Officials say a climate change agreement is unlikely to be reached

Hopes are fading for an international agreement on climate change at next month's global summit in Denmark.

Five days of talks in Barcelona - aimed at paving the way for an agreement at Copenhagen - ended on Friday.

Officials say that because of slow progress in the negotiations, a legally binding treaty is unlikely to be achieved by the December deadline.

Selwin Hart is the lead negotiator for Barbados at the climate talks and the coordinator for the alliance of small island nations.

He says the world's big economies need to do more or their future will be bleak.

Dominican community protests

In Dominica, hundreds of angry residents of the western community of Layou brought traffic to a seven and a half hour stand still as they protested what they said were health problems being caused by a nearby French quarrying company, Emile Gaddarkhan et fils.

They are also concerned about the proposed opening of an asphalt plant nearby.

But MP for the area, Vince Henderson, said the company has not been given permission for the asphalt plant.

Privatisation plans shelved

Employees at St Lucia's Water and Sewage Company (WASCO) have been given an assurance by the government that plans to privatise the company are no longer on the cards.

The workers downed tools earlier this week, over concerns about their future at Wasco, which the government had targeted for privatisation.

Their action forced some schools in the capital to send home students as the institutions experienced water shortages.

Prime Minister Stephenson King met with the employees on Friday to iron out their concerns.

New Montserrat-Antigua ferry service

There are plans to launch a long-term ferry service between Antigua and Montserrat from January next year.

The 101-seater vessel will be jointly owned by the governments of the two islands, is due to sail from Southampton UK later this month, en route to St Thomas.

It will be commissioned and licensed in St Kitts in the last two weeks of December, before beginning official service in January.

Meanwhile Montserrat is also introducing a temporary ferry service next month, in a bid to cope with increased travel during the Christmas season.

Caribbean spared widespread coral damage

Scientists have said that lower-than-feared sea temperatures over the past few months have given a break to fragile coral reefs across the Caribbean that were damaged in recent years.

Unusually warm water in recent years had caused the organisms that make up coral to expel the colourful algae they live with, creating a bleached colour.

If the problem persists, the coral itself dies - killing the environment where many fish and other marine organisms live.

"We dodged a bullet this year," was the reaction of one scientist in Puerto Rico for a meeting of the US Coral Reef Task Force.

Coach Mills retires

Coach of Jamaica's athletics team, Glen Mills is stepping down after a 22-year career.

Under Mills' leadership, his team won seventy-one world championship medals and thirty-three Olympic medals.

He said Friday that it's time to leave.

However he will still work with triple Olympic champion, Usain Bolt, and will also remain head coach at the Racers Track Club, where Bolt is a member.

The president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association, said he was aware of Mills' plans to resign.

The Jamaican association does not expect to appoint a new head coach until shortly before the 2011 South Korea world championships.