Protest strike shuts down Haiti amid search for missionaries

By DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON
Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A protest strike has shuttered businesses, schools and public transportation in a new blow to Haiti’s anemic economy. And unions and other groups vow to continue the shutdown Tuesday in anger over worsening crime as authorities try to rescue 17 kidnapped members of a U.S.-based missionary group. FBI agents and other U.S. officials are helping Haitian authorities hunt for 12 adults and five children linked to Christian Aid Ministries in Ohio who were kidnapped Saturday during a trip to visit an orphanage. It is the largest reported kidnapping of its kind in recent years, with Haitian gangs growing more brazen. Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, bus passengers and others as they grow more powerful.