A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

BAHAMAS: DNA shows Birkhead fathered Anna Nicole Smith's daughter

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) _ DNA tests proved it: Larry Birkhead is the father of Anna Nicole Smith's million-dollar baby.

"I told you so!" the Playboy Playmate's former boyfriend said Tuesday after emerging from a closed court hearing. He added: "My baby's going to be coming home pretty soon."

Birkhead then hugged his rival, Howard K. Stern, Smith's lawyer-turned-companion who has been caring for baby Dannielynn since Smith's sudden death in February.

Stern said he wouldn't fight for custody, but a lawyer for Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, indicated she might. The judge scheduled another hearing for Friday in the pink colonial courthouse to discuss custody of the girl, who could inherit hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stern said he loved the baby despite the DNA results and would support Birkhead.

"I'm obviously very disappointed, but my feelings for Dannielynn have not changed," he said, adding that "I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure (Birkhead) gets sole custody."

Birkhead, a California photographer, had been fighting for custody of Dannielynn even before Smith's death.

"Nothing's been determined except parentage and I'm the father," Birkhead said.

A crowd of about 250 people, many of them tourists, cheered from behind police barricades when Birkhead, clutching a piece of paper, announced the DNA test results.

PUERTO RICO: Police search for 7 escaped murderers after prison break

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) _ Puerto Rican authorities were searching on Tuesday for seven convicted murderers who escaped from a prison by crawling through ventilation ducts that led to the facility's roof.

Police were investigating whether prison staff may have helped them escape on Monday from the Guayama Correctional Center on Puerto Rico's southern coast, corrections chief Miguel Pereira said.

"We are trying to determine what route they may have chosen," Pereira said, adding that authorities have set up a hot line to field calls about the fugitives" possible whereabouts.

All seven had been incarcerated in a medium-security section of the prison despite their homicide convictions, he said.

ST. VINCENT: Prime minister released from hospital after car wreck

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent (AP) _ Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves was released from a hospital Tuesday after suffering minor injuries in a car crash.

Gonsalves and his driver were injured Monday when their SUV collided head-on with a truck outside the capital of Kingstown.

Gonsalves received five stitches on his lips and two teeth were loosened, Health Minister Douglas Slater said. Earlier in the day police reported they had been knocked out.

Doctors prescribed bed rest for the Caribbean nation's leader and said he planned to work from home for the next two weeks, Slater added.

Gonsalves' driver suffered a fractured shoulder and was expected to be released from the hospital later Tuesday. The truck driver was not injured and the cause of the crash was under investigation, police said.

JAMAICA: Investigators say no breakthroughs in Woolmer killing

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) _ Investigators have not made any breakthroughs into the killing of Pakistan World Cup cricket coach Bob Woolmer, more than three weeks after he was found strangled to death, police spokesman Karl Angell said Tuesday.

Jamaican police, four Scotland Yard detectives and an Interpol investigator have been examining security-camera footage from the Kingston hotel where Woolmer was found on March 18. They are also awaiting the results of a toxicology report, Angell said.

Pakistan's team manager has left Jamaica, but at least one Pakistani diplomat has stayed to observe the investigation, Angell said.

Woolmer, who was born in India of English parents, died a day after his team lost to Ireland in a stunning upset that eliminated Pakistan from the cricket World Cup, which is being played in nine Caribbean countries through late April.

A pathologist who conducted Woolmer's autopsy initially ruled his death was "inconclusive" but announced four days later that he had been strangled.

CARIBBEAN: 270 Haitian migrants deported from Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) _ Dominican soldiers captured about 270 Haitian migrants Tuesday and prepared to deport them as part of an operation to secure the countries' shared border, a military commander said.

The soldiers are being trained to stop the flow of illegal migrants, drugs and weapons across the porous 362-kilometer (225-mile) border, said Col. Ramon Belen Pichardo, military commander for the border province of Dajabon.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Ken Keen of the U.S. Southern Command is scheduled to visit this week and has been invited to view the border operation, which will run from Wednesday through Friday.

Between 500,000 and 1 million people of Haitian descent live in the Dominican Republic. Many are seasonal workers brought in to cut sugar cane and work in construction.

International groups such as Amnesty International have recently criticized the Dominican government for indiscriminate deportations and for denying citizenship to the children of Dominican-born migrants.

Dominican officials promised in 2005 to implement a border security force combining elements of the army, navy, air force and police, but those units have not been formed.

JAMAICA: 2 U.S. tourists killed, 3 injured in road accident

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) _ American tourists traveling in a rental car collided with an SUV going in the opposite direction, leaving a Florida couple dead and several others injured, police said Tuesday.

The head-on collision killed Stanley and Jane Cummings of Florida, who were on vacation in the Caribbean island, according to police spokeswoman Thomazene Foster. Their age and hometown were withheld pending notification of their family in the U.S.

Foster said Jane Cummings, the driver, died instantly or shortly after impact in the Monday crash on a winding, rural road. Her husband died at a nearby hospital in Westmoreland Parish, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of the island's tourism mecca of Montego Bay.

The Cummings' daughter, Kristal, and another Florida couple, Dagmar and Jennifer Schmidt, were hospitalized in serious condition, Foster said.

Police declined to provide details about the cause of the collision.

The driver of the SUV, an elderly Jamaican man, suffered minor injuries in the crash.

U.S. diplomatic officials were not immediately available for comment.

CUBA: Freedom of expression award goes to jailed Cuban journalist

HAVANA (AP) _ Imprisoned independent journalist Normando Hernandez Gonzalez has won the 2007 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award, the writers group announced Tuesday in New York.

The annual prize honors writers who have been persecuted or jailed for engaging in or defending freedom of expression. It is underwritten by writer and historian Barbara Goldsmith, a PEN trustee.

The award will be presented at PEN's annual New York gala on April 30.

Hernandez Gonzalez, 38, was among 75 independent journalists, rights activists and other critics of the Cuban government arrested in a March 2003 crackdown on the island's opposition.

Sixteen people in the group have since been released on medical parole, leaving 59 _ including Hernandez Gonzalez _ behind bars.

Communist authorities tried the group on charges of working with the U.S. government to undermine Fidel Castro's government _ accusations the dissidents and American officials denied.

All were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. Hernandez Gonzalez, who directed a group of independent journalists in the eastern province of Camaguey, got 25 years.

CRICKET: World Cup: South Africa beats improved West Indies by 67 runs

ST GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) _ South Africa restricted West Indies to 289 for nine wickets Tuesday for a 67-run Super 8s victory that just about ended the tournament host's chances of reaching the World Cup semifinals.

A.B. de Villiers hit 146 and South Africa hammered 134 off the last 10 overs to set up a crushing victory at the brand new Grenada National Stadium.

Ramnaresh Sarwan then hit a 75-ball 92 for the home side but it was in vain despite a late push by the tail to make the margin of defeat more respectable.

While South Africa is back on track after Saturday's surprise loss to Bangladesh, West Indies must now beat England and Bangladesh by large margins and hope for an unlikely combination of other results if it is to squeeze into the top four.

"It's a huge blow. In the dressing room the guys aren't in a very good mood at all, a lot of sad faces," West Indies captain Brian Lara said. "But we've got to pick ourselves up."