"As we face the electorate in a little while, your responsibility as a political party is to be ready," Manning urged party faithful, following his walkabout in the Sangre Grande area in east Trinidad.

The government of Baldwin Spencer in Antigua and Barbuda has signed a partnership agreement with a leading engineering university in the United States.

An Antigua government statement said Friday that the agreement with Polytechnic University of New York will enable six Antiguan students to receive annual scholarships from the university to pursue studies at its main campus in Brooklyn at the graduate and undergraduate levels. The scholarships become effective this September.

St. Lucia’s ambassador to the United States and Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS), Sonia M. Johnny has resigned.

She will now serve as head of the tourism section of the ‘Trade, Tourism and Competitiveness’ Department of the OAS from March 1.

Chief Minister Osbourne Fleming says his government will re-examine the salaries paid to public servants in Anguilla in order to stem the brain drain.

"We have a problem right now where many civil servants are leaving and it is going to get worse in the next two and half to three years," Fleming told his parliamentary colleagues.

Plans for oil exploration in the Bahamas have received a nudge after the issuance of licenses to two oil companies there.

The companies are Bahamas Offshore Limited, which was granted approval for one license and Island Offshore Petroleum Limited which received approval for four licenses.

On Thursday the Ministry of Energy and the Environment Dr. Marcus Bethel distributed the petroleum exploration licenses to the companies which are expected to explore for hydrocarbons (chemical compound that consists only of carbon and hydrogen which form the basic components for oil).