Haiti installed a new US-backed government that didn't include former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's party despite the prime minister's pledge to include it.
Critics complained Prime Minister Gerard Latortue unfairly excluded Aristide's Lavalas Family party, the country's largest. Latortue had said that Lavalas would participate in a post-Aristide government.
The opposition Convergence coalition also was excluded.
"This is a government that is nonpartisan, and I invite everyone to judge it by its results," Latortue said Wednesday at a National Palace ceremony.
He promised fast action on organizing legislative elections and combatting corruption.
US Ambassador James Foley said "Latortue chose wisely" and that Haiti could expect significant US and international aid.
"I do think that the situation will stabilize, which is remarkable given the complete breakdown ... a virtual state of anarchy," he said.
Haiti has been in crisis since flawed 2000 legislative elections swept by Lavalas. Aristide fled on Feb. 29 as a three-week rebellion threatened Port-au-Prince. He arrived in Jamaica Monday to reunite with his daughters -- despite Latortue's protests that Aristide's proximity could stir unrest among his supporters in Haiti.
Aristide claims he was forced out under US pressure. Washington insists he resigned before the bloody insurrection led by a street gang and former army officers could engulf the capital.
Aristide and party leaders lost support as corruption flourished alongside poverty. They reacted by using police and militants to attack opponents.
Officials of the 15-member Caribbean Community said leaders would discuss whether to recognize Latortue's government at a summit on March 25. The economic bloc has demanded an international investigation into Aristide's claims he didn't resign.
The new defense minister, General Herard Abraham, told the AP that a Haitian army could help a multinational force disarm the population.
Abraham said a commission will study how to recreate the army -- a corrupt and brutal force before Aristide disbanded it in 1995.
"With the instability and the amount of guns that are spread around the country, we need a force that can proceed with disarmament," Abraham said.
Canada sent 170 more soldiers to Haiti on Wednesday, joining more than 2,600 US, French and Chilean troops.
The peacekeepers launched a nationwide disarmament campaign with a ceremony in the vast harbor-side slum of Cite Soleil -- an event marked by residents' demands that Aristide return.
Residents handed over more than 50 assault rifles, pistols and shotguns to a small convoy of French troops accompanied by Haitian police.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not