20014: (Chamberlain) Spanish journalist killed, others wounded (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     MIAMI, March 7 (Reuters) - A Spanish television correspondent was
killed and at least one other foreign journalist was injured when gunfire
erupted during a demonstration outside Haiti's National Palace in
Port-au-Prince on Sunday.
     Witnesses said supporters of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide opened fire on thousands of revelers celebrating Aristide's
departure, killing at least four people and wounding 19, including an
American photographer.
     A journalist at Antena 3 TV in Madrid confirmed that the station's
correspondent, Ricardo Ortega, died after being shot. He had been sent to
Haiti about 10 days ago.
     Antena 3 Radio reported that he was hit in the chest and abdomen and
taken to the hospital, where he later died.
     An EFE Spanish news agency journalist, Enrique Ibanez, talking on
Spanish state radio, said: "Our colleague, Ricardo Ortega, died as a result
of two shots fired at him at the end of the demonstration. He was taken to
the hospital where sadly he has died."
     Ortega had previously been a correspondent in Russia and the United
States, the radio said.
     There were also unconfirmed witness reports that other foreign
journalists were wounded in the shooting.
     One of the wounded journalists was Michael Laughlin, a photographer
with the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a newspaper spokesman said.
     "He was shot in the shoulder and the face," Sun-Sentinel spokesman
Kevin Courtney said.
     Laughlin was in stable condition at the Canape Vert Hospital in
Port-au-Prince and the newspaper was trying to arrange to bring him to
Florida for further treatment, Courtney said.
     Laughlin, believed to be in his late 30s, was on assignment for the
Florida newspaper in Haiti.