Monday 6
Tain man stabbed to death following argument
BERBICE police have begun investigations into the fatal stabbing, in the wee hours of the morning, of Rajeshwar Ramdhani, 20, of Tain Settlement, Corentyne, Berbice. According to police, Ramdhani was stabbed in the region of the chest, by a man with whom he had earlier had an argument while walking along Well Tank Dam, in Miss Phoebe, Port Mourant, also on the Corentyne. Thus far, the Police said, the suspect has not been arrested.

Thousands disappointed no held-over slated for GuyExpo this year
Many have expressed concern that there wasn’t going to be any held-over this time around, as in previous years past. Many milled around, holding their breath and hoping for some sort of an announcement saying that the authorities had decided, at the last minute, to extend the event by another day or two. But alas, hope as they might, the magic words never came, leaving them no alternative but to trudge wearily home, taking with them bitter-sweet memories of the night, and event, that was. GuyExpo is arguably the largest and longest-running exposition and trade fair in all of the Caribbean.

Guyana aiming for accountable management of revenues from natural resources
GUYANA is aiming to become a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), the global coalition of governments, companies and civil society working together to improve openness and accountable management of revenues from natural resources such as forestry and mining. In EITI-compliant countries, companies in the extractive sectors such as mining and forestry are required to publish what they pay to governments and governments are required to publish what they receive from companies. These figures are then reconciled by an independent administrator. Disclosing the Guyana movement towards EITI membership last week, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNR&E), Robert Persaud, said that an international consultancy team will soon commence a Scoping Study for the Potential Adoption of EITI.

Tuesday 7
Guyana Fire Service celebrating 40th Fire Prevention Week
FROM October 5-11, the Guyana Fire Service will be observing Fire Prevention Week, the 40th observance since the initiation of the week. This year’s events are being observed under the theme “Fire Safety, a national priority, get involved.” School lectures and exhibitions will be held as part of raising awareness of the dangers of fires and the importance of fire prevention. All citizens were encouraged to take preventative measures during Fire Prevention Week and beyond, to protect themselves, their families, and their communities from the hazards of fire, thereby ensuring the safety of neighbourhoods, and assisting the brave men and women of the GFS who risk their lives every day to protect citizens and their property.

Sex video with secondary school students upsets Education Ministry
EDUCATION Minister Priya Manickchand confirmed that the Facebook video with two boys and two girls engaging in sexual activities are indeed students of a secondary school in Georgetown, and according to her this is very disturbing to her and the Ministry. Speaking with this reporter on the issue, the minister said an investigation was immediately launched into the matter. Last week a video showing four students who this newspaper later learnt are from Form Five of the school, which was also identified, hit Facebook and went viral over the weekend with well over a thousand shares and hundreds of comments.

MCYS employs five culture, youth and sports organisers in Region 9 
REGION NINE will soon be experiencing a surge of activities, all aimed at improving the quality of life and well-being of youth in the region. This was made possible with the appointment of five culture, youth and sports organisers who will be based in the five sub-regions/districts. These officers, employed by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, are tasked with ensuring the planning and organisation of both social and training activities. The five organisers are Elvis Campbell from the South Pakaraimas, Thaddeus Marco from Shulinab, Sherman Aguilar from Aishalton, Norbert Salty from Kwatamang and James George from Moco Moco. Due to the nature of the terrain, each person was presented with a motor cycle.

Wednesday 8
Welshman’s attorney says his client was offered $3M
–to say PPP/C engineered sexual assault allegations
JOHNNY Welshman, who has levelled accusations of sexual assault against Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Raphael Trotman, was offered a $3M settlement, on the condition that he publicly states that the Ruling Party asked him to make the allegations. The explosive disclosure was made by Welshman’s attorney, Mr. Peter Hugh, in a statement. According to the attorney, threats on Welshman’s life have since been reported to the police. “These threats upon Mr. Welshman’s life could well be constituted as attempting to pervert the course of justice, and I trust that the police will investigate these threats to my client’s life, and unearth the individual or individuals responsible,” he said.

Consumers body opposes GT&T request for landline rates increase
THE Guyana Consumers Association (GCA) has submitted additional arguments to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to show that the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T)company is earning much more on its landline services than it is stating and therefore its requests for rate increases are totally unjustifiable. According to GT&T’s application made earlier this year, the US-owned company wants increases in charges for applications, installations, transfers, additional jacks, wake-up calls, 3-way calls , voicemails, call forwarding, reconnection fees, and for peak and non-peak calls. The rate increases requested range from between 20-60 percent on the current charges. In a supplement to an earlier memorandum detailing its objections to rate increases by the GT&T, the GCA argued that if all the landline earnings are added to the earnings stated by the GT&T, then the present charges and rates should be drastically reduced rather than increased. The GCA argued that GT&T had failed to add some US$ 90M to its landline earnings; this money being the interest obtained from the landline revenue used to finance its cellular services.

Engineer fined for uttering forged document, conspiracy to commit felony
A 29-YEAR-OLD engineer of Lot 20 Dennis Street, Georgetown, was fined $100,000 by Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry on charges of uttering a forged document and conspiracy to commit a felony.
Johnny Maraso pleaded guilty to both charges, one of which said that on October 3, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, with intent to defraud, he uttered to a police officer one Cuban passport, numbered H125967, in favour of himself, with one false Guyana employment visa purporting to show that same was issued to him, knowing same to be false. The other charge said that between August 1 and 29, at Georgetown, he conspired with person or persons unknown to forge one Guyana employment visa, purporting to show that same was issued to him by the Government of Guyana.

Thursday 9
Rodney CoI extended until January 2015
THE public hearings of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death of former Working People’s Alliance (WPA) co-founder, Dr. Walter Rodney will likely continue into 2015, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon announced. Luncheon said the extension has been granted to January 31, 2015

Gov’t pledges $100M for City Hall restoration
CABINET has pledged to provide the Georgetown Mayor and City Council (M&CC) with $100M for urgent renovation works, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon announced. He said it was clear that the edifice was becoming a matter of concern for staff in the building and also for the heritage workers who were consumed with the passion to restore and prevent further deterioration.

Collapsed Stabroek Market roof remains threat to life, limb
THREE weeks after a section of the roof over the Stabroek Market wharf collapsed and was propped by a stall, the overhanging structure remains a virtual death trap, and poses a serious threat to life and limb. In light of this, stallholders and owners of motor vessels operating their businesses beneath are fearful for their lives and those of their clients and customers, are calling on the authorities for any intervention that would bring an end to the continued state of anxiety.

Friday 10
NDIA working assiduously to rectify koker breach
MINISTER within the Ministry of Agriculture Alli Baksh visited the community of Peter’s Hall in wake of the recent koker breach which saw the community being inundated by water from the sea. At approximately 16:00hrs Thursday afternoon, water from the Demerara River caused major flooding in the community. During the visit, Baksh met with residents of the community while inspecting urgent remedial works being undertaken by a team of engineers from the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA). Baksh added that while all measures are being put in place to remedy the situation to ensure that the water recedes effectively, he cautioned persons not to create a mode of panic by misrepresenting the situation.

Climate change has serious implications for fishers, livestock farmers
THE need for robust information and evidence-based policies to combat climate change was underscored as participants at the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA), in Paramaribo, Suriname, focused their attention on the effects climate change was having on livestock and marine resources. While the damage climate change is having on crops is widely observed and reported, stakeholders are moving to bring the effects of climate change on livestock and fisheries to the fore, pointing to the need for climate smart policies for the two sub-sectors, a press release stated.

Noland Jervis appointed GECOM ACEO
THE Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) has filled the vacancy of Assistant Chief Elections Officer/Assistant Commissioner, National Registration (ACEO/ACNR) in the person of Mr. Noland Jervis.
This was according to Deputy Chief Elections Officer (DECO), Mr. Vishnu Persaud, who added that Jervis’ appointment became effective on September 29, 2014. Under the control and supervision of the Deputy Chief Election Officer, the Assistant Chief Elections Officer is responsible for the smooth functioning of all divisions/Sections/Units/Offices within the ambit of the Operations Department.

Saturday 11
Texila University says no Ebola affected students admitted
CHIEF Administrative Officer of the Texila American University (Guyana), Sreebalakumar has cleared the air on reports that several students from Ebola affected countries travelled here to attend classes.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, the university official said that they are in constant contact with the Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation (WHO) and all other bodies which are monitoring the outbreak. He added that the university has a standard operating procedure in place to deal with anyone coming from any country outside Guyana for classes and of more recent there has been special attention paid to anyone coming from West Africa for classes.

Rebounding gold prices trigger optimism
AFTER a steep drop last Monday gold prices rebounded Thursday to regain trading above USD $1,200 an ounce. Spot gold prices closed Thursday at USD 1226.75 an ounce, the equivalent of GD 255,703 up from the low of USD 1193.25 equivalent of GD 248,460 on October 6 last. Some analysts feel that the only movement now is upwards towards breaking through the current solid technical resistance level, or cap, of USD1,250 an ounce. A local analyst explained the fall below USD1,200 an ounce last week was because many investors had   expected the Federal Reserve, the central banking system of the United States, to increase interest rates in the U.S.

Opposition using one-seat majority to stall progress-President
THE gaining of the one-seat majority by the Parliamentary Opposition was seen as a milestone in local politics, however, gaining of numerical superiority, in the National Assembly has not been put to effective use by the combined opposition, according to President Donald Ramotar.
Speaking during an interview with the National Communications Network yesterday, the president said that with their new found position in the National Assembly, the opposition should have seized the opportunity to further Guyana’s developmental agenda by working with government to ensure that key transformational projects were undertaken.
“They have never used their one-seat majority to say, PPP, you are not building enough houses, you are not building enough roads, they’re cutting our budget, and the emphasis from them is obstruction, not to use their one seat majority to try to push us to do more,” he stated.

Nothing to show for the massive PNC-created debt-Presidebt
Guyana’s economic performance has been lauded by several financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Since gaining office, via the country’s first free and fair elections, under the theme’ Time for Change; Time for rebuilding’ the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has steered the country’s economic fortunes to greater heights.
Looking back at the country’s dire economic straits under the PNC administration, President Donald Ramotar said the PPP knew it was bad while they were in opposition, but didn’t realise it was so bad.
The President said that the massive amount of debt was worse than many had imagined. With debt exceeding 700% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and repayments to creditors at 94% of each dollar earned, the current administration had its work cut out for it, so to speak.

US$96M of development financing mobilised for Guyana
–Finance Minister signs historic agreements with IDB, EU in Washington D.C to benefit electricity and water sectors
FINANCE Minister Dr. Ashni Singh signed two project agreements yesterday in Washington D.C with the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Union (EU), mobilising a total of US$96M of development financing to benefit the electricity and water sectors of Guyana. Signing the agreements alongside the Finance Minister was IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno in the presence of European Union Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs.