Staff Editor

NEW YORK/PARIS,  (Reuters) – Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has reached a preliminary agreement with the hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault last year to settle a civil lawsuit she brought against him, sources familiar with the case said.

While lauding the country for another year of robust growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has added its voice to concerns about ensuring that the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project (AFHP) is economically viable.

A notice from Harbour Master Volton Skeete is advising ship owners/operators and masters that the Guyana Fertilizers Wharf located in the harbours of Georgetown just north of the Muneshwers Limited Wharf  has been deemed unsafe for the mooring of vessels because of its state of disrepair.

(Jamaica Observer) Two of Jamaica’s top cops are urging smartphone owners not to broadcast information on spot-check locations as they are obstructing the police’s crime-fighting efforts.

PERTH,  (Reuters) – Australia dismissed South Africa for 225 despite another dogged rearguard action from Faf du Plessis before moving shakily to 33-2 at the close of play on a thrilling first day of the third test at the WACA today.

KHULNA, Bangladesh, (Reuters) – Off-spinner Sohag Gazi made a memorable one-day debut to help Bangladesh crush West Indies by seven wickets with 58 balls to spare in the opening game of the five-match series in Khulna today.

(Trinidad Express) Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran yesterday “appealed” to the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for compassion in the Dr Wayne Kublalsingh issue.

UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly today overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the world body to issue its long overdue “birth certificate.”

The Guyana Power and Light says that at 4.37 am today, the 60hz component of the Demerara Interconnected System suffered a shutdown during the inclement weather then.

The government today announced that it has approved a five percent across-the- board increase in salaries and wages retroactive to January 1, 2012 for all Public Servants.

(Trinidad Guardian) Gabrielle Henderson, the United Nations’ Women Programme specialist from the UN’s multi-country office in Barbados, said yesterday that three of the top ten rape rates in the world occur in the Caribbean and that 48 per cent of adolescents in nine regional islands said sexual initiation was forced.

(Trinidad Guardian) Aids-Free World, an advocacy NGO, is challenging T&T’s immigration law.

(Trinidad Guardian) President of the Criminal Court of Justice Sir Dennis Byron is calling on T&T’s legal fraternity to let their voices to be heard as to why the country has not yet used the court as its final appellate court.

A seaman, who is accused of trafficking in an undisclosed amount of cocaine in coconut milk tins  destined for Malaysia was today remanded to prison after he was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron said today that he had serious concerns about legislation to regulate the media, risking a split in his coalition after a damning inquiry triggered by a phone-hacking scandal proposed a press watchdog backed in law.

(Jamaica Observer) ST MARY, Jamaica — Two people were shot dead by gunmen in Farm Pen, near Gayle in St Mary Wednesday in a robbery at about 8:55pm.

(Jamaica Observer) The Ministry of Agriculture has sacked its director of communications, Cecil Thoms, who was accused by junior minister Ian Hayles of taping his conversations without permission.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A basic school teacher is battling for life and the parent of a five-year-old boy behind bars after allegedly knocking her unconscious, only weeks after another teacher was attacked at the Dunrobin Primary School in St Andrew.

The Ministry of Agriculture today said that cloudy to overcast conditions with moderate to heavy rain are  expected to continue between 7 am and 11 am  over Regions 1-5.

(Barbados Nation) If there is one person eager to know the results of a thorough forensic audit into the operations of CLICO Barbados, it is William Layne, former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance.