Grenada: Obama fan arrested
ST. GEORGE'S — A New York man's noisy celebration of Barack Obama's victory landed him in a Caribbean jail.
Police in Grenada say Roy Coutain was honking his horn and relentlessly shouting, "Obama! Obama!" as he drove through the streets of the capital in a car covered with U.S. flags. He wore an Obama T-shirt — in case his allegiance was in doubt.
Coutain was recorded on video telling police: "The entire world is excited and you don't want me to celebrate! I voted and I have a right to celebrate!"
Island police arrested Coutain on Wednesday and charged him with disorderly behavior, obscene language and resisting arrest.
Honduras: Storm threatens
TEGUCIGALPA — A tropical depression has formed off Honduras' Caribbean coast and is expected to become a tropical storm later today.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center says the Honduran government has issued a tropical storm watch for a stretch of coastline between the city of Limon and the Nicaraguan border.
On Wednesday afternoon, the center of the storm was located 115 miles southeast of the Honduran-Nicaraguan border.
Iraq: Embassy fete
BAGHDAD — The vast, new American Embassy in Baghdad, which cost well over half a billion dollars, has not officially opened. But the ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, welcomed about 250 Iraqi officials, diplomats and dignitaries for a preliminary glimpse Wednesday morning in what was described as a party to celebrate the 2008 American presidential election.
"I'm delighted you could join us for the first event we could have in our new embassy," Crocker said in a brief address. But he also sounded a note of caution to Iraqi officials who might have been hoping for rapid changes in American leadership. "Our president today is George Bush, and he will be our president for the next 2 1/2 months," Crocker told guests.
Mexico: Tigers escape
MEXICO CITY — Authorities says three tigers that had escaped from a Mexican circus truck were recaptured after police distracted them by throwing them chickens.
The local newspaper Cambio de Michoacan says the escaped felines holed up in house in the western city of Zitacuaro. When the tigers started breaking down the home's fence, police lobbed them chickens to eat until a dogcatcher and the animals' trainer arrived.
Peru: Protests kill 3
LIMA — Peru's government suspended civil liberties in a southern province Wednesday and gave the army the go-ahead to rein in protests that have killed three people.
But troops have not yet been deployed against violent protests in Tacna province over a new law that reallocates mining royalties to a neighboring province to pay for basic services like water and education.
Three people have been killed in the unrest since last week, said Yehude Simon, Cabinet chief to President Alan Garcia. On Tuesday, protesters clashed with police and burned a municipal building in Ciudad Nueva.
Somalia: Workers kidnapped
PARIS — Armed men ambushed a convoy in Somalia on Wednesday, taking four European aid workers and two Kenyans hostage, officials said.
French aid group Action Against Hunger said the attack took place in the town of Dhusamareb, about 360 miles north of the capital, Mogadishu, when the six were going to an airport to board a chartered plane bound for Nairobi, Kenya.
The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said two Kenyan pilots and four aid workers — two French citizens, one Belgian and a Bulgarian — were kidnapped.