Daily Archive: Tuesday, July 14, 2020

A key meeting of GECOM today on the results of the March 2nd general elections was deferred after a new legal action was filed.

The Ministry of the Presidency (MoTP) today rejected  the “wicked and highly outrageous statement issued to the media by Mr.

The police are investigating an early morning fire which damaged the unoccupied Army Base of the Second Infantry Battalion at Maria’s Lodge, Essequibo Coast.

A number of items including important files were this morning destroyed after a fire was allegedly set at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) office at the Anna Regina Police Station, Essequibo Coast.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered Huawei equipment to be purged completely from Britain’s 5G network by 2027, risking the ire of China by signalling that the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker is no longer welcome in the West.

A fire of unknown origin this morning gutted the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) office at Wismar, Linden.

(Trinidad Guardian) A man and a woman were detained after they were allegedly found with 100 rounds of ammunition in the Petit Valley district, yesterday.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Keith Austin was returning home Monday afternoon after a failed quest to obtain work having earlier been overtaken by “bad feeling” – Jamaican vernacular for ominous unease.

GECOM yesterday moved closer to the declaration of the PPP/C as the winner of the March 2nd general elections with Chairperson Claudette Singh  setting aside the 10 declarations submitted to the Commis-sion on March 13, 2020 and ordering the embattled Chief Election Officer (CEO) for the fourth time to submit the results of the painstaking recount.

A preliminary investigation has found that the seizure of contraband items, including marijuana, from an inmate and the assault of another by prison officers triggered Sunday’s unrest at the Lusignan Prison, where a wooden building was destroyed by fire.

Guyana has now reached the 300 mark as COVID-19 cases here  continue to rise.

The reconstruction of the structure that was torched at the Lusignan Prison on Sunday appears unlikely, according to de facto Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan, who says that expansion works at other prison facilities will create the capacity for the housing of more inmates.

Some APNU+AFC coalition supporters temporarily blocked caretaker president David Granger’s convoy as it was making its way out of State House yesterday as they demanded that he engage them.

With Region One (Barima-Waini)  becoming the epicentre of Guyana’s COVID-19 infections and lockdowns now instituted in certain areas, the regional chairman believes that there is need for wider relief for residents.

Amid continuing concerns about the electoral crisis in Guyana, Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro is seeking a meeting of the Permanent Council of the body on the situation here.

Police are currently investigating the discovery of the partially decomposed body of a man in a Strathspey canal on the East Coast of Demerara.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure’s Electrical Engineering Department yesterday highlighted the theft of 37 Light-Emitting Diode (LED) Street Lights in the following areas: According to the Department, the replacement cost per unit amounts to $73,000 which will cost the Ministry $2,701,000 in total to replace all 37 LED lights.

A New Amsterdam man accused of fatally stabbing, Nickosie Vankenie over a Guinness beer on July 3rd, was yesterday placed on $300,000 bail at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court after he was charged with man-slaughter. 

A Rosignol, West Bank Berbice man was yesterday sentenced to four years imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to a possession of narcotics charge.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) yesterday said that metallic poles with street lights between La Grange and Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara are being removed from near to a GPL feeder because of the risk posed to maintenance crews.

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) yesterday announced that the Bourda Market will be sanitised tomorrow.

All GTT retail stores have re-opened to customers. Effective July 13, 2020, GTT in a release yesterday said that it reopened both its store and kiosk locations at the Giftland Mall to facilitate in-person transactions, the final GTT retail location to re-open since closure at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) is still awaiting a response from John Fernandes Limited on a quotation for the damage done to the Municipal Abattoir.

Paramaribo,  (Reuters) – Suriname’s National Assembly voted in former justice minister Chan Santokhi as its new president yesterday, ending the rule of former strongman Desi Bouterse, who had dominated the country’s politics in recent decades.

Months after the death of Pomeroon River farmer Ryan Khayum, who perished after an accident involving a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) vessel, his family is still awaiting justice.

Sukraj ‘Aaron’ Niranjan, 55, was forced to quit school after being paralyzed at aged eight for four years, but he became a self-taught tailor, which later helped him to secure a job with an organisation in New York that supplies outfits to the US Army.

SANTIAGO,  (Reuters) – The number of deaths from the coronavirus in Latin America has exceeded the figure for North America for the first time since the start of the pandemic, a Reuters count showed on Monday.

Dear Editor, All of Guyana is now aware that the Chair of GECOM, Claudette Singh, has decided to give the Chief Election Officer (CEO), Mr.

LAGOS, (Reuters) – The Nigerian government has uncovered previously unknown payments to the daughter of a Nigerian official, its lawyer told a court yesterday, in its latest attempt to overturn an arbitration award against it worth close to $10 billion.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – More than 930 employees of private contractors running U.S.

United States-based Guyanese political commentator Rickford Burke last month lost libel suits he had filed back in 2013 against MTV, Guyana Times, and Little Rock TV.

Dear Editor, Keith Lowenfield yesterday received a fourth request to submit the “fit and proper” report for the March 2 Elections.

SACRAMENTO, (Reuters) – California’s governor yesterday clamped new restrictions on businesses as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soared, and the state’s two largest school districts, in Los Angeles and San Diego, said children would be made to stay home in August.

NEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM,  (Reuters) – India’s Supreme Court yesterday upheld the right of a former royal dynasty to run the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple, one of the world’s richest places of worship, after the state government tried to take it over when the family patriarch died.

Despite warnings being issued, vending is continuing outside of the newly constructed Infectious Disease Hospital, at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, and Georgetown Mayor Ubraj Narine has said that the City Council will not allow tolerate such lawlessness.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazil is restructuring the space agency team responsible for monitoring deforestation including reassigning a key manager, a move that enviromentalists said raised concerns of political interference as destruction soars in the Amazon rainforest.

Dear Editor, While some people seem to be comfortable with the decision of Gecom’s Chair to set aside Lowenfield’s Elections Report   of July 11, 2020 which shows the PNCR coalition with a one-seat lead over the PPP/C, others continue to be apprehensive and express disenchantment over the protracted delay in the declaration of the winner.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has said the value of the savings in his mutual funds account declined by almost 40 per cent, due to current market conditions.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Britain’s new immigration system will provide faster and cheaper visas for skilled health and social care workers, the government announced yesterday, setting out further details of the points-based system that will come into effect in January.

A New and United Guyana (ANUG) yesterday said that the GECOM Chair Claudette Singh continues to show weakness by indulg-ing Chief Election Officer’s (CEO) Keith Lowenfield’s “gross professional misconduct” and it urged her to fire the “ignoble” CEO and get on with the Commission’s business.

Dear Editor, I enter again where even heroes hesitate to go.

(Trinidad Guardian) Trinidadian Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday that someone impersonating the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), sent information to the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) changing Government’s position on hosting the T20 tournament this year.

With hindsight, it is more than a little surprising that, glaring and reckless transgressions notwithstanding, large sections of the Guyana population still comply  with the unprecedented strictures and encumbrances required of us on account of the most alarming malady that we have ever had to confront, the Coronavirus.

(Reuters) – Six times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton praised his Mercedes team for taking a stance against racism but said after winning Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix that Ferrari and others should do more.

While the nation’s cyclists are forced to sit out due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Guyana Cycling Federation (GCF) and some of its officials are not resting on their laurels. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced social distancing in every aspect of society, including schools.

(Reuters) – Houston Rockets guard Russell Westbrook said yesterday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the team’s departure to Orlando where the NBA plans to restart its season.

West Indies skipper, Jason Holder has showered Jermaine Blackwood and Shannon Gabriel with praise following their victory over England on Sunday.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Russia’s Olympic Committee accused the country’s anti-doping agency yesterday of presiding over serious financial irregularities, mounting pressure on the organisation tasked with clearing up Russia’s sporting image.

(Jamaica Observer) When West Indies opener John Campbell and Captain Jason Holder scampered through for a single against hosts England in late Sunday, it sent many cricket followers rushing to the statisticians.

MANCHESTER, England,  (Reuters) – Manchester City’s two-year suspension from European football was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) yesterday, allowing the club to compete in next season’s elite Champions League competition.

TORONTO,  (Reuters) – Ontario will ease coronavirus restrictions further in most regions excluding Toronto on July 17, moving to stage three of reopening in Canada’s most populous province, Premier Doug Ford said yesterday.

(Field Level Media) Washington’s NFL team is no longer the Redskins.

Sharmila Inderjali, the mother of former murder accused Marcus Bisram, and her co-accused, Maryanna Lionel, who were on trial for allegedly offering a detective $4 million to forego charges against Bisram and others, are expected to be sentenced this week.

SOUTHAMPTON, England, (Reuters) – Former England captain Michael Vaughan hailed West Indies’ “incredible” victory over England in the series opener and said their performance had been all the more remarkable given cricket was just returning from the COVID-19 shutdown.

BERN,  (Reuters) – Players and coaches around Europe are becoming increasingly perplexed by the current handball rule which one has said is best suited to table football.

APNU+AFC supporters gathered yesterday  near to the Guyana Elections Commission in defiance of COVID-19 protocols and paid little heed to police attempts to clear the area for a smooth flow of traffic.

(Trinidad Guardian)  Former West Indies batting coach Toby Radford says that the reason Jamaican Jermaine Blackwood, a right-hand player could have scored his valuable 95 to take West Indies to victory over England, had all to do with him controlling his emotions.

Dear Editor, I seek your indulgence by way of this very short letter to ask the Mayor of the City of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine to please look into having the drains in Prashad Nagar desilted.

(Jamaica Gleaner) For the first time in four months, Jamaican athletes steamed down the athletics track at the National Stadium in competition on Saturday.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – Mexico yesterday raised the number of people listed officially as disappeared in the violence-torn country to 73,201, with most of them believed to be victims of brutal drug cartel warfare.

(Field Level Media) Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis is joining teammate LeBron James in passing on placing a social justice message on the back of his jersey when the NBA season starts again.

* By Nagraj Gollapudi News editor, ESPNcricinfo * (ESPN) Dom Bess mocked him in the first innings.

WASHINGTON, DC – After months of downplaying the severity of COVID-19, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has contracted it.

After years of failing to find a way to reconcile whether LIAT, the Antigua-based carrier, primarily serves the interests of shareholder governments by providing tax revenue and employment or is a genuine for-profit operation rather than a form of monopoly, a moment of truth has arrived.