Trade Union says government is not doing enough to improve the economy

The Antigua Trades and Labour Union is taking the government to task over the state of the economy, following the announcement of late payment of salaries for some public officers.

The Baldwin Spencer administration has said that efforts are being made to complete payment of wages and salaries to these workers within the next week.

But union president Wrigley George says the government needs to introduce new programmes to increase revenue.

Expected rise in exports

A report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC) says the region will see an increase in exports of more than 20% this year.

ECLAC's predictions come as the region is still reeling from the effects of the global financial downturn.

Director of International Trade and Integration at ECLAC, Orlando Rosales, says the UN body is confident that the current economic challenges will not deter export growth in the hemisphere.

Mr Rosales told BBC Caribbean that exports in the Bahamas is up 3%, while Barbados has seen a 23% increase.

In Suriname the figure is 28% while Trinidad and Tobago has seen the highest, at 30%.

Bahamas suspends exploration licenses

The Bahamian government says it will not consider new oil exploration or drilling applications, until new environmental guidelines are established.

The Environment Ministry says it will also review existing licenses in order to safeguard the archipelago's 700 islands' marine environment.

Nassau took that position in the wake of April's explosion in the gulf of Mexico, that led to the worst oil spill in US history.

The government's decision will affect the London-listed company, BPC which was formed to invest in an offshore exploration programme across six thousand square miles off Bahamian waters.

There has been no drilling in the Bahamas for 20 years.

But last month, BPC announced preliminary results of a seismic survey conducted on its licenses near Cuba, which it said showed promising signs of hydrocarbons.

Japan pledges help

Japan has pledged to help Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations during the economic crisis.

The promise came during a meeting of foreign ministers in Tokyo on Thursday.

This was only the second Japan-Caricom Ministerial-Level Conference; the first was held in 2000.

Analysts in Tokyo say Japan aims to deepen economic and other cooperation with Caribbean nations to win their support for its bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council and seek their understanding of Japan's position as a whaling nation.

Japanese news agencies report that Caribbean countries asked for Japan's assistance to recover from the financial crisis.

Japan said it would dispatch a joint public-private economic mission to discover potential business opportunities in the financial and tourism sectors of the region.

The two sides also agreed to cooperate in supporting quake-hit Haiti and in tackling climate change

Watch on for new storm

Gaston, the season's newest tropical storm which formed on Wednesday, is expected to strengthen into a hurricane during the weekend.

It is currently in the open Atlantic but is forecast to head
west toward the northeast Caribbean.

Gaston follows on the heels of Fiona which is moving away from the region and will likely veer toward Bermuda over the next several days.

A tropical storm watch has been issued for the British territory.

Before Fiona, there was Hurricane Earl which caused $50-150 million in insured losses in the Virgin Islands, St Maarten, St Martin and Puerto Rico when it blew through the northeast Caribbean earlier this week.

That's the assessment of the risk modelling company AIR Worldwide.

St Kitts air incident deemed serious

An air accident report issued in London has said that a British Airways plane took off on a section of a runway in St Kitts that was not long enough for that type of aircraft.

In what was described as a "serious incident", the BA crew mistook one plane taxiway for another and ended up at an intersection on the runway which was not an authorised point for Boeing 777s to take off.

The plane eventually took off safely on its flight to Antigua on the afternoon of 26 September last year.

One of the recommendations of British Air Accidents Investigation Branch was a tightening up of standards and practices at the Robert Bradshaw Airport in St Kitts.

BA was also told to review its airfield inspections process.

Jamaican braces for US open challenge

Jamaican tennis player Dustin Brown will play one of the most high profile matches of his career when he takes on Britain's Andy Murray in the second round of the US Open.

Brown, who beat Spain's Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4, 7-6 (8/6), 7-5, says he has a plan for Murray.

He said: "I'm going to definitely try and play my type of tennis, be aggressive and keep the points short."

The world number 123 has complained about a lack of financial support from Jamaica and has already expressed an interest in switching allegiance to Britain.