Mirlande Manigat: Photo by Allyn Gaestel“Don’t let anyone tell you a diploma is not important,” Professor Mirlande Hyppolite Manigat told a crowd in Carrefour. “Politics is not a joke.”

Mirlande Manigat is a serious woman, highly educated and respected. She hopes to be the next president of Haiti. If she wins she will be the first woman ever elected to that position. That would be no minor accomplishment in this oft-termed chauvinist country.

But Sabine Manigat, Mirlande’s stepdaughter, thinks Mirlande has the personal strength to do so.

“She has evolved in milieu that are often male dominated,” and she commands respect, Manigat says. “She doesn’t get angry…but she can be sharp,” Sabine noted.

Powerful men, including senators Youri Latortue and Evaliere Beauplan are helping direct the campaign. But Manigat’s cousin, Nesmy Manigat says she holds her own.

Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of Boston-based Partners in Health, talks about the long-awaited construction of a new teaching hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti in this video posted by PIH. The state-of-the-art, 320 bed facility has been planned in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health, according to Farmer, and will include a women’s outpatient facility that will be completed in the coming months. The hospital is scheduled to open in early 2012.

One our cover: Devalon Beatrice, 27, holds her daughter inside a tent in Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince. Photo by Allyn GaestelTucked next to a gated office building off Delmas 60 in Port-au-Prince, staggered tents and makeshift shelters are packed in tiers cascading over twin hillsides. Along a path scattered with ti machans (small-scale vendors) and men playing cards beside hand-painted Michel Martelly campaign signs, live Natasha Seraphin and Cesar Emanuele Junior, a young married couple with their baby Charles.

Their shelter, like so many others filling formerly open terrain throughout the city, is meticulously designed as a tiny house. The entryway leads to a thin sitting area, with a television, powered by electricity pirated from lines along the two main thoroughfares nearby. In the corner, shelves hold dishes and utensils, and Natasha washes plates and clothes in a two-foot-wide hallway. Clothes hang along the walls, and in the back is a cramped cooking area. A bedroom packed with a makeshift bed and the rest of their belongings, closed off by tarpaulin walls and a curtained doorway, fills most of the space.

More than one year after last January’s deadly earthquake, Natasha and Junior are among the 800,000 displaced people still living in a tent camp.

But, this is not the couple’s first tent camp experience.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Haitian President Rene Preval will stay in office for another three months as his country chooses a successor in a delayed election, his chief of staff said Monday.

Chief of Staff Fritz Longchamp confirmed Preval's exit date of May 14 in a phone interview with The Associated Press following uncertainty about the Haitian leader's plans.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The United States has no plans to halt aid to earthquake-ravaged Haiti in spite of a crisis over who will be the nation's next leader but does insist that the president's chosen successor be dropped from the race, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday.

Clinton arrived Sunday in the impoverished Caribbean nation for a brief visit. She met with President Rene Preval and earlier met with each of the three candidates jockeying to replace him.

Only two candidates can go on to the delayed second round, now scheduled for March 20. The U.S. is backing an Organization of American States recommendation that the candidate from Preval's party, government construction official Jude Celestin, should be left out in favor of populist rival Michel Martelly.

The top U.S. official at the United Nations, Susan Rice, said recently that "sustained support" from the United States required the OAS recommendations be implemented. Many Haitian officials, including leaders of Preval's Unity party and Martelly, interpreted that to mean the U.S. was threatening an embargo and cutting off aid.

PORT-AU-PRINCE — The U.S.

Jean-Claude Duvalier: Led away by Haitian police on Jan. 18. AP photo/Ramon EspinosaJean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier’s return to Haiti last Sunday — after 25 years in exile — has prompted strong reactions from Boston’s Haitian community and their elected leaders. Many have called for his arrest and prosecution for the numerous crimes committed and millions in public funds stolen under his regime from 1971-1986.

Senator John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was not available to comment today personally, but offered comment through a spokesman.

“The Senator’s following the situation very closely and is deeply concerned that Duvalier’s return will aggravate the already-serious tensions, particularly at the moment that the electoral council reportedly has rejected the OAS’s proposed solution to the impasse over who will be in the runoff,” said Frederick Jones, a spokesman for Kerry’s office. “The situation is fluid and dangerous, and the Senator is working hard to support the Administration’s efforts to promote a fair political resolution and help Haiti get back to the task of national rebuilding.”

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, a once feared and reviled dictator who was ousted in a popular uprising nearly 25 years ago, has made a stunning return to Haiti, raising concerns he could complicate efforts to solve a political crisis and the stalled reconstruction from last year's devastating earthquake.

Duvalier's arrival at the airport Sunday was as mysterious as it was unexpected. He greeted a crowd of several hundred cheering supporters but did not say why he chose this tumultuous period to suddenly reappear from his exile in France — or what he intended to do while back in Haiti.

"I'm not here for politics," Duvalier told Radio Caraibes. "I'm here for the reconstruction of Haiti."

Lewis Lucke: US official in charge of relief efforts after earthquake went on to consult privately for US contractor.SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. official who was in charge of relief efforts following Haiti's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake has accused a major contractor of shortchanging him for his assistance in securing more than $20 million in reconstruction deals after he left his post.

Lewis Lucke, the former U.S. special coordinator for relief and reconstruction, says the Haiti Recovery Group Ltd., did not pay him enough for consulting services that included hooking the contractor up with powerful people and helping to navigate government bureaucracy. He's owed nearly $500,000, according to a lawsuit he filed last month in his home state of Texas, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Related story: Would-be Haitian contractors miss out on aid awards

Lucke's lawsuit names the Haiti Recovery Group's two partners: Ashbritt, Inc., a contractor based in Pompano Beach, Florida, that specializes in the removal of debris left by natural disasters; and the GB Group, a conglomerate run by one of Haiti's wealthiest men, Gilbert Bigio.