A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Crowds clash with Haiti police to demand president leaves office
PORT-AU-PRINCE – Several hundred protesters clashed with riot police in Haiti’s capital yesterday to demand that outgoing president René Preval leave office immediately as the country moved towards a deciding presidential run-off vote.
The police, backed by United Nations peacekeepers who were standing by, fired shots in the air and tear gas canisters to keep the chanting, stone-throwing demonstrators back from the presidential palace in central Champs de Mars square in Port-au-Prince. “Preval must go!” the demonstrators yelled.
Tear gas canisters fell into a crowded tent camp in the square housing thousands of survivors from Haiti’s devastating 2010 earthquake. – (Reuters)
Journalist expelled from Russia
LONDON – The Guardian's Moscow correspondent has been expelled from Russia, in what is believed to be the first removal of a British staff journalist from the country since the end of the cold war.
Luke Harding’s forced departure comes after the newspaper’s reporting of WikiLeaks cables, where he reported on allegations that Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin had become a “virtual Mafia state”.
The journalist flew back to Moscow at the weekend after a two-month stint reporting on the contents of the cables, but was refused entry.
An airport security official told him: “For you Russia is closed.” – (Reuters)
Preparation for Rio carnival up in smoke
RIO DE JANEIRO – Carnival preparations were thrown into chaos yesterday after a fire destroyed thousands of costumes less than a month before Brazil’s annual festival of hedonism.
The early morning blaze at the City of Samba complex, where Rio’s best Carnival groups spend months preparing their parades, sent thick smoke billowing over the city as firefighters fought to get it under control. Three of the 12 top samba groups, or “schools,” lost nearly all of their parade materials just weeks before their scheduled parades through Rio’s Sambadrome stadium for Carnival, which gets under way on March 4th. – (Reuters)