Caricom and the Dominican Republic are yet to resolve their differences over the setting up of a coordination mechanism for the Economic Partnership Agreement between the regional grouping and the European Union.

	Caricom trying to resolve EPA coordinator issue

The EPA was signed in late 2008 following tough negotiations between the EU and the Caribbean Forum group - Cariforum, which included the Dominican Republic.

The Caribbean had hoped to have in place by now, a six-member agency for coordinating and implementing the partnership agreement.

But they haven't been able to decide whether the coordinator should come from the Dominican Republic or Caricom.

Secretary General Edwin Cariington says they are hoping to have the matter resolved by year-end.

Commission hit by two resignations

The St Kitts and Nevis Constituency Boundaries Commission, which was sent back to the drawing board by the courts recently, suffered another setback on Monday.

Two members of the Commission, former Nevis premier Vance Amory and Michael Perkins, both of the Concerned Citizens Movement have resigned from the body.

It is tasked with making changes ahead of the next election, with parliament scheduled to be dissolved next month.

Monday's resignations have raised fears that an already delayed process will face even more difficulties in completing the work to facilitate the elections.

Barbados gets negative rating

Barbados has moved from stable to negative on the rating scale of Standard and Poor's.

The ratings service agency says Bridgetown appears to be moving towards a possible second downgrade this year.

Stardard and Poor's said results for the first three quarters of the year underscore a rapid deterioration in Barbados' public finances, and a sharper economic contraction.

The agency cited a worse than anticipated recession for the island's current problems.

But Opposition Leader Mia Mottley puts it down to fiscal incompetence on the part of the present administration.

Water sales about to take off

The Dominican government says it stands to receive several million dollars from a license granted to a US company to ship billions of gallons of its river water to countries around the world.

	Dominica about to export water

Under the 10-year license, the Colorado-based Sisserou Water company will collect around three billion gallons or 11 billion litres of fresh water annually from the Clyde River.

Officials did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

However the permanent secretary in Dominica's public utilities and energy ministry, Lucien Blackmore, told BBC Caribbean the benefits to the island would be substantial.

Rooting for climate change agreement

Grenada's Environment Minister Michael Church believes that an international legally binding outcome on Climate Change is still feasible at the United Nations Climate Change Conference scheduled for Copenhagen in Denmark next month.

US President Barack Obama has said that time has run out to secure a binding climate deal in Copenhagen.

Instead the US president, several other world leaders and UN officials are focusing on a half-way measure, aiming for a broad political agreement and postponing contentious decisions on emissions targets, financing and technology transfer until next year.

But minister Church, who is leading the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) delegation at a planning meeting ahead of the December summit, says despite the delay in ironing out a deal, all hope is not lost.

Georgetown City Council blackout

Many of the services provided by the Mayor and the City Council to Guyana's capital Georgetown came to a stand-still on Monday morning, when the Guyana Power and Light company disconnected their electricity supply for non-payment of their bills.

The city's abattoir, cemetery and incinerator were among the services disconnected.

The electricity company claims that the City Council owes it the equivalent of almost US $4 million in unpaid bills.

However, City Council officials counter that the power company owes them over US $3 million in rental fees for using the council's land.