Guyana Times Tuesday, May 20, 2019

Guyana elected P15 to WHO Executive Board Nationwide coverage from the best news team in Guyana guyanatimesgy.com

THE BEACON OF TRUTH

Issue No. 3930

TUESday, may 21, 2019

PRICE

NIS reserves expected to be exhausted in 2021

WHAT'S INSIDE:

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Pillion rider dies after P9 boyfriend loses control of motorcycle

– annual report paints worrying picture of finances …states actuaries warned about effect of deficits on future of fund

Man killed “Justice served” – execution style in mother of brothers West Ruimveldt killed during robbery See details in Wednesday’s edition

$80 vat included

Dead bandits

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Carpenter P10 charged for murder of Bartica miner Police working to bring down “criminal network” in P10 Berbice ...shot bandits found with freshly cooked food – source

Several sections of Georgetown flood despite $163M drainage works

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$8.4B owed in taxes to City Hall

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Children of murdered P11 Essequibo Coast woman to receive counselling …suspect still hospitalised

Body in shallow grave

Businessman charged for killing wife

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Several injured in 2 separate accidents P9

2 News

Tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

$8.4B owed in taxes to City Hall T

he Mayor and City Council (M&CC) on Monday revealed that some $8.4 billion, excluding accrued interest, is owed by taxpayers within the perimeter of Georgetown and as such, it would be moving to recover these monies.

City Treasurer John Douglas made this disclosure on Monday, telling media operatives that after a final computation, the sum of $8.4 billion was found to be owed by residential and commercial taxpayers combined.

Some records show that persons have not paid taxes for over 25 years. As such, a rate recovery drive will commence on Thursday to go after delinquent taxpayers.

“We have finalised our approach as to the way we would go about garnering revenue. One of the things

we have noticed in looking at the Council financially is there is a lot of rates that is outstanding. The last we checked, it was $8.4 billion and that was without interest,” Douglas stated.

The drive will commence in areas closest to City Hall, moving outwards to the outskirts of the city. The first zone on the agenda is Lacytown, Georgetown.

“One of the approaches we have decided to do is to carry out a rate recovery drive. It will be made up of six to seven individuals who would go about to a certain area and we’re looking to start off with Lacytown.

We’re trying to target all areas that are closest to Council first and then we would go out,” the City Treasurer stated.

He added that while

City Treasurer John Douglas

there was a difference in rates for commercial and residential taxpayers, some commercial enterprises have been paying the residential fee, which is significantly lower.

Persons who cannot pay the owed money will be giv-

en a chance to appear before City Hall’s Finance Committee to make arrangements to settle their debts.

“It is the obligation to pay what is due to us … What we’ve noticed in the systems is that you have some individuals who is commercial, but is actually paying a residential rate. Those are one of the things we want to target,” Douglas added.

Meanwhile, the acting Town Clerk, Sharon HarryMunroe explained that officers of the Council would dispatch themselves to encourage persons to pay the outstanding sums. If they do not comply, the Council will not hesitate to bring these persons before the courts.

“What we are doing is coaxing persons to pay their taxes. It’s our first approach in our discussions and thereafter, after we review it and recognise that persons are still not coming, eventually we will reach to the stage where we will be having persons before the court,” she stated.

Just a few weeks ago, Mayor Ubraj Narine had called out 140 businesses for owing taxes to the Council.

While City Hall is urging taxpayers to balance their accounts, the local organ is also guilty of owing taxes and pension payments for its employees. It was revealed last October during the Commission of Inquiry

(CoI) that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been awaiting payments for rates and taxes dating back to 2016, while there has also been an examination of pension payments to a broker insurance company that has not been paid for the past 19 months.

Deputy Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Ron Simbhu told the Commission that City Hall was guilty of outstanding taxes, which have been owed for 2016, 2017, and 2018.

While they were unable to divulge the amount as part of agreements made, Simbhu positively stated that these payments were not made.

Several sections of Georgetown flood despite $163M drainage works

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espite spending some $163 million earlier this year to facilitate drainage works in Georgetown to prepare for the rainy season, the capital city was again covered by floodwaters on Monday morning following hours of heavy downpour.

Guyana Times visited several sections of the capital city, where it was observed that vending was not taking place in a few areas owing to the floodwaters.

At several locations, vendors complained bitterly that every time it rained the streets become flooded and their businesses were affected although they pay their taxes to City Hall.

They protested that not only did the floodwaters affect them financially, they posed a health threat and made their working environment uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, the few customers who braved the weather were seen in their long boots and rain coats/ umbrellas to ensure that their bills were paid among other things.

The massive drainage works project was announced by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) back in April.

The NDIA had said that the project would increase the drainage capacity and significantly reduce flooding throughout the capital city.

Three high-capacity mobile drainage pumps were

An inundated section of Main Street, Georgetown

set to be installed at Church Street, Sussex Street, and Ruimveldt to assist in reducing the occurrence of flooding.

The NDIA officials stated that contracts were approved for the cleaning of the city’s drainage channels, with manual cleaning operations totalling $71.9 million and mechanical cleaning operations totalling $91.6 million.

“In 2019, NDIA will be responsible for 93,421 metres of main drainage canals in Georgetown, including the Downer/Liliendaal Pump Station Drain, South Road, and Ruimveldt North and South among others.

An allocation of GY$274 million will be spent on Georgetown drainage for 2019,” Agriculture Minister Noel Holder said.

The decision to have NDIA commence drainage works in Georgetown followed the recommendations of a Cabinet sub-committee meeting, which was chaired by the Agriculture Minister

and also included Ministers of Public Infrastructure and Communities.

A study conducted by a European firm, Vivid Economics had found that some $1.3 billion is lost every year in Georgetown as a result of flooding.

The lead consultant from the agency, Charlie Dixon, shared a few findings during his presentation, which indicated that not only was the vast sum a cause for concern presently but in years to come, as it was expected to increase significantly with oil production.

Dixon said, “At the present day, the risk of flooding is expected in the wider Georgetown area to cause around $1.3 billion of damage every single year… so then as we look to 2040, looking into the future as climate change worsens and we expect these flooding effects to become more impactful, that number rises by … about a factor of four, so expected damage … [is] about $4 billion.”

news

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TUESday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

BRIDGE OPENINGS

The Demerara Harbour Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Tuesday, May 21 – 05:00h-06:30h and Wednesday, May 22 – 05:00h-06:30h.

NIS reserves expected to be exhausted in 2021 – annual report paints worrying picture of finances …states actuaries warned about effect of deficits on future of fund push for the increase in tolls in order to protect its investment. NIS has majority voting rights on the BBCI Board of Directors.

NIS had invested in Bond One of the project – $300 million. The Scheme received (not principal payments) $270 million, a 90 per cent return on the investment.

NIS also invested in Bond Two, $760 million, and received $823 million in return. The company

The Berbice Bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic on:

Tuesday, May 21 – 05:40h-07:10h and Wednesday, May 22 – 06:20h-07:50h.

FERRY SCHEDULE Parika and Supenaam departure times - 05:00h, 11:00h and 16:00h daily

WEATHER TODAY Thundery rain showers followed by light rain showers are expected throughout the day.

Light rain showers can be expected in the evening, with temperatures ranging between 23 degrees Celsius and 29 degrees Celsius.

Winds: East South-easterly to East Northeasterly between 1.78 metres and 3.57 metres.

High Tide: 05:44h and 18:12h reaching maximum heights of 2.71 metres and 2.52 metres respectively.

Low Tide: 11:45h and 23:56h reaching minimum heights of 0.52 metre and 0.73 metre respectively.

saturday, may 18, 2019

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DISCLAIMER: WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS IN PUBLICATION. PLEASE CALL THE HOTLINE FOR CONFIRMATION - TEL: 225-8902

NIS headquarters, Brickdam, Georgetown

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s far back as 2016, the actuarial review into the finances of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) had warned that repeated deficits may bring its reserves to the brink of collapse.

Chartered accountants TSD Lall and Company said in the independent auditor’s assessment for the entity’s 2016 annual report, which was recently laid in the National Assembly, that the actuaries had warned that the reserves were in danger of running dry by 2021.

“Without further qualifying our opinion, we wish to emphasise that… the actuaries reported several matters of concern among which were that the present value of shortfall of the fund over the period 2012-2041 amounted to $340.1 billion and also that the cash flow deficits will continue … and reserves are expected to be exhausted in 2021,” the auditors wrote.

“When forming our opinion on the Scheme’s financial statements, we were not required and did not express an opinion as to the completeness or accuracy of the long-term liabilities, as this is determined by the Scheme’s actuaries.”

According to the report, the NIS fund had $32.6 billion at the beginning of the year. But with the income received amounting to $19.5 billion and expenses amounting to $19.7 billion, the fund had a deficit of $220 million.

“However, when other comprehensive income of $44 million was included, a deficit of $177 million resulted, which when subtracted from the fund at the beginning of the year amount to $32.4 billion.”

Providing a breakdown, the auditors stated that the Scheme has fixed assets valued at $2.6 billion and investments valued at $29.4 billion. In addition, its net current assets are valued at $386.2 million.

Concern has long been expressed that unemployment rates would have an adverse effect on NIS contributions.

For instance, concern has been expressed that layoffs in the sugar belt could undermine the Scheme’s position.

This is particularly so if

the Scheme were to pay unemployment benefits. At a previous press conference, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo had said that the idea of paying out these benefits did not take into account the current financial status of the Scheme and its ability to meet its current obligations.

He had noted that the last actuarial report recommended that focus be placed on building the reserves to avoid a deficit. In fact, it was disclosed in that report that the life of the Scheme should come to an end by 2022 unless strategic plans for revenue earnings and expansion of the investment portfolio were effectively implemented. Jagdeo also referenced the thousands of dismissed sugar workers.

Last October, the then Chairman of the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI), Dr Surendra Persaud, who is also the NIS Chairman, announced steep increases in tolls at the crossing.

At the time Guyana Times was told that NIS, through its Chairman, was forced to

also invested $500 million for subordinate debt (loan stuck) $456 million and is now owed $207 million.

Preference shares amounted to $950 million. NIS was paid back $163 million and is owed $507 million. Some $80 million was invested in common shares with zero returns so far. At the time, this newspaper was told that monies invested were performing better than what was predicated in the concession agreement.

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TUESday, may 21, 2019

Views Editor: Tusika Martin News Hotline: 231-8063 Editorial: 231-0544, 223-7230, 223-7231, 225-7761 Marketing: 231-8064 Accounts: 225-6707 Mailing address: Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown Email: news@guyanatimesgy.com, marketing@guyanatimesgy.com

Heeding road traffic rules

O

ne week ago having examined the weather pattern, Traffic Chief Linden Isles cautioned drivers to be extra careful on the wet roadways. His warning came on the heels of statistics which revealed that road accidents and fatalities have increased for this year. As a matter of fact, it was recently revealed that there were 35 accidents with 39 deaths last year in this period and to date there were 39 accidents with 41 deaths. Given these figures, he called on all road users to be careful on the wet roadways. He expounded that when the road surface is wet, there is less friction between the tyres and the roadway and if brakes are applied vehicles tend to skid.

Just mere days after the traffic chief at length explained the caution that needs to be exercised on wet roads, a speeding minibus on a rainy Monday slammed into another at the intersection of Princes and High Streets, Georgetown.

Several persons were severely injured but, fortunately no one died.

There is always an element of risk whenever someone uses the roadways, be it a motorist, passenger, cyclist or pedestrian. This is somewhat inherent since it is believed that accidents will happen.

Seemingly common now is the disrespect for designated major roads. Many drivers, including some within the public transportation system, refuse to adhere to what is mandatory.

As a result, a number of accidents occur frequently at some of those points. Similarly, the practice of running red lights and the green signal that allows pedestrians to cross continues unabated predominantly by minibus drivers. The danger that poses needs no explanation.

While there is a plethora of traffic violations on a daily basis, some appear more prominent. Undertaking and cutting in front of a vehicle and the sticking out of a minibus conductor’s arm to do likewise from the other side, seem the new norm of driving. Aside from the obvious danger, especially to young and inexperienced drivers and being an irritant, it is blatant bullyism and a potent source for road rage.

It appears that those who engage in such practices do not see themselves as being errant or what they do as a traffic violation. Lanes that allow for turning-on-red are abused and used as if they are the right-of-way. In the city, many roads, other than what are authorised for minibus routes, are used as thoroughfares. Speeding is foremost in causing areas that are supposed to be free of minibuses to become dangerous.

In addition, some drivers seemingly take pride in having an alcoholic beverage in their possession while transporting passengers. Adding to the woes of those who abide by traffic rules, they are verbally abused when trying to stave off a potential transgressor. These practices are not unknown to the Police and while they cannot be at all points where violations occur, there is the expectation for more and sustained interventions in the interest of safety to all road users.

This does not take away from the valiant efforts of a few dedicated traffic officers who do their best to curb the situation; one which has reached alarming proportions.

Reportedly many minibuses are owned by some Police ranks and the drivers are of the view that they have a free pass to break traffic rules.

That obviously empowers those errant drivers and causes others to do likewise.

What is desperately needed is a sustained national campaign to reduce traffic violations and let the law take its course on the errant ones regardless of who they are.

The carelessness exhibited puts all road users at risk. This is where the National Road Safety Council would need to be supported and probably empowered to have a more visible presence and increased influence all year round.

It must be noted that drivers are not the only violators of traffic rules, for some pedestrians are equally guilty. Aside from the common jaywalking, they cross busy intersections when not authorized and refuse to use the overhead pedestrian walkways thereby bringing danger to themselves and others. Like errant drivers, they seem empowered to not observe basic traffic rules. This will only change when there is a constant stream of violators up the stairs of the courts across the country.

Figurines are displayed as part of the Floella’s Future stand at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show in London (VOA photo)

Venezuela’s collapse is the worst outside of war in decades – economists Z imbabwe’s collapse under Robert Mugabe. The fall of the Soviet Union.

Cuba’s disastrous unraveling in the 1990s.

The crumbling of Venezuela’s economy has now outpaced them all.

Venezuela’s fall is the single largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years, economists say. “It’s really hard to think of a human tragedy of this scale outside civil war,” said Kenneth Rogoff, an economics professor at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

“This will be a touchstone of disastrous policies for decades to come.”

To find similar levels of economic devastation, economists at the I.M.F. pointed to countries that were ripped apart by war, like Libya earlier this decade or Lebanon in the 1970s.

But Venezuela, at one point Latin America’s wealthiest country, has not been shattered by armed conflict.

Instead, economists say, the poor governance, corruption and misguided policies of President Nicolás Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, have fueled runaway inflation, shuttered businesses and brought the country to its knees. And in recent months, the Trump administration has imposed stiff sanctions to try to cripple it further.

As the country’s economy plummeted, armed gangs took control of entire towns, public services collapsed and the purchasing power of most Venezuelans has been reduced to a couple of kilograms of flour a month.

In markets, butchers hit by regular blackouts jostle to sell decomposing stock by sunset. Former laborers scavenge through garbage piles for leftovers and recyclable plastic. Dejected retailers make dozens of trips to the bank in hopes of depositing several pounds’ worth of bills made worthless by hyperinflation.

Here in Maracaibo, a city of two million on the border with Colombia, nearly all of the butchers in the main market have stopped selling meat

Men filling jugs with water from a dirty stream — their only supply on days without running water (Meridith Kohut for The New York Times)

cuts in favor of offal and leftovers like fat shavings and cow hooves, the only animal protein many of their customers can still afford.

The crisis has been compounded by American sanctions intended to force Maduro to cede power to the nation’s opposition leader, Juan Guaidó. The Trump administration’s recent sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company have made it difficult for the government to sell its main commodity, oil. Together with the American ban on trading Venezuelan bonds, the administration has made it harder for Venezuela to import any goods, including food and medication.

Maduro blames the widespread hunger and lack of medical supplies on the United States and its opposition allies — but most independent economists say the recession began years before the sanctions, which at most accelerated the collapse.

“We are fighting a savage battle against international sanctions that have made Venezuela lose at least $20 billion in 2018,” Maduro told supporters in a recent speech.

“They are pursuing our bank accounts, our purchases abroad of any products. It’s more than a blockade, it’s persecution.”

Shortages have sunk much of the population in a deepening humanitarian crisis, though a core group of military top brass and high-lev-

el officials who remain loyal to Maduro are able to tap into the remaining resources to survive — or even enrich themselves through illicit means.

To many, it seems each month brings record lows.

Venezuela has the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

But its oil output, once Latin America’s largest, has fallen faster in the past year than Iraq’s after the American invasion in 2003, according to data from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The institute estimates that the drop in Venezuela’s economic output under Maduro has undergone the steepest decline by any country not at war since at least 1975.

By year’s end, Venezuela’s gross domestic product will have shrunk by 62 percent since the beginning of the recession in 2013, which coincided with Maduro coming to power, according to the finance institute’s estimates.

(Venezuela’s government hasn’t released official macroeconomic statistics since 2014, forcing economists to rely on indicators like imports to estimate economic activity.)

By contrast, the median economic decline in the former Soviet republics was about 30 percent during the peak of the crisis in the mid-1990s, the institute calculates.

For now, the government is concentrating its scarce

resources in the capital, Caracas. But the state’s presence is melting in the hinterlands, an absence that has been particularly glaring in Zulia, Venezuela’s most populous state.

Its capital, Maracaibo, was once Venezuela’s oil powerhouse. A blackout in March plunged the state into a week of darkness and chaos that left about 500 businesses ransacked.

Power has been sporadic ever since, exacerbating longstanding water and gasoline shortages and leaving towns without functional banking systems and cellphone coverage for days on end.

The flea market, a once-bustling maze of stalls from which vendors hawked food and household goods, has become the face of this crisis.

Juan Carlos Valles arrives at his tiny canteen in a corner of the market by 5 a.m. and begins making a broth out of beef bones and frying corn pastries in the darkness. He says his stall has been without power since March, his sales are down 80 percent since last year and each day is a struggle against soldiers who force him to accept nearly worthless low-denomination bills.

Whatever money he makes he immediately invests in more bones and corn flour, because prices go up daily.

“If you take a rest, you lose,” said Valles, who has run his canteen since 1998. “The money has become worthless.

By the time you take it to the bank, you have already lost some of it.”

Real incomes in Venezuela have fallen to levels last seen in the country in 1979, according to the international finance institute, leaving many to survive by collecting firewood, gathering fruit and fetching water in streams.

“The government is talking about solutions in the long and medium term, but the hunger is now,” said Miguel González, the head of the community council at Maracaibo’s Arco Iris shantytown.

He said he lost his job CONTINUED on PAGE 5

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tuesday, may 21, 2019

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You can send your letters with pictures to: Guyana Times, Queens Atlantic Investment Estate Industrial Site, Ruimveldt, Georgetown, Guyana or letters@guyanatimesgy.com

Modi to return as PM of India

Dear Editor, Elections concluded on Sunday in India. Counting of ballots is on Thursday.

But based on exit polls, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will prevail over Congress Party (INC) led by Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Gandhi dynasty. The BJP contested in a National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that it led while the Congress (INC) led the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The NDA is made up of 41 constituent parties while the UPA is made up of 36 parties.

A party in an alliance contested the election under its own symbol and name without opposition from members of the alliance.

Some dozen exit polls released on Sunday evening put

BJP/NDA ahead between 245 seats and 369 seats – a wide distribution. In India, exit polls are not very reliable.

The poll showing NDA winning 369 seats could be well off though its outcome is not impossible. The poll showing NDA getting only 245 seats – 27 short of a majority also does not reflect the reality, based on my findings travelling around India. Modi is extremely popular in India – the most popular political figure in the country and people want him to serve another term. His NDA is reliably expected to clear a majority.

Some 917 million voters were eligible to cast ballots, but only about 65 per cent actually voted or around 600 million. The counting of ballots is quick – within two hours the results are known unlike in Guyana where it

takes at least two days “to count” less than 600 ballots per polling booth. GECOM should consider hiring some election workers from India to help with counting and honesty in managing elections.

There has been keen interest in this election by people from Guyana and the wider Caribbean and their diasporas. Several were in contact with me over last month while I was in India on Modi’s chances of re-election. I told them not to worry, Modi would return as PM, though the exact number of seats was uncertain.

It is very difficult to make sense of the wide distribution and differences in the exit polls in India. But one commonality among all of them is that the BJP and its alliance partners will form the

Government. The opposition Congress party and its partners dispute this conclusion.

The Chair of the UPA, Sonia Gandhi, has invited leaders of her alliance and others to dinner on May 23 for a discussion on selecting its prime ministerial candidate and Government formation.

There will not be a Prime Minister from the opposition or from “a third front”, an idea that was floated a week ago. Modi will return as PM and his alliance will win a majority.

I travelled around several states and from the trends I picked up, BJP will lose seats in the key states of Uttar Pradesh (from where most Guyanese trace roots), Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, and Punjab but make gains in other states that will more than balance off losses. The

Congress won state elections with alliance partners in four states last year. There has been simmering discontent in all four states. Congress will see a reversal in all of those states in general election results that could lead to unrest among its elected members and the toppling of at least two of its coalition Governments.

The election was a referendum on Modi and he has beaten back critics. He was struggling early in the year to win an election when I was in India in January. But his decision to carry out surgical strikes by Indian air force against terror camps deep inside in Pakistan in February closed the deal for him. Almost every Indian supported the strike. Indians are concerned about national security. There is rising na-

tionalism as India becomes wealthy.

As I indicated in a previous write up, the BJP will win around 269 seats (possibly more) and alliance around 40 for a minimum total of 309 (and possibly more).

Only 272 seats are needed for Government formation. Last time, BJP won 282 and the alliance 54 seats for a total of 336. Over the last couple of years, alliance partners fell out with BJP and linked up with Congress and new partners joined BJP; new partners boosted BJP’s chances.

In addition, there are three parties in southern India, not partnering with BJP, but will support the NDA and that is expected to win around 47 seats.

Yours truly, Vishnu Bisram (PhD)

Current state of affairs prevailing at the four closed sugar estates Dear Editor, Guyanese, especially the dismissed sugar workers, are deeply worried about the current state of affairs prevailing at the four closed sugar estates: Skeldon, Rose Hall, Wales and Enmore. Some of these worrying issues are the progress made on the privatisation process, the current state of the closed estates and the investments in the three remaining estates.

These workers were made redundant without any prospects of alternative employment and they had earnestly hoped that privatisation would have opened some windows of opportunities for re-employment but with the Wales Estate closing its doors in late 2016 and the others in late 2017, unfortunately, their expectations are waning as the days uneventfully slip by. President Granger had promised them that “…we are also going to work…to make sure that the workers…are given a soft

landing”. But it seems that the ‘landing’ was so ‘soft’ that there was no change in the pain, sufferings, trials and tribulations which the sugar workers have been undergoing and the coalition Government continues to be oblivious to them. These sugar workers are expendable! Over 70 letters of interest for privatisation were received and in November, 10 bids were received and PricewaterhouseCoopers was supposed to make recommendations to National Industrial and Commercial Investment Ltd (NICIL) and thence to Cabinet for the final decision. Until now, there is no feedback on the progress of this part of the process. I wish to submit that there was no strong intention to privatise or to make GuySuCo profitable, it was an excuse to further squander monies, provide fodder for corruption and to destroy the support base of the PPP. It is unimaginable to fathom

the extent to which this coalition can go. The dismissed workers are more convinced about this than ever before!

Moreover, the current deplorable and damaged state of these estates would accentuate and add credibility to this perception. There is an abundance of evidence available which will prove that these closed estates were simply abandoned and the machinery and equipment are being sold off as though they are the personal properties of certain individuals attached to the Special Purpose Unit of NICIL. Furthermore, billions of dollars of sugarcanes are now permanently destroyed and beyond salvage since there is no possibility that these canes can ever produce any sugar or molasses. Vital infrastructures are falling apart. In addition, equipment in good condition worth millions is sold as scrap at certain locations. For example, at Rose Hall Estate, working tractors

Venezuela’s collapse is... at a hotel when looters ransacked it in March, ripping out even window frames and cable wiring. He now collects wild plums to sell for a few cents in the city’s parks. Most of his community’s diet now consists of wild fruits, fried corn pastries and bone broth, residents said.

Farther from the state capital, conditions are worse.

Toas Island, once a touristic idyll of about 12,000 residents spread over fishing hamlets, has been largely abandoned.

“There’s no local, regional or national government here,” said José Espina, a motorbike taxi driver there. “We’re on our own.”

Electricity and running water are available for only a few hours a day. The boat that provided regular service to the mainland broke down

last month. An oil barge lent by the state oil company occasionally tugs a rusty ferry carrying meager supplies of subsidized food — a precarious lifeline for the island’s poorer residents.

Hyperinflation has reduced the island’s entire budget to the equivalent of $400 a month, or just 3 cents per estimated resident, according to the mayor, Hector Nava.

The hospital has no medication and no patients. The last person to be hospitalized died in agony a day later without treatment for her kidney disease, doctors at the hospital said.

As Toas hospital’s beds stand empty, 2-year-old Anailin Nava is wasting away in a nearby hut from malnutrition and treatable muscular paralysis. Her mother, Maibeli

Nava, does not have money to take her to Colombia for treatment, she said.

The four stone quarries that are the island’s only industry have been idle since robbers stole all power cables connecting them to the grid last year. Local opposition activists estimate up to a third of the residents have emigrated from the island in the past two years.

“It used to be a paradise,” said Arturo Flores, the local municipality’s security coordinator, who sells a fermented corn drink from a bucket to local fishermen to round up his salary, which is equivalent to $4 a month. “Now, everyone is fleeing.”

On the other side of Zulia state, in the ranching town of Machiques, the economic collapse has decimated the meat

were sold as scrap to a contractor employed by the SPU. There is massive corruption going on and some GuySuCo Managers are aware of this but are afraid to speak out since the SPU has total control over the closed estates.

I will not be surprised when the time comes that these closed estates are not sold and remain inoperable. This fiasco reminds me of Humpty Dumpty and the kings’ men.

Another fact which points to the coalition’s lack of intent to make GuySuCo profitable is that fact that despite accessing a $30 billion syndicated loan to install 2 co-generation plants, upgrade the 3 operational factories to produce plantation white sugar, expand the storage and packing facilities and offset some operational costs, little or nothing has been done. Can you imagine that a $30 billion loan was acquired without any feasibility study being done? Only a few months ago a feasibilFROM PAGE 4

and dairy industries that had supplied the country.

Power cuts have idled the local slaughterhouse, once one of the largest in Latin America. Armed gangs extort and rustle cattle from the surviving ranchers.

“You can’t produce if there’s no law,” said Rómulo Romero, a local rancher.

Local shopkeepers have pulled together to repair power lines and keep telecom towers running, to feed public workers, and to procure diesel for backup generators.

“We have practically taken on the functions of the state,” said Juan Carlos Perrota, a butcher who runs Machiques’ chamber of commerce. “We can’t just put a lock on the door and call it quits. We have hope that this will improve.”

(New York Times)

ity study was done! This coalition Government always seems to put the “cart before the horse”. It must now be submitted that these investments will never take place in the near future, once again banishing the hopes of the sugar workers and destroying the possibility of making GuySuCo profitable again.

The closure of these estates created an unprecedented economic tsunami, over 7000 sugar workers were dismissed, haemorrhaging the economy by over $118 billion, reducing production by nearly 50 per cent, losing nearly the same amount in foreign exchange and creating a multitude of social problems. All of this just to save a wage bill of $5 billion. However, I must compliment Minister Holder, who had said that it will take a capital investment of $12 billion to make GuySuCo operable but the coalition, through the SPU, thought

differently. What a disgrace that after four years in Government, the problems in GuySuCo are getting further away from any solutions.

The opportunity cost is simply devastating. No finance Minister in his right frame of mind would have made such a gigantic blunder, it’s not economics, simply coalition politics.

In conclusion, the coalition spin doctor, Moses Nagamootoo, had tried to sell dreams to the sugar workers when he bluffed them that, “We want you to have confidence that we will not abandon you, we will not let you loose and we will work on all fronts to bring about some benefits so you can start meaningful activities in your life for your family”. Indeed, the sugar workers were “abandoned” and “let loose” and today his silence speaks volumes!

Yours sincerely, Haseef Yusuf

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TUESday, may 21, 2019

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exi bumped into someone at the mall.

Curtis slammed into a parking meter. Ryan tripped over a bag at the airport.

You’ve probably seen it, and maybe you’ve even laughed: People can end up in some pretty goofy situations when they text and walk at the same time.

Believe it or not, people can also get hurt.

The American College of Emergency Physicians warns people about texting on the move. ER docs who

treat people like Curtis (he cracked his ribs in his encounter with the parking meter) say that we need to be more cautious about when and where we text.

What’s the big deal?

The problem is multitasking. No matter how young and agile we are, the human brain just isn’t capable of doing several things at once and giving full attention to all of them. So you

Foundation can get into some major danger if you try to text in situations that require your full focus.

When you text you’re thinking about what to say, concentrating on what your thumbs are doing, and reading constantly incoming messages rather than paying attention to what you’re doing or where you’re going.

And that significantly ups your risk of getting hurt or injuring others.

It doesn’t matter if you can text without looking at

the keypad. Even if texting feels like second nature, your brain is still trying to do two things at once – and one of them is bound to get less attention.

Texting also prevents you from paying close attention to what’s going on around you, something that’s especially important in situations where you need to have your guard up, like walking home after dark. Your reaction time is

also likely to be much slower if you’re texting. If you’re about to run into someone or something else, you may not have time to act before it’s too late.

When texting turns tragic Texting while walking can even be fatal. One woman in San Francisco was killed when she walked right into the path of a pickup truck. That’s rare, of course.

But texting is more likely to contribute to car crashes.

We know this because Police

and other authorities sometimes use a driver’s phone records to check for phone and text activity in the seconds and minutes before a fatal crash.

When people text while behind the wheel, they’re focusing their attention — and often their eyes — on something other than the road. In fact, driving while texting (DWT) can be more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Texting from behind the wheel is against the law in 41 US states and the District of Columbia. And 6 more states ban texting by new drivers.

Many more states are trying to put DWT regulations into action. Even in states without specific laws, if you swerve all over the place, cut off cars, or bring on a collision because of texting, you could still be charged with reckless driving. That may mean a ticket, a lost licence, or even jail time if you cause a fatal crash.

Tips for texting It’s hard to live without texting. So the best thing to do is manage how and when we text, choosing the right time and place.

Here are three ways to make sure your messaging doesn’t interfere with your focus – or your life: Always put your phone in an easily accessible place, like a specific pouch or pocket in your backpack or purse

so it’s easy to find.

If you need to text right away, stop what you’re doing or pull off the road.

Turn off your phone completely when you’re doing anything that requires your full attention. That way there’s less temptation to answer calls or texts.

To avoid an injury –

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whether it’s a cut on your face or a bruise to your ego — or a horrible tragedy, try to use your best judgment. Text only when you’re not putting yourself or others in harm’s way. And if you’re riding in a car with a driver who is texting, ask him or her to stop or try not to ride with that person again. (kidshealth.org)

ending and receiving messages late at night can make it hard to fall asleep. And those late night pings, rings, and vibrations can wake you up and leave you feeling tired and unfocused when it’s time for school. Lack of sleep, or interrupted sleep, can affect everything from your mood to your sports performance.

Sure, you want to stay connected with your friends, but how useful can you be when you’re exhausted?

Give your “tech” (texts, social media, emails, calls) a rest from bedtime until your alarm clock rings so you can rest.

How can you ease out of being available all the time to unplugging at bedtime? Here are some tips to follow at night that will help boost your energy and focus in the morning: Log off your messaging apps, social media, and email. Pings in the middle of the night can interrupt your sleep – even if you don’t get up to answer them.

And, more than likely, if your friends see that you’re logged out, they’ll log out too.

Turn off your phone (don’t just set it on vibrate) when it’s time for bed. Buzzes can be just as loud as beeps or rings, especially late at night when everything else is quiet. Plus, if your friends have no one to talk to, maybe they’ll be inspired to turn off their cell and catch some Zzzs, too.

Get in the habit of powering off your devices – especially if they’re in your room. Turn off all electronics, like laptops, tablets, TVs, and video game consoles. Sometimes just logging off is not enough.

Blinking lights and glowing screens can make it harder to fall and stay asleep.

Get your phone and tablet out of your room completely. Try charging your phone or tablet overnight in a separate room. While the battery is restoring, you can get the sleep you need to recharge your own battery. Having electronics in another room makes it less likely that you’ll use them during and after bedtime.

Make getting enough sleep your way to look and feel good. Getting sleep is a great way to look and feel refreshed and focused in the morning. To get the sleep you need, tell your friends you when you will stop answering texts, emails, or calls. This way, they’ll know their beeps or buzzes will have to wait. Try to power down about an hour before bedtime.

It can be quite a challenge to turn off technology at night. But sticking to a cut-off curfew for your devices will help you ease into bedtime and give your brain some needed tech-free downtime. And if you need an excuse, just say your parents are making you do it.

(kidshealth.org)

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Tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Dead bandits

“Justice served” – mother of brothers killed during robbery could not explain the guns and loot he had in his possession.

Sewlall was also being sought by the Police for other robberies on the Corentyne.

After the men were shot, the Police recovered, among other items, a pistol, two revolvers, a rifle, three magazines, and 253 rounds of live ammunition while seven spent shells were found at the scene in close proximity to the men.

Meanwhile, a former girlfriend of Shivgobin called

Ireen Samaroo says justice has been served

Dead suspected bandit: Kelvin Shivgobin called “Kelly”

Dead suspected bandit: Ramnarine Jagmohan

“How they take people life, just so people take back their life. They didn’t make life, why they taking life? They coming and rob, why they have to take your life too …

God really great” – mother of dead men ited his Alness Village home where his parents live.

“He went to school – high school, but after he leave school, I don’t know what happen to that boy,” one relative said.

His associate Jagmohan’s mother, Pamella, 55, of Topu

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Some of the guns and ammunition found

he mother of two men, Harricharran and Premcharran Samaroo, who were killed reportedly at the hands of one of the suspected bandits killed on Sunday by Police, has praised the ranks, as she believes that justice has been served.

Kelvin Shivgobin, called “Kelly”, one of the three suspected bandits who were killed at Johanna, Black Bush Polder, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) after they opened fire on Police, was believed to be the ringleader of the notorious trio, who had attacked Ireen Samaroo and her family during the 2018 Old Year’s Night celebrations. During the attack, the woman’s two sons were killed. Ramnarine Jagmohan and Sewchand Sewlall were the other suspected bandits killed on Sunday by Police.

Shivgobin was on the Police wanted list for several robberies, but, more particularly, for the murder of the two brothers.

The Samaroo brothers were shot dead when armed bandits stormed their mother’s Bush Lot, Corentyne home as they were celebrating on Old Year’s Night.

Their mother believes justice has been served for herself and her family.

According to the still grieving woman, she had been living in fear ever since the shooting to death of her sons.

According to her, it was Sunday afternoon that she got the news that one of the men wanted for her sons’

murder was shot and killed

by Police.

“How they take people life, just so people take back their life. They didn’t make life, why they taking life?

They coming and rob, why they have to take your life too? Sometimes if my other son was here they would have taken his life, but God is great. God really great,” she said as tears ran down her

“Kelly” said she did not approve of some of the things he did and for that reason she had walked away from the relationship.

According to the woman, on several occasions Police came into her home in search of him and on the hunt for stolen articles.

She also said that she was held in custody on occasions

Cash found in the possession of the dead men following the shootout

cheeks.

Families

Meanwhile, the eldest of the three bandits was 52-yearold Sewchand Sewlall, called “One Eye Pappy”, of Johanna, Black Bush Polder. He was also implicated in the Bush Lot shooting.

His wife, Bibi Yacoob, said her husband was a farmer and had a valid reason to be in the Backdam. She also noted that he was a hard worker and devoted husband, but

when the Police could not locate him.

He had been arrested for the murder of Corentyne businessman, Patrick Mohabir and upon his release, he reportedly told his friend that “before I go back in there, I rather dead”.

Meanwhile, relatives of Shivgobin said he was a cattle farmer, but they did not trust him because some of the persons he associated with were questionable.

They say he seldom vis-

Village, said that the acquitted murder accused had changed his life since he came out of prison, but added that she did not know of him being involved in criminal activities.

“My son tell me that he working in the rice field at 43

Dead suspected bandit: Sewchand Sewlall called ‘One Eye Pappy’

Village. Every weekend, he does come and bring money,” the woman related.

She said that after he was released from prison, she warned him that he needed to change his life and secure a job in order to take care of his only child.

Meanwhile, in addition to the arms and ammunition, the Police also found three haversacks containing a large quantity of jewellery, two bulletproof vests, five cellular phones, a solar charger, torch lights, crowbars, knives and cutlasses, a flash drive, toques and masks, duct tape and gloves as well as 200 grams of marijuana.

Investigations into the shooting are still ongoing.

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Tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Body in shallow grave

Businessman charged for killing wife

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Dead: Zaila Sugrim

usinessman Ryan Sugrim was on Monday hauled before Magistrate Zameena Ali at the Leonora Magistrate’s Court to answer to the capital offence of murder.

The 38-year-old man was charged for the murder of Zaila Sugrim. The charge stated that between May 11 and May 14, at La Union, West Coast Demerara, he killed Sugrim, his estranged wife. Zaila Sugrim’s body,

Learning…

W Ryan Sugrim being escorted by Police at Leonora Magistrate’s Court on Monday

which was burnt, was found in a shallow grave with a gunshot wound.

Sugrim was represented

by Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin, who informed the court that his client did not confess to the murder.

He also said that his client never led Police to the spot where the body was found.

The lawyer also asked the Magistrate to warn the media to cease from publishing what he described as “inaccurate” information. The Magistrate, however, only listened to the lawyer’s submission but did not grant his request for the media to be warned.

Magistrate Ali remanded Sugrim to prison and the case will continue on June 25, 2019, at the Lenora

Magistrate’s Court.

Reports are Zaila Sugrim was last seen at the Vreeden-Hoop Stelling on May 11, 2019, when she allegedly entered a motorcar with her estranged husband.

Sugrim left her brother’s Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD) house, where she had been living for the past eight months, to be picked up by her estranged husband to visit the businessman’s home where she was expected to celebrate her eldest child’s birthday. However, by nightfall, the family became worried since it was very unusual for her not to call if she was out for long periods.

Her brother, Ahmad Haniff, grew worried and called her cellphone but the phone was turned off.

Repeated attempts to reach Sugrim on her mobile proved futile and other family members confirmed that they had not heard from the woman.

On May 12, 2019, the worried brother visited the Diamond Police Station where he filed a missing persons’ report. In the company of several Police Officers, a visit was made to his sister’s estranged husband’s home but they were informed that he had not seen Zaila nor did he want anything to do with her.

Reports are close relatives reportedly inspected CCTV footage of the home but a particular time period was deleted. This was reported to Sugrim’s relatives, who in turn informed Police ranks. This led to ranks swooping down on the suspect’s La Grange, WBD property where a search was carried out, however, nothing was found.

After relatives made additional reports at the Diamond Police Station, another group of ranks swooped down on the suspect’s Crane home.

It was not until a search of the suspect’s motorcar was conducted by the Police that they received a break in the case after blood was allegedly spotted in the car’s trunk. This prompted Police to arrest the suspect and impound the car.

After much interrogation, the suspect allegedly broke down and reportedly informed the investigators that he had buried the body in a shallow grave near his home.

…from Indian elections hen it comes to India and China, the numbers that crop up when discussing their affairs are more than humungous – they’re literally mindboggling, since no one can wrap their head around them.

Excepting when it comes to electing their leaders. In China, the President and the State Council are elected by the National People’s Congress – made up of 2980 people - while Modi and the Cabinet he’ll form are elected by 900 MILLION persons!! That’s the difference between an authoritarian and democratic system!!

How the heck do you manage to collect and then count 900 million votes? With great organisation, and by sticking to the rules, that’s how!! Running democracies, we’re told, is a messy business – and nowhere is it more evident than in India’s elections campaigns. “Mud-slinging” isn’t just a figure of speech then!! But, to their credit, their violence levels haven’t ever approached those of our own Jamaica, where a high of 889 murders were committed during their 1980 elections!!

In India, the Elections Commission takes a hard line against incendiary speech, and obstreperous candidates are penalised promptly and heavily. With our particularly polarised politics, Guyana should take note. But the biggest takeaway from the Indian elections is that, unlike our local PNC, Indian politicians, by and large, accept the rules of the game and the verdict of the people. The Indian elections ended on Sunday, and in 4 days’ time, the elections results will be out!! And going by the tradition they’ve built since 1947, the results will be accepted – no matter how bitter the elections campaign.

But it’s not just in accepting the elections results that India differs from us – where every election the PNC lose they come out into the streets and wage violent protests -it also extends to the other rules of the game. Take their Elections Commission – it’s just three persons who’re appointed by their President on the PM’s recommendation.

But there’s never been a time when the nominee – who’s always a senior career civil servant - has been accused of partisanship by the Opposition. These Commissioners can only be removed by Parliament. Maybe Guyana should imitate India in selecting Election Commissioners.

And there are other lessons for us. Back in 1999, the BJP Government of PM Vajpayee lost a no-confidence motion by 1 vote in their National Assembly - 269 to 270 of the Opposition. But rather than conjuring up half-men and half women, the Indian PM, accepted the verdict and resigned forthwith, and called elections. Compare this to the bitterness roiling our democracy after the PNC refused to accept the NCM of Dec 21.

The PNC’s fundamentally anti-democratic, and no Indian example can change that; just voting them out!!

…from the PNC What said the PNC has no lessons for us?? There’s that lesson from Burnham – Beware the maximum leader!!

Paraphrased, of course, from Burnham’s sister, Jessie’s pamphlet, “Beware my brother Forbes!!” Not many believed Jessie back in the day – certainly not David Granger, Burnham’s protégé from 1965! The man still burns a candle on his window sill for Burnham, as he swears to continue the latter’s “legacy”.

Another lesson from Burnham is not to steer economic development just at your own party’s supporters – just as Granger’s PNC are doing right now. The money for development, after all – whether loans or treasury funds – will come out of, or are repaid from, the pockets of all Guyanese, from their taxes, and should involve all Guyanese.

And it’s not just a matter of morality or justice -- not that we should scoff at that -- it’s about giving the country its best shot at development by spreading the opportunity to all Guyanese, since talent is randomly distributed.

And all ships will be lifted! …not to make wild accusations The PNC are discovering the danger of them branding all PPP leaders as “corrupt” for two decades. Now even their own supporters don’t take their protestations about not having their hands in the cookie jar seriously!

It’s a case of “forewarned is forearmed”!!

Readers are invited to send their comments by email to eye@guyanatimesgy.com

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Tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Pillion rider dies after boyfriend loses control of motorcycle

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ne woman is now dead while the father of her child is nursing serious injuries after he lost control of the motorcycle he was operating in Mahdia, Region Eight (PotaroSiparuni), on Monday morning.

Dead is 24-year-old Abidacy Klass of Lot 2 Norton Street, Werk-enRust, Georgetown. Injured is 26-year-old miner, Osafa Bess, of 111 Miles, Mahdia.

Reports are just before 06:00h, the duo were on motorcycle CH 3715 and were proceeding north at a fast rate along the western side of 111 Miles, Mahdia, Potaro Road, when Bess lost control while approaching a right bend on the roadway.

As a result of navigating the bend badly, both Klass and Bess were thrown off of the motorcycle and fell some distance away onto the road.

Neither Klass nor Bess was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

The couple were picked up by public-spirited persons and rushed to the Mahdia Hospital where Klass was pronounced dead on arrival.

Meanwhile, Bess was admitted to the medical facility, where he is said to be suffering from a fractured right arm and multiple abrasions about his body.

The motorcycle was impounded at the Mahdia Police Station.

While investigations into the matter are ongoing,

Dead: Abidacy Klass

Klass’ relatives are still trying to come to grips with the death of the young woman, who was a mother of two.

When this publication visited Klass’ home, her cousin, Rhonda Joseph related that relatives were informed about the accident at about 06:00h on Monday

morning.

“We get a call that she was in an accident in Mahdia and that she died on the spot. So, that is what we really know so far….

We don’t know much, we have to wait on the police in Mahdia,” a grieving Joseph related.

Joseph explained that the young woman only travelled to Mahdia on Sunday to visit the father of her child. A tearful Joseph described the young mother as someone who is loving, jovial and cares for others especially her children.

“She went up yesterday (Sunday). She’s very loving, and she died and leave two kids, very loving, nice person, jovial, she likes to par-

The motorcycle on the road at Mahdia, Region Eight

ty, she always there for her kids, can’t say nothing bad.

She was loved by many, all her friends overseas, in Guyana, everybody loved

her,” Joseph related.

The young woman leaves to mourn her two young children, siblings, father and other relatives.

Several injured in 2 separate accidents

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The minibus which toppled at High Street

The Toyota 192 that slammed into the other cars

everal persons were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Monday morning after a Route 42 minibus, destined for Timehri, East Bank Demerara, turned turtle on High Street, Georgetown.

Guyana Times understands that the minibus, BXX 1938, was travelling at a fast rate of speed at about 11:00h when the driver slammed into another minibus which was crossing Princes Street, Georgetown, at the intersection.

This bus, onlookers said, was not badly damaged, however, the one transporting

are assisting with the investigations.

passengers toppled several times before turning turtle opposite Infinity Gas Station.

Eyewitnesses, who assisted the injured persons, recalled hearing the screams of the passengers before they were rushed to the GPHC. This publication was told that several of them sustained broken limbs while a few were treated and sent away.

At the scene, bloodstains were on the roadway along with shattered glass and the footwear of a little child.

In the meanwhile, the drivers of the minibus and the other vehicle have been taken into Police custody and

Street race

In another incident, seven cars were badly damaged as a result of a speeding car which lost control in the vicinity of Liliendaal on the East Coast of Demerara at about 02:00h also on Monday.

Guyana Times was told that the driver of a white Toyota 192 motorcar had customised his car to add turbo speed and was reportedly involved in a street race at about 02:00h on Monday morning when he crashed into a black Toyota Fielder wagon, bearing registration

number PXX 1390, which was parked in the corner of the road, before he slammed into several other cars which were parked in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn Hotel at Liliendaal.

The cars, which included PMM 3127, PPP 9581 and PWW 843, were being rented by guests of the hotel who were awakened from their sleep as a result of the commotion.

The driver, who was making his way to Georgetown and is responsible for the accident which caused millions of dollars in destruction in seconds, was reportedly rushed to a hospital, where he is be-

Two of the cars which were damaged on the East Coast

ing treated for head injuries.

Workers attached to the hotel said they did not see when the accident happened.

One staffer told this newspaper that the security guard informed him that he was at the back of the building when the mishap occurred.

Efforts made by Guyana Times to contact the management of the hotel were futile.

The police are presently investigating the matter.

Warning

These mishaps have occurred mere days after the Traffic Chief, Linden Isles, appealed to drivers to be extra careful on the wet roads.

He told this publication that the rainy season is known to bring along with it many things and road fatalities just happen to be one of those that cannot be accepted.

In fact, Isles explained that road accidents and fatalities have increased for this year. This was seen when figures were compared with those for last year for the same period.

“We had 35 accidents with 39 deaths last year up to today’s date and in 2019, we got 38 accidents with 40 deaths, an increase of accidents by eight per cent and deaths by two per cent,” he said.

10 news

tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Police working to bring down Carpenter charged for murder of Bartica miner “criminal network” in Berbice

Murdered miner: Antonio Dos Santos

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29-year-old carpenter of First Avenue, Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), was over the weekend slapped with a murder charge and made a court appearance on Monday at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.

Marvin Jacobs, called “Marvin Moses or Christmas”, appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann

McLennan where the murder charge was read to him.

The charge alleged that on May 13, 2019, he murdered 21-year-old Antonio Dos Santos. He was remanded to prison and the case will continue at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court on June 6.

Reports are that on May 13, 2019, Dos Santos was said to have been imbib-

ing in front of an entertainment bar at First Avenue, Bartica, at about 02:25h when the suspect allegedly approached the young man and shot him twice in the left region of his chest.

The shooter then made good his escape. The injured man was rushed to the Bartica Regional Hospital, where he was treated and referred to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

However, Dos Santos succumbed as a result of his injuries at the Bartica Airstrip while being medevaced.

According to reports, following the incident Police commenced a hunt for the 29-year-old carpenter of First Avenue, Bartica, but the manhunt ended when the suspect was handed over to the police by his mother at about 17:15h on Monday last.

A police source had earlier confirmed that the accused and the now dead man were known to each other.

...shot bandits found with freshly cooked food – source

B Division Police Commander Paul Langevine

Dead: Kelvin Shivgobin, called “Kelly”

aw enforcement officials in Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) are investigating what has been reported as a “criminal network” in the county of Berbice.

This is according to Commander of B Division, Paul Langevine, who told Guyana Times on Monday that the recent deaths of three bandits during a shootout with Police suggest that there is a networking system.

He explained that while this incident can help residents breathe sighs of relief, they must still be alert, since some of the recent gun-related robberies were reported to have more than three persons involved.

Commander Langevine said the success of the Police on Sunday was due to intelligence gathering.

“It all happened that way because of the intelligence information mainly. We got the information, we checked it out and confirmed that. We worked on it, and that’s what led to the incident where the three suspects were shot and killed after they engaged in a shootout with our ranks,” Langevine said.

He added that the SWAT team was not in that area at that time.

The Guyana Police Force reported that, on Sunday, ranks under the command of a senior officer ventured into the Mibicuri, Black

Bush Polder area after receiving reports that “strange persons” were seen in those backlands. As the team approached the area, they came under rapid gunfire. This led to a return of fire, and the exchange lasted for about five minutes and resulted in the deaths of the three men.

Three haversacks containing jewellery, two bullet proof vests, five cellular phones, a solar charger, torch lights, a crowbar, knife, cutlass, flash drive, duct tape, gloves, toques, a mask, tights with “eye holes”, 200 grams of cannabis, and $609,330 along with two foreign currency notes were found.

Also, near the bodies of the dead men, the Police discovered a pistol, two revolvers, a rifle, three magazines, 253 rounds of live ammunition and seven spent shells.

With regard to where the trio would have sourced the bullet proof vests and rifle from, Commander Langevine noted that it is too soon to conclude, but investigations into the matter are underway.

“We are not certain as to where they would have gotten them from. We collected two vests, but we don’t know if they are Police vests or not, but we are investigating. We will also check the firearms to see where they originated from as well. But for now it is too soon, and the work for us starts now,” he declared.

In relation to the jewellery and other items dis-

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Dead: Ramnarine Jagmohan

covered in the haversacks, Langevine noted that the robbery victims can visit the Police station(s) to claim their properties, but they would have to be able to “properly identify them.”

Men being assisted

Meanwhile, a senior Police source told this newspaper that it appears as though the three dead suspects were being assisted in their attempts to evade the Police.

“You know, when the ranks got there, they also discovered fresh food there. It was warm…someone cooked chowmein; so it appears as if they were getting food,” the source added.

The three men, who were believed to be the executioners of the daring robberies on the Corentyne over the past weeks, were on Sunday afternoon shot dead during an exchange of gunfire in the backdam of Johanna, Black Bush Polder, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

The three men have been identified as: wanted murder suspect 32-year-old Kelvin Shivgobin, called “Kelly”; acquitted murder accused Ramnarine Jagmohan; and Sewchand Sewdat, called One Eye Pappy, all of Belvedere Village, Corentyne, Berbice.

Bandits have been reigning terror on residents of Berbice for months now, and have been successfully evading law enforcement officials.

(Kristen Macklingam)

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tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

New criteria to Children of murdered Essequibo Coast woman to receive counselling import mercury

by August 1 …suspect still hospitalised T he children of 39-yearold Farida Khayum who was knifed to death by her husband on Thursday last in their Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast, Region Two (PomeroonSupenaam) home will receive counselling to lessen the impact of the heinous crime on them.

Commander of Police “G” Division, Khali Pareshram, told Guyana Times on Monday that Khayum’s children are in custody of relatives who are caring for them.

Giving an update on the investigations, the commander said the suspect, who is believed to have consumed a poisonous substance shortly after killing his wife, is still receiving medical treatment at the Suddie Regional Hospital.

“He is still under Police guard and supervision while he is a patient there,” Commander Pareshram said.

Meanwhile, Region Two Chairman, Devanand Ramdatt, in an interview with this publication also on Monday, said the regional authorities in Essequibo Coast are committed to assisting the six children in various ways.

“It is not only about taking food hampers and helping to provide them with clothing and such. Yes, we are doing

Dead: Farida Khayum

that and visiting them, but we are also concerned about the mental health of those children. We are looking to ensure that they receive counselling for the ordeal that they are going through too,” he noted.

According to Ramdatt, he received reports that at least one of the underage children had witnessed the gruesome murder of his mother.

“I am not sure if the other children saw too, or even if they were in the house when the stabbing took place.

But to see or even know that your father killed your mother and in your house is traumatising enough,” the Regional Chairman added.

On the evening of May 16, 2019, Khayum was stabbed to death by her husband during a heated argument at their Lot 9 Market Street, Anna Regina, Essequibo

Coast home.

Reports are that during the argument, Khayum’s husband armed himself with a knife and stabbed her several times about her body. Upon realising that his wife had died, he is said to have immediately ingested a poisonous substance.

This newspaper was told that the woman, who had worked at the Hack Rice Mill, was rushed to the Suddie Regional Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. Her husband has been hospitalised at the same medical facility.

Khayum was the only daughter of Golin Hordowar, who was in a state of shock when this newspaper visited the home on Friday last.

She related that her now dead daughter had actually been the breadwinner of the family, since her husband is oftentimes in the interior and hardly ever sends money to take care of the house.

The elderly woman, who has had a stroke, explained that she retired to bed early on Thursday, but was awakened by her daughter screaming, “I going to die!”

As such, she left her bedroom and, as she ventured into the living area, she saw her daughter lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

She said she immediately

raised an alarm and sent her 10-year-old grandson to alert the neighbours, who in turn summoned the Police. As the Police arrived at the scene, ranks found the suspect in an unconscious state, with an empty bottle which is suspected to have contained a poisonous substance nearby.

This incident comes on the heels of the death of Zaila Sugrim, who was murdered by her husband and buried in a shallow grave in his garden at Crane Village, West Coast Demerara. The woman and the suspect had separated for over eight months, but their union brought forth five children.

On May 11 last, the woman was attending a birthday party for her youngest child and was later collected by her estranged husband. That was the last time her relatives had seen or heard from her.

After intense interrogation by the Police, the businessman led detectives to an area where he buried the woman.

She had a single gunshot wound to her head, and her body was burnt. He has since confessed to shooting the woman, dousing her body with gasoline, and setting it on fire. After that, he reportedly dug a hole and buried her body. (Kristen Macklingam)

Blindness Awareness Month 2019

Unit for the Blind launches week of activities

T

he Education Ministry’s Unit for the Blind launched a week of activities on Monday to observe Blindness Awareness Month 2019 which is done in the month of May. Head of the Unit for the Blind, Haslyn Richards said that the Unit offers support to students that are in mainstream school. He said that this support is offered so

Students of the Unit performing a musical rendition at the launching (Education Ministry photo)

that students that are blind or visually impaired can have quality education and accomplish their dreams.

Richards is quoted by the Department of Public Information as saying that parents of children who are either blind or visually impaired should give their child a chance to explore. He said that when children explore, they learn new things. turn to page 15

Technical Officer at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Marisica Charles

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s measures continue to be put in place

by Government to reduce the use of mercury in the mining industry, steps are being taken to ensure more stringent standards are in place regarding the importation of mercury.

The necessary changes are set to come on stream as of August 1, this year.

Mercury is also known as quicksilver and most of its compounds are extremely toxic. Inhalation of its vapour will result in harmful effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems, lungs and kidneys and may be fatal, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Speaking with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Technical Officer at the Natural Resources Ministry, Marisica Charles explained that the approach to be adopted locally is for the issuance of an importation license to be sanctioned by several agencies.

“There is an MoU currently in a draft stage between the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, Pesticide Toxic Chemical Control Board and the Ministry of Natural Resources for a collaborative approach instead of just one or two organisations.”

According to Charles, the MoU will build on an already existing partnership.

“It will help us to work closer together, more specifically as it deals with the importation of mercury.”

On Monday, the National Working Group met to discuss where they were, regarding the Minamata Convention.

The Minamata Convention on Mercury is an international treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.

In February, Natural Resources Minister Raphael Trotman had revealed that even as Government tries to mitigate the harmful effects of mercury on the environment, some villages are, in fact, complicit in the use of mercury and the destruction it causes.

Trotman made this revelation during the Minamata Convention – a stakeholder session set up to develop strategies for eradicating mercury use. According to the Minister, villagers and Toshaos in some mercury-scarred villages are facilitating the miners responsible.

Trotman also spoke of a model mercury-free operation; a project that could be taken on through the provision of mining blocks.

He noted that a number of blocks could be distributed to the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA) for this purpose.

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tuesday, may 21, 2019 | guyanatimesgy.com

Guyana elected to WHO Executive Board

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ublic Health Minister Volda Lawrence was elected to the Executive Board of the World Health Organisation (WHO), giving Guyana a voice in helping to shape global health policies.

The WHO’s Executive Board has oversight responsibility for implementing decisions and policies of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is an advisory body to facilitate WHO’s work.

Minister Lawrence will serve in the position for the next three years.

The WHO’s Executive Board comprises 34 individuals and meets twice annually; in January and in May. The 145th session of the Executive Board will meet in Geneva next week for a two-day meeting.

“The honour of serving in this esteemed position affords Guyana the opportunity to shape

Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence

global and regional health policies and to bring more health system resources to Guyana and the region of the Americas, thereby improving healthcare access and services to all its residents,” Guyana’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and International Organisations, Geneva John RD Ford said in a statement announcing Lawrence’s election to the WHO body.

Minister Lawrence is currently attending her third WHA conference and has helped establish Guyana “as a strong advocate for universal healthcare to bring improved access and quality healthcare to all [of] Guyana’s citizens, especially those most vulnerable,” Ford’s said while making the announcement.

Runway set for Guyana Fashion Showcase

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he inaugural Guyana Fashion Showcase is set for May 24 at the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel, featuring some 45 models and 16 designers who will display new fashion trends to the Guyanese public.

The Guyana Fashion Showcase was founded

by Philbert Giddings and promises to bring together local and international artistes from the fashion arena. While the invitation was open to local designers, only five responded including Randy Madray.

The international designers are from Jamaica, Togo, the Bahamas and the United States.

One of the designers,

Designer Roger Gray

Roger Gray, stated that a spectacular show is expected, and the following Monday will feature a travel segment.

“The Monday, we’re doing a travel segment of the event which is a trip to

Unit for the Blind...

He advised that children must not be left out of the classroom. He said that they must be encouraged to ask questions, make new friends and participate in activities which would also help to build the child’s self-esteem.

Moreover, he remarked that Monday’s activity is good to raise awareness. He said that the public must realise that persons that are blind or visually impaired have normal lives and should be treated like normal people.

Roydon Maynard, who shared the history of the Unit, said that the 144 Albert Street building was commissioned on May 7, 2013.

Prior to having its own building at Albert Street, Maynard explained that the

Kaieteur Falls. Before that, it’s the Carnival segment.

We have about 16 designers who will be showcasing at the event.”

Another local designer, Michelle Cole-Wagner, emphasised that they are incorporating the ecotourism aspect of Guyana in the designs. The runway is also one of the largest ones ever executed in Guyana.

“The runway is 60 feet which is probably the longest one ever in Guyana.

What we’re trying to showcase is the eco-tourism aspect of Guyana. The runway will be designed to portray such and the girls will be looking more or less like they came out of a jungle.”

from page 11

Unit was housed at the St Rose’s High School for 33 years, during which time it catered to the needs of a number of students up to the CSEC and GCE Advanced Level.

According to Ashley Gittens, a teacher in the Unit, Monday’s event sought to showcase the resources used to educate the blind and visually impaired students.

Some of the items displayed came under various categories including craft, braille, technology, home economics and agricultural science.

Today, there will be a prize-giving ceremony, on Wednesday the Unit will host a career day and on Thursday, there will be an internal games day for the teachers and students. To end the week of activities,

there will be a trip to Fort Island in the Essequibo River.

The week of activities was officially declared open by the Principal Education Officer, Volika Jaikishun, who said that the Education Ministry has grown to have its own Unit in Georgetown.

However, she advised that in all of the administrative regions, the Special Education Needs Unit has centres that can cater to the needs of students that are blind or visually impaired.

She encouraged persons to take advantage of the opportunities that are available and to advise others to do the same since currently there are many stories of persons who are blind or visually impaired living satisfactory lives.

Tickets cost $4000 and $8000. There is also the premium package for US$80. The organisers are planning to make this event an inaugural one and are encouraging the general public to support, since proceeds from the raffle will be donated to a convalescence organisation.

It was clarified that this event does not replace the activities of Guyana Fashion Week. Some readyto-wear garments will also be available from some of the designers.

Starr Computer offering free management seminar today

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s the oil and gas transition matures in Guyana, it will be critical for Guyanese businesses to explore more efficient ways and means of improving their service quality to Guyanese and foreign users.

In light of this, Starr Computer Inc will be providing a free management seminar today for small businesses and will feature speakers from Elotouch and Informatik Solution Group. Among the topics to be discussed are solutions for medical, hospitality, merchandising, food courts, and asset management.

General Manager of Star Computer, Rehman Majeed has said that today’s seminar will be held by Elotouch, which specialises in Kiosk, which they believe is important because in going forward for customer service and productivity, more companies will be moving towards soft checkouts.

“Look at the airports, for example, where air traffic is an issue, people are now trying to have productivity for speed and effective efficient service at a shorter time.

Everything will

change in two years because foreigners will be coming into the country with their franchise and lifting the standards by changing the game so the local will have to come onboard.

The opening of the Hard Rock Café, for example, it is a good franchise and it basically gives you an idea that it is going to start with those type of cafés and other industries so we will have to quickly scale up,” Majeed said.

He added that Informatik Solution Group deals with software and platforms of such for the medical section where persons can monitor patient records from the moment they enter the hospital.

“All information regarding the patient will be shown from the previous visit, their medical record will be available from the labs, doctor and even the rooms from the medical record keeping system.

We normally deal with hardware such as Lenovo, HP and other brands but this is different, it is going into more of the software aspect.”

Today’s training, will be more in-depth as it will be targeting small businesses.

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guyanatimesgy.com

TUESday, may 21, 2019

Regional

Venezuela's Maduro proposes early St Kitts PM denies meeting with Cocaelections for Opposition-run congress Cola heir now facing drug charges

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro greets people next to his wife Cilia Flores during a rally in support of the Government in Caracas, Venezuela, May 20, 2019

V

enezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday proposed early elections for the National Assembly, which is headed

by Opposition Leader Juan Guaidó and is the sole body recognised as democratically legitimate by most Western nations.

The Opposition won a majority in the National Assembly in 2015 and the next congressional elections are currently scheduled for late 2020. Maduro did not

give an exact new date, and he has previously said he would shift them earlier, without following through.

In a speech at a pro-Government rally, Maduro said, “We will legitimise the sole institution which has not been legitimised in the last five years.”

Most western nations have recognized Guaidó as the country’s rightful Head of State, after Maduro won re-election last year in a vote widely deemed fraudulent,

and stacked other State bodies with loyalists.

Guaidó invoked the Constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, denouncing Maduro as a usurper whose failed State-led policies had plunged Venezuela into its deepest-ever economic recession.

Maduro accuses Guaidó of staging a US-backed coup against his socialist Administration and says he will face justice. Maduro retains control of State functions and the support of the military’s top brass, as well as allies Russia, Cuba and China.

“We are going to measure ourselves electorally ... we are going to bring forward elections of the National Assembly,” Maduro told a crowd of red-shirted supporters on Monday.

On April 30, Guaidó attempted to rally Venezuela’s armed forces to rise up against Maduro, but only a few dozen soldiers and one top Government official defected while the military top brass reaffirmed their loyalty. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Barbados, Bermuda, Aruba off EU blacklist of tax havens

Barbados’ Prime Minister Mia Mottley said she was pleased and thankful her country was off the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions

B

arbados, Bermuda and Aruba are back in the European Union’s good books as far as being cooperative in tax matters

is concerned.

The three Caribbean nations have been removed from the blacklist of tax havens which was established in December 2017 and revised in March this year, with Barbados and Bermuda being moved to a grey list of jurisdictions which will still be under scrutiny, but will get time to become fully compliant, while Aruba has been cleared altogether.

The EU Council said in a statement that Barbados has made commitments at a high political level to remedy EU concerns regarding the replacement of its harmful preferential regimes by a measure of similar effect, while Aruba and

Bermuda have now implemented their commitments.

“At the same time, Bermuda remains committed to address EU concerns in the area of collective investment funds,” it said.

As a consequence, Barbados and Bermuda have been moved from the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions to the list of jurisdictions that have undertaken sufficient commitments to reform their tax policies, while Aruba will be removed entirely from both.

Twelve countries remain on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions, including Belize, Dominica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands. (Excerpt from Caribbean360)

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rime Minister, Dr Timothy Harris has refuted claims that he had a meeting with heir to the Coca-Cola fortune, billionaire Alkiviades “Alki” David, who is facing drug charges in the twin-island federation.

David left St Kitts last week on bail after being slapped with charges of possession, intent to supply and importation of cannabis. That followed the discovery of 5000 cannabis plants, seeds, and cannabidiol on his private jet when he arrived in the country along with American busi-

nessman Chase Ergen, with whom he is in a cannabis business venture. He had travelled to St Kitts at the invitation of former Prime Minister, Dr Denzil Douglas to meet about developing a major hemp farming operation on the island.

The 51-year-old investor claimed he was charged on the heels of a meeting with Harris at the Park Hyatt two Sundays ago, at which the Prime Minister asked him to do something he did not want to do.

But speaking on local radio, Dr Harris said he was in Costa Rica until May 8

[David was first arrested on May 7 when he arrived and charged on May 9], and indicated that he only had an encounter with him at the Park Hyatt on his return to the island.

The Prime Minister dismissed David’s claim of having a meeting with him as “malicious”, saying he never organised or engaged in any talks with either the billionaire or any of his associates. He made it clear that he does not have, and never has had, any form of relationship, whether personal or otherwise, with David or Ergen. (Excerpt from Caribbean360)

Canada's Immigration Minister on 3-day visit to Jamaica

C

anada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen is in Jamaica for a three-day working visit to, among other things, shore up cooperation between his country and tertiary education institutions there.

His first stop was at

the University of the West Indies, where, earlier this afternoon he led a guided discussion on the role of education in Canada's immigration policy, and expressed impatience with achieving more in the way of partnership.

In an obvious reference to the policies of its neigh-

bour to the south, Hussen, himself an immigrant, stressed that Canada is seeking to build bridges, not walls, with its approach to immigration.

He is expected to travel to Trinidad on a similar mission when he leaves Jamaica. (Jamaica Observer)

Jamaica: Mother of 5-year-old charged with production of child pornography

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etectives assigned to the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA) clarified on Monday that a fiveyear-old boy who has been purported to be missing in several social media reports in recent days is not missing.

The Police's Corporate Communications Unit (CCU), in a media release, said the child was placed into State care after an

investigation carried out by the detectives revealed that the child's mother was guilty of several offences under the Child Care and Protection Act. He remains under the care of the Government and is said to be in good health, the CCU said.

The Police's information arm said investigation into the child's circumstances was launched on Wednesday, May 15, when a concerned citizen visited

the CISOCA Headquarters with the boy and made a complaint. The child's mother was implicated in the investigation and was subsequently arrested and later charged.

The mother, who has been identified as 27-yearold Refallia Roberts of Newark Avenue, Kingston 11, has been charged with cruelty to a child, production of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. (Jamaica Observer)

Brazil violence: Gunmen kill 11 people in bar in Belém Venezuelan migrants feared drowned

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Residents gathered as news of the shooting spread

asked gunmen killed 11 people indiscriminately after bursting into a bar in the northern Brazilian city of Belém on Sunday.

The shooting happened in Guamá, a poor and violent neighbourhood of the city in the Amazon region.

Local media speculated that the shooting was car-

ried out by a gang in retaliation for the deployment in March of federal forces to Belém.

So far, no arrests have been made in connection with the crime.

Military Police said seven armed men had arrived at Vanda's bar in a car and on three motorbikes on Sunday afternoon, local time.

Witnesses said the masked assailants appeared to shoot at random, killing five women and six men. One person was injured and is under Police protection. (Excerpt from BBC News)

R

elatives of 22 refugees who have not been seen since they left Güiria, Venezuela, on Thursday evening for Trinidad, are appealing for searches to be launched for their missing loved ones.

The five Venezuelans told the T&T Guardian their relatives, including infants and children, who were on board the pirogue Ana Maria which left Güiria around 4 pm last Thursday bound for Chaguaramas. They are

seeking answers after hearing unconfirmed reports that the vessel had capsized and one survivor, Alberto Abreu, was rescued by a US businessman and taken to Grenada.

However, up to late yesterday authorities in T&T and Venezuela said they had no reports of a boat mishap or migrants missing at sea and had not launched searches.

Jhaymie Zoque, speaking on behalf of worried relatives of the missing

migrants, said two days ago she took her friend Lorenzo Martinez, who has refugee status in T&T, to Chaguaramas where he expected to meet his 16-year-old wife and their eight-month-old son.

They were among several people on board the Ana Maria who left Güiria, the capital of the Venezuelan state of Vargas, to enter T&T illegally, Zoque said.

They waited for several hours but no one arrived, Zoque said. (Trinidad Guardian)

Guatemalan teenage boy dies in US Border Patrol custody

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1 6 - y e a r - o l d Guatemalan boy died on Monday in US Border Patrol custody in Texas, US officials said, making him the fifth

Guatemalan minor to die after being apprehended at the US-Mexico border since December.

The boy, Carlos Hernandez, was appre-

hended by US Border Patrol agents on May 13 after crossing the border illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, with a group of 70 others, according to US Customs

and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol.

Early on Sunday morning, Hernandez told staff at the central processing

station where he was being held that he was not feeling well, a CBP official told reporters. He was diagnosed with the flu and transferred to the Weslaco

Border Patrol Station in south Texas later that day to separate him from others at the processing station in the Rio Grande Valley, the official said. (Excerpt from Reuters)

guyanatimesgy.com

TUESday, may 21, 2019

17

Around the World

Iran slams ‘genocidal taunts’ by Austria’s far-right Freedom Party US, increases uranium production Ministers all resign amid scandal

Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif said US’ ‘economic terrorism and genocidal taunts won’t end Iran’ [Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency]

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top Iranian official has called on the United States to address Tehran with respect, not with a threat of war, a day after US

President Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Tehran on Twitter.

The war of words on Monday came as the semi-official Tasnim news agency announced Iran has increased by fourfold its production of low-enriched uranium, in line with an earlier decision to scale back some of its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

Relations between Washington and Tehran plummeted a year ago when Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an international accord that offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Since exiting the landmark deal, Trump has tight-

ened sanctions on Tehran and moved to cut its oil production to zero.

Under the pact, Tehran was allowed to stockpile a maximum of 300kg of low-enriched uranium and was required to ship any excess out of the country for storage or sale.

The agreement also allowed Iran to enrich uranium at 3.67 per cent - a rate suitable for civilian nuclear power generation but far below the 90 per cent of weapons-grade.

Iran has threatened to gradually withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal if partners still in the agreement - the United Kingdom, China, Germany and Russia - do not help it to circumvent US sanctions. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

A

ll Ministers from Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) have resigned, throwing the Government into chaos.

The Freedom Party’s leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who was also ViceChancellor, was forced to resign at the weekend after a video sting.

Strache was filmed proposing to offer Government contracts to a supposed Russian oligarch’s daughter.

The FPÖ threatened a mass resignation earlier on Monday if Interior Minister Herbert Kickl was also forced out.

Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had called over the weekend for Kickl to be sacked, saying that as general secretary of the party he should take responsibility for the scandal.

The scandal broke on Friday when footage from 2017 was published in German media, showing Strache and another FPÖ official proposing to offer Government contracts to a supposed Russian oligarch’s daughter.

Strache resigned the next day and Kurz - the head of the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP) - said new elections would have to be held.

The resigned FPÖ Ministers include the Foreign Minister and Ministers for Defence, Transport, And Social Affairs. The FPÖ made up half of the country’s Cabinet.

The video scandal comes at a particularly awkward time for the party. Voters across the EU go to the polls on May 23-26, in European Parliament elections widely expected to boost the numbers of far-right and other Eurosceptic MEPs. Before the scandal broke, the FPÖ was expected to score about 20 per cent in the European elections. (Excerpt from BBC News)

DR Congo: President Tshisekedi names new Prime Minister North Korean women tell of slavery and gang rape in Chinese cybersex dens

T

housands of North Korean women and girls - some as young as nine - are being trafficked into sexual slavery in China as they try to flee poverty and oppression in their homeland, experts on the reclusive state said on Monday.

The sexual exploitation of North Koreans generates at least US$105 million in annual profits for the Chinese underworld, according to a report by the non-profit Korea Future Initiative, which includes harrowing accounts from trafficked women.

An estimated 60 per cent of North Korean girls and women in China are trafficked into the sex

trade, according to the report launched at an event at Britain’s Parliament on Monday.

Nearly half are pressed into prostitution, about a third sold into marriage and most others pushed into cybersex, researchers said.

Trafficking survivors said prostitutes in Shanghai were branded with tattoos such as lions and butterflies to show ownership and deter abductions by rivals.

They are forced to perform sex acts or sexually assaulted in front of webcams. A live-stream featuring a young girl can cost US$110, researchers said, adding that many subscribers appeared to be South

Korean.

China’s policy of detaining and repatriating North Koreans forces them to live in the shadows, placing them at high risk of exploitation, Yoon said.

Some are sold by policemen after being arrested, the report said, while others are duped by traffickers offering to get them to countries where they can claim asylum. Abductions are also common.

Researchers said some trafficking networks stretched into North Korea where “sub-brokers” scour markets, villages and transport hubs for destitute-looking girls to fulfil orders from Chinese pimps and madams. (Excerpt from Reuters)

President Felix Tshisekedi, right, was declared the winner of the December 30 election, which observers said was marred by irregularities and opponents denounced as rigged [DRC Presidency

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handout via Twitter]

r e s i d e n t Felix Tshisekedi has named Sylvestre Ilunga Ilukamba as the new Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The move was announced on Monday by presidential spokesman Kasongo Mwema Yambayamba, who said Ilukamba was appointed under a political agreement between Tshisekedi and his predecessor, Joseph

Kabila.

Ilukamba, a career politician and Kabila ally, was previously the head of the DRC’s national railway company.

He also served as Finance Minister under former President Mobutu Sese Seko, who for more than three decades headed a corrupt and dysfunctional administration.

His appointment comes almost five months af-

ter Tshisekedi was declared the winner of a December 30 election which observers said was marred by irregularities and opponents denounced as rigged.

Tshisekedi beat Kabila’s hand-picked candidate Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary and rival opposition candidate Martin Fayulu, among others, in the presidential ballot.

Fayulu came in a close second but rejected the result and accused Tshisekedi of making a secret deal with Kabila to deprive him of victory. Tshisekedi and Kabila denied that there was a deal.

Kabila governed the largely impoverished but mineral-rich Central African country for 18 years before leaving office.

His final two years in charge saw him stay beyond the maximum term limit permitted by the DRC’s Constitution and instead oversee a crackdown on protesters calling for him to quit. (Excerpt from Al Jazeera)

India’s BJP prepares return to power as exit polls predict clear win – sources Volodymyr Zelensky: ComedianPresident calls snap election

The predicted BJP margin of victory is bigger than opinion polls indicated in the run-up to the vote

I

ndia’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is to meet coalition partners to discuss a new Government, two BJP sources said on Monday, after exit polls predicted a clear general election victory for the party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to the delight of Hindu groups.

The talks will be held today at the BJP’s headquarters in New Delhi and will be led by the party President,

Amit Shah, one of the party sources said.

Modi’s BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is projected to win anything between 339-365 seats in the 545-member lower house of Parliament with the Congress-led opposition alliance getting only 77 to 108, an exit poll from India Today Axis showed on Sunday.

A party needs 272 seats to command a majority.

The predicted BJP margin of victory is bigger than opinion polls indicated in the run-up to the vote when most surveys showed the NDA would be the largest alliance but would fall short of an overall majority.

Modi and his BJP faced criticism in the run-up to the election over unemployment, in particular for failing to provide opportunities to young people coming on to the job market and for weak farm prices, all of which will be pressing issues for any new Government.

But Modi rallied his Hindu nationalist base and made national security a central theme of the campaign after a surge in tension with Pakistan in February following a suicide bomb attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir by Pakistan based militants. (Excerpt from Reuters)

Volodymyr Zelensky turned fiction into fact – he had acted the part of President in a comedy series

C

omedian Volodymyr Zelensky announced a snap parliamentary election during his swearing-in as Ukraine’s new President.

The election was expected to take place in October 2019. But at the ceremony in Kiev, Zelensky said: “I am

dissolving the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament)”.

He said ending the conflict with Russian-backed rebels in the east would be his top priority.

A political novice, he campaigned strongly against official corruption.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would not congratulate Zelensky on his inauguration, but would wait for “the first successes in settling the internal conflict in south-eastern Ukraine, and in normalising RussianUkrainian relations”.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Ukraine’s new leader to implement the Minsk peace accord agreed in 2015, and also suggested an “all for all” prisoner swap

between both sides.

Zelensky has given few details of his plans since winning by a landslide on 21 April. He has left it to a team of advisers to try and reassure people that he knows what he is doing.

Russian state TV said no Russian official had been invited to the inauguration.

Zelensky made his inaugural address in Ukrainian but at one point, referring to the conflict in the east, he switched to Russian, saying: “I’m convinced that for this dialogue to start, we must see the return of all Ukrainian prisoners”.

Fighting in the east has claimed about 13,000 lives since Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. (Excerpt from BBC News)

18

guyanatimesgy.com

TUESday, may 21, 2019

ARCHIE

ARIES (March 21April 19)

TAURUS (April 20May 20)

dilbert

Don’t make promises you cannot keep or rely on someone else to take care of your responsibilities. Today, it’s one for all and all for one. Look out for your interests personally.

CANCER

Stop waffling and start getting things done. Don’t miss out on an opportunity because you are shy or reluctant to embrace change.

A personal update will result in greater confidence.

Know your limitations and use your intelligence.

Don’t take risks that could result in lowered vitality or an injury. Look at your options and choose what makes the most sense.

LEO (July 23Aug. 22)

Calvin and Hobbes

VIRGO (Aug. 23Sept. 22)

SUDOKU

You should copy someone who has a proven track record, but add your own unique thumbprint. What’s good for someone else may not be suitable for you.

Learn, revise and make a project your own.

LIBRA (Sept. 23Oct. 23)

Use your head when dealing with people who can influence your life personally or professionally.

Don’t let anyone push you into something you don’t agree with. Learn from experience.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24Nov. 22)

Explore your options, expand your talents and make adjustments that will help you promote what you have to offer. The way others see you will help you excel.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 23Dec. 21)

Don’t give your secrets away. If you follow through with a plan, it will lead to an opportunity. Don’t feel you have to be excessive to get somewhere. Moderation is favored.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22Jan. 19)

Yesterday’s Word

You can make a positive change to your appearance, position or financial situation, as long as you stay focused and do your research.

Discipline and precision will pay off.

GEMINI (May 21June 20)

(June 21July 22)

Peanuts

A day trip, business meeting or educational pursuit will help you realize what makes you happy.

Consider the possibilities and how best to reach your goal without going over budget.

solution for LAST PUBLISHED puzzle AQUARIUS (Jan. 20Feb. 19)

PISCES (Feb. 20March 20)

Partnerships are favored. Whether you are dealing with a personal or professional union, it will bring marked improvements to the way you live and how you move forward.

Check what’s going on around you. Reach out to someone you feel a connection to or with whom you can work toward something meaningful.

You have life-changing choices to make. Choose to be articulate, precise and detailed. Clarity, moderation and a determined focus will lead to success.

tuesday, MAY 21, 2019

19

Raptors earn pivotal double-OT win over Bucks T

he Toronto Raptors knew they needed to play tougher than they had in losing the first two games to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals.

They played tough and they played long as well, needing two overtimes to outlast the Bucks 118-112 Sunday night with Kawhi Leonard leading all scorers with 36 points.

The Bucks lead the best-of-seven series 2-1 with Game 4 Tuesday in Toronto.

Raptors coach Nick Nurse said that he was also considering changes to his lineup, although he went with the same starting lineup he had been using.

“I said lineup changes, I didn’t say starting lineup changes,” Nurse said. “We played a lot of different lineups tonight, and we changed at least three if not four of the matchups to start the game. Some of those changes were pretty good to us, but again I thought we just played a lot tougher, man. We were up guarding, we were physical, we were ready to play.”

Leonard had eight points in the second overtime on 3-for3 shooting from the field and making both free throws. But Nurse said the difference was his defense.

The Raptors defense was good enough to hold Giannis Antetokounmpo to 12 points before he fouled out in the second overtime with 4:24 remaining, but he did grab 23 rebounds.

“They were double-teaming him a lot, a lot of bodies on him,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “He’s sharing the ball. He’s making the right read, making the pass. But we’ve probably got to shoot it a little bit better, we’ve got to drive a little bit better.”

The Bucks shot 37.3 percent from the field while the Raptors shot 39.2 percent.

“Obviously, they changed their matchup,” Antetokounmpo

said. “I tried not to think about it too much. Every time I tried to make a play, I saw that they were showing bodies, they were sending a second guy in there.”

Pascal Siakam added 25 points and 11 rebounds for Toronto and Marc Gasol had 16 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and five blocked shots.

Gasol had blamed his own performance for the Raptors’ poor Game 2. He said his performance made him “feel sick for 48 hours.”

Toronto’s Kyle Lowry had 11 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Norman Powell had 19 points off the bench before fouling out late in the fourth.

George Hill had 24 points for Milwaukee. Malcolm Brogdon had 20 points, Brook Lopez added 16, Eric Bledsoe tallied 11, and Nikola Mirotic 10.

“I think all of us have a bigger role to play and more to do,” Brogdon said.

The Raptors led by as many as 11 points but had only a two-point advantage entering the fourth quarter.

Toronto moved out to an eight-point lead when Leonard made a 3-pointer with 9:05 to play, but Hill’s hook shot tied the game at 88 with 4:11 to play.

Leonard’s 16-footer put Toronto into a 93-91 lead, which grew to three when Siakam made one of two free throws with 1:41 remaining and five when Leonard made two free throws with 1:13 left.

Brogdon’s reverse layup had the Bucks back to within two with 38.7 seconds to go.

After a Bucks miss, Siakam missed two free throws with 7.1 seconds left. Khris Middleton’s layup tied the game with 2.2 seconds left, forcing overtime.

Siakam’s layup put Toronto ahead by two in the first over-

Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard (2) dunks in the second overtime against the Milwaukee Bucks

time and Leonard’s jumper made the lead four. Brogdon hit a five-footer with 43.2 seconds to play and Hill tied the game with two free throws with 14.5 seconds left in the first overtime. Leonard missed a shot, forcing the second overtime.

Leonard’s dunk after a steal had Toronto leading by three in the second overtime. Two free throws by Lopez trimmed the lead to one.

Leonard’s steal and dunk again had the Raptors ahead by three with 1:52 left in the second overtime. The Raptors led by four on Leonard’s hook with 32.4 seconds to go.

The Raptors led 30-21 after the first quarter and 58-51 at halftime.

Tonight the battle will resumes with Game 4 which starts at 20:30 hrs. (Reuters)

Magic Johnson: Lakers GM French Open: Halep shrugs Pelinka was backstabber off expectations

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n the day the Los Angeles Lakers are scheduled to introduce their new head coach, a member of the old guard added a fresh dash of drama.

Former team president Magic Johnson, whose jersey hangs from the Staples Centers rafters, said Monday it was general manager Rob Pelinka’s backstabbing ways that led to his resignation in April.

“Things got going in the right direction.

Then I started hearing, ‘Magic, you’re not working hard enough. Magic’s not in the office,’” Johnson told ESPN in an interview on “‘First Take” on Monday. “So people around the Lakers’ office was telling me Rob — Rob Pelinka — was saying things and I didn’t like this being said behind my back. That I wasn’t in the office enough and on and on.

“So I started getting calls from my friends outside of basketball, saying those things now were said to them. ... Not just in the Lakers’ office any more. Outside of basketball, in the media and so on. People have to remember something. Being in this business 40 years, I have allies, I’ve got friends everywhere.

“Then, I had to monitor the brothers — Joey and Jesse, the Buss Brothers — wanted more involvement, more power. I said I didn’t mind doing that. They’re good guys.

Also I sat them down and said I’m going to help you guys mature and get better. They felt they should have been in powerful positions, whether that’s general manager or president.”

Joey and Jesse Buss are the youngest children of late owner Jerry Buss, who died in 2013.

Johnson said the straw that broke the camel’s back was a debate over coach Luke Walton’s status.

“I wanted to fire Luke Walton,” Johnson said, adding that ownership granted approval to fire Walton, then backpedaled.

“Luke’s a great guy. I said we need to get a

better coach. Now I’ve got (team vice president) Tim (Harris) involved. I don’t have the power that I thought I had to make the decisions. I told them, ‘When it’s not fun for me, when I don’t have the decision-making power that I thought I had, I’ve got to step aside.’”

Johnson abruptly resigned on April 9, minutes before the team’s regular-season finale, saying he hadn’t told anyone — including controlling owner and team president Jeanie Buss, with whom he’s close — about his decision in advance.

“When we sat down and negotiated, I said, ‘I can’t give up all my businesses. Is that OK?’” Johnson said. “I said, I’m going to be in and out. Is that OK? I said, do I have the power to make decisions? She said yes.”

Walton ultimately was fired and quickly hired as head coach of the Sacramento Kings.

Frank Vogel was named head coach of the Lakers last week, and he will sit alongside Pelinka at his introduction Monday afternoon.

Pelinka claimed Johnson’s role and now reports directly to Jeanie Buss after previously reporting to Johnson. Buss considered various options, including filling Johnson’s job, but decided to rely on Pelinka. Kurt Rambis remains as a special adviser.

Johnson’s decision stunned star forward LeBron James, along with the rest of the team.

Jeanie Buss issued a statement at the time saying the team would “work in a measured and methodical fashion to make the right moves for the future of our organization.”

Pelinka, 49, was an agent for many years — representing Kobe Bryant, among others — before the Lakers hired him in February 2017. He and Johnson replaced former GM Mitch Kupchak. His contract has three years remaining. (Reuters)

Simona Halep

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rench Open champion Simona Halep has said won’t be burdened by expectations that she can repeat last year’s triumph and would rather focus on enjoying the Grand Slam which starts on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Romanian enters Roland Garros as favourite for the title given the contrasting form of some of the top names, including Japan’s world number one Naomi Osaka, but her own claycourt preparation has not been spectacular either.

World number three Halep could have knocked Osaka off top spot by winning the Madrid Open earlier this month but lost in straight sets to Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens in the final.

A few days later, she fell at her first hurdle in the Italian Open, losing to Marketa Vondrousova -Halep’s second defeat by the 19-year-old Czech this year after a three-set loss at Indian Wells.

However, the Romanian said she did not feel any extra pressure to retain her title at Roland Garros.

“I have no expectations because it’s the first time when I have to defend a trophy at a Grand Slam,” she told Romania’s Digi Sport TV station. “(I just want to) be relaxed, enjoy the tournament and try to win some matches. Nothing more!”

Halep has been backed by former French Open champions Mats Wilander and Justine Henin to

join an elite group of players in retaining her crown, with three-times men’s champion Wilander saying Halep versus Serena Williams would be “a dream final”.

Williams, 37, is battling to be fit for Roland Garros having pulled out of the Italian Open last Tuesday due to a persistent knee injury.

Only five women have successfully defended their titles at the French Open - Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Henin.

Last year Halep finally made it over the line in Paris with a three-set victory over American Sloane Stephens in the final for her maiden Grand Slam title.

The Romanian has special memories of Roland Garros, which is where she won the junior title in 2008 and reached her first major final against Maria Sharapova in 2014.

Halep received medical treatment in the closing stages of the Vondrousova defeat but has shrugged off concerns about her own fitness by declaring herself ready to compete in Paris.

The Romanian even saw some advantages from her early exit in the Italian capital.

“It’s also a good thing if you look at the positive side, I needed a few days of relaxation,” Halep said.

“I rest and hope to have the batteries loaded for Roland Garros.” (HST)

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GUYANATIMESgy.COM

tuesday, MAY 21, 2019

England give pace bowler Jofra Archer the nod for World Cup squad

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ofra Archer will see his remarkable cricketing rise capped off by a place in England’s

World Cup squad, with David Willey set to be the unlucky seamer who misses out when selector Ed S m i t h names his final 15 today Jofra Archer Archer,

24, is just three matches into his ODI career after qualifying for England in March this year. But such is the excitement surrounding the fast bowler’s attributes, he will now usurp a player who has won 46 caps over the past four years. As well as this switch, Smith is also expected to announce that Hampshire’s in-form Liam Dawson has replaced Joe Denly, the batsman-cumleg-spinner who played a bitpart role against Pakistan despite heavy backing from Smith.

While Dawson won his last cap back in October, his left-arm spin provides a more authentic

alternative from the bench should either Moeen Ali or Adil Rashid suffer a short-term injury.

Denly had been strongly championed by Smith but head coach Trevor Bayliss confirmed before Monday’s selection meeting that Eoin Morgan, as the captain who has overseen England’s remarkable rise to the top of the world rankings, would have the casting vote. Bayliss said: “If it got down to a bit of a stalemate in discussions, the four years that I’ve been here the captain gets a big say.

He’s got to be the one comfortable with going out on the field with the other 10 players.”

A third change from the preliminary squad published last month will be confirmation that James Vince comes in for Alex Hales, who was deselected after failing a second recre-

Amir, Riaz named in Pakistan’s World Cup squad

Mohammad Amir

Wahab Riaz

ast bowlers Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz were on Monday, 20 May, named in Pakistan’s squad for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019, as the PCB selectors named the final 15-man contingent for the marquee tournament.

Both Amir and Wahab had been omitted from the preliminary squad that had been named last month. The duo have come in place of fellow left-arm pacer Junaid Khan and all-rounder Faheem Ashraf.

In the other major change, middle-order batsman Asif Ali replaced Abid Ali. And leg-spinner Shadab Khan, who had suffered a viral infection and was pulled from the series against England, has recovered and retained his place in the final 15. That meant there was no place for Test regular Yasir Shah, who had replaced Shadab for the England games.

While Amir was left out of the preliminary squad for the World Cup, he was given a chance to prove his worth in the five-match ODI series against world No.1 England.

However, he went down with chicken pox and took no part in the series, which Pakistan lost 4-0. Amir was due to have a medical examination done in London, and a PCB release has now confirmed that he has recovered from the illness.

Amir’s form has been a major source of concern for Pakistan over the last couple of years. Since the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final, Amir has sent down 101 overs across 14 innings and picked up just five wickets.

His strike-rate of 121.2 in this time is almost thrice his career-strike-rate of 41.2.

Even so, Amir brings with him past success in England, as seen in the final of that Champions Trophy, where his 3-16 in six overs sent India on their way to a 180-run defeat. It is also hoped that the conditions in England, which aid Amir’s natural strength of swinging the ball, could engineer a turnaround.

Amir’s return was also aided by the lackluster show from Pakistan’s bowlers against England. They conceded totals in excess of 300 in each of the four matches. Three of those were 350-plus, and in two of those instances, they failed to defend totals of 358 and 340.

Wahab, on the other hand, wasn’t in the reckoning for the England series either. The left-armer has, in fact, not been anywhere near the Pakistan one-day outfit, having last turned out in a 50-over match for them in a group stage clash against India during the Champions Trophy.

If we have at our disposal two vastly experienced pacers in Amir and Wahab, then it will be foolish not to include them.

“We believed that right now, utilising the World Cup experience and knowledge of Wahab was the correct choice. Wahab has been training and playing club cricket, and a player of his calibre will not face much problem in adapting and adjusting to the gruelling demands of the World Cup. If we have at our disposal two vastly experienced pacers in Amir and Wahab, then it will be foolish not to include them.”

As for Abid’s exclusion, Inzamam put it down to the intense competition at the top of the order. Both Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ulHaq, Pakistan’s first-choice openers, were in sizzling form during the England ODIs. While Fakhar amassed 200 runs in five games, averaging 40, Imam’s 234 runs came at an average of 117 and contained a career-best 151. “It has not been an easy decision to leave out Abid, particularly after he got only one opportunity on the tour,” Inzamam said. “But he was our third-choice opener. After both the first-choice openers struck early form, we preferred Asif Ali as he brings firepower to the team that can strengthen our chances in the tournament.

Wahab is set to join the squad in Bristol on 22 May. Pakistan play a brace of warmup matches, on 24 and 26 May, against Afghanistan and Bangladesh respectively, before they kick off their World Cup campaign against West Indies on 31 May. Squad: Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt,wk), Asif Ali, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Imam-ulHaq, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnanin, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz

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(ICC)

ational drugs test. But while Vince and Dawson will sit in reserve during the tournament, Archer should challenge for a spot in the first team.

Speaking after the 4-0 win series win over Pakistan, Bayliss said: “I hadn’t seen [Archer] play live before but he’s certainly lived up to expectations. He’s got good control, good pace and he can bowl in all the three phases of the match.”

The Sussex right-armer’s inclusion in the final squad was always a formality once England saw him make the step up from Twenty20 leagues to the international stage with minimal fuss. The question then became who should make way. With Mark Wood returning from a two-month break last Friday and bowling at speeds of 90mph-plus – and Liam Plunkett

and Chris Woakes England’s leading seam-bowlers over the past four years – it ultimately came down to a straight choice between Willey and Tom Curran.

Though just 17 caps into his one-day career, Surrey’s older Curran brother has impressed over the past few weeks, claiming nine wickets in four games against Ireland and Pakistan as well as helping to seal secure successful run-chases in Malahide and Nottingham with some steely lower order batting. Willey and Denly should not lose heart by their expected omissions. Teams can still call up injury replacements during the tournament subject to signoff from the International Cricket Council’s events committee, although such changes are then permanent and cannot be reversed down the line. (The Guardian)

Formula 1: Chadwick joins Williams F1 team as development driver

Jamie Chadwick won the first race in the W Series at Hockenheim, Germany in April and has a sixpoint lead in the championship after two races

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amie Chadwick, one of Britain’s leading female racing drivers, has joined the Williams Formula 1 team as a development driver.

It is the same role that ex-racing driver Susie Wolff had for Williams from 2012-15, before her retirement.

Chadwick, 21, is the only woman to win a British Formula 3 race and is driving in the new, all-female W Series this year - in which she won the first race.

Chadwick will attend three grands prix for Williams this year in her new role.

The first will be the British Grand Prix in July. She will also, Williams say, “be fully immersed into the team both trackside and in the factory at Grove, alongside a busy simulator programme” as well as be involved in marketing activities.

“Promoting women in motorsport is extremely important and having a female role model as part of our driver academy will hopefully inspire young girls to take up racing at a young age,” said Williams deputy team principal Claire Williams.

“We hope to show that motorsport is in-

clusive and exciting, be that as a driver or on the engineering side. Jamie is a great talent and I look forward to working with her.”

Chadwick, who also won the 2015 British GT4 title and the MRF Winter Series in India in 2018-19, said it was an “honour” to be joining Williams.

“The time in the simulator is a fantastic opportunity to aid with my development,” she said.

“I look forward to spending time in the factory at Grove, immersing myself within the team and assisting wherever I can.

Being a part of the driver academy is an amazing platform and I’m excited to get started.” (BBC Sport)

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21 St Pius bag circle tennis title guyanatimesgy.com

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he Saint Pius Sports Complex Circle Tennis Club (SPSCCTC) have reigned supreme in the Guyana Circle Tennis Association’s 53rd Independence Celebration Tournament.

Hosted by the National Sports Commission (NSC), in collaboration with the AL Sport & Tour Promotions, this tournament was hosted over the past weekend at the Cultural Centre Tarmac on Mandela Avenue in Georgetown.

The victorious SPSCCTC team won all their games in the round robin playoffs, defeating Regions 3 and 6, and the Banks United Circle Tennis Club.

Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, was present to witness the NSC-sponsored first circle tennis programme for the year, and afterwards interacted with the players and spectators. In his remarks to the players at the official presentation ceremony held after the events, Jones said he was very impressed at those who turned out to witness “our national game of circle tennis”, which he deems a true family sport and is happy to know is still alive in Guyana.

“I want to thank all the teams that participated in the competition,” he declared, even as he praised the officials

and organisers for “a wellorganised event”.

The Director of Sport has promised that the NSC would continue to support circle tennis, and he said the player teams can look forward for another and bigger event.

Meanwhile, the sports officer at the NSC who has responsibility for circle tennis has extended his gratitude to the Guyana Circle Tennis Association, the management and staff of the National Cultural Centre, and all the teams, “for making our first event for 2019 a wonderful one”. The Player of the Tournament accolade was awarded to 13- year-old Kareena Nalim of Region 3.

The St Pius team receiving their winning trophy

Reevers 30, and Keith O’Brien 15.

Results: Region 6 Visionary Youth Club made 129-3. Donald Gibson made 52 (6s - 8) Saint Pius SCCTC made 130 – 2. Shane made 42, Seyon Thomas made 21.

Saint Pius SCCTC made 212-2 Orin Parris made 79 not out (6s - 10); Keith Brandt made 31; Phillip Fraser made 29, and Abiola Shepherd made 27 Banks CTC made 132-4. M Mc Lennon made 38 and Marlon Griffith made 19.

Saint Pius SCCTC made 204 Orin Paris was run out on 99 (6s -12), Shane Allicock made 40, Mario Haywood made 28, and Samantha Porter made 11.

Region 3 Flying Stars United Force made 138 – 6 David Durant made 50, (6s-5), Dexter

Region 3 Flying Stars United Force made 191-2.

Travis Drakes was out for 110 (6s16), and Donald Gibson made 21.

Region 6 Visionary Youth Club made 189-1.

Marvin Durant made 74 (6-11), Dexter Reevers 21, and S Bacchus 18.

Banks United CTC made 73-3. Roanna Charles made 10.

Region 3 Flying Stars United Force made 761. David Durant made 36 (6s -6).

Region 6 Visionary Youth Club made 141-1.

Donald Gibson made 38, Travis Drakes 24, Lucious Mettelhozer made 20.

Banks United CTC made 146-6.

Troy Mc Rae made 43, and Jewel Layne 12.

James “Kool” Lewis concludes Inter-Ministries Weekend of Sports

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he figurative curtains have come down on the “Weekend of Sports” organised by veteran sports organiser James “Kool” Lewis to foster social cohesion among the various staffers of the public ser-

vice.

Two successful events were hosted over the weekend. On Friday, the Inter-Ministries KO Domino Competition played at the Ministry of Agriculture’s canteen was won by the GGMC team. Coming in second was the Ministry of Agriculture’s NDIA, while the GPF’s Felix Austin Training College settled for third place.

The victorious team won the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Trophy and a cash prize from Guyoil, while second and third placers won trophies and cash incentives respectively.

In the highly anticipated tape-ball cricket competition, the fans were given opportunity to see various teams within their respective ministries play at the National Cultural Centre Tarmac on Saturday. The Ministry

of Public Health’s GPHC team and the Ministry of Education team met in the final, as each had breezed through their preliminary stages without competition, and were poised and ready for action.

In the end, GPHC got the better of the Education side. Batting first, Ministry of Education were able to post an impressive 73-6 in their allotted 6 overs; but this wasn’t enough for the Education side to defend, as GPHC chased the target down with ease to be crowned 2019 champions.

GPHC received a $50,000 cash prize and trophy, while the Ministry of Education settled for runners-up position.

The veteran Lewis has celebrated 40 years of working in the public service, 30 years of which have been spent working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For further information on future competitions, interested persons/ ministries can contact Lewis on 628-1656 or 666-5857. All trophies and medals were donated by sitting ministers to successfully host the event.

Peterson puts in final preparations ahead of World Classic PL C’ships

By Timothy Jaikarran

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he International Powerlifting Federation’s (IPF’s) World Classic Powerlifting Championships are set to take place in Helsingborg, Sweden from June 3-15, and Guyanese Carlos ‘The Show Stopper’ Peterson will be aiming to move up the rankings and make his nation proud.

Peterson secured his spot at Sweden 2019 when he won gold in the Men’s Raw Open 93kg class, and followed up that performance in the Men’s Equipped Open division by claiming his second gold and setting a new National

Total Record of 800kg. His Squat of 315kg was also a new national record, as was his Deadlift mark of 330kg.

When Guyana Times Sport asked about his preparation for Sweden, Peterson said, “I participated in an event a few weeks ago. The event was great. (I) got 3rd place in the Strong Fit event, and won the Powerlifting event (overall).

“Firstly, I would like to say thanks to my sponsors, Fitness Express/Jamie McDonald and Space Gym, for believing in me. It was a great event; I was able to set a main focus on what my coach, ‘Big John Edwards’, told me and execute what

was planned.

“This event was mainly a warm-up for the World Classics Powerlifting Championships.

(It did not only give me a mindset, but) it helped me to set a deeper focus on what’s ahead at World’s. I believe the more exposure we athletes get, the better for us; not only in training, but we’re able to see where we (are) at, and what’s missing.”

Peterson also related that, in terms of his preparation, the process never ends, as he continues to train, making adjustments to his techniques so that

Carlos Peterson will be seeking gold in Sweden

when he hits t h e stage nothing can go wrong.

He rev e a l e d that his opening lifts at the World’s will be Squat 680lbs/285-290kg; Bench Press 350lbs/150-160kg, and Deadlift 730lbs/315320kg, because as the event goes forward, he would be increasing his load based on how the other foreign athletes are performing.

Peterson admitted to being nervous, but said he would be putting in his final work as he prepares for the event.

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tuesday, MAY 21, 2019

GUYANATIMESgy.COM

3rd Independence 5K Road Race…

Kenya's Mbihia to compete for crown

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he Guyana Committee of Service (GCOS) will be hosting the third annual Independence 5K Road Race on Monday May 27. It commences and finishes at the National Park.

Over $500,000 in cash and prizes will be up for grabs, with participating categories ranging from Under-10 to Masters.

In a bid to increase the competitiveness of the event, the GCOS have invited seasoned Kenyan athlete Godffrey Mbihia to participate in the event. Mbihia, who has experience competing in Europe and North America, will be raring to go, after winning the ‘C to C 5K Race’ in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad & Tobago last weekend.

According to GCOS committee member Leslie Black AA, Mbihia will also be holding training sessions with local middle and long distance athletes in a bid to help them improve their current levels.

On Monday, Cable and Internet provider E-Networks became the latest corporate body to support the event. Avril Black, wife of Leslie Black, was on hand to receive the sponsorship cheque from E-Networks’ Vanita Persaud at the entity’s Camp Street Office.

Sanctioned by the Amateur Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), the Independence 5K Road Race will begin in the National Park then proceed east on Thomas Lands and turn north into Vlissengen Road, before turning west into Carifesta Avenue, south into Camp Street, east into Thomas Lands, and then back into the National Park for the finish at the Children’s Monuments.

Sponsoring the event apart from E-Networks are: Ministry of the Presidency, Office of the Prime Minister, Guyana Committee of Service, Guybisco and Ken Phillips (Antarctic Maintenance).

Mexico claim the 2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship

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exico is the champion of the 2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship after defeating the United States 6-2 in the Final on Sunday.

Braces from Ramon Maldonado and Jair Aleman and goals from Benjamin Mosco and Jose Hernandez powered El Tricolor to the triumph. The U.S. got both of its goals from Nick Perera.

It is the fourth time that Mexico has won the CBSC, adding to its CBSC conquests in 2008, 2010 and The Mexican national team celebrates after winning the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship 2015.

Both Mexico and the U.S. clean sheet in the 3-0 semifinal win over Panama and conhave qualified for the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup ceded just 12 goals during the tournament, was the winin Paraguay. ner of the Golden Glove Award.

Following Mexico’s 6-2 victory over the United States Nick Perera of the United States took home Golden in the Final of the 2019 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Boot honors for the 13 goals he scored during the tourChampionship, the Technical Study Group (TSG) an- nament, including one in the semifinal round versus El nounced the competition’s individual awards.

Salvador and then two goals in the Final.

Thanks to his eight goals in the tournament, El Rounding out the individual awards is Golden Ball Salvador’s Exon Perdomo helped the Cuscatlecos to winner Benjamin Mosco of Mexico. The tournament’s a Third-Place finish and took home honors as the Best Most Valuable Player scored three of his four goals in the Young Player. final two rounds and led El Tricolor to a 2019 FIFA Beach Mexico goalkeeper Diego Villasenor, who registered a Soccer World Cup berth and its fourth CBSC title. (Concacaf)

Guyana Committee of Service’s Avril Black (left) receiving the sponsorship cheque from E-Networks’ Vanita Persaud

Former athlete supports Mackenzie High vs Multi track & field showdown

Cooper replaces Dottin for Ireland and England tours

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ritney Cooper has been named to replace Deandra Dottin for the West Indies Women’s tours to Ireland and England.

Deandra has suffered damage to her right shoulder, and will require corrective surgery, thereby ruling her out of competition for the upcoming months.

Dottin's recent destructive form has seen her rise to be #1 player in the ICC Women’s T20 AllRounder rankings, Britney Cooper celebrating with teammates just one ahead of her teammate and Championships in Guyana in level, and we believe she will captain, Stafanie Taylor.

Dottin was named Player March, earning herself a spot make a positive contribution.”

The West Indies Women of the Series in the West Indies in preparation for the Ireland have been in a preparation Women’s tour to Pakistan in and England tours.

WICB Interim Chairman camp in Antigua from May February after scoring 158 of Selectors, Robert Haynes, 6-21. The team has been runs and taking 3 wickets.

Britney Cooper was part said, “Obviously, it’s very strengthened with the return of the West Indies Women’s unfortunate with Deandra of Captain Stafanie Taylor, Team during the ICC Women’s having to do surgery. She is Vice-Captain Hayley Mathews, World T20 held in the certainly a key player for us, and pacer Shakera Selman, Caribbean last November. and we wish her a speedy who all had participated in the Seen as an agile fielder and recovery, to come back and IPL Women’s T20 Challenge pinch-hitting batter, Cooper win matches for the West hosted by the BCCI in India.

The West Indies Women had notched up the runs Indies. Britney has previous during the CWI Women’s experience at the international will be in search of all six (6)

Former national athlete Bruce Butcher (left) and Shawn "Baldhead" McNeil

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ICC Women’s Championship points when they play England on June 6, 9 and 13 in three (3) One Day Internationals, then three (3) T20 Internationals on June 18, 21 and 25. But before the England tour, they will play Ireland in three (3) T20 Internationals on May 26, 28 and 29.

The West Indies Women are currently seventh (7th) on the ICC Women’s Championship points table with 11 points. (CWI)

ormer national highjumper Bruce Butcher, who now lives in the United States, has come out in support of the Mackenzie High (MHS) versus Multi “Old School/New School” track and field championships, set for Independence Day, Sunday May 26, at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground.

Having dominated the ‘Nationals’ as an MHS student, Butcher feels the idea of having the two top secondary schools in Region 10 -- Mackenzie High School and Christianburg Wismar (Multi) Secondary --challenge each other in what is expectedly the first of many such meets augurs well for the promotion of athletics in his hometown.

He has given a cash donation towards the staging of the event, and feels obligated to doing what he can to assist in the staging of this bold initiative.

Butcher said it is obvious that Linden continues to have talent in sports, and this is evident in those athletes’

continued winning ways at the National Schools Athletics, Swimming and Cycling Championships where Linden, District 10 (Upper Demerara/ Kwawkani), remains the top region at this level of the sport.

Two former athletes: Erwin Shawn McNeil, also known as "Baldhead", formerly of the Mackenzie High School, and Floyd Cameron who attended the Christianburg Wismar (Multi) Secondary, are the architects of this initiative.

Butcher, who represented Guyana in a three-man team that participated at the 1st World Juniors in 1986 in Greece, said sponsors need to support McNeil and Cameron in this venture, since the schools will benefit, especially since it has been reported that the schools would each receive $100,000 and a smart television.

This Independence Day track meet will have races for past students and those currently attending school in selected lengths that would evoke spectator interest.

guyanatimesgy.com

tuesday, MAY 21, 2019

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GFF submits 40-player roster for Gold Cup A head of the Golden Jaguars’ first appearance at the 2019 Gold Cup next month, the GFF have submitted to CONCACAF a preliminary 40-member squad that would represent Guyana’s historic participation in the tournament.

The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) today revealed the preliminary 40-player rosters submitted by the 16 participating Member Associations for this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. A mix of rising stars, including Christian Pulisic (Chelsea FC/ United States), Hirving Lozano (PSV Eindhoven/Mexico) and Alberth Elis (Houston Dynamo/Honduras), together with highprofile veterans such as Keylor Navas (Real Madrid/Costa Rica), Raúl Jimenez (Wolverhampton FC/Mexico) and Michael Bradley (Toronto FC/United States) are among the notable inclusions to the sixteen national teams’ rosters.

In accordance with regulations governing the competition, the submitted rosters will serve as the basis for the final 23-player lists for each team. The final 23-player rosters will be announced by CONCACAF in the first week of June.

After the official announcement, only injury-related changes will be allowed, up until 24 hours before each team’s first match; and any injury replacements must come from the preliminary 40-player roster.

Guyana’s roster features 16 locally based players and 24 overseas based players, with the likes of Kelsey Benjamin, Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson and Curtez Kellman making the preliminary cut.

The 40-player provisional rosters have been selected and submitted by each participating Member Association, and are published as such. In order to be eligible to play in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, all players are subject to, and must fully comply with, the criteria stipulated in the applicable FIFA and Gold Cup player eligibility regulations.

The 2019 Gold Cup will be the biggest-ever edition of the event, with more participating nations (16, up from 12 in 2017), more host countries (three, including first-time matches in Costa Rica and Jamaica), and more stadiums (17, up from 14 in 2017), eight of which are in contention to become a 2026 FIFA World Cup venue.

The 15th edition of the continental championship will kick off on Saturday, June 15, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, with Canada and Martinique marking the start of ‘Group A’ action. The second match of the day will feature seven-time Gold Cup champions Mexico versus Cuba.

As part of this expanded format of the tournament, ‘Group B’ will debut in the tournament on Sunday, June 16, in Costa Rica’s Estadio Nacional, marking the first-time the tournament is played in Central America.

The Guyanese 40-member preliminary roster

Costa Rica and Nicaragua will face-off in ‘Group B’s evening match, while Haiti and Bermuda will open the day’s doubleheader.

In ‘Group C’, the seeded nation Honduras will travel to Kingston, Jamaica to take on the Reggae Boyz, marking the first time the tournament is played in the Caribbean; while Curaçao and El Salvador will battle for early group dominance.

The Michael Johnson-led Golden Jaguars will take on defending champions USA, led by manager Gregg Berhalter, in Minnesota’s Allianz Field in their first game, on June 18. On the same day, more ‘Group C’ action will see Panama taking on Trinidad and Tobago, in what is sure to be a tightly contested match, to round out the day and the first full round of Group Stage matchups.

In the Knockout rounds, Houston’s NRG Stadium and

CONCACAF Gold Cup preparations…

Golden Jags to spar with Bermuda in friendly

The Guyana Golden Jaguars during the CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification

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s the Guyana Senior Men’s National Team, the Golden Jaguars, prepare to make history, having qualified for their first ever CONCACAF Gold Cup Competition, the team will commence preparations on June 1 with an international camp that will include two international friendly matches.

The camp begins on June 1 in Bermuda, where they will come up against fellow Gold Cup debutants Bermuda in an international friendly on June 6. The Jaguars then travel to Costa Rica to continue their camp over the period June 9 – 13; and while there, they will play another international friendly, this time against Caribbean powerhouse Haiti, on June 11.

From Costa Rica, the team would travel to their base in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, for their opening game of CONCACAF Gold Cup 2019, on June 18 at the Allianz Field against defending champions USA. Head Coach of the Golden Jaguars, Michael

Johnson, said: “We look forward to working with the squad over the coming days and weeks as we aim to build on the success of our qualification campaign. The selection process was not easy, and I understand there will be disappointment among some players; however, I’m encouraging players, fans and the media to get behind the squad as we aim to do the people of Guyana proud.

“Wherever you are in the world, we, the staff & camp players, are asking you to get behind the team and enjoy this historical moment. Your country needs you!”

The Golden Jaguars were drawn in Group D of the 16-team tournament with the USA, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago; and following their USA match, will travel to Cleveland, Ohio to take on Panama on June 22 at the First Energy Stadium, then play their final group game against Caribbean Football Union rivals Trinidad and Tobago on June 26 at the Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas.

Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field will host two Quarterfinal matches each, on June 29 and 30 respectively. The winning teams will move on to State Farm Stadium in Phoenix and Nissan Stadium in Nashville for the Semifinals. The grand finale is scheduled to be played on July 7th in Chicago’s iconic Soldier Field.

The 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup is sponsored by a number of renowned names, including Allstate Insurance Company, Camarena Tequila, Cerveza Modelo, Nike, Scotiabank, Sprint, Toyota, and Valvoline.

The tournament will be broadcast on the Univision and FOX family of networks, transmitted on radio in Spanish by Fútbol de Primera Radio Network, and broadcast by television partners in over 180 countries around the world.

Bartica KFC U-20 Tournament…

Potaro Strikers strike gold

The victorious Potaro Strikers alongside President of the BFA, Alden Marslowe

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n afternoon of enthralling football -punctuated by a single goal, and hyped by screaming fans -- wrapped up the Bartica leg of the GFF-KFC Under-20 Knockout Tournament after a week of exciting matches were held at the Bartica Secondary School Ground.

With a trophy, bragging rights and the chance to represent Bartica at the national playoffs at stake, Potaro Strikers FC and Lazio FC put on a display of youthful exuberance and football quality to produce a match worthy of an Under-20 final.

The encounter went both ways at a steady pace, and the fans went along, screaming ball after ball.

Beyond the half, the match was deadlocked at nil, but it took a player the quality of a Junior Jaguar -- in the person of Kevin Reddy -- to break the deadlock, converting from a set-play 20 yards out.

Keron Spencer faked the play, and the ensuing Reddy strike was so swift and accurate that it caught everyone flat-footed, including the Lazio goalkeeper.

Potaro Strikers walked away with a 1-nil win, and will now go on to represent the Bartica Association at the National Playoff of the competition.

The National Playoffs will be played from May 31 to June 9. For players to be considered eligible to participate, they would have had to be born on or after January 1, 1999.

At the association level, should scores remain level at end of 90 minutes of play, the match goes straight to penalty kicks; while for national playoffs, extra time will be given. Prizes for the tournament are as follows: first place, $500,000; second place, $300,000; and third place, $200,000.

Eight clubs participated in the week-long tournament at Bartica, namely: Potaro Strikers, Lazio, Beacons, Rivers View, Mil Ballers, Wolves United, Rising Stars and Agatash United.

The tournament is the Bartica leg of a national collaboration between the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) and the franchise holders of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

tuesday, MAY 21, 2019

Sports is no longer our game, it’s our business

guyanatimesgy.com

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GFF submits 40-player roster for Gold Cup 3rd Independence 5K Road Race…

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Bartica KFC U-20 Tournament…

Potaro Strikers strike gold Page 23

Kenya's Mbihia to compete for crown Potaro Strikers and BFA President Alden Marslowe

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