A record number of tourists are expected to visit Jamaica this winter despite the country’s struggle with crime, a tourism official said.

Jamaica has begun to study the possibilities of extracting titanium, a metallic substance used in the manufacture of strong, lightweight alloys, from red mud, the effluent left when bauxite is refined into alumina.

The government of Jamaica is placing more emphasis on renewable energy in 2007 to reduce its national oil import bill which passed the US 1.5 billion mark this year. And as part of this effort it is privatising the Wigton windfarm in Manchester. Ruth Potopsingh, group Managing Director of the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica the state agency that owns Wigton, says since the facility opened in 2004 there has been interest from several potential buyers, both local and international.

Two scientists will present research findings today showing that a pair of endemic Jamaican plants can help cure five cancers, potentially giving the country a lucrative share of the global chemotherapy drug market.