Haitian lawmakers approved the nomination of Michele Pierre-Louis as prime minister on Thursday, ending more than three months of political bickering and deadlock in parliament.
Haiti’s Senate ratified Michele Pierre-Louis to be the country’s No. 2 leader by a 12-0 vote, making her the second woman to become prime minister of Haiti. There were five abstentions.
The decision ends a stalemate that has left the Caribbean country unable to sign foreign aid deals, arrange an international donors’ conference or hold overdue elections for a third of the nation’s Senate.
The deadlock began when senators dismissed former prime minister Jacques Edouard Alexis on April 12 after a week of riots over soaring food prices left at least seven people dead and destroyed hundreds of businesses.
Lawmakers rejected President Rene Preval’s first two nominees to replace the prime minister and repeatedly delayed votes on Pierre-Louis as they jockeyed for party position in the next Cabinet.
Pierre-Louis, 61, is an educator who heads a branch of billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute. She was ratified by the Chamber of Deputies on July 17.
While political wrangling went on behind the scenes, public debate on Pierre-Louis’ nomination centered on claims that she is gay. Many in the socially conservative nation consider homosexuality to be immoral and the clergy had denounced her.
Pierre-Louis denied the claims in a local radio interview on Wednesday.
“I have already said that it was slander and lies,” she told Radio Caraibes. “I hope that this debate will be closed and we will move on to serious things.”
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