Daily Archive: Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Following days of delays which left hundreds of passengers stranded in both Guyana and New York, Dynamic Airways has been slapped with a lawsuit, filed by miffed passengers.

(Trinidad Express) Robbie Ramcharitar, the man in a wheelchair who was seen in a viral video being slapped and his wheelchair shoved down a busy High Street by two police officers in San Fernando, said yesterday he was hurt and embarrassed by the public beating which has been seen by thousands of people.

Agriculture Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy on Monday said that rice exports were a smidgeon away from the historic figure of 500,000 tonnes and he asserted that sales are so diversified that Guyana would be able to withstand any upheaval in the key Venezuelan market.

An audio recording has surfaced in which President Donald Ramotar is heard calling an Aishalton teacher `stupid’ during a public meeting in the Region Nine community just over three weeks ago and the Office of the President (OP) last evening said that its contents will have to authenticated.

Anna Benjamin is retiring as Editor of the Sunday Stabroek effective from February 1, 2015.

The body of Dhaniram Ramgopaul, the 14-year-old Apex Secondary School student who went missing on Saturday, was yesterday pulled out of the creek where his family had been picnicking when he disappeared.

The search and rescue operation for the missing Air Services Limited (ASL) plane continued yesterday without success over an expanded area.

A Kitty resident who is currently on remand over a charge of trafficking cocaine in ochroes was on Monday once again before the courts; this time charged with trafficking the illegal substance in wiri-wiri peppers.

A mysterious fire early Monday morning des-troyed the interior and roof of an unoccupied two-storey concrete house at Bloomfield, Corentyne, Berbice.

Two men were yesterday remanded to prison on a charge of breaking into a Guyana Power and Light (GPL) outlet and stealing $1 million worth in office equipment.

Sunil Pollard, who is accused of brutally stabbing a man with a broken bottle, after he was asked to desist from leaning on the man’s cycle, was yesterday remanded to prison after he appeared in court on an attempted murder charge.

Entertainment promoter Colin Mack found himself before the court again yesterday, this time facing a charge of abusing his reputed wife.

The main sugar union GAWU yesterday said it was “flabbergasted” at the finding by the Akeel tribunal upholding the dismissal of a Skeldon estate worker and it vowed to pursue the matter in various fora.

Major upgrades and the construction of new roads are scheduled for areas on the East Bank of Demerara from Eccles to Diamond as tenders for the projects were opened yesterday.

A biker and his reputed wife are now hospitalized with broken bones after an alleged speeding bus slammed into their motorcycle on Croal Street yesterday morning.

Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh, on Monday pledged the Government of Guyana’s continued support of the Salvation Army’s Drug Rehabilitation project, at the Salvation Army’s annual dinner held at its Men’s Social Centre in Water Street, Georgetown, GINA said.

A carpenter appeared in the Albion Magistrate’s Court yesterday to answer to the charge of setting fire to a building and was refused bail.

Residents of block CC Mon Repos have been taught heap composting as a method of recycling organic waste under the Clean Green Guyana campaign.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is calling on the PPP/C administration to take immediate and decisive action to ensure stricter enforcement of the traffic laws and safer roads, in the wake of an alarming rise in road fatalities over the holiday season.

The Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in collaboration with the China Photographers Association yesterday launched the “Chinese Dream” photographic exhibition at the Guyana National Museum.

Banks DIH through its Coca-Cola brand brought Christmas cheer to 26 persons during its ‘Make Someone Happy’ promotion which was held over 10 days leading up to Christmas Day.

Newly crowned champs Slingerz FC along with the corresponding second, third and fourth placed finishers received their prizes for the recently concluded Vitamalt/Aqua Mist-sponsored West Demerara Football Association (WDFA) Knockout Cup yesterday.

Magistrate Zamilla Ally yesterday ordered that a defendant in an assault case undergo psychiatric evaluation after the prosecutor told the court that he was informed that the man was mentally retarded.

Newly elected president of the Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) Anil Beharry has identified urgent dialogue with the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), the return of three-day first division cricket and the construction of a new board office as some of the important matters to be addressed heading into 2015.

Guyana Amateur Basket-ball Federation (GABF) president Nigel Hinds said the year of 2014 was a very active one for the sport and that it provided a model for the entity to continue its developmental pursuits going forward.

Food for the Poor Guyana incorporated (FFTP) shared food hampers to bring the joy of Christmas to the underprivileged residents in Timehri, Land of Canaan, Tiger Bay and D’urban Backlands on December 22.

The Transport and Harbours Department (T&HD) has announced that its three ferry vessels the Malali, Kanawan and Sabanto will be restarting their normal schedules as the dredging exercise on the Essequibo River has concluded.

Guyana Volleyball Federation president (GVF), John Flores, yesterday lauded the strides made by the federation during 2014 and said that he expects more success for the sport in 2015 with the calendar set for a series of overseas matches and tournaments which will aid in the development of the national players and the team.

Hosts Parika Salem defeated Supreme Petroleum Sports Club by five runs in the final of the Supreme Petroleum/Big Yard Auto Sale T20 tournament recently.

Guyana Goldfields Inc made donations to several social and community organisations for their many development programmes, at its gathering held on Monday for its 2014 Children’s Needs Develop-ment Initiative and Corporate Social Responsibility programme.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, CMC – Adverse weather which plagued the second Test between South Africa and West Indies returned to force the abandonment of the final day at St George’s Park here yesterday, as the contest finished in a tame draw.

Dear Editor,   I refer to the disclosure by GuySuCo that they have surpassed the 2014 target.

(The Sports Xchange) — – -The Chicago Bulls squandered a 21-point third-quarter lead but rallied for a 92-90 victory over the Indiana Pacers when guard Jimmy Butler made a three-pointer with 1:07 remaining Monday night.

SURABAYA, Indonesia/JAKARTA, (Reuters) – Ships and planes resumed the search for wreckage, bodies and black boxes of a doomed AirAsia plane yesterday after Indonesian rescuers found several bodies and debris floating in shallow waters off the coast of Borneo.

Dear Editor, On Sunday last, I felt so proud to be a Berbician when I attended the Annual General Meeting of the Berbice Cricket Board and observed first-hand how the cricket community of Berbice stood up to make sure that the progress that Berbice cricket has enjoyed over the last decade would continue under tested and proven leadership.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, CMC – Rookie opener Kraigg Brathwaite has praised the influence of seasoned campaigner Marlon Samuels, following his third Test century and first outside of the Caribbean here Monday.

Port of Spain, Trinidad – Trinidad and Tobago’s full training squad for the quickly approaching Nagico Regional Super 50 Tournament will continue preparation at the National Cricket Centre, Balmain, Couva, tomorrow.

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Tuesday bowed to months of growing pressure over a 40-year-old ban on exports of most domestic crude, taking two steps expected to unleash a wave of ultra-light shale oil onto global markets.

Dear Editor, The Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) and the Ministry of Agriculture must tell the rice farmers why the Rice Factories Amendment Act which was passed in the National Assembly to protect them from being exploited by some unscrupulous millers making late payment without interest.

COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s central bank yesterday raised fixed deposit rates for some savers aged over 60 to 12 percent, as promised in the 2015 budget and ahead of a Jan.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, CMC – While batting on Monday’s fourth day of the second Test, it was not lost on Marlon Samuels that he had narrowly missed out on three figures in his last innings at St George’s Park seven years ago.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – President Nicolas Maduro vowed yesterday to reform Venezuela’s Byzantine currency controls in early 2015 as part of a six-month plan to shake Venezuela out of recession, but foes accused him of incompetence and inaction.

(Reuters) – A woman was accidentally shot and killed at a Walmart store in northern Idaho on Tuesday when her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded handgun from her purse that then went off, a county sheriff said.

Dear Editor, It does not project well on a company of standing such as Banks DIH Limited when the New Amsterdam ‘Qik Serv’ is being ‘run down’ so to speak.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – The president of Haiti and heads of the country’s two houses of parliament reached a tentative agreement on Monday to avert a political crisis that has sparked nationwide protests.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has retired from test cricket “citing the strain of playing all formats,” and Virat Kohli will lead the team in the fourth test against Australia in Sydney, the country’s cricket board said yesterday.

Western intellectual tradition is said to consist of the sometimes uneasy coexistence of two essential elements: one from Jerusalem and the other from the philosophical tradition of Athens.

(Trinidad Express) A video has emerged on Facebook showing a policeman slapping a man in a wheelchair, and a policewoman pushing his wheelchair downhill along a busy street.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his test retirement with immediate effect yesterday.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A health worker who has become the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in Britain was being treated at a London hospital yesterday after contracting the disease in West Africa.

Dear Editor, The controversy over the payment of two nurses employed by the city council more than five months ago, has activated our communication system within the public relations section to bring the public up to date on this issue.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin frustrated Australia’s push for victory on day five of the third test in Melbourne yesterday, but the draw was enough for the hosts to complete an emphatic 2-0 series win with a game in hand.

01

Dear Editor, This promises to be the most pivotal year in the short troubled history of Guyana.

BANJUL, (Reuters) – Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh said he was returning home from Chad late yesterday, after gunfire erupted around the presidential palace in the Gambian capital of Banjul last night.

Knowing that there is still a tendency among some in the region to doubt the utility of close Caricom-Cuba relations, Caricom heads of government will have felt gratified that so soon after the 5th Caricom-Cuba Summit held in Havana, the leader of what used, in the days of the Cold War, to be called the Free World, made bold to announce that the United States and the Government of Cuba had decided there is now, after so many years of estrangement, to be a deliberate progression of increasing US-Cuba interaction.