Protesters angered by high food prices flooded the streets of Haiti’s capital on Monday, forcing businesses and schools to close as unrest spread from the countryside.
Witnesses said at least one person was killed by hotel security guards during a protest in the southern city of Les Cayes, where at least four people died last week in food riots and clashes with UN peacekeepers. Police said they were investigating.
Thousands of people marched past the National Palace in Port-au-Prince.
“We’re hungry,” some called out.
Others carried posters reading “Down with the expensive life.”
Some protesters threw chairs against storefronts and shouted for the ouster of Haitian President Rene Preval and UN troops, blaming them for the high price of rice. Some also roughed up journalists, throwing rocks at cars and pushing photographers to the ground.
A university student was seen bleeding on the ground with a bullet wound in his stomach.
A UN spokeswoman appealed for calm as peacekeepers defended government buildings.
“We call on the population to reject the trap of violence. Violence will just make the cost of living worse,” Sophie Boutaud de la Combe said.
Haitians are particularly affected by food prices that are rising worldwide. Eighty percent of the population lives on less than US$2 a day. The cost of staples such as rice, beans, fruit and condensed milk has gone up 50 percent in the past year, while the cost of pasta has doubled.
Many protesters called for the return of exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide — who was ousted in a 2004 rebellion — including thousands who packed an amphitheater in the oceanside Cite Soleil slum for a rally led by the Reverend Gerard Jean-Juste.
“Some can’t take the hunger anymore,” Jean-Juste said. “As a priest, I encourage all government officials to do their best to find ways to solve the near-famine situation.”
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
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