Daily Archive: Friday, January 3, 2020

Former GDF Chief of Staff Mark Phillips has been unanimously endorsed as the PPP/C’s prime ministerial candidate.

(Trinidad Express) A number of explain-your-wealth orders are being prepared as a result of information gathered during the recently conducted currency changeover, as well as through the enhanced monitoring by the Board of Inland Revenue and Financial Investigations Branch (FIB), a source said yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) Pastor Glen Awong of the Transformed Life Ministries (TLM) has been granted $900,000 in bail after appearing before an Arima Magistrate on allegations of kidnapping, false imprisonment and trafficking in persons.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A total of 228 workers departed Jamaica this morning for Canada to participate in the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme (SAWP).

The Director of Prisons, Gladwin Samuels says that an attempt to break out of the Camp Street jail had been discovered today and the two suspected masterminds will be secured at another location.

Bishop Juan Edghill today said that he was standing down as a possible candidate for the prime ministerial candidate for the PPP/C at the upcoming general elections.

Citing the need to preserve press freedom, the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) has called on the Guyana Government to review its current practice of the distribution of official advertising to ensure “neither  Stabroek News or any other media house is adversely affected.”

(Trinidad Express) Sometime around midnight, Police Commissioner Gary Griffith went to his Facebook account to comment on the arrest of Transformed Life Ministries pastor Glen Awong who goes court today charged with offences linked to a raid at his compound in Arouca three months ago.

(Trinidad Express) Police officers swooped down on Gulf View and searched the residence of the children of pastor Vinworth Anthony Dayal yesterday afternoon.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Oil prices jumped more than $3 today after a U.S.

BAGHDAD,  (Reuters) – Iran threatened today to hit back hard after a U.S.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Residents of Catadupa District in St James are challenging claims by the police that 19-year-old Daveen Powell, a labourer from the same community, was killed in a shoot-out with lawmen yesterday morning.

(Jamaica Star) Perhaps in the next couple of decades, when entertainment industry players gather to regale each other with anecdotes from their musical crypt, one will probably say, “Remember the December when Gussie los’ him $170,000 and a security guard find it and gi him back?”

The Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) yesterday confirmed that sugar production for 2019 had fallen below 100,000 tonnes and it acknowledged that there had been “major” mechanical failures at the Albion and Uitvlugt factories.

Separate fines of $1,000,066 (approximately US$5,000) will be levied against Spanish oil company Repsol and United Kingdom-headquartered Volaris Drilling for the recent mud-spill which occurred offshore in the Kanuku Block, Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Dr.

A 60-year-old painter died on Wednesday morning after suffering grisly injuries as a result of losing control of his motorcycle along the Montrose Public Road, on the East Coast of Demerara.

Five persons have been arrested in connection with the recent murders at the Corentyne hotel where the owner and a guard were found dead.

Britain’s Telegraph newspaper has listed Guyana as the number one country to visit out of a list of 20 countries to visit this year.

The year 2019 saw the passing of many notable sons and daughters of Guyana’s soil.

In a year when the growth of the small business sector was inhibited by several constraints, not least the scarcity of material resources for the growth of emerging enterprises, limited access to technology and training necessary for the qualitative enhancement of the manufacturing sector, limited access to opportunities to expose products to overseas markets and limitations associated with the ability of some businesses to produce the volumes necessary to generate meaningful returns, the Stabroek Business wishes to pay tribute to those state-run and private sector entities which, in its opinion demonstrated genuine and sustained interest on the small business sector.

The UK‘s Tullow Oil plc yesterday announced that the Carapa-1 exploration well, drilled on the Repsol-operated Kanuku licence offshore Guyana, has encountered approximately four metres of net oil pay based on preliminary interpretation but that this is below pre-drill estimates.

While there is little doubt there are now clear signs of an emerging potentially lucrative oil and gas industry in Guyana, there exists, equally, a clear danger that the sector could pose what might well be the stiffest challenge yet to workers’ rights at a time when the focus among those entities, both local and foreign, involved in the sector will be maximizing their returns from the industry.

A Berbice man, who was on trial at the High Court in Berbice for raping a minor in April, was earlier this week sentenced to 20 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of the crime by a jury.

Even as Guyana readies itself to make the requisite adjustments to its economy to better streamline its engagements with investment-keen external businesses, the country still ranks a disappointing 134th out of 190 surveyed in terms of ease of doing business, the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 says.

The commencement by ExxonMobil less than a fortnight ago of oil recovery from what is now firmly categorized as a “world class” oil find inside its Stabroek Block, while promising to yield lucrative medium to long term returns, it set to bring even quicker returns to the global standing of the company as a world super major.

A teen was remanded to the Juvenile Holding Centre at Sophia yesterday after being charged with wounding another teen in a skirmish that left one person dead at Port Kaituma.

Dear Editor, In his inaugural statement, newly-elected President of the Guyana Gold & Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), Andron Alphonso, at the end of November openly challenged miners to use their electoral clout to determine the result of the next election.

Young and successful Berbice business owner Javed Raffik has been making gains in one of the largest industries in Guyana, the hardware business, since 2015, setting the pace for young entrepreneurs looking to start their own businesses as well. 

Dear Editor, Caribbean Airlines has taken note of the article appearing in the Guyana Chronicle newspaper on December 31, 2019.

Hello there Stabroek News readers and friends. Welcome to this SN feature which first appeared during 1997 Elections Campaign.

The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) stunned Fruta Conquerors 1-0 to lift the GFF Super 16 Championship on Wednesday at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground, Bourda.

After not placing any state ads with Stabroek News (SN) for the month of October and placing a small number in November, the Department of Public Information (DPI) increased its allocation to the newspaper in December.

Friendship was crowned the inaugural 592 Beer Inter-Village Football Champion, defeating Golden Grove by a 1-0 scoreline on Wednesday at the Golden Grove Community Centre, ground.

Dear Editor, For the longest while, cell phone customers in the North Rupununi have been getting the proverbial “shaft” when it comes to GTT’s mobile data service.

With the advent of the production of oil now set to place Guyana on a significantly improved footing in terms of the availability of resources to strengthen the country’s economic sectors, President David Granger has said that this year, if re-elected, government will be moving to ease the woes of the country’s manufacturing sector by providing it with an improved level of reliability in the electricity sector and the expansion of generation of electricity from sustainable sources.

BATEMAN’S BAY, Australia/Sydney (Reuters) – The Australian navy yesterday began the evacuations of some of the thousands of people stranded on the east coast of the fire-ravaged country as a searing weather front was set to whip up more blazes across the states of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW).

Three persons suffered injuries about their bodies during the wee hours of Wednesday morning after their vehicle turned turtle and slammed into a utility pole along the Crabwood Creek Public Road. 

While the 2010’s will be remembered as the decade in which the global 1% of humanity accumulated “unfathomable wealth,” it was, simultaneously, perhaps the best decade yet in terms of poverty alleviation, according to a Brookings Institute survey.

Dear Editor, The Working People’s Alliance wishes all Guyanese a happy and prosperous New Year.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States imposed sanctions yesterday on Cuba’s defense minister, accusing him of human rights violations and supporting socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Leon Johnson’s XI trail Anthony Adams’ XI by 159 runs after the close of play on a closely contested first day of the Jaguars’ second three-day warm up match at the National Stadium, Providence yesterday.

BEIRUT/TOKYO,  (Reuters) – Lebanon received an Interpol arrest warrant yesterday for former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn, while Turkey launched an investigation into his daring escape from Japan via Istanbul.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – Fast bowling icon Michael Holding believes only the sheer genius of Sir Vivian Richards prevented Gordon Greenidge from becoming the quintessential batsman of his generation.

Change Guyana Leader Robert Badal has flayed President David Granger over his New Year’s address containing plans for the coalition government if re-elected.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday Januuary 2020 Kitco is a Canadian company that buys and sells precious metals such as gold, copper and silver.

Dear Editor, The January 01, Stabroek News in its article titled `President announces launch of development decade’ referred to caretaker President David Granger New Year’s address.

COPENHAGEN, (Reuters) – Denmark sourced almost half its electricity consumption from wind power last year, a new record boosted by steep cost reductions and improved offshore technology.

The new Guyana Marketing Corporation has agreed to provide us with the above information which we will publish on a weekly basis subject to receipt.

Tucville resident Akeem Morris was sentenced to 18 months in jail yesterday after admitting to using a cutlass to rob a Cuban national, while his co-accused, who denied the charge, was remanded to prison.

(Trinidad Newsday) This year’s first murder victim, Renaldo “Naldo” Chinapoo, 38, was on his way to buy a phone card on Wednesday evening when a man shot and killed him at California in Couva.

Dear Editor, New Year’s greetings to you and your readers. As Basil F.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua,  CMC – Former One-Day International captain Jason Holder has been rested for the first two ODIs of the three-match series against Ireland starting next week, as selectors move to manage his “heavy workload”.

Over the past few months, several incidents of school violence  reached the public.

BAGHDAD,  (Reuters) – Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed early yesterday in an air strike on their convoy at Baghdad airport, an Iraqi militia spokesman told Reuters.

The odds are that the mass of the population, located as it is on the coastland, paid little attention to the observances in relation to the Inter-national Year of Indigenous Languages, which concluded on December 31, 2019.

A $200M technical institute has been completed at Bina Hill, Annai (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and will be inaugurated this month, the Department of Public Information (DPI) said yesterday.

In a matter of less than five years Guyana has ‘graduated from being a poor, underdeveloped country with little in terms of developmental transformation to look to, at least in the near to  medium term, to a country that has captured the attention of the international community on account of what experts have termed a “world class” oil find.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 858’s trading results showed consideration of $50,020,929 from 249,961 shares traded in 17 transactions as compared to session 857’s trading results which showed consideration of $3,523,147 from 13,926 shares traded in 10 transactions.

(Trinidad Guardian) In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing in­to the shoot­ing death of a Mal­oney man just min­utes in­to 2020.

Dear Editor, It is my firm belief that it is important for everyone to be aware of the fact that agriculture is currently the world’s leading employer and plays a vital role in the livelihood of 40% of its population.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – Darren Bravo has been named to lead a Cricket West Indies President’s XI side to face Ireland in a 50-overs warm-up match here starting tomorrow.

Introduction This column should have continued my take on Local Content.

Farmer Nappy’s `Garbage Bag’ at D’Urban Park! January 2020 has just gotten started.