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The Jamaica Coast Guard is reporting a significant fall in drug seizure at sea, with no cocaine seized since the beginning of the year. However, some 2,450 pounds of ganja were seized during the period. Out-going Commanding Officer, Sydney Innis told JIS News that they also seized seven boats and took 71.5 pounds of lobster and 5,000 pounds of fish...

The Honourable Olivia "Babsy" Grange, Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, has announced that the Possibility Programme, run by the Office of the Prime Minister to help street boys in Kingston, will be extended to the St. Catherine capital, Spanish Town. Minister Grange made the announcement as she addressed the annual Christmas Dinner and Graduation Exercise of the Possibility...

Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Honourable Karl Samuda, has accepted the resignation of the Chairman of Jamaica Trade and Invest, Gazan Azan. Mr. Azan tendered his resignation yesterday. Mr. Samuda announced that a new Chairman will be named shortly. In the interim, Deputy Chairman of Jamaica Trade and Invest, Raymond Miles (Junior), will act as Chair.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Dr. Ronald Robinson has urged sugar producing countries to increase collaboration and cooperation. "Many of our countries face particular challenges arising from small size, geographic dispersion and vulnerability to natural disasters. These common constraints give us a unique platform for understanding and cooperation," The Minister...

The Nature Conservancy and the University of the West Indies (UWI) are the beneficiaries of grants, totaling $9.8 million, to among other things, fund the development of alternative livelihood activities in the Cockpit Country. The grants have been made available by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its Protected Areas and Rural Enterprise Project. Mission Director at...

The Inmates Public Work Project has been expanded to engage inmates in the repair and maintenance of public institutions such as schools, police stations and courthouses. Senator Arthur Williams, State Minister for National Security, who was speaking at the New Broughton Sunset Rehabilitation Adult Correctional Centre in Manchester recently, said already, inmates at the Richmond Farm Adult Correctional Centre in...

Climate change is the greatest challenge facing humanity at the start of the 21st Century and failure to meet that challenge raises the spectre of unprecedented reversals in human development, says the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report of 2007/08. The report, entitled, 'Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world', was launched on December 11 at...

Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security, Senator Arthur Williams, has lauded the Inmate Work Project, noting that it provides the opportunity to rehabilitate prisoners and cut down on the recidivism rate. He said that very often "the reason why they (prisoners) re-offend is that they come out with nothing and nowhere to go and not much to...

Hundreds of overseas buyers and local suppliers in the tourism sector are expected to converge at the Hilton Kingston from April 25 to 28, for the 18th staging of Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX). JAPEX, which is Jamaica's premier tourism trade show, is an annual event of the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association (JHTA) and the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), and...

Jamaica's Consul-General in Toronto, Anne-Marie Bonner is welcoming the initiative by the Registrar General's Department (RGD) to take their services to Jamaicans living in Canada from December 13 to 17. Jamaicans there will have the opportunity to submit applications for birth, death and marriage certificates as members of the RGD mobile outreach team take the services closer to its customers....

The Education Ministry has made a submission to Cabinet for an additional $1.7 billion to construct six new schools for the 2008/2009 school year, to address the shortage of space at the secondary level. "This is an immediate problem that we need to solve, as it will have significant impact on the provision of school places come April, when we...

The new state-of-the-art Half-Way-Tree Transportation Centre is set to be opened on January 12, Minister of Transport and Works, Mike Henry has said. Speaking to journalists at the weekly post-Cabinet at Jamaica House, Mr. Henry said recent heavy rains as well as project improvement works in the Half-Way-Tree area, had delayed the original October date for the opening of the...