Guyana News

HOUSTON, (Reuters) – A former top aide to Texas  financier Allen Stanford pleaded not guilty yesterday to  charges of obstructing an SEC investigation of an alleged $8.5  billion fraud.

The sum of money Guyana is expected to tap into for the next six years from the Rolling Continuation Channel (RCC) of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is US$43M and not US$63M as was reported in yesterday’s Stabroek News.

NAIROBI, (Reuters) – The heir to Kenya’s most famous  white settler family received eight months in jail yesterday  for shooting a black poacher in a case that has highlighted land  and race tensions in the east African country.

– under new six-year grant Guyana is expected to draw down some US$63 million ($12.6B) over the next six years from the Rolling Continuation Channel (RCC) of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an indication that it has performed well with previous grants.

–reportedly has poor environmental record Paulo Cesar Quartiero, a large-scale Brazilian rice producer who is among a group recently ordered by the Brazilian Supreme Court to vacate the Indian reservation Raposa Serra do Sol, has alleged that the Government of Guyana has proposed to lease him land for 99 years.

Ex-police officer Shawn Hinds who allegedly kidnapped a 13-year-old girl was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $300,000 when he appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

A 36-year-old man on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice when it was read to him by Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

“I kill meh wife,” stated Ronald Charlie, the South Rupununi farmer who is accused of beating his wife to death last Friday.

The Justice of the Peace whose electrified fence allegedly caused the death of a would-be thief, appeared in the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court on Monday to answer to a charge of manslaughter.

–Jamaican lab ‘for special treatment’ The police and relatives of the Lindo Creek eight will have to wait much longer for the DNA results of samples taken of the burned bodies last year, as the Jamaican lab where they were sent is undergoing some changes.

The four Canadian nationals, who were arrested early Tuesday morning after 9 kilogrammes (kg), 89 grammes (g) of cocaine was found concealed behind false walls in nine suitcases, remain in police custody and are expected be charged shortly.

Nine farmers from the Linden community yesterday received a quantity of sweet pepper seedlings from the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP).

Chandradat Chintamani has been returned to his post as President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) following Tuesday’s election, which saw a shake-up in the body’s Executive Council.

Guyanese poet Ian McDonald is among a group of writers/poets who have been short-listed for the 2009 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.

A thirty-three-year-old man yesterday denied assaulting the mother of his child to cause  her actual bodily harm when he appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson.

President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday took his offer for Guyana to provide the world with a model on how to address deforestation in a sustainable manner to the UN.

A $1M Presidential Grant was recently awarded to Kabakaburi to acquire a high-powered outboard engine to boost transportation services in the village.

Five contracts amounting to more than $141 million for drainage in the problematic East Demerara conservancy and other areas were yesterday signed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Forest Products Association  (FPA)  wants to meet with Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud to examine  ways in which measures can be put in place to assist them in coping with challenges  brought about by   the current slump in the global housing markets which has directly  impacted on  timber export demands and pricing.

The first “modernized” weather forecast on local television, according to GINA, was aired on the National Communications Network (NCN) last evening.