P J Patterson

As the fiercest Caribbean hurricane in a decade churned straight toward Jamaica on Thursday, authorities in storm-weary Florida ordered the complete evacuation of the Keys, where Ivan could strike next week. Spinning off winds of 150 mph, Ivan weakened to a Category 4 storm after 12 hours as a Category 5 -- the maximum hurricane intensity rating.

As Marines in Humvees began patrolling this capital, rebel leader Guy Philippe declared his mission accomplished Wednesday and said his forces would lay down their arms now that Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had fled into exile. More than 2,000 soldiers from nations including the United States, France, Canada and Chile have arrived in Haiti since Aristide left the country Sunday, but Port-au-Prince has continued to be plagued by looting, destruction and revenge killings.

With oil prices near record highs and a U.S.-backed free-trade pact for the Western Hemisphere on hold, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is offering cash-strapped Caribbean countries affordable fuel, debt relief and anti-poverty funding. Thirteen countries have signed on to Chavez's PetroCaribe initiative, which some leaders say is an attempt by the Venezuelan populist to boost his influence in a region where his nemesis, the United States, has long been the main trading partner.

Hurricane Ivan crashed into Jamaica late Friday, inundating coastal areas with two-story-high breakers after government appeals went unheeded by most of the 500,000 residents urged to evacuate. Only about 2,000 Jamaicans had taken cover in public shelters when the Category 4 hurricane, packing sustained winds of up to 155, mph raged into eastern Jamaica 10 hours later than forecast, slowed but not weakened on its path toward the southeastern United States.

Once again, he is in exile, surrounded by a handful of true believers: his wife, his young daughters, his brother-in-law, a bodyguard. Less than a month ago, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was president of Haiti. Then he stepped on a plane, placing his fate in the hands of others, traveling to Africa and now back to the Caribbean. When allowed to speak, he first denounced the United States for staging a "coup d'etat," then said the Americans had tricked him into leaving.

A Rastafarian group spent months making the weapons of a cultural crusade--1,200 brooms to symbolically whisk the sex and violence of American gangsta rap out of the pure "One Love" of Jamaican reggae. Meanwhile, reggae stars toiled in the studios of this violent capital, churning out new titles: "Unconditional Love," "Walk Away From Trouble" and "People Unite." Last month, Gary Himelfarb, the Washington-based record promoter who goes by the name Dr.

Poor, young and idle, Randall Dixon was one of the usual suspects when Det. Cpl. Phillip Gordon ended up dead in a chaotic firefight between four bank robbers and four policemen. Despite witness testimony that Dixon wasn't involved in the 1996 Western Union Bank robbery, he was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to die by hanging.