October 18, 2016

LOCAL

GUYANA DAILY NEWS Rear Admiral (Ret’d) Gary Best Sworn In To Probe Puruni Mining Death PAGE 2

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Georgetown, Guyana – (October 18, 2016) Presidential Advisor on the Environment, Rear Admiral (ret’d) Gary Best was, today, sworn-in by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan to lead a probe into the mining pit collapse in Puruni, CuyuniMazaruni (Region Seven) that resulted in the death of a miner.

The swearing-in ceremony was held in Court One of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court. The ceremony followed the mandate given by President David Granger that a Commission of Inquiry be established to probe the incident under Section Two of the Commission of Inquiry Act, Cap. 19:03. Advisor Best has been commissioned to “enquire, examine, investigate and report into all conditions and circumstances” that led to the collapse of the mining pit and the resulting death of 33-year-old miner Mr. Keon Wilson on October 8, 2016. Mr. Best has also Presidential Advisor on the Environment, been tasked with enquiring “into the actions of the Guyana Rear Admiral (ret’d) Gary Best takes the oath, today, Geology and Mines Commission, and the mining operators” in Court One of the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court. and to report his findings and conclusions to determine the cause of the incident and make recommendations to prevent a recurrence. Ms. Geeta Chandan-Edmonds, Legal Advisor at the Ministry of the Presidency, Mr. Reginald Brotherson, Permanent Secretary, Department of Public Service, Ministry of the Presidency, Mr. Joslyn McKenzie, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Mr. Newell Dennison, Acting Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission also attended the ceremony.

MOTP Press Release

Fixing Roads Must Be a Priority Presidential Advisor on the Environment, For Government –commuters Rear Admiral (ret’d) Gary Best displays the

Many commuters of Georgetown have complained to the commissioning instrument as he stands beside Guyana Daily News that the roads in the capital city are being Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan at the close of the ceremony. neglected by the government. Reference was made to the deplorable state of some roads especially at Mandela Avenue and Aubrey Baker commonly known as “Back Road” which makes commuting extremely difficult. “Back Road” is the single most used thorough fare from the Timehri Airport, West Coast Demerara and the Islands to the Capital City, Georgetown. It is the view of some Georgetown residents that the government needs to place more emphasis on maintaining the ‘back road,’ noting that it is riddled with large pot holes, poor lighting and low visibility in road markings which is contributing to many accidents. One resident said, “this road is as equally as important as the road in Tiger Bay which was upgraded recently.” Residents blamed the government for poor supervision and a lackadaisical attitude towards road maintenance. “Effective and efficient road provides adequate transportation which results in economic benefits that has multiplier effects such as better accessibility to markets, employment and additional investments, the citizens who are deprived of transportation infrastructure miss out on several economic opportunities,” one resident noted.

FEATURE PAGE 3

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2016

The Unruly Horse STIFLING LOCAL DEMOCRACY By: Mohabir Anil Nandlall, MP.Attorney-at-Law

While in opposition, President Granger was a passionate campaigner for local democracy.

Both in and out of Parliament, he emphasized the need to allow local leaders at the level of the villages to take charge and manage the affairs of their local communities. In opposition, his party pressed relentlessly for the enactment of the four Local Government Bills. In the Select Committees, their contributions had a common thread. They canvassed for a reduction of ministerial power and influence over local democratic organs, while at the same time, advocating for greater financial independence and functional autonomy for these organs. They argued for the urgent establishment of a bi-partisan local government commission, in which is to be vested, a plethora of power, which the Minister now enjoys. They were so aggressive on these matters that it was clear to many at the time, that they never expected to be the next government. In this equation, one cannot exclude their sudden and emphatic advocacy for the holding of local government elections, the postponement of which, they supported in the National Assembly for the past 15 years, immediately prior. After 2011, local government elections suddenly became a major priority.

While in Government, during the campaign for the 2016 Local Government Elections, the posture of the President and his Government remained the same. They advocated for the empowerment of local leaders; they argued that these leaders must be allowed to determine and govern their affairs at the level of the local democratic organs and that Central Government's input must be minimal; they advocated for the newly elected local democratic organs to enjoy financial independence and functional autonomy Then came the Local Government Elections on the 18th of March, 2016.

There is no doubt that its results flabbergasted the President and his Government. The APNU was devastated at those elections. That they were in Government for a year and their die hardsupporters still in a state of euphoria, after the 2015 General and Regional Elections “victory”, it was a

terrible blow to their political psyche and ego. The PPP won landslide victories in 48 of the 71 Local Authority Areas. In 6 of the remaining areas, the PPP tied with the APNU. In the remaining areas, the APNU was forced to share the spoils with independent groups, including, in areas where they boast great political strength. In short, the APNU was thrashed at those elections. Since the local government election results, one has witnessed an absolute change in the approach of the Government to the newly elected local organs.

The rhetoric that we heard prior to those elections about local leaders taking charge of their affairs; that they must be allowed to do so without interference from Central Government; that they must be functionally autonomous and financially independent- all quickly vanished. This rhetoric was quickly replaced with exactly the opposite in actions. The Government has since been pursuing a policy flagrantly designed to denude these newly elected organs of all autonomy and independence and when there is resistance, to frustrate and stifle these organs in the discharge of their functions by withholding monies and constructing bureaucratic red tapes - all in an effort to make these organs politically beholden to Central Government. This is nothing short of an onslaught upon local democracy and a callous flouting of the will of the electorate as expressed at the local government elections. I will demonstrate my point with a few examples.

1. Perhaps the most conspicuous example of this Government's authoritarian attempt at thwarting local democracy is the vulgar and manifestly unlawful act of Minister Bulkan's handpicking of chairpersons in the five tied NDCs and handpicking the Mayor for the municipality of Mabaruma, in a shameless violation of the relevant statutory provisions. The clumsy strategy of the Attorney General to delay the hearing and determination of the cases filed challenging Bulkan's actions and the contrivance of frivolous and vexatious legal arguments, attempting to justify those actions, only compound this antidemocratic perversity.

2. Another example of the attempt to control these local government organs, is the use of the Town Clerks, in the case of municipalities, Regional Executive Officers in the case of RDCs and Overseers at the level of the NDCs- all servants/agents of the Minister, to micro-manage, frustrate and torpedo the work of these elected bodies. Only recently, their own Dr. Ramaya, resigned as REO of Region 6, citing pervasive corruption and the controlling power of the Minister, who criticized him for not approving works done by contractors, although according to Dr. Ramaya, these works were substandard. NDC Councilors, countrywide, with whom I spoke,

informed me that decisions of the council are not being carried out by the Overseers unless they receive the approval of the Minister. I have been told that no money can be spent without the prior approval of someone authorized by the Minister. I am aware that the NDCs received their statutory subventions almost four months late and that their budgets were only approved within the last two weeks. These are deliberate strategies employed by the Minister to undermine the functioning of these elected bodies.

3. Six months after the local government elections, this Government is still to submit its nominees to the Local Government Commission. As a result, this much touted Commission remains on paper only. The Government is deliberately delaying the establishment of this Commission, because once it becomes operational, the Minister and by extension the government, loses a tremendous amount of power. To the authoritarian, the loss of power is like the loss of life itself.

4. The democratic line demarcating the Georgetown City Council from the Government has become so blurred that the Council is operating almost like a department of Government. The Government gives policy directions to the Council with seamless ease; Cabinet reviews Council's decisions without anyone batting an eyelid; the Attorney General, nonchalantly, reviews contracts entered into by Council and renders to the Council, legal advice in relation thereto. In this incestuous matrix, all seem blind to the assault being committed upon local democracy. Sadly, in the milieu, there is no proverbial one eye man to take the throne. The cumulative impact of this all is that democracy is under siege at the level of the local democratic organs, as it is in the Parliament and elsewhere. But alas, what can one expect from a Government whose leader, two weeks ago, reiterated his idolatrous admiration of and strong commitment to the politics, ideas and ideals of Forbes Burnham – a politician whose lack of democratic credentials equals none in the English speaking Caribbean.

LOCAL

GUYANA DAILY NEWS GWI Must Publish Test Results For New Water Treatment Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Water Inc. Dr. Van 10H formulation is the one registered. Registration under the Thai PAGE 5

West Charles says he is disturbed about an article published in a local newspaper that GWI has stopped using Chlorine and is testing the uses of Antiseptic Polyhexanide, which is normally sold under the name Antinfek. However, GWI has stated that it has tested the product in its laboratory and it has shown favourable results, but many persons are questioning the move saying that Guyanese are not “lab rats” and want to know which lab this chemical was tested, who is conducted the test, the results of the test and whether the lab is accredited. Food and Drug Director Marlan Cole had admitted that their lab is not equipped to conduct any tests and that they solely rely on information on product labeling as guidelines when assessing composition and standard for food and drug deemed permissible.

Antinfek TM 10H Antinfek 10H is a liquid disinfectant manufactured

by Dove Biotech (Bangkok, Thailand). This product, with active ingredient poly(hexamethylene biguanide) hydrochloride (PHMB), is marketed for eliminating bacteria and fungi in drinking water, natural waters, pools, sewage and industrial water; and treating drinking water to prevent waterborne diseases (Dove Biotech n.d.)

However, Antinfek 10H is not registered with NSF or EPA; other PHMB products are EPA-registered as antimicrobial pesticides for swimming pools, oil field injection water, cut flower preservation and hard surface disinfectants (US EPA 2004). Antinfek is registered with the Thai FDA (FDA Thailand n.d.-a), but we were unable to verify the

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Hazardous Substances Control Group as an antimicrobial disinfectant requires antimicrobial effi- cacy data (FDA Thailand n.d.-b). However, the Guyana Daily News was unable to determine whether registration indicates safety for human consumption since this product is manufactured in Thailand, registered in Thailand and the testing is only in an embryonic stage; they are not adequate studies conducted on this chemical to ascertain whether it is fit for human consumption.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Water Inc. Dr. Van West Charles

LOCAL

GUYANA DAILY NEWS Man Who Allegedly Stole From Troy Resources Granted Bail PAGE 6

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Machinery Operator, Renson Rawlins was granted bail in the sum of $70,000 by Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan after he was charged with larceny. Rawlins will appear before the Bartica Magistrate’s Court on November 10, 2016. The 35year-old accused father of two was represented by Attorney Jerome Khan and pleaded not guilty to the charge. The lawyer in his bail application revealed that his client has a fixed address at Kamaka Mines Upper Demerara River and that prior to the incident he was employed with Troy Resources for 20 months and has had no prior incidents. There was no objection made to the application by Police Prosecutor Navil Jeffords. It is alleged that between July 13, 2016 and July 15, 2016 at Camp Karuni, Hillside 14 Mile Isano Landing, Essequibo, the accused stole one Alternator valued at $300,000 from Troy Resources.

According to police reports the stolen item has been recovered and is currently in police custody.

Islamic Bank To Fund National Psychosocial Rehabilitation Complex Representatives from the Islamic Bank met with Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, on Friday last to discuss funding of the new National Psychosocial Rehabilitation Complex (NPRC) project which is slated for 2017. This project is expected to cost approximately US$20, 000. The Complexes will be erected in Regions two and six along with an upgrade to the Ministry’s Mental Health Unit to provide emergency clinical services to persons needing diagnose, care and treatment. According to a release from the Ministry, also engaged in the high level meeting were Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings and other technical officers from the Ministry and Mr. Sayed Aqa - Vice President Cooperation and Country Programming Complex and his technical team. The institution will be designed to reduce the role of the National Psychiatric Hospital in the mental health system in Guyana. This will be aligned with the Pan American Health Organisation/ World Health Organisation recommendations to improve quality services and standards in mental health through the provision of better and specialized services in psychosocial rehabilitation, forensic psychiatry, drug abuse rehabilitation and psycho geriatric care. This involves a careful reintegration of patients into family and society, reducing psychiatric beds and transforming the functions of the former institution. The National Psychosocial Rehabilitation Complex is expected to provide diagnosis, management and treatment to persons with suicidal behaviour and attempts, affected disorders, general anxiety disorder, panic attacks, post- traumatic disorder, psychosis and violent behaviour, acute onset psychosis and chronic psychosis. The institution is also expected to provide care and treatment to persons suffering from psychosis due to medical condition (HIV, Non Communicable Diseases), substance abuse, hazardous drug reactions and interactions, personality disorders, epilepsy and Dementias (Alzheimer). Regional Health Facilities are expected to be equipped and better able to manage mental health patients in various regions who are required to be inpatients for a period of time. The Minister of Public Health has commenced consultations with the PAHO who has thus far opted to give full technical support especially in the area of training to improve mental health services. Statistics have showed that there are 10 to 15% if Guyanese with mental disorder at any one time. This means that 78, 000 to 114, 500 Guyanese are suffering from a mental disorder and require some level of mental health care service. Suicide is a leading cause of death among Guyanese hence the Ministry of Public Health will continue to work closely with its technical partners to eliminate this epidemic.

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

LOCAL TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Eccles Businessman Charged For Assisting In Drug Trafficking A former United States resident who was deported to Guyana appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on Tuesday, charged with using his Eccles, East Bank Demerara residence to traffic narcotics. The court heard that the incident occurred on October 15.

The businessman, Deon Coats was represented by Attorney Paul Fung-a-Fat

and pleaded not guilty to the charge. He was granted $150,000 bail and will return to court on November 07, 2016.

His lawyer told the court that Coats is involved in the Import and Export of goods, he is 39 years-old and has a wife who resides in the United States of America.

The Prosecution, led by Navil Jeffords,

did not object to bail. It is alleged that on the day in question at Lot 930 Eccles New Housing Scheme, the accused used his vacuum sealer, automatic food press and a cellophane plastic wrapper to prepare cocaine to be shipped. According to police reports the items were found and residual matter of the cocaine was found on them.

GL&SC Lease Application Service To Be Offered Online By 2017

Manager of the Information Systems Department, Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission, Mr. David Cole Georgetown, Guyana – (October 18, 2016) Even as Government continues to work towards an efficient and professional public service sector through, in part, the implementation of digitised systems, the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) has begun work to offer online lease application processing and instant response to questions and queries. These online systems will be implemented in a phased approach, which will be completed by the end of 2017.

Information Systems Manager of the GL&SC, Mr. David Cole, during an interview earlier today, said that the

Commission is working on making available online all the services offered at its physical offices, through its website, which is currently being reconfigured.

However, the first phase is the refining of content of the website and this will be completed by the end of 2016.

“What we are doing right now in relation to the website specifically is that, we are revamping our existing website. We are changing its look. We are looking at refining its content and most importantly in another phase, making it much more interactive… we are working on creating a website that can effectively engage members of the public as well as any other stakeholder in the kind of services that we offer here as a Commission.

We are designing a website, which can be used by not just the desktop but the smart phones so that when persons access it, it is fully responsive to the device it is being accessed from,” he said. In 2017, the Commission will be working to make the chat feature available by mid-year, to afford customers and members of the public instant responses to their questions, queries and suggestions while the online processing of applications is expected to take

shape by the end of 2017. “We are trying to make it very dynamic.

We want to put in a chat feature… We want to be able to do a better display of our maps because a lot of persons do not know that we produce a variety of maps for any kind of use. We hope for it to be really efficient and for it to provide timely feedback. Whatever can be done at our physical offices we want our website to be able to provide that to our stakeholders. The application process is one such service. In moving in line with Government’s move to be more digital and this concept of egovernance, we want to be able to have our clients with the application process, doing it online, submitting the application, vetting it and processing it,” he said.

While he noted that there are some legal ramifications in terms of notarised signatures among other things that are yet to be worked out, Mr. Cole said that the ultimate goal is a more efficient Commission and satisfied stakeholders.

“Definitely the intention is to be as transparent as possible and to offer what we offer at our offices, online,” the Information Systems Manager said.

While these works are ongoing inside the Commission, the

Government Unit of the Ministry of Public Telecommunications is also working alongside the Information Systems Department of the GL&SC to create a Wide Area Network (WAN), which will link all of the databases and record management systems of the various offices of the GL&SC. This will ensure that there is greater collaboration among the offices and better retrieval of client records, regardless of their location. Chief Executive Officer of the GL&SC, Mr. Trevor Benn, said that the Commission is working on serving the needs of its customers and stakeholders and as such, will review and reconfigure its services to suit this goal.

Already, the Commission has removed its dress code, while the current application process is scheduled to undergo come changes. In the past, persons applying for renewals of their leases were required to undergo the same processes as someone applying for the first time. Since taking office however, Mr. Benn said that this has changed and persons are now able to have their renewals completed almost immediately, providing they would have satisfied the required criteria.

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

LOCAL TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

41 Stakeholders Benefit From Social Cohesion Consultations In Corriverton 20 Of 32 Planned Consultations Completed Georgetown, Guyana – (October 17, 2016) An additional 41 stakeholders cohesion under this current administration and led by the Ministry of Social from Corriverton, East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six), today, were added to the hundreds of persons that have so far contributed to the Ministry of Social Cohesion’s countrywide Consultation Initiative, and the Ministry has said that the Consultations have so far been receiving an overwhelming response from participants around the country. Further, the consultation process has been used as a social cohesion awareness vehicle. Today’s session was the twentieth of 32 planned Consultations. Two other Consultations are planned for New Amsterdam and Rose Hall over the next two days. The participants ranged from members of Non-Governmental Organisations, religious and youth groups, and also included residents from the neighbouring indigenous communities of Orealla and Siparuta. Ministry of Social Cohesion, Technical Officer, Ms. Natasha Singh-Lewis said that part of the positive response coming out of all the Consultations include the sensitisation aspect, as residents are able to learn more about the Ministry’s work. “We have residents, especially from Hinterland communities, who are particularly happy to learn about social cohesion. ,’ she said. Lead Consultant for the Social Cohesion National Strategic Plan, Dr. Thomas Gittens said that the Consultations have also highlighted proposals and responses that reflect the particular issues that are affecting the communities, which, he noted gives tremendous insight into the needs of those communities. “We have had a tremendous level of participation and input at all the consultations. In many cases we have received very good content, because people have been speaking their minds,” he said. He added that the Ministry’s aim has been to make the Consultations free of politics, which he believes has led to people being more inclined to share their views. “We have also been seeing people thinking very deeply about what they want to see at a community and national level. There has been a lot of commitment in terms of how people are seeing the whole process and how they are modelling their participation to the process and it is very heartening,” he said. The participants were given the chance to provide feedback on five thematic areas affecting social cohesion in Guyana: economic equity and opportunities, citizens’ safety and security, social inclusion and tolerance, inclusive and participatory governance and harmonious ethnic and racial relations. Their feedback will contribute to the development of a 2017-2021 Strategic Plan on Social Cohesion in Guyana which is expected to be completed by this year-end. Speaking with regard to economic inclusion, Mr. Nicholas Jaundoo, a businessman from Corriverton, said that it is important for people of various professional backgrounds to have equal access to financing. “This will enable them to make a contribution in their community and will help to uplift the community. The whole idea of this programme is very inclusive with a wide cross section of people. I would like to see more of these consultations so that people can be informed of what the government has planned for the country,” he said. Ms. Loretta Angel, a resident of Corriverton, said that in the area of security, residents are concerned about crime and that it is important for all groups to work together to fight it. “If we can work together for our social wellness, we can be more comfortable and feel more secure. If we work together we would be at a better place when it comes to security, wellness of mind and socialising no matter what our differences. You get more from people when you have cooperation,” she said. The Consultations are supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Resident Representative of the UNDP to Guyana, Ms. Mikiko Tanaka, who was present at today’s session, said that the organisation is pleased to support the Ministry’s work, as social cohesion serves as a core foundation for peace and development, and as it is reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals. “In the context of Guyana, I am very happy to hear that this is a very important issue and objective for the country. This motto Guyana has of ‘One People, One Nation, One Destiny’ very much captures that aspiration that Guyana has, so the UNDP has been accompanying the process of developing a national strategy for social

Cohesion,” she said. Ms. Tanaka said that most importantly, it is the voice of the local people that make up the issues and challenges of social cohesion and what they would like to do to achieve social cohesion. “As a result of all of the consultations, we hope that we get a better sense at the national level or the regional levels of the strategic complimentary actions needed to really bring the society together,” she said.

From left, Ministry of Social Cohesion, Technical Officer, Mrs. Natasha Singh-Lewis, Resident Representative of the UNDP to Guyana, Ms. Mikiko Tanaka, Mayor of Corriverton, Mr. Ganesh Gangadin, Regional Executive Officer, Ms. Kim Stephens, Lead Consultant for the Social Cohesion National Strategic Plan, Dr. Thomas Gittens, Regional Health Officer, Mr. Jevon Stephens and representatives from the UNDP at the Social Cohesion Consultation in Corriverton.

Dr. Gittens interacts with one of the participants at the Consultation

The Participants were divided into groups to discuss five thematic areas on social cohesion

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

LOCAL TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Best Sworn In To Probe Mining Death Retired Rear Admiral, Gary Best was today sworn in before the to do. The Retired Rear Admiral is expected to provide two Chief Magistrate as he prepares to lead the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the death of miner, Keon Wilson at Puruni, Cuyuni Mazaruni on October 8, 2016 as a result of a collapsed mining area. Speaking to the media, the Ex-Military officer revealed that the COI into the death is a step in the right direction as he prepares to do his job which he pointed out is to prepare, examine and report into the death and in the end to provide recommendations to the Government so that an incident of similar nature does not occur. The Retired Rear Admiral explained that in order to carry out an effective job he will find out whether there were previous inquiries into such matters and use the information obtained, if any, in making his decisions. When questioned about the perception that most of the COI’s are only being led by Ex-Military officials, Best responded saying “I see no reason whether it’s an ex-military or civilian conducting inquiries, I think the issue of competence and confidence.” When questioned as to what are his Technical qualifications in the field that will make him competent, Best did not hesitate to say that he has none but revealed that the Commission will have to the ability to call upon experts.

However when questioned about his qualifications to lead the COI, Best complimented himself saying “I think I have a fair and impartial mind and being an Attorney I know how to weigh information, weigh evidence”. Best referenced his ability to be a critical and strategic thinker and his general life experience in heading various agencies as his qualifications to lead the Commission of Inquiry. Questioned as to the difference between Commission of Inquiries and regular Inquires, Best said that he believes that the COI’s have Judicial powers which can be used to summon individuals before the Commission in order to obtain information which regular inquiries are unable

reports, a preliminary one to Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman on or before November 4, 2016 and the final report on November 18, 2016, which he will present to President David Granger.

Retired Rear Admiral, Gary Best

REGIONAL PAGE 12

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

CDB Approves US$200 Million Country Strategy For Belize

B

RIDGETO W N , Barbados -The board of directors of the C a r i b b e a n Development Bank ( C D B ) h a s approved a country strategy for Belize for 2016 to 2020.

The strategy proposes support of US$200.5 million for Belize over the four-year period. It will help the country address some of the social, environmental and e c o n o m i c challenges it faces.

Dr Justin Ram, director of economics, CDB,

noted: “CDB r e m a i n s a committed partner in helping Belize achieve sustained growth and development. This strategy will bolster the government of Belize’s ongoing reform efforts by supporting interventions that will support inclusive social and e c o n o m i c development, environmental sustainability, and the promotion of good governance.”

The strategy aims to drive five development outcomes:

• increasing competitiveness and productivity; • improved quality and access to education and training; • improved social sector outcomes; • enhanced environmental management and r e d u c e d vulnerability to natural disasters; and • improved governance and development planning.

Gender equality, r e g i o n a l cooperation and integration, as well as energy security

and citizen security, will be key features o f C D B ’ s interventions delivered through the strategy programme. The US$200.5 million resource envelope includes US$126.5 million in loan resources and US$74 million in grant funds, including resources t o s u p p o r t necessary reforms to unlock Belize’s growth potential.

The approved country strategy is aligned with CDB’s strategic objectives of promoting broad-based

economic growth a n d s o c i a l development, and promoting good governance. It builds on policy dialogue with key policymakers and stakeholders, and complements the government of Belize’s 2016-2019 growth and sustainable development strategy and the work of other development partners in Belize.

(Caribbean News Now!)

REGIONAL PAGE 14

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Antigua-Barbuda Steps Up For Haiti

Prime Minister Gaston Browne

S

T JOHN’S, Antigua - Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, Gaston Browne, has announced that his government is giving US$100,000 to Haiti to help its people cope with the humanitarian crisis facing the country as a result of Hurricane Matthew. In addition, the prime minister revealed that the government of Qatar has pledged to him that it will make an immediate donation of US$500,000 to Haiti. The pledge was made by the prime minister of Qatar, Abdulah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Doha last week when he and

Browne met to discuss bilateral matters. The Antigua and Barbuda leader said that, in his meeting with the Qatari government, “I was very conscious of the dire circumstances of the people of Haiti and the need for as much significant help as I could encourage for them, so I pleaded their case with Prime Minister Al Thani.”

Browne revealed that, in a letter dated 16 October, he has received from the Qatar government, it has been confirmed that not only will Qatar give Haiti immediate help, it will also provide “long term support for the reconstruction of affected areas of Haiti”. The Qatari government letter

noted “the very impressive outreach made to our government” by the Antigua and Barbuda leader “on behalf of Haiti”.

It continued: “We note your direct efforts to encourage Qatar to assist Haiti. Your leadership and dedication to your region has allowed rapid and immediate

support to Haiti from the Qatar Fund for Development.”

Browne said that he is “delighted by the Qatari g o v e r n m e n t ’s s w i f t response and its commitment to continuing support for Haiti”. “This is what our Caribbean Community should be about, looking out for each member states and the welfare of all our peoples.

In this regard, I am especially pleased that my advocacy for Haiti with Qatar has borne fruit,” he said. Talking about his own government’s financial contribution, Browne said: “Despite our difficult circumstances, my government regards it as our fraternal duty to provide a hand to help relieve the unimaginable suffering of our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”

(Caribbean News Now!)

REGIONAL PAG 15

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Panama Hires Firm amid ongoing Panama Papers Fallout

By Will Fitzgibbon International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) WASHINGTON, USA -Arrests, protests and legal challenges continue across the world, and Panama has now officially engaged a public relations firm to m a n a g e t h e c o u n t r y ’s reputation amid ongoing global fallout from Panama Papers revelations. The Panamanian government has contracted communications and consulting firm Bellwether Strategies to “promote Panama's commercial and diplomatic objectives” and to provide centralized “crisis communication” strategies f o r t h e g o v e r n m e n t ’s response to the Panama Papers.

The $50,000-a-month contract is detailed in filings with the United States’ Foreign Agents Registration Unit, which lists Panama’s

president Juan Carlos Varela and ambassador to the US Emanuel Gonzalez-Revilla as the officials overseeing B e l l w e t h e r ’s w o r k .

Meanwhile in Israel, two investment and foreign exchange executives were arrested on suspicion of not declaring hundreds of thousands of dollars held offshore.

The arrests are the first from t h e t a x a u t h o r i t y ’s investigations of the Panama Papers, and more arrests are expected, according to reports. In Ireland, Finance Minister Michael Noonan cited the Panama Papers as he handed down a budget that promised to boost tax enforcement powers and criminalize the facilitation of offshore tax evasion. “The release of the so-called Panama Papers earlier this year showed how defaulters use offshore structures and accounts to avoid paying tax,” Noonan told the parliament last week. In Malta, a former senior

minister, Dr Konrad Mizzi, faces continued calls for his resignation after revelations of an offshore trust in New Zealand.

Mizzi, who lost his ministerial portfolios following the Panama Papers revelations but who remains a member of cabinet, refused to answer a journalist’s question on Thursday about why, according to emails contained within Panama Papers, he wanted to avoid alerting banks in Malta to his offshore company in New Zealand. Mizzi has asked the Maltese tax authorities to audit his financial affairs.

Pakistani members of the opposition continue to accuse Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of obstructing investigations set up in the wake of Panama Papers.

Sharif’s children, including his daughter, who has been touted as a potential successor, were linked to at least three offshore c o m p a n i e s . S h a r i f ’s government pledged to establish a commission to look into allegations of wrongdoing but the process has been hampered by a lack of agreement on the terms of the commission’s investigation. Separately, a three-member bench of Pakistan’s Supreme Court will hear pleas this week from opposition parties asking the court to bar the Prime Minister from

carrying on with official duties amid allegations he lied to the country’s national assembly about the value of his assets.

In Nigeria, protestors rallied in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday, waving placards that called on President Muhammadu Buhari to probe Nigerians mentioned within Panama Papers. In Spain, ICIJ’s media partner El Confidencial announced last week that the publisher of its chief competitor planned to sue the newspaper for $9 million. Lawyers representing Grupo Prisa, the parent company of rival newspaper El Pais, reportedly admitted El Confidencial’s reporting was accurate, but claimed that the Panama Papers revelations relating to Grupo Prisa’s owner, Juan Luis Cebrián, amounted to unfair competition.

Both newspapers are fighting for top-spot in the Spanish news market. Grupo Prisa claims it has lost readers and suffered economic loss because of El Confidencial’s report on the Panama Papers.

Editor of El Confidencial, Nacho Cardero, told ICIJ that if the court challenge is successful, “this suit would mean that journalists can't write or investigate about other editors or journalistic companies” no matter the level of public interest.

(Caribbean News Now!)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Trinidad And Tobago Looks To The Sport Tourism Niche

Professor Daniel Funk with Dr Patricia Butcher, Executive Director of the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -“The time is opportune to focus on sport tourism, and it is a niche well worth following,” was the message sent out from the Sport To u r i s m M a s t e r C l a s s program that recently concluded in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Organised by the T r i n i d a d a n d To b a g o Hospitality and Tourism Association (TTHTI) and facilitated by Professor Daniel Funk of Temple University, the Sport Tourism Master Class took place on October 13 and 14, 2016.

In opening the program, Vi d i a h R a m k h e l a w a n , permanent secretary in the ministry of tourism, said, “Trinidad and Tobago has several stadia and sporting complexes across the country but what will make us a game player are hosting events that not only deliver sustainable economic, social and promotional benefits but also entwine the sport, heritage and culture of this country.”

The ministry of tourism has identified sport tourism as one of its key tourism niches and has drafted a preliminary sport tourism policy to guide development in that area. The tourism ministry is collaborating with the ministry of sport and youth affairs and the Sport Company of Trinidad and

Tobago to finalise this policy in fiscal 2017. The policy will be informed by views of all major stakeholders.

Sport tourism is said to be worth US$600 billion g l o b a l l y, a c c o r d i n g t o research from World Travel Market. This particular niche

market accounts for 14 percent of overall international travel and tourism receipts and this is predicted to grow over the next decade. Sport tourism is about more than just hosting great events. It offers the potential for something much broader, including opportunities for Trinidad and Tobago to raise its identity as a sport destination, to generate new tourism business, and to achieve widespread international recognition through global media coverage.

The Sport Tourism Master Class saw record attendance with presentations by several key persons in the sport and tourism fields. The program provided participants with an opportunity to develop the skill-sets necessary for Trinidad and Tobago to excel in the sport tourism arena.

(Caribbean News Now!)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Caribbean Aquaculture Projects Offer New Citizenship By Investment Opportunities

avoiding any measurable environmental impacts.

GSA is offering investors a unique opportunity to DUBAI, UAE -- Grenada join the high technology Sustainable Aquaculture paradigm via intellectual ( G S A ) a n d A n t i g u a property (IP). GSA uses Sustainable Aquaculture the latest, world-leading (ASA) have recently aquaculture technologies, received the full support continuing to improve from both countries’ them where they own the governments. The open i n t e l l e c t u a l p r o p e r t y ocean environment rights. This can be combined with integrated extremely lucrative in multi-trophic aquaculture both the short and long( I M T A ) a n d g o o d term, as the unique IP may husbandry practices be licensed to other p r o d u c e s a p r e m i u m aquaculture projects for quality product while an annual fee plus a Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture

percentage of their annual gross sales This IP profit centre is in addition to the sales of the core aquaculture products.

Citizenship by Investment "Prosperity, safety, global mobility – secure citizenship and visa free travel for your family via a safe and sound investment i n a p e a c e f u l Commonwealth of Nations state," said Leo Ford, director of GSA. Grenadian citizenship lasts for a lifetime, giving the individual the same rights and privileges as persons born in Grenada.

The passport allows visafree travel to over 130 countries including the UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and most of Latin America. Grenada citizens may also travel and do business freely throughout the Caribbean C o m m u n i t y (CARICOM). (Caribbean News Now!)

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Dominica PM Praises China

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit (Source: http://alchetron.com) ROSEAU, Dominica, Oct 18, CMC – Dominica has praised China for its unwavering commitment to the socio-economic development of the island saying the Asian country has remained “true to its commitment and promises to Dominica.

“Every single promise which the government and people of China has made to Dominica they have kept them,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said.

He said the outgoing China’s ambassador Li Jiannin “has certainly represented the most populous country, which

is a member of the UN Security Council with a veto, the second largest economy in re world with distinction”. Dominica and China established diplomatic relations in

2004 after Roseau broke off diplomatic relations w i t h Ta i w a n w h i c h Beijing considers a renegade province.

China has also called on countries to adopt the

“One China” policy, the code for agreeing with Beijing that there is only “One China” and Taiwan is an inalienable part of it.

In his statement, Skerrit said that China is at the “forefront of providing development assistance to the developing world. He said Beijing makes available in the form grants “several billions of dollars and in the form of very concessionary loans at two and three per cent with an extended grace period have been exceptional in its assistance to developing countries”. (Antigua Observer)

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Caribbean Countries To Benefit From New USAID Agreement

Dr. Carissa F. Etienne WASHINGTON, Oct 18, CMC – C a r i b b e a n countries are expected to benefit from a multimillion dollar agreement signed between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Pan American H e a l t h Organization (PAHO). USAID will provide more than US$31 million to improve health in Latin America and the Caribbean over the next five years and PAHO said the partnership will

support its t e c h n i c a l cooperation in its member states in areas including tuberculosis, malaria, neglected infectious diseases, maternal and neonatal health and inequities related to gender, ethnicity and other social determinants.

The agreement also supports efforts to strengthen health information systems, as well as health systems overall, PAHO said.

“We are proud of the many health achievements that our work with U S A I D h a s produced in our member countries,

and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue this partnership to build o n t h o s e achievements,” s a i d PA H O Dominican-born Director Carissa F. Etienne. “We very much look forward to working together over the next five years.” PAHO said it has worked with USAID for nearly three decades to improve the health and lives of people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“This collaboration has led to health progress including the eradication of river blindness from several of the region’s countries,

continuing declines in malaria cases and deaths in 19 of the 21 endemic countries, and the attainment of most of the healthrelated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” PAHO said. “At the same time, this joint work has also highlighted the need for innovative strategies to build further on the progress achieved.”

USAID’s Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, Marcela Escobari, said “we are encouraged by the gains that the health sector in Latin America and the Caribbean has made in the decades since USAID first embarked on partnership with PAHO. “ To g e t h e r, w i t h local ministries of health, we continue to help improve affordable access to quality health care

for the most vulnerable people in the region,” said Escobari. PAHO said the new agreement will support continuing and new efforts to build “strong, sustainable and equitable health systems” and advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the long-term goal of achieving universal health.

The new agreement includes support for PAHO as technical secretariat for a Promise Renewed for the Americas, an initiative to reduce inequities and a c c e l e r a t e improvements in reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health.

Other partners include UNICEF, the World Bank, and the InterA m e r i c a n Development Bank. (Antigua Observer)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Caribbean Countries Urged To Do More To Reduce Poverty

W

ASHINGTON , Oct 18, CMC – The World Bank says in order to win the fight against poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), children need to have better access to basic opportunities. According to new data released to c o i n c i d e w i t h International Day of the Eradication of Poverty, the World Bank notes that from 2000 to 2014, extreme poverty -people living under US$2.50 a day- in Latin America and the Caribbean – decreased to 10.8 per cent from 25.5 per cent . But the Wa s h i n g t o n - b a s e d financial institution said the reduction since 2012

has taken place at a much slower pace as a result of the economic slowdown.

At the same time, the bank said inequality went down marginally, although it still remains high. In addition, the World Bank said the region made significant gains in expanding access to opportunities, especially to basic services, such as electricity and school enrolment. However, it said continued progress is being overshadowed by the current economic slowdown, “which has already stopped the expansion of the middle class.” “For the region to continue with the great social transformation it embarked upon since the

turn of the century, we need to ensure that every child is given a fair chance to fulfil his or her true potential,” said Jorge Familiar, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“In the context of economic slowdown, it is even more important to improve opportunities for c h i l d r e n f r o m disadvantaged backgrounds, such as access to a good education.” The World B a n k ’s 2 0 1 6 H u m a n Opportunity Index (HOI) “Seeking Opportunities for All,” measures how equitably children, age 16 and under, have access to services needed for a

productive life such as education, water and sanitation, electricity and internet. While the analysis shows important gains in access to electricity and school enrollment – over 90 per cent coverage – the region still lags in access to running water, sanitation and internet, the World Bank said.

“Unequal access to essential services can hinder the development and well-being of children, which ultimately limits their productivity in adult life and affects the region’s potential to boost growth and further reduce poverty in the long term,” said Oscar CalvoGonzalez, author of the report and World Bank Practice Manager for Poverty and Equity in Latin America and the C a r i b b e a n .

“Unfortunately, having parents with low education and income, as well as living in rural areas, remain important barriers for access to opportunities and economic mobility from one generation to the next,” he added. (Antigua Observer)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

St. Lucian Cruise Ship Employee arrested For Alleged Sexual Assault

T

he Saint Lucian man being escorted by

police.

A Saint Lucian national who is employed as a Disney Wonder crew member was arrested on sexual assault charges in Cadiz, Spain while the cruise ship was in dry dock in Navantia shipyard. Cruise Centre reported that the incident took place on Saturday morning (Oct.15) on the ship ‘Rhapsody’, which serves as hotel for crew members and other workers during the dry dock.

The arrested crew member has been identified as a 28 -year-

old male from Saint Lucia with initials JGL. According to the victim’s statement, who is also working on Disney Wonder, there was a crew party on board the ship.

After the party, she and JGL went in his cabin, where they had consensual sex, and spent the night together. In the morning,however, JGL tried to convince the woman to have anal sex, which she refused.

Nevertheless, JGL allegedly insisted and had penetrated the victim anally, causing her pain.

Cruise Centre said that after the sexual assault, the victim identified as a 27 year-old British

national, didn’t want to report the incident at first, but finally did at around 9.a.m. by contacting C a d i z P o l i c e

Department.

The police patrol moved to the scene and officers arrested the crew member and sent him to P r o v i n c i a l Commissioner of Cadiz, where he stayed overnight waiting to appear before the judicial authority. The judge decided to send him to pris on w ithout bail, considering that the story of the woman offered no contradictions. If found guilty, the Saint Lucian crew member, can be sentenced from one to t h r e e y e a r s imprisonment. (St. Lucia News Online)

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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

CDB Approves US$24.1M Project For St. Lucia’s Education System

P

RESS RELEASE – The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved USD23.4 million (mn) in financing for a project, which aims to strengthen Saint Lucia’s education system to better address the needs of diverse learners. The Saint Lucia Education Quality Improvement Project (EQuIP) will support the enhancement of mechanisms and capacity for improved planning, leadership and delivery of education services; the rehabilitation, renovation and/or expansion of physical infrastructure at

various education levels; and institutional strengthening and capacity building. Daniel Best, Director of Projects, C D B n o t e s : “ We a r e committed to working with the Government of Saint Lucia to invest in improving access to quality education for all.

This Project responds to the island’s most pressing needs in the education sector, and builds on our four decades of successful partnership with the Government and people of Saint Lucia.” EQuIP aligns with the Government of Saint Lucia’s Education Sector Development Plan (20152020), and will: -improve

the teaching and learning environment across the country through the e x p a n s i o n a n d rehabilitation of five schools; -enhance quality, r e l e v a n c e a n d instructional effectiveness by providing training for 25 teacher educators and 375 teachers in specific areas of need; -improve leadership and operational effectiveness by providing training for workers across the education system, including 120 principals and education officers; conduct a climate vulnerability assessment of project schools and develop prototype guidelines for use in climate vulnerability

assessment of schools nationally; -enhance special needs education by assessing what institutional and infrastructural improvements are needed to -provide quality education and equitable access to children with special educational needs (SEN).

Loan financing for EQuIP is complemented by a grant of USD740,000 to the Government of Saint Lucia, which also includes an allocation from resources provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to CDB under the EIB Grant Facility for Climate Action Support.

The Government of Saint Lucia will contribute USD4.9 mn to the Project.

The Project supports C D B ’s S a i n t L u c i a Country Strategy Paper (2013-2016), which prioritises improving the efficiency of social and economic infrastructure on the island. It is also consistent with the Bank’s strategic objective of supporting inclusive and sustainable growth and development as outlined in its Strategic Plan 20152019. (St. Lucia News Online)

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REGIONAL TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Guyana & Suriname To Participate In Caribe’s Animation & Digital Media Festival

Guyana & Suriname to participate in Caribe’s Animation & Digital Media Festival The Guyana and Suriname Animation Networks will be participating on the Animae Caribe Film and Digital Media Festival, which will be celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago from October 24-30, 2016. Guyana Animation Network (GAN) Ms. Jubilante Cutting, President of the Guyana Animation Network (GAN) expressed her enthusiasm towards the festival, and the ‘positive influence’ of this kind of events not only for the development of local artist, but for animators in the diaspora.

Animation Network (SAN) The President of the Suriname Animation Network (SAN) Adley Breeveld said the Animae Caribe Film and Digital Media Festival could represent a priceless opportunity for the participants to ‘network’ not only with the regional talents, but also with prestigious animators from International business such as American Computer Animation Film Studio Pixar, the Animated Film Production Company SONY and from the American diversified multinational Walt Disney.

Suriname. The Festival The Animae Caribe Animation and Digital Media Festival is the Caribbean’s biggest and most prestigious animation festival of the region.

This yearly event provides a platform for the development of animators in the Caribbean, as well as the exposure of animation as a viable business. Since 2001, the Animae Caribe Festival has been bringing top animators to Trinidad and Tobago to present and host workshops for potential, novice and professional digital artists. Today, it continues to provide an outlet for innovative animators in the region to develop, expand and showcase their talents to a wider local and international audience.

S o u r c e : https://www.facebook.com/animateguy ana/

Guyana Animation Network (GAN) “We will be able to learn and benefit from the training from all the skilled professionals in the animation industry that will be participating in the festival,” Ms. Cutting stated. The Guyana Animation Network (GAN) began with the formation of an informal Board of Directors on May 31, 2016 led by Founder and President, Ms. Jubilanté Cutting. This was quickly followed by its official launch on July 2nd, 2016, which facilitated a number of artists, animators, designers, story writers and researchers to display their work. Suriname

Suriname Animation Network (SAN) “It will be an amazing experience” Mr. Breeveld said. The Suriname Animation Network (SAN) was proclaimed on the 4th of July 2015, during the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Summit, a bi-yearly conference, in Suriname that offers a platform for everyone in the ICT industry to come together to exchange ideas. The SAN was formed out of a need for collaboration in the animation sector of

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REGIONAL TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Venezuela Referendum: Court Tightens Rules On Maduro Recall

Supreme Court of Venezuela [BBC] - Venezuela's Supreme Court has delivered a blow to an opposition campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro. His opponents want to end his term in oďŹƒce early via a recall referendum.The court ruled on Monday that they must now secure signatures from 20% of voters in each of the 24 states, rather than 20% of the overall electorate. Venezuela is facing severe economic problems and although Mr Maduro's

popularity has plunged, he has control over key bodies such as the court.

The key dates for the opposition campaign are 26 to 28 October.

On those days it must collect and electronically verify enough signatures to trigger the recall referendum. It had faced a tough task already trying to reach a sum of around four million voters.

Now it must meet a 20% threshold in each state, including rural areas where support for the left-wing government is stronger.

The court said on Monday: "The failure to collect that percentage in any of the states or the capital district would nullify the validity of a presidential recall referendum."

Another key date is 10 January. If the recall referendum happens after then and Mr Maduro loses the vote, which opinion polls suggest would be the case, he would be replaced by his handpicked vice-president. Mr Maduro has used institutions like courts to try to neutralise the control the opposition has over the National Assembly. Mr Maduro was elected in April 2013. His term runs until 2019. The oildependent country has seen three years of deep recession, with ination expected to top 700% this year. There are huge shortages of food and medicines, and looting is widespread.

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Mosul Hattle: EU 'Should Prepare For Returning Jihadists’

Smoke could be seen rising above Bartila, east of Mosul, after fighting on Tuesday(REUTERS) The EU should be prepared for returning jihadists if the socalled Islamic State (IS) is driven out of its Iraqi stronghold, Mosul, an official warns. Security Commissioner Julian King said even a small number of militants would pose "a serious threat that we must prepare ourselves for". Iraqi forces say they have captured 10 villages near Mosul since beginning their long-awaited offensive on Monday. As many as 5,000 IS fighters are believed to remain in the city. Government troops, moving in from the south, are currently some 40km (24 miles) from the city, while Kurdish fighters are some 30km to the east.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has appealed to all sides to show their humanity as aid agencies brace for what they say could be the largest man-made humanitarian crisis of recent times. How big is the threat to Europe? Julian King, a British diplomat recently made the EU's security commissioner, told Die Welt newspaper (in German) the threat of IS fighters returning to Europe after the fall of Mosul was "very serious". There were currently about 2,500 fighters from EU countries in the combat zones, he said. However, he stressed it was "very unlikely that there would be a mass exodus of IS fighters to Europe".

Similar cases in the past had shown, he said, that "only a few fighters come back". But he added: "I don't want to talk the risk down. Even a small number constitutes a threat." Some of the militants involved in the deadly IS attack on Paris last November had recently returned from Syria. What is the latest on the offensive? Some 34,000 Iraqi security personnel, Kurdish fighters, Sunni Muslim Arab tribesmen and Shia Muslim paramilitaries have been deployed against IS, with backing from the US, France and others.

IS has issued a defiant video showing its fighters reportedly patrolling Mosul by night, with a spokesman goading the group's enemies to engage it in battle. The BBC's Ahmed Maher, reporting from the front line, says the strategy is to encircle the city before moving in on the centre itself. France's

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has warned the fight to liberate Mosul in its entirety could take a long time. "It's not a blitzkrieg," he said. "It's a city with 1.5 million residents, so it's a long-term project - several weeks, maybe months."

Meanwhile, the Syrian army accused the US-led coalition of planning to allow IS fighters in Mosul to flee into Syria, Reuters news agency reports. The army, which has no control over Syria's border with Iraq, was quoted as saying it would resist any attempt by fighters to cross. The commander of Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service, Maj-Gen Fadhil Jalil al-Barwari, has been quoted by the New Arab website as saying IS fighters are being offered two corridors "to go to Syria". How are civilians coping in Mosul? An Iraqi-American journalist who has been on the outskirts of Mosul and has relatives in the city said the situation there was currently calm.

Steven Nabil said people were feeling a mixture of excitement at the prospect of being liberated, and "stress and worry" over what dangers the offensive would bring. Phone lines had been re-established with the city in recent days, giving residents access to a free phone line. "They've actually sent out hundreds of messages in the past hours telling the coalition" where IS locations are, particularly as they have moved into local neighbourhoods, he said. The UN is working to create new refugee sites outside Mosul amid fears that as many as a million people may be forced from their homes. Lise Grande, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, said the organisation was working on the assumption that as many as 200,000 people might need shelter in the first days and weeks of the operation.

There are also fears the fighters might use civilians as human shields as the offensive continues.

Ms Grande said Iraqi security forces planned to vet fleeing civilians to ensure militants were not hiding among them. Why does Mosul matter? The oil-rich capital of Nineveh province was Iraq's second-largest city when IS militants overran it in June 2014, but many inhabitants subsequently fled. Its capture became a symbol of the group's rise as a major force and its ability to control territory, and it was there that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" in parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.The city was one of Iraq's most diverse, comprising ethnic Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and Turkmens, as well as a variety of religious minorities.

While members of those minorities largely fled the onslaught

by IS, many local Sunni Arabs initially welcomed the militants, angered by the sectarian policies of the previous Shia Arab-led central government. One major concern for those still there is the involvement of Shia militia groups in the offensive. The commander of one of the main groups, Hadi al-Ameri of the Badr Brigades, sought to reassure Sunnis on Tuesday by saying only the Iraqi security forces would be allowed to operate inside the city. Even if IS is driven out of Mosul, the group will still control areas of northern and eastern Iraq. (BBC)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Commons Vote To Ratify Brexit Very Likely, Says No 10

(GETTY IMAGES) Downing Street has said it is "very likely" MPs will be able to vote on the final Brexit agreement reached between the UK and the European Union. A government lawyer made the comment in the High Court and No 10 confirmed it was the "government's view that is being represented". The UK is expected to leave the European Union in 2019. The deal reached is expected to deal with migration controls and whether the UK remains in the single market. BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said the government's move to allow a vote after an agreement has been negotiated with the EU was

unlikely to satisfy critics of Prime Minister Theresa May's approach to Brexit.

They are pressing for a parliamentary vote before she begins negotiations next spring - but Mrs May opposes this, saying ministers should decide when to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which begins the two years of talks. Norman Smith said the latest government comments raised the possibility that any deal negotiated by Mrs May could be rejected by Parliament.

The government is currently fighting a legal case over whether Parliament should have a vote before Article 50 is triggered.

During the High Court hearing, government lawyer James Eadie QC moved on to what was likely to happen at the end of the negotiations, in 2019, saying: "The government view at the moment is it is very likely that any such agreement will be subject to ratification." If this vote ends with MPs rejecting the Brexit deal, the UK would still leave the EU, Lord Pannick, who is acting for the campaigners challenging the government, told the court. "Parliament cannot reverse the notification," he said.

The UK would either leave with no agreement or reach a new one, he said, adding: "But the new agreement cannot restore the rights that are irretrievably lost, and whether there is a new agreement is out of the hands of Parliament." UK voters opted in favour of leaving the EU by 51.9% to 48.1% in a referendum in June. The three-day High Court hearing ends on Tuesday.

(BBC)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Oikea Shanghai Frowns On Elderly Daters Who Occupy Cafeteria

(SINA WEIBO: CCTV NEWS) Sad news for elderly lonely hearts in Shanghai: they can no longer look for love in Ikea. The Swedish furniture giant's Shanghai store has seen a strange phenomenon of senior citizens descending upon its famed cafeteria to socialise and even find partners. Locals said it occurs twice weekly, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. China's state broadcaster CCTV News reported that the elderly patrons would often buy a cup of coffee or some bread and "spend an entire day just chatting with others".

They are believed to be part of a dating community, making use of their Ikea membership cards. This week, Ikea put a stop to it by imposing a strict "no food, no seating" rule to discourage senior citizens from occupying canteen seats for "extended periods". In a notice posted at the entrance of the Ikea Shanghai Restaurant, staff identified an "illegal blind-dating group" and accused it of "uncivilised behaviour". "The situation has adversely affected the dining experience and security of most of

our customers," it said, adding that it had received public complaints about "spitting" and "quarrels and fights". "It is having a negative implication for our canteen's operation.

From today, the restaurant will only be for people who purchase their food first." The news has attracted attention from netizens on Chinese social media, with many in support of the elderly.

"They are harmless," wrote Ed Ed Chiu in a reply to a post by CCTV News on the popular Chinese micro-blogging Sina Weibo platform. Weibo user Lee Xin slammed the move as a "draconian measure" and said it was cruel to elderly patrons.

"What wrong are they doing? They are lonely and are probably hoping to find some company again.

If anything, the store should practise empathy and at least sympathise with these old people," she said. The move was criticised by some elderly patrons, who spoke to local media outlets. "We've been to fast food outlets like McDonald's - but there are barely any peers there," said an 86-year-old man who went by the name of Qiu. Mr Qiu told the state-controlled Global Times newspaper: "We feel like aliens - surrounded by youngsters. If there is another place in Shanghai where elderly people can gather, we are more than ready to pay twice as much and travel further."

But others online voiced support for the store's management, praising its efforts in "maintaining store policy". "Intolerable behaviour," said one Weibo user. "I'm with the management on this. It's deplorable how people are caught photographed sleeping on Ikea displays, what more spitting and swearing in public? This should not be tolerated at all." Another user Lao Gao from Beijing wrote: "To everyone romanticising this, please also consider that the store has an image to uphold while protecting the interests of other paying customers. It is ugly behaviour to take up seats for such long durations while you make others wait." (BBC)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Syria War: Russia Halts Aleppo Bombing For Humanitarian Pause

Much of Aleppo lies in ruins after a sustained bombing campaign(AFP) Russian and Syrian warplanes have suspended air strikes in the Syrian city of Aleppo ahead of a humanitarian pause on Thursday, Russia has said. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the bombing had been halted early on Tuesday. Russia had already announced an eight-hour pause between 08:00 (05:00 GMT) and 16:00 on Thursday. Mr Shoigu urged rebels and civilians in the besieged eastern area of the city to use humanitarian corridors to leave.

Russian warplanes pounded the rebel-held areas of Aleppo shortly before announcing Tuesday's suspension, activists say. A couple and their three children were killed in the overnight bombing, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group. More than 430 people have been killed in the recent bombardment of rebel areas, it says. UN agencies have criticised the planned length of Thursday's humanitarian pause, saying at least 12 hours will be needed for people to safely leave the besieged area.

"We would welcome any pause in the ďŹ ghting, but there is a need for a longer pause in order to get the aid in," said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Russia's initial announcement came hours after 14 members of one family were reportedly killed in a strike in Aleppo. Volunteer rescuers in Syria said eight children and two women were among the dead after heavy bombing, with "bunker-buster" munitions shaking the ground.

Russia has come under increasing criticism from Western nations for its attacks on rebel-held east Aleppo, with the US and the EU calling for a war crimes investigation. Moscow denies the accusations. President Vladimir Putin dismissed such claims as "rhetoric" that did not take into account the realities in Syria. (BBC)

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Brother Urges Paris Suspect Salah Abdeslam To Speak

Two of Mohamed Abdeslam's siblings participated in last November's bloody attacks, but he had no involvement(AFP) The brother of the main surviving suspect in last November's jihadist attacks in Paris has called on his jailed sibling to speak. Last week two lawyers said they could no longer represent Saleh Abdeslam, as he was remaining silent and refusing to co-operate with the investigation. "I ask my brother to speak," Mohamed Abdeslam told

France's RTL Radio.

He said he wanted to know "exactly what had happened before and after" the attacks in which 130 people died. Socalled Islamic State said it was behind the co-ordinated assaults on bars, restaurants, a concert hall and the Stade de France. Salah Abdeslam - described as the sole surviving member of the group was arrested in Brussels in March and has kept silent since his transfer to France in April. Mohamed Abdeslam said his brother had withdrawn into himself and he had the impression that he was even more radicalised than before.

"During my visits to Belgium, I really saw a Salah Abdeslam who was ready to talk. A few months later, it feels like I am looking at another person. I can confirm that Salah is more withdrawn, more closed now," the suspect's sibling added.

"His incarceration, the extremely difficult conditions of his detention, his

withdrawal into himself; I sometimes have the impression he is more radicalised now, rather than deradicalised," said Mohamed Abdeslam, who has visited his brother in prison every three months.

He said he was aware that Salah Abdeslam's silence was particularly hard for the families of the victims, and that it would be "a disappointment for us all" if he refused to testify at his trial. Salah Abdeslam's refusal to co-operate is said in part to stem from anger at the conditions in which he is being held - and particularly being under 24-hour video surveillance, his former lawyers have said. He is thought to have played a key role in planning the Paris attacks and transporting the attackers, but investigators are yet to determine his specific role. Another Abdeslam sibling, Brahim, blew himself up in the attacks.

(BBC)

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INTERNATIONAL PAGE 38

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Bhubaneswar Hospitaleastern Fire Kills At Least 20 India. The fire began in the intensive care unit of the

An electrical short circuit is believed to be the cause of the fire(EURPOEAN PHOTOPRESS AGENCY) At least 20 people have been killed in a fire at a hospital in

private SUM hospital in the city of Bhubaneswar in Odisha state and spread to other areas, officials say. An electrical short circuit is believed to be the cause.

Most of the victims reportedly died from smoke inhalation.

Dozens of patients were taken to other medical facilities in the city. PM Narendra Modi said he was "anguished" by the tragedy. "The fire left 20 people dead and more than 100 people injured. They have been admitted to various hospitals in Bhubaneswar and the medical college in Cuttack," the state's health secretary, Arati Ahuja, told the BBC. Many of the injured are in a critical condition. Earlier reports had put the death toll at 23. "Deeply anguished by the loss of lives in the hospital fire in Odisha. The tragedy is mindnumbing. My thoughts are with bereaved families," Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. In 2011, 89 people died in a fire that broke out in a hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.

(BBC)

German TV Terror Drama Asks Public To Deliver Verdict

A programme trailer set out the dilemma facing the court, and the public TV viewers across Europe have taken part in a interactive courtroom drama centred on a fictional act of terror. The public was asked to judge whether a military pilot who downs a hijacked passenger jet due to be crashed into a football stadium is guilty of murder. Viewers in Germany, Switzerland and Austria gave their verdict online or by phone. The programme was also aired in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The vast majority called for the pilot, Lars Koch, to be acquitted. The show, Terror - Your Verdict, was broadcast by German network ARD and was an adaptation of a play by bestselling author Ferdinand von Schirach.

In the fictional plot, militants from an al-Qaeda offshoot hijack a Lufthansa Airbus A320 with 164 people on board and aim to

crash it into a stadium packed with 70,000 people during a football match between Germany and England. "If I don't shoot, tens of thousands will die," German air force Major Lars Koch says as he flouts the orders of his superiors and takes aim at an engine of the plane. The jet crashes into a field, killing everyone on board.

"The viewer is yanked out of the passivity of television watching," ARD programming chief Volker Herres told German newspaper Bild. "He is actively called upon to become both an affected person and take a decision." 'Human dignity' In Germany, 86.9% of the 609,000 viewers who voted believed Koch made the right decision. A similar proportion of viewers backed Koch in Austria and Switzerland. Similar scenarios have been debated since the 2001 9/11 suicide attacks in the US. Then US Vice-President Dick Cheney said later that shooting down the hijacked planes would have been justified to prevent greater loss of life. However, in 2006 Germany's constitutional court ruled that such action would violate Article One of its Basic Law, that human dignity was inviolable.

In a TV discussion programme broadcast after the drama, German ex-Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung argued that the lives of the plane passengers were already impossible to save, and that the spectators themselves had a right to human dignity.

It was a case of extra-judicial emergency, he argued. A former interior minister, Gerhart Baum, disagreed, insisting that the pilot should be found guilty of murder as the fate of the passengers was not certain and human lives could not be measured against each other. (BBC)

INTERNATIONAL PAGE 39

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

US Election 2016: 'Quit Whining,' Obama Tells Donald Trump

President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi(REUTERS) US President Barack Obama has said Donald Trump's

"continued flattery" of Russia's president and claims of election rigging are "unprecedented". At a White House press conference, Mr Obama said he has never seen any US presidential candidate try to discredit a poll before it has even taken place. "I'd advise Mr Trump to quit whining," Mr Obama added.

The Republican candidate has repeatedly claimed the 8 November election will be stolen for Hillary Clinton. "Mr Trump's continued flattery of Mr Putin and the degree to which he appears to model much of his policies and approach to politics on Mr Putin is unprecedented," Mr Obama said at Tuesday's Rose Garden news conference, alongside visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

Mr Trump, who has made several admiring remarks about Vladimir Putin, said on Monday he would consider visiting Russia before taking office, if elected. The businessman told a talk-radio host: "If I win on November 8, I could see myself meeting with Putin and meeting with Russia prior to the start of the administration." (BBC)

Pennsylvania Mayor Resigns After Racist Facebook Posts

Mayor Charles Wasko has said the he does not regret the racist posts(ABC) A town mayor in the US state of Pennsylvania has quit following uproar over his racist posts on Facebook. The council in West York unanimously accepted Charles Wasko's resignation offer on Monday night, prompting applause from a crowd in the chambers. The Republican was censured by the council this month for his posts, some depicting apes and lynching. Mr Wasko, who is white, said he was the target of a "witch hunt", but acknowledged making the posts. In June he uploaded a photo of orangutans in a wheelbarrow, captioned: "Aww... moving day at the Whitehouse has finally arrived."

"Not soon enough!" Mr Wasko commented on the image, which had the phrase "Kenya or bust" superimposed on the hand cart. He said he was being targeted unfairly due to a fight with the police chief in the town of around 4,500 residents. But in an interview this month with Pennsylvania TV station

WHTM, Mr Wasko said: "The racist stuff, yeah. I'll admit I did that, and I don't care what people label me as." Much of his Facebook activity has also targeted Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate, or expressed support for Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Several of Mr Wasko's posts make sexist comments regarding the appearance of Democratic female politicians, and others mock proponents of gun control. His resignation follows public forums in which community members, including young children, called on the mayor to step down. Democrat Shawn Mauck will now move from the town council to the mayor's office.

"Sadly West York lately has been known primarily for one thing, what residents call 'their racist mayor,'" Mr Mauck said at a council meeting as he accepted the mayor's resignation. The mayor had said he would only step down if certain conditions were met by the council members. "The demands were kind of silly childish immature from a guy who's not displayed too much maturity the last couple days," said Mr Mauck. He would not elaborate on the mayor's demands, but he did make clear they were not met. (BBC)

INTERNATIONAL PAGE 41

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Hitler Birthplace: Austrian Minister Retreats On Demolition subject of years of legal wrangling between the owner Gerlinde Pommer and the government, which has been renting it since 1972 to prevent any misuse. It currently pays about €4,800 ($5,300; £4,336) a month for the building. 'Demystification' needed In a statement sent to the BBC, the committee of experts appointed to decide on the future of Hitler's birthplace said it was against demolishing the house.

The fate of the building in which Hitler was born in 1889 has long been a contentious issue in Braunau am Inn(REUTERS) Austria's Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka has rowed back on comments about plans to tear down the house in which Adolf Hitler was born in 1889. He had claimed a committee of experts had decided the house should be demolished. But the committee insists not, saying a demolition would "come close to a denial of the Nazi history in Austria". On Tuesday Mr Sobotka told journalists the house should be "converted so that it was no longer recognisable". He said one could debate about whether that entailed a demolition, and added that architects would be invited to put forward proposals to convert the house.

Hitler was born in a rented room on the top floor of the building in Braunau am Inn, near the Austro-German border, on 20 April 1889. Adolf Hitler as an infant in about 1890 It has been the

Professor Clemens Jabloner and Professor Oliver Rathkolb said the impression had arisen that the committee had recommended the demolition. "This is clearly not the case. We have made… several proposals for the concrete [definitive] demystification of this place" including a "thorough architectural conversion" so that the house would not have such symbolic power. "We clearly stated that a demolition would come close to a denial of the Nazi history in Austria." The statement suggested the house be used for administrative or social purposes but ruled out using it as a museum.

Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee is due to discuss a legal amendment to allow them to seize the property, but a vote on the proposal is not expected until later, possibly November, sources told the BBC's Bethany Bell in Vienna. The future of the former guesthouse has been widely debated, with opinion torn between razing it to stop it becoming a focal point for neoNazis or changing its use. Some in the community want it to become a refugee centre, others a museum dedicated to Austria's liberation from Nazi rule. Others oppose the building's demolition because it is part of the historic city centre and therefore under heritage protection. Local people say the building still attracts some neo-Nazi sympathisers. (BBC)

INTERNATIONAL PAGE 42

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

A Day Like Today 2005, his resume would be enriched with papers in TV series and small productions. Making him a promising Hollywood star.

Zachary David Alexander 'Zac Efron' American actor

Zac graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in 2006. He was accepted in the University of Southern California, but discontinued his studies due to his commitment to work in film projects. He also assisted to Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts, a community college located in Santa Maria, California. Zachary’s breakthrough was in 2006 with the Disney Channel production ‘High School Musical’.

‘Zefron’ the boy with the sapphire eyes, the young gentleman that captivated us with the 2006 American teen romance ‘High school Musical’, the Disney’s favorite prince charming, is turning 29 today. Zachary David Alexander was born in San Luis Obispo, California on October 18th, 1987. He grew up in a middle-class family. His mother is a secretary of a power plant were his father used to work as an electrician. Zac has a small brother named Dylan. Zac’s religious background is Jewish, making him adopt this religion from small age.

This is reflected on his acquisition of ‘Efron’ as his surname; name of Biblical origins.

Zachary first source of inspiration to venture into the artistic world was his father, who would often encourage him to take part on the school plays. Even though the young Zac started to develop a passion for the ‘warmth’ and thrill of the stage, he always tried to keep an ‘A’ in class. His involvement in theatre, triggered an insatiable curiosity in the young actor to ‘star’ on the silver screen.

He started to participate in auditions for young male actors, allowing him to star in small roles. Between the year 2000 and

2006 American teen/romantic comedy 'High School Musical' He was casted to play Troy Bolton, the male leading role of the film. The musical was a complete success. Giving Zac recognition among the teen audience. As his image became popular, his schedule got tight, something positive for a ‘rising star’. He continued to work in film productions and TV shows, trying not to

be type casted as ‘Mr. Dreamy’, and he accomplished it. As the years passed by ‘his roles evolved from ‘fearless teen’ to ‘tragic Romeo’ to ‘business man’. The variety of his script built his characters and persona.

Giving him the denomination of one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood.

From 2014 to present, Zac’s career has experienced a major commercial success. Working from musicals, romance, dramas to action films and even biographies, has opened the doors for this young actor. Today he can be seen collaborating with high profile figures of the film industry, such as Robert de Niro, Seth Rogen and Chloë Grace Moretz and Andrew J. Cohen, crafting his trajectory as one of the most promising actors of the big screen.

S o u r c e : http://www.famousbirthdays.com/peopl e/zac-efron.html

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GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Algebra Word Search

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HOROSCOPE PAGE 47

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

Daily Horoscope

Source: www.starlightastrology.com

Don't let your partner get you going. You are best to travel or attend lectures or seminars. Your outgoing nature will win hearts. Don't let your emotions interfere with moneymaking deals.

Use your creative talent in order to accomplish your goals. Take your time. You could be tempted to overspend on unnecessary items.

You will do your best work on your own. Problems on the home front might be a little disconcerting. You will be prone to carelessness that could result in accidents.

Home improvement projects will go well if you delegate work to all your family members. Keep an open mind when listening to the opinions of others. Get some sound advice and help setting up a workable budget.

Plan a day of enjoyment with them. Try not to discuss important matters with colleagues. You can expect changes in your living arrangements.

Use discretion, especially if involved with someone from work. Take time to listen to the problems of family members. Dig deep to find out how costly a new venture will be before you sign on the dotted line.

You may not want to spend time around family or your home. You will get great satisfaction from your efforts. Travel should be on your agenda.

Your talent will be recognized. You should try to elaborate on an idea you have regarding a product or service for the home. Opportunities will come through long term investments.

Try to be fair in your dealings with acquaintances.

Take the time to sort out your personal papers and double-check your financial investments. Balance is required if you want stability.

Be careful; your ideas are good but make sure that you're realistic and start off on solid ground. You will be looking for creative ways to make a little extra cash. Jealous colleagues may try to undermine you.

Get on with your life. Risks will not be profitable.

Spending too much time talking to friends or relatives could easily turn into a debate that could lead to estrangement.

Be sure to catch up on overdue correspondence and help those you love find solutions to their dilemmas. Get back down to earth and to basics.

Someone left a real mess for you to sift through.

RECIPE PAGE 48

GUYANA DAILY NEWS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2016

RECIPE OF THE DAY: TORNADO POTATOES Ingredients Serves: 2 2 medium white potatoes 4 tablespoons PALMBOOM* margarine, melted 1 cup parmesan cheese, grated ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon paprika 1 teaspoon salt Parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Preparation 1. Preheat oven to 325ºF/160ºC. 2. Insert a skewer into the potato and gently push the skewer all the way through it.

3. Hold a sharp, thin knife at an angle and cut in the opposite direction you are turning the skewered potato.

4. Gently fan out the potato down the length of the skewer, until you have an even gap between the slices forming the spiral.

5. Melt the butter and brush it all over the potato.

6. In a medium bowl, combine parmesan cheese, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, and salt.

7. Place the skewered potato over the bowl and shovel the mixture all over the potato until it is entirely coated.

8. Rest potatoes on a baking sheet so that it is hovering over the bottom of the sheet.

9. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until nicely browned.

10. Garnish with additional parmesan and parsley.

11. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.

12. Serve warm and enjoy!

**Imported and distributed by SUPERFOODS

PAGE 50

Holder Hails Inspirational' Bravo And Bishoo After Dramatic Loss West Indies pushed Pakistan all the way in Dubai and losing captain Jason Holder hailed the efforts of Darren Bravo and Devendra Bishoo. Jason Holder lauded the "inspirational" performances of Darren Bravo and Devendra Bishoo, despite West Indies falling to a 56-run loss against Pakistan. Asia's maiden day-night Test, and the first of a three-match series between the two sides, proved memorable as the Windies fought hard to keep the contest going right to the death. Having seen their opponents declare on 597-3 in the first innings, Holder's side were all out for 357 before Bishoo's stunning 8-49 helped to skittle Pakistan for 123 the second time around. Chasing 345 to win, Bravo's 116 helped West Indies to make a match of it, but Pakistan finally got the job done with 12 overs remaining on the final day in Dubai. "It was a good fight, but I'm still disappointed we didn't get over the line," said captain Holder. "Bishoo's spell and Bravo's knock were inspirational. "[There were]

definite signs of improvement. We always wanted the two batsmen at the crease to give us a good start.

Unfortunately Marlon [Samuels] got out off the first ball, but we bat deep. "Credit must also go to Pakistan.

Yasir [Shah] was very threatening off the rough."

(SportsMax)

Cook Braced For Tough Subcontinent Challenge England face two Tests with Bangladesh before a fivematch series against India and Alastair Cook knows it will be challenging. Captain Alastair Cook is braced for a tough challenge on the subcontinent as England prepare to face Bangladesh and India over the next few months. First up is a two-match Test showdown with Bangladesh, beginning on Thursday in Chittagong, before a five-match series against India.

Cook, who recently celebrated the birth of his second child, believes the conditions will make life tough for the tourists. "I can't remember doing 10 weeks on the subcontinent," said Cook, who is primed to become England's most capped Test player this week. "You don't often get the flurry of wickets you do in England or Australia, or the flurry of runs where you can change a session quickly. "You can lose a lot of wickets quickly towards the end of the game, but the first three or four days of cricket is hard and normally quite even. "The clue is in the name. It's Test cricket that's why it is such a good game. "It will be a whole

squad effort. Certainly the fast bowlers are very unlikely to be able to play all seven and it's probably sensible to change it up for freshness. "We've got some challenges and people who can do very special stuff."

Cook has made 133 appearances for his country in the longest form of the game, leaving him level with Alec Stewart. (SportsMax)

PAGE 51

Icardi 'Is Not Our Captain And Never Will Be' Inter Ultras Mauro Icardi's feud with Inter's largest ultra group has understand it, the logic, the motivation. But we can't accept it. intensified after the Curva Nord said he was not worthy of captaining the team. Inter's ultras have denounced Mauro Icardi as club captain, driving home a further wedge in the shattered relationship between the player and the team's fans. Icardi infuriated sections of the Curva Nord ultras after a passage in his new autobiography suggested he had made himself a "hero" by standing up to one of the group's leaders. The 23-year-old claimed he had argued with the fan following Inter's 3-1 loss to Sassuolo in 2014-15, after his shirt - which he attempted to give to a member of the crowd - was thrown back at him. Banners were displayed during Inter's 2-1 loss to Cagliari on Sunday claiming Icardi's career with the club was "finished", while sections of the supporters cheered when he missed a penalty. A club statement released on Monday confirmed Icardi had been sanctioned, although he is expected to retain possession of the armband, prompting the Curva Nord to claim the striker is not worthy of leading the team. "For us as for everyone else - we hope - the captain of Internazionale should be a symbol," a statement read. "Experience, charisma, humility, integrity, intelligence. "[Armando] Picchi - [Giacinto] Facchetti [Sandro] Mazzola - [Giuseppe] Bergomi - [Javier] Zanetti... basically the opposite of Icardi. "We therefore cannot find agreement with the statement of the Inter hierarchy. We

"It's not for us to decide though, to each his proper role. That's what we've always asked for, that's how it should be. "We believe though that a club like Inter, outside of our views, shouldn't allow an individual like Icardi to wear the captain's armband. "Icardi is a closed chapter, we don't want to talk about this anymore. HE IS NOT OUR CAPTAIN. HE IS NOT NOW, HE NEVER WILL BE." (SportsMax)

Catalans Release Carney And Taylor, Raiders Interested A deal with Canberra Raiders could be on the horizon for Dave Taylor, who, along with Todd Carney, has been released by Catalans Dragons. Catalans Dragons have released former State of Origin duo Todd Carney and Dave Taylor from their contracts "by mutual agreement".

Carney, a former Australia international, had two years remaining on his deal in Perpignan and departs amid links with a switch to NRL side St George Illawarra Dragons.

Former Queensland Origin forward Taylor has already been offered a "short-term agreement" with Canberra Raiders, which could see him represent the side next season if he achieves a number of goals. Canberra coach Ricky Stuart said in a statement: "If David achieves his goals and is then offered a small playing fee for 2017 he has made better choices for himself, his family and his football. It has shown he has bought in and committed to turning himself around. "The Raiders have the resources in turning David into a regular NRL player, but it's up to David to show if he wants it bad enough." Catalans also formalised the release of Morgan Escare, who has already

agreed a move to Super League champions Wigan Warriors. (SportsMax)

PAGE 53

Ancelotti: No Crisis At Bayern In the end, the players are the ones who will resolve the situation. "We

Bayern Munich coach Carlo Ancelotti sees no reason for concern just yet despite going three games without a win. Carlo Ancelotti is adamant Bayern Munich are not in crisis despite their underwhelming performances in recent weeks. The Bundesliga champions are on a three-game winless streak after defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League and Bundesliga draws with Cologne and Eintracht Frankfurt. As a result pressure has begun to build on the Ancelotti, but the Italian sees no reason to panic just yet.

"I have to stay true to myself. Of course, sometimes I have to be more strict than in other situations, but I am not going to punish the players," Ancelotti said at a media conference ahead of Wednesday's Champions League encounter with PSV. "They have to understand what went well and what didn't go well. "We are not in crisis. It is too soon to say that. There are always difficult moments throughout a season. It can happen in October or in January. It's the same everywhere. But I am confident. Things were going very well until three games ago." He added: "We have learned that we will not win anything without the right attitude and intensity. The players are very professional and intelligent. They know their attitude was not good enough. "I believe in my players, even if they anger me occasionally.

always want do well, but what matters most is that we are top of the table in April. We have to be patient and remain confident."

(SportsMax)

Dew Hindered Spin And Reverse Swing, Says Misbah for the captain," Misbah said. "Certainly you were ahead of them for

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has said that dew played a role in reducing the effectiveness of his bowling attack during the daynight Test in Dubai because the dampness affected the pink ball's ability to spin and reverse swing. He also said the pitch did not deteriorate as it usually does at the venue because the dew. The daynight fixture was Pakistan's tenth Test in Dubai, where they have won six matches and drawn and lost two each. The 56-run victory against West Indies, who were dismissed with 12 overs remaining in their chase of 346, was Pakistan's narrowest at the venue. The pattern of the game, which was only the second day-night Test, was in contrast to the first such fixture in Adelaide, where Australia beat New Zealand inside three days in a match dominated by bowlers. In contrast, Pakistan made 579 and 123 in Dubai, while West Indies made 357 and 289. "A bit of dew in the evening session was affecting the ball. With the sogginess, the ball was getting softer so different factors contributed and helped the batsmen score runs," Misbah said after the Test. "Spinners and fast bowlers will get more help and reverse swing will also be there in the dry weather. But in the evening the pink ball was getting wet and the seam was swelling and it got softer. "The pitch was on the slower side, I don't know why, but otherwise the Dubai pitch normally starts deteriorating after two days. But since the dew was helping the pitch bind again and it wasn't breaking up at the same rate it used to. But in the end it was a good Test match, both teams played really well, and it's good for the Test cricket." West Indies began the final day needing 251 runs with eight wickets in hand. They lost Marlon Samuels off the first ball but Darren Bravo held the chase together. Misbah said he had nervous moments until Bravo was eventually dismissed for 116 in the final session, and rued his team's fourth-day collapse for 123 that had let West Indies into the game. "It was tough for the team and

almost three and a half days but in one session you had given the advantage to the opposition. Maybe had we batted for another 15 overs, with 400 runs on board we could have got them out early.

Misbah praised Bravo for his resilience. He batted 406 minutes in the fourth innings to take the game deep and Misbah was appreciative of how the West Indian batsman had played legspin.

"The way he handled Yasir Shah, that was really something special.

He [Yasir] was turning the ball from roughs but he [Bravo] showed good defence and attacked him at times," Misbah said. "That was the main reason he neutralised Yasir for quite a long time but still Yasir managed to take wickets. Every passing ball was putting pressure but thankfully we managed to win the game. You should give credit to the opposition, they played really well and it was a good game in the end." (ESPNcricinfo)

PAGE 54

Pedrosa Replaced By Hayden For Australia Nicky Hayden, 2006 MotoGP champion, will replace the injured Dani Pedrosa in the Repsol Honda line-up for Phillip Island. Dani Pedrosa will be replaced in the Repsol Honda lineup for this weekend's Australian Grand Prix by 2006 MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden. A crash during FP2 ahead of last weekend's race in Japan saw Pedrosa launched into the air and resulted in a fractured collarbone for the Spaniard. Having undergone surgery on Saturday the 31-year-old expects to understand more about his recovery time following a check-up on Wednesday. Hiro Aoyama replaced Pedrosa at Motegi but his place at Phillip Island will be taken by Hayden, who has been racing for Honda's Superbike team. "I felt a strong pain for a few days after the operation, but things are starting to get a little bit better now," Pedrosa said in a statement. "I left the hospital and I have a check-up scheduled for Wednesday. Only after that will I have a better idea about the recovery time and about when I'll be able to get back on my bike." Hayden added: "First of all my best wishes to Dani, I'm sure he will come back stronger than ever like he always does. For me it's crazy hard

work but it's a chance, 10 years after winning my world title, to get back to my old 'dream team'! "Doing a week-end in Phillip Island on a factory Honda, it's pretty emotional for me to even think about it, and I'm very grateful for this opportunity and the trust that Honda gives me." (SportsMax)

PAGE 56

TTFA And National Lotteries Enter Four-year Agreement The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) and the National Lotteries Control Board have entered into a TT$8million agreement that will help boost youth development in that country. The four-year deal was announced during the launch of the National Elite Youth Development Programme on Friday. CONCACAF Director of Development Hugo Salcedo hailed the deal as one of the most significant youth development initiatives in the confederation. TTFA president David John-Williams said the initiative was something that was on his federation’s agenda from the outset.

“Two months after being elected into office, the new TTFA administration approached NLCB with a proposal, seeking their support and partnership for a specifically designed National Elite Youth Football Program, to meet the aforementioned stated objectives,” he said. He said further that the TTFA would inject an additional TT$2,000,000 in value which will take the form of both cash and non-cash investment, over the same period into the programme. “A total of $10,000,000 direct investment will be made in our young football talent, some of whom we are sure will become the stars of tomorrow and possibly national heroes in the not too distant future,” John-Williams said. The TTFA’s objectives include having a well-established model to consistently qualify for

FIFA World Cups, at all levels based on a proper and sustained national youth programme. They also intend to develop a strategic plan that involves all football academies and football schools in Trinidad and Tobago being registered with the TTFA and be staffed with qualified coaches. The plan will also include the introduction of a year-round national youth team U-13 programme that will progress to the U-14 level. They will be required to play at least four to six friendly matches locally and one internationally each year. (SportsMax)

Team Jamaica Bickle 5K Set For October 22 Team Jamaica Bickle, will on Saturday, October 22, 2016, hold support the organisation’s growing programmes. “We have its 5th annual 5K Run/Walk at Baisley Pond Park in Queens, New York. The male and female winners of the 5K Run, that has a new sponsor this year, will receive automatic entry to the Reggae Marathon, held annually in Negril, Jamaica. “We are extremely pleased that one of our leading healthcare providers, Healthfirst, has come on board with us this year,” said Irwine Clare, CEO and Founder. “There are a lot of programmes around that promote the message of health and wellness. We wanted to add our voice, especially as it pertains to the Caribbean-American community.” Claire said there will be dieticians, lifestyle coaches, and health practitioners at the race to help people make those well-needed changes that will make a difference in how healthy their lifestyles are. Runners and Walkers are encouraged to register early at tjb5k.com.

Associations, clubs and organisations may register and participate as groups. The day’s activities will begin at 7:00am with registration and packet pickup. The first event starts at 8:00am. Presentation of medals and prizes will take place at 1:00pm. Maurice Wilson, who served as head coach of Jamaica’s national team at the Rio Olympics and is VicePrincipal at the G.C. Foster College of Sports and Physical Education, will be the honored guest. The 5K is a fundraiser to

adopted pretty much a year-round calendar,” said Andrea Daley, the organisation’s public relations officer. “More has been asked of us and we have stepped up to the plate to support the schools where possible. Our most recent project, ‘The Defibrillator to Schools Project,’ aims to donate a unit to each high school in Jamaica. We are working assiduously to do that as we want to ensure that our athletes have access to the first line of emergency care on the sidelines. This will hopefully save lives.” (SportsMax)

PAGE 57

Ramnarine Aims To Change Cricket Board Constitution

Dinanath Ramnarine, aspirant for the post of president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB), might be going to court in a bid to bring about change to the board’s constitution should he become president this coming Saturday. Among the changes being considered, is to limit clubs to just one vote in the process of choosing a new president. According to the T&T Newsday, during a symposium held on Sunday, Ramnarine, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Azim Bassarath, made his intentions clear. “We have been having private meetings with the key stakeholders and I think this the last phase of the meetings in terms of listening to what the key stakeholders have to say and how we should go forward,” Ramnarine said. “There are many options available to us (to change the constitution), one of them would be to go to the Annual General Meeting and continue to appeal to people. The other option we are considering is whether, in fact, we look at the legal route and that’s obviously something that we are considering, again these are some of the things that we are discussing with the key stakeholders.” Christophe Braithwaite, an attorney who is backing the former spinner, explained that the changes being sought are intended to bring about good governance that has been lacking in the sport. “They are asking that each club has one vote. This is in line with best practice internationally. This is what is out there. T&T should follow what is the international standard,” he argued, adding that Trinidad and Tobago should

follow the lead of what is happening in the United Kingdom.

“This code that the UK is actually developing now is a system where they are taking the constitution a step further. Things like what you consider best fit for the board, best fit for purpose board they call it. It means that each board member has to sign a declaration.” Former Trinidad and Tobago batsman, Darren Ganga, who is also on the Ramnarine ticket, believes bad governance was at the root of what ails West Indies cricket. “I say that because of what I have experienced and I say that because there is a need to change our strategic framework, there is a need to change our governance structure,” he said.

(SportsMax)

Antigua And Barbuda Olympic Committee Treasurer Fenton Suspended - Reports Reports coming out of Antigua and Barbuda are saying that Neville Fenton, treasurer of that country’s Olympic committee, has been suspended. The reports said Fenton was suspended following a meeting held on Friday night after it was determined that he conducted financial transactions without the backing of the NOC executive. He is expected to challenge the disciplinary action on the premise that as an elected member of the NOC, he can only be suspended by the general body.

This is the latest in a series of events that have affected the Olympic committee, following on the heels of the scandal this past summer when it was alleged that the NOC attempted to sell tickets to the Olympic Games in Rio using an unauthorized agent. The Antigua Observer reported that in his post-Olympic report Fenton said he could not accredit at least two members of the delegation on his arrival at the athletes’ village in Rio. After the report was made public, President of the

Antigua & Barbuda Tennis Association (ABTA), Cordell Williams, resigned, citing the constant internal squabbles within the NOC. Meantime, current president and Minister of Sports, EP Chet Greene, said he would not be seeking a third term when elections become due in 2017. (SportsMax)

PAGE 59

Candid Clarke's Revelations And Reckonings

Michael Clarke's new autobiography is a bit like the man himself. Passionate, emotional and very much a rollercoaster.

His time in Australian cricket spanned eras, while also taking him from a young member of a powerful team, to contentious vice-captain of a struggling one, then captain and selector during another most turbulent time. There are plenty of candid thoughts and revelations, as Clarke... ...Tells of how he was a manufactured right-hander. Clarke's desire to bat righthanded even though he was left-handed in most other things was out of deference to his father, Les. At the age of six, Clarke and his father have the following exchange. "I want to bat like you." "Sure, all you have to do is stand on the other side of the bat." So it was the Clarke followed the likes of Brian Lara, Adam Gilchrist, Michael Hussey and David Warner as batsmen who play with a dominant top hand. Only Clarke is that rare exception - a left-hander who turns right. ...Says Andrew Symonds told him he had ambitions to captain Australia.

Clarke's early cricket life is populated by a series of "big brother" figures, from Neil D'Costa to Brad Haddin to Shane Warne to Symonds. They are opposites in most every way, but grow close in the Australian team. When Symonds is threatened with being sent home from England in 2005 after infamously showing up drunk to an ODI against Bangladesh, Clarke says he'll also quit the tour if Symonds is banished.

Later Clarke supports Symonds in the

Monkeygate case, even though he doubts the veracity of pursuing a charge of racial taunts.

According to Clarke, Symonds says his motivation is this: "I'm sick and tired of them [India] getting away with it. We never get away with anything, but they do." The incident and its politically expedient aftermath does affect Symonds, about the same time Clarke is appointed Australian vice-captain. In the West Indies, Symonds confides in Clarke that he'd like to lead the team one day. "You'd make a great captain Symmo, but what do you want me to do about it?"

Clarke replies. "You should go and talk to the selectors about it, throw your hat in the ring." Instead of that, Symonds has a long drinking session later in the tour, and in the presence of Brian Lara pours a drink over Clarke's head. They barely speak after that. ...Admits what he said to cause Simon Katich to grab him by the shirt. Realising that Katich, Hussey and others in the Australian dressing room are intent on making Clarke wait for the team song, in the SCG dressing room in January 2009, he explodes in a fit of rage and invective.

"Hang on, you're doing this out of spite, you f****** dogs. Have the balls to say it to my face." Katich's reply of "what did you say?" brings the rejoinder "I said have the balls to say it to my face, you weak c****." With hindsight, Clarke says he got a couple of things wrong here. First, his earlier organisation of a bar for the team to move on to later in the evening should not have been such a big deal in his mind.

Secondly, he admits the language he used to Hussey and Katich was wrong. "There is a string of actions I took that night that I'm sorry for." ...Says in hindsight he should not have been vice-captain to Ricky Ponting. In Ponting's 2013 autobiography, the former captain detailed his oscillating relationship with Clarke, and a feeling he wasn't best supported by his deputy. Three years on, Clarke agrees, and concedes he

should not have been made vice-captain in the first place. "In his autobiography, Ricky wrote that he was 'disappointed with some of the things I did as vice-captain'. He didn't accuse me of being treacherous or disruptive, but said I was reluctant to get involved in planning meetings or daily debriefs and take on a leadership role.

When my private life was turbulent, he said, I would go into my shell. He was right. I was not a good vice-captain to him." Clarke's biggest leadership influences were his dad, Mark Taylor and Shane Warne. All took different views on captaincy to Ponting, and Clarke says he was not a good "actor" when it came to falling into line behind Ponting as deputy.

Adam Gilchrist and Brad Haddin, Clarke believes, were far better deputies. ...Reveals that the Argus review panel asked him whether he wanted Ponting in his team as captain.

"If you become captain of Australia, would you want Ricky Ponting in the team?" That question, Clarke says, was put to him by Don Argus, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, James Sutherland and Malcolm Speed in an interview at the SCG in 2011. The nature of the question means the interview takes place before Ponting has actually quit as captain, which he does on his return from a failed World Cup campaign in India in March. Clarke recalls making a strong affirmation of Ponting's importance. The panel also ask Clarke what he thinks about the captain being a selector, a role he will find himself filling before the end of the year. Clarke's response? "It's all about accountability. The way I've been brought up to play cricket, the captain has always taken accountability for success and defeat. If I was captain and I had played a big part in picking the players at the selection table, I would be able to stand up and say 'it's my fault, I stuffed up. We picked the wrong players.' I'd be happy to put my hand up and take responsibility for that." Soon he would be, though not in the way he had imagined.

Continued on next page...

PAGE 60

Candid Clarke's Revelations And Reckonings ..Says the selectors were going to drop was true in hindsight as well as foresight period from November 2014 to August Ponting had he not retired in Perth in 2012. Clarke's relationship with the former national selector John Inverarity appears one of the most problematic in the book. Clarke says he struggled almost immediately with Inverarity's schoolmasterly conversational style, railing against any sense of being talked down to. Earlier in his career, Clarke had asked to be told he had been dropped by Ponting rather than a selector, suggesting he never really acknowledged the authority of the role. Later, Clarke reveals that in the lead-up to the 2012 SCG Test against India, his crowning batting moment, that Inverarity had emailed Mickey Arthur to say "I have technical deficiencies and I am not the player I used to be". Rage at that assessment helps to fuel the monumental 329 not out that follows. But most telling of Clarke's recollections is that later that same year, when Ponting is struggling after low scores in the first two home Tests against South Africa, the selectors decide to drop him after Perth. "John confides that the other selectors have made their minds up that Perth will be Ricky's last Test match, whether he scores nought or a hundred." Ponting, of course, had come to a similar conclusion.

But things would have played out in far more ugly fashion had he not ...Conveys his unhappiness at how his power was reduced with appointment of Darren Lehmann and influence of Pat Howard.

Homeworkgate in India in 2013 was effectively the end for Mickey Arthur, as Howard and James Sutherland concluded that the Test team needed a different kind of mentor. Lehmann came in with the view that the coach should be a more dominant figure in the running of the national team, something Howard agreed with at least partly due to his background in rugby. But Clarke did not agree, and makes this patently clear. This

- he disliked the way Ponting had delegated many tasks. "There are a million and one things they have taken away from the captain so that I can focus on what happens on the field, but I want those things! I was not expecting to be moved down the food chain, halfway through my captaincy." Clarke's discontent about this change runs through the next 12 months, despite the success it reaps. So when things change later in 2014, he is even more unhappy. ...Speaks vividly of the hours and days around the death of Phillip Hughes, and how it affected him. The arguments Clarke finds himself having with Lehmann, Howard and the selection chairman Rod Marsh in the lead-up to the 2014-15 home Tests are many, related principally to his fitness. It is all coming to a head on the day Phillip Hughes is batting at the SCG in a Sheffield Shield match. But from the moment Clarke checks his phone after a fitness session, everything is cast aside. The passages at St Vincent's Hospital are raw and vivid, including the moment that Clarke and Ponting, both weeping openly, farewell Hughes together. But they also convey a level of shocked detachment in Clarke that allows him to work as the gobetween for the inconsolable Hughes family and the wider cricket world.

Within days there is the funeral, then the Adelaide Test, in which Clarke goes on to a hundred despite recurring back trouble that leads the team physio and friend Alex Kountouris to exclaim "If you bat here and do your back again, you mightn't be able to play another game.

Ever." The lack of time to grieve Hughes' death brings up other issues, and a very real fear of falling victim to a similar fate.

All this compounds in the West Indies ("the worst tour of my life? No contest") and England through 2015, leading finally to retirement. "Through that

2015, I am burnt out by a lifetime of cricket and unable to stop and take in the enormity of Hughesy's passing." ...Discusses how his behaviour over the years suggested obsessive compulsive disorder. The book's final chapter is entitled "Obsessive and Compulsive", and tries to make sense of so many enigmatic and contradictory events chronicled over the preceding pages. A lot of this relates to Clarke's degenerative back condition, that forces routine to be near enough to monastic in order to get him onto the field each day. But there are also other moments, like the day in 2003 when Clarke recalls betting with the then team manager Steve Bernard that he will be retired from international cricket by the age of 30. That, of course, is the age at which Clarke then finds himself made captain of Australia. That same year he is offered the option of surgery that will replace the worst of the degenerative discs in his back. But Clarke cannot abide the idea of the six-month layoff that would entail, so he is fuelled by painkilling tablets and injections throughout 2011-12, his peak period. But that gives way to more physical infirmity, anger and impatience and no let-up in an obsessive desire to keep driving forward.

"Until," he writes in the very last sentence," I retire, when the fog lifts."

(ESPNcricinfo)