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Expansion work is expected to commence shortly at the Jose Marti and York Castle high schools in St. Catherine and St. Ann respectively, following the signing of two contracts totaling more than $58 million at the Ministry of Education and Youth's National Heroes Circle offices yesterday (April 6). The contract for York Castle High, valued at $25 million and awarded...

Agriculture and Land Minister, Roger Clarke, has called on Jamaicans to take an active role in efforts to maintain and increase the country's forest cover. He remarked that trees were an important part of the island's national heritage, in addition to being "important for the natural cycles that are essential to maintaining an ecological balance for our planet and in...

National Security Minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, has said the two-week Tradewinds military exercise, which concluded today (April 7), represented the template, which will guide the region's security preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 and beyond. Dr. Phillips, who was speaking at the closing ceremony for the training exercise held at the Jamaica Defence Force's Up Park Camp headquarters...

The Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC) will be hosting the third in a series of sensitization sessions to generate awareness of the business opportunities that will arise out of the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007, to be held in Jamaica. This sensitization workshop, which is being hosted under the theme: 'Bowling for Business: Promoting Entrepreneurship Opportunities', will be held...

Researcher and Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Dr. Dharanate Amarakoon, is currently carrying out studies on the impact of climate change on sugar cane yields, to assist with better planning for the industry. Climate change manifests itself in the Caribbean through more frequent and intense tropical storms and floods, reduced fresh...

Executive Director of the Jamaica Employer's Federation (JEF), Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, has challenged the international community to re-examine its role in influencing the creation of financing for enterprise development. Mrs. Coke-Lloyd, who was speaking on the role of enterprise development in promoting decent work, at a meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at the United Nations headquarters in New...

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has stated that she will be placing special emphasis on the development of early childhood education given the potential it will have on the overall outcomes of the education sector. Mrs. Simpson Miller was speaking on Thursday (Apr. 6) at the signing of a $10.2 Million contract by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) for...

The Legal Aid Council has commenced the 2006-07 financial year free of a significant portion of its outstanding payments to lawyers contracted under the Legal Aid Scheme. This came as a result of a $19 million payment made in March, bringing total payments for fiscal 2005-06 to over $52 million. The latest round of payments was disbursed among some 85...

The tourist industry recorded growth in both stopover arrivals and visitor spending in 2005, when compared to 2004, and preliminary estimates are that when all figures are in, the first quarter of this year will also show growth over the similar period last year. This was noted by State Minister in the Ministry of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, Dr. Wykeham...

The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) is reporting that it has collected a record 259 units of blood at a drive held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. Spanning a period of two days, from March 28 to 29, the drive broke the previous record of 233 units set last year November as the largest collection of...

World Health Day will be observed tomorrow, April 7, under the theme: 'Working Together for Health', which focuses on human resources in health. As in previous years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has established the focus, and for this year, the organisation felt there was a pressing need to highlight the various challenges being faced by the human resources in...

Jamaica's ambassador to the United States, Professor Gordon Shirley, has called on the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to move to address the "significant decrease" in loan facilities available for Caribbean member countries over the last five years. Ambassador Shirley, who was addressing the opening of the 47th annual meeting of the IDB's board of governors on Monday (April 3) in...