What began as a simple attempt to pick ackees ended in catastrophe. Electrocuted by overhead power lines in Portmore, St Catherine, last January, Chace Singh lost both hands and feet and now needs $10 million to piece together a life altered in...
WESTERN BUREAU: Three months after Hurricane Melissa forced its closure, Princess Resorts Jamaica in Hanover has reopened, bringing 1,000 staff back to work and restoring confidence among local travel agents, who are already booking major...
WESTERN BUREAU: In the days after Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica, the country fractured. Roads disappeared, communities were cut off, and families sheltered in damaged buildings, waiting for water, power, or word that help was coming. In...
WESTERN BUREAU: At 70, blindness left him unable to rebuild; at 84, his brother could only wait. When Hurricane Melissa destroyed their home in Bunkers Hill, Trelawny, the Reid brothers – alongside a widowed mother of five – were left homeless,...
WESTERN BUREAU: Defending champion Brandon Kerr overcame both the clock and hurricane setbacks to win the men’s 5K at the Kiwanis Club of Providence – Montego Bay’s 15th Anniversary Breast Cancer Awareness Run, Walk and Wheelchair, held Sunday at...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s tourism sector entered 2025 with confidence, but by year’s end, the numbers told a more complicated story. For the period January to November, the island welcomed approximately 3.69 million visitors, including both...
WESTERN BUREAU: Her election as the first black woman and first Caribbean national to head the 110-year-old Kiwanis International service organisation is already inspiring renewed confidence, leadership ambition, and service across the region. When...
WESTERN BUREAU: As Montego Bay recovers from Hurricane Melissa, recording artiste Mitsy ‘Shuga’ Campbell is using music to help reposition the tourism capital, unveiling her remake of Bobby Bloom’s classic, Montego Bay. While the song was recorded...
WESTERN BUREAU: On Wednesday, when Jamaican-born educator Kamar Samuels was appointed chancellor of New York City public schools by Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani, the decision placed him at the helm of the largest public school system in the United...
WESTERN BUREAU: As 2025 draws to a close, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says Jamaica’s tourism sector is staging a strong and confidence-boosting recovery just weeks after the island was battered by Hurricane Melissa. Two months after the storm...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica has received more than US$3 million (J$486 million) in critical medical and humanitarian supplies over the past week as international partners intensify support for the country’s post-Hurricane Melissa recovery. The...
WESTERN BUREAU: Just days after Hurricane Melissa battered Jamaica’s tourism sector, German tour operator Alltours made an unexpected decision: to launch Jamaica anyway, insisting that pulling back would only deepen the hardship facing tourism...
WESTERN BUREAU: The Government has committed J$600 million to help displaced tourism workers repair and rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Melissa as part of a broader public-private recovery programme now expected to exceed J$2 billion. Tourism...
WESTERN BUREAU: She could not run when Hurricane Melissa tore apart the tiny house in Springfield, St Elizabeth. The disabled daughter survived, but her mother and two uncles, inseparable siblings who spent decades living together, did not. Their...
WESTERN BUREAU: Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness says the topping out of Tower One at The Pinnacle marks a major step forward for Jamaica’s tourism diversification strategy. However, he insists that luxury development must go hand-in-hand with...
WESTERN BUREAU: A crippled man in Hertford, Westmoreland, a father and his two sons in Black River, St Elizabeth, and a woman living in the open air in Petersfield are among the first recipients of the studio homes being built under the S for...
WESTERN BUREAU: Sandals Resorts International will invest more than US$120 million ($19 billion) to rebuild and transform its two flagship Montego Bay properties part of a broader strategy that includes the long-awaited completion of Beaches...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica is set to welcome a wave of new international flights this winter and into 2026, a clear signal that global confidence in the island’s tourism product remains strong despite the disruption caused by Hurricane Melissa. That...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s Director of Tourism Donovan White has assured more than 250 visiting travel advisers that the country’s tourism recovery is accelerating faster than anticipated, revealing that 80 per cent of the island’s room stock will...
WESTERN BUREAU: Western Jamaica’s health sector has received a critical boost with the arrival of China’s Navy hospital ship Ark Silk Road, which began a three-day medical mission in Montego Bay, St James, on Thursday before it heads to Falmouth...
WESTERN BUREAU: Five weeks after Hurricane Melissa tore through western Jamaica, Round Hill Hotel and Villas is preparing to reopen its doors, but not before first rebuilding something far more fragile than walls, roofs or landscaping. The luxury...
WESTERN BUREAU: With the winter tourist season set to open on December 15, Montego Bay’s major resorts and attractions are accelerating their final recovery efforts following Hurricane Melissa. Among the properties already at full operational...
WESTERN BUREAU: Jamaica’s arrival numbers remain sharply down three weeks after Hurricane Melissa battered the island, leaving thousands of hotel rooms offline until well into 2026. But on Monday, a small yet symbolic victory touched down at...
WESTERN BUREAU: Some love stories rush, but this one ripened slowly. Years of easy friendship blossomed into a deep, unexpected devotion, culminating in a tender seaside celebration where Jordine McKenzie and Jevaughn Gaynor finally stepped into...
On his 68th birthday, Roderick ‘Latty’ Brissett felt only a little feverish. By the fourth day, the man who seldom got sick slipped away, taken by leptospirosis after the storm. Brissett ran every morning. Even as a sexagenarian, he woke before...
