WITH the island under heightened weekend and holiday curfew measures through to April 12 as part of the ongoing COVID-19 response, a group of women in the Corporate Area, who depend on prostitution for a living and have been feeling the...

THE local government ministry says it is not aware of any fraudulent activity regarding use of the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) cash cards of deceased beneficiaries, and that unused funds for the 81 such ...

VICE chancellor of The University of the West Indies Professor Hilary Beckles, amidst criticism from quarters over the management of the university, says the institution, though "not perfect", has "proven itself" and is "worthy of the r...

THE Judiciary of Jamaica has advised that the closure of the St Thomas Parish Court has been extended for another week due to COVID-19. The building has been deep cleaned and operations are scheduled to resume on Tuesday, April 6, 2021....

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Residents of Montego West Village were annoyed over the smoke nuisance caused from yesterday morning's fire at the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA)-operated Retirement landfill in St James.One ir...

LAST Saturday before the islandwide lockdown took effect, senior citizen Gwendolyn Gillespie Brown ran out of cooking gas at her home in Portmore, St Catherine, and she could only depend on one individual to help put her pots back on th...

The police yesterday said the man charged with murder in the death of 20-year-old Khanice Jackson confessed that he strangled her on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 with a piece of rope, hid her body inside his house in Portmore, St Catherin...

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen has expressed regret and sadness at the passing of William Charles McCalla, a justice of the peace and husband of former Chief Justice Zaila McCalla. The governor general described McCalla as a humble...

JUST over $5.5 billion in loans and grants are expected to be disbursed to some 13,325 applicants by the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) during 2021/22.These form part of the overall 13,858 eligible applicants on whose behalf the SLB will b...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Chief executive officer (CEO) of Royal Caribbean Group, Richard Fain, says a number of test cruises carried out during the novel coronavirus pandemic and also prior to the start of vaccination programmes by count...

Today is the 90th day of 2021. There are 275 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1995: Tejano singing star Selena, 23, is shot to death in Corpus Christi, Texas, by founder of her fan club. Yolanda Saldivar is later convicted of murd...

HEALTH and wellness coach Natalie Murray is a strong believer in the adage that nothing happens before its time. "I also believe that everything happens exactly the way it is supposed to when you trust and believe," she told JIS News. T...

THE Pringle Home for Girls in Carron Hall, St Mary is to get a $3-million resource centre, the initiative of author Mary White, a native of the community.Work has already started to revamp the library at the home, and upgrade it into a ...

A number of small and medium-sized businesses have been forced to downsize or close operations altogether as a result of the pandemic, while others, depending on the products or services they offer, have been thriving, albeit unexpected...

THE National Water Commission (NWC) says its customer census mapping project will continue this week in the parish of Westmoreland.The project involves a door-to-door survey of existing and potential NWC customers and mapping them using...

May 11, 2021 marks the 40th year since the passing of reggae icon Bob Marley.In the lead-up to this milestone, the Jamaica Observer's Entertainment Desk will be doing a series titled 'Bob Marley - The Last 40 Days'.Starting tomorrow, r...

SAN FRANCISCO, United States (AFP) - Google yesterday said it will start showing users of its free Maps navigation service travel routes less damaging to the environment as just one of some 100 coming upgrades.Improvements to Google Map...

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) - Guyana on Monday received a consignment of 24,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility - the first quota of vaccines Guyana has received through the global initiative for pooled p...

TOKYO, Japan (AP) - The Tokyo Olympics open in under four months, and the torch relay has begun to crisscross Japan with 10,000 runners. Organisers say they are mitigating the risks, but some medical experts aren't convinced."It is best...

Did you have an encounter with the novel coronavirus? Veteran journalist Desmond Allen, who got the virus but got over it, invites you to share your experiences with him and encourage others to face this dreaded enemy.Tell us how you an...

Dear Mr Brown:I am inadmissible to visit Canada, based on being deported from the US on a drug conviction. However, I would like to visit my mother who is elderly and sick. Please explain how one can get a temporary resident permit. I k...

Q. What is the operational status of the Consular Section at the US Embassy in Kingston?Like many US embassies and consulates around the world, Embassy Kingston's Consular Section is open, but currently providing significantly lower lev...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (RNS) - Ask Americans if they believe in God and most will say yes. But a growing number have lost faith in organised religion.For the first time since the late 1930s, fewer than half of Americans say they ...

LONDON, England (AP) - It was dubbed Happy Monday - the day people could put on a bathing suit and swim in an outdoor pool for the first time in months, or rusty golfers could strive to hit their drives down the middle of the fairway.Fo...

MINNEAPOLIS, United States (AP) - As onlookers pleaded with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to take his knee off George Floyd's neck, Chauvin just gave them a "cold" and "heartless" stare, the teenager who shot the harrowing vi...

TEXAS, United States (AP) - The Joe Biden Administration for the first time yesterday allowed journalists inside its main border detention facility for migrant children, revealing a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,...

Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday argued that there is a need to engage credit rating agencies in discussions on what the United Nations is calling a "looming debt crisis"."We need to bring the credit rating agencies into our disc...

A man accused of trying to steal a motor car from a shopping plaza in Cross Roads, St Andrew, was arrested yesterday afternoon. The incident, which attracted a crowd, played out in the Sampars Supermarket parking lot on Retirement Road....

The medical oxygen crisis that hit the public health sector a few weeks ago due to rising COVID-19 cases appears to be improving as two of the island's major facilities - Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) and University Hospital of the Wes...

PAN American Health Organization (PAHO) director Dr Carissa Etienne is urging member countries to maintain coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols and safeguards, even as vaccinations get under way in a number of territories.Speaking during PA...

This is part of a series by Jamaica Observer reporters and editors looking at the impact of the novel coronavirus on various sectors of the economy since the first case was reported locally on March 10, 2020.STAKEHOLDERS in the educatio...

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres yesterday said that by ignoring several warnings from the global body since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a year ago, the world is now experiencing the worst recession i...

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (CMC) - United States President Joe Biden has invited two Caribbean prime ministers to his "Leaders Summit on Climate" to take place virtually at the White House on April 22 and 23.A White House statement s...

Today is the 89th day of 2021. There are 276 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1870: The 15th Amendment to the US Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, is declared in effect. OTHER EVENTS1135: The Jewish philosopher Ma...

One of the 612 Jamaicans over 75 years old who were inoculated last Saturday at the National Arena in St Andrew has described the process as "excellent" and "awesome".The female senior citizen, who was not identified, made the comment i...

GENEVA (AP) - A joint World Health Organization-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is "extremely unlikely...

In keeping with tradition, your Daily Observer will not be published on Good Friday, April 2, 2021. However, the newspaper published on Holy Thursday will be double-dated and as such offer the features that appear both on Thursday and F...

May 11, 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of the passing of reggae icon Bob Marley.In the lead-up to this milestone, the Jamaica Observer's Entertainment Desk will be doing a series titled 'Bob Marley - The Last 40 Days'.Starting April 1...

NEW JERSEY, United States - Johnson & Johnson (J & J) says it has agreed to provide up to 400 million doses of its one-dose COVID-19 vaccine to African countries, starting this summer.The drugmaker said under its agreement with ...

Eunice Chambers places a candle at her gate in Independence City, Portmore, St Catherine, last night duringa candlelight vigil held for her daughter, Khanice Jackson, whose body was found last Friday morning at afishing village on the o...

SUEZ, Egypt (AP) - Salvage teams yesterday freed a colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world's most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in marit...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Tuesday, March 30, 2021:Bold, quick and physical, accept help from others and success will be yours. This year you sharpen your listening skills, making you a better friend, colleague and family member. Clear up debt ...

The man who kept Dr Jephthah Ford out of the political winners' enclosure in three general elections, Derrick Smith, last night paid tribute to his former opponent following his death yesterday.A well-known medical doctor, Ford, who re...

AS administration of the COVID-19 vaccine continues, the take-up among nurses has been slow.Dr Sandra Chambers, regional technical director in the South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA), told the Jamaica Observer that while health...

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) says work to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in Cuba has advanced to the phase three clinical trial stage.Speaking during a recent COVID-19 digital briefing, PAHO's Assistant Director Dr Jarbas Ba...

NEW YORK, USA - Jamaica could soon benefit from a US$10-million Diaspora crime fund which has just been proposed and warmly embraced by some of the main Jamaican groups here, to help slash the murder rate in their homeland.Jamaicans res...

Turmeric, a plant related to ginger, is grown in many Asian countries, as well as other tropical areas and is often touted for its medicinal properties in providing pain relief and anti-inflammatory benefits.The plant has been thrown m...

Photo 1: Members of the security forces patrol Princess Street in downtown Kingston yesterday.Photo 2: A security checkpoint along South Odeon Avenue in Half Way Tree yesterdayPhoto 3: A deserted Orange Street in Kingston yesterdayPho...

A petition calling for the legalisation of pepper spray on the Jamaica House Petition online portal gathered speed over the weekend surpassing the 15,000 mark required for petitions to be reviewed.The online appeal, which was launched o...

The new E-commerce National Delivery Solution (ENDS) platform has received mixed reviews from early registrants who participated in a pilot roll-out in Portmore, St Catherine, over the weekend.On one hand, the platform proved to be a li...