2011年6月26日星期日

Australia-N.Zealand travel off due to Chile ash (AFP)

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SYDNEY (AFP) – All Australia's major carriers cancelled flights to New Zealand for the entire weekend as the ash cloud from Chile's Puyehue volcano lingered in the region.

Qantas and budget airlines Jetstar and Virgin on Saturday said services to and within New Zealand were suspended until at least Monday due to the volcanic ash, which grounded hundreds of flights during the week.

"Volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt Puyehue Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile continues to cause flight disruptions to the Qantas network," Australia's flag carrier said.

"At Qantas safety is our first priority and a number of flights have been cancelled or re-routed to avoid the volcanic ash cloud."

As well as blanket cancellations between Australia and New Zealand, Qantas said its Buenos Aires services had been delayed by 24 hours and Johannesburg flights were operating via the west coast city of Perth.

Jetstar's Singapore-New Zealand flights were axed for both weekend days, as well as all trans-Tasman services and all domestic flights within New Zealand.

In addition to its New Zealand-Australia flights, which were cancelled until Tuesday, Virgin canned a number of Pacific routes to Samoa and the Cook Islands.

"The volcanic ash plume has now drifted over New Zealand, resulting in the ongoing suspension of all Pacific Blue services to and from New Zealand," Virgin said.

"We are continuing to monitor the movement of the ash cloud in the region and will advise as soon as possible when regular services will resume."

Flights in Australia and New Zealand have been troubled for two weeks by the Chilean plume, spewed by volcanic eruptions on June 4.

Volcanic ash is potentially catastrophic to aircraft if sucked into jet engines, and Australian carriers have taken a conservative approach to the risk with cancellations and diversions worth tens of millions of dollars daily.

While seismic activity in Chile has declined, officials have said there is the possibility of another explosion.


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Chief who fled Mexico decries attack on police (AP)

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By JUAN CARLOS LLORCA, Associated Press Juan Carlos Llorca, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?24, 8:35?pm?ET

EL PASO, Texas – A young woman who says she left her post as police chief in her Mexican hometown and is seeking U.S. asylum because of death threats calls herself "sad and angry" after a policewoman from her hometown was wounded by assailants.

Marisol Valles Garcia, 21, fled nearly four months ago from the small border town of Praxedis G. Guerrero, where she had been police chief since October. The criminology student had made international headlines when she took the post that had been hard to fill after her predecessor was tortured and beheaded.

Her attorney, Carlos Spector, said Valles Garcia has "a well-founded fear of persecution" because of Wednesday's attack on the female officer. Mexican officials say the officer and her husband and child were stabbed in their home during a robbery, not an assassination attempt.

"What happened to my fellow policewoman could have happened to me. If it didn't, it's because I am here with my family. But I'm nervous this could happen to more people, to police officers," Valles Garcia said at a news conference Friday.

Valles Garcia asked for U.S. asylum, claiming she fears for her life because she has "denounced widespread corruption in all levels of government in Mexico," said Spector.

Mexicans asking for asylum face an uphill battle. The U.S. received nearly 19,000 asylum requests from Mexico since 2005, but granted asylum to just 319 petitioners between 2005 and 2010.

Drug violence has transformed the township of Praxedis G. Guerrero from a string of quiet farming communities into a lawless no-man's-land only about a mile from the Texas border. Between 1995 and 2005, it had a steady population of about 8,500 inhabitants. Five years later, slightly more than 4,500 people live there. Two rival gangs — the Juarez and Sinaloa drug cartels — are battling over control of its single highway, a lucrative drug-trafficking route along the Texas border.

After taking office, Valles Garcia started receiving death threats. She said that when she applied for the job, it didn't cross her mind she'd be a target — particularly after publicly vowing not to go after the drug cartels that control the zone bordering El Paso county.

"I didn't believe I was a danger for the `narcos,' we were not going after them. We told them in (news) conferences that we would not mess with them," said Valles Garcia who advocated a community police approach for her town, targeting problems like domestic violence and leaving the drug war to federal police and the army.

Still, threats started coming. "I just didn't want to wait for them to call me one day and say: `We're waiting for you outside.'"

Valles Garcia said in a small town like Praxedis, it's not hard to spot strangers with bad intentions. Her officers would constantly call to alert her of suspicious cars driving around.

"One day they parked just outside the office, that's when I thought I would not last that day. I went to my parents and said: `Ma, I don't want to be here anymore' and then and there we planned it, in that instant I took my purse, a diaper for my son and next thing we knew we were here, asking for asylum." She, her husband and son along with her parents and two sisters fled that day.

She now believes the media attention that she brought to her town and the drug trade there was what angered the cartels. Still, she does not regret her time as police chief. "I wanted to do something for my municipality, for my son."

She has to wait until her May 2013 court date to state her case, Spector said. "It's hard to be in a country that is not your own, without work, without a house. You have to depend on your relatives, ask for rides everywhere. It's a difficult life situation."


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Analysis: Mexican ex-presidents lead debate on legalizing drugs (Reuters)

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Once praised lavishly by the United States for waging a war on drugs, Mexico's last two presidents now say legalizing them may be the best way to end the rising violence the U.S.-backed campaign has unleashed.

Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox led efforts to crush drug trafficking gangs in Mexico between 1994 and 2006 but the rapid escalation of violence over the past four years under President Felipe Calderon has convinced them a change of tack is needed.

"As a country, we are going through problems due to the fact that the United States consumes too many drugs," the 68-year-old Fox told business leaders in Texas last month. "I would recommend to legalize, de-penalize all drugs."

Though public support for some legalization is growing on both sides of the border, resistance is firmly entrenched in the U.S. government and analysts say Mexico is very unlikely to liberalize its drug laws without Washington's approval.

Calderon is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

He has staked his reputation on breaking the cartels and is unlikely to press for radical change in what remains of his presidency but the death toll is surging and Zedillo, Fox and other former Latin American leaders are pressuring Mexico to consider opening up the market.

Victims' families are adding to the clamor for change.

Calderon has begun to soften the hard-line rhetoric that won him allies in Washington, stressing his readiness to discuss the merits of drug legalization.

"I'm completely open to this debate. Not just on consumption, but also on movement and production," he told a meeting with victims' families in Mexico City on Thursday.

But he added: "This issue goes beyond national borders. If there's no international agreement, it doesn't make sense."

Since he sent the army to fight the cartels in late 2006, some 40,000 people have died. If the rate of killing persists, the total will surpass U.S. combat deaths in the Vietnam War by the time a new president is elected in mid-2012.

The United States was still fighting in Vietnam when President Richard Nixon first declared a "war" against drug trafficking and consumption. Forty years on, more and more statesmen who have followed its course say the fight against the cartels cannot be won by force either.

Zedillo was among the former Latin American leaders on the Global Commission on Drug Policy which this month concluded the drugs war had failed, urging Mexico and others to explore regulation as a means of weakening the criminal gangs.

NEW RACKETS

Calderon insists his strategy has weakened the cartels and that the capture of many prominent drug bosses has reduced the threat that organized crime posed to the state.

But the violence has shocked many Mexicans and hit support for Calderon and his conservative National Action Party, or PAN. Polls suggest the PAN will be ousted at the presidential election in July, 2012 by the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.

The PRI has pilloried Calderon for the growing lawlessness, though it has yet to offer any radical alternative to defeating the drug gangs, whose interests during the crackdown have grown to encompass a host of new rackets.

The expansion of criminal activity has even prompted those who back decriminalizing soft drugs -- such as Mexico's Green Party -- to question how much legalization would achieve.

"Do you think the drug bosses will suddenly turn into normal businessmen? Of course not, they'll just turn to other sorts of crime like robbery, kidnapping and extortion," said Arturo Escobar, a member of the Greens in the Senate.

Mexicans have long been skeptical about legalizing drugs but the country has decriminalized possession of small amounts of soft and hard drugs under Calderon, and sympathy for a more liberal tack has grown as the violence intensifies.

A national survey in August 2010 by daily Reforma showed 32 percent of Mexicans in favor of legalizing personal use of marijuana. Barely two years earlier, in October 2008, support for legalization was just 7 percent, pollster Parametria said.

Support in the United States now stands at 46 percent, according to a Gallup poll published on October 28.

Yet despite support from some libertarians, a recent shift to the right in U.S. politics has made it tough to sell the idea before a 2012 presidential vote in both countries.

"If Mexico legalized, the U.S. Congress would use every piece of pressure it has to oppose them," said Rodolfo de la Garza, a political scientist at Columbia University. "We will hit them economically. We will start messing with NAFTA. We will hammer them on migrants. Much more than we are already."

Drug demand is driven by the United States, and Fox this month stepped up calls for legalization, arguing that Washington's $1.4 billion in drug war aid was nothing but a "tip" in compensation for Mexico's losses in the war.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says the global drugs trade is worth hundreds of billions of dollars and in 2009 a top official at the agency said traffickers' cash had helped prop up the banks during the financial crisis.

Legalizing drugs would generate some $88 billion a year in savings and tax revenue for U.S. federal and state governments, according to Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron.

As long as public budgets remained stretched, pressure is likely to grow on governments to regulate the market, said Daniel Okrent, the author of "Last Call - The Rise and Fall of Prohibition," a study of the era of U.S. alcohol prohibition.

"Prohibition ended because of The Depression. The federal government was in desperate need for cash and the country needed jobs," said Okrent. "This and the unwillingness to pay taxes is one of the reasons why there will be legalization."

(Editing by Kieran Murray)


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'Devil Dancers' revel in Venezuela's festival (AP)

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NAIGUATA, Venezuela – Dancers in brightly colored devil masks whirled around and shook their hips to the heavy beat of African drums Thursday, marking the beginning of Venezuela's exuberant Corpus Christi celebration.

Thousands packed the narrow streets of this centuries-old coastal town inhabited by descendants of the African slaves who toiled on Spanish-run cocoa plantations watching the "Devil Dancers" shimmy under the blazing sun.

This year's celebration was different than those of recent decades: For the first time in 95 years, Corpus Christi coincided with the equally exuberant festival of San Juan Bautista.

Corpus Christi is usually celebrated exclusively by the "Dancing Devils" in mid-June, but this year the celebration date fell on June 24 — the same day that revelers pay their respects to John the Baptist, a patron saint to many people living on Venezuela's Caribbean coast.

Revelers traditionally begin celebrating Corpus Christi on June 23, dancing and partying through the night until the end of the following day.

"This is the first time I'll see it. This only happens every 95 years," said Pablo Izaguirre, 74, who smiled as he beat on a drum in a Corpus Christi spectacle that attracted roughly 5,000 of the town's residents and tourists to a central plaza.

Izaguirre is an emblematic figure known as "El Diablo Mayor," or "Eldest Devil," a title pointing to the 57 years that he has participated in the Corpus Christi celebration as a dancer. He kicked off this year's festivities by beating on a drum after dawn to wake up the town's inhabitants.

Within minutes, men, women and children of all ages emerged from their homes, flooding the plaza. Clad in black, long-sleeve shirts, pants painted with colorful saints and other figures and bells hanging from belts, they held up devil masks and vigorously shook maracas.

When the church bell tolled to signal midday, the pounding of drums began and resonated throughout Naiguata. The dancers then started their procession.

Felix Corro expressed confidence that Naiguata's Corpus Christi customs won't fizzle as he safeguarded a statue of the saint amid the cacophony.

"This tradition will never be lost because there are many younger generations participating," Corro said.


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Argentine heirs hope DNA test ends identity fight (Reuters)

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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – The adopted children of one of Argentina's wealthiest women came forward to give blood samples on Friday, hoping to quell suspicions they were stolen as babies from murdered political prisoners during military rule.

A 10-year battle by human rights activists to analyze DNA samples from the Noble Herrera siblings, whose mother owns Argentina's Grupo Clarin media empire, has become increasingly politicized in recent years.

Clarin had an acrimonious falling out with center-leftist President Cristina Fernandez in 2008 when its news outlets criticized her handling of an uprising by farmers.

Fernandez has urged the courts to clarify the identity of the Noble Herrera siblings, backing efforts by the rights group the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo to find children born to women held in secret prisons during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

Announcing their surprise decision to voluntarily submit DNA earlier this month, the siblings said they wanted to put an end to the "harassment and persecution" suffered by themselves and their mother.

Felipe Noble Herrera and his sister Marcela, both in their mid-30s, accuse Fernandez of using them as pawns in her row with their mother's company, something the government denies.

"No one wants to persecute them," Cabinet chief Anibal Fernandez said. "(Their identity) needs to be resolved and the easiest way to do it is with a blood sample, with DNA."

The blood samples from the Noble Herrera siblings will be submitted to a genetic database and compared to DNA taken from the relatives of dictatorship victims.

The timing of the siblings' about-face, four months from a presidential election, has raised some eyebrows in the South American nation.

It could prove embarrassing for Fernandez if the Noble Herreras' DNA does not match samples in the database, because her government has pushed hard for them to be submitted.

The Grandmothers group has identified 102 illegally adopted children so far, although they think there could be several hundred more who are yet to discover their true identities.

Up to 30,000 people were kidnapped and killed during the so-called Dirty War in a state-sponsored crackdown on leftist dissent, according to human rights groups.

Many of the babies, kidnapped with their parents or born to captive mothers, were illegally adopted by military families or friends of the military junta.

(Additional reporting by Karina Grazina; Editing by Xavier Briand)


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Guyana's newest opposition party nominates leader (AP)

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GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana's newest opposition party has picked a former army commander as its presidential candidate.

Sixty-five-year-old former Brig. Gen. David Granger will lead A Partnership for National Unity in national elections expected in December.

In a Friday announcement of Granger's candidacy the party also has asked its supporters to nominate candidates for prime minister and legislators for the 65-seat Parliament.

The party bills itself as multiracial and is seeking to unseat the East Indian-led governing People's Progressive Party, which is seeking a fifth consecutive five-year term. It also hopes to beat the Afro-dominated main opposition People's National Congress party.


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Chavez's odd silence raises questions in Venezuela (AP)

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By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press Christopher Toothaker, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?24, 8:18?pm?ET

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is one of the world's most talkative leaders and his prolonged silence and seclusion in Cuba following surgery there two weeks ago is fueling speculation about his health.

Government officials have offered repeated assurances that Chavez is recovering well in Havana, but many Venezuelans are wondering if they are getting the true story.

Venezuelans are accustomed to near daily speeches and television appearances by Chavez that can last several hours, even when he's traveling abroad.

Yet nobody has heard him speak since he talked by telephone with Venezuelan state television on June 12, saying he was quickly recovering from surgery two days earlier for a pelvic abscess. Chavez, who turns 57 next month, said medical tests showed no sign of any "malignant" illness.

The only glimpse of Chavez came when the Cuban government released photos of the Venezuelan leader at the hospital with Fidel Castro and Cuban President Raul Castro on June 17. In one, Chavez has his hand on 80-year-old Raul Castro's shoulder.

Venezuelan officials have limited their comments on Chavez's health to saying that he's recuperating and have provided few details. It is not even clear exactly when he will return to Venezuela.

Chavez's Twitter site carried a message on Friday saluting Venezuela's military on a national holiday, though he did not provide any information about his health.

"A big hug to my soldiers and to my beloved people," the message read. "From here, I am with you in the hard work every day."

Before his pelvic surgery, a knee injury forced Chavez to postpone a trip to Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuelans on Friday to wish for Chavez's complete recovery and express their "most authentic love so that his health is re-established."

"We've maintained constant communication with him and he's informed of all country's events," Maduro told state television.

Maduro offered no details on Chavez's health.

The paucity of information has fed a stream of speculation about the socialist president's condition as well as outlandish gossip on both sides of Venezuela's deep political divide.

Some people suspect Chavez has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness such as prostate or colon cancer while others claim doctors botched liposuction surgery and he suffered an infection.

Authorities have sought to quash such talk.

"In response to all the rumors, I can testify that the president is recovering in a satisfactory manner," Adan Chavez, one of the leader's brothers who is a state governor, told state television Wednesday. "The president is a strong man."

He added that "it's not clear" when his younger brother would return home, but said the president is expected to leave Cuba within 10 to 12 days.

Those comments did little to calm the consternation of Chavez supporters or appease government critics who accuse officials of trying to dupe Venezuelans.

"I fear his condition could be worse than they want to tell us, but I trust in God the president isn't in danger," said Magalis Gonzalez, a street vendor who was among about 100 Chavez supporters who attended a prayer meeting in downtown Caracas on Thursday to wish the president a speedy recovery.

The president's opponents have criticized government officials for providing few details on Chavez's health and raised concerns he may not be fit to continue his duties as president. The latter idea was rejected by Vice President Elias Jaua, who said Chavez is attending to his day-to-day government duties while recuperating.

In an editorial published Thursday, the opposition-siding newspaper El Nacional complained that "incompetent Cabinet ministers are turning this into a complete mystery or a state secret that creates uncertainty and anxiety within the population."

"Nobody understands why the state of the president's health is being hidden," it said.

Officials say Chavez underwent surgery June 10 for a pelvic abscess, which is an accumulation of pus that can have various causes, including infection or surgical complications. Neither Chavez nor doctors treating him have disclosed what caused the abscess.

Dr. Demetrios Braddock, an associate professor of pathology at Yale University's School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, said surgery for a pelvic abscess is not usually difficult, although complications can arise if doctors discover a digestive disease such as diverticulitis.

Diverticulitis, which is most commonly found in the large intestine, involves the formation of pouches on the outside of the colon. Braddock said the disease can be potentially life-threatening if a perforation of the colonic wall occurs, allowing feces to pass into the pelvic cavity and causing infections.

"Any number of things could be happening," Braddock said in a telephone interview. "It's impossible to know for sure without being familiar with this particular case."


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U.S. man charged with sexually abusing Haitian boys (Reuters)

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MIAMI (Reuters) – An American man who ran a home for impoverished boys in Haiti has been arrested on charges that he forced them to perform sex acts in exchange for food, shelter and schooling, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.

Matthew Andrew Carter, the 66-year-old operator of the Morning Star Center in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, was arrested in Miami on May 8. He pleaded not guilty on Thursday to four counts of child sex tourism, or traveling in foreign commerce to engage in illicit sex with minors.

Carter, a resident of Brighton, Michigan, ran the Morning Star residential center at various sites in Port-au-Prince since the mid-1990s and lived there with the boys, according to charges unsealed on Friday.

At the time of his arrest, 14 boys lived at the center and three others spent weekends there. Some were orphans and others had living parents who were too poor to take care of them.

Court documents charged that Carter had illegal sex with at least eight boys, sometimes for years until they got older and left the home. A federal public defender assigned to the case was not immediately available for comment.

If convicted on all the charges, he could be sentenced to up to 105 years in prison.

In announcing the arrest, federal investigators called Carter a sexual predator whose alleged conduct was "particularly deplorable" and "despicable."

"He preyed upon and terrorized impoverished Haitian children who were in dire need of the services offered by the Morning Star Center -- the very children he was purporting to help," Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer said in a news release.

Carter forced the boys to shower with him or woke them in the middle of the night and asked them to come to his room and perform sex acts on him, according to a federal investigator who interviewed several of the boys.

Those who complied were rewarded with schooling, clothing, shoes, books, games, CD players and cash, said the investigator, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Alvaro Flores. If they refused, Carter would hit them with a stick or "threaten to send the boys back where they came from," Flores wrote in an affidavit.

Carter traveled to the United States several times a year to raise money to run the center, the court documents said.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)


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At least 3 dead as Peru police, protesters clash (AP)

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LIMA, Peru – Peruvian authorities say three people are dead and 15 wounded after police fired on mostly indigenous protesters when they tried to storm a provincial airport in the country's southern highlands.

Dr. Percy Casaperalta says gunfire killed three men. The doctor was evacuating the wounded Friday at Manco Capac airport near the city of Juliaca in Puno state. Casaperalta says at least 4,000 protesters were involved.

A nearby hospital says it is treating 15 people for gunshot wounds.

Police could not be reached for comment.

The mostly Aymara Indian activists have been protesting since May 9 against a planned silver mine owned by a Canadian company and a proposed hydroelectric project that would mostly benefit neighboring Brazil.


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2011年6月25日星期六

Mexico discovers 117 migrants hidden in truck (AP)

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MEXICO CITY – The Mexican army has discovered 117 migrants hidden inside a trailer truck in the southern state of Oaxaca.

The federal immigration agency says soldiers detected the truck in the town of San Pedro Totolapam, 350 miles (564 kilometers) southeast of Mexico City. The agency says it doesn't know if any arrests have been made.

The migrants are mainly from Guatemala and El Salvador. The agency says they were found Thursday evening, but immigration authorities weren't notified until Friday.

Officials are checking their medical condition before they are deported.

Mexican authorities have recently discovered large groups of migrants bound for the United States in jammed trailers. That includes two trucks with a total of 513 people in May.


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Haitians hunker down in 'transitional' shelters (AP)

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – On a recent night in Carrefour, a densely packed city of twisted streets outside the Haitian capital, a band of thieves surrounded Roseline Sylvain's home and slashed the plastic sheet that is the simple structure's only wall.

The men made off with a lamp, not a huge loss, but significant enough for Sylvain and her family. She's mad at the thieves, of course, but more frustrated that she doesn't have real walls seven months after moving into what aid groups billed as a transitional shelter for earthquake victims.

The structure is one of hundreds of wooden frames with steel or plywood roofs that foreign aid groups erected as a temporary fix for people displaced by the January 2010 earthquake, a way station between squalid tent camps and the new homes that would one day be built for the displaced.

But with the reconstruction effort stalled, tens of thousands of quake survivors throughout the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and its outskirts are resigning themselves to staying in the flimsy shelters for the long haul, even though most of the structures are hardly adequate to withstand an unforgiving Caribbean storm season.

"It's like being right back in a tent," the 28-year-old Sylvain said of her shelter, a one-room structure on a concrete slab that she, her husband, and two children rent from a local landowner for $63 every six months. "The rain comes down the hills and into the shelter."

Her neighbor, Marie Micheline Ridore, 35, piled dirt at the base of her shelter to stave off water rushing down the hillside. She also plugged a tennis ball-sized hole in the wall with a wad of plastic.

What Haitians need are inhabitable homes. That they still don't have them is due to factors ranging from the government's failure to secure land for housing and lay out a workable plan to clear rubble to a delayed election.

President Michel Martelly, who took office May 14, said his government aims to build 400 homes in his first 100 days of office, a goal he is unlikely to meet given that he still hasn't even won legislative approval for his Cabinet nominees. Lawmakers on Tuesday rejected his pick for prime minister, meaning he'll have to pick a new nominee, a vetting process that could take weeks and postpone reconstruction further.

At least 40 builders have shipped a dozen model homes to Haiti at their own expense in the hopes that aid agencies, the Haitian government or the private sector will eventually purchase them in bulk.

Martelly and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, co-chair of a reconstruction panel and the U.N.'s special envoy to Haiti, recently walked through some of the homes, which run the gamut from a military bunker replica to an eco-friendly two-room structure.

"We're hoping for the right guy to buy a bunch," Tim Cornell, managing director of Oregon-based Pole Houses, said as the presidents and their entourage passed his model home. "It's all about hope. There are no guarantees."

In the meantime, families do the best they can. Some remember they still have it better than the estimated 680,000 who are still stuck in the "temporary settlement" tent camps that sprouted up around the city after the earthquake.

"I was happy to move away from under the tarps," said 18-year-old Luckson Jean-Baptiste, who now lives in a small boxlike house with plywood walls in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince. "In the tents it always flooded."

Sylvain, whose family lived in a tent in the street until the fall, hangs a bedsheet from the corrugated steel ceiling of her shelter to create a bedroom. Cooking pots hang from the wooden beams. She and her husband, a welder, were able to cobble enough money together to buy scraps of plywood to cover the gashes in their damaged walls. But still, there is no bathroom.

An April report issued by the U.S. Office of Inspector General noted that shelters built by different non-governmental agencies using grants from the United States Agency for International Development varied greatly in quality, with some failing to meet international standards. USAID-funded structures make up the majority of the temporary shelters that have been built in post-quake Haiti.

Some were nothing more than plastic sheeting wrapped around timber frames, with no floors, doors, or windows, the report said. Others were more elaborate, with concrete foundations, solid plywood walls, and multiple doors and windows.

"Basically, they are wood-frame tents," Ron Busroe, director of the Salvation Army in Haiti, said of some of the shelters he's seen. "The materials are not going to hold up to the harsh climate in Haiti."

USAID no longer plans to allocate funding to relief groups for shelters, and seven major humanitarian groups say they don't want to build anymore anyway.

The precarious nature of the transitional shelters was apparent earlier this month when a slow-moving storm battered Haiti and killed at least 28 people in mudslides and floods. Two children died in a Port-au-Prince slum when floodwaters toppled a cinderblock wall, which crashed through the wooden side of a transitional shelter built by Catholic Relief Services.

Ricot Charles lost his daughter Medgine, 4, and son Jerry, 1. He survived, but with both psychological and physical scars.

"I can show you: I have a big gash," Charles said as he unbuttoned his striped shirt to reveal the parallel scrapes and scars on his bony shoulder. "This is where the rocks fell."

CRS spokeswoman Robyn Fieser wrote in an email that the charity was trying to help the Charles family and had offered counseling services. CRS will build another transitional shelter should they ask for one, she added.

And for those like Sylvain who are threatened by flooding, Nicole Harris, a spokeswoman for CARE, said the group was raising the foundations of shelters and was handing out dirt in flood-prone areas including Carrefour.

Such efforts won't do much to put those like Dominique Philogene at ease.

"These are the worst shelters; I don't feel secure," the 30-year-old Philogene said as he stood outside his closet-size, windowless box of a shelter in Delmas.

His shed, wrapped in a plastic sheet, will do little to protect him against the rain that's been pouring down in much of the Caribbean for weeks and is expected to get worse with the peak of the hurricane season.

"The foreigners could've provided something better than this for all the money they're spending in Haiti," he said.


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Mexican president apologizes to drug war victims (Reuters)

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By Dave Graham and Miguel Angel Gutierrez Dave Graham And Miguel Angel Gutierrez – Thu?Jun?23, 9:31?pm?ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – President Felipe Calderon apologized to victims of Mexico's war on drugs in an emotional meeting with bereaved families on Thursday that sought to try and quell rising anger over violence sweeping the nation.

In a live television broadcast lasting several hours, Calderon sat in silence listening to accusations from grieving parents that his government was killing Mexico's youth and allowing criminals to run rampant across the country.

Some 40,000 lives have been lost since his army-led crackdown on drug cartels began at the end of 2006, and Calderon said he regretted the loss of life the violence had caused.

"As a father, as a Mexican and as president, I am deeply aggrieved by Mexico's pain," he said in a hall inside Chapultepec Castle in central Mexico City. "We must ask forgiveness for the people who died at the hands of these criminals, for not having acted against these criminals."

The drug war has hit support for Calderon's ruling National Action Party and polls suggest the center-right grouping will be ousted in a presidential election due in July, 2012.

Thousands of people have joined peace marches organized by poet Javier Sicilia, whose son was killed by gunmen in March and who urged Calderon at the meeting to renounce his strategy.

But the president refused to apologize for taking on the heavily-armed cartels with the armed forces.

"If there's anything I regret, it's not having sent them sooner," he said as the interior minister, attorney general, public security minister and other top officials looked on.

However, he conceded that the war was no longer only about drug cartels in Latin America's second biggest economy.

"It all started with drug trafficking, but the problem for me isn't about drug trafficking, it's about organized crime and violence," Calderon said in an often impassioned address.

Members of the bereaved families were not won over, and one by one they took turns to attack Calderon for failing to address rampant corruption and impunity afflicting Mexico.

RAVAGES OF WAR

By the time Interior Minister Francisco Blake invited Maria Elena Herrera to speak, the middle-aged woman could barely contain herself as she told Calderon and his aides how the state had done nothing to find her four missing sons.

"I'm here representing the pain of all the Mexican mothers and all the people without support who suffer the ravages of this war. My sons are honest workers who were victims of this war," she said with tears streaming down her face.

Alongside the thousands killed in the drug war, many more are missing after being kidnapped by the gangs.

"There are thousands of cases like this. Mr. Calderon, this all demonstrates the government cannot safeguard justice. The only option the government leaves our sons is to condemn them to die because of this war," Herrera said, her voice breaking.

Calderon rose to console Herrera after she spoke, putting an arm around her as she continued to cry.

Though unusual, the event was not the first time Calderon has met with victims of crime and drug war violence.

The 2008 kidnapping and murder of Fernando Marti, 14, son of a well-known businessman, sparked an outcry that prompted Calderon to hold a national, televised meeting with ministers and state governors in which he pledged to stop the violence.

Calderon staged a similar event last year in Ciudad Juarez, the city that has suffered the most violence in the drug war.

Javier Oliva, a security expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said it was risky for Calderon to have taken the step and it showed him in a favorable light.

"But if there's no change in strategy, it's going to be a major problem for the Mexican state, not the government. The social, institutional and media damage that they're exposing the armed forces to is very serious," he said. "They are one of the few institutions which most Mexicans still respect."

(Additional reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Paul Simao)


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Haiti's 'Baby Doc' Duvalier back before judge (AFP)

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PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) – Former Haitian president Jean-Claude Duvalier was summoned before an investigating magistrate for the second time in as many months, according to a source close to the ex-strongman.

Ever since his return to the country in January after a 25-year exile in France, "Baby Doc" has been accused by the government of corruption, embezzlement of public funds and association with known criminal elements.

He has also been subject to numerous complaints filed against him for crimes against humanity, including arbitrary arrest, torture and illegal detention.

One of those complaints was filed by Haitian journalist Michele Montas, the former spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Duvalier "appeared before an investigating magistrate for 45 minutes as part of the investigation. He was asked questions to which he of course responded before being released," his partner Veronique Roy told AFP on Friday.

Duvalier was later seen with relatives dining at a restaurant in Petionville, a suburb east of the capital Port-au-Prince.

"It seems to me that the judge is trying to restrict Duvalier's movements. He even wanted to impose a particular lawyer even though Duvalier already has several attorneys," said Reynold George, one of Baby Doc's lawyers.

"It seems they are trying to get him to crack under the frustration, but Duvalier will always be available to respond to the court's questions."

The judge had sought house arrest against Duvalier, but his lawyers got the ruling overturned on appeal. But his residence in the hills surrounding the capital is video-monitored.

Duvalier, the son of the former dictator Francois Duvalier -- known as "Papa Doc" -- took power in 1971 and ruled for 19 years, the longest dictatorship in the poorest country of the Americas.


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Peru anti-mining protesters killed in clashes (AFP)

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JULIACA, Peru (AFP) – At least five activists opposed to mining in southeastern Peru were killed when riot police fired tear gas and shot pellets to keep demonstrators from storming the city airport, a local doctor told AFP early Saturday.

The violent protests come in the final weeks of the presidency of Alan Garcia, who hands power over to leftist president-elect Ollanta Humala on July 28. Garcia is leaving so many unsolved social problems that Humala recently pleaded with him to address the most pressing issues and "not give us a mine field."

Police also apparently used firearms in Juliaca, because the protesters who were killed, including one woman, had all be shot, local hospital doctor Percy Casaperalta told AFP.

The victims were part of a group of some 1,000 mostly local Aymara Indian farmers who tried to storm the Inca Manco Capac international airport in Juliaca on Friday. At least 32 protestors were wounded in the battle, Casaperalta said.

The province of Puno has been in the grips of a wave of protests against mining projects, led primarily by the Aymara Indians, a majority ethnic group in this part of the country. They are demanding an end to mining activity and oil drilling in Puno, one of the Peru's poorest areas.

The activists say that mining operations pollute the land and waterways, leave few local benefits, and that the concessions were granted without consulting local interests.

Interior Minister Miguel Hidalgo said that protesters attempted to storm the airport twice. He said they also attacked a police station in the nearby city of Azangaro and tried to set a customs office on fire.

Some protesters managed to breach the security barrier and penetrate the airport in the hopes of disrupting air traffic, while others burned grasslands around the airport, paralyzing planes on the tarmac.

Airport authorities were forced to cancel flight departures and arrivals due to the clashes on this second day of a 48-hour strike in Juliaca enacted by labor unions and farmers.

For three weeks in May, the protesters blocked vehicle traffic between Peru and Bolivia, and then cut off all access to the city of Puno, population 120,000, for a week. Protests have since spread to the provinces of Azangaro, Melgar and now Juliaca.

The mining protests began as a demand to revoke a silver mining concession granted to Canada-based Bear Creek Mining Corporation.

They then expanded to include opposition to other area mines, and now include opposition to the Inambari project, an ambitious plan to damn several Andean rivers and build what would become one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in South America.

Protest leader Walter Aduviri is in Lima for talks with the government, but the negotiations have yet to reach an agreement.

In early June Eduardo Vega of the national ombudsman's office counted 227 unsolved social or environmental conflicts in Peru.

The outgoing Garcia administration has shown little interest "in at least finding a temporary solution to these problems," according to sociologist Eduardo Toche.


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Mexico president defends attack on organized crime (AP)

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By KATHERINE CORCORAN, Associated Press Katherine Corcoran, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?24, 5:25?am?ET

MEXICO CITY – President Felipe Calderon made an impassioned defense of his military assault on organized crime in an unusual public faceoff Thursday with his biggest critics: sometimes weeping relatives of murder victims who blame the government for the bloodshed.

Poet Javier Sicilia, who lost his son to drug violence in March, opened the publicly televised exchange by demanding that Calderon take the military off the streets and apologize to victims for a failed strategy that he and others say have caused more than 35,000 deaths since Calderon took office in late 2006.

"Where are the benefits of this strategy?" Sicilia asked Calderon, ticking off a list of cases where people have gone unpunished, from drug violence to a 2009 day-care fire that killed 49 children. "You don't have anything to show us, and we are not politicians, we are citizens."

The meeting at Mexico City's historic Chapultepec Castle was emotionally charged, with a mother breaking down in tears as she demanded results into the investigation of her four missing sons, and a relative of two slaying victims of drug traffickers holding back tears while he asked for an update in their case.

Sicilia said that Calderon is "obligated to apologize to the nation and in particular to the victims."

Surrounded by grim-faced top Cabinet members and the first lady, the president pointed his finger and pounded the table to emphasize that with criminal gangs seeking to control Mexico, it would have been irresponsible not to act.

"I agree that we must apologize for not protecting the lives of victims, but not for having acted against the criminals," Calderon said. "One thing I regret is not having sent (the military) before."

Several people have been arrested in the March 28 slaying of Sicilia's son, Juan Francisco Sicilia, a college student who authorities say was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Calderon repeated what has become the mantra for his administration: that criminals, not the government, are causing the violence. "Francisco was killed by criminals, not federal forces," he said.

While the face-to-face confrontation seemed dramatic, most observers expected little to come of it.

"It's the typical way the Mexican government has worked for decades," said John Ackerman of the legal research institute at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "They're open and willing to talk and have a meeting, but from that to actually taking things into account ... is another thing."

Some saw the public confrontation as benefiting Calderon, giving him a wide audience for his message, while Sicilia's proposals to focus on cleaning up institutions and attacking corruption are things the government says it's already doing.

One of the most concrete demands from his group is for a memorial that names all drug war victims.

"They don't understand the phenomenon of drug trafficking, so they have presented a package of proposals that have nothing to do with public policy," said columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio. "All of their proposals are emotional."

Sicilia has organized what he calls a civil disobedience movement for peace, leading protests in Mexico City and the nearby city of Cuernavaca and a caravan to the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez, where Calderon also had an emotional meeting last year with relatives of youths killed when gunmen burst into a party and opened fire.

Sicilia's movement announced it will send a new protest caravan to Mexico's border with Guatemala.

Previous marches organized by other victims-rights groups in Mexico have drawn more protesters, and violence has only increased.

Calderon gave a frank assessment of what is going on in Mexico: that cartels control some areas of the country, corruption is rampant, judges are paid to let criminals go and local police are in the employ of gangs.

But he said he couldn't wait to clean up institutions before launching an attack.

"If you can stop a crime and you only have stones, then you do it with stones," he said.

Sicily ended his remarks by giving Calderon a scapular he received from a victim's family along one of his marches, calling it "a sign that justice now rests with you."

Calderon agreed to meet with the peace activists in three months, after the two exchanged an awkward hug.

___

Associated Press writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this report.


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Diaz-Balart seeks to limit family travel to Cuba (AP)

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MIAMI – A Florida congressman wants to reverse the Obama administration's steps to allow more family travel and remittances to Cuba.

The House Committee on Appropriations on Thursday approved U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart's amendment to repeal regulatory changes that loosened the severe limits on remittances and travel to the island imposed by former President George W. Bush.

The amendment is attached to a Treasury department funding bill. It now heads to the House floor. If it passes, it would still have to be reconciled with the Senate version.

The nonpartisan Cuba Study group on Friday condemned the move. It says the amendment will keep relatives from being able to visit and assist loved ones on the island. Diaz-Balart, a Republican, says it'll keep money out of the hands of the Cuban government.


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Argentine leader to announce running mate Saturday (Reuters)

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BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – Argentine President Cristina Fernandez will announce her running mate for an October 23 election on Saturday after a close ally tipped as a leading contender said he was not in the running.

Center-leftist Fernandez said earlier this week she would run for a second term, shifting attention to her choice of vice presidential candidate. She has until midnight on Saturday (0300 GMT on Sunday) to register candidates, including her running mate.

Fernandez, who has a wide lead over opposition rivals in opinion polls, will announce her choice hours before Saturday's registration dateline, a government source said.

Provincial governor Jorge Capitanich, 46, a long-time Fernandez ally, quashed speculation on Friday that he would run alongside Fernandez in October's election.

"It's a matter that was never part of my personal agenda," he told a news conference, saying he was committed instead to seeking re-election in the northern province of Chaco. It was not clear whether he was offered the role.

Other figures tipped as potential vice presidents include Media Secretary Juan Manuel Abal Medina, Economy Minister Amado Boudou, Agriculture Minister Julian Dominguez and Entre Rios provincial governor Sergio Urribarri.

Economic analysts say Fernandez's candidacy is already factored into the markets, but her choice of running mate could give an indication of whether her interventionist policies could take a different course in the likely event she wins a second term.

(Reporting by Alejandro Lifschitz and Guido Nejamkis; writing by Helen Popper, Editing by Sandra Maler)


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Rising numbers of Venezuelans seek exile in US (AP)

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MIAMI – Oliver Gaviria was driving along a highway in Caracas when two men dressed in black pulled up alongside him on motorcycles and told him to stop the car. One held a gun to his temple and they threatened to kill him, saying he was a traitor to President Hugo Chavez's government.

Gaviria never thought of himself as an influential adversary of Chavez, and he certainly did not expect to be singled out as enemy of the state. After all, he ran a business that organized parties for government officials including some powerful allies of Chavez.

"They told me they knew that I was against the regime and that I was a traitor, and because of that I'd pay with my life," Gaviria said about the 2007 incident during a recent interview with The Associated Press. Fearing for his safety and that of his younger sister, who was also threatened, he soon moved into a friend's apartment. He then headed to Miami, where he sought political asylum.

The 40-year-old is among thousands of Venezuelans who have left their homeland over the last decade, some of them citing political persecution and saying they have been targeted for their opposition to Chavez's government.

At least 4,500 political asylum requests by Venezuelans have been granted between 2000 and 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The number of Venezuelans granted asylum could be higher because a single request can involve multiple people or an entire family.

That's about five times more than the previous decade.

In Latin America, the number of Venezuelan asylum seekers was surpassed only by those from neighboring Colombia, which continues to struggle with a decades-long armed conflict involving Latin America's largest rebel army.

Officials at Venezuela's embassy in Washington declined to comment about the issue.

Chavez has repeatedly denied targeting his opponents. Chavez argues that human rights are fully respected in the country, and that some government foes have faced charges because they committed crimes.

Those who have sought asylum in United States are a small portion of a Venezuelan population that has grown steadily, from about 91,000 people in 2000 to about 215,000 in 2010, according to U.S. Census figures.

The new arrivals from Venezuela tend to be young professionals and business leaders, and many have moved into South Florida suburbs such as Weston, Doral, Pembroke Pines and Aventura. They have increasingly started cafes and restaurants that serve Venezuelan food such as arepas — corn cakes served with meat, chicken, cheese or other fillings.

Some of the Venezuelans who have moved to Florida say they left to escape rampant crime and a difficult economy.

Others who have sought asylum say they were forced to leave their homeland, and that they have no plans to return as long as Chavez remains in power.

Some government opponents have faced criminal charges that they say are trumped up, such as corruption charges that led former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales to seek asylum in Peru.

Critics accuse Chavez of using prosecutors and judges to crack down on dissent. Chavez denies it, saying the country's prosecutors are fully independent.

Eduardo Gamarra, a Latin American politics expert at Florida International University, said there are increasing concerns that Chavez is using the judicial system to bring politically motivated charges in order to "silence and banish potential government opponents."

Juan Fernandez, a former executive of Venezuela's state-run oil company, fled the South American nation in 2004 after he helped lead a two-month strike aimed at forcing Chavez's ouster.

Venezuelan authorities have sought to prosecute leaders of the strike, which severely slowed the economy.

Fernandez said that in addition to facing rebellion and conspiracy charges, he was threatened and had gone into hiding fearing for his life. When he left, Fernandez expected to return to Caracas before long.

But Chavez survived a 2004 recall referendum and was re-elected in 2006. The president's repeated victories have dashed Fernandez's hopes. He said if he were to return, he would be arrested.

"You feel anguish because you can't return to your home, especially when you feel persecuted," said Fernandez, who lived in Spain, Germany and the Caribbean island of Curacao before settling in Miami. "I can't go home to see my family, my friends, and challenge Chavez's power."


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Michigan man accused of abusing Haitian children (AP)

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By JENNIFER KAY and TRENTON DANIEL, Associated Press Jennifer Kay And Trenton Daniel, Associated Press – Fri?Jun?24, 8:26?pm?ET

MIAMI – A Michigan man who ran a residential center for poor children in Haiti has been indicted on charges of child sex tourism, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Matthew Andrew Carter, 66, of Brighton, Mich., forced boys at the Morning Star Center, which provided food, shelter and education, to engage in sexual conduct in exchange for gifts, money or continued care, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said.

At the Port-au-Prince center, Carter, who also went by the names "William Charles Harcourt" and "Bill Carter," was known as "Mister Bill."

A bearded father figure who walked with a limp, Carter showered boys with attention at the concrete home he has rented for the last four years, and at two other locations where he operated earlier. But he also beat his boys with sticks, punched them with his fists, fired his gun in the air and locked them in the yard "with the dogs," four young men at his center told The Associated Press. Yet despite the abuse they said they suffered or witnessed, the boys stayed at the center.

Carter has been in custody since his arrest May 8 in Miami on a charge of traveling from the U.S. to Haiti for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct with minors.

A grand jury indicted Carter on May 19, and a superseding indictment filed Thursday added three additional counts. If convicted, Carter faces up to 15 years in prison for one count of child sex tourism and up to 30 years in prison for each of the other counts.

Carter's federal public defender did not immediately return messages Friday from The Associated Press.

Carter had run the school in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince since the mid-1990s, and he regularly traveled between the Caribbean country and the U.S. to fundraise, according to court documents.

Fourteen boys currently live at the center full-time, and three others live there on the weekends, the documents said.

Most of the boys' families sent them to Carter's center to receive support and educational opportunities that they could not afford, while other boys were orphans, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Alvaro Flores wrote in a May 4 criminal complaint.

Carter engaged in illicit sexual conduct with at least eight former and current students from the mid-1990s through April, according to the criminal complaint. He allegedly forced the students to engage in sexual acts in exchange for gifts, money or continued care.

"This defendant preyed on innocent Haitian children living in severely depressed conditions, making his conduct particularly deplorable," said U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer in a statement Friday. "Rather than using Morning Star as he promised — to administer aid and provide sanctuary to needy children — he used the center to manipulate, abuse and sexually exploit them."

One of the students told investigators that the sexual abuse continued for six years, beginning when he was 10. The student said Carter stopped buying him clothing, shoes and books when, at age 16, he refused to perform any more sexual acts on Carter, Flores wrote in the complaint.

Another student said that Carter would threaten to send other boys back to their families and poverty if they refused to perform sexual acts with him, Flores wrote. Yet another student reported Carter beating him with a stick when he refused Carter's instructions for sexual acts.

The young men who spoke with the AP have been living outside the center in tents since May when U.S. and Haitian authorities locked its doors. One 22-year-old man told the AP he was sexually abused by Carter but declined to elaborate. Another said he was among the boys Carter invited into his bedroom.

The sexual activity wasn't a secret, the men said.

"I knew what was going on but couldn't do anything," said the 22-year-old man, who moved in with Carter nine years ago. "He did a lot for me. He put me in school. If he gives me money, I wouldn't give anything back."

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual abuse.

A friend of Carter's, Bertha Wiles of Brighton, Mich., 50 miles west of Detroit, said Carter spent most of his time in Haiti and rarely visited Michigan.

"The Lord spoke to our hearts and we take him in whenever he visits," Wiles, 70, said. "The FBI guys came to our house. This is all a lie. This man would never do that. I don't care what they try to put on him. There's just a whole bunch of things that are not true."

Carter's trial is scheduled to begin July 5.

___

Daniel reported from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Associated Press writer Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.


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Venezuela's Chavez reappears on Twitter from Cuba (Reuters)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中,找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件,或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, not seen in public for two weeks, ended his unusual silence with several Twitter messages on Friday, but said nothing about his health after an operation in Cuba.

The reemergence of the loquacious leader on the social networking site will do little to squash speculation that his prolonged absence means he may be seriously ill.

Marking a public holiday that celebrates a key military victory over Spanish colonial forces in 1821, Chavez congratulated the armed forces and saluted all Venezuelans.

"Today is my army's day and the sun rose brilliantly! A huge hug to my soldiers and to my beloved people," he wrote from his Twitter account, @chavezcandanga.

"From here, I am with you in the hard work every day. Toward victory always! We are winning! We will win!"

Venezuela's defense minister said on Thursday that the president was stronger than ever but would not rush home until he was ready.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said on Friday that government officials were constantly in touch with Chavez, who remained firmly in control of the South American country.

"We have been in communication with him, in a permanent way. He is keeping himself informed of all the affairs of the country, in command," Maduro said in a televised speech.

"The battle President Hugo Chavez is waging for his health has to be, and is, everyone's battle, the battle for life."

Chavez underwent an operation in Havana for a swelling in his pelvis at the end of a regional tour on June 10 and has been out of public sight since, except for one set of photos.

His absence has highlighted the socialist leader's total dominance of local politics and the lack of a clear successor.

The government originally said he would return "in a few day," but as time has gone by and Chavez has stayed in Cuba, rumors have swirled in Venezuela that the 56-year-old former soldier may have something worse like cancer.


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