Heads visiting Haiti
Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, was due to arrive in Haiti yesterday for a two-day tour.
He was due to meet Haitian President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. The Canadian leader will inspect efforts by Canadian armed forces to help rebuild the country. “We are continuing to work with the government of Haiti to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance,” Harper said in a statement. The French president Nicolas Sarkozy is also due in Port-au-Prince this week.
Haiti ends mourning period
Haitians poured into the streets of Port-au-Prince on Sunday for singing, dancing and prayer to mark the end of a three day commemoration period of one month since the earthquake. One church leader said religion has become important to many since the January quake.
The ceremonies represented a break from the daily grind of survival many are enduring in makeshift tent cities.
Meanwhile, the international community and Haitian officials have decided that the thousands still living outdoors must make do with plastic sheeting until fixed shelters can be built.
Polls open in Anguilla
The people of Anguilla are electing a government to run the British territory for the next five years. The polls opened at 6 am yesterday and will close at 7 pm.
Seven seats are a stake in the election which is being contested by three parties and three independents. Officials said 8 652 Anguillians were registered to vote, up by more than 1,000 at the last election in 2005.
Carnival’s on the road
The carnival focus has switched to the streets of Trinidad and Tobago after a weekend of competitions and parties.
A new calypso monarch, Kurt Allen, was crowned on Sunday night with his ‘Too Bright’, one of several songs that took aim at politicians. In Dominica, a song about Haiti helped Gregory “Karassah” Riviere to retain his calypso monarch title. He sang “Haiti I feel Your Pain” and then “Dog Race”, a political satire in which he brought on stage a government minister as a performer. Carnival in Haiti is off this year but it is still up and running in parts of the Caribbean which still retain a pre-Lenten festival.
‘Row-mantic’ wedding
Traditionally, it’s the bride who arrives late for her wedding – but one British groom was forgiven for his tardiness after rowing across the Atlantic to tie the knot. Adventurous Neil Ward arrived in the Caribbean on the Britannia III as part of a crew of 12 taking part in the Atlantic Rowing Race. Ward, 38, set off on the gruelling journey of more than 2,000 miles from the Canary Islands on 4 January, arrived in Barbados, where fiancee Louise Robertson was waiting, weeks later.
