More

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has asked the Ministry of Health to explore the feasibility of increasing the number of specialist hospitals to provide a more strategic approach to treating those illnesses. Mr. Golding's appeal comes against the background of statistics that show chronic non-communicable diseases accounting for more than half of the deaths in Jamaica and five of the top...

Prime Minister Bruce Golding says Government could not continue to carry the burden of Air Jamaica as the airline had already racked up losses of US$170-million which could increase further this year. He said Cabinet took a decision yesterday to strengthen the approach towards ensuring that Government can privatize the airline by March 31, 2009. Mr. Golding told the Jamaica...

Veteran educator Daniel Warren-Kidd O.D. was yesterday (June 23) eulogized by Prime Minister Bruce Golding and members of the education and trade union fraternities, as a Jamaican extraordinaire, who made a valuable contribution to national development and helped to shape the character of many persons. Mr. Warren-Kidd was the father of former Senator Prudence Kidd-Deans and founder of the Warren...

Five members of staff from the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), are to be deployed overseas during July and August, as the agency seeks to satisfy the needs of Jamaicans living in the Diaspora. This disclosure was made by Jennifer McDonald, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PICA during a recent interview with JIS News. According to Miss McDonald, the...

The Clarendon Infirmary, has received a gift of six water heaters from Sylvia Martin, a friend of the institution. Matron at the Infirmary, Joyce Anderson, expressed appreciation for the gift, which she said, would benefit the elderly residents of the infirmary. "The residents here," she said, "are experiencing bodily changes. They are not able to tolerate change very well. These...

Minister of Water and Housing, Dr. Horace Chang, has lauded the Gore Consortium Report, which looks at the housing demand by hotel workers on the North Coast. "It was some good work done by the investigators and does provide a good indication of where we ought to go on the North Coast, and certainly good database on which to start...

The National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC), Clarendon Chapter, held its annual Senior Citizens' Cultural Day last week, which showcased the various skills and talents of the country's older residents. The event, held at the St. Gabriel's Anglican Church in May Pen, attracted a large gathering of seniors, who, adorned in the colours of the various senior citizens' clubs, entertained...

Clarendon educator Floris Meikle, has called on parents to ensure that children learn proper values and get a good educational start at home, before they enter the school system. Mrs. Meikle, who was speaking at the annual school leaving exercise of the Holy Cross Basic School held recently at the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Asia, Manchester, argued that when...

Government and the World Bank have joined together to pursue strategies to effectively address challenges faced by residents of some inner city communities, through the Inner City Basic Services Project (ICBSP). A five-year project, which began in 2006, the ICBSP is jointly funded by the World Bank and Jamaican Government at a cost of US$32.8 million. The World Bank has...

The banana industry should be fully recovered from the devastation sustained during the passage of Hurricane Dean by the end of Summer, says Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jamaica Producers Group, Jeffrey Hall. He tells JIS News that export of banana chips has already commenced. "While export of fresh bananas have not really started in real volumes as yet, over...

The Farmer Registration Programme, introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture last year to combat praedial larceny, has been intensified in the parish of St. James, with some 4,700 farmers registered to date. According to the Parish Manager for the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), Wentworth Mitchell, the percentage of farmers seeking registration has seen a sharp increase due to the...

Come July 1, the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), will begin operating a cashless system on all its premium buses, which are the large luxury units which ply the out-of-city routes. Speaking today (June 24) at a JIS 'Think Tank', Marketing and Sales Manager at the JUTC, Lenworth Simms, explained that this cashless system means that, "only Smart Cards will...