Colombia: Admiral investigated in village massacre

A Colombian admiral faces questioning in connection with the massacre of 30 villagers last year by a right-wing paramilitary group, prosecutors said Friday.

Federal prosecutors in Bogota said in a statement that Rear Adm. Rodrigo Quinones and marine Sgt. Rafael Bossa will both be questioned about the killings in the northern village of Chengue.

The prosecutors did not specify any suspected links to Quinones, the commanding officer in the region at the time. But they claimed Bossa allegedly met with the paramilitaries a day before the killings to help plan the massacre.

The massacre was among the most brutal in years in the 38-year guerrilla conflict that claims some 3,500 lives annually. The victims were hacked and bludgeoned to death by the rightist United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, which is waging a massacre campaign against suspected guerrilla collaborators.

Bolivia: Peace Corps searching for missing volunteer

A year after an American Peace Corps worker disappeared in Bolivia, the organization has relaunched the search by offering $25,000 for information on his whereabouts.

Walter Poirier, 23, of Lowell, Mass., disappeared in April 2001 from La Paz, the capital of the South American nation. He had been working since August 2000 with indigenous families in a rural valley outside the capital.

FBI agents, police, the Peace Corps and U.S. Embassy officials conducted a search but there were no sightings, an official at the embassy said.

New posters showing Poirier’s face and the reward  up from the $10,000 offered previously  are going up around Bolivian cities. The reward will be advertised in newspapers and on television and radio.

Puerto Rico: U.S. Navy to resume Vieques exercises

The U.S. Navy notified Puerto Rico’s government on Friday that it will resume military exercises on the outlying island of Vieques next month.

The training exercises could begin as early as April 1 and will last about 22 days, Capt. G.H. Cooper said in a letter to the U.S. territory’s secretary of state, Ferdinand Mercado.

Only inert bombs are to be used at the firing range on the island’s eastern tip. The last round of exercises on Vieques was last fall

The Navy stopped using live bombs on Vieques after off-target bombs killed a civilian guard on the range in 1999, triggering mass demonstrations.

Opponents have charged that the bombing harms the environment and health of Vieques’ 9,100 residents  accusations the Navy denies.

Paris: Euro Disney opens new theme park

Walt Disney Studios, the newest addition to the Disneyland resort outside Paris, opens today to give visitors a peek behind the scenes at cinema, television and animation.

With palm trees, Spanish Revival-style buildings and a miniature 1940s Hollywood Boulevard, the new park goes heavy on the Tinseltown theme that’s drawn crowds to Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida.

But the park also is careful to pay tribute to Europe’s filmmaking traditions. Italian street musicians play tunes from Federico Fellini movies on accordion and mandolin, and visitors set off a rain shower when they pose for pictures outside a shop called “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” after the 1964 French musical.

Ottawa: Skies unfriendly for author Rushdie

Air Canada has banned author Salman Rushdie from its flights because the extra security required for him to fly could mean long delays for other passengers, airline officials said Friday.

Rushdie, whose book “The Satanic Verses” was considered blasphemous by some Muslims, was threatened with death by Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a 1989 edict. While the Iranian government has since said the edict had ended, hard-line groups have renewed calls for Rushdie to be killed.

A U.S. Federal Aviation Administration rule requires special security measures if Rushdie is on an airplane entering the United States.