BBC Caribbean News in Brief

Jamaica expects more airline seats

In spite of the gloom surrounding tourism, several Caribbean nations are continuing to report increased airlift for the winter season ahead.

Jamaica is the latest to announce that capacity on flights to the island will increase by 70,000 seats.
Jamaica has done better than most Caribbean destinations so far this year, reporting a 3.4% increase in tourist arrivals from January through June compared to the same period last year.

The overwhelming majority of the 971,000 visitors were from the United States.

UN warns over child rape
A senior United Nations official has warned that the widespread and systematic rape of girls in war zones is increasingly a characteristic of conflict in many parts of the world.

In a report on children and armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said such violations were often perpetrated in a rule of law vacuum as a result of conflict.
Furthermore, she said, there often exists a prevailing culture of impunity for such crimes.

The UN has itself had to contend with claims of the sexual abuse of children by its peacekeepers in countries like Haiti.