Five dead in Clarendon crash

MAY PEN, Clarendon:

The police say speeding and improper overtaking contributed to the motor vehicle crash on the Dawkins Pen main road, Clarendon, yesterday, in which five persons were killed.

The police reported that a white Toyota Camry taxi which was travelling towards Hayes, New Town, overtook a line of traffic and collided with a Volvo motor truck owned by the Monymusk Sugar Company.

The driver of the taxi and all four passengers on board sustained serious injuries and were pronounced dead at the Lionel Town Hospital; while the driver of the truck was admitted in critical condition.

"Several persons have lost their lives at that spot over the years and it could be termed a black spot," said Corporal Owen Wright, head of traffic at the Lionel Town Police Station.

Cable licences up for grabs

The Broadcasting Commission has invited applications from companies interested in obtaining islandwide wireless cable licences, as it moves to increase the level of competition in the market.

According to the commission, applicants for the islandwide wireless licences must demonstrate that they have the financial, technical and management capacity to operate an islandwide service and to start the roll out of service within six months after being granted a licence.

Details of the application invitation may be viewed on the commission's website: www.broadcastingcommission.org or collected at the commission's offices: 5th Floor, Victoria Mutual Building, 53 Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston.

Alleged cop killers to return to court

The four persons charged with the murder of Assistant Commissioner of Police Gilbert Kameka are to return to the Home Circuit Court on June 27.

They are 26-year-old Massimassa Adams of Industry Village, 18-year-old Tyna Gaye McGowan of Mount Industry, 18-year-old Kemar Dawson of Standpipe and 21-year-old Rohan Townsend, of Irish Town, all in St Andrew.

Townsend was not taken to court yesterday and the judge ordered that he should be brought on June 27.

The 48-year-old assistant commissioner was shot dead in Irish Town on November 29 last year in an alleged robbery at a house.

Vaccination timetable change

The health ministry says it will be making changes to its national immunisation timetable in order to provide the full measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to children under six years.

The ministry says some children will be getting the second MMR vaccine earlier than scheduled.

Director of Family Health at the ministry, Dr Karen Lewis Bell, says the decision to implement the change follows the discovery of a local case of measles last month.

Call for new agri policy measures

Agriculture minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, has called for mitigation and climate change adaptation measures to be included in national agricultural policies and programmes.

Tufton was speaking in Rome, Italy, on Wednesday during a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation high-level conference dubbed - 'World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy'.