NEWS SHORTS

The Road Safety Unit in the Ministry of Transport and Mining is appealing to motorists to exercise caution for the rest of 2018.

The unit is reporting that there have been two road fatalities since the start of the year.

A private motor vehicle driver accounted for one death, while a motorcyclist accounted for the other. Hanover and St Catherine accounted for the two fatalities.

In 2016, there were 379 road fatalities, while 320 were reported for 2017.

The National Water Commission is advising customers in some sections of Clarendon served by the Croft Gate Relift Station that they will experience a disruption in their service, as the company will be carrying out maintenance pipeline works from Monday, January 8 to Tuesday, January 16.

Areas to be affected are Crofts Hill, Hickery, Comsie, Jericho, Burns, Ludlow, and Corner.

Central Clarendon Member of Parliament (MP), Mike Henry, has reacted with alarm at news that five persons were murdered in the parish on Tuesday in separate incidents.

In noting that none of the murders took place in the town of May Pen, Henry said that there appeared to be no respite from the high murder rate in the parish as a whole from last year.

Henry said that the police hierarchy in the parish needs to urgently get a grip on the spate of murders, "and begin to do what is now absolutely necessary to arrest the situation and bring the perpetrators to book for their wanton and utterly lawless actions."

The funeral for deputy CEO of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), Ian Boyne, will be held on Sunday, January 14, at the National Indoor Sports Centre in Kingston, beginning at 10 a.m.

Members of the public are invited to join in the celebration of the life of the veteran journalist and may view the body before, the start of the service from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m.

A condolence book will be opened, and the service will be streamed live on the JIS Facebook page and carried live on JNN.

His body will be interred at the Dovecot Memorial Park in St Catherine.

The proprietors of Jo Jo's Jerk Pit and More say that they have sought legal advice, following what they call misleading and unfair attacks.

The attacks arise from an incident that took place at their establishment last Thursday, and subsequent social media posts by the customer at the centre of the episode.

A disgruntled patron spoke about poor treatment at the popular Karaoke Night events held every Thursday at the Waterloo Road establishment.

Minister of Science Dr Andrew Wheatley yesterday urged local businesses, government agencies, and individuals alike to be vigilant in light of recent vulnerabilities found in microprocessors.

Dr Wheatley noted that the latest vulnerabilities, dubbed Spectre and Meltdown, which affect devices that use Intel, AMD, or ARM microchips/processors, must be taken very seriously, as they impact mobile devices, laptops, workstations, and servers.

The hardware highlights a microprocessor flaw that if exploited, could allow an attacker to gain access to sensitive data in ways previously unheard of.