Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has promised that the ongoing audit of the COVID-19 vaccination programme being rolled out in the public health system will account for all doses of vaccines used, as well as any that ...

Jamaicans are being urged to get immunised against the novel coronavirus as soon as allowed, instead of gambling with possibly suffering the worst effects of the deadly respiratory disease, should they become infected.The first nurse in...

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles has defended his stewardship as vice-chancellor of The University of the West Indies (UWI), saying the performance of the tertiary institution over the past several years has retired criticisms that it is an...

Opposition Leader Mark Golding appeared yesterday to hold out an olive branch to the Government, as he urged a period of consensus in a time of deep national crisis.Golding, on more than one occasion during his contribution to the 2021/...

Opposition Leader Mark Golding yesterday accused the Government of a "tight embrace with fiscal conservatism" in its proposed 2021/22 expenditure budget. Golding, who was making his maiden contribution to the budget debate as leader of...

Today is the 76th day of 2021. There are 289 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1969: Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel. OTHER EVENTS1229: Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II, at the head of the Sixth Crusade, enters Jerusalem...

PORT ANTONIO, Portland - The health authorities started vaccinating police in the constabulary's Portland Division Monday as the island continued its inoculation programme for front-line workers.Public health nurse Marian Green-Williams...

THE Victim Services Division (VSD) is encouraging employers to take advantage of its grief and stress management training sessions as a way of providing support to staff members.The VSD, which operates under the Ministry of Justice, has...

AS is customary during special occasions in trading, the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) rings the bell. On Monday, March 8, however, the ringing had nothing to do with stock trading, but calls for a gender equal society and embracing wome...

BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth - Jermaine Miller, who is accused of the stabbing death of his ex-girlfriend Nevia Sinclair, 27, at her family home in Brinkley, St Elizabeth last year, is to be sentenced on March 25 after he pleaded guilty to...

BANGKOK , Thailand (AP) - Thailand's prime minister yesterday received a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca as much of Asia shrugged off concerns about reports of blood clots in some recipients in Europe, saying th...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union's drug regulator insisted yesterday that there is "no indication" the AstraZeneca vaccine causes blood clots as governments around the world faced the grimmest of dilemmas: push on with a vacc...

Barbara Flowers has had sleepless nights since last Wednesday when she first received news that her first born, 37-year-old Odette Harris, could not be found.Harris, a popular player in the local netball community, had left her house in...

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) has placed the entire Hilltop Juvenile Correctional Centre under quarantine following the discovery of a COVID-19 cluster there.The DCS yesterday reported 29 new positive COVID-19 cases in ...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Deputy Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang says hospitals currently facing a shortage of medical oxygen are expected to get relief later this week.The shortage has been exacerbated by the overwhelming pressure being p...

AMID the recent surge in new novel coronavirus cases, local pharmacists are concerned about people who request medication after displaying symptoms of COVID-19 but avoid doing a test or quarantine.Immediate past president of Pharmaceuti...

THE Government's announcement of an easing of the two-week ban on funerals and burials has not been met with much enthusiasm by one entity which represents a number of funeral homes.Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Des...

Jamaica yesterday received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines under the World Health Organization (WHO) COVAX (COVID-19 Global Access) facility with a firm assurance from Dr Bernadette Theodore-Gandi, the Pan-American Health Organ...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - There has been a high take-up of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine by health care workers in south-central parishes even as the five hospitals in the southern region continue to grapple with bed spaces running ou...

Today is the 75th day of 2021. There are 290 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT2003: American activist Rachel Corrie, 23, is crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while trying to block demolition of a Palestinian home i...

Sarah Everard, the 33-year-old British woman whose kidnap and murder have triggered outrage and protests in London demanding action on the burning issue of violence against women, has Jamaican heritage.Her grandmother, Pamela, was born ...

TEXAS, United States (AP) - There was no reason to celebrate on Rachel Van Lear's anniversary. The same day a pandemic was declared, she developed symptoms of COVID-19. A year later, she's still waiting for them to disappear. And for ex...

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Sarah Gao had a busy job. As the head of a 500-million yuan (US$76.8-million) investment fund, she was constantly flying across China on business trips. Then she found out she was pregnant.Her pregnancy, with her t...

ROME, Italy (AP) - The Vatican declared yesterday that the Catholic Church won't bless same-sex unions since God "cannot bless sin".The Vatican's orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - Tourist arrivals to the Caribbean fell by 65.5 per cent in 2020, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), but it is forecasting a turnaround this year.In a statement released yesterday, the CTO...

TORONTO, Canada - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says health experts in the country are sure the AstraZeneca vaccine is safe and says the doses Canada receive are not from the same batch that are causing concerns in Europe.Canad...

The little-known People's Anti-corruption Movement (PAM), led by human rights advocate Lloyd D'Aguilar, has raised concerns about a lack of government transparency on liability for possible health complications developed in people inocu...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Upset by a recent pronouncement that the date for the start of construction of the much-anticipated Montego Bay bypass road project has been pushed back until the end of next year, the Montego Bay business commun...

FIVE people were arrested in a major drug/gun bust by a joint police-military operation in Westmoreland on the weekend.The police say a pre-dawn raid in Ketto district in the parish by members of the narcotics division, the St James Ope...

Woman police sergeant Tameisha Powell of the Clarendon Police Division collapsed at her home on Saturday morning.She was rushed to May Pen Hospital, where she was pronounced dead on arrival. Powell, 44, was of a Milk River, Clarendon, a...

NEW YORK, USA - Jamaicans across the United States have given the thumbs up to the US$1.9-trillion America economic rescue plan which President Joe Biden signed into law last Thursday."Obviously, the US$1,400 stimulus payment is the mos...

MURRAY MOUNT, St Ann - The same day an old wagon van used by caregivers at Widow's Mite home became totally unusable, a charitable organisation gave them a new bus. Even better than the old one, it had been modified to meet the needs of...

In his first major interview since being freed of corruption charges just over a fortnight ago, former Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) James Forbes said he felt betrayed by his colleagues who knew of his rock solid integrity.At t...

The March 4, 2021 reopening of Beaches Ocho Rios, the last of the Sandals resorts to roar back to life in Jamaica, has sparked hope for the revival of tourism, in Caribbean defiance of the novel coronavirus pandemic.Reopening of the do...

New York, USA - The Friends of Charlie Mount High School near Linstead in St Catherine is committing further assistance to the institution with the provision of tablets to help students with their distance learning programme. The decisi...

NEW YORK, USA - A Jamaican-born engineer, Marlon Anguin, was one of several people who played a crucial behind the scenes role in the staging of America's largest sporting event, the Super Bowl, which concluded its 55th staging on Sunda...

In honour of Ambassador Henry Gill's stellar professional service to the region, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has launched the Henry Gill Memorial Lecture series, with the first lecture to be delivered this Wednesday, March ...

THE little-known but fast-rising Eagles Deliverance and Empowerment Ministries International (EDEMI) has adopted the Best Care Special Education School saying that after a fact-finding tour it had seen what it liked and would now "pour ...

Dr Romario Simpson, a young medical doctor serving at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), has received the 2020 Governor General's Achievement Award (GGAA) for his efforts to uplift the less fortunate, dating back to hig...

KENTUCKY, United States - A protestor brandishes a portrait of Breonna Taylor during a rally in remembrance on the one year anniversary of her death in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13, 2021. Twelve months after the killing - in which p...

Today is the 74th day of 2021. There are 291 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1937: The world's first blood bank is established at Chicago's Cook County Hospital by Dr Bernard Fantus. It is a breakthrough for surgical procedures a...

Kiwanis Club of West St Andrew President Courtney Morgan (right) hands a bag with some of the donated food items to Evelyn Satchell, president of the Red Hills Golden-Agers Citizens' Association, on Friday. The volunteer group made the ...

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) - The United States' top pandemic advisor said yesterday that authorities were considering cutting social distancing rules to three feet - a move that would change a key tenet of the global fight against ...

LONDON, England - Police officers form a cordon around a statue of former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill in Parliament Square in central London yesterday as protesters calling for greater public safety for women after the death of ...

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) - Hamas elected a woman to its political bureau for the first time ever, the Palestinian Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip said yesterday.Hamas had on Wednesday announced the re-electio...

United Nations - UN envoy for Myanmar yesterday strongly condemned continuing bloodshed after at leas t 18 protesters were killed in one of the deadliest days since the country's February 1 coup."The international community, including ...

THERE is one man, inspired by the spirit of Jamaica, who insists that he wants to be a part of the island's fabric.He is French. But it doesn't matter, for Jean Philippe Beyer - the managing director of spirits giant J Wray & Nephew...

Another giant of the Jamaican industry has made his strong support of the COVID-19 vaccine programme public.Managing director of J Wray & Nephew Ltd, and chairman of J Wray & Nephew Foundation, Jean Philippe Beyer, has fully end...

HOWARD Gregory, Anglican archbishop of the West Indies and bishop of the Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, received his first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, March 11, 2021 in keeping with a passionate app...

AS concern continues to swirl regarding the safety of the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, local doctors and the Ministry of Health and Wellness have thrown their full support and confidence behind its continued use on the population.Dr ...