A package of news briefs from the Caribbean

CARIBBEAN: Aruba prosecutor mulling closure of Holloway case

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Aruba's chief prosecutor said he will close the case of missing American teenager Natalee Holloway by the end of the month unless his office finds that there is enough evidence to charge someone with a major crime.

The prosecutor, Hans Mos, said he would not comment about the kind of evidence his office is reviewing but that he does not anticipate finding Holloway's remains and prosecuting a case without them would be "very hard."

Mos told The Associated Press he will drop the case unless prosecutors in his office agree before the New Year that they have strong enough evidence to go to court. He said he imposed the deadline himself earlier this year because he feels two years is a reasonable amount of time for bringing charges against someone.

Mos said he and the Holloway family feel pursuing a minor charge "doesn't serve a purpose." A person convicted of making a body disappear, for example, would serve only six months in prison, he said.

No one has been formally charged in the investigation, which has revolved around three suspects: Joran van der Sloot, a 20-year-old Dutch citizen and brothers Deepak Kalpoe, 24, and Satish Kalpoe, 21, from Surinam.

They were the last people known to see Holloway before she vanished on the night of May 30, 2005. All three have denied any role in her disappearance.

Holloway's parents did not return calls for comment.

SURINAME: Peace Corps volunteer killed by animal trap, police say

PARAMARIBO, Suriname (AP) — A Peace Corps volunteer was killed in Suriname when she accidentally set off a gun rigged as an animal trap, police said.

The woman, identified as 25-year-old Blythe Ann O'Sullivan, was shot in the leg Thursday and apparently bled to death before she could get medical treatment, police spokesman John Jones said Saturday.

O'Sullivan, a native of Bloomingdale, Ill., joined the Peace Corps in August 2006, the corps said in a statement on its Web site. She worked on a water project and with women's organizations to fund and develop a village community center, the corps said.

Jones said the victim was volunteering in the woods of a rural northern village inhabited by Maroons, descendants of runaway African slaves.

Gun traps are illegal in Suriname, but many Maroons and Amerindians still use them to hunt for food. Jones said the owner of the trap could face prosecution even if the death is ruled accidental.

More than 260 Peace Corps volunteers have died while serving for the overseas service program since it was launched in 1961, according to the Fallen Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Project.

CARIBBEAN: Attorneys for Gitmo terror suspect say he was tortured in CIA custody

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A suspected terrorist taken to Guantanamo last year is suffering physical and psychological trauma from harsh treatment he endured in overseas CIA prisons, one of his attorneys said Saturday.

Majid Khan, the only U.S. resident among 15 "high-value" detainees, described the alleged abuse in October during his first meetings with attorneys at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in Cuba.

Wells Dixon, who was not authorized to share details of his client's account, said Khan had a lot to say about his treatment in CIA custody. "He was subjected to state-sanctioned torture," Dixon alleged.

A Central Intelligence Agency spokesman denied allegations that it tortured Khan or any others as part of its terror interrogation effort that began in 2002.

Khan, a 1999 graduate of a Baltimore-area high school, was seized in Pakistan in March 2003 and held until last year in secret CIA custody. In September 2006, U.S. President George W. Bush transferred him and other high-value detainees to Guantanamo, where they may be charged and face prosecution under a new military tribunal system.

After hearing Khan's account of his time in CIA custody, his attorneys sought a federal court order for the government to preserve any evidence of torture. The motion filed Nov. 30 argues that evidence of harsh interrogation techniques is key to their client's ability to prove he has no connection to al-Qaida.

The bid to preserve evidence took on urgency following the announcement Thursday that the CIA videotaped its interrogations of two top terror suspects in 2002 and destroyed the tapes three years later.

US VIRGIN ISLANDS: Scientists research health of coral reefs

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Scientists have launched an ambitious survey of coral in the Caribbean waters off the U.S. Virgin Islands, sending scuba divers to dozens of locations to gather data on the region's threatened reefs.

The project, requested by island officials and launched this past week, consists of measuring, counting and taking samples of coral tissue at 60 sites around St. Croix, the largest of three islands that make up the U.S. territory.

A recent study reported that six species of reef-building coral could vanish from the Caribbean due to rising sea temperatures and pollution. In 2005, warm waters and disease killed an estimated 40 percent of coral around the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Results of the survey will be shared with the Virgin Islands' Department of Planning and Natural Resources, which is developing a reef-monitoring program, Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Elias Rodriguez said Friday. Scientists also will take a fish census.