WASHINGTON, USA -- Five extraordinary people from Cuba, Haiti, Colombia and El Salvador will be honored as the 2009 Heroes of the Hemisphere for their dedication to improving the lives of people in their communities, the Pan American Development Foundation announced on Wednesday. read more...

---

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- Haiti has kept its promise to build a government but donor nations have failed to deliver the aid they pledged to the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Bill Clinton said on Wednesday. "They've only gotten a pittance of the aid that was pledged to them," Clinton said. read more...

---

PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti (AFP) -- Women can give birth for free at the Isaie Jeanty hospital in the Haitian capital thanks to foreign aid -- but hospital equipment theft is so rampant an operating room has been closed almost since the site opened. Isaie Jeanty is an example of how millions of dollars in humanitarian aid... read more...

---

The Haitian-New York Diaspora as well as the Florida and the Canadian Diaspora are well accounted for in their contribution in helping Haiti to sustain itself while the country is still in coma. Yet the 1.2 million Haitians in the Dominican Republic are soon becoming one of the largest mass of middle class stock on the island. read more...

---

NEW YORK, USA (AFP) -- UN peacekeepers in Haiti should be reorganized to better monitor the country's border areas and coastline, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report released Thursday. Ban stressed the UN's crucial security role in helping stabilize the impoverished Caribbean nation. read more...

---

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) -- Tropical Storm Erika weakened to a tropical depression in the northeast Caribbean on Thursday but still threatened Puerto Rico and neighboring islands with heavy rainfall, the US National Hurricane Center said. Most government offices and schools closed early on Thursday. read more...

---

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Albert Ramdin, is leading a high-level mission of inter-American institutions and OAS Member State officials to Haiti from September 3-6. Ramdin stressed that “this visit is an important opportunity." read more...

---

WASHINGTON, USA -- As part of Inter-American cooperation efforts of support for the Government of Haiti in terms of institutional strengthening, socio-economic development, environmental sustainability and security, the Organization of American States (OAS) has organized a high-level Inter-American Mission. read more...

---

Haiti, along with Cuba, is shunned by the American travel industry. Europe and Canada have succeeded in circumventing that boycott in the case of Cuba. Haiti is still visited only by its own nationals living abroad and by missionaries and international workers. Yet, lately a constant flow of major international... read more...

---

WASHINGTON, USA -- The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) and Chair of the Haiti Task Force, Ambassador Albert Ramdin, joined the OAS Staff Association in a ceremony to handover a check to the Hope for Haiti Foundation, a Haitian NGO working in education and health care. read more...

---

In May 2009, both chambers of the Haitian Parliament voted to increase the daily minimum wage from 70 gourdes ($1.75) to 200 gourdes ($5). Haiti is the least developed nation in the western hemisphere. The approval of the minimum wage legislation is seen as a momentous victory for Haitians living in poverty. read more...

---

It was destined to be the lantern of the world! Christopher Columbus, on his journey to find spice, silk, and other exotic stock from India through a shorter way, stumbled into the Western Hemisphere. When he arrived in Salvador, a small island of the Bahamas, he fell in love with the land and the people. read more...

---

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Security has improved dramatically in Haiti, where just a few years ago large areas were controlled by heavily armed gangs that killed, kidnapped and raped with impunity, UN police said on Friday. The crime rate in the impoverished Caribbean nation has dropped. read more...

---

In 1994, delegates from 179 nations met in Cairo to redefine the international policy regarding population growth. During this convention, the participating countries adopted a 20-year plan which emphasized the rights and aspirations of those countries to regulate population growth in order to achieve... read more...

---

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- The Population Reference Bureau's 2009 World Population Data Sheet released recently shows a significant number of nationals in five Caribbean countries live on less than US$2 a day. Those countries are: Haiti, St Lucia, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname. read more...

---

I am part of the baby boomer generation, those of us born on or around 1946 after the Second World War. We are the products of the exuberance of those men coming from the trench facing death and ready to live for the fullest. Those men are now in their nineties as my own father. read more...

---

HAVANA, Cuba (ACN) -- After receiving their graduate certificates, 55 Haitian doctors who studied in the Caribbean Medical Faculty of Santiago de Cuba, in the eastern region of Cuba, will start working in their homeland. The new graduates will receive their certificates this Friday in a ceremony in Port au Prince. read more...

---

The saying that old wounds run deep has never proven truer than in the case of the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the two countries sharing the island of Hispaniola. Since declaring independence from its neighbor in 1844, the Dominican Republic has visibly outmatched Haiti read more...

---

MIAMI, USA (Reuters) -- Former US President Bill Clinton said on Sunday he would lead an international trade mission of private investors to Haiti in October to pursue energy and other development amid signs the nation is stabilizing. Clinton said stability had improved in the troubled Caribbean nation. read more...

---

The Republic of Haiti might have per square miles the largest number of international organizations operating into the country. Yet the economic and the social impact of their contribution are so minute that I am crying loud and clear: give me the Amish, the Quakers and the Mennonite any time! read more...

---

Haiti at this time of the year is a big party town! To put it in perspective, just imagine Carnival in Trinidad extended from one week in February to a full month from July 15 to August 15. The first salvo is launched on July 16 for the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Ville Bonheur. The legend says... read more...

---

I join all citizens of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) in expressing profound sadness over the loss of life that occurred after a boat carrying some 200 Haitian migrants ploughed into a coral reef in our waters on Sunday and capsized. Latest reports are that 67 remain missing, and are presumed dead. read more...

---

MIAMI, USA (Reuters) -- The US Coast Guard on Wednesday called off its search for up to 67 Haitian migrants missing from a wooden sailboat that sank off the Turks and Caicos Islands, saying they were presumed lost at sea. Fifteen bodies were recovered by rescuers following the wreck of the wooden sloop. read more...

---

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands (AFP) -- Authorities searched for up to 67 Haitian migrants off the Turks and Caicos Islands Tuesday after their overloaded boat capsized, killing at least 15 people. Local police renewed their search at dawn for the dozens of migrants still unaccounted for but had little hope. read more...

---

MIAMI, USA (Reuters) - At least 113 Haitian migrants were rescued by Tuesday after their boat capsized and sank off the Turks and Caicos islands, according to the US Coast Guard which has crews helping with the rescue attempt. Rescuers in small boats and helicopters plucked 113 survivors from the reefs. read more...

---

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Haiti and the Dominican Republic reinforced troops at their shared border after violence broke out at a protest in the Dominican Republic demanding extradition of a Haitian man accused of murder in both countries, Haiti's foreign minister said on Monday. read more...

---

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is fifty years old this month. It has chosen Haiti to celebrate this milestone. Haiti was a charter member and it is the country in most in need in the region. The Karibe Hotel and Convention Center was the venue for this auspicious event. read more...

---

NEW YORK, USA (Reuters) -- A tropical wave over the Dominican Republic and Haiti won't develop into a tropical cyclone over the next day or so, and will not reach the oil rich Gulf of Mexico, the US National Hurricane Center and weather models forecast on Wednesday. read more...

---

DALLAS, USA (AFP) -- Alvaro Saborio scored twice to lead Costa Rica to a 5-1 victory over Guadeloupe and into a semi-finals showdown against Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Mexico advanced with a 4-0 victory over Haiti as the quarter-final double-header in the regional championship drew a capacity crowd. read more...

---

KINGSTON, Jamaica (OPM) -- As Jamaica continues its efforts to weather the economic crisis, Finance Minister Audley Shaw left the island on Thursday for a meeting in Haiti with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank. The bank will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. read more...

---

MIAMI, USA -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BSO) detectives in Miami Shores arrested a 35-year-old native of the Bahamas and citizen of Haiti on Tuesday wanted by the Bahamian government as one of their nine “most wanted” fugitives. read more...

---

WASHINGTON, USA -- At a meeting at the OAS called by Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin, Chairman of the Haiti Task Force, representatives discussed this week mechanisms for stronger cooperation on Haiti among Inter-American agencies. Ramdin noted that five agencies have already identified steps. read more...

---

GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Young people representing 18 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, on Sunday, participated in a symbolic tree-planting exercise in Haiti, as part of a four-day Caribbean Youth Exchange programme, which started on Thursday 9 July, 2009. Approximately 57 trees were planted. read more...

---

The worldwide recession has brought about a tempestuous climate for investment in the best-industrialized countries; each nation is trying its best to gain and retain whatever investment has already landed into its land; for a country like Haiti with a dubious climate for investment purpose, the uphill battle... read more...

---

WASHINGTON, USA -- The Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Albert Ramdin, expressed at a meeting of the OAS Group of Friends of Haiti his satisfaction with the cancellation by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund  and the Inter-American Development Bank... read more...

---

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (Reuters) -- Former US President Bill Clinton said on Wednesday a lack of cooperation between Haitian politicians, aid groups and business leaders was hurting efforts to help the impoverished nation. Clinton said he was optimistic about Haiti's future but surprised by the continuing divide. read more...

---

The concept of social exclusion and its corollary, hospitality for all, have been the hallmark of my inquiry in most of these columns. As such, when the Haiti National Observatory on Poverty and social exclusion in coordination with the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation organized three days colloquia. read more...

---

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...

---

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...

---

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...

---