News

Lindener Lester ‘De Professor’ Charles was yesterday morning crowned the 2016 Calypso Monarch when the competition concluded at the Demerara Park before an attentive audience.

Government had expected that outgoing Chief Justice (ag) Ian Chang would rule that ministers Keith Scott and Winston Felix could not sit as non-elected members in the National Assembly and had already started preparations to deal with the judgement.

The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) says government has failed its community particularly in representation of having cross dressing decriminalized as persons continue to be charged under the archaic law.

In the light of the ongoing drought, the Guyana Rice Producers Association (GRPA) says that the Mahaica-Mahaicony-Abary/Agricultural Develop-ment Authority (MMA/ADA) is taking the wrong approach in regulating water.

A contractor is currently nursing a gunshot injury to his right leg after he was attacked and robbed of $250,000 just before paying his employees at Mc Doom, East Bank Demerara (EBD).

Several civil society groups are calling on the local media to use a responsible and careful approach when reporting on sensitive issues like suicide.

The Women’s Association for Sustainable Develop-ment (WASD), a newly launched non-governmental organisation and Oxygen with Nicole will host two events on March 5 and 6 respectively at the Pegasus Hotel as part of the local observance of International Women’s Day.

LAS VEGAS/COLUMBIA, SC (Reuters) – Republican Donald Trump rolled to victory yesterday in South Carolina to solidify his status as the front-runner and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton beat back a strong challenge from Bernie Sanders in the Nevada caucuses.

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Fijian officials are assessing the damage today after one of the most powerful storms recorded in the southern hemisphere tore through the archipelago, with early reports of widespread devastation in remote villages and one confirmed death.

(Reuters) – Airline bookings to parts of Latin America and the Caribbean have slipped globally since a US public health agency warned pregnant women against travel to areas where the Zika virus is spreading, travel data analysis company ForwardKeys said on Friday.

BRASILIA/GENEVA (Reuters) – Two US-Brazilian studies will have initial results by May on whether the Zika virus spreading through the Americas is causing birth defects and other neurological disorders, a senior US public health official said on Friday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s opposition said yesterday that it had agreed to the “possibility” of a temporary truce, provided there were guarantees Damascus’s allies including Russia would cease fire, sieges were lifted and aid deliveries were allowed country-wide.

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand is pursuing closer ties – and possible arms deals – with Russia, with relations between Thailand and its traditional partner, the United States, cooling in the wake of a May 2014 coup.

LONDON (Reuters) – When Prime Minister David Cameron sealed a deal designed to keep Britain in the European Union after two days of talks in Brussels, his relief was short-lived.

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni extended his 30-year rule yesterday, winning an election that international observers said lacked transparency and his main opponent, under house arrest, denounced as a sham.

BANGUI (Reuters) – Former Central African Republic prime minister Faustin-Archange Touadera has won a presidential run-off, the electoral commission said yesterday, in what was widely seen as a step towards reconciliation after years of violent turmoil.

PPP MP Gail Teixeira has written the Norwegian government over allegations made by Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman that the former PPP/C government had assigned all productive forests.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell says the West Indies Cricket Board has failed to properly address the development of players following youth level, and has dismissed the idea that the success of West Indies youth teams can be attributed to them alone.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Influential former West Indies Players Union boss, Dinanath Ramnarine, has thrown his support behind CARICOM’s decision to insist on the dissolution of the West Indies Cricket Board and believes the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board should lead the way in the process.

(Trinidad Guardian) There may be widespread fear about the Zika virus among some 17,000 pregnant women in T&T who may be at risk due to the virus, now in T&T, Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh said in Parliament yesterday.