Guyana News

LONDON,  (Reuters) – A British woman who murdered her  former lover in a revenge attack by spiking his curry with  poison was jailed for life yesterday.

A 31-year-old minibus driver was yesterday remanded to jail on the indictable charge of carnal knowledge of a girl under the age of 15.

-softening seen on mining notice President Bharrat Jagdeo and miners are set for a key meeting today on tough new forest protection regulations and the committee which was set up to address the matter has softened it stance on the controversial notice requirement particularly for pork-knockers but key grouses remain.

The Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Khurshid Sattaur has said that effective from Monday, February 8, all commercial goods imported into the country are being examined while the GRA’s cameras are recording.

Over the past three years, the average annual expenditure for the entire government on travel has been $200M, according to Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh who lambasted a claim by the Alliance For Change (AFC) that President Bharrat Jagdeo alone incurred expenses of $1b over two years.

The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) says it is concerned  about  the government’s decision  to establish a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and it also warns against any attempt to force the Guyana Defence Force in a new direction in violation of the constitution.

Media personality Mondale Smith who was charged with unlawfully assaulting a man on January 3 had the charge dismissed after the Virtual Complainant was absent from court yesterday.

A 39-year-old carpenter-mason was yesterday remanded after he pleaded not guilty to stealing items worth a total of $270,000 when he broke and entered the house of Vijay Jagnandan.

A 35-year-old man who appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson was yesterday placed on $75,000 bail for allegedly stealing a $98,000 Blackberry cell phone.

A plantain chip vendor yesterday pleaded not guilty to converting one silver band valued $18,000 to his own use after it was placed in his care for safe keeping.

Last year, visitor arrivals to Guyana increased by nine per cent totalling 141,281 persons — the highest in the country’s history, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh said.

– but industrial action of that magnitude unlikely again Ten years after Guyana suffered its worst public service strike in more than 40 years, many of the issues fought for remain unresolved, but the high level of disenchantment with the 57-day industrial action has made the likelihood of a recurrence slim.

Striking part-time Government Technical Institute (GTI) lecturers and technicians last evening agreed to return to work next Monday after another meeting with chairman of the institute’s board, Norman McLean who assured them that they would hear from Minister of Education Shaik Baksh by month-end.

CLICO (Guyana) will plead its case before High Court judge Justice Diana Insanally later this month when the constitutional writ it filed blocking a final ruling on the wind-up of the company is set for a hearing.

The Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) has reiterated that it expects the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) to hold a public enquiry following its January 4 complaint about “discrimination meted out to Bauxite Company Guyana Inc.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Four weeks after an  earthquake shattered its capital, Haiti remains in a precarious  situation with no clear idea of how to house 1 million people  living in the streets, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said  yesterday.

-says cops had nine months to grill him on Waddell, Allison The lawyer representing, ex policeman Lloyd Roberts says that the police’s decision to arrest his client minutes after two murder matters were discharged against him is unfair and is a “bad habit” that has been developed.

CARACAS,  (Reuters) – Venezuela yesterday awarded  the largest oil investment of President Hugo Chavez’s 11-year  rule, drawing tens of billions of dollars of  much-needed foreign finance to the Orinoco Belt just three  years after the leftist leader nationalized operations there.

The teenage boy who took a gun to school remained in police custody last evening as investigators await word from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on the way forward.

NEW YORK/WASHINGTON,  (Reu-ters) – A second blizzard  in a week buried the U.S.