JAMAICA: Grammy nominee Buju Banton arrested on marijuana charges

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Grammy nominee Buju Banton, the reggae singer who angered gay rights groups in the United States several years ago, was arrested and charged with marijuana possession.

Meanwhile, Banton's "Friends for Life" album was nominated Thursday for best reggae album at the 46th annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on Feb. 8 at the Staples Center arena in Los Angeles.

Police were conducting routine anti-drug raids in Jamaica's capital Wednesday night and officers found 30 fully-grown marijuana plants in the entertainer's home, authorities said.

Banton, 31, who is Rastafarian, told police that he smokes marijuana for inspirational purposes, officials said. He could not be reached and his manager Donovan Germain declined comment.

Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, was arrested and later freed on his own recognizance, police said. He is scheduled to appear in Magistrate's Court on Monday.
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TROPICAL WEATHER: Odette forms in Caribbean Sea
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Tropical Storm Odette formed in the western Caribbean Sea Thursday, kicking up heavy rain and strong gusts as it pushed toward Haiti, forecasters said.

Odette is the first tropical storm ever to form in that region in the month of December, and comes four days after the official end of the 2003 hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

"It is extremely unusual," hurricane specialist Jack Beven said. "There has never been a tropical storm that formed in the western Caribbean ever in December."

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Jamaica and Haiti, while storm watches were in effect for the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands.

Odette packed sustained winds near 40 mph (64 kph), and is expected to strengthen slightly in the next 24 hours, forecasters said.

The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ended Nov. 30.
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Jamaica is such a beloved place that despite all the bad stats and attendant bad publicity, tourists are still pouring in.
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{{OCHO RIOS, St Ann -- Orest Olchowyj, accompanied by his wife Maria, became the one-millionth cruise ship passenger to visit the island since the start of the year when they disembarked the world's largest cruise ship, the Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas, at the Ocho Rios pier yesterday morning.}}

www.jamaicaobserver.com/n..._FETED.asp
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Faker, Faker, Bullsheet baker!

www.washingtonpost.com/wp...3Dec3.html

{{President Bush's Baghdad turkey was for looking, not for eating.

In the most widely published image from his Thanksgiving day trip to Baghdad, the beaming president is wearing an Army workout jacket and surrounded by soldiers as he cradles a huge platter laden with a golden-brown turkey.

The bird is so perfect it looks as if it came from a food magazine, with bunches of grapes and other trimmings completing a Norman Rockwell image that evokes bounty and security in one of the most dangerous parts of the world.

But as a small sign of the many ways the White House maximized the impact of the 21/2-hour stop at the Baghdad airport, administration officials said yesterday that Bush picked up a decoration, not a serving plate.}}