KINGSTON, Jamaica - EVEN AS Jamaica struggles with a growing food import bill projected to go past US$1 billion for 2012, representatives from Caribbean neighbours The Bahamas are in the island looking to copy our good agricultural practices, looking at ways to improve their food security. Member of Parliament Arnold Forbes and the other six members of the Bahamian delegation were special guests at the official launch of the annual Jamaica 4-H Clubs Achievement Day expo, at the Medallion Hotel, St Andrew, on Monday.
Jamaica
KINGSTON, Jamaica - MR Peter Bunting, the national security minister, might have used his "dark night of the soul" description out of the true context meant by 16th-century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic, Saint John of the Cross, whose poem of the same title speaks of the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. But the reaction, some might say overreaction, to his speech is not about his wrong use of the term.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - IT IS automatically added to every flight out of the UK, but when The Voice spoke to Caribbean-bound travellers at Gatwick Airport, some had never even heard of air passenger duty (APD).
The travel tax has been rising year-on-year making billions in revenues for the government, but pricing out ordinary people from travelling to the tropical region.
KINGSTON, Jamaica - MR Nicolas Maduro, late President Hugo Chavez' choice to succeed him, was elected president of Venezuela on Monday by a very narrow margin. But his opponent, Mr Henrique Capriles has challenged the legitimacy of the result, claimed victory and called for a recount by hand of all paper ballots.
Although Mr Maduro publicly pledged to allow the recount, the electoral council has refused and is defending the integrity of the electoral process.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - There is no safe place in the world. That was the response yesterday from Carlos Vogeler, regional director for the Americas, World Tourism Organisation (WTO) in response to questions about the double bombing at the Boston marathon and reports that 50 tourists aboard a bus were robbed in St Lucia.
 KINGSTON. Jamaica - 'A dark night of the soul' is how National Security Minister Peter Bunting described what some are calling his meltdown in an unusually candid speech saying divine intervention was necessary to defeat crime in Jamaica.
KINGSTON. Jamaica - Leadership is often a difficult, lonely process that is not given to being franchised out.
But judging from her handling of the Richard Azan debacle, this is a concept that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller does not find opportune, at this time, to embrace. The PM, instead, uses her Cabinet as insulation.
KINGSTON. Jamaica - THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered its 2013 growth forecast for Jamaica, with the country now projected to grow by .5 per cent, down from the one per cent estimate in October 2012.
But the country's economy should strengthen in 2014, with real GDP growth of 1.2 per cent, according to the fund in its latest edition of the World Economic Outlook (WEO).
KINGSTON, Jamaica - OUR commendation goes to fellow columnist Sir Ronald Sanders for his insightful and descriptive piece on the Cariforum states and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU (Sunday Observer 7th April ).
KINGSTON, Jamaica - Britain will this week bury Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister who transformed her country, for better or worse.