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 BY ANTHONY LEWIS Observer writer Tuesday, February 28, 2017    PONDSIDE, Hanover — Students and teachers at Merlene Ottey High School here fought hard to hold back tears yesterday as they mourned the fatal stabbing of a promising student — 16-year-old Shanickey Brown. “She was a motivator to her fellow schoolmates,” said Principal Joan Jackson Cope. Brown, fondly called “Ribbon”, was reportedly killed by another 16-year-old girl at a birthday party in Johnson Town, Lucea, in the parish Sunday night. Jackson Cope said word of the girl’s untimely death was first shared with her classmates, though some had already received the bad news from Sunday night. She said she later met with the female football team, of which Brown was a member before withdrawing because of health reasons. BROWN… described as a focused, helpful and respectful young woman “…It was difficult to control the outburst. It was very mournful in the computer lab where we met with the fo...

Pope Francis  is lashing out at  Catholics  who live what he called a “double life” by not practicing Christian values.  He even suggested that atheists might be better than members of the faithful who don’t practice the tenets of their faith.  According to a transcript posted online by Vatican Radio, the pontiff called it a “scandal” during his morning mass on Thursday:  “ Scandal is saying one thing and doing another ; it is a double life, a double life. A totally double life: ‘I am very Catholic, I always go to Mass, I belong to this association and that one; but my life is not Christian, I don’t pay my workers a just wage, I exploit people, I am dirty in my business, I launder money…’ A double life.” Pope Francis The pontiff said “many Christians” were living this double life. “How many times have we heard ― all of us, around the neighborhood and elsewhere ― ‘but to be a Catholic like that, it’s better to be an athe...

BY MOYA HINDS Observer writer hindsm@jamaicaobserver  Friday, February 24, 2017 THE police say they are now investigating vicious death threats made on social media against parliamentarian Lisa Hanna after she called for recordings of incarcerated dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel and other murder convicts to be banned from the airwaves. Head of the Counter Terrorism and Organised Crime Branch, Assistant Commissioner of Police Clifford Chambers, told Jamaica Observer  yesterday that Hanna made an official report to the Cybercrimes Unit and that they have since launched an investigation. Lisa Hanna Chambers could not speak in detail about the methods to be employed in the investigation; however, he said that part of the probe would deal with proving the offence. “We have to go through the posts on her  Instagram  [page to see that] they constitute a criminal investigation and, based on our understanding of the Offences Against the Person Act and the cybercr...

BY TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com  Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Last Friday night when Sherine Perry-Howell realised that her husband had not returned home for the first time in their 10 years of marriage, her worst fear was that he had been robbed of his vehicle and was left abandoned somewhere. Tara Wright clings to her classmate for support as they both mourn the loss of their  Charlemont High School teacher, Tanijah Howell, who was murdered last weekend. His body was found in St Ann with gunshot wounds.  (Photo: Joseph Wellington) Despite the wave of deadly violence across the country, Perry-Howell admitted that she never thought her husband, Tanijah Howell, 39-year-old maths teacher at Charlemont High School, would have been found dead. “I thought that something bad had happened because he never stayed out late, or gone anywhere and has never come home, but I really did not think it was this bad. I thought that it could ...

Tuesday, February 14, 2017 | 5:14 PM     KINGSTON, Jamaica — A woman was yesterday arrested and charged under the Cyber Crimes Act after she posted pictures on social media claiming that her ex-boyfriend is wanted for rape, assault and murder. A release from the Ministry of National Security said 35-year old Amieka Mullings was arrested after investigations by the police revealed that the information was false and malicious.  She was charged with malicious communication under the Cyber Crimes Act, after being interrogated in the presence of her attorney. Security Minister Robert Montague, in a recent interview with OBSERVER ONLINE made a passionate plea to Jamaicans to stop sharing fake news online. Montague renewed that call in the release, saying false information circulating on social media alleging that people are being abducted and killed so their organs can be harvested and sold undermines the work of the police. The ministry also reminded that under the...

Tuesday, February 14, 2017  Exc erpt Jamaica Observer A group of doctors has high hopes that an artificial disc, owned exclusively by a Jamaican-born doctor, can be used as a tool to drive medical tourism in Jamaica. The technology was used for the first time in a four-level disc replacement procedure at the Andrews Memorial Hospital in St Andrew on February 1. The surgical procedure was performed by orthopaedic spinal surgeon Dr Kingsley Chin, who was born in Buff Bay, Portland. Dr Kingsley Chin (second left) and his team (from left) Dr J Geoffrey Liburd, Harisha Buggam and Violet Gordon performing the first four-level viscoelastic disc replacement with his product, the Freedom Cervical Disc, at Andrews Memorial Hospital in St Andrew, recently. Chin is CEO of KIC Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on the health technology sector and the owner of AxioMed, a health tech company that has developed the technology known as the Freedom Cervical disc. AxioMed was found...

WASHINGTON ― National security adviser Michael Flynn resigned late Monday, following revelations that he discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador in the days surrounding their imposition ― and weeks prior to   Donald Trump ’s inauguration. Michael Flynn Retired Lt. Gen. Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr. will serve as acting national security advisor until a full-time replacement is named, the White House announced. Kellogg, as well as Vice Adm. Robert Harward and retired Gen. David Petraeus are the three candidates in line to succeed Flynn, according to the administration. Flynn’s resignation came after a tumultuous few days of revelations about his ties to Russia and his role in attempting to ease sanctions that were put in place weeks before the Trump administration took office.  In late December,   President  Barack Obama  announced the sanctions, which included the expulsion of 35 Russian intelligence operat...

BY VERNON DAVIDSON Executive editor – publications davidsonv@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, February 12, 2017 Research scientists, led by Dr Henry Lowe, say they have discovered properties in Cannabidiol (CBD), one of the major bioactive compounds in the cannabis (ganja) plant, that have the potential to provide affordable treatment as nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals for hepatitis C. Information on the new discovery can be found in the latest issue (January - March 2017) of Dr Wayne McLaughlin Pharmacognosy Research , a publication of Pharmacognosy Network Worldwide, making it subject to peer review. “We report here for the first time  in vitro  studies to demonstrate the antiviral activity of CBD against HCV,” Dr Lowe and his research team —Jamaican Wayne McLaughlin and Cameroonian Dr Ngeh Toyang — state in their published study, adding that Cannabidiol was shown to have activity against HCV  in vitro  but not against hepatitis B virus (HBV). ...

Published February 9, 2017 Excerpt Huffintonpost In a major setback for the Trump administration, a federal appeals court on Thursday declined its urgent request to restore the  controversial executive order  restricting refugees and travel by immigrants from a number of Muslim-majority countries. Following a  high-stakes court hearing  on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit decided to keep President  Donald Trump ’s order from being enforced, which means one of his signature policy initiatives will remain in limbo as the litigation proceeds before the   federal judge in Seattle who temporarily blocked the order’s implementation. In an  early-morning tweet  prior to a law enforcement conference Wednesday, Trump appeared to prejudge the 9th Circuit’s outcome and call into question the motivations of the judges who considered his travel ban. “I don’t ever want to call a court biased, so I won’t call it biased,” ...

 02/08/2017 01:15 pm ET excerpt from huffingtonpost WASHINGTON ― In 2009, the historian David Kaiser, then a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, got a call from a guy named  Steve Bannon . Steve Bannon, Donald Trump's Adviser Bannon wanted to interview Kaiser for a documentary he was making based on the work of the generational theorists William Strauss and Neil Howe. Kaiser, an expert on Strauss and Howe, didn’t know Bannon from Adam, but he agreed to participate. He went to the Washington headquarters of the conservative activist group Citizens United, where Bannon was then based, for a chat. Kaiser was impressed by how much Bannon knew about Strauss and Howe, who argued that American history operates in four-stage cycles that move from major crisis to awakening to major crisis. These crises are called “Fourth Turnings” — and Bannon believed the U.S. had entered one on Sept. 18, 2008, when Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke went to Capitol...

Thursday, February 09, 2017     A man, said to be a Jamaican citizen, was Monday arrested at the Orland International Airport in Florida after his cellphone was searched and found to contain two child porn videos, the ABC News affiliate, WHTV9 reported on its website yesterday. He is facing a charge of possession of child pornography. The man, identified as Anthony Carl Spence, was searched by US Customs and Border Protection officers just after getting off a flight from Jamaica, the report said. Investigators did not say what prompted the search. The WHTV9 report said that when asked about the two videos found on his phone, Spence allegedly told investigators he showed one to a class of Jamaican schoolchildren “in order to determine whether any of them had ever been molested”. The report, quoting court documents, said when the suspected child porn was found, officials at Orlando International Airport called Homeland Security agents, who responded and took a more in...

BY KIMONE FRANCIS Observer staff reporter francisk@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, February 09, 2017     THE Andrew Holness-led Administration yesterday announced a zero-tolerance approach towards perpetrators of domestic violence, sexual abuse and grooming of minors signalling its approach towards arresting the growing crime wave sweeping the island. The announcement of enforcing existing laws comes in the wake of an escalation in crimes against women and children in recent weeks. Prime Minister Andrew Holness addresses journalists at  yesterday’s press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister.  Also present are Acting Commissioner of Police Novelette Grant (left)  and Attorney General Marlene Malahoo-Forte.  (Photo: Bryan Cummings) Prime Minister Holness, at a hastily-called press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister following a special meeting of the Cabinet, suggested that the nation has been brought to its knees with c...

Michael Burke of Jamaica Observer  Thursday, February 09, 2017 Michael Manley was elected president of the People’s National Party (PNP) on February 9, 1969. Ironically, this anniversary comes around this year when the party’s president, Portia Simpson Miller, has announced her intention to retire. Michael Manley Michael Manley led the PNP to power in 1972 and won again in 1976. The PNP went down in defeat in 1980 and did not contest the 1983 General Election in protest against a three-year-old voters’ list. The PNP returned to power with Michael Manley as prime minister when that party won the general election held on February 9, 1989, exactly 20 years after Michael Manley was elected president of the PNP. It is easy to just think that Michael Manley was elected president of the PNP simply because his father was Norman Manley. While that was a contributing factor, it was far more than that. One has to understand the role that trade unions played in politics in ...

 TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, February 03, 2017 Nineteen-year-old cancer patient Delmar Braham, who was recently featured in the Jamaica Observer, passed away at the United States Embassy in Kingston yesterday, where he had gone to apply for a visa. Braham, whose story had touched the hearts of many when the Observer published his appeal for financial assistance to go overseas for treatment, was scheduled to leave the island today for Albany Medical Centre in New York, where he was to receive further treatment. Delmar Braham, who was last April diagnosed with  osteosarcoma, is seen here with his mother Carol Lodge.. The young man had developed a rare form of osteosarcoma, which had manifested itself as a huge tumour below his shoulder. He found out that he had cancer last April and had to quit school at Excelsior High, where he was a sixth-form student. Braham was with family friend Narda Hamilton, who was help...

Thursday, February 02, 2017 — Tanesha Mundle      About 12 people were yesterday taken to the the Spanish Town Hospital with serious injuries following a two-vehicle collision at the Caymanas/Mandela Highway intersection in St Catherine. A Toyota Hiace minibus, which was transporting passengers from Spanish Town to Portmore, and a Nissan motor car were extensively damaged in the collision. Up to press time last night the driver of the motor car was unconscious and in critical condition. The minibus involved in yesterday’s crash. (Photos: Lionel Rookwood) According to Corporal Lloyd Wellington of the Ferry Police Station, the motor car was heading towards Spanish Town when it collided with the passenger bus which was turning right at the traffic light. The bus, the police corporal said, lost control and hit one of the posts holding a set of traffic lights. The motor car, added the policeman, also lost control and then slammed into the right pole for the traf...

 BY BALFORD HENRY Senior staff reporter balfordh@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, February 02, 2017     MEMBERS of the clergy and policemen are the most consistent culprits having sex with girls under the age of 16. This was disclosed yesterday by Superintendent of Police Enid Ross-Stewart, head of the Centre for Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), as she addressed Parliament’s joint select committee reviewing sex offences legislation at Gordon House. According to Superintendent Ross-Stewart, the police agency handled 1,094 reports of men having sex with children under 16 years old, which is legally the age of consent, of which 664 were recorded in Kingston. She said that CISOCA’s arrest of a number of ministers of religion recently on similar charges was nothing new. “Having arrested these ministers, really it is not the first time. We are constantly arresting high-profile members of the society, particularly churchmen and policemen. ...