DEADLY TRAP A 10-year-old child was allegedly used as bait by gunmen on Friday morning to lure police officers into a deadly ambush during an operation in the Five Miles area of St Catherine. According to reports, the confrontation began about 5:15 a.m. in Mount Moreland, a hilly community off the Sligoville main road, where a Special Operations Branch team was searching for wanted men. The officers reportedly came under gunfire from three men who had barricaded themselves inside a house with other occupants, including the child, a six-month-old infant, and their mother.
Court fight The People’s National Party (PNP) caucus in the Clarendon Municipal Corporation (CMC) has described a court injunction barring motions of no confidence against May Pen Mayor Joel Williams and Deputy Mayor Clive Mundle as a “threat on democracy”, questioning the manner in which the document was presented during a special meeting on Friday.
Senator calls for targeted pension plan for farmers Drawing on a 2024 Financial Services Commission (FSC) report, opposition senator Ramon Small-Ferguson has highlighted the low participation of Jamaican farmers in private pension schemes, with fewer than one in every 100 enrolled. In his contribution to the debate on the Pensions (Superannuation Funds and Retirement Schemes) (Investment) (Amendment) Regulations, 2026, Ferguson said the Government and private sector should join forces to address the issue.
British high commissioner opens line of cooperation with HMC WESTERN BUREAU: British High Commissioner Alicia Herbert has opened a line of cooperation with the administrators and staff at the Hanover Municipal Corporation (HMC). Herbert, who began her tour of duty just over a year ago, has outlined plans to visit all the municipalities across the islands as a way of developing an understanding of the local government bodies operate and to see what avenues exist for collaboration.
When gossip protects coworkers – and when it backfires NEW YORK (AP): Stephanie Joseph was working at a television station when someone started a false rumour claiming she and a married colleague were romantically involved. Joseph, then 20, barely knew the man in question and didn’t hear the gossip until a producer told her it was circulating. “I’m thinking to myself, this is crazy,” she recalled. “This particular male co-worker, although he was young, he was married with a family. So that made it even more insulting because I thought, ‘I’m friendly with these people. Don’t they know my character?’”
HIV CARE GAP - AHF calls for strategy to get thousands more on treatment; ministry says social barriers keeping patients away The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) Jamaica is calling for urgent action to reach the thousands of people living with HIV in Jamaica who are not receiving treatment. In a statement yesterday, the AHF, which works to expand access to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment, sexual and reproductive health services, advocacy, and community-based health education, pointed to national data showing that Jamaica has an estimated 28,000 people living with HIV, approximately 26,500 of whom have been diagnosed. However, only 14,716 – or 53 per cent – are documented as receiving treatment.
19-y-o charged with Kidd Lane triple murder A 19-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder in connection with last Friday’s deadly attack on Kidd Lane, off Spanish Town Road in St Andrew, which claimed the lives of two women and a one-year-old boy. The accused, Dante Davis, who has addresses on Spanish Town Road and Kidd Lane in Kingston 13, is also facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, arson, conspiracy to commit arson, possession of a prohibited weapon, unauthorised possession of ammunition and using a firearm to commit a felony.
Ruel Reid named in evidence on six retail purchases in fraud trial A smart television and a foot spa were among six items former Education Minister Ruel Reid purchased from a retail chain over a near five-week period in 2018, according to evidence of a witness in his fraud trial. Reid was appointed education minister and a government Senator in March 2016 and resigned in March 2019 amid fraud allegations. While giving evidence in the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court yesterday, the witness confirmed that the Samsung smart TV and an Android TV box were purchased at the company’s St Andrew branch on March 12, 2018.
Ruddock was beaten, threatened into confession, defence claims Defence counsel Anthony Williams on Thursday sought to portray his client, murder accused Andre Ruddock, as a man who never confessed to the police to killing his church sister but was beaten, threatened, and put in fear for his life to give a caution statement. Williams advanced the claims during continued cross-examination of a detective constable in Ruddock’s trial for the October 17, 2021, murder of Taneka Gardner at Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries.
Trelawny councillor wants funeral homes to pay for public burial spots WESTERN BUREAU: Garth Wilkinson, councillor for the Falmouth division in the Trelawny Municipal Corporation (TMC), wants funeral homes to pay a fee to secure burial spots in public cemeteries to help generate funding for their upkeep. Wilkinson made his position known as he moved a resolution at last Thursday’s monthly meeting of the TMC in Falmouth.