Your news in a nutshell
- Two die in fire at Walker’s Place of Safety
- 29 injured in St Thomas crash
- Political Code of Conduct needs teeth
- Ja bobsledders qualify for Winter Olympics
- MP Natalie Neita charged with assault
- EOJ re-enumeration project in limbo
1. Two die in fire at Walker’s Place of Safety
Walker’s Place of Safety is reporting that two girls aged 12 and 16 died in the fire at its Lyndhurst Crescent facility in Kingston early this morning. Thirty four other children who were housed at the facility have been moved to a temporary holding facility at a nearby church. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
2. 29 injured in St Thomas crash
Broken bones and streams of blood will be, for some time, etched in the minds of 29 people who were yesterday rushed to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department of Princess Margaret Hospital in St Thomas after the bus in which they were travelling collided with a motor vehicle. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
3. Political Code of Conduct needs teeth
Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown said that the time has come for the Political Code of Conduct, endorsed by the People’s National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party, to be given teeth through effective legislation. “It is time for us to say ‘When I, as a political leader, put myself up for office, the Jamaican public can be confident that I am willing to face the consequences of any breach that is not merely a talk; that is not a slap on the wrist but it is something that means something to me’,” Parchment Brown told The Gleaner yesterday. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
4. Ja bobsledders qualify for winter Olympics
The Jamaica Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation is now making plans for the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, next month after the national women’s bobsled team qualified for the Olympiad at the weekend. This is the first time a women’s team will be representing the nation at the Winter Olympics, and the feat comes 30 years after Jamaica’s first overall experience at the Calgary Games in 1988. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
5. MP Natalie Neita charged with assault
Opposition Spokesperson on Sports Natalie Neita is to answer to a charge of assault after allegedly punching a man to the ground along Spanish Town Road in Kingston. She was arrested and charged this morning and granted station bail this afternoon. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
6. EOJ re-enumeration project in limbo
The planned re-enumeration exercise by the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), which was slated to begin during this financial year, has been shelved and the $700 million allocated in the Budget to start the process was removed in the First Supplementary Estimates of Expenditure, which was passed by the House of Representatives in early December. See full story on The Gleaner’s website.
