Former US president Bill Clinton and Haitian leaders met with the group monitoring international earthquake recovery aid to hear proposals that benefit the private sector in the donor countries.
Granma, the official newspaper of the Cuban Communist Party, described policy changes intended to expand Cuba’s small private sector, part of a plan to lay off some half million public employees.
Haiti’s Civil Protection agency reports that five people died and 57 were injured when a violent storm hit Port-au-Prince and areas to the south. Camps of displaced earthquake victims were hardest hit.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and Haitian prime minister Jean-Max Bellerive met to discuss international efforts to help Haiti’s recovery.
After three days of meetings four Haitian political coalitions announced their opposition to the general elections scheduled for Nov. 28.
Days after Fidel Castro told a reporter “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” the government announced plans to lay off more than half a million workers from the public sector.
Latin America solidarity activist Rev. Lucius Walker, 80, died of a heart attack at his home in Demarest, New Jersey. Walker, a Baptist minister, was also active in the US civil rights movement.
Puerto Rican politicians from across the spectrum praised leftist independence activist Juan Mari Brás, who died at 82 of lung cancer in his home in Río Pedras, San Juan.
Cuba’s Fidel Castro, in an interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, warns Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Holocaust-denial and anti-Semitism.
Haitian students announced they are planning to file complaints with international agencies about a campus invasion involving soldiers from the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.
In the largest protest to date by Haitians left homeless by the massive January earthquake, hundreds of people marched in Port-au-Prince to demand immediate measures to provide decent housing.
A one-day strike by Puerto Rican teachers over budget issues and the need for additional teachers shut down about 90% of the island’s 1,500 public schools over the weekend.
