A number of primary school educators are angry over a delay in payment for summer school work under the Ministry of Education's Recover Smarter - National School Learning and Intervention Plan.The Jamaica Observer was told that the tea...

TRUCK drivers contracted to the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) ceased work yesterday and threatened to stay off the job if the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development does not address long-running grouses they have about sala...

Following Wednesday's shock treatment by some 300 public sector nurses who stayed off the job, throwing operations at several hospitals into disarray, health authorities said most resumed duties yesterday.On Wednesday morning, which ma...

HEAVY and persistent rain lashed southern parishes yesterday, triggering landslides, roadblocks and damage to roads caused by flooding.The rain, which came just over a week after Tropical Storm Grace left an estimated $171 million in in...

SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland - Instead of the expected complaints about lost sales, some vendors at the Savanna-la-Mar market said yesterday that they were happy for the recent no-movement days. The three-day lockdown, they told the Jam...

More than 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered so far in what the Government is touting as a major triumph against vaccine hesitancy that had initially greeted this leg of its management of the novel coronavirus pa...

Not even the clothes that a young couple had on their backs were spared the floodwaters that rushed into their home on Queensborough Avenue in New Haven, St Andrew, as heavy rain associated with Tropical Storm Grace pelted the island on...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - The Internal Affairs Commission of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) has moved to quash the latest dispute between two comrades within the party - Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern Lisa Hanna a...

NATIONAL Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Executive Director Audley Gordon says there is no intention to increase the number of staff members working from home.Gordon told the Jamaica Observer that a number of staff members have...

MAY PEN, Clarendon - Those who call the streets of this town home were not overlooked during the first three of seven no-movement days aimed at slowing spread of the novel coronavirus."We at the Clarendon Municipal Corporation are ensur...

JUST more than a week after Tropical Storm Grace lashed the island, leaving more than $170 million in infrastructural damage and scores of people living on the edge, Jamaicans are being warned to brace for more rain.Local and internatio...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - With scores of nurses calling in sick yesterday, those who reported to work had to be redeployed and even work beyond their shifts as the country continues to grapple with a surge in COVID-19 cases.Of the 468 nu...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Three projects with a combined value of $169 million were announced yesterday by minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, with responsibility for works, Everald Warmington,...

AFTER stepping up to the plate by offering financial assistance to the wildlife conservation park at Hope Zoo in St Andrew, Lifespan Company Limited is appealing to other businesses to provide additional support.The zoo has been experie...

PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland - Two days after Daniel Wisdom took to IG Live to quash rumours that he had died from COVID-19, he lost his battle with the disease.The death of the educator and businessman is just the latest in a string of de...

OPERATIONS at several hospitals across the island, which were yesterday affected after hundreds of nurses called in sick or were absent, should return to normal today following meetings between Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and ...

PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association (JMDA) Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley has proposed that the categories of people on the Government's exemption list for no-movement days be narrowed for the next period, which begins this Sunda...

Today is the 238th day of 2021. There are 127 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHTS2020: A 4.8-magnitude earthquake shakes Jamaica. OTHER EVENTS1071: Turkish Seljuks beat the Byzantine forces at the Battle of Manzikert (now Malazgir...

The country ended its first three days of no movement yesterday, which is part of a series of measures announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness last Thursday to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. With 52 groups of people being ...

MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Chair of the Candle in the Dark Ministries Wendy Freckleton says there has been an increase in the number of homeless people in Mandeville in the last two years."... Probably 80 per cent are not from Manchester,...

THE Discovery Bay Marine Lab (DBML) and White River Fish Sanctuary (WRFS) have received grants, totalling US$48,900, from Jamaica Conservation Partners (JCP) to assist with their research projects.The JCP said it is interested in long-t...

THERE have been renewed calls for the establishment of a fully equipped burn unit in Jamaica after Nicola Clarke, who had been doused with gasoline and set on fire in Hanover, died at Joseph M Still Burn Center in Atlanta, Georgia, USA ...

SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth - Former mayor of Black River Everton Fisher says he has resigned as minority leader in the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation out of frustration at "continuing disunity" in the Opposition People's National Part...

ST GEORGE'S, Grenada (CMC) - Grenada's Health Minister Nickolas Steele says he is prepared to suffer the financial consequences after he was photographed recently in the company of American actor and martial artist Steven Seagal not wea...

ATLANTA, United States - Delta Air Lines will charge employees on the company health plan US$200 a month if they fail to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a policy the airline's top executive says is necessary because the average hospita...

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa F Etienne said the severe shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean is a "wake-up call" for increased regional production of vaccines and announced the star...

VIRGINIA, United States (AP) - A federal appeals court yesterday upheld Dylann Roof's conviction and death sentence for the 2015 racist slayings of nine members of a black South Carolina congregation, saying the legal record cannot even...

Jamaicans who have sustained injuries in the latest physical craze on social media, the Milk Crate Challenge, run the risk of not being given immediate attention at the island's public hospitals, given the strain under which they are op...

BURNT SAVANNAH, St Elizabeth - The Government has come to the aid of the Barrett triplets following a Jamaica Observer story on their remarkable educational success and their plight in getting assistance to continue their studies.State ...

Being hopeful that face-to-face classes resume in September, Kelby Ebanks took both his daughters, ages 12 and 14, to the vaccination blitz at Turtle River Park in Ocho Rios yesterday to get their jabs. The 42-year-old believes that hi...

As Jamaicans gear up for four more no-movement days designed to limit spread of the novel coronavirus, one health official is anticipating a decrease in the number of positive cases at the end of the lockdown. "We are looking forward t...

More than a year after being freed from prison on the basis that he remained incarcerated for 50 years without a trial, 72-year-old George Williams is living in squalid conditions.His niece, Pamela Green, is not pleased and is insistin...

Police assistance was sought yesterday to restore order at a COVID-19 vaccination blitz site at Eltham High School in St Catherine as people, claiming to know either a member of parliament or a councillor, attempted to force their way i...

WESTMORELAND, Jamaica - Residents of Blackness, Burnt Savannah, in Westmoreland are today rejoicing as their wish for piped water is finally being granted. After months of pleas, discussions, and recommendations the National Water Commi...

SAGICOR Group Jamaica, in partnership with the Private Sector Vaccination Initiative (PSVI), will be rolling out its COVID-19 vaccination programme for its team members as part of the group's strategy to mitigate the spread of the virus...

Q. I arrived at the airport to travel to the United States, but the airline informed me that I am unable to board my flight due to issues with my US visa. What does this mean? A: If an airline refuses to board you due to a problem with ...

OCHO RIOS, St Ann - Transportation woes on Monday hit several essential workers here, where compliance is said to be high regarding the latest lockdown aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus."I think there is a high level ...

MORE than 500 students in Montego Bay, St James, last week benefited from back-to-school donations, courtesy of the Sandals Foundation.The annual event saw students from the communities of Canterbury, Flanker and White House being feted...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - The Montego Bay business and education communities have reacted with shock and disbelief following news of Sunday's COVID-19-related passing of an educator and a business operator, as the death toll from the viru...

MONTEGO BAY, St James - Except for a group of homeless people complaining of hunger the streets of Montego Bay were fairly quiet Monday, day two of the islandwide lockdown that is part of the Government's toolkit to slow the spread of t...

Officials at The University of the West Indies (The UWI) yesterday paid tribute to Professor Emeritus Gerald Cecil Lalor, describing him as a true visionary, pioneer of UWI science and technology, and a giant amongst giants.Professor La...

Dear Mr Brown: Q. I am very frustrated by the delay of applications at the high commission. I thought that due process would entail applications being processed within a reasonable time. I was recently refused an application for a perm...

IT means Pfizer's shot for people 16 and older has now undergone the same rigorous testing and regulatory review as dozens of other long-established vaccines.COVID-19 vaccines in the US were initially rolled out under the Food and Drug ...

ATLANTA, United States (AP) - A few weeks into the new school year, growing numbers of US districts have halted in-person learning or switched to hybrid models because of rapidly mounting novel coronavirus infections. More than 80 schoo...

LES CAYES, Haiti (AP) - Orderlies pushed Jertha Ylet's bed from the centre of the hospital ward to one side so Dr Michelet Paurus could plug in his electric saw. She was silent as the doctor cut off her plaster cast in measured strokes....

TENNESSEE, United States (AP) - President Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration sought by Tennessee after record rainfall caused devastating floods that killed more than 20 people, according to a statement yesterday. The a...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban warned yesterday that the US airlift from Afghanistan must end August 31, ramping up pressure on an already chaotic evacuation as new reports of rights abuses fuelled concern about the fate of thous...

Opposition spokeswoman on education Angela Brown-Burke has called on the Government to walk back its decision to have only vaccinated children return to face-to-face classes, arguing that to do otherwise would be to trample on the right...

FALMOUTH, Trelawny - Medical staff in the western end of the island are on the brink of burnout, says clinical coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), Dr Delroy Fray. He is hoping there will soon be a let-up in the...

More than 270 Jamaicans have been awarded Chevening Scholarships since Jamaica's first cohort in 1984. Founded in 1983, Chevening is the United Kingdom Government's global scholarship programme aimed at developing global leaders through...