Daily Archive: Sunday, April 15, 2012

(Jamaica Gleaner) The police have charged 31-year-old sports coach, Tahir Dudley, with buggery while 48-year-old teacher, Lervan Jones, has been charged with another sexual offence.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The United States Coast Guard says it has captured a speedboat laden with US$43 million worth of cocaine in the Caribbean Sea.

PORT OF SPAIN,  (Reuters) – Australia and West Indies shared the honours on a slow opening day in the second test at Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad today.

Police say that at about 1700h yesterday businessman Khemchand, 72 years, and his wife Lakrajie Khemchand, were in their business place at Anna Catherina, WCD, when they were attacked and robbed by a woman and two men, one of whom was armed with a firearm.

CARTAGENA, Colombia,  (Reuters) – Unprecedented Latin American opposition to U.S. sanctions on communist Cuba left President Barack Obama isolated at the Summit of the Americas today and illustrated Washington’s waning influence in the region.

(Trinidad Guardian) Legspinner Devendra Bishoo walked away with the trophies for International and Test “Cricketer of the Year” while allrounder Stafanie Taylor was named Women’s Cricketer of the Year at the West Indies Players’ Association/First Citizens award ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain, on Friday night.

CARTAGENA, Colombia, (Reuters) – U.S. Secret Service agents and soldiers tasked with protecting President Barack Obama at a summit in Colombia have instead embarrassed the United States by cavorting with prostitutes.

(Jamaica Observer) The Government yesterday sacked one of its special assistants and opened a probe into the role of the secretary/manager of the St James Parish Council in the flag fiasco, as public anger grew over what many have described as a desecration of one of Jamaica’s national symbols at a civic ceremony.

GR taxi driver Balram Jadoonauth called Sanjay died in hospital this morning shortly after he was shot in front of his Campbellville home.

BANNU, Pakistan,  (Reuters) – Dozens of Islamist militants stormed a prison in Pakistan in the dead of night early today and freed nearly 400 inmates, including one on death row for trying to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf, police officials said.

(Barbados Nation) Former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons is promising to reveal “shocking” details of the Government’s refusal to extend his tenure as the island’s top judicial officer two years ago.

(Barbados Nation) The police battle against crime linked to the cash for gold business is heading to Cabinet.

(Barbados Nation) REDjet officials have approached Guyana for financial assistance and are reportedly also in discussion with foreign investors in an effort to get the grounded airline back in the air.

(Trinidad Express) Indra Gangabissoon —the elderly woman who was brutally beaten by thieves three days ago—died at the Port of Spain General Hospital yesterday.

KABUL,  (Reuters) – Gunmen launched multiple attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul today, assaulting Western embassies in the heavily guarded, central diplomatic area and at the parliament in the west, witnesses and officials said.

The  investigating team comprising ranks from the Guyana Police Force and the Jamaican Constabulary Force (JCF) found that Police Commissioner Henry Greene was “highly unprofessional” in his involvement with the woman who has accused him of rape, saying that his behaviour invoked constitutional grounds for removal from office.

The world is endlessly fascinating, countlessly full of interesting people. Once at a party long ago I met a visitor to Guyana who turned out to be an expert on grasshoppers.

The quiet village of Letter Kenny, about seventeen miles from New Amsterdam on the Corentyne coast, has attracted attention because of its swirl-shaped coconut tree which many think is quite phenomenal.

The ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has decided to ignore comments made by the daughter of the party’s founder members in which she urged the party to get back to being a “non-corruptible” party if it sincerely wanted to have Cheddi and Janet Jagan as its living guides as its leaders have proclaimed.

The parliamentary opposition will soon be approaching the Donald Ramotar administration on reducing the 16% Value Added Tax (VAT), saying that while the government may lose revenue, the tax burden on citizens must be lifted.

Commissioner Henry Greene should offer an apology to the nation and resign from his post, according to Alliance For Change (AFC) member Cathy Hughes who joined her voice to those of a number of organisations and individuals calling for the top cop to go.

Although police have identified a suspect in the murder of Craig resident Sita Reddy, who was found with her throat slashed in her home almost three months ago, there is not enough information to arrest him, investigators have told her family.

From Colin Benjamin in Trinidad Michael’s Clarke’s Australian side will go into today’s penultimate test of the Digicel three-test series and 12th edition of Sir Frank Worrell Trophy with the advantage against the home side at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, after their historic win in the opening test at “The Mecca”, Kensington Oval last week.

From Colin Benjamin in Trinidad In the 83-year history of West Indies cricket, fast-bowlers and the West Indies cricket team literally go together like horses and carriages given the large number of highly-skilled fast-men produced by the regional team especially during the much glorified dynasty of 1976-1995 when they seemed to appear almost every day.

Despite the fact that the process for completion of the Lenora synthetic track is taking longer than expected, the track is expected to be finished this year.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The United Nations will send an advance team of observers to Syria today to start monitoring a shaky ceasefire, even as a surge in violence on the ground threatened to derail international efforts to end more than a year of bloodshed.

A suspected police chase ended in a car slamming into two utility poles at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara on Friday night causing a blackout in the area.

 (Reuters) – The Miami Heat were without starters Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem but still feasted on the league’s worst team, handing the Charlotte Bobcats a 15th consecutive loss in a 105-82 home romp on Friday.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The race for the Egyptian presidency took a dramatic turn yesterday when the authorities disqualified front-runners including Hosni Mubarak’s spy chief, a Muslim Brotherhood candidate and a Salafi cleric whose lawyer warned that “a major crisis” was looming.

MICHAEL CLARKE might well be the motivational strategist he is being hailed as back home after Australia’s pulsating victory in the Kensington Oval Test.

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Former Argentine dictator Jorge Rafael Videla has admitted for the first time that the country’s brutal 1976-1983 dictatorship “disappeared” leftist opponents, a euphemism for kidnapped and murdered, and said babies were taken from their parents.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – At their first meeting after a year of sanctions and sabre-rattling over Iran’s nuclear programme, negotiators from Tehran and six world powers said “constructive” talks yesterday meant they would sit down again together next month.

 Introduction In today’s Business Page I conclude the discussion started last week on the announcement by Dr Roger Luncheon that the government has sold the country’s 20% shareholding in the telecommunication company Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company Limited (GT&T) to an unknown Chinese entity.

KINGSTON,  CMC – Left-handed stroke-maker Jonathan Carter was on the verge of a maiden first class century and Barbados were in sight of first innings points but rain had the final say on the second day of the Regional Four-Day final here Saturday.

When I decided to write a weekly column for Stabroek News, some preconceptions were involved. 

Tucville Secondary defeated Queen’s College as 12 goals were scored in yesterday’s lone fixture of the Scotia Bank/Pepsi Schools football tournament played at the Ministry of Education Sports Complex ground on Carifesta Avenue.

The body of 64-year old Claudette Seymour of Lamaha Springs was found floating in a canal, in Lamaha Springs yesterday after she had been missing for a brief period.

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez will not attend this weekend’s hemispheric summit in Colombia and will instead fly straight to Cuba to continue radiation treatment for cancer, his foreign minister said yesterday.

Hat Show

The Attorney General’s Chambers of the Ministry of Legal Affairs on Thursday received a quantity of legal texts valued at more than £2 million from the Guyana United Kingdom Law Association, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said in a press release.

The University of Guyana is claiming that they have overpaid Freddie Kissoon following the termination of his contract and is now asking that he repays more than $77,000.

The stage is all set for the 12th edition of the annual LinWest Games  and a number of the country’s top junior athletes including recent CARIFTA Games bronze medallist Andrea Foster is expected to be on show when the event kicks off at the Blairmont Community Centre ground, West Coast Berbice, starting at 10:30hours.

When I asked Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos about the ongoing US-Latin American spat over Cuba’s absence in the 33-country Summit of the Americas that he will host in Cartagena this weekend, he gave an answer that many civil rights advocates find troublesome.

The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) held its first 15’s trial game at the National Park yesterday in preparation for the Rugby World Cup 2015 NACRA Caribbean Regional Qualifier.

It was scarcely surprising to hear that when Caribbean foreign ministers met in January with their British counterpart the most divisive issue was the UK’s discriminatory tax on travel, Air Passenger Duty.

In last Sunday’s column I repeated the bold assertion, which I had made a year ago that a National Assembly Budget Office is “needed to restore trust in official economic data.” 

LOS ALCAZARES, Spain,  (Reuters) – In an isolated spot on the coast of south-east Spain dotted with characterless golf resorts and sprawling fruit farms, a small group of dedicated women boxers and their male coach are chasing their Olympic dream.

Guyana is hoping to cash in on a variety of opportunities at the 13th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development which begins here today.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – Stylish West Indies left-hander Darren Bravo will be looking to unveil a special innings when he plays his first Test in his homeland, starting here today.

A man is in police custody after he was reportedly captured on a Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera committing an armed robbery on Regent Street.

Isha Husein, the first place winner in the Elegant Category

The Roraima Group of Companies’ Wedding Expo 2012 opened on Friday and was hailed as an opportunity for big businesses to assist in the growth of small start-ups.

Dear Editor, Reform of the electricity supply in Linden was recognized as necessary, and was promulgated in mid-1976 by the then Prime Minister, Linden F S Burnham.

A cagey way to travel

The Brazilian Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris) lives only in South America.

(Trinidad Guardian) Police reports of rape, incest and other sexual offences have gone up by 100 per cent in 2012.

(Jamaica Observer) President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Sir Dennis Byron says he welcomes the move towards unanimity between Jamaica’s main political parties on accepting the regional institution as its final appellate court.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – No one is exactly using the words “reading” and “baboons” in the same sentence, but a study published Thursday comes close.

(Cricinfo) Pune Warriors had only four wins in their entire campaign in 2011, and were expected to struggle again in the absence of their marquee player Yuvraj Singh.

CARTAGENA, Colombia (Reuters) – US President Barack Obama tried yesterday to convince skeptical Latin Americans that Washington has not turned its back on them, but ruled out a drug policy U-turn that some in the region want.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – West Indies captain Darren Sammy expects the Queen’s Park Oval pitch to produce a result but does not believe it will offer a home advantage.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s most lurid political scandal in years could claim yet another victim – the boldness to grasp difficult reforms needed to ward off mounting risks to growth and stability.

Part of the crowd at the Inner Wheel Club’s Hat Show

Dear Editor, We are writing in response to a letter published in Stabroek News, April 5, 2012 (‘A reduction in VAT would not benefit those earning below $40,000 per month…’) written by Mr Khurshid Sattaur, Commissioner General, Guyana Revenue Authority, whose main point was that a reduction in the VAT rate would not benefit “the average Guyanese” because “electricity, cooking gas, bread and flour” along with 100 items commonly referred to as the basket of goods that are usually consumed by “the average Guyanese” are zero-rated.

Guyana’s tourism industry is like a newborn babe compared to those of her Caribbean counterparts.

Dear Editor, What passes for a judicial system in Guyana is badly broken.

We have on different occasions reviewed the masquerade tradition in the Caribbean. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Tensions among some of the world’s leading economies have boiled up over a plan to raise new resources for the International Monetary Fund to contain the euro zone debt crisis, and a quest by emerging economies to win more say in the global lender.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Mobile operator Digicel Jamaica says that about 120 of its local staff or 10 per cent of its workforce could be asked to take-up its ‘voluntary separation programme’ announced Thursday.

Those who have been following the saga of the Tobago Hill ponds would have been afforded a little light relief amid all the earnestness of the Budget debate last week. 

Dear Editor, As a concerned parent/educator I took some time to review and evaluate the Grade Six Assessment Practice Test Papers and was shocked at what I discovered and I thought I should share my observations with you and your readers.

Continued from last week Last week, we spoke about the nutritional effects on the bone structure and formation.

By Emmerson Campbell Top veteran cyclist Robin Persaud led Orville Hinds, Walter Grant–Stewart and Geron Williams in lapping the rest of the field of 29 starters yesterday in the feature 35-lap invitational race staged by national cycling coach Hassan Mohammed and Universal Auto and General Supplies  in an 11-race meet.

Sunday Cartoon

LONDON (Reuters) – Singer Robin Gibb, a founding member of the disco-era hit machine the Bee Gees, is in a coma after contracting pneumonia, his official website said yesterday.

The rickety bridge that links Craig to Grove on the East Bank Demerara