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Haiti a country of nearly 12 million people in the Caribbean is on the brink of total State collapse around 200 0:06 different heavily armed gangs have managed to seize control over large swats of the country's territory and are operating with near impunity while some 0:13 of the more heavily armed gangs that are more similar to paramilitaries have managed to seize control over as much as 90% of hades's capital and largest city 0:20 Port of Prince these gangs have been able to completely overpower what little is left in the country of the former 0:26 Haitian government...

[Many disturbing pics at site.] SMOULDERING bodies line streets, sniper rounds pound from rooftops, and children scream - Haiti’s capital is under siege by armed gangs, but there’s a new grisly group in town. The most dangerous city on earth has become even deadlier as vigilantes have taken the law into their own hands to hunt down criminal gangs street-by-street - turning Port-au-Prince into a city in open warfare. Haiti has long suffered the title of the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and recently was announced as the hungriest - but it is also racked by vicious bloodshed. Horrific...

Haitians paid tribute on Sunday to the singer Mikaben, whose sudden death during a concert in Paris left his country reeling. The 41 year-old recording artist, whose real name is Michael Benjamin, suffered a heart attack during a performance on Saturday, shocking fans who saw him collapse as he made his way off stage. He was appearing at the 20,000-capacity Accor Arena in eastern Paris as a guest of the Haitian group Carimi. Videos on social media show him performing, then suddenly turning and making his way towards the back of the stage. He collapsed in full view of spectators,...

Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (June 21, 2020) Location: Petionville, and potentially other areas of Port-au-Prince Event: There have been public calls for protests on economic and social grievances in Petionville and other areas of Port-au-Prince for Monday, June 22, and Tuesday June 23, 2020. The protest routes and times are currently unknown, but the Haitian National Police (HNP) is aware and has alerted their officers, including those serving at the Petionville HNP Commissariat. The Embassy will provide updates as needed. Out of an abundance of caution, effective Monday June 22 at 0700 hrs through Wednesday, June 24 at...

A Travel Channel episode of No Reservations, [..], took viewers to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I had heard that the show offered unique insight into the country and its troubles. I couldn't imagine how. But it turns out to be true. Through the lens of food, we can gain an insight into culture, and from culture to economy, and from economy to politics and finally to what's wrong in this country and what can be done about it. Through this micro lens, we gain more insight than we would have if the program were entirely focused on economic issues. Such an episode...

Sean Penn Appointed Haitian Ambassador LOS ANGELES, USA (defend.ht) - Sean Penn has accepted the job of Ambassador for Haiti, where he has spent the last two years managing a tent camp for displaced Haitians after the earthquake. Sean Penn will now be the "ambassador at large" for the Caribbean nation. Penn was offered the position by Haitian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Lamothe, while at the Cinema for Peace benefit in Los Angeles on Saturday night. Picking up a humanitarian award for his work in Haiti, he told the crowd: "I do accept [the job]," before adding it would...

As they continued to look for survivors and shelter the homeless, officials from the Salesians of St. John Bosco learned Tuesday that several hundred people had perished, according to Hannah Gregory, a Salesian public relations representative. The private high school is a part of the Salesian Catholic order, which works specifically with young people around the world, encouraging them to learn and care for themselves. The order had six facilities in Haiti; most have been destroyed. The hardest hit was a compound called Enam in Port-au-Prince that served primary grades and offered vocational training for older children, said the Rev....

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- In the hours and days after the city crumbled and the enfeebled government of Haiti disappeared from public view, a remarkable thing happened here: The police showed up for work. Since the earthquake struck, the once notoriously corrupt Haitian National Police have been doing their jobs and are keeping something approaching law and order in a capital of chaos. A force previously dominated by thugs has transformed itself, according to international advisers, U.N. police officers and Haitians. In Port-au-Prince today, there is something almost heroic about an officer trying to direct traffic on Grand Rue Dessalines.

Port-au-Prince has been hit by a strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the moment magnitude scale, eight days after the Haitian capital was razed by a 7.0 tremor. The quake struck 59 kilometres west of the city, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). It followed the much more powerful quake on January 12 that is thought to have killed up to 200,000 people. Witnesses say the latest tremor sent people who were camping out in the capital's streets running away from crumbled buildings in panic. Residents reported a low vibration followed by a brief but more powerful rumbling shake at...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. soldiers arrived by helicopter at Haiti's presidential palace Tuesday with some immediately deploying to the general hospital in Port-au-Prince. Officials said the 82nd Airborne Division is providing a combination of humanitarian aid and security, CNN reported. The hospital, like much of the capital, has no running water or electricity a week after the earthquake, and doctors were using vodka to sterilize equipment. "Our primary purpose is in getting to the population, whether it be the distribution of water, food, or, in this case, where they've got medical treatment going on and they're overwhelmed,"...

Could the Navy power Port-au-Prince from a nuclear submarine

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - The U.S. military hopes to have Haiti's main port open in two or three days for shipments of emergency relief supplies to earthquake survivors, the American officer in charge of logistics said on Monday. The Port-au-Prince dock could not receive ships because it was badly damaged by last Tuesday's quake, which submerged the quay and smashed equipment, including the only container crane. "They have a phenomenal port, which we will get opened in two to three days, and we have a great airfield. My instructions are to move things in as fast as we can," Brigadier General...

*Gangs set up roadblocks in capital * Desperate looters stealing supplies The bullets whizzing over our heads are all the proof we need that things are starting to get ugly here. Desperation has gripped Port-au-Prince. Gangs are now in control of some parts, setting up roadblocks and seizing the scant amount of food or supplies that cross their paths. Post photographer Bill Farrington and I saw this anarchy firsthand as we drove through a particularly lawless part of town at around dusk.

United Nations peacekeepers warned today that Haiti’s capital could quickly descend into rioting if three million hungry, thirsty and traumatised quake survivors were forced to go longer without emergency aid. The warning came as aid agencies battled to deliver tonnes of aid to Haiti’s capital in spite of blocked roads, a clogged airport and shattered ports. Looters have emptied food shops and scuffles broken out among survivors fighting over scarce water as the wait for help drags on. Brazil’s Defence Minister, Nelson Jobim, warned that the Brazilian-led peacekeeping force could struggle to cope if desperation spilled into violence. “We are...

Here is a video report on the desperate situation in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, where the city is described as being "on edge" as lack of food, water, and shelter are taking their toll on the people. The streets are described as being the "roads of the dead" as bodies are everywhere, with not enough room in the cemeteries to bury them all. . . . (VIDEO)

Some of the dead in this shattered city line the roads, carefully placed garments shrouding their faces. Others are carried into the hills for quick burials. Hundreds are arrayed in a macabre tangle of limbs outside a morgue, just feet from the grievously wounded. The living and the dead here share the same space -- the sidewalks, the public plazas, the hospitals. The living are frightened of being inside in case another earthquake hits; the dead are everywhere. On the doorstep of a pharmacy, six bodies were lined up shoulder to shoulder. On the body of one woman, covered in...

In the wake of the devastating earthquake, American eyes are again turned toward Haiti—something that only seems to happen when yet another disaster strikes, and never during the daily chaos and misery that plague the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I’ve spent a good deal of time in Haiti, reporting first on the repression under the Duvaliers, then on the rise of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's popular movement, and then on the 1991 military coup that brought him down. I was there during the period of the 1994 military intervention that restored Aristede to power. US interest in the country seemed...

THE United States is taking charge in earthquake-devastated Haiti as thousands of troops and tonnes of aid begin arriving in the impoverished Caribbean nation. US President Barack Obama, responding to the first large-scale humanitarian disaster of his presidency, has pledged $US100 million to Haiti with more to come. "I will not put up with any excuses for us not doing the very best in this time of tragedy,'' Mr Obama said. He announced that the "first waves" of the US response were in place including two search-and-rescue teams on the ground, Coast Guard cutters in the port, the US Southern...

Haitians have begun blocking their roads with corpses in a dramatic protest against the delay in aid at the capital of Port-au-Prince. PHOTOS: Earthquake devastation rocks HaitiThe sight was witnessed by TIME magazine photographer Shaul Schwarz, who told Reuters news agency that he saw two roadblocks in the city formed entirely of dead bodies jammed together. "They are starting to block the roads with bodies; it's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help," he was reported as saying. (READ MORE: Despair as Haiti sees little sign of aid) In the third night since the quake,...

Central Business District Resembles Hell On Earth As Bodies Pile Up And Armed Men Battle Over Food, Supplies PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CBS) The earthquake aftermath has brought out the best and worst of the people of Haiti. Much like the days after Hurricane Katrina, looting has become a problem very quickly. The looting appears to be isolated to Port-au-Prince's old commercial center. It's an area that under normal circumstances would be filled with many shops, markets and a few homes. But on Wednesday it was a completely different scene. It looked like a war zone. Some of the buildings were on...