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THIS WEEKS NEWS SUMMARY
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PRINCESS ANN VISITS JAMAICA
Her Royal Highness Princess Anne arrived on the Island on Friday and spent a three-day official visit. During the visit she toured violence-torn Jones Town and Wilton Gardens (Rema) in south St. Andrew, the Children First Home in Spainsh Town, Naional Heroes Park and sections of hurricane-ravaged Portland Cottage in Clarendon. The British Royal also participated in the 50th anniversary celebration of the Princess Margaret Hospital, opened half-a-century ago and named in honour of Princess Margaret.
JLP ON ELECTION ALERT
Jamaica Labour Party leader Bruce Golding on Sunday evening put his party on both parish council and general elections alert saying that they could be called at any time. Speaking to party supporters last Sunday during a meeting of the JLP Area Council 2 held at Buff Bay Primary School in St Thomas. Golding said that the JLP had sent a clear message to the PNP and that they were now a party ready for governance. Local government elections are due in 2006 while general elections should come up in 2007.
SUGAR PRODUCTION FALL SHORT
Agriculture minister Roger Clarke said this week that he doesn¡¦t expect the local sugar industry to meet its export target this year. Minister Clarke says he does not foresee the industry achieving the 185,000 tonnes of sugar for the export market. Up until mid February, the sugar industry had produced only a 21, 600 tonnes or a mere one-eighth of its targeted output for export. A total of 58,000 tonnes were produced over the same
period the previous year.
28 MURDERS LAST WEEK
The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) is reporting that 28 persons were murdered last week. That tally one lower than the previous week now brings the total murders to 200 since the start of the year . According to the CCN, 17 of the murders are still unsolved, with the gun being the choice of weapon in 24 of the incidents. Three persons lost their lives to the knife. The CCN is also reporting that the police recently had success in recovering 13 firearms, including three in the Tawes Pen area of Spanish Town. Approximately 101 rounds of ammunition was also seized.
NEW FLEET OF MOTORCYCLES FOR POLICE
The motorized division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) on Wednesday received a major boost with the addition of 100 new Honda 747cc motorcycles to its fleet. The motorcycles were acquired at a cost of $65 million and were handed over by Minister of National Security Peter Phillips at the office of the commissioner of police. Phillips said that the acquisition of the motorcycles was part of the government’s efforts to equip the police to fight crime.
POLICE REMOVED FROM TRANSPORT AUTHORITY
The government have removed 60 officers from the Island Special Constabulary Force (ISCF) whom were assigned to the Transport Authority. The officers who began working with the Transport Authority on August 4, 2004 were ordered there to help bring more discipline to the transport sector. The decision to suspend the program was taken at a meeting last week. Leslie Watts, Deputy Com-mandant of the Island Special Constabulary Force, said the decision was taken to put the program on a two-week break to sort out its problems which had developed at the supervisory level.
ROTARIANS OF KINGSTON TO BUILD PARK AND SPORTS FACILITY
The Rotary Club of Kingston has raised over $4 million to build a multi-purpose park and sports facility on land between Dunrobin Basic and Primary schools off Red Hills Road in St Andrew. The park will be 10,700 square metres and will need $15 million dollars to get off the ground. Lee Chin’s NCB group gas pledged $2 million to the project. Also contributing were the CHASE fund, committing $1.4 million and Ideal Finance Corporation pledging $100,000.
BNS JAMAICA POST FIRST QUARTER PROFITS
The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica Limited has reported net profit of $1.42 billion for its first quarter of 2005, a $160-million increase over the previous quarter. Scotiabank’s investment portfolio grew by $10.5 billion over the previous quarter to $115.7 billion representing an increase in performing loans of $4.5 billion and an increase in investments and government securities under repurchase agreements by $6 billion.
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SPORTS
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REGGAE BOYZ DRAWN IN GROUP C OF GOLD CUP
Caribbean champions Jamaica will play alongside defending champion Mexico, Guatemala and guest team South Africa in Group C of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States. The Reggae Boyz will first meet Guatemala on Friday July 8 in Los Angles where they will also meet South Africa on July 10 before opposing Mexico on July 13 in Houston.
JFF TREASURER QUITS
Former president of the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), Carlton Barclay and treasurer of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has tendered his resignation after weeks of uncertainty about his future with the local governing body. Barclay, the group financial controller for the Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS), tendered his resignation on Tuesday at the JFF management meeting. Mr. Barclay cited mounting professional commitments among his reasons for quitting. The resignation takes effect on March 31.
HOLMWOOD TECH DEFEND RELAY CROWNS
The 29th renewal of Gibson Relay festival was last saturday dominated by Holmwood Technical. The Christiana School won four relays each in the respective boys’ and girls’ categories, topping all four High School Championships events. The girls won the Sherwin Williams/4x100m Class One, Western Union/4x800m Open and closed off with the HD Hopwood mile relay. The boys’ Championships victories came in the Port Authority 4x100m (40.87), the Security Administration/4×800 Open and the Comtrex/ 4x400m Open. The Holmwood girls added the Esso/Class Two 4x100m to their successes, while the boys came up big in taking the Antillean/Class One 4x200m.
DAVIAN CLARKE WINS 400M IN SPAIN
Davian Clarke scored another victory on the European Indoor circuit recently when he captured the men’s 400 metres at the Madrid IAAF Permit Meeting. Clarke, a silver medalist in the event at last year’s World Indoors, bagged a narrow win over the Dominican Republic’s Carlos Santa as Caribbean athletes swept the top two positions in the event. Clarke fought off Santa (45.96) to win in 45.94 seconds. David Canal (Spain) 46.49 was third. This is Clarke’s second fastest time this season, bettered only by his 2005 world third-best 45.90 at the Norwich Union meet.
jamarch
