Haitian ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide answered prosecutors' questions Wednesday in a landmark investigation for the country over charges he used homeless children to get donations.
Thousands of Aristide supporters gathered outside a courthouse and poured into the streets to protest what they denounced as political persecution.
Among various accusations of corruption, a group of people has filed a complaint claiming they were among street children rescued by La Fanmi se la vi (Family is Life), a charity Aristide created in the 1990s.
Haiti
Coverage of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake disaster may have dwindled in the news, but rebuilding efforts are still slowly continuing, running the gamut from shelters made from tires, shipping containers and recycled plastic bottles – each with their advantages and disadvantages.
PORT-AU-PRINCE -- The narrow corridor home deep inside the mountain was supposed to be a new beginning, a place where Alexandra Simin could have a fresh shot at life after nearly two years of sleeping on a dirt floor in a fetid tent city.
But 14 months after trading in her small tent for the one-room cinder block shack in the hillside slum called “Jalousie” or Jealousy, the mother of two and survivor of Haiti’s catastrophic Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake was again without a home.
MONTREAL, Canada, CMC – Haiti’s Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe has a message for Canada in the wake of a decision by Ottawa to put a temporarily halt on aid to the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
He wants Canada to give Port-au-Prince a greater say in how aid from the North American country is spent.
Last week, International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino announced that Ottawa would not fund any new programme in Haiti until it finds a better way of assisting the country help itself.
Port-au-Prince, (Prensa Latina) The Communications Ministry of Haiti leads today a campaign refuting a list the US and European media circulate placing Haiti among the most unsafe countries in the world, an allegation it declares false and to prove otherwise it quotes reports from different international bodies.
For instance, those sources remind that in Central America and the Caribbean, countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Bahamas are much more violent than Haiti.
Haiti’s Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe is pushing back at suggestions that his nation is unsafe. “We would like to reassure the tourists, the diaspora, people who want to visit....Haiti is one of the safest destinations that they could visit,” Lamothe said Monday at a press conference in Port-au-Prince, quoting U.N. crime statistics. The latest figures from U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime show that in 2010 Haiti had a recorded murder rate of 6.9 for every 100,000 persons. The rate is close to one-quarter that of Jamaica and less than half of the neighboring Dominican Republic. Still, U.N.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- Haitian officials have renewed the diplomatic passport of former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, his attorney said Saturday. Lawyer Reynold Georges said the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reissued the expired travel document for Duvalier last month as is customary for ex-presidents and former prime ministers. "They have to, because he's an ex-president," Georges said by telephone. "This is not something people should talk about. It's common practice."
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti /PRNewswire/ -- Haiti is one of the safest destinations; not just in the Caribbean, but throughout all the Americas. This is the general finding of recent studies on crime in the region which show that Haiti has the lowest rate of violent deaths in comparison to previous years. In 2012, according to the UNODC, Haiti's violent death rate of 6.9 out of every hundred thousand Haitians is among the lowest rates in the Americas, and the same as Long Beach, California.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide yesterday won a delay until next week in a court hearing to address accusations he exploited former street children for political gain. Aristide, who did not appear in court, has not been charged with a crime and a judge will ultimately decide whether any charges should be filed. His lawyer successfully argued that the hearing should be delayed to next Wednesday because the court summons was served improperly.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, /PRNewswire/ -- The governments of Haiti and Vietnam are demonstrating that South-South cooperation can lead to the fruitful exchange of resources, technology and knowledge. A series of significant agreements signed in late December 2012 provide the framework for a novel form of long term cooperation that will allow Haiti to address food security, one of its key challenges. The government of Haiti hopes that these agreements will enable Haiti to leapfrog development stages as it attempts to create a resilient agricultural production system.