Daily Archive: Wednesday, January 16, 2013

(Jamaica Gleaner) Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has described as unacceptable the protracted delays by the Public Defender, Earl Witter, to present the report into the 2010 operations into Tivoli Gardens, West Kingston.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – President Barack Obama proposed a new assault weapons ban and mandatory background checks for all gun buyers today as he tried to channel national outrage over the Newtown school massacre into the biggest U.S.

ALGIERS,  (Reuters) – Islamist militants attacked a gas field in Algeria today, claiming to have kidnapped up to 41 foreigners including seven Americans in a dawn raid in retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali, according to regional media reports.

An Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam woman was this morning murdered, allegedly by her lover of seven years.

(Trinidad Guardian) Criticisms are mounting over plans by National Security Minister Jack Warner to set up five army bases around T&T, immediately after granting powers of arrest to 1,000 precepted soldiers.

(WICB) Castries, St Lucia – Ramnaresh Sarwan is eagerly looking forward to his return to the West Indies for the upcoming limited-overs tour of Australia.

(Barbados Nation) The Barbados economy had a dismal performance in 2012, registering no growth, and the Central Bank is predicting hardly any increased economic activity in the country this year.

Former GuySuCo Director John Bart A.A. has passed away at the age of 79.

Police say that at about 1930h last night, a police rank was walking along Canterbury Walk, Beterverwagting, ECD, when he was attacked by a man who is alleged to be mentally unstable and who was armed with a cutlass and a knife.

ZURICH,  (Reuters) – Organised criminal gangs are targeting around 50 national soccer leagues for possible match-fixing and any country is vulnerable regardless of its record on corruption, according to FIFA head of security Ralf Mutschke.

(Trinidad Express) Tobago’s north coast received a severe pounding from the wee hours of Monday morning, but Toco, Balandra, Sans Souci and Grande Riviere on Trinidad’s north-east coast got their share as well that afternoon and night with powerful waves destroying fishermen’s nets and even claiming a house.

(Trinidad Express) The Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) has begun a probe of People’s National Movement (PNM) member Hilton Sandy’s controversial “Calcutta” statement and has issued a preliminary report on the issue.

LONDON, (Reuters) – A helicopter crashed into a crane on top of one of Europe’s tallest residential blocks in central London today, killing two people as it burst into flames and threw plumes of smoke into the foggy air.

The treacherous spring tides on Monday afternoon are being blamed for the death of a Corentyne fisherman and another is missing and feared dead.

Speaker Raphael Trotman has said acting Chief Justice Ian Chang’s ruling on the move to gag Home Minister Clement Rohee is not binding on him or the National Assembly, but he will file an appeal to further clarify the court’s authority over the legislature.

A massive clean-up was underway yesterday to remove huge amounts of garbage that accumulated along the East Coast of Demerara road between Kitty and Turkeyen, less than 24 hours after spring tides flooded the area.

A man yesterday died after he lost control of his motorcycle and collided with a car on the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh says that he is to have another meeting shortly with Opposition parties to discuss their submissions to him on the 2013 national budget.

Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs has taken issue with what he termed “blame” being cast on him and his staff by Speaker Raphael Trotman over the delivery of amendments to a motion in a timely manner but Speaker says the amendments were “scandalous” and required careful attention.

GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – Jamaica further strengthened their playoff chances when they easily brushed aside a struggling Guyana in the opening game of the St Lucia leg of the Caribbean Twenty20 here last evening.

(Reuters) – Lance Armstrong could be jailed and cycling could be dropped from the Olympics as a result of the disgraced American athlete’s reported admission that he had used performance-enhancing drugs during his racing career.

Kenise Glasgow, on trial for the murder of nine-year-old Christine Sookra, was acquitted yesterday after Justice Roxane George upheld a no-case submission made by his attorney after a voir dire conducted in the High Court yesterday.

Permanent Secretary Leslie Cadogan was on Monday called to explain overpayments by the Health Ministry as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) continued to probe findings of the 2010 Auditor General’s report.

President of the Guyana Table Tennis Association (GTTA) Godfrey Munroe says he believes that the GTTA had a solid year in 2012 pointing to the performances of the senior teams at last year’s Caribbean championships.

Nineteen-year-old Phillip Paul, also known as ‘Shoelace’, of Buxton appeared in the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court on Friday, January 11 2013 to face a charge of murdering Kamall Ramsahoye, the 38-year-old businessman who was found dead in his Droom Street, South Annandale residence.

Rain yesterday severely affected the second round of matches of the Guyana Cricket Board four day Inter County tournament resulting in a total of 44 overs being played in the two scheduled matches.

The heads of the police force, and the fire and prison services have sounded their support for government’s announced reform strategy for the security sector, saying they must be modernised in order to be effective.

Guyana is taking steps to better organize its waste-recycling efforts by building a storage area for recyclables at the country’s largest sanitary landfill at Haags Bosch, East Bank Demerara says Minister in the Ministry of Local Government Norman Whittaker.

ROSEAU, Dominica,  CMC – West Indies Women beat South Africa Women by 22 runs in the fifth and final One-Day International here  yesterday, to complete a remarkable comeback and ensure a 2-2 tie in the series.

Suspended President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Colin Klass will be eligible to run for office at the end of his 26-month suspension says Jeffrey Webb, president of the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF).

Co director of the Kashif and Shanghai football tournament and Organising Secretary of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major sees the recent agreement to end the GFF/Guyana Football Association (GFA) saga as a plus for football and anticipates a resurgence of the Kashif and Shanghai tournament.

A man accused of robbing a woman of a gold chain was yesterday remanded to prison when he appeared before Magistrate Leron Daly at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, on Monday announced plans to establish a National Oversight Committee on the Coconut Industry which, he said, will be responsible for formulating and implementing policies to address the many ailments plaguing Guyana’s industry.

Leading manufacturer and distributor of trophies, The Trophy Stall in Bourda Market is once again donating trophies for a sports event.

A firefighter was yesterday charged with unlawfully assaulting his ex-girlfriend. The allegation against Curtis Pollys is that on December 8, 2012, at Water Street, Georgetown, he unlawfully assaulted Katina Trim.

Jason Heyligar was yesterday fined for unlawfully assaulting a childhood friend, whose music set he hired for a barbecue that did not go as planned.

Dear Editor, A short comment regarding your article about the Chinese forest products developer Bai Shan Lin and their proposed five square kilometre site at Providence East Coast Demerara: For the benefit of the public, all land between Lamaha Street and Mandela Avenue and from High Street to Vlissengen Road measures approximately five square kilometres.

Dear Editor, We have noted, with equal measures of interest and dismay, an ongoing debate in the letter columns and have come to the conclusion that there is a lot of confusion when it comes to human beings and rape.

Sex worker Wesley Holder who was on Friday discovered dead with stab wounds in an open lot behind the Carnegie School of Home Economics will be buried today in his Essequibo hometown.

Dear Editor, I would like to highlight the plight we the residents of Sea-view, Cornelia Ida, West Coast, Demerara have been suffering for about 20 years.

MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Serena Williams refused to let a painful tumble divert her from her quest for a sixth Australian Open title  yesterday as Roger Federer and Andy Murray progressed almost untroubled towards their goals on day two at Melbourne Park.

A mother is searching for her 16-year-old son who went missing on Sunday night following a birthday party in Bel Air, East Coast Demerara.

Minister of Culture, Dr Frank Anthony has proposed that an art fund be established with support from corporate entities, to help it to acquire pieces for exhibitions and market local artists.

Dear Editor, Even as Mr Abu Bakr in his letter (‘The argument in the discussion on rape has been deformed’ SN, January 14) concedes that Swami Aksharananda “was quite correct in insisting that lawless  clothes are not the cause of rape”, he immediately returns to the idea that places rape within the context of “scanty wear” which causes men to become “desensitized” to “flashes of raw flesh.”

A recent check on the progress of the road being built to the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) site by President Donald Ramotar on Monday has highlighted a number of challenges that have to be overcome for its June deadline.

Dear Editor, Ruel Johnson’s letters in Stabroek News on January 5 (‘Is the publication of Ashley Anthony’s work by the Caribbean Press completely kosher?’)

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – Two explosions tore through one of Syria’s biggest universities on the first day of student exams yesterday, killing 83 people and wounding dozens, a monitoring group said.

(Trinidad Guardian) National Security Minister Jack Warner on Monday evening called out all the armed forces to help in the fight against crime, following a four and a half-hour meeting with the top brass of the protective services at his office in Port-of-Spain.

On January 5, 2013, this newspaper printed a letter from Mr Ruel Johnson in which it was alleged that a work authored by the thirteen-year-old daughter of Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr Frank Anthony, and published by the Caribbean Press which falls under his ministry, had been paid for by taxpayer dollars.

HAVANA, (Reuters) – Cuban authorities are scrambling to contain a cholera outbreak that has sickened dozens of people in Havana, the capital city of 2.2 million residents and a popular tourism destination.

COLOMBO, (Reuters) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed a close ally as chief justice yesterday, two days after he controversially sacked the country’s top judge for impeachment despite opposition from the Supreme Court.

Guyanese are marking their calendars for what is expected to be the biggest gospel concert featuring ten-time Grammy award winner CeCe Winans performing live on January 26 at the National Stadium.

Dear Editor, I have grown up hearing that Georgetown was the garden city, but as I aged I wondered about the truth of that statement.

Former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J. Patterson will address this year’s Rotary Club of Georgetown’s World Understanding Dinner.

CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro gave a brief state of the nation address yesterday in place of his ailing boss, Hugo Chavez, who has not been seen in public since going to Cuba for cancer surgery more than a month ago.

Christmas mortgage winner: Hand-in-Hand Trust Corporation recently handed over a prize of $300,000 to the top winner of its Christmas Mortgage Promotion.

SAO PAULO, (Reuters Point Carbon) – Brazil has long boasted about having one of the world’s cleanest energy grids due to its heavy use of hydro power, but a recent threat to its water supply is sending the country to the brink of energy rationing, raising concerns that Brazil will turn to more carbon-intensive energy sources to fuel its growing thirst for energy.

Dear Editor, ‘The T/20 matches were good news’ (SN, Jan 13), was the title of V O Patrick’s letter after so much negative news on or about Guyana.

The Leader of the Opposition has laid a motion in the National Assembly for an inquiry to be held into the criminal violence that took place in Guyana between 2004 and 2010.

ISLAMABAD, (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister yesterday on corruption allegations, ratcheting up pressure on a government that is also facing street protests led by a cleric who has a history of ties to the army.

As the year turned and Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller addressed the people of Jamaica, their main concerns seem to have been to hear from her some indication of when, and on what basis, the now prolonged discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be concluded.

(BBC) India outplayed England   and inflicted  a crushing 127-run defeat to level their five-match one-day series at 1-1 yesterday at Kochi. 

Twelve nights of programmes for Eid Milad un Nabi at the Anna Catherina Islamic Complex (ACIC) for the month of the birth of the Prophet, commenced on January 12 and ends on January 24.

Supervising tide clean-up: Public Works Minister Robeson Benn (top of photo) supervising the clearing of garbage from the Liliendaal pump station yesterday following Monday’s waves which swamped the area and brought rubbish from the seaside.

Dear Editor, “In India a 23-year-old student takes a bus home from a movie and is gang-raped and assaulted so viciously that she dies two weeks later.

(Jamaica Observer) MAY PEN, Clarendon – Two masked gunmen on Monday night invaded the May Pen Hospital and killed a male patient as he slept.

GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago defeated Windward Islands by eight wickets in the 15th game of the Caribbean Twenty20 at the Beausejour Cricket Stadium here Tuesday.

(Barbados Nation) A national strike over the way LIME went about the retrenchment of 97 workers has been averted for the time being following the intervention of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.