Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer says his administration has no plans to roll back the controversial sales tax introduced last month as he brushed aside an opposition threat to close down the country over the tax.

On Thursday former Prime Minister Lester Bird, political leader of the opposition Antigua Labour Party (ALP), threatened to lock down the country as more than 5,000 protestors took to the streets of the capital to protest the imposition of the 15 per cent tax on goods and services.

But Spencer said his administration was not moved by the protest or threat.

The famed photographs of Bahamas Immigration Minister, Shane Gibson and the late Anna Nicole Smith has led to the former becoming the first victim of Smith’s real life drama, which has consumed members of the Bahamian community across South Florida and at home.

The Bahamian Minister came under media scrutiny with the surfacing of photos of the former playmate, Smith and himself on a bed, forcing Gibson to relinquish his position. Smith’s already questionable Bahamian residency now comes under further inquiry with the emergence of the photos. As controversy swirls over her estate, her remains and the paternity of her child Dannielyn in a Broward Courtroom, the Police Commissioner in the Bahamas has launched a formal investigation against Gibson.

Regional political scientist Professor Neville Duncan says Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states need to sit down urgently and work out a regional policy on energy.

Speaking Friday as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in the Caribbean on an official visit to Dominica and St. Vincent, Professor Duncan said even while the region had largely embraced Chavez' Petro Caribe offer of oil on credit deal, it needed to be sensitive to the position of oil rich Trinidad in the matter.

Former Belize ambassador to Guatemala, Moises Cal, has withdrawn as a candidate for the ruling People's United Party (PUP) ahead of next year’s general election.

The party said that Cal, who would have contested the newly created Belmopan constituency, had decided to withdraw for “personal and family reasons” and that it would soon announce the date of a convention to select another candidate.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell has initiated court action against a local radio station and its owners over charges that he was libelled by the station.

The Office of the Attorney General on Friday filed a suit against Andall and Associates and Spice Media, the operators of radio station 90.1 FM, a government statement confirmed Monday.