Daily Archive: Thursday, May 28, 2020

Ninety ballot boxes from the March 2nd general elections were recounted today at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, according to GECOM Commissioner, Sase Gunraj.

Eleven new COVID-19 cases have been recorded taking the total up to 150.

An accident on the Rupert Craig Highway this morning around 10 involving a Route 44 minibus and a Rav-4 has left a 20-year-old woman dead and two others injured.

MARACAIBO, Venezuela,  (Reuters) – Venezuelans struggling to cope with chronic fuel shortages are jury-rigging vehicles to run on cooking gas cylinders, a practice industrial safety experts describe as dangerous and which has led to at least one explosion.

MONTEVIDEO,  (Reuters) – Leonardo Silveira, a bookstore owner in Montevideo, is hopeful about the future as Uruguay begins a gradual reopening.

(Trinidad Guardian) A 36-year-old man who impersonated a doctor at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital has been jailed for eight months.

(Jamaica Observer) A Jamaican woman stranded in The Bahamas is begging the Government to focus on repatriating nationals stuck in smaller islands across the region as it moves to ramp up its admission of citizens back into the country by air travel next month.

(Jamaica Gleaner) With fresh allegations of a soldier killing a 44-year-old disabled woman in August Town, St Andrew, on Wednesday, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) is coming under the radar after a rise in reports of assault and other criminal conduct.

Steven Sankar is aiming to secure a spot back in the Guyana Jaguars’ feeder programme, the Cricket Guy Inc.,

The Caribbean Regional Table Tennis Federation (CRTTF) will soon make a final pronouncement on the possibility of running off the 2020 edition of the Caribbean mini and pre-cadet table tennis championship in Guyana during August. 

June 16th has been proposed as the deadline for concluding the March 2nd elections process including the declaration of results even as the 25 days for the national recount nears an end with  no decision yet by GECOM on an extension.

While the NHL is preparing to restart its season by leaving off seven of its 31 teams, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wants all of the NBA’s 30 teams to be in action when basketball resumes.

As ExxonMobil yesterday continued to play up its Guyana investments at its virtual Annual Meeting of shareholders, global environmental and human rights organisation, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) called on the company to heed environmental pollution warnings and immediately stop flaring gas here.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach is happy to be back in the swing of things as he prepares for the proposed tour of England starting next month.

Up to yesterday, no new case of COVID-19 was recorded in Guyana, with only one new test conducted between May 26 and 27 and Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Shamdeo Persaud has warned of an “almost runaway” situation here.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – FIFA has signaled it will defend itself against a legal challenge filed by the former executive of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), by filing an entry of appearance in the High Court here on Tuesday.

Former Comptroller of the then Customs and Excise Department, Clarence Chue died yesterday at a city hospital where he had been rushed.

The National Trust of Guyana yesterday announced the passing of architect Lennox J Hernandez.

With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to force to a total lockdown of the local sporting sector, Guyana Football Federation (GFF) General Secretary Ian Alves, revealed that the federation has formed a working group to formulate plans for football’s eventual return.

The Full Court in a ruling earlier this month overturned a decision by Justice Sandil Kissoon after finding that he erred in striking out an affidavit-in-defence in a case which he declared as having no triable issue.

(Reuters) – LeBron James was among a number of high-profile athletes who took to social media to speak out on the death of an unarmed black man seen in a video lying face down in the street while a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

Works to rectify faults at the Mabaruma Solar Farm in Region One (Barima/Waini) are currently being undertaken as the Ministry of Public Infrastructure aims to have it up and running by the end of this month, de facto Minister David Patterson says.

Dear Editor, I write to urge the Medical Council to show leadership and hold the kick-down-the-door-doctors involved in the incident at the Diamond COVID-19 Isolation Facility immediately accountable for their appalling actions.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Chairman of the CARICOM sub-committee on cricket, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, has thrown his support behind the West Indies’ proposed tour of England once all the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are managed.

Dear Editor, Is it in Guyana’s best interests to take ‘associated gas’ to generate electricity, as so enthusiastically advocated by Mr Bynoe and Dr Mangal? 

A man was yesterday remanded for the murder of a security guard whose body was found in Le Repentir Cemetery nearly two weeks ago.

ZRICH, Switzerland, CMC – Suspended president of the Haitian Football Federation (FHF), Yves Jean-Bart, said yesterday that he expects to be exonerated and reinstated at the end of ongoing sexual abuse investigations that triggered FIFA to provisionally ban him from the sport.

Dear Editor, Exxon’s recent and ongoing operational issues that have resulted in gas flaring raises a number of alarms.

Sugar workers attached to the Uitvlugt factory yesterday protested over their hours of work – in light of the COVID-19 curfew – and certain outstanding payments owed to them.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Shashank Manohar is to step down when his term ends this year, the governing body said yesterday.

(BBC) Captain Eoin Morgan says it needs “more time” before Alex Hales returns to the England side, saying he could have “derailed” last year’s World Cup bid.

Dear Editor, The Canadian High Commission in Georgetown, Guyana is the primary channel for communications between the Government of Canada and a legitimate Government of Guyana.

The police are investigating the murder of a Port Kaituma resident who was fatally beaten during an argument on Tuesday night.

Dear Editor, At the risk of public castigation by some uninformed contributors to the letter columns of the media mainly because of their inadequate exposure to conventional learning, permit me to address the issue of fraud as it relates to the Declaration made by Region 4 Returning Officer, C.

ROME, (Reuters) – After weeks of wrangling, with several U-turns on the way, Italy is due to decide today if and when its top-flight Serie A soccer league can resume after the coronavirus stoppage.

Despite having few resources to prevent the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from taking hold in their community, residents of Masakenari, Region Nine, are ensuring that no one crosses over to their side of the Guyana/Brazil border.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on social media companies today, White House officials said after Trump threatened to shut down websites he accused of stifling conservative voices.

Following criticisms by former Petroleum Advisor Jan Mangal about the sloth regarding a proposed natural gas- to-shore project, the government says that it “well advanced” and that there are also plans in the pipeline to engage the Private Sector.

WELLINGTON, (Reuters) – New Zealand Cricket will cut up to 15% of staff and look to shave NZ$6 million ($3.72 million) in operating costs as part of proposals to cope with “challenging” conditions brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, Chief Executive David White has said.

(De Ware Tijd) “We have declined in seats and that is of course not nice.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Premier League soccer clubs yesterday voted unanimously to return to contact training, including tackling, as the English top flight moved a step closer to a resumption after the shutdown caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – Job cuts by U.S. state and local governments whose budgets have been crushed fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and more second-wave layoffs in the private sector likely contributed last week to a 10th straight week of more than 2 million Americans seeking unemployment benefits.

Dear Editor, I can vividly recall a 1986 Sociology lecture at the University of Guyana by Professor Ken Danns in which he said that no matter what party had persuaded him to cast his vote for them, once he got into the voting booth, the X would end up next to the Palm tree (Symbol of the PNC).

Dear Editor, I saw on a tombstone this epitaph: Pause Stranger, when you pass me by, As you are now, so once was I.

‘Even if pre-election and election day processes go well, a flawed vote count or vote tabulation can fatally undermine the integrity and credibility of the electoral process and decrease public confidence and public acceptance of the results’ (Carter Center Disappointed Not to Be Able to Return to Guyana.

SÃO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) – In mid-March, Brazil took what seemed to be a forceful early strike against the coronavirus pandemic.

On Sunday last, this newspaper published in its ‘Women’s Chronicles’ column, the lamentations of a number of parents struggling with getting their children to do schoolwork and grappling with their own lack of ability to teach and to motivate them.

MINNEAPOLIS,  (Reuters) – Protesters clashed with riot police firing tear gas for a second night in Minneapolis yesterday in an outpouring of rage over the death of a black man seen in a widely circulated video growing limp and lifeless as a white officer knelt on his neck.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – The International Cricket Council has told Reuters it is continuing preparations for the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in Australia this year as planned and denied reports yesterday that a decision had been taken to postpone the event.

Dear Editor, I particularly liked aspects of the messages from the United States and Britain for our ‘Independence Day’.

Towards the end of her life, my elderly mother’s favourite musical refrain, was adapted from the classic calypso “Jumbie Jamberee,” and she would ruefully admit, “Nora gal, you done dead already.”