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BY TANESHA MUNDLE Observer staff reporter mundlet@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, July 01, 2016     The mother of the 13-year-old schoolgirl who was shot in the head when men, believed to be police, opened fire on an illegal taxi in downtown Kingston yesterday morning, said she was leaving everything in God’s hands after she and her co-workers prayed and sang outside Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) where her only child was said to be recovering after emergency surgery. Ruby McKoy, a teacher at Duhaney Park Primary School, was surprisingly calm when she spoke with the  Jamaica Observer . However, she admitted that earlier yesterday she was not unruffled. Group Prayer for the victim “I wasn’t like this this morning. When I heard that she was in an accident, my knees gave way, everything went, and I found a colleague and cried and cried,” McKoy said. “[But] when I remembered that I had prayed this morning, and I had asked for coverage from accident, both seen ...

Tuesday, June 28, 2016     Daily, regular men, women and young people walk by the homeless on Jamaican streets. They perhaps feel a faint pang of empathy, but they walk on with their lives. Ashli-Ann Broughton (19) and her team of over 50 volunteers at Street People Liberation don't. They acted on the pangs of empathy, deciding to do something for some of society's most vulnerable. Street People Liberation   Street People Liberation is a non-profit organisation which was founded by Ashli-Ann in March 2014. It is operated by youths who plan projects geared towards improving the lives of the homeless, supplying them with clothing and toiletries throughout the year, and cooked meals on public holidays.   These TEENs cook and distribute hot meals to the homeless, primarily on public holidays, because the St James Parish Council Care Centre, which provides food and clothing for the homeless persons around Montego Bay throughout the week, is closed on pu...

Monday, June 27, 2016 | 6:47 PM     KINGSTON, Jamaica – The US dollar on Monday, June 27, ended trading at J$126.37, up by two cents, according to the Bank of Jamaica’s daily foreign exchange trading summary. Meanwhile, the Canadian dollar ended trading at J$96.78, down from J$99.19.

By Stephen Collinson, CNN Updated 5:02 AM ET, Tue June 28, 2016 Washington (CNN) House Republicans are planning to release a long-awaited report Tuesday on the Benghazi terror attacks that killed four Americans on Hillary Clinton's watch as secretary of state, reviving the politically charged issue less than five months before the election. Grim scene: Bloodstains at the main gate believed  to be from one of the American staff members of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Associated Press Photo.   The report, parts of which have already been reviewed by CNN, paints a picture of a perfect storm of bureaucratic inertia, rapidly worsening security in Libya and inadequate resources in the months that led up to the killings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on September 11, 2012. Clinton told the House Benghazi Committee last year that she was aware of the dangers in Libya but "there was no actionable intelligence" indicating a planned attack. ...

By Tiffany Ap, CNN Updated 4:04 AM ET, Tue June 28, 2016 (CNN) The headache for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games organizers shows no signs of subsiding. Six weeks before the Games are set to begin, Francisco Dornelles, the acting governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo that the state has not yet received recently-approved federal funds to beef up security and transportation for the quadrennial competition. "I am optimistic about the games, but I have to show the reality. We can make a great Olympics, but if some steps are not taken, it can be a big failure," Dornelles told O Globo. Olympic Games: Is Rio ready?   The budget shortfall   adds to the "perfect storm"  Brazil is facing leading up to the Games, due to kick off on August 5. Organizers are dealing with concerns regarding the Zika virus,   a doping scandal  in which Brazil's only testing lab was suspended, high crime and political upheaval involving the country...

June 28, 2016...Excerpt from Huffington Post The fallout following the British vote to leave the European Union has triggered an uptick in racist incidents. An aversion to immigration has been at the forefront for the  “leave”  camp, emboldening xenophobes to reportedly come out of the shadows and publicly attack immigrant communities. Eyewitnesses have taken to social media to describe incidents they have encountered, and an account called  Post Ref Racism  was started on both Twitter and Facebook to offer people a “space to document the increase in racism,” according to the page’s description.  Britain’s Polish community has been specifically targeted by xenophobic sentiments. Police are investigating various “racially motivated   hate crimes “ targeting Poles in England. Authorities first found leaflets saying “no more Polish vermin” in central England. Graffiti  demanding that Poles leave the U.K. was later discovered at a Polish cult...

Jamaica’s Olympic gold-winning sprinter Kemar Bailey-Cole has revealed that he is suffering from the Zika virus. The 24-year-old, who ran alongside Usain Bolt in Jamaica’s  successful 4x100m relay squad  at London 2012 and the world championships in 2013, said he feared it would affect his chances of making the Olympics in Rio. Jessica Ennis-Hill to miss Olympic holding camp but will compete in Rio   Read more “I was experiencing back pains and muscle soreness, but I thought it was just soreness from the exercises I was doing,” he said. “I didn’t know I had it until I went to get a haircut. After cleaning up, my girlfriend realised a bump was on my neck, which was a lymph node.” Bailey-Cole, who also won gold at 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 and has a 100m PB of 9.92sec, said that he was still able to train. “I am a little worried but I am not letting that get in front of me. I am just praying that I get the strength to carry me th...