11 February, 2011 - Published 11:23 GMT

BBC Caribbean News in Brief

Warning for Montserrat

Cash-short Montserrat has been told by the British government not to expect any additional budget support from London.

The news was delivered by the British minister for international development, Andrew Mitchell, during a stop-over in the territory.

Salaries to Montserrat public workers were paid late in January because of a revenue shortfall - and ministries have since been urged to watch their spending.

Mr Mitchell said the government of the volcano-hit island has to learn to live within its means.

"It is the wrong approach to wait for the mother bird to bring food to the nest," he said, noting that the UK provides about 50% of its budget already.

"Caribbean matters to the UK"

The British aid minister, Andrew Mitchell, has travelled to Jamaica where he is expected to try to bat away suggestions that the UK is turning its back on the Caribbean.

Critics renewed their claims seized in a week when it become clear that British drug patrol warships were being removed from Caribbean waters.

A release from the Department of International Development, however, insists that the Caribbean matters to Britain.

In Kingston, Mr Mitchell will announce a Caribbean regional aid programme of £75 million (US$120m) dollars until 2015, the release said.

Doctor convicted of altering fingerprints

A doctor from the Dominican Republic has been convicted of offering to surgically alter the fingerprints of illegal immigrants trying to gain entry to the United States.

Jose Elias Zaiter-Pou was sentenced by a court in Boston to a year and a day in prison, followed by deportation and three years of supervision.

He was caught after a government informant posed as an illegal immigrant.

The doctor asked for $4,500 to create a new fingerprint -- undetectable by America's biometric border security programme.

Some illegal immigrants have been known to burn their fingertips, file them down with an emery board, dip them in acid or even resort to surgery to avoid a match.

Jehovah's Witnesses claim victory

A federal appeals court in the US has ordered gated communities across Puerto Rico to grant access to Jehovah's Witnesses so they can engage in their First Amendment right to seek to convert others.

The ruling came nearly seven years after a lawsuit was filed against the US territory's government.

A three-judge panel in Boston ruled that Puerto Rican gated neighbourhoods cannot have locked and unmanned gates that bar access to public streets.

Unlike in the mainland US - where streets inside gated communities are private - they are considered public thoroughfares in Puerto Rico.

Laywers had argued that Puerto Rican law was unconstitutional - in that it effectively banned the religious group from engaging in the door-to-door public ministry for which they are well known worldwide.

Concern over hunger strikers

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States has expressed concern about a prolonged hunger strike by a group of Venezuelan students outside the OAS office in Caracas.

The students are into week two of their protest to press for an investigation into "political prisoners" being held under the government of President Hugo Chavez.

The demonstrators are seeking the release of lawmakers Biagio Piglieri, under house arrest awaiting trial for alleged corruption; and Jose Sanchez, who has been sentenced to 19 years for second degree manslaughter.

Their supporters claim the two men were charged for "political reasons" by President Hugo Chavez's government.