CHIEF Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie says there is enough oxygen supply to manage a possible fourth wave of COVID-19.The CMO, addressing a Jamaica Observer Press Club at Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston yester...

MINISTER of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton says the Government is not harbouring any fears at this time that the introduction of booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines will aggravate hesitancy among those who have rejected the ja...

THE detective sergeant who was the driver of one of two police cars in a deadly 2019 operation to intercept armed gangsters aligned to the St Catherine-based Klansman gang, who were aboard a motor vehicle in the old capital, yesterday b...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - The calls came swiftly yesterday for the resignation of councillor for the Montego Bay South Eastern Division Arthur Lynch, who was suspended by the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) after being charged with ille...

HEALTH Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says a review and reform of the maintenance schedule for hospitals will have to be implemented to prevent a recurrence of sick buildings within the public health sector.His comments come against the...

LEGENDARY Jamaican bass player Robbie Shakespeare was yesterday described as "one of a kind" by keyboardist Robbie Lyn, one of the many artistes and musicians who rode Sly and Robbie's Taxi label and had a front-row seat to Shakespeare'...

HEALTH-CARE workers across the island are complaining of shortage in supplies at hospitals, blaming the scarcity and lack on the health ministry's payment arrears with hospital suppliers.Workers who spoke with the Jamaica Observer said ...

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President Mauricio Claver-Carone (right) is met on arrivalat Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston yesterday by Ambassador Ricardo Allicock.Claver-Carone and a team from the IDB are in the...

DIGITA Global Marketing Limited (DGM), one of the Caribbean's fastest-growing digital solutions agencies, has signed an agreement with JMMB Group's Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Resource Centre (SMERC) to provide digital marketing a...

Today is the 343rd day of 2020. There are 22 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1995: In India, 75 million children get polio vaccines in an attempt to eradicate the crippling disease. OTHER EVENTS1625: England and United Provinces...

ST ANN'S BAY, St Ann - Two defence lawyers suggested yesterday that it would be a waste of the court's time to proceed with the case of illegal dumping brought against Speaker of the House of Representatives Marisa Dalrymple-Philibert a...

The Integrity Commission has increased its push for changes to Sections 53 and 56 of the legislation governing its operation.The entity says its commissioners and legal advisers have reviewed and considered the Integrity Commission Act ...

TWENTY-FIVE nurses from five hospitals in Kingston, St Andrew, and St Catherine were elated on Tuesday when the Sanmerna Foundation and the Sanmerna Paper Products Limited hailed them for their dedicated hard work before and during the ...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - Natalie Scott-Douglas is still struggling to find comfort during what she describes as the "hardest time of her life", having lost her husband and their son five days apart. Karl Douglas, 55, died at St Ann's Bay Reg...

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) - With more than two dozen states poised to ban abortion if the United States Supreme Court gives them the okay next year, California clinics and their allies in the state legislature yesterday revealed a pla...

PROVIDENCE, R I (AP) - The number of Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 reached 200 million yesterday amid a dispiriting holiday-season spike in cases and hospitalisations that has hit even New England, one of the most highly i...

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - At least 23 travellers were killed in north-west Nigeria in an attack by the same armed groups blamed for killing thousands this year in Africa's most populous country.Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said he is...

NEW YORK, United States (AP) - A man was charged with arson and other crimes yesterday for setting fire to a 50-foot (15-meter) Christmas tree in front of Fox News headquarters in midtown Manhattan, police said.The artificial tree outsi...

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...

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...

PORT MARIA, St Mary - The death of Ron Drake has not dimmed the dream he and his wife Christina shared about helping to improve this parish, starting with the frequent clean-up of Pagee Beach in the capital.Halfway through the two decad...

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...

GREEN ISLAND, Hanover - Thieves continue to make off with street lights on the Orange Bay main road in this parish though residents have been keeping an eye on the Jamaica Public Service (JPS)-installed infrastructure. On Monday came th...

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...

T'morah McCallum was scheduled to complete her end-of-term exams at St Aloysius Primary School yesterday morning, but a bullet robbed her of that chance.The six-year-old was in a tenement yard on Text Lane in Central Kingston Monday ab...

TREASURE BEACH, St Elizabeth - Children were among those left traumatised after witnessing yesterday's brazen murder of 28-year-old teacher Chanel Smith at the entrance of Sandy Bank Infant School in this parish."One of the students was...

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-...