Staff Editor

ISLAMABAD,  (Reuters) – A Pakistani airliner with up to 131 people on board crashed in bad weather as it came in to land in Islamabad on Friday, scattering wreckage and leaving no sign of survivors.

(Trinidad Express) Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget yesterday signed off on another nine per cent wage settlement, this time with the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC).

Amid strong criticism of it over an apparent budget deal with the government, APNU today issued a statement calling on the government to implement a series of relief measures for the mining town of Linden before raising electricity tariffs.

(Trinidad Express) A scuffle broke out on the compound of Express House in Port of Spain last night as police officers of the Port of Spain CID attempted to arrest TV6’s Crime Watch host Ian Alleyne.

(Jamaica Observer) One of Jamaica’s leading political scientists based in the United States has virtually written off the potential of a third party emerging and winning the hearts of the electorate in future elections.

(Jamaica Observer) Eighteen-year-old Amelia Pitterson had only just made the down payment on a plot of land as a step closer to fulfilling a long-held dream of relocating her mother from the Train Line squatter settlement in Gregory Park, St Catherine to a proper home of their own.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaica dipped one spot to rank 74th overall in The Global Information Technology Report (GITP) 2012 published this month, but tied with 57 other countries to take the number one spot in the telecoms competition subcategory.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Bill Express, the vehicle used by conglomerate GraceKennedy and Company Limited to collect utility and other bills for third parties in Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, has pioneered a new insurance service for its customers called Bill Protect.

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has delayed his trip to Qatar after complaining of feeling unwell during his stopover in Barbados on Wednesday, the Caribbean Media Corporation reported.

(de ware Tijd) THE HAGUE – Many member states of the European Union (EU) are not that much concerned about Suriname, Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Uri Rosenthal told the Lower House on Thursday during a short debate on Suriname’s Amnesty Act.

(Trinidad Guardian) Thousands of workers at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) are facing retrenchment as the state-owned utility is to be restructured.

(Trinidad Express) Popular TV6 “Crime Watch” host Ian Alleyne was last night arrested by police on the compound of Caribbean Communications Network Ltd (CCN), Independence Square, Port of Spain.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaican pilots employed to CARIBAL Limited — the Caribbean Airlines subsidiary — are to lose their jobs come next month.

MIAMI,  (Reuters) – A Venezuelan Supreme Court judge who was removed from his post last month for assisting a drug trafficker has accused his former government bosses of systematic manipulation of the courts, including meddling in drug cases.

PORT OF SPAIN, (Reuters) – Australia retained the Frank Worrell Trophy after the second test against West Indies ended in a draw at Trinidad today.

(WICB) Port-of-Spain, Trinidad — The West Indies Cricket Board’s Selection Panel has called up left-hander Assad Fudadin to squad for the third Digicel Test against Australia at Windsor Park in Dominica.

Police say that at about 2300h last night, Brazilian national Antonia Priscila Lamego Dos Thangas, 24 years, of First Avenue, Bartica, was shot to her abdomen by a man with whom she had an argument over a sum of money.

Dear Editor, THE GGDMA calls on President Donald Ramotar and his Government to grant to the thousands of Gold and Diamond Miners, in the Small and Medium Scale Alluvial Gold and Diamond Mining Industry, an ACCUMULATED TOTAL acreage “EXEMPTION” of a small 1.6 Million acres, (4% of 40 Million Acres of state forest) to allow our Miners to continue to do Direct Mining, as they have been doing.

Move over Roger Luncheon, there’s a new ‘spinner’ in town and his name is Ashni Kumar Singh!

Local banks appear to have been slow to respond to a new United States tax compliance law which will require them to provide the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with financial information on US citizens possessing local bank accounts containing amounts exceeding US50,OOO (G$100 million) or foreign entities in which U.S.