September 27, 2018, BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – For sixteen fashion designers and design trainers in Barbados, the dream of being global industry leaders is a little closer to becoming a reality. They recently completed a workshop led by international fashion consultant and creative director, Avis Charles. The event, which took place at the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology, took the participants through the fundamentals of design, developing their unique selling point, and the business techniques needed to be successful in the fashion industry.

The workshop took place from September 10 to 24, and was part of a Train-the-Trainers Programme in Fashion Design and Business Management Project, funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and executed by the Barbados Investment Development Corporation (BIDC). In addition to learning how to create a cost and pricing system; better understand trends in fabrics, colours and shapes; and marketing and brand creation, participants were also asked to design and showcase an individual piece.

“What we wanted to be able to achieve at the end of this thing is individuality. So even though you have eight designers in a room, they all have their unique selling point, and know exactly how they are going to market,” said Charles. Participants agreed that the knowledge gained in the workshop was valuable. For fashion designer Rosita Hunte, the focus on the business aspect of the fashion industry was particularly useful.(CDB)…[+]

India’s supreme court has ruled against a ban on girls and women of menstruating age from entering a prominent Hindu temple in southern Kerala state, upholding rights to equality of worship. The authorities at the Sabarimala temple, which attracts tens of millions of pilgrims every year, have said the ban on women and girls aged from 10 to 50 was essential to the rites related to the temple’s chief deity, Ayyappan, who is considered eternally celibate, and were rooted in a centuries-old tradition.

In the supreme court judgment, the country’s chief justice, Dipak Misra, said: “Restrictions put by Sabarimala temple can’t be held as essential religious practice.

“No physiological and biological factor can be given legitimacy if it does not pass the test of conditionality.”Stating that society needs to undergo a perceptual shift, Misra said: “Patriarchy in religion cannot be permitted to trump over elements of pure devotion borne out of faith and the freedom to practise and profess one’s religion.”

The ruling is the latest in a series of landmark judgments by India’s top court this month, involving some of the most sensitive issues in Indian society.(theguardian)…[+]

Facebook Inc says it has discovered a security issue affecting almost 50 million accounts. The social media company said engineers discovered the incident took place last Friday, on 25 September, and an investigation is still in the early stages.

Facebook said attackers stole Facebook access tokens through its “view as” feature, which they could then use to take over people’s accounts. “View as” is a feature that allows users to see what their own profile looks like to someone else. “Since we’ve only just started our investigation, we have yet to determine whether these accounts were misused or any information accessed,” the company said in a blogpost. Facebook shares fell 3% to $163.78 in afternoon trading.(theguardian)…[+]