Staff Editor

Saying that the rate of armed robberies is alarming, the PNCR today called on the government to implement immediate measures to raise pay so as to attract higher calibre recruits for the Guyana Police Force.

The government procurement website www.eprocure.gov.gy is currently down after being hacked, Press and Publicity Officer at the Office of the President Kwame McCoy says.

A cable from USAID Bridgetown from December 2006 is one of the first on the Caribbean that has been released either by WikiLeaks or the media that have been given full access to the hundreds of thousands of cables leaked by the site.

Two teenagers were found hanging early this morning in an abandoned house at Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara in an apparent suicide pact following refusal of permission to wed.

A new market was commissioned at Port Mourant yesterday. The Government Information Agency said that the new Port Mourant market was constructed at a cost of $102M through a joint initiative of the government, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

Harry Narine Nawbatt will be Guyana’s new High Commissioner to Canada.

KANDY, (Reuters) – West Indies were 244 for five  wickets at the close after persistent rain washed out the third  day of the third and final test against Sri Lanka at Pallakele  Stadium today.

Fugitive Colin Jones was yesterday charged with murdering two of his former gang members and another man and was jailed for eight years on a series of other charges including cultivation of ganja and possession of an unlicensed weapon and ammunition.

The Police today said they are probing a robbery that occurred at around 1.30 am at Engineering Construction Inc, Friendship, EBD where a gang of bandits escaped with a safe containing $472,000 plus other items.

The Carnegie School of Home Economics will be upgraded to a hospitality institute and study is being done by a consultant to map the way forward, the Ministry of Education said in a release yesterday.

The required amount of cane to run the US$185M Skeldon sugar factory at top capacity won’t be available until 2012.

The post office at Meten-meer-Zorg, West Demerara has been repaired. A release from the post office said the entire roof was changed, the fence fixed and the interior repainted.

GWI has sent warning letters to just over 60 customers in Georgetown who are refusing to pay their bills.

ZURICH, (Reuters) – FIFA gave its ultimate recognition  to emerging markets today when they awarded the 2018 and  2022 editions of the prestigious and lucrative World Cup soccer  finals to Russia and Qatar.

Amid a furore caused by a Linden teacher refusing to promote children he deemed as illiterate, Education Minister Shaik Baksh yesterday declared that the automatic promotion policy which aims to stem school drop-outs will remain in force.

NEW DELHI, (Reuters) – If cars and coal are deemed   fine, then so should cricket.

KANDY, Sri Lanka, (Reuters) – Sri Lanka took two   West Indies wickets in the afternoon session before rain   brought play to an early end on the second day of the third   and final test at Pallakele today.

LONDON, (Reuters) – Whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks,  which is causing an international storm over its release of  confidential diplomatic cables, said it would also publish  disclosures from the corporate world.

Alpha United Football Club President Odinga Lumumba today wrote to the Guyana Football Federation accepting the prize money and kit sponsorship that were originally on offer for the popular end-of-year K&S tourney.

President of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association, Fred McWilfred has quit his post citing differences with executives of the body.