Guyana News

At about 0930h. yesterday, the police searched a building at King Edward Street, Albouystown, where two unregistered motorcycles, suspected to have been smuggled into the country via Lethem, were found.

The police today said that up to the end of July this year, there had been 72 murders and 61 deaths on the roads.

Sithe Global yesterday made good on its threat to exit the Amaila Falls Hydro project over the lack of political consensus on the venture but President Donald Ramotar last night vowed to continue working to make the nearly US$900 million project a reality.

Chief spokesman on economics and finance for the main opposition, APNU, Carl Greenidge says the government failed to persuade legislators on the merits of the Amaila hydro project after prospective developer Sithe Global set the condition of political consensus for continuing with it.

The AFC says that its decision to support the Hydro Electric Power (Amendment) Bill and the debt ceiling motion for the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) was intended to give “a new lease on life” to the venture, which has since lost sponsors Sithe Global.

A woman was yesterday arrested during an alleged attempt to mail cocaine to Canada.

Charles Anthony Woolford, who is accused of killing his wife after an argument, will have to face a new trial after a jury failed to agree on a verdict yesterday.

Scores of indigenous people protested outside the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs yesterday calling for a revision of the 2006 Amerindian Act and for their rights to be respected even as government supporters said that much has been done to advance the rights of Amerindians.

A petition calling for revision of the 2006 Amerindian Act was launched on Thursday, with activists proposing several changes to the legislation, including “recognition of rights to ancestral land, territories and resources.”

Several Amerindian vendors, who ply their trade outside of the Amerindian Residence on Princes Street, say they are being targeted for removal because of their participation in a protest on Wednesday outside of Parliament Building.

The shortlist for the 2012 Guyana Prize for Literature, due to be announced within the next two weeks, will not include entrants for the regional award, which has been suspended because of a lack of funding.

The Audit Office will investigate discrepancies flagged in Region 10’s accounts, including overpayments to contractors that have led to a call for the sacking of the region’s Senior Superintendent of Works Patrice Johnson.

Teenage mothers will soon benefit from a partnership between Women Across Differences (WAD) and international volunteer organisation CUSO that aims to reduce gender discrimination through economic and social empowerment.

Main opposition APNU believes that President Donald Ramotar will assent to the four local government bills passed in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Local Government Minister Ganga Persaud says that the passage of four long-delayed bills on Wednesday paves the way for elections to local government bodies to be held in around six months.

Attorney General Anil Nandlall yesterday assured that the five government bills passed during the last sitting of the National Assembly would be treated with “convenient speed” when received by his office for assent certification.

Dawn Da Silva, diagnosed with a brain tumour, is appealing for assistance to raise the money she needs to undergo brain surgery in Cuba next month.

A thief, who snatched another man’s chain from round his neck and then swallowed it after he was caught, was yesterday sentenced to 18 months in prison.

A scrap metal dealer, accused of having an improvised utensil for smoking cocaine, yesterday told a court that the instrument was planted on him.

Forty-six children, between the ages of eight and 14 years, were yesterday awarded certificates after completing the seventh annual Guyana National Museum Children’s Taxidermy summer camp.