Staff Editor

SANTO DOMINGO,  (Reuters) – At least eight people were injured, mostly by gunfire, during a dispute between rival factions competing for control of the Dominican Republic’s leading opposition party, officials said today.

CANBERRA, Australia,  CMC – West Indies head coach Ottis Gibson said today the Caribbean side needed to make the most of Tuesday’s warm-up clash with the Prime Minister’s XI, as they prepare to face Australia in a five-match one-day series starting later in the week.

Islamic scholar Moulana Siddique Ahmad Nasir delivering a presentation today at the Guyana International Conference Centre during a Youman Nabi programme.

President Donald Ramotar (left) meets President of Chile Sebastián Piñera Echenique at the First Summit of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union in Chile on Saturday.

URIBANA, Venezuela,  (Reuters) – A prison riot in southwestern Venezuela killed 61 people, a hospital official said today, although the government has refused to give an official death toll in the bloody standoff that highlighted chaos in the country’s jails.

(Trinidad Express) Raymond Ramnarine, leader of the band Dil-e-Nadan, has claimed the title of 2013 Lotto Plus Chutney Soca Monarch.

(WICB) Canberra, Australia – West Indies will get a feel of the conditions in Australia when they play their opening tour match against the Australia Prime Minister’s XI on Tuesday at the picturesque Munaka Oval.

(Reuters) – Any sign that Syria’s grip on its chemical weapons is slipping as it battles an armed uprising could trigger Israeli military strikes, Israel’s vice premier said today.

MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic became the first man to win three successive Australian Open titles in the professional era when he beat third seed Andy Murray 6-7 7-6 6-3 6-2 in a battle of attrition today.

(Barbados Nation) Thirteen Directors  of the insolvent CLICO and British American Insurance Company (BAICO), including former CLICO executive chairman Leroy Parris and president of CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited, Terrence Thornhill, are facing B$128 million in negligence lawsuits.

(Trinidad Express) A top financier of the People’s Partnership administration has been awarded a TT$232.5 million contract by the National Insurance Property Development Company Ltd (Nipdec).

BAMAKO/SEVARE, Mali,  (Reuters) – French and Malian troops advancing against Islamist rebels in northern Mali have reached Timbuktu, the fabled Saharan trading town occupied last year by al Qaeda-allied fighters, a Malian military source said today.

(Reuters) – A fire in a nightclub killed at least 245 people in southern Brazil today when a band’s pyrotechnics show set the building ablaze and fleeing patrons were unable to find the emergency exits in the ensuing panic, officials said.

SANTIAGO/CARACAS, (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has overcome a respiratory infection, but is still being treated for breathing problems after cancer surgery in Cuba last month, a government minister said on Official statements have sounded upbeat about the socialist president’s condition in recent weeks, following rumors he was gravely ill in a hospital in Havana and might be unable to keep governing after being re-elected in October to a third term.

CANBERRA, Australia,  CMC – Exciting West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell is champing at the bit to face Australia, and says he is backing himself to execute against the former World champions.

(Trinidad Guardian) Prisoners from the remand section of the Port-of-Spain jail and the Maximum Security Prison in Golden Grove, Arouca, were absent from the Port-of-Spain Magistrates Court yesterday, because of a chicken pox outbreak.

(Jamaica Observer) RBC Royal Bank Jamaica (RBCJ) plans to close four branches and lay off 10 per cent of its staff.

Five agricultural groups from across the country yesterday received grant funding worth a total of $10.3M under the government’s Rural Enterprise & Agricultural Development Project.

MOSCOW,  (Reuters) – Police raided a restaurant near Moscow and arrested four alleged crime bosses and 19 others as they met to plan strategy after the killing of a criminal godfather known as Grandpa Hassan, the interior ministry said today.

The Ministry of Public Works has issued a high tide alert and says that Monday’s and Tuesday’s tides will be the highest.