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A young Coke Christopher 'Dudus' Coke Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter AS A young student at Ardenne High School in the mid-1980s, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke was his math teacher's delight. He was a quiet one who sat at the back of the class while turning out impressive homework and test grades. Coke, who attended Ardenne between 1981 and 1986, never willingly raised his hand to answer questions, and when he was called upon, he politely declined the teacher's behest. But test after test, he gradually became one of the math teacher's favourites, and he was ushered into a select group of students who were seen as math geniuses, and were specially prepared to sit the subject at the CXC level by fourth form. Coke and many of the others in the group were rewarded with grade one passes. Math was one of the few subjects that intrigued Coke. Religious education (RE) was the only other. The young man ...

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer SENIOR MEMBERS of the security team in Tivoli Gardens and its environs are contending that their efforts to restore order to the besieged area are being severely thwarted by strong countervailing forces that have been called in by the State to assist in the investigative process. The Sunday Gleaner was told that compact discs containing graphic images of victims, among other things, which were in the possession of senior security officials and turned over to a select group of persons, are being seen on hundreds of cellular phone screens, locally and internationally. A senior official, who asked that his identity be withheld, said he believed that a calculated plot had been hatched to disrupt the process by inciting already grief-stricken relatives, as well as ordinary Jamaicans, against the security operations . "The struggle to restore normality in the aftermath of the upheaval is as tough as the all-out combat with gu...

Jamaica's booming tourism industry has taken a hit as a result of four days of gun battles in a Kingston neighborhood where Christopher ``Dudus'' Coke, wanted for extradition by the United States on drug and weapons trafficking charges, based his operations. Since the Jamaican government declared a state of emergency in the area, some tourist hotels and resorts report a high number of cancellations, airlines have cancelled or rescheduled flights and the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory urging Americans to defer non-essential travel to Kingston. Based on traffic during the first three months of this year, Jamaica was poised to have its best tourism year on record. More than 500,000 foreigners traveled to Jamaica in the three-month period, a 9.2 percent increase over the same period a year ago. But the Ministry of Tourism says the country's resorts have had no new bookings since the siege began May 24, killing dozens of people in the Tiv...