Bahamas: Refugee boat capsizes; 14 Haitians drown

A 35-foot sailboat overloaded with about 100 Haitian refugees capsized Friday in rough seas off the Bahamas, leaving 14 dead and more than a dozen missing, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Divers from the Bahamas Defense Force found six of the 14 victims trapped in the hold of the boat.

The boat appeared to have tipped as occupants shifted to one side when a Coast Guard vessel came alongside, said Luis Diaz, a spokesman in Miami.

The accident took place about 6 miles west of Great Inagua, the southernmost island in the Bahamas chain and the third largest. Inagua is less that 60 miles from Haiti’s north coast.

Police said the dead and the survivors would be sent back to Haiti. More than 1,500 fleeing Haitians have been returned home from the Bahamas this year, and up to 6,000 were repatriated last year.

Havana: Referendum proposed to change socialism

In an unprecedented challenge to Fidel Castro’s 43-year-old rule, activists delivered more than 11,020 signatures to the National Assembly Friday, demanding a referendum for broad changes in Cuba’s socialist system less than two days before a visit by former President Carter.

Known as Project Varela, the signature-gathering campaign is seen as the biggest homegrown, nonviolent effort in more than four decades to push for reforms in Cuba’s one-party system.

The petitions propose a referendum asking voters if they favor civil liberties like freedom of speech and assembly, and amnesty for political prisoners.

The timing of the delivery of the petitions appeared aimed at ensuring that Project Varela is an issue during the visit by Carter, who arrives Sunday for a five-day visit at Castro’s invitation.