CARIBBEAN

GUNMEN ATTACK JUSTICE MINISTER’S HOUSE, KILL POLICEMAN

Gunmen opened fire on the house of Haiti’s justice minister, killing a police officer in a brazen attack that underscored the country’s shaky security climate ahead of key fall elections, officials said yesterday.

The Tuesday night shooting in Port-au-Prince came days after U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police raided two rural towns to remove armed ex-soldiers who helped oust former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide last year. Two peacekeepers and two ex-soldiers died in clashes. A group of gunmen fired several times at the justice minister, Bernard Gousse’s, house in the capital, killing a policeman who was guarding the property, said Yollete Mengual, a spokeswoman for the interim government.

– Associated Press

HEARINGS OFFER CHANCE OF RELEASE FOR TERROR SUSPECTS

New military hearings have raised hopes among some defense lawyers that Guantanamo’s terror suspects may have their best chance yet for release, but that prospect has also stoked fears the detainees could be transferred to countries where they face torture. This fear has opened a new battleground in the debate over the rights of detainees at this U.S. Naval base in Cuba and comes amid increased skepticism about their intelligence value and mounting allegations of prisoner abuse and sexual humiliation.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

RUMSFELD CRITICIZES VENEZUELA’S EFFORTS TO BUY ASSAULT RIFLES

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday criticized Venezuela’s reported efforts to purchase 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia, suggesting that Venezuela’s possession of so many weapons would threaten the hemisphere.

Harsh accusations and increasing animosity have marked the relationship between America and Venezuela. Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, has warned that he will cut off shipments of his country’s oil to America if the Bush administration supports an attempt to force him from office.

Venezuela is the world’s fifth largest oil exporter and provides about 13% of American crude oil imports. Mr. Rumsfeld, during a four-day trip to Latin America, raised concerns about the reports of Venezuela’s rifle purchases. “I can’t imagine what’s going to happen to 100,000 AK-47s,” Mr. Rumsfeld said at a news conference in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, which shares a border with Venezuela.

– Associated Press

ECUADOR POLICE FIRE TEAR GAS ON CONGRESS

QUITO, Ecuador – Police fired tear gas into Ecuador’s Congress before dawn yesterday to disperse opposition lawmakers who refused to leave after a legislative session that cut short a debate on candidates for attorney general.

Congressman Omar Quintana, president of the legislature, ordered the electricity cut off to disrupt a sit-in by about 40 lawmakers, then authorized police to move in at about 2 a.m. to force the 15 remaining legislators to abandon the building.

Ecuadorean TV broadcast images of two policemen firing tear gas into the darkened chamber and lawmakers rushing out through a side door. There were no injuries or arrests.

Mr. Quintana abruptly ended the legislative session late Tuesday just as the opposition appeared on the verge of mustering enough votes to block a government backed candidate from consideration for attorney general.

– Associated Press

NORTH AMERICA

U.N. ISSUES REPORT ON RAPE ALLEGATIONS

UNITED NATIONS – A U.N. report on allegations of rape and other sexual abuse by its peacekeepers describes the military system as broken and recommends that nations be required to take legal action against those suspected of abuse, the author said yesterday.

Jordan’s U.N. ambassador, Prince Zeid al Hussein, told the Associated Press he also recommends withholding salaries for peacekeepers found guilty and putting the money in a fund to care for their victims.

It also recommends the soldiers be court martialed in the country where the claims were made, Mr. Zeid said, as AP reported earlier this month.

The recommendations and others in the report, to be released today, seek to restore trust in a system whose reputation has been tarnished by repeated allegations that peacekeepers exploited the very people they were sent to protect.

– Associated Press