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The positions of 340 drivers and conductors at the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) will be made redundant starting on Friday, February 1. Details of the exercise were announced on (Jan. 30) at a meeting held at the Ministry of Transport and Works' Maxfield Avenue office, where JUTC chairman, Douglas Chambers, and President of the University and Allied Workers Union...

Cabinet has issued instructions to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to amend domestic laws to allow Jamaica to comply with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Jamaica signed the Convention on September 16, 2005 and will ratify the agreement next week. Speaking at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on (Jan. 30), Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Senator Dorothy...

A 5,000-capacity convention centre is to be constructed by the Government by 2009, as the administration gets ready to launch the island as a religious tourism destination. Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett made the disclosure during a briefing session, prior to a consultative meeting with a group of church leaders at the Terra Nova Hotel, on (January 28). Mr. Bartlett...

Prime Minister Bruce Golding said a new international airport complete with customs and immigration services will be constructed at Duckenfield in Portland, as part of the government's thrust to diversify the tourism product and take advantage of the value added options in the industry. He was speaking on Wednesday (Jan. 30) at a Real Estate Symposium hosted by the Realtors...

The Government and the European Union (EU) on (Jan. 29) signed a $630 million agreement aimed at providing assistance for the island's banana and plantain farmers. Minister of Agriculture, Christopher Tufton and Head of the European Commission in Jamaica, Marco Mazzocchi Alemani, signed the agreement at the Ministry's headquarters at Hope Gardens. Of the funding provided, $222 million will go...

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Clifford Herron has said that the St. Ann Police would be working assiduously to ensure a reduction in the number of motor vehicle accidents in the parish. "We have major challenges on our roads, especially on the A.G. R. Byfield Highway and the Landovery main road. Those are the black spots within our parish," Mr. Herron...

Twenty seven extension officers from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) and other organizations, began a one-week Pest Identification Training programme on January 28, aimed at strengthening their pest recognition skills. The course will be held until February 1 at the Bodles Research Station in Old Harbour, St. Catherine. It was organized by the Agricultural Support Services Project (ASSP) in...

The high incidence of bush fires in the parish of Hanover during the dry season, has prompted the Hanover division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade to embark on a major public education campaign. This drive began in the middle of January, with a view to encouraging residents of the parish to adopt good fire safety practices. According to Acting Divisional...

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the University of the West Indies Open Campus (UWIOC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help educators in the English-speaking Caribbean promote democratic values and practices in their classrooms and communities. Under the agreement, signed concurrently at the OAS office in Washington DC and at the UWI Mona Campus in Jamaica,...

Minister of Information, Culture, Youth, and Sports, Olivia Grange, has underscored the importance of volunteerism in nation building and the need for more persons to get involved in this area of service. In an address delivered by Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Chairman, Hugh Nash, at the JCDC Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Committee's annual general meeting at the Louise...

Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, has said that the recently signed CARIFORUM/European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), while not representing all that the region had asked for "is a good deal". "Did we get all that we asked for? No. Did we get a good deal? I say yes", the Prime Minister stated as he delivered the keynote address at the...

The Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports (MICYS) and the Bureau of Women's Affairs and Gender Affairs will observe International Women's Day on March 8, 2008, with the staging of the first-ever all-female performers fund raising concert proposed for the National Indoor Centre in Kingston. Details of this major fund-raising event were outlined today at a planning meeting hosted...