Reputed gang leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who eluded a bloody police offensive in his slum stronghold last month, has surrendered to authorities in Jamaica, local news media has reported.

Jamaica’s top policeman vowed today to capture the reputed underworld boss who escaped a bloody four-day assault on his slum stronghold amid growing claims that innocent people died during the fighting.

Jamaican security forces kicked down doors and arrested dozens of people in a bullet-strewn slum and said the death toll from four days of fighting sparked by the search for a reputed drug lord had risen to 73.

Police claimed a tenuous hold over the Jamaican slum stronghold of a wanted gang leader today, but only after fighting that left at least 48 people dead.

Thousands of police and soldiers stormed the Jamaican ghettos where reggae was born in search of a reputed drug kingpin wanted by the United States, intensifying a third day of street battles that have killed at least 30 people.

THOUSANDS of heavily armed police and soldiers continued an assault into the capital’s most violent downtown slums yesterday, scouring buildings for weapons and battling die-hard defenders of a powerful Jamaican gang leader sought by the US.

Thousands of heavily armed police and soldiers barged past barricades into Jamaica's most violent slums today, clashing with die-hard defenders of a gang leader sought by the US, leaving at least 30 people dead.

Jamaica has legalised casinos after a nearly year-long debate which drew fierce opposition from religious groups.

A senior Jamaican military officer said troops should be given more powers to help fight spiralling crime in the Caribbean country.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) tonight confirmed that five Jamaican athletes have tested positive for a banned substance.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding said his government will not be “bullied” by threats of a police strike, after leaders of the country’s rank-and-file police union hinted that officers may walk off the job this week to demand pay raises.

A WOULD-BE hijacker surrendered to the authorities yesterday after releasing the last of more than 180 hostages he seized hours earlier aboard a Canadian charter jet in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

A mentally ill gunman held six airline crew hostage today after forcing his way on to a jet at Jamaica’s Montego Bay airport.

A gunman hijacked a plane on the tarmac near Montego Bay in Jamaica and took crew members hostage, airline officials said today.

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has replaced three officials in a cabinet reshuffle, which included appointing the violence-wracked country’s third national security minister in less than two years.

Jamaica’s police chief has withdrawn his resignation and will remain leader of a department that faces corruption charges and a rise in killings.

Jamaica's Electoral Commission today postponed the nation's August 27 general elections until an assessment of damage from Hurricane Dean is completed.