Daily Archive: Friday, February 25, 2022

The Ministry of Finance today reminded the general public that there is no ‘Entrepreneurship Development Funds and Grants programme’ being implemented by the Ministry.

(Reuters) – The White House today said the United States would impose sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as Washington looks to ramp up pressure on Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In his Republic Anniversary address on Tuesday, PNCR Leader Aubrey Norton called for the removal of the personal income tax.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man before he fell foul of the Kremlin, said on Friday that only revolution would topple Vladimir Putin, and he expected the Kremlin chief to crack down further on dissent at home after invading Ukraine.

Education Minister Priya Manickchand visited Best Village, West Demerara early this morning as part of a campaign to find children who have been missing from primary schools.

KYIV,  (Reuters) – The Russian and Ukrainian governments today signalled an openness to negotiations even as authorities in Kyiv urged citizens to help defend the capital from advancing Russian forces in the worst European security crisis in decades.

GENEVA, (Reuters) – Fuel, cash and medical supplies are running low in parts of Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, which could drive up to 5 million people to flee abroad, U.N.

BERLIN,  (Reuters) – Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked a “deep rupture in Europe’s history following the end of the Cold War” even as her own legacy comes under fresh scrutiny in light of the assault.

 (Reuters) – Former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko said he would take up arms alongside his brother and fellow Hall of Famer Wladimir Klitschko to fight in what is a “bloody war” following Russia’s invasion of their country Ukraine.

(Trinidad Express) Nicole Moses, the mother of two killed when bandits entered her property in Westmoorings this morning, is being mourned and celebrated as a hero who died in defence of her family and property.

(Trinidad Guardian) A bereaved Marabella family is pleading with police not to let the murder of PH taxi driver Shahmeil Redhead go unsolved after he was gunned down during a job on Wednesday.

While government has pledged to generate new employment opportunities at Enmore, East Coast Demerara, sugar production at the East Demerara Estate (EDE) is over at this point, a source close to the government told Stabroek News yesterday.

The Government of Guyana yesterday said that it is  “gravely concerned” over the recent “military intervention by Russia in violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine”.

With the current cost of production of sugar at Uitvlugt being unsustainable, government is seeking to determine the feasibility of establishing an ethanol plant there as part of diversification and sustainability plans, according to Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) CEO Sasenarine Singh.

A teenager died yesterday morning after crashing into the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL)’s fence on the Diamond Public Road.

A 62-year-old Brazilian national was found dead at his business premises at Eteringbang, Region Seven on Wednesday morning and three Venezuelan nationals were taken into police custody for questioning.

Booted Country Coordinator of the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI), Dr Rudy Jadoopat has been sent on leave ahead of his controversial replacement by former Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana Dr Prem Misir.

The exclusion of the APNU+AFC Parliamentary Opposition from the Republic Day flag-raising ceremony is being blamed on the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport which has remained silent in the face of mounting criticisms.

A man died last evening after he lost control of his vehicle and drove into a truck along the Friendship Public Road, East Bank Demerara (EBD).

A construction worker who was preparing to leave the country after allegedly fatally shooting his daughter’s boyfriend, was yesterday charged with  the man’s murder.

The Lady Jaguars roster has been officially announced by Concacaf ahead of the team’s participation in the 2022 Women’s U20 Championship in the Dominican Republic tomorrow, with three locally born players featuring in the final 18 member squad.

Caribbean nationals can expect to benefit from an estimated 70 percent reduction in roaming charges from as early as the second quarter of this year following Wednesday’s signing of a declaration between Grenada and two major telecommunications providers.

Fresh from her recent visit to Guyana to attend Guyana’s high-profile international oil and gas conference, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley earlier this week provided the media in Barbados with a fulsome briefing on her visit, asserting in her assessment of the visit that the discovery and subsequent recovery of oil offshore Guyana had now made the country a “global player” in the international oil & gas industry.

The Guyana Police Force yesterday stated that a truck driver is in custody assisting with the investigation into the death of a porter who was run over by a truck while travelling on the Yarrowkabra Public Road.

Even as inclement weather conditions at sea pose challenges, search efforts are continuing for the three fishermen who went missing on Saturday after the vessel they were aboard, capsized some 18 miles off the Mahaicony Coast in the Atlantic Ocean.

The fact that Guyana has been ‘out of the blocks’ first in terms of the laying down a definitive ‘marker’ underlining South America’s newly found clout as an oil ‘power,’ all of the portents including those that rely on dependable industry analyses suggest that Suriname is not too far behind.

Dear Editor, In consequence of the discovery of 13.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, some Guyanese dream of Guyana becoming an ‘Abu Dhabi’ of the West; some hail it as the ‘next Singapore,’ while others prefer to be cautiously optimistic and embrace instead the evolution of the ‘One Guyana’ concept.

The Ministry of Health yesterday said that a Region Four man, 62, is the latest COVID-19 fatality.

After being floored by the COVID-19 pandemic, amateur boxing is back on its feet and will make a fighting return tomorrow in the form of the Pepsi Mike Parris National U-16 Boxing tournament.

We first met Vishnu Ramdeen back in 2016 at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre during the staging of Guyana’s first ever Coconut Festival.

Even as micro and small businesses drawn predominantly from the agro-processing, handicraft, fashion, and light manufacturing sectors, express appreciation for the recent product display staged by the Guyana Manufacturing & Services Association (GMSA) to coincide with the last week’s high profile oil & gas forum hosted by the Government of Guyana, participants continue to be concerned that their involvement in events of this kind are seen largely as decorative add-ons rather than initiatives that are planned and executed in a manner that make a meaningful contribution to helping them consolidate their respective entrepreneurial pursuits.

Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha, yesterday declared that the thirteen pumps in Georgetown are fully operational and that the ministry is prepared to allocate additional resources to strengthen the flood response.

Former West Indies batsman, Philo Wallace, has expressed his approval with the selection of Veerasammy Permaul as the front-line spinner in the West Indies Test squad to face England next month while calling on vice-captain, Jermaine Blackwood, to show more responsibility.

Dear Editor, As I write, several sections of Enmore are under water; flat homes are in foot-deep water.

Dear Editor, The Republic Anniversary address to the nation in which the ‘One Guyana’ theme/call was expounded and exhorted and a ten point plan suggested how this can be achieved, rings hollow when major players are sidelined or excluded.

It is not particularly difficult to see why the costs associated with the processes of recovery and post-recovery movement and storage of crude oil is such an astronomically costly exercise.

Finding the 25 years imposed upon him for the unlawful killing of businessman, Ashok Raghoo, to have been appropriate, the Guyana Court of Appeal has affirmed the sentence against Travis McDougall and dismissed his appeal.

Colonel Raul Jerrick was reelected president of the elite league unit, Ann’s Grove United Football Club, when the entity staged its Annual General Meeting and Electoral Congress on February 20.

Seemingly indifferent to the fast expanding global environmental lobby that targets pushing back the production of plastics, international oil companies are reportedly positioning themselves to invest a mammoth US$500 billion in new petrochemical plants to increase production of the commodity.

The NABI\KCL Oilfield Construction Services Guyana will be hosting a job-fair on Saturday, 26th February at ExxonMobil’s Guyana office complex construction site at the Eugene F Correia International Airport, East Coast Demerara, The fair will commence at 10 am and end at 2 pm. 

Dear Editor, “500 (High-paying) Oilfield service jobs for Enmore and environs” this is the positive headline I envisaged when I heard of the Guysons plan for the old packing plant, sadly, there was no such headline and instead this ultra-positive for the people of the area has come in from criticism and questioning from not only the usual nattering nabobs of nihilism but importantly from the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU) who would rather preserve the 30 sugar packing jobs than see those (and 470 others) transition to the lucre of oilfield services.

Eagles dismissed the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) 3-1 when the Demerara Volleyball Association (DVA) Senior Men’s Volleyball League continued on Tuesday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue.

Lloyd Narian who had been accused of the March 2020 murder of Leland Couchman has been freed after High Court Judge Jo-Ann Barlow on Tuesday upheld a no-case submission made on his behalf.

Dear Editor, I awoke this morning to the news of Russia invading Ukraine.

KYIV,  (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed last night to stay in Kyiv as his troops battled Russian invaders who are advancing toward the capital in the biggest attack on a European state since World War Two.

Aims: · To leverage the extractive value chain to generate sustained and inclusive growth through economic   diversification and employment opportunities.

The trial of Kurt Erskine and Lennox Roberts who are accused of the 2015 murder of Regent Multiplex Mall proprietor Ganesh Ramlall, is set to commence on Monday, February 28th, at the High Court in Demerara.

Dear Editor, I read the President’s Mash Day address to the nation, and I reeled. 

Kitco Market Data Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday February 24, 2022

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Joe Biden hit Russia with a wave of sanctions yesterday after Moscow invaded Ukraine, measures that impede Russia’s ability to do business in major currencies along with sanctions against banks and state-owned enterprises.

GASCI (www.gasci.com/telephone Nº 223-6175/6) reports that session 955’s trading results showed consideration of $12,617,759 from 44,512 shares traded in 38 transactions as compared to session 954’s trading results which showed consideration of $13,977,878 from 47,738 shares traded in 48 transactions.

There was no other Security Council meeting like it.  While the members with Russia in the chair met in emergency session to try and avert an invasion of Ukraine, they began to receive messages on their mobile phones that Vladimir Putin had ordered exactly that.

Last week, my column focused on the narrative of the “perfect victim,” a sociocultural belief that is used to rank the validity of the experiences of survivors.

A man was yesterday remanded after a City Court heard that he allegedly beat up his ex-girlfriend.

(Reuters) – Formula One world champion Max Verstappen defended deposed race director Michael Masi yesterday, saying he had been “thrown under the bus” by the FIA in its response to the controversial title-deciding safety car call at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

(Reuters) – Teams at the women’s World Cup in New Zealand will be allowed to field a side with only nine players if their squad is hit by COVID-19, the governing International Cricket Council (ICC) said yesterday.

(Reuters) – Former test wicketkeeper Rod Marsh was rushed to hospital yesterday after suffering a heart attack, sending shockwaves through Australian cricket.

(CMC) – Sports Minister Jonel Powell has hailed St Kitts and Nevis as the ideal sports-tourism destination after Caribbean Premier League organisers measured the economic value of last year’s tournament to the island state at US$88.6 million.

BRASILIA,  (Reuters) – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro scolded his Vice President Hamilton Mourao yesterday for condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said it was not his job to speak about the crisis in eastern Europe.

(Reuters) – South Africa paceman Lungi Ngidi has been ruled out of the second and final test against New Zealand with a back strain, the team said yesterday.

(Reuters) – India maintained their red-hot form after their top order fired to secure a 62-run victory over Sri Lanka in the first Twenty20 International in Lucknow yesterday.

(Reuters) – South Africa paceman Lungi Ngidi has been ruled out of the second and final test against New Zealand with a back strain, the team said yesterday.

Dear Editor, Bill gets semi sad when the time comes to leave his mother’s land (and grandmother’s and great grandmother’s too.200 years in the colony).

Greg Norman fired off an open letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan yesterday, accusing him of “bullying” and asserting that he cannot legally ban players if they join a rival league.

BRUSSELS,  (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin “must and will fail,” top European Union leaders said last night as they agreed new sanctions over his invasion of Ukraine, saying he was trying to bring the continent back to the age of empires and confrontations.

Just who “installed” this government Cde Aubrey? Since the late historian Vere T.

(Reuters) – Alexander Zverev deserved to be expelled from the ATP 500 tournament in Acapulco for his expletive-filled tantrum after a doubles defeat, Rafa Nadal said yesterday, adding that he was sure the German Olympic champion will learn from his mistake.

Back in November last year the government announced that it had created a “working committee” to address the issue of putting in place arrangements for the training of Guyanese in tourism–related disciplines.