Detectives in Savanna-la-mar are busy trying to piece together clues which may help them to solve the murder of a taxi operator, whose body was found along the Llandilo main road in the vicinity of the Llandilo Phase 2 housing scheme. The man’s Grey Toyota Corolla motorcar was found burnt out in the nearby Walter Cheddisingh housing development.

According to reports, 30 year-old Claudius Atkinson left Savanna la mar with passengers, who reportedly chartered him to make a trip with them to a nightclub. What transpired after isn’t full known, however his lifeless body with several stab wounds was found at approximately 3a.m by a passing motorist. The police were called and the scene processed and body removed to the morgue.

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The Westmoreland Police are working overtime to solve the latest of five murders in a week to have occured in the parish. The latest victim is 75 year-old Darliston shopkeeper, Alvin Cunningham, who was robbed, stabbed and left to die by his attackers.

He was brutally slain early Monday night as he carried out his business operation. The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) reported that at about 7:30 p.m., a customer went to Mr. Cunningham’s shop where he was seen lying in a pool of blood. The police were called and upon investigations it was revealed that Mr. Cunningham’s throat and abdomen were slashed. He was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to his injuries along the way, his sister said. Hortense Fraser, Cunningham’s sister, described the ordeal as a crisis. She said life could not be any harder. “This is a hard crisis, it is very tough. It was just in 2007 that Alvin last his wife. Now seeing how they slaughtered him like a pig. They slit his throat and cut open his belly exposing his intestines. How much more wicked can man get,” she questioned.

Stunted by the member of one of their own early Saturday morning, residents of Seaton Crescent in Savanna la mar, along with their Councillor, Milton Miles, are seeking the intervention of the Peace Management Initiative (PMI), to help bring the protentially explosive situation under control.

“We are calling on the PMI to step in and help us salvage the community here. From time to time, several people have been killed and it has reached a stage where the residents see it fit to ask for help,” Miles said. His comments came only a few hours after gunmen invaded the community and shot three men who were playing poker in a lane about 1A.M on Saturday. One of the men died on the spot while the others were admitted to hospital in stable condition.

The dead man has been identified as 37 year-old Andrew Russell, otherwise known as ‘King Size’.

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You may not have known Angele Smith until his recent debut of the popular Digicel’s Rising Stars. Angele Smith grew up in the Savanna la mar Community called Seaton Cresent, where he attended the Savanna la mar Primary School and then moved on to the Savanna la mar Comprehensive High which was later changed to the now Known Godfrey Stewart High School.

Angele has been singing from the age of four through his mom and dad by getting him involved in music at church.

Presently Angele has been voted into the Top 10 of the competition. You can watch the Digicel’s Rising Stars Show every Sunday night at 8:30 pm on TVJ and vote for Angele Smith. Below is the performance of Angele Smith during the Tribute to Michael Jackson.
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DARLISTON, Westmoreland
The homicide tally in this police division now stands at 44 since the start of this year-20 less than the comparative period last year- following the murder of 75-year-old businessman Alvin Cunningham.

Cunningham of Bottom Darliston died on his way to the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital Monday night after he was found at his businessplace with stab wounds.

The police theorise that Cunningham, who was found with his throat slashed and a stab wound to his abdomen, was robbed of an undisclosed sum by unknown assailants.

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Three male juvenile detainees who escaped from the Frome Police Station lock-up on Sunday were still at large up to press time last night.

“We making every effort to recapture them but to date we have not been successful although we are following some useful leads, however we continue the efforts,” Superintendent Dezeita Taylor, Commander of the Westmoreland Police Division told the Observer West. The police are seeking the public’s assistance in their search for the three young fugitives, all of Westmoreland addresses.
They are:
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Last School term was described as a chance for “an exciting journey to transform Godfrey Stewart High School (GSH) into a model learning institution within five years”. The message to the students and parents in the 2008-2009 handbook published by the Savanna la mar, Westmoreland-based institution under new principal Theobold Fearon, highlighted the school’s philosophy of education, underpinned by the motto, “only the best is good enough”. “As an educational institution, we are committed to providing a high quality learning environment which promotes the best possible educational, social, cultural and recreational development of each student,” the message read.

The handbook outlines, among other things, a 23-point ‘School rules/regulations, sanctions and rewards’ that promise “individual students, groups, or entire classes… public acknowledgment at corporate devotions and other appropriate forums for their commendable deeds”.

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The hierarchy of both the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and the opposition People’s National Party (PNP) are planning to pull out all the stops to win the upcoming local government by-election in the Cornwall Mountain division.

“As you can see by the turnout that we have here, we are taking this by-election very, very seriously,” JLP general secretary Karl Samuda told the Observer West on Monday, shortly after the party’s candidate, Keith Barnes, was nominated to contest the seat which was vacated by the death of late PNP councillor, Michael Smith.

Samuda was referring to the large gathering of party supporters and members of the JLP’s executive, which included its chairman Dr Kenneth Baugh, deputy leaders Dr Horace Chang and James Robertson and agriculture minister Dr Christopher Tufton, who had gathered at the nomination centre at the Coke’s View Primary School in Whithorn to support Barnes’ candidacy.

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LOS ANGELES, California (AP) – Two weeks before he died, Michael Jackson wrapped up work on an elaborate production dubbed the Dome Project that could be the final finished video piece overseen by the King of Pop, The Associated Press has learned.

Details on the project are scarce. Two people with knowledge of the project confirmed its existence Monday to the AP on condition they not be identified because they signed confidentiality agreements.

They said it was a five-week project filmed at Culver Studios, which 70 years ago was the set for the classic film Gone With the Wind. Four sets were constructed for Jackson’s production, including a cemetery recalling his 1983 Thriller video.

Shooting for the project lasted from June 1-9, with Jackson on the set most days. Now in post-production, the project is expected to be completed next month.

Producer Robb Wagner, founder of music-video company Stimulated Inc, did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the project.

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