Staff Editor

ABIDJAN,  (Reuters) – About 60 people were crushed to death in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan overnight after a New Year’s Eve fireworks display, an emergency official and state radio said today.

(Trinidad Express) Defence force soldier Curtis Marshall, who died at hospital early Sunday morning, was murdered.

(Trinidad Express) POLICE are investigating the murder of a San Fernando man, who was shot multiple times yesterday morning.

(Trinidad Express) A night liming with friends ended in tragedy for one fire officer after she was shot dead in Port of Spain on Sunday.

(Trinidad Express) The fight against crime will remain the Government’s top priority in 2013, says Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A deal worked out by U.S. Senate leaders to avoid the “fiscal cliff,” was far from any “grand bargain” of deficit reduction measures.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – The Senate moved the U.S. economy back from the edge of a “fiscal cliff” today, voting to avoid imminent tax hikes and spending cuts in a bipartisan deal that could still face stiff challenges in the House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suffered a blood clot in a vein between her brain and skull behind her right ear but is expected to make a full recovery, her doctors said today in a statement released by the State Department.

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States was on track to tumble over the “fiscal cliff” at midnight on Monday, at least for a day, as lawmakers held back from supporting an eleventh-hour plan from Senate leaders to avert severe tax increases and spending cuts.

At about 2230h last night, police say that Wesley Griffith, 18 years, of Determa Street, Mackenzie, was at home when a man rode up on a motor cycle and called out for him.

The police say they are investigating a fatal accident that occurred at about 1900h last night on Friendship Public Road, EBD, and which resulted in the death of pedestrian Tolaram Narine, 45 years, of Herstelling, EBD.

(Jamaica Gleaner) As several international carriers cut flights into the region, LIAT’s Jean Holder is urging a meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government to discuss the burning issue of air transportation’s critical role in supporting the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

(BBC) Bangladesh have cancelled their tour of Pakistan in January because of security concerns.

CAIRO,  (Reuters) – Egypt’s president held out hope that a weakening pound could stabilise within days under a new regime implemented to fend off financial ruin and safeguard reserves needed to ensure food and fuel imports in a political crisis.

(Barbados Nation) Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has not set an election date because his ministers are yet to declare their assets to Parliament, Opposition Leader Owen Arthur has charged.

(Barbados Nation) Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson wants to see an end to preliminary inquiries in the Magistrate’s Court.

(Barbados Nation) Calling some security firms “slave camps”, trade union leader Sir Roy Trotman has warned that something must be done about them.

(Trinidad Express) THE time has come for the Port of Spain Prison to be closed, Commissioner of Prisons Martin Martinez said yesterday in a telephone interview with the Express.

(Trinidad Express) THE Prison Service is expected to take disciplinary action against the prisons officers on duty on Christmas Eve when convicted murderer Darryl Charles-Bissoon escaped from Death Row, at the Port of Spain Prison.

(Trinidad Express) THE glitter of gold cost a La Horquetta man his life after a gunman attempted to rob him outside his home on Saturday.