• Venezuela, Guyana to restore ambassadors amid border dispute
• UN chief commends Guinea-Bissau people for orderly, peaceful elections
• Guyana pledges to protect jaguars

• Guyana approaches national invincibility with training of new Yogic Flyers
• Guyana and Guatemala take strides towards invincibility
• Guyana, the Land of Pure Knowledge

• Guyana in political crisis after suspension of parliament
• Child labourer found in Guyana gold camp
• Guyana: Mine mercury sickens villagers

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Venezuela, Guyana to restore ambassadors amid border dispute
27 September 2015 - After a tense meeting, the Presidents of Venezuela and Guyana agreed Sunday to restore ambassadors and hold talks to resolve a long-running border dispute that flared up recently following the discovery of oil in disputed waters. The current border between the South American countries was determined by international arbitration in 1899, but Venezuela has disputed that line for more than a half century and claims about 40 percent of Guyana's territory that is rich in gold, bauxite, diamonds, and other natural resources. It extended its maritime claims recently after a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corp. announced it made a significant oil discovery off Guyana's coast. (more)

UN chief commends Guinea-Bissau people for orderly, peaceful elections
14 April 2014 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has applauded the people of Guinea-Bissau for their orderly and peaceful participation in Sunday's presidential and legislative elections, and called on all candidates to respect the upcoming results. 'By participating in high numbers, they have clearly expressed their desire for the full return to constitutional order in their country,' said Mr Ban's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric in a statement. (more)

Guyana pledges to protect jaguars
24 January 2013 - The lushly forested nation of Guyana on Thursday joined a regional pact to protect jaguars, the elusive spotted cat that is the biggest land predator in the Americas but is vulnerable due to expanded agriculture and mining that carves away at their fragmented habitat. Leaders of the government's environment ministry were signing an agreement with the New York-based conservation group Panthera, which is trying to establish a 'jaguar corridor,' a network of pathways that would link core jaguar populations from northern Argentina to Mexico. Guyana is pledging to ensure the protection of jaguars, the national animal that is a near-threatened species. (more)

Norway offers Guyana up to $250 million to save forests
10 November 2009 - Norway agreed on Monday to pay Guyana up to $250 million by 2015 to preserve forests in the South American nation as part of a scheme to slow climate change. Norway, which has led donor nations in slowing tropical deforestation with a budget of 3 billion Norwegian crowns ($530 million) a year, said it wanted to help Guyana maintain forests that cover 75 per cent of its land. (more)

Brazil and Guyana inaugurate border bridge
14 September 2009 - The leader of Brazil and Guyana met Monday to inaugurate a border bridge that is expected to boost trade between the giant South American country and the Caribbean. The $5 million Takutu River Bridge, paid for by Brazil, opens a trade route between landlocked areas of the country's interior and Guyana, a nation on South America's northeastern shoulder that is more aligned with the Caribbean. (more)

Guyana: Indigenous Amazon group bans loggers and miners
5 October 2007 - An indigenous group in Guyana, backed by government decree and a US-based conservation organization, has banned miners and loggers from its section of the Amazon jungle and pledged to pursue an economic strategy based on ecotourism, research, and traditional crafts. The Wai Wai have developed a management plan intended to preserve forest, create jobs, and keep young people from leaving for cities. (more)

Guyana: South Rupununi drafts plan to curb threats to environment
10 May 2006 - Villagers in the South Rupununi region of Guyana have come up with their own plan to protect the environment. (more)

US government sending Guyana flood relief supplies
23 January 2005 - The US government is rushing relief supplies including food, drainage pumps, and other supplies to Guyana after heavy rains and flooding displaced thousands of people. A relief force will also help evacuate as many as 20,000 people. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Guyana approaches national invincibility with training of new Yogic Flyers
2 January 2010 - Guyana will soon have the required number of Yogic Flyers to create national invincibility, with successive rounds of courses in the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme now underway. The new Guyanese Flyers will also augment the effect of peace, harmony, and coherence generated in the collective consciousness of the whole continent by all the groups of Yogic Flyers throughout Latin America. (more)

Guyana and Guatemala take strides towards invincibility
2 November 2009 - Guatemala and Guyana are making progress in rising towards invincibility, with courses planned to train and establish coherence-creating groups of Yogic Flyers in each country. The enlightened focus of local Teachers of the Transcendental Meditation Programme has been a catalyst for these and other fruitful developments. (more)

Guyana, the Land of Pure Knowledge
6 February 2007 - Guyana, a beautiful country situated at the junction point between Latin America and the Caribbean, is fulfilling its goal to become a beacon light of Pure Knowledge for the whole world. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Guyana in political crisis after suspension of parliament
17 November 2014 - Guyana President Donald Ramotar's decision to suspend parliament to avoid a no-confidence motion against him has plunged the small former British colony into political crisis, as foes decry the President as a dictator. Opposition parties, which have a small legislative majority, last week demanded a no-confidence vote to protest spending of some $22.5 million without parliamentary approval on items ranging from school stipends to an airport expansion project. That followed years of complaints that the government has refused to provide details on millions of dollars in spending on infrastructure projects. Perched on the shoulder of Latin America, Guyana has a population of only 740,000 people. Much of the country is covered in dense jungle, the site of some both legal and clandestine gold, diamond, and bauxite mining. It also produces sugar and timber. Since gaining independence in 1966, Guyana has struggled with ethnic tensions between Guyanese of Indian and African descent. (more)

Child labourer found in Guyana gold camp
5 November 2012 - A boy who appeared no older than 8 was found panning for gold in a mining camp in Guyana, a sign that greater efforts are needed to stop child labour in the South American country, the president of a non-government organization said Monday. It is illegal for anyone under 15 to work full-time in Guyana except under certain circumstances, but the law is widely flaunted. A report from the US Department of Labour in September found that there are more than 44,000 children ages 5-14 working in Guyana, including in dangerous activities. Most work in domestic service and on the streets, typically as vendors or beggars, the report found. The Gold and Diamond Miners Association said it has no statistics on the number of children working in small, independent gold-mining operations. Thousands of independent miners have carved up the forest and polluted streams in Guyana and neighbouring Suriname. The camps can range from just a few people to hundreds clustered in informal towns. Most are illegal and unregulated. 'We know of cases where parents take entire families to look for gold,' said Tony Shields, a spokesman for the association. (more)

Guyana: Mine mercury sickens villagers
16 August 2007 - Mercury used by gold miners has seeped into rivers and streams and sickened scores of Indian villagers in rural Guyana, a conservation group said Thursday. About 90 per cent of 200 residents screened in one community showed symptoms of illness from mercury, which can cause permanent lung and brain damage, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. (more)

Guyana agricultural minister assassinated
23 April 2006 - Gunmen fatally shot Guyana's agriculture minister early Saturday along with two relatives and a security guard. A government spokesman said it appeared to be a political assassination. (more)