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Published:Sunday | May 31, 2015Corey Robinson Squatters are taking over unfinished properties in Hellshire, St Catherine, sparking fear among legitimate homeowners about their safety and the depreciation in the value of their houses. "It is a very serious matter," declared Oswald Morgan, president of the Upper Fort Joint Citizens' Association, which represents several Hellshire communities, including Seafort, Cannon Ridge and Edgehill, where the squatting problem is said to be ballooning. One of the houses believed to be occupied by squatters in Hellshire "There are persons who are there who have been authorised to be there by the owners of the premises, but then there are other persons who are there who do not have the authorisation; and it is very difficult to verify who is who," said Morgan. He told our news team that Edgehill and Cannon Ridge are the areas with the most squatters, and the matter has been an agenda item of the citizens' assoc...

The Huffington Post |  By Kelly Chen Email Posted: 05/30/2015 10:04 pm EDT  Joseph "Beau" Biden III, the son of Vice President Joe Biden, has died of brain cancer, the White House announced Saturday evening. He was 46. "More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brother," Joe Biden said in a statement, calling him "quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known." Beau Biden served as Delaware's attorney general for eight years from 2007 to 2015. In 2010,  he suffered a mild stroke , but recovered and went back to work. Three years later, he began receiving treatment to  remove a small lesion  in his brain. After surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, he was given a clean bill of health by his doctor in November 2013. Beau Biden According to the vice president's office, Biden suffered a recurrence in Spring of 2015. He was being  treated at the Walter Reed Military Medica...

Sunday, May 31, 2015     A group of third year students from the University of Technology Jamaica (UTech), won the Caribbean Mobile Innovation (CMIP) challenge and CodeSprint for designing a tourism-based mobile application, called iTechHotel, in just 24-hours. World Bank ICT Consultant Ayanna Samuels (left) hands the  prize envelope to Avryl Francis of Team UTech, which designed the tourism app iTechHotel in 24-hours at the CMIP/Start-Up Jamaica Challenge and CodeSprint held in Kingston over the Labour Day weekend. Her teammates, Che- Andre Gordon (2nd right) and Rasheed Andrews, are pleased to share  in the winning moment. iTechHotel allows hotel guests to check themselves in and order services from the convenience of their mobile phones while staying at the hotel. For their efforts, the group -- comprising Avryl Francis, Che-Andre Gordon and Rasheed Andrews -- bagged an automatic entry to the World Bank-funded CMIP PitchIT Caribbean business pitch. The ...

  BY ALPHEA SAUNDERS Senior staff reporter saundersa@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, May 31, 2015     DEATH pounced, around 8:00 pm, taking out three men, two of them elderly, at a little yellow and white shop in the tiny community of Claremont, St Elizabeth, just below Ginger Hill, where the mainstay of the residents is pineapple farming. (L) Ezra Wright, aged 73 (R) Archibald Brown did not stand a chance against the gunmen’s bullets. A fourth man, 57-year-old George Brown, was slain further along the community's one entry road as he fled. His sister, Marlene Brown, said her older brother's throat was slashed by the marauding gunmen, even after they had riddled the other brother, Archibald Brown, 60, with bullets at the shop. The sweet smell of pineapples permeates the air all the way up the hills of North West St Elizabeth, but at the shop, which was up until Wednesday run by Ezra Wright, 73, there is nothing remotely pleasant about the grief stricken expre...

Saturday, May 30, 2015     ASSISTANT Commissioner of police Leon Rose testified during the Tivoli Enquiry yesterday that, had the police not acted the way it did in May 2010, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke would have been the unelected president of Jamaica today. ROSE... turbulent events of the 1970s and 1980s do not compare to what we saw leading up to the operation in  Tivoili Gardens in May 2010 (PHOTO: MICHAEL GORDON) Rose, who was responding to questions from Peter Champagnie (attorney for the Jamaica Defence Force), said that Jamaica was on the "brink of criminal explosion". He said that Coke, who was called 'Presie' (short for president) , would have moved from a "perceived president" to an "unelected one" . Rose said that, in his 40 years within the force, he had never seen anything like the events that led up to the police going into Tivoli Gardens to apprehend Coke, who was wanted in the United States on gun and drug-runnin...

It’s not uncommon to hear of Jamaicans doing BIG things both locally and internationally. Dr. Lawrence Williams, a research consultant with the Scientific Research Council is certainly one Jamaican who has achieved great things and his hard work and dedication certainly make him worthy of recognition and emulation. Williams obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in 1987, after completing undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies (UWI) with a major in Zoology and a minor in Chemistry. He has been studying  a compound from the Guinea Hen Weed (scientific name:  Petiveria alliacea ) for several years which has now reached the patent stage. Dr. Lawrence Williams via jamaicaobserver.com So promising is his breakthrough that he has already been offered over $11 billion (US$100 mill i on) for a patent relating to his cancer research. The offer was however declined because its value is estimated to be grea...

Saturday, May 30, 2015     DANCEHALL entertainer Agent Sasco's (aka Assassin) vehicle was broken into and his passport stolen while at a video shoot on Lincoln Road, popularly called Black Roses Corner. The incident took place Wednesday night. According to police reports, Sasco (given name Jeffery Campbell) was part of the shoot which featured American rapper J. Cole. On leaving the set, the dancehall artiste discovered the passenger window of his Audi Q5 was broken and the document missing. The matter was reported to the Admiral Town Police on Thursday, who are conducting investigations. No arrest has been made. Sasco has been creating waves internationally in recent times. His collaboration on Blacker the Berry with American rapper Kendrick Lamar went gold in April. The single sold more than 500,000 copies, making Sasco the first Jamaica artiste in three years to be on a single to achieve that status. The Black Roses Corner was once a hot spot for flamboyant...

Published: Friday | May 29, 2015 Gary Spaulding  Jamaica Gleaner Four men, three elderly and one middle-aged, begged for their lives but a group of murderous thugs would not be deterred on a night when the celebration of life became deadly. Norman Grindley/Chief Photographer Merle Wright,  (right) wife of 73-year-old Ezra Wright, who was shot  dead by gunmen at his shop in Claremont in Ginger Hill, St Elizabeth, Wednesday night. With her is her  sister Juliet, Billingo. Yesterday, the people of the remote community of Ginger Hill in St Elizabeth continued to reel after masked hoodlums pumped countless shots into Ezra Wright, 73; Archibald Brown, 61 and his 58-year-old brother, George, killing them on the spot. The fourth man, Morris Sanderson, 41, died in hospital, later Wednesday night.  The haunting spectre of anguish, grief and fear robbed the placid farming community of not only the four senior community members, but its innocence as well. Geor...

 AP Posted: 05/28/2015 10:10 pm EDT OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — They couldn't be rattled. They couldn't be denied. Gokul Venkatachalam and Vanya Shivashankar had worked too hard and come close too many times not to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The remaining two spellers Vanya Shivashankar, 13, left, of Olathe, Kan., and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, right, of St. Louis, sit on stage during the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee,  Thursday, May 28, 2015, in Oxon Hill, Md.  (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) | ASSOCIATED PRESS So they shared the title on Thursday, making history in two different ways. The bee hadn't ended in a tie for 52 years — until last year. Now it's happened for an unprecedented two years running. Vanya, 13, of Olathe, Kansas, is the first sibling of a past champion to win. Her sister, Kavya, won in 2009. Vanya's final word was "scherenschnitte," which means the art of cutting paper into decorative designs. After being inform...

  Friday, May 29, 2015 | 1:06 AM     KINGSTON, Jamaica - Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday she received no money from Jack Warner to fund either her own or the United National Congress (UNC) election campaigns.   Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar  Warner, a former government minister and UNC chairman, was one of 14 people indicted by the United States government in connection with allegations of bribery, money laundering, corruption and wire fraud conspiracy arising out of investigations conducted by US authorities. The offences were alleged to have taken place both in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago between 1990 and 2011 while Warner held the position of FIFA vice-president. Since 2007, Warner has held senior portfolios both in the UNC and the Government until his fallout from the Government and the formation of his own Independent Liberal Party (ILP) in 2013. In the January 2010 UNC internal election, Warner endo...

BY RICHARD JOHNSON Observer senior reporter johnsonr@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, May 29, 2015     REGGAE artiste Courtney John continues his Rootstronic project with Live A Blast. The recently released single is from his upcoming album Upthrust. Courtney John "This is our second album using Rootstronic sounds. The first (Future: The Courtney John Project) did very well and we scored lots of publicity which served to introduce the sound to the market," he told Splash. Rootstronic, according to the singer, is a blend of Jamaican music with European electronic sounds. John said it allows him a level of freedom. "Because the sound is so different, I can be über creative without any inhibitions. The truth is, when you are doing something new there is nothing to gauge it against... that's the primary reason we can do it without limits as there is nothing to plot against," he said. Creating a sound does not mean he has forgotten his lover's rock ...

Thursday, May 28, 2015 | 7:14 PM     KINGSTON, Jamaica — US ratings agency Moody’s upgraded Jamaica's government bond rating and government-related entities to Caa2 from Caa3 and is maintaining a positive outlook, the agency announced Thursday. The agency said the decision to upgrade Jamaica's rating was driven by the country’s “fiscal consolidation and strong commitment to structural reforms” and its “improving balance of payments position and reduced external vulnerabilities”. The agency said on its website today that, “The positive outlook reflects our expectation that Jamaica will sustain the reform momentum under the IMF-supported programme, solidify fiscal adjustment to put government debt metrics firmly on a downward trajectory.” As a result of this rating action, the long-term foreign currency bond ceiling changed to B2 from B3. The long-term foreign currency deposit ceiling also changed to Caa3 from Ca. The long-term local currency bond and deposit ceilings c...

 BY PAUL HENRY Co-ordinator -- Crime/Court Desk henryp@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, May 28, 2015     DEPUTY Commissioner of Police Glemore Hinds said yesterday that the wider society is to be blamed for the West Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens becoming an enclave controlled by criminal elements who operated it as a country unto itself. Glenmore Hinds "As a country, most of us in this room — I think the only person who can claim exception is Sir David Simmons -- are a part of the problem, including the security forces," said Hinds during his second day of evidence at the Tivoli Enquiry being held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston. Simmons is the chairman of the commission looking into the circumstances of the May 2010 operation to apprehend Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, who was then the don of Tivoli Gardens. More than 70 people, including a Jamaica Defence Force soldier, died in the operation. Hinds made the commentary while being...

 Thursday, May 28, 2015     MIAMI, United States (CMC) — The embattled Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) says it plans to co-operate with authorities to "its fullest capacity", after its president Jeff Webb was among several FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) officials arrested in Zurich and indicted on corruption offences by the United States Department of Justice yesterday. The 50-year-old Webb, a Caymanian, was among high-level officials gathered in Zurich for tomorrow's FIFA presidential elections, where the long-serving incumbent Sepp Blatter is expected to be re-elected. In a 47-count indictment implicating nine present and former FIFA officials, along with five corporate executives, the US Department of Justice alleged an elaborate 24-year scheme involving US$150 million in bribes and kickbacks relating to media and broadcast deals for a plethora of football tournaments. The 14...

 Thursday, May 28, 2015     ADMIRAL Bailey yesterday pleaded guilty to several fraud-related charges and apologised for his actions after being fined in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court. Admiral Bailey The entertainer and respected football coach, whose real name is Glendon Bailey, was fined $160,000 before saying sorry. "I apologise to the Jamaican public and the court, and you will never see me here again," Bailey said. Bailey pleaded guilty to two counts of uttering forged documents, two counts of obtaining a passport by false pretence, and attempting to obtain a passport by false pretence. He pleaded not guilty to three counts of possession of forged documents, and not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud. No evidence was offered for these charges, setting him free of them. Allegations are that in February Bailey attended the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) offices and attempted to renew a passport in the name ...

BY ALPHEA SAUNDERS Observer senior reporter saundersa@jamaicaobserver.com  Monday, May 25, 2015    WATERFORD High School may not be known for too many major non-academic achievements, but what the St Catherine institution is quickly becoming recognised for is its interesting array of natural products, made from scratch, by the eager hands of the enthusiastic students of the Science and Environmental Club. (L) A display of some of the natural soap bars that have put the spotlight on the Waterford High School Science and Environmental Club. (R) Proud teacher Tera Rankine (standing right) and principal Cecile Bernard (standing centre) with members of the school’s Science and Environmental Club (seated from left): Tiana Prendergast, Sasha Daley, Shanique Gyles, Mackayla Lawrence, and Kemo Anderson (standing left). (PHOTOS: BRYAN CUMMINGS) The club's flagship products are facial cleansing soap bars, which it makes in a variety of essences, including garlic and lemong...

By  Robert MacPherson Racist trolling on social media is casting an ugly pall over, of all things, the world's foremost spelling bee.   Jody-Ann Maxwell of Jamaica, 1998 Champ For seven years in a row, and for 11 of the past 15 years, the $30,000 Scripps National Spelling Bee championship has been won by American youngsters of Indian heritage.  Chances are as good as ever that another one will follow suit at this year's finals Thursday at the Gaylord National convention resort by the Potomac River outside Washington. They make up one in five of the 285 spellers, aged nine through 15, from all 50 states and seven foreign countries, who ran a gauntlet of local and regional contests to qualify for the big event. One of them, Vanya Shivashankar, 13, who lives in Kansas, is back for a fifth time -- inspired no doubt by her sister Kavya, the 2009 champion. Last year ended in a tie between Sriran Hathwar of upstate New York and Ansun Sujoe from Texas ...