Three members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) are now facing possible criminal charges in connection with the December 1 escape of 27-year-old Orville Purnell from the Central Kingston police lock-up.Jamaica Observer sources say...

Jamaicans are breathing a sigh of relief over yesterday's announcement by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that COVID-19 curfew hours will be shortened over the Christmas and New Year's holidays, to allow more leeway for festivities."It is...

A former co-worker of an alleged victim of the Klansman gang yesterday described for the court the frantic dash he made for safety on the night when Damaine Forrester, otherwise known as Doolie, was gunned down mere metres away from whe...

The Government made a major step towards improving its corporate image last night by passing the long-delayed Public Bodies Management and Accountability Regulations during another marathon session of the House of Representatives.Minis...

OCHO RIOS, ST Ann - For over a decade PetaGaye "Aliberry" Golding has been balancing a cardboard box on her head, stacked with household and car items that she hopes will entice pedestrians and motorists to crack open their wallets. She...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - A service station proprietor is lamenting that some motorists are refusing to follow safety instructions given to them by gas station employees despite two recent incidents of fires that took a life and damaged ...

Today is the 342nd day of 2021. There are 23 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1995: The World Health Organization announces that a new case of the Ebola virus has been confirmed in the Ivory Coast. Ebola killed 250 in Zaire earlie...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - Shadeed Harvey is grateful and amazed that a team from Interlinc journeyed over 100 kilometres from Kingston to help her family after fire gutted their Cave Valley home in St Ann. Her sons, seven-year-old Melique Bai...

The Government is being nudged in the direction of a mandatory vaccination policy for the public sector.The National COVID-19 Vaccination Operationalization Task Force (NCVOTF) made the carefully couched recommendation in its second re...

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) - The former Secretary of State for Public Security Réginald Delva has warned that "armed bandits are better equipped and seem better organised than the National Police of Haiti (PNH)".The Center for Analysi...

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The 21-month long pandemic ravaged thousands of businesses and industries, but one of the few industries that survived and prospered was the multi-billion-dollar global arms industry led by the US.A new report rel...

Q: Can I get an expedited non-immigrant visa appointment for the holidays?A: We do not expedite visa appointments for personal and discretionary travel. Anyone seeking to travel to the United States for tourism, business, or other routi...

Dear Mr Brown ,I am thinking of signing up for the farm work programme; however, I heard that workers from Jamaica are often discriminated against. I want to know to what extent this is true. AS Dear AS,The Human Rights Tribunal of On...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) - EU health ministers met yesterday as national governments step up measures to try to curb the Omicron novel coronavirus variant spreading across Europe while winter closes in.The gathering aimed for greater coo...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AFP) - Young people clutching samples of cocaine, ecstasy, and LSD are lined up outside a nightclub in Bogota. But this is not a police raid.The atmosphere is festive, with disco lights reflecting off faces sporting me...

BERLIN, Germany (AP) - Angela Merkel was assured of a place in the history books as soon as she became Germany's first female chancellor on November 22, 2005.Over the next 16 years, she was credited with raising Germany's profile and in...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AFP) - Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin held a two-hour video summit yesterday in which the US president said he would warn of painful sanctions and increased military support for Eastern Europe if Russia inva...

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton last night revealed that Jamaicans will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccine booster shots within another week."We will give the specific date but basically what we're saying is that, havin...

THE detective who marshalled investigations into the operations of the St Catherine-based Klansman gang yesterday came under pressure to explain why he whisked Witness Number One, a former gang member-turned-Crown witness, away from a c...

Today is the 341st day of 2021 There are 24 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1996: After nearly 18 days aloft, the Columbia space shuttle and its astronauts return to Earth, ending the longest space shuttle flight ever. OTHER EVE...

RAW sewage has been flowing at sections of Orange and West Queen streets in downtown Kingston since last Friday, placing people's health at risk and affecting businesses as the commercial hub of the capital city continues to reel from a...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Tourism stakeholders say they are confident Jamaica will be able to facilitate the new 24-hour COVID-19 test required for travellers to the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), two of the island's larg...

Determined not to be extradited to St Lucia to answer murder and gun charges, 27-year-old Orville Purnell of Belgium Road, Buff Bay in Portland, made an offer of $3 million to police personnel and inmates at Kingston Central Police Sta...

There appear to be issues of clarity surrounding the application/verification process for the digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates which the Ministry of Health and Wellness has promised will be rolled out as of mid-December.The min...

A proposal for the first 20-storey residential building to be erected in Jamaica has received outline planning permission from the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NE...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte says an announcement is expected by the end of the second quarter next year in relation to Jamaica's way forward to becoming a republic."A document is currently being prepar...

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) - The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) says the decision to impose entry requirements belongs to the national authorities as several regional countries have joined those across the wor...

Technology provider Advanced Integrated Systems (AIS) has handed over a Konica Minolta photocopier valued at US$1,400 ($210,000) to Maxfield Park Children's Home through a partnership with the Nexus 101 Optimist Club of Kingston.All-in-...

THE Media Association of Jamaica says it deeply regrets the passing of Arnold Foote, founder of Advertising and Marketing (Jamaica) Ltd, now AdMark."We laud one of the early industry stalwarts, who played a significant role in establish...

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myanmar who was ousted in a de facto coup this year, was convicted on two charges yesterday and handed a four-year sentence that was quickly cut in half in proceedings wi...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - A religious group based in Ohio announced yesterday that a violent gang in Haiti has released three more hostages, while another 12 remain abducted.The statement from Christian Aid Ministries said the people...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - Senior representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Transparency International, and the World Bank will join other leading figures from academia, the private sector, law enforcement, and c...

Alex Smith of Blue Mountain, St Thomas, places a Christmas tree on Christine Johnston's vehicle after completing a sale yesterday along Constant Spring Road, St Andrew.(Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Police personnel examine a twovehicle crash at the intersection of Lyndhurst Road and Maxfield Avenue in Kingston last Saturday night. About 8:15 pm, a Toyota Fielder motor car and a Toyota Hiace bus, travelling in the opposite directio...

Former prime ministers PJ Patterson and Bruce Golding will discuss the issue of Jamaica severing ties with Britain and implementing a republican system of government this Wednesday at midday on the The Bridge 99FM .According to the st...

THE Ministry of Labour and Social Security says that there continues to be mixed reactions to its drive to vaccinate Jamaican workers in the Overseas Employment Programme (OEP) in both the United States and Canada.In a recent report to ...

DELEGATES at the Third (Second Quinquennial) Session of the Jamaica Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, held December 1- 2, 2021, re-elected Pastor Everett Brown as president.Brown, who has been serving as head of the church sin...

NEWRY, Maine (AP) - Santa is back to "sleighing" it on the ski slope.More than 230 skiing and snowboarding Kris Kringles took to a western Maine resort on Sunday to raise money for charity.The jolly ol' St Nicks took a break last year b...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana (AP) - The two Indiana-raised turkeys given Thanksgiving pardons by President Joe Biden are now at their new Purdue University home.The turkeys arrived this past week at Purdue and were welcomed by visitors on th...

TOPEKA, Kansas (AP) - Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwindling generation of World War II veter...

AP - A rush of vaccine-seekin g customers and staff shortages are squeezing drugstores around the U S leading to frazzled workers and temporary pharmacy closures.Drugstores are normally busy this time of year with flu shots and other va...

WASHINGTON. DC (AP) - US health officials said Sunday that while the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than Delta, which continues to...

MICHIGAN - A Detroit-area artist, whose studio was where the parents of the Oxford High School student charged in a deadly shooting were found by police, is cooperating with authorities and didn't know the couple had stayed overnight, h...

NEW YORK (AP) - A new allegation of sexual harassment against Chris Cuomo emerged just days before CNN announced it was firing the anchor amid an investigation into work he did defending his brother from similar harassment allegations.A...

Managing Director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) Omar Sweeney says that rehabilitation work on the Mount Salem Primary and Infant School in St James is well underway. The rehabilitation work at the school is in the region ...

NEW Fortress Energy (NFE) Foundation has awarded over $26.5 million in tertiary scholarships to support the academic journeys of 50 brilliant, young men and women who are studying at The University of the West Indies (UWI), University o...

CHIEF Justice Bryan Sykes, the sitting judge in the trial involving 33 alleged members of the St Catherine-based Klansman Gang, on Friday queried whether the police had "taken a policy decision" to not charge self-confessed ex-gang memb...

FLANKER, St James - Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang says the $43.7-million project to rehabilitate the Flanker Health Centre is an example of Government's collaborative and coordinated approach to...

A convicted cop killer - who was allegedly nabbed by the police while hiding in a truck with the same gun used in the shooting tucked in his crotch, along with rounds of ammunition - lost his appeal against his conviction and life sente...

NOTING that the police have been flayed for seemingly ignoring some acts which shock the public's conscience, Commissioner of Police Major General Antony Anderson says the blame cannot be laid at the feet of law enforcers but rather on ...