BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados has recorded a significant increase in dengue cases last year even as health authorities were reporting a decline in confirmed cases during a four week period leading up to mid-December last year.
Official figures released here show that for the four-week period leading up to December 15, last year, there were 43 confirmed cases of dengue, compared to 68 in the four weeks leading up to November 17.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – A senior Barbados health official has described as a “major achievement” the recent agreement by member countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) to draft a comprehensive global monitoring framework for the prevention and control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD).
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joy St. John, who is also the Chairperson of the WHO Executive Board, said NCDs should no longer be considered an issue that people need to confront solely on a personal level.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - No country rejoices at being downgraded, says Prime Minister Freundel Stuart on last month’s International rating agency Moody’s downgrade of Barbados.
“However, the downgrade has not altered any of the facilities to which Barbadians are entitled and to which they have access. Life continues,” he stressed.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - n a pace-setting move the Guyana Parliament last week unanimously approved a motion to record for posterity the “special relationship” that country shares with Cuba.
As Guyana’s Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, noted, the relationship with Cuba dates back to more than four decades when Guyana was still a British colony, and prior to the 1962 United States-imposed economic and financial embargo against the western Caribbean nation.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The New Year started with yet another welcome affirmation from the British Government of the importance of the 54-nation Commonwealth.
Hugo Swire, who was appointed Minister of State for the Commonwealth last summer, published an Opinion in the Daily Telegraph in London on January 2 in which he said that the Commonwealth “is an important institution” that can “through dedication and reform become stronger and speak with a louder voice than ever before”.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - The financial problems affecting the University of the West Indies have trickled down to the UWI Open Campus programme.
Reports indicate that the Open Campus which operates in 16 nations is owed millions by contributing countries and, as a result, is struggling to pay its bills.
The major defaulters, according to a source, were the Eastern Caribbean countries which were feeling the brunt of the economic downturn.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados says it has signed an Avoidance of Double Taxation agreement with the Republic of San Marino as well the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on income.
A government statement said that the agreement was signed in New York last month and formalises the bilateral agreement which was initialled in July 2012.
Barbados Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Joseph Goddard and Permanent Representative of the Republic of San Marino, Ambassador Daniele Bodini signed the accord.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Looking back, there were several issues last year that have been left hanging in the balance that one can only hope will be addressed this year.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - THE YEAR 2012 has seen challenges and opportunities, new beginnings and familiar setbacks, victories and defeats. The most glaring example is the attempts by the United Nations to end the bloody 21-month-old Syrian conflict through diplomacy which have been a resounding failure. There is little reason to expect a quick change given the Russian-United States disagreement on Syria.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - When four Caribbean leaders met in Bridgetown last Friday to discuss the future of the regional airline LIAT, they sounded upbeat, even with the times continuing to be turbulent for the airline industry worldwide. It is evident, after hearing not only the political directorate, but moreso the airline’s chairman Jean Holder and chief executive officer Ian Brunton, that a sustainable business model must be rolled out.