Daily Archive: Friday, January 15, 2016

A Caribbean Airlines 737 aircraft branded with Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary logo made its debut at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri today, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency said.

The Guyana Bar Association (GBA) has presented its report to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo on the proposed code of conduct for Government officials and Members of Parliament (MPs).

Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, today, inducted the new members of the Guyana Gold Board (GGB), urging them to address gold smuggling and to ensure high declarations of the metal, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency said.

BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Guyana Jaguars produced a clinical all-round effort to easily trounce Leeward Islands Hurricanes by seven wickets and book their spot in the final four of the Regional Super50 here today.

President David Granger on Wednesday received a copy of a book that chronicles the history of cricket in Guyana from members of the Board of Directors of the Hand-in-Hand Group of Companies, during a meeting at the Ministry of the Presidency.

Miss Guyana World, Lisa Punch (centre) and members of her group championing the Prevention of Teenage Suicide (POTS) paid a courtesy call on Social Protection Minister, Volda Lawrence (second from left).

The Guyana Water Inc signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) today which will see the two entities using technology to improve the utility’s operational processes and resolve challenges it faces.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman in a meeting this morning with small miners at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre instructed the release of more lands to them.

The Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) today said that the December 30 intelligence operation that resulted in three deaths raises many good governance concerns and it called for a statement from the Ministry of the Presidency on all the “legitimate” questions posed.

(Reuters) – India’s Rohit Sharma burnished his reputation in limited-overs cricket with a second successive century but could not stop Australia from winning the second one-dayer by seven wickets today to consolidate their lead in the series.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says T&T has to cut costs to be able to live on the limited resources in the country.

LONDON, (Reuters) – British actor Alan Rickman, whose roles ranged from Hollywood villains to Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films, has died after a battle with cancer aged 69.

President David Granger yesterday called for collaboration between the Executive and Legislative branches of government to achieve “economic independence” saying the transformation of the economy cannot be denied or delayed.

Aaron Hing and Staymon George, the two prime suspects in the murder of British teen Dominic Bernard, were yesterday each arraigned in a city court for his murder.

On January 12, 2016 the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) confirmed that a sample sent for testing from the Ministry of Public Health in Guyana tested positive for the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Canadian firm Guyana Goldfields Inc (GGI) found higher levels of gold than had been projected during operations at its Aurora mine last year and has set aside US$3 million for further exploration this year.

Despite the concerns of the opposition at a lack of consultations on what was described as a “cut and paste” Coroners (amendment) Bill which fueled a more than two-hour-long debate, government last evening passed the piece of legislation.

The National Assembly yesterday passed an amendment that will make it mandatory for institutions, like banks and major stores offering credit lines, to submit their customers’ credit information for a licensed credit bureau to evaluate whether they might constitute risky business.

Security guard Ron Peters, who was shot at by the bandits fleeing after their robbery of land court judge Nicola Pierre and her husband, said he opened fire on the men after they attempted to hijack a passing car.

A wireless link has been set up between the Demerara Harbour Bridge and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Guyana Police Force and it is expected to aid the fight against crime and the monitoring of traffic.

  The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has served notice that it intends to dispose of a 40-ft container of goods consigned since 2011 to businessman Bobby Ramroop.

The University of Guyana Academic Board, at a Special Meeting late last yea r, unanimously approved that the number of sittings as a requirement for admission be removed from the institution’s general entry requirement.

Cabinet has approved the sum of $700m for the purchase of essential drugs, GINA reported last night and Health Minister Dr George Norton told Stabroek News that supplies to tackle the H1N1 virus will be single-sourced from New GPC.

Police Constable Zameer Zakier was yesterday unable to produce to the court three pieces of a bullet and its fragments, which he said pathologist Dr.

Anthony Simpson, 18, was yesterday remanded to prison after being charged with the gun-point hold up of a man, who was robbed of over half a million in jewellery and a mobile phone and shot during the attack.

A miner was on Wednesday remanded to prison on a drug trafficking charge after he was allegedly found with marijuana at the Camp Street prison.

A family of three lost its home on Wednesday afternoon when a fire, suspected to be of electrical origin, gutted a house at Kaneville, East Bank Demerara.

MUNICH, (Reuters) – The former head of world athletics, Lamine Diack, ran a clique that covered up organised doping and blackmailed athletes while senior officials looked the other way, independent investigator Dick Pound said yesterday.

A teenager was yesterday charged with breaking and entering a house and stealing over $200,000 in cash and valuables.

A Cummings Lodge man was yesterday brought before a court on a charge that he assaulted his common-law wife because she refused to use his photo as her WhatsApp profile picture.

The Ministry of Social Protection is backing an initiative by Queen’s College students to counter human trafficking (TIP) in Guyana, a release from the Ministry said yesterday.

Significant reduction in government spending during the first half of last year arising out of the prorogation of Parliament and the consequential failure of the PPP/C administration to present a budget for 2015 was, arguably, the primary factor accounting for the country’s likely lacklustre economic performance, George-town Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President Lance Hinds has told Stabroek Business.

Despite securing the League Genesis title of the inaugural GFF Stag Beer Elite League, Vergenoegen giant Slingerz FC is facing a mass exodus as several Golden Jaguar Internationals have submitted their transfer documentation to Alpha United.

Dear Editor, As LGE 2016 looms there is every indication that there is an unequal playing field among the contenders.

2015 bauxite production figures reflecting performances that either exceed or come close to matching targeted expectations have once again failed to disguise the fact that Guyana’s industry is swimming against a tide of weak global demand and high recovery costs, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman says.

MELBOURNE, Australia, CMC – West Indies leg-spinner Samuel Badree snatched a five-wicket haul as Brisbane Heat stormed to a 56-run win over Melbourne Stars and their second on the trot in the Australian Big Bash here yesterday.

Dear Editor, I have read with much interest, Ms Syeada Manbodh’s letter in your column on January 11, captioned ‘Government should do more to protect wildlife and domestic animals’.

Today’s issue of the Stabroek Business details the contents of a letter it received from Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Major General (ret’d) Norman McLean that seeks to provide an update on the now twice postponed public/private sector National Economic Forum which was originally scheduled to take place last September.

Eagles seized a 1-0 advantage in their three-match u-23 divisional finale with Pacesetters, overcoming the latter 95-86 in overtime when the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) League Championships continued on Wednesday.

Dear Editor, I refer to the Stabroek News article of January 14, with the headline ‘NICIL’s Deputy head complains to cops of being shadowed by unknown persons.’

Dear Editor, I share a few passing thoughts on a handful of issues.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A wide-open scramble among heavyweights is underway, illustrated by a pair of world title fights in boxing’s glamor division in an historic night for the sport in Brooklyn tomorrow.

The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) has officially selected its final roster for the impending Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Futsal Championships slated for January 22nd-24th in Cuba.

By: Valrie Grant, Managing Director GeoTechVision   In the last article we looked at how government through the use of policies can help to drive the use of spatial information or tools in the process of economic development.

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – A Brazilian court suspended the operating licence for the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, one of the world’s largest, just weeks before owner Norte Energia SA planned to start electricity generation, prosecutors said yesterday.

What City Hall says are its efforts to regularize vehicle parking in Georgetown and to otherwise bring a greater sense of order to a hopelessly congested and disorganized capital may well be clashing with some of the operations of city traders, Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Lance Hinds told Stabroek Business earlier this week.

Dear Editor, Please refer to an article in Thursday, January 14 edition of Guyana Times entitled ‘National Youth Policy yet to be implemented’ in which Charles Ramson Jr stated in referring to the National Youth Policy that “you have Norton being paid $500,000 a month who is specifically designated to do this; you have a minister, but both of them are unable to come up with the national youth policy.”

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff yesterday signed a bill that gives amnesty to holders of undeclared offshore assets in exchange for a fine, part of efforts to cut a swelling budget gap and revive investment in the recession-hit economy.

NEW YORK, 4 (Reuters) – A former finance director at a New York foundation accused of participating in a scheme to bribe a former United Nations General Assembly president on Thursday became the first defendant to plead guilty in the case.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Caribbean’s leading amateur golfers will tee-up alongside the best in the Latin American region in the 2016 Latin America Amateur Golf Championship (LAAC) in the Dominican Republic.

Dear Editor, I refer to a statement by Tarron Khemraj in the Stabroek News of Wednesday, January 13, that I once referred to the Guyana diaspora as traitors (‘How to gain over US$1 billion per year from Guyanese Diaspora).

JAKARTA, (Reuters) – Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the heart of Indonesia’s capital yesterday and the assault was claimed by Islamic state, the first time the radical group has targeted the world’s most populous Muslim nation.

MIAMI, (Reuters) – A judge in Miami on Thursday ordered the transfer to Texas of a Venezuelan businessman accused by U.S.

Stabroek Business has learnt that a planned public/private sector National Economic Forum disclosed to this newspaper in June last year by Chairman of the Private Sector Commission (PSC) Major General (retd) Norman McLean in June last year and originally scheduled for last September remains “a work in progress” and will go ahead after all though a new date is yet to be decided upon for the forum.

Dear Editor, I appreciate sentiments expressed in Mr E B John’s letter, ‘Kanhai was a great Guyanese – not Indo-Guyanese ‒ cricketer’, (SN, January 7).

BIRMINGHAM, England, (Reuters) – Former Williams test driver Susie Wolff expects to see a woman racing with the men in Formula One eventually but her main focus now is to encourage and highlight female involvement in motorsport as a whole.

ZURICH, (Reuters) – FIFA’s ethics committee said yesterday that former World Cup bid inspector Harold Mayne-Nicholls repeatedly asked for personal favours from one of the countries that bid to host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

(Reprinted from African Business Magazine) A crop of innovative startup entrepreneurs is filling up Nairobi’s tech space.

CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, CMC – West Indies Under-19s delivered another weak batting effort to go down by 171 runs in their second one-day warm-up game against Bangladesh Under-19s here yesterday.

Dear Editor, In this hard guava season NCN CEO Molly Hassan and NCN Human Resource Manager Darren Khan were forced to resign from their prestigious jobs.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Grueling revenge movie “The Revenant” emerged as the Oscar front-runner yesterday in nominations that pit big-budget movies against small personal dramas and once again shut actors of color out of the industry’s biggest honors.

(The Sports Xchange) – The Oklahoma City Thunder watched a 29-point fourth-quarter lead over the undermanned Dallas Mavericks whittled down to 14 before finally pulling away for a 108-89 victory at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

(Reuters) – A rally in battered energy shares led U.S. stocks to rebound yesterday, while financials rose after upbeat results from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Former University of Guyana lecturer, St. Lucian-born Lyndell Danzie-Black who has been living and working in Guyana for the past nine years is seeking to extend her reach as a coach and trainer into the various sectors of the country’s economy, believing as she does that the intensification of skills training for stakeholders will activate what is known across the region to be the country’s significant potential.

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – An American operator of an Antigua-based online sport betting enterprise, who spent over 13 years as a fugitive from U.S.

Dear Editor, Violent crimes, brutal murders, a large number of suicides coupled with massive corruption are a bugbear to the country’s development, since the police and other law enforcement agencies are unable to deal with the volume of crime now taking over the country.

(The Sports Xchange) – The surging Los Angeles Clippers shrugged off the absence of forward Blake Griffin and center DeAndre Jordan by easing to a 104-90 victory over the Miami Heat at Staples Center on Wednesday.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – Steven Finn and Ben Stokes claimed two wickets apiece as England reduced South Africa to 267 for seven at the close of the first day of the third test at the Wanderers yesterday.

MONROVIA, (Reuters) – Liberia was declared free of the Ebola virus by global health experts yesterday, a milestone that signalled an end to an epidemic in West Africa that has killed more than 11,300 people.

Guyana is one of several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries listed to benefit from funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for building capacity in the area of health and safety in the regional tourism sector.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 650’s trading results showed consideration of $3,807,182 from 35,868 shares traded in 12 transactions as compared to session 649’s trading results, which showed consideration of $1,631,490 from 66,740 shares traded in 4 transactions.

GUATEMALA CITY, (Reuters) – Guatemala’s new president pledged “drastic” measures against corrupt officials as he was sworn into office yesterday, following an election campaign last fall dominated by anti-graft fervor.

ORLANDO, Fla., (Reuters) – Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter was arrested and jailed in Key West, Florida, on a charge of battery after he punched a bouncer at a bar, police said yesterday.

CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – Former South Africa international Gulam Bodi has been charged with attempting to fix matches in the country’s domestic Twenty20 competition, the country’s cricket authorities said yesterday.

Dear Editor, When I woke up this morning, there were a beautiful sunrise, which I enjoy looking at.

MADRID, (Reuters) – With a fifth world player of the year award safely tucked away in the trophy cabinet, Lionel Messi can set his sights on one of the next milestones in his remarkable career: reaching 500 goals for club and country.

Kitco is a Canadian company that buys and sells precious metals such as gold, copper and silver.

MONTREAL, (Reuters) – René Angélil, the husband of award-winning Canadian singer Celine Dion, died yesterday at the age of 73 after a long battle with cancer, Dion announced.

In a recent BBC World Service Report, technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones describes technology tycoon and maverick entrepreneur Elon Musk as “both bonkers and brilliant, the most visionary technology leader I have encountered in 20 years of interviewing many of the leading figures in the industry.”

What follows, from paragraph two hereunder, are my recycled thoughts first published here more than three years ago.

Dear Editor, The abnormally high suicide rate is unlikely to drop and will continue to climb bearing in mind that we are failing to address the root of this problem.

The commitment given by Giftland Mall Proprietor Roy Beepat to infuse a cosmopolitan food culture into the country’s biggest shopping and entertainment facility would appear to be taking shape in the form of the appearance of several food franchises inside the complex.