The French President on visit in Haiti during the day of May 12th.
The French President, François Hollande, was scheduled to begin a five day visit in the Caribbean on Friday. This will take him to Haiti on May 12th. He was also scheduled to travel to Martinique, Guadeloupe and Cuba.
The French Head of state was accompanied by an important delegation of French businessmen.
Immediately upon landing, François Hollande, who will also be accompanied with a significant press corps, will be welcomed by Michel Martelly and driven to the National Palace, then to the MUPANAH – National Museum of Pantéon.
François Hollande will lay a floral wreath in front of the monument dedicated to the precursor of Haiti’s Independence - Toussaint Louverture, whose symbolic remains rest at the base of the Pantheon in Paris.
François Hollande and the delegation accompanying him are set to fly back in the evening.
New American ambassador in Haiti. He replaces Pamela White who has been in office in Haiti since 2012
Last Wednesday, Barack Obama appointed Peter F. Mulrean as new Ambassador in Haiti. After ratification by the American Senate, he will replace Pamela A. White, who presented her credentials to the Haitian Government on August 3rd, 2012. At this time, no official starting date for Mulrean has been communicated.
Peter F. Mulrean, a career member of the Foreign Service, class of Counselor, is the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, a position he has held since 2012. Previously, Mulrean served as Director of Interagency Provincial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, Counselor for Refugee and Migration Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva from 2008 to 2011, and Regional Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia from 2004 to 2008. He also served as Deputy Director of the Office for the Promotion of Human Rights and Democracy at the Department of State from 2002 to 2004, Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium from 1999 to 2002, and Exchange Diplomat at the European Commission in Brussels from 1998 to 1999. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was an English teacher in Japan and China and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. Mulrean received an A.B. from Harvard University.
Judge in Haiti dismisses abuse case against US citizen
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A judge in Haiti has dismissed the case against a U.S. citizen who was accused of abusing residents of an orphanage that he has run for three decades in the Haitian capital.
Michael Geilenfeld, who had been in custody since his Sept. 5 arrest, was released Wednesday after a brief trial before a judge in Port-au-Prince.
Five former residents of the St. Joseph's Home for Boys had accused Geilenfeld of physical and sexual abuse. None of the alleged victims, all adults now, testified at the trial.
Defense lawyer Alain Lemithe said the accusations were vague and unsubstantiated.
"They had nothing against him," Lemithe told The Associated Press on Thursday. "They had no proof whatsoever so he has been released."
Manuel Jeanty, a lawyer for the victims, said neither he nor any of his clients attended the proceeding because they weren't notified in advance that it would be taking place. He said he planned to file an appeal.
"The justice system is not working," Jeanty said.
Geilenfeld, 63, founded the St. Joseph's Home for Boys in 1985. His charity grew to encompass three homes, a guest house for missionaries and a dance troupe that toured the U.S. and Canada to promote the organization.
In February 2013, Geilenfeld and Hearts with Haiti, a North Carolina nonprofit group that raises money for the orphanage, filed a defamation suit against Paul Kendrick, an activist in Maine who had publicized allegations of child sexual and physical abuse at the facility. The suit called the charges "false and heinous" and said they had been investigated and determined to be false.
Geilenfeld said in a deposition filed in the civil case that an email and blog campaign by the activist had cost his organization more than $1.5 million in donations.
He denied ever engaging in a sexual act with anyone under age 18. "I have devoted my life to enriching the lives of children in Haiti, the United States and abroad," he said in the deposition.
Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Miami and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.
Haitian-Montrealers want more time before deportation moratorium lifted Ottawa lifted the ban on deportations to Haiti last December
Members of Montreal's Haitian community are asking the federal government for more time to apply for permanent resident status.
Ottawa lifted the moratorium on deportations to Haiti and Zimbabwe in December. The moratorium in Haiti was originally put in place because of political violence and conditions in Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010.
Now, many Haitians fear they could soon face deportation.
Marjorie Villefranche, director of Montreal's Maison d'Haiti, said the six-month window Ottawa provided isn't long enough.
"So that's why we are asking them, asking the government to give us three more months," she said.
Federal Immigration Minister Chris Alexander says the country has been generous to Haitians and Zimbabweans for more than a decade.
Alexander says the temporary ban on deportations has been lifted because he believes the uncertainty in those countries has ended.
HAITI CHILDREN - Unicef: Nearly half of Haitian children under 5 suffer malnutrition
EFE | PORT-AU-PRINCE
Nearly one in two Haitian children under 5 suffers from malnutrition, the Unicef office in Port-au-Prince said Tuesday.
In an article signed by the Unicef chief of communication in Haiti, Cornelia Walther, the U.N. Children's Fund says the malnutrition of Haitian minors is due, among other causes, to poverty, disease and poor nutritional practices.
Several stars of National Football League (NFL) were scheduled to travel to Haiti from May 6 to May 11, while on a visit, to gauge business opportunities in Haiti
This visit is held through the initiative of the Jack Brewer Foundation with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and the Creative Industries (MTIC), according to a ministry press release.
Two American television channels SPIKE TV/NBC led by André Berto will produce reports on the trip, Haitian sports in general, and boxing in particular, explained the press release.
The ministry also informed that other big names such as Clinton Portis, Ramses Barden, Tommi Harris or models of from the Wilhelmina models agency will also make the trip for this EducTour.
For the tourist and sports promotion of Haiti …
The Canadian boxer of Haitian origin, Adonis Stevenson, will be in Haiti during September, to compete for a fight. This project is organized the Group Yvon Michel (GYM), learnt HPN.
GYM would want this event, "to demonstrate the tourist qualities of Haiti," declared Yvon Michel in the Canadian newspaper, “The Press.”
"There is a strong political will over there, but we are starting from behind. In all the history of the country, there has been never an international sporting event broadcasted to the outside," he explained.
The president of GYM underlines that "… When we go on holiday in the Caribbean, we always think of Cuba or of the Dominican Republic. But nobody considers going to Haiti. […].
Through this initiative, the organizers think of using Adonis as inspiration for the Haitians, to show them that one of their own reached the highest summits, reports the newspaper.
Because of this event, Adonis Stevenson will not fight in the Centre Bell on June 27th of this year. The boxer instead wants to concentrate his efforts to prepare for the fight in Haiti, specifies GYM.
For this fight, Stevenson Adonis 37 years (26-1, 21 K-O) could face the 27-year-old South African Thomas Oosthuizen (24-0-2, 14 K-O). The evet would be aired on Showtime and offered à la carte in Quebec.