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(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...

WASHINGTON (AFP)--The United States risks losing influence to China because it is too slow to deliver aid to needy nations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday. Speaking to a congressional committee, Clinton cited the example of an emergency deal signed by China last month to help bail Jamaica out of its financial crisis. "They (Jamaica) have just signed a memorandum of understanding with China...and now they have got a government-to-government relationship with China," Clinton said. "We have to be sure we have in place the safeguards so that the money goes where we intend it to go," Clinton told...

Just two days after US President Barack Hussein Obama shared a controversial and landmark handshake with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez at the Summit of the Americas, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released a study analyzing the flowering alliance between the increasingly anti-Western Latin America and the virulently anti-Israel Iran. The study was conducted at the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Center (IICC), a non-governmental organization dedicated to Israeli intelligence and terrorism issues. According to the study, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is using anti-Western Hugo Chavez as a springboard into several Latin American countries, such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, and...

<p>CNN) -- Passengers were reportedly taken hostage on a charter flight at a Jamaican airport.</p> <p>They were boarding the CanJet flight from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay to Halifax, Canada, late Sunday when the security breach occurred, said Elizabeth Scotton, a spokeswoman for the company that manages the airport.</p>

An ice bridge linking a shelf of ice the size of Jamaica to two islands in Antarctica has snapped. Scientists say the collapse could mean the Wilkins Ice Shelf is on the brink of breaking away, and provides further evidence or rapid change in the region. Sited on the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula, the Wilkins shelf has been retreating since the 1990s. Researchers regarded the ice bridge as an important barrier, holding the remnant shelf structure in place.

As the debate continues on proposals to legalise Abortion and introduce a Termination of Pregnancy Act, legislators have been exposed to a gamut of arguments and numerous warnings about the predicament such a decision could create, not the least of which were those brought to fore last week. HO LUNG ... we must not do what is wrong for the sake of money THE missionaries begged, cajoled and even sang in a bid to sway the members of the Joint Select Committee of Parliament contemplating proposals to legalise abortion. The group, which appeared before the committee last Thursday, also had...

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has vowed to keep Jamaica's anti-sodomy law on the books, regardless of criticism from gay rights advocates. Golding told Parliament on Tuesday that gay rights advocates are ''perhaps the most organized lobby in the world'' and he vowed to preserve the country's 145-year-old anti-sodomy law that prohibits sexual acts between men. He says his administration will not ''liberalize the laws'' in the face of criticism from any international groups. Human Rights Watch has been urging Golding to repeal the anti-sodomy law. Earlier this year, Golding came under fire for saying he would not allow gays in...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaican regulators say they are forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence over the airwaves. The new rules from the island's broadcast commission ban any song or music video that depicts sexual acts or glorifies gun violence, murder, rape or arson. The Saturday announcement follows a Feb. 6 ban that specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting "daggering" — a dance style popular among Jamaican youth that features pelvic grinding simulating sex.

Father Richard Ho Lung of Missionaries of the Poor and Father Gregory Ramkissoon of the Mustard Seed Communities walk out of Parliament yesterday. They expressed dissatisfaction with the poor attendance of members of the abortion policy review committee. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer ANGERED BY the tardiness and frequent absence of members of the abortion policy review committee, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church yesterday boycotted the sitting, refusing to make their presentation to only five members who showed up.At 10 a.m. when the meeting was scheduled to begin, only committee chairman Rudyard Spencer was present, followed by Hyacinth Bennett...

Firearm Licensing Authority boss rejects calls to arm the nation KARYL WALKER, Crime/court co-ordinator walkerk@jamaicaobserver.com Thursday, January 29, 2009 CHAIRMAN of the Firearms Licensing Authority Errol Strong has rejected calls from gun rights lobbyists and members of the public who have been clamouring for Government to relax legislation to allow all law-abiding citizens easier access to owning firearms. According to Strong, with Jamaica's high propensity for violence, the move could backfire with devastating results. "In the context of the Jamaican experience, the right for everybody to own a gun could have profound consequences. Quite often attacks on licensed firearm holders...