Black Immigrant Daily News

See full statement from the Guyana Revenue Authority:

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) wishes to advise the general public that TAXPAYERS AND THEIR REPRESENTATIVES making payments by dishonoured cheques to the Authority may be subject to prosecution under the Criminal Law (Offences Act) Chapter 8:01, with those found guilty in a court of law subjected to imprisonment. This warning is necessary in view of the increasingly prevalent practice of uttering dishonored cheques to the Authority.

Taxpayers are also advised that notwithstanding the penalty outlined above, associated interest and penalties continue to accrue from the due date of the payment until the liability is settled in full.

Consequently, the Authority advises that entities making payments to GRA by cheque must ensure that the information detailed thereon is accurate and that sufficient funds are available in their respective bank accounts to process such payments.

Persons effecting payment by dishonored cheques due to insufficient funds will be blacklisted and not allowed to make payments by personal cheques for a minimum period of six months in the first instance, twelve months in the second instance and permanently thereafter.

Payments effected by such defualters must thereafter be by cash if less than 2 million dollars (in keeping with AML regulations) or by Manager’s drafts for any amount.

Such defaulting taxpayers will be required to make all future payments by either Manager’s cheque or cash, depending on the amount. Taxpayers are reminded that GRA will not accept cash payments exceeding two million dollars ($2M) as a result of security concerns for both the Agency and general public.

The Authority again entreats taxpayers to take advantage of the convenient and secure electronic payment options available through MMG, Bill Express and any of the bill payment facilities at Demerara Bank, Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry and Republic Bank.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Princess Alice Highway will be closed from 2 pm today, Friday, September 30 until 12 pm on Sunday, October 2.

The Barbados Police Force states that the closure is to accommodate the Barbados Food and Rum Festival. Only public service vehicles will be allowed to pass along Mortuary Road, The City into the terminals. All other traffic will be diverted through Mortuary Road onto Cheapside going out of the city.

Traffic travelling into the city will use Fontebelle onto Cheapside. Transport Board buses travelling to the city from President Kennedy Drive, will turn left onto Redman Drive, right onto Cheapside onto Cowell Street then onto Hincks Street and into the terminal.

Motorists will be allowed to patronise the Fish Market but when leaving, they must turn right on to Hincks Street.

The public is kindly asked to comply with any and all directions given by members of the Barbados Police Service.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

PARAMARIBO — Bij een inval in een pand aan de Hiraweg is de 37-jarige Vikash M. aangehouden door de Criminele

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Black Immigrant Daily News

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide bomber struck an education centre in a Shiite area of the Afghan capital on Friday, killing 19 people and wounding 27, including teenagers who were taking university practice entry exams, a Taliban spokesman said.

The morning explosion at the centre took place in Kabul’s Dashti Barchi neighbourhood, an area populated mostly by ethnic Hazaras, who belong to Afghanistan’s minority Shiite community. The Islamic State group has carried out repeated, horrific attacks on schools, hospitals and mosques in Dashti Barchi and other Shiite areas in recent years.

Around 300 recent high school graduates, boys and girls had come to the Kaaj Higher Educational Centre at 6:30 a.m. to take practice exams, said one survivor, 19-year-old Shafi Akbary. The facility helps students prepare and study for the entrance exams, among other activities.

About an hour into the session, the blast went off.

“First, we heard the sounds of a few gunshots at the main gate. Everyone was worried and tried to run to a different direction,” said Akbary, speaking to The Associated Press over the phone. “Soon after that, a huge explosion occurred inside the centre.”

Akbary, who was unharmed, said he saw dozens of bodies and wounded people scattered around him. “I was so afraid and couldn’t even move myself to help them. Later, other people ran inside and took us out,” he added. Akbary said he has attended classes at the centre for the past six months.

Khalid Zadran, the Taliban-appointed spokesman of the Kabul police who gave the casualty toll, said students were among the victims of the blast, but he did not specify how many. He said education centre in the area will need to ask the Taliban for additional security when they host events with big gatherings like Friday’s exam prep.

Police have arrested a suspect who may have links to the attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said later. He was unable to provide any updates on the casualties.

The Emergency NGO Hospital in Kabul said in a tweet it had received 22 patients so far, adding that most of them were women aged 18-25 who were taking an exam.

Husnia Azimi was one of those killed in the suicide bombing. She left home Friday morning to attend the exam, even though her sister Zainab told her it was late and not to go.

“Once she left, it was around 09:00 a.m. that we heard about the explosion,” said Zainab. “We didn’t hear its sound, but once we got the news, we went to all the hospitals, Ali Jinnah hospital, Watan hospital, and other hospitals.

“But when we went to the Emergency Hospital, we got a call from Ali Jinnah hospital that my sister’s dead body was found. Then we went back there and saw her body.”

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But the Islamic State group, the chief rival of the Taliban, has been waging a campaign of violence that has intensified since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Afghanistan’s Hazaras, who are mostly Shiite Muslims, have been a frequent target of the violence. In Dashti Barchi, IS carried out a 2020 attack on a maternity hospital that killed 24 people, including newborn babies and mothers, and an attack on a school in 2021 that killed more than 90, mostly schoolgirls. The neighborhood sees frequent bombings of minibuses and, earlier this year, a school and another education centre were hit near simultaneously, killing six.

The local police chief, Abdul Rahman Nafiz, criticized the centre for failing to inform security officials about the practice exam.

“Neither police officials nor intelligence officials were aware of any activity going on or a big exam happening in this centre, so the officials from the centre were very reckless,” he said. “Now our mujaheddin (Taliban police) are here, and they are investigating the incident.”

Amnesty International’s South Asia campaigner, Samira Hamidi, said Friday’s attack showed the “utter failure of the Taliban, as de-facto authorities, to protect the people of Afghanistan.

She said the Taliban have taken few measures to protect the public, especially Shiites and Hazaras “Instead, their actions of omission and commission have only further aggravated the risk to the lives of the people of Afghanistan especially those belonging to ethnic and minority communities,” she said.

The US charg? d’affaires for Afghanistan, Karen Decker, condemned Friday’s attack in a tweet.

“Targeting a room full of students taking exams is shameful; all students should be able to pursue an education in peace & without fear,” she said. “We hope for a swift recovery for the victims & we grieve with the families of the deceased.”

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said it was appalled by Friday’s horrific attack. “Children and adolescents are not, and must never be, the target of violence,” it said in a tweet.

Since seizing power, the Taliban have banned most girls beyond the sixth grade from attending school. But female high school graduates from previous years can go to university.

By EBRAHIM NOROOZI and RAHIM FAIEZ Associated Press

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