Daily Archive: Sunday, March 17, 2013

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh this afternoon named Monday,  March 25  as Budget Day for 2013, according to the Government Information Agency.

The Ministry of Health early this morning medevaced, via Roraima Airways, Alliance For Change (AFC) Chairman, Nigel Hughes from Aishalton, Region 9 after he suffered cardiac arrest.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela’s acting president urged U.S. President Barack Obama to stop what he called a plot by the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency to kill his opposition rival and trigger a coup ahead of an April 14 election.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – David Bowie returned to the top of the British album charts on Sunday for the first time in 20 years with a collection of new recordings acclaimed by one critic as the “greatest comeback in rock’n’roll history”.

NICOSIA,  (Reuters) – Cyprus was working on a last-minute proposal to soften the impact on smaller savers of a bank deposit levy after a parliamentary vote on the measure central to a bailout was postponed until Monday, a source said.

At about 0900h today, police said that the body of overseas-based Guyanese doctor Max Kungel, 42 years, who was on holiday at No.

AFC Chairman Nigel Hughes, 49, will require heart bypass surgery and arrangements are being made to fly him to a hospital in the Caribbean.

(BBC) Australia trail by 16 runs after they dismissed India for 499 on the fourth day of the third Test in Mohali today.

Minister of Education Priya Manickchand was this afternoon rushed to the Caribbean Heart Institute after complaining of shortness of breath.

(Jamaica Observer) LUCEA, Hanover — Pandemonium reigned at a crowded plaza here yesterday afternoon when a young man allegedly went berserk and used a knife to fatally stab his estranged girlfriend — who was carrying their nine-month-old baby in her arms at the time — and a security guard.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A Corporate Area businessman, who operates a multimillion-dollar construction company, has been taken into custody by investigators from the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Task Force (MOCA), following a probe into allegations of money laundering, murders and other major crimes.

(Trinidad Express) THE construction of a number of local sporting and health facilities with a TT$1.8 billion loan from China will employ at least 50 per cent local labour and materials in most aspects, Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) A MASSIVE sport campaign and the “regeneration” of East Port of Spain are two of the suggestions coming out of a report on young men and crime, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has said.

(Trinidad Express) A photograph posted on social networking site WhatsApp, on a phone linked to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan’s office recently sparked rumours that he purchased a Rolls Royce luxury vehicle.

The government has avoided “meaningful” engagement with the opposition on the budget for a second year running, Shadow Finance Minister Carl Greenidge is declaring, while also accusing members of his own party—the PNCR—of aiding a campaign of ‘half-truths’ to blame him for stalling the tripartite talks.

Soesdyke sits at the entrance to the Linden Highway, and had its first Mashramani celebrations last Saturday.

A three-year-old girl is dead after being fatally run down by a motorcyclist at Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara on Friday afternoon.

The Guyana Media Proprietors Association is calling for a reversal of the allocation of radio licences, while the Guyana Press Association is disturbed that the distribution of the frequencies was weighed in favour of friends of the governing party.

Artist Desmond Alli feels that Guyanese have become “numb” and “immune” to injustices and therefore are mostly silent when these occur with only a few raising not very vigorous voices.

The Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) Ltd has extended its reach into the hinterland, opening a branch at Port Kaituma, Region One yesterday; the first in the area.

Alliance for Change (AFC) Chairman Nigel Hughes last evening suffered a heart attack, reports said, and up to press time arrangements were being made to medivac him to the city from the Aishalton Hospital in the Rupununi.

The Linden man who was repeatedly stabbed by the mother of his children is now responsive and, according to health officials, his prognosis looks good.

West Coast Demerara school Zeeburg Secondary emerged the winner of the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge Guyana final at the Umana Yana yesterday with its innovative shrimp dryer, which would serve to reduce air pollution at that school.

Phillip Carrington, President of Cougars Football Club has signalled his intention to challenge the result of yesterday’s Berbice Football Association (BFA) elections which saw Keith O’Jeer returning as president.

St. George’s Secondary School yesterday reached the semi-finals of the Milo U20 Schools football tournament when they defeated Charlestown Secondary 3-2 on penalty kicks.

A week after the main power plant went down residents of Lethem are still in the dark as to what exactly went wrong with the generator and when normal power supply will resume.

The Annual Flower Show will be held on Saturday March 23 and Sunday March 24 at the Umana Yana, Kingston from 10 am to 6 pm on each day.

Everest Hikers were crowned the Farfan and Mendes first division champions yesterday after they defeated Georgetown Cricket Club at the latter’s home ground 2-1.

The deadline for registration at the Guyana Musical Arts Festival is April 5; the festival will be held from April 29 to May 4.

Last week’s column entitled ‘Spaying and neutering makes sense’ provoked an outpouring of support for the premise, and many callers and e-mail letter writers added further comments on the issue, most of which I will include in this week’s TPC.

A Barbados company is pushing ahead with a mega farm in Region Nine, which will have rice as its centrepiece with 120 acres of the crop currently under cultivation and another 980 acres expected to be sown by the end of June.

Den Amstel and Uitvlugt on Friday evening recorded wins as the 18th annual Mayor’s Cup football tournament got underway at the Den Amstel ground.

Guyana’s National Dance Company (NDC) staged their first public performance of 2013 with a full dance production at the Theatre Guild Playhouse in February. 

The country’s top junior and senior athletes will battle for supremacy today at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) ground, Camp Ayanganna when the GDF athletics club in conjunction with the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG) stages a Developmental Meet from 10am.

Is there an outside possibility that President Obama might use his second term in office to ease relations with Cuba?

The Marudi Mountain gold mining claim in Region Nine, which is now at the centre of a heated row over illegal mining, was prospected on since 1990, but has not been brought into production despite promises from a number of companies.

Enoch Matthews produced an emphatic scoring performance to help Plaisance Guardians overcome Melanie Patriots 74-71 in their first division encounter during the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Super League on the Burnham Court on Friday night.

Senior lecturer at the University of Guyana, Dr. Michael Scott has said that for the Olympic Ideal to be accomplished there must be engagements of a diversity of stakeholders to repair the fractures in sport.

While the Access to Information legislation has been enacted, a commencement order is needed to bring it into force and this cannot be done until a Commissioner of Information is appointed, presidential advisor on governance Gail Teixeira says.

HONG KONG (Reuters) – In a break from months of sabre rattling, China under new President Xi Jinping appears to be moderating its approach to a potentially explosive territorial dispute with Japan and taking measures to prevent accidental conflict.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Defeated presidential contender Raila Odinga challenged his election loss in court yesterday, alleging widespread ballot rigging in a fresh test of Kenyan democracy five years after a disputed vote triggered deadly tribal violence.

A young miner was early yesterday morning found lying dead on a roadway in central Mahdia and it is believed that he was beaten to death and relieved of a large amount of cash that he had on his person.

HAD it not involved the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB), it could be simply dismissed as far-fetched fiction.

The slow dismantling of Cheddi Jagan’s legacy of reasoned debate as a method of convincing opponents and educating supporters began at the turn of the century.

Dear Editor, I have noted the spate of reports in the press apportioning blame for the stalled tripartite 2013 Budget talks.

Dear Editor, The 11,455 members of the Anything Guyanese Facebook group are profoundly happy with the motion piloted in Parliament, which finally addresses the issue of sanitation in Georgetown and the surrounding environment.

It happens without fail: every time I come or go from our major airport at Timehri, I’m caught up in a memory of the time in the mid-1950s when I worked there as a youngster.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis, giving his clearest indication yet that he wants a more austere Catholic Church, said yesterday that it should be poor and remember that its mission is to serve the poor.

COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath made use of a more bowler-friendly wicket to take 5-68 as Sri Lanka dismissed Bangladesh for 240 runs on the opening day of the second and final test yesterday.

The US Embassy‘s Humanitarian Assistance Project (HAP) last month donated computer equipment to the Kingston Development Centre and the Darul Uloom Academy in Corriverton, Region 6.

Introduction If, as I observed in last week’s column, removing the unrelenting glare of public scrutiny from government spending is a certain recipe for the entrenchment of waste and inefficiency, then one important corollary follows.

Opener Shikhar Dhawan hit the fastest debut hundred in Test history, off 85 balls, as India responded superbly to Australia’s 408 in Mohali.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Young Republicans still stung by Mitt Romney’s defeat in November are looking for a White House candidate with a message they can run with.

The two Bills passed by the opposition remain stalled at the Attorney-General’s chambers with AG Anil Nandlall yesterday saying that his position two weeks ago that they are with the Chief Parliamentary Counsel was unchanged.

Dear Editor, President Ramoutar is continuing to criticize the legislative actions being taken by opposition-party leaders; his latest blasts against the opposition-leaders came during his address to the audience that attended this year’s tribute to the late Dr.

BHOPAL, India (Reuters) – Four men raped a 39-year-old Swiss woman camping with her husband in an Indian forest, police said yesterday, turning the spotlight a new on the security of women in the world’s largest democracy.

Dear Editor, The right to be heard is a fundamental right guaranteed to every person in the state of Guyana.That

ST JOHN’S, Antigua,  CMC – Guyana will play under lights when they host Combined Campuses and Colleges and Jamaica in the Regional Super50 Championship next month, the West Indies Cricket Board has confirmed.

Fitness walk: President Donald Ramotar (second from left) participated in a morning fitness walk yesterday in remembrance of the late Dr.

The Ministry of Housing and Water has advised the public that the CH&PA is the only agency authorised to allocate and receive payments for house lots and urged the public to be wary of a fraudster by the name of `Satesh’ who has collected large sums.

Last weekend my wife and I went up the great Essequibo to stay at the beautiful river-home of my brother-in-law and his wife.

Be sober my muse, and with gravity tell What sad havoc and ruin all Kingston befel; How the sea swept away all the dam and its smouses, Made canals of the streets, Noah’s arks of the houses, How some bridges blew up, how some houses came down, And together went wandering over the town.

RIYADH (Reuters) – One of Saudi Arabia’s leading clerics has delivered a rare warning to the government that it could face “the spark of violence” if concerns over detainees, poor services and corruption are not addressed.

MACORP hosted its third customer seminar on ‘Preventative maintenance’ on March 13, 2013 at their Providence location.

WELLINGTON, (Reuters) – Peter Fulton and Kane Williamson guided New Zealand through to 77 for one in their second innings at the close of play on the third day of the second test at the Basin Reserve yesterday though England were firmly in control of the match.

St Ignatius Secondary School in Region Nine’s ‘Self-Sustainable Water Supply project,’ which was submitted for the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge, on display at the final at the Umana Yana yesterday.

Dear Editor, I am hoping that someone out there more learned than I will explain to me how lawful it is for the government of the day to sign huge billion-dollar contracts without prior budgetary provisions or parliamentary approval.

Introduction I take these words not from Dr. Roger Luncheon who used it around the time of the Agricola protests but from the American boxing announcer who trademarked it.