Daily Archive: Wednesday, May 20, 2020

As result of the presence of Covid-19 in Guyana, the Presidential Guard Unit in conformity with the guidelines given by the Ministry of Public Health conducted random testing on ranks within the department. 

ExxonMobil Guyana President Rod Henson will be leaving Guyana in the coming months to take up a new post as Vice President, Wells, for ExxonMobil in Houston, with responsibility for all drilling activities around the world.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – The World Health Organization expressed concern today about the rising number of new coronavirus cases in poor countries, even as many rich nations have begun emerging from lockdown.

BEIJING,  (Reuters) – The city of Wuhan, the original epicentre of China’s coronavirus outbreak, conducted 856,128 tests for the disease on Tuesday, the local health authority said today, compared with 467,847 a day earlier.

 (Reuters) – U.S. immunotherapy company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc today said its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection was shown to produce protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Red Stripe Jamaica and Pepsi Jamaica will be giving away 6,000 cases of beverages, a move that serves not only to give the sellers of liquor the stock to bring back life to their businesses, but also positions the brewery to ramp up sales as customers return to their watering holes.

With the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic still in effect the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) could be played without overseas players.

Following a lengthy hiatus of nearly 16 months, Dwayne Lindie, recent recruit of emerging heavyweight Guyana Police Force (GPF), disclosed that his decision to leave Fruta Conquerors was based on the lack of importance displayed by the Tucville-based club in his football ability.

After adding two workstations, the Guyana Elections Commission was yesterday able to raise its daily total for recounted ballot boxes to 76.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – Virat Kohli’s wide range of shots makes him one of the most versatile batsmen of his era and the India captain says it was a tweak to his stance that brought him a deluge of runs in recent years.

According to PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo there must be a political motive behind a decision by President David Granger to prevent the Carter Center and the International Republican Institute (IRI) from returning to Guyana to observe the recount of votes from the March 2nd general elections.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,  CMC – The ousted executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has turned to the High Court here in its fight against FIFA’s decision to replace it with a normalisation committee.

An M4 rifle and a Tech 9 pistol with an ammunition magazine allegedly destined for Guyana were recently seized at the Miami International Air-port as was more than six pounds of marijuana secreted in cereal boxes, cans of crackers and an iced tea container.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – The chairman of Australia’s professional cricketers’ union has lambasted the national board’s cost-cutting measures in response to the new coronavirus outbreak, saying they could have “disastrous” consequences for the game over the long term.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Nicholas Pooran’s dream of playing Test cricket for West Indies is still very much alive, with the regular in the regional side’s T20I and ODI squads saying he is ready and just waiting for the call-up.

Former presidential advisor on petroleum Jan Mangal has expressed shock that ExxonMobil has flared over 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas offshore and said that he had insisted in 2018 that there be no flaring and that gas be brought to shore for electricity, fertilizer and other uses.

Guyana’s confirmed COVID-19 cases are now at 125 as one new case has been recorded based on the latest testing.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, CMC – Grenadian sprinter Bralon Taplin has lost his appeal against a four-year ban for dodging a doping test which means he will miss the Tokyo Olympics if it comes off next year, as well as the next two World Championships.

Even though there are currently over 100 persons currently in self-quarantine in Region Nine, after they were in contact with the region’s first, and thus far only confirmed COVID-19 case, the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) has denied a request by regional authorities to institute a regional lockdown.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – India’s cricket board (BCCI) will wait for more clarity on international travel restrictions before making a call on the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka in July, a top board official told Reuters.

MANCHESTER, England, (Reuters) – Lancashire County Cricket Club are aiming to win the hearts of Indian fans as they look to build on a record-breaking financial year despite the impending impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

US Ambassador to Guyana Sarah-Ann Lynch yesterday took part in a handover ceremony at the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) Headquarters, where cleaning and hygiene supplies were donated in order to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – Matteo Berrettini thinks tennis players should not be put in a position where they have to provide financial aid to fellow professionals and it should be the responsibility of those governing the sport, the Italian world number eight has said.

The family of a West Coast Berbice man are still seeking answers about his mysterious disappearance in August, 2000, and are now pleading with investigators to reopen the case. 

Regardless of how the remainder of the NBA season plays out, the draft lottery is expected to remain unchanged from last year, ESPN reported Monday.

A young boy of Guyanese heritage was reunited with his family in New York last week after he was hospitalised for what is being called a ‘shock syndrome” linked to COVID-19.

(Reuters) – The Premier League said yesterday that six people from three different clubs had tested positive for COVID-19 out of a sample of 748 individuals.

Donald Sheriff, who was recently arrested over the fatal beating of a fellow Berbice resident, was yesterday remanded to prison on a murder charge.

Through a farm-down agreement with Malaysian company, PETRONAS – Petroliam Nasional Berhad (National Petroleum Limited), ExxonMobil has bought some 50 per cent of participating interest in the Suriname offshore Block 52 which is in range of its Guyana’s Stabroek Block offshore oil basin where it has already made 17 discoveries.

(Reuters) – California governor Gavin Newsom cleared a path for the potential return of professional sport in the state, saying on Monday that an early June restart was possible under strict guidelines, including no fans.

(BBC) Up to 24 women’s domestic cricketers will receive a regional retainer to support them financially during the coronavirus pandemic.

As the police probe into the murder of security guard Margaret Dawson widens, investigators have arrested a second suspect and are on the hunt for another, Police Commander of Region 4(A) Phillip Azore confirmed.

Dear Editor, The  articles on the Guyana elections that have been published recently in the Jamaican press  are not very helpful. 

Guyana currently has an adequate supply of testing kits but plans are underway to bring approximately 10,000 more into the country in early June, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) representative to Guyana Dr.

(BBC) Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi returned to limited training yesterday following his arrest in the early hours of Sunday.

Dear Editor After 50 years, can the PPP and the PNC be relied on to solve the constitutional and electoral problems they have created and sustained?

RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – Brazilian football could restart at the end of June, the secretary general of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) told Reuters yesterday – even though the number of coronavirus cases is still rising in South America’s hardest-hit nation.

The Palms Geriatric Home has recorded six positive COVID-19 cases, including a staff member.

Dear Editor, Donkeys kill more people each year than Great White Sharks; yet humans harbour little fear of the neighbourhood jackass while we enter every ocean with trepidation and for older persons, the theme song to Jaws humming in our heads, a symphony playing ‘ode to irrational fear’. 

RIO DE JANEIRO,  (Reuters) – Brazil’s daily death toll from the new coronavirus jumped to a record 1,179 yesterday as President Jair Bolsonaro doubled down on chloroquine as a possible remedy and U.S.

WASHINGTON/OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – The United States, Mexico and Canada said yesterday they would extend a ban on non-essential cross-border travel by another 30 days to help fight the coronavirus.

Having played pivotal roles in observing Guyana’s controversial March 2nd general elections, the Organisation of American States (OAS) and CARICOM are preparing to monitor Suriname’s general elections on May 25th.

(Reuters) – La Liga will use a video analysis programme to help it determine if a player is likely to have infected a team mate or opponent if they test positive for the coronavirus once the season re-starts, according to a draft protocol drawn up by the league.

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has launched an investigation into a video posted on Facebook during the weekend in which a locally-based Guyanese woman made “racially insensitive” remarks about persons of another ethnicity.

Dear Editor, I have differed from much of the commentary and analysis of the current political impasse in Guyana which have tended to confine the issue to a problem electoral democracy.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Royal Carib-bean’s Adventure of the Seas with some 1,044 Jamaican ship workers on board has arrived at the Falmouth Pier in Trelawny.

In an effort to help mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic faced by many Guyanese, the Rural Affairs Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has launched an initiative to get persons to start their own kitchen gardens.

(Reuters) – West Indies skipper Jason Holder says he will not force his team mates to travel to England for a three-test series delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dear Editor, As if the global pandemic Covid-19 is not enough to do battle with, Guyanese have to fight tooth and nail to get the Guyana Elections Commission to declare the results of an elections held 77 days ago which in itself is a major failure of the Chairperson and her commissioners.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Chinese hackers are suspected of accessing email and travel details of about nine million easyJet customers, said two sources familiar with the investigation into a cyberattack disclosed by the British airline yesterday.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) probe into the fuel spill at the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Kingston Power Complex is ongoing and the company has given its assurance to the environmental agency that all efforts are being made to clean up the spill.

(Trinidad Guardian) US Ambassador Joseph Mondello has issued a statement saying that he has spoken to National Security Minister Stuart Young about the visit of the Venezuelan Vice-President’s visit to this country.

By Shlomo Ben-Ami TEL AVIV – The COVID-19 crisis has become the latest front in the escalating clash of ideologies that has become a central feature of geopolitics in recent years.

So long as our two large ethnic parties are able to manipulate elections to win over 50% of the votes, even the limited improvement in political accountability our kinds of societies can gain from developing into multiethnic societies, where governments arise out of ethnic group compromise, is lost.

During the course of last week, Cricket West Indies (CWI) President Ricky Skerritt must have felt that the annual hurricane winds and accompanying rains had arrived two weeks ahead of schedule.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Andrea Campbell, portfolio director of the health promotion and prevention unit at the National Family Planning Board, says the islandwide nightly curfews and stay-at-home orders implemented under COVID-19 could produce an alarming increase in the number of unplanned children in the next 12 months.

Dear Editor, I am told by informed sources that APNU employed the Crosby Textor political consultancy until they ran out of money to pay them.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Oil companies may be facing uncertainty as the coronavirus pandemic triggers a collapse in demand for their products, but auto makers are betting the crisis will help accelerate an electric future.