Antiguan prime minister Baldwin Spencer says Caricom heads of government are very serious about tackling widespread criminal activity in the region.

	Prime Minister Spencer explains difficulty in patrolling Caribbean waters

They're hoping to at this weekend's special summit in Port of Spain, decide on a set of proposals to effectively fight crime.

But Prime Minister Spencer says lack of resources remains a major hurdle.

He referred to efforts to patrol Caribbean waters as one example of the kind of difficulties governments in the region face in their efforts to reduce crime linked to drug trafficking, gun smuggling and related illegal activity.

Suriname getting help to identify crash victims

Experts from the Netherlands were expected to arrive in Suriname Friday to help identify the victims of a plane crash.

Nineteen people are presumed dead from the crash in a remote gold-mining area of the former Dutch colony.

The twin-engine Russian-made plane crashed on Thursday on approach to an airstrip in a mining region, near Suriname's border with French Guiana.

An official said all the passengers and crew were believed to be Surinamese.

EU giving Guyana 40 million dollar grant

Guyana and the European Union have signed an agreement that'll provide Georgetown with a grant of 40 million US dollars for projects in the country's agricultural sector.

The sugar industry in particular stands to benefit.

These funds are intended to offset the effects of the EU's 37 percent reduction in the preferential price it pays for sugar.

Guyana's finance minister Ashni Singh says the EU funds will help but much more is required.

Angry Haitians protest

UN peacekeepers in Haiti says demonstrators angry over the rising cost of living attacked a UN peacekeeping base on Thursday.

The protesters looted food stores in that incident in the southern Haitian city of Les Cayes.

About five thousand people chanting slogans against President Rene Preval, attempted to set the UN police base there on fire, and stole rice from trucks as Haitian police helplessly stood by.

Hundreds also demonstrated in the north western city of Gonaives.

Website to trace ancestors welcomed

Caribbean people are making use of a genealogical website launched in Britain this week.

The website features a register of slaves of the British Empire, allowing their descendants to trace their origin.

Ancestry-dot-co-dot-uk has compiled the details of more than two and a half million slaves and a quarter of a million slave owners from seventeen former British colonies.

Stretching from 1812 to 1834, the records of the slaves are searchable by name, year of birth and gender, or by the name of the slave owner.

US remembering Dr King

The United States is today remembering slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

The 39 year old Dr King was gunned down in Memphis as he stood on the balcony of a hotel while trying to mediate a strike on April 4 in 1968.

He was America's most prominent civil rights leader, and was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination.