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The Government has announced its intention to divest the national airline, Air Jamaica, by 2009. Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Senator Don Wehby, made the announcement in his address at the Investment Seminar hosted by the Jamaica Money Market Brokers on Tuesday, (Nov. 27), at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston. Senator Wehby,...

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Christopher Tufton, has said that the government is working assiduously, as part of a regional arrangement, to secure the best arrangement for the survival and sustainability of the banana industry. Dr. Tufton, who was addressing a meeting of banana farmers in Highgate, St. Mary recently, said that the government is fully committed to working with the...

Prime Minister, the Hon Bruce Golding and Chairman of the National AIDS Committee, Howard Hamilton on (Nov. 29) underwent voluntary counselling and HIV tests at Jamaica House in a gesture to encourage more Jamaicans to get tested for the virus. The tests, which were done, using the rapid test method forms part of the Committee's leadership activities for World AIDS...

The Official Funeral Service for The Honourable Herb McKenley, OM, the man generally regarded as Jamaica's greatest athlete, will take place at the National Arena on Saturday, 8th December, starting at 2:00 p.m. Mr. McKenley will be buried at National Heroes Park. The Honourable Olivia "Babsy" Grange, Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, in making the announcement, said that...

Some 130 law enforcement officers drawn from both the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) will be deployed in the corporate area to man the streets this Christmas. Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) John McLean who heads the Community Safety and Security Branch, explained that the deployment will form part of the high visibility policing...

The government is moving to implement a programme, which will provide for the establishment of shelters and half-way-houses across the island, for battered women and girls. Minister of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Olivia Grange, who made the announcement at a training workshop on gender-based violence held on (Nov. 28) at the Terra Nova Hotel, said that within the coming...

Organizations are being encouraged to voluntarily join the HIV/AIDS Workplace Education Programme ahead of the passage of the Occupational, Safety, and Health (OSH) Act. This voluntary compliance programme (VCP) is one of the measures being implemented by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to get organisations involved in the International Labour Organization (ILO)/US Department of Labour HIV/AIDS Workplace Education...

Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding has expressed his confidence, that the municipality of Portmore has a strong enough economic base to sustain itself as a parish. Mr. Golding expressed the view while answering questions in the House of Representatives regarding the designation of Portmore as Jamaica's 15th parish. "I do not accept that Portmore does not have a strong...

Discussions are underway with the Electoral Commission, the Portmore municipality, the Attorney General's Department, the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, and the National Land Agency to arrive at a preliminary consensus on the appropriate boundaries of Portmore. This, as the Government seeks to make good on its promise to establish the municipality as Jamaica's 15th parish. Prime Minister, the Hon. Bruce Golding...

Jamaica is making gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS with an 18 per cent reduction in reported AIDS deaths in 2006 over 2005. Within the same period, there was also a 49 per cent drop in the number of reported AIDS deaths among children under nine years old. "This decline we attribute to the prevention of mother to child transmission...

Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has appealed to the Montego Bay business community to invest more in the education of young people to ensure the sustainable growth and development of the city. The Tourism Minister, who was addressing the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry's business forum on Tuesday (Nov. 27) at the Wexford Hotel, said education has to...

Some 350 fishermen from across Jamaica are slated to benefit from a fishing and swimming course being conducted by the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI). CMI Executive Director, Fritz Pinnock, said that the programme, which is being carried out in collaboration with Food For the Poor, is "an attempt to equip them (fishermen) to fish in deep water offshore, away from...