The conference — sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank — will consider a two-year economic recovery plan developed by the government of Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis, bank spokesman Pablo Bachelet said.
The plan emerged after Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — uncharacteristically enjoyed three consecutive years of economic growth and improved stability.
That growth was interrupted last year, however, by four major tropical storms and spikes in food and fuel prices.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a conflict watchdog, warned last month that deepening poverty and ineffective governance left Haiti at risk for renewed violence and political instability.
The group urged international donors to provide US$3 billion over the next several years to revitalize Haiti’s economy, reduce vulnerability to natural disasters and maintain access to basic services, among other things.
In addition to regular donor countries, Bachelet said, “nontraditional donors,” such as countries in the Persian Gulf area, are expected to attend.
Many of those invited already are working in Haiti, but Bachelet said the conference aimed to ensure projects “align more forcefully with the country’s priorities as outlined in the two-year plan.”
Among those attending the conference are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and representatives of countries including Canada, France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
Former US president Bill Clinton, representing his personal foundation, and billionaire philanthropist George Soros, representing his Open Society Institute, will also attend the conference.
More than 30 donor countries and international organizations were to consider ways to build on signs of recovery in Haiti at a conference in Washington yesterday.
The conference — sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank — will consider a two-year economic recovery plan developed by the government of Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis, bank spokesman Pablo Bachelet said.
The plan emerged after Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — uncharacteristically enjoyed three consecutive years of economic growth and improved stability.
That growth was interrupted last year, however, by four major tropical storms and spikes in food and fuel prices.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a conflict watchdog, warned last month that deepening poverty and ineffective governance left Haiti at risk for renewed violence and political instability.
The group urged international donors to provide US$3 billion over the next several years to revitalize Haiti’s economy, reduce vulnerability to natural disasters and maintain access to basic services, among other things.
In addition to regular donor countries, Bachelet said, “nontraditional donors,” such as countries in the Persian Gulf area, are expected to attend.
Many of those invited already are working in Haiti, but Bachelet said the conference aimed to ensure projects “align more forcefully with the country’s priorities as outlined in the two-year plan.”
Among those attending the conference are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and representatives of countries including Canada, France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
Former US president Bill Clinton, representing his personal foundation, and billionaire philanthropist George Soros, representing his Open Society Institute, will also attend the conference.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in