Daily Archive: Friday, February 12, 2021

Full text of the 2021 Budget Speech. (function() { var scribd = document.createElement("script");

Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh today announced a reduction in water tariffs by 5% across the board for both commercial and domestic users.

Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh says that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year is expected to grow by 20.9%.

The Ministry of Health today said that two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.

A New Amsterdam, Berbice, woman is now in police custody after she fatally stabbed her  partner during the wee hours of this morning at Main and Pitt streets, New Amsterdam.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – The UK Supreme Court today allowed a group of 42,500 Nigerian farmers and fishermen to sue Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) in English courts after years of oil spills in the Niger Delta contaminated land and groundwater.

 (Reuters) – Supporters of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi clashed with police today as hundreds of thousands joined nationwide pro-democracy demonstrations in defiance of the junta’s call to halt mass gatherings.

LAGOS,  (Reuters) – Indian-Nigerian restaurant owner Hamisha Daryani Ahuja gave up her long-running business to pursue her dream of making movies.

(Trinidad Guardian) Over 500 businesses have announced they will be closed today as murder victim Andrea Bharatt is laid to rest.

(Trinidad Guardian) Two yachts were destroyed by fire Thursday at the Trinidad and Tobago Yacht Club in Carenage.

A policeman based at the Blairmont Police Station is reported to have last night shot a woman he was in a relationship with, sources say.

A pharmacist attached to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) was the first of dozens of frontline healthcare workers who were inoculated with the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, almost one year after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Guyana.

According to President Irfaan Ali his government has committed to putting patriotism ahead of partisan politics and he yesterday announced the establishment of a `One Guyana Commission’  aimed at attaining “oneness”.

While laying out his administration’s new defence thrust, President Irfaan Ali yesterday emphasised the importance of taking care of the wellbeing of each soldier and announced that in addition to scholarships, affordable housing would be made available and 150 pre-qualified soldiers would be benefitting soon.

India has approved financing for the four-lane Ogle to Eccles road nearly a year ahead of schedule.

Four years after he brutally raped, murdered and dumped Leonard Archibald’s body in the Berbice River, Hillary Edwards was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall.

The U.S. Embassy in Georgetown yesterday announced a partnership with the Judiciary of Guyana for the development of an automated court case management system in Guyana.

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on Wednesday informed the Ministry of Health (MoH) that the samples sent to the laboratory for  gene sequencing show  no trace of any of the new COVID-19 variants that have been circulating around the world.

The Ministry of Health yesterday disclosed that two more persons have died after becoming infected with COVID-19.

Linden Junior Isaacs, was yesterday committed to stand trial at the High Court over the fatal stabbing of his mother-in-law, Velma Pickering.

The COVID-19 Relief and Support Programme which oversees the issuing of grants of $25,000 to households has distributed a total of 236,876 grants valued at nearly $6 billion across the ten administrative regions as of February 6, this year.

The Venezuelan naval vessel that escorted the Guyanese fishing crews that were detained in that country turned back last week at the line demarcating the western extreme of Guyana’s exclusive economic zone, according to Colonel Julius Skeete of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).

DHAKA, Bangladesh, CMC – Strokemaker Nkrumah Bonner struck his second half-century in as many innings to inspire a West Indies recovery on the opening day of the second Test against Bangladesh here yesterday.

Two men were on Wednesday arrested by the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) in relation to an ongoing cocaine probe.

With the United Nations-designated International Year of Fruits & Vegetables (IYFV) now in its second month, Guyana, widely regarded as the regional leader in the agricultural sector, is yet to make public its official programme of activities to mark the country’s participation in what is being celebrated as a global event.

Security guards attached to Sheriff Security Services were among dozens of other persons working at the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Liliendaal who were vaccinated for COVID-19 yesterday.

Notwithstanding the challenges occasioned by the advent of COVID-19 during much of 2020, the Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC) is reporting an increase in the volume of its traditional agricultural exports with coconuts, pumpkin, watermelon, heart of palm, and eddo, leading the way.

While dining establishments have developed creative settings to attract customers for Valentine’s Day celebrations, gift shops are still facing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on businesses.

Recent incidents suggest that Guyana has had to deal with incidents of both ‘importation’ of expired drugs and their use of such drugs in the public health system.

The Law Reform Commission (Amendment) Bill tabled by Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC was passed in the National Assembly yesterday, without challenge from the main parliamentary APNU+AFC Opposition which was absent from the debate.

With the aim of providing valuable match practice to its locally based contingent, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) is exploring the possibility of staging two international friendlies during the month of March before the start of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

Even as Guyana continues to cast worried glances over its shoulder as the novel coronavirus continues to rage, evidence continues to surface of the emergence of opportunistic business initiatives across the country. 

Police in Berbice have discovered the belongings of Sherida Hussain, the woman who is still missing in the Number 63 Beach tragedy.

More than five years after bursting into the global oil & gas spotlight following the discovery by a consortium led by the US oil giant ExxonMobil of an excess of 8 billion barrels of oil off the country’s coast, the Guyanese populace as a whole still know shockingly little about the industry as a whole or about when or how the country will be impacted by the returns from a sector which we are told will remove the country from the condition of impoverishment in which it has been caught fast for more than half a century.

Dear Editor, I am happy that the former finance minister responded to my letter in which I called him out to an open debate.

In an effort to maximise their preparatory period for the impending FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Pre-Qualifiers, head-coach Junior Hercules disclosed that the management team is exploring the idea of increasing the training sessions to thrice per week at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue, in Georgetown.

(Trinidad Guardian) Negus George, of Seventh Street, Gooding Trace in Malabar, has been formally charged with the murder of 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt.

Family members of Sherwin Fileen, a man who was shot dead by the police after he allegedly attacked ranks during an attempt to arrest him, staged a protest on Wednesday outside of the Sparendaam Police Station.

The changing face of Guyana as a place to do business is continually being manifested in the types of goods and services offered by providers that are moving to ‘put down roots’ here.

Dear Editor Over the past months, Guyanese have read that brand name hotels, malls, amusement parks etc.,

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – A coronavirus variant identified in the Brazilian Amazon may be three times more contagious but early analysis suggests vaccines are still effective against it, the country’s health minister said yesterday, without providing evidence for the claims.

The lockdown of the Caribbean Examinations Council’s headquarters in St Michael, Barbados, due to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the delay in announcing the top performers at its CAPE and CSEC examinations.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held their first phone call as leaders and appeared at odds on most issues, even as Xi warned that confrontation would be a “disaster” for both nations.

Former US President Donald Trump may have disappeared noisily into history but the sword of Damocles which he has left over the head of the Maduro administration in Venezuela remains dangling menacingly and Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, appears in no hurry to remove it.

Dear Editor, It started on Monday when we at Nations realized that Max had missed teaching a class – he didn’t miss classes.

A vendor was granted bail after he denied that he robbed a woman of her gold chain while she was shopping at Stabroek Market. 

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuelan government officials and opposition leaders have met to discuss buying coronavirus vaccines through the COVAX program using cash frozen in the United States by economic sanctions, two sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Five alleged members of the far-right Proud Boys group have been charged with criminal conspiracy in last month’s deadly attack on the U.S.

Dear Editor,  Could you kindly permit space in your letter column as this letter is intended for the attention of the minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill and readers.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Haiti’s ambassador to the United States yesterday called for the international community to support talks between President Jovenel Moise’s government and the opposition as a constitutional crisis escalates, but rejected calls for Moise to leave office.

                                             Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday February 11, 2021

A Mahaicony resident is feared dead after he was hit by a wave on Monday while attending to a hole in a boat at Three Miles, offshore Belladrum, West Coast Berbice.

The Georgetown Cricket Association (GCA) recently  held its annual statutory annual General Elections, at the Muslim Youth Organisation (MYO) clubhouse to elect the executive body which will serve for the 2021-2022 period. 

(Reuters) – Eight overseas players and two Indian players have chosen to be slotted in the highest bracket of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction with a base price of two crore rupees ($275,000), India’s cricket board (BCCI) said yesterday.

Last November UWI, no less, issued a release saying it was negotiating an agreement with the government here to train 20,000 Guyanese over the next five years through its Open Campus.

Dear Editor, The public should note the difference from Guyana in how the American system deals with political law breakers.

(ESPN) Mohammad Rizwan became only the second Pakistan batsmen to score a T20I hundred and contributed more than 60% of his team’s total as they edged out South Africa by three runs in a thrilling first T20I.

-“Honourable”? Look give me a break! Good grief friends, stealing should never be about “better”, or “more”.

Sufficient time has elapsed, we believe, for the new government to provide a clear policy picture in relation to the level of support that the local small business community can anticipate from it in terms of initiatives that can help to strengthen the sector if only on account of the substantial job-creation and poverty alleviation weight that it carries.

The Guyana Marine Conservation Society (GMCS), with support from the German NGO ARA, and through partnerships with the University of Florida, Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, the Rupununi Wildlife Research Unit and the Region 1 RDC, has embarked on  research to assess the current state of medium and large mammals at the Barima-Mora Passage.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 901’s trading results showed consideration of $13,605,378 from 76,114 shares traded in 38 transactions as compared to session 900’s trading results which showed consideration of $35,707,095 from 340,135 shares traded in 35 transactions.

Mulatto, dougla, buffiana, blasian – there are many words that are used to describe the Black mixed child.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Rafa Nadal dispelled any remaining doubts over his fitness with a commanding 6-1 6-4 6-2 win against American qualifier Michael Mmoh yesterday to march into the Australian Open third round and stay on track for a record 21st Grand Slam title.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Medical teams working to immunize Brazil’s remote indigenous villages against the coronavirus have encountered fierce resistance in some communities where evangelical missionaries are stoking fears of the vaccine, say tribal leaders and advocates.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – A tearful Sofia Kenin admitted the pressure of defending a Grand Slam title for the first time had proved too great after she tumbled out of the Australian Open in the second round yesterday.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell vowed to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050, raising its ambition from previous targets, as its oil output declines from a 2019 peak.