OTTAWA, Canada (Reuters) -- Canada has forgiven C$2.3 million in debt owed by Haiti as part of a plan that aims to relieve the world's poorest countries of C$1.3 billion in debt, the Department of Finance said on Thursday. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty made the announcement while attending meetings in Chile. read more...

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP): President Rene Preval's Lespwa party has emerged the winner from senatorial elections held April 21, according to results made public by the provisional election council. The results late Monday gave the ruling part five of 11 seats in play in the second round of voting. read more...

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- The UN security forces in Haiti "categorically" denied that any of its soldiers were involved in the death of a person during protests in the capital. The unidentified man died Thursday during demonstrations supporting former president Jean Bertrand Aristide. read more...

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BASSETERRE, St Kitts -- As the Digicel Kick Start Clinics gear up for the final leg in St Kitts this week, president of the Haitian Football Federation, Yves John-Bart, reflects on the huge level of interest shown in this year’s Kick Start Clinics, with over 20,000 young Haitian footballers applying to be one of the 25 participants. read more...

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NEW YORK, USA -- The new United Nations envoy on Haiti, Bill Clinton, on Monday laid out his vision to advance development in the small and impoverished Caribbean nation, stressing that, more than ever before, the country has the opportunity to advance. Clinton joined forces with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. read more...

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Three countries of the Caribbean: Guyana, Haiti and St Vincent and the Grenadines share a common social thread of desperation that binds them together. Their citizens are leaving en masse to find better pastures abroad and their governments are blaming everybody and their fathers for this but themselves. read more...

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PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti -- The Haiti leg of the Digicel Kick Start Clinics wrapped up yesterday with the Digicel Kick Start team defeating its Under-16 counterparts from Aigle Noir in the closing match at the Sun Auto football field in Port-au-Prince. Coach John Barnes said Haiti's talent was on par with Jamaica's and Suriname's. read more...

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PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti -- The first day of the Digicel Kick Start Clinics kicked off in Haiti on Monday afternoon, following the arrival of Head Coach John Barnes and his team. A last minute change of venue and some adverse weather conditions proved challenging, but the 25 footballers showed great desire to learn. read more...

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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo repatriated 13 Dominicans, three Haitians and one Cuban to La Romana, Dominican Republic on Tuesday, following an at-sea interdiction by Caribbean Border Interagency Group law enforcement authorities on Monday. read more...

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KINGSTON, Jamaica -- The second leg of the Digicel Kick Start Clinics is kicking off on Tuesday, June 9, in Haiti, and preparation is well under way for the arrival of Head Coach, John Barnes, and his team.
Yves Jean-Bart, President of the Haiti Football Association, said on Monday that his team has been working hard. read more...

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) -- Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, is urging CARICOM countries to provide greater support for Haiti. Ramdin said there was a moral obligation for CARICOM to show much more political commitment and support for Haiti. read more...

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Recently, I flew with my 97-year-old father to Atlanta to attend, at Morehouse College, the graduation of my son Nicholas. Morehouse is the Alma Mater of luminaries such as Dr Martin Luther King, Shelton Spike Lee, Calvin O Butts, Samuel L. Jackson, and Edwin Moses, the Olympic gold medalist, amongst others. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (Reuters) -- The World Bank this week approved a new four-year, $121 million lending strategy for Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest country, that focuses on economic growth, jobs and reducing the impact from natural disasters. Haiti is beset by high poverty and poor basic services. read more...

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UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon continues to shower Haiti with the kind of a special attention usually reserved for the lost sheep of the Bible. He has succeeded in framing a master coup: convincing former President Bill Clinton to become his special envoy in that hurricane-ravaged country. read more...

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- A 74-year-old Canadian man was shot to death in the southern Haitian city of Cayes, a local police official told AFP. Police Commissioner Henriot Toussaint said police had launched an investigation into the incident, which took place overnight Sunday. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA -- The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, called on Friday for the international community to use the wave of support to Haiti by focusing on “the social and economic development” of the Caribbean nation, during his report to the Permanent Council. read more...

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 11 people in Haiti, as the poor Caribbean nation struggles to recover from last year's disasters, civil protection officials said on Thursday. Several hundred homes have been damaged or destroyed. read more...

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Former US President Bill Clinton's role as UN special envoy to Haiti will help raise world awareness of its plight as the poorest state in the Americas, Haiti's prime minister said on Wednesday. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week named Clinton to be his special envoy. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA -- At a briefing session that took place on Tuesday at the US Congress, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, and eight members of the US House of Representatives discussed critical issues, exchanged experiences and views on the challenges facing Haiti. read more...

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UNITED NATIONS (AFP) -- US ex-president Bill Clinton is to be named UN special envoy to Haiti, a UN official said Monday, confirming a report carried by The Miami Herald daily. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the formal announcement would be made at UN headquarters on Tuesday. read more...

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MIAMI, USA (AFP) -- Ten people were killed when a boat carrying migrants from Haiti capsized off the coast of Florida, the US Coast Guard has said. The Coast Guard was able to pluck 27 people from the water on Wednesday, 17 of whom were healthy and 10 "confirmed dead," said spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA -- Speaking in Washington at a high-level conference on Haiti organized by the United States Institute of Peace, OAS Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin advocated for a more positive characterization of Haiti, and called for a shift in the way people see this country. read more...

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On April 14, delegates from 28 countries gathered in Washington for the International Donors’ Conference on Haiti and agreed to pledge $324 million in additional aid to Port-au-Prince over the next two years. At the meeting, which was hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank, contributors promised $15 million. read more...

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- While journalists faced an increasingly grim working environment in 2008, with global press freedom declining for a seventh straight year and deterioration occurring for the first time in every region, according to Freedom House's annual media study Guyana has regained its status. read more...

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If the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission with its annual budget of US$7.1 billion and with its military force of 91 million soldiers was a government, I would be on its blacklist. I have been a constant and frequent critic of its operations. It has all the allure of a giant firefighter company called upon to all parts of the world. read more...

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HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- The governments of Cuba and Haiti have signed a cooperation agreement on the fight on drug trafficking. Haitian Foreign Minister Alrich Nicolas and María Esther Reus Gonzalez, Cuban Minister of Justice, penned the document in the Havana-based Palco Hotel. read more...

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John Criswick, I thank you for reacting to my essay on Haitian mangoes. A cursory review of the literature on mangoes shows that the fruit can vary in shape, taste and name depending on the country where grown. For example, while Haiti has the mango Baptist and Madame Francis, India has the mango Alphonse. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA -- The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, has praised the successful outcome of the senatorial elections in Haiti, held to elect one third of the Senate. The OAS leader underscored the normality that characterized the voting process. read more...

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PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- Haiti's Senate elections were marred by sporadic violence, forcing authorities to cancel polling in parts of the country, as turnout remained low across the impoverised Caribbean nation. Haiti, hit hard by natural disasters, continues to battle chronic poverty and corruption. read more...

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I read Jean Charles’ article on Haitian mangoes with interest, but his assertion that the mango originated in East Africa doesn’t tie in well with the fact that mango descriptions appear in ancient Sanskrit writings in India going back 5,000 years, very long before the 4BC mentioned by Mr Charles. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA -- More than $1.1 million will be used to improve agricultural training, marketing and planting more profitable crops along the impoverished Haiti-Dominican Republic border in a one-year initiative, the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF) announced on Friday. read more...

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There is a saying from the old Wild West about potential wealth to be acquired, “Thar’s gold in them thar hills.” Haitians can say the same about another type of gold, or at least a potential in wealth golden both in colour and quality of taste: mangoes, and not just any type of mangoes, “Haitian Mangoes”! read more...

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, USA (AFP) -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday the United States was considering granting temporary asylum to illegal Haitian immigrants, thousands of whom face imminent expulsion. The United States is set to deport more than 30,000 Haitians back to their Caribbean homeland. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- A donors conference of international lending institutions and countries pledged a two-year, 324-million-dollar aid package for impoverished Haiti, the Inter-American Development Bank said. Forty-one million dollars of the aid package is for budget support in 2009. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis said here Wednesday that aid pledged for Haiti by international donors topped her expectations even if it fell short of the country's needs. "It was more than we expected," Pierre-Louis told reporters as she stood next to the US Secretary of State. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (AFP) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Tuesday more than 50 million dollars in US aid for poverty-wracked Haiti, as it struggles to recover from last year's devastating hurricanes. "Even the most responsible government in the world cannot prevent a natural disaster," Clinton said. read more...

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WASINGTON, USA -- The Secretary General of the Organization Of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, called the international community to provide “urgent” help to Haiti in a speech at the Haiti Donors Conference that took place on Tuesday in Washington, DC. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (Reuters) -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Haiti on Thursday to talk about how to promote stability in the Western hemisphere's poorest nation despite its long history of violence and political unrest. Riots sparked by skyrocketing food prices led to the ouster of Haiti's government last year. read more...

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WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): Haiti and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said Thursday they would convene an international donors conference for the tiny poverty-wracked nation in Washington on April 14. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is facing a serious economic crisis. read more...

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Change, while usually necessary, is often equally unwelcome, and challenging. As we commemorate Good Friday today and without my intending to be unnecessarily provocative or be deliberately controversial, I want to advance the proposition for an idea and an argument for a change in Haiti. read more...

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