Daily Archive: Friday, May 22, 2020

(Barbados Nation) The Royal Barbados Police Force is seeking the assistance of the public in locating a 16-year-old boy.

The National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) today approved the return of 300 Guyanese who are stranded overseas once they test negative for COVID-19.

The St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (SJMH)  has launched a brand new COVID-19 testing and treatment facility at the St.

Washington D.C., May 22, 2020 (PAHO)— The United Kingdom has agreed to contribute 3 million Pounds (USD $3.8 m) to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to help eight countries of the Caribbean – Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and mitigate its impact.

The Department of Energy (DoE) yesterday notified  the Applicants who submitted Expressions of Interest on April 26, 2020, for the “Provision of Marketing Services for Guyana’s Oil Entitlement from the Lisa Destiny FPSO Vessel”, that the preparation of the Shortlist of Firms to be invited to submit full Technical and Financial Proposals will be completed by June 25, 2020.

 (Reuters) – The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which U.S. President Donald Trump says he has been taking and has urged others to use, was tied to increased risk of death in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, according to a large study published in the medical journal Lancet.

 (Reuters) – A flotilla of five tankers carrying Iranian fuel for gasoline-starved Venezuela is approaching the Caribbean, with the first vessel expected to reach the South American country’s waters on Sunday, according to Refinitiv Eikon tracking data.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States today sought to further pressure on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega by imposing another round of sanctions, this time targeting the country’s army chief and finance minister.

SANTIAGO/LIMA,  (Reuters) – Indigenous leaders are calling for help to stop oil companies drilling in the headwaters of the Amazon river in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, warning that encroaching on their homelands would destroy a bulwark against climate change.

KARACHI, Pakistan, (Reuters) – A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane with 99 passengers and crew crashed into a residential area of the city of Karachi today, with many feared dead, officials said.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – The United States called on the World Health Organization (WHO) today to begin work immediately on investigating the source of the novel coronavirus, as well as its handling of the response to the pandemic.

The Cricket West Indies (CWI) funding model for territories and venues is “broken”, according to a report by financial consultants, PKF which has created an uproar in the region and calls for the board to take decisive action.

The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) continues to increase its daily count of processed ballot boxes, managing to complete 88 yesterday and its Chair said those raising claims about irregularities will have to be prove them.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Pulse star and multiple Vogue cover girl, Jeneil Williams, is expecting a baby this summer and, true to form, the supermodel has been the focus of major magazines as they chronicle her journey to motherhood.

After weeks of waiting for positive word, the US-based Carter Center yesterday expressed disappointment at not being able to return and observe the recount of votes from Guyana’s March 2nd general elections and rapped the APNU+AFC government over the shutout.

(Trinidad Express) Hundreds of Trinidad and Tobago nationals stuck on cruise ships are begging to return home.

Although government has announced that it will provide COVID-19 assistance for vulnerable persons and a data collection system is being established, neither the Ministry of Finance nor the executing agency, the Ministry of Social Protection are saying how the programme will be funded.

A 24-year-old rank of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) died at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) yesterday after being involved in an accident on Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, according to the GDF. 

The imposition of more stringent measures by indigenous leaders in their respective communities since the first case of the deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was confirmed in Region Nine has resulted in conflict between village leaders and the Rupununi Miners Association.

(Trinidad Guardian) Ahloy Hunt, brother of People’s National Movement (PNM) former minister of sport and youth affairs Gary Hunt has been selected by the United National Congress (UNC) to contest the St Joseph seat.

Dear Editor, I am perturbed by an article published online via websites and social media platforms as well as in (yesterday’s) edition of the Kaieteur News under the caption, “Justice Singh doesn’t think it’s GECOM’s role to probe claims of anomalies – Commissioner Sase Gunraj.”

(Jamaica Star) When 80-year-old Neville Haughton and other family members were heading back to St James from their farm in Westmoreland on Tuesday, little did they know that it would be the last ride for three of them.

The Private Sector Commission (PSC) says it is heartened by President David Granger’s stated recognition of the recount being necessary to ensure a credible result to the March 2 elections but wishes that he would have assured of his party’s acceptance of the result from that process.

Over 50 farms owned by residents of the indigenous community of Masakenari are currently under water as a result of consistent rainfall leaving affected families with limited food supplies.

Dear Editor, The contents of a Department of Public Information press release titled, NGSA to be  written by July and which was released on May 20, 2020, has left me very alarmed.

When, late in March, the authorities ordered the closure or curtailment of a range of business houses including vending in and around Bourda Market, Cordel Jones, a young one-time journalist, farmer and Bourda Market vegetable vendor, spotted an opportunity to sustain his own business which he thought he could exploit.

Guyana has recorded two new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 127 while the Health Ministry has voiced concern about the spread of the virus in regions One and Seven.

Dear Editor, Can the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) make all the smart and necessary logistical decisions to try to ensure that the national recount exercise, currently ongoing at a snail’s pace, does not exceed the 25 days by a ludicrous number of days?

A Berbice man was yesterday faced with four charges after he fatally struck a New Amsterdam woman along the Fort Canje Public Road on Saturday night.

Even as several reputable international organizations including the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) assert that the ongoing coronavirus ‘plague’ could precipitate a global food crisis, Guyana, up until now, continues to flaunt its reputation as the ‘bread basket’ of the Caribbean by not just continuing to provide more than enough to meet local food needs but also to help meet the needs of sister CARICOM countries as well as more limited markets outside of the region.

Dear Editor, I wanted to respond, belatedly,  to Ms. Thompson’s experiences whilst “shopping black”.

Working through the twin distractions of an as yet undetermined outcome to the country’s March 2 general elections and shortly on the heels of the poll the onset of the coronavirus, Guyana’s Department of Energy appears focused on remaining on even keel with reports earlier this week disclosing that the entity is moving to engage the services of a suite of high-level specialists in various disciplines, part of a process of equipping itself with the skills necessary to ensure that the country’s new found oil and gas resources are effectively managed.

A Number 49 Village resident was discovered dead in his home yesterday morning with a head injury.

Dear Editor, It is hoped that  President Granger is not deliberately setting  the nation up to go through another tiresome academic and legal drawn out interpretation of what he said last Sunday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the small business ventures with which we have established excellent relationships over the past five years or so and which have been the subjects of weekly reports in the Stabroek Business appear to have ‘gone to ground,’ so to speak, that is to say that what used to be the practice of regularly “checking in” with the newspaper has disappeared.

Dear Editor, My attention was drawn to a letter in S/N 20.5.’20

Permission for the seventh commercial passenger flight from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport to Miami Inter-national Airport was granted on Wednesday by the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF).

BENGALURU/LONDON,  (Reuters) – The United States has secured almost a third of the first 1 billion doses planned for AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine by pledging up to $1.2 billion, as world powers scramble for medicines to get their economies back to work.

Dear Editor, I am neither surprised nor astonished that David Hinds would unabashedly construct the narrative that he posited in your letter column (Stabroek News, 2020.05.20, Letters…) and across various other print and electronic media.

HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Hong Kong activists called for a protest march today against Beijing’s plans to impose national security legislation in the semiautonomous city, raising concerns over its freedoms and its status as a global financial hub.

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazil suffered a record of 1,188 daily coronavirus deaths yesterday and is fast approaching Russia to become the world’s No.

Following the Caribbean Exami-nation Council’s decision to allow the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Pro-ficiency Examination (CAPE) exams to be done online in wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Guyana’s students, their parents and teachers are still awaiting word from the Ministry of Education on how they will be administered here.

The nature and impact of the coronavirus on developing countries like Guyana brings into sharp focus the importance of accelerating the growth of the information technology sector in order to better position it to address priority concerns when these arise, Starr Computers Chief Executive Officer, Mike Mohan has told the Stabroek Business.

Dear Editor, The representative refused to sign off the Certificate for Region Two because it registers valid votes, in view of anomalies raised, even though, it is alleged, SORs for the same region  were signed by the same dissenting party. 

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The United States said yesterday it would withdraw from the 35-nation Open Skies treaty allowing unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, the Trump administration’s latest move to pull the country out of a major global treaty.

One of the Caribbean’s most experienced politicians, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, has raised the grim spectre that some small-island developing states – numbered among which are several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries – could simply collapse under what might become the unbearable weight of COVID-19.

The Ministry of Public Health’s Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) is now conducting COVID-19 screening and testing at La Parfaite Harmonie Police Station.

Two more men were yesterday charged with seven armed robberies committed on Corentyne residents, making it a total of six persons that have been charged so far.

ATLANTA,  (Reuters) – The man who videotaped the slaying of an unarmed black man gunned down as he jogged through a suburban neighborhood in Georgia was arrested yesterday as the third white suspect accused of murder in the racially charged case.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Sagicor Group Jamaica Limited took a $5-billion hit on its investment securities, which led to lower profit in the March quarter.

*Prices only represent the average Wholesale Farmgate and Retail Prices at the above mentioned markets and are NOT prices set by the Guyana MArketing Corporation or Ministry of Agriculture.

Dear Editor, “Every dark cloud has a silver lining.” It is more important now to be as strong and optimistic as possible with the challenges presented by Covid-19 and the contentious national elections’ results.

Hopeful of a return to St. Maarten this weekend, a member of the  Guyanese Association is seeking to find other residents of the island in Guyana who may wish to return home.

BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia’s attorney general’s office said yesterday it will issue arrest warrants for 10 mayors for alleged acts of corruption during the country’s two months of coronavirus lockdown.

TAIZ, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – When Jamil al-Saboot and his family were told by a Yemeni aid agency to self-isolate to stop the spread of coronavirus, he knew he would not heed the advice.

(Reuters) – The coronavirus pandemic has stalled young Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas’s burgeoning career but he remains philosophical about the current tennis shutdown.

-The PNC and the USA Guess what friends. I managed to attract robust criticism from anti-PNC folks for referring still to my mantra before last March 02.

If external assessments of Guyana hardly, if ever, fail to make reference to the country’s poverty-related deficiencies, arguably the most powerful boost from which our international image commonly benefits is our ability to feed ourselves and to provide for some of the food needs of other countries, notably our fellow Caribbean Community member countries.

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – The Pakistan Cricket Board is hoping for the best and preparing for the worst as it seeks to mitigate financial setbacks stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, its chief executive, Wasim Khan, has told Reuters.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – As Cricket West Indies (CWI) tries to stay afloat amid financial turbulence exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a cricket legend has suggested that it needs assistance to reduce costs associated with playing the sport in the Caribbean.

Dear Editor,  Over the decades there has been a tendency in Guyana to push up wages even when productivity is falling.

Oliver Clarke of Jamaica, who died on Saturday, was one of the leading figures of the Caribbean media scene.

CAPE TOWN,  (Reuters) – South Africa are optimistic about hosting India for three lucrative Twenty20 Internationals in late August, but are trying to find new dates for their proposed tour to the West Indies.

By Mia Amor Mottley and Didier Trebucq Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are characterised by their exposure to a variety of risks and limited capacity to deal with them when they occur.

(Field Level Media) Raptors Uprising GC remained undefeated, Heat Check Gaming ended their winless start, and Jazz Gaming won their season opener Thursday in NBA 2K League action.

Throughout most of my life and growth as a young woman in Guyana, I was taught to abide by the laws and expectations of the heteronormative patriarchy.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – Australia are a “nine out of 10” chance to host India for a test series in the home summer and could also tour England for limited overs series beforehand, Cricket Australia boss Kevin Roberts said.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Dalton Wint, general secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), says that the organisation is shocked at the news that national defender Adrian Mariappa has contracted COVID-19.

The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) was featured on two international platforms yesterday, with the highlight being an article on the development of the women’s game which was posted on the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) website.

With the Covid-19 pandemic forcing a complete lockdown of the local sporting industry, former Golden Jaguars international and aspiring coach Vurlon Mills, has initiated an online and private training session programme for junior players.

(Field Level Media) Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James is reportedly hosting “safe” workouts with one or two teammates at a time in anticipation of the restart of the 2019-2020 NBA season.

Kitco Market Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday April 23, 2020

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – India’s Ravichandran Ashwin says he will need practice to break the habit of applying saliva to shine the ball, an age-old ploy which faces a potential ban when cricket resumes after the coronavirus shutdown.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – Cricket West Indies (CWI) should soon have a final UK-government approved plan from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) outlining how the Caribbean side can safely go ahead with their summer tour.