Monday 4
Miner dies in Micobe accident
A MOTOR pick-up accident at Micobe, Potaro left one dead and four others injured. Dead is Leonard Raymond, 37, a miner of Micobe, who was a passenger in the tray of the motor pick-up. Police said the vehicle turned turtle as the driver tried to negotiate a turn in the trail. The five injured men were taken to the Mahdia Hospital, but only Raymond was pronounced dead on arrival. The driver is in police custody.In a separate incident,Dwayne Johnson, 27, of Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara was involved in an argument with another man while drinking at Itaballi, Mazaruni River, during which he was stabbed to his chest and subsequently died.

Illegal mining doing far more deforestation than envisaged
ILLEGAL mining is causing a lot more deforestation than envisaged, Commissioner of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) Mr. Rickford Vieira has said. He said that an additional problem was that the gold acquired through illegal mining was not sold through the normal channels, thereby robbing the country of a main source of revenue. “At the moment we don’t have any control. We need to see where they are, where they are going. When you are on the ground you can’t see those things.”

Region 8 ‘Eagle Mountain’ gold project economically viable
AN economic study of the viability of the
Eagle Mountain gold project near Mahdia in Region 8 (Potaro/Siparuni) has yielded positive results. Goldsource Mines Inc., the Canadian company conducting exploration, has announced that conceptually the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) results suggest that the project has low capital and operating costs, minimised technical risk, a short development timeline and very attractive rates of return. Ioannis (Yannis) Tsitos, President of Goldsource, said: “In addition, the inventory of potentially recoverable ounces of gold in the oversize materials and the underlying hard rock resource provide us with a significant ‘blue-sky’ potential for further development. There is strong potential for expansion.”

Tuesday 5
$30.8M Nursery School to be built in Cummings Park
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY children will be the beneficiaries of a new nursery school which is to be constructed at ‘E’ Field Sophia, Cummings Park to the tune of $30.8M. The school, which is scheduled to be completed by December 30, will be equipped with classrooms, a kitchenette and sick bay, head teacher’s office, a storage area, two rooms for students with disabilities and five washrooms, water facility, and an access bridge and guard hut. Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand said that already 118 students have registered, and expansion of the school must be taken into consideration because it is anticipated that more children will be starting school in the coming years.

Murdered LGBT member Jason John, aka Jada, laid to rest
THE funeral service of Jason John, also known as Jada, the final of three members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, who died three Sundays ago in a double-murder and suicide in Georgetown just streets away from each other, took place this week from Sandy’s Funeral Parlour in Chapel Street, Lodge. At this funeral and viewing, the atmosphere was somewhat more tempered than had obtained in the funeral of Carl Sinclair, aka Tyra Banks. There was not much work for the police with respect to clearing of the roadways, and the crowd seemed more cooperative with the police, relatives and parlour managers.

Region 7 residents enlightened on HEIP
THE Hinterland Education Improvement Programme (HEIP) has recently been reintroduced. It targets specific areas that need government’s intervention, so as to ensure the country’s children are not only provided with the necessary infrastructure, but they also receive quality education. The programme will be implemented over the next five years targeting Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9. Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand along with Permanent Secretary, Delma Nedd, Region 7, Regional Executive Officer (REO) Peter Ramotar, and other Ministry officials held a recent consultation with residents of Kamarang and neighbouring villages to have their input on the implementation on the HEIP programme.

Wednesday 6
Pit Bulls maul woman to deat
h in her Lamaha Springs yard
TWO vicious male Pit Bull dogs savaged 51-year-old Joan Carter in the Lot 232 Lamaha Springs and Henry Avenue yard she had shared with her brother-in-law and his wife. The woman had moved into the property approximately three months ago, and had never been fond of the ferocious beasts. She would usually lock herself away from them whenever they were loose in the yard. She was sweeping the yard when tragedy struck. It is unclear how the dogs got out of their kennel, but one of the dogs approached the woman and she began fending it off with her broom and they immediately attacked her.

Studies being undertaken to promote rural entrepreneurship
SMALL business survivability in Guyana is to be examined under a US$200,000 project by the Governments of Guyana (GOG) and Chile, the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce has disclosed. Expressions of interest (EOI) have been requested by the Ministry for consultants capable of undertaking the study. The EOI have also been requested for an additional study on the economics of starting and operating a small business in Guyana. The overall aim of both studies is poverty alleviation among the rural poor through acquiring and disseminating information which can help outlying businesses to become more efficient, competitive and sustainable.

Lisa Punch to party with Guyana Festival
GUYANA-born, ABC ‘Rising Star’ contestant Lisa Punch will be joining the festivities as curtains raise on the much-anticipated inaugural Guyana Festival — Sound, Soul and Taste. Punch, accredited as one of many Guyanese aiding in the placement of Guyana on the world map, was announced as a contestant on ABC’s first sing-off reality TV show as the vibrant voice of the small Caribbean nation. Punch survived several weeks in the competition, viewed by millions of Americans, and has received social media endorsements. She was, however, knocked out of the quarter-final qualifying round after she failed to achieve placement in the top seven.

Thursday 7
Owner of pit bulls hospitalised with hypertension after animals kill woman
POLICE probing the killing of 51-year-old Joan Carter by two male pit bull dogs in the yard she shared with her sister and brother-in- law are treading cautiously at present with respect to charging the homeowner, Leslie Thomside. The man was being guarded by police at a city hospital where he was admitted with high blood pressure since the incident. He has been complaining of feeling unwell and constant headaches and requested to be taken to the hospital. Doctors there recommended that he be admitted since it was unsafe to send him home in his condition.

17-yr-old stabbed to death
SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Alex Narine of Columbia Village, Essequibo Coast was brutally stabbed to death while he was involved in an argument with another man over a computer on an old paddy drying floor which is used as a sports ground by residents in the Anna Regina Housing Scheme. Reports said the teenager who was in love with a 13-year-old girl had gone to the village to visit her but ended up in an argument with another man on the drying floor over a computer and was fatally stabbed in his back.

President Ramotar hands over outboard engine to Mora
PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar, while on a visit to Wakapoa in the Lower Pomeroon, handed over a new 15hp Tohatsu outboard engine to residents of Mora community to help transport children to attend school at Wakapoa mission, some eight miles away. Hundreds of residents who witnessed the handing over of the engine said they are happy and thankful to the Government and President Ramotar for assisting the children of Mora.

Friday 8
HJ Entertainment launches imminent Water-World, Fun Park
THE Hits and Jams Entertainment fraternity officially launched the location that is to soon be transformed into a Water World and Fun Park. This facility when completed will cater for the fantasies of those desirous of savouring that ‘special beach feeling.’ according to officials. The new facility will be situated behind the Princess Hotel at Providence, East Bank Demerara, and is to be completed in phases in time for the upcoming annual Jamzone Beach Jam. This year’s Jamzone 2014 activities calendar will feature eight events over a ten-day period.

Daughter screams and collapses as jury frees incest accused
A DREADLOCKED Cecil Smith was freed of the charges of incest and indecent assault allegedly committed on his daughter in 2009, when she was 15 years old. And almost simultaneously with announcement of the jury’s verdict, the now 20-year-old daughter, who was sitting in the courtroom as a spectator, began screaming before she collapsed. Policemen and women had to lift her out of the courtroom to the Police Outpost, where the screaming continued as she kept crying and shouting: “No one knows the trouble I went through, and this man has been freed!” The girl had related how her father had sexually violated her and had even threatened her at knife-point, causing her to give in to his demand for sex. But her story was not foolproof, as it was full of inconsistencies.

Princess Casino sued over $20M winnings
CONTRACTOR Somar Shako of 283 Zeelugt, East Bank, Essequibo, has filed a writ against the company of Princess Casino, claiming that after winning $20M at the slot machine, he was denied the money on the grounds that the machine had malfunctioned. In the summons issued by a team of lawyers headed by Mr. Maxwell Mc Kay, the plaintiff is asking the court to compel the defendants to pay the $20M prize money and $3M damages for breach of contract and $2M for loss of income. On CARICOM Day July 7, 2014, Shako said after playing over 40 games on the slot machine, it visually announced the Jackpot winnings of $20,300,306. The manager then opened a part of the said machine and deleted the winning message, in the presence of several persons who had surrounded the machine to congratulate Shako on his winnings. Later, he was informed by the casino manager that slot machine #340 was malfunctioning and that as a result the casino cannot make any payments to him.

Saturday 9
GUYANA FESTIVAL OPENS:
-with a dazzling display of fusion of cultures
THE thousands of patrons who poured into the Guyana National Stadium to witness the opening of the inaugural Guyana Festival were treated to the thrills and skills of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) parachuters who had set the bar very high. With the plaiting of the ‘May Pole’ to the renditions of folk songs done by youths, and the merging of the various styles of dancing created on one stage, the opening ceremony of the Guyana Festival mesmerised all. Guyana’s culture is not complete without the fusing of our drums that hyped the crowd to their feet.

Jonestown cult members’ remains found in Delaware
(BBC) THE cremated remains of nine victims of the 1978 mass cult suicide in Jonestown, Guyana have turned up in a former funeral home in Delaware. The ashes were discovered in the city of Dover when officials inspected a lot of more than 30 small containers. Investigators said they did not know why the remains had not been claimed. More than 900 members of the Peoples Temple died when their leader Jim Jones ordered them to take punch laced with cyanide. Officials from the Delaware Division of Forensic Science have taken possession of the remains which were discovered at the former Minus Funeral Home in Dover.

Canada bound man busted at CJIA with cocaine in seasoning, milk
A FIFTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Canada bound man was busted with a quantity of cocaine that he had hidden in milk tins and bottles of seasoning at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA); he has been identified as Satesh Persaud. Persaud who hails from Berbice, but from time to time travels to Canada was heading out of Guyana on a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) flight BW 527 when he was caught by ranks from the Customs Anti Narcotic Unit (CANU) with the substance. He is now in custody.