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At least 73 people died this week as Jamaican security forces stormed a Kingston slum and battled armed supporters of an alleged drug lord wanted for extradition to the United States, police said on Thursday. Residents complained of abuse and rights groups questioned whether police and soldiers had used excessive and indiscriminate force.

SNIPPET: "Over the past few weeks, in the aftermath of the Anwar al-Awlaki’s rise to mainstream media prominence, I’ve been asked by several journalists to identify and discuss the role of the influential ‘online celebrity shaykhs.’ At the top of my list of Western jihadist clerics has been a guy known as Shaykh Abdullah al-Faisal. Well, turns out, he’s not just at the top of my list. This Jamaican-born fire-breathing jihadist cleric whose spent time in UK prison for incitement to terrorism was just arrested in Mombasa, Kenya for preaching in Kenyan mosques."

SNIPPET: "Young Muslims in the U.S. are becoming radicalized in a new way: on the Internet. Radical clerics such as Abdullah Faisal are directing young Muslim men to take up violent jihad. Faisal, who recently set up shop in Jamaica, has alleged ties to terrorist plots around the world." SNIPPET: "Faisal is one of the best known radical clerics on the Internet today." SNIPPET: "Faisal, 46, is a Jamaican convert to Islam..." SNIPPET: "We met him at an American hotel in Montego Bay. It became clear later that the Jamaican staff all knew exactly who he was and were rattled...

Do gun bans really stop criminals from getting guns? Americans need not look no further than the massive gun battle with armed gangs fighting police and soldiers that took place in Kingston, Jamaica today. At least 30 people were killed in the fighting. It is a huge number for a small island nation of fewer than 3 million people, but unfortunately murder is so common in Jamaica that these murders won't even be noticed in the annual crime numbers. With Chicago's Mayor Daley again claiming that a gun ban is necessary to keep Chicagoans safe, Jamaica and other countries with...

KINGSTON, Jamaica,The Jamaican government Sunday declared a state of public emergency in the parishes of Kingston and St. Andrew in response to gang attacks on police stations. The attacks were carried out by supporters of Christopher Coke, a gang leader who is in hiding from authorities as he faces weapons and narcotics charges in the United States, The New York Times reported. Prime Minister Bruce Golding summoned an emergency meeting of the Cabinet Sunday afternoon on the advice of Jamaican security forces, and the Cabinet decided to declare the state of emergency, the government said in a statement posted on...

Jamaican authorities placed Kingston under a state of emergency and urged people to leave the city’s roughest neighbourhoods overnight, as police clashed with armed gangs over the possible extradition of a drug suspect to the United States. A police officer and a civilian were wounded by gunfire in street clashes and three police stations came under attack in the city, while women and children were told to evacuate. One police station was set ablaze after police abandoned it ran out of bullets, police said. Authorities alleged that gunmen from various communities across the Caribbean country of 2.8 million had joined...

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Jamaica's government declared a state of emergency in parts of its capital city Kingston Sunday after shooting and firebomb attacks on police stations by supporters of an alleged drug lord who faces extradition to the United States. The emergency covered the West Kingston and St. Andrews districts of the capital where gunmen fired on two police stations and set fire to another. At least one policeman was injured. Kingston police on Sunday urged Christopher "Dudus" Coke, who the government is seeking under a U.S. extradition request, even as tension grew behind barricades erected by his supporters to...

AWFUL GULLY, St James — The St James division of the Jamaica Fire Brigade has approached the St James police for forensic assistance to determine the cause of mysterious, sporadic outbreaks of fire, which have, since last Wednesday, been torching houses and furniture belonging to members of a family located here on a parcel of land. “We have not been able to determine the cause of the fires. We have asked the police to assist with their forensic technology,” a resident said. According to the man, who identified himself as Mr Doeman, firefighters have been summoned to battle the strange...

Note: The following text is a quote: March 10, 2010 Queens MS-13 gang leader sentenced to life in prison for racketeering and murder NEW YORK - The leader of a Queens chapter of the international street gang La Mara Salvatrucha, more commonly known as "MS-13," was sentenced March 10 to life imprisonment for racketeering conspiracy, including the acts of murder and attempted murder; murder in-aid-of-racketeering; and using a firearm in connection with a crime of violence. A federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Amilcar Gomez, 26, on April 3, 2009, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with...

(AP) — SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Caribbean islands battling drug-fueled crime had one of their bloodiest years on record in 2009, with Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico hitting or coming close to all-time highs for homicides. The violence reflects the drug trade's deep entrenchment in the region, with high murder rates becoming a fact of life at tourist havens that traffickers use as transit points for South American drugs bound for Europe and the United States. In countries including the Bahamas, which set a record with more than 82 slayings, officials say they are contending with turf battles...

FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, December 22, 2009, American Airlines Flight 331, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, overran the runway on landing at Kingston, Jamaica's Norman Manley International Airport. The flight originated out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, operated into Miami International Airport, and then operated into Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport. Preliminary reports indicate there are no critical injuries. The aircraft was carrying 148 passengers and a crew of six. "The care of our passengers and crew members is our highest priority and we will offer all the assistance necessary," said Gerard Arpey, American's Chairman...

Forty passengers were reported injured when an American Airlines plane crashed and broke in two after landing at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston shortly after 10:00 last night. "The injured passengers have been taken to the Kingston Public Hospital," Information Minister Daryl Vaz told the Observer. "There are no reports of fatalities." Vaz, Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry and National Security Minister Dwight Nelson were quick on the scene and engaged in a head count from the passenger manifest to determine if anyone was missing. An injured American Airlines flight 331 passenger is being pushed in a...

An American Airlines plane crashed and broke in two after landing at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to local reports. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Details were not immediately available, however, passengers on the plane told local media that flight 331 had just arrived from Miami in pouring rain when the accident occurred. The flight apparently originated in Washington, D.C.

Note: The following text is a quote: Former State Department Official and Wife Arrested for Serving as Illegal Agents of Cuba for Nearly 30 Years Couple Allegedly Conspired to Provide Classified Information to Cuban Government A former State Department official and his wife have been arrested on charges of serving as illegal agents of the Cuban government for nearly 30 years and conspiring to provide classified U.S. information to the Cuban government. The arrests were announced today by David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; Channing D. Phillips, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia; Joseph Persichini, Jr.,...

In 1965 the two nations were equal in wealth. Four decades later, their standing was dramatically different. What accounts for the difference? Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tel Aviv—the global hubs of entrepreneurial activity all bear the marks of government investment. Yet, for every successful public intervention spurring entrepreneurial activity, there are many failed efforts, wasting untold billions in taxpayer dollars. When has governmental sponsorship succeeded in boosting growth, and when has it fallen terribly short? Should the government be involved in such undertakings at all? These issues are particularly timely, given the many billions of dollars governments spend worldwide to prop...

Usain Bolt crossed the finish line, saw his record-setting time on the clock and spread his arms as if he were soaring like a bird. About all this guy can’t do is fly. And by saving his celebration until after the finish line this time, he showed how fast a man really can go on two feet. The Jamaican shattered the world record again Sunday, running 100 meters in 9.58 seconds at the world championships to turn his much-anticipated race against Tyson Gay into a one-man show. That was 0.11 seconds faster than the mark he set last year at...

Note: The following text is a quote: YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Warden Message: Increased Crime, Jamaica CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS Americas - Jamaica 7 Aug 2009 WARDEN MESSAGE: JAMAICA SECURITY CONCERNS U.S. Embassy Kingston issued the following Warden Message on August 7, 2009: The U.S. Embassy in Kingston is issuing this Warden Message to alert U.S. citizens in Jamaica to an increase in armed robbery, break-ins, and larceny on the island as a whole and, in particular, the New Kingston area in the capital. The Embassy also reminds U.S. citizens of the crime...

LONDON, July 31 (UPI) -- Letters from convicted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid from a super-max prison in the United States include lectures to his father about Islam and dreams of freedom. The Mirror, a British newspaper, reported that it had an exclusive look at Reid's letters to his father, Robin Reid, a Jamaican-born recovering drug addict living in a London homeless shelter. Reid berates his father for a letter telling him that his aunt, Madeleine, who brought Reid up while Robin Reid was in prison, had died and was "in a better place." "What you wrote about Aunt Lynn being...

One of the country's most-wanted men is now in custody in the United States after being arrested in Miami. St James gangster Omar Oneil Lewis, better known as 'King Evil', was held by members of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) team and the Lauderhill Police Department after an extensive investigation. King Evil was added to the local police most-wanted list after he was implicated in the June 2008 murder of Richard Reid in a nightclub in Montego Bay, St James. The 33-year-old is accused of stabbing Reid multiple times. He is also linked to several other violent...

I've mentioned Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) before, regarding his letter to President Obama, urging him to impose an executive order banning the importation of so-called "assault weapons." Here's Engel's justification for taking that course of action: Over 90% of firearms confiscated yearly in Mexico orginate in the United States. In other words, although the supposed exportation of firearms was cited as the problem, the banning of their importation was offered as the solution. Even ignoring that strange bit of "logic," a major problem with that idea (beyond, of course, the fact that criminal misuse of smuggled firearms in other countries...