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Jan 11, 2011

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – International observers are waiting on Haiti's president to accept a report suggesting his party's candidate be eliminated from a contentious election to choose the quake-ravaged country's next leader.

Haitian electoral officials must make the final decision on what to do, and the recommendations by observers from the Organization of American States could weigh heavily.

But first they have to officially receive the report.

That step was thwarted Monday when President Rene Preval's office declined to grant an appointment to the observation team, OAS assistant secretary-general Albert Ramdin said.

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Dec 30, 2010

Jan. 12 memorial event at RCCJan. 12 memorial event at RCC rescheduled to Jan. 16

UPDATE: Due to the snow emergency in Boston, this event has been rescheduled to Sunday, Jan. 16 at 4 p.m.

A coalition of Haitian-American organizations from across eastern Massachusetts have joined forces to plan a memorial event to mark the one year anniversary of the Jan. 12 earthquake. The event will be held from 4-9 p.m. at Roxbury Community College. The event will include a one-hour memorial service, displays by NGOs working in Haiti and mental health counselors.

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Dec 29, 2010

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, DEC. 29, 2010…..Although the Patrick administration had warned that a health coverage program that serves about 22,000 legal immigrants would run out of money by the end of December, Gov.

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Dec 22, 2010

BOSTON—The Massachusetts State Police will participate in a federal program that automatically checks the immigration status of those who are arrested, the state's top state public safety official announced Friday.

In a statement, Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan said the state will formally join a program called Secure Communities after months of deliberating by state officials.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement program allows arrestees' fingerprint information to be checked against FBI criminal history records and biometrics-based immigration records kept by the Department of Homeland Security. But the program has drawn fire from some Massachusetts-based immigrant advocacy groups who say it discourages legal and illegal immigrants from cooperating with police.

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Dec 22, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The Organization of American States has asked Haitian President Rene Preval to delay announcing election results until an international panel of experts can review the vote, officials said Saturday.

Final results from the Nov. 28 first round _ showing which of the top three quarreling candidates would go on to a January runoff - were expected Monday.

Holding off an announcement would postpone conflicts between supporters, which resulted in riots and deadly clashes this month. But the panel of up to five electoral, legal and information-technology experts has not even been formed, and waiting for its review could drag into the new year.

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Dec 11, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Scientists reported Thursday the strongest evidence yet that a cholera outbreak that has killed more than 2,000 people in Haiti can be traced to South Asia.

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Dec 10, 2010

“If this happened in my district, they would have been rioting already.”
Congressman Bobby Rush (Chicago, IL), nine days after the earthquake

It has been eleven months now since the earthquake destroyed much of Port-au-Prince. We’ve heard the statistics repeated into infinity: more than 1.5 million people are still homeless, living under tarps and bed sheets. Add to this a six-year foreign military occupation that most recently has been accused of bringing a deadly cholera epidemic to the country, and widespread awareness that although hundreds of millions were donated to help earthquake survivors practically nothing has changed in the concrete living conditions of said survivors, and it is truly impressive how patient and peaceful Haitians have been.

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Dec 10, 2010

Down with Selection, Long Live Election: A sign at a Dec. 5 protest in Port-au-Prince. Photo by Bri Kouri Nowel GayeDown with Selection, Long Live Election: A sign at a Dec. 5 protest in Port-au-Prince. Photo by Bri Kouri Nowel Gaye“Have you chosen me a good government, Blan?”-sarcastic question posed by a Haitian voter to a foreign election monitor at a polling station in Port-Au-Prince.

While $26 million was spent on Haiti’s November 28 elections, a great deal more is at stake for international business. Over $9 billion in reconstruction contracts will be up for grabs, and the government selected could possibly have influence on the foreign dominated Haiti Interim Reconstruction Committee (HIRC), which is tasked with determining the path of Haiti’s development.

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Dec 10, 2010

Sen. John KerrySen. John KerrySen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, issued the following statement to the Boston Haitian Reporter on Thursday regarding the ongoing crisis surrounding Haiti's disputed presidential election:

"I urge the government of Haiti and the provisional electoral council (CEP) to address allegations and complaints about voting irregularities, some of which have already been verified. Failure to resolve these disputes before the runoff election scheduled for January 16 runs the risk of undermining legitimacy and confidence in the entire electoral process. It could also lead to more violence, which will only further destabilize and weaken a country that is already suffering in so many ways.”

Haiti's electoral council said Thursday that it will recount the ballots in the country's disputed presidential election, according to the Associated Press. The U.S. Embassy has said the preliminary results appeared to conflict with observers who monitored the initial count.

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Dec 10, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A popular singer vowed to legally challenge election results that narrowly ousted him from Haiti's presidential race, while his supporters barricaded streets and set fires in violence that threatened the fragile stability tha

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Nov 30, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Haitians entered election day hoping for the best. Within hours, ballot boxes were ripped to pieces, protesters were on the streets and nearly every presidential hopeful was united against the government.

Add it to Haiti's list: Already reeling from a catastrophic earthquake, one of the world's poorest economies, storms, a deadly cholera epidemic and unrest over U.N. peacekeepers, the Caribbean nation could now be on the edge of full-on political turmoil.

The chaos in Sunday's voting united most of the top presidential candidates against the president's heir apparent - Jude Celestin, head of the state-run construction company and beneficiary of a well-financed campaign.

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Nov 29, 2010

Election 2010: A Haitian voter defends her right to vote to MINUSTAH. Photo by Mark SnyderElection 2010: A Haitian voter defends her right to vote to MINUSTAH. Photo by Mark Snyder

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ The ballot is as crowded as the earthquake-ravaged capital itself, and a collapsed presidential palace is the prize. The voter rolls are filled with the dead, and living citizens are still struggling to figure out if and where they can vote while worrying about political violence and a spreading cholera epidemic.

It's Election Sunday in post-quake Haiti.

Some polls began opening in major cities nearly 50 minutes after the 6 a.m. scheduled time. Only 20 people were waiting when a central voting station opened in Cap-Haitien, a slow start in a largely rural country where people tend to be early risers.

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Nov 26, 2010

Nearly 23,000 Massachusetts residents – legal immigrants who have been in the country for fewer than five years – are scheduled to lose their health insurance before the New Year, and lawmakers are keeping silent about whether they’ll intervene.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo has declined repeated requests for comment on the matter, and Sen. Richard Moore, co-chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, also declined comment Tuesday.

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Nov 18, 2010

The White House today issued a transcript of an on-the-record briefing held by officials at the US State Department to offer the latest information about the ongoing cholera epidemic in Haiti that has — so far— killed more than 1,100 people.

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Nov 18, 2010

Cholera Prevention: A sound-truck spreads the word about dangers of cholera earlier this month. Image courtesy of Let Haiti LiveCholera Prevention: A sound-truck spreads the word about dangers of cholera earlier this month. Image courtesy of Let Haiti Live(Port-au-Prince)— No one was surprised to hear that Haiti is confronting an epidemic of cholera, because to date, neither the government nor the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been successfully executing programs to help the population in Haiti. The cholera epidemic is a clear sign of failure and evidence of the way the United Nations system and NGOs function – or rather don’t function.

It was already well known that the Government of Haiti lacks adequate resources and has more interest in holding elections than in the lives of the people, but now we are beginning to see the stark contradiction between the mission statements of the international humanitarian community and their actions.

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Nov 18, 2010

On Saturday, October 23rd, Mirlande Manigat visited Boston as part of a tour of the Haitian Diaspora.

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Nov 18, 2010

Martelly campaigns in BostonMartelly campaigns in BostonWe know him best as “Sweet Micky”, a talented musician whose wild stage antics brought an element of shock to Haitian entertainment. In the late 1980s, he started out as any one of a number of notable Haitian talents and went simply by his name, Michel Martelly. Michel’s career began with the success of early releases with fun titles like, “Woule, Woule”, “Anba Rad La”, “The Sweetest” etc. However, real fame and international success came with the creation of a sub-identity “Sweet Micky”. It was the wild and uninhibited Micky that became a household name among Haitians. Sweet Micky’s irreverent style, controversial albums and frequent feuds with rival bands, made Michel Martelly wealthy and famous.

Martelly came into the Haitian music industry during turbulent times. In the early 1990s, the Island was in political free-fall after the ouster of the Duvalier regime. The populace had democratically elected a progressive yet controversial former priest, Jean Bertrand Aristide and within a year he was exiled by Haiti’s military. Haiti’s popular music Konpa, was struggling as a new generation preferred the sound of Zouk, which had its origins in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Michel Martelly’s act was one among a new generation of artists that met the challenge of Zouk by using technology to reduce the man-power it took to man live Konpa shows and moved its sound into the new digital format.

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Nov 15, 2010

BOSTON (AP) — A United Nations refugee official says he hopes that a resettlement system develops soon to aid some Haitians who need protection and relocation.

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Nov 12, 2010

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The first portion of U.S. reconstruction money for Haiti is on its way more than seven months after it was promised to help the country rebuild from the Jan. 12 earthquake.

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