In a damning report tabled in Parliament yesterday, Auditor General Pamela Monroe-Ellis called on Education Minister Fayval Williams to refer the findings of a probe into the operations of the Joint Committee for Tertiary Education (JCT...

AS a pre-teen growing up in Portland, Jamaica, the words: "BBC News with Marion Marshall", accompanied by a sweet-sounding voice at the end of a radio newscast, was Andrea Chisholm's cue to leave home in the mornings for primary school....

The hearing into the suspension of Merl Grove High School (MGHS) Principal Dr Marjorie Fullerton was adjourned after just over an hour yesterday to allow the MGHS Personnel Committee to review and respond to documents submitted by Fulle...

One year after the education ministry launched virtual learning , and five months shy of two years since public school doors closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, about 26 per cent of the school population is still not showing ...

An afternoon of fun and enjoyment for a group of young people turned into a nightmare Monday when one of the teenagers got into difficulties and drowned in a section of the Rio Minho in Clarendon.The Jamaica Observer was told that short...

Jamaican attorney-at-law Michelle Thomas has applauded a move by California Governor Gavin Newsom to make it a civil offence to remove a condom during sexual intercourse without the other party's consent, and has called for a similar la...

Whipping out numbers showing that the COVID-19 disease had taken a heavy toll on the company, NCB Financial Group President and CEO Patrick Hylton yesterday told the bank's staff they would henceforth have to be fully vaccinated."Unfor...

A day after police cut down gangster Christopher "Dog Paw" Linton tension yesterday remained high in Tavern and Bedward Gardens, two of the gritty St Andrew communities that were under his control and where residents painted him as eith...

PORT ANTONIO, Portland - Those wishing to honour the memory of former police commissioner and former custos of Portland Roy Thompson may express written condolence in a book that will be opened today at the Port Antonio Library. Thompso...

Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke last night won full support from parliamentary colleagues for his $33-billion health and economic rescue plan supplementary budget designed to help Jamaicans cope with the economic effects of the novel c...

HEAD of the Anglican Diocese in Jamaica, Archbishop Howard Gregory yesterday announced the appointment of a new board of management for Clifton Boys' Home in Darliston, Westmoreland.The new board, he said, will be chaired by retired edu...

The Resilient Islands project team in Jamaica recently planted mangroves in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine, as part of its efforts to protect communities against the impacts of climate change by promoting the use of coastal habitats to ...

Today is the 286th day of 2021. There are 79 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1957: The East German Government seals its borders and recalls all East-mark holdings for conversion into a new currency. OTHER EVENTS1775: The US Navy...

SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland - Members of the teenage gospel group the Foster Triplets have set their sights on improving the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital's paediatric ward where they were born 19 years ago.Last Friday they donated the facil...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Two months after the Melrose Yam Park was ordered closed by the local health department, vendors say they are fed up and are demanding answers from the Manchester Municipal Corporation.The facility was closed in...

HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) - Cuba's Government yesterday rejected a request from the Opposition to stage a protest on November 15, claiming the organisers are backed by the United States and want to overthrow the regime.The proposed demonstrati...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The family of a slain journalist is asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take action against Facebook for failing to remove online footage of her shooting death.Andy Parker said yesterday the company is violati...

WASHINGTON, DC United States (AFP) - President Joe Biden's opposition to capital punishment will be put to the side today when the US Justice Department tries to convince the Supreme Court to reinstate the death penalty for Boston Marat...

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) - The county government that is home to Florida's capital was fined US$3.5 million yesterday by state health officials for requiring its employees to get COVID-19 vaccines and for firing 14 workers who failed t...

Mark Golding has reiterated the Opposition's disapproval of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination and decried what he said were injustices in the application of penalties for breaches of the Disaster Risk Management Act.As Opposition spokesper...

With the opening of the economy and people returning to work, the Government must now reopen schools, using the approaches and best practices taken by other jurisdictions which have successfully done so, as the benefit of face-to-face ...

Medical cannabis company Jacana, its eyes firmly set on becoming an "oasis" in New Kingston, officially opened a new store in the business district last weekend.Located in the newly refurbished New Kingston Business Centre on Grenada Cr...

SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland - According to weary vendors, the Savanna-la-Mar market has been looking and smelling more like a dump than a place where food is sold on a daily basis. However, local waste management officials have hit bac...

The Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ) was yesterday heavily criticised by Jamaicans who turned out in large numbers at its constituency offices in Kingston and St Catherine to collect new voter registration identification cards.The long...

Just under six months after his release from prison and four months after being shot and injured by gunmen in Bull Bay, St Andrew, along with three other people, gangster Christopher "Dog Paw" Linton was shot dead by police yesterday a...

Today is the 285th day of 2021. There are 80 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1822: Brazil becomes independent of Portugal. OTHER EVENTS1492: Christopher Columbus makes his first landfall in the New World, in present-day Bahamas ...

When Chris Barnes went to pursue his Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona in 2016, he was hell-bent on successfully completing his studies, without having to redo any courses.This w...

AS part of its core educational initiative and support for the nation's children, Bert's Auto Parts has awarded 30 primary school graduates with scholarships, educational grants and electronic devices to help them on their secondary sch...

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) - California's coronavirus death toll reached another once-unfathomable milestone - 70,000 people - yesterday as the state emerges from the latest infection surge with the lowest rate of new cases among all s...

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) - Bulgaria's Kristalina Georgieva, whose tenure as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remained uncertain yesterday amid allegations of data tampering, is described as a respected economist with...

DALLAS, Texas (AP) - Southwest Airlines cancelled several hundred more flights yesterday following a weekend of major disruptions that it blamed on bad weather and air traffic control issues. Both the company and its pilots' union denie...

WAUKESHA, Wisconsin (AP) - A parent has sued a south-eastern Wisconsin school district after her son contracted COVID-19 from a classmate. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Shannon Jensen filed the lawsuit in federal court ag...

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) - An expert group advising the World Health Organization (WHO) on vaccines has recommended that older people and those with compromised immune systems get an extra dose of COVID-19 vaccine as part of their regul...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has taken the intense scrutiny of his team's distribution of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in stride, saying he respects that other elected officials have opted to spe...

Firefighters spent yesterday putting out the embers of a massive Saturday night fire that razed a large section of Facey Commodity's main warehouse in Kingston and which has left billions of dollars in damage."I don't know the prelimina...

Kim Mair (right), CEO, JMMB Joan Duncan Foundation, and Daryl Vaz (centre), minister of energy, science and technology, look at the new mobile washable Ergotron HIMS cart while Dr Carl Bruce, medical chief of staff at University Hospita...

LINSTEAD, St Catherine - Facing the threat of slipping into homelessness with her family once again, Natalie Hutchinson is asking for more time to vacate the plot of land that she is said to be occupying illegally in Linstead.The proper...

The Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) yesterday said that more than 98 per cent of its members have responded with a resounding "yes" to a survey of views on whether COVID-19 vaccinations should be mandated for the tourism s...

JAMAICAN medical professionals have given mixed reactions to US pharmaceutical company Merck's announcement that it has developed a pill to treat the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.On October 1 Merck had said it wo...

PARIS, France (AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron remains the favourite to win France's next election but six months before the polls he faces the uncomfortable situation of not knowing the identity of his main challenger.As the countdown...

LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) - Britain has rescued or intercepted a total of 1,115 migrants attempting to cross the English Channel over just two days, the country's interior ministry said yesterday.Rising numbers of Channel crossings b...

SYDNEY, Australia (AFP) - Elated Sydneysiders defied grey skies and rain to celebrate the lifting of almost four months of lockdown today, hoping to put behind them a period of "blood, sweat and no beers" in Australia's largest city.Syd...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Urology patients at Mandeville Regional Hospital are set to benefit from the use of a Vio s can machine donated last Friday by Rotarians. The machine is particularly useful for patients who depend on catheters, ...

Today is the 284th day of 2021. There are 81 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1865: Paul Bogle, leads hundreds in a march from Stony Gut to Morant Bay (which would be known as the Morant Bay Rebellion). They were protesting injust...

An ambitious plan to unite hundreds of thousands of past students of Jamaican high schools to commemorate National Alumni Day has met its first hurdle in the still festering dispute at Merl Grove High School (MGHS), over the controvers...

A Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) supervisor, who has been described as a "serial sexual harasser" by some female employees, has been reportedly interdicted while the company conducts a probe into the allegations against him.Last T...

The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has disagreed with a suggestion that its transmission and distribution operations be placed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) as, among other things, a means of incentivising investors in rene...

Former West Indies Petroleum Company Limited (WIPL) directors Courtney Wilkinson and John Levy have been prohibited from, over a three-year period, executing similar business activities to WIPL and its subsidiary Island Lubes Distribut...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Richard Miller knows all too well how much good can come from acts of kindness. He's the principal of Farm Primary and Junior High School and when classes were first forced online because of the novel coronavirus...

Sandals Foundation says it will plant 7,000 trees and manage 7,000 more in the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park - a UNESCO World Heritage site in Jamaica - to kick-start Sandals Resorts International's (SRI) 40th anniversary ...