In case you missed it, here are OBSERVER ONLINE’s top 10 stories for today:

1. Gov’t to abolish minimum business tax

The Government is to abolish the minimum business tax of $60,000 effective at the start of the new financial year on April 1.

2. Five J’cans at Howard University awarded scholarships

Five Jamaican students at Howard University are the recipients of the inaugural Jamaican Howard University Affinity Network (JHUAN) Scholarship.

3. Man arrested after cops find firearm in MoBay

The Montego Bay police have arrested one man in connection with the seizure of a firearm with a magazine containing 10 rounds of ammunition.

4. Reduction in Students’ Loan Bureau interest rates

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr Nigel Clarke today announced a lowering of interest rate for eligible borrowers with the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) effective at the start of the new financial year.

5. Uchence Gang leader’s girlfriend took baby on robbery

A former Uchence Wilson gang member this evening testified that the alleged gang leader’s girlfriend Chantol Gordon during a robbery in St Catherine carried her baby and went to collect the guns in the baby’s bag.

6. Gender parity at work only possible if men do more at home — UN

Progress towards gender parity at work has barely budged for the past quarter century, and will only speed up once men take on far more unpaid caregiving tasks, the UN said Thursday, on the eve of International Women’s Day.

7. Resources being provided to modernise JCF

The Government has signalled its commitment to the modernisation of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), by providing the force with resources it needs to solve crime and ultimately increase the safety of Jamaicans.

8. Jamaica is PATWA’s Destination of the Year

Jamaica was today presented with the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association’s (PATWA) International Travel Award for Destination of the Year, in Berlin, Germany.

9. Stronger coastal surveillance coming to prevent poaching, says Shaw

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Audley Shaw, says that stronger methods of coastal surveillance will be implemented, to mitigate poaching in Jamaican waters and protect the island’s fisheries.

10. Uchence Gang member used pawn shop to ditch stolen items

A former member of the Uchence Wilson gang today testified that he had visited a popular pawn shop in the Corporate Area about 30 times to sell items that were stolen by the gang from a number of robberies.