Caribbean briefs…Caribbean briefs…
Autopsy scheduled for Miami priest found dead in Bahamas
MIAMI (AP) — Medical examiners in the Bahamas have scheduled a Friday autopsy on the body of a Roman Catholic priest who was found dead there earlier this week, officials said.
Father Jose Nickse, 56, apparently died of a heart attack in a Nassau hotel room sometime Tuesday, church officials said. His body will be flown to Miami after the autopsy for a funeral and burial.
“There has been an outpouring of love,” said Bibi Herrera, a volunteer at Nickse’s parish, St Brendan Catholic Church. “It’s very sad, but luckily, we are surrounded by people who loved him. We are all one family.”
Nickse had been on administrative leave since June, after three men filed lawsuits against the priest and the Archdiocese of Miami alleging sexual abuse during the 1980s.
“My client was upset” upon hearing of Nickse’s death, said Sheldon Stevens, the attorney for one of the unidentified men who filed suit. “He doesn’t wish this on anyone.”
Nickse denied the allegations and many church members believed his innocence. Church officials said they received 4,000 letters from parishioners supporting Nickse.
French terror suspects include brother of a detainee
PARIS (AP) — A man detained this week has been identified as the brother of a US-held al-Qaeda suspect and a leader of a group accused of planning terrorist attacks in France, judicial officials said yesterday.
Menad Benchellali, who had been sought by France’s intelligence agency DST, was among four alleged Islamic militants apprehended near Paris on Tuesday. The captures were makes public on Thursday.
The DST believes Benchellali trained at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Chechnya, said judicial officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
The officials said he was the brother of 21 year-old Mourad Benchellali, who was arrested in January in Pakistan and transferred to Guantanamo Bay, where the United States is holding detainees in the global war on terror.
Benchellali’s family in France has filed a complaint accusing Washington of illegally detaining him at Guantanamo and has asked to see him. US officials have refused.
Cuban-American congressman leads Democrats in fight for Hispanic voters
WASHINGTON (AP) — The political career of Democrat Robert Menendez has been a series of firsts: First Hispanic elected to the New Jersey state Senate; first Hispanic from New Jersey elected to Congress; first Hispanic elected to House leadership.
Now the No 3 House Democrat, Menendez has emerged as a key player as his party counters a strong push by Republicans for the support of Hispanics, who now rival blacks as the nation’s largest minority group.
Republicans have made several overtures to Hispanics, including a Spanish translation after President George W Bush’s weekly radio address. Bush, who speaks some Spanish, has pushed for border reforms to speed commerce and visitors between the United States and Mexico.
Menendez, as vice-chairman of House Democrats for the past four years, helped Democrats fight back. His Latino Leadership Link, distributed each week while Congress is in session, includes talking points and news releases — in English and Spanish — on issues being debated by Congress and how they would affect Hispanics.
Six die in Islamic Jihad revenge attack
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Two Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis yesterday before being shot dead themselves in an attack on a West Bank Jewish settlement claimed by the Islamic Jihad group as revenge for the killing of nine Palestinians the previous day.
At least eight more Israelis were wounded, two of them seriously, inside the Otniel settlement close to the flashpoint city of Hebron, emergency services said.
Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, one of them seriously, in a subsequent firefight with one of the gunmen before he was killed as he attempted to escape, military sources said.
The two Palestinian militants managed to infiltrate the settlement just after dark, as residents were celebrating the beginning of the Jewish day of rest at sundown.
The gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons in the settlement’s yeshiva, or religious seminary, and outside its canteen, public television said.
“Two serious casualties were evacuated by helicopter to the Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, while the less badly hurt were taken to the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba and other facilities,” said Yehuda Manadela, spokesman for the Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross.
One of the gunmen managed to escape the security dragnet thrown around the settlement before being hunted down and killed on the outskirts of the nearby Palestinian village of Dahiriya, military sources said.
Three soldiers were wounded in the gunbattle, one of them seriously, the sources added.