Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke yesterday said the Government will be providing aggregate spending of $126 million to central and local government representatives to assist constituents during the three consecutive weekends of lockdown...

CROSS KEYS, Manchester - Police here have charged 27-year-old Ramalia Rebecca Polkins with the murder of her 84-year-old grandmother, Advira Wilson-Palmer, following Monday's stabbing death of the senior citizen.The incident happened in...

PRINCIPAL of Cumberland High School Darien Henry has claimed that almost 70 per cent of his current grade seven students are reading below the grade four level.Henry said this is a disheartening reality considering the absence of remedi...

Jamaica Observer readers will have the benefit of receiving three special editions of the Sunday Observer over the next three weekends when the country will be under strict COVID-19 lockdown.The publications will offer features, news...

DESPITE the announcement by Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke in his recent budget debate presentation that Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) applicants will now only need one guarantor instead of two, current borrowers are more concerned with...

Young Jamaicans who continue to flout the COVID-19 containment measures and refuse to resist the urge to mingle are inadvertently killing their older relatives - the cohort which is dying the most in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic here."We ...

Lawmakers in the lower House yesterday gave the nod to a raft of penalties and other provisions under the Disaster Risk Management Act (2021), which will see, among other things, those who refuse to wear masks in public or break curfew ...

Justice Patrick Brooks says that the Appeal Court, where he serves as president, is pinning its hopes on the newly minted Commission of Senior Judges of the Parish Courts to come up with a fix to ensure that the records of appeal are p...

SOME 7,053 people have applied for the 2,500 backyard garden kits under the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries' Backyard Garden Kit Project, which is designed to strengthen the country's food security by enabling citizens to grow and...

Today is the 83rd day of 2021. There are 282 days left in the yearTODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1989: Supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and begins leaking 11 million gallons (41.6 million litres) of cru...

THE Portland police and Children's Court judge are being commended for their efforts in supporting the National Child Diversion Programme.Child diversion officer for Portland Simmonette Rose Daniels said that as diversion partners, the ...

THE Clarendon Municipal Corporation has been making strides in providing farmers and residents of Clarendon Northern and other areas in the parish with potable water, Mayor Winston Maragh has announced.This was made possible, he said, t...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Business interests in this south-central parish have welcomed the three consecutive weekends of tighter curfew measures imposed by the Government in an effort to combat the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus,...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - Prime Minister Mia Mottley, in her capacity as chair of the Joint World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Development Committee, has highlighted reaching a clearing arrangement for excess orders of COVI...

AS the Government continues to push back against the local anti-vaccination lobby, family physician at Ruthven Medical Centre Dr Marc Ricketts wants Jamaicans to know that COVID-19 is real and that the jab is the only answer to the invi...

FLORIDA, United States (AP) - The National Weather Service has turbocharged its lagging forecast model to better predict extreme weather events such as hurricanes, blizzards and downpours, as well as day-to-day weather.By including much...

MORE than 800 tourism workers have been resensitised about the COVID-19 health and safety protocols that were established for the reopening of the sector in June last year.The protocols were developed in partnership with the Ministry of...

BOSTON, United States (AP) - Parents across the United States are conflicted about reopening schools. Most are at least somewhat worried that a return to the classroom will lead to more coronavirus cases, but there's an even deeper fear...

ISRAEL (AFP) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party was on track to win the most seats in Israel's election yesterday, the fourth in less than two years, but he was not guaranteed to secure a majority. The projections, based on exi...

LONDON, England (AP) - The UK has a lot to reflect on.A year to the day since Prime Minister Boris Johnson first put the country under lockdown to slow the fast-spreading coronavirus, Britain paused yesterday to remember those who have ...

CALIFORNIA, United States (AP) - Millions of US households are facing heavy past-due utility bills, which have escalated in the year since the pandemic forced Americans hunkered down at home to consume more power.And now, government mor...

Q. What is an Affidavit of Support?A. Many immigrant visa categories require an Affidavit of Support, Form I-864. The Affidavit of Support provides information on the petitioner's household size and income and attests that the petitione...

Dear Mr Brown,Considering that the Canadian border is still closed to travel, do you foresee a negative impact on immigration due to COVID-19?TM Dear TM,According to a recent report by Statistics Canada, the country is experiencing the...

Defence attorney Peter Champagnie, QC, has called for a ticketing system for people who continue to flout the COVID-19 containment measures. At the same time, he is urging lawmakers to develop legislation specific to the novel coronavir...

Scores of people who were not scheduled to be vaccinated yesterday were among those who turned up at The Good Samaritan Inn in the Corporate Area hoping for a "lucky jab".In rolling out its COVID-19 vaccination programme almost two wee...

LONDON, England (AP) - AstraZeneca reported yesterday that its COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection among all adults in a long-anticipated US study, raising hopes that the findings could help rebuild public confidence in the bele...

Former Member of Parliament for St Andrew West Rural and retired Cabinet minister Dr MavisGilmour receives her COVID-19 vaccination from Professor Minerva Thame at The University of theWest Indies, Mona campus, in St Andrew yesterday.Dr...

FLORIDA, United States (CMC) - Seven Jamaicans were among 14 Caribbean nationals suspected of involvement in a human smuggling venture off the south coast of Florida, who were held by the United States Coast Guard last week, it was repo...

Jamaicans who continue to breach COVID-19 safety protocols could be fined up to $500,000 if the House of Representatives passes the new Disaster Risk Management (Amendment) Act today at Gordon House.The Bill is expected to be supported...

Prime Minister Andrew Holness got his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination yesterday and used the occasion to again push for the proposed National Identification System (NIDS).Minutes after he took the jab at The Good Samaritan Inn in...

Today is the 82nd day of 2021. There are 283 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1775: Patrick Henry calls for America's independence from Britain, telling the Virginia Provincial Convention, "Give me liberty, or give me death!" OTH...

ALL primary and secondary schools have again been ordered closed as the Government believes the country is at a breaking point in the management of the COVID-19 crisis.The announcement was made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - The tourism, merchant and business process outsourcing (BPO) sectors have thrown their full support behind the COVID-19 vaccine, urging Jamaicans to get their jabs as soon as it becomes available to them.Presiden...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Saturday morning's predawn operation by members of the security forces, which netted three high-powered rifles, brought the tally of illegal guns seized to five during targeted raids across the parish over a 48-h...

A father was left in utter shock on Saturday night when he heard the news that his 28-year-old son, Jerome Barnett, had been shot dead in Olympic Gardens, St Andrew. Delroy Barnett said his son was a father of an eight-year-old boy, and...

Lawyers for convicted murderers Dantay Brooks and his co-accused Andre Hinds say they will be heading to the Appeal Court in hopes of having the judgement handed down last Friday by Supreme Court Judge Justice Leighton Pusey overturned...

Valuing water is the focus today as entities across the globe mark World Water Day 2021.This year, effort is being made to specifically recognise the crucial role of healthy ecosystems in maintaining water supplies around the world.Acco...

ZION HILL, Portland - The passing of Councillor Derron Wood (Jamaica Labour Party, Fairy Hill Division) has robbed the constituency of a good man who helped people, residents of Zion Hill have told the Jamaica Observer.Wood died last we...

PRIME Minister Andrew Holness yesterday declared that Jamaica has reached its breaking point in the management of the novel coronavirus pandemic and announced a slew of measures to help curb infections - chief among them lockdowns over ...

The Jamaica Observer editorial board yesterday formally endorsed the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that it was the only solution on the immediate horizon to end the novel coronavirus pandemic and return life to normal.The board's full-throa...

IMAGINE having to be cautious about how frequently you flush your toilet. That's the reality of Mount Stewart district residents in Wilmington, St Thomas, who claim they have been without consistent piped water for 20 years, as the worl...

CLEANING company Sanitize-iT Jamaica has burgeoned into a go-to business amid the coronavirus pandemic as companies increase their demand for its sanitisation services at a time of surging infections locally.Edward Wilson, the director ...

Today is the 81st day of 2021. There are 284 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1991: High school instructor Pamela Smart, accused of recruiting her teenage lover and his friends to kill her husband, Gregory, is convicted in Exeter,...

NEGRIL, Hanover - Some tourism stakeholders who have been reeling from the novel coronavirus-related downturn in the hospitality industry have begun receiving the grant that was last year promised by the Government.In March of last year...

SANTIAGO, Costa Rica (CMC) - The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says representatives from 33 regional countries, 20 United Nations agencies, and other organisations have reaffirmed their commitment to im...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) - Pointing to over 1,000 arrests in one of the nation's top party spots, Miami Beach officials warned yesterday that the unruly spring break crowd gathering by the thousands, fighting in the streets, destro...

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) - Europe grappled with resurgent coronavirus infections yesterday as Germany considered extending restrictions into April and EU leaders abandoned plans to attend a summit on the pandemic.Thousands of protesters an...

Aboard a US military aircraft (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Sunday, just weeks before Washington is due to withdraw the last of its troops under a deal struck with the Taliban last ye...

BRASÍLIA, Brazil (AFP) - Brazil said yesterday it was lifting its requirement for local authorities to reserve half their novel coronavirus vaccine stockpiles for second doses, seeking to accelerate its lagging immunisation campaign an...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AFP) - "The border is closed" - with those words a top Biden Administration official yesterday pushed back against fast-mounting criticism that it has bungled immigration policy, spurring an influx of migr...