The House of Representatives yesterday paid glowing tributes to former Cabinet minister and diplomat Ambassador Anthony Johnson, who passed away last Wednesday at the age of 82 after being unwell for some time.Johnson became a member of...

Today is the 125th day of 2021. There are 240 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1862: Mexican army defeats invading French forces in the Battle of Puebla. May 5 is now Mexico's National Day, Cinco de Mayo. OTHER EVENTS1494: During...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Educators are worried that the future of Jamaica's children is not only in jeopardy due to significant learning loss caused by setbacks, but that there seems to be no end in sight for the challenges being faced ...

FLORIDA, United States (CMC) - The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) says its major showpiece, Caribbean Travel Marketplace, will offer buyers from around the world a chance to refresh their portfolios as they prepare for t...

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) - The La Soufriere volcano has been displaying "spectacular" mudflows, but the scientists say the seismic activity has remained low since the tremor associated with the explosion and ash on April 22.Seismolog...

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) - An elevated section of the Mexico City metro collapsed and sent the train plunging toward a busy boulevard late Monday, killing at least 23 people and injuring at least 79, city officials said. Rescuers found ...

NEW YORK, United States (AP) - Sotero Cirilo sleeps in a small blue tent under a train track bridge in Elmhurst, Queens. The 55-year-old immigrant from Mexico used to make $800 per week at two Manhattan restaurants, which closed when th...

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - Novel coronavirus infections and COVID-19 deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis and a top expert warning that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion pe...

GOVERNMENT is looking to provide children in State care with increased access to psychosocial analysis as part of its plans to combat sexual abuse among them.Robert Morgan, minister of state in the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Info...

The Jamaica Police Federation yesterday described as "an insult" the Government's offer of a 2.5 per cent wage increase and said it "will not be bullied" into accepting any package that does not provide its members with remuneration co...

MAYOR of Kingston Senator Delroy Williams has condemned the beating of three homeless people in Kingston while they were asleep on Sunday night."I cannot but reiterate that it speaks to the awful state of affairs within the conscience o...

STATE and international child rights agencies are calling attention to an urgent need for more mental health services for abused children, and those who are victims of violence, as part of the national support system for minors. "There ...

THE Government is moving to increase psychosocial intervention to reduce the impact of violence on children.Figures released by Minister of Education, Youth and Information Fayval Williams during her presentation in the sectoral debate ...

Six months after he was appointed to head the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), long-time public servant Leslie Harrow has quit following what is alleged to be political interference in the performance o...

SCOTT'S PASS, Clarendon - Hundreds of motorists were yesterday left stranded for up to four hours as irate taxi operators and residents of Scott's Pass blocked a section of the main road leading to Porus at the Clarendon/ Manchester bor...

It is almost three years since 14-year-old Yetanya Francis was raped, stabbed and burnt while innocently venturing out to buy a meal from a community shop in Arnett Gardens, St Andrew.But for her mother, 38-year-old Latoya Riley, it has...

Today is the 124th day of 2021. There are 241 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1927: After 2 1/2 years the Hermitage Dam on the Wag Water River in eastern Jamaica is opened. It is 142ft high, 465ft wide, has a capacity of 430 mill...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Police here are investigating a hit-and-run and a murder that happened yesterday involving two men.In the first incident, the police said, a man believed to be of unsound mind was killed in a hit-and-run on the ...

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) - The St Vincent and the Grenadines Government says it has ordered 50,000 doses of the Russia-developed Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine as nationals continue to refuse taking the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to help...

ST JOHN'S, Antigua (CMC) - Prime Minister Gaston Browne has warned of the possibility of implementing a mandatory vaccination programme in Antigua and Barbuda as he criticised persons who were encouraging others not to participate in th...

DIRECTOR of Family Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr Melody Ennis says global collaboration, through funding and exchange of knowledge and technology, was among the major factors that facilitated the speedy devel...

THE American Government, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), last Friday handed over its fourth tranche of emergency equipment to the Ministry of Health and Wellness to support Government's response to the coron...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) - At least 17 people died and more than 800 were wounded in clashes that broke out in Colombia during five days of protests against a proposed government tax reform, authorities said yesterday.The Office of the Co...

NEW DELHI, India (AP) - As a catastrophic surge of the coronavirus sweeps through India, the leaders of 13 Opposition parties urged the Government to launch a free vaccination drive and ensure an uninterrupted flow of oxygen to all hosp...

NORTH CAROLINA, United States (AP) - Mourners gathered yesterday for the funeral of Andrew Brown Jr, a black man shot and killed by deputies in North Carolina, with the Rev Al Sharpton issuing a powerful call for transparency and the re...

PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland - Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) supporters in Westmoreland Central are defiant that embattled (MP) Member of Parliament George Wright remains their parliamentary representative, even as pressure mounts for him to ...

State minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information Robert Nesta Morgan says the 211 helpline for children suffering abuse, which will be launched later this month, Child Month, is not a duplicate of the 888-Protect (776-...

The declaration by Opposition Leader Mark Golding last Wednesday that the controversy surrounding Member of Parliament (MP) George Wright is highly politicised has been quietly welcomed by some members of the governing Jamaica Labour P...

Jamaica Observer readers were not pleased with entertainer Popcaan, whose real name is Andre Sutherland, after his Twitter rant in which he threatened to pull his Unruly Fest concert from St Thomas, complaining that police were harassin...

Jamaican Margaret Brisbane last week became the first woman and first black individual to be appointed chief information officer (CIO) and director of the information technology Department (ITD) of the Miami-Dade County, Florida.Brisban...

PROUD mom Nardialee Massey shares with COVID CAPERS the rather interesting perspective of her 14-year-old son, Mark Tulloch who wrote a memoir on his COVID-19 experience as a youngster for his English language assignment."When I read it...

MONIQUE Tello, a medical doctor, told her story to Harvard Health Publishing about her decision to get the Moderna vaccine and what a decision that was. Even after one dose, the vaccine protected her from the novel coronavirus. Here's a...

CHURCH leaders came in for strong lashing yesterday for their strident opposition to the decriminalisation of abortion while remaining mostly silent concerning men who rape and impregnate women and girls, often forcing them to abort the...

The Secret Gardens, a sorrowful monument erected in 2008 in downtown Kingston to record the names of children killed under tragic circumstancess, but which ran out of space in 2017, is to be extended for a necessary but unwanted cause -...

Today, May 3, and every year, World Press Freedom Day stands as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom a...

Shara McCallum, a Jamaican liberal arts professor of English, has been chosen the first black woman to serve as Penn State laureate for the 2021-22 academic year, Penn State News announced Saturday.Born to an Afro-Jamaican father and Ve...

Today is the 123rd day of 2021. There are 242days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGLIGHT1494: Columbus discovers Jamaica.OTHER EVENTS1660: Peace of Olivia is signed, ending war between Brandenburg, Poland, Austria and Sweden.1765: The first ...

Nicknamed the Men of Might, Cornwall College (CC) old boys in the United States have been showing the 'might' of their hearts and pockets as they rally in aid of their Montego Bay, Jamaica-based alma mater.Following up on a container of...

PARIS, France (AFP) - Here are some developments in the novel coronavirus crisis:More aid arrives in IndiaMore emergency medical aid from foreign donors to alleviate a dire oxygen shortage arrives in India, as COVID-19 deaths in the Sou...

Jamaican economist and diplomat Ambassador Dr Richard Bernal has accepted an invitation to become a member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), which operates under the auspic...

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) - A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts back to Earth splashed down off Florida early yesterday in NASA's first night-time ocean landing in more than 50 years.The crew reported they were f...

TRIPOLI, Libya (AFP) - More than 600 migrants hoping to reach Europe from Libya have been stopped since Friday, the navy said, as the International Organization for Migration warned Libya was "not a safe port".Three groups of illegal mi...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) - Two rockets targeted an airbase at Iraq's Baghdad airport housing US-led coalition troops yesterday, in the second such attack in 10 days, the Iraqi army said.One of the projectiles was intercepted by the C-RAM cou...

A 10-member strong women's prayer group, headed by Jamaicans in Canada who seek help for people in dire straits, have collected emergency supplies and cash for donation to needy people in St Vincent which has been hit by the devastating...

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) - US President Joe Biden used the 10th anniversary of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden to reaffirm his decision to remove all US troops from Afghanistan."We followed bin Laden to the gates of hell - a...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AFP) - Fighting between Afghan government forces and the Taliban has left more than 100 insurgents dead in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said yesterday as it took control of a US military base in a restive ...

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AFP) - A political storm has erupted in El Salvador as its Parliament, newly controlled by President Nayib Bukele's party, voted to dismiss the attorney general and top judges deemed hostile to the populist le...

PARIS, France - The young widow of Japan's most notorious "Don Juan" has been arrested, suspected of poisoning her fabulously wealthy 77-year-old husband.Tycoon Kosuke Nozaki, who boasted of spending US$27.5 million chasing beautiful wo...

CHILD labour remains a problem of national concern in Jamaica as 37,965 children are engaged in such activities, with the highest numbers being those under 13 years of age.Director, Child Labour, in the Ministry of Labour and Social Sec...

CHILD abuse cases in Jamaica are rising.According to Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison, there was a dip in the number of child abuse reports at the start of the year, but the reports are now increasing."Last year everybody was...