Daily Archive: Saturday, August 17, 2019

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – New York City’s chief medical examiner determined on Friday that suicide by hanging was the cause of death for financier Jeffrey Epstein, whose body was found six days ago in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

(Trinidad Express) A pregnant woman was among four people shot by police in Santa Cruz on Friday night.

(Trinidad Guardian) An em­ploy­ee at the Port of Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal was ar­rest­ed and a quan­ti­ty of mar­i­jua­na seized by of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion Task Force, dur­ing an an­ti-crime ex­er­cise on Fri­day.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said the coun­try is go­ing through a pe­ri­od when the pub­lic will see “more and more of what hap­pened in the last week”, re­fer­ring to the re­cent ar­rest and charges be­ing laid against for­mer min­is­ter Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald.

Minister within the Minis-try of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Valerie Garrido-Lowe last evening told a handful of Corriverton residents that based on information from President David Granger, general elections will be held this year.

Giving the  APNU+AFC a “mixed review” and apologising for its shortcomings while in office, APNU member the Working People’s Alliance(WPA) yesterday announced that it would remain in the governing coalition for the next elections and pledged to be active in ensuring that promises are kept.

Both Guyana and Britain have dismissed as untrue a claim by Russia that a British military base is being constructed within the Essequibo River to train Venezuelan refugees to destabilise the Nicolas Maduro-led government.

A city magistrate yesterday struck out charges brought by police against four owners of Superbet betting shops, who were to be charged with operating without licences. 

Infrastructural upgrades under the Sophia segment of the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) funded Adequate Housing and Urban Accessibility Programme are 25 per cent completed and the majority of the works are expected to be finished before the project end date of March 2020.

The sod was turned yesterday for the construction of a $1.2 billion permanent headquarters for the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and China has been hinted as a possible source of funding for the project.

Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix has again condemned claims of illegalities regarding Haitian travellers to Guyana, saying that of the 8,476 Haitians who arrived here between January and July 2019, 6,925 of them reported to Brazilian immigration officials after crossing the border, which separates the two countries.

Georgetown’s Mayor and City Council yesterday announced that residents of Sophia, Liliendaal, Pattensen and Turkeyen are exempted from paying interest on rates accrued up to December of this year.

Organizers of the highly anticipated Guyana Cup billed for tomorrow at the Rising Sun Turf Club are expecting a record-breaking event.

Guyanese Professor Stafford A. Griffith has been named as Interim Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the Five Islands Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), located in Antigua and Barbuda.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – West Indies captain Jason Holder is determined to get a positive result from the upcoming two-Test series against India, especially in the wake of the Caribbean side’s winless run on tour.

Director of Maritime Safety John Flores yesterday voiced the need for regulatory and enforcement agencies to have more resources in order to properly monitor vessels plying their trade in Guyana’s waters.

Santa Rosa Mission, in the Moruca sub-region of the North West District, in Region One, is now without electricity due to a burst power line, while residents and businesses in the region’s Mabaruma township have had to contend with a reduction in their power supply due to mechanical problems affecting one of the generators servicing the area Regional Chairman Brentnol Ashley yesterday told Stabroek News that a power line burst while some residents were cutting a tree at Santa Rosa.

A junior national table tennis contingent is set to depart Guyana Monday for the Dominican Republic to contest the 2019 Caribbean Mini and Pre-cadet championships from August 19-27. 

Guyana’s Tyrese Jeffrey and Priyanna ramdhani are through to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles and singles events at the Caribbean Regional Badminton (CAREBACO) junior championships in Barbados.

  A bus driver was yesterday sentenced to six weeks in jail after he admitted to assaulting a conductor.

National Para Table Tennis champion Gibran Sarfaraz along with coach Linden Johnson departed Guyana yesterday to participate in the 2019 Para Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. 

A Cuban chef, who was arrested at the Mabura checkpoint after the police discovered that he overstayed in the country, was yesterday fined for the offence and ordered deported.

Guyana will once again make another stride in the world of cycling this time off the track with the inaugural International Cycling Union (UCI) Commissaire programme on the country’s soil.

Bail was yesterday granted to the three men who the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) says it intercepted during a drug deal at Parika after trading almost five pounds of cocaine.

The challenge filed by the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI) to government’s temporary takeover of the bridge and its efforts to prevent a planned hike in tolls is set for hearing on October 8th before acting Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire.

Aspiring professional lawn tennis player Vadeanand Resaul is using his summer vacation to develop his fledgling career by participating in two overseas tennis tournaments. 

Due to the persistent rainfall in the mining town of Linden, the Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) has cancelled the intended league format for the NAMILCO U17 championships and replaced it with a knockout tournament.

Twenty-eight persons on Thursday received certificates for completing a capacity building programme on web accessibility that is intended to ensure vital information and services are accessible to all citizens and particularly persons with disabilities.

Tournament favorite Hard-Knocks will oppose NK Ballers today in the final of the New Era Entertainment/Mohamed’s Enterprise Futsal Tournament, following semifinal wins on Thursday at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) Tarmac, Linden.

Dear Editor, Citizens have begun to experience the impact of the Smart City System component of the Chinese funded National Broadband project; drive down any of the side-streets in villages on the East Coast Demerara (Liliendaal to Success) and chances are you will encounter vigilant policemen and women seeking to engage you away from the eyes of cameras monitored in the National Database Centre.

Shaniya Persaud, the seven-year-old who was burnt in a fire that gutted her Mon Repos North, East Coast Demerara (ECD) home almost two weeks ago, underwent a skin grafting procedure yesterday in the United States.

Dear Editor, Paddy bugs have led to the loss of almost 20 per cent of the rice crop in Region Six so far this year.

LAGOS (Reuters) – A judge in London said yesterday he would grant a firm called Process and Industrial Developments Ltd (P&ID) the right to seek to seize some $9 billion (7.4 billion pounds) in assets from the Nigerian government over an aborted gas project.

Investigators are yet to determine the cause of last Saturday’s fire, which destroyed the home and three vehicles belonging to acting Commander of ‘G’ Division (Essequibo Coast and Islands) Superintendent Crystal Robinson Stewartville, West Coast Demerara (WCD).

GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – Caribbean Premier League organisers have resurrected the St Lucia Zouks franchise for this year’s campaign starting next month.

OSLO (Reuters) – Norway has suspended donations supporting projects to curb deforestation in Brazil after the country’s right-wing government blocked operations of a fund receiving the aid, the Norwegian ministry of climate and environment said on Thursday.

Police Constable #2045 Winston Cooper, the Presidential Guard who succumbed at a city hospital on Wednesday, more than a month after he was found lying on Mandela Avenue with serious wounds to his head, died as a result of complications from his injuries.

Dear Editor, It has become standard practice for persons to be recruited into the Guyana Public Service by means of contract.

(Reuters) – Top seed Ash Barty rallied from a set down to make the Cincinnati Masters semi-finals but world number one Naomi Osaka withdrew from her quarter-final with an apparent knee injury yesterday.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure has commissioned the lift for the pedestrian walkway at Peter’s Hall, on the East Bank of Demerara.

Dear Editor, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has finally admitted that the ‘interim’ status of the administration is impacting adversely on the investment climate in the country.

BILBAO, (Reuters) – La Liga champions Barcelona fell to their first opening day defeat of the season in 11 years when they were beaten 1-0 at Athletic Bilbao yesterday thanks to a sensational late overhead kick from veteran striker Aritz Aduriz.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Delays in rolling out an HIV prevention pill in England are putting gay men’s lives at risk, with thousands buying it online without medical supervision, HIV campaigners said on Wednesday.

(Trinidad Guardian) The two chil­dren found in their Penal home with three corpses on Thurs­day were blood-soaked and starv­ing, accord­ing to their grand­fa­ther Dipraj Ra­goo­nanan.

The El Paso shooting, which claimed 22 lives earlier this month, is further evidence of how profoundly hateful and xenophobic rhetoric has altered public discourse in the United States.

PARAMARIBO (Reuters) – Suriname’s state-owned oil company is planning a bond sale next year to finance offshore oil exploration, its chief executive said on Thursday, as it seeks to capitalise on growing hype over neighbouring Guyana’s looming oil boom.

LONDON, (Reuters) – England fought back on the third day in the second test of the Ashes yesterday, picking up three top order wickets to reduce Australia to 80-4 before rain wiped out the final two sessions at Lord’s.

Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo earlier this week presented instruments of appointment to the chairperson and directors of the reconstituted Board of Directors of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL), which is the publisher of the state-owned Guyana Chronicle newspaper.

CIUDAD DELGADO, El Salvador (Reuters) – The verdict in a retrial of a Salvadoran woman convicted of aggravated homicide after a stillbirth is expected on Monday, the woman’s lawyer said yesterday, in a closely watched case that could overturn a 30-year prison sentence.

The Guyana Police Force has reported the arrest of six men and the discovery of a number of suspected stolen items following an intelligence-led operation conducted by ranks of ‘B’ Division in Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam.

It’s a bit telling the way that the recently released “The Kitchen” immediately draws comparisons to last year’s Steve McQueen crime film “Widows” and the upcoming Lorene Scafaria film “Hustlers”.

Dear Editor, It has been a while since the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph landlines at the Aurora Police Station have been working.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Oscar nominated actor Peter Fonda, who played a cool and introspective motorcyclist in the 1969 film “Easy Rider” that captured the spirit of the era’s counterculture movement, died on Friday at age 79, his family said in a statement.