An internet gaming news agency says the World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled against the United States in an acrimonious dispute with Antigua and Barbuda over online gambling.

Onlinecasinonews.com said Friday that the WTO is expected to pronounce Washington guilty of breaking international trade rules.

The agency said while the ruling is yet to be made public, the "WTO has found the US guilty of not observing a 2005 order in the case."

Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie has put the country on guard for an imminent general election saying that the election register will soon be closed.

"I have advised her Excellency the Governor General to close the current register of voters on Monday the 12th of March 2007.

"An order to that effect under section 14 of the parliamentary elections act is expected to be made by his Excellency with a view to publication of the required register of voters, expiry date notice tomorrow second of February 2007," Christie said in a national broadcast on Thursday.

With the March deadline only a few weeks away, Christie urged Bahamians to take heed and register themselves as soon as possible so that they could take part in the election process.

"Now that the current register of voters is being brought to an end, it is a matter of the first importance that all Bahamian citizens who have not yet done so, proceed as soon as possible to register for the forthcoming general elections.

Elections are due there by May 2, but political pundits expect them to be held much earlier. In the last general elections in 2002, Christie’s Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) won 29 of the 40 seats, defeating the then ruling Free National Movement (FNM).

Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley has referred to the implementation of the single domestic space as by far one of the largest projects implemented in the region.

Mottley, who Wednesday paid a courtesy call to Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, the current chairman of CARICOM, said the new system is not just about immigration, customs or airport management, but about all of the Caribbean people coming together.

The Chairperson of the Regional Security Sub Committee said officials anticipated some challenges in the first few weeks of the new arrangement.

”We do anticipate that we would still have some challenges in the first few weeks, we have set ourselves the date of February 21 as the deadline to work out many of these challenges,” she said.

She said that it was important to begin the system from February 1 so that all the kinks in the system could be worked out before the increased travel activity begins closer to the times of the games.

“We want Caribbean people to work with us and we would be announcing phone numbers and a website for feed back so that persons can share their perspectives on how their experiences in a single domestic space have been going,” Mottley said.

A Taiwanese-based bank is seeking to recover more than US$21 million it says is owed to it by the Grenada government.

The Export-Import Bank of Taiwan has filed a motion in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York claiming that the Keith Mitchell administration had defaulted on four loans.

According to court documents, the bank is seeking to recover US$21.6 million plus interest for the loans which were taken to facilitate construction of the first sports stadium in St George's, as well as a government complex, the agricultural sector and road construction projects.

Government officials have declined to comment on this matter.

On December 21, 2006, the bank filed a motion for summary judgment, stating that "defendant has admitted every material fact".

Grenada is recovering from two devastating hurricanes which wrecked the island's economy and the Mitchell administration has been seeking either to re-schedule exiting loans or debt forgiveness from international lending agencies.

But St. George's broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 2005 and since then the EX-Im Bank has sought to recover all outstanding debts.

The Guyana government has launched a multi-million dollar European Commission (EC) backed revolving fund scheme to boost the competitiveness of the country's rice sector.

The G$1.6 billion (US$8 million) Rice Sector Credit Facility "will serve as an impetus to drive production and re-investment which are so needed to enhance competitiveness and ensure sustainability in the rice sector," according to Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud.

Under the initiative, Persaud said participants, including farmers, millers, input suppliers and exporters would have access to cheaper credit to boost their activities.

"Having recognized that the cost of credit, especially agricultural credit, is relatively high, one of the most significant benefits of the financial facility is that the cost of credit is now much more reduced to meet the needs of the sector without affecting the normal commercial banking sector," he said at the weekend launch of the facility.

Guyana's rice sector contracted heavily in the late 1990s following the implementation of safeguards by the European Union on the other countries and territories (OCT) route which resulted in a 50 percent slash in export prices, resulting in a financial crisis in the rice sector with minimal financing provided by the local banking sector.