Antigua & Barbuda has suffered a significant drop of 13 places in the United Nations 2011 indices which measure human development.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) have urged regional countries to increase tax collections and carry out other reforms so they can sustain the growth they have seen despite the global economic slowdown.

A recent report by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) has found that alcohol and marijuana are the choice drugs among Caribbean secondary school students although “patterns vary widely from country to country.”

Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation John Maginley has played down the threat posed to LIAT by low cost carrier Redjet and said he is more concerned about competition from Caribbean Airlines.

Last week’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami has left the inhabitants of the island of Japan reeling from the effects of a horrible tragedy that Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan has described as the worst since the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the close of World War II in August 1945.

These days, the stories appearing in the newspaper and other media reporting the strides made by local law enforcement agencies in intercepting massive shipments of illegal drugs, amounting to millions of dollars, have been coming fast and furious.

Antigua & Barbuda is among several Caricom countries set to benefit from technical support provided by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Caribbean region’s Partnership Framework (PF) for HIV/AIDS.

By default, Antigua and Barbuda hosted from July 11-22 an advocacy leadership course targeting women.