Daily Archive: Wednesday, May 27, 2020

(Jamaica Observer) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade today responded to allegations that the Jamaican Embassy in China did not provide assistance to a Jamaican teacher who requested help.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Shamdeo Persaud today lamented the “almost runaway” situation with COVID-19 here and noted by contrast the declining number of cases in sister CARICOM countries.

Ninety-two ballot boxes from the March 2nd general elections were recounted today, according to GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj.

 (Reuters) – U.S. deaths from the novel coronavirus topped 100,000 today even as the daily average death toll declines, businesses reopen and Americans emerge from lockdowns across the country.

(Trinidad Guardian) Venezuela’s Navy yesterday broke up three human trafficking camps on the country’s Orinoco Delta and rescued 79 people, including 25 minors, whom they said were being trafficked to criminal gangs in T&T.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Residents of Top Hill in Junction, St Elizabeth, are in shock after the partially decomposed body of a popular pastor was found at his home on Sunday with multiple chop wounds.

(Jamaica Gleaner) History was made in Florida when Renatha Francis became the first Jamaican ever to be appointed to the Florida Supreme Court.

MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – The International Cricket Council has told Reuters it is continuing preparations for the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in Australia this year as planned and denied reports on Wednesday that a decision had been taken to postpone the event.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – The Americas will bear the brunt of an estimated 305 million job losses that the COVID-19 pandemic will cause worldwide between April and June, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said today.

LUCKNOW, India,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A 15-year-old girl who won praise for carrying her injured father hundreds of miles across India by bike said today she never thought of giving up after promising her mother she would get him home safely.

(Trinidad Express) A vehicle rented by one of the four murder victims executed in New Grant was recovered by police on Tuesday.

(Trinidad Guardian) The repatriation of T&T nationals aboard Royal Caribbean International’s (RCI) Vision of the Seas hit a possible snag yesterday after 29 St Vincent and the Grenadines crew members tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival to their home country.

(Trinidad Express) A 24-year-old man is expected to appear before a Chaguanas Magistrate today charged with double murder.

As the scheduled 25 days for the National Recount swiftly draws to an end, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has gone silent on the way forward.

British High Commissioner Greg Quinn in a video message yesterday to mark Guyana’s 54th anniversary of independence re-emphasised the importance of the swearing in of a new President on the basis of a credible election process and he also raised the need for constitutional reform to help ensure that every citizen benefits.

Continuing to perform the functions of President in a caretaker capacity, President David Granger in his address to mark Guyana’s 54th anniversary of independence yesterday has called on Guyanese to await the declaration of results from the March 2nd general elections.

Former Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur passed away yesterday having battled illness over the past year.

There are now 139 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Guyana, while the number of persons who have been tested for the virus has increased from 1489 to 1499.

An accident on Monday night on La Penitence Public Road has claimed the life of a wash bay owner and left a taxi driver hospitalised.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) says that persons seeking repatriation during the COVID-19 lockdown are welcome to stay at any of its quarantine facilities for free or pay to stay at hotels designated to provide such services.

An overseas-based Guyanese nurse aid is among those who have died in the United States after being infected with the novel coronavirus disease.

Gold is Money Captain Hubert ‘Bertie’ Pedro says that the current Covid-19 pandemic has had a tremendous impact on the 2020 season of the Streetball Championship, adding that he hopes for an eventual resumption of the tournaments.

Stating that it stands in solidarity with all interior communities, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) is calling for mining to be removed from the list of “essential services” in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus in those areas which are close to the Brazil as the neighbouring country is being ravaged by the disease.

Recently, there have been a number of signs that indicate that the West Indies team’s tour of England scheduled for July will go ahead despite the coronavirus pandemic.

The Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) is collaborating with the sport’s world governing body FINA to ensure local swimmers are given virtual coaching resources during the current lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guyana Shore Base Inc. (GYSBI) partner Robin Muneshwer wants to establish a shipping container handling and workshop facility near the Houston, East Bank of Demerara shore base to repair heavy-duty equipment, according to a public notice issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Sachin Singh, a former West Indies Under-16 captain is gearing to take the Regional under-19 tournament by storm should it take place in the post-COVID-19 world.

Eighteen persons from La Parfaite Harmonie were tested by the mobile testing unit deployed to the community last Thursday.

An Upper Corentyne  driver whose hire car allegedly fatally struck a pedal cyclist along the Princetown Public Road last week was on Monday placed on $150,000 bail after he appeared in court. 

Dear Editor, I write with reference to the Kaieteur News article of May 24th captioned, `It’s court’s jurisdiction to probe election irregularities, not GECOM – Nandlall’.

The Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) on Monday informed that the four boxers stranded in Cuba have been given approval to return home.

Health care workers attached to the Palms Geriatric Home recently underwent more training on effectively performing their duties while continuing to ensure safeguards remain in place against the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Dear Editor, Joseph Harmon’s statement posted on Monday immediately reminded me of the old Guyanese proverb “nah every big head get sense”.

With incumbent Desi Bouterse facing defeat and with less than 30% of ballots still to be processed, the Independent Electoral Council of Suriname last evening suspended counting because of the “exhaustion” of tabulation staff.

Dear Editor, John F. Kennedy remarked that “[t]he great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.”

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Sunil Ambris continued to warm-up nicely for the proposed England tour with another handsome knock as his Salt Pond Breakers won their fifth match on the trot in the Vincy Premier League here yesterday.

The Chinese national who allegedly fatally struck down a Nigg, Corentyne pensioner in January was finally placed before the court on Monday.

BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Brazilian federal police on Tuesday raided the residences of Rio de Janeiro’s right-wing Governor Wilson Witzel as part of a COVID-19 corruption probe, targeting one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s political foes as the pandemic sweeps the nation.

A West Canje, Berbice man was arrested yesterday after he was caught tossing a bag into the New Amsterdam Prison which contained cannabis and other prohibited items.

Dear Editor, For some strange reason I started to think who will lead Guyana in this pivotal phase of its history after the results of the 2020 National and Regional Elections are finally declared.

LONDON, CMC – Bermudian midfielder Reggie Lambe says he remains “positive” he will find a new club after being released by English outfit Cambridge United, and insists he is keen to continue wearing his national team shirt.

(Trinidad Guardian) Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dennis Moses says Trinidad and Tobago is not bound by recent decisions made in relation to the Rio Treaty, including the travel restrictions imposed on Venezuela Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez.

Dear Editor, Diligent readers will remember my ‘dead cat’ letter of a couple of days back.

(Reuters) – Reading’s first-team players have agreed to defer a “substantial” portion of their wages for three months to help negate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the English Championship (second-tier) club said yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) A Venezuelan woman was one of four people found shot dead in New Grant on Monday.

The driver of the minibus that was involved in a collision that resulted in the death of a La Parfaite Harmonie resident Lovern Benn last month has been discharged from the West Demerara Regional Hospital (WDRH) and is now bedridden at home.

Dear Editor, Undeniably, the Constitution protects the right of all qualified citizens to vote in national elections.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia paceman Mitchell Starc has never been a huge fan of the pink ball but would welcome the prospect of bowling it against India in a day-night test over the home summer.

SAN JOSE,  (Reuters) – Marco Castillo and his boyfriend, Rodrigo Campos, waited just a few hours to take advantage of a new law in Costa Rica that made the country the first in Central America to allow same-sex marriage.

A New Amsterdam man was on Monday sentenced to three years’ imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to the charge of cultivating a prohibited substance in the Upper Berbice River area. 

(Reuters) – Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard has said he will sit out the rest of the NBA season if it resumes in a format that prevents his side from competing for a playoff spot.

(Reuters) – Four Minneapolis police officers were fired yesterday over the death of an unarmed black man seen on a bystander’s video lying face down in the street, gasping for air and groaning, “I can’t breathe,” while a white officer kneels on his neck for several minutes.

As a group of West Indian cricketers resume training at the Kensington Oval in Barbados for the possible upcoming tour of England in July, the spotlight on West Indies cricket has remained focused on the Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) Report which was commissioned by the current Cricket West Indies (CWI) administration when they assumed office in April last year.

Dear Editor, For those who might have missed my Friday (SN) column, I again ask to be reminded.

A 49-year-old coconut vendor died on Sunday after falling from a coconut tree at Friendship, on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD).