A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

ARUBA: Authorities says 3 men re-arrested in disappearance of US teen

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Three young men previously detained as suspects in the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway were re-arrested Wednesday, the Aruban public prosecutor's office said, citing new evidence in the case.

The mother of one of the suspects, however, insisted her son had not been arrested but was only detained for more questioning.

Dutch student Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in voluntary manslaughter and causing serious bodily harm that resulted in the death of Holloway, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Holloway, of Mountain Brook, Alabama, was last seen leaving a bar with the three men on May 30, 2005, hours before she was scheduled to board a plane home with high school classmates celebrating their graduation on the Dutch Caribbean island. She was 18 at the time.

Hundreds of volunteers, Aruban soldiers, police and FBI agents spread out across the island for the missing teen. Later efforts would include divers, Dutch F-16 jets equipped with search equipment, and specially trained dogs. No trace was ever found of her.

Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers had previously been detained on suspicion of taking part in her death, but they denied involvement and a judge released them for lack of evidence.

Van der Sloot, 20, was re-arrested in the Netherlands, where he was attending university. The Kalpoe brothers — Deepak is 24, Satish, 21 — were taken into custody in Aruba.

Authorities "ordered their renewed arrest because further investigation into the disappearance has led to new incriminating evidence," the office said without providing further details.

Hans Mos, chief prosecutor in Aruba, declined to discuss the new evidence or any other details about the case. "Our intention is to keep them in detention for a longer period," he said.

Van der Sloot's mother, Anita, denied her son was arrested and said he was only taken into custody for more questioning.

"What they want to do with Joran is to bring him to Aruba for a final reconstruction," Anita van der Sloot said by telephone from the family's home in Aruba.

JAMAICA: Inquest into cricket coach's death concludes; verdict expected Friday

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — A coroner's inquest into the death of cricket coach Bob Woolmer ended Wednesday in Jamaica after hearing testimony from more than 50 people over five weeks.

The 11-member jury is expected to determine by Friday 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 Pakistan side was ousted from the Cricket World Cup.

Police said it would be up to Jamaica's coroner, Patrick Murphy, to issue the official cause of death after the jury's verdict is announced.

Days after Woolmer died at a hospital, Jamaica's pathologist, Dr. Ere Sheshiah, ruled he had been strangled, launching a globe-spanning homicide probe.

In an embarrassing reversal, Jamaican police announced nearly three months after launching the murder investigation that Woolmer was not the victim of foul play.

During testimony early in the inquest, Sheshiah said Woolmer died of pesticide poisoning and asphyxia, but several foreign experts concluded the late coach died from natural causes, most likely heart disease.

The foreign specialists also claimed Sheshiah misinterpreted his own findings and his medical techniques did not meet international standards.

Independent tests recently completed on samples from Woolmer's stomach found no traces of a potentially deadly pesticide.

TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS: Gore calls on Caribbean to unite on global warming threat

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos (AP) — Islands that depend on golden beaches to lure tourists face an economic disaster from climate change and should unite to persuade large nations to help fight global warming, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore said.

Speaking Tuesday to a conference of environmental officials here, Gore said that melting polar ice and rising seas will cause erosion and other problems in Caribbean nations, but suggested that collective lobbying could inspire large nations to cut the emissions blamed for global warming.

"History has shown that small groups of people have always changed the world," said Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize this year for his efforts to curb climate change.

Gore, whose speech was interrupted by applause several times, addressed about 350 officials at an invitation-only conference in the capital of Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory south of the Bahamas.

Scientists have warned that the Caribbean, where more than half the population lives within a mile of the coast, faces particular risks from climate change, including stronger hurricanes, more frequent droughts and damage to vital reefs and mangroves.

CUBA: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez meets privately with Fidel Castro

HAVANA (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stopped in Cuba to meet with ailing leader Fidel Castro and his brother Raul on Wednesday on a return home from an international tour, official media reported.

The Prensa Latina news agency said in a brief dispatch that Chavez told the brothers about his trip to Iran, the OPEC meeting in Saudi Arabia, France and Portugal. The Venezuelan president later flew home.

The 81-year-old Fidel Castro stepped aside in mid-2006 following emergency intestinal surgery and granted provisional power to Raul, the 76-year-old defense minister and his constitutionally designated successor.

Chavez considers Castro a close friend and political ally, and has visited him numerous times during his convalescence. Castro has not appeared in public since falling ill 16 months ago.

Chavez is scheduled to return to Cuba in December to help inaugurate an oil refinery that the two governments renovated in a partnership.

PUERTO RICO: Elementary school janitor arrested on child pornography charges

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — An elementary school janitor was arrested on child pornography charges after federal agents allegedly found thousands of images of sex acts involving children on electronic equipment seized from his Puerto Rico home.

Carlos M. Martinez Flores, 46, is accused of downloading illegal images from the Internet and creating child pornography at his home in the central city of Caguas, where he worked at the Notre Dame private school, authorities said.

"It hasn't been determined if those children (in the images) went to that school," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Ivan Ortiz said. He did not elaborate.

School administrators did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Martinez was detained Wednesday after an analysis of electronic equipment seized during a search of his home revealed images depicting child pornography, Ortiz said.

He was in custody at a detention center outside San Juan. Jail officials said it was not possible to contact him, and it was not clear whether he had a lawyer yet.