Guyana News

The Ministry of Agriculture’s export diversification programme was given a $190M shot in the arm with the signing yesterday of a contract aimed at developing the health and food safety services of the Ministry.

Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee says the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) is currently strengthening its response capacity through the procurement of additional fire tenders and equipment and training for its staff.

Marking 33 years since  73 persons including 11 Guyanese were killed in the Cubana air disaster, the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and Guyana yesterday reiterated the call for those culpable to be brought to justice.

The state-of-the-art Doppler Weather Radar facility at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri which is expected to significantly boost the capacity of the Guyana Hydrometeorological Service, was officially commissioned on Monday.

-five without shelter A storm swept across the Yarrowkabra community on the Linden/Soesdyke High-way on Monday felling trees, fences and a house which was occupied by a single-parent and her four children.

The three bullet-riddled and degutted bodies found last week were yesterday morning exhumed and DNA samples taken after which relatives were allowed to perform final rites before they were reburied.

A 50-year-old security guard attached to the RK’s security firm who allegedly had a quantity of cannabis in his possession was yesterday remanded to prison when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

Forty-year-old Gopaul Tiwari of 73 Second Street, Craig Village, East Bank Demerara was remanded to prison last Friday when he appeared at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court for allegedly obtaining over $400,000 from a woman under the pretext that he could import a car for her.

The Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) recently held an appreciation ceremony to honour persons who contributed to the building fund for its North Road, Bourda office.

A 37-year-old farmer who allegedly stole a motor car valued $2M was yesterday remanded to prison when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

A rice farmer accused of making a false statement in order to acquire a passport was yesterday placed on $100,000 bail when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

Five officers attached to the Ministry of Labour (MoL) are in Barbados for a week-long attachment, as the ministry strives to strengthen the capacity of its labour department by exposing labour officers to various training programmes and seminars overseas.

The National Trust of Guyana opened Heritage Week 2009 with a pictorial exhibition on Monday at the Guyana National Museum.

JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) – A convicted drug smuggler gave envelopes stuffed with cash to former South African police chief Jackie Selebi and bought expensive handbags for his wife  and secretary, a court was told yesterday.  

STOCKHOLM, (Reuters) – A pioneer in fibre optics and  two scientists who figured out how to turn light into electronic  signals — work that paved the way for the Internet age — were  awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for physics yesterday.

SEOUL, (Reuters) – North Korea yesterday signaled it  could return to nuclear disarmament talks it had declared dead  six months ago, but a report it was near restoring its atomic  plant underlined the secretive state would keep the stakes  high.  

PHOENIX, (Reuters) – The United States, criticized  for holding illegal immigrants in overcrowded and poorly run  jails, yesterday announced plans to convert hotels to detain  some noncriminal immigrants.  

KAMPALA, (Reuters) – Police in Uganda have arrested  one of the four most wanted suspects from Rwanda’s 1994  genocide, Idelphonse Nizeyimana, after he entered the country by  bus last week from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.  

Pupils at a primary school in the southern county of Cork  are being asked to bring their own toilet paper to school to  help save money, one of the starkest examples yet of the death  of Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” economy.  

ZURICH, (Reuters) – Swiss authorities rejected yesterday an appeal by lawyers for Roman Polanski, arrested in  September after fleeing America in 1978 from an underage sex  charge, to release the film director from prison.