WESTERN BUREAU: A new prison expected to replace the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre is to be constructed in St Catherine at an estimated cost of J$10 billion. The project will be executed by the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), which has...
The elections of the Accompong Maroons rarely grab national interest, with the small community usually going about its business with the rest of the country none the wiser. However, 2021 has seen the rise of Chief Richard Currie, who at just 40...
WESTERN BUREAU: Newly elected Chief Richard Currie is rejecting the depiction of his Accompong Town enclave as a quasi-sovereign state, saying that it helps drive the misconception of who the Maroons are and what they represent. Pointing to the...
WESTERN BUREAU: Seventy-two hours after defeating a colonel who spent 11 years at the helm, Chief Richard Currie of the Accompong Maroons says he wants to leverage the rich natural resources and technical capacity in the quasi-sovereign territory...
WESTERN BUREAU: In a radical shift from a moderate inoculation plan, the Jamaican Government will now purchase 3.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at a cost of $5 billion to immunise two million citizens in 2021. Originally, the Government had...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Jamaica Consulate in New York has been bombarded by an almost 100 per cent increase in calls sparked by the abduction hoax spun by an American air stewardess, with at least one human-trafficking organisation expressing concern....
WESTERN BUREAU: While the world was convinced JetBlue Airways stewardess Kalina Collier and her mom Candice Walker had gone missing in Jamaica, Walker was recorded leaving and entering the Ocean Coral Spring Resort in Trelawny daily, driving a...
WESTERN BUREAU: Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has defended the signing of the $422-million emergency vaccine communication contract, even before eyebrows are raised about the massive budget. The one-year contract, which has been awarded to...
WESTERN BUREAU: Memorialised as the visionary, trendsetter, and pioneer who steered Jamaica into the era of ‘destination management’, Montego Bay businessman Ralph Smith was sent home to rest after two days of celebration of his life. The two-day...
WESTERN BUREAU: Three books, seven CDs, remarkable work as an international motivational speaker, even inspiring hundreds of Jamaican children to perform her work at Festival annually, Joan Andrea Hutchinson remains the ‘Bumpy Head Gyal’. A quarter...
WESTERN BUREAU: As Canada locks out the Caribbean and Mexico from its borders, Jamaican tourism stakeholders are hopeful the United States will not take the same approach. The US is Jamaica’s largest source market, with Canada playing a significant...
WESTERN BUREAU: Transportation mogul Ralph Smith, who founded the Montego Bay-headquartered Tropical Tours more than 45 years ago, died at his Park Avenue residence in the tourism capital yesterday morning after a long illness. One of the...
WESTERN BUREAU: For the first time in 30 years, Indians residing outside of Kingston have been able to access consular services without having to journey to the capital city. In a programme dubbed ‘High Commission at Your Step’, India High...
WESTERN BUREAU: Outgoing airline passengers now have access to rapid antigen COVID-19 tests at the Sangster and Norman Manley international airports before boarding flights. The new feature, which falls under the aegis of...
WESTERN BUREAU: Nine-nights, wakes and a general disregard of protocols are being blamed for the uptick in the COVID-19 cases in Manchester, leading to tighter curfew hours being instituted yesterday as its public hospitals come under increasing...
WESTERN BUREAU: A COVID-19 testing certification and reporting system created by a Jamaican systems architect could offer a real-time snapshot of management of the disease in public and private health facilities islandwide. Tagged ‘The OutbrakeR’,...
WESTERN BUREAU: A Canadian cabin crew refused to fly a group of unruly passengers from MBJ’s Sangster International Airport to Pearson International in Toronto on Sunday after they were threatened and called “white trash”. The crew, working the low...
WESTERN BUREAU: When The Star-Spangled Banner is belted out on Tuesday at a ceremony in honour of United States Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, the voice behind the music will be 17-year-old Jamaican multi-instrumentalist Joseph Davis. The...
WESTERN BUREAU: Kevin Thomas would go to bed dressed nightly anticipating that he would be on the last flight out of Cairo, Egypt. But little did he know he would have to stay to replay the stories of his dead countrymen. Stranded in Egypt for...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaican Matthew Sewell, who was left to languish in a Bahamian prison for a combined period of nine years and nine months, has won another round in a lawsuit filed against the government of The Bahamas. Yesterday, the Bahamian...
WESTERN BUREAU: With the United States set to require proof of a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country as of January 26, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) is aiming to increase PCR testing to 25,000 weekly to accommodate...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s honorary consul to Barbados is trying to locate a Jamaican prostitute who was reportedly caught with two British tourists in a hotel in Barbados on December 30. The Jamaican was said to have been invited to the hotel room...
WESTERN BUREAU: Dalton ‘Red Yute’ Smith has cried every morning since Tuesday, unable to temper his mourning for the man he called ‘Father’, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, whose life was celebrated yesterday at the chapel at Sandals Montego Bay in St...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaican craft merchants have credited Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s intervention in their lives, with the success their children have had in accessing university education. “Sandals was the first hotel to welcome craft traders on their...
Despite reeling from a $76 billion loss in earnings and a 2.3 million decline in visitor arrivals, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says not only was 2020 a watershed moment for his industry, but that Jamaica emerged from it the epitome of “tourism...
