Daily Archive: Friday, November 30, 2018

The Opposition “is sabotaging the country” and “protecting the criminal elements.”

(Jamaica Observer) There is a strong possibility that motorists shopping downtown Kingston this Christmas will have to pay to park on certain streets.

(Trinidad Express) Kes The Band lead vocalist, Kees Dieffenthaller, is resting comfortably at hospital after undergoing surgery on Friday morning, to remove his appendix and he’s thanking fans for their well wishes.

(Trinidad Guardian) A hunt­ing trip in Blan­chisseuse with a group of friends end­ed trag­i­cal­ly for a po­lice­man af­ter he was ac­ci­den­tal­ly shot yes­ter­day.

MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – “Quantico” star Priyanka Chopra and U.S. singer Nick Jonas are to marry this weekend in a two-day ceremony at a venue dubbed India’s most opulent royal palace.

(Reuters) – Marriott International Inc said today that hackers accessed about 500 million records in its Starwood Hotels reservation system in an attack that began four years ago, exposing personal data of customers including some payment card numbers.

APNU Councillor Ubraj Narine is the new Mayor of Georgetown. Narine, who won Constituency One (Kingston East and West, Thomas Lands, Nonpareil Park, Cummingsburg, Alberttown and Queenstown) at the November 12th local polls, was elected when the new councillors of the municipality met today. 

(Trinidad Guardian) More than $45 mil­lion that was sup­posed to go to flood vic­tims in por­tions of North East Trinidad last month was in­stead ob­tained by fraud­sters, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says.

Public Health Minister and People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Chairperson Volda Lawrence is facing scrutiny over a suggestion that party officials elected to public offices should show preference to fellow party members in hiring and the award of contracts.

The Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI) has mounted a legal challenge to government’s takeover of the operations of the bridge and the authority of the Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson to prevent it from instituting increases.

A state-of-the-art mega-farm in the intermediate Savannahs in Region 10 is expected to begin early next year as a Brazilian investment group has signalled their intentions to start a huge three-phase project.

Dr Jan Mangal, former petroleum advisor to President David Granger, has said he advised government against investing in the development of the now shelved onshore oil and gas supply facility at Crab Island, in Region Six, as the proposal did not go through the due diligence needed for the investment, which would have required billions of taxpayers’ dollars.

Four persons who are accused of murdering a Tain mother in February, last year, in her home, were yesterday committed to stand trial in the High Court in Berbice.

The three men who police say were arrested in Georgetown on Monday with two unlicensed pistols and 19 live rounds were yesterday charged and remanded.

Defending ladies’ champions, GBTI GCC began the 2018 edition of the Diamond Mineral Water Indoor Hockey Festival with a crushing win over Saints on Wednesday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hal (CASH). 

The Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) will be collaborating with colleagues overseas regarding a money-laundering probe involving Nalinie Singh, the daughter of former Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) General Manager Jagnarine Singh.

(Field Level Media) Danny Green made a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 2:07 to play in overtime and the Toronto Raptors went on to defeat the visiting Golden State Warriors 131-128 last night.

After a preliminary inquiry before Magistrate Charlyn Artiga, the four men who were charged for the 2016 Black Bush triple murder were yesterday committed to stand trial in the High Court in Berbice.

(Reuters) – Tiger Woods has cleared the air with Patrick Reed in the wake of controversial comments the U.S.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a music producer known as “DJ Khaled” failed to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in initial coin offerings, the U.S.

Republic Bank’s planned acquisition of Scotiabank’s operations in Guyana and eight Caribbean countries is not on the agenda of the upcoming special meeting of the Caribbean Community Heads of Government on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) but Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge expects that it will be raised in caucus.

A 52-year-old Kildonan man was yesterday committed to stand trial in the High Court in Berbice for the murder of his 82-year-old father.

It will be the return of the ‘Ghost of Christmases Past’, as the Kashif and Shanghai Organization, will coordinate the inaugural ExxonMobil International Futsal Festival.

Seemingly seeking to heed  the persistent warning that Guyana should not allow the advent of oil and gas to result in a neglect, or worse, a wholescale abandonment of those sectors that have historically sustained the country’s economy, the APNU+AFC coalition administration this week used the presentation of its budgetary proposals for 2019 to set out plans for what it says is “production, transformation and agricultural transformation” which, it is envisaged, will coexist with the historic move with the recovery of ‘first oil’ in 2020.

Weeks after a visiting United States-based Guyanese family was robbed during a restaurant stop in Alberttown, Georgetown, police are still to arrest a suspect.

A 23-year-old Baramita woman has been arrested after her infant son was found by ranks in front of the Baramita Police Station.

(Trinidad Guardian) A for­mer na­tion­al un­der-20 foot­baller was shot dead dur­ing a dri­ve-by shoot­ing in Mal­oney on Wednes­day night.

Two close school friends who first met each other in First Form at Charlestown Secondary School have not only retained their friendship through their teen-age years and into adulthood but have now pooled their resources and their talents to create a business for themselves and jobs for other young people through The Balance, a professional waiter service that appears destined to make a mark in one of the country’s fast-emerging sectors.

A sum of $8.9 billion will be allocated in 2019 to improve the energy sector and GPL will receive $3.6 billion, Finance Minister Winston Jordan said in his national budget presentation on Monday.

Linden’s Deshanna Skeete (U-18) and Shane Haynes (U-20) along with District 3’s Tonya Rollins (U-20) recorded sprint doubles yesterday to spotlight the penultimate day of the Nationals Schools Cycling, Swimming and Track and Field Championships.

For all its challenges associated with weak infrastructure, high investment costs, unfavourable weather and an unpredictable global market, Chief Executive Officer of one of Guyana’s most successful investors in the sector, Nand Persaud and Company, Rajindra Persaud firmly believes that over the long haul the rice industry has been a stayer, a success and that it has proven itself to be very much the front runner in the country’s still highly valued agricultural sector.

LONDON,  CMC – Electrifying all-rounder Jofra Archer will now be eligible to play for his adopted country England in March, 2019, following changes to the eligibility regulations by the England and Wales Cricket Board yesterday.

In recent years Guyana has secured a much greater insight into the economic value of the coconut primarily on account of significantly enhanced awareness of the value of its liquid – coconut water.

The Ministry of Public Security (MoPS)  in a release yesterday said that  the 2 am closing time for night clubs and other places of entertainment will continue to be enforced.

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) is on track to achieving its production target for the second crop this year and possibly exceeding it, according to its Corporate Communications Manager Audreyanna Thomas.

As has been pointed out in our lead story on government’s proposals for the agricultural sector in 2019, there appears to be a deliberate effort to send a message in the 2019 budget proposals that approaching ‘first oil’ will not have the effect of placing agriculture, a sector that has, historically, served the nation well, on the back burner.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former longtime personal lawyer, pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to Congress about a proposed Trump Organization skyscraper in Moscow, prompting the president to lash out at Cohen as a liar and “weak person.”

If the Caribbean is truly keen on significantly increasing its earnings from the region’s tourism sector one way of doing so is through the launch of an aggressive marketing initiative that targets the filling of its thousands of hotel rooms that remain vacant every night, Chief Executive Officer and Director General of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) Frank Comito says.

DHAKA, India, CMC – After losing the first Test to Bangladesh inside three days, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite is urging his troops to stay positive ahead of today’s second and final Test which will be played here at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

The Doobay Medical Centre will today begin facilitating a year-long study to identify and help manage risk factors for several chronic non-communicable diseases among Guyanese.

PARIS,  (Reuters) – UNESCO has declared reggae, the Jamaican music that spread across the world with its calls for social justice, peace and love, to be a global treasure that must be safe-guarded.

In more ways than one The Guyana Shop continues to make its own robust contribution to the growth of Guyana’s agro processing industry.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Michael Clarke has branded a prominent Australian sports journalist a “headline chasing coward” in a rant on social media after the broadcaster linked the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal with cultural failings during his captaincy.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) has embarked on an exercise to remove from the voters’ list the names of persons who have died since 1998.

After three weeks of deliberations, the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the operations of City Hall is set to submit its report to the Local Government Commission (LGC) today.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A human rights law group contracted by the State Department to interview refugees as part of an investigation into atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has found that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that genocide was committed – even though the U.S.

Dear Editor, Scotiabank, the community bank, the indigenous bank, the family bank, the corporate and socially responsible bank.

Dear Editor, SN’s editorial on the ‘Banking Bureaucracy’ (November 23, 2018), could not have been more timely.

(Trinidad Express) A fifty-one-year-old nephew of murdered United States retiree, Yvonne Trumpet-Nicholson is expected to appear before an Arima Magistrate today charged with, “various sexual offences.”

Judging from a news article published in the Stabroek News of Monday, November 26th, 2018 on the inquiry ordered by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) of allegations of sexual harassment leveled against members of the Guyana Football Referees Council (GFRC) it would appear that the #MeToo Movement has finally found some daylight in Guyana.

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday abruptly canceled a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Argentina, registering his disapproval of Russia’s treatment of Ukraine and casting new uncertainty over U.S.-Russian

Chief Executive Officer of GEB Security Services Inc. Maurice Amres has been reappointed to the Board of Directors on the United States-based Council of International Investigators.

Dear Editor, I have been reading, writing and analyzing a lot this year. 

Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three-day period ending Thursday November 29, 2018

(Trinidad Guardian) Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young has an­nounced that the gov­ern­ment has reached an agree­ment with BP and Shell that he says with bring “sig­nif­i­cant” fi­nan­cial ben­e­fits to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, , CMC – Chief Operations Officer of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Pete Russell says he expects that women will eventually be integrated into the “Biggest Party in Sport”.

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Thirteen years ago, a Brazilian general named Augusto Heleno led hundreds of United Nations troops into a Haitian slum to bring a powerful gangster to heel.

Dear Editor, I am having  internet issues in my area : Sand Road.

TORONTO, (Reuters) – Canada’s government is reviewing its diplomatic presence in Cuba, officials said yesterday, after another staff member developed the same mysterious health problems that first began affecting diplomats last year.

BUENOS AIRES,  (Reuters) – Argentina yesterday said it had signed a $1 billion contract with a Chinese state builder for improvements to a rail line that transports raw materials, including the South American country’s main cash crop of soybeans.

KINGSTON, Jamaica,  CMC – Head coach of the Jamaica Scorpions Robert Samuels believes his team can deliver a much better showing in this year’s  Regional Four-Day Competition, once his fast bowlers deliver more consistent performances.

Stock market updates

It is now an all too familiar dance: The City of Georgetown employs waste disposal firms to collect the City’s garbage, the City winds up owing enormous sums to these firms, who then switch partners and call on Central Government to join the dance, and after being sufficiently appeased by government payments, these firms return to the welcoming arms of the City Council.

Dear Editor, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo overstepped his authority when he announced the Government’s commitment to “giving teeth” to the CCJ’s ruling that in Guyana, men are free to disguise themselves as women, and women are free to disguise themselves as men in public.

(Barbados Nation) Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Cleviston Haynes has described the acquisition of Scotiabank’s operations in several Caribbean countries by Republic Bank, as “a slightly unfortunate development for the region”. 

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The U.S. Army is investing millions of dollars in experimental exoskeleton technology to make soldiers stronger and more resilient, in what experts say is part of a broader push into advanced gear to equip a new generation of “super-soldiers.”

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – India had a useful outing on the second day of their only warm-up match before the test series against Australia with five of their batsmen hitting half centuries on Thursday against a Cricket Australia XI.

Have a “cautious” Christmas (Again, I leave Crime, Corruption, Cricket, Traffic Accidents, LGE and the Budget to others.)

Two years ago, almost to the day, Finance Minister Winston Jordan told Guyanese in his 2017 budget presentation that it was the intention of the Government to preside over the full and effective implementation  of the provision in the Small Business Act allowing for small businesses to have access to 20% of state contracts which are within their competence to execute.  If it did not appear at the time that the announcement was a breakthrough opportunity for the private sector it would have become evident upon more prolonged reflection that the full and effective implementation of the 20% allocation to small businesses could allow them access to multi-million dollar employment opportunities  that would trigger significant growth in employment, accelerated expansion of previously struggling small enterprises in various sectors and a division of labour that would assign jobs to businesses best suited to executing them.