Daily Archive: Saturday, December 25, 2010

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – The Miami Heat gave their   fans some Christmas cheer with a dominating 96-80 victory over   the Los Angeles Lakers yesterday.

AUCKLAND, (Reuters) – Pace bowler Tim Southee   ripped through Pakistan’s batting order before opener Martin   Guptill smashed a quick-fire half century to help New Zealand   to a five-wicket win over Pakistan in the first Twenty20   international today.

Fire shortly before noon destroyed a Victory Valley, Linden home leaving five persons homeless on Christmas Day.

Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds today spread the joy of the season interspersed with words of wisdom to the celebrating residents of the Dharm Shala when he visited the Home of Benevolence for all races in Albouystown,  the Government Information Agency reported.

President Bharrat Jagdeo spent the early part of Christmas day distributing toys to youths in the pediatric care unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital, the Government Information Agency reported.

JOS/MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, (Reuters) – Explosions in  Nigeria’s central region killed 32 people on Christmas Eve and  six people died in attacks on two churches in the northeast of  Africa’s most populous nation, officials said today.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Queen Elizabeth praised the power  of sport in bringing people together in her Christmas Day  address to the nation, before London hosts the 2012 Olympic  Games.

The police are investigating an armed robbery that occurred at about 3 pm yesterday, at Big Creek, Port Kaituma, NWD, during which miner Reval Wong, 25 years, was attacked and robbed by two men, one of whom was armed with a handgun.

DURBAN, (Reuters) – Bowler-friendly conditions in   Durban will help India in the second test against South Africa   starting tomorrow, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni said yesterday.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia’s phoenix-like rise  from Ashes oblivion at Perth teased a grateful nation with the  smell of English blood and will draw a big crowd to Melbourne’s  sporting coliseum when the fourth test starts tonight.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, (Reuters) – A burqa-clad   suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting for aid in   Pakistan today, killing at least 40 of them, officials said, showing    militants’ ability to strike despite army offensives.

Investigators were up to press time last evening still looking for Gail Perreira, 29, an administrative assistant at the Delmur Shipping Company, who was kidnapped in front of her Agricola home on Thursday night.

A public fight seems to be brewing between the major contenders for the PPP’s presidential candidacy with the focus being on how the party will decide who carries its standard into the 2011 general elections.

More than ten persons, including two children, were left in shock, tears and great distress last night after a fire ravaged two Bagotstown houses.

The owners of New Thriving Restaurant were the latest victims of a recent rash of armed robberies.

Nine persons who were held in connection with a $5M shipment of contraband alcoholic beverages have all been released on station bail.

Only five months into her reign, Soyini Frazer Miss Guyana Earth 2010 has been dethroned by the franchise holder of the pageant, Simpli Royal.

A man who was found with a quantity of cocaine and admitted to being a habitual user was yesterday sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Lorenzo Sim, called ‘Gold teeth,’ 21, was remanded to prison yesterday after appearing in the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrates’ Court on several charges, including armed robbery and assaulting a policeman.

A miner accused of chopping a man to the head with an axe was yesterday remanded to prison.

A man was yesterday fined $25,000 with an alternative of two weeks imprisonment, after admitting that he showed up at his common-law wife’s staff party, verbally abused her to force her to leave and later choked her.

The Ministry of Health has issued an urgent appeal for blood, saying it presently has only 15 units when it should have 150 units on hand.

The Guyana Agricultural and General Worker’s Union (GAWU) has denied breaching the collective labour agreement with the Guy-     ana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) as was recently contended by the corporation and it has called the de-recognition threat an awakening for workers.

The Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) in its Christmas message has called on national leaders and decision-makers to match seasonal greetings with real improvements in the lives of workers rather than with symbolic gestures.

ST JOHN’S – For the second year running, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB)?will

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia captain Ricky   Ponting tested out his broken finger during fielding and   throwing drills yesterday and said he was hopeful of playing   the fourth Ashes test against England ‘pain-free’.

Linden’s Bakewell Topp XX and Netrockers snatched the last two quarterfinal spots on Thursday night by pulling out victories against their opponents in the 2010 Kashif and Shanghai Tournament at the Mackenzie Sports Complex (MSC) Ground.

(BBC) Ian Bell looks set to stay at six in England’s batting order for the fourth Ashes Test in Melbourne tomorrow.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana captain Ramnaresh Sarwan says his side will be focused on repeating their success in next month’s Caribbean Twenty20 Championship, to prove to detractors they were worthy champions of the 2010 showpiece.

“Christmas would be dead for me,” Rakesh Seegobin said as he was still trying to cope with the death of his reputed wife Rebekha Chinamootoo.

You’d be foolish to miss it

LONDON, England,  CMC – Stephen Ames’ prolonged injury layoff has resulted in his continued slide in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Christmas bling

DURBAN, South Africa, (Reuters) – India will welcome  back paceman Zaheer Khan from injury to bolster an attack that  was pulverized by South Africa in a one-sided first test when  the second test starts in Durban tomorrow .

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – A Delhi court has launched a  probe into allegations by two inmates that they were ordered by  prison officers to murder two 2010 Common-wealth Games officials  inside the high-security Tihar jail.

NAIROBI, (Reuters) – A junior Kenyan minister stepped  aside yesterday after he was named among a group of lawmakers  being investigated over allegations of involvement in drug  trafficking.

THE VALLEY, Anguilla, CMC – Leeward Islands selectors have reversed an earlier decision and included batsman Montcin Hodge in their 23-man training squad for next month’s Caribbean Twenty20 Championship.

Dear Editor, Season’s greetings to all Guyanese. The caption of the Demerara Waves online article ‘Kissoon Benschop arrested for blocking landfill site; Government intervenes in chaotic landfill’ and comments by Public Works Minister Robeson Benn surely give the impression that the problem at the Le Repentir Disposal Site was caused by the Georgetown municipality.

PARIS, (Reuters) – Russia has agreed to buy two  helicopter carriers from a France-led consortium, the French and  Russian governments said on Friday, in Moscow’s first major  foreign arms purchase since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Dear Editor, Godfrey Chin’s article  on the Metropole cinema in the December 12 edition of Sunday Stabroek, was a welcome addition to his Nostalgia series.

ORLANDO, (Reuters) – The Orlando Magic ended a poor   run of form by surging to a 123-101 victory over the San Antonio   Spurs on Thursday, the stunning triumph snapping the visiting   team’s 10-game winning streak.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail  Khodorkovsky cast Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a pitiful but  dangerous leader in a newspaper article yesterday ahead of the  verdict in Khodorkovsky’s second trial.

Shoppers browsing

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Under-fire Trinidad and Tobago football coach Russell Latapy seems poised to hold onto his job, at least through the Christmas holidays.

Today’s bumper Christmas edition contains all the regular Sunday features as there will be no Sunday Stabroek tomorrow.

ABIDJAN/ABUJA,  (Reuters) – West African heads of  state threatened yesterday to use force to oust incumbent Ivory  Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo unless he cedes power to a rival  widely credited with having won a presidential election.

A three-way wreck

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s cricket chief Azim Bassarath says he is disappointed the country will not host a single Test match next year.

Dear Editor, Tomorrow on Boxing Day, December 26, Dame Olga Lopes-Seale will be 93 years of age, and her ‘nephews’ and ‘nieces’ in Guyana all send her birthday greetings.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Maritza Monfort is  singing along to a Christmas carol in Creole on the radio, but  the Haitian mother of two is struggling to lift her spirits.

Decisions

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia captain Ricky   Ponting appeared untroubled by his broken finger when he  batted in the nets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday ahead of the fourth Ashes test against England.

Christmas in Guyana is a time when optimism for our possible futures seems most plausible. 

In his Christmas message, Roman Catholic Bishop Francis Alleyne has emphasised the importance of faith and its influence on shaping the worth and sense of duty in both the individual and community.

Politikles

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Indian agents questioned a   former telecommunications minister over the country’s biggest   corruption case on Friday, a move the government hopes will   help ease a crippling political row with the opposition.

President of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), Azim Bassarath says the people of Guyana will miss the services of Chetram Singh, when he leaves office as president of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB).

There has not been the expected increase in businesses at D’Edward Village, West Coast Berbice, following the opening of the Berbice River Bridge, but residents said the cost for houses at the location had certainly risen.

It’s the holidays and many Guyanese will be waking up on Christmas morning to the smell of pepperpot and fresh bread.

Hunting, fishing, parakari, forro and… marathons make a Shulinab Christmas. Shulinaban, Nicholas Fredericks, spoke with SN journalist Gaulbert Sutherland about Christmastime in the last Macushi village in the South Central Rupununi in Region Nine.

“As long as God give me help and strength I’m gonna ride my bike,” were the words of a hot dog vendor who has been plying his trade for 15 years; “I like it.”

Nollywood continues to welcome with open arms talent from our brothers in other African countries most especially Ghana.

Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, Jerusalem and that area in the Middle East known as the Holy Land, is now one of the most intense trouble-spots of tension, war and conflict in the world. 

The best words for Christmas are from TS Eliot’s marvellous poem, ‘The journey of the Magi.’

This Christmas Day we bring you something a little different, but of concern to consumers none the less.

Context:  G20 summits There have been five G20 leader-summits in the space of two-years.

We consider this message so important that we will repeat the advice we gave in the Pet Corner during the season last year.

I do hope that you will all have a joyous and blessed Christmas Day.