BRAZIL – Australian mining giant BHP says mud spilled by the devastating collapse of a dam at a Brazilian mine is not toxic. On Thursday the UN said the dam burst at the Samarco mine unleashed a flood equivalent to “20,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic mud”. The incident earlier this month in Minas Gerais state left 13 people dead, devastating several villages. Eleven people are still missing. The noxious river has trailed 500km from the mine into the Atlantic Ocean. The mining giant said in a statement the waste water in the dam, a by-product of iron ore extraction known as tailings, did not pose any threat to humans.(BBC)…[+]

Two persons are now dead and another is battling for life at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) after a head-on collision involving a car and a truck at Coverden on the East Bank Demerara (EBD) Wednesday.

The dead persons have been identified as 49-year-old Roshini Dourga of Diamond, EBD, and her uncle, George Madhulall, 72. Madhulall, who resided in Canada, was here on vacation. Dourga’s husband, Robert, 62, was also wounded in the accident. He is said to be in a critical condition at the GPHC. Kaieteur News was told that Robert Dourga was the driver of the white Toyota Spacio that the trio was travelling in.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

Detectives attached to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters are busy cross-checking certain aspects of a confession given Wednesday by the man who stabbed hospital dispatcher Melissa Skeete and then dumped her out of a car last Monday. The man, Alan Sim, who surrendered to police on Wednesday, gave detectives a detailed statement Wednesday in which he claimed that his actions, which resulted in the death of Skeete, were triggered by the woman’s “disrespectfulness” and they were done in self-defence. Skeete, who was stabbed seven times about her body, succumbed a few hours later, while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

AFRICA  –  Pope Francis waded into the heart of a Kenyan shantytown Friday, spreading a message of acceptance and lashing out at the elite in a neighborhood that feels largely disenfranchised.

Francis’ visit to Kangemi mirrors his message of service to the poor during his three days in Nairobi.  In the sprawling slum filled with tin-roofed homes, he described injustices against the poor as “new forms of colonialism.” “Our world has a grave social debt toward the poor who lack access to drinking water because they are denied a life consistent with their inalienable dignity,” he said.

He said the “dreadful injustice of social exclusion” leaves the poor with an unfair distribution of land, and lack of access to infrastructures and basic services.(CNN.COM/photo: cmgdigital.com)…[+]

U.S   –  A Florida man who posted a photograph of his wife’s body on Facebook was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder. Derek Medina of South Miami was accused of shooting his wife, Jennifer Alonso, in August 2013. After he killed her, authorities say, he posted a picture of her body on his Facebook page with a note. Prosecutors are expected to seek a life sentence at a hearing set for January.(CNN.COM/photo: foxnews.com)…[+]

Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, categorically stated Tuesday that a case involving tax evasion on a sports vehicle by former Housing Minister, Irfaan Ali has been dropped. He said that after “personally examining the facts” it was clear to see that, “Ali didn’t commit any wrong.” The Finance Minister said, “I examined the matter and all the documents involved and what I can say is that someone at inland authority was just too overzealous. Ali was in no way wrong, he committed no act of impropriety and as a result of that Government has dropped the matter.”(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

A Middle Road La Penitence man is receiving treatment for a gunshot wound to his left leg which he sustained when he tried to escape from a policeman who was about to arrest him. The man whose name was given as Jaime Lamaison was being arrested for an alleged rape he had committed Tuesday.  According to reports, Lamaison is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in a house at Middle Road, La Penitence. “People see the girl come running out the house with she bloody clothes. Then he beat out,” a source in the area told this newspaper.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews,com)…[+]

U.S  –  A shooting in a New Orleans park left 16 people injured, police said.

Several hundred people had gathered at Bunny Friend Playground for an impromptu music video filming late Sunday when two groups began firing on each other, the New Orleans Police Department said in a statement. “Witnesses told police that both groups left the park on foot immediately after the shooting,” police said. Officers were already in route to break up the gathering, when the shooting broke out. “They were about a block away when they heard gunshots,” police said.(CNN.COM/photo: turner.com)…[+]

Information was still hard to come by yesterday as to why 22 year old Roshinee Pagwah took that death-plunge on Saturday off the Kaieteur Falls.

But indications are that she had been planning to take her life at the popular tourist site days before. Pagwah of lot 54 Reliance Abondon, East Canje, Berbice, was a clerk at the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL). She was the only child of her mother, Indira Ramsundar, a housewife, who was still inconsolable yesterday, clutching at her daughter’s photographs and a garment that had belonged to the young woman.

Roshinee, who lived with her mother and an aunt, left home for Georgetown, reportedly to follow a friend to clear a barrel. She had promised that she would return home a little after midday. She never indicated that she was going to the Kaieteur Falls.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]

Another cane-harvester’s son has excelled at the University of Guyana. This time it’s Sasenarine Tomby. Tomby, whose father is a cane harvester and mother a housewife, obtained a distinction in the Bachelor of Social Science Degree Programme in Public Management.

Tomby received the Republic Bank Award for his achievement at the 14th Annual Convocation Exercise of the University Of Guyana Campus at Tain, Corentyne, on Saturday. Some 105 graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences, 36 from the Faculty of Education and Humanities and 33 from the Faculty of Natural Sciences. The second best graduating student, Padmawattie Jainarain, achieved a Bachelor’s Degree in Primary Education.(Kaieteurnews.com/photo:Kaieteurnews.com)…[+]