Boston: Suspect in Slayings of Sisters Caught in Haiti
Officials say a man accused of killing two Boston sisters in 2011 has been captured in Haiti and will be brought back to Massachusetts to face murder charges.
BOSTON (AP) — Officials say a man accused of killing two Boston sisters in 2011 has been captured in Haiti and will be brought back to Massachusetts to face murder charges.
The U.S. Marshals Service says 35-year-old Jean Weevens Janvier was captured June 3 at his mother's home in Santo, Haiti.
Janvier is charged in the fatal shootings of his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Stephanie Emile, and her 23-year-old sister, Judith, in their Dorchester apartment on Nov. 14, 2011.
Authorities say responding officers discovered a 2-year-old child alive and alone with the victims.
The Suffolk County district attorney's office says Janvier will be arraigned once he's brought back to Massachusetts, which could be later this week or early next week. It couldn't immediately be determined if Janvier is being represented by an attorney.
Powerful Tech Influencers Descend Upon Haiti
The Haiti Tech Summit jumped off to a flawless start June 6, at the Royal Decameron Indigo Beach Resort & Spa. The conference was flooded by individuals from all parts of the world but comprised mostly of an amazing mix of Silicon Valley and Caribbean entrepreneurs making up a crowd of approximately 400-plus people. Speakers included executives from leading tech companies including Uber, Facebook, Google, and Airbnb.
The first day kicked off with a powerful keynote from venture capitalist Ben Horowitz, a Silicon Valley notable and the co-founder of the well-respected firm, Andreessen Horowitz. Fascinated by the Haitian culture, his talk unveiled a historical flashback to the Haitian Revolution as he compared Toussaint L'Ouverture's leadership style and his ability to reignite culture as a Haitian leader to that of building startup cultures from the ground up.
Horowitz states that keeping what works, creating shocking new rules, incorporating other cultures, and making decisions that demonstrate priorities, is the key to creating a dynamic startup culture, which are the same rules that L'Ouverture used to reprogram the mindset of the Haitian people.
"If you go into Facebook one of the big signs on the wall says, 'Move Fast and Break Things.' He's creating a rule that says, 'I want you to go so fast and innovate so much that I don't care if you break things.' That's my priority. That's what's important to me. I'm creating a rule that's going to make you think about that every second of every day," said Horowitz.
Other chats included "Entrepreneurship in the Global Startup Ecosystem," consisting of a powerful panel of five action-driven females: Angie Carrillo, Asra Nadeem, Adi Abili, Kerstin Karu, and Shaina Silva who act as regional directors for the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and America. The goal of this group is to utilize each member's resources to create innovation universally.
Fulbright Fulbright/Formation
Haitian scholarship recipients travel to study in America
Some young Haitian professionals licensed in various domains were selected for the "Fulbright" program in the United States for 2017-2019.
These scholarship recipients will leave the country in the next days to complete their master's degree at an American university.
These Haitian students participated in a rigorous selection process before being chosen among more than 150 candidates this year. These Bachelor's degree holders will have the opportunity to complete their master's degree within an American university while discovering American culture and American values.
The individuals are: Béthanie Saint-Louis who will be earning a master's degree in public policy at Western Michigan University, in Kalamazoo, Michigan; Paul-Émile Brice who will be earning a master's degree in town planning - architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia; Daphney Richemond who will be earning a master's degree in environmental engineering at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana; Léon S. Jonathan Pérodin who will be earning a master's degree in art management at American University in Washington D.C; Anne Martine Augustin who will be earning a master's degree in information technology at George Masson University in Fairfax, Virginia, and Daniel G. Dupervil who will be earning a master in public health at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
All smiles (at least in public) as Central American conference begins in Miami
Vice President Mike Pence praised Central American leaders for their efforts to attack crime, corruption and narcotrafficking and assured them that "your success is our success" as a two-day summit on the region's security and prosperity opened Thursday at Florida International University.
"In a word, we're in this together," Pence said. "You have the great respect of the president of the United States and the American people...This president knows your security and your prosperity are directly connected to ours."
Pence's speech was the highlight of a charm offensive between the United States, Mexico and the leaders of Central America's so-called Northern Triangle — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — that dominated the Conference on Prosperity and Security.
Pence and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were both full of accolades for the Central American leaders, who repaid the favor by politely avoiding — at least in the conference's public sessions — any reference to their most contentious issue with the United States, the possible U.S. deportation next year of 300,000 Central American immigrants.
About the only real diversions from the upbeat mood were Pence's brief but somber remarks about the shooting attack on Republican congressmen in Virginia Wednesday ("I served with many of these congressmen, they're my friends," he said, his voice grave) and his hard swipe at Venezuela's socialist government.
"We need only look to the nation of Venezuela to see what happens when democracy collapses," Pence said, urging the Central Americans to join Washington and "raise our voices to condemn the Venezuelan government."
The line got a lot of applause from the room. But at least one nation may not be in agreement: Haiti, whose president, Jovenel Moise, was en route to the conference to meet with Pence. Haiti has been a staunch supporter of Venezuela, and Pence's press secretary Marc Lotter confirmed that the vice president planned to raise the issue in a private meeting later in the afternoon.
Report of the meeting of the vice-president with President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti
The vice-president met Jovenel Moïse, president of Haiti, in Miami, in Florida. In the name of president Trump, the vice-president congratulated president Moise for his election at the beginning of this year, and underlined the efforts of Haiti to provide key positions within the government.
Both insisted on the importance to pursue a program of economic reforms with the aim of attracting the investments and generating some growth.
The vice-president and president Moise reaffirmed their common commitment to continue to build robust bilateral links, and to pursue their collaboration on the questions of mutual interests.
French Ambassador Elizabeth Beton-Delegue wishes to double the number of Haitians who want to study in France
While visiting the Magic 9 radio studios to promote the airing of four hours of French programming daily on Télé 20, the French Ambassador to Haiti Elizabeth Beton-Delegue talked about the opportunities for young Haitians to study in France.
"There is a window of opportunities for Haitians who want to go to study in France. We want more of them," declared the French ambassador, who says she wishes to double the number of Haitian students who want to go to study in France.
Over the years, she pursued, there was an estrangement from France. First, there is a big misunderstanding regarding the idea that a French visa is impossible to obtain. Second there is a widely-held belief that France is very expensive.
"I want to remind everyone that in France the higher education is superior and public, that means it is financed by taxpayers and foreign students are considered like French students. That is they don't have any "fees" nor contributions to pay for their studies," the French diplomat in office in Haiti said.
U.N. pushes to finance Haiti's cholera cleanup with leftover peacekeeping dollars
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
With most U.N. member nations, including the United States, refusing to contribute toward a $400 million trust fund to eliminate an imported cholera epidemic from Haiti, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres has cobbled together another way to get the money.
Guterres wants member countries to voluntarily turn over $40.5 million that will be left over when the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Haiti ends in October.
Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed touted the unusual proposal during a public hearing on cholera at U.N. headquarters in New York on Wednesday. It comes as UNICEF and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization face a $15 million funding shortage for this year. That shortfall, she said, threatens to reverse the progress the U.N. has made in controlling the cholera outbreak in Haiti, which was caused by U.N. peacekeepers.
"PAHO/WHO no longer has resources available for the medical and health aspects of the intensified cholera response as a result of the withdrawal of donor funding," according to the Secretary-General's latest report on incidences of suspected cholera and the U.N.'s new approach to the disease in Haiti.
Without the money, "it is very likely that the outbreak will intensify and potentially spread to other parts of the country, causing further suffering among the population and a significant setback in the elimination plans," the report said.
The report was presented to member countries ahead of Mohammed's speech. She told member states that while the new approach is helping Haiti reach its lowest level of cholera cases since 2014, "without your political will and financial support, we have only good intentions and words."