Guyana News

Republic Bank Guyana Limited yesterday launched the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Toolkit Caribbean at its headquarters in New Market Street and was challenged by the Tourism Minister to develop a report that reflected whether the toolkit contributed to the growth of small and medium entrepreneurs in the country.

Last week, centenarian Cecilia Goddard Hughes was not sure she was going to live to see her next birthday after a bout of illness.

– court hears Forty-two-year-old Vernon Barnwell of Leopold Street was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $30,000 when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court accused of using an iron to smack his stepdaughter to her head and back.

Four persons were rescued from rough waters in the Essequibo River between Hog Island and Leguan early yesterday morning after the boat they were travelling in capsized midstream.

– Ramsammy says as new PEPFAR partnership launched Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy says Guyana should be on the road to eliminating the AIDS epidemic as a major public health problem in another ten years provided the right strategies are pursued and an increased focus is placed on prevention programmes.

Justice Winston Patterson yesterday sentenced Mechel Skeete to 13 years imprisonment for killing her reputed husband by setting him ablaze while he lay in their bed at East Canje, Berbice, on May 14, 2006.

President Bharrat Jagdeo recently met Belgium Ambassador to Guyana Leopold Carrewyn at a brief ceremony held at State House.

The East Coast Pandits and Mandir Leaders group said its Holi Mela at Enmore Blossom Scheme attracted more than 5,000 people and it is encouraged by the response and plans to host the event annually.

Cuban dissident Luis Posada Carilles is again attracting media attention with the release of a new book by a US-based Guyanese journalist which gives fresh insight into his terrorist activities as his trial in an El Paso federal court draws near.

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Africans are getting wealthier more quickly than previously believed, according to a new study that also suggests the poorest continent’s riches are spreading beyond the narrow confines of its elite.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints handed over $1.8 million in equipment to the Corriverton Development Association to support its training sessions and charitable works.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Human rights abuses in Sri Lanka are damaging prospects for reconciliation after 25 years of civil war and a violent crackdown on dissent in Iran is deeply worrying, the top UN human rights official said yesterday.

Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud said the mammoth crowd that participated in the IAC’s Rang Barse held at the Bath Settlement Community Centre Ground on Monday is testament to the fact that Holi has truly become a national festival.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional Democrats made headway on Thursday on their top legislative priority — job creation — when the House of Representatives approved a $15 billion package of tax credits and highway construction.

If all goes according to plan, the 46 children, who were displaced because of the recent fire at the Care Centre for Children in Hadfield Street, will return to this facility within the next two weeks.

Manager of Queenstown A&J Auto Sales, Simone King, called Dianne De Nobrega, appeared on Wednesday at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on four additional charges of obtaining over $1.4 million from four persons by pretending that she could obtain cars for them.

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chile’s government yesterday sharply cut the official death toll from a massive weekend earthquake and ensuing tsunamis to 279 identified bodies, from a previously reported 802 victims, without giving an explantation.

A man was warned on Wednesday by Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry that should he hit his wife again he would go to jail for a long time but on this occasion he was fined $5,000 or three months in prison for unlawfully assaulting her.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A US congressional panel voted yesterday to label as “genocide” the World War One-era massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador from Washington.

Since 2008, several requests to Guyana Water Incorporat-ed (GWI) to have a new perimeter fence constructed at the Central Ruimveldt Iron Removal Treatment Plant went unheeded, and as a result persons had easy access to the hazardous area.