Staff Editor

SYDNEY,  (Reuters) – Australia will play Afghanistan for the first time next month in what is likely to be a one-day international in the United Arab Emirates, Cricket Australia (CA) said today.

(Barbados Nation) Governments throughout the region have to take some of the blame for the CLICO insurance collapse that has left thousands of policyholders high and dry.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Barclays Plc chairman Marcus Agius quit today, saying “the buck stops with me” after an interest rate rigging scandal that has dealt “a devastating blow” to the bank’s reputation.

(Barbados Nation) Elite Island Resorts has stepped in to prevent closure of the Almond Beach Club by forging a strategic partnership with the property.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Yohan Blake is the national sprint double champion after beating club mate Usain Bolt in the 200m at the JAAA/SVL Jamaica National Senior Championships at the National Stadium tonight.

(Reuters) – West Indies claimed a 2-0 Twenty20 series win over an injury-hit New Zealand side after a comprehensive 61-run win today in Lauderhill, Florida.

A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Member of Parliament Joseph Harmon has written to China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) expressing dismay that the combined Opposition was not consulted on a recent visit by that company to discuss the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project in the wake of corruption concerns regarding its parent company.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – England eased to a second successive victory in their five-match one-day series against Australia at the Oval today to record their eighth consecutive ODI win.

KIEV,  (Reuters) – Imperious Spain took their place among the game’s greats in vintage style by thrashing Italy 4-0 to become the first team to win successive European Championship titles today.

(WICB) Fort Lauderdale, Florida — The Selection Committee of the West Indies Cricket Board today announced the 13-man squad for the first and second Digicel One-Day Internationals against New Zealand.

(Jamaica Observer) The police yesterday charged 46-year-old Ivan Taylor of Lindos Hill, Withorn, in Westmoreland, for the abduction and murder of 39-year-old Michelle Coudray-Greaves of Circular Road, St Madeline, Trinidad.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A 34-year-old medical doctor is to answer to four charges of committing sexual offences against two teenage girls.

(Jamaica Gleaner) St Lucia’s police commissioner Vernon Francois has urged his troops not to be swayed by public outrage directed at them following the arrest of one of their colleagues.

SANTA ELENA, Venezuela,  (Reuters) – President Hugo Chavez defied his health problems to join a massive rally while opposition rival Henrique Capriles took to the remotest corners of Venezuela at today’s formal launch of the presidential race.

NAIROBI,  (Reuters) – Masked assailants launched simultaneous gun and grenade raids on two churches in a Kenyan town today, killing at least 17 people in the worst attack in the country since Kenya sent troops into Somalia to crush al Shabaab militants.

A  fire of unknown origin last night destroyed a storage bond at Happy Acres, East Coast Demerara and though the fire service responded promptly, time was lost trying to find the location.

(Trinidad Guardian) Gun and drug smugglers beware! Surveillance equipment meant to guard the nation’s borders that have been not functioning for the last three years is now being repaired and upgraded.

(Jamaica Observer) Broadcaster Simon Mark Anthony Crosskill has a penchant for laughing a lot and making people laugh as well.

(Reuters) – New Zealand captain Ross Taylor has been ruled out of today’s Twenty20 match against West Indies and is expected to miss the early part of the following five-match one-day series due to a shoulder injury, the county’s cricket board (NZC) said.

(Barbados Nation) Those passengers owed money by REDjet for tickets purchased prior to its abrupt suspension of flights need not worry.