Guyana News

The 13-year-old mother who made the news two weeks ago when her five-day-old baby was kidnapped is being offered a second chance as efforts are being made to have her admitted to a school where she will be taught a trade so as to be able to provide for herself and child in the future.

Amid concerns that a huge windfall will be made from the sale of the Linden bauxite operations by IAMGOLD, the government is mulling the separation of a key asset before it blesses a deal between the Canadian miner and the Chinese company Bosai Privatisation Unit Head Winston Brassington said on Friday that the government, as a 30% stakeholder, was discussing the proposal by IAMGOLD to sell Omai Bauxite Minerals Inc (OBMI) to Bosai Minerals Group Company Ltd.

With the right support-financial and otherwise-the six-storey Buddy’s Interna-tional Hotel with several entertainment facilities is likely to be ready for an official opening by mid-February, after being under construction for just 13 and a half months.

President Bharrat Jagdeo said that government would review the situation with regard to the Value Added Tax (VAT) transition in light of the complaints surfacing and may be making adjustments this week to ease the burden on consumers.

Only a small number of people turned out yesterday in the rain for the march against the Value Added Tax (VAT) and the rise in expenses that they face as a result.

A family at Number Two Village, West Coast Berbice is still traumatized after six masked gunmen stormed their home and carted off nearly $300,000 worth of gold jewellery, $15,000, sneakers valued at $7,000 and a landline telephone.

The PPP has labelled the call by the PNCR-1G for a countrywide shutdown in protest over the two recent controversial bills laid in Parliament and the Value Added Tax (VAT) “irresponsible and reckless”.

The trial of several suspects said to be connected with drug-indicted Guyanese businessman Roger Khan resumed this week in a court in Suriname, according to a report from Caribbean Net News in Paramaribo.

Justice B.S. Roy is currently hearing a case of a 77-year-old man who has approached the court asking the Ministry of Human Services to show cause why it shouldn’t release his 13-year-old bride.

It was no child’s play when a 15-year-old boy allegedly robbed two persons at gunpoint of silver jewellery and was remanded to prison by Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys.

Magistrate Fazil Azeez on Wednesday sentenced a repeat-offender who admitted to stealing several items on two separate occasions to three years imprisonment when he appeared at the Vreed-en-Hoop Magistrate’s Court.

A man who admitted to breaking into a Corentyne nursery school and stealing a number of articles was yesterday sentenced to two years in prison by Magistrate Krishendat Persaud.

A man who admitted to cuffing and kicking his elderly mother after she refused to give him food was yesterday sentenced to six months in prison by Magistrate Krishendat Persaud.

Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee said 421 persons were successfully prosecuted for possession of marijuana at a cost of $40,000 each during the period 2005-2006.

Preliminary inquiries into several high profile murders have been put off until next month for the prosecution to seek assistance from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

A man who allegedly stabbed a horse cart operator twice at his Railway Embankment home resulting in his death was yesterday refused bail by Magistrate Gordon Gilhuys at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.

Nine prisoners broke out from the high security Mazaruni Prison yesterday and four members of a joint services search party were later shot during a confrontation with the inmates.

Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur says the statements that the main opposition PNCR-1G made regarding the implementation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) are careless and ill-informed.

The Private Sector Com-mission (PSC) yesterday expressed deep concern over the VAT-led increase in prices and pointed to suggestions to ease the problem but Com-missioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur says he is not prepared to support these including one to lower the 16% rate.

The Guyana Fire Service suspects arson in the case of the mysterious fire which gutted the Guyana Elections Commission secretariat building on September 9 last year.