Daily Archive: Friday, February 5, 2010

Race car driver Peter Morgan was this afternoon sentenced to ten years in jail by a Brooklyn Federal Court on a drug trafficking charge but could be out in six years based on the period he has already been incarcerated.

Two prisoners died early this morning after they fought each other at the Georgetown Prisons.

-Persaud tells Parliament committee Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud has credited GuySuCo’s turnaround plan with significantly cutting costs last year to the tune of some $2 billion, including a sizeable chunk in management costs.

“It was an unwilful act,” a MMC security guard, charged with killing accused battery thief Kwesi D’Andrade, told Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday.

Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud is calling for urgent regional action to combat the deadly fungal disease, Black Sigatoka, which is currently affecting the plantain and banana industry in the region.

Two gun-toting bandits terrorized vendors at the Port Mourant market around 3:30 am yesterday, battering and robbing a huckster of $57,000 while a vendor was robbed of $3,000.

Should regulations such as six months’ notification before mining can commence be implemented, larger miners can survive but the small miners would not, veteran miner, Patrick Pereira warned prospectors at Port Kaituma yesterday.

Town Clerk Beulah Williams and  City Treasurer Roderick Edinboro have been dismissed with effect from January 31, 2010, in keeping with the recommendations of a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Georgetown Munici-pality.

Members of the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) yesterday picketed the office of Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir as they continue to call for him to intervene in the dispute between the union and the Bauxite Company Guyana Inc (BGCI).

PNCR leader Robert Corbin yesterday accused AFC leader Raphael Trotman of downplaying continuous engagement between the two parties on mutual areas of concern, in pursuit of a narrow political agenda.

CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington is lauding Professor Rex Nettleford OCC, as a true Caribbean icon with a “life poured out for the Community,” even as Jamaica and the wider region mourn his passing.

Acting President of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) David Patterson says that Guyana has fully recommitted  itself to the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) after attending the Annual General Assembly which was held last weekend in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

Andrew Arjoon, with a positive 10 handicap, continued where he had left off on the opening night with a hard fought win over national junior player Oliver Downes in the 2010 Bounty Farm-sponsored Handicap Squash Tournament which  continued on Wednesday evening at the Georgetown Club courts.

–paying top dollar to pump fresh water Rice farmers along the Essequibo Coast are praying for a change in the current dry weather as a scarcity of fresh water in the rice producing areas has left several of them facing an uphill battle.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – A top Trinidad & Tobago Cricket Board official has blasted the appointment of Ottis Gibson as West Indies coach and says David Williams has gotten a raw deal.

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Gene therapy offers Olympic  athletes a tempting new way to go for the gold, but the  technology is far too risky a way to cheat, a top gene therapy  expert said yesterday.

The woman, who collected thousands of dollars from persons with the promise of delivering vehicles, yesterday said she has done nothing wrong and is operating a legitimate business which has now been tainted by a recent but unrelated court matter.

Last year the two parties had a falling out over the running of the inter-block nationwide football tournament but now the Ministry of Sport and the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) are heading in the direction of a collaborative effort to stage this year’s event.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – The new Virgin Racing Formula One  car completed its first laps yesterday with Germany’s Timo  Glock at the wheel.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – A brewer, a sugar baron and a  cement maker are among the most influential people in Indian  sport, according to a recent power list, elbowing out some of  the country’s biggest sports stars themselves.

By Marlon Munroe The practical aspect of the six-week swimming instructors’ course for teachers and volunteers at Special Needs Schools commenced yesterday with special emphasis on technique corrections.

Demonstration driven by fear of official moves to reduce small-scale mining activity Bartica this week handed the government of President Bharrat Jagdeo the first major non-political mass protest of its tenure as the community known as the gateway to the country’s mineral-rich interior shut itself down and took to the streets in a massive demonstration against new mining regulations which it fears will cripple much of the small and medium scale gold mining activity upon which the township depends for its economic existence.

Cites stable exchange rate, fiscal soundness Despite “poor sugar and rice harvests” which resulted in a significant contraction in the performance of Guyana’s   agricultural sector, the recently released report of the 2009 activities of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has cited Guyana as one of only a few Caribbean economies that demonstrated a measure of resilience in a year when a global financial crisis and economic recession resulted in a contraction in economic output in most regional economies.

BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – A 14-year-old soccer fan  died yesterday after being shot along with two men when their  bus was attacked on the way back to Rosario from a match in  Buenos Aires, local media reported yesterday.

(Extracted from Transparency International’s Global Corruption Report – 2009) The private sector plays a pivotal and expanding role in improving the well-being of societies, communities and individuals.

-Lawrence sees attempt to ‘hoodwink’ on permits for immediate delivery Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority Khurshid Sattaur, came in for severe criticism from members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parlia-ment after failing to represent the agency at a meeting of the PAC on Monday.

Chief Executive Officers of private sector entities in Guyana are usually not keen to speak publicly about what they perceive to be problems that impact negatively on the well being of their enterprises, particularly in cases where those problems are believed to be   remediable through government intervention.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – While speculation escalates  over when Tiger Woods will return from exile to competition, the  execution of his comeback continues to attract widespread  comment from communication experts and his fellow players.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – South African trade unions  have threatened to disrupt the World Cup over allegations being  investigated by FIFA that a mascot for the soccer spectacular is  being manufactured in a Chinese sweatshop.

By Rawle Lucas Rawle Lucas is a Guyanese-born Certified Public Accountant and Assistant Vice-President of the Lending Services Division.

Dear Editor, A country whose citizens trust their government can achieve much more economically and socially than a non-trusting nation.

(Trinidad Guardian) – Six people have been arrested by police in connection with the disappearance of a safe containing close to TT$1 million in cash and jewellery from the Lady Chancellor mansion of international batting superstar Brian Charles Lara.

Dear Editor, It is exactly one year since we submitted plans to construct a modern security and business complex at 203 Light Street, Bourda.

The Private Sector Commis-sion (PSC) is currently engaging Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee in a bid to forestall moves to outlaw the commercial activities of itinerant music vendors who ply the streets pushing handcarts fitted with stereo equipment.

CANBERRA, Australia, CMC – Chris Gayle’s blazing century provided the platform for a rousing 90-run victory for touring West Indies over the Australian Prime Minister’s XI in a rain-reduced warm-up match yesterday.

A 14-year-old boy of Rosignol, West Berbice who allegedly stole $2.9M worth in gold and silver jewellery was on Wednesday refused bail when he appeared at the Blairmont Court before Magistrate Nigel Hawke.

Dear Editor, Last August was the last time I saw her.

Will the 2009 nightmare push regional tourist destinations towards diversification? Even as the Caribbean’s tourism industry seeks to point to what it believes are early signs of a silver lining behind the dark clouds that settled over the sector for much of 2009, the body blow which the decline in tourist arrivals has dealt to the region raises once again the long-debated issue of the need for Caribbean   tourist havens to treat with the issue of economic diversification of their economies with a greater sense of urgency.

NAGPUR, India, (Reuters) – South Africa are faced  with the daunting prospect of taking on top-ranked India on  their home soil just days after long-serving coach Mickey  Arthur resigned.

BELFAST, (Reuters) – Northern Ireland’s rival main  parties agreed a deal yesterday to devolve police and justice  powers to Belfast from London and end a lengthy row that had  threatened to topple their power-sharing government.

-World Bank Global Economic Prospects report Even as some Caribbean governments and business sectors continue to make optimistic noises arising out of indications of a turnaround in the global economy a new World Bank report has forecast a more prolonged negative impact on economies of the region that could persist for up to another decade.

BOSTON, (Reuters) – The Boston Celtics overcame the  absence of leading scorer Paul Pierce to pull away from the  Miami Heat in the fourth quarter for a 107-102 victory on  Wednesday.

WASHINGTON/DETROIT, (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp,  already reeling from two massive recalls, faced the possibility  of a third when U.S.

Dear Editor, There’s a famous exchange in Brecht’s play The Life of Galileo in which Andrea says, “Unhappy the land that has no heroes,” and Galileo replies, “No, unhappy the land that needs heroes.” 

MIAMI, Florida, CMC – Veteran Jamaican light heavyweight boxer Glen Johnson is prepared to unleash everything he has when he tackles American Yusaf Mack in a world title eliminator tonight.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Ten U.S. missionaries  detained in Haiti were charged yesterday with child  kidnapping and criminal association for trying to take children  illegally out of the earthquake-hit country.

Twenty-three-year-old Ashim Rafeek died following a motor vehicle accident on Tuesday night.

Dear Editor, The Barticians have collectively voiced their dissatisfaction at the government’s mining policy.

Boutique proprietor John Lewis tells Stabroek Business that the multi-million-dollar fashion industry is far more important to shaping the national psyche than we might imagine.

Dear Editor, It behoves me as one who is thrilled by humanitarian efforts to congratulate the team at Three Rivers Kids Foundation for doing an awesome job on behalf of the Guyanese community.

The Joe Vieira Park will come alive this Sunday as the In Excess (INXS) Performance which is headed by Biker ‘Smallie’ hosts their first grass track meet, ‘Hot Track’ which kicks off the motocross season.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 341’s trading results showed consideration of $2,958,885 from 128,074 shares traded in 18 transactions as compared to session 340 which showed consideration of $1,349,966 from 47,237 shares traded in 11 transactions. 

(Trinidad Express) – A State witness living a new life in the United States, after helping to convict two killers last year, was hunted to his New York apartment and shot dead on Monday.

URUAPAN, Mexico, (Reuters) – This sunkissed corner of  western Mexico is the source of an annual bounty of guacamole  dip for U.S.

Dear Editor, I have been struggling to comprehend the recent writing of learned men published in our dailies, analyzing the period of Burnham-PNC rule and the advent of the WPA-Walter Rodney contribution, alongside that of Cheddi Jagan-PPP. 

BRUSSELS,  (Reuters) – An email “phishing” fraud  against the European Union’s greenhouse gas Emissions Trading  Scheme (ETS) has prompted the executive European Commission to  revise its Internet security guidelines, the Commission said.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez’s naming  of a heavyweight Cuban official to help fix Venezuela’s  electricity crisis has fired up his opponents at a politically  volatile time for the South American nation.

Achievement! Recognition! Then what? Our young Calypsonians challenge Besides this being one of my “lazy days” when I’ll quote heavily from one of my favourite controversial sources, today’s offering which will no doubt be familiar to my regulars, is informed by the fact that February is the African-American-inspired “Black History/African Heritage Month.”

(Prepared by the Guyana Marketing Corporation and published by Stabroek News Business as a public service)

There are some important lessons to be drawn from Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s historic election to the post of political leader of the United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago.