News on the Go

Army targets 2,000 youngsters

The Government is increasing the number of young people to benefit from the Jamaica National Service Corps programme.

"We have 500 to come on October 28 and 1,500 to come over the next year, and who knows, maybe more into the future," finance minister Dr Nigel Clarke said.

"We are indeed pleased with the progress that has been made in this programme, and it has been so successful. We are clearly moving in the right direction," he added.

Clarke was speaking at the passing-out ceremony for 220 recruits, held on Saturday at the JDF's Moneague training camp in St Ann.

Dump-up Beach to be transformed 

A state-of-the-art beach park is to be built at the Closed Harbour Beach in St James, starting next January.

The 16-acre property, also known as Dump-up Beach, will be transformed into a world-class multizoned public space within two years at a projected cost of $700 million.

The park will feature a jogging trail, soft and hard landscaping, an outdoor amphitheatre, multipurpose courts, a children's play area, food kiosks, and a boardwalk, among other amenities.

"There will be opportunities for investment from private interests. There will be about eight small kiosks, [and] they are about 250 square feet each. The dining experience will be more along the boardwalk by the beach as well as at other private eatery areas outside," Kerrymoure O'Connor, project manager at the Urban Devlopment Corporation, said.

 'Cruel and - barbaric'

State minister in the education ministry Floyd Green, has described the killing of 14-year-old Raven Wilson as "cruel, inhumane, and barbaric."

Wilson, a third-form student of Ocho Rios High School in St Ann, was reported missing on Friday. Her mutilated body was found in a plastic bag metres away from her home in the Top Hill community of St Ann's Bay on Sunday.

"I am seriously disturbed by the killing of yet another promising young girl, whose life was cut short by cold and heartless criminals. There is simply no justification for such cruelty against our children. The level of violence being meted out against them needs to stop, because it is robbing them of their right to life," the minister said.

Making reference to the recent spate of child murders, the minister stressed that there seems to be a worrying trend as perpetrators are dismembering their victims.

"We want to send a clear message to these perpetrators that there will absolutely be no safe haven for them. We continue to work assiduously with the police and will leave no stone unturned in ensuring they are brought to justice," Green said.

Official funeral for former MP

The Government will be according an official funeral to late former Member of Parliament for North East Westmoreland and Speaker of the House of Representatives Headley Cunningham.

The service will be held on Thursday at the Mount Carey Baptist Church in Anchovy, St James, starting at 11 a.m. Interment will follow at the church cemetery.

A condolence book, which was opened in the lobby of the Houses of Parliament yesterday, will remain there until Thursday.

Cunningham was elected member of Parliament in 1989 and served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1989 to 1993.

EU supports plastic ban

Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Jamaica Ambassador Malgorzata Wasilewska has welcomed plans by the Government to introduce a ban on single-use plastic bags and straws and Styrofoam containers in an effort to reduce the negative impact of these on the environment.

"We not only recognise and applaud this, but we want to do everything in our power as the European Union, together with [other supporting partners], to help with this and to draw attention to the fact that it [pollution of the environment] cannot continue like this," Wasilewska said.

She made the comment while participating in the EU's beach clean-up exercise at Y-Knot Beach in Port Royal, Kingston, on Saturday.

Wasilewska said that the EU plans to partner with the Canadian High Commission, the Port Royal Primary School, and the Port Royal community in endeavours aimed at protecting the environment in that region.

"We all have a collective responsibility to act [and] to be vigilant [because] a lot needs to be changed in Jamaica. There has to be education and collective responsibility," she said.