May, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Jamaica’s gang violence a symptom of regional crisis
Toronto Star
Urban warfare in downtown Kingston has led some to refer to Jamaica as the next narco-state. Christopher (“Dudus”) Coke, the don whose requested extradition by the United States has triggered this furore, is being compared to Pablo Escobar, the Colombian drug cartel boss. The unofficial figure of 60 dead in four days (including two policemen and one soldier), and the pictures of pitched gun-battles in the barricaded streets of Tivoli Gardens between the Jamaican Defence Force and reputed members of the Shower Posse led by Coke are not reassuring.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
NATO misses another opportunity
Embassy
NATO foreign ministers met in Estonia last month, and the opportunity they missed was for a serious rethink of the presence of US nuclear weapons in Europe.