A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

PUERTO RICO: Outrage grows over pet massacre in US Caribbean territory

BARCELONETA, Puerto Rico (AP) — Angry pet owners and protesters demonstrated in northern Puerto Rico on Monday, as outrage grew after dozens of cats and dogs were seized from housing project residents and thrown to their deaths from a 50-foot- (15-meter-) tall bridge.

The crowd protested outside town hall in Barceloneta and tried unsuccessfully to meet with Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez, who ordered last week's seizure of the animals. Some protesters yelled "murderer."

Fontanez, who pledged to resign if his government is found responsible, blamed a contractor hired to collect and euthanize the pets.

With the help of television news broadcasts, a few animals rescued with broken bones and other injuries were reunited with their owners. Dozens more were buried in a mass grave.

On Monday, the contractor denied responsibility and accused housing project residents of lying to get revenge for repeated raids to clear stray animals.

"There are five people that went and saw their dogs there," said Julio Diaz, owner of Animal Control solutions. "It's their version against mine, and at some point they will have to prove it in court."

Puerto Rico police chief Pedro Toledo said anyone found responsible could face cruelty charges that carry six-month to three-year prison terms.

"Depending on the evidence, charges could be filed for each dead animal," he said.

HAITI: Residents of once-violent slum welcome extension for UN peacekeepers

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Political leaders and residents of Haiti's biggest slum largely welcomed news that the U.N. has extended its peacekeeping mission for another year, saying a crackdown earlier this year has made life easier in a neighborhood previously run by gangs.

"Last year we couldn't have sat here playing dominoes" because it was so dangerous, 27-year-old construction worker Jean-Baptiste Venel said in the Port-au-Prince's seaside slum of Cite Soleil. "If the U.N. is here for another year it's a good thing for the country and Cite Soleil."

Earlier Monday in New York, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend through at least October 2008 the mission by the multinational force, known as Minustah from its initials in French.

Cite Soleil — where people live in rows of bullet-scarred hovels with no electricity or running water — is currently safer than it has been in the years since a 2004 revolt toppled former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and prompted the deployment of the 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers.

But its inhabitants remain desperately poor and some residents criticized the peacekeepers, saying Haiti needs development and jobs, not more security forces.

"The U.N. didn't come to do anything," said Aristide Idore, an unemployed 29-year-old. "I hope when I wake up tomorrow they've packed their things and gone."

Senate President Joseph Lambert praised the U.N. resolution but said Haiti must restore its national sovereignty after years of security provided by U.N. troops.

JAMAICA: Inquest set to probe death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaican police have not ruled out the possibility of foul play in the death of Pakistan cricket coach Bob Woolmer, which will be the subject of a coroner's inquest scheduled to begin Tuesday.

The inquest in the capital of Kingston aims to determine whether anyone bears responsibility for the death of the 58-year-old coach, who was found unconscious in his hotel room March 18, a day after his heavily favored team was eliminated from cricket's World Cup.

"There was a lot of speculation, and as a result of that speculation we are having the inquest," Sgt. Dwayne Jex of the Jamaica Constabulary Force said in a telephone interview Monday.

More than 50 people are expected to testify inside a conference center for the inquest, which Jex estimated would take more than two months.

Jamaican authorities initially said a preliminary autopsy was inconclusive, but a few days after Woolmer's death police announced he had been strangled, setting off a globe-spanning homicide probe.

Investigators collected dozens of DNA samples and fingerprints from potential witnesses, including members of the Pakistan cricket squad and other teams.

Months later, Jamaica's police commissioner announced authorities had closed their homicide investigation after getting opinions from three independent pathologists from Britain, South Africa and Canada and reviewing a toxicology report.

CUBA: Island signs new economic partnership agreements with ally Venezuela

HAVANA (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuba's interim leader Raul Castro oversaw the signing Monday of economic partnerships in areas ranging from oil production to tourism as the nations moved to further integrate their economies.

Cuba and Venezuela, Washington's two strongest critics in Latin America, are strengthening their ties under the Boliviarian Alternative for the Americas regional trade pact, said the 76-year-old Castro, who has led Cuba during his 81-year-old brother Fidel's extended illness.

Venezuela and Cuba "can form a confederation of republics, two republics in one, two countries in one," said Chavez, whose weekend visit included a meeting with his friend and ally Fidel Castro and an hourlong chat Sunday while hosting his weekly live television and radio show from the central city of Santa Clara.

Chavez has championed his Bolivarian trade agreement, which counts Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua as signatories, as an alternative to U.S. free trade pacts.

Castro appeared somewhat frail, but alert and in good spirits in a videotape released of the Saturday meeting.

U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey on Monday commented sarcastically that he was "delighted that Fidel Castro has had an opportunity to discuss things with his good friend President Chavez. It's too bad that in almost half a century of misrule in Cuba, he's never had the same conversation with his own people."

PUERTO RICO: Investigators search for oil spill culprit as coast cleanup ends

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Crews have completed a cleanup of an extensive oil spill that fouled rocky shoreline and mangrove thickets along Puerto Rico's southwest coast, but pollution investigators are still searching for the spill's cause.

Roughly 19,000 gallons (71,920 liters) of contaminated water have been siphoned from the Caribbean Sea since the spill slicked miles (kilometers) of coastline in late August, and 1,000 cubic yards (764 cubic meters) of oily debris have been gathered by cleanup crews clad in protective suits and boots, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday.

Marshland and mangroves in the western section of the town of La Parguera are still surrounded by a floating absorbent boom, but the protective barrier is expected to be removed before the end of the week.

"We're definitely happy they did such a good job cleaning the area up," said Angel Rovira, owner of a dive shop that ferries tourists and locals to a pristine coral reef several miles (kilometers) off the southwest coast of the U.S. Caribbean territory.

Coast Guard investigators have indicated that New York-based General Maritime Corp., which owns and operates a fleet of crude oil tankers, is the likely source of the spill.

In a Monday phone interview, General Maritime spokesman Darrel Wilson said the company is cooperating fully with authorities, but stressed it has yet to be determined that its ship is definitely to blame.

GRENADA: Police charge two women with bank fraud in ATM card scam

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) — Two women were arrested and charged with using fake credit cards to steal more than US$100,000 (euro70,293.83) from bank cash machines in Grenada, a police official said Monday.

A 26-year-old Nigerian woman, Ann-Mary Yusuf, and a 22-year-old Guyanese, Rosline Conway, were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and identity theft, following a lengthy investigation by Royal Grenada Police, spokesman Troy Garvey said.

Financial crime specialists in the Caribbean island nation believe the women may be part of an international money laundering ring, Garvey said.