Staff Editor

(Jamaica Gleaner) Minister of National Security Peter Bunting says the country’s murder rate has declined by 30 per cent since the start of the year.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow has met with officials from civil society groups to outline his administration’s plans for dealing with the recent increase in gang-related crime in the country.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A leading expert at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has warned the Caribbean to be prepared for a tsunami.

The ruling PPP/C says that it will continue to educate Guyanese about the “anti-development acts” of the combined opposition and will act to ensure that Guyana is not held to ransom by the “tyrannical” action of the joint opposition in the National Assembly.

(ICC) West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul has regained the number-one ranking in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for Test batsmen after hitting two half-centuries in the Dominica Test which Australia won by 75 runs to claim the series 2-0.

(Trinidad Guardian) Two years after former executive chairman of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott) resigned from the state agency—civil proceedings are set to be initiated against Calder Hart in relation to the controversial Brian Lara Cricket Academy this week.

(Jamaica Observer) A teacher who was convicted and sentenced for indecent (sexual) assault against an eighth grader at a high school in Kingston is still working there, as no disciplinary action was ever taken against him by the school board.

(Trinidad Express) Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh yesterday promised to make this country the first nation to achieve universal early childhood care by 2015.

(Trinidad Express) Trinidadian novelist Earl Lovelace last night won the OCM Bocas prize for Caribbean Literature.

(Trinidad Express) A Laventille mother is today torn between joy and sorrow, as two of her three daughters who went missing last Thursday are back home.

KANO, Nigeria, (Reuters) – Gunmen killed at least 15 people and wounded many more in an attack on a university theatre being used by Christian worshippers in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano today, a witness said.

(Trinidad Express) An early morning attack yesterday left one man dead and another man, a foreigner, being treated for gunshot wounds.

QUETTA, Pakistan,  (Reuters) – The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found dumped by the roadside today in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said.

(Trinidad Express) The spoils of exploration for two of the country’s deep water blocks, which were put up for bid just last week, are threatening a conflict between Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A man accused of being a rapist was beaten and stabbed to death by an angry mob in Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, yesterday.

(Barbados Nation) The quiet of the Ferniehurst, Black Rock, St Michael district was shattered just after midday today when neighbours learnt of the unnatural death of one of their own.

(Trinidad Guardian) CL Financial chairman Gerald Yetming said yesterday that the Government will soon be making a claim to the conglomerate for the cost of the January 2009 intervention and will request an extension of the three-year Shareholders’ Agreement to allow the negotiations for the claim, expected to be more than TT$10 billion, to be concluded.

(Trinidad Express) The Trinidad and Tobago Contractors Association has objected to the proposed award to build the new UWI South Campus project at Debe to foreign firm China Jiangsu International Economic Technical Corp.

(Trinidad Express) Government may decide to give jurisdiction to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) for constitutional appeals on criminal matters, particularly murder cases.

(Trinidad Express) Relatives of three teenage sisters who disappeared from their Laventille home on Thursday afternoon are seeking the public’s assistance in locating them.