St Elizabeth students charged in alleged school beating as Shrewsbury officers cleared in 2013 triple killing

Police have charged four St Elizabeth Technical High School pupils—two aged 14, one 13, and one 16—with assault occasioning bodily harm after a 15-year-old schoolmate was allegedly beaten on the Santa Cruz compound between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 6 May; enquiries continue.

Constables Demain Campbell and Kenroy Hines walked free at the Home Circuit Court on Wednesday when the judge upheld no-case submissions in a month-long trial over a 15 March 2013 Shrewsbury, Westmoreland operation. Officers said they traded gunfire while hunting armed men, killing Andrew Brighten, Tristan Brighten, and Kingsley Green, and reported seizing a high-powered rifle and a handgun. Villagers protested, claiming unlawful killing; Independent Commission of Investigations approval led the Director of Public Prosecutions to charge the lawmen.

In the Land of Leisure Housing Scheme, Farm Pen, police seized 22 cartons of unaccustomed cigarettes and a Remington shotgun around 5:20 a.m. Monday and on Wednesday charged hairdresser Naduskia Manning, 44, with possession of the goods while her daughter faces a prohibited-weapon count.

Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation members are debating civic renamings; Union Pen councillor Andrew Harris endorsed switching Seaview Gardens' Wintchman Road to Rodney Price Drive to honour deejay Bounty Killer.

Westmoreland Red Cross, police, and fire crews staged World Red Cross weekend outreach for Hurricane Melissa survivors, offering phones, internet, food, and kits, Fieda Campbell reported.

Woodville residents, after protesting a collapsed bridge, again press authorities to fix crumbling roads. Eastern Hanover Member of Parliament Andrea Perkison says she has asked Transport and Works Minister Robert Morgan to tour the area.

A Monday United Nations Development Programme-linked V-Dem study ranks Jamaica and Barbados above the Latin American average on democratic stability, citing scores from 0.75 to 0.82 since the 1990s.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management acknowledges an Auditor General report that only about $26 million of roughly $1.44 billion donated for Melissa relief has so far been spent and that the agency lacked clear expenditure plans; a Wednesday statement repeats that "All relief resources placed under its stewardship are managed transparently and responsibly," and cites inventoried roofing material plus tighter stock controls.

Gabrielle Gilpin-Hudson, Realtors Association of Jamaica president, welcomes renewed work on the former Wyndham Kingston but cautions that corporate-area hotel demand is seasonal, short-term rentals compete for guests, and policy should cluster visitor accommodation to spread economic benefits.

Health agencies tally eleven hantavirus infections linked to the Hondius cruise outbreak, three fatal; in France one patient stays critical while twenty-two watched contacts tested negative and regulators insist wider public risk stays low.