Police visit Duvalier + take him for questioning

Probably CNN had it first: “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s surprise arrival in Haiti on Sunday “brought calls for arrest from [Michele] Montas and members of human rights groups”. Michele Montas — radio journalist, ex-UN spokesperson, and sorely-aggrieved widow of assassinated journalist and agronomist Jean Dominique (shot and murdered in 2000 outside the studios of Radio Haïti [...]

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Ben Ali out of Tunisia, Baby Doc Duvalier back in Haiti?

Are we supposed to believe that “Baby Doc” Duvalier decided, all by himself, to return to Haiti on Sunday after 25 years in exile? Duvalier’s return to Haiti took place just two days after Tunisia’s President Ben Ali left his country, a day after vowing to remain in office until the end of his term [...]

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Army Doctor who headed Israeli Field Hospital (in Haiti) also took part in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza

On Sunday (January 31) at the high-powered 10th annual Herzliya Conference in Israel, the IDF Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz recently denounced the Goldstone report on last winter’s war in Gaza by saying that “The Goldstone report is a Trojan horse; it gives terrorist organizations legitimacy to fight us from urban populations [...]

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Many, many thousands of children still alone after Haiti earthquake

In the wrap-up stories, two weeks after the enormous destruction caused by a devastating earthquake in Haiti, the AP is reporting that “UN experts estimate there may be 1 million unaccompanied or orphaned children or youngsters who lost at least one parent in the Jan. 12 quake. Some young Haitians are even being released from [...]

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Israeli expert says Haiti earthquake catastrophe could happen here, too – and that also means Palestinian areas!

Haaretz newspaper is reporting today that the earthquake disaster which recently hit Haiti can — indeed, will — also inevitably happen in Israel. Avi Shapira, chairman of the National Earthquake Preparedness Committee, who just returned from Haiti and addressed a special Knesset (Parliament) committee on Tuesday, said that “An earthquake of the same magnitude as [...]

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If Haiti’s capital was condemned by loose building codes, what about Ramallah + E. Jlem?

The McClatchy newspaper group published an article yesterday from Port au-Prince, the earthquake-devastated capital of the Carribean nation of Haiti (one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere) reporting that a “Lack of construction codes sealed Haitian capital’s fate”. Actually, this story is repeated nearly every time there has been a major, catastrophic urban [...]

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UN confirms death of Hedi Annabi, head of mission, in Haiti

UN SG BAN Ki-Moon has confirmed — days after the event — the death of the head of the UN misson in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, following a devastating earthquake. Photo from Matthew Lee’s Inner City Press here showing the collapsed hotel that the UN rented as its HQ in Haiti

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UN headquarters in Haiti demolished – mission head Hedi Annabi feared dead

According to a statement made by the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the French Ambassador to Haiti has visited the “devastated UN headquarters building in Port-au-Prince and said ‘everyone who was in the building is apparently dead’.” The Associated Press (AP) picked up reported Kouchner’s remarks to RFI (or perhaps to RTL, or both) in [...]

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Conversations at a checkpoint

It really gets on your nerves, sometimes. At a checkpoint this morning, the soldier took my passport, then barked: “Where are you from?” he asked. “You mean where was I born? That’s different than where I am from. It’s written on my passport — New York”, I said. [Huda reported that she was stopped at [...]

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Hungry (and poor) Haitians eat dirt cookies

This is front-line journalism: “A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered”. The Associated Press article reports that these dirt cookies are “a traditional Haitian remedy for [...]

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