标签： Jamaica

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — In a shocking case that has sent waves through the online music community, 21-year-old internet-famous singer David Anthony Burke, professionally known as D4vd, has been formally charged with the murder and dismemberment of a 15-year-old California girl. The teen’s decomposing body was discovered inside an abandoned Tesla parked in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles County prosecutors confirmed Monday.

Commuters traveling through the busy Old Hope Road, Munroe Road, and Liguanea corridor in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital, are bracing for at least six more weeks of significant traffic congestion as the National Water Commission (NWC) advances a billion-dollar water and sewerage modernization project across the area. The $1.2 billion initiative, which includes replacing aging potable water mains and laying entirely new sewer infrastructure, is designed to deliver long-term transformative benefits for local residents, according to government officials who are urging the public to bear with short-term inconveniences.

During an on-site press tour of active work zones along Munroe Road and Wellington Drive, Matthew Samuda, Jamaica’s minister with oversight for water, acknowledged that peak-hour commuters already face extended travel delays along the route. However, he pushed back against widespread claims that the NWC project was the sole cause of the severe gridlock that locked down portions of Kingston’s Corporate Area last Friday, which left motorists stuck for hours on trips that typically take minutes between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Samuda attributed last week’s crippling traffic to a confluence of multiple unrelated factors, starting with heavy overnight and daytime rainfall that left three major gullies impassable for many vehicles. He added that two separate ongoing construction projects, one at the base of Red Hills Road and another near Maxfield Avenue, also contributed heavily to the systemic backup. While Samuda confirmed that the NWC’s water infrastructure work does add to regional congestion around Wellington Drive, Munroe Road, and Seymour Avenue, he emphasized it was not the primary driver of Friday’s standstill.

In response to growing public frustration over extended delays, senior government and NWC leaders conducted the weekend site inspection to verify project timelines and confirm that work is advancing to minimize disruptions for both local residents and through commuters. According to Samuda, the overall project remains on track, with all current construction phases on schedule for completion by September 2025, matching the original timeline set when ground broke in May 2025. He acknowledged that some level of travel disruption and local inconvenience will persist through the end of the project timeline, but noted that work has progressed as smoothly as possible given the massive scope of overhauling the area’s entire water and sewage distribution network.

Commuters will see tangible relief from congestion along the Munroe Road corridor as early as the end of May, Samuda confirmed. By that date, the NWC plans to fully repave the Munroe Road work zone, complete pressure testing for new water lines, connect all new infrastructure to the regional network, and shift construction crews to other phases of the project. To speed completion without unnecessarily disturbing nearby residents, the NWC has already shifted non-intrusive work to overnight shifts where possible, and will expand this practice over the next month when conditions allow. Samuda explained that loud, disruptive work like heavy digging and trenching will not be moved to nights out of respect for local residents’ sleep, but the agency will target public holidays for intensive work, when regional traffic volumes are far lower and full road closures can be done with minimal broader disruption.

Kevin Kerr, the NWC’s acting president, backed Samuda’s end-of-May timeline for the Munroe Road segment, calling the deadline entirely achievable. “We have heard the public’s concerns loud and clear, and we are here today to provide clear updates and transparency around this project,” Kerr told reporters during the tour. “What we are doing will drastically improve water and sewer services for our customers, and we recognize that the next six months will bring continued discomfort. We will share regular schedule updates across all our public platforms to keep commuters informed, and we remain committed to completing the Munroe Road segment by the end of May with high-quality road restoration.”

Project engineer Gary Walters acknowledged that construction on Munroe Road has faced unexpected challenges, specifically unusually hard rock formations in the sub-surface that required specialized excavation equipment and slowed progress temporarily. Even with this unforeseen hurdle, Walters confirmed the project remains on schedule and the team will meet the end-of-May deadline for the corridor.

Beyond improved water service, the project carries major long-term environmental and public health benefits, Samuda reiterated, a core priority he highlighted when the initiative launched last year. Outdated, failing sewer systems and widespread unregulated backyard septic pits have contaminated local groundwater supplies, leaving multiple productive wells in the area unusable due to dangerously high nitrate levels. Once complete, the new sewer infrastructure will eliminate this contamination, unlocking these critical local water sources for future use.

The press tour marked the latest government effort to address public concerns over the construction impacts, with leadership emphasizing that short-term disruptions will lay the groundwork for more reliable, sustainable water and sewer services for the Kingston corridor for decades to come.

It has been 16 weeks since Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica’s Westmoreland parish, leaving a trail of destroyed homes and damaged infrastructure in its wake. Today, hundreds of residents remain trapped in a prolonged state of displacement, their dwellings still capped by makeshift tarpaulin roofs—some frayed by months of harsh tropical weather, others newly placed after failures, all standing as quiet markers of a glacial recovery process. For most homeowners waiting to fully repair their properties, the path to reconstruction is blocked by two common bottlenecks: delayed insurance settlements and slow disbursement of government relief funding. But an unforeseen barrier has emerged as the most frustrating obstacle for many: restricted access to building materials through the island’s flagship relief scheme, the Restoration of Owner or Occupant Family Shelters (ROOFS) Programme.

Designed to deliver targeted financial assistance via vouchers to homeowners based on the assessed level of damage to their properties—categorized as minor, major, or severe—the initiative has been thrown into chaos by growing allegations of opaque and potentially biased supplier selection. Local residents and business owners alike are raising alarms that political patronage may be shaping which hardware stores are approved to participate in the programme. This screening process has locked out multiple well-stocked, locally established suppliers, creating a crippling imbalance across the parish’s construction supply market: approved vendors are overwhelmed by demand and facing crippling stock shortages, while non-participating outlets sit with full inventories but cannot accept the government vouchers that most recovery-dependent residents rely on.

One of the largest excluded suppliers is Clarke’s Hardware, a decades-old staple serving communities across western Jamaica and based in George’s Plain. Owner Lorna Clarke told reporters that her team took proactive steps well in advance to ramp up inventory ahead of the post-hurricane construction boom, diversifying their supplier network to avoid the shortages plaguing other businesses. “We have different suppliers, so we don’t have that problem. If one has none, we contact the next,” Clarke explained to the Jamaica Observer. Despite having consistent stock of all required building materials, Clarke’s has been locked out of the programme, leaving both the business and its long-term customers strained.

Clarke, who has been working nonstop since the hurricane to both serve customers and repair her own storm-damaged home, says that the exclusion has left local residents deeply frustrated. Many of her regular customers must now travel long distances to reach the nearest approved vendor, only to find that those outlets have no materials in stock. “When they go to those locations they are not getting through because they have no supplies. They have to be checking all over,” she said. What makes the exclusion even more confounding, Clarke argues, is that her business is equipped to deliver materials to remote, hard-to-reach communities across Hanover, Bluefields, Beeston Spring and other areas where access to construction supplies is already limited. The lack of access to a nearby well-stocked supplier has pushed some residents to drain personal savings to pay for materials out of pocket. Shauna-kay Malcolm, a registered farmer, told reporters she opted to use her own cash at non-approved Nepaul’s Hardware in Savanna-la-Mar rather than wait for relief, while other customers reported no delays getting materials from the same non-participating outlet.

Central Westmoreland Member of Parliament Dwayne Vaz has pushed back against claims that his office influenced the selection of participating vendors, placing full responsibility for the list with the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. “The choices were made directly from the Ministry, I had nothing to do with it,” Vaz contended, noting that he has directed excluded suppliers to the ministry, and several have been added to the programme after reaching out directly to Minister Pearnel Charles Jr. Even so, Vaz acknowledges that the current supplier list is deeply flawed, forcing residents to travel excessive distances to redeem their vouchers and driving up delivery costs unnecessarily. He also highlighted a second critical flaw in the programme’s implementation: once a voucher is scanned at an approved vendor that lacks stock, the full balance is deducted immediately, leaving residents unable to use the voucher at any other location even while they wait weeks for materials to arrive.

For local residents like Angela Green of Georges Plain, the logistical failures add unnecessary cost and delay to an already stressful recovery. Green told the Sunday Observer that she is forced to travel five miles to Savanna-la-Mar or 52 miles to Retreat to redeem her voucher, while Clarke’s Hardware—her closest local option—sits just three miles from her home, fully stocked and unable to accept her voucher. As weeks stretch into months with tarpaulins still covering damaged roofs and residents waiting for materials to rebuild, a growing sense of abandonment has taken hold across the parish.

Calls are now mounting from community stakeholders and residents for urgent intervention, including greater transparency in supplier selection and independent oversight of the ROOFS programme. Stakeholders argue that government officials need to conduct on-the-ground assessments to adjust the supplier list to match local needs, noting that the controversy is not just about access to construction materials. For the hundreds of Westmoreland families still waiting to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Melissa, the crisis is also a test of fairness, efficiency, and the government’s commitment to ensuring relief reaches the communities that need it most.

In St James, Jamaica, law enforcement officials have published a composite drawing of a suspect linked to a deadly shooting that unfolded earlier this month in the parish’s Somerton District. The fatal attack, which claimed the life of a local auto mechanic, took place on March 5 at a residence on Easy Street in the Bullock Heights neighborhood.

The victim has been formally identified as Rohan Green, who was also known by two local nicknames: ‘Blacks’ and ‘Ockra Bud’. Green worked as an auto repairman and resided at the Easy Street address where the incident occurred.

According to official statements from the Adelphi Police Division, the violence broke out at approximately 11:25 a.m. that Thursday. Green was in the process of repairing vehicles at his home when he was suddenly ambushed by one or more unknown attackers. The assailants opened fire multiple times, striking Green before they fled the scene quickly to avoid capture.

Local residents immediately alerted police to the shooting. When first responders and investigators arrived at the location, they found Green lying motionless on the ground. He had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his upper torso and head, which proved fatal.

Investigators have since worked to build a clearer picture of the attacker, using detailed witness descriptions to generate the official composite sketch now released to the public. St James police are now launching a public appeal for information to help move the case forward.

Authorities are asking any member of the public who has details related to the murder, the suspect’s identity, or the events of March 5 that could assist the investigation to reach out to law enforcement immediately. Tips can be submitted anonymously or directly through several contact channels: the Montego Bay Criminal Investigations Branch (CIB) at 876-953-6191, the independent Crime Stop hotline at 311, the national 119 police emergency line, or any nearby local police station.