Guyana News

KERBALA, Iraq, (Reuters) – Twin car bombs killed at  least 40 people and wounded 145 others yesterday in Iraq’s holy  city of Kerbala as hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite pilgrims  observed a major religious rite, health officials said.

Magistrate Nigel Hawke sentenced a juvenile of Blairmont, West Berbice to three years in the New Opportunity Corps (NOC), after he was found guilty of wandering.

HOUSTON, (Reuters) – A dispute over control of $370  million in assets traced to accused Ponzi schemer Allen  Stanford is holding up disbursement of the funds, but the  liquidators and the receiver in the case are in talks to settle  the matter, liquidators for Stanford’s Antigua bank said yesterday.

NAGOYA/DETROIT, (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp’s  president apologized yesterday for safety problems and said the  automaker would bring in outside experts to review quality  controls, a highly unusual action for a company that has  epitomized world-beating industrial standards.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Arctic ice melting could cost  global agriculture, real estate and insurance anywhere from  $2.4 trillion to $24 trillion by 2050 in damage from rising sea  levels, floods and heat waves, according to a report released  yesterday.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir  Putin told his ruling party yesterday it must pay more attention  to ordinary voters, just days after one of the biggest  opposition protests in a decade.

Race car driver Peter Morgan was this afternoon sentenced to ten years in jail by a Brooklyn Federal Court on a drug trafficking charge but could be out in six years based on the period he has already been incarcerated.

Two prisoners died early this morning after they fought each other at the Georgetown Prisons.

-Persaud tells Parliament committee Agriculture Minister Robert Persaud has credited GuySuCo’s turnaround plan with significantly cutting costs last year to the tune of some $2 billion, including a sizeable chunk in management costs.

“It was an unwilful act,” a MMC security guard, charged with killing accused battery thief Kwesi D’Andrade, told Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday.

Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud is calling for urgent regional action to combat the deadly fungal disease, Black Sigatoka, which is currently affecting the plantain and banana industry in the region.

Two gun-toting bandits terrorized vendors at the Port Mourant market around 3:30 am yesterday, battering and robbing a huckster of $57,000 while a vendor was robbed of $3,000.

Should regulations such as six months’ notification before mining can commence be implemented, larger miners can survive but the small miners would not, veteran miner, Patrick Pereira warned prospectors at Port Kaituma yesterday.

Town Clerk Beulah Williams and  City Treasurer Roderick Edinboro have been dismissed with effect from January 31, 2010, in keeping with the recommendations of a Commission of Inquiry into the affairs of the Georgetown Munici-pality.

Members of the Guyana Bauxite & General Workers Union (GB&GWU) yesterday picketed the office of Labour Minister Manzoor Nadir as they continue to call for him to intervene in the dispute between the union and the Bauxite Company Guyana Inc (BGCI).

PNCR leader Robert Corbin yesterday accused AFC leader Raphael Trotman of downplaying continuous engagement between the two parties on mutual areas of concern, in pursuit of a narrow political agenda.

CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington is lauding Professor Rex Nettleford OCC, as a true Caribbean icon with a “life poured out for the Community,” even as Jamaica and the wider region mourn his passing.

–paying top dollar to pump fresh water Rice farmers along the Essequibo Coast are praying for a change in the current dry weather as a scarcity of fresh water in the rice producing areas has left several of them facing an uphill battle.

The woman, who collected thousands of dollars from persons with the promise of delivering vehicles, yesterday said she has done nothing wrong and is operating a legitimate business which has now been tainted by a recent but unrelated court matter.

-Lawrence sees attempt to ‘hoodwink’ on permits for immediate delivery Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority Khurshid Sattaur, came in for severe criticism from members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parlia-ment after failing to represent the agency at a meeting of the PAC on Monday.