A former Saint Lucia Prime Minister says the OECS countries must take a stronger position within Caricom, on trade negotiations with Europe and the United States.

	Dr Lewis wants the OECS to get more out of Caricom negotiated deals

Dr Vaughn Lewis says the current controversy over the economic partnership agreements being signed between the European Union and the African Caribbean Pacific countries has highlighted the need for the OECS countries to take a firmer stand to protect their interests.

Doctor Lewis told BBC Caribbean that it was crucial that the smaller states in Caricom adopt a tougher stand, in view of the situation facing bananas.

He's suggesting that OECS interests in the EPA negotiations weren't looked after properly.

Political feud stifling search for PM

One Haitian commentator says a political feud between the upper and lower houses of the Haitian parliament will make the job of appointing a new prime minister a job fraught with difficulties.

Haiti's president, Rene Preval has to find a new candidate after his preferred choice, former Inter-American Development Bank economist Ericq Pierre was given the nod by the Senate - only to have his candidacy rejected by the lower house.

This after the Senate passed a vote of no-confidence in then prime minister Edouard Alexis a month ago, saying he wasn't up to the job of running the country.

The Station Manager of Haitian Radio Soleil in New York Rico Dupuis says he expected Mr Pierre's candidacy to be defeated because of what he describes as a power struggle in the Haitian parliament.

Grenada sends condolence message

Grenada, which has diplomatic relations with Beijing, has sent a message of condolence to the Chinese government, where rescuers are still searching for survivors of China's biggest earthquake in decades.

The quake, which struck on Monday, has devastated cities across the huge province of Sichuan.

Chinese officials now say eighteen-thousand people were buried in one city alone, Mianyang.

In total, more than three-and-a-half-million houses were destroyed in Sichuan.

Officially, the number of dead stands at nearly twelve-thousand, but reports say as many as a-hundred-thousand are missing in just two counties.

The authorities in St Georges said Grenadian students in China were safe but some had been affected by precautionary evacuations which had been ordered after the earthquake.

Bermuda battling violent crime

Bermuda police say they are trying to stem a wave of violent crime which by the island's standards, has seen an all time high in gang-related robberies, firearm offences and burglaries.

In the first three months of this year there were 46 robberies, and a further 13 attempted robberies, nearly double the number for the same period in 2007.

Police officers say April 2008 was among the worst months they can remember, with more than 135 homes, schools and offices broken into.

Bermuda police are blaming the rise in robberies on groups of young men who have been targeting individuals in bars and clubs in the capital Hamilton.

Samuels banned

West Indies batsman Marlon Samuels has been banned from cricket for two years after being found guilty of breaking rules designed to stop players betting on matches.

The International Cricket Council says it enforced a mandatory ban on the 27-year-old backdated from the ninth of May, on the recommendation of the West Indies Cricket Board, the WICB.

The WICB had set up a committee to looked into charges that the Jamaican had passed on team information to a bookmaker during a one-day series in India in January 2007 -- charges that Samuels consistently denies.