BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Prime Minister Freundel Stuart will meet with officials of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) later on Tuesday as he seeks to ward off a nationwide strike that the union has announced after it failed to get the telecommunications company, Cable and Wireless (Barbados) Limited, to retract dismissal letters sent to nearly 100 workers last week. BWU General Secretary Sir Roy Trotman told reporters that he had been contacted by Prime Minister Stuart and requested a meeting following a letter he had received from Labour Minister, Dr.

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – Opposition Leader Mark Brantley is questioning the decision of the Parliament to debate a bill seeking to increase the number of senators ahead of a motion of no confidence filed against the government of Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas. Parliament meets on Tuesday to debate the Senators (Increasing of Number) Bill, 2012 which had its first reading on November 21 last year. A government statement said that the bill will be piloted through the second and third readings by Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrice Nisbett.

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti, CMC – A new United Nations-backed national household survey shows substantial progress has been made for children in the education, nutrition, health and sanitation sectors since 2006.
According to the initial results of the Haiti Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), which covered 13,350 households, 77 per cent of children aged 6-11 years attended primary school in 2012, compared to just below 50 per cent in 2005-2006 when the last survey was conducted.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Should we congratulate St. Kitts and Nevis for being the most recent Caribbean nation to become a “high-income country, as defined by the World Bank? Recently, the President of the United States of America Barack Obama pointed out that it was his intention to terminate the designation of the twin-state as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme in accordance with the provisions of the 1974 Trade Act.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica government says while an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will it some needed assistance, it is not however the solution to the problems facing the country. “The IMF will not solve the problems of Jamaica. We all have to make some sacrifices and it is us as Jamaicans that will have to work together in unity to move this country forward,” Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said, adding “it must be all of us working together for the growth and development of Jamaica as one Jamaican family shaping our future together”.