Staff Editor

(Trinidad Express) Former Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute chairman Victor Hart has severely criticised local lawyers and doctors, claiming that they band together to prevent lawsuits against their colleagues.

PERTH,  (Reuters) – South Africa, fired by a devastating spell of bowling from Dale Steyn and sustained by the batting of Hashim Amla, took a firm grip on the third and final test against Australia today to end day two with an imposing lead of 292.

(Trinidad Express) Selling key CLICO assets, including Jamaica-based wine and spirit company Lascelles de Mercado, is how the Government plans to recoup some of the almost TT$20 billion it spent bailing out the company, Finance Minister Larry Howai said yesterday.

Reports out of Curacao that masked men snatched 476 pounds of gold today from a Guyana fishing boat are sending shock waves through the mining industry and security sectors here tonight.

WASHINGTON,  (Reuters) – A bill to create a permanent visa program for foreigners with advanced science and technical degrees cleared the House of Representatives today, the latest salvo in the broader fight over U.S.

(Trinidad Guardian) China Jiangsu International Economic presented a successful TT$499,513,631. 81 bid to win the contracting job for the UWI, South Campus at Penal, according to information from Science and Technology Minister Fazal Karim.

(Trinidad Guardian) Transparency International is expected to release its latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) next Wednesday and chartered civil and structural engineering consultant Dr Myron Chin is appealing to the Government to consider introducing anti-corruption legislation similar to the United Kingdom’s Bribery Act 2010.

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.