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Police in Haiti arrest lawmaker Arnel Belizaire, who faces charges including terror financing

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Authorities say they have arrested Haitian legislator Arnel Belizaire on charges including financing terrorism and conspiracy against state security.

It’s the latest arrest of Belizaire in a country where powerful political figures have long operated with impunity. Some have been linked to financing and supporting gangs that control an estimated 90% of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.

Haiti’s National Police made the announcement late Sunday, ending a hunt for the well-known lawmaker, who was first accused around two months ago.

Belizaire previously characterized the arrest warrant against him as political intimidation. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had an attorney.

Belizaire had registered his new political party late last week for the upcoming general election.

The U.S. government already had accused Belizaire of “significant corruption” last year, announcing that he and his immediate family members were blocked from entering the United States.

Belizaire was arrested in the early 2000s on an illegal weapons charge and sentenced to prison. He escaped and was rearrested, only to escape again following Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake.

He was elected to Haiti’s parliament in 2011 and then rearrested when police noted that he had escaped during the earthquake. He was subsequently released following political pressure.

Belizaire was arrested again several years ago, after being accused of arms trafficking, but those charges were dropped.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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