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Members of the Jamaican community in the United Kingdom (UK) have been commended for their support of the government's sugar lobby. Minister of Agriculture, Roger Clarke and Executive Chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority, Ambassador Derrick Heaven have said lobbying from the various Jamaican organizations and individuals has enabled Jamaica and other African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to get...

Effective immediately, the Registrar General's Department (RGD) will be producing no impediment certificates on security paper, in a bid to stem fraudulent attempts to create similar documents. Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Patricia Holness, told a JIS 'Think Tank' on January 26 that this was largely because persons have been attempting to replicate the RGD's letterhead on which no impediment...

Governor General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Howard Cooke has said that diplomacy has played an integral part in the search for solutions to civil strife, economic dislocation as well as health and environmental issues. Addressing members of the diplomatic community at a dinner hosted in their honour at King's House yesterday (January 27), Sir Howard said diplomats have...

Disaster Co-ordinator for St. Elizabeth, Yvonne Morrison, has encouraged residents of the parish to be prepared for natural disasters, especially floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. She was speaking at a disaster preparedness workshop organised by the St. Elizabeth Disaster Committee as part of activities to mark Earthquake Awareness Week. At the workshop, which was held at the Brompton Primary School, Ms....

The Registrar General's Department (RGD) has reported that its customers have maximized on the existence of the new Eastern Regional Office in Port Antonio, with approximately 200 persons having visited the Office on its first day of operation on Monday, January 24. At a JIS Think Tank session on Wednesday, January 26, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Patricia Holness informed that...

A total of 150 new cases of HIV/AIDS were reported in Clarendon last year bringing the number of reported cases in that parish to 700. The total represent a 105.48 per cent increase over the 73 cases reported in 2003. "Having come to the end of another year and just starting a new one, in our review, we see where...

The Registrar General's Department (RGD), is currently conducting a mobile service in four primary schools in Portland, to enable students without proper birth certificates to acquire these documents. This began on Monday, January 25 with the target being students who will be sitting the GSAT examinations in March, for whom the possession of proper birth certificates is a requirement. The...

Residents of Westmoreland will no longer need to travel to Spanish Town or Montego Bay to have official documents dealt with by the Registrar General's Department (RGD), as a fully equipped office was opened on January 26 on Lewis Street in Savanna-la-Mar, the capital. The West South Western regional office of the RGD, which is expected to serve persons in...

Work has resumed on the rehabilitation of the Beecher Town to Milford main road in St. Ann, after a series of stoppages due to Hurricane Ivan and heavy rains since the start of the year. On a tour of the road on January 12, Minister of State for Transport and Works, Dr. Fenton Ferguson, said that the passage of Hurricane...

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. Omar Davies, has called on the University of the West Indies (UWI) to venture into fulltime research on disaster preparedness. Speaking today (January 27), at the university's annual Research Day on the Mona campus, Minister Davies also encouraged the institution to go into research on recovery and reconstruction efforts. "You have in terms of...

Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Professor Gordon Shirley, will participate in a panel discussion in New York on January 29, focusing on the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. The Ministry of Health and the Senior Medical Officer responsible for the government's National HIV Control and Prevention Programme, Dr. Yitades Gebre, have reiterated the commitment of the Ministry to increase...

Poultry farmers in St. Catherine who suffered losses during Hurricane Ivan have begun receiving vouchers last week from the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), to assist in their rehabilitation efforts. The vouchers, which are each valued at $3,500, are being distributed by the Parish Office of the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) in Linstead. Several farmers who turned up at...