Campaigning closes
It’s the last official day of campaigning in presidential and parliamentary elections in Haiti.
They are taking place amid a cholera epidemic and while 1.5 million people are still homeless following the earthquake which destroyed much of the capital Port au Prince in January. Many people lost everything in the earthquake, including their voting cards.
But officials say that everything is in place for polls to go ahead on Sunday.
Fraud fears dismissed
Fears of election fraud are growing in Haiti but the head of the OAS/Caricom observer mission is insisting that skulduggery this time will be very difficult.
Colin Granderson – the Caricom foreign affairs chief – told the German news agency, DPA, that he is satisfied that enough barriers are in place to ensure that elections are free and fair. It is going to be very difficult for anybody to commit fraud without being caught, he says, adding that important changes have been implemented in the way ballots are cast. Meanwhile, the observer mission has issued a statement deploring a significant rise in pre-election violence.
New world warning on passive smoking
The first-ever international study into the effects of passive smoking has found it causes 600,000 deaths every year across the globe – a third of them children.
The study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) examined the problem in nearly 200 countries.
It found that passive smoking — which causes heart disease, respiratory illness and lung cancer — is particularly dangerous for children, who are exposed to it in their homes.
It says that children are at higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, pneumonia and asthma.
The WHO calls for urgent action to encourage parents to protect their children from second-hand smoke.
