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Dear Editor,   Who is my neighbour and are the Syrian refugees my neighbour?

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – A bus carrying Argentine border patrol officers blew a tire and tumbled from a bridge into a dry river bed in the northern province of Salta yesterday, killing 43 and injuring eight, authorities said.

Consequent upon winning the Talent segment of the Miss World Pageant yesterday, Miss Guyana Lisa Punch has advanced to the final; she is the second Guyanese contestant to have advanced to the final in recent years.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian prosecutors yesterday charged Jose Carlos Bumlai, a friend of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, with taking out a fraudulent loan from Schahin bank that they allege benefited the ruling Workers’ Party.

HAVANA (Reuters) – The  Colombian government and leftist FARC rebels have reached a deal on reparations for war victims and could be near a pact on the terms of confinement for ex-combatants who would be tried in special tribunals once a definitive peace agreement is reached.

ROME (Reuters) – Turkey’s foreign minister said Ankara’s patience with Russia “has a limit” after Moscow’s “exaggerated” reaction to a weekend naval incident between the two countries, an Italian newspaper reported yesterday.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Police in Rio de Janeiro have broken up a ring that arranged fake Brazilian citizenship for dozens of Syrian nationals, TV Globo’s Jornal Nacional newscast reported, raising security concerns following militant attacks in the United States and Europe and before the Rio Olympic Games in August.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The might of the law is the best way to end modern day slavery, by bringing strategic cases to court that can change company practice or government policy, experts seeking to stamp out the problem in corporate supply chains said today.

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has welcomed the bonus announced by the government today for public servants earning under $500,000 per annum.

The Government of Guyana will be paying out a year-end bonus to public service employees, who earn less than $500,000 per month, the Ministry of the Presidency said today.

Investigations are being conducted into a fatal accident that occurred about 1440h.

Miss Guyana Lisa Punch has won the Miss World Talent competition, which guarantees her a place in the final.

Tax exemptions for the Marriott Hotel project from January 2013 to July 2015 stand at $1.2 billion, according to the forensic audit into the project which also highlighted the other concessions it received.

After a hiatus of several weeks, Parliament is to meet on Thursday for a packed agenda which includes a motion for all Members of the National Assembly to make public their tax returns to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over the last 10 years.

Over several years, the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) transferred over $3.7 billion to government’s holding company NICIL for the maintenance of hinterland roads and at least $1.3 billion has not been accounted for.

A bandit will now lose sight in his left eye and another one is on the run after an early morning shootout with the police yesterday in Grove following a robbery.

The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) is warning the public that it has to give planning permission before the start of any building operations or the change of land use for the purposes of establishing a business.

At about 0700h. today, the police say that the bodies of Roy Roopnarine, 46 years, and Trevor Persaud, 27 years, both of Itaballi, were recovered in the vicinity of Bradford Point, Mazaruni River.

The man who lost his life on Saturday night after he crashed into a tree was identified yesterday.

Over two years after laws were passed providing for the establishment of a Local Government Com-mission, such a body is yet to be established despite strident calls by APNU and the AFC when in opposition, for it to be set up.