WASHINGTON - More than two years after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, NGOs and private contractors are continuing to provide 80 percent of the country's social services.

The dominance of primarily international actors has led to the creation of a "parallel state structure more powerful than the government itself", according to a new report released here on Monday.

TROU DU NORD, Haiti (AP) — Its capital is blighted with earthquake rubble. Its countryside is shorn of trees, chopped down for fuel. And yet, Haiti's land may hold the key to relieving centuries of poverty, disaster and disease: There is gold hidden in its hills — and silver and copper, too.

A flurry of exploratory drilling in the past year has found precious metals worth potentially $20 billion deep below the tropical ridges in the country's northeastern mountains. Now, a mining company is drilling around the clock to determine how to get those metals out.

In neighbouring Dominican Republic, workers are poised to start mining the other side of this seam later this year in one of the world's largest gold deposits: 23 million ounces worth about $40 billion.

Haiti's new prime minister and his cabinet have taken office, ending a period of deadlock.

Laurent Lamothe and his 21 ministers were inaugurated in a ceremony on Wednesday in the grounds of the National Palace.

GENEVA (AP) — After a decade of promoting refugee causes around the world, Angelina Jolie herself has been promoted.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders say they have pressed United States President Barack Obama for greater support in securing the region from the traffic in illegal narcotics and small arms.

A Caricom statement issued Monday said that the leaders met with Obama at the end of the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Colombia over the last weekend.

MIAMI, USA (CMC) – Haitian President Michel Martelly has been released from a Miami hospital three days after undergoing medical treatment for a blood clot in his lung.

Martelly was discharged late Wednesday following a round of tests for pulmonary embolism, or the blockage of an artery in the lung as a result of surgery to his right shoulder two weeks ago.

The 51-year-old Martelly checked into the undisclosed Miami hospital on Monday after cancelling plans to attend the Summit of the Americas in Colombia.

PORT-AU-PRINCE - At least six people, including a child, were killed in Haiti when their homes collapsed during heavy rains that have ravaged Haiti for several days, the Civil Protection Office said Friday. The victims were members of two families living in a neighborhood erected on a hill in the Petionville suburb of the capital.

Luck Mervil est révolté. «Les riches Blancs ont débarqué sauvagement en Haïti. Un débarquement aux conséquences terribles. Le séisme fut un facteur de richesse pour les pays déjà riches», dénonce-t-il sur un ton amer et déçu.

Il a voulu aider et il s'est buté à un manque de cohésion terrible des organisations non gouvernementales en place et d'autres compagnies privées «qui ont profité du séisme d'Haïti d'il y a deux ans, pour faire leur beurre, dit-il.

Ciego de Avila, Cuba, Mar 30 (Prensa Latina) The National Afro-Caribbean Festival Eva Gaspar in Memory began in this central province, with the parade of the most representative groups of Haitian culture in Cuba.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Two United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti have been sentenced to a year in prison with hard labor after a rare trial found them guilty of sexual abuse and exploitation, a U.N. spokeswoman said earlier today.