Western Bureau: A 10,000-foot medical dome, which was slated to be installed on the grounds of the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in Montego Bay, St James, last month, creating space for approximately 100 additional beds, has still not been installed though the base is ready for use. In his last update on the plan for the dome, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton had told The Gleaner that it would be flown in once work on the base is finished.

Edmond Campbell/Senior Parliamentary Reporter Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Heroy Clarke received a sharp rebuke from his colleagues last Wednesday for disrupting the proceedings of an oversight committee with “intemperate” remarks. Clarke, a third-term member of parliament (MP), was seemingly agitated by questions posed to the National Water Commission on infrastructure-related matters. He indicated that such queries were misplaced and should be directed to the Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee.

A Jamaican man who awoke to the sound of “thunder-like” explosions in Dubai on Sunday, following a United States (US)-Israeli attack on Iran and its retaliation, says much of what is happening in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is not being televised. Twenty-five-year-old Van Creed, who is pursuing a music career in the city, said loud explosions from missile strikes and interceptions rocked Dubai, causing panic among nationals and foreigners.

With the price of oil and gas now surging on the global market amid the United States’ (US) and Israel’s military offensive against Iran – and Tehran in turn bombarding the oil- and gas-producing Gulf states – one local economist is of the view that small island developing countries like Jamaica, with a heavy dependence on imports, are set to be disproportionately affected.

If you asked Alice Drysdale Stewart, who achieved the milestone of 100 years on February 19, how she is feeling, her first utterance would cheerfully be, “I feel good as a 15-year-old!” On February 21, during the weekend celebration of her birthday at The Little Copa in Bull Bay, St Andrew, the centenarian joyfully told The Gleaner in an interview, “Everything good for me. I don’t have no complaint.

AP: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has sold itself to foreigners for years as a sunny, safe, tax-free oasis. That peaceful image was shattered Saturday as Iranian weaponry rained down on Dubai, setting fire to a five-star resort, threatening the world’s tallest building, and killing one person and injuring seven others at the airport in the capital city of Abu Dhabi.

St Ann Custos Joseph Issa’s ‘Custos Commando’ initiative reached a new level last Thursday with the launch of the Centenarian Story Telling Project, a brainchild of Cienna Smith, a lawyer by profession and one of several Custos Commandos. The project was launched at Bamboo Blu in Mammee Bay and featured Miss Agnes Johnson, a 101-year-old St Thomas native, born August 24, 1924, who made Mile End in St Ann her home several decades ago.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC): At least three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have expressed concern at the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East after the United States (US) and Israel launched military attacks on Iran that resulted in missile attacks by Iran directed at the territories of the United Arab Emirates and other sovereign States in the Gulf. The US and Israel on Saturday carried out a series of strikes citing “threats” from Iran, which responded with volleys of missiles aimed at Gulf states that host US bases, and at Israel.

Residents of Denham Town in west Kingston received a massive upgrade of street lights in the community last week, a move some residents welcomed but believed came a little too late following the murder of three-year-old Jace Pinnock and his father two weeks ago. The macabre slaying of the two and the wounding of Jace’s eight-year-old sibling is being noted as the tipping point – the catalyst for the erection or repair of some 40 defective and non-existent street lights that left residents in the dark and vulnerable at night.

For your prayers to be effective, especially during the midnight battles, you must learn how to pray in tongues. It is very difficult if not impossible, to pray effectively for long hours in the night (which sometimes last for days or months) with plain languages.

QUEENS COUNTY, NY: One thousand backyard poultry farmers across Jamaica are set to benefit from Chicken RE-COOP, a hurricane recovery programme, which was set for launching on March 1, 2026. The initiative comes in response to Hurricane Melissa, which left hundreds of families, particularly single-parent–led households in St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, St. James, Trelawny, Hanover, Manchester, and St. Ann, without coops, livestock, or their primary source of food and income.

Frustration laced his voice as Andre Dyer, one of Jamaica’s largest onion farmers, bemoaned how the importation of onions is threatening the livelihood of local farmers, even as the traditional Breadbasket Parish of St Elizabeth fights its way back after Hurricane Melissa.

Four months after Hurricane Melissa sent floodwaters surging through sections of Phase 2 of The Estuary in Friendship, St James, several homeowners say they remain burdened with loss, displacement, and uncertainty as they await word on whether they will be allowed to return home. Residents contend that the flooding was exacerbated when a section of roadway collapsed, obstructing a primary drainage channel. Homes were left waterlogged, furniture destroyed, and mould spreading throughout interiors. Several families were forced out and left traumatised.

A man who says he was falsely arrested has claimed in a lawsuit that he contracted a sexually transmitted infection after being assaulted inside a police lockup. The assault, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, happened in 2014 after John Brown* was taken into custody, placed in a cell and ordered by cops to remove his clothes, the lawsuit claimed. He was attacked later that day by two detainees who were placed in his cell by cops, according to the lawsuit seen by The Sunday Gleaner.

WESTERN BUREAU: Dr Darien Henry, the principal of the St James-based Montego Bay Community College (MBCC), is renewing calls for greater focus on preparing students for tertiary education, a move he says will strengthen school-leavers’ readiness for the workforce and, in turn, improve Jamaica’s labour market productivity.

A retired detective sergeant testified yesterday that he had seized 11 firearms from six policemen involved in the 2013 fatal shooting of three men on Acadia Drive in Kingston. The witness also testified that he submitted those weapons to the forensic laboratory for ballistic testing, along with two weapons and ammunition that were recovered at the scene.

The Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives will begin its examination of the Estimates of Expenditure over two days next week. The committee, which comprises all members of the Lower House, will also for the first time review the revenue measures that were tabled recently in Parliament alongside the Estimates of Expenditure.

Adolescent mothers at the Women’s Centre of Jamaica Foundation (WCFJ) in St Andrew were yesterday encouraged not to give up on their dreams, but to pursue them with confidence and determination during a conversation with famed actress and director Phylicia Rashad. Rashad, who is visiting Jamaica for Plié for the Arts’ inaugural Visionary Salon, coaxed the young mothers into sharing their aspirations before advising them of the responsibility and discipline it would take to rebuild after experiencing setbacks.

The Court of Appeal has cleared the way for a high-profile judicial review, after setting aside a ruling by the Supreme Court and allowing a licensed firearm holder to challenge the Firearm Licensing Authority’s (FLA) power to seize his weapon without express statutory permission. The ruling follows an October 28, 2021 decision by Justice Chester Stamp to refuse the firearm holder permission to apply for judicial review. Stamp judge also denied the man permission to appeal that decision.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has relaunched its ‘Strap Up Jamaica’ campaign, as part of intensified efforts to strengthen household resilience ahead of the 2026 Atlantic Hurricane season. The campaign, which aims to encourage safer roofing practices and greater disaster preparedness among homeowners, builders and contractors, will run until March 14 under the theme ‘Build Jamaica’s Resilience, One Strap at a Time’.

The police on Thursday seized several homemade firearms, a semi-automatic pistol, and more than 50 rounds of ammunition during an operation on McIntosh Drive in Top Range, Kingston 3. No arrests were made. Reports from the Half-Way Tree police are that between 4:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., personnel conducting an operation searched premises in the area and observed a shopping bag lodged between a tree trunk.

Two decades since he allegedly shot a woman in the face in front of her child, disfiguring her features and altering her speech for life, Collin ‘Tumpa Dragon’ Mowatt has been nabbed. On Wednesday, Mowatt, who was in his early 40s at the time, was charged for the 2006 incident, which still sends chills through Lloyds district in St Thomas. Now 61, and after being implicated in another firearm-related matter in St Ann last December, sleuths in the eastern parish moved in, slapping handcuffs on a man whose case preceded computer record storage at their stations.

Thirty-five-year-old Travis Wilson, a higgler of Patrick City, St Andrew, has been charged by the police for allegedly failing to return a car he rented from a woman in December 2025. Wilson is charged with larceny of a motor vehicle. According to reports from the Half-Way Tree police, Wilson rented a Honda Stream motor car from the woman and that at the end of the stipulated rental period, he reportedly requested an extension for a few additional days. She consented to the request.

Former United States Ambassador to Jamaica Luis G. Moreno has dismissed as “silly” suggestions that Jamaica could face penalties from the US over Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’ remarks on Cuba’s humanitarian crisis earlier this week. “I think that’s silly. I don’t think anyone would go for that,” Moreno told The Gleaner yesterday.

The National Water Commission (NWC) says it has suffered a $3-billion loss in revenue following the passage of Hurricane Melissa and another $3.7 billion in estimated damage to infrastructure. Acting Vice-President of the NWC, Herman Fagan, told members of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) yesterday that service has been restored to 95 per cent of the commission’s customers. He gave the assurance that by the end of March, all customers impacted by Hurricane Melissa should receive water.

An uncle of Matthew Lee, one of the three men killed during a police operation in 2013, testified that he had no knowledge of repeated warnings allegedly given by the young man’s father about his association with men from Grants Pen in St Andrew. “I couldn't answer that part. I don't know — he never said it to me,” the electrical engineer responded when defence counsel Hugh Wildman asked whether Lee’s father had consistently cautioned him about the company the deceased was keeping in the Grants Pen community.

Some judges appear to be misinterpreting the Child Diversion Act by compelling minors to plead guilty to criminal charges before steering them to intervention programmes, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has said. The Child Diversion Programme, which is grounded in the Child Diversion Act 2018, seeks to steer children between ages 12 and 17 years old away from the formal criminal justice system in circumstances where they are charged with specific crimes, including assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

In a clear signal of renewed diplomatic focus, the United States has pledged to “reinvigorate” ties with CARICOM countries, framing the region’s economic stability and security as “intricately tied” to its own national interests. In an address to CARICOM heads of governments yesterday, and on the heels of the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and a partially lifted oil blockade on Cuba, United States (US) Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration is aiming to make the region a magnet for inbound investment.

Even as Washington, DC in the United States (US) has reportedly eased conditions allowing individuals to apply for licences to supply Cuba with Venezuelan oil, one of the Caribbean’s leaders has been condemned to the “dustbin of history” for her perceived role in the capture of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro, Cuba’s oil lifeline.

WESTERN BUREAU: In a major effort to boost education recovery in Westmoreland amid the lingering effects of Hurricane Melissa, the Rotary Club of Savanna-la-Mar, in partnership with the Rotary Foundation and Rotary District 7020, has distributed 18 Starlink Internet systems to schools across the parish.

Administrators at Kingston College (KC) spent yesterday mourning the loss of former student athlete Kevaughn Goldson, who was stabbed to death, reportedly by a woman with whom he was involved, in Jefferson City, Missouri, in the United States, on Monday. Reports are that Goldson, 23, was involved in a domestic altercation when a knife was used to stab him in the back and chest. The sprinter died while undergoing surgery at hospital.

A pillion passenger left permanently impaired after a motorcycle collided with a truck transporting an excavator along the Bog Walk main road in St Catherine 12 years ago has been awarded approximately $6.5 million in damages by the Supreme Court. Justice Sonya Wint-Blair, in her judgment last month, ordered $5,900,000 in general damages with interest at three per cent per annum from September 29, 2017, and $565,568 for special damages covering travel and medical expenses with three per cent interest from December 22, 2014, until the date of judgment.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has called on CARICOM leaders to abandon the “unrealistic” idea of political uniformity and to reframe national differences as strategic assets that drive regional problem-solving rather than a signal of weakness within the regional bloc.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has signalled a pivot in Jamaica’s diplomatic stance toward Cuba, calling for a “principled realism” that balances traditional regional solidarity with a demand for democratic reform and open-market transitions. Holness also warned that the growing humanitarian crisis in the Spanish-speaking nation could develop into a regional problem, pointing to a possible immigration threat.

A recent survey published by Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), in collaboration with The Mico University College, has found that a high percentage of residents in at least 10 marginalised communities in Kingston have demonstrated knowledge of citizens’ rights, but also have misconceptions of those entitlements. Findings of the survey which was published last week, showed that the awareness of citizens’ rights was consistent across communities, with youth age 16-24 leading in rights literacy.