Enmore murder suspect still at large

Stabroek News – April 22, 2008

Police are still to locate the suspect in the murder of 22-year-old Foulis, East Coast Demerara (ECD) resident, Shaneiza Khan.

Khan was discovered dead on Sunday in the Enmore, ECD home that she once shared with her reputed husband of four years, who has not been seen since.  A post-mortem examination performed on her body yesterday found that she died as a result of her throat being slit. She was also stabbed under the breast.

Police are still hunting for her husband.

Yesterday Khan’s mother, Bibi Nazmoon Hamid told Stabroek News that documents belonging to her daughter, including her passport, were missing.  

Health sector requires partnerships to realise MDGs

Kaieteur News – April 22, 2008

The media, as a partner with the health sector, has a critical role to play in understanding health issues before disseminating these to the public.

This is the view of local Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Representative Dr Kathleen Israel.
Dr Israel was at the time commenting on the efforts that are being made to ensure that countries of the Americas are able to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are aimed at reducing maternal and child health deaths by 2015.

According to the PAHO Representative, the Government by itself can in no way introduce and implement effectively all of the measures that are needed to be taken in order to realise the MDGs or any other public health goals.

She pointed out that there is always need for partnership, and added that it was for this reason that PAHO’s temporary Consultant, Dr Patricio Jamriska, had travelled to Guyana last week.  

Single-parent mothers to earn income through cake décor

Kaieteur News – April 22, 2008

With the aim of empowering local single-parent women to better care for themselves and their children, a cake decoration course is slated to commence this week; it will attract several of these women.

All fees for the programme will be paid for by the Benschop Foundation, which has for some time now been reaching out to a number of vulnerable persons in society to bring some level of relief through various means of assistance.

According to Public Relations Officer of the Foundation, Olive Gopaul, the programme will target ten unemployed women between Agricola, East Bank Demerara, and Georgetown.

She disclosed that the programme was conceptualized after it was observed that several single mothers are not in a position to be independent, although it is required of them.  

‘Snakehead’ gets eight-year prison term for killing reputed wife

Stabroek News – April 22, 2008

Justice Dawn Gregory-Barnes yesterday sentenced a Bagos-town man to eight years imprisonment in the High Court for killing his reputed wife during a domestic spat four years ago.

Anthony Cyrus called “Snakehead” was indicted on the capital offence but he opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter on the opening day of the April assizes, and the prosecution accepted the plea.

Cyrus killed Melanie Hinds during a heated argument on the night of March 21, 2004 at their Bagostown, East Bank Demerara home. He claimed provocation in addition to stating that he had also been wounded during the fight.

In a lengthy plea of mitigation at the sentencing yesterday, Cyrus’s lawyer, Glen Hanoman told the court that his client had been cooperative with the police from the onset and that he made a report at the station. He said Cyrus’s actions were the culmination of a series of provocative acts by his now dead reputed wife.  

Relatives of murdered Good Hope woman hurt that trio freed of charges

Stabroek News – April 22, 2008

Relatives and friends of Radika Singh, who was brutally murdered in Bare Root, East Coast Demerara (ECD) last April by residents who thought she was an `Old Higue’ are deeply hurt that no one is to be punished for her death.

Three people had been charged with Singh’s murder and on Friday, Rayon Bobb, 28, a cane cutter; Aletha Roberts, 25, of Bare Root; and Ronald Spencer, a 41-year-old contractor of Haslington, walked out of the Vigilance Magistrate’s Court after Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs upheld the no-case submissions presented by their lawyers and discharged them.

Singh’s relatives said yesterday that God was the one in charge and if the trio did play a part in the crime, they would eventually be punished. Stabroek News was told that the prosecution’s star witness in the case had not been attending court.

The trio was charged on May 2, 2007, four days after the bizarre incident and since then the police were unable to find their main witness who had implicated the three in the crime.