Guyana News

The money, hundreds of millions of it, was to be spent on an ill-fated High Street project in contravention of the law, and on August 16, 2007, then Minister of Finance Ashni Singh was determined to keep it from the press.

President David Granger yesterday announced, what he called the Linden Action Plan, as he urged residents of Region Ten to rebuild their economy on four pillars: investment, information, infrastructure and innovation.

A miner was killed yesterday morning after a pit cave-in at the White Hole/Red Hole area, near Mahdia, Region Eight.

Following his release from hospital, Vishnu Narine, who slit his own throat after the fatal stabbing of his wife, was yesterday charged with murder.

State Minister Joseph Harmon yesterday said the APNU+AFC government was moving to rescind a controversial lease that was granted by the former Bharrat Jagdeo administration to fraudster Ed Ahmad in 2008 for 3.4 acres of land but Jagdeo says the deal had already been rescinded.

A 30-year-old man who left Guyana on Tuesday is in prison in the United States after cocaine worth $14 million was discovered in two “rum cakes” he was transporting.

Government yesterday announced approval of $1M to be given to the family of policeman Antonio Dawson, who was stabbed to death in the line of duty, and plans are also in train for an overall review of benefits for slain officers.

The opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) yesterday said there is a “stalemate” between the Regional Executive Officers (REOs) and the regional administrations in the seven regions won by the party.

Addressing concerns of possible environmental impacts, President of Guyana Goldfields Inc (GGI) Scott Caldwell on Tuesday reiterated an earlier company promise that he would drink a Glass of treated tailings water from its Cuyuni mine to show that there was no threat.

As the hunt continues for the suspects who escaped following Wednesday’s fatal shootout between bandits and the police at South Ruimveldt Park, the family of Edgar Blackman, one of the two men killed, is still questioning the circumstances under which he met his death.

One day before a court case filed against the Aracari Resort by the Department of Labour was to be heard, the owner made a decision to pay a security guard who was wrongfully dismissed and was owed for working with no overtime and no leave days.

The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) has recorded a 7% neonatal mortality rate for the month of November, a reduction from the last average of 35% for previous months.

The trial of the two police constables charged with assaulting detainee Colwyn Harding was adjourned again yesterday.

Under the Bharrat Jagdeo administration, controversial businessman Ed Ahmad was leased 3.1 acres of land in 2008 at the corner of Thomas Lands and Irving Street to build a 150-room hotel and casino.

A dramatic early morning shootout yesterday in South Ruimveldt Park ended with two of four bandits dead, while the other two escaped; they had beaten and robbed a woman in her home and tried to break into another house two corners away.

State funds amounting to $257 million were expended on the development of the Sparendaam housing project and conservatively, the value of land there should have been $82.8 million per acre but it was sold for far less, the forensic audit into controversial government holding company, NICIL, says.

President David Granger yesterday met with the Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo and proposed that Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards serve as Chief Justice when Justice Ian Chang proceeds on pre-retirement leave on December 15.

Balram Singh was yesterday sentenced to 80 years in jail after a jury found him guilty of murdering taxi driver Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo, whose burnt remains had been dumped on the Mocha Access Road in January 2010.

Guyana and the United States yesterday signed a Memorandum of Under-standing for the operation of a vetted counter-narcotic investigative unit programme.

-size of hotel was reduced, green energy certification abandoned Controversial government holding company NICIL’s investment in the Marriott Hotel is US$41.6 million, above the US$36 million publicly stated by NICIL’s Executive Director Winston Brassington, according to the forensic audit into the entity’s operations which also says that state agencies such as the Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC) violated the law by transferring funds to NICIL.