Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013

Enterprising Lindener helping deportees reintegrate into society “We were treated as aliens in the countries that deported us here, and now we are in the country of our birth and we are further alienated.

We are still being treated as aliens, and it is hard- we have to go that extra mile just to be accepted!”

This is the lament of Paul Nurse, an ‘involuntary remigrant’ (deportee) who currently resides at Wisroc, but has a property at Victory Valley, Wismar, where he is very active in community developmental activities.

Nurse was sent back to Guyana three years ago after spending time in a New York penitentiary for conspiracy charges. He had spent almost 30 years of his life in the US. His departure from the US meant separation from his relatives there, including his eighteen children.

But Nurse is a survivor and has the founded the Guyanese Association for Involuntary Remigrants (GAFIR), which is an organization that was established to assist deportees to reintegrate into society.

According to Nurse, there are about one hundred deportees in Linden alone, and some of them have returned as recent as two months ago.

Nurse noted that the greatest challenge facing deportees is the stigma associated with their status, and the general negative perception of locals, who often attribute anything bad happening in a community, to them.

“For anything bad that happens in the community, fingers are pointed to the remigrant. Now I’m not saying that a few of them don’t get involved in negative activities, but this is not true for everybody.

“Many of us still try to live as decent law abiding citizens, but the negativity can sometimes get to you. It’s like we were aliens in the countries we were deported from, and when we come here we are still aliens, in the country of our birth.”

But despite the negativity, Nurse is determined to make something of his life, and in

the process assist those in a similar position like him.

His mission, however, is not just about assisting deportees, as many persons could attest to.

Presently operating a variety business off the One Mile main road, Nurse has employed a number of persons over the few years that he has been back here.

But his greatest challenge is garnering enough money to launch into business in a big way, which would afford him the opportunity of employing even more people. “ Now, I’m a person that always thinks big and want to do things on a large scalefor instance back in the United States, I had my own night club and car dealership. I’m accustomed to doing business at the corporate level, but here it’s hard even getting started.

You know I would often sit here and look at all the vehicles coming out of the interior, knowing that all of that money is just passing through this town, when we ought to be looking at ways to capitalize on these things.

Right now I’m looking to do business on a twenty four hour basis, to cater to these people who make these long commute, and would require certain basic things”.

POULTRY REARING AND COOKING! Nurse is the holder of an associate degree in the culinary arts, and loves to cook. One of his very first business ventures was rearing and selling chickens, and of course barbequing them. But he realized that he was not ‘even ready’ when he travelled to Mahdia to take some orders.

“The quantity of chicken these people wanted on a weekly basis, I was barely producing in a month- so it clearly showed that I had to plug more money into the business.”

Nurse said that when he came back to Guyana he was given some money, which he used to establish himself in business, and subsequently employed a number of persons.

He noted that most of them were single parents, and so were in dire need of some

kind of financial support.

But today his main focus is no longer just on moneymaking projects, but rather more community oriented. He often takes time away from his business to assist in some community project or other, and to sit with his fellow deportees and talk.

CHALLENGES Nurse said that deportees face huge challenges, including a lack of housing and unemployment opportunities.

Added to that, he noted, is the fact that they are sometimes taken advantage of, and he cited the case of one of his colleagues who had entered the country with a bullet in his head and a US$5000 treasury cheque, which he never saw again after presenting it to customs.

“That money was supposed to be support for him from the US, as he was shot by the federal government, and as such was entitled to continued support from them. He had felt that presenting the cheque to customs was the right thing to do, as they were the

authority, and would probably mail the cheque to him. I mean in the US these kinds of things don’t happen like that, or go unaccounted for.

He made several attempts to try to retrieve it, but all were futile, I guess the cheque was cashed and misappropriated.”

HALFWAYHOME Nurse is suggesting that some type of halfway home be established here for deportees, who often come back and have no home, and most times lack adequate resources to acquire their own lodgings.

Many of them would have left all their relatives in the US and other countries, so there is no one here that they could depend on.

With no jobs they are ‘hard put’ to pay a rent.

He is also advocating for a process whereby deportees could acquire lands that they could cultivate, and so contribute to the agricultural development of the country, in a community where there is a dearth of jobs.

(Enid Joaquin)

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news

A question Ravi Dev must answer DEAR EDITOR, I refer to Ravi Dev’s column in yesterday’s issue of KN. He wrote that a friend asked him if he is now aligned with the government and he replied that he is not. The trouble with people like Dev is that they think they are so learned that they can use subtle language to hide under legal definitions, thus fooling people.

Dev went on to say that he once opposed the PPP Government. That is factual but it is also misleading. A fact has many dimensions some of which can contradict each other.

Before we briefly expose Ravi Dev’s deceptive politics, a word about politics in the US is relevant. There are several groups in the US that are willing to use violence against the American Government. Some have. But many African American and Hispanic organizations would be happy if these groups disappear because they are racist entities that blame the US Government for diluting white American society.

Ravi Dev came onto the scene arguing that there is a sociological anomaly in Guyana that impacts adversely on Indians and threatens the very existence of Indians and the PPP is doing nothing about it. He named it the Indian Security Dilemma.

The polemic centered on the ethnic imbalance in the security forces that could alter the structure in Guyana that could remove an Indian Government. In other words, once there is ethnic imbalance in the security forces, an Indian government may have a short life.

It was this supremacist role that caused him to win a top up parliamentary seat (meaning that he fell short but left over votes went to him and Manzoor Nadir).

Indians who voted for him accepted his charge that the PPP Government was doing nothing to prevent Indians from being victimized by an African police force.

From the time he entered politics in Guyana, Dev said nothing about politics in general except to carp fanatically on the Indian security dilemma.

Early in his political career I detected this hypocritical abomination in his politics and attacked him for it. I stressed in my KN articles and in letters to the press that he had a weekly television programme and a weekly KN column but never a word from him on the massive human rights violations

the PPP had committed against this nation. I always get the last laugh (forgive my chauvinistic rant) because when people turn out to be hypocrites, I point to my early warning signs which are in print. I was the only person who zeroed in on Dev and began to question the integrity of his praxis. It turned out I was right. How? Dev knew that the PPP had committed itself to Indianizing Guyana. I don’t know if he knew about a high level meeting between the T&T Prime Minister Basdeo Panday and the leading members of the PPP about the need to make Guyana and Trinidad cultural counterpoints to an African dominated Caribbean.

Whether he was aware I don’t know, but Dev from 2005 knew that the Indianizing of Guyana was on its way. He felt there was no longer any basis for his continuation in active supremacist politics.

Now for his point that he has not joined the Government. This is semantic ego-tripping. One does not have to officially join the Government to support it. The Private Sector Commission under Ramesh Dookoo did not join the PPP Government but it was a horrible sycophantic to the PPP. Gerry Gouveia is not a PPP member but he supports the PPP Government. But what about the Guyana Times.

If a citizen becomes an advisor to the Guyana Times how can any Guyanese be so stupid not to think that you can politically separate the Times from the Government.

You can legally but not politically.

The Times is not a governmental body but if one takes a job as a consultant to it, you have to know that your politics will be transformed because the newspaper is a political base for the PPP Government.

Now the question Ravi Dev must answer. Apart from his daughter who does a column for the Guyana Times under her own name (which is commendable in that she does not use a pen name), does he, Dev write for the Guyana Times?

Let Dev answer that in unambiguous ways. I go so far as to rephrase the question; does he do a column for the Guyana Times? I am not going to ask if it is daily or weekly. I am doing like Dev. I will remain within legal definitions. Here goes again – do you do a column for the Guyana Times whether in your name or a pen name?

Frederick Kissoon

Guyanese must continue to fight to undo Jagdeo’s eye pass

DEAR EDITOR, The minority PPP government is well aware of the effective role of sloganeering in political propaganda. Thus it is no surprise that it has turned to sloganeering to help defend former President Bharrat Jagdeo against just and growing criticisms for his indefensible allocation of radio frequencies and licences almost exclusively to his and the minority PPP’s friends and affiliates.

The government has decided that criticisms of Mr. Jagdeo’s decision will be answered with what is at best a sloganeering twaddle, to wit: Bharrat Jagdeo’s decision was a fulfillment of his promise to end government’s radio broadcast monopoly and he needed to think geographically when he allocated the radio frequencies.

The government hopes that its sloganeering twaddle will distract from the salient truth that Guyanese frustration with government’s radio monopoly had as much to do with the absence of radiostation owners with diverse

socio-political opinions as it did with the absence of diverse socio-political opinions on our radios. So we need the presence of owners with diverse opinions to solve the problem of the absence of diverse opinions on our radios. Bharrat Jagdeo’s allocation of radio frequencies and licences has not solved this problem, and any government talk of Jagdeo’s “geographic consideration” is nothing but a red herring.

Jagdeo’s and the PPP’s most trusted three friends and affiliates have been each granted five frequencies (they received 15 of the 19 frequencies issued), allowing for easy coverage of the length and breadth of our nation. Now, how many reasonably believe that these three friends and associates will carry programming content that will gladden the hearts of the AFC, the PNC, or any other group that opposes the PPP’s policies?

And what are the chances that they will carry programming content that will displease Jagdeo or the PPP? And does anyone

reasonably believe that it is by happenstance that these three are the only ones who received enough frequencies that will allow them to easily broadcast to our entire country? Or that the four others, who were each awarded one frequency for what amounts to coverage of a few villages, could seriously challenge the content imbalance on our airwaves? So Jagdeo could not have chosen a more sinister way to pretend to end government’s radio monopoly. And the government could not have chosen a clumsier way, in fact it has no other way, to attempt to defend Jagdeo’s indefensible action.

While unveiling and trumpeting the government’s sloganeering twaddle at a post-cabinet news briefing, Cabinet Secretary Roger Luncheon uttered his and the government’s conviction that Jagdeo’s unjust decision had already found favour with “the enlightened Guyanese”.

He also unleashed a Jagdeoesque attack on the press, labeling sections of the private media as being “hostile” for justly

protesting Jagdeo’s pernicious decision to deny them radio licences; and even arrogantly declared that the government had no intention of “removing the monopoly to the satisfaction of the hostile media or to the satisfaction of the applicants”.

Dr. Luncheon obviously means that the government has no intention of satisfying applicants other than Jagdeo’s and the PPP’s three friends and affiliates who were so richly rewarded by Jagdeo. Roger Luncheon and the PPP are free to be conduits for Jagdeo’s ventriloquy on this maddening issue or to be Jagdeo’s spokespersons as interested beneficiaries.

However, Guyanese must continue to fight to undo Jagdeo’s eye pass: It must not be allowed to stand. After all, we cannot allow the government to expropriate and distribute our nation’s resources under executive discretion or any other guise.

We must show Dr. Luncheon that we are “the enlightened Guyanese” and that we don’t agree with Jagdeo’s decision.

Lionel Lowe

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013

Letters... Where your views make the news... Letters... Where your views make the news

Freddie needs to stop shifting the goal post DEAR EDITOR, My friend, Freddie Kissoon, needs to stop shifting the goal post and stick to the issue. Reference is made to his letter “Lincoln, talk only makes sense when the autocracy is still redeemable” (24/3/2013). Let me once again try to bring Freddie back to the focus of this discussion.

The Guyana Trades Union Congress (TUC)’s engagement with Sam Hinds was in his capacity as Leader of the Government business in the National Assembly. This engagement attended to “the right and the duty to work” for Guyanese, as outlined in Article 22 of the Guyana Constitution, which was violated by the non-employment of Guyanese labour in the construction of the Marriott Hotel.

This meeting was covered in its entirety by the national media, a first for engagement with the PPP administration, and was also carried as news items. And two reasons informed this decision: (1) the nation will witness exactly what transpired, and (2) to avoid any misrepresentation of what transpired.

The TUC wrote the political groups in parliament on the Marriott Hotel issue. Sam Hinds reached out to the TUC and sought an engagement, which the TUC honoured. For Kissoon to now then say that the “TUC engaging in talks with the second tier leadership of the PPP Government (Sam Hinds and Brassington etc.)” is disingenuous and shifting of the

goal post. It is not the TUC’s place to tell any group it engages with who must be its representatives.

This meeting was also attended by the Private Sector Commission.

Kissoon is opposed to the TUC talking with the PPP but to date he has failed to cogently rebut what I said to him, that “Freddie, even your enemies you have to engage and talk to. Even when they are throwing bombs in Afghanistan, they are talking.” He is plunging in by his neck on an issue of national import and he needs to be careful about the statements he is making. We are talking about people’s wellbeing, so misrepresenting the issue and demonising an approach without offering solutions based on substance is a disservice to the situation and to the society.

If Kissoon has a workable solution that the TUC can pursue to secure “the right and the duty to work” for Guyanese, in this instance when the Executive has the responsibility for signing contracts on behalf of the People of Guyana, then let him make it public.

The TUC sees this matter of ensuring Guyanese employment as one that ought to be fought on many fronts. One of which is street struggle, and the TUC participated in the protests organised by the opposition political parties. Another front is to engage in talks with groups in the National Assembly and other stakeholders which is what the TUC is currently pursuing.

And another is to effect and enforce

legislation to avoid a re-occurrence, which is a goal of the TUC. The TUC, given past experiences, is not fooled nor harbours any illusion that a government with a track record of acting in bad faith can change overnight. But the TUC also knows, given its historical record, that when it sits at the table, buttressed with its age-old record of stick-to-itiveness, it can deliver for the society.

Kissoon can himself attest to the TUC’s ability. He may recall that prior to his last controversy with the University of Guyana, when his contract was proposed to be terminated for failure to meet certain conditions, it was the TUC, in the person of myself, who advanced the argument at the University Council packed with PPPites and caused them to see, recognise and appreciate that Kissoon’s rights were being violated.

Based on this act, he was retained in the employment of the university and given an opportunity to continue making a contribution to society. I wonder why my friend did not caution me against talks and engagement and presented me a history book to read, where according to him, “talks only make sense when the autocracy is still redeemable.”

Further, for Kissoon to make the case that “there is no book, statement or anything in history that says enemies must talk” is nonsensical, because any Fourth

Standard student or religious person can find such a book and prove him wrong.

His reference to philosophers also does not make the case for nontalks when the TUC has a responsibility to society and such is guided by universal declarations, conventions, charters and laws; and the Guyana Constitution. Kissoon is also reminded that these very instruments he wants to submerge or ignore are the work of the collective will of the people which grew out of historical wars, conflicts and efforts at forging peaceful coexistence, wherein all are held to the same standards and play by the same rules. If with the ILO that grew out of World War I, the United Nations that grew out of World War II, and our Constitution amended in the 1990s with the collective input of the people, we cannot stand up and demand that they be upheld, then where does this leave us as modern man? For collectively these instruments offer the people the opportunities to right the wrongs by holding government – executive and opposition – accountable to them.

The issue is not whether I have read Gramsci, or any other book. The issue is about human relations and how we find mechanisms to resolve our differences, peacefully co-exist, and enjoy our inalienable rights.

What is evident is that Kissoon has not read the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. For had he read, he would not have attacked Desmond Hoyte’s street

struggle to end executive lawlessness, nor my condemnation of the PPP’s policy of economic genocide against the African community and demanding evenhandedness in management, since government has such a responsibility to the society. And based on Kissoon’s behavior on these three issues, he can be deemed an enabler of the PPP’s injustices in this society. But recently his position has converged with progressive forces and we all can work together. Notwithstanding the stated, Kissoon is again asked to cite for this nation any political event in history, other than armed removal of governments/political authority, where the oppressed have not talked and engaged the oppressors.

Finally, on his position about Ramon ‘Rambo’ Gaskin; if he has concerns about Rambo’s public activities then let him take the fight to Rambo. But to use what he considers an infraction by Rambo to determine whether Rambo should be my friend or associate, then by his own standard I should ask whether I should be his friend, given the fact that historically our interests have converged and clashed. And on Robert Corbin and Bharrat Jagdeo’s relationship that Kissoon needs an answer from me, I cannot help him. I am not in the business of minding business if it is not classified as the people’s business.

Lincoln Lewis

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

Miner shot after biting cop in the face A 30-year-old miner was shot in the leg at around 02:00 hrs yesterday at Kurupung, Mazaruni, allegedly after biting a policeman in the face.

Police identified the shot man as Sean McDonald, 30, of Castello Housing Scheme, Georgetown.

According to a police release, two police ranks had travelled to an area in Kurupung in response to a report that a woman had been wounded.

The release stated that when Police Constable 20640 Craigan, who was unarmed, attempted to arrest McDonald in connection with

the incident, the suspect attacked the rank and bit him in his face.

“Sean McDonald continued to bite the Constable despite efforts to get him to stop, forcing the other rank, who was armed with his service firearm to resort to the use of force and he was shot to his right thigh,” the release said.

Constable Craigan and Sean McDonald were taken to the medical centre at Kurupung and have been referred to Georgetown.

Efforts are being made to get them to the city for further medical attention.

Woman in decades-long search for siblings Donna Sergeant is seeking to solve a decadesold mystery: the whereabouts of the offspring of the playboy dad she hardly knew.

Donna Sergeant has spent the last several years trying to find two-step-brothers and a stepsister, as well as three of her uncles, who may now be residing overseas.

Ms. Sergeant grew up in Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara, with her mother, the now-deceased Gloria Sergeant. Her father was Derek Solomon, a man she seldom saw. Her childhood memories of him are of a tall, handsome darkcomplexioned individual with ‘full’ eyes and a ‘good’ smile.

“He was a lady’s man,” Ms. Sergeant recalled.

“Whenever I asked my mother about him, she would say ‘you father was a soldier’, and she would say also that he worked at the Co-op Bank.”

She remembers her mother taking her to the Guyana National Co-operative Bank, located then in Lombard Street, to meet her father. She also remembers her dad taking her to Hadfield Street, Lodge, to the home of one of his ‘child-mothers.’

But sometime around 1979, fun-loving Derek Solomon collapsed and died in a Robb Street hotel. Donna Sergeant was just 14.

By her early twenties, she had developed a yearning to know her other siblings. “It’s like a part of me is missing…maybe I have passed them on the streets.”

She set out to find them.

First, she returned to the Hadfield Street, Lodge house where her dad had lived with his ‘child-mother’, a woman of mixed ancestry that Ms. Sergeant knew only as ‘Cheryl’. Her dad had sired three children by Cheryl; a daughter named Laverne

Donna Sergeant Solomon and two sons, whose names are unknown to Ms. Sergeant.

Residents remembered ‘Cheryl’, who had relatives in Campbellville, but they said that the woman had moved further down Hadfield Street.

After that, the trail went cold. ‘Cheryl’ and the three children had reportedly migrated to Canada.

Undaunted, Ms. Sergeant then travelled to the West Coast of Demerara to seek further information from another step-brother.

He was one of Derek Solomon’s sons from a third relationship with a woman known only as Jean. Ms. Sergeant learned that her paternal grandfather’s first name was Clyde, and that her father had three brothers; Ewart, Owen, and Barton Aubrey Solomon. They had reportedly migrated to the US in the seventies.

She has also been told that her two step-brothers and step-sister (born to the woman Cheryl) now reside in Canada. Those are the only clues she has. An old photograph of her father has been destroyed.

Anyone with information about Donna Sergeant’s relatives can contact her via her mobile number -592-6540307.

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TRUCK DRIVER FLEES AFTER KILLING MOTORCYCLIST The country’s road fatality figure climbed by one last night when a 34- year- old vendor was left dead on the Bee Hive Public Road after he was struck down by a Canter truck which was eventually tracked down at Mon Repos some 10 miles away.

Dead is Daneshram Persaud of David Rose Scheme, Unity, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara, who was heading home on his motorcycle when the accident occurred.

Despite wearing a helmet, Persaud sustained massive internal injuries and two broken legs and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Hospital where he was rushed by police ranks on patrol duty.

The driver of the truck, who reportedly hails from Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara, managed to escape from public spirited persons who trailed the truck all the way from the scene of the accident.

However, several other occupants of the truck who all appeared to be heavily under the influence of alcohol were detained by the police.

“After we see de man lie down on de road, we follow de Canter and stop it by Enmore on de line top, but when we go to come out and go to de driver, he speed of and is not till we reach Mon Repos that we get he fuh stop.

But he run away,” one of the public spirited persons told this newspaper.

The dead man’s brother, who accompanied his body to the hospital, told Kaieteur News that Persaud, who sells shrimps at the Mon Repos Market, was heading home.

He said that from all appearances his brother, a father of two, died instantly after being struck by the canter.

Within the past few months the East Coast of Demerara has been inundated with accidents involving drunk drivers.

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Historical Review of the Mining Town - Part 4

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013

Family seeks answers from cops over bullet-riddled corpse

The spot where Gary DeFlorimonte’s body was found

By Zena Henry The family of a 27-yearold man, whose decomposing body was found in a clump of bushes last February, is seeking answers from the police to say something in relation to the man’s death. Gary DeFlorimonte of Lot 67 Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara, was found on February 23 with three bullet holes in his body and residents of the area said that the police had shot the man two days earlier.

The dead man’s uncle, Percy DeFlorimonte, alleged that several persons had alleged to have seen the police shoot his nephew days before his body was discovered, but to date, the police has said nothing meaningful on the matter.

DeFlorimonte told this publication that almost a month ago, the police had called to tell him that witnesses were not coming forward to give evidence in the matter. He said they added that they are awaiting ballistics tests but from then to now there has still been no word on the matter.

Kaieteur News was however told that when residents were asked, they claimed that the police had never approached them for statements in relation to the

man’s death. DeFlorimonte said that he was given a number to contact a named policeman, but was unable to reach the rank on the number.

“We not hearing nothing from them. Three weeks ago, them seh dat dem waiting on ballistics test; before was nothing, and now still nothing.”

DeFlorimonte said that since his nephew’s death, overseas relatives have returned to the destinations and still there is no word on the matter. Amos Benn of Essequibo, father of the deceased, “is always calling in on the Wednesday program with Minister Rohee and instead of hearing the matter, they does cut him off,” DeFlorimonte said.

In late December 2012, police had reported that members of a Joint Services mobile patrol encountered Gary DeFlorimonte called ‘Sadam’ of Plaisance Squatting area, East Coast Demerara. They said that DeFlorimonte, who was wanted in relation to a number of robberies on the East Coast of Demerara, was with a group of men gaming at Plaisance Squatting area.

As they approached, DeFlorimonte began to run and was pursued by the ranks during which he discharged several rounds at the ranks who returned fire. He

however managed to escape.

Onika Simpson told Kaieteur News that it is very difficult raising the couple’s two sons without a father.

The uncle told Kaieteur News that a post mortem report showed that his nephew had died from a collapsed lung due to a single gunshot wound to the chest.

He said he was very close to his nephew and believes that the police should do their best to solve the crime. Residents had told Kaieteur News that about two days prior to the discovery of the body, at least five policemen, accompanied with a resident, came at a popular hangout looking for DeFlorimonte. It is alleged that DeFlorimonte attempted to evade ranks by jumping into a gutter, and the ranks reportedly shot in his direction. They said realizing he was hurt, DeFlorimonte gave himself up and braced a fence.

The fence they said however opened, collapsed, and the ranks, apparently thinking that the man was again attempting to escape, fired another round at DeFlorimonte, who ran into the yard for cover. As he did so, residents said the police discharged a few more shots at DeFlorimonte, whose decomposing body was found days later in the said yard, behind a fence.

Monday March 25, 2013

My friends in one of the smaller Caribbean countries in which I do the occasional consulting, told me a story about a former Deputy Prime Minister that had me laughing all the way to my computer.

This is a gentleman who, it is said, always responded to any report you gave him, even really bad news, by saying, “It could be worse.”

He was known to people in the country as “Speedy Gonzales” after the hyperactive mouse in the cartoons. It seems that the goodly Deputy was with his deputy (who happened to be someone else’s wife) in the home, even more important the bedroom, of that someone else.

While they were enjoying what Othello refers to as the “beast with two backs” the key turned in the latch and it was not Iago but the cuckolded husband.

It is claimed, and legend has it, that the gentleman was quicker on the draw than any other politician in history. He grabbed his clothes, went through the window, slid down a drainpipe and when he hit the ground was fully clothed. When a close confidante asked the Deputy about the incident, he replied, “It could have been worse.”

Kaieteur News

Aghast, his friend asked, “What could be worse than that?” The Deputy replied with a smile, “Well, suppose there was no drainpipe there?”

When the Deputy was serving as what is appropriately called the Minister of Home Affairs, sometimes known as the Ministry of National Security, the Commissioner of Police came to him with a truly horrendous story. His men had received an emergency call from one of the posh villas in the hills and when they walked in they found the nude bodies of a man and a woman in the bedroom. They had been shot to death.

When they went to the living room, they found the body of a man with a gun at his side. “No doubt about it,” the Inspector in charge told the sergeant, “This was a double murder and suicide.

This man came home and found his wife in bed with somebody else and shot them both. Then he shot himself.”

“True,” the sergeant said, “but I bet when the Minister hears about it he will say ‘It could have been worse’.”

“That can’t happen,” the Inspector replied. “There is nothing worse than this.

Let’s tell the Commissioner so

he could tell the Minister and see how he reacts to it.”

After hearing all the details from the Commissioner, the Deputy Prime Minister said, as expected, “It could have been worse.” In such a small place with so few crimes, the Commissioner could not envisage anything worse and said to the Deputy, “But Minister, three people dead.

What could be worse?”

The Minister smiled knowingly, “You know the man you found dead on the bedroom floor? If the husband had come home yesterday, that would have been me.”

I have a friend like that and last Saturday morning called him in Trinidad to tell him about my harrowing adventures two nights before when I took a LIAT flight from Antigua to go to Barbados and then connect with a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) flight to Trinidad and from there leave on another flight to Guyana.

The LIAT flight took off almost an hour late. It was supposed to stop briefly in Dominica and then head for Barbados giving me enough time to go through immigration, take my bag off the carousel, walk the long

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route to the CAL desk and get on the flight. When we left Dominica, the flight attendant told us we were headed for Barbados and then, several minutes after, told us we were heading for St Lucia to take up baggage that had been left behind there.

By the time I arrived in Barbados, I knew that I was doomed.

However, I eventually made the flight thanks to a LIAT attendant named Olivia and her colleagues Shadron, Francia and Caroline. As I recounted what I went through, arriving at my Guyana hotel at three in the morning, my friend said the dreaded words, “It could have been worse.”

I expostulated, “Don’t come to me with that nonsense. How you mean it could have been worse.” He chuckled, “Well given the financial state of LIAT and the dictatorial way the new CEO is behaving, they could have charged you for the St Lucia leg of the flight.”

There is a story about some senior citizens in a nursing home in Florida who were sitting around talking about their aches and pains.

“My arms are so weak I can hardly lift this cup of coffee,” said one. An old man in a corner said, “It could have

been worse.” They ignored him and another senior complained, “I know what you mean. My cataracts are so bad I can’t even see my coffee.”

The old man in the corner grumbled, “It could have been worse.” Again nobody paid attention to him and a third senior continued, “I can’t turn my head because of the arthritis in my neck.”

The old man muttered but nobody took him on and one old lady contributed, “My blood pressure pills make me dizzy.”

When the old man said, “It could have been worse” all the others pounced on him. “What could be worse you old grump?” they asked.

“Well,” he replied, “at least we can still drive.”

I heard one in Guyana that has me laughing any time I think of it. Two ladies were sitting on a bench next to me

when a man joined them. One of the ladies was complaining about how difficult it was to find work. She commented, “The only wuck dey have is to cook and waash, cook and waash.” The man replied, “It could be worse.”

“How you mean it could be worse? What worse than duh?” “Well,” he replied drily, “it could be cook, waash and lash.” After laughing heartily, the lady replied, “I too old for the lashing but they have worse than that.” The others asked, “What worse than cook, waash and lash?” “The starch and the iron,” the lady responded with a knowing smile. *Tony Deyal was last seen saying that while Thomas Jefferson was guilty of forcing his slaves to cook and wash, he also used the lash, which in one sense is a whip but in Guyana means “sexual intercourse.”

Monday March 25, 2013

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Antigua teen of Guyanese parentage making a name for himself

By Leon Suseran A young Antiguan teen born to Guyanese parentage is making a name for himself.

His talented singing has taken him to Hollywood where he was signed up for a music contract and the release of an upcoming music album. He’s sung the national anthem before hundreds in Antigua; and has landed himself an acting contract for a TV sitcom—all at the age of twelve!

Jamol Gordon and his sister are currently in Guyana for their grandmother’s funeral. His mom is here too and spoke with Kaieteur News.

Myrna Gordon stated that she left Guyana 13 years ago and the family now resides at Bronx Avenue. “As a young child, he was always involved in singing but I never thought he would become a singer— and sometimes he would sit down and write songs—at five years you know?!” she proudly recalled.

In 2010, at age nine, he expressed his desire to audition for an Antiguan musical talent show ‘Optimus Petite’, for which he was successful. “They fell in love with him and he got through— and he was the only male!” He won the talent and interview segments, “so overall, he was the youngest child—and only male—to win the show, so you can imagine the applause and he also had standing ovation from the crowds”.

Gordon stated, too, that it was just after winning that competition that the young boy started to gain popularity. That same year, he opened the Jaycee’s Queen Show, a popular festival held around the time of Carnival in Antigua and participated by numerous Caribbean countries, including Guyana.

“And it was resounding applause, because he sang the national anthem of Antigua & Barbuda”.

Young Jamol then started to receive invitations to perform at weddings, birthdays and funerals.

“When he sang at a booksigning ceremony, then is when a Doctor Noel Howell heard him, then he asked the child to sing another song that same night.”

Dr. Howell gave him a scholarship to study at the St. Joseph’s Academy (a private school), after the lad topped the Common Entrance Exams on the island.

Dr. Howell made arrangements for him to travel to Hollywood, with his father Winston, for three weeks last December “and at the moment, they are working on his first album—the youngest artiste in Antigua”.

“I met Dr. Howell two years ago and he introduced me to D Channsin Berry, who is a film producer and

- lands music and acting contracts

Jamol prepares to record in Hollywood. songwriter and he said he wanted to work with me after he heard me sing and so I ended up going to Los Angeles and recording a few songs,” Jamol said. Jamol said he recorded three songs done

by Leon Sylvers and another five by Joshua Thompson.

Sylvers was a member of the family group “The Sylvers” in the 1970’s and has gone on to work with artists such as Shalamar, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Whispers and Guy. Joshua Paul Thompson is a songwriter/producer who has worked with Joe, Luther Vandross, Baby Face and Alicia Keys and many others.

“Jamol was working every day. We didn’t go out there to work every day, but all Christmas Eve we were still recording. We just kept going and he was singing song after song after song,” Dr Howell said.

To top off the excitement for the 12-year-old, Jamol said during a trip to the mall, “I met Stevie Wonder at the mall and he invited me to his concert.”

Dr. Howell said the recorded songs are now being mastered and prepared for release and he believes the 12-year-old might just be witnessing his singing career take off.

He was granted full permission to re- record and sing back one of Michael Jackson’s songs as well as another from Stevie Wonder in Hollywood. He recorded several other songs there. “In a short space of time, he learned those songs in LA and he recorded them in such short time—they were surprised to know that a little child can do all of that— because when he sings, Jamol would have to sing one line over and over and over, wake up early in the mornings up to late in the nights”, his mother stated.

Then he returned home and was bestowed a VIP welcome at the VC Bird International Airport. He made the front-page of the Antiguan newspapers.

Dr. Howell, who resides in New York, related his joy with working with the young musician and actor. “I am a paediatrician turned film

maker. I have been to Guyana on a number of occasions doing some productions. As per Jamal, his first album will be released this summer. We have a video to be released April 29 for the song ‘Too Young’.

“We are planning a performance for Guyana during the summer so the locals can see him in action.

Jamal had a role in a “TV Sitcom - Parental Guidance 101 or PG 101 for short. This sitcom was shot throughout the region (Antigua, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, and Trinidad) and will be released sometime in June”, he said.

Three weeks ago, Jamal traveled to Jamaica where he recorded his first music video, which will be released shortly.

When asked about his new album ‘Tomorrow’, Jamol stated that there are ten

songs, two which he sang back from the King of Pop ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ and Stevie Wonder ’s ‘Superstition’ and eight original songs.

“Most of the songs are about love”, he stated, ‘Too Young to Fall in love, ‘Tomorrow’ and others will be released this summer in Antigua. He also sings Gospel, Reggae and R&B music.

And when asked how he finds time for his school studies and music and acting, the lad’s mother replied that “as parents, we still have to be there to guide him and we have to help him set his priorities and time management, because he is a typical child and we have to be here to guide him.

“I never thought it would blossom into all of this. My sister was the one who encouraged me to push him.

I never real paid much attention to him even though he was singing; and right now, things are turning to be very big. He is going to make it because he is a child that pushes his own self. He has this self- motivation in him that he can do a lot of things”, said Gordon.

When he is not singing and acting, he enjoys Social Media, Facebook and Twitter.

Gordon believes her son will reach even greater

heights.

“There is a bright future for him, because everywhere we go, the same thing people tell us, ‘your son is talented and we know he is going to make it’”. She is ever grateful to Dr. Howell for “investing in him, because when he [Dr.

Howell] took him to New York, a lot of producers wanted to work with him and the very first time he sang in the studio, one producer ran out of the studio, and said that he felt to confess his sins with the manner in which the boy was singing so sweetly”.

Jamol and his mentor, Dr. Howell in Jamaica recently.

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Monday March 25, 2013

Missing contractor reported dead, then migrated

By Abena Rockcliffe The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), an arm of parliament mandated to scrutinize the Auditor General’s report, is faced almost every week with several matters relating to overpayments being made to contractors in most of the ten administrative regions.

The issue of contractors being overpaid is one that has been ongoing for years and members of the committee, especially those who are longstanding, have voiced frustration of having to deal with the same issues each year.

In most cases, contractors are overpaid when payments were made in full for works that either

haven’t been completed or were done at a substandard level.

These issues are pointed out in most cases when an engineer attached to the Auditor General’s office inspects the building or project and to analyze whether the state got its money’s worth.

When such situations arise where it is recognized that a contractor has been overpaid, the government entity that made the payment is supposed to retrieve the excess payments. However, refunds from contractors have been proving to be quite a task for these organizations as it hardly ever happens.

Over the last two weeks, the PAC met in Regions Two and Three respectively.

- PUC faced with several cases of overpaid contractors Those two regions were no different from the others in relation to the overpayment of contractors.

Region Three had numerous cases of overpayment.

Overpayments totaling $5.454M made to contractors for the years 2005-2008 were still not recovered. The $5.4M was overpaid in respect to twelve projects.

In the midst of the several cases of overpayment that couldn’t be recovered, was a classic one of a contractor being overpaid on three occasions. The contractor

was allegedly over paid $44,000 for repairs to a sluice at Bagotville, and then he was overpaid $228,000 for the construction of a Road at Hague.

Even though he didn’t refund the monies mentioned above, the same contractor was then granted a contract for the construction of a Satellite Clinic at Tuschen and was overpaid a further $848,000.

Asked to repay the monies, the contractor in 2006 wrote the PAC asking permission to appear before the committee to explain why he shouldn’t have to repay the money.

The committee reportedly felt that the matter was one to be dealt with by the Region and forwarded the letter to the regional authority. He then allegedly disappeared; then a rumor circulated that the man had passed away.

However, the Auditor General told the committee that the man was still alive and now the Region is saying that he migrated and “efforts to contact him proved futile.”

In 2011, Region Three had four cases of overpayments being made to contractors,

which amounted to $510,480.

Region two, however, had the most cases of contractors being overpaid.

Overpayments totaling 415,300 were made to a contractor in respect of repairs to the Regional mechanical workshop.

Then $132,180 was overpaid for repairs to a boathouse in Charity.

Some $209,612 was overpaid for construction of a Timber Bridge and $240,740 for another timber bridge at Martindale Primary School.

A contractor was also overpaid $114,500 for the extension of Oscar Joseph District Hospital, Charity, and$395,200 was overpaid for rehabilitation of Hackney Primary School. There were at least five other instances of overpayments being made; all over $200,000. However, Kaieteur News was made to understand that some of these monies were repaid but in minimal amounts.

For previous years, 2008 2010, $1.868M was overpaid to contractors but $28,000 was recovered.

It is systematic for contractors to produce a certificate of completion upon executing the full contractual agreement in order for payments to be made.

Whether the contract was awarded for supplies or construction, at the end, there must be a document to show

that the terms of contract have been fulfilled by the contractor. After, the Contractor/Supplier would have formulated the document, an official from the respective agency has to inspect and sign off.

Situations have arrived where officers signed for works which may not have been of good quality or similarly signed off on stocks that may have been undersupplied.

In situations like these, the auditors may find that that contractor or supplier has been overpaid. In those cases the monies need to be recovered. As of now the existing system is for the contractors to refund the money.

Region Six had a case where over $10M was noted as needed to be recovered from contractors for works as far back as 2005.

A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) committee representative Keith Scott’s position was that a contractor’s refusal to refund monies under the circumstances at hand should be deemed a criminal act.

Gail Teixeira, government’s representative on the PAC, has noted firmly that signing officers should be penalized for signing off on works that aren’t completed or not done satisfactorily.

Air Services helicopter breaks down on Home Stretch Avenue

The helicopter stalled at Square of the Revolution An Air Services Limited helicopter was yesterday left grounded on Home Stretch Avenue when it encountered mechanical trouble during an exhibition show in celebration of Guyana’s 100 years of Aviation.

The company had decided to join the Guyana

Defence Force in an exercise to land their helicopters on Homestretch Avenue which had been blocked off from traffic. But the chopper however encountered difficulty when it was time to take off.

The aircraft had to be pushed to the Square of the

A mini health check is the first step to donating blood

Revolution’s open space, where engineers worked on the machine, while Home Stretch Avenue was reopened to traffic.

An Air Services Chief Engineer told Kaieteur News that the helicopter had experienced electrical problems. He said that the machine had been on the ground some time after 23:00hours and efforts were being made to get the relevant parts for the chopper from the Ogle Airport.

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Monday March 25, 2013

Kerry warns Iraq on Iran flights to Syria BAGHDAD (AP) — Just days after the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confronted Baghdad for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq’s behavior was raising questions about its reliability as a partner.

Speaking to reporters during a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had engaged in “a very spirited discussion” on the Iranian flights, which U.S. officials believe are ferrying weapons and fighters intended for the embattled Syrian government.

Kerry said the plane shipments — along with material being trucked across Iraqi territory from Iran to Syria — were helping President Bashar Assad’s regime cling to power by increasing their ability to strike at Syrian rebels and opposition figures demanding Assad’s ouster.

“I made it very clear that for those of us who are

engaged in an effort to see President Assad step down and to see a democratic process take hold ... anything that supports President Assad is problematic,” Kerry said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after meeting separately with Maliki at his office. “And I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that the overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime.”

The overflights in Iraq have long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq. Iraq and Iran claim the flights are carrying humanitarian goods, but American officials say they are confident that the planes are being used to arm the support the Assad regime.

The administration is warning Iraq that unless action is taken, Iraq will be excluded from the international discussion about Syria’s political future.

U.S. officials say that in the absence of a complete ban on flights, Washington would at least like the planes to land and be inspected in Iraq to ensure that they are

carrying humanitarian supplies. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton secured a pledge from Iraq to inspect the flights last year, but since then only two aircraft have been checked

by Iraqi authorities, according to U.S. officials.

One senior U.S. official traveling with Kerry said the sheer number of overflights, which occur “close to daily,” along with shipments trucked to Syria from Iran through Iraq, was inconsistent with claims they are only carrying humanitarian supplies. The official said it was in Iraq’s interest to prevent the situation in Syria from deteriorating further, particularly as there are fears that al-Qaeda-linked extremists may gain a foothold in the country as the Assad regime falters.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said there are clear links between alQaeda linked extremists operating in Syria and m i l i t a n t s who are also carrying out terrorist attacks

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right meets with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday.

(AP Photo/Jason Reed, Pool) in Iraqi territory with increasing regularity.

Kerry’s comments in Baghdad come as U.S. lawmakers are calling for President Barack Obama to do more to stop the bloodshed in Syria, including possible airstrikes against Assad’s aircraft fleet.

The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, said yesterday the U.S. should create a “safe zone” in northern Syria that would give the U.S. more leverage with opposition forces.

“This doesn’t mean the 101st Airborne Division and ships” are deployed, Rogers told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” ‘’It means small groups with special capabilities reengaging the opposition so we can vet them, train them, equip them so they can be an effective fighting force.”

Last week, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John

McCain, R-Ariz., asked Obama in a letter to step up U.S. military efforts in the region, including destroying Assad’s aircraft using precision airstrikes.

Kerry said Iraq’s tacit approval of Iranian overflights left the American people wondering how an ally would undermine U.S. efforts, particularly after the enormous sacrifices made by the United States in liberating Iraq from Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical rule.

“There are members of Congress and people in America who increasingly are watching what Iraq is doing and wondering how it is that a partner in the efforts for democracy and a partner for whom Americans feel they have tried so hard to be helpful, how that country can be, in fact, doing something that makes it more difficult to achieve our common goals, the goal expressed

by the prime minister with respect to Syria and President Assad,” he said.

In addition to the overflights, Kerry said he had urged Maliki and other Iraqi officials to promote unity amid a spike in sectarian violence and called on them to ensure that upcoming provincial elections are free and fair. Kerry said the postponement of the polls in two provinces — Anbar and Ninevah — was unacceptable and should be reversed.

We strongly urge the prime minister to take this issue to the cabinet and to see if it can be revisited, because we believe very strongly that everybody needs to vote simultaneously,” he said.

In addition to his meeting with Maliki, Kerry saw Iraqi parliament speaker parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, whose faction is at odds with Maliki’s Shiia. Kerry also spoke by phone with Massoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish Regional Government based in Irbil to encourage the Kurds not go ahead with unilateral actions — especially involving oil, like a pipeline deal with Turkey.

Kerry arrived in Baghdad from Amman, where he had been accompanying President Barack Obama on his tour of Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. His visit to Iraq is the first by a U.S. secretary of state since Clinton went in April 2009.

During Obama’s first term, the Iraq portfolio was largely delegated to Vice President Joe Biden as Obama wound down the war.

Monday March 25, 2013

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China’s Xi arrives in Africa with focus on trade ties DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping began yesterday a tour of Africa that underlines the continent’s strategic importance to China both for its resources and as a market place, signing more than a dozen trade and cooperation deals with Tanzania.

Visiting, Tanzania, South Africa and Republic of Congo on his first trip abroad as president following a visit to Russia, Xi is expected to build on expanding economic relations that many Africans see as a healthy counterbalance to the influence of the West.

He might also address concerns in Africa that the continent is exporting raw materials while spending heavily to import finished consumer goods from the Asian economic powerhouse.

“He will be looking to tone down the feeling that China is just here to exploit resources. I think that is going to be his main job,” James Shikwati, director of the Nairobi-based Inter Regional Economic Network think tank, told Reuters.

The agreements with Tanzania included plans to co-develop a new port and industrial zone complex, a concessional loan for communications infrastructure and an interest free loan to the Tanzanian government. No details were given on the size of the loans or the monetary value of the projects.

China’s President Xi Jinping (L) and his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete (R) walk through women waving China and Tanzania national flags at the State House in Dar es Salaam, yesterday. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya On Monday Xi will deliver his first policy speech on Africa.

He will then head to South Africa for a summit of leaders of the world’s major emerging economies, known as the BRICS, tomorrow and Wednesday, and could endorse plans to create a joint foreign exchange reserves pool and an infrastructure.

The proposal underscores frustrations among emerging markets at having to rely on the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which are seen as reflecting the interests of the United States and other industrialized nations.

The east African seaboard is hot property after huge gas discoveries in Tanzania and neighboring

Mozambique. Chinese oil company CNPC this month acquired a 20 percent stake in the Eni Mozambique offshore project worth $4.21 billion, linking one of the planet’s biggest untapped gas resources with the fastest growing gas consuming country.

Oil strikes in the region have also caught China’s eye.

But across eastern Africa, poor infrastructure and inadequate regulation risk delaying large scale oil and gas production.

China has built roads, railways, and landmark buildings across Africa to win access to its oil and minerals like copper and uranium.

“China is what we call an all-weather friend,” said

force, in a nine-week operation that has driven Islamists into desert hideaways and mountains near the Algerian border.

Gao is a former stronghold of the MUJWA Islamist group which controlled the town for around 10 months, imposing a violent form of sharia, Islamic law.

A Reuters witness saw four Islamist fighters - two carrying Kalashnikov assault rifles, one a rocket-propelled

grenade launcher and another wearing what appeared to be an explosive belt - running across a dusty street as fighting continued elsewhere in the town.

Intense shooting had been reported for around two hours on Saturday evening after a group of Islamists slipped past military checkpoints to enter the town. Calm returned during the night but the combat resumed early yesterday morning, residents said.

Islamists battle Malian army for second day in Gao

GAO, Mali (Reuters) Fierce fighting between Islamist rebels and Malian and French forces raged for a second day in the northern Malian town of Gao yesterday, residents said.

The rebels attacked the north’s largest town just days after French President Francois Hollande said Mali’s sovereignty had almost been restored. It was the third major offensive there by Islamists since the town was retaken by a French-led military operation in late January.

“This time there are a lot of them and they are very determined,” said a military official in Gao, who asked not to be identified. “We are trying to surround them. A lot of them have been killed and others are heading back to their homes, to melt back into the population.”

France has deployed some 4,000 troops to Mali, alongside a regional African

teacher Mwajuma Swai.

“They don’t flip-flop like the West and they don’t give us a string of conditions for aid and trade.”

But China’s increasing presence in Africa has prompted concern as well as gratitude. Nigeria’s central bank chief, Lamido Sanusi, said Africans should wake up to the realities of their “romance with China.”

“So China takes our primary goods and sells us manufactured ones. This was also the essence of colonialism,” Sanusi wrote in the Financial Times this month. “Africa is now willingly opening itself up to a new form of imperialism.”

“We must see China for what it is: a competitor.”

Sanusi’s comments were echoed in the streets of Dar es Salaam, decked out with Chinese flags for Xi’s visit.

Businessman Hamisi Mwalimu said: “We need a smart partnership where both Tanzania and China benefit.

Right now, they’re getting a much better deal than us.”

At a China-Africa summit last year, Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao pledged to help Africa export manufactured products, not just raw materials, and to import from the continent.

Hu also offered $20 billion in loans to African countries over a three year period, boosting China’s good relations with the continent and unsettling the West which criticizes Beijing for overlooking human rights abuses in its business

dealings with Africa.

Such criticism draws rebukes from China that the West treats Africa as though it were a colony.

“Africa wants to be treated as an equal, and this is what many Western countries do not understand, or are at least are not willing to do,” Zhong Jianhua, China’s special envoy to Africa, told Reuters in an interview this month.

Zhong acknowledged Chinese companies faced criticism for using Chinese workers on African infrastructure and mining projects. Beijing estimates almost 1 million Chinese are working in Africa.

“We have told Chinese companies that they cannot just use Chinese workers,” Zhong said. “I think most Chinese firms now realize this.” Yet not all African governments appear that worried with the use of Chinese workers, especially for infrastructure projects.

“China isn’t coming to Congo to create jobs,” Republic of Congo Ambassador to China, Daniel Owassa, told Reuters.

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Monday March 25, 2013

Egypt’s President warns may move to protect nation CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s president Mohamed Mursi, delivered a stern warning to his opponents yesterday, saying he may be close to taking unspecified measures to “protect this nation” two days after supporters of his Muslim Brotherhood and opposition protesters fought street battles in the worst bout of political violence in three months.

Nearly 200 people were injured in Friday’s violence, some seriously, outside the headquarters of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s dominant political group.

“If I have to do what is necessary to protect this nation I will, and I am afraid that I may be close to doing so,” a visibly angry Mursi said in an animated speech to the opening session of a conference on women’s rights.

“I will do so very, very soon. Sooner than those trying to shake the image of this nation think,” said the Islamist leader who took office in June as the country’s first freely elected president.

“Let us not be dragged into an area where I will take a harsh decision,” he warned.

While not naming any one opposition group or critic in particular, his comments were the strongest hint to date that he believes the parties and politicians grouped in the National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, were directly behind the violence.

His comments were initially released in a series of tweets on his account but state television later aired extensive excerpts from the address.

He also warned that “appropriate measures” would be taken against politicians found to be behind Friday’s violence, regardless of their seniority. Anyone found to be using the media to “incite violence” will also be held accountable, he added. His comments came just hours after dozens of Islamists staged a protest outside studios belonging to independent TV networks that are critical of the Egyptian leader.

The Islamists are protesting what they see as the biased coverage of Friday’s clashes. The Brotherhood says it does not support the protest, but some

of the protesters were chanting slogans in support of Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie.

Friday’s clashes followed an assault a week earlier by Brotherhood supporters on protesters painting derogatory graffiti outside the group’s headquarters. The protesters chanted hostile slogans and taunted Brotherhood supporters when some of them tried to stop demonstrators from posting flyers on the headquarters’ outside walls.

The Brotherhood supporters also assaulted reporters at the scene. The group later said its supporters were provoked by the protesters who scribbled profanities on the headquarters’ outside walls and that the reporters were part of the protest.

Mursi’s comments made no direct mention of the clashes but appeared to be a possible prelude to measures against the mostly liberal and secular opposition.

“I call on all political forces not to provide a political cover for violence, rioting and attacks on private and public property,” Mursi said. “I will

not be happy if investigations find some politicians guilty.”

The National Salvation Front said in a statement it did not condone violence and called for an independent probe into all incidents of violence. Noting that the presidency, the government and the Brotherhood were making “fierce attacks” on the media, blaming it for inciting the violence, which it said was rather the result of failed promises of inclusiveness by Mursi and his group. It contends that the Brotherhood aims to monopolize power and control the state.

Only “drastic political solutions and genuine national participation” will save Egypt from the cycle of violence, it added.

The latest bout of political violence was the worst seen in Egypt since at least 10 people died in clashes between supporters and opponents of Mursi in Cairo in December. Images of bloodied men from the two sides, burning buses and rows of black-clad riot police were splashed across the front pages of Egypt’s newspapers on Sunday and

Saturday, giving the distinct impression of a nation torn by strife.

Violence and a quick succession of political crises are deepening the schism in Egypt between Mursi and his Islamist supporters on one hand, and moderate Muslims, secular and leftist Egyptians along with Christians and women on the other. The seemingly endless political unrest in the eight months since Mursi took office, coupled with a free falling economy and tenuous security situation, have led some commentators and politicians to warn of civil war if nothing is done soon. Mursi however yesterday dismissed the prospect of the “collapse” of Egypt as a false notion entertained by his foes.

He also repeated earlier claims that the political violence was engineered by remnants of the Hosni Mubarak regime, toppled in a popular uprising two years ago, and fueled by outside powers he did not identify. He also claimed that paid thugs were behind the violence, not genuine protesters.

“No one in our neighborhood wants this nation to stand on its feet. I

Mohamed Mursi will cut off any finger that meddles in Egypt,” he said alluding to alleged foreign interference. “I can see two or three fingers that are meddling inside,” he said without elaborating.Mursi also sought to debunk an often repeated charge that he places the interests of the Brotherhood ahead of those of the nation and that he is only the president of the “Brothers.”

“I never was and I never will be,” he said in response to those charges. Ruthlessly ridiculed in the independent media, Mursi said he did not mind criticism of his person.

“But I will not allow it when criticizing the president of the republic is designed to undermine the nation.”

Afghanistan’s Karzai heads to Qatar to discuss peace with Taliban (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will travel to Qatar within days to discuss peace negotiations with the Taliban, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said yesterday, as efforts intensify to find a negotiated solution to the twelve year war.

Karzai’s trip to Qatar would represent the first time the Afghan president has discussed the Taliban peace process in Qatar, and comes after years of stalled discussions with the United States, Pakistan and the Taliban.

The announcement was made only hours after another thorny issue in the U.S.-Afghan relationship — the transfer to Afghan control of the last group of prisoners at the Bagram military complex held by U.S. forces - appeared to be resolved. The Pentagon announced on Saturday that a deal had been clinched.

Karzai’s Qatar trip was announced by Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.

“President Karzai will discuss the peace process and the opening of a (Taliban) office for the purposes of conducting negotiations with Afghanistan,” he said. Karzai was expected to travel to Qatar within a week, a senior Afghan official speaking on condition of anonymity told Reuters.

The United States has said it would support setting up an office in the Gulf state where peace talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan could take place.

“We welcome and fully support President Karzai’s visit to Qatar as a sign of improved relations between the two U.S. allies,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. “The president and other world leaders continue to call on the Afghan armed opposition to join a political process.”

The announcement comes several weeks after Karzai delivered a fiery speech during the first visit to Afghanistan by new U.S.

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, in which he accused Washington of holding peace talks with the Taliban in Qatar without him.

Karzai also accused the Taliban of colluding with America to keep foreign troops in the country, marking a fresh low point in the relationship between the Afghan president and his most powerful backer.

Mosazai confirmed the agreement reached on the transfer of detainees held at the military detention facility at Bagram in Parwan province north of Kabul.

The issue of detainees at Bagram had become another stress point in Karzai’s relations with Washington. A ceremony formally transferring the last prisoners to Afghan custody collapsed two weeks ago after Karzai rejected part of the deal.

American forces control an area of the prison adjacent to the Bagram military complex, which holds several dozen Taliban fighters considered by the United States to pose the most severe threat.

Washington is concerned the Afghans may release some of these men when control of the prison is handed over.

That concern was reinforced during Karzai’s outburst this month, in which he said the United States had been dragging its heels on prisoner transfers and said he would release those detainees that were “innocent”.

Under the terms of agreement, all Afghans detained by forces of the U.S.-led coalition would now have to be handed over to Afghan control within 96 hours of capture, Mosazai said. Any decision to release them after that would be made only by the Afghan government.

The United States last year agreed to hand over responsibility for most of the more than 3,000 detainees at the prison to Afghanistan and held a transfer ceremony in September.

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

Over 500 Jamaicans sent back from CARICOM countries last year Jamaica Observer - Over 500 Jamaicans were deported from other CARICOM countries and Curacao last year, according to figures presented to the Senate on Friday by Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade AJ Nicholson.

According to the figures, 254 of the total 525 deportees were sent back from Curacao, and 271 from CARICOM countries.

The issue of travel within the region, especially as it concerns Jamaican nationals, has been the subject of much debate in Jamaica following the Jamaica Observer’s report on the case of a Jamaican woman, Shanique Myrie, who is seeking damages for what she said was discriminatory treatment by Barbadian Customs and Immigration officials when she attempted to enter that island in March 2011 via the Grantley Adams International Airport.

The itinerant Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), convened for the first time in Jamaica earlier this month to hear Myrie’s case against the Barbadian Government, is currently meeting in Bridgetown on the issue.

The statistics were presented in the Senate in response to questions from Opposition Senator Robert Montague, who wanted to know how many Jamaicans were deported from other Caribbean countries during 2012, and a breakdown of the figures in terms of gender, age and the reasons for their deportations, as well as how many Caribbean nationals were deported from Jamaica during the year. Curacao led the way with the highest number of Jamaicans

Shanique Myrie deported from other Caribbean countries followed

by Trinidad and Tobago with 89; the Bahamas, 62; Barbados, 61; and Antigua, 39. Jamaica, in vast contrast, deported a total of 26 Caribbean nationals during the year.

The main reason for the deportation of the Jamaicans was listed as “overstaying”, which accounted for 167 persons. This was followed by: drugs (possession of, dealing in, and trafficking), 58; illegal entry, 14; working without a permit, six; and assault, five. Between three and one Jamaicans were sent home for other criminal activities including: battery (2); fraud (3); rape, murder, robbery, fraudulent documents and human trafficking (one each).

In terms of gender, there were 332 men and 193 women, with the main age group listed as 23-27 (58), 33-37 (52), 28-32 (50) and 38-42 (39), although these figures did not include those sent home from Curacao.

The records showed that 794 Jamaicans were refused turnaround entry into other Caribbean countries during

the year, including 392 females and 402 males.

Regarding Caribbean nationals deported from Jamaica, eight Guyanese, all males, were deported for overstaying and breaches of the dangerous drugs act; seven Haitians, six male and one female, were deported for illegal entry, destitution and immigration breaches; five Trinidadian males were deported for breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act and immigration breaches; and three Antiguan males for breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act and immigration violations. Two Barbadian, a male and a female were deported for immigration breaches and a Bahamian male for overstaying.

Nicholson pointed out that there were no restrictions on CARICOM citizens entering Jamaica, provided they fulfill the immigration requirements, which are: Possession of a valid passport; that they are not the subject of a prohibition or deportation order or any other security concerns; and are not likely to become a charge on the public funds.

Last year, 41 Caribbean nationals were refused entry into Jamaica including 10 Caymanians, eight Trinidadians, six each from Guyana and the Bahamas, four from Haiti, three from Antigua, two from St Lucia and one from Suriname.

Twenty three of these refusals were for lack of passports or visas, with insufficient funds, deportation orders and no return ticket being the other main reasons. Two persons either had no intended address or no awaiting party.

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Antigua to strengthen cooperation with Chile ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – Newly appointed Ambassador of Chile to Antigua and Barbuda, Eduardo Bonillo, held discussions with Prime Minister, Dr. W. Baldwin Spencer last week.

Prime Minister Spencer welcomed Ambassador Bonillo to Antigua and Barbuda and expressed his satisfaction at the good relations between Antigua and Barbuda and Chile. The Prime Minister also expressed his hope that this new appointment would serve to further strengthen the relations between the two countries.

Throughout their deliberations, several areas of cooperation were discussed including support for a reef marking project in Antigua and Barbuda, support for Antigua and Barbuda’s electoral reform process and cooperation within the areas of Agriculture and Disaster Management.

During his visit, Ambassador Bonillo presented credentials to H.E. Dame Louise Lake-Tack, the Governor-General, and paid courtesy calls on H.E Mr. Josýÿ Manuel Inclan,

Ambassador of Chile to Antigua and Barbuda Eduardo Bonillo (R) and Prime Minister Dr. W. Baldwin Spencer.

Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Antigua and Barbuda and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Ms. Sandra Joseph, Perm a n e n t S e c r e t a r y, M i n i s t r y o f Foreign Affairs and other senior officials within the Ministry.

Antigua and Barbuda established diplomatic relations with Chile on the 16th of August, 1990. Antigua

and Barbuda enjoys an active dialougue with Chile, both bilaterally and within the region of Latin America and the Caribbean alongside other Member States of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC). Chile also enjoys active dialogue with CARICOM, through the CARICOM-Chile Joint Commission.

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013

Scores of Jamaican teachers in the Turks and Caicos might be sent packing Jamaica Gleaner - More than 200 Jamaican teachers who work in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) classrooms are in danger of losing their jobs as the Government of that country mulls a proposal to scrap the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) curriculum.

If the plan gains traction in the court of public opinion, the Jamaicans, who account for approximately 70 per cent of the teachers in the TCI will be sent home.

Akierra Missick, deputy premier and Minister of Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, in the TCI told The Sunday Gleaner that if the people of that country support a proposal to replace the certification offered by the CXC with a more internationally recognised curriculum, then regional teachers might be sent packing.

According to Missick, the TCI government will begin a 30-day consultation exercise next month to allow members of the public to share their views on the matter.

Akierra Missick “It may be loss of jobs for any Caribbean teacher (and) not particularly Jamaican teachers,” she told our news team during a recent interview in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. “It may be the case where we go into the international baccalaureate programme (where) either we train Turks and Caicos residents in this programme or we have to import staff from around the world for it.

“Now, I understand that international baccalaureate is

around the world so it may be the case that there are Jamaican teachers already in Jamaica teaching at the international baccalaureate programme that they’d be interested in coming over here. There may be Swiss teachers, French teachers, who know...?” said the 29year-old deputy premier who is a lawyer by profession.

According to Missick, she is not opposed to the number of Jamaicans teaching in the TCI, now that it is operating on the CXC system, but accepts that this would have to change.

“It can change because we are introducing a national consultation which will take place in April of this year where we are asking the public to buy into possibly doing away with the CXC programme and accepting either the international baccalaureate or the UK version of GCSE (Gene-ral Certificate of Secondary Education) A’ Level in order to have our students matriculate properly into United Kingdom schools,”

the education minister said.

HARD TIME MATRICULATING She argued that TCI students are having a hard time matriculating to Ivy League colleges or red brick universities with just CXC subjects.

Missick charged that the government of the TCI has to be paying for its students to do an additional “foundation” year at overseas universities because they are trying to enter with only CXC subjects.

The education minister added that Jamaican teachers, who are not qualified to teach the international baccalaureate, could retool if they want to remain in the TCI education system.

But one Jamaican teacher in the TCI told The Sunday Gleaner that they are qualified to continue teaching even if the system is changed.

“You have Jamaican trained teachers in the classrooms in the United States, Canada, England and other countries which do not use the CXC system,” said the school teacher, who

asked that his name be withheld.

“This is the first I’m hearing about this proposal, but I’m not worried, because we can teach anywhere and for any system,” added the teacher who is in the second year of a three-year contract.

The consultation to change the system has the support of the United Kingdom’s man in the TCI, Ric Todd, who is the governor of the British overseas territory.

A post cabinet press statement issued recently by the Governor’s office noted that Todd “supported the proposal from the deputy premier for a national consultation on education to be held before the end of the financial year”. Missick declared that while she would not seek to unduly influence the outcome of the public consultations, her heart is set on abandoning the CXC curriculum. “That would be my dream to move away from CXCs because I was educated in the UK system,” Missick told The Sunday Gleaner.

In the meantime, Edgar Howell, director of Education in the TCI - the equivalent of Jamaica’s chief education officer - told our news team that the pupil to teacher ratio in the chain of islands is 19:1 and that the total number of teachers on the islands is 321.

That would mean that roughly 225 of educators in TCI classrooms are Jamaicans.

Howell also revealed that there were 14 public schools and 32 private schools operating on the chain of islands that make up the TCI. The small group of islands has 6,000 students; 4,000 of them receive instruction in government operated schools and 2,000 in privately owned institutions.

“The smallest school has four students and the largest, a public primary school, has 565 students,” said Howell.

He agreed with the education minister that overcrowding is a problem in public schools situated on Providenciales, which is the population centre of the chain of islands.

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

Haiti to open consulate in Suriname PA R A M A R I B O , Suriname - CMC - In a bid to strengthen bilateral relations with Suriname the Government of Haiti will be opening a consulate here.

Haitian President Michel Martelly who arrived in Suriname on Friday for a two day official visit made the announcement at a meeting in Jarikaba.

“Before the end of April we will open a consulate in Paramaribo. Suriname will also establish a diplomatic post in Port-au-Prince,” he said.

In order to obtain documents such as passports and birth certificates, Haitians living in Suriname have to send requests to Curacao, FrenchGuiana or Washington for processing.

“Sometime it takes as long as four months before we receive or documents”, said Déjean Fleurentin, chairman of the HaitiSuriname Cultural Association (ACHS).

Thousands of Haitian immigrants are living in Suriname and play a significant role in Suriname’s agriculture and banana sector.

Haitian President Michel Martelly greeting Haitians in Suriname. (FP) Martelly informed his fellow countrymen that the Haitian and Suriname authorities are working closely together to resolve problems regarding Haitian nationals who are living illegally Suriname for many years.

Suriname’s minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Lackin, stated that bilateral talks with the Haitian delegation during the visit of the Haitian President will focus on several issues including efforts to secure

rice exports to Haiti.

According to Lackin, Haiti needs about 400.000 tonnes rice annually.

“We want to secure a portion of that market for our rice farmers”, said the minister. The two nations are also discussing the establishment of direct flights between Paramaribo and Portau-Prince.

On Sunday, Suriname and Haiti will sign a bilateral agreement regarding cooperation in several fields and sectors.

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Money laundering expert agrees with Ryan report Trinidad Express - Expert in the field of money laundering and extradition laws, attorney David West said Saturday he agreed with the recommendation of the Ryan report for more resources to attack whitecollar crime.

West, a former head of the Central Authority at the Office of the Attorney General, said he also endorsed the Prime Minister’s call some time ago for an anti corruption commission. In his report which was tabled in the Parliament last Friday, Prof Selwyn Ryan and his committee recommended that

more resources be deployed for fighting corruption, money laundering, and embezzlement, and checks and balances instituted to keep high-ranking officials and politicians in line.West said his experience in the AG’s office made him realise that white-collar crime was one of the root causes of the crime problem in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Legislation is needed to seize the assets of whitecollar criminals, for example, civil forfeiture legislation is needed to restrain the assets of persons suspected of white-collar crime before they

have been charged. This legislation already exists in countries like Jamaica, St Vincent the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries,” he said. The Sunday Express reported on the scourge of white-collar crime in a front page article on March 3 entitled “Dirty Money”. The article pointed out that a whopping $0.6 billion in “dirty money” transactions reportedly passed through the country’s financial institutions over the last year, according to the 2012 Report of the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (FIUTT).

Govt. has completed all prior actions required by the IMF - OPM KINGSTON, Jamaica – Cabinet met at Jamaica House yesterday for the start of a special meeting focusing on the economy, the 2013/2014 budget and the Growth Agenda.

According to a release from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Cabinet received a briefing on the status of the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) discussions and noted specifically that Jamaica has successfully completed all prior actions required by the Fund.

Jamaica now awaits a report from the IMF regarding its discussions with other multilateral financial institutions, the OPM said.

Cabinet also agreed on

the 2013/2014 budget in keeping with the IMF programme and the specific priority focus on economic reform, economic growth and social protection.

Today Cabinet will discuss the Growth Agenda including major projects and their funding as well as their potential for job creation, the OPM said.

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013 ARIES (March 21 - April 19): Accidents are called accidents for a reason -- they happen through no one person's concerted efforts, they just happen. So if you are involved in a fender bender or any other type of collision (real or metaphorical) today, avoid taking it personally. ******************* TAURUS (April 20 - May 20): The art of flirtation takes a lot of time to learn, but you are becoming quite an expert, right now. It's time to stop holding back and start using those killer skills you have learned! ****************** GEMINI (May 21 - June 20): You need to know where to go for the information that will help you the most in life.

Instead of asking friends for advice on how to fatten up your rapidly-thinning piggy bank, go ask an expert. ******************** CANCER (June 21 - July 22): Get out your finest finetoothed comb today, because you will need to go over some very finely-printed correspondence one more time.

There are an awful lot of small details that could grow into big, embarrassing issues later on down the line if you don't nip them in the bud now. ********************* LEO (July 23 - Aug. 22): Despite the fact that you are feeling better than you have felt in years, right now is not the time to go out and celebrate. You are not overly-impulsive as a rule, but today you should behave even more conservatively than usual. ******************* VIRGO (Aug. 23 - Sept.

22): Today is a great day to try a new food, hobby, sport, or adventure that you have always been just a little to scared to try before *********************

LIBRA (Sept. 23 - Oct. 22): If you are stuck in the middle of a dilemma right now, doing something what you think is right (even if you are not totally sure it is right) is better than doing nothing at all. So stop trying to nail down every single detail. ********************* SCORPIO (Oct. 23 Nov. 21): Can you have too many friends? The answer, you may be beginning to fear, is yes! There are only so many free hours in your week, and it might be getting tough to prioritize who gets to share them with you. ******************** SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 Dec. 21): Who you associate with today is very important - some people will seem to be right on your wavelength, but others may drive you absolutely crazy! As soon as you feel that someone is rubbing you the wrong way, distance yourself from them. .********************* CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 Jan. 19): Are you running the risk of getting too big for your britches? Just in case, you should give yourself a reality check today -- before someone else does! ******************** AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 Feb. 18): This might seem like a typical day early on, but as each hour goes by, you will start to see more and more mysterious actions and events cropping up. Who are the perpetrators? ********************* PISCE S ( F e b . 1 9 March 20): A relationship that you thought was broken beyond all repair still has some life left in it. Today, figure out how you can put it on the road to recovery. There are two people involved in this messy situation, and each of you has your own apologies to make.

DTV CHANNEL 8 08:25hrs. Sign On 08:30hrs. This Morning 09:00hrs. Live! With Kelly and Michael 10:00hrs. Roseanne 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. DTV’s Festival of Biblical Movies for the Lenten Season: “Gospel of John” 17:00hrs. Charmed 18:00hrs. World News 18:30hrs. Nightly News 19:00hrs. Greetings and Announcements 20:00hrs. Channel 8 News 20:30hrs.

Rules of Engagement 21:00hrs. 2 Broke Girls 21:30hrs. Mike & Molly 22:00hrs. Hawaii Five-0 (New Episode) 23:00hrs. Sign Off MTV CHANNEL 14/ CABLE 65 05:30h Dharan Kai Awaz- The Voice of Dharma 06:00h Islamic Perspective 06:30h The Diary 07:00h DAY BREAK (live) 08:00h Dabi’s Musical Hour 08:30h Avon Video & DVD music hour 09:00h Current affairs 09:15h Top Notch Music Break

Monday March 25, 2013

09:30h Caribbean Temptation music break 10:00h Amanda’s music break 10:30h Clairan’s Ent. Music Break 11:00h Salvation Message with Pastor Kelvin 11:15h The View 12:00h Village Talk: 12:30h The Young and The Restless 13:30h Days of our lives 14:00h General Hospital 15:00h Katie Couric Show 16:00h The Bold and the Beautiful 16:30h Cartoons

17:00h Birthdays & other Greetings 17:15h Death Announcements/ In Memoriam 17:30h Sitcom 18:00h Aracari Resort Hour 19:00h CNN News 19:30h News Update 20:30h Getting it Right 21:30h Sports Watch with Jaden Samuels 22:30h Sitcom 23:00h News Update 23:30h English Movie: The story of Jesus for Children Sign Off

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Girl mauled by pitbull to miss SSEE exams When pupils countrywide sit the annual Secondary School Entrance Examinations (SSEE) today, little Amanda Phillips will not be among them.

The 11-year-old of Sookhu Street No.2 village East Canje, Berbice, is still being treated at the New Amsterdam Hospital for injuries she suffered two Sundays ago after being mauled by a pitbull.

Her family is not too happy that after months of preparation the teen will miss this crucial exam.

However, education officials stated that she will be assessed and placed in a secondary school. It is unclear what form of

Amanda Phillips assessment will be done.

Amanda, who is a grade six student of the Sheet Anchor Primary School, was going to purchase eggs for

her mother when the dog scaled a fence and attacked her.

She was thrown to the ground and bitten on her head and other parts of the body.

Her brother threw a bicycle on the dog, but this did not deter it from continuing its attack.

A resident was forced to hack the animal to death to save the child.

Residents wrapped the mauled girl in a sheet and rushed her to the New Amsterdam Hospital where she was admitted and taken for emergency treatment.

She received more than 10 stitches on her head and is being treated with antibiotics.

Residents had

complained that the pitbull would usually jump the low fence and would rush at persons passing. They stated that they have constantly complained to the doctor to secure his animal and to raise his fence all to no avail.

The dog’s owner, Dr Roy Nankumar, of 336 Sookhu Street No.2 Village East Canje Berbice was charged with setting ferocious dog in rabid state to be at large.

He pleaded not guilty and was sent away on his own reconnaissance. The matter has been transferred to the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court where it will be heard again on the 10th May 2013.

Monday March 25, 2013

Businesswoman’s murder in Bartica…

Brazilian suspect found, but can’t be extradited

Elisangela Silva Figueara

MURDER SUSPECT: Nelly Silvado De Souza, also called Nelly Silvado Fernanda

Brazilian police have located the woman suspected of killing businesswoman Elisangela Silva Figueara in Bartica last month, an official confirmed.

But the suspect will have to be tried in her homeland since no extradition treaty exists between Guyana and Brazil.

An official told Kaieteur News that officials from Guyana would first have to send all the information they have on the case to their Brazilian counterparts before she can be arrested and prosecuted.

Investigators in Brazil had verified that the suspect, Nelly Silvado De Souza, also called Nelly Silvado Fernanda, returned to Brazil the day after Figueara was murdered.

The Brazilian native crossed the border and had her passport stamped.

She reportedly then went to a sister’s home in Boa Vista, but she fled as soon as she heard that the police were looking for her.

The suspect is a former employee of Figueara and local investigators had received reports that De Souza had confronted Fernanda about a sum of money that the suspect was unable to account for.

They were reportedly heard arguing on the day that Figueara was last seen alive.

Sources who knew both individuals said that the

suspect had fled to Guyana a few years ago Elisangela Silva Figueara, a 35-year-old businesswoman, was found dead in a bedroom at her Lot 97 Second Avenue, Bartica residence in mid-February.

Her bed was blood-soaked and her tongue was protruding. There was also a gash on her head and a postmortem revealed that she was beaten and strangled.

A source had told Kaieteur News that the slain woman’s former employee had fled to Guyana some time ago af t e r c o m m i t t i n g a serious crime in Brazil. It is alleged that she returned to Brazil after wounding another woman at an interior location.

After spending a few months in Brazil, the suspect allegedly returned to Guyana and began to work with Figueara at Bartica.

Figueara reportedly left the woman to run her communications business for about a month, and when the businesswoman returned, she is said to have discovered that between $600,000 and $1M was missing.

Neighbours last saw Figueara when she was sweeping her yard. That night, she was overheard arguing with another female and neighbours reportedly later observed that all the windows and doors of the residence were shut.

Monday March 25, 2013

Kaieteur News

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Kaieteur News

Monday March 25, 2013

Unyielding St. George’s crowned Milo champs - Tucville finish third

Tournament’s Highest Goalscorer Marlon Nedd receives a trophy from Petra Organisation CoDirector Marlon Cole for his outstanding display.

Tournament Most Valuable Player and Best Goalkeeper Royston Dublin deserved every accolade bestowed on him following the completion of the final of the Milo / Petra Organisation Under-20 Schools Football Competition which ended on Saturday evening at the M i n i s t r y o f Education

ground, Carifesta Avenue.

Played before a large and vociferous crowd that included title sponsor Nestle Brand Manager Selwyn Bobb, Dublin produced a stunning performance to lead St. George’s to victory over a deter m i n e d South Ruimveldt in sudden death penalty kicks after regulation and extra times

failed to break a nil-all deadlock in what could safely be described as one of the most enthralling and entertaining junior final witnessed for some time.

The lanky player, who had shown throughout the tournament admirable competence to play in the out-field as well as his goalkeeping skills was magnificent between the uprights, but so too was his opposite David George and it was the two players stunning performances that kept the match on a knife’s edge for the duration of the game.

In the third place playoff, Tucville who was unfortunate to lose in a penalty shootout to South Ruimveldt in their semi-final clash was in no mood to tolerate any lofty ambition that Carmel might have harboured as they inflicted a 5-1 drubbing on them to claim the third place.

In the feature contest, South Ruimveldt had to withstand an early onslaught from St. George’s as Azumah

Small and Jameel Wilson fired some stinging shots on goalkeeper George, but he was equal to the task, parrying one over the crossbar and the other, producing a diving save to deny the opposition a goal.

South Ruimveldt eventually gained confidence and momentum and it was Dublin’s turn to thwart the efforts of Martin Adams and Keith Caines as he produced two brilliant stops to keep the encounter scoreless.

The half came with no team managing to gain the ascendancy and everyone present knew it would take something special to crack the two teams’ seemingly impregnable defences.

It did not happen as the created chances were met with some spectacular saves at both ends of the pitch and extra time was required.

Even at the conclusion on the two ten minutes halves in extra time still no winner emerged and the next process was penalty kicks and after five kicks each and the fans on the edge of the playing area shouting words of advice to their respective teams, that too failed to turn out a winner, sending the drama into sudden death shootout.

That too resulted in the sort of thrills that featured throughout the two teams’ engageme n t a s t h e t w o keepers traded spectacular saves apiece, before Dublin strode up and sealed the deal, beating his nemesis with a well placed shot to create euphoric celebrations among the team’s supporters.

The third place game saw a dominant performance from the East Georgetown-based Tucville as they repeatedly

Tournament MVP Royston Dublin collects the designated trophy from Nestle Brand Manager Selwyn Bobb on Saturday. shredded the Carmel backline to pieces in a pleasing display of unselfish football which was a joy to watch.

Keifer Brandt (75th and 79th) netted a brace, while Dorwin Filter (25th), Shamar Wilson (32nd) and Samuel Dublin (85th) showcased their technically superior to their opponents, whose lone response came through a piece of magic from tournament top goalscorer Marlon Nedd, who weaved past a host of defenders, before unleashing a rasping shot past the outstretched legs of the goalkeeper into the far corner.

It was a fitting result for a player who had shown marvelous goal-scoring instincts throughout the competition.

During the presentation ceremony, Bobb, Star Part Rentals CEO Lennox Cush, football enthusiast Lester Sealey and Petra Organisation Co-Director Troy Mendonca assisted in the distribution of prizes.

The Ministries of Education and Health were recognized for their

respective support towards the tournament, while members of the Petra Organisation and title sponsor Nestle came in for special mention.

Digicel’s Gavin Hope received the Most Supportive Parent award.

Bobb speaking at the ceremony said he was pleased with the organisation of the tournament, adding that he felt assured that talent abound among the youths of this country.

He said the sponsorship under the Milo brand and its local agent Beepat’s is nowhere close to their expression and love for the consumers, informing that they are valuable assets and the sponsor is cognizant of their developmental needs.

The top four schools will have to identify a project or need of their choice that will benefit their respective institutions as mandated by the sponsor.

The respective prizes are $200,000 for first place, $100,000 for second place, $50,000 for third place and $25,000 for the fourth place.

Joseph triumphant in category A From page 31 tournament, the players from the afterschool programme were awarded grips for their racquets, squash balls and protective goggles.

Kelly Ann Latchman dominated Category E, while Jael Gaskin from the afterschool programme placed second and Gianni Carpenter edged out Maya Collins in a two-way tie for third place. Demetrius DeAbreu won category F ahead of Ethan Jonas and Madison Fernandes respectively. Later this week, the Guyana Squash Association is expected to

name the junior squad to begin training for the Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Junior Caribbean Championships which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in July this year.

Category A 1st place: Nyron Joseph 2nd place: Steven Xavier 3rd place: Benjamin Mekdeci Category B 1st place: Akeila Wiltshire 2nd place: Alec Melville 3rd place: Pablio Mundini Category C 1st place: Shomari Wiltshire 2nd place: Matthew

Phang 3rd place: Mahendra Khusial Category D 1st place: Daniel Islam 2nd place: Sarah Lewis 3rd place: Michael Ramroop Category E 1st place: Kelly Ann Latchman 2nd place: Jael Gaskin 3rd place: Gianni Carpenter Category F 1st place: Demetrius DeAbreu 2nd place: Ethan Jonas 3rd place: Madison Fernandes