Staff Editor

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Eight children have been killed and a woman who was mother to seven of them was injured in the northern Australian city of Cairns, police said today, in what several media outlets reported was a mass stabbing.

The men and women who serve in the nation’s joint services are to receive an extra month’s salary, President Donald Ramotar, announced today when he addressed hundreds of soldiers, at Camp Stephenson, Timehri, as they participated in their annual Christmas luncheon, GINA said.

At about 0030h today police say that the reputed husband of Geeta Boodhoo, 30 years, of Phase 2, Tuschen New Housing Scheme, EBE, smashed his way into her home through a glass window and inflicted severe chops with a cutlass to her and others who were in the home.

MUMBAI, (Reuters) – It’s the most anticipated Bollywood film of the year and no one knows what it’s about.

MOSCOW, (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said today Russia’s economy would inevitably rebound after the rouble’s dramatic slide this year but offered no remedy to a deepening financial crisis.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai in the spirit of the season, yesterday visited the Amerindian Hostel on Princes Street and joined with residents from interior locations in a Christmas lunch.

PRETORIA, (Reuters) – Captain Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers shared a record unbroken double-century stand as South Africa took control of the first test against West Indies on the opening day at Centurion today.

HAVANA/WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States plans to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba more than 50 years after they were severed, a major policy shift after decades of hostile ties with the communist-ruled island, President Barack Obama said today.

(Trinidad Express) Legislation to curb corruption in this country was finally passed yesterday in the Senate.

Even as Guyana’s already longest serving Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds remains tight-lipped about his future plans, speculation continues to mount that the PPP/C will field a new candidate for the number two spot at general elections and there are said to be several frontrunners.

The other bandit who was fatally shot during an armed confrontation with the police at Montrose, ECD, yesterday has been identified as Mahendra Sukull called ‘Vickey’, 24 years, of Ramtahal Street, Prashad Nagar, Georgetown, police said this afternoon.

(Trinidad Express) Industrial Court vice president Ramchand Lutchmedial yesterday pleaded not guilty on a charge of failing to submit a specimen of breath for a breathalyser test last Friday.

ISLAMABAD, (Reuters) – At least 126 people were killed and 122 injured today in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani high school, a provincial official said.

MUMBAI, India, Dec 15, CMC – West Indies Twenty20 captain Darren Sammy is among five Caribbean players released by their Indian Premier League franchises, ahead of the new season which bowls off next April.

The top student of the Clemsville Music Conservatory Gael Barker proudly displays his trophy.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, beside the equatorial line, in two different hemispheres, the Southern and Northern respectively.

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, (Reuters) – “Exodus: Gods and Kings”, an action-filled epic starring Christian Bale as Biblical leader Moses, marched to the top of U.S.

Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur says that many businesses are still offering not to charge customers Value-Added Tax (VAT) and he flayed the private sector for inducing bribery in the agency.

(Trinidad Express) President Anthony Carmona has expressed concern about the shortage of US dollars in the local financial system, saying if it is not caused by consumer spending then the Central Bank must ensure the currency is not ending up in the wrong hands.

(Trinidad Express) Judge in the morning, defendant in the afternoon. This is how Justice Ramchand Lutchmedial, vice-president of the Industrial Court, will spend today, having been charged last Friday under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act.