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   French banking giant, BNP Paribas, has announced plans to leave Nassau by year end, amid concerns over tax havens.

The bank says it will withdraw from several countries that do not meet international regulations set out by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The Bahamas was among several Caribbean countries included on the OECD's grey list of non-compliant countries in April.

Monday's announcement from the bank's CEO Baudouin Prot came just days after leaders of the G20 vowed to keep up the pressure on tax havens to improve transparency and exchange tax information.

Working feverishly

Bahamian junior Finance Minister Zhivargo Liang called the banks plan 'regrettabe'.

"This is one of the reasons why we are working as feverishly as we have been to meet the standards," Mr Liang said.

He also noted that the government was working to meet the OECD's minimum requirement to sign 12 Tax Information Exchange Agreements with other countries.

"We know there might be those entities that will find it difficult to remain if the Bahamas remains on the grey list. We fully expect to meet that standard by the end of the year but that does not mean we cannot meet it sooner," Mr Liang said.

Local officials said Nassau has already signed agreements with Monaco, San Marino and the United States.

Negotiations have begun with other countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, Germany, France, the Nordic nations and Spain.

   The poll, posted on Saturday, was taken off the site as soon as the company was made aware of it.

It was put up on the site using a third-party application that was unconnected with the social networking site itself.

US officials said they would take "the appropriate investigative steps".

The poll, described by Facebook as "offensive", asked respondents "Should Obama be killed?" and offered four possible responses: "No", "Maybe", "Yes", and "Yes if he cuts my health care".

   Towering tsunamis churned up by a huge earthquake slammed into the Samoan islands on Wednesday, killing at least 113 people as they wiped out entire villages and flattened tourist resorts.

Monster waves that witnesses and officials said measured between three and 7.5 metres high pounded the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and Western Samoa after an 8.0-magnitude undersea quake struck in the early morning.

While the quake toppled buildings and sent thousands fleeing to high ground as the tsunami approached, many others were hit by the walls of water that swept people and cars out to sea and obliterated coastal settlements.

US President Barack Obama called the incident in the outlying US territory of American Samoa a "major disaster" and vowed "aggressive" action to help survivors. Country profile: Samoa

"I am closely monitoring these tragic events, and have declared a major disaster for American Samoa, which will provide the tools necessary for a full, swift and aggressive response," he said.

Samoa's Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was "shocked beyond belief."

"So much has gone. So many people are gone," he told the Australian news agency AAP. "I'm so shocked, so saddened by all the loss." Related article: US, Australia response

The tsunamis swept across the Pacific, battering Samoa where hospital workers said it killed at least 84 people, American Samoa where it felled 22, and Tonga, where at least seven people died.

As Australia, New Zealand and the United States led with immediate pledges of assistance, scores more people were missing feared dead in the chaos and despair that the twin disaster left in its wake.

"We are getting reports of missing people in areas where damage is extensive on the south and southeast coasts," local journalist Jona Tuiletufuga told AFP. "Entire villages have been wiped out."

Up to 70 villages stood in the way of the waves in the worst-hit area and each housed from 300-800 people, Tuiletufuga said. Recent major quakes, tsunamis

   Women who are happy with their sex lives have higher well-being scores and more vitality than women who are sexually dissatisfied, Australian researchers say.

Their study included 295 women, aged 20 to 65, who were sexually active more than twice a month.

   St Lucia Monday called on the British government to reverse its decision to take full control of the Turks and Caicos Islands, saying it was disappointed at the decision of London to sideline the democratically elected government in the British Overseas Territory.

The British government earlier this year announced the move followed allegations of corruption in the government of former premier Michael Misick.

But in his address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Foreign Affairs Minister Rufus Bousquet said that the Stephenson King administration was joining its other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) colleagues in condemning the British government’s action.

“St. Lucia joins with other CARICOM countries in expressing profound concern about, and deep disappointment with the decision by the Administering Power to dissolve the government and the legislature in the non self‐governing territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands, an associate member of CARICOM.

“We call for a speedy return to democratic governance, without which the territory’s participation in the regional integration process will be in jeopardy,” Bousquet added.

The Foreign Minister told the UNGA that when developing countries agreed to the ambitious but necessary Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs) “few, if any, foresaw that the winds would be contrary, the storms fierce and the course ahead so challenging”.

He said with the 2015 deadline fast approaching “governments in the developing world are still struggling to meet their objectives” and blamed the situation on the “unforeseen economic hardship from crisis after crisis that for the most part not of our own making.

“As the developed world appears to be in the infancy of recovery, the developing countries are still in the throngs of this crisis, and are struggling to find calmer waters.”

He said that as a result it was also important for the Doha Round of trade negotiations to be re‐shaped as a development round, with emphasis on the substantial reduction of tariffs and non-tariff barriers that have been imposed by developed countries, especially regarding agricultural products.

“The matter of substantive debt relief to permit the developing countries to utilize their limited resources for national development is also a key consideration. The MDGs are still attainable, but the developed countries must meet their agreed commitments if these objectives are to be realized, consistent with the global timetable.”

Bousquet said that while all of the MDGs were relevant to the development aspirations of St. Lucians and the wider Caribbean “we believe however, that pivotal to this process are education, poverty alleviation and strengthening institutions for good governance.

“These must form the bedrock for overall development. So, despite sluggish advancement towards the realization of all the MDG, we have made significant progress on poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality.”

But he said despite such progress there was need for improvement in other areas, such as child mortality and maternal health.

The Foreign Minister said that St. Lucia regards the current global state of affairs as both challenge and opportunity to take bold new steps and ‘think outside the box’ on tackling the many global issues.

But he warned that there ought to be the right mix of appropriate policy interventions, strong political will and strategic partnerships supported by development stakeholders.

“Hope is, therefore, not completely lost,” he said even as he acknowledged that higher prices for food, fuel and other essentials were forcing most developing countries to divert already scarce resources to subsidize those commodities.