Daily Archive: Friday, January 14, 2022

Prime Minister Mark Phillips has shut down the five dual-fuel power generating sets at GPL’s Garden of Eden power plant, to prevent a looming disaster, the Department of Public Information (DPI) said this evening.

The Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) today expressed concerns that the absence of the Director from the Food and Drug Department may have had negative consequences on its ability to function.

The Ministry of Health today said that as of January 13th, 2022, six more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.

The police constable who allegedly shot and killed Essequibo businessman Orin Boston months at his home last year was today charged with manslaughter and granted $1 million bail.

The Guyana Police Force is investigating the death of a Diamond Housing Scheme man, who was impaled on Thursday at Falcon Drive, Industrial Site, Eccles, East Bank Demerara.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office apologised to Queen Elizabeth today after it emerged that staff had partied late into the night in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, at a time when mixing indoors was banned.

KYIV/MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Ukraine was hit by a massive cyberattack warning its citizens to “be afraid and expect the worst”, and Russia, which has massed more than 100,000 troops on its neighbour’s frontier, released TV pictures today of more forces deploying in a drill.

MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic today asked an Australian court to block his deportation ahead of the Australian Open after the government cancelled his visa for the second time over COVID-19 entry regulations.

The Private Sector Com-mission (PSC)  yesterday defended Guyana’s local content law and castigated a little known regional business body for suggesting that the legislation might contravene the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) which underpins CARICOM.

The opposition PNCR yesterday called on the government to take measures to restrain the rise in the cost of living including the introduction of “temporary price ceilings” and “consumer food subsidies” On Tuesday, President Irfaan Ali, while explaining the reasons behind steadily rising food prices, had frowned upon the idea of implementing price control measures as a cushioning mechanism.

A young mother who was denied access to deliver her baby at a private hospital yesterday gave birth in a taxi outside the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s (GPHC) Accident and Emergency Unit. 

Fire Chief Kalamadeen Edoo, who is at the centre of an investigation into a number of financial malpractices at the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) headquarters will be proceeding on pre-retirement leave.

The West Indies Under-19 team is set to open its 2022 World Cup campaign against Australia  today at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence.

Such doubts as may exist regarding Guyana having arrived in ‘big league’ insofar as future global oil recovery projections are concerned are continually being dispelled by highly respected world-class analysts in the industry who see the country’s vast reserves becoming, increasingly, to focus of high profile recovery pursuits in the period ahead.

Last week’s confirmation that ExxonMobil’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods will travel to Guyana to attend next month’s International Energy Conference and EXPO Guyana 2022 places the country in the international oil and gas spotlight in a manner that comes close to equalling the international response to the May 2015 announcement by the global energy powerhouse that it had accessed several   billions of barrels of recoverable oil in the Stabroek Block, offshore Guyana.

Kaieteur News Publisher Glenn Lall has filed an action against government, challenging its petroleum agreement with Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, CNOOC NEXEN Petroleum Guyana Limited and Hess Guyana Exploration Limited, which he says contains a number of illegalities.

APNU+AFC Member of Parliament, Sherod Duncan was yesterday arrested by the police for allegedly calling the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Information Technology (IT) Manager a ‘jagabat’ and ‘trench crappo’.

It may interest both the farming community here as well as the Government of Guyana to know that Jamaica, a sister CARICOM country with infinitely less physical resources with which to develop a successful agricultural sector continues, through its probe of market intelligence on global agriculture to find and exploit openings on the international fruit and vegetable market which we in Guyana appear unable to access and exploit.

A US$1.4 million Parboiled Rice Factory is among the recent investments undertaken by one of the country’s leading rice millers.

Oil platform contractor, SBM Offshore and the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI) on Tuesday officially launched the Annandale/Friendship Mangrove Restoration Project.

Dear Editor, An internal communication from Mr. Gervase Warner, President and CEO of the Massy group in Trinidad suggests that the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) will be employed to pursue what the Memo claims are the several violations of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas embedded in the recently passed Local Content Act of Guyana.

Dear Editor, In your (SN) September 21 issue, the Bureau of Statistics said price increase was 14% and general living costs was 5.4% for the preceding seven months of 2021.

Close to 1,200 new COVID-19 cases were yesterday reported and active cases have surpassed 8,500.

(Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s attempt to rally Democrats yesterday to alter Senate rules and pass voting-rights laws was stymied, even before he arrived at the U.S.

Evidence of the ever growing food security challenges facing countries in the Caribbean has become even more apparent with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on jobs coupled with the closure of a number of micro and small businesses and the impact of this on a significant number of family incomes.

Dear Editor, Is there credible evidence to explain why fishermen are experiencing low catches?

Republic Bank (Guyana) Limited has mounted a legal challenge against the Trade Union Recognition and Certification Board’s (TURCB) approval of the Guyana Civil Servants and General Workers Union (GCS&GWU) as the representative body of the institution’s non-management employees.

(Trinidad Guardian) Minutes after his wife and child carried food for him, a fish vendor was gunned down on the street in broad daylight yesterday.

One might have taught that one of the consequences of the novel coronavirus and its fallout was that it might have rung alarm bells across the region, galvanizing Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member countries into actions designed to lessen the impact of ensuing rising food prices.

VIENNA/MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Poland’s foreign minister said yesterday that Europe was at risk of plunging into war as Russia said it was not yet giving up on diplomacy but that military experts were preparing options in case tensions over Ukraine could not be defused.

The Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday said that Shemroy Hackett, also known as ‘Dankey’, 27, of Queenstown, Essequibo Coast and Bare Root, East Coast Demerara, is wanted by the police for questioning in relation to the murder of Keyion Devain McLennon.

Beginning last August the Agriculture Department of the St. Ignatius Village Council has been facilitating a Farmers’ Market for Farmers drawn from Central Rupununi, including the villages of – Quarrie, Moco Moco, Kumu, Hiawa, Parishara and St Ignatius, among others.

(Trinidad Guardian) Three men of North Eastern Settlement, Sangre Grande have been shot dead, in what it the country’s first triple-murder for 2022.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses – a policy the conservative justices deemed an improper imposition on the lives and health of many Americans – while endorsing a separate federal vaccine requirement for healthcare facilities.

Dear Editor I wish to express my views on the two bills recently passed in Parliament, the NRF Bill and the Local Content Bill.

Dear Editor, The GAWU finds it necessary to offer a response to Mr.

(Trinidad Express) Government’s decision to lift the ban on open-air pyre cremations for Covid-19 victims is a victory for the Hindu community and the people of Trinidad and Tobago, says Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Secretary General Vijay Maharaj.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a man, whose body was found lying motionless in a Sandy Babb, Kitty, Georgetown yard on Wednesday morning.

Aspiring Guyanese businesswomen seeking to enter into the world of entrepreneurship, particularly those at the lowest end   of the spectrum, are not alone in the barriers and prejudices that they face in a global business environment in which there still exists an overwhelming perception of women as being deficient in their ability to match their male counterparts in pursuit of business success.

AMSTERDAM/LONDON, (Reuters) – The Dutch wing of environmental group Friends of the Earth, which won a landmark court case against Royal Dutch Shell last year, demanded 30 corporations publish plans for big cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in a campaign launched yesterday.

(Trinidad Express) Two more police officers have died as a result of Covid-19.

Dear Editor, Six letters in each name – both ending with ‘on’.

The police are on the hunt for a man who allegedly raped a teenager in September last year.

Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday January 13, 2022

LONDON,  (Reuters) – The Royal Family removed Prince Andrew’s military links and royal patronages yesterday and said he will no longer be known as “His Royal Highness”, as the son of Queen Elizabeth fights a U.S.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Bermuda-based Barbadian police officer Emmerson Carrington says he is “humbled and honoured” after being chosen to officiate at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, which gets underway here today.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 949’s trading results showed consideration of $3,986,403 from 15,782 shares traded in 13 transactions as compared to session 948’s trading results which showed consideration of $4,388,511 from 19,232 shares traded in 5 transactions.

CAPE TOWN, (Reuters) – India’s Rishabh Pant scored a superb unbeaten century but hosts South Africa made major strides towards winning the third and final test, and the series, as they reached the close on 101 for two in pursuit of 212 at Newlands yesterday.

Would one of my late editors describe this lead issue – or my rendition of it – as a meandering “waffle”?

Dear Editor, I had set a ceiling of 300 cases daily as a reasonable level to step out. 

One of two men currently facing charges over the Wallison Enterprise gold heist was placed on a High Court bail of $450,000.

It was not so long ago that any conversation surrounding the oil industry was one that was cloaked in hope.

It is by no means the most uplifting of pursuits to zero in on every seemingly well-intentioned initiative undertaken by government and to shovel criticisms at those without seeking, first, to probe their virtues without passing verdict, one way or another.

Giannis Antetokounmpo notched his third triple-double of the season as the Milwaukee Bucks blew out the visiting Golden State Warriors 118-99 last night to snap a two-game losing streak.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Formula One’s governing body said yesterday it will announce in March, on the eve of the opening race in Bahrain, the outcome of an investigation into last season’s controversial Abu Dhabi finale.

(Reuters) – Japan’s Naomi Osaka, a four-times Grand Slam tennis champion who has helped raise awareness of mental health issues in sport, is the world’s highest-paid female athlete, according to a list published by business magazine Forbes yesterday.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Cricket has a deep-seated problem with racism and public funding should be limited unless the game can prove it is cleaning up its act, a British parliamentary committee said in a report published yesterday.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The popular Party Stand is set to return for the Barbados leg of England’s Twenty20 and Test tour of the Caribbean, but patrons will find themselves facing tight COVID-19 protocols as positive cases here continue to rise.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – Discarded West Indies left-hander Jonathan Carter has been named to lead a Barbados Cricket Association President’s XI in a Twenty20 warm-up against touring England next Wednesday.

(Reuters) – Venezuela has ramped up shipments of gasoline and food to Cuba since November, providing key supplies to one of President Nicolas Maduro’s closest allies, according to documents from Venezuelan state-run oil company PDVSA and Refinitiv Eikon tanker tracking data.

Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double and five teammates scored in double figures as the host New Orleans Pelicans never trailed during a 113-89 rout of the Los Angeles Clippers last night.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Romario Shepherd’s maiden One-Day International half-century went in vain as embattled Ireland stunned a lacklustre West Indies by five wickets under Duckworth-Lewis-Stern here yesterday, to level the three-match series.

Giannis Antetokounmpo notched his third triple-double of the season as the Milwaukee Bucks blew out the visiting Golden State Warriors 118-99 last night to snap a two-game losing streak.

MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – World tennis number one Novak Djokovic took to the court yesterday to practise for the Australian Open as he waited to hear whether Australia will cancel his visa for a second time, threatening his bid for a record 21st major tennis title.

The PNCR is in the midst of a power struggle. Despite the fact that Mr Joe Harmon lost in his attempt to succeed to the leadership of the party, he is still the Leader of the Opposition, a body which encompasses APNU+AFC and Mr Lenox Shuman, who currently occupies the joinder seat in Parliament that is shared with two other parties.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Britain’s domestic spy service MI5 has warned lawmakers that the Chinese Communist Party has been employing a woman to exert improper influence over members of parliament.

Dear Editor, The Irfaan Ali administration must move to immediately repeal the Cybercrime Act of 2018.