Staff Editor

SHANGHAI, (Reuters) – Cambodia’s former king Norodom Sihanouk died of natural causes at the age of 89 today in Beijing, where he was receiving medical treatment, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Arlen Specter, a gruff, independent-minded moderate who spent three decades in the U.S.

The police say they are investigating a fatal accident that occurred at about 1100h today on the Strathspey Railway Embankment, ECD, and which resulted in the death of pedal cyclist Vivena Abrams 59 years, of Non Pariel, ECD.

(Trinidad Guardian) A top Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT) official has been fingered in a ploy that has led to confidential telephone records of a T&T Guardian reporter being leaked to the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) in a bid to trace the source of information being published.

Senior police officers, accused of accepting kickbacks in the purchase of a $16M boat for the force, have apparently gotten off without penalty after making repayments, although former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says they should have been prosecuted.

(Jamaica Observer) Oftentimes when teenaged girls are listed as ‘missing’ from certain communities, it is a move by their parents or guardians to protect them from criminal enforcers, or ‘dons’, who send for them to perform sexual favours, a senior police officer has stated.

The outer bands of strengthening Tropical Storm Rafael drenched the Leeward Islands today as its centre moved over the ocean on a track toward Bermuda, the Associate Press reported.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Ghetto Youths International has cultivated and is ready to unleash an eclectic collection of young talent on to the music scene this coming fall.

NOUAKCHOTT,  (Reuters) – Mauritania’s president was flown to France for surgery today after the Western ally against al Qaeda was shot by soldiers in what he said was an accident.

KADUNA, (Reuters) – Gunmen opened fire on Muslim worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in northern Nigeria today, killing at least 20 people, a local official said.

The Associated Press is reporting that Guyanese Aditya Ramotar, 37, is believed to have shot his wife Sharon Forbes dead on Saturday before killing himself in the Tennessee, US city of Smyrna.

YEONGAM, South Korea,  (Reuters) – World champion Sebastian Vettel won the Korean Grand Prix in a Red Bull one-two finish today to take the overall Formula One lead from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso with four races remaining.

(Trinidad Express) In a bid to stem gang related crime, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has set up a Criminal Gang Intelligence Unit (CGIU) comprising of 25 officers formerly of the Special Anti-Crime Unit of Trinidad and Tobago (SAUTT).

(Trinidad Express) One year and three months into the Commission of Enquiry into collapsed insurance giant CLICO, the Minister of Finance has fired the team of lawyers who were representing the ministry, sources confirmed yesterday.

Captain Barkey, who gained fame with the 1996 hit, Go Go Wine, was shot dead in the parking lot of a motel in Bronx, New York early yesterday morning.

At least three people are missing and one person was dead after a small plane that was delivering newspapers crashed today in the US Virgin Islands, officials said, according to the Associated Press.

(Barbados Nation) LIAT has cancelled some more flights today as its operations continue to be impacted by the passage of Tropical Storm Rafael.

NOUAKCHOTT,  (Reuters) – Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was “lightly wounded” after a military patrol accidentally fired on his convoy, the government said today.

LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Brad Pitt has thrown his weight behind a documentary that blasts America’s 40-year war on drugs as a failure, calling policies that imprison huge numbers of drug-users a “charade” in urgent need of a rethink.

(de Ware Tijd) NIEUW NICKERIE – The Nickerie police received a new ‘go fast’ boat from the gold sector restructuring commission yesterday.