Haitian PM ousted amid riots over food

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Senators ousted Haiti's prime minister yesterday after more than a week of riots over food prices. A UN peacekeeper from Nigeria was shot to death in the Haitian capital amid tensions fueled by the riots.

Haitian police said the peacekeeper died during gunfire near the main Catholic cathedral in downtown Port-au-Prince. A Nigerian commander of UN troops at the scene said the victim was a Nigerian soldier, 36.

Sixteen of 17 senators at a special session voted against Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis, an ally of President René Préval. In June 2006, the president placed Alexis at the head of a coalition that was meant to unite the Caribbean nation.

The move by opposition senators was seen as a serious but not crushing blow to Préval, whose 2006 election brought a measure of calm to the poorest country in the Americas after decades of dictatorship, military rule, and economic disorder.

The quest for peace has been derailed in the past 10 days by riots over the rising cost of living.

The Senate vote was taken shortly after Préval and private sector leaders unveiled a plan to cut the cost of a sack of rice to $43 from $51. Three dollars of the price cut would be paid for by businesses and the rest by international donors, he said.

Préval said he would ask parliament to pick a new prime minister. The political confrontation occurred just two days after the president persuaded rioters to end a week of violence in which at least five people were killed.

Stone-throwing crowds began battling UN peacekeepers and Haitian police in the south of the country April 2, enraged at the soaring cost of staples.

The unrest spread last week to the capital.