in Oxfordshire, England.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States and China have struck a tentative deal on a draft UN Security Council resolution condemning North Korea for its December rocket launch, UN diplomats said on Friday, and Russia predicted it would be approved by the council.

The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is awaiting a work schedule of how the remaining $15 million, which was left from the $20 million allocated to the council last year for rehabilitation work on City Hall, is to be spent by the City Engineer’s Department.

Canadian High Commissioner David Devine commended several Tobago Hill, North West District residents on their graduation from an Adult Literacy Programme, noting that it will act as a catalyst for more participation in development in Region One.

Continued Last week, we began with an ailment which impacts upon fertility/reproduction, and which is associated with an inflammation of the testicles (orchitis).

    You can buy anything on the Regent Street pavement: This young man was putting up rabbits for sale outside the Regent Multiplex Mall yesterday (Photo by Arian Browne)

NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – World marathon champion Edna Kiplagat, Olympic silver medallist Vivian Cheruiyot and former Olympic champions Asbel Kiprop and Nancy Jebet Lagat, were beaten in Kenya’s Defence Forces and Police cross country championships yesterday.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s vice president hit out at the country’s business leaders yesterday, saying they were seeking to destabilize the nation while cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez fights to recover from surgery.

Dear Editor, On December 3, 2012, animal lover Noreen Gaskin saw an animal suffering on the Public Road close to Vlissengen Road and asked me to assist by picking it up. 

Dear Editor, I refer to Mr Ralph Ramkarran’s column, ‘The PPP’s enduring fears‘ (SN, January 14).

(Reuters) – Kevin Durant scored a career-high 52 points as the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder prevailed 117-114 in an overtime thriller against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.

Anyone who has any feeling for the architectural heritage of Georgetown must be in despair every time they pass City Hall – if they can bear to look at it at all, that is.

(Reuters) – Pro-gun activists who say the right to own firearms is under attack from President Barack Obama’s proposals to reduce gun violence held “high noon” rallies across the United States yesterday in support of gun ownership rights.

The Ministry of Local Government signed a US$150,000 consultancy contract with Tiara’s Academy in New Amsterdam on Friday for the training of 30 youth leaders in six administrative regions of Guyana.

Guyana’s National Dance Company presented Suites for its Dance Season 2012 in late November. 

In our report, “Man torn between lovers, ends up on assault charge,” published in the Saturday, January 19, 2013 edition, it was erroneously stated that Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry “ordered a female officer, who was seated in the courtroom, to take the child outside until after the matter had been heard whereupon he was handed back to his father.”

  Beware of the cows! Cows taking over Hunter Street, Albouystown, Georgetown yesterday (Photo by Arian Browne)