Gov’t fires nearly 300 employees who worked for Aristide

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) – Chilean troops began patrolling Haiti’s strategically important city of Hinche yesterday, the first troops from a US-led multinational force to deploy in the rebel-held Central Plateau where rebels launched a revolt to oust Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

An interim US-backed interim government, meanwhile, announced plans to fire or transfer nearly 800 people who used to work for Aristide in the presidential palace.

Only 125 of 620 security officials at the palace would be retained, and another 272 administrative employees would be fired, Cabinet director Michel Brunache said yesterday, without giving any reasons for the dismissals and transfers.

Former palace security chief Oriel Jean, 39, was extradited from Canada to the US last month on drug trafficking charges. Palace security officers also have been accused of giving directions to street gangs that attacked Aristide’s opponents.

Police investigating firebomb attack against interior ministry

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) – Authorities yesterday were investigating a firebomb attack against Guyana’s interior ministry that slightly damaged the wooden building, officials said.

No one was injured in the Sunday night incident, police spokesman John Sauers said. The attackers hurled at least three Molotov cocktails at the building and guards reported seeing three men fleeing, he said.

The government ministry is run by Interior Minister Ronald Gajraj, who has faced allegations that he led an extra-judicial hit squad to go after crime suspects and escaped prisoners.

The squad has been blamed for more than 40 unsolved killings in the past year.

The government and Gajraj have denied any involvement in a hit squad, but they refused to open an independent inquiry until sources come forward with evidence and testimony. In the meantime, police are investigating under Gajraj’s ministry.

Police said they don’t know if the accusations against Gajraj and the Molotov attack are connected.

Residents near dredging site fall ill

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, US Virgin Islands (AP) – A handful of residents have complained of nausea and headaches since workers began dredging a saltwater pond on the outlying island of St John, government officials in this US territory said yesterday.

Ever since the dredging began on Enighed Pond in February, an overpowering smell of sulfur has filled the air. The dredging will connect the pond to the sea and will allow for barges and cargo ships to pass, said Hollis Griffin, with the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

Nearly ten residents have complained of nausea and headaches.

GEOMET Technologies, a Germantown, Maryland-based company, will collect blood and urine samples from residents today. The company took air, water and sediment samples last week.

Officials said the dredging should be finished by June.

St John is the smallest of the US Virgin Islands.

T&T detains three men in connection with Canadian man’s shooting

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) – Three men have been detained in connection with the shooting of a Canadian university professor who remained in critical condition yesterday, authorities said.

Robert MacDonald, 43, of Waterloo, Ontario, was in Trinidad for a martial arts competition. He and other members of the group were returning from a birthday party on Thursday night when bandits robbed the group at gunpoint of their cash and valuables.

MacDonald was shot in the head as he tried to flag down a passing vehicle for help. The car was apparently the gunmen’s getaway car, police said.

The three suspects, detained on Sunday, were scheduled to face an identity line-up yesterday, Police Superintendent Dyo Mohammed said.

Macdonald teaches mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. He was one of five people from a Waterloo karate club participating in the tournament.

Macdonald’s wife is in Trinidad. The couple has three children.