Haiti’s President Michel Martelly departed for Caracas Friday to attend of a summit of leftist Latin American leaders hosted by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.

Martelly said he was attending the summit of the Bolivarian Alliance, known as Alba, “to explore opportunities for my country.”

“Some might see it as taking a position, but I don’t see it like that,” Martelly told reporters.

“Haiti is not at war with anyone. It has the right to get together with other countries for the good of its people.”

Haiti is still struggling to recover from a massive earthquake in January 2010 that killed an estimated 220,000 people, and left much of its capital in ruins.

Founded by Chavez and Cuba’s Fidel Castro in 2004, the group was formed as a counter-weight to a U.S. initiative to create a free-trade area encompassing the Americas.

Besides Venezuela and Cuba, member states include Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Haiti has observer status with the group.

Cuban President Raul Castro was attending the summit at the head of a large delegation, Cuban television reported from Havana.

Mosquitoes carry the parasite which causes malaria in humans.

Worldwide malaria deaths may be almost twice as high as previously estimated, a study reports.

The research, published in the British medical journal the Lancet, suggests 1.24 million people died from the mosquito-borne disease in 2010.

This compares to a World Health Organisation (WHO) estimate for 2010 of 655,000 deaths.

But both the new study and the WHO indicate global death rates are now falling.

The research was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It used new data and new computer modelling to build a historical database for malaria between 1980 and 2010.

The conclusion was that worldwide deaths had risen from 995,000 in 1980 to a peak of 1.82 million in 2004, before falling to 1.24 million in 2010.

The rise in malaria deaths up to 2004 is attributed to a growth in populations at risk of malaria, while the decline since 2004 is attributed to “a rapid scaling up of malaria control in Africa”, supported by international donors.

While most deaths were among young children and in Africa, the researchers noted a higher proportion of deaths among older children and adults than previously estimated. In total, 433,000 more deaths occurred among children over five and adults in 2010 than in the WHO estimate.

A lab technician analyses a blood sample to check for malaria in a hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone

“You learn in medical school that people exposed to malaria as children develop immunity and rarely die from malaria as adults,” said Dr Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.

“What we have found in hospital records, death records, surveys and other sources shows that just is not the case.”

The researchers also concluded malaria eradication was not a possibility in the short-term.

“We estimated that if decreases from the peak year of 2004 continue, malaria mortality will decrease to less than 100,000 deaths only after 2020,” they write.

Disturbing numbers

The Lancet’s editor, Richard Horton, told the BBC: “Right now we don’t actually have any reliable primary numbers for malaria deaths in some of the most malarious regions of the world, so what numbers we have come from estimates.

“What this paper reports is a new way of estimating the number of malaria deaths, where they’ve used additional data sets and improved mathematical models from calculating mortality.”

But despite what he calls the “disturbing” number of deaths recorded, he believes the underlying message of the report is that the disease can and is being controlled.

“Since 2004, the number of malaria deaths has dropped by about a third, and that’s really been the time when the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has swung into action” he said.

“Over the past decade, 230 million cases of malaria have been treated and the same number of bed nets have been distributed to people at risk of malaria, and the result of that has been this huge downturn. So what we know is that we’re actually able to turn off malaria with our existing interventions.”

Commenting on the new study, Professor David Schellenberg of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the researchers had “gone to great lengths to assemble information from a range of sources and to make adjustments for the inadequate data quality”.

“We can argue about the strengths and weaknesses of their approach but should not be distracted by the details of the methods: however you look at it, far too many people are dying from malaria.

“The introduction of rapid diagnostic tests for malaria, recommended by the WHO in 2010 and increasingly available in endemic countries, affords an unprecedented opportunity to take the guesswork out of malaria diagnosis and to improve the reliability of information,” he added.

The new survey involved a range of measures to try and obtain a better estimate of global malaria deaths. New data sets were examined and computer models built which factored in a host of elements such as transmission rates, healthcare access, drug resistance and bednet coverage.

The work also involved trying to judge the impact of the misclassification of deaths in the affected regions. This readjustment alone generated a rise of 21% in the number of malaria deaths.

First of all, this passport was created from a child’s passport since adult passports are given for 10 year periods.

On American passports, country of origin would be HAITI, without the Port-au-Prince.

But Moise Jean-Charles has proved, once and for all, his formidable
stupidity, by submitting a forgery that spells Martelly’s name wrong.
In case Senator Jean-Charles has not noticed, Martelly’s name is
MICHEL not MICHAEL.

This forgery constitutes a Federal Offence within the American legal
system. If the US Government wished to spend the resources, it could
well discover the owner of the originating passport through the serial
numbers, and other recognizable markings.

The creator, or person who knowingly distributes is probably guilty
of several felony crimes and could face jail, loss of visa, loss of residence…etc.

David Bompart, 50, of Columbus, Ohio, died at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he had been airlifted last week. He was shot Jan. 24 outside a bank in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. He was able to walk to the nearby Hospital Bernard Mevs Project Medishare, where he underwent two surgeries before being flown to Florida, his wife had said.

Bompart had helped build the Project Medishare trauma center, managing the warehouse and logistics, after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

“David is a symbol of the thousands of American volunteers who dropped everything with their lives and their families to grab a small bag and get on a plane to Haiti, not knowing what to expect,” said Dr. Barth Green, Project Medishare’s co-founder.

Bompart, known as “Big Dave,” simply showed up at Project Medishare’s field hospital at the Port-au-Prince airport 10 days after the earthquake, Green said.

“He was as big as one of our tents and he said, ‘Can I help?’” Green said. “He had extraordinary organizational and leadership skills, and within a short amount of time he was working for us.”

Bompart worked for Project Medishare through October, when he began an orphanage building project through Eyes Wide Open International, a charity the Bomparts’ started to help widows and orphans.

Robbers sprayed bullets at Bompart at close range as he was picking up money for an orphanage building project, his wife, Nicolle Bompart, 45, said last week.

They stole his camera and passport, but the money for the orphanage remained safe in Bompart’s pants pocket, his wife said.

The suspects have not been arrested.

The Bomparts spent much of the last two years flying between Haiti, Florida and Ohio for their charity work and for medical care for their 14-year-old son, a Haitian boy they adopted after the earthquake. The couple also has a 26-year-old daughter.

Nicolle Bompart said last week that she felt the robbery was the act of people desperate to feed their families. Her husband, who had served in the military in his native Trinidad and Tobago, felt he could handle the risks of working in a city prone to instability and violence, she said.

Each had lost a first spouse to premature death, and her husband was devoted to helping people who suffered similar tragedies, Nicolle Bompart said.

The couple’s charity would continue to work in Haiti and finish the orphanage, Bompart’s family said in a statement.

“It’s what Big Dave would have wanted,” they said.

Meanwhile, hospital security and police were investigating the theft of Nicolle Bompart’s laptop computer at the hospital.

“Jackson has a zero tolerance for any criminal activity and always seeks to provide a safe and supportive place for patients and their loved ones. We sincerely regret this happened during such a trying time,” hospital officials said in a statement.

___

Nicolle Bompart’s updates about her husband: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/davidbompart

42 Members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate meet at Prime Minister Conille’s private residence. Martelly arrives, uninvited and unannounced. Accuses Conille of organizing some sort of plot. He attacked them verbally, calling the a bunch of Mother Fuckers…which was not diplomatic – but may have been true.

In the immediate past, Martelly has asked for Thierry Mayard-Paul, his Interior Minister, to step down as minister, and head of his cabinet committee. Mayard-Paul says he will divulge many secrets if he is forced out.

Mayard-Paul has stolen enough, and been such a pompous ass, that he should go quietly and not further embarrass himself.

Conille has not taken the advice of those who could help him and has become for too close to what would be known as internationalists, such as the lady who heads UNDP. Her contract is due to end and she is looking to ways she can renew her mandate. The fact that she has had a mental break, a couple of weeks ago, and is about to snap again, should rule her out for any part.

Conille has also failed to pay attention to his duties. Like so many before him, he has lost focus of the Nation’s needs and has found several mulatto mistresses.

When a guy thinks with his penis, the Nation suffers.

Time for a change!!

The Post’s View

UN’S MICHEL FORST CONCERNED ABOUT ALLEGED  STATUTE BARRED DUVALIER  CRIMES WHILE IGNORING THOSE OF ARISTIDE & PREVAL THAT ARE VALID, NON-STATUTE BARRED CRIMES INCLUDING MURDER, KIDNAP, COCAINE TRAFICKING, THEFT OF $BILLIONS.

Michel Forst concerned about the charges against Duvalier
01/02/2012 09:29:46

Arrived yesterday in Haiti, Michel Forst, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti, said he was particularly concerned about the announcements made by several sources, according to which, the former President Jean-Claude Duvalier could be indicted only for charges of financial crimes and not for the numerous violations of human rights that occurred during the years of his presidency.

“I arrived today in Port-Au-Prince for a mission of 8 days to assess the progress made in the field of human rights in Haiti and the question of the fight against impunity is one of my priorities. If the information concerning Jean-Claude Duvalier are confirmed, this would bring a very serious blow to the credibility of the process of judicial reform in Haiti,” declared Mr. Michel Forst as he stepped off the plane.

“The existence of crimes committed by the Duvalier regime is well established and has been confirmed, on many occasions particular by the annual reports of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights from 1970 to 1986. The families of victims who have complained since the return of Jean-Claude Duvalier in Haiti provided to judicial authorities the information necessary to refer the former president before the Criminal Court for trial [...]“

The Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Haiti recalls that the invocation of provisions of section 466 of the Haitian Criminal Code on the prescription is not an obstacle to prosecution, since international law prohibits amnesty or application of the prescription for those accused of crimes against humanity.

* Rapes, torture and killings documented under his rule, UN says

* No statute of limitations for such crimes under int’l law

* Duvalier alleged to have embezzled up to $800 million

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Former Haitian dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier should be tried for torture, rape and killings committed during his rule, not merely on corruption charges as proposed by a Haitian judge, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

The judge handling the case, Carves Jean, told Reuters in Port-au-Prince on Monday that Duvalier will face trial for corruption during his 15 years in power, which ended in 1986, but not for human rights abuses.

But the office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced deep disappointment and called on Haitian authorities to ensure he is prosecuted for international crimes.

“Very serious human rights violations including torture, rape and extrajudicial killings have been extensively documented by Haitian and international human rights organisations to have occurred in Haiti during the regime of Duvalier,” U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

“Impunity for such serious crimes cannot be allowed to prevail and we urge the relevant authorities to ensure that justice is, albeit belatedly, delivered to the many victims of human rights abuses committed under the government of Mr. Duvalier,” he said.

Pillay’s office had repeatedly reminded judicial authorities in Haiti of their “an absolute obligation” to investigate the violations and prosecute those responsible, he said.

“It is clear under international law that there is no statute of limitations for such crimes,” Colville added.

Judge Jean told Reuters that he did not find enough legal grounds to retain human rights charges and crimes against humanity against Duvalier and that a 20-page ruling had been delivered to the government prosecutor’s office on Monday.

Duvalier is alleged to have embezzled between $300 milllion and $800 million of assets during his rule, stashing some of it in Swiss coffers before fleeing to exile in neighbouring France.

Colville, asked why Duvalier would face corruption charges but not for human rights crimes, replied: “We’re puzzled too, because under international law it is the very serious crimes such as crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, serious violations like torture which can also be a crime against humanity, these have no statute of limitations.”

“In Haiti, our understanding is that under the constitution, international law is given supremacy so it does seem rather bizarre that financial charges appear to be possible but not international crimes,” he added.

Pillay sent a senior expert to Haiti last March to provide legal and technical advice to Haitian authorities on the issue of prosecuting a former head of state for serious human rights violations, according to Colville.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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COMMENT: HAITIAN-TRUTH.ORG

Why does everyone carefully avoid the well-documented evidence of  Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Rene Preval’s involvement in murder, kidnap, torture, rape, cocaine-trafficking, and massive theft of billions of dollars from Haiti’s treasury??

This is bias on a flagrant scale!!!

The young female police officer, raped, beaten and beheaded on Aristide’s orders when she would not shake hands with the Army Rouge leader in Cite Soleir.

Mireille Durocher-Bertin, murdered March 28, 1995 under the orders of Aristide/Preval. FBI investigated this one and quit in disgust when Aristide blocked their efforts.

Sylvio Claude and Roger Lafontant, murdered on Aristide’s orders, September 29, 1991.

Pastor Leroy and Florville.

The French Consul, murdered on the orders of Rene Preval…by Amaral Duclona, now held by the French.

The list is endless.

Cocaine trafficking on a massive scale.

Theft of government funds. Pere Samedi once said…”Duvalier sipped Haiti’s funds through a cocktail straw while Aristide gulped them with a bamboo pipe…”  And Samedi was a close Aristide ally, at the time.

Preval’s theft of $198,000,000 from Petro Caribe Fund is just one small example.

NO IMPUNITY. LET US CHARGE ALL THREE AND FIND OUT WHO IS INNOCENT AND WHO IS GUILTY. THESE INTERNATIONAL DO-GOODERS WILL FIND DUVALIER EXONERATED BY ANY BALANCED JURY WHILE THEIR HEROES – ARISTIDE AND PREVAL WILL GET ABOUT 25 CONSECUTIVE LIFE SENTENCES, OR LONGER.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – Prime Minister Garry Conille rejected the accusations of former First Lady Mirlande Manigat who said that the Haitian government moved the 2012 Carnival to Les Cayes as part of a “vast money-laundering” scheme.

The Office of Communications for the Prime Minister said Conille was shocked to hear the accusations of Mrs. Manigat which according to the Head of Government are “baseless”.

In a press note, the prime minister’s office “vehemently” rejects the allegations that the government would be involved in such practices. Conille’s office says these accusations were made to demean the government and break all the efforts of the new government to provide another image of Haiti.

The note reads that Mirlande H. Manigat is trying to have a boycott of the “beautiful gesture” and promotion of the South department, which hold artistic and landscaping treasures.

The note continues to say that it is “incredible” that a former candidate for the highest seat in the country would speak against decentralization with actions that are in “poor taste”.

The Prime Minister’s Office says the gesture of holding the Carnival in Les Cayes was to give value to the provincial areas of the country and boost culture and tourism throughout the country. The Carnival in Haiti is very popular and is a great forum to expose the beauty of the country, the note concluded.

Over the past weekend the former First Lady was heard on a radio station in capital making the accusations saying: