by Steve Myers Published May 24, 2012 9:41 am A memo from Times-Picayune publisher Ashton Phelps confirms that the newspaper will cease daily publication, moving to three days a week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The memo also confirms staff cuts, though it doesn’t say how large they will be. Press reports have necessitated our giving you this news now. We realize it will make people anxious, but we do not know enough today to be able to announce how the changes will affect individual employees. We will move as quickly as possible in the coming weeks to make that determination and to inform each of you personally. The memo from Phelps: To all employees: We wanted to make you aware of a news story that ... Continue reading →

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM | Thu May 24, 2012 8:40am BST JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Surging street violence against African migrants, including a rampage that an Israeli broadcaster dubbed a "pogrom", drew empathy for the rioters from the interior minister on Thursday. Waving Israeli flags and chanting "Deport the Sudanese", residents of a low-income Tel Aviv neighbourhood where many of the border-jumpers from Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan live held a march late Wednesday that turned violent.Police said 20 people were arrested for assault and vandalism. Trash cans were set alight, storefront windows were broken and a crowd attacked an African driving through the area, breaking his car's windows. No serious injuries were reported.Interviewing Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Army Radio likened the incident to pogrom attacks ... Continue reading →

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- A former president who lost his bid to be re-elected in the Dominican Republic issued a scathing denunciation Tuesday of the country's electoral process but made no mention of any plans to challenge the outcome.Hipolito Mejia told cheering supporters that the results of Sunday's election did not reflect the will of the people. "They are the product of manipulation and an abuse of power," he said in a brief speech.Mejia did not concede, but he didn't say he would seek a recount. Nor did he call for supporters of the Democratic Revolutionary Party to protest the outcome, though police and soldiers were on stand-by in the Caribbean country just in case. The governing party's winning candidate, Danilo Medina, a 60-year-old ... Continue reading →

Haiti: Jailed Americans face up to 3 years By TRENTON DANIEL, Associated Press – 18 hours ago PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Two Americans jailed for allegedly driving a group of would-be soldiers during a protest demanding the restoration of Haiti's army face up to three years in prison if convicted on conspiracy charges, a prosecutor said Monday.Prosecutor Jean-Renel Senatus said in his office at the courthouse that one of the Americans, Jason William Petrie, was of concern because he had confessed in jail to having ties to criminal gangs."He has a lot of information he can give us," Senatus told The Associated Press.Petrie, 39, of Barberton, Ohio, and Steven Parker Shaw, 57, of Dighton, Massachusetts, were charged with conspiracy after police arrested them for driving ... Continue reading →

Haiti: Jailed Americans face up to 3 years By TRENTON DANIEL, Associated Press – 18 hours ago PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Two Americans jailed for allegedly driving a group of would-be soldiers during a protest demanding the restoration of Haiti's army face up to three years in prison if convicted on conspiracy charges, a prosecutor said Monday.Prosecutor Jean-Renel Senatus said in his office at the courthouse that one of the Americans, Jason William Petrie, was of concern because he had confessed in jail to having ties to criminal gangs."He has a lot of information he can give us," Senatus told The Associated Press.Petrie, 39, of Barberton, Ohio, and Steven Parker Shaw, 57, of Dighton, Massachusetts, were charged with conspiracy after police arrested them for driving ... Continue reading →

Larry Bollinger, Courtesy: WBTV Gaston County, NC-- A former Gaston County pastor was denied bond after he pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing Haitian girls while running a ministry in Haiti. Indictments read in federal court on Monday stated that Larry Michael Bollinger, 66 traveled to Haiti to engage in sexual conduct with a girl younger than 18 years old. The indictment was handed up last week against Bollinger, but according to WBTV in Charlotte new information was released during the hearing today. According to investigators, Bollinger was in Haiti working as the director of the Hope House, which provided food, shelter and schooling for Haitian children. And when four young girls from Port au Prince came to the Hope House for help, investigators said ... Continue reading →