A December 1 date for the lowering of tolls for the Berbice Bridge has elapsed, with the company now saying that the matter is in lawyers’ hands. The situation will spell a continuing stalemate over the toll reduction announced by the new administration in its national budget presentation earlier this year. According to the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI) yesterday, an agreement sent to the Berbice Bridge Company Incorporated (BBCI) is still being brokered.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

Nigel Ellis, one of the men accused of robbing and terrorizing several persons at a Mahaicony Supermarket, has been granted bail to the tune of $600,000 by the High Court. Ellis was recently discharged from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). He is now permanently blind in both eyes after being shot by a vigilante.  Attorney Adrian Thompson presented a bail application for the accused two weeks ago. Ellis of Lot 34 West Ruimveldt, Georgetown has been charged with four counts of armed robbery after he appeared in the Mahaicony Magistrate’s Courts on November 18.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

JAPAN  –  An unsettling mystery has washed up on Japan’s shores. Over the past two months, at least eight wooden boats have been found in the Sea of Japan on or near the coast, carrying a chilling cargo the decaying bodies of 20 people, Japan’s coast guard told CNN. All of the bodies were badly decomposed and “partially skeletonized” two were found without heads and one boat contained six skulls, the coast guard said. The first boat was found in October, then a series of boats in late November.(CNN.COM/photo: turner.com)…[+]

Fifty-five-year-old Allan Sim, a taxi driver, of Lot 860 Paradise Housing Scheme, was yesterday remanded to prison for the murder of Melissa Skeete, a former dispatcher at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Sim, who shared a child with Skeete a/k Lisa, is accused of murdering the woman on November 23, last in Georgetown. He was not required to plead to the indictable charge read to him by Magistrate Fabayo Azore, at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.  According to reports, Skeete was stabbed several times about the body. It was reported that the woman was allegedly stabbed while inside her assailant’s motorcar PRR 6841 and then thrown out of the vehicle on Carmichael Street, Georgetown.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

Government said that it remains committed to pursue the development of its own hydroelectric facilities. Five out of 67 possible sites are currently being assessed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for development. The assessment is expected to be completed by May 2016. The five sites, according to Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, are Kamaira, Kumu, Tumatumari, Tiger Hill and Amaila.  The government will be using $80M from the Norway funds that were set aside for renewable energy development.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

CANADA   –  Two brothers saved a trapped bald eagle, and at the same time, took a memorable selfie.

Michael and Neil Fletcher happened upon an eagle while driving through the woods of Dowling in Ontario, Canada. “We noticed something so we backed up,” Michael Fletcher said.(CNN.COM/photo: usatoday.com)…[+]

Key stakeholder in the tobacco trade, Demerara Tobacco Ltd. claims they were excluded from the consultation process for the drafting of the new tobacco legislation, which is expected to be tabled early next year.  In an interview with the Kaieteur News, Managing Director Maurlain Argyle-Kirton said it was disturbing that the Company was not included in the consultations. “Unfortunately and disturbingly, Demerara Tobacco has not been consulted despite many consultations on the Bill over the years,” she stated, stressing that the Company has not laid eyes on the content of the Bill as yet.  She asserted that despite many attempts to have engagement with the Public Health Ministry, no one sought to meet them.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

Prolific playwright Harold Bascom and renowned writer David Dabydeen copped the top awards in drama and fiction as the winners of the Guyana Prize for Literature and the Guyana Prize Caribbean 2014 Awards were announced last night at the Pegasus International Hotel.

Bascom was awarded the Guyana Prize and the Guyana Caribbean Prize in the Best Book of Drama category for his play ‘Desperate for Relevance’, ahead of Montserrat playwright David Edgecombe, whose play ‘Lady of Parham’, was also shortlisted for the Guyana Caribbean Prize.  The Caribbean Award is open to works written by citizens of the CARICOM states, the Commonwealth Caribbean and the Netherland Antilles. Bascom, who lives overseas and did not attend, is now a four-time Guyana Prize winner in the Best Drama category.

.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

INDIA – Pleas by local officials for farmers to switch from rice to oilseeds and pulses and protect dangerously low water levels are falling on deaf ears, and may be further undermined by government policies encouraging cultivation of thirsty crops.

Back to back droughts for the first time in nearly 30 years mean some rural areas in the north are running out of water for human consumption and agriculture, prompting warnings of serious consequences if urgent action is not taken. “It is unlikely that India will have another drought next year; three years in a row has never happened before,” said Ashok Gulati, a farm economist who advised the last government. “But with extreme events increasing due to climate change, you never know. If we don’t wake up now then, God forbid, people will leave farming to become labourers at railways stations.” With more than two-thirds of the 1.25 billion population living off the land, water scarcity could affect the majority and hit long term food supplies.(Reuters)…[+]     

CHINA – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged financial service institutions in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) to carry out stronger financial reforms and opening up. The negative list approach should be expanded to financial services such as banks, securities, insurance and funding companies, so as to better manage foreign investment, Li was quoted as saying by a Thursday press release following his inspection of the Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China on Wednesday. First piloted in the Shanghai FTZ in 2013, the negative list model states sectors and businesses that are off limits to foreign investment, and will be adopted nationwide in the next five years. It will help motivate foreign investors, ensure the protection of foreign investors’ rights and better allocate their money. (Xinhua)…[+]