The United Nations has launched a new website to track the estimated $9.9 billion in aid pledged to Haiti by the international community in the wake of a devastating January 12 earthquake.

The site, a joint project between the UN Development Programme and the Haitian government, will promote efficient spending while “ensuring transparency and accountability of the use of their funds,” a UN statement said.

“The system tracks the money from pledge to impact,” the statement added.UN Resident Coordinator Nigel Fisher said the project would serve two key constituencies. “We believe it addresses all the concerns of the international community as to how the funds will be spent, by whom and for what,” he said.

“It also provides a portal through which the people of Haiti can monitor use of the funds and hold their elected representatives accountable for how those funds are spent.”

At a meeting in New York in March, 138 countries and numerous international organizations pledged to deliver 5.3 billion dollars to Haiti over the next two years and a total of 9.9 billion dollars over three years. At least 220,000 people were killed and some 1.3 million people were left homeless by the 7.0-magnitude quake that struck Haiti on January 12, devastating the country’s capital Port-au-Prince

Story By www.telegraph.co.uk

Image By: REUTERS

MEXICO CITY — In her first solo trip overseas as first lady, Michelle Obama made an unannounced visit to Haiti on Tuesday, flying in an Army helicopter over Port-au-Prince, the earthquake-damaged capital, meeting with Haiti’s president and first lady in the ravaged National Palace and dancing with young children trying to get beyond the destruction of their homes.

Plain to see, wherever Mrs. Obama turned her eyes, was the devastation caused by the violent tremors that hit Haiti in the late afternoon of Jan. 12, killing more than 220,000 people and destroying much of Haiti’s already ailing infrastructure.

“It’s powerful,” Mrs. Obama said after surveying the wreckage from above. “The devastation is definitely powerful.”

Accompanied by Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mrs. Obama entered a safe area set aside to provide therapy to traumatized children living in a giant squatter camp in the Champ de Mars, Port-au-Prince’s central plaza.

“We are glad to see you,” the children sang out in Creole. The Haitian first lady, Elisabeth Delatour Préval, who went to college in the United States, served as Mrs. Obama’s interpreter. The American first lady also met with President René Préval.

The goal of the trip was to keep attention focused on Haiti’s plight. “We’re at the point where the relief efforts are under way, but the attention of the world starts to wane a bit,” Mrs. Obama told reporters.

Mrs. Obama headed next to Mexico City, where aides said she intended to begin her effort to inspire and engage children around the world. At an elementary school where she is scheduled to visit on Wednesday, Mexican students were busy practicing songs and dance moves for the first lady and were delighted that the visit meant that their bathroom was getting a new coat of paint.

“They told us that tomorrow we are going to have important people here and that we couldn’t be naughty and that we had to be on our best behavior,” Rodolfo Martínez, 10, said Tuesday.

He is a student at the Jan. 7, 1907 School, which memorializes the victims of a bloody crackdown on workers by Mexico’s Army.

White House aides said security concerns had prompted the stopover in Haiti to be kept secret until Mrs. Obama arrived. The visit, a White House statement said, was meant “to underscore to the Haitian people and the Haitian government the enduring U.S. commitment to help Haiti recover and rebuild, especially as we enter the rainy and hurricane seasons.”

Mrs. Obama, who had visited eight countries previously but always with President Obama receiving top billing, was now the focus of all the attention. Even before her arrival in Mexico, newspapers were dissecting her fashion taste.

And hundreds of aid workers in Haiti gathered together to hear her offer gratitude for their work in helping the country rebuild over the last three months since the earthquake.

Haiti has become a regular stop for American first ladies. Laura Bush and Hillary Rodham Clinton have visited. And just last month, two former presidents, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, came to help jump-start fund-raising for earthquake relief.

“This visit brings hope,” said Maryse Brillet, 24, as crowds jockeyed for a glimpse of Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden. “Everyone hopes that they will bring real change to Haiti.”

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Eight American missionaries were freed from a Haitian jail Wednesday, nearly three weeks after being charged with child kidnapping for trying to take a group of children out of the quake-stricken country.

The eight — looking bedraggled and sweat-soaked — walked out of the jail escorted by U.S. diplomats just after dusk. They waited until they were safely inside a white van before flashing smiles and giving a thumbs up to reporters.

Hours earlier, judge Bernard Saint-Vil told The Associated Press that eight of the 10 missionaries were free to leave without bail or other conditions after parents testified they voluntarily handed their children over to the missionaries.

“The parents of the kids made statements proving that they can be released,” he said, adding that still wants to question the group’s leader and her nanny.

Kimberly Flowers at the U.S. Embassy would not confirm that the Americans were leaving on a U.S. government-chartered plane, citing privacy law. She said that as U.S. citizens, they were entitled to evacuation flights.

The group will be flying out of Haiti on Wednesday night, said defense attorney Aviol Fleurant. Their destination was not immediately known. Reporters were denied access to the Port-au-Prince airport tarmac where the released detainees were taken.

The missionaries, most from two Baptist churches in Idaho, are accused of trying to take 33 Haitian children to the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 without proper documents. Their detentions came just as aid officials were urging a halt to short-cut adoptions in the wake of the earthquake.

The missionaries say they were on a humanitarian mission to rescue child quake victims by taking them to a hastily prepared orphanage in the Dominican Republic and have denied accusations of trafficking.

Group leader Laura Silsby originally said they were taking only orphaned and abandoned children, but reporters found that several of the children were handed over to the group by their parents, who said they hoped the Baptists would give them a better life.

Saint-Vil said he still wants to question Silsby and nanny Charisa Coulter about their visit to Haiti in December before the earthquake, but he asked for Coulter to be hospitalized because of her diabetes.

Earlier Wednesday, Coulter of Boise, Idaho, briefly received treatment, then was taken back to jail.

“We are very pleased that Paul, Silas, Drew, and Steve have been released by the Haitian court,” said Caleb Stegall, a Kansas district attorney who has been helping some of the defendants. “Their families are relieved and anxious to have them safely home, and we are turning all of our energies toward bringing them back as safely and quickly as possible,”

Gary Lissade, the attorney for American Jim Allen, said he expected the charges to be dropped against the eight.

A legal group issued a statement on behalf of Allen, from Amarillo, Texas.

“My faith means everything to me, and I knew this moment would come when the truth would set me free,” he said in a statement issued by Liberty Legal Institute, based in Plano, Texas. “For those whose cases have not been resolved, we will continue to pray for their safe return.”

Relatives in the U.S. received the news of the judge’s decision cautiously.

“Until I know they’re on a plane on their way home, it’s hard to react,” said Drew Ham, assistant pastor of a Baptist church in Meridian.

Silsby’s sister, Kim Barton, said learning that her sister could not leave Haiti was difficult.

“At this point I don’t have any comment. I don’t know any more than you do,” Barton said.

The group has been embarrassed by revelations that a man who briefly served as their legal adviser and spokesman in the Dominican Republic is wanted on people-smuggling charges in the United States and El Salvador.

U.S. Marshals say they are hunting for Jorge Puello, who was already being pursued by authorities in the Dominican Republic on an Interpol warrant out of El Salvador, where police say he led a ring that lured young women and girls into prostitution. He also had an outstanding warrant for a U.S. parole violation.

Puello said he volunteered to help the missionaries after they were jailed and said he never met any of them before they were detained.

Puello — who surged into the spotlight by providing food, medicine and legal assistance to the jailed Americans — acknowledged in a phone interview with The Associated Press Tuesday that he is named in a 2003 federal indictment out of Vermont that accuses him of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the United States.

He said he is innocent of the accusations.

Puello said he was in Panama and preparing to return to El Salvador to fight the charges against him there. His whereabouts could not be confirmed.

Puello’s involvement with the Americans began to unravel when authorities in El Salvador noted his resemblance to the suspect in the sex trafficking case. He acknowledged on Monday that he is in fact the suspect but said he was wrongly accused and will fight the charges.

FRANK BAJAK

Associated Press Writer

IN PICTURE:

AP PHOTO/RAMON ESPINOSA

Steve McMullin, 56, of Twin Falls, an American missionary arrested on charges of child kidnapping, leaves a Haitian jail as an unidentified U.S. Embassy official walks behind him at left in Port-au-Prince on Wednesday.

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – The Government of Antigua and Barbuda wishes to advise all citizens and residents that it has fully endorsed the CARICOM Action in Response to the Haiti Earthquake. This decision is designed to ensure that the outpouring of support from Antiguans and Barbudans will make a discernable difference to the target beneficiaries. To this end, the Government urges the citizenry to channel all contributions through existing regional disaster management institutions to include the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) and the Regional Security System (RSS).

Under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Skerritt, CARICOM has decided to focus its contribution to the relief effort in Haiti in the area of Health.   The regional response will entail the urgent provision of health/medical personnel, health supplies, emergency health programmes, and critically a field hospital and related facilities.  CARICOM’s relief efforts will also include transporting certain sick and wounded to specific health facilities in a designated Member State or States.  The latter will be accomplished through coordination with and assistance from PAHO.

To ensure optimal efficiency in the collection and transfer of financial contributions to the regional response to the disaster in Haiti, the Government has appointed Mr. Cordel Josiah MBE, well known community service volunteer and longstanding member of the Rotary Club, to serve as National Coordinator Haiti Earthquake Donations 2010.  In this capacity, the Coordinator is working closely with Mr. Philmore Mullin, the Director of the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS).

Mr. Josiah has been tasked with communicating with all individuals and organizations desirous of making financial contributions to the national response to the disaster in Haiti.  All such financial contributions, including the $100,000 pledged by the Government will be deposited into a specially created account at the Antigua Commercial Bank.

Through this medium, the Government wishes to advise the populace that the only officially authorized account into which donations should be deposited bears the name Antigua Haiti Disaster Response 2010.  The account number is 107070072. This account has been duly established with relevant checks and balances and control mechanisms designed to ensure that all contributions received go directly to the financing of CARICOM’s provision of health services and supplies to the people who have been directly impacted by last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti.

Through this medium the Government wishes to commend all those individuals and organizations who responded immediately to the images of pain and suffering in Haiti.  Your generosity of spirit is commendable.  In order to ensure that your contributions produce maximum impact, you are encouraged to participate in the CARICOM response.  Alternatively, you may wish to liaise with established international agencies such as the Red Cross.

For further information or to make a donation to the Antigua Haiti Disaster Response 2010, citizens and residents are invited to contact Mr. Cordel Josiah at 464-4112 or the Office of the Prime Minister at 562-3860 ext. 286.

The earthquake that has hit Haiti, raising fears that thousands have been killed, is the latest in a long line of natural disasters to befall a country ill equipped to deal with such events.

Hurricanes and flooding are perennial concerns for the poorest country in the western hemisphere, which has time and again been dependent on foreign aid in emergencies.

In 1963 hurricane Flora, the sixth deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history, devastated the island. The US weather bureau estimated the death toll at 5,000 and the cost of damage to property and crops at between $125m and $180m.

The country was struck by two disasters in 2004. In May heavy rains caused flooding that killed more than 2,000 people. Four months later mudslides and flooding caused by hurricane Jeanne, the 12th deadliest Atlantic hurricane, killed more than 3,000 people, mostly in the town of Gonaives.

Tragedy struck again in 2008 when four storms – tropical storm Fay, hurricane Gustav, hurricane Hanna and hurricane Ike – dumped heavy rains on the country. Around 1,000 people died and 800,000 were left homeless. The number of people affected by the storms was put at 800,000 – almost 10% of the population – with the damage estimated at $1bn.

Deforestation that allows rainwater to wash down mountain slopes is believed to have exacerbated many of the natural disasters in Haiti.

Two-thirds of Haitians live off the land and the same proportion on less than $2 (£1.25) a day, so the impact of such tragedies has been long lasting.

Haitians have had to contend with political turmoil. The country elected its first democratic president in 1990 after almost three decades of bloody rule by Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.

Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the slum priest elected in 1990, was overthrown a year later but restored after the intervention of US troops. He was ejected again in 2004 in a bloody coup amid accusations that his party had rigged legislative elections, pocketed millions of dollars in foreign aid and sent gangsters to attack opponents.

The Ultimate Caribbean News Resource and leading online information hub, has announced the launch of their new website http://www.CaribbeanPrime.com  on November 4th, 2009. The new site will be offering caricom journalist an outlet to post news articles and stories that will be featured on the international press.  This website will offer expanded and unique views on topics affecting the Caribbean.