BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Opposition Leader Owen Arthur is warning of a “fiscal cliff” in Barbados and accuses the Freundel Stuart government of putting the country in that crisis. Addressing a political meeting of his Barbados Labour Party (BLP) on Sunday night, Arthur, who is seeking to regain the government he lost in 2008, said that the decision of the government to call the general election so late could have an effect on the economy particularly as it relates to the government’s Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.
News
ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The European union is providing EC$1.3 million (One EC dollar = US$0.27 cents) to the Gilbert Agricultural and Rural Development Centre (GARD) for a project aimed at enhancing the income generating opportunities of vulnerable young women in Antigua and Barbuda. GARD said the Empowerment of Young Women in Antigua and Barbuda in their Income Generation (YWEP) project will have a two year life span and will target over 200 vulnerable young women who are unemployed or underemployed.
BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – The Belize-based Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) Monday began the first of a series of risk management workshops in Suriname as it seeks to develop a regional approach to climate change risk management. The CCCCC said that representatives from the UK based consulting group Acclimatise, will assist in conducting the high-level workshops in Suriname, Barbados, Jamaica and Belize.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Sir Hilary Beckles, wants Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to begin efforts aimed at seeking some form of reparation from Western countries for slavery.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque will be paying a three-day official visit to The Bahamas, the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat has announced.
It said that LaRocque will meet with Prime Minister Perry Christie on Thursday and will also pay courtesy call on Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Frederick Mitchell.
He will hold talks with National Security Minister Benard Nottage, who is also the chairman of the CARICOM Council for National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE).
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - WHATEVER the prime minister and her finance minister tell the nation later today, we can be very certain that it will require even more sacrifice and hardship. We already know that an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme — deemed by economic experts as absolutely necessary if Jamaica is to stabilise its economy and ultimately achieve sustainable economic growth — will demand more cost cutting.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - THE WHITE Paper for the national workplace policy on HIV/AIDS has been tabled in Parliament, further paving the way for the establishment of enforcement mechanisms to protect the rights of persons infected or affected by the illness. The paper, which was laid on the table of the Senate on Friday, is intended to give legislative expression to an occupational safety and health act, which the Government says will soon be enacted.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - AS the Government prepares to update the nation tonight on the pending International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan agreement, Opposition Leader Andrew Holness has warned the Portia Simpson Miller-led Administration that it must prepare to sacrifice as much as it intends to ask of Jamaicans. "For 50 years we have been asked to sacrifice, and again the people of Jamaica will be asked to sacrifice, but will the sacrifice ever yield any success?" asked Holness.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer - THE University of the West Indies (UWI) on Friday awarded its researchers for making last week's 14th staging of the UWI Research Days a success. At least six researchers were awarded for their work that continues to promote the University as the research nucleus of the Caribbean. Among those awarded were Dr Andre Coy, whose book, Emulating Human Speech Recognition; A Scene Analysis Approach to Improving Robustness in Automatic Speech Recognition, was named best research publication from the Faculty of Science and Technology.
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Gleaner - The Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines (CAL) Friday cancelled a number of flights to the United States because of a snowstorm that was making its way up the Atlantic coast affecting New York and other cities.
The cancellation is expected to affect a number of nationals who were expected for the Carnival celebrations that climax with street parades and jump-up tomorrow.