JUST over 79,000 unused spaces are available in the island's public schools, Education Minister Ronald Thwaites revealed yesterday.

SUPREME Ventures, the island's largest gaming company, doles out at least one billion dollars annually to the Culture Health Arts Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund.

Senator Floyd Emerson Morris continued his climb up the ladder of history on May 17, 2013 when he was sworn in as the first blind president of the Jamaican Senate. The extraordinary story of the life of Floyd Morris and his dizzying rise from quiet Bailey's Vale, St Mary, to the heights of power in the Jamaican Parliament, was told in the award-winning Desmond Allen Interviews written in November 2004. Read on and be amazed:

LONDON, England (AFP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron faced deepening splits within his Conservative Party yesterday as a divisive bill to legalise gay marriage returned to parliament.

Panama City, Panama — A police officer stand guard near packages of cocaine stacked in rows in Panama City, yesterday. According to authorities, police seized more than 2.4 tons of cocaine at Colon province on Panama's Atlantic coast and arrested one Honduran citizen during a Friday, May 17 night operation. (Photo:AP)

THE Jamaica Public Service says it will be investing more than

SUPREME Ventures, the island's largest gaming company, doles out at least one billion dollars annually to the Culture Health Arts Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund.

Yes, he is a coward, he is supposed to set an example... running away because times are hard, sends the wrong message. Whatever happened to patriotism?

GOVERNMENT backbencher Mikael Phillips wants the Ministry of Education to accelerate the placement of trained teachers in basic schools.

TRANSJAMAICAN Highway Limited says it is finding it difficult to keep up with the frequency of breaches and theft of its fencing along Highway 2000.

National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited (NCB) executives last Friday — dubbed 'Wear Red Day' — supported the Heart Foundation of Jamaica's mission to educate Jamaican women about their risk for heart disease. Here, Nadeen Matthews (left), senior assistant general manager for strategy, marketing and communications, looks on with approval as Belinda Williams, manager for group public relations & corporate affairs, positions the foundation's 'Red Dress' pin on the lapel of NCB's group managing Director Patrick Hylton.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

Students of Grafeful Hill Primary in St Catherine, apparently unconcerned about a protest at the school earlier yesterday, play outside a classroom after demonstrators left. Residents earlier padlocked the gate of the school to protest against plans to have the principal transferred. There were, however, a few who said the principal should go.

APPLIANCE Traders Limited (ATL) Chairman Gordon 'Butch' Stewart had taken steps to reverse funds credited to his account from the alleged unauthorised surplus distribution, the court was told yesterday during the fraud trial of three former ATL executives.

FORTY small farmers from the parishes of St Mary and St Thomas recently participated in a $30-million European Union (EU) funded Economic Diversification Programme, in which they were provided with the necessary materials, training, and technical support to enable their engagement in alternative agricultural activities.

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) — President Barack Obama will meet President Xi Jinping in California in June, for the first time since the new Chinese leader fully assumed his official functions, the White House said yesterday.

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) — A gunman stormed into a bank in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba yesterday, killing four people in a gunfight and taking a hostage before killing himself, police said.

NASSAU, Bahamas - Head coach Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore is not seeking to fool anyone or himself about the true nature of what lies ahead in the triple-bill of World Cup qualifying matches coming up in June.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s opposition on Monday released an audio recording that it said contains a prominent member of the ruling party discussing political strategy with a Cuban intelligence officer.

MOORE, Oklahoma (AP) — The Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office says 37 people have been killed by a tornado that hit suburban Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon.