CARIBBEAN CORNER

Compiled By Neil S. Friedman

from AP Newsfinder

Vieques Protesters Arrested

VIEQUES, Puerto Rico — Federal authorities arrested eight anti-U.S. Navy protesters and sprayed another group with tear gas on Vieques island Sunday, hours before the military plans to resume bombing exercises it paused for a day as islanders observed a religious occasion.

A total of 136 people have been arrested since the Navy began the exercises on Friday. The Navy held off on the training Sunday to avoid further conflict on the day the Vatican conducted the first beatification of a Puerto Rican.

On Sunday, authorities arrested eight people who allegedly cut through some fencing around the Navy land to enter the bombing range, Gordon said.

In another area near the Navy’s Camp Garcia facility, Navy personnel and U.S. marshals threw tear gas at dozens of protesters who allegedly cut through fencing and threw rocks at military and federal guards, Gordon said.

The crowd dispersed and the people were not arrested, Gordon said.

Families Haunted By Vanished Ship

MIAMI, FL — Bobbing drums of vegetable oil, a rope, bits of plastic. These were the first things fisherman Randal Ringhaver spotted in the water. Then he saw the floating corpse.

Face down, the man’s body wore gray sweat pants, a white T-shirt, sneakers. But no life vest.

"Kind of strange you wouldn’t have a life jacket on, especially if your ship was going down," Ringhaver said to himself, "unless it went down very suddenly."

Within days a St. Lucie County medical examiner would use dental records to identify the dead man as Jose Carvallo, 54, skipper of a 163-foot (49-meter) freighter, the Anita.

The ship and her 10-member crew had left Miami bound for Gonaives, Haiti, before disappearing in darkness.

There was no distress call. No hint of trouble. No mayday.

The signal from an emergency locator beacon, its strobe flickering in the Atlantic, gave searchers the only indication that something was wrong.

Priest Murder Suspects To Be Charged

CASTRIES, St. Lucia — Prosecutors said Friday that two suspects in a church attack on St. Lucia will be charged with the murder of a Catholic priest who was badly burned in the attack and died months later.

The suspects, 20-year-old Kim John and Francis Phillip, 34, would be charged with the murder of priest Charles Galliard, who died last week on neighboring Martinique, where he was recovering at a monastery, said Norton Jack, director of prosecutors.

Jack said the charges stemmed from results of an autopsy conducted on Galliard, although church officials said the priest died of a heart attack and said it was unclear if the death was related to burns he sustained in the attack. Jack did not reveal the autopsy results.

The two suspects already were charged with the murder of a 73-year-old Irish nun, Theresa Egan, who was clubbed to death in the New Year’s Eve attack. A total of 13 people were injured in the attack. The suspects are also charged with arson.

The first hearings in the trial of the two suspects are scheduled for this week.

Belafonte To Receive Award

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — The Variety Club, an international children’s fund-raising organization, will honor entertainer Harry Belafonte with an award in Barbados for his contributions the welfare of children.

Belafonte, 74, has been a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund since 1986. He became famous for his calypso music in the 1950s with hits such as "The Banana Boat Song" and "Jamaica Farewell."

"I think the work I do is very important and I have been told the contributions people like me make have a lot of impact," Belafonte said Saturday at the airport shortly after he arrived on the Caribbean island.