Lead Stories

Scores of mourners from the media fraternity, the Church, the army, and friends, joined family members to bid farewell to the late Dr Dudley Clifford Stokes in an inspirational thanksgiving service at the Boulevard Baptist Church in St Andrew yesterday.

IT IS a well-known fact that in Jamaica's inner-city com-munities if you 'inform' to the police, you do so at your own peril. This entrenched code of silence is severely hampering the efforts of law-enforcement agents to curtail the island's galloping murder rate.

Since the start of this year, 150 members of the force, including recently installed commissioner, Owen Ellington, have faced polygraph tests, but the Police High Command has not said how many have failed these tests.

The call for the establishment of a court dedicated to corruption cases is growing louder as members of civil society add their voices to that of Assistant Commissioner of Police Justin Felice who, for months, has been the lone voice in the wilderness.

OCHO RIOS, ST ANN:The St Ann Chamber of Commerce has emerged top chamber for 2009, the fifth time the parish is receiving the honour since it first won the award in 2001.The award, presented by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, goes to the parish chamber...

Crime statistics became a hot topic in the Senate yesterday after Sandra Falconer's contribution to a debate on the Budget.Murders since January 1 this year have darted past the 500 mark, triggering even greater concerns about the wanton bloodletting...

The Police Service Commission has announced the appointment of Owen Lloyd Ellington, CD, JP, as commissioner of police in the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), effective April 5.Ellington, 47 years old, is a past student of the Glengoffe High School.

An inspection of the National Stadium yesterday highlighted several obvious defects that could "weaken the structure" but the company that manages the facility disclosed immediately that it had no money to make the corrections.

Jinghua Chen, China's ambassador to Jamaica, is expressing confidence that a Chinese radio and television station will be established locally, which will add to the offerings of free-to-air media entities on the local landscape.

The St Ann-based Noranda Bauxite Ltd, which announced a 25 per cent increase in production a year ago, amid a down-turn in bauxite demand worldwide, is to make the jobs of 100 contract workers redundant.

The often pilloried Operation Pride housing programme, introduced by the former People's National Party (PNP) government, has received a sound endorsement from Howard Mitchell, chairman of the National Housing Trust (NHT).

THE RAIDING of the National Health Fund (NHF) will never happen again, Finance Minister Audley Shaw has promised.Government had taken $300 million from the NHF last fiscal year as it scrambled to find funds to develop a healthy primary balance.