Q. What is the operational status of the Consular Section at the US Embassy in Kingston? A: With the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 the Consular Section was compelled to dramatically scale down operations, at times shutting down co...

Chevon McGregor, inventory clerk at Petrojam Limited, relaxes after getting his COVID-19 jab at a vaccination blitz held recently at Petrojam on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston. Close to 350 persons received the first dose of available ...

Today is the 272nd day of 2021. There are 93 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1982: Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claim the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolve...

Dear Mr Brown,I heard that claiming refugee status is now the best way to get Canadian status. Can you confirm whether this is true?- RWDear RW,Under Canadian immigration law, a conventional refugee is a person who is outside of his or ...

MINISTER without portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Senator Matthew Samuda says that Jamaica's private security sector is well-positioned to evolve into a regional export industry.According to the minister, the country's re...

HAVING easy access to information about nutritional facts and ingredients of packaged food items will enable consumers to make healthier food choices and potentially reduce the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and obesity i...

THE deadline to register for the next voters' list is Thursday, September 30. The list is scheduled to be published on November 30, 2021.Individuals intending to have their names added to the list must apply in person at any Electoral O...

What started out as a COVID-19 vaccination drive for Digicel employees and their family members expanded into a full fledged effort involving the wider downtown Kingston community, recently.Employees of neighbouring businesses, customer...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - The Caribbean Community (Caricom) has warned the 54-member Commonwealth that it risks being divided over the re-election of incumbent Secretary General Patricia Scotland."Our Commonwealth family has, until n...

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) - Prime Minister Ariel Henry has dismissed members of the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP), throwing into doubt the planned constitutional referendum and elections in the French-speaking Caribbean Communit...

GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) - World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus apologised yesterday for what he called a "dark day" for the agency after a damning report on allegations of rape and sexual abuse by workers s...

MARYLAND, United States (AP) - A man who killed five people at a newspaper office in Maryland was sentenced yesterday to more than five life sentences without the possibility of parole - with 345 additional years added on to ensure he i...

BERLIN, Germany (AP) - Days before Germany's federal election, Facebook took what it called an unprecedented step - the removal of a series of accounts that worked together to spread COVID-19 misinformation and encourage violent respons...

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - In a packed intensive care unit (ICU) for novel coronavirus patients in Romania's capital, Bucharest, 55-year-old Adrian Pica sits on his bed receiving supplementary oxygen to help him breathe. "I didn't want t...

More Jamaicans will be able to get inoculated against the novel coronavirus as 11 private facilities have joined the national vaccination programme in an effort to help achieve the goal of herd immunity.The development comes in response...

MAY PEN, Clarendon - Residents of Andrew Hill in Clarendon north western are breathing a sigh of relief following the completion of a $5-million road rehabilitation project there. The 600 metres of road links communities such as Nine Tu...

The United States Embassy in Kingston has reportedly issued a five-year diplomatic visa to Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Daryl Vaz even as controversy swirls around an annotation implicating that he was suspected of being ...

NEW YORK, United States (AP) - R Kelly, the R&B superstar known for his anthem I Believe I Can Fly , was convicted yesterday in a sex trafficking trial after decades of avoiding criminal responsibility for numerous allegations of m...

SAGICOR Foundation has partnered with Boss Furniture to donate 30 new beds to St Joseph's Hospital in Kingston, which will increase the hospital's capacity to aid in the fight against COVID-19.St Joseph's hospital has been operating as ...

THE Scotia Jamaica Foundation will be supporting 1,000 students who will be sitting the CSEC examinations in 2022, through a partnership with One on One Educational Services Ltd. The bank said 75 per cent of the available spaces will be...

The ultimate reprisal of the ruthless Klansman gang against a defiant Spanish Town bus driver who they say was causing them not to collect "the right amount of extortion money" was to send an assassin dressed in school uniform aboard t...

MAY PEN, Clarendon - Since moving to Clarendon to work in May Pen Hospital's COVID-19 isolation ward last November, medical doctor Joshua Daye has been steadily losing his possessions to thieves. A few months ago, while he worked to sav...

Samantha Fletcher yesterday created local horse racing history when she became the first-ever female jockey to win three races on a single race programme.Fletcher achieved the significant milestone in the final event on the Gresford Sm...

Today is the 271st day of 2021. There are 94 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT2017: The Donald Trump Administration says its relief efforts in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria were succeeding, though people on the i...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Tuesday, September 27, 2021:This year you become much more independent, but find less of a need to demonstrate this quality. You are fiery and full of enthusiasm. People rarely will say "no" to you. Do your best not t...

THE field hospital at University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) is ready to begin accommodating COVID-19 patients, Dr Carl Bruce, consultant neurosurgeon and medical chief of staff, said last week while giving IGL Managing Director ...

THE revised National Policy for Senior Citizens, to provide adequate social safety net protections, has been approved by Cabinet and is to be tabled in the Houses of Parliament shortly.Labour and Social Security Minister Karl Samuda mad...

UNITED NATIONS (CMC) - St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says the raging novel coronavirus pandemic has put the world in a "veritable tailspin, even as the roll-out of the vaccines has eased the strain some...

LONDON, England (AP) - The British Government put dozens of soldiers on standby yesterday to help easy fuel supply problems caused by a shortage of truck drivers, a situation that has spurred panic buying of gasoline across the country....

NEW YORK, United States (AP) - Hospitals and nursing homes around the US are bracing for worsening staff shortages as state deadlines arrive for health-care workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.With ultimatums taking effect this w...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban yesterday banned barbershops in a southern Afghanistan province from shaving or trimming beards, claiming their edict is in line with Sharia, or Islamic, law.The order in Helmand province was issued...

Quick service food giant Restaurants of Jamaica (ROJ) is part of the group of private sector partners celebrating the near-completion of a project to construct a 48-bed field hospital at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI)...

Jonelle Llewellyn (left), research associate at the Violence Prevention Alliance (VPA) presents care packages to Julius Roye (second left), Leroy Thompson (second right), and O'Neal Beaver, residents of Cassava Piece.The donation of the...

MEDICAL officials in Jamaica are keeping a close eye on the elderly who have contracted COVID-19 as global research suggests millions could face increased or accelerated risk of dementia as a result of long-term complications.Dementia i...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) were engaged in an intense gun battle with heavily-armed gangsters who went on a shooting and arson rampage which left two men dead and three houses torched in Gran...

Member of Parliament for St Catherine South Eastern Robert Miller says residents of Myrtle Way in Portmore, St Catherine, will soon have access to electricity and potable water in their homes.Making his contribution to the State of the...

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has said that the below-zero infection rate in the tourism resilient corridor is proof that Jamaica has the capacity to better manage the SARS-COV-2 infection rate which is now just under 30 per cent."We...

Mayor of Kingston Senator Councillor Delroy Williams, says steps are being taken to address the problem of flooding in several Corporate Area communities due to overflowing of the Chalky River. Speaking at the monthly meeting of the Ki...

The Union of Clerical Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE) is calling on the Government to refer the management of China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC) to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions for cr...

Nestlé Jamaica has launched the 'Nestlé Cares for our Health Care Heroes' initiative to show gratitude to Jamaica's health-care professionals who are on the front line in the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic. The organisa...

Today is the 270th day of 2021. There are 95 days left in the yearTODAY'S HIGHLIGHT2008: Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang completes China's first spacewalk.OTHER EVENTS1540: Pope Paul approves Ignatius of Loyola's proposal to create the S...

Minister of state in the Ministry of Transport and Mining J C Hutchinson, has expressed his disappointment with the slow progress in the resettlement and issuing of land titles to people living in the bauxite mining areas.However, he s...

The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) has described as erroneous social media posts that have been circulating which allege that it had purchased military equipment recently.In a statement yesterday, the JDF said that it had purchased no suc...

Merl Grove Board of Management Chairman David Hall has taken issue with the Jamaica Observer's coverage of the imbroglio at the high school, particularly a report last week stating that he was absent from a planned disciplinary hearing...

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) - Cheers rang out, hugs were exchanged, and rainbow-coloured flags waved overhead across Switzerland as the Swiss resoundingly voted to allow same-sex couples to marry, the final results of a nationwide referend...

Chief Justice Bryan Sykes has described what he says is "an increase in the number of women attorneys in significant criminal matters over time" as "a good development".The chief justice, who is presiding over the trial of 33 individual...

LONDON, UK (AP) - Thousands of British gas stations ran dry Sunday, an industry group said, as motorists scrambled to fill up amid a supply disruption due to a shortage of truck drivers.The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents...

WHITEHOUSE, Westmoreland - Some of the most beautiful talents in people are hereditary. They become even more refined when sharpened on the iron of professional training, experience, and exposure. There is also a select few who have bee...

NEW YORK, USA - The Jamaica Progressive League (JPL), one of the oldest of the activist Jamaican organisations in the United States, is throwing off its mantle as an affiliate of the People's National Party (PNP) to embrace the wider C...

Dushyant Savadia, founder and CEO of the Amber Group, has been accepted into Forbes Technology Council. The council is an invitation-only community for world-class technology leaders across the world, and the move is seen as a major wi...