Today is the 263rd day of 2021. There are 102 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1990: The East German and West German Parliaments each ratify the treaty governing the legal aspects of a German reunification.OTHER EVENTS480 BC: Gree...

The man charged with leading Jamaica's efforts to get sufficient quantities of the COVID-19 vaccines, National Health Fund (NHF) Chairman Howard Mitchell, is confident that the island is past the time of a general shortage of vaccines,...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - A young firefighter, Nicholas Nelson, broke down in tears as he recounted the final moments he spent with two colleagues who lost their lives in a motor vehicle crash minutes after they dropped him home and he wished...

THE influential joint Merl Grove High School past students' associations of Canada, the United States and Jamaica have warned that they are prepared to withdraw all support of their alma mater unless suspended Principal Dr Marjorie Full...

Police personnel based at the Hunt's Bay station in St Andrew were in mourning following the shooting death of one of their colleagues, Sergeants Averel McCollin.He was gunned down around 1:25 am Sunday on Cottage Drive in Gregory Park...

The constant teasing that Omarie Ferron, his two siblings and their mother Natesha Fearon endured for roughly a decade, due to them living in an abandoned bathroom on 2nd Street in Trench Town in St Andrew Southern, has now changed to a...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - The Ocho Rios Fire Station is set to get an urgent facelift following instructions given by Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie, who has ministerial responsibility for the Jamaica Fire Brigade. "I come here...

JAMAICA'S Charlyne Smith, the first black woman to earn a PhD in nuclear engineering from a predominantly white university in the United States, has her gaze firmly set on the nuclear research reactor called Slowpoke at The University o...

ETTA Walker, principal of Portmore Missionary Preparatory & Kindergarten School, is on a drive to make her school a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) powerhouse.The 47-year-old St Catherine-based institution h...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - Shadeed Harvey's faith in the goodness of others has paid off. Offers of help have flooded in since the Jamaica Observer highlighted her family's struggle after fire gutted their Cave Valley, St Ann house, leaving th...

MERCY and Truth Ministries Television (MTM TV) has moved to expand its operations, broaden its reach and expand its footprint across the Caribbean and other parts of the world with the recent acquisition of a building to permanently hou...

AT 82 years old, Noel Wallace has fond memories of a Jamaica that was kinder, gentler and much more peaceful.Wallace remembers walking from his yard, on Steven Lane in Rae Town, to The Student's Union on the Mona campus of The Universit...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - When 41-year-old Paulette Jackson received her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a visit to Canada, she did not anticipate the trouble she would face in Jamaica in getting the second jab to become...

Floyd Green's tough lesson to learnFloyd Green was seen by some in the ruling Jamaica Labour Party as fit and proper to become leader of the political organisation, and ultimately prime minister.He can still achieve both.But for now, th...

WITH COVID restrictions in place in Jamaica, the Caribbean Community of Retired Persons (CCRP) has been arranging meetings and activities for members online.More than 170 CCRP members gathered on Zoom recently for a fun-filled talent ev...

INSOMNIA is a common sleep disorder that can make it hard for you to fall and/or stay asleep. It can also cause you to wake up earlier than you wish and not be able to get back to sleep.If you are suffering from insomnia, you most likel...

SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth - Opinions varied, with ambivalence, regret, sympathy, and outrage being dominant themes, as constituents of former Cabinet Minister Floyd Green responded in recent days to his fall from grace.Green, 39, resigne...

AS allegations about untrained funeral home operators transporting COVID-19 bodies in public passenger vehicles swirl, the long-promised legislation to govern the funeral industry remains on ice, making it difficult to proceed with pros...

WHEN he was just 11 Jerome Jackson lost his sight. For a while he was able to see blurred colours - until that changed. Now, he only sees light.Jackson is the fifth individual in his family to experience such a loss. Prior to him, his g...

Though student nurses say they are not placed on COVID-19 wards at the major hospitals to complete clinical rotations, they explained that they still endure tough challenges caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.However, the nursing ...

FORMER Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Floyd Green has received the backing of someone he would least expect to be in his corner at a time like this.The embattled Member of Parliament (MP) for St Elizabeth South Western, who quit as ...

Public Defender Arlene Harrison Henry has said that the only recourse for children under age 16, who want to get vaccinated against COVID-19 but don't have parental consent, is the introduction of legislation that will allow minors to ...

At age 15, Anthony Parker missed almost one year of school while he battled acute lymphatic leukaemia. Parker had to sit out three terms - the last two terms of grade nine and the first term of grade 10 - at Calabar High School and gra...

PAUL Bogle has always been seen as a highly controversial national figure, and even when the disputes may not be his fault they usually stick with his name.There has been controversy over the date of his birth; his statue in Morant Bay,...

TUESDAY, September 21 is World Alzheimer's Day and will be celebrated under the theme 'Know Dementia, Know Alzheimer's', as part of an international campaign led by Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) to raise awareness about dement...

Some residents of three political constituencies were beneficiaries of food packages on Friday as the J Wray and Nephew Foundation (JWNF) continued its objective to ease the burden of economic challenges, further worsened by recent lock...

DUANVALE, Trelawny - Government is mulling over the establishment of a history museum at the home of late super centenarian Violet Moss Brown here, similar to that being conceived for the boyhood home of the nation's first National Hero...

BEING the first person in his family to attend university, Jhe'Vonte Webster, 22, has embarked on a path to not only elevate himself, but also to go against the status quo, being from a volatile inner-city community and growing up in po...

Rose Miller, head of the JN BeWi$e Financial Empowerment Programme, says downsizing in preparation for retirement makes good financial sense.She said for some downsizing means selling their current home and moving into a smaller and mor...

With anticipation building over Barita Investment Limited's (BIL) high-profile additional public offering (APO) of shares, which is expected to close early this week, at least four prominent brokerage institutions have delivered positiv...

With the COVID-19 virus continuing to surge across communities worldwide, it has unfortunately got the opportunity to mutate into different variants with different risks. Among these variants, the Delta variant has proven to be one of ...

Prostate cancer is the commonest cause of cancer in Jamaica and the commonest cause of cancer-related deaths.A report by Glover in 1998 suggested that Jamaica may have the highest rate worldwide with an incidence of 304 per 100,000 peo...

 There is a low vaccination rate among black people. Black Americans make up 13 per cent of the US population, however, they account for up to 23 per cent of COVID-19 deaths. Looking at the age groups for comparison, the death rate for...

It's been almost two years with a sad tune on loop. Music teacher Michael Hope, 42, of St Aloysius Primary School in Kingston, went missing on Wednesday, September 25, 2019, and there has been no trace of him since.Hope's car was found ...

EVERY September, people come together from all around the world to raise awareness and to challenge the stigma that persists around dementia, and September 21 is World Alzheimer's Day. This is the 10th year of this vital global awarenes...

THE World Health Organization (WHO) defines long-term care as "an integral part of health and social systems". It includes activities undertaken for people requiring care informally (by family, friends and neighbours) and by formal care...

With a good leg,And a good foot, Uncle,And money enough in his purse,Such a man would win any woman in this world,If 'a could get her good will.- Shakespeare: Much Ado About NothingThat used to be conventional wisdom of the day, that a ...

ACANDI, Colombia (AP) - It was 5:00 am and in dozens of small tents, around 500 migrants began showing signs of life, rising, packing their bags and preparing to cross the Darien Gap, the thick jungle teeming with what separates Colombi...

RICHARD Pandohie, immediate past president of the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA), is celebrating the relaxation of weekly lockdown days by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.In an interview with the Jamaica Observer T...

PRIME Minister Andrew Holness hinted earlier this week that citizens who have vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who have not could experience differential treatment in the future.Holness, who said the practice has emerged across the...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Jamaicans are being urged to take the first COVID-19 vaccine that becomes available to them as the country's death toll from the dreadful virus climbed to 1,772 yesterday.Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who visit...

A number of changes are to be made to the Sexual Harassment Bill as it passes through the Senate after being approved by the House of Representatives in July.Leader of Government Business Senator Kamina Johnson Smith informed the Upper ...

Approximately nine final-year students at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts lost artwork in a fire that damaged Hope Brooks Painting Studio, a section of the School of Visual Arts, yesterday morning.Director of marke...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - For roughly the 10th time since it was first brought before the St James Circuit Court in 2018, the Mario Deane case was once again pushed back when the matter came up in court on Thursday. This was the third tim...

SOME Jamaicans have expressed reservations about Minister Audley Shaw assuming the responsibility for agriculture and fisheries suggested that a younger person should take charge. Shaw was asked to take portfolio responsibility agricult...

The Government still has no takers for Milk River Mineral Bath Hotel and Spa in south-west Clarendon, as efforts to divest the property have been hampered by bad roads and other adverse conditions in the area.The property's executive ma...

THE scar across his throat is a constant reminder for 54-year-old taxi driver Clifton Williams of the night he cheated death as two men attempted to rob him of his car.Williams told the Jamaica Observer that on that night in 1995, he w...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) - The White House yesterday threatened to impose sanctions against Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other leaders involved in a conflict gripping the Tigray region, where 10 months of fighting h...

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AFP) - The African National Congress (ANC), struggling to erase Jacob Zuma's taint of corruption, is hobbling toward South Africa's local elections riven by infighting, sliding support, and being too broke to...

BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth - Parish Court Judge Horace Mitchell was yesterday hailed by members of the Bar as fair-minded, even-tempered, and respectful to all.Mitchell reportedly died at hospital yesterday from complications associated ...