Daily Archive: Friday, April 22, 2016

MELBOURNE, Australia, CMC – Cricket Australia has no plans to banish West Indies batting superstar Chris Gayle form the Big Bash League over last season’s ‘don’t blush baby’ controversy.

Hundreds of residents of New Culvert City and other parts of Lethem have begun benefitting from potable water, as a new well has been commissioned by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), GINA said.

Staff of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) were today engaged in training to ensure that the thousands of visitors expected for the 50th Golden Jubilee celebrations have a grand experience.

GTT today presented a $2M cheque to the GuyExpo 2016 Committee at the National Exhibition Centre, Sophia.

Following a tax deal struck between the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and Demerara Distillers Limited, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) today called on the GRA to apply the same formula in dealing with other aggrieved companies.

A high-level team of government officials this morning met with the people of Region Six, East Berbice – Corentyne.

Guyana is set to benefit from £ 53.2 million (around $16b) in grant resources from the United Kingdom under its newly established United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Fund (UKCIF), a release from the Ministry of Finance said today.

The rice exporters and millers group has called for the scrapping of a controversial deal between the GRDB and two Jamaican companies, saying that  it will put the industry here in a worse financial state.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuba said today it would lift a ban on Cubans and Cuban-Americans entering and leaving the Caribbean island by commercial vessels, opening the way for cruise operator Carnival Corp to set sail for the country next week.

Local port operator Muneshwers Limited is developing a modern port facility at Houston, East Bank Demerara in a multi-billion dollar investment as the company aims to capitalise on Guyana’s developing oil and gas industry.

Former President Donald Ramotar yesterday denied a claim by government that US$5M owed by a Chinese company as an outstanding payment for shares in GTT had been paid over to his administration prior to the May 11, 2015 general elections.

Two companies have signalled their intention to   file proceedings in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) seeking a refund of the now repealed environmental tax that was paid here over a seven-year period.

After being handed the reins for the troubled D’urban Park Development Project, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure is aiming to complete works for the first phase over the next three weeks.

MUMBAI, India, CMC – Barbados Tridents millionaire owner, Vijay Mallya, continues to be dogged by financial controversy and was yesterday fighting a legal battle to stave off creditors who are seeking to recover more than US$1.4 billion from him, following the collapse of his Kingfisher Airlines.

Eight months after the APNU+AFC government created a ruckus over the discovery that a group close to the PPP/C had a 99-year lease on historic Red House at a peppercorn rate, the situation remains the same.

Alpha United recorded their sixth win in the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Beer Elite League, downing Berbice outfit Monedderlust 3-1 on Wednesday at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground in Bourda.

The Police yesterday said that the reputed husband of Simone Hackett has admitted murdering her on Saturday.

The Linden Television Station has started broadcast tests and is set to begin transmitting on Channel 13 in that region soon.

The Central Corentyne business community may have experienced a drop in commercial activity of between 30 and 40 per cent for this year so far, newly elected President of the Central Corentyne Chamber of Commerce Rafeek Mohammed has said.

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece,  (Reuters) – The official countdown to this year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics began with the lighting of the torch at the site of the ancient Games yesterday and organisers hoping to shift attention away from Brazil’s political and financial turmoil.

President David Granger’s directive earlier this week that the D’urban Park Development Project be placed under the control of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has won the support of the General Contractors Association of Guyana (GCAG) the body which had earlier spoken out publicly against “the shabby and perhaps even risky work” completed so far on the project.

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – At least two people were killed yesterday when part of a new cycle lane collapsed into the ocean in the Olympic city of Rio de Janeiro, the city’s fire department said.

The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) will spend over $100M on corrective works to core homes built by contractors under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration, according to Board Chairman Hamilton Green.

Stabroek Business has been reliably informed that government has now agreed to commence negotiations with the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) though, according to the source, no date has as yet been fixed for the negotiation.

(Reuters) – Ben Stokes thrives on his battles with some of the sport’s most competitive players as it tends to bring out the best in the feisty England all-rounder, who is hoping to recover quickly from his nightmare end to the World Twenty20 tournament.

Recent rainfall and inadequate drainage have left some vendors selling along the Merriman Mall, between Orange Walk and Cummings Streets, waterlogged.

By Shawn Cumberbatch shawncumberbatch@nationnews.com Reprinted from the Barbados Nation In the Barbadian household the landline was once a precious thing.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors will play Peru next month in an international friendly as they continue their preparation for the ongoing 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

-fire service took around eight minutes to arriveOfficer-in-Charge of the Georgetown Prison, Superintendent Kevin Pilgrim yesterday said that using the adjoining dorm to fight the deadly fire in the Capital A Division, where 17 inmates died last month, would have required sending his officers into a “fatal funnel.”

Ravi Doobay is one of several farmers who have come from various parts of the country to settle on farmlands at Laluni.

The waitress who was stabbed by her common-law husband on Wednesday evening is currently in stable condition.

Dear Editor, I am very suspicious about the timing and sudden claim that the US$5m owed for GTT shares was paid to entities/persons other than NICIL.

RAJKOT, India, CMC – West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo had no impact as his Gujarat Lions lost their first game of the Indian Premier League, with a heavy ten-wicket defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad here yesterday.

A carpenter was on Tuesday remanded to prison after being charged with having an unlicensed gun and ammunition.

LONDON, CMC – Former West Indies and Barbados speedster, Fidel Edwards, was facing a long spell on the sidelines after fracturing his ankle during warm-ups on the final day of Hampshire’s County Championship game against Yorkshire on Wednesday.

Dear Editor, The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) and the National Association of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Employees (NAACIE) are perplexed by the highly misleading statements and comments which have been made by the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc (GuySuCo) with regards to the closure of the LBI Sugar Factory in May, 2011 and the Corporation’s planned closure within this year of the existing LBI operations.

The sister of Daymeion Millington, one of the five men on trial for the robbery of Justice Nicola Pierre, yesterday testified that her brother was at home on the night of the attack but she never informed police because she did not like the “environment” at the police station.

Concerns over limitations to the capacity of the Government Food and Drug Analyst Department (GA-FDD) to effectively monitor the importation of suspected fake foods—particularly milk—into the country and more importantly to prevent the imports from being placed on the local market are raising questions as to whether this deficiency is not now putting at serious risk the health of local consumers including, worryingly, children whose diet includes a significant intake of manufactured infant formula.

Dear Editor, I wish to respond to Minister Gaskin’s letter on the trusted trader programme (see, “Primary focus of Trusted Trader programme is business facilitation”, SN, April 18, 2016).

Against the backdrop of a statement issued by the Office of Minister in the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment earlier this week alluding to damage to the bank of the Potaro River arising out of illegal mining activity, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has issued a statement reminding miners that the mining of river banks (buffer zones) is against the law and prohibiting such activity “without due consideration of and specific consideration from the commission.”

Open category champion Peter Michael deGroot as well as sibling Raphael deGroot and Ashley Khalil secured hard-fought wins when the Guyana Squash Association (GSA) sanctioned Lucozade Handicap Squash Tournament continued on Wednesday.

The police have been granted court approval to further detain the five persons who are currently in custody over the killings of Mohamed and Jamilla Munir.

(The Sports Xchange) – Chris Paul scored 25 points and the Los Angeles Clippers rolled to a 102-81 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers to take a 2-0 edge in their Western Conference quarter-final series on Wednesday.

Dear Editor, I am forced to reply to an editorial in the Guyana Chronicle (the state newspaper) of April 20 in which I was named.

Currently in its 125th year of existence, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) last year set a modest but noteworthy membership record which, it says, reflects a growing interest by the urban business community in the services it has to offer.

Dear Editor, I am speaking particularly to the incidences of crime; having both an objective and subjective understanding of how criminals think. 

Barbados hosting first regional business startups forum The Caribbean business community would appear to be attaching considerable importance to the April 29 – 30 First Caribbean Startup Summit at the Lloyd Erskine Centre in Barbados which is being held to support regional startup entrepreneurs and which, reports from Bridgetown say, will feature a range of regional and international speakers as well as representatives from a host of business organizations from across the Caribbean.

Rain washed out yesterday’s opening day in the final round of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB)/Hand-In-Hand, three-day, Inter-county tournament.

DHAKA,  (Reuters) – Bangladesh’s central bank was vulnerable to hackers because it did not have a firewall and used second-hand, $10 switches to network computers connected to the SWIFT global payment network, an investigator into one of the world’s biggest cyber heists said.

Dear Editor, Spread across the front page of Sunday Stabroek, April 17, 2016 is a photograph of a barricade outside of the Embassy of the United States of America.

Gold Prices for the three-day period ending Thursday  April 21, 2016

(The Sports Xchange) – LeBron James scored 27 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers tied an NBA playoff record with 20 3-pointers in a 107-90 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday in Game 2 of an NBA Western Conference playoff series.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela will begin cutting electricity supplies amid a prolonged drought that has limited power generation, the electricity minister said yesterday, an unpopular measure for a population already struggling to obtain food and medicine.

Anthony Seals, the driver for Speaker of the National Assembly Barton Scotland, recently had his left arm amputated following an accident at Chateau Margot, on the East Coast of Demerara.

BEIJING, (Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping has been appointed commander-in-chief of a new joint command headquarters for China’s military, state media said, part of an on-going reform programme to modernise the world’s largest armed forces.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 664’s trading results showed consideration of $6,081,243 from 30,219 shares traded in 11 transactions as compared to session 663’s trading results, which showed consideration of $9,175,468 from 441,569 shares traded in 5 transactions.

Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Chief Godfrey Munroe says  he is pleased with Guyana’s performance at the recently concluded 21st Caribbean Table Tennis Federation Junior and Cadet Championships in the Dominican Republic.

Dear Editor, I attended the launch of the historic Linden Heritage Trail Magazine held recently at the Egbert Benjamin Conference Centre. 

(Reuters) – SunEdison Inc, once the fastest-growing U.S. renewable energy company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday after a short-lived but aggressive binge of debt-fueled acquisitions proved unsustainable.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama made an impassioned appeal on Friday for Britain to remain in the European Union, saying membership had magnified Britain’s place in the world and made the bloc stronger and more outward looking.

(Reuters) – Prince, the innovative pop superstar whose songwriting and eccentric stage presence electrified fans around the world with hits including “Purple Rain” and “When Doves Cry,” died yesterday in Minnesota.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Oprah Winfrey is returning to scripted television more than two decades after her last regular small screen acting gig in a show that is close to her heart – a family drama centered around a black mega-church in Memphis.

Business Cartoons

NEW YORK, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Nations on the verge of eliminating malaria risk falling short of their goal, just as it lies within reach, due to funding being shifted elsewhere, researchers said yesterday.

Crime –  as trade and profession Just the briefest of my own grass-roots, man–in-the-street brand of “philosophising” about the implications of the behaviours now being exhibited by some “new” personalities in high places.

Politikles

(Reuters) – The Detroit Pistons are struggling to contain LeBron James in their NBA first round playoff series on the court and are hoping getting into his head with some trash talk and rough play might give them a sniff of overturning the 2-0 deficit.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – An international arbitration center has ordered Venezuela to pay British cattle company Vestey Group nearly $100 million for the nationalization of cattle ranches, pilling fresh pressure on the cash-strapped leftist government.

The death, aged 97, of Patricio Aylwin, the first Chilean president to be democratically elected after almost 17 years of dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet, may resonate with some Guyanese because of a few traits Mr Aylwin shared with the late Dr Cheddi Jagan.

Approaching 105: President David Granger yesterday morning visited the Cummings Street home of Olive Blackmore who will reach the milestone of 105 years next month, a release from the Ministry of the Presidency said.

Dear Editor, Vishnu Bisram’s letter captioned ‘Was I targeted at airport because of my activism’ (SN 21/4/2016)  does not surprise anyone, as he is an attention seeker.

“It would be a mistake for government to assume that respect for workers’ rights can be traded for foreign investment since that assumption is probably likely to leave us worse off as a society than if we have no foreign investment at all,” General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) Lincoln Lewis has told the Stabroek Business.

The announcement earlier this week that 13 dredges and a dragger had been caught mining illegally in the area of the protected Kaieteur National Park area underscores the challenges that the authorities in Guyana will continue to face in circumstances where the mining of gold continues to coexist with imperatives that have to do with our obligation to the environment.

A team from Parliament Office headed by  Dr Barton Scotland,  Speaker of the National Assembly and including Sherlock Ewart Isaacs, Clerk of the National Assembly is currently in London attending a Parliamentary Leadership  seminar aimed at strengthening the administrative, financial and procedural independence of the Parliament Office of Guyana.