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Thursday, April 30, 2015    THE Urban Development Corporation (UDC) is developing a $624-million sewage conveyance system for the Caymanas Estate property in St Catherine. Chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC)  Senator KD Knight (left) examines the plans for development  of a $624-million sewage conveyance system at Caymanas  Estate, at the contract signing ceremony for the project held Tuesday at the UDC’s headquarters in downtown Kingston. Others (from second left) are: Chief Executive Officer of New  Era Homes Leo Thaddeo; Vice President of New Era  Homes Desmond Young; and UDC General Manager  Desmond Malcolm. The system comprises 7.4 kilometres of force main and two lift stations to convey sewage to the Soapberry Wastewater Treatment Plant. YP Seaton & Associates has been contracted to undertake the eight-month project, work on which is expected to begin within the next four weeks. At the contract signing ceremo...

Erica Virtue,  Senior Gleaner Writer Dr Carl Bruce (left) and Dr Kingsley Chin. - Contributed photos Two Jamaican medical doctors - University of the West Indies consultant neurosurgeon Dr Carl Bruce and Harvard-trained, United States-based orthopaedic spine surgeon Dr Kingsley Chin - are mending badly damaged spines and sending patients home in record time from the University Hospital of the West Indies. Charged by the Medical Association of Jamaica and the Ministry of Health to present the latest techniques being pursued in spine surgery, Bruce and Chin are now making keyhole cuts through patients' sides (flanks) to treat serious spinal damage. Smaller incisions Gone are the long surgical cuts in the backs of patients with spine damage, as less exposure surgery (LES), procedures are now performed on the spine with minimal damage to the soft tissue. Dr Carl Bruce (centre) and Dr Kingsley Chin (left), assisted  by a nurse as they perform a Less Exposure Surger...

Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, April 28, 2015   PRESIDENT of the Jamaican Bar Association (JBA) Donovan Walker has linked Jamaica's poor economic performance to the little attention paid to the justice system by successive administrations. PRESIDENT of the Jamaican Bar Association (JBA) Donovan Walker "Our successive governments, the current one and the past ones, don't give it the attention that they really should, and a lot of people don't realise that there is a direct correlation between justice system and proper law reform," Walker told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview. "There is a direct correlation between the justice system and doing business in Jamaica. If we fix our justice system concomitant to that will be increased confidence and increase in economic activities," he added. Furthermore, the JBA president said, "It's important for politicians to form a mindset that links the justic...

 BY ALPHEA SAUNDERS Senior staff reporter saundersa@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, April 28, 2015     CABINET has given approval for the 16-member Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), which the Government has promised will be set up to regulate the hemp and medicinal ganja industry in Jamaica. Cabinet approves 16-member Cannabis Licensing Authority Justice Minister Senator Mark Golding, who made the disclosure in an interview with the Jamaica Observer yesterday, said members are to be formally notified, and that the industry, investment and commerce; and science, technology and mining ministries were making arrangements for their accommodation. "At this point, we want them to start the ball rolling [and] once they are notified a meeting should be held," Golding said. The authority is one of the provisions of the recently enacted Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, 2015 'Ganja Bill', which decriminalises marijuana for medicinal, religious, and private/persona...

Tuesday, April 28, 2015 — Renae Dixon OCHO RIOS, St Ann — The St Ann police were up to late yesterday searching for the suspect behind the slaughtering of a teenage girl in the community of Drumilly before daybreak on Saturday. Twenty-five-year-old Demar Smith and 15-year-old Amaya Brown (at left) who were hacked to death Saturday morning.  (PHOTOS: RENAE DIXON) Twenty-five-year-old Demar Smith and 15-year-old Amaya Brown, who were living together as a couple, were chopped to death allegedly by a neighbour -- a 49-year-old farmer -- following a dispute. Screams were heard coming from the house at about 4:45 am after which the two were found with chop wounds. Brown, who hailed from Clarendon, reportedly died at the house while Smith -- who was discovered meters from the house -- died while undergoing treatment at the hospital. Neighbours said the attack stemmed from an argument between Smith and the accused man, who is the caretaker for the house. Some alleged that the ...

Monday, April 27, 2015 | 10:15 AM     ST CATHERINE, Jamaica – At least three men were shot dead and one shot and injured in separate incidents in St Catherine on Sunday night. The first incident took place about 7:00 pm when 30-year-old Lucien Simpson, otherwise called Kevin, of Dempshire Pen in Spanish Town, was shot dead and another man injured. The police report that Simpson and the injured man were among a group standing on the roadway in the community when two armed men approached them. The men opened gunfire at them. Simpson and the injured received gunshot wounds and were taken to hospital where Simpson was pronounced dead and the other man admitted. Meanwhile, the other two victims were killed in different sections of Portmore. About 7:15 pm, an unidentified man, who the police speculate is about 28 years old, was shot dead by unknown assailants on Godley Avenue in Gregory Park. He was clad in a black sweater, white short pants, and blue and white Nike ...

BY HOWARD WALKER Observer senior reporter  Sunday, April 26, 2015     PHILADELPHIA, United States — Super athlete Michael O'Hara led Calabar to two High School Championship of America titles, while the University of Technology (UTech) continued their impressive showing as Jamaicans once again had a lot to cheer about on the final day at the 121st Penn Relay Carnival at Franklin Field in Pennsylvania. Calabar Boys O'Hara, who convinced a Pennsylvania court to grant an injunction barring the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) from blocking his participation in the High School section of the meet at the 11th hour on Thursday, produced a splendid second leg and propelled Calabar to a record 39.63 seconds in the 4x100, dipping below Jamaica College's 39.72 set last year. The quartet of Zandre Blake, O'Hara, Jullanie Walker and Seanie Selvin held off St Jago, who were second in 39.89 seconds. St George's College were third with 40.17 seconds...

BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, April 26, 2015     THE mother of a policeman who was shot dead by a colleague wants his name cleared, as she is adamant that he is innocent of what he has been accused of. Constable K'Mar Beckford, 25, was shot dead by a police inspector. Investigators were told that the off-duty Beckford had entered a bar in the seacoast town of Hopewell, Western Hanover, on the morning of April 4, and attempted to rob patrons at gunpoint. The investigators were told that Beckford was shot dead in a firefight in which the inspector and a woman were injured. Since the incident, which is being investigated by the Jamaica Constabulary Force, through the Inspectorate of the Constabulary, as well as the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), reports have surfaced that initial information regarding the unfolding of events may have been inaccurate. High-ranking members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, wh...

Sunday, April 26, 2015     AS the heinous murders and attacks against the nation's children continue to escalate, the Islamic Council of Jamaica believes that it is time for the Government to introduce stricter measures in order to clamp down on the brutal crimes. (L) MAKNOON ... Islam prescribes that such  persons are beaten. (R) Young Jamelia Johnson, who was found murdered last week. One of the suggestions made by the Council is for there to be public beating and humiliation of some of the island's criminals who continue to rape and attack citizens, especially the nation's youth. "You might want to say that what Islam prescribes is barbaric, but when a man rapes a woman or girl, that is an extremely heinous crime in Islam," said Al Hajj Mekaeel Maknoon, acting president of the Islamic Council of Jamaica, in an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer. "What Islam normally prescribes in those circumstances is that the persons are beaten,...

The Huffington Post |  By Charlotte Alfred Email Posted: 04/25/2015 7:47 am EDT  A 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal on Saturday, killing over a thousand people, causing an avalanche on Mount Everest and leaving a wake of destruction across the broader region. In Nepal, at least  1,382 people were killed,  according to Nepal's Home Ministry.  The earthquake, the  worst to hit Nepal in over 80 years , also triggered a deadly avalanche on Mount Everest. The avalanche buried part of the mountain's base camp, which was full of mountaineers who had come for the start of the main climbing season. Alex Gavan, a climber who said he was at base camp,  wrote on Twitter : "Running for life from my tent. Unhurt. Many many people up the mountain." An army spokesman  told Reuters  that at least 18 bodies had been found on Mount Everest. Google executive Dan Fredinburg was among those killed in the avalanche, CNN reports . more

BY RICHARD JOHNSON Observer senior reporter johnsonr@jamaicaobserver.com  Saturday, April 25, 2015     COME May 31, 19 cable channels are to be removed from the roster offerings. This follows a directive issued by the Broadcasting Commission, as cable providers do not possess the requisite agreement to air these channels. Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission Professor Hopeton  Dunn (left) and Executive Director of the Commission Cordel  Green address members of the media on copyright compliance  directive to cable television operators in Jamaica. The channels to be removed from local service are primarily movie providers from the Encore, Showtime and Starz suites. Professor Hopeton Dunn, chairman of local regulator Broadcasting Commission, said the decision to issue this directive has come following intensive rounds of meetings with operators and their umbrella group, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Ministry of For...

Friday, April 24, 2015 | 4:57 PM     ST CATHERINE, Jamaica — The identity of the 12-year-old girl who was found dead in bushes in the Riversdale community here this morning has been released. Jameila Johnson She is Jameila Johnson, a student of the Harewood Primary School in the parish, who reportedly went missing on Tuesday. The Ministry of Education has corroborated earlier police reports, stating that Jamelia asked her grandmother for tissue paper and proceeded to the outdoor pit latrine. A three-day search was launched, ending in the discovery of the decomposed remains of the child. The ministry has since condemned the killing and says it “is distressed at the senseless killing of the nation's children”. “We grieve with the relatives and friends of Jameila Johnson,” it said in a media release Friday. Education Minister Rev Ronald Thwaites has also expressed sadness over the killing of Jameila. He indicated that guidance counsellors from the ministry's...

BY PAUL HENRY Co-ordinator -- Crime/Court Desk henryp@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, April 23, 2015     POST-MORTEM reports have suggested that 35 of the civilians killed during the operation to apprehend Tivoli Gardens don Christopher 'Dudus' Coke in 2010 were shot in the back. Sir David Simmons, chairman of the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry. The figure was cited yesterday by commission Chairman Sir David Simmons during an exchange with former police commissioner, Owen Ellington. There is a statistic that has been bothering me and it doesn't seem to be bothering anybody else yet," Simmons said. "Of the deceased, those 74, 35 received gunshot wounds to their posterior, their behind or their back. Thirty-five were shot in their back or their head," Simmons said, and asked Ellington whether he knew that this kind of statistics existed. Ellington said he hasn't seen the ballistic reports, but said that this kind of figure could be "...

 BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, April 23, 2015   IN less than a month, 81-year-old Rosalvo Patterson has moved from living in a dilapidated fowl coop to a home of his own. Fowl Coop Home Two Sundays ago the Jericho, St Catherine senior citizen had to fight hard to hold back his tears as he was being led from the rotting structure to his one-bedroom wooden house, complete with a bathroom. After all, it would be the first time in five years that the ailing Patterson, who is visually impaired, would be sleeping on a "real bed" and at a place where he is not exposed to the elements. "I'm happy and thankful for the help," an elated Patterson told the Jamaica Observer. Patterson has several people to thank for his improved living conditions. Chief among them is producer Wayne "Lonesome" Brown who came forward to offer his assistance a day after Patterson's dire situation was highlighted b...

BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, April 23, 2015     PROMINENT crimefighter and former head of the Flying Squad, Cornwall 'Bigga' Ford, is tipped to take over the reins of the West Kingston Police Division. Reliable sources have told the Jamaica Observer that Ford, who is known to be a hard-nosed crimefighter, is expected to take over the leadership of the tough police division next Monday. The Police High Command, however, was up to late yesterday tight-lipped about the report. FORD… expected to take up duties next Monday Ford, the sources said, will fill the position to which Senior Superintendent Michael Smith was temporarily assigned earlier this month following the transfer of Senior Superintendent Steve McGregor in early April. McGregor was transferred to St James to combat the spiralling crime problem in the western parish. Residents of West Kingston, in response to the reports of McGregor's tr...

The Huffington Post |  By Dominique Mosbergen Email Posted: 04/21/2015 3:45 am EDT A man found guilty of killing four people in Nebraska allegedly  attempted to carve the number “666” into his forehead , but ended up botching the job. Nikko Jenkins According to the Omaha World-Herald, 28-year-old Nikko Jenkins told Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon during a recent telephone hearing that he “self-mutilated” by trying to carve the symbolic number -- known as the “number of the beast” in the Biblical book of Revelation -- into his forehead. Jenkins did this “because he is not receiving treatment for his purported mental illness.” Jenkins then reportedly told the judge that he made a mistake in his carving. He apparently got confused as he was  looking into a mirror and ended up cutting the 6s backwards , leaving him with three upside-down 9s. Jenkins pleaded no contest to four counts of first-degree murder and eight weapons charges. Last April, ...

Tuesday, April 21, 2015   WHAT manner of evil is this stalking our beloved country? What, we ask, could have been going through the minds of the beasts — for they are certainly not fit to be called humans — who so brutally ended the lives of three teenaged boys and a man in Hayes, Clarendon, last week? The country was, to say the least, shocked by the murders of 14-year-old Raymond Givans, 14-year-old Ricardo Briscoe, 16-year-old Alex Turner, and 35-year-old Marquis Hamilton. But this vicious act has also triggered anger among Jamaicans which, we believe, demonstrates that we have not become numbed by the mindless violence and bloodshed that have, for too long, plagued this country. Certainly, what happened in Hayes last week was not the first such brutal acts committed by criminals in Jamaica. We still have vivid recollections of the July 1993 murders by gunmen of five-year-old Audrianna Collins, seven-year-old Lamar Mitchell, and 65-year-old Harold Hines in Hannah Town; th...

BY GARFIELD MYERS Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau myersg@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, April 20, 2015     SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — The Jamaican Parliament abolished flogging as a means of judicial punishment in 2013. Residents of Accompong interact with Deputy Superintendent Paul Bernard of the St Elizabeth Police. However, Ferron Williams, who was returned as colonel of the Accompong Maroons in an election last Thursday, told journalists he intends to have the practise revived for criminal and anti-social behaviour, subject to the dictates of the Maroon Council. In such matters, Williams told the Jamaica Observer Central in a follow-up telephone interview on Saturday, Accompong should not be considered subject to Jamaican law since it was "a State within a State" with its own customs, traditions and culture. Indeed, according to Williams, under the terms of the Peace Treaty agreed between the Maroons and British colonisers in 1738, murder was the only...

Sunday, April 19, 2015     THE University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and Ardenne High School debated their way to top honours in the tertiary and secondary divisions of the 2015 Sagicor UTech National Debating Championship earlier this month. Brenda Lee Martin (centre), vice-president, Sagicor Investments Jamaica Limited, join Ardenne High School sixth form students Pablo Grant and Désirée McKenzie as they display the symbolic cheque for $100,000 which  they won for dominating the secondary division of the 2015 Sagicor UTech National Debating Championship earlier this month. The teams -- Jamar Pike and Jawayne Jarrett of UWI and sixth formers Pablo Grant and Désirée McKenzie of Ardenne -- argued the moot: This House Would Make the Teaching of Civics Mandatory in High Schools. They emerged from a pool of 16 teams that advanced to the second round. The competition organisers explained that the 2015 national leg of the championship commenced with 48 teams, ...

Monday, April 20, 2015     SANTA Cruz, St Elizabeth — How a 23-month-old baby came to be found dead in a barrel, packed head first with clothes and foodstuff, is proving a puzzle for police investigators in this south central town. Investigators say they must now await an autopsy report before their next move. Police identified the dead toddler as Jaydeen Myers of Grosmond, Braes River, three miles north-east of Santa Cruz. Reports are that Jaydeen's mother had prepared her for a bath about 2:00 pm Saturday when she was distracted by other children. When she returned some time later the toddler was nowhere to be seen. After hours of frantic search, the body of the child was found by a relative in the barrel which was standing upright. Reports say the relative went to the barrel to remove foodstuff and felt something 'out of place'. It turned out to be Jaydeen's foot. Removal of several items from the barrel revealed the child's lifeless body. more

BY SUNDAY OBSERVER INVESTIGATOR  Sunday, April 19, 2015   Although Crime Stop has been urging people to tell what they know about last month's fire at the Riverton City Dump, no one has come forward, and as far as some young men from the community are concerned, no one will. Fire at Riverton City burn out of control This, of course, is unless Crime Stop, or any other organisation or individual increases the reward money. "Me caa risk mi life fi $50,000," one resident of Riverton City told the Jamaica Observer late last week, reiterating what was said two weeks before when the Sunday Observer spoke with some of them. Crime Stop, a programme that is administered by the National Crime Prevention Fund and governed by the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, last Wednesday reminded the public of the $50,000 reward for information that could lead to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the fire, which lasted three weeks. The Jamaica Fire Brigade...

The life and achievements of internationally acclaimed musical legend and Rastafarian  luminary Robert  Nesta  Marley have been kept alive through artefacts , memorabilia, writings and photographs enshrined at his former residence and studio at 56 Hope Road in St Andrew. Bob Marley Regarded as one of the greatest musical legends of our time and proclaimed and accepted worldwide as the ‘King of Reggae’, Bob Marley charted his own course in the music industry with passion and creativity as a songwriter, singer, and performer. Marley successfully transcended three Jamaican musical genres from the 1960’s through to the early 1980’s, Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae - his most influential musical form. And, after more than three decades since his passing, his music is still relevant to millions of people across the globe. The house is a famous tourist attraction, museum and shrine and is a must-see for fans.  In 1975, Marley purchased the property from Chris Blackwel...