Kaieteur News

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 3

Brassington made brother second largest shareholder in Hand in Hand Trust There is enough information in the public domain to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that Winston Brassington, the Executive Director of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) abused the financial information that he was in possession of, when he purchased for his brother, Jonathan, a $225M stake in Hand in Hand Trust Corporation, says Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC) Khemraj Ramjattan.

Ramjattan is the person who first blew the whistle on the questionable transaction involving the Brassingtons.

As such the Parliamentarian says that Head of State, Donald Ramotar, will be undergoing a strenuous examination as it relates to his resolve to address corruption in Guyana on the Brassington matter.

Ramjattan explained that he will be seeking A Partnership for National Unity (APNU’s) support in bringing to the House, legislation to deal with the issue of the abuse of insider information as has been

Executive Director of NICIL Winston Brassington

Jonathan Brassington, the second largest shareholder in Hand in Hand Trust

aptly demonstrated in what is now being termed the ‘Brassington’s quandary.’

Commenting on a column

by Attorney-at-Law and Eminent Chartered Accountant, Christopher Ram, Ramjattan says that it illustrates the depth of the quandary emanating from the sale of shares in Hand in Hand Trust Corporation.

Ramjattan says that the party will be looking to have in place the legislation to curb the practice, but it will essentially have to be assented to by President Ramotar.

This will be the test of the President’s resolve to tackle corruption.

In Ram’s article he pointed to the deficiencies in the Guyana Legislation. Ram said that: - “More developed markets and economies have been grappling with the phenomenon of insider dealing for decades. These almost invariably deal with the use of information by “insiders” a term generally defined to mean directors and officers but which in some cases include a 10 per cent shareholder as NICIL is in Hand-in-Hand Trust.”

Guyanese now need “Yellow fever” vaccine before travelling to Jamaica Guyanese seeking to travel to Jamaica now have to be vaccinated against Yellow Fever, 10 days in advance.

According to a travel advisory which was issued by the Jamaican Consulate here in Georgetown, persons coming from the following countries Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela need to be vaccinated.

The advisory said that the South East Regional Health Authority of the Kingston

and St. Andrew Health Department in Jamaica has advised that in keeping with the International Health Regulations (IHR) of 2005, Jamaica now requires Yellow Fever Vaccination Certificates for all travelers coming from countries with the risk of yellow fever transmission.

It was noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) defines Yellow Fever as an acute viral hemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The “yellow” in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients when the virus

attacks the liver. Yellow Fever can be prevented by a vaccine.

The International Yellow Fever vaccination certificate becomes valid 10 days after vaccination and remains valid for 10 years.

All persons seeking to travel to Jamaica from Guyana are therefore required to show proof by way of an international vaccination certificate on arrival at the airport. Travelers are asked to contact their doctor or the nearest public health facility regarding the availability of the vaccine.

GuyOil experiences fuel shortages Checks to a few of the GuyOil Gas Station locations yesterday revealed that there is a significant shortage in fuel countrywide.

While some, like the Providence location did not have any fuel as of last evening, the ones in Victoria, East Coast Demerara, and West Coast Berbice do not have much to facilitate a major purchase.

This is despite the Government’s assurance that it will keep the prices stable so as to not facilitate a hike in minibus fares.

Kaieteur News understands that the Guyana Oil Company has been experiencing shortages for at least a week now, and minibus operators are being forced to purchase fuel from other service stations at a higher price.

Meanwhile, it was confirmed that some of the privately owned service stations have applied an increase to their prices as result of the shortages.

President of the United Minibus Union, Mr. Eon Andrews, told Kaieteur News

he was invited to a meeting with GuyOil, and was made to understand that the company has suffered losses amounting to millions of dollars because of this.

He noted that though minibus operators are purchasing fuel at the hiked price, they have not raised their fares, and are trying not to do so at this time.

From 15 per cent, the excise tax had been lowered to 10 per cent during early May of this year.

According to the (Continued on page 6)

AFC Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan

Chartered Accountant Christopher Ram

Head of State Donald Ramotar

Ram posited that “the rationale here is that of the fiduciary obligation imposed by law on those in a position of trust, an obligation owed

the SIA defines “insider” to include a person (an outsider) who is informed of a material confidential fact by an insider.

This is not unlike the UK

already been prosecuted.

Ramjattan told this publication that he is privy to information which suggests that the President may not be too pleased with the affair involving Brassington and his brother, Jonathan.

THE SALE/PURCHASE In 2002, NICIL headed by Winston Brassington, privatized Guyana National Cooperative Bank (GNCB) Trust and kept 250,000 shares in the new company, Hand in Hand Trust Corporation.

Seven years later in 2009 the Board of Directors at Hand in Hand Trust Corporation expanded the shares in the company from 2.5 milllion to 7.5 million.

Winston Brassington bought an additional 50,000 shares for NICIL and 2.25 million shares in his brother, Jonathan Brassington’s name.

Ramjattan has labeled this transaction as another in a string of incestuous dealings.

He said that in 2009 “a Brassington became the second largest shareholder in a Brassington-privatized company…This is not only corruption: it meets the test of fraud.”

“In 2009, a Brassington became the second largest shareholder in a Brassington-privatized company…This is not only corruption: it meets the test of fraud,” Ramjattan in any case to the company and not to any shareholder or member of the public.”

He says that Guyana’s general laws on the use of insider information are not well developed and any progress appears to have ceased with the Securities Industry Act 1998.

“The 1991 Companies Act was an improvement over the Companies Act it replaced, but as far as insider trading goes, it deals with the concept only in respect of narrowly defined transactions and persons…The Financial Institutions Act and the Securities Industry Act are both limited in their scope and only to companies within the ambit of those two Acts.”

The FIA’s provisions deal with conflicts of interest involving directors and officers and the disclosure of customer information, while

Criminal Justice Act 1993 which creates a distinction between a primary insider (a person who has direct knowledge of inside information) and a secondary insider (a person who learns inside information from an inside source).

Under this definition, “Winston Brassington would clearly be, at the very least, a secondary insider, except that the SIA deals only with a certain kind of company.”

Ramjattan in his query asked as did Ram, whether Jonathan Brassington knew of the offer of the shares in Hand in Hand Trust through a public advertisement or by way of his brother Winston, who would have known of the offer as a shareholder representing NICIL. He suggested that in any other Caribbean country, Brassington would have

Page 4

Kaieteur News

KAIETEUR NEWS Printed and Published by National Media & Publishing Company Ltd. 24 Saffon Street, Charlestown, Georgetown, Guyana.

Publisher: GLENN LALL Editor: ADAM HARRIS Tel: 225-8465, 225-8491 Fax: 225-8473, 226-8210

Editorial

US Human Rights II: A Chinese Take On racial discrimination: “Ethnic minorities in the United States have long been suffering systemic, widespread and institutional discrimination. And racial discrimination has become an indelible characteristic and symbol of American values.

Ethnic minorities have low political, economic and social positions due to discrimination. The number of ethnic people in civil service is not proportional to their population. The NYT reported on June 23, 2011, that the number of Asian Americans in New York City has topped one million, nearly 1 in 8 New Yorkers, but only one Asian-American serves in the State Legislature, two on the City Council and one in a citywide post of the New York City. According to the annual report released by the National Urban League of the US, African-Americans’ 2011 Equality Index is currently 71.5 percent, compared to 2010’s 72.1 percent, among which the economic equality index declined from 57.9 percent to 56.9 percent, and the health index, from 76.6 percent to 75 percent, and the index in the area of social justice, from 57.9 percent to 56.9 percent.

Ethnic Americans are badly discriminated against when it comes to employment. It was reported that the unemployment rate of Hispanics rose to 11 percent in 2010 from 5.7 percent in 2007 (NYT 9/28/11). The unemployment rate of African Americans was 16.2 percent. For black males, it’s at 17.5 percent; and for black youth, it’s nearly 41 percent, 4.5 times the national average unemployment rate (CBS News, 6/19/ 11). Nationally, black joblessness stands at 21 percent, rising to as high as 40 percent in major urban centers such as Detroit (The WSJ 8/31/11). In Ziebach County of South Dakota, a community mainly composed of Native Americans, more than 60 percent of the residents live at or below the poverty line, and unemployment rate hits 90 percent in the winter (The Daily Mail, 2/15/11).

The poverty rate of African Americans doubles that of whites, and the ethnic minority groups suffer severe social inequalities. According to a report by the Pew Research Centre (PRC) released in June 2011, the median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households (pewresearch.org). In 2010, poverty among blacks rose to 27.4 percent, and poverty among Hispanics increased to 26.6 percent, much higher than the 9.9-percent poverty rate among whites (www.census.gov).

“Ethnic minorities are denied equal education opportunities, and ethnic minority kids are discriminated against and bullied in schools. According to a report by the US Census Bureau on June 8, 2011, in 2008, among 18-to 24year-olds, 22 percent were not enrolled in high schools for Hispanics, 13 percent for African-Americans, whereas only 6 percent for whites (www.census.gov).

A NYT (12/1711) says the New York Police Department recorded more than 600,000 stops in 2010 and 84 percent of those stopped were blacks or Latinos. It was reported that black non-Hispanic males are incarcerated at a rate more than six times that of white non-Hispanic males (World Report 2011: United States, www.hrw.org).

“On Dec 1, 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union said that “the FBI is using its extensive community outreach to Muslims and other groups to secretly gather intelligence in violation of federal law”. A survey by PRC finds that 52 percent of Muslim-Americans surveyed said their group is under government’s surveillance, about 28 percent said they had been treated or viewed with suspicion and 21 percent said they were singled out by airport security.

“Race-motivated hate crimes occur frequently. According to an FBI report, 6,628 hate crime incidents were reported in 2010, 2,201 of which were against African-Americans, 534 against Hispanics and 575 against whites. And 47.3 percent of all were motivated by racial bias, 20 percent by religion and 12.8 percent by an ethnicity/national origin bias.”

On the rights of women and children: “To date, the US has ratified neither the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, nor the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Monday June 04, 2012

Letters... Where your views make the news

The Manickchand “teacher remark” DEAR EDITOR, One of the most disappointing moments for me as a media practitioner came last week when KN’s editor Adam Harris violated one the most sacred principles in journalism. In journalism editors only retract their reporters’ stories when proof exists that the published version was not an accurate content.

This is a guiding principle in the profession. An editor can destroy his/her newspaper and the career of his/her journalist by denying the accuracy of the report when in fact it may be true Mrs. Kieran Singh-Danny, a former student of mine transmitted to her newspaper, the Kaieteur News, words uttered by Education Minister, Priya Manickchand to the effect that if teachers disapprove of the type of salaries they receive they should leave the teaching profession.

Minister

Manickchand denied what was carried to Adam Harris who retracted Ms. SinghDanny’s published coverage Mrs. Singh-Danny told Mr. Harris that she sticks by what she heard, meaning that the Minister did say what was printed. As it stands it was the Minister’s words versus the journalist’s.

The matter was simple to determine because the Minister told Harris she would forward the NCN tape to him.

Harris should have printed his retraction on receipt of the tape.

On Sunday morning, Mrs. Singh-Danny told me that she does not believe that at the time of speaking to me, Mr. Harris has viewed the tape. I am of the opinion that the recording is still to be handed to Mr. Harris.

Mrs. Singh-Danny told me that only NCN and the Chronicle were present for the address of the Minister. It means that Ms. Sing-Danny

was the only journalist that covered the Minister ’s speech from the private media. Was Mr. Harris mindful of libel? The answer has to be yes.

But since the Minister agreed to submit a filmed version of her speech, then the retraction had to printed after the viewing, not before.

Libel or no libel, there was no choice facing Mr. Harris; he had to apologize after the saw he tape As matters now stand, a reporter’s credibility is on the line. The way out of this is for media personnel to view the tape. We can know if a tape has been edited. If within two days, Minister Manickchand cannot produce the NCN item, then I am calling on Mr. Harris to defend the integrity of Mrs. Singh-Danny publicly. At the moment is it the word of a politician versus a journalist.

We have to choose or we can wait to hear/see the

recording. Whatever comes out of this, it holds deep significance for the practice of journalism in Guyana, and I call upon all media practitioners to offer their comments on Mr. Harris’s decision Frederick Kissoon

DEAR EDITOR, It is common knowledge that Mathematics is one of the poorest subjects in Guyana especially if results at the National Grade Six Assessment and the CSEC examination are taken into consideration.

The Ministry of Education has provided many reasons. Some of these reasons are paltry. The latest reason is that students do not have the necessary resources to pass the

examination; hence, the implementation of an $85.7 million intervention which was highly unplanned and went against many pedagogical principles. If Minister Manickchand is really concerned about improving Mathematics then she needs to address the following issues at the secondary school level urgently.

1. Currently, a trained teacher of any discipline can be appointed a Head of

Department for Mathematics.

A good example is evident in one secondary school where the Head of Department can only teach Grade 7. This Head of Department is Agriculture Science trained but was appointed HOD. This HOD is incapable of providing any instructional guidance to any of the Mathematics teachers in the Department. It is humorous that former minister Shaik Baksh had the current CEO and the former CEO (acting) as well as a former ACEO as advisors but never attempted

to fix this anomaly. So widespread is this incongruity that even teachers with specialization in social studies have been appointed as HOD for English Language.

2. All schools do not complete the prescribed topics for Grades 7, 8 and 9 as outlined in the curriculum guides. As such, students enter each Grade with a deficit of topics to be completed. It is for this reason that the Grade 9 results are so atrocious.

Continued on page 5

EDITOR’S NOTE: The issue from the newspaper’s point of view was closed when the reporter could not provide evidence of what the Minister said. It had nothing to rely on.

The onus should not be on the Minister to provide evidence of what was not said. It is on the reporter to prove what was said.

The writer would realize that on many occasions the newspaper has had to appear in court to defend libel because the reporter could not defend what was written.

There is one such case now about a former GuySuCo employee.

Improving performance in Maths

Why no effort to apprehend the person who disfigured Joan Lynch?

DEAR EDITOR, I wish to bring to the public attention that June 4, 2012 will mark six years since young Joann Lynch from Bartica, a mother of one, had her face disfigured by a jealous lover of her then partner who threw acid in her face while she was at home.

The perpetrator managed to escape, evade arrest and to leave the jurisdiction and is now purported to be living in Trinidad and Tobago.

From my conversation with Ms. Lynch the name of the individual, her current place of residence in Trinidad and all the necessary information to facilitate the young woman’s arrest was presented to the police and today there is no tangible movement in solving this case.

This like many other cases this one begs the question as to how effective is our INTERPOL and security bilateral cooperation. This

young woman, at her own expense and safety went to Trinidad locate the perpetrator, contact the Trinidadian authorities who informed her of the protocols necessary for them to effect an arre s t w h i c h s h e communicated to the local authority; but today, there is little or no action to bring this case to a speedy conclusion.

Even the local actors who aided this perpetrator to gain access to Ms. Lynch’s apartment and subsequently her escape from the community are yet to be arrested and charged.

I trust now that with the passage of time, the emergence of new personnel at the divisional and other levels of the Police Force, that there will a renewed interest and thinking to this case. This will definitely bring closure for this young woman and her family.

Bevon Currie

I also condemn the publishing of these photographs DEAR EDITOR, I join Mr. Vidyaratha Kissoon in his absolute condemnation of the two pictures and the headlines on the front page of the Kaieteur News of Saturday 2nd June 3, 2012 entitled “Woman gets sound beating in public for threatening to leave husband”.

In an effort to sensationalise and sell, Mr. Adam Harris the editor of that day’s edition slipped seamlessly back into that period when violence against women was considered permissible and indeed even glorified.

Mr. Harris must understand that as one of the editors of Guyana’s largest selling newspaper he has both a legal and moral duty to uphold the basic tenets of modern journalism.

I call on both Mr. Harris and Kaieteur News to immediately issue a public apology to this brave woman, mother and sister.

Deborah Backer EDITOR’S NOTE: The picture simply highlighted the fact that there is domestic violence and that it exists outside the printed word. It has reached epidemic proportions. We talk about it and all the newspaper did was to let people know that it is real and not just something that people talk about, like ghosts, something nebulous.We also provided evidence in the event of prosecution and we are prepared to defend the victim in court.Sorry how some people prefer to deal with intangibles and when presented with the real situation, balk.

If Guyana is serious about eradicating this scourge of domestic violence then we just cannot do it by talking. We need to bring it in the open. There was, is and would never be any intention to degrade anyone. Most of the employees in this newspaper are women.

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

Letters... Where your views make the news Establishment of an office of Leader of the Opposition, still to be implemented DEAR EDITOR, The Guyana Constitution in Article 110 documents that “There shall be an office of the Leader of the Opposition, ...” It further records in Article 184 that “The Leader of the Opposition shall be elected by and from among the nongovernmental members of the National Assembly at a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Speaker of the National Assembly, who shall not have the right to vote.”

Based on the last elections, we have in place a “Leader of the Opposition” duly appointed, but the second part in relation to Article 110, the establishment of an office of Leader of the Opposition, is still be

implemented. When will the resources for such an Office be made available, given the role and functions performed by the Leader of the Opposition?

A Government-owned and functioning building with appropriate staff must be provided at tax payer expense to ensure this part of the Constitution becomes operable. Consider the current status of former Presidents who have resources paid for by the state; and consider the role and function of the current “Leader of the Opposition”?

Quite obviously, we have a lopsided arrangement which can and must be fixed.

Moreover, brief research shows the following. In the

United Kingdom, opposition parties are provided with what is termed ‘short money’ to manage parliamentary duties. More specifically, the ‘Leader of the Opposition’ is allocated funds for the annual running costs of the office for the ‘Leader of the Opposition”. (http:// w w w. p a r l i a m e n t . u k / documents/commons/lib/ research/briefings/snpc01663.pdf).

Given the above circumstances, I call on all serious Guyanese to put their expertise to this task and have it fully implemented in the shortest possible time.

Parliamentary Democracies have no space for unfulfilled Constitutional Mandates.

C. Kenrick Hunte

From page 4 The Ministry does not monitor curriculum completion through its different supervision arms such as MERD, the Inspectorate Unit of even the various Departments of Education. Schools do not complete the topics for two reasons. Firstly, MOE says that teachers do this to get students to go to their lessons which I believe is true. Secondly, this happens because many schools do not know what should be taught at the different Grades.

While it is hard to believe, the Ministry of Education must understand that there are some teachers who cannot take the curriculum guide and generate a weekly plan of work for 40 weeks especially if the first reason is taken into consideration.

3.

Extra lessons contribute to students’ failure. Students study one Math concept in school which is hard enough and then they attend lessons where they are taught a second Math concept. It is impossible for the majority of students to learn two Mathematical concepts simultaneously.

4. The Ministry of Education has been trying to ‘fix Mathematics’ without knowing what topic in the subject of Mathematics is the problem.

Fixing topics such as algebra, relation functions and graphs as well as trigonometry will significantly enhance our results. We do not need to fix topics such as measurement, sets, and number theory and computation. Training has to focus on the problem areas rather than the entire subject.

5. CPCE is a calamity.

Teachers cannot be trained to teach Mathematics and their

pass grade is 45 percent. This was the case up to the introduction of the Associate Degree Programme.

In the Associate Degree Programme it is 55 percent.

This is still too low. Forty-five percent or 55 percent does not give a teacher enough mastery of Mathematics to stimulate learners.

Secondly, CPCE does not train potential teachers to teach CSEC or Grade 6 Mathematics. Our teachers’ training programme needs to be drafted to meet our curriculum. At CPCE there is a course called CXC Novels and Plays for English Majors.

There is no such course for Math majors. As such, each CPCE graduate enters the teaching profession in deficit.

6. The Non Graduate Certificate Course for Secondary School Teachers in Mathematics is an absolute waste of time. Its architects ought to be dismissed. I am happy to learn that one such dismissal has already happened.

This is a course designed for secondary school Math teachers, yet less than 1 percent of it is secondary school content. The course started with more than 200 trainees and only 18 graduated. This is testimony to its difficulty and it uselessness to the secondary school teachers.

7. There is no national officer for Mathematics in this country although seven out of every 10 students have failed Mathematics in the last 10 years.

So brazen was this Ministry through its CEO and DCEO that it refused to place Senior Education Officers in this post when they were appointed by the Public Service Commission which is clearly an usurpation of the Commission’s authority and

autonomy.

8. The Regional Subject Committees for Mathematics meet to plan projects and set Regional Exams only. They provide no help in the delivery of the curriculum.

The Ministry of Education is dependent on these committees and they are absolutely useless.

In addition, many of the Education Officers in the Regions are not Mathematics specialists and as such cannot be of any help to weak Mathematics teachers.

9. In training teachers, the Ministry of Education viewed all teachers in the same mold. This is madness.

The Ministry of Education needs to offer differential training. For example, teachers who cannot teach the topic ‘circle theorem’ are invited to a session where a ‘Master-Teacher’ teaches this topic.

10. No incentive is given to students to study a difficult subject such as Mathematics. All the efforts of the Ministry have been towards weak students.

Students need to be encouraged to study Mathematics.

Giving a calculator is not encouragement because the students know they will have to give back the calculator. The Mathematics Olympia needs to be reintroduced.

Other initiatives need to be undertaken to promote the learning of Mathematics.

I have every belief that Minister Manickchand can fix all these problems. Her first strategy should be to establish a Mathematics Panel of past and present teachers to craft a new direction in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. The new school year is fast approaching.

Mohammed S. Hussain

Improving performance in...

Page 5

Hairdresser found with throat slit - husband vanishes

The body of a 32-year-old cosmetologist and hairdresser was discovered by family members in a pool of blood at her Lot 6 Public Road home at Onderneeming, West Coast Berbice around 19:30 hrs last night.

Rhonda Thompson’s body was discovered in the dining room of her residence, and police have launched a manhunt for her husband.

Family members were tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding the gruesome murder, but it is strongly believed that Thompson’s husband, who

resides in the same village, committed the heinous act.

Thompson’s mother, refused to speak to the media stating, “No comment; this village is in distress”.

Police related to Kaieteur News that Thompson was found with a “gaping wound to her throat”.

However, no murder weapon was found at the scene.

Reports suggest that the mother of one was slain when a little niece, who was with her, opened the door to let someone in. However, there are no reports of neighbours

hearing of seeing anything Continued on page 18

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - When Jean-Claude Trichet called last June for the creation of a European finance ministry with power over national budgets, the idea seemed fanciful, a distant dream that would take years or even decades to realise, if it ever came to be.

One year later, with the euro zone’s debt crisis threatening to tear the bloc apart, Germany is pushing its partners for precisely the kind of giant leap forward in fiscal integration that the nowdeparted European Central Bank president had in mind.

After falling short with her “fiscal compact” on budget discipline, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pressing for much more ambitious measures, including a central authority to manage euro area finances, and major new powers for the European Commission, European Parliament and European Court of Justice.

She is also seeking a coordinated European approach to reforming labor markets, social security systems and tax policies, German officials say.

Until states agree to these steps and the unprecedented loss of sovereignty they involve, the officials say Berlin will refuse to consider other initiatives like joint euro zone bonds or a “banking

union” with cross-border deposit guarantees - steps Berlin says could only come in a second wave.

The goal is for EU leaders to agree to develop a road map to “fiscal union” at a June 28-29 EU summit, where top European officials including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy will present a set of initial proposals.

European countries would then put the meat on

the bones of the plan in the second half of 2012, several European sources have told Reuters, including a timetable for overhauling EU treaties, a step Berlin sees as vital for setting closer integration in stone.

“The fundamental question is relatively simple.

Do our partners really want more Europe, or do they just want more German money?” a government official in Berlin said.

Rhonda Thompson

Europe mulls major step towards “fiscal union”

Page 6

Kaieteur News

Monday June 04, 2012

Gov’t will not allow Police Force to be headed by “tainted” persons - Rohee

By Leon Suseran The Government of Guyana will ensure that the helms of the Guyana Police Force are held by persons who are not “tainted”.

Additionally, those in the Force’s hierarchy are expected to continue to be without stain as long as they hold on to those top positions.

This was mentioned by Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, as he was in Berbice on Saturday, addressing senior officers and other ranks at the Felix Austin Police College (FAPC), ‘B’ Division at Adventure on the Corentyne.

Rohee was speaking in the context of Friday’s new appointments at the top of the organization.

President Donald Ramotar approved the promotions of Crime Chief Seelall Persaud and Asst Commissioner of Police, Leroy Brumell, DSM, to Deputy Commissioners of Police during a meeting with Opposition Leader, David Granger at the Office of the President.

Brumell has been performing the duties of Police Commissioner ever since the embattled Henry Greene demitted office amidst a scandal of rape and a court

- congratulates Brumell and Persaud on new appointments battle that led to the Director of Public Prosecutions recommending that he be charged with rape.

According to the Home Affairs Minister, the recent appointments are an extremely important signal to the rest of the Force.

“The signals are for the Force, that you have competent persons in your organization who are capable of holding these positions,” The Home Affairs Minister said.

“The significance of these moves is that you require such persons to be accountable to the government for the activities of the GPF. And the significance of this move for Guyana is to signal to the people of Guyana, that the government has no intention of standing still in fulfilling its responsibilities to ensure that the leadership of the GPF is held by persons who, in so far as the Government of Guyana is concerned, are not tainted, but have a clean bill of health and are expected to continue in that same vein so long as they hold that or those positions.”

Rohee said that the new appointments are a major step in the transformational process for the Guyana Police Force.

“We therefore, look forward to firm decisive and transformative leadership of the two Deputy Commissioners.”

Rohee announced that he expects in the not too distant future that the two promotions will be bolstered by further moves to bring about upward movement within the Force, “much to the satisfaction, we expect, of those who have expectations and one day look forward to becoming a Deputy Commissioner if not a Commissioner.”

Rohee noted that the significance of the recent appointments “is to be found in the recognition of the administration that not having had a Deputy Commissioner for a considerable amount of time, we felt that the time had come to put an end to the situation where only the Commissioner was there to hold the fort, as it were, at the highest level, when he needed Substantive Deputy Commissioners to assist him in this respect.”

The Minister admitted that there “are other vacancies” within the Force, but in the deliberate judgement of the President and the Administration, it was felt that the right thing to do was to have consultations with Leader of the Opposition on the matter.

He noted that the government pays a lot of attention to the middle management of the Force and it is also “comforting to know that there is a reservoir of cadets within the Force that provides that critical category of ranks within the

Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee and Acting Police Commissioner, Leroy Brumell organization that is so strategic for the orderly and effective transition from one generation of senior police ranks to another.”

The new generation of senior police ranks, he said,

“From the use of forged documents, identity theft, cyber crimes, to simple larceny, robbery under arms and murder, it is important to recall, that there is no one single pathway to solve any

“The government has no intention of standing still in fulfilling its responsibilities to ensure that the leadership of the GPF is held by persons who, in so far as the Government of Guyana is concerned, are not tainted, but have a clean bill of health and are expected to continue in that same vein so long as they hold that or those positions.”- Rohee will inherit the new and modern technologies with complex applications as a tool for law enforcement, crime prevention and crime detection.

The challenges posed by modern day technology and modern day world itself, he added, are enormous and complex.

crime, but it is to be expected that information communication technology can play a major role in assisting law enforcement to fulfill their duties.”

Rohee congratulated the men at the gathering for reaching “another milestone in their career paths”.

“I convey my warmest congratulations [to Brumell and Persaud] publicly, since

this is the first occasion I have to express my support and congratulations to you.”

Brumell used the opportunity to introduce Rohee as the Guest Speaker at Saturday’s IT Lab Commissioning, to praise the Minister and speak very highly of him to the gathering. “I refer to him as the Chief Security Officer in Guyana because he fights anywhere he goes— if he is with the army, fire or anything, and he is discussing security, he always wants them to know that ‘I am the person’ and he ain’t telling them ‘I am in charge’, but how he talks— you know that he is the man!” He noted that Rohee has been “an inspiration to us in the Force and is a man made for work.”

Brumell further patronised Rohee by saying that it is not because he received the promotion that he is saying those things.

He publicly announced his joy in “working with you [Rohee] on the first occasion and I am enjoying you more on the second occasion, because you are more aggressive and you are keeping us on our toes.”

GuyOil experiences...

(From page 3) Government Information Agency, the Minister had explained that this decision was taken in light of the upward movement in the imported cost of gasoline.

“The acquisition price on the last shipment of gasoline bought by GuyOil was US$142.85 per barrel which is an increase of 19.7 percent above the acquisition price of US$119.32 per barrel at the end of last year,” GINA had quoted.

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

Obama, Romney campaign advisers trade blame on job creation WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advisers to President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney squared off yesterday over job creation in a debate which, following Friday’s weak jobs report, promises to be a deciding factor in the November vote.

Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to Romney, citing Obama’s healthcare reform law and a decision to put a major oil pipeline on hold, said on “Fox News Sunday” that Obama’s policies have put a damper on job creation.

“The problem is this administration and this president’s policies are hostile to job creators,” Gillespie said.

He pointed to the president’s decision to put an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas on hold to study its environmental impact. “The Keystone pipeline decision ... would have had an immediate impact on job creation,” Gillespie said.

Friday’s news that the unemployment rate had notched up to 8.2 percent in May, from 8.1 percent in April, and that job creation, at 69,000 in May, was weaker than expected was the result

President Barack Obama (left) and Mitt Romney of weak presidential leadership, Gillespie said.

Senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod noted in an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that “Governor Romney offers himself as a job creator, a kind of economic oracle and he’s saying the same exact thing as he said 10 years ago when he ran for governor of Massachusetts.”

“What happened?,” Axelrod asked.

“Massachusetts plunged to 47th in job creation. They lost manufacturing jobs at twice the rate of the country and created jobs at one-fifth the rate of the rest of the country.

“It wasn’t the record of a

job creator. He had the wrong economic philosophy, and he failed,” Axelrod said.

Gillespie cited the need for “entitlement reform” - a reference to the massive U.S. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs - as a pressing current need. He also criticized Obama for failing to back measures to stop the expiration of tax breaks set for the end of this year from hitting small business owners.

Repealing healthcare industry reforms enacted under Obama, which Republicans derisively call “Obamacare,” should also be a priority, Gillespie said on the Fox News programme.

Plane crash in Nigeria kills all 147 on board

LAGOS (Reuters) - A passenger plane crashed into a densely populated part of L a g o s , N i g e r i a ’s c o m m e r c i a l h u b , yesterday, killing all 147 people on board, the airline said.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared three days of national mourning and ordered an investigation into the cause of the crash which jolted residents of Lagos’ Agege suburb where most live in tin-roofed buildings along unpaved streets.

The McDonnell Douglas MD-83, operated by privately owned domestic carrier Dana Air, was coming into land on a flight from the capital Abuja when it hit the building, not far

from Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed Airport, at 2:44 p.m. (1344 GMT) and burst into flames, according to the airline.

Among the dead was the spokesman for the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, Levi Ajuonuma, according to a passenger list released by the airline. Ajuonuma was also de facto spokesman for the oil minister in OPEC member Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer.

Dana Air said it was still investigating what caused the crash.

Thousands of people crowded around the shouldering remains of a two-story tin-roofed building into which the aircraft had plunged.

Page 7

China steps up Afghan role as Western pullout nears KABUL (Reuters) - China and Afghanistan will announce a plan in the coming days to deepen their ties, Afghan officials say, the strongest signal yet that Beijing wants a role beyond economic partnership as Western forces prepare to leave the country.

China has kept a low political profile through much of the decade-long international effort to stabilize Afghanistan, choosing instead to pursue an economic agenda, including locking in future supply from Afghanistan’s untapped mineral resources.

As the U.S.-led coalition winds up military engagement and hands over security to local forces, Beijing, along with regional powers, is gradually stepping up involvement in an area that remains at risk from being overrun by Islamist insurgents.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai will hold talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Beijing this week, where they will lay out a plan governing future ties, including security cooperation.

Afghanistan has signed a series of strategic partnership agreements including with the United States, India and Britain among others in recent months, described by one Afghan official as taking out “insurance cover” for the period after the end of 2014 when foreign troops leave.

“The president of Afghanistan will be meeting the president of China in Beijing and what will happen is the elevation of our existing, solid relationship to a new level, to a strategic

Hu Jintao level,” Janan Mosazai, a spokesman for the Afghan foreign ministry, told Reuters.

Details of an agreement will be fleshed out later, he said. “It would certainly cover a broad spectrum which includes cooperation in the security sector, a very significant involvement in the economic sector, and the cultural field.

He declined to give details about security cooperation, but Andrew Small, an expert on China at

the European Marshall Fund who has tracked its ties with South Asia, said the training of security forces was one possibility.

China has signaled it will not contribute to a multilateral fund to sustain the Afghan national security forces - estimated to cost $4.1 billion per year after 2014 but it could directly train Afghan soldiers, Small said.

“They’re concerned that there is going to be a security vacuum and they’re concerned about how the neighbors will behave,” he said.

Beijing has been running a small program with Afghan law enforcement officials, focused on counter-narcotics and involving visits to China’s restive Xinjiang province, whose western tip touches the Afghan border.

Training of Afghan forces is expected to be modest, and nowhere near the scale of the Western effort to bring them up to speed, or even India’s role in which small groups of officers are trained at military institutions in India.

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Kaieteur News

Monday June 04, 2012

CAL lays off 90 in Jamaica UN Committee blasts Cuba A I R C R A F T MAINTENANCE in Jamaica has been dealt a severe blow as Caribbean Airlines (CAL) carried out another round of redundancies, sending home 90 Jamaican employees.

The latest group to be issued with redundancy letters by the company includes 30 aircraft mechanics, human resource officers, customer relations and finance personnel.

The staff received their letters of termination last Thursday afternoon.

“Aircraft maintenance in Jamaica may very well become extinct as this was the last carrier employing Jamaicans,” said a highly placed source at the airline.

The source said everything had been moved to Trinidad and even the Jamaicans who were there working in Port of Spain have been sent back home.

The latest exercise sees the closure of the aircraft hangar in Kingston, administration, ground equipment and facilities. The

source says all departments have been affected, with only ten people from the airline’s original team left on its Sangster International Airport team.

In the meantime, it is understood that the issue of the 75 pilots who were made redundant in April has been settled, and many have now signed contracts. The airline has reportedly tagged the series of redundancies as an “Integration into the Caribbean Airlines Network”.

(Jamaica Gleaner)

Caribbean American Heritage Month begins

NEW YORK - CMC - The June celebration of the Caribbean’s contribution to American history and culture has entered its sixth year with a Caribbean-American congresswoman yesterday urging stronger ties between the United States and Caribbean nations, particularly Haiti.

US Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, whose New York 11th District is home to the largest Haitian community in the US after Miami, called for greater support in the effort to rebuild earthquake-stricken Haiti.

“I encourage all of us to continue to support and help fight for our Haitian brothers

and sisters as they work to fully recover from the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake,” she told the Caribbean Media Corporation.

“As a representative of the second largest population of first and second generation Haitian immigrants, I understand the importance of ensuring our nation and our global community fulfils its commitment to help Haiti fully recover,” she added.

The Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) is to mark Caribbean American Heritage Month in New York by celebrating Caribbean Week here and hosting an

Yvette Clarke investment forum in New York, the Invest Caribbean Now Power Forum, on Wednesday.

for human rights ‘abuses’

GENEVA, Switzerland CMC - The United Nations Committee Against Torture has blasted Cuba’s Raúl Castro administration for an alleged string of human rights abuses, including an increasing wave of political detentions, poor prison conditions, and the use of isolation, sleep deprivation and other coercive interrogation tactics.

In a strongly-worded 6,000-word report, issued here on Friday, the panel said the socialist government in Havana provided few or none of the details about specific allegations of abuses that it had requested.

The panel said it was “concerned by reports denouncing the use of coercive methods during (police) interrogations, particularly the denial of sleep, detention under

conditions of isolation and exposure to sudden changes in temperatures”.

It said it was “supremely concerned by the reports received about the overcrowding, malnutrition, lack of hygiene and healthy conditions (and) adequate medical attention” in Cuban

prisons.

The UN panel said it had received thousands of complaints of short-term detentions of dissidents, singling out José Luis Ferrer García and Oscar Elias Biscet.

Cuban officials also never explained the deaths of dissidents Orlando Zapata Tamayo and Juan Wilfredo Soto García, the panel said.

But the report acknowledged Havana’s apparent approval of a request for a visit by the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture and other physical abuses, a key UN investigator who reports to the UN Commission on Human Rights. There was no indication as to when the visit would occur.

The report urged Havana “to investigate, without delay, exhaustively, without bias and in an efficient way, all deaths of prisoners”.

BARBADIANS HAVE SENT a clear message that they are fed up with the Freundel Stuart administration, says Owen Arthur.

Breaking his silence on the recent CADRES poll, the Opposition Leader said the result accurately reflected the sentiments expressed across the island.

“The people of Barbados generally wish to see an election called. They are very greatly concerned and unhappy with the drift and decline taking place in the country, and I believe they

are very deeply disgusted with the shambles that is now taking place in Government and in the ability of the Government to properly manage not only the economy, but the general affairs of the country,” Arthur told the SUNDAY SUN Saturday.

He also spoke about the poor showing of Prime Minister Stuart as the country’s leader and said it would pose a major headache for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in the upcoming general election.

(Barbados Nation)

Owen Arthur

Raúl Castro

Sagicor eyes CLICO Already the region’s biggest insurance provider, Sagicor Financial Corporation now has its sights set on taking over the portfolios of not only British American Insurance Company (BAICO)

but the controversial CLICO International Life as well.

With total assets of $11 billion spread across the Caribbean, Central American, United States and Britain, the Barbados-headquartered

financial giant said it still had room to grow and the two subsidiaries of the collapsed Trinidad and Tobago-based CL Financial could provide Sagicor with even more business.

Sagicor Life’s chief operating officer Edward Clarke told the SATURDAY SUN that Sagicor was awaiting final word from judicial manager David Holukoff – of accounting firm KPMG – who was appointed by the High Court to find a solution for that failed insurance company.

Sagicor has already successfully acquired and transferred the health insurance and property portfolios of British American Insurance.

(Barbados Nation)

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 9

Local Government Elections should be preceded by a scrapping of the existing system Local Government in Guyana has had many still births. It was never given the oxygen to breathe. It has lacked renewal and its growth has historically been stunted.

We speak with great pride about our village system but this system was always in tatters. It never had a glorious system. It never got going under colonial Guyana and after independence it was a victim of malignant neglect.

The last Local Government Elections were held eighteen years ago.

Before that there was a similar period in which there were no Local Government Elections.

When we therefore speak about Local Government we are in fact speaking about an underdeveloped feature of public administration, one that our leaders and people have little experience with, and one that is part of the

malaise of government.

Guyana has always been blighted by ineffective government but the lack of efficacy of government is directly related to the size and layers of this government.

For a small population, Guyana has a humungous government plastered in various layers. We have a big Central Government, then an expansive Neighborhood Democratic System which reports to a huge and costly Regional Administration System comprising of ten regions.

Add to this the size of the police, army, judiciary and numerous government agencies and what we have is an unwieldy public administration system.

This system had other layers which were removed.

There was what was called the Supreme Congress of the

People and other Local Government superstructures that were part of an experiment to model Guyana after the system in Cuba so as to find a way of grant political legitimacy to the then PNC government which was desperate to avoid holding National and Local Government Elections which it knew it would have to rig.

The public were sold the idea that this system was a means of having representation from the bottom up, just like in Cuba.

It was argued that this model was superior to the one that was left us by the British and that under this socialist system, the people would have a greater say in the management if their own affairs.

The problem in Guyana has never been about how the country should be ruled.

Dem boys seh

Jagdeo and Bobby gun get sada ring

Everybody gun soon know that Jagdeo is de richest man in de region but he nah got nutten in he name. All wha he got deh in Bobby name. And dem boys sure you all wondering why every time de two of dem does got to travel together. Dem nah trust mattie.

Dem nah only rich wid liquid cash wha dem thief, dem also got dem hand, dem foot, and dem behind in every major business in this country. That is what dem boys gun expose one by one and very soon.

Dem got money in foreign bank and dem trying to move out dem money from dem bank in de US because dem boys write Uncle Sam and ask fuh help get back de money wha dem thief. Dem boys certain Uncle Sam watching dem. That is why dem hide de last set of money dem thief in China and India.

Dem boys did tell de embassy bout all de thiefing and dutty business including de one

wid de plane. De embassy report to Uncle Sam who then ask de embassy right here fuh keep not one eye but four eye pun dem.

That is how dem record how much time Bobby does go to India and China. Uncle Donald know, and that is why he passing law fuh all of dem declare how much money dem mek every year, and how much wealth dem got.

Uncle Donald know dem corrupt but he nah know wha fuh do, wheh fuh turn and who to ask.

Dem boys a pray fuh de day when dem see Jagdeo and all he kavakamites, including Bobby, Brazzy, Rob Bert and Irfaat plus Shaatie, in pumpkin jump suits in de States for money lada ring. And right deh dem gun get sada ring, de thing wha dem always want and wha dem like.

Talk half and wait to sada de other half.

The problem has always been about who should rule. The people of Guyana have no problems with top-down government. They have a problem with who constitutes the government.

And not willing to face this reality we continue to perpetuate having a Local Government system elected by the people but in which elections have not been held for close to twenty years.

And to excuse this failing, we argue that we have to reinvent the system of Local Government that the British left us. And so we destroyed the Village Councils and replaced them with Neighborhood Democratic Councils which served only to further distance the people from their own local administration.

Then on top of this, we placed a Regional Democratic Council and in a small country like Guyana, we have ten of these and within many of these regions there are Municipal and Town Councils.

When the British left us forty six years ago, the combined strength of the police and the army was less than 2,000 persons. Later this was expanded under an independent Guyana to as much as 20,000 ranks if one includes all the para- military organizations that existed.

It was an arrangement that would literally become costly and eventually would disintegrate. We still however do not appreciate that what we need is not more government but less government and that a smaller government would be more effective.

Local Government reforms have been stalemated in discussions as to how to make this system more

representative. The debate has been going on for eighteen years and no consensus has been arrived at between the sides.

There are two main areas of disagreement. The first is about the system of representation to use. There has been an agreement that a mixed system would be employed but no agreement as to ratio of each system. The second area of disagreement surrounds the formula for the transfer of resources from Central Government to local democratic bodies.

Both are really nonissues. There is no need to debate what electoral system should enjoy what proportion in the election of Neighborhood Democratic Councils. The parties should abandon the NDC and regional democratic systems.

They are products of a socialist experiment premised on a different notion of local democracy to the one that is now being pursued.

The issue of a formula for Central Government transfers is also a non-issue because what is needed is not a fair system of allocating such transfers but rather to ensure in the shortest possible time

that local authorities are self financing and self-sustaining.

In any event, Guyana does not have the human resources to effectively manage all these layers of public administration and therefore would be better advised to resort to a system of Village Councils such as what existed in colonial Guyana.

If such a system is reintroduced it should do so as the expense of the socialistinspired Neighborhood Democratic Councils and the Regional Democratic Councils. Power should be restored to the level of the village with a strong Local Government Ministry to exercise regulatory control and undertake major infrastructural works which cannot be undertaken at the village level.

Such a system will immediately solve the problem of the electoral system to be used. Each village would be divided into segments and there would be run-off elections for the Village Councils. This would bring the people closer to their representatives.

Page 10

Kaieteur News

Monday June 04, 2012

$1.2B in-patient facility experiencing - GPHC Boss “teething problems” The $1.2B In-patient Ward at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) which was officially commissioned last November is currently experiencing some teething problems.

Contractors are said to be working to correct these issues, and finishing touches are ongoing to ensure that this new wing will accommodate more patients.

Michael Khan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the hospital, told Kaieteur News that although this new wing is experiencing some teething problems, it is covered under a one-year liability plan.

It is under this one-year provision that these present deficiencies are being corrected by the contractors.

In addition the contractors are seeking to complete the ground floor of the new in-patient wing.

Khan explained that once full funding is obtained and the design is approved by the Government of Guyana, then the GPHC will proceed to have the job finished.

When this goal is achieved the Paediatric Ward will also be moved to a section of the new in-patient facility by the end of this year, the CEO explained.

While funding and space continue to hinder the developments that the GPHC wishes to ensure, a number of initiatives have been planned for this year.

With a budgetary allocation of $716M for the first phase, construction works on this ward began in 2010 and required an additional sum of $235M (that was budgeted) for its completion.

Kaieteur News was told that operations at the new inpatient facility are “smooth” thus far. The Female Medical Ward was relocated to the said wing late last year shortly after the official opening.

Originally, this new wing was established to address the issue of overcrowding in the hospital which resulted in sick patients having to share their beds with other patients due to the lack of space.

It was reported that at present there are 65 doctors and 60 nurses on the staff at this wing which also accommodates 300 inpatients.

Khan emphasised that the GPHC continues to implement measures which will boost and improve services being offered to patients at the hospital.

Due to such improvements at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Unit, the work and manner in which things are being done there is more efficiency in dealing with patients.

More doctors have been added to the Unit to ensure that patients in dire need for medical attention receive prompt and quality treatment.

The new GPHC In-patient facility.

Nonetheless, Khan said that this does not change people’s perception and their view of the A&E. “We are trying to improve the system and, as I keep saying, this is a very sore issue with the A&E Ward.

You cannot come in with a cough and cold and be seen immediately…I keep saying that people must understand that there is a triage system,” the GPHC official stated.

He highlighted cases known to him where patients would visit the best hospitals in other countries such as Canada with much more serious cases and would have

to wait close to 13 or 14 hours before they are seen by a doctor.

“I know people in other countries that I have visited, would have to wait for a long period to see a doctor in a worst case situation like a fracture and we here have to understand that. We come here, walk into Accident & Emergency and we have a cold for two days and we want to be treated immediately.”

According to Khan, as the hospital administration continues to expand its services offered to the general public across the country, plans of expanding

the hours of operation at some health centres are underway.

The extending of hours at health centres in areas such as Campbellville, Kitty, Industry and Enmore will accommodate pregnant women and mothers who are forced to take a day off and suffer deductions from their salaries at places of employment especially in the private sector.

Additionally, the opening hours at most Medical Outpatients Departments (MOPD) have also been extended.

Also, the GPHC is looking

at introducing a new system for children, who would be accompanying their parents to the hospital and these health centres.

“When parents bring their children, they would have a little area to play and occupy themselves while the adults are being treated for whatever health issues they have.”

A training session was conducted recently to prepare the staff of both the hospital and health centres for such time when these facilities are created.

(Kristen Macklingam)

DEMTOCO, ECHO partner to beautify Georgetown Demerara Tobacco (DEMTOCO) last Saturday partnered with the Environment Community Health Organization (ECHO) in a tree planting exercise to beautify a section of the capital city.

The exercise, which saw the entities plant trees along the Thomas Street Avenue was done in anticipation of World Environmental Day which will be on Tuesday June 6, and as a part of a wider programme.

According to Royston King, Executive Director of ECHO, the initiative emerged out of a dialogue between the two bodies (DEMTOCO and ECHO) on certain environmental needs of the local communities, during

which it was agreed that good environmental stewardship is vital to community development.

King added that ECHO is steadfast in restoring one community at a time, and that since it is a really big task, it would need the support of citizens and other corporations like DEMTOCO. The first phase of a three pronged programme includes planting trees and shrubs.

The second will allow for the installation of benches, receptacles and billboards with environmentally motivational messages.

The last but not least important of the phases, is upgrading the walkway and installation of special lights.

In addition, DEMTOCO

has also aided ECHO by way of providing training for volunteers who are working in local communities and with young people not only in Georgetown but throughout the country.

Malissa Sylvester, Executive Director of DEMTOCO, emphasized that Guyana is a special country in the Caribbean with a unique landscape that just needs to be taken care of.

With ECHO, Sylvester said DEMTOCO will be moving towards doing greater things for Guyana.

Also attending the event was Chief Executive Officer of The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Michael Khan, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, Joyslyn McKenzie, Leader of the Opposition, David Granger, and residents of the area.

In concluding the programme, many advised that little things such as using a dust bin can go a long way in protecting the environment.

Some of the participants of the tree planting exercise.

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

“The Horror of Dracula” had come to the cinema in our little town of Siparia in South Trinidad, a long walk through a pitch-black playground (or “savannah” as we called it) to and from my home. Even the poster with Count Dracula holding a woman in white in his arms and the menacing background featuring a distant castle was scary but not enough to dissuade me from wanting to go to the movie.

The matinee or early show was always crowded so I had people around me to help me laugh off my fears during the movie, and company from the neighbourhood to walk home

with me laughing and chattering to keep the vampires at bay until I fell asleep and the dreams came.

However, the night show, which started at eight-thirty was a different story. The cinema was only full when an Audie Murphy western was playing or a serial like “Spy Smasher” or “Nyoka and the Tiger Men.” I reached too late for the matinee and decided to go to the night show. It was the final time the movie was being shown in the village theatre as the film had to go on to the cinema in the next town, a place called Point Fortin.

My family did not believe that I was brave enough to

go to the night show and started to ride me with “You too frighten! I bet you not going”. Of course they knew me well. I was thirteen, had a full head of hair and an even fuller mouth or, as they said to me, “You only fuller mouth”. They knew that if they pushed me hard enough my stubborn streak and vanity would make it a matter of honour.

When they saw me dressed and ready, my father made me a bet. “If you so brave, when you coming back from the theatre pick up a handful of red dirt from the cricket pitch in the savannah and I will give you back the money you pay to go.” That

MFK building fire…

Investigators awaiting electrical report

Officials from the Guyana Fire Service are awaiting the Electrical Inspector’s report as the investigation into the fire at the former MFK Trading building now G. Bacchus Enterprise continues.

This is according to Fire Chief Marlon Gentle who told this publication yesterday, that most aspects of the investigation have already been completed and his department is now awaiting the report from the Ministry of Public Works, Government Electrical Inspector.

On May 26th last, fire fighters were summoned to the Hadfield and High Streets location to put out a blaze which started around 20:00

hours.

It was reported that millions of dollars in stocks mainly electrical and other household appliances, which were being stored in the ground and first floors of the four-storey building were destroyed.

The other floors along with the items that were stored there also suffered significant water damage as firefighters, employing the state-of-theart hydraulic lift which is used to fight fires in high rise buildings, battled desperately to prevent the fire from spreading.

When the fire started, the entire building was shut tight and the firemen were forced to break open the heavy metal

shutters as well as glass windows to effectively fight the blaze. The owner was reportedly in Berbice at the time and there was no one with alternative keys.

After about 30 minutes of trying to break the locks, the firefighters eventually succeeded in entering the building which by then was completely dark as a result of the electricity supply being disconnected.

The firemen, using flashlights, managed to locate where the fire was and began controlling it, before the nearby Ashmin’s Trading could be engulfed.

Fortunately, the blaze was quickly put out and a major disaster was prevented.

Victim's physically challenged...

(From page 11) villager where she was given a bath and a change of clothing. It was then that the teen showed signs that she was sexually molested.

“When they were bathing her there was an odor from her private area and from how she was acting you can tell she was in severe pain,” one of the neighbours reported.

This information was pointed out to the police who took the teen to the West Demerara Regional Hospital for a medical examination.

At around noon yesterday a source close to the investigation revealed that the medical personnel confirmed that the teen was sexually molested. Meanwhile one of the woman's distant relatives who also spoke under the condition of anonymity related that about two weeks ago she visited Narine's home and something was odd.

“Somebody else had told me that they were not seeing

her so when I went to the Post Office I decided to go check on her and when I go she went lying on the mat and I ask her what happen and she said she was sick but she good now.”

The relative further related that she asked Narine to stand up but she refused and it was suspected that there may have been someone in the house with the woman and her daughter.

“She turn lil and she just had a piece of cloth covering her private area and the cloth shift and I realize that she ain't had on any underwear but she said she was ok so I left and it was only until yesterday (Saturday) I heard that she died.”

Further, residents of the area who spoke with this publication speculated that whoever was in the house with Narine and her daughter took advantage of the teenager.

“No matter what, she always use to make sure she take care of her daughter and it looks like the person went

to Indira but when they trouble the daughter, Indira must be get vex and because she know the person, they kill she,” a resident told this newspaper.

Narine's body is currently at the Ezekiel Funeral home awaiting a post mortem examination.

was too much to resist. Like the Count, I was a sucker for punishment. “You think I go ‘fraid a movie? That is not real life. The blood is ketchup.

Is all fake.”

I think it is the teeth that did it. Even though the film effects at the time were rudimentary and there was none of the computer wizardry that is now standard in almost every movie, when Christopher Lee’s teeth became fangs and the blood dripped from them, ketchup or no ketchup, it was scary. If a stake was driven through the left side of my chest at the time, I would have remained alive since my heart was in my mouth during most of the movie.

Hearses, cemeteries, vaults and death battered and terrorised me into fearful submission. Nobody to grab and laugh it off, no snide remarks about what Dracula would do to the woman. Only a few brave souls and I had dared and none of the other people lived in my area.

I headed out of the cinema like a vampire bat out of Transylvania, my feet pounding almost as fast as my heart as I headed up the High Street towards the Savannah when I would do a diagonal to my doorstep, passing the cricket pitch on the way. Siparia is known as “Sand City” and the cricket pitch is the only place you can find red clay.

Over the years, there have been as many eccentrics in Trinidad as Dracula’s castle has bats and cobwebs. In the village of Carapichaima in Central Trinidad where we once lived, there was “Sweetie Jack”, a black man who played a guitar and “yodeled” Western-style “Oh Lay He” (which I thought was “Old Lady” and sang to my white-haired grandmother).

Jack drank Bay Rum and ate “dead fowl”, our name for chickens that had died from the “pip” or some other disease and was thrown in or near the garbage at the side of the one road that went through the village. One joke

Page 15

we were fond of as kids was, “You does eat dead fowl?”

And when the person we asked the question got angry or upset, we would say, “How else you would eat the fowl?

It must be dead.”

Then there was “Mahal” who was known to everyone, everywhere in Trinidad since he walked through the entire country fantasizing that he was driving a bus. He changed gears, he made the appropriate sound while doing so and sometimes would stop to pick up passengers.

He slept wherever night took him and that night had arrived in Siparia and was sleeping in the roller that was used on the pitch and was right where I had to pick up my red clay to display my bravado.

In cricketing terms I had two short-legs and no cover or extra cover in the totally dark and empty savannah. I was walking as quickly as I could and as I bent to pick up my handful of clay I heard a moan and a shout coming from the roller.

I took off like a Harrier jet, first straight up in the air with a whine of astonishment and then parallel to the ground as the throttle opened up with a roar. From then on, nobody could ketchup with me. I was smart enough to let the scream die as I did the downhill slalom to my house, running past the obstacle course of small trees, bushes and drains, sliding into the driveway like Joe Morgan of the Cincinnati Reds and over the front gate like Red Rum winning the Grand National.

Somewhere along the way my handful of red clay had dissipated along with my bravado and despite my true grit, I lost the bet since I had no clay by that or any other name, not even a Mohammed Ali, to show for my troubles.

Now grey and balding I had to take some flak from a barber named Anita when I went for a haircut. I had just been to the doctor and needed some cheering up so my son George took me to a place he frequents and was sitting nearby. I joked, “You should charge me half-price.

That is what George used to tell me when he was younger.”

“No,” she said, “I should charge you double because with George now I could put the scissors anywhere and find hair but with you I need a microscope.” Later on as I grumbled about my hair-loss she quipped, “Don’t worry.

Whatever you lose on top you have on your ears.” We discussed the use of Grecian Formula but I insisted that since it led to bankruptcy I would stay far from it.

Later, the talk went to the remake of the old television vampire series, Dark Shadows. I had said that I don’t read any of the vampire books or watch the Twilight movies because “they suck”.

I was then told, “No you should watch them. They’re good for you. It would be a hair-raising experience.” *Tony Deyal was last seen asking, “What were the last words of the Jamaican vampire, Les Trade?” Blood clot.

Page 16

Kaieteur News

Pensioner falls to death from verandah

A 69-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital where she was rushed around 08:00hrs on Saturday, minutes after she fell from the verandah of her Nandy Park, East Bank Demerara home.

Sybil Ramrattan reportedly fell over the rail of her verandah, landing some 13 feet on the muddy ground below.

Her daughter, Margaret told Kaieteur News that she had just left her mother on the verandah eating fried fish and plantains when the incident occurred.

“I was cutting her nails and then my son gave her plantains and fried fish with water to eat and they left and gone to buy DVDs so it was me and her alone,” the disturbed daughter claimed.

She explained that she left her mother on the verandah, to get some “fresh air since she troubling with high blood pressure, sugar and

DEAD: Sybil Ramrattan cholesterol while I attended to some kitchen chores.”

“I was making tea and I asked her if she want some hot tea and she say ‘yes’ so I was going to give her the tea when I hear a loud noise.”

The highly distressed daughter said that she rushed to the verandah and noticed a broken glass which her mother was using to drink

water.

“I didn’t think anything because I thought she had gone to the washroom and the cup fall down. But is when I checked the house and didn’t see her then I check the verandah.”

The daughter claimed that she got the biggest shock in her life when she stood on the verandah and witnessed her mother lying motionless on the ground below.

“I run and I cuddle her up and I start screaming. Then one of the tenants came and help me lift her on the step.”

Ramrattan was then rushed to the GPHC, where she later succumbed.

“When I went there my mother was talking and she told me her head was hurting but when dem doctors start giving her drips and saline her belly and hands swell fat, fat and I see they tie her mouth up but I don’t know why.”

She was later told that her mother was dead.

The verandah from which the 69-year-old woman fell.

Monday June 04, 2012

AK-47 bandits beat, rob East Canje family - brave victim tracks down perpetrators

The two suspected getaways cars.

Four unmasked bandits armed with an AK 47 rifle, a shotgun and two long knives on Saturday robbed a Cumberland, East Canje resident and his wife of cash and Jewelry amounting to over $4M. The men have since been captured and are in custody along with the two getaway taxis and the drivers.

According to information, at around 19:00 hrs on Saturday, Chris Persaud, 32, a taxi driver and barber (operates a barber shop from his home) of 26 Public Road Cumberland and his wife along with his eight year old daughter were at home when the attack occurred.

The man was about to close up his barber shop when four men barged into his yard and started to beat

him and his wife mercilessly, all the while demanding cash and jewelry.

During the ordeal, which lasted for about 20 minutes, the couple suffered injuries to various parts of their bodies, including lacerations to their backs and heads.

They were dragged into the lower flat of the house where the beating continued.

They were then taken upstairs where the house was ransacked after which, the men escaped with an estimated $4M in cash and jewelry through the backyard.

This newspaper learnt that during the robbery, lights were on and several residents were on the road.

But they could only stand and watch as the robbery was unfolding and no one

dared to go to the couple’s rescue.

Police were summoned and according to information took some time before they arrived.

It was Persaud’s heroics that led to the men being tracked down and captured in a house at Edinburgh, East Bank Berbice.

The man stated that after he was robbed, he boarded his car and headed on the road and observed a strange car circling the area.

The car then disappeared and returned to the Palmyra area. A close scrutiny of the car revealed four men entering and the vehicle headed towards New Amsterdam. Some of the men had haversacks on their backs.

Continued on page 18

New organization promises to improve professionalism among youths Aimed at providing training, community research, services to young professionals and to help networking, the Professional Youth Alliance of Guyana (PYAGuy) was formed. The organisation was birthed out of the need for functional professionalism and quality services in Guyana.

PYAGuy was established in November 2007 and was built on the premise of collaboration. According to the organisation’s founder Eon Kenneth Stephens, many businesses and organizations have qualified people who sit in offices and are oblivious of the ethics of professionalism.

As such he and a group of young professionals met and organized a plan of action. The group was registered in 2010 as a Youth organization, promoting personal and professional development through innovative programs.

According to Stephens, the group provides innovative mini-project opportunities for aspiring project managers and youth

leaders. It was explained that the group also provides effective solutions which are designed to boost businesses, whether it is a small or large organization.

He said that tailored services are specifically designed to ensure that persons achieve success.

Stephens told Kaieteur News that they have recognized that there is a great need for personal and professional development amongst young people in Guyana.

Stephens said that the group’s mission is to promote youth development and youth empowerment through relevant and creative training.

“We will provide opportunity for our youths and youth leaders to maximize their creative potential. The group’s goal/objective is to advocate for an approach to youth work and capacity building through creative initiatives.”

Secondly, Stephens said that the group wants to strengthen youth ministries and NGOs by promoting

quality services. He said that another aspect of the group is to formulate effective policies on youth issues.

Stephens told Kaieteur News that the group will remain committed to working with young professionals in Guyana by promoting personal and professional training that will produce professionals. He noted that it was important for young people to gain the social skills, values, competencies and attitudes that will allow them to make positive contributions to the development of Guyana.

He posited that youth development organizations are essential for community building.

Stephens highlighted that community programs are dedicated to the overall development of young people, and are a powerful means to youth workers and community volunteers.

It is critical that young people are supported to develop both a strong personal identity and multiple areas of ability.

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

Page 17

The Abigail Column Woman’s long-distance move gets short shrift from family

DEARABIGAIL, I am a 27-year-old woman in a long-distance relationship with an amazing man for more than a year. We visit each other every few months and chat online every night. We’re in love and feel we are ready to move on to the next step - living together.

We live in different parts of the country. He is much more established in his area and very close to his family. I

am in a temporary job, and while I care for my family very much, there really isn’t anything to tie me where I am.

It makes more sense for me to move there. My family, especially my parents, are making me feel extremely guilty about even considering this move. They say I am “abandoning” them, and ask how could I live with myself if something ever happened?

Two Directions Dear Two Directions Your parents are anxious

because even at 27, you are still their child, and they are experiencing separation anxiety. However, at your age, you should be mature enough to decide your future.

I do have a word of advice I hope you’ll consider: Before you commit to join your boyfriend, please do some research on the rights before deciding setup home.

It is important that if you choose to marry him, you do it with your eyes wide open.

That way there will be no surprises.

Monday June 04, 2012 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): No matter what kind of conversation you get involved in to today, you need to make sure that you come off in a good light. Your reputation is your top concern right now, so it's essential for you to take care of it. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): Eavesdrop much? An overheard conversation will likely make your blood boil. A preachy type of person thinks they know all the answers -but you know better. ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): Keep your agenda hidden today, because there are a couple of people around you who would try to change your mind if they knew what you were really up to! ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): You'll have the graceful balance of an Olympic gymnast today -- able to handle anything that comes your way with aplomb. This is a wonderful time in your life, when you are full of more cando energy than ever before. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): Is someone's confidence striking you as just a bit too much like arrogance for you to admire? Big personalities are likely to feel just a little bit too big for you today, so try to avoid the more colorful people if you want to keep your cool. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22): To have the most fun possible today, try to go out and meet someone new. It doesn't have to be a new love interest, or even a new friend.

Just having a conversation with someone you've never talked to before will be a blast. *********************

LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): Mistakes happen, and assumptions are made from time to time -- there's no harm in that. You made an assumption, and you were not correct. But don't let your honest mistakes get you down in the dumps! ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21):You will definitely have to take the initiative today if you want the day to go smoothly. The folks in charge don't know as much about things as you do, and they could use a little help. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21): You have quite an original mind, which can be equal parts blessing and curse. It's good that you have such a unique take on things, but it might be difficult to maintain your objectivity when everyone around you disagrees with you. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Today, your plans for the near future might have to be revised quite a bit -- a wrench will get thrown into the works by someone who holds a lot of power over you. ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 - Feb. 18): There is a lack of discipline in your life right now, which might make it difficult for you to know what to do!

Without the structure you are used to following, the sheer number of your choices risks becoming overwhelming. ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 March 20): Despite the fact that you have been running around, all your projects are humming nicely along and your relationships are doing quite well.

DTV CHANNEL 8 08:55hrs. Sign On 09:00hrs. Live! With Kelly 10:00hrs. The A-Team 11:00hrs. The View 12:00hrs. World News 12:30hrs. The Young and the Restless 13:30hrs. The Bold and the Beautiful 14:00hrs. The Talk 15:00hrs. Boy Meets World 16:00hrs. Beverly Hills, 90210 17:00hrs. The Wayans Brothers 18:00hrs. World News 18:30hrs. Nightly News 19:00hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00hrs. Channel 8 News 21:00hrs. DTV’s Summer Movie Fest 23:00hrs. Sign Off NTN CHANNEL 18/ CABLE 69 05:00hrs - Sign on with the Mahamrtunjaya Mantra 05:15hrs - Meditation 05:30hsr - Queenstown Masjid Presents Quran This Morning 06:00hrs - R. Gossai General Store Presents Shiva Bhajans 06:15hrs - Jettoo’s Lumber Yard Presents Shiva Bhajans 06:30hrs - Muneshwar Limited Presents Shiva Bhajans 06:45hrs - Double Standard Taxi Presents Shiva Bhajans 07:00hrs - RRT Enterprise Presents Shiva Bhajans 07:15hrs - M & M Snackette Presents Raja Yoga Discourses 07:30hrs - Dr. Balwant Singh’s Hospital Inc Presents Shiva Bhajans 07:45hrs - The Family of The Late Leila & David Persaud Presents Shiva Bhajans 08:00hrs - Timehri Maha Kali Shakti Devi Mandir Presents Shiva Bhajans 08:15hrs - NTN This Morning Live with Reyaz Husein 09:30hrs - Indian Soap - Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch Bahuyien 10:00hrs - Indian Soap Yahaan Mein 10:30hrs - Indian Soap - Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke 11:00hrs - Lil Masters 12:00hrs - DVD Movie:ZOKKOMON (Eng: Sub:) *ing Darsheel Safarym, Anupam Kher, Manjri Fadnis

& Tinu Anand 13:45hrs - DVD Movie:LEGENDARY AMAZONS *ing Cecilia Cheung & Richie Ren 16:00hrs - Drying Tears Live with Pastor Edson 16:30hrs - Devotional Time 17:00hrs - Cartoons 17:45hrs - Ganesh Parts Presents - BHAGAVAD GITA ( Discourses in English) Serial & In Memoriam 18:30hrs - HARE KRISHNA TODAY 19:00hrs - Ricks & Sari Presents Bed Time Songs Live with Joel 20:00hrs - Health in Focus 20:30hrs - Indian Soap Yahaan Mein 22:00hrs - Indian Soap - Sapne Suhane Ladakpan Ke 22:30hrs - Indian Soap - Pavitra Rishta 23:00hrs - Indian Soap - Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch Bahuyien 23:30hrs -.Sign off with the Gayantri Mantra NCN CHANNEL 11 05:00hrs – Inspiration

05:30hrs – Newtown Gospel 06:00hrs – NCN Week in Review(R/B) 06:30hrs – Kala Milan 07:00hrs – Guyana Today 08:00hrs – Weekly Digest 08:30hrs – Law Enforcement & You 09:00hrs – Stop the Suffering 09:30hrs – Cartoons 10:00hrs – CCTV 11:00hrs – History 12:00hrs – CNN 12:30hrs – NCN Newsbreak 12:35hrs – Feature 13:00hrs – Movie 16:00hrs – Cartoons 17:00hrs – Anderson 18:00hrs – NCN News Magazine – Live 18:30hrs – Feature 19:00hrs – Al Jazeera 19:30hrs – Feature 20:00hrs – 3d/daily millions/ play de dream/lotto draw 20:05hrs – NCLO Presents 21:05hrs – We Linkin 21:35hrs – Excellence Dazzell Show 22:05hrs – NCN Late Edition News 22:35hrs – Movie

Guides are subjected to change without notice

Page 18

Kaieteur News

CAKES & PASTRIES Courses in cake decoration, pastry making & cookery, tel: 670-0798. Wedding dresses for sale & rental.

Monday June 04, 2012

No immediate repairs for Kitty Market

(From page 19)

LAND FOR SALE

TO LET Business place to rent, very spacious. Call: 226-2674/6846360,223-1301,682-6822 Furnished 2 bedroom apartment with hot & cold water & internet in Amelia’s Ward Linden Call: 6144415,444-4704 Diamond “AA” Prime location. Newly built apartment 2 & 3 bedrooms with parking, $75,000 – negotiable. 682-3483

Land V/Hoop 2 acre: school, housing, factory, etc. call: 658-0115 95 acres, transported land, W.B.D, Maria Lodge, fully drainage and aggregation. $40 million. Contact 266-5447 1½ acre V/Hoop 48ft x 1300ft, housing, parking lot, work shop, lumber yard, etc.

Call: 627-9351 TO RENT Office space ideal for Doctor’s office etc. 2 Rooms & bathroom, Lower Carmicheal St. Tel: 226-2181

East Street $55,000. South $100,000.

Albertown $150,000. Nandy Park US$1700. Diana 227-2256, 626-9382.

Short term apartments, Eccles. Call: 679-7139 Apartments. Tel: 667-1549

CAR RENTAL Progressive auto rental, cars from $4,000 per day. Call: 6435122, 656-0087, www.progressiveautorental.com Al’s Car & Pick-up Rental.

Call: 698-7807

MASSAGE American Style Massage Service. Call 609-4036

Premio, 110 Corolla. Call: 679-7139

EDUCATIONAL ACCOMMODATION Signature Inn Luxury Suites & Apartments 83 Laluni Street, Queenstown.

Call for reservations 2262145, 227-5037

Imperial College – CXC Jan/ June 2013 exam. Day/ Evening classes, flexible hours. Contact 227-7627, 683-5742 Learn to speak Spanish in 1 month. Call: 673-1232 Princeton College. CXC Adults/Students. Slow learner classes. Day & Evening. January/May June 2013. 690-5008, 611-3793

SALON Make up courses, artist trained & certified in Trinidad: 660-5257,647-1773 Qualify yourself in Cosmetology or nails, make up, Register, Limited spaces.

Call Abby: 216-1950, 6197603, 666-5241 Seeta & Soma Salon.

Specialists in perming, relaxing, styling, manicure, pedicure, etc. Tel: 618-6346/ 644-7142

The future of the deplorable Kitty Market is unknown as Councilors of the Georgetown Municipality are pondering whether to approve estimates to rehabilitate the facility since it was not budgeted for.

This is according to Chairman of the Market Committee, Ranwell Jordan, who emphasized that there will be no immediate repairs to the market. Although, cognizant of urgent repairs needed to be done to the market, Councilors are at a loss as to where to find the funding for the project.

Jordan described the facility as deplorable with a leaky roof and poor internal infrastructure. During rainy conditions, vendors feel the wrath of the derelict structure.

“Whenever it rains, water seeps through the cracks in the

roof and soaks vendors. They (vendors) sometimes erect makeshift roofs over their stalls to prevent their goods from being damaged. Sometimes they are unsuccessful,” Jordan noted.

Revenue earned from the facility has decreased since many vendors have closed their stalls.

The Town Clerk recently made a proposal to relocate vendors from inside the market to the pavement opposite the structure. This did not gain favour with the Council which suggested that the vendors should be relocated to the northern roadside of the market.

Jordan stressed that whenever the market is rehabilitated, it will be a quite costly exercise. He noted that it is years of neglect that led the facility to its current state.

From page 5 suspicious. Police are attempting to locate the victim’s husband, Kensley Thompson, a carpenter and mason, who also drives a vehicle for a church in the community. Kaieteur News understands that close associates of the husband have tried to contact the man on his mobile phone, but have received no answer.

Close associates of the couple said that they had separated about three months ago, after allegedly learning that his wife was having an extra-marital relationship. This newspaper learnt that the couple was heard arguing on Saturday.

Thompson lived with an extended family in the home, including cousins and her son. It is not clear whether they were at home when the incident happened. Rhonda Thompson, originally from Beterverwagting, East Coast Demerara, operated the New Look Hair Salon and Cosmetology School at her residence.

Last night as news of the discovery spread throughout the area, scores of curious residents swarmed the scene shortly after 20:00 hrs to get a glimpse of the body as it was being brought down the steps of her home.

Then there were screams and shouts and wailing as the body, in a gurney, wrapped in a white sheet, was placed in a minibus bound for the Fort Wellington Hospital

AK-47 bandits beat, rob...

Hairdresser found with throat slit

Relatives console each other at the scene.

Mortuary.

Blood oozed out from the side of the sheet, leaving thick droplets on the steps as the corpse was moved.

Friends and village people who knew Thompson still congregated in front of her home even after the corpse was taken away.

The muttering and murmurs suggested that Thompson was a “very nice, very friendly person”. It was also stated that Thompson “saw with customers” in that she would “flex” with them whenever they came to do their hair even if they did not have all the money.

She appeared to be a wellloved and respected member in the community. She leaves to mourn her 15- year- old son, Akeem.

From page 16 The vehicle stopped in Stanleytown where the four men got out and boarded a second car which headed towards the East Bank of Berbice. The car stopped at a house at Edinburgh where the men got off.

Police were informed and quickly descended on the house at Edinburgh where the four men were caught inside having fun and using drugs.

They were captured and taken into custody. The police acting on further information swooped down on the getaway cars and arrested the drivers.

It is understood that one of the cars, PPP 3149 was rented from a car rental agency

in Berbice, while the hire car HB 8647 is said to operate in the Corentyne area.

Two of the bandits are said to be from Edinburgh, one from Albion, Corentyne and one from The East Canje area.

It is also understood that the two drivers hail from Corentyne, one from Fyrish and the other from Albion.

The house in which the suspected bandits were found was well furnished and police recovered a quantity of articles which are said to be stolen.

Investigations are continuing and persons who were robbed are expected to identify items stolen, charges are likely shortly.

Monday June 04, 2012

WANTED Urgently wanted. 1 House lot to buy at Pharfait Harmony. Call: 672-3017.

Wanted to buy, Washiba Squares & Logs. Call Jettoo’s Lumberyard & Sawmill @ 261-5041 or 2615042

Kaieteur News

LEARN TO DRIVE Soman & Sons Driving School; First Federation Building Call: 225-4858,6445166, 622-2872, 615-0964 Prudential learning “ Training to Pass” automatic also stick/ manual 642-4827. We’re #1

Office Clerk, CXC English/ mathematics. 225-0188, 2256070 1 cleaner, must know to cook. 1 cook must know Indian and English dishes.

Preferably from Georgetown. Call: 223-5798.

WANTED

Experience Interior drivers Call Paul : 592-646-6730,592225-1939

Garden maintenance crew, no education needed. Neatness & hardworking is a must,1830 years Tel: 648-1821

Mill/Saw Doctors, Moulder Operators to work @ Jettoo’s Sawmill @ Coverden Public Road, E.B.D. Call – 261-5041, 2615042, 226-2756

7:45am -5pm Salesperson + plant maintenance staff for #1 Plant Shop,70 Sheriff Street. Secondary education a must. Tel: 648-1821

Live-in attractive waitress.

Tel# 228-5129 East Coast Guyoil pump attendants wanted (day and night), wash man, office assistant & sales girls. 6842838, 602-5031 Taxi drivers (yellow) Tel: 2253234 Tailors @ B. Paul Tailoring Establishment, 14 Lombard St. Tel: 223-8266, 680-8046 Porters; male & female, to work in Grocery Shop, Stabroek Market. Call: 2269800 Contract cars. Must be in Hire & Yellow. Base free. $3500 weekly. Call 660-9977 1- Male cleaner. Apply Technical Services Inc., Eccles 18-23 Industrial Site EBDem. (2) Attractive waitresses.

Call: 233-5481, 5450 Urgently needed, live-in waitresses to work in Bar. Attractive salary offer. Tel# 259-0574 Diesel mechanic, excavator operators, attractive salary offered Call: 223-5273-4 Male tool room clerk, computer literate. Apply Technical Services Inc. 18-23 Eccles Industrial Site EBDem Call: 614-4358 Cashiers, porters, drivers and salesman. Lot10 Vlissengen Rd. Survival Wholesale Bond.

One experienced hire car driver Contact Mrs. Z.Marques at 11 Thomas St. Kitty Tel: 226-7948, 646-6000

Live-in/Live-out babysitter/ clerk/domestic. 225-0188/ 225-6070 Domestic help. Call 225-2598 Two (2) experience block makers, Super concrete blocks, Eccles Industrial Estate Tel: 233-5517 1 mechanic to work in the interior. 688-4905 Skilled Lathe Operator.

Excellent rates. Tel: 22-71830 1 kitchen assistant/cook to cook for family in the interior.

688-4905 Dredge workers Tel: 6232728,618-1967,667-5717 1 Carnegie trained cook 2035yrs Call: 614-4358 1- Small engine mechanic,1handyman Call: 2332408,233-2631 General domestic age 2535yrs Call: 233-5450 Live in domestic Mon-Sat, no cooking, no washing Call: 639-7700 One experienced driver.

Apply Hack’s Halaal Restaurant, 5 Commerce St. Sales girls. 10 Bent and Camp Streets. Apply in person with written application. 227-7182.

DRESSMAKING Working uniforms and more.

Made within 48 hours. Call Sharmela 225-2598, 641-0784.

SERVICES Permanent &Visitors Visa Applications Professional Immigration Consultant Sabita, Room E-4 Maraj Building 225-6496/ 223-8115/662-6045.

US & Canada VISA application services. Call 643-6630. Family discounts available.

We refill HP cartridges for $1,800. Call:650-7699 Visa and Immigration forms prepared for Canada, USA and UK. Also Passport forms. Call 626-9857 Repairs, sales & spares, air conditioning, microwaves, washer, fridges & Stoves.

Ultra Cool: 225-9032, 6472943 ONLINE SHOPPING NO COMMISSION, WEEKLY S H I P M E N T S , AFFORDABLE RATES, FREE PRIVATE MAILBOX. TEL: 231-5789.

FREIGHTLINKEXPRESS@ GMAIL.COM WE FILL OUT PASSPORT & VISA FORMS: USA, UK & CANADA. TEL: 231-5789 Electrical installation domestic & commercial maintenance & repairs also AC installation , estimates , call Marlon Tel: 2160934,626-6298 or 669-8992 Do you need a female bahir (cook) or bartender to work in interior? Call Andrea 6921798, 652-7355 Service and repairs to gasstoves, deep fryers, washing machines, electrical stoves Call: 686-6209 We repair fridge, freezer, AC ,washer, dryer Call: 231-0655, 683-8734 Omar.

Bulah Enterprise Inc. seeks interior charter Call: 592-6466730,5692-225-1939

PROPERTY FOR SALE 1 three bedroom house Prashad Nagar, asking price $29M neg. Call: 227-2563, 684-2115 East Bank $12M. Newtown $30M. Queenstown $35M. East Coast $16M. Diana 2272256, 626-9382 House & land, Diamond, E.B.D. Tel: 677-3472 Property for sale at EnmoreFoulis. Contact 2550584 or 696-3186 Two storey building at 648 Belle West Housing Scheme, Canal #2 Polder. West Bank Demerara Call: 694-4433,2637025

VACANCY Male Sales Clerk. Hand written application. Perfume Dazzle, 137 Regent St., Lacytown, G/Town.

Pump Attendants. Apply @ Shell Service Station, Ramsburg, Providence, East Bank Dem. Tel# 265-7305 One female clerk. Call: 2315171 One live-in nanny/maid.

Location Kuru Kururu, long term employment Tel: 6561284 One refrigeration, washing machine technician Call: 2310655, 683-8734 Attractive salary for bright, well spoken sales assistant with 5 CXC. Write to P.O. Box 101599 Georgetown.

Have a vehicle for sale, needs fixing up? We’ll repair & sell Call: 216-4246, 610-0051

FOR SALE 6 brand new in box IPod touch. 8GB $60,000, 32GB $75,000. Price neg. Contact: 686-5004 GPS Map 76, Garmin System.

600-0036 or 223-1719 Brand new American made Crosely 10.5 cu ft Refrigerator for sale $75,000.

626-4452/697-5677 Going cheap, foreign used Perkins Engines, pressure & clutch plates, hydraulic pumps. 661-3043 (2)60-180 Leyland DAF I working condition Call: 6281756,228-5655 1 Tundra, 1 Perkins engine & Welder 400 amps. Call: 6605462, 611-5114 Spares for washer, microwaves, fridges, stovetimers, gear boxes, pumps, etc. Contact 225-9032, 647-2943 Games for PSP $900, PS2 $900, XBox 360 $2600, PS3 $2600, XBox, Wii. Junior 6722566, 265-3231 Corrugated Zinc sheet @ 40% off. Local Lumber @ 25% off. Pine Lumber @ 10% off. Zack’s Lumber. Tel# 2267054.

One ERF hauler and 45FT trailer in contact Call: 6534455 Pallet Wrap & Plastic Film.

Tel: 231-8819 Big blow out sale at Lot 29 Croal Street Enterprise, kids shoes $200 and lots more.

Call:664-2209 Exercise Bike, brand new.

Electric Schwinn 131, Digital Heat Rate monitor; $75,000.

Call Terry: 665-9405 1 House lot for sale, Canal No.2 WBD,1/4 Pal $6M Neg. Call: 619-5307,650-2391

Get your VISA or get refunded. Call: 645-0975 Hello, the doctor is back!!

Have your gas stove repaired and serviced. Tel: 601-0595, 220-4073, 220-5785 Mining exploration, professional recruitment and business support services www.iksservices.com Tel: 223-1719 Do you need? Excavator operator, project manager, security officer, driver Call IKS Services 223-1719 Corporate Advocates, we buy,sell& rent properties, for sale :6 bedrooms ,for rent :1&2 bedroom apartments Tel: 650-6231 Millennia Travel Service Agency, City Mall 6688000,669-0700. For all your travel arrangements.

Page 19

FOR SALE Large Land in Bagotville, WB. Great for Greenhouse farming. 600-0036 or 223-1719 NARS lipgloss, eyeshadow & Clinique Chubby Stick. Tel: 669-8374.

Pitbull pups Tel:225-6137 Electric threadmill, no reasonable offer refused Tel: 662-7398,621-2453 Yamaha Crankshaft outboard 150HP-200HP, fine & fat top, Piston Kits, Crankshaft Bearings. Call Terry 665-9405

Complete floristry equipment & supplies, variety of paints, office chairs, one electric stove (GE) Call: 623-1575 Brand new Blackberry Torch 9800, under $100,000. Call: 676-7443 New Blackberry Torch (Slider) $80,000. Accessories included. Buy 2 or more & receive a discount. 680-1722 Massage Leather Table, brand new in box, perfect for massage business, heavy duty; $65,000. Call Terry: 6659405

Cricket bowling machine with automatic feeder and balls. Priced at $1.2Million for quick sale Call: 689-0305

VEHICLES FOR SALE

Dell Computers, complete with LCD monitor, $59,000. Tel: 225-3709, 691-2077, 641-0537

Hilux Solid Axle Pick-up. Just arrived. Tel: 222-2662, 6912077

VEHICLES FOR SALE Just arrived: Allion and Premio, tel: 624-2000, 622-1610 1 White Toyota Runx/Allex $2.1M neg. Fully loaded. Tel: 227-0568, 691-4897 Corolla Wagon, excellent condition Tel: 677-7666,6107666 International Tow Truck with flat aluminum bed; takes two vehicles. Call: 639-3900, 619-5400 1 2004 Honda Civic AT, music, excellent condition.

PMM series. One year in taxi, $1,750,000. Contact 6505567 PPP series Alteza, fully loaded. Tel: 677-7666, 6107666 Two (2) Nissan Titan; year 2004. LE and SE model; new tires $3.5M and $3.7M, price neg. Contact 681-3300.

Toyota RAUM, black, fully loaded, never register year 2000 Call: 269-0432,686-0323 Late GKK 2 Ton long base canter Tel: 677-7666,6107666 First Class Auto. Allion, Premio, NZE, Fielder, AT212, Carina & Raum. Tel# 6098188, 602-6307 Two door Jeep with Toyota engine open/ closed back manual, cheap Call: 2690432,686-0323 Leading Auto. Unregistered Allion, Premio, Runx, Spacio, Avensis, Verossa, 212. Tele: 677-7666, 610-7666.

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Excellent condition. Call: 600-5759 Hummer H2 Sut Model 22" rims, DVD sound system Call: 639-7700 One EP 71 Starlet Auto, 1 Toyota Ceres, 212, 192, RZ minibus. 1- 2 seater Go Cart.

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1 Toyota RUNX gold, PMM, bodykit, AC, music, fully loaded, year 2001 asking price $2.3 Call: 615-4317 Guyana Auto Saleunregistered 2007 Tacoma, solid Def Pick-up, RAUM, Refrigerated and dump ISUZU truck Call: 227-1737 (Continued on page 18)

Page 20

Kaieteur News

MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo beats Dani Pedrosa to Catalunya win

Afridi makes 50th T20I all his own

BBC Sport - Jorge Lorenzo extended his lead at the top of the MotoGP standings after edging out Dani Pedrosa to win the Catalunya Grand Prix in Barcelona.

Lorenzo managed to fight past his fellow Spaniard with six laps to go to take his third win of the season. Andrea Dovizioso was third, with Casey Stoner fourth and British rider Cal Crutchlow fifth. Lorenzo now leads reigning world champion Stoner by 20 points in the standings.

Lorenzo told BBC Sport: “It was a very tough race. “It was very hot and complicated.

At the beginning it was very easy to touch Dani and end up on the ground, so I had to wait and be careful. “Then Dani made one mistake which was enough for me to get through.”

Pedrosa was only fifth on the grid but made a trademark start to lead into turn one as Stoner was bumped down to fifth from pole position. Ben Spies was briefly into the lead on lap three but the American crashed out to leave Yamaha team-mate Lorenzo behind Pedrosa in second. Spies rejoined and fought his way back through to finish 10th.

Lorenzo and Pedrosa swapped the lead twice before 2010 champion Lorenzo made the decisive move with six laps to go after Pedrosa wheelied. Crutchlow was all over the back of

Stoner in the closing laps but could not find a way past as Stoner finished a race off the podium for the first time in 20 races - a run stretching back to last April. Crutchlow said: “It’s only my second time here and I shouldn’t have let the leaders go at the start.

“Then I ran wide and let Casey past and I just couldn’t get past him. My team-mate [Dovizioso] was on the podium which shows what we can do but it will come around soon.

“It’s Silverstone next and this sets us up for my home race.”

In the earlier support races, Maverick Vinales

comfortably won the Moto3 race ahead of Sandro Cortese, who now holds a seven-point lead over Vinales at the top of the standings, with Miguel Oliveira third.

Andrea Iannone held off Thomas Luthi to win the Moto2 race, with Marc Marquez crossing the line third after clashing with title rival Pol Espargaro - who crashed out.

Marquez was handed a 60-second penalty by the stewards, which relegated him to 23rd spot and promoted Espargaro’s teammate Esteve Rabat into third, but he later won an appeal and was reinstated.

Yahoo!

Cricket – HAMBANTOTA: Shahid Afridi was on a roll, rapping the batsmen repeatedly on the pads, letting his appeals assume the intonation of a persistent plea – the kind one associates with a jilted lover on bended knee.

Afridi was mixing it up, bowling with his back to the wall trying to restrict Sri Lanka to below 122 – a total that was build almost entirely around his first-innings halfcentury, scored amid yet another wrecked batting performance from Pakistan.

It was Sahibzada’s unbeaten 33-ball 52 that rescued Pakistan from 41-4 in the 11th over to relative respectability, as he combined with Shoaib Malik for 68 runs in an invaluable fifth-wicket stand, after Mohammad Hafiz chose to bat. Borne of his own effort, it was understandable that Afridi wasn’t willing to yield an inch when Sri Lanka began their chase in what was his 50th Twenty20 International game.

So there he was, wise with age but not subdued, turning his arm over to Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chamara Kapugadera, beating them, deceiving them, following up with questioning roars to the unmoved umpire. Sri Lanka were already two down, having lost Kumar Sangakkara to needless aggression and the inexplicably promoted Nuwan Kulasekara to, well, a rush of blood to the head, although the target still

AFP – England left James Anderson out of their 12-man squad announced Sunday for the third and final Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston starting on Thursday.

The England selectors insisted the 29-year-old Lancashire star was being omitted to “overcome several minor injury niggles” rather than being rested on grounds of squad rotation.

However, in a move that could cause a rift between the England hierarchy and their leading bowler, Anderson himself insisted he was fit to play in his Sunday newspaper column.

Seamers Steven Finn and

Graham Onions, yet to feature in the series but included in 13-man squads ahead of fivewicket and nine-wicket wins at Lord’s and Trent Bridge respectively that have given England an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series, will compete to fill the place left vacant by Anderson’s absence.

However, England could play both bowlers were they to rest Anderson’s regular new-ball partner and Twenty20 captain Stuart Broad. An England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement said Anderson had received treatment during the second Test at Trent Bridge for a minor quad problem. It added that missing the final

Test would give Anderson, whose tally of 267 wickets in 70 matches leaves him fifth in the list of England’s most successful Test bowlers, time to overcome “several minor injuries”.

Anderson has missed just one of England’s past 25 Tests, since he was rested from the 2010 tour of Bangladesh, and national selector Geoff Miller said his omission had been in the “best interests” of the bowler.

“James Anderson will miss this Investec Test as we look to manage his workload ahead of a busy period of cricket this summer and beyond, a decision which is in the best interests of the team and James himself,” Miller said.

But Anderson, in his column for the Mail on Sunday, published before the squad was made public, said: “It would be extremely disappointing for me to miss out. “It would be different if

I felt fatigued or was struggling with an injury. But I believe I am fit to play — and while I am fit to play I want to play in every England game I can.

“Resting players is going to happen more and more often as the schedule gets busier and the ECB has been excellent at monitoring players to keep them fit and ready. “Sure, this series has been hard work — back-toback Tests always are; that’s what we are used to and have to deal with the world over.

But five days of rest is more than enough to be ready to play again.”

England have a packed home international programme, with South Africa set to challenge them for the world number one Test ranking. They also face oneday series against the West Indies and Australia before taking on the Proteas.

Meanwhile Yorkshire middle-order batsman Jonathan Bairstow, two

Jorge Lorenzo

Monday June 04, 2012

remained well within reach.

With his appeals falling on deaf ears there was possibly only one way to get through, and Afridi did just that. A faster one tied Dilshan up as he went for the cut, and rattled into the stumps. In his third over, the Pathan was slogged for six by Kapugedara, but on the very next ball – a forceful slider – the Lankan’s stumps lay in disarray.

Shahid Khan finished his

quota of four with two scalps for 17, and at that stage the home team needed 48 to win off the last six overs with six wickets in hand – Pakistan’s regular inroads into Sri Lanka’s batting order had impeded the scoring to the point that drastic hitting out was now required were the home team to seal a series win.

But the pressure finally got too much even for a side that batted deep. Sohail Tanvir removed the dangerous Chandimal, and comeback man Mohammad Sami’s blinding pace skittled out the rest, as Pakistan tied the two-match series with a 23-run win. Afridi even had a hand in the last wicket to fall when he pouched Angelo Mathews, who was captaining his side, at longoff.

Earlier, all eyes were on Hafeez and the looming possibility of a fourth successive duck for the new skipper. Hafeez avoided that dishonor, went on to score 24 as Lanka’s seamers and spinners both tightened the net around Pakistan, also causing a steady trickle of dismissals.

It was finally left to Afridi, who was dropped on 42 by Dilshan, to shore up his side and yank them up to 122 – which became the lowest total defended successfully

by Pakistan in a Twenty20 game.

Scores: Pakistan 122 for 6 (Afridi 52*, Kulasekara 213) beat Sri Lanka 99 (Afridi 2-17) by 23 runs.

matches into his Test career, retained his place for Edgbaston despite struggling against the short ball at Trent Bridge.

But West Indies fast bowler Kemar Roach, his main tormentor at Nottingham, was ruled out of the rest of the tour with a shin injury earlier this week.

Former England offspinner Miller said the series had been tougher than the scores suggested.

“We have been made to work hard for our two victories so far and are delighted to have secured the series, however we know that we will need to continue to play some good cricket if we want a third win against the West Indies this week.”

England 3rd Test squad: Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Jonathan Bairstow, Matt Prior (wkt), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Steven Finn, Graham Onions.

James Anderson

Afridi single-handedly took Pakistan to a series-leveling 23-run win over Sri Lanka on Sunday night.

Angry Anderson out of Windies finale

Monday June 04, 2012

Kaieteur News

Shabazz sends open message to Guyana, calls for support The Guyana national football team, the Golden Jaguars kick off their eagerly anticipated and historic 2014, third round, World Cup qualifier versus CONCACAF powerhouses Mexico on Friday evening at the Estadio Azteca, Mexico City and the teams pragmatic and inspirational national coach Jamaal Shabazz has used this opportunity to once more issue his consistent call for the nation to unify behind the team.

In his impassioned plea, Shabazz said: “My people of Guyana it is now some days after this beautiful country celebrated its 46th anniversary of Independence and it is also some days before Guyana embark on a journey in world football that can serve the same purpose of our achievement of Independence back in 1966.

Back them the youthful Forbes Burnham, Cheddi Jagan, Peter D’Aguiar and so many others came together to fight for Guyana’s Independence. They were not overly concerned with who were Africans, Indians, Amerindians or even Portuguese. That was not as important as this mighty nation gaining its freedom from the British colonial

Jamaal Shabazz master. Back then we were not even divided on the grounds of who were APNU, AFC or PPPC nor the tensions that go with such affiliations.”

“The need to raise the Golden Arrowhead took precedent of which individual as common Guyanese pseudonyms would refer them as - Buck, Coolie or Negro.”

“Today 46 years later it is taboo for a businessman in Guyana to publicly identify his political choice, so bitter is the political rivalry and division among our people.

Who put the Indians, the Africans and Amerindians against each other at a time when a young Independent

nation was about to emerge and take charge of its political and economic destiny?

Maybe we can summon the old British Colonial Masters from their graves to give us the answers.

But what is the relation between Independence, football and racial harmony among the Guyanese people?

What is the relation between May 26, 1966 and November 11, 2011?

Both days has historic significance of what Guyana can achieve when we put aside the jacket of race, party and class differences.”

Shabazz continued; “On June 8 in Mexico, the Golden Jaguars will attempt to do what Burnham and Jagan did when they raised the Golden Arrowhead in 1966. Then again on June 12 at Providence Stadium we make an effort to bring our people together in our World Cup Qualifier against Costa Rica.

“Oh you children of Burnham, Jagan and our beloved Walter Rodney, I urge you to give spiritual and physical support to Guyana and the Golden Jaguars. It is not a football team that comes out of a world cup qualifying group it is a country. Let us make this journey as one united Guyana that roars like a Jaguar.”

Durant soars late as Thunder tie series with Spurs

(Reuters) - Kevin Durant’s unstoppable fourth-quarter explosion lifted Oklahoma City to a 109-103 victory over the recently unbeatable San Antonio Spurs on Saturday and leveled the Western Conference Finals series at 2-2. With visiting San Antonio on the heels of the Thunder in the final quarter, Durant ran off 16 straight points and finished with a game-high 36 to give Oklahoma City a second straight home win and turn up the heat in the best-of-seven series.

“Once a player of that caliber, with that much talent starts scoring it’s hard to stop him,” Spurs forward Stephen Jackson told reporters after trying unsuccessfully to contain Durant. “He got into a nice rhythm and got rolling. It was too late.”

San Antonio were on a 20-game win streak, the longest ever combining the regular season and playoffs, and looked in complete control of the West matchup before dropping the last two on the road. Tim Duncan scored 21 points to lead the way for the Spurs but they fell behind by 12 at halftime and their late rally fell short.

After the visitors trimmed the deficit to four, Durant’s personal run stretched it back to nine and all but clinched the victory.

Lost in Durant’s heroics was an unlikely performance from team mate Serge Ibaka, who recorded a career-high 26 points and made all 11 of his field goal attempts. Ibaka caught fire, repeatedly making open perimeter shots, and made up for quiet nights from Russell Westbrook and James Harden, who combined for just 18 points between them.

Page 21

Victoria Azarenka beaten in French Open fourth round World number one Victoria Azarenka is out of the French Open following a shock defeat by Dominika Cibulkova. An out-of-form Azarenka, who almost lost to Alberta Brianti in the first round, went down 6-2 7-6 (74) against 15th seed Cibulkova of Slovakia.

The Australian Open champion now turns her focus to the grass court season, while Cibulkova faces Sam Stosur.

Stosur beat Sloane Stephens 7-5 6-4 while 2009 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 6-0 7-5 to Sara Errani. The Italian will play 10th seed Angelique Kerber , who defeated Petra Martic of Croatia 6-3 7-5. Kuznetsova’s exit means Li Na is the only former champion left in the draw.

Top seed Azarenka, 22, had beaten Cibulkova seven times in eight previous meetings - overturning a set and a break deficit in the last two.

But there would be no repeat on this occasion as the top seed joined Serena and Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska among the bigname casualties.

When asked what she planned to do after the defeat, Azarenka sarcastically responded: “I’m going to kill myself. “This tournament is over for me. What’s to recover from? It’s [time] to really look forward and improve. That’s it.”

An enthralling 15-minute first game, which included six

Samantha Stosur

Dominika Cibulkova

break points, went the Belarusian’s way but after that Cibulkova took control.

The 5ft 3ins right-hander broke back immediately before going on to comfortably win the first set in 44 minutes. Azarenka rallied to take a 2-0 lead in the second, but the diminutive Cibulkova showed her mental strength to run off four games in a row.

Azarenka’s frustrations came to a head as she twice smashed her racquet against the clay court but she managed to fight back and level at 4-4 before going on to serve for the set.

However, Cibulkova broke serve to force a tiebreak, which she led from the start to pull off a superb win.

Cibulkova, 23, can watch on as sixth seed Stosur and Stephens of the United States meet later on Sunday.

Errani’s victory over Kuznetsova means she is

through to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for the first time in her career. It has been a poor season for Kuznetsova, and she said: “Today the weather was so bad. I felt cold during the whole match. “For me to move was really complicated.

I could not make my feet work.

I’m far away from my best form yet.”

Fourth Round results: Roger Federer (3) vs.

David Goffin 5-7, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 final Novak Djokovic (1) vs.

Andreas Seppi (22) 4-6, 6-7 (57), 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (5) vs.

Stanislas Wawrinka (18) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 3-6, 1-0 In the women’s draw Samantha Stosur (6) vs.

Sloane Stephens 7-5, 6-4 final Angelique Kerber (10) vs.

Petra Martic 6-3, 7-5 final Sara Errani (21) vs.

Svetlana Kuznetsova (26) 60, 7-5 final

Tiger rallies to win the Memorial

Kevin Durant #35 of the Oklahoma City Thunder shoots the ball over DeJuan Blair #45 of the San Antonio Spurs “He didn’t miss a shot? Wow,” Durant said of Ibaka’s play. “He played phenomenal.

He’s been working on his jump shot since he got in the league and it’s starting to be money now.” Thabo Sefolosha was the surprise hero of Game Three for the Thunder, but in Game Four it was their big men who rose to the challenge.

Center Kendrick Perkins added 15 points and nine rebounds to spark the home team.

“Their (big guys) were the difference in the game,” Duncan said. “Ibaka made great jump shots. There are a lot of things we need to do.” The Spurs will have their chance to respond with Game Five in San Antonio today.

DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) Tiger Woods was at his best Sunday at the Memorial. He hit nearly every shot just the way he wanted, worked the gallery into a frenzy with one last charge over the final hour and left everyone buzzing - especially Jack Nicklaus - with a shot they will talk about for years.

Better yet was the timing of his 73rd win.

Woods tied Nicklaus for career PGA Tour victories at the tournament that Jack built.

And the 14-time major champion suddenly looks equipped to resume his chase of another Nicklaus mark that is more significant - 18 major championships.

The U.S. Open starts in 11 days. With a chip-in that even Woods called one of the toughest shots he ever made, he birdied three of his last four holes to close with a 5under 67 and turn a two-shot deficit into a two-shot victory over Rory Sabbatini and fastclosing Andres Romero.

Coming off a two-putt birdie on the 15th, Woods hit 8-iron over the green at the par-3 16th and into an impossible lie. It was buried in deep rough, the pin 50 feet away along a ridge. Woods hit a full flop shot, hopeful to give himself a reasonable putt for par. Far more likely was the ball going short and down a slope away from the pin, or coming out too strong and rolling into the water.

No one was thinking birdie, not even Woods, until he took two steps and delivered an uppercut when the ball fell in the right side of the cup. Nicklaus was gushing from the broadcast booth. ‘’The most unbelievable, gutsy shot I’ve ever seen,’’ he said.

Woods, who finished at 9under 279, won the Memorial for the fifth time. At age 36, he is 10 years younger than Nicklaus when the Golden Bear won his 73rd tournament at the 1986 Masters. Sam

Tiger Woods Snead holds the PGA Tour record with 82 wins.

It was vintage Woods at Muirfield Village, the fifth course where he has won at least five times. And it was the perfect way for him to end his worst stretch as a pro.

After winning at Bay Hill in March, he tied for 40th in the Masters, missed the cut at Quail Hollow and tied for 40th at The Players Championship.

Page 22

Kaieteur News

Monday June 04, 2012

Carter grabs 5-65 for Windies ‘A’, but Sharma’s 94 give Indians slim 1st innings lead

Delron Johnson bowled with pace yesterday to finish with 3-29.

Rohit Sharma

Bajan seamer Jonathan Carter grabbed a career best 5-65, but a classy 94 from Rohit Sharma give India a 25-run first innings lead against the West Indies yesterday in Barbados on the second day of their four-day ‘A’ team ‘Test match’ leaving the contest in the balance going into the penultimate day today.

Lively left-arm pacer Delorn Johnson supported Carter with 3-29 as the Indians were dismissed just before the close for 277 replying the 252 made by the host in their first innings.

Needing to bat five overs last evening in their second innings the Veerasammy Permaul led Caribbean side reached 3-0 from four overs with Simmons on two and Brathwaite on one when bad light stopped play.

Earlier, Johnson struck with the fifth ball of the innings when he bowled Mukind and a run later the visitors were in trouble at one run for two wickets when a brilliant run out by Lendl Simmons ended the brief innings of Rahane.

Carter, who also keeps wicket, struck with his first ball when a loose back-foot drive from Dhawan (9) was taken by keeper Devon Thomas to leave the Indians on 21-3.

By Lunch India ‘A’ had recovered to be 82-3 off 28 overs, thanks to a good unbroken stand of 61 between skipper Pujara (30 not out) and Sharma (41 not out).

In the second session Thomas pouched his second catch with the score on 114-4 when Pujara (50) gloved a ball which bounced from Carter Tiwary was then lbw to Jason Holder for a cameo 40 off 46 balls with three fours and two sixes as he went onto the back-foot and missed to leave the score on 186-5.

Holder’s break-through ended a good 72run partnership in just 69 minutes between Tiwary and Rohit.

By Tea India ‘A’ were 190-5 with Sharma unbeaten on 84 not out from 145 balls, 198

West Indies tour match against Leicestershire ended by rain West Indies were frustrated by the rain as the second day of their tour match against Leicestershire was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

The weather allowed only 50 overs of play on day one, with the Windies moving to 1503. Further overnight rain then caused Sunday’s play to be called off 30 minutes before the scheduled start.

The tourists, 2-0 down in the Test series with England, begin the final match at Edgbaston on Thursday.

Coach Ottis Gibson and captain Darren Sammy must decide who to bring in for pace

bowler Kemar Roach, who has returned home because of a shin injury.

Spinner Sunil Narine is due to arrive after completing his Indian Premier League commitments, and could play at Edgbaston.

The Windies also have concerns over their top order, after Kieran Powell and Kirk Edwards both failed on day one.

Opener Powell’s top score in his four Test innings so far is 33, while Edwards has failed to reach double figures in any of his eight innings on the tour.

Scores: West Indians 150 for 3 (Bravo 66, Barath 53*) v Leicestershire.

Boxer Williams has surgery to stabilize spine ATLANTA (AP) Former welterweight champion Paul Williams’ promoter says the boxer was resting Friday night following surgery to stabilize his spine.

Promoter Dan Goossen said the surgery lasted 6 ½ hours Friday night. Goossen said the surgery ‘’went as planned’’ and doctors said they would talk with Williams about the procedure on Saturday.

The 30-year-old Williams severed his spinal cord when he was thrown from his motorcycle Sunday morning in Marietta, Ga. Police said he was driving too fast for conditions.

Williams’ manager, George Peterson, said the former welterweight champion has no movement from the waist down.

Known as ‘’The Punisher,’’ Williams is

from Aiken, S.C. He had been scheduled to fight Sept. 15 in Las Vegas against Saul ‘’Canelo’’ Alvarez.

Williams won his first major welterweight title in July 2007 by beating Antonio Margarito.

Goossen said Williams has been talking and in good spirits as he predicted he would walk again.

Williams told Ringtv.com his message to his fans is, ‘’I’m blessed. ‘’To be conscious and alive and all of that,’’ Williams said. ‘’To know what’s going on. I’ve got a little spine injury, or whatever.

But they’re working on that. But to be able to be breathing on my own ... I feel real good and I love the support that I’ve been getting from my fans.’’

minutes with 10 fours and two sixes and Saha not out on three.

After the break Rohit dumped Carter high over long-on for six to move to 93 India and also post the 200 for the Indians but after adding one more to his score his stumps were shattered by a superb inswinger from Johnson, coming around the wicket to leave the tourists on 204-6.

Carter then struck again at 229-8 before Saha, who was struck a nasty blow on the head as he ducked into a lifter from the giant Holder with the score on 238-9 when on 29, provided Carter with his fifth wicket as Shami Ahmed flicked a pulled delivery on his pads and was caught by Permaul at mid-on for 2.

Johnson then ended a frustrating 45-run last wicket stand when he removed Saha for 56 to a diving catch at second slip as the Indians took first innings honours.

Jonathan Carter

Plaisance/Vryheid’s Lust bounce back with strong statement

By Edison Jefford After succumbing to group leaders, Lodge/ Meadowbrook in a nail-biting encounter last week on the Burnham Basketball Court, Plaisance/Vryheid’s Lust, one of the strongest teams in the event, made a strong statement against South Ruimveldt Saturday night.

Plaisance/Vryheid’s Lust bounced back in their second National Community Basketball League (NCBL) game, blowing out South Ruimveldt 98-36, which moved them to second place in their group behind Lodge/ Meadowbrook that have already qualified.

The win for Plaisance set up a straight fight for the other qualification spot in the group with the Albouystown/ Charlestown team. The game between the two teams will more-or-less decide who advances along with Lodge/ Meadowbrook out of the group.

Two teams from each of the four groups will advance to the Super Eight Knockout round of the competition.

Ron Campbell dropped a career-best 27 points while veteran guard Enoch Mathews scored 15, Nikkoloi Smith 14 and Gerald Harry 11 points to keep Plaisance/ Vryheid’s Lust in the hunt for a Super Eight berth.

Floyd Manifold had 12 points and Clarence Blackman 10 points for South Ruimveldt, who could not find any sort of offensive rhythm against a young brigade of second-string Plaisance players at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in the second game.

Plaisance/Vryheid’s Lust pulled senior national players, shooting guard, Steffon Gillis and Ryan Gullen from the game in the second

- Kwakwani emphatically launch Super Eight campaign

Dave Plass

Shelroy Thomas

quarter after establishing a 34-8 lead. Harry, Smith, Colwyn Nurse and Theon Berkshire were the secondstring replacements.

The substitutes were fast owed to their youthfulness, and there was no counter for that from the South Ruimveldt unit that looked obviously out of sync with each other; their struggles to gel as a unit were obvious as Plaisance ended the first half up 51-15 points.

Gullen and Gillis restarted the third quarter and helped their team add 15 points to their second quarter score before handing over reigns to the substitutes again. Gillis had just two points in the game, but his role was different, he was obviously the play-maker.

The third period ended 74-27 with the writings on the wall in the final period.

Plaisance eased to victory in the contest as most of the patrons at the venue fixed their eyes on the NBA Conference finals between San Antonio Spurs and

Oklahoma City Thunder that was been shown at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall as added attraction.

In the first game, Kwakwani brought all their former junior national players to the fore against a West Side team that slumped to their third defeat. Kwakwani thrashed the West Side Boys 92-34 to launch their Super Eight campaign in the national tournament.

Forward, Dave Plass scored 26 points for Kwakwani as guard Shelroy Thomas adding 16 points.

Raul Gordon had 12 points and Dave Causway had 11 points. Gordon was the only player amid the points without junior national experience.

Lionel Lobert scored 10 points for the West Side Boys.

The competition continued last night at the same venue and will continue tomorrow and Thursday nights before moving to Linden at the Mackenzie Sports Club Court for one of two scheduled away-games.