Daily Archive: Wednesday, August 24, 2011

PORT OF SPAIN,  (Reuters) – Authorities rounded up  nearly 120 people in Trinidad and Tobago after imposing  emergency rule on the oil-rich Caribbean nation this week to  halt a spike in violent crime.

 Assistant Commissioner Steve Merai is cooperating with local investigators probing the alleged ties between members of the Guyana Police Force hierarchy and the drug trade, police said in a statement today.

  A Bartica woman was killed on Tuesday night and police arrested the suspect today.

BENGHAZI, Libya,  (Reuters) – A $1.3 million bounty  and an amnesty awaits anyone who hands over Muammar Gaddafi,  alive or dead, Libya’s rebel council said today.

(Trinidad Guardian)  Former West Indies fast bowler and current analyst Michael Holding says that he rates Brian Lara as a technically better player than Sachin Tendulkar. Speaking

(Trinidad Guardian) Media magnate Ken Gordon said a state of emergency in T&T was long overdue.

(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday that criminal activity had ground to almost zero since the limited state of emergency was declared on Sunday night.

As a result of the curfew imposed in Trinidad and Tobago, Caribbean Airlines Limited has said that all of its flights continue to operate on their regular schedule.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – England steamrolled India with a  consistent and ruthless display in the recently concluded 4-0  series whitewash but the tourists’ meek surrender of the number  one test ranking was primarily their own doing.

The Leader of The United Force, Valerie Garrido-Lowe has asked the party’s former Leader Manzoor Nadir to give up the seat he currently holds in Parliament.

(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO — On Monday, City Entertainment of which entrepreneur Oemar Chiragally is President-Director, received a presidential resolution informing him that the license of the casino has again been revoked.

A drinking spree yesterday afternoon ended tragically, after a woman was stabbed to the heart allegedly by her reputed husband of less than a year.

The Phoenix Recovery Project (PRP) recently launched a Street-Based Intervention programme that offers meals to drug addicts living on the streets while also providing first line treatment, including making referrals for them to get medical help.

Chutney singer Mahendra Ramkellawan was today acquitted of a charge that he assaulted his wife, after she refused to proceed with the complaint.

Residents on the East Coast and West Bank of Demerara yesterday viewed a rare weather phenomenon in the form of  waterspouts in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Guyana Defence Force has denied claims that it tortured one of its ranks by stripping, beating and forcing him to lie on a “wet concrete floor while in custody at army headquarters, Camp Ayanganna.”

Ryan Lewis yesterday testified that moments after he and his wife responded to screams coming from a Den Amstel, West Coast Demerara home, they were attacked by murder accused Dwayne Jordan, who was armed with a hatchet and a knife.

Gavin Joseph, who is alleged to have shot his wife at their Prashad Nagar home on August 12, is to be formally arraigned on a charge of firing a loaded weapon.

Recalled national coach of Guyana Jamaal Shabazz yesterday referred to former Caribbean Football Union (CFU) president and FIFA vice president Austin ‘Jack’ Warner’s contribution to football as yeoman but said since he was no longer in football now was not the time for emerging leaders to cower.

The National Insurance Scheme (NIS) on Monday commissioned a $69M reconstructed office in Corriverton, Region 6, that is expected to improve the quality of services being offered to NIS clientele in that region, a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release said.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Four uncapped players have been called up to a new-look West Indies 14-man squad for the Twenty20 doubleheader against England next month, with selectors also including the enigmatic Dwayne Smith for the trip.

Joseph McPherson was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for the murder of his wife, Fiona Fraser-McPherson, after he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) says it is concerned about the loss of lives in Libya as the Colonel Muammar Gaddafi government battles rebel forces seeking to end his more than four decades in power.

Attorney-at-Law Anil Nandalall questioned yesterday why lawyers in the past had never reviewed the legality of the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB), a day after Chief Justice Ian Chang ruled that the organisation was not a legal entity.

Guyanese Francis Vieira, a pilot of the now-defunct luxury charter company Platinum Jet Management, was on Monday sentenced to six months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to defraud charter customers and brokers using interstate wires and to impede and obstruct the FAA, a release from the Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey has said.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Darren Sammy was yesterday re-appointed West Indies captain until year end, ending speculation over the 27-year-old St Lucian’s role in the regional side.

A Trans Guyana Airways (TGA) Cessna Caravan careened off the runway at the Mabaruma airstrip in Region One yesterday morning after the aircraft suffered an apparent brake failure.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Estranged West Indies opener Chris Gayle met with West Indies Cricket Board chief executive Ernest Hilaire in Antigua yesterday, in yet another attempt to thrash out lingering issues that have kept the Jamaican opener out of the regional squad.

Chief Executive Officer, Dr Dindial Permaul and two senior veterinarians of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) conducted an unannounced inspection of several hatcheries along the East Bank Demerara and Soesdyke on Monday following complaints of poor quality chicks.

As the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) yesterday announced its squad for the hastily arranged Twenty20s versus England next month, the rationale behind the selection of some players, just as it was during the 2011 home season versus Pakistan and India, continues to baffle.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Yaroslav Rybakov will not defend  his world high jump title because of a foot injury, the Russian  said yesterday.

The Craig Milne/Victoria pump station which was rehabilitated at a cost of $61M by contractor Harrychand Tulsi was commissioned on Monday afternoon by Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported.

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – Sports performance psychologist Jocelyne Brooks will work with the West Indies women’s side during a training camp here in the build-up to the Pakistan series.

Dear Editor, Permit me to assist the readership to have a clearer understanding of my call “for the establishment of a Foreign Investment Commission that will monitor all investors in the country and determine whether the investment is needed or not, and could serve as a long-term solution to companies not fulfilling their promises” (‘Lewis calls for body to monitor foreign investment‘ SN, July 24). 

After being stranded in the city due to damage to his boat engine, toshao of Kurutuku, Solomon Lewis was further inconvenienced after someone stole the vessel.

LONDON, (Reuters) – India’s Sachin Tendulkar and  Jacques Kallis of South Africa are the only players to have  amassed 40 test centuries and former England opener John Edrich  believes Alastair Cook has all the tools to join the pair at the  top of the batting tree.

Dear Editor, Less than one mile from Lethem along the South Rupununi road there are a number of vehicles stuck in some mud holes.

The suspect in the murder of miner Rafel Khan is yet to be captured by police.

Dear Editor,This year on May 13, the World Health Organisation (WHO) launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety, and we had our local launch with the usual speeches and blabbering about what government is doing, but we never heard about what they are not doing, which are the things usually required to ensure success in programmes and policies.

The François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, which has provided support services to seven of the nine HIV care and treatment sites throughout Guyana, will end its activities here at the end of next month.

SIERRA NEVADA, Spain, (Reuters) – British  sprinter Mark Cavendish pulled out of the Tour of Spain with  around 60 kms remaining in yesterday’s fourth stage.

Dear Editor, While I was reading the article ‘GPL spends additional US$8M on fuel for first half of 2011‘ in  Kaieteur News the GPL workers were busy disconnecting electricity from a number of homes in Betsy Ground, East Canje, and probably elsewhere too.

The Mahaica Mahaicony Abary Development Authority (MMA/ADA) has started construction of a section of the Bellamy canal and is also simultaneously constructing a sea dam from the excavated material.

The Inter Guiana Games (IGG) Trials which is scheduled for this Sunday at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary, will only be for athletes under the age of 19.

A husband and wife accused of assaulting each other appeared yesterday before Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The Texaco Bel Air Service Station yesterday partnered with the Guyana Chess Federation to be the exclusive sponsor of a One Day Rapid Chess Tournament that will be staged this Sunday at the West Demerara Secondary School.

A spire atop the Washington National Cathedral shows damage following an earthquake along the eastern United States yesterday.

Dear Editor, The time has come for a serious investigation into the general affairs of our beloved country, as a result of startling revelations made by Assistant Commission of Police of the Guyana Police Force, Mr Steve Merai.

The search for the five missing Berbice fishermen continued yesterday but without any clues as to their whereabouts or what may have happened to them.

 WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A strong earthquake rattled  the U.S. East Coast yesterday, sending tremors as far as  Canada, damaging well-known buildings in the nation’s capital  and sending scared office workers into the streets. 

St John’s, Antigua – Jamaican all rounder Nkrumah Bonner, who was yesterday named on the West Indies Twenty20 squad for two matches against England has said that his time at the Sagicor High Performance Centre has helped his game significantly.

Dear Editor, I am not surprised at the manner in which the police administration is handling the allegations made by Asst Commissioner Steve Merai, that in my view are very credible, irrespective of past allegations made against Mr Merai.

NASSAU,  (Reuters) – The United States put its  eastern seaboard on alert for Hurricane Irene yesterday, as  the powerful storm barreled up from the Caribbean on a path  that could hit the U.S.

Dear Editor, The AFC party leaders and supporters should not get discouraged by doomsday soothsayers like Cheddi (Joey) Jagan (Jr) who prophesied in a letter “the writing is on the wall for the AFC.”

A 41-year-old man accused of breaking into another’s house and stealing items totalling $159,000 was yesterday remanded to prison when he appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton.

Bridgetown, Barbados – The members West Indies Under-19 squad has assembled in Barbados for a one-week camp as they prepare for a tour of India next month.

Politikles

SAO PAULO,  (Reuters) – A political crisis in Brazil  is starting to careen out of control as new allegations of  graft surface almost daily and President Dilma Rousseff looks  increasingly like a bystander with little ability to keep the  fallout from spreading to the economy.

Dear Editor, On Sunday, August 21 I watched Chris Ram interview Arti Cameron, the beauty queen.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Former IMF chief Dominique  Strauss-Kahn had consensual sex with the hotel maid who accused  him of sexual assault, his defense lawyer said yesterday,  adding that their comparative sizes would have ruled out a  forcible encounter.  

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and the interim Secretary General of the Andean Community (CAN), Adalid Contreras Baspineiro, have reaffirmed the importance for the two organizations to coordinate  efforts to fulfill their respective foundational objectives.

Guyana produced a sub par performance finishing third at the recent Caribbean Table Tennis Championships  held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall but national coach Linden Johnson feels the players could have done better.

The 173rd Emancipation Day celebrations have ended and ACDA and the other African groups should be complimented for successfully implementing the many activities.

NATO planes flying over Tripoli on Monday, guaranteeing the movement of anti-Gaddafi forces as they entered the capital, signalled the sharply reduced security of the Colonel and the imminence  of his regime’s defeat.

A teenager accused of breaking into a woman’s house and stealing her laptop computer was yesterday admitted to bail in the sum of $75,000 when he appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton.

HAVANA,  (Reuters) – Cuban President Raul Castro has  sounded increasingly impatient in recent months with the slow  implementation of his economic reforms, which he publicly  blames mostly on bureaucratic sloth and resistance to change.  

(Trinidad Express) As legal sources raised doubt over the validity of the Emergency Powers Curfew Order 2011 yesterday, the Police Service Commission (PSC) moved to remedy a potential problem by appointing Stephen Williams as acting Police Commissioner.