Past students of the beleaguered Merl Grove High School (MGHS) said yesterday they were left aghast at the non-appearance of board Chairman David Hall at a disciplinary hearing into actions by suspended Principal Dr Marjorie Fullerton.T...

Boys living in inner-city communities account for 70 per cent of the school dropout rate, providing fertile ground for criminal gang recruitment, according to Dr Horace Chang, the island's minister of national security.Chang, who was a...

BROWN'S TOWN, St Ann - Members of the Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) have vowed to continue searching for 34-year-old mathematics teacher Ruchelle Williams who has been missing since September 15. "We are committed to searching for...

Government Senator Natalie Campbell Rodriques wants colleagues who are not vaccinated against the novel coronavirus restricted to online engagements of the joint select committee reviewing the proposal to make Portmore the country's 15t...

THE Jamaican Bar Association (JBA) says it does not believe that requirements for mandatory vaccination, whether by employees or the State, contravene the constitutional rights of Jamaicans."A scheme requiring mandatory vaccination is n...

An information technology audit of the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) has uncovered critical information security weaknesses which could put records and people's identity at risk for theft.A report on the informati...

The trial of 33 alleged members of the Klansman gang, which was yesterday halted prematurely, should resume this morning with evidence being given by at least one of two gangsters turned Crown witness.Prosecutors on Monday, in outlining...

THE School of Computing and Information Technology (SCIT) in the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) has moved a step closer to establishing a state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) l...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - The Jamaican Deaf Community is expected to be better able to communicate with the police following the recent training and certification of 35 cops in basic sign language.The law enforcement officers assigned to...

Today is the 265th day of 2021. There are 100 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1989: F W De Klerk takes over as president of South Africa. OTHER EVENTS1550: Holy Roman Empire fleet captures vessel Port-of- Africa at Mehedia in Tu...

THE Lupus Foundation of Jamaica says a number of lupus patients are still holding off on being vaccinated against COVID-19 because they are waiting to have questions answered or to get permission from their doctors. In a release yesterd...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has announced that cruise shipping will fully return to Jamaican ports shortly and has implored craft vendors and other players who are complaining that they are being denied thei...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - Minister of Local Government Desmond McKenzie said he is mulling the possibility of providing transportation for firefighters travelling home after long hours on the job, adding that his ministry intends to establish...

MAY PEN, Clarendon - Farmers in Northern Clarendon are united in their call for a dedicated minister of agriculture following last week's resignation of the former minister Floyd Green. The farmers say the ministry, which is being toute...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Wednesday, September 22, 2021: You are an optimist who is fair-minded, independent and self-sufficient. You have a natural grace and elegance. You are a hard-working perfectionist capable of self-discipline. This year...

Dea r Mr Brown:With regards to the Canada election, do you think there will be any significant change in immigration policy? Canada is very friendly towards immigrants in general; however, I am not sure if this will change.- RP Dear RP...

THE Ministry of Health and Wellness is reminding the more than 50,000 Jamaicans who are now, or will shortly be due their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, to visit a vaccination site for their jab.The reminder comes as the minist...

NEW YORK, United States (CMC) - Caribbean American legislators have intensified their outrage over the deportation of Haitian migrants from southern Texas, calling on President Joe Biden to immediately halt the repatriation of the migra...

APPROXIMATELY 60 per cent of the 89 applications for parole made by prisoners in 2018/2019 were granted by the Parole Board.According to Ministry Paper 57 tabled in Parliament last week, the board deliberated on 89 applications for the ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - In person and on screen, world leaders returned to the United Nations' foremost gathering for the first time in the pandemic era yesterday with a formidable, diplomacy-packed agenda and a sharply worded warning fro...

TORONTO, Canada (AP) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau secured victory in parliamentary elections but failed to get the majority he wanted, an outcome that threatened his Conservative rival with loss of his job after moving his party to t...

PRESSURE is mounting on Prime Minister Andrew Holness to name a dedicated minister for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries following the resignation of Floyd Green, with Jamaica Observer sources saying the Member of Parliament for...

Lloyd McFarlane, the attorney assigned to represent Andre "Blackman" Bryan, accused leader of the feared Klansman gang, yesterday, on behalf of a miffed team of defence lawyers, appealed for a review of the sums being paid to the attor...

The prosecution will be relying heavily on the testimonies of two self-confessed members of the St Catherine-based Klansman gang to make its case against the 33 accused gangsters whose trial got under way yesterday in the Home Circuit D...

Ahead of today's much-anticipated hearing, suspended principal of Merl Grove High School Dr Marjorie Fullerton has received the support of important stakeholders - a group of teachers, including the acting vice-principal of the upper sc...

NEW YORK, USA - A massive drive, supported by more than 14 of the main Jamaican organisations in the United States, is underway to mobilise assistance in the fight against the [novel coronavirus] pandemic in their homeland.A range of ch...

Stephanie Christie, the sole woman among the 33 accused now on trial in the just-started Klansman gang case, was yesterday described by prosecutors as the "liaison officer" between incarcerated members of the criminal outfit and those ...

A week ago nine-year-old Jabari Fogo was seen during school hours sitting on the sidewalk in his community on Orange Street accessing Internet service from a nearby business for online classes. Now he will be sitting comfortably in his ...

Today is the 264th day of 2021. There are 101 days left in the year. TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1996: The Carib cinema, one of Kingston's most famous landmarks, is destroyed by fire. OTHER EVENTS1327: Edward II of England is murdered at Berkely...

BUSTAMANTE Industrial Trade Union Assistant General Secretary Colin Virgo is headed to court to seek damages for what he says is a defamatory media report that he was among a group of people seen at a party held on a no-movement day at ...

JOHN'S HALL, St James - Scores of public transportation operators who service the route between Montego Bay and John's Hall in St James withdrew their service yesterday in protest over the deplorable state of the road and have threatene...

Jamaica's Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton yesterday emphasised the importance of strengthening multilateral cooperation and addressing current weaknesses in the global public health system in order for countries to r...

IT once looked impossible, but the prayers of Odain Graham have been answered as the former security officer turned bellman is now training to become a butler at Sandals South Coast.While Graham's story is still being penned, thanks to ...

BOSTON, Portland - Euval Williams used to have sleepless nights whenever it rained. Not any more. Neighbours and police personnel from his community, aptly named Friendship, got together to replace the leaky roof of the visually impaire...

FOR the second time this month, United States law enforcement officials have reported that a Jamaican doctor operating in America has found himself on the wrong side of the law.In the latest case, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation ...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) - The US said yesterday it will ease airline restrictions this fall on travel to the country for people who have vaccination proof and a negative COVID-19 test, replacing a hodgepodge of rules that had...

Seventeen media associations in the Americas and other regions today called, through a public statement, for a "fair and reasonable" remuneration for the publication of journalistic content on digital platforms.The institutions compris...

TEXAS, United States (AP) - The US is flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and b locking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signals the beginning of what could be ...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Tuesday, September 21, 2021:You are energetic, friendly and always witty. You love mysteries and are a skilled and original communicator. You are also confident in your ability to put your own spin on things. This is ...

NEW YORK, United States (AP) - Prosecutors at the R Kelly sex trafficking trial ended their case yesterday after calling dozens of witnesses over the past month who detailed sweeping allegations against the singer in lurid detail.Severa...

WASHINGTOIN, DC, United States (AP) - COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-1919 Spanish flu pandemic did - approximately 675,000. And, like the worldwide scourge of a century ago, the novel coronavirus may never e...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - In parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region, people now eat only green leaves for days. At a health centre last week a mother and her newborn, weighing just 1.7 pounds, died from hunger. In every district of the more than...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Last year no leaders came. This year will be quite different - sort of. With the novel coronavirus pandemic still raging in many parts of the world, leaders from more than 100 nations are heading to New York this w...

WITH the trial of the 32 men and one woman alleged to be at the heart of the vicious, St Catherine-based Klansman gang set to begin in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston this morning under heightened sec...

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...

DEL RIO, Texas (AP) - The United States acted yesterday to stem the flow of migrants into Texas by blocking the Mexican border at an isolated town where thousands of Haitian refugees set up a camp, and American officials began flying so...