Staff Editor

SINGAPORE,  (Reuters) – Chinese offshore oil and gas major CNOOC said it had filed an arbitration claim to establish a right over Hess’  stake in the giant Guyana oilfield Stabroek in the event of the U.S.

(Reuters) – Russia regards itself to be at war due to the West’s intervention on Ukraine’s side, the Kremlin said, shifting the language it uses to describe the conflict in an apparent move to prepare Russians for a longer and harder struggle.

GENEVA,  (Reuters) – China interrupted an attempt by several non-governmental groups today to pay homage to a late Chinese human rights activist in a tense incident at a U.N.

President Irfaan Ali (sixth from right) with US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns (fifth from right) and others at State House yesterday.

The police say they are investigating the murder of Courtney Younge, a 56-year-old labourer of Lot 643 ‘D’ Field Sophia, which occurred at about 20:30hrs last night at Lot 636 ‘D’ Field Sophiaat the hands of a man who was armed with a shotgun.

President Irfaan Ali today received a courtesy visit from the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States of America, William J.

Yesterday, Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU) officers conducted an operation in the Providence Public Road, East Bank Demerara area, where they intercepted a canter vehicle.

HOUSTON,  (Reuters) – The government of Trinidad and Tobago has begun talks with the U.S.

Aaron Bess, a 17-year-old of Patentia, West Bank Demerara was fatally stabbed yesterday and two teenagers are in custody.

MUMBAI,  (Reuters) – India’s main opposition Congress party accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi today of crippling it before the upcoming general election by freezing its accounts in an income tax case.

(Trinidad Express) One of the promoters of Carnival mas band Have Ah Time was shot and killed in Diego Martin on Tuesday night.

 (Reuters) – Residents in the upscale neighbourhood of Petion-Ville on the outskirts of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince barricaded themselves in their homes today, local media reported, citing heavy gunfire and bodies found on the street.

(US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations press release) WASHINGTON — Today, U.S.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Weighing in on the raging debate surrounding the recent Privy Council quashing of Adidja ‘Vybz Kartel’ Palmer’s murder conviction, former Prime Minister Patterson and his colleague King’s Counsel Hugh Small said the decision taken to proceed with the trial after the jury-tampering incident “was not merely a risk but a fatal error”.

VIENNA,  (Reuters) – The United States is pressing Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, the biggest Western bank in Russia, to drop plans to buy a 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion)industrial stake of a Russian tycoon, several people with direct knowledge of the talks said.

JERUSALEM/CAIRO,  (Reuters) – Israel’s military said today it had killed around 90 gunmen and arrested 160 in a raid on Gaza’s Al Shifa hospital, an allegation the Islamist Hamas group denied.

DUBLIN,  (Reuters) – Leo Varadkar said today he would step down as Ireland’s prime minister and the leader of the governing Fine Gael party, in a surprise move which he said was for both personal and political reasons.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Acting House Leader and the minister responsible for gender, Olivia Grange, says Opposition Leader Mark Golding has brought the House of Representatives into disrepute by questioning the election of Juliet Holness as House Speaker.

(Reuters) – Fast bowling sensation Shamar Joseph should be fast-tracked into the West Indies squad for the home T20 World Cup in June, said former captain Chris Gayle.

Former manager of the New Building Society (NBS), Maurice Arjoon, who was found to have been wrongfully dismissed, is entitled only to the full payment of pension amounting to some $59 million and not severance benefits as well.