Staff Editor

(Trinidad Express) TWO men are dead and another is currently warded in a critical condition at hospital following three separate shootings in the Arouca, Tunapuna and Laventille areas between Tuesday night and early yesterday morning.

AUSTIN, Texas,  (Reuters) – Former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital and is in “guarded condition,” family spokesman Jim McGrath said today.

JERUSALEM,  (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secretly met Jordan’s King Abdullah in Amman to discuss the risk of Syria’s chemical weapons falling into the hands of Islamist militants, Israeli media reports said today.

(Barbados Nation) Chris Brown and Rihanna were spotted on Christmas Day sitting courtside at a Lakers game in Los Angeles.

JOHANNESBURG,  (Reuters) – Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been discharged from hospital, ending a nearly three-week stay during which he was treated for a lung infection and had surgery to remove gallstones, the government said today.

LONDON, England,  CMC-Liverpool’s teenage winger, Jamaican born Raheem Sterling, has pledged his international future to England, despite still being eligible for his place of birth.

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, (Reuters) – A powerful batting display and disciplined bowling helped South Africa to a 33-run victory over New Zealand in the third and deciding T20 International at St.George’s

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.,  (Reuters) – The severe winter weather that hit parts of the central and southern United States on Christmas Day moved eastward today, with forecasters predicting heavy snow in the Ohio Valley and possible tornadoes in the coastal Carolinas.

Family members of a Guyana Energy Agency employee who mysteriously went missing on Sunday are keeping the faith that he will be found alive and well.

MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Australia reached 150-3 at the close of the opening day of the second test, punishing Sri Lanka after the visitors had failed to build on Kumar Sangakkara’s landmark half-century and were dismissed for just 156 today.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The Court of Appeal, in dismissing the appeal of four men who were convicted of the murder of two women who were raped, shot and thrown into a sewage pit at Newport West, St Andrew, said it found no basis on which the convictions should be disturbed.

 (Jamaica Gleaner) A senior government-relations specialist in the United States (US) has declared that Jamaican financial institutions should “stop wasting their money” trying to revamp their operations in preparation for the implementation of the new American tax law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

CAIRO,  (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has signed into law a new Islamist-drafted constitution he says will help end political turmoil and allow him to focus on fixing the fragile economy.

(Trinidad Express) Christmas celebrations were shattered for a Maracas Valley family yesterday following the murder of an 18-year-old man just a stone’s throw from where he lived.

BEIRUT,  (Reuters) – The head of Syria’s military police has defected from the army and declared allegiance to the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to a video and a Syrian security source.

An audit by Rainforest Alliance (RA) of Guyana’s performance in meeting REDD+ Enabling Indicators under the Guyana-Norway climate and forests partnership has concluded that three of the 10 indicators were met, three were not met and four were partially met, and Guyana has committed to further action.

New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation (NGPC) supplied $3.4B worth of drugs to the Ministry of Health and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) – 80% of the combined needs of the two entities in 2011.

Two Mahaicony families, whose homes were damaged by high winds on Christmas Eve Day, have been reassured of Government’s intention to help them.

MELBOURNE,  (Reuters) – Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara became the 11th cricketer to pass 10,000 test runs in the last over before lunch in the second test against Australia in Melbourne on Wednesday.

YAOUNDE, (Reuters) – One of Cameroon’s most senior Christian leaders today called same-sex marriages a “crime against humanity”, ramping up anti-gay rhetoric in the Central African state.