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Minister of State for Finance and Planning, Fitz Jackson, has challenged young people to resist the lure of crime and to stay focused on "what is right, what is fair, and what is just". "The challenge that Jamaica's young people face is how to give up that which is attractive and chose something that is less attractive and if you...

The Police Traffic Division is reporting an increase in the number of fatal traffic accidents for the first 46 days of 2006, when compared with the corresponding period in 2005. "The figure for traffic accidents for 2006, up to February 15, was 37 fatal collisions and this resulted in 41 deaths. Last year, at this time, we had 35 fatal,...

New Acting Commissioner of Police (ACP), Lester Green, has said that the solution to crime and violence rested with citizens coming together to build their communities. He said that even with the best efforts of the police, if citizens did not come together "to work for the common good" then there would be no long-lasting solution to the problem of...

As the Registrar General's Department (RGD) continues to improve the services it offers to the public, the Port Antonio Regional Office is making a special effort to sensitise the people of deep rural communities about those services, and the ways in which they can be accessed. The office was opened in February last year, and covers the parishes of Portland,...

When psychologist Daphne Gayle became visually impaired after developing a rare eye disease while living in Canada years ago, her Canadian doctors thought that a change of altitude might help improve her overall health. Taking the advice, she returned to Jamaica and settled on a farm in Old Harbour, St. Catherine, not knowing that the move would lead to a...

State Minister for Finance and Planning, Fitz Jackson, has said that a statutory review period would be instituted for the 2004 Pension Act in the second phase of the reform process, in order to continually improve the effectiveness and utility of the regulatory provisions. "We are going on new grounds; we don't know what exactly we are going into and...

A number of the nation's primary schools are to benefit from the donation of 200 new Dell computers and 30 printers from two United States-based organizations. Representatives of the California-based Accounting Firm, RISARC Inc., and the Caribbean Classic Golf Invitational (CCG1) Foundation, will present the equipment, valued at approximately US$100,000, to Education, Youth and Culture Minister, Maxine Henry-Wilson, at a...

Harvard Professor Calestous Juma said that based on the fundamental interactions between technological learning and the way societies and economies evolve, it was important that technological innovation and the application of information and communications technologies be placed at the centre of matters relating to governance. He was speaking on Friday (Feb. 17) at a panel discussion hosted by the Cabinet...

As of next Tuesday (Feb. 21), Parliamentarians will, for the first time in the country's history, be allowed to use computers during sittings of the House. Commerce, Science and Technology Minister, Phillip Paulwell, who made the announcement at Tuesday's (Feb.14) sitting of the House, said that the Speaker of the House, the House Clerk, the Opposition Leader, the Prime Minister,...

Elected officials and community leaders from the Caribbean American community have come out in support of the Bill proclaiming June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month in the United States (US), which was passed in the US Senate last Tuesday (Feb.14). The Bill - House Concurrent Resolution 71 - authored by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-Oakland, CA) and supported by a...

With 41 persons already killed and several others maimed on the nation's roads for 2006, the Police Traffic Division is preparing to roll out a number of initiatives to cut down on the carnage on the roadways. In an interview with JIS News, Byron Powell, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in charge of administration at the Police Traffic Division, informed...

The audit of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company's billing practices, which was ordered by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) in 2005, should get underway by March 1 and should last for six to eight weeks, said OUR Director General, J. Paul Morgan. According to Mr. Morgan, the hitches delaying the start of the audit have been cleared up....