St Lucia may have to borrow to pay salaries

Cash-strapped St Lucia says it may have to soon resort to borrowing funds to pay salaries.

Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet says the island is at the moment barely making enough cash for recurrent expenditure.

Trade Union leaders have been reacting to that warning from the government, that the country is running out of money.

Minister Chastanet used the occasion of the opening of a new tourism project this week to deliver his sobering message.

Sixty striking workers fired

A strike at Guyana's United Rusal bauxite mining operations has worsened.

The authorities have warned of the possibility of the operation shutting down, and 60 workers have been dismissed with immediate effect.

The company's workers were on Friday into day five of their protest for increased pay.

The Labour Ministry on Thursday failed to broker a back-to-work deal with the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union.

The 60 workers fired were told they were being dismissed because they engaged in unlawful industrial action that resulted in severe economic losses for United Rusal.

PM Brown wants incentive fund

The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has proposed richer nations set up a $10 billion fund to provide incentives for the developing world to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

He was speaking in Trinidad where leaders from the Commonwealth group of nations are meeting.

At the opening ceremony the head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth, said the organisation had the opportunity to lead once more.

In an unprecedented move the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is at the conference along with the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon.

The Commonwealth has more than 50 members, ranging from huge countries such as India to islands like the Maldives whose existence is threatened as global warming raises sea levels.

Climate change tops agenda

The outgoing and incoming chairmen of the Commonwealth have placed the responsibility for the future economic and environmental health of the developing world squarely at the feet of the industrialised world.

Ugandan President Yoweri Musoveni and Trinidad and Tobago's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, addressed the opening ceremony of the meeting on Friday morning in Port of Spain.

President Musoveni said there that it was clear that it is the industrialised world which has been responsible for the major damage by greenhouse gasses.

Banana deal worrying

British Foreign Office Minister Glenys Kinnock says she is concerned that a deal to end Europe's long-running trade war over taxes on banana imports will hurt Caribbean banana producing nations.

	Baroness Kinnock concerned that deal may hurt Caribbean

An agreement to reduce tariffs imposed by the European Union on Latin American bananas is expected to be reached by next week.

Baroness Kinnock has long lobbied to ensure that the protected status enjoyed by the African Caribbean Pacific group of countries is maintained.

She spoke to BBC Caribbean about the latest banana developments from the Trinidadian capital Port of Spain, where she is attending the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit.

She said she was "extremely anxious about the implications of reducing the tariff" that would give much easier access to Latin American bananas to come into Europe.