News

Sonia King, the woman who was charged with suffocating her eight-year-old son just over three years ago, admitted to the crime yesterday and now awaits sentencing for manslaughter.

After spending months on remand in a Trinidad jail for a crime he did not commit, a Guyanese man, after a case of mistaken identity, was recently released after a High Court Judge found that the police had linked him to the decades-old crime based on his name alone.

In a joint statement, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union yesterday called for all sides to respect the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) issued yesterday upholding the December 21, 2018 motion of no- confidence.

Neville Forde, one of two men charged with the 2017 murder of Sophia bread vendor Andre Melroy Alexander, yesterday learned that he will have to face a retrial after a 12-member jury failed to arrive at a unanimous verdict at the conclusion of his trial.

Kacey Chapman, one of three men jointly charged with illegal possession of guns and ammunition, was yesterday told he would have to lead a defence to the charges, while his two co-accused were freed by a city court.

Lenox Shuman, leader of the Labour and Justice Party, has called for Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), retired Justice James Patterson to resign.

A total of 138 mining blocks were last Friday distributed during a mining lottery held in Bartica, the third of its kind to be rolled out by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission.

Cabinet has taken note of the award of several multi-million dollar contracts under the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, including one for repair works to the Parika Ferry Stelling.

President David Granger yesterday said he will “accept, and abide by” a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) ruling which upheld the validity of the December 21 no confidence vote but stated that elections cannot be held before the conclusion of house-to-house registration.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Discharged from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) eight years after a motor vehicle accident left him visually impaired, Rohan Dwight Brown has defied the odds by successfully re-enlisting, and today he occupies the post of detective inspector.

Management of the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport (CJIA), has announced that a senior manager has proceeded on leave due to the commencement of a police investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct made this week.

Attorney-at-law Christopher Ram, following the rulings of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the four appeals against government, is of the belief that elections can be held within 60 days, even with a “proper Claims and Objections exercise”.

The Guyana Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union (GPTWU) is moving to legal action against the Government of Guyana, in a bid to bring closure to a decades-long battle for pension owed to retirees of the Guyana Telecommunications Corporation (GTC) and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT).

June Alexander, the 10-year-old student who succumbed at a city hospital just days after she was seriously injured following an incident at the Regma Primary School in Linden, died as a result of blunt trauma to the head triggered by blood vessel malformation.

Tenders were yesterday opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administra-tion Board for the rehabilitation of the Guyana Police Force’s Special Branch Administrative Building on Camp Street and a consultancy for Go-Invest which attracted bids of around $75m.

(Jamaica Observer) The five Jamaican fishermen picked up by United States Homeland Security investigators in September 2017 off the Haitian coast were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute some 613 pounds of marijuana, according to an affidavit filed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jesus Pertierra.

In addition to new leaders, delegates at the biennial National Conference of the Alliance For Change (AFC) last Saturday also voted on representation on the party’s Executive as well as its youth and women’s arms.

SAN SALVADOR,  (Reuters) – El Salvador President Nayib Bukele ruled out negotiations with criminal gangs yesterday and vowed to go after their finances in a bid to reduce violence in the Central American country.

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) yesterday said that it looks forward to an early consensual agreement between the President and the Leader of the Opposition on a new GECOM Chairman.

VATICAN CITY,   (Reuters) – A Vatican document today said the Church should consider ordaining older married men as priests in remote areas of the Amazon, a historic shift which some say could pave the way for their use in other areas where clergy are scarce.