Dancehall artiste Adijah Palmer, popularly called Vybz Kartel, who turned himself in to the police on June 29 after he, too, was asked to do so, will also be released.

Kartel’s release would allow him to perform at the Reggae Sumfest show next week and several other events.

But his attorney, Valerie Neita Robertson, is reporting that despite the signed order for the release of her client, up to late last evening, the St Catherine divisional command had given no indication that he would be released.

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Soldiers and police yesterday launched a bloody offensive on Tivoli Gardens where heavily armed thugs barricaded themselves to protect the mini-republic of a reputed crime overlord, causing street battles to ripple across Jamaica’s capital.

At least three members of the security forces have been slain in gunfights and 14 others injured in two days of wide-scale violence that has swept western Kingston and other areas where rogue alliances exist.

Up to press time last night, the Constabulary Communication Network reported that seven law-enforcement personnel were injured in the latest phase of operations. Six of the seven were shot, one succumbing to his injuries. That fatality was a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier.

One soldier was reportedly injured in an undeclared accident. A soldier reportedly lost a leg, The Gleaner also learnt.

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CRIMINAL gangs aligned to the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) in the Maxfield Avenue area of Whitfield Town are being paid up to $100,000 per day to join in the mounting unrest in the Corporate Area sparked by resistance to the security forces’ attempt to arrest Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.

According to men claiming to be members of the gangs, they are being paid by Coke, who is currently battling, in the Supreme Court, his pending extradition to the United States on drug- and gun-running charges.

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DAEGU, South Korea — Usain Bolt is set to make his season debut in the 100 metres tomorrow at the venue that will host next year’s world championships. The Jamaican sprinter, the Olympic gold medalist and world-record holder in the 100 and 200, says he expects to run a “very fast time” at the Daegu meet.

“I can test the field and run on the track, so I can determine what I should work on for next year,” Bolt said. It will be Bolt’s first 100 of the year after he skipped the opening Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, last week. He is due to run in Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Shanghai.

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A deeply apologetic Prime Minister Bruce Golding tonight announced that Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne will sign the authority for extradition proceedings to commence against Tivoli Gardens strongman Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke who is wanted by the United States to face gun- and drug-running charges.

n an address to the nation a short while ago, Golding begged the nation to forgive him for dragging out the extradition issue and for his involvement in the matter.

“The Minister of Justice will sign the authorisation for the extradition process to commence,” Golding said.

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PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland — Savanna-la-Mar’s mayor councillor Bertel Moore is seeking to have that seaside town twinned with a municipality in Cuba. ” Cuba is a big country and has local authorities like us in Jamaica, and I am asking the Cuban Ambassador (Yuri Gala Lopez) today to seek ways on how we can twin the town of Savanna-la- Mar with a local government authority in Cuba,” Moore said.

He argued that such a twinning relationship could be mutually beneficial to both countries. “There are best practices that we could share with each other. Maybe there is something in a local authority in Cuba that we are not doing in Jamaica and there maybe ways and things that we are doing here in Jamaica that they are not doing in Cuba, so we can share our best practices together,” the mayor explained.

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ONE of three men who engaged the police in a shoot out at Burnt Savannah in Westmoreland is now behind bars and facing a charges of breaches of the Firearms Act.

His identity is being withheld pending further investigations.

The Westmoreland police say about 5:45 pm they were conducting an operation in Burnt Savannah when they approached a house occupied by three men.

The men reportedly ran from the house and opened fire at the cops. The police say they returned the fire and one of the men was captured. He was searched and five 9mm cartridges found.

Police are seeking two men known to them only as ‘Franco’ and Bertie’ who can assist in their investigations.

[Source]

Reports are that deejay Ewart Brown, more popularly known as Mad Cobra, was last evening admitted to the Spanish Town hospital suffering from gun shot wounds.

Information, up to press time was sketchy, but one source close to the deejay said he was shot in the upper body, close to the shoulder. “Him get two shot in the shoulder and he’s at Spanish Town (hospital),” the source said.

Cobra is the second artiste in as many days to be shot.

Meanwhile, the condition of singer Oneil Edwards of the group Voicemail, was still listed as critical, as he battles for life at the Kingston Public Hospital.

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Oneil Edwards, one-third of the popular dancehall group, Voicemail, was reportedly shot multiple times at the gate to his house in Duhaney Park, Kingston, early this morning, and is now undergoing critical surgery at the Kingston Public Hospital. Unconfirmed reports indicate that robbery was the motive, and that he was shot at least once in the head.

Left-Right: Oneil, Kevin and Craig from Voicemail

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NEGRIL Westmoreland — CHAIRMAN of the Westmoreland Parish Council Bertel Moore is lamenting the poor state of the Emergency Services in the resort town of Negril.

According to Moore, who is also the People’s National Party councillor for the area, Negril has been without a functioning ambulance for almost one year.

“Next month will make it one year since Negril is without an ambulance and we have asked the TEF (Tourism Enhancement Fund) to provide us with one, but it is not forthcoming,” Moore told the Observer West yesterday.

He added that up to yesterday the town’s sole fire unit was still out of service.

“Just last week, a fire gutted a house on Nampriel Road which is less than a mile for the fire station. Units from other areas responded to the blaze but it was too late to save the building,” Moore noted.

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