Barbados Today

Australia fruit scare: Needles found in New Zealand strawberries
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Nishal’s plight a wake-up call to parents
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Central Bank opens debt exchange forum on Monday
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Weather Update: Tropical Depression #11 and Tropical Storm Kirk
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Today’s weather
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Cricket-Women-WI defeat SA by 115 runs
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Statement from the DLP on the passing of Evelyn Greaves
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Evelyn Greaves an example of dedication and commitment – PM Mottley
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Barbados Today's Videos

Columns

Relationships matter

Relationships are key in all aspects of life. Perhaps this is something that we have lost in our busyness. I remember when we were children, my dad used to make it a point to take the family to visit family friends on Sunday evenings. While I didn’t realize it then, he was building relationships and even today, I still have…
No vigilante action in the Americas

A furore surrounded Luis Almagro, the Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS), after the Associated Press (AP) reported him as encouraging military intervention in Venezuela to topple the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The AP, on September 14, reported Almagro as saying: “With respect to a military intervention to overthrow Nicolas Maduro’s regime, I don’t think any option…
Living with Endometriosis

While a range of treatments for endometriosis exists, there are limitations on their effectiveness: drug therapy carries a dependency on continuous usage; and there are risks of surgery with a 40 per cent probability that this invasive handling would not work. This leaves most women who live with this condition with some semblance of its monthly painful symptoms until menopause…
The Escazú Agreement

Our societies increasingly demand more and better access to adequate and reliable information, along with more and better opportunities to participate in a meaningful way in the decisions that affect them. To support this shift to a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, the Latin America and Caribbean region today has an unprecedented multilateral instrument: the Regional Agreement on Access…
Praise, worship, fashion and theatre

The annual September dinner and talent showcase of the Shekinah Gospel group - a church outreach and help centered ministry - held at the Community Worship Center Church of the Nazarene on Madison Street, in Brooklyn, New York, did not disappoint. It was a three-hour praise, worship and celebration of faith, a thank you to God for gifts freely given,…
Rihanna champions right to education

Education is a lifelong journey. We never know everything, but we constantly evolve as we learn more about our communities, this ever-changing world and ourselves. I’m not ashamed to say I’m still learning. I’ve grown tremendously as an individual through my formal education as well as the global education I have received by travelling the world through music. Hundreds of…
The big bad bullies

I think we are in the first phase of austerity in Barbados. The Government has announced some of the measures to be taken and hinted at more to come. I understand that dollars have to be adjusted to address the four problem pillars of debt, fiscal tightness, foreign exchange deficit and credibility in our economy. However, the more I live…
GDPR: A good choice

On 25 May 2018, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force. This is a tool designed to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, to protect EU citizens’ data privacy and to trigger more secure individual data privacy amongst organizations working with personal data of EU citizens. The GDPR not only applies to stakeholders located within the…
Perpetuating the harm

The safety of our children is Barbados’ most important mission-critical item. The Hon. Kay McConney is the Minister responsible for telecommunications, and our children can be helped by her action or harmed by her inaction. The last (DLP) administration approved our children’s use of cellular phones in our schools. There are many benefits to this policy. However, the main harm…
The plight of the Uighurs

The Uighurs or Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group who live in East and Central Asia. Today, an estimated 15 million Uighurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (East Turkistan) of the People’s Republic of China, where they are one of 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. Uighurs primarily practice Islam. Like many populations of Central Eurasia, they are…

Lifestyle

One too many

WIRSPA, the representative association for regional rum producers, is launching an initiative to promote responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages. Komal Samaroo, Chairman of WIRSPA and Demerara Distillers Limited noted that while individual producers support efforts to reduce harmful drinking at the national level, they cannot ignore the negative impact excessive consumption of alcohol has on society. He said WIRSPA intends…
Side-bar

Barbados and most of the other 14 members of CARICOM are unsure of the impact poor health among staff has on the profitability of companies because no study is tailor-made for our dominant service industries. This is the view of University of the West Indies Chancellor Emeritus, Sir George Alleyne, who recently spoke of a large extra-regional study that looked…
Curbing student violence

In an effort to tackle the high incidence of school-related violence, more guidance counsellors will be placed at secondary schools. Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment Adrian Forde made the announcement during the commemoration of the International Day of Peace at the Cathedral Church of St Michael and All Angels. Forde indicated that the Mia Mottley administration was mindful of…
Beneficial beauties

Months of hard work paid off Wednesday night as the nine ladies of the 2018 Miss Universe Barbados pageant received their awards at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre for the Prize Giving Ceremony. As the girls huddled at their table exchanging hugs, taking pictures and breaking into bouts of laughter, it was hard to believe that it was only last…
UWI a CARICOM integration leader

In order to assert themselves in the forefront of CARICOM integration, University of the West Indies academics must make their messages clear and easily understandable for both regional decision-makers and ordinary Caribbean citizens. This is the view of Chancellor Emeritus, Sir George Alleyne, who has said that the time is now for the 70-year-old UWI to emphasize its leadership role…
Art diplomacy

Scores of Barbadians and Argentinians came together at the Argentine Embassy in Hastings, Christ Church on Tuesday evening as they took part in the opening of a joint art exhibition reception. The Manchas and Collages – an intervened photography and abstract art joint exhibit – formed part of this year’s cultural celebrations to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between…
First lady

Dedication to her work over the last three and a half decades, despite having to cope with a life-threatening illness in more recent years, has paid off for 61-year-old Marcia Padmore, who recently became the first winner of the Barbados Workers Union’s Domestic Worker of the Year Award. In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Marcia, who is the mother of…
Legal distinction

The winner of the award by the GWP & Co. Scholarship Trust for the two-year period 2018/19 and 2019/20 is 21-year-old Shaddiah Hinds of Barnwell Gap, Rock Hall, St Thomas. The successful applicant was educated at Hillaby-Turners Primary School, Queens College and the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies. She enrolled in the law faculty at…
Shine like a light

The students of Parkinson Memorial School have been selected to participate in a pilot project in which the entire student body will be adopted by two corporate entities. The project is a partnership between the Ministry of Education Technological and Vocational Training, Goddard Enterprise Group as well as Sign Depot and was launched this morning at the school. Minister of…
No natural resources

The creative economy is the saviour of Barbados’ failing economy. The comment was made by Minister of Youth and Community Empowerment Adrian Medic Forde as he responded to questions from the media prior to National Youth Week scheduled to begin September 23. Forde said that since Barbados has no natural resources, its investment is in its people who must in…

Entertainment

World

Australia fruit scare: Needles found in New Zealand strawberries

SOURCE: BBC NEWS: The Australian scare over needles found in strawberries has spread to New Zealand after needles were found in a punnet of the fruit in an Auckland supermarket. The Countdown supermarket chain said it had taken a brand of Australian strawberries off the shelves. There have been over 100 reports of needles being found in supermarket fruit in…
WHO releases global status report on alcohol and health

More than three million people died as a result of harmful use of alcohol each year, according to a report released by the World Health Organization (WHO). This represents one in 20 deaths. More than three quarters of these deaths were among men. Overall, the harmful use of alcohol causes more than five per cent of the global disease burden.…
EAST AFRICA - Death toll climbs

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Hundreds of solemn people watched Friday as body after body was pulled from a capsized ferry that Tanzanian authorities said was badly overcrowded and upended in the final stretch before reaching shore. The death toll was above 130 but horrified witnesses feared that would rise as a second day of searching neared an end. “This is…
INDIA - ‘Honour killing’

On September 14, Pranay Perumalla was murdered in front of his wife, Amrutha, in an alleged honour killing. BBC Telugu’s Deepthi Bathini spoke to Amrutha, whose father has been arrested for plotting the attack. Amrutha and Pranay were high school sweethearts in Miriyalaguda, a small town in the southern Indian state of Telangana. They first met at high school. “We…
INDIA - Seven-year-old in critical condition after rape

NEW DELHI – A 7-year-old girl is in critical condition at a New Delhi hospital after undergoing surgery for injuries she suffered while being raped with a metal water pipe, officials said Wednesday. Her mother was by her bedside after the girl underwent hours of surgery. The exact type of pipe used in the assault is unclear. A 21-year-old has…
WORLD: Typhoon Mangkhut batters the Philippines

Some 14 people have been killed in a massive storm which brought destruction to the northern Philippines, a presidential adviser says. Typhoon Mangkhut ripped through the Philippines' main island of Luzon, and is now moving west towards China. Almost all buildings in the city of Tuguegarao sustained some damage, a government official said, and communications were down in places. The…
USA - At least four dead as Hurricane Florence drenches the Carolinas

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Blowing ashore with howling 90 mph (155 kph) winds, Hurricane Florence splintered buildings, trapped hundreds of people and swamped entire communities along the Carolina coast Friday in what could be just the opening act in a watery, two-part, slow-motion disaster. At least four people were killed. Forecasters warned that drenching rains of 1 to 3? feet…
USA - ‘Threat becomes reality’

WILMINGTON, N.C. — The big slosh has begun, and the consequences could be disastrous. Hurricane Florence’s leading edge battered the Carolina coast Thursday, bending trees and shooting frothy sea water over streets on the Outer Banks, as the hulking storm closed in with 100 mph (155 kph) winds for a drenching siege that could last all weekend. Forecasters said conditions…
Hurricane Florence closes in on Carolinas

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Motorists streamed inland on highways converted to one-way evacuation routes Tuesday as about 1.7 million people in three states were warned to get out of the way of Hurricane Florence, a hair-raising storm taking dead aim at the Carolinas with 140 mph winds and potentially ruinous rains. Florence was expected to blow ashore late Thursday or early…
USA - Evacuation order

RALEIGH, N.C. — Florence exploded into a potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane Monday as it closed in on North and South Carolina, carrying winds up to 130 mph and water that could wreak havoc over a wide stretch of the eastern United States later this week. Communities along a stretch of coastline that’s vulnerable to rising sea levels due to…