■ Colombia
Tribal leaders slain
Armed men dragged three Indian leaders from their straw huts and killed them execution-style in Colombia's banana-growing region, the local mayor said Wednesday. Arturo Domico, Misael Domico and Horacio Bailarin, were members of the Embera tribe, said Jose Fidel Comandero, mayor of the municipality of Apartado, 450km northwest of Bogota. "They were community leaders and always promoted peaceful living," the mayor told local Caracol radio. Comandero said the killings took place Tuesday and tribal members on Wednesday buried them and then marched in protest into Apartado.
■ Haiti
Gunmen attack marketplace
Gunmen opened fire in a crowded market place in Haiti's capital on Wednesday, injuring at least one person and drawing fresh complaints about the beleaguered police's inability to cope with rising violence. Renold Cherisier, a 42-year-old cosmetics salesman, was shot in the neck as the gunmen tore through the Cow Head Market in downtown Port-au-Prince, shooting into the air and setting fire to merchandise.
■ Canada
Nazi may lose citizenship
Canadian investigators will travel to Italy to find witnesses in a case to strip the Canadian citizenship of a man convicted in Italy on charges of torture and murder at a Nazi detention camp during World War II. The case hinges around Michael Seifert, an 80-year-old of Ukrainian origins who has lived in Canada since 1951 and was given a life sentence by Italian authorities in 2000. He was charged in Italy with 18 counts of murder and acts of torture committed in 1944 to 1945 at a Nazi camp in the northern Italian city of Bolzano. A Canadian federal court judge in Vancouver has "authorized the search for Italian witnesses," said Patrick Charette, a spokesman for Canada's Justice Ministry.
■ United States
Rescue chopper crashes
A Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the Bering Sea with 10 people aboard while conducting a rescue on Wednesday after a powerless bulk freighter was grounded on an island in southwestern Alaska. The Coast Guard cutter Alex Haley picked up four of the 10 people. Six were unaccounted for, the Coast Guard said. The Selendang Ayu, a 225m-long freighter loaded with soybeans and 1.7 million liters of fuel, broke in two when it ran aground on Unalaska Island in the Aleutian chain, the Coast Guard said.
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