Despite providing millions of dollars in aid to the French-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country following the 2010 earthquake, a new report has found that most of the funds given by the United States made its way back to US-based companies and organisations. The Center for Economic and Policy Research said only one per cent of the US$1.5 billion pledged went directly to Haitian companies. "It is possible to track who the primary recipients of USAID funds are, yet on what are these NGOs and contractors spending the money?" the report questioned. "What percent go

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported Wednesday that 1.5 million Haitians are suffering from "food insecurity." At a daily news briefing here, deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey cited OCHA information, saying 1.5 million people continue to have severe food insecurity in Haiti and nearly 82,000 children under five are malnourished.

Madrid, Mar 21 (EFE).- News professionals from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Spain received their King of Spain International Journalism Prizes here Thursday in a ceremony presided over by Queen Sofia and also attended by Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria. Colombia's Julio Sanchez Cristo and Jose Antonio Sanchez, Mexico's Leopoldo Gomez Gonzalez and Bernardo Gomez Martinez, Brazil's Wilton de Sousa Junior, and Spanish reporters Antonio Baquero, Michele Catanzaro and Angela Biesot had been announced as this year's winners in January.

SANTIAGO, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's cancer-stricken president, made his presence felt at a regional summit on Monday with a flowery letter from his sickbed in Cuba that was laced with literary references and calls for Latin American unity. Chavez has not been seen in public since cancer surgery in Cuba in mid-December, missing his own inauguration for a new six-year term this month and fueling uncertainty over the illness jeopardizing his 14-year rule.