Guyana News

ANSA McAL on Christmas Day handed out Cheekies Hampers to mothers of babies born on that day.

MOGADISHU, (Reuters) – A helicopter dropped a $4  million ransom payment yesterday on to the deck of a Chinese  coal ship hijacked by Somali pirates in mid-October, a pirate  source on board the vessel said.

A Brazilian national who journeyed to Lethem to party was found stabbed to death near the Takutu Bridge on Christmas morning and investigators believe that the assailant fled to Brazil.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents had planned  to use five Americans, now detained in Pakistan, who had  contacted the militants via the Internet, to carry out attacks  in the US-allied country, a police official said yesterday.

PATONG, Thailand (Reuters) – Thousands of candles  lit up Thailand’s Patong beach, thousands of saffron-robed  Buddhist monks marched and people held vigils as Asia marked the  fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami yesterday.

European Union (EU) Ambassador to Guyana Geert Heikens says a regular and in-depth analysis of the sugar industry is needed as a necessary step forward, and he has also referred to reports in the local press about the state of the sector as disquieting.

DETROIT/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Nigerian man with  possible links to al Qaeda militants was charged yesterday for  trying to blow up a US passenger plane with an explosive device  on approach into Detroit, US officials said.

Guyana is not yet ready to start issuing skill-certificates to domestics wishing to travel to other Caricom member states to ply their trade and none of the relevant agencies could give a timeframe for readiness.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Baton-wielding riot police clashed with opposition backers in Tehran who used a Shi’ite  religious festival to stage new anti-government demonstrations  on Saturday, an opposition website and witnesses said.

Police are investigating the death of a Bagotstown resident, who is believed to have been killed during a drunken squabble some time yesterday morning.

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s most prominent dissident, Liu Xiaobo, was jailed on Friday for 11 years for campaigning for political freedoms, with the stiff sentence on a subversion charge swiftly condemned by rights groups and Washington.

LAGOS (Reuters) – A Nigerian charged yesterday  with trying to blow up a US passenger plane [see main story on page 4] is the son of a  prominent former banker, a family member said yesterday,  shocking the country’s wealthy elite.

The police constable and two men who were held for Wednesday’s robbery at Crabwood Creek, Corentyne remain in police custody and advice will be sought from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) tomorrow on the way forward.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – British director Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes set a Christmas Day sales record at  the box office in North America, taking a narrow lead over last  weekend’s champ, Avatar, according to early estimates  released yesterday.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Charlie Sheen, star  of the hit sitcom ‘Two and a Half Men,’ has been released from  jail in the Colorado ski resort city of Aspen after his  Christmas Day arrest on domestic violence charges, police  said.

A gang of armed men descended on a mining camp at Waini Backdam, in Region One (Barima Waini) on Thursday, terrorising workers during a search for the camp manager.

-cops acted within power, says Crime Chief As most of the country celebrated Christmas, the family of slain suspected robber Hemchand Gopaul was still in mourning, while insisting that police shot the wrong man.

LONDON (Reuters) – An attempted attack on a US  plane on Christmas Day illustrates aviation’s enduring need for  viglance against determined extremists constantly trying to  outwit the industry’s defences to inflict devastating harm.

Opposition says it has placed spotlight on deteriorating security situation but has not achieved main goals A little over a month since they published a dossier on human rights abuses here, members of the joint opposition parties say it has placed a spotlight on the deteriorating security situation although one of its primary architects admits it has failed to achieve its main goals.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Koss Corp fired its vice president of finance after she allegedly embezzled more than US$20 million from the headphones maker for a multi-year shopping spree of expensive clothes, jewellery and other personal items.