Daily Archive: Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Amid the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a return home soon seems to be more and more assured for stranded Guyanese cricketers in Trinidad and Tobago.

Eighty-four ballot boxes were recounted today according to GECOM Commissioner Sase Gunraj.

Former Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GEA) Khurshid Sattaur passed away today having battled illness over the past year.

(Jamaica Star) When Nadine Williamson’s four-year-old son was sent by his grandmother to giver her the cell phone because someone wanted to talk to her, he had no idea that her lifeless body was under the sheet.

The Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) today called on the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) to ensure that the Guyana Brazil border remains closed at least for the next three  months or until such time as it is safe to reopen to regular traffic.

CARICOM today expressed condolences on the passing of Guyanese international civil servant Miles Stoby.

In an independence day message to Guyana, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday called on the Guyana Government to respect the wishes of voters as expressed on March 2nd 2020.

(Reuters) – LATAM Airlines Group SA filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection today, becoming the largest carrier to seek an emergency reorganization amid the coronavirus crisis.

MEXICO CITY,  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Costa Rica gave the go-ahead to same-sex marriages today, making it the first country in Central America to do so after a landmark court ruling came into effect at midnight.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Junior minister Douglas Ross resigned from the British government today over the handling of accusations that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s senior adviser had broken the coronavirus lockdown by travelling for help with childcare.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The 200 Jamaicans who arrived via air from New York and Fort Lauderdale on May 13 are accusing the Government of giving preferential treatment to the 1,044 Adventure of the Seas cruise ship workers who have already been processed a mere week after docking in Falmouth.

As Guyana registered its 11th death from COVID-19 yesterday, six more residents of the Palms Geriatric Home have tested positive  and patients have begun occupying the still under-construction sanatorium at the Ocean View Hotel after a shocking incident on Saturday at the Diamond isolation facility where doctors attempted to kick down a door.

Day 21 of the national recount concluded yesterday with a total of 82 ballot boxes being recounted and as the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) falls farther behind its 25-day schedule two more work stations could be added today.

Some Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited customers are once again speaking out about the deduction of significant sums of money from their accounts and unsatisfactory explanations from the bank.

In a video broadcast on its Facebook page yesterday, the governing APNU+AFC coalition yesterday maintained it had won the March 2nd elections even while stating that there was major fraud, prompting a sharp riposte from the opposition PPP. 

The quarantine has kept many athletes confined to home workouts while social distancing and crowd guidelines have continued to leave the fields, turfs and courts bereft of sweat and sweet victory. 

(Trinidad Express) One of the Trinidadians employed with Disney Cruise Line is calling on Minister of National Security Stuart Young to reunite her family after she was allowed to return home yesterday but her husband was not.

A 30-year-old minibus conductor was yesterday found dead after going missing on Sunday when he was swimming with friends at the Unity foreshore, East Coast Demerara (ECD).

(CWI) Members of the West Indies Test team returned to training yesterday at Kensington Oval.

The woman who died on Sunday night after she was struck down by a motor car as she attempted to cross the Chateau Margot, East Coast Demerara Public Road has been identified as a mother of three.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies’ slump in the world Twenty20 rankings is of little concern to head coach Phil Simmons, but believes it can work to his side’s advantage if the T20 World Cup comes off in Australia this October.

A team from the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), yesterday  travelled to Gunns/Masekenari Village in the Konashen District, Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo (Region Nine) to conduct a disaster risk assessment and it handed over 60 food hampers to the Toshao,  Paul Chekema.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – West Indies head coach Phil Simmons has identified fitness as a key component during the ongoing lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and is hopeful the Test squad will be at an acceptable standard of readiness if the proposed tour of England goes ahead.

A Berbice Lance Corporal has been placed under close arrest after he was accused of selling a boat engine which he seized from a Corentyne resident a while ago.

(Trinidad Newsday) Attorney Matthew Gayle wants to know FIFA’s “real motive” behind appointing a normalisation committee to the TT Football Association (TTFA).

PRAGUE, (Reuters) – Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova is happy to finally play tennis again for fans around the world – even if they can only watch on television.

The Ministry of the Presidency (MoTP) has defended the security escort availed to President David Granger saying that it is determined by the Special Protective Service In a statement on Saturday, MoTP was responding to a letter by Kit Nascimento in that day’s edition of the Guyana Times.

(Trinidad Guardian) One of the six Trinidad and Tobago nationals who were on board the Caribbean Princess and allowed to return home on Saturday says she cried when she was welcomed back after being stranded at sea for months.

A woman  was yesterday taken into quarantine from the New Amsterdam Market after it was reported that she was exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19.

Dear Editor, The Observation Report being used in the National Recount was intended to record any findings/ observations relating to the contents of each ballot box. 

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent, CMC – West Indies star Sunil Ambris continued to dominate the inaugural T10 Vincy Premier League, producing once again with both bat and ball to keep his Salt Pond Breakers undefeated here yesterday.

WASHINGTON/BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – The White House yesterday brought forward by two days restrictions on travel to the United States from Brazil as the number of deaths from the new coronavirus in the South American nation surpassed the U.S.

Dear Editor, CXC’s decision to administer CSEC and CAPE Exams in July has been greeted with a barrage of protests from various stakeholders across the region.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – A recommendation banning the use of saliva to shine a cricket ball when the sport resumes after the novel coronavirus shutdown is only a temporary measure, Anil Kumble, the chairman of the International Cricket Council’s Cricket Committee, has said.

A juvenile was on Friday remanded to prison after he was charged with the murder of security guard Margaret Dawson, whose battered body was found in Le Repentir Cemetery two Mondays ago.

CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – Dean Elgar would be willing to become South Africa’s next test captain as speculation about who will replace Faf du Plessis gathers momentum.

PARAMARIBO, (Reuters) – Surinamese President Desi Bouterse, a former military ruler who has dominated the country’s politics in recent decades, was seeking a third term in an election yesterday, about six months after a local court found him guilty of murder in absentia.

Dear Editor, I refer to a letter of Monday, May 25 by Kit Nascimento (`If David Granger’s character and good name is in question he has only himself to blame’) in the Stabroek News.

Junior France, the licensed firearm holder who allegedly shot and killed a 17-year-old miner two Sundays ago at Puruni Landing, Mazaruni River has been charged with murder and remanded to prison.

(Reuters) – The lack of fully professional clubs in the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) has handcuffed the sport in the country, former Scotland manager Gordon Strachan said.

(Trinidad Guardian) In a dark bushy field in New Grant during the wee hours of yesterday morning, four people including two Venezuelans were lined up and shot dead by multiple gunmen.

VALENCIA, Venezuela/CARACAS  (Reuters) – The first of five Iranian tankers carrying fuel to Venezuela has moored at a port serving the El Palito refinery, the oil minister said yesterday, and Refinitiv Eikon data showed a second vessel had entered its waters.

Dear Editor, Greetings from Texila American University! We would like to clarify the information published on 23rd May 2020, in the letter column of your newspaper with the title `Texila has set on-campus exams for June 3rd’.

A miner, who was arrested on Sunday night after the police unearthed a quantity of narcotics in the ceiling of his house, was yesterday released on a sum of $175,000 bail after he was charged.

A 42-year-old labourer was yesterday placed on $75,000 bail after he denied having in his possession a quantity of narcotics on Sunday night.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – The World Health Organization has suspended testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday.

Dear Editor, Can the Guyana Post Office Corporation and the National Insurance Scheme please provide some clarity regarding international mail acceptance/delivery and NIS Life Certificates for pensioners living overseas?

ZURICH, (Reuters) – FIFA have provisionally suspended Haiti’s football federation president Yves Jean-Bart for 90 days while investigations are carried out into claims that he sexually abused young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.

(Reuters) – Former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield has said he is open to facing one-time rival Mike Tyson in a trilogy fight for charity on the condition that Tyson asks for the bout to be set up.

(Reuters) – Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit company aborted its first attempt to launch a rocket into space from the belly of a 747 airplane yesterday, the company said.

Scientists and pharmaceutical companies around the world are hopeful that before long they may find an effective vaccine against COVID-19.  

Dear Editor, The Guyana Water Incorporated wishes to respond to reports of “Repeated disruption of …water supply” at the Diamond Isolation Unit, as is being reported by the Stabroek News in a May 17 article entitled “COVID-19 patients fear poor conditions at Diamond Isolation Unit delaying recovery” and a May 25 article entitled “Doctors attempt to kick down door at Diamond Isolation Facility”.

Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to begin a phased re-opening of parts of the country’s business sector following a period of ‘lockdown’ and outcomes which appear to suggest that significantly restricting the movement of people for a period may have impacted positively on the country’s status insofar as contracting of the Coronavirus and better still, fatalities deriving therefrom, should be noted in Guyana.