Reprinted from Vatican Information Service.

VATICAN CITY, 4 DEC 2008 (VIS) – Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States yesterday participated in a ceremony, held in Oslo, Norway, to sign a Convention prohibiting the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions, the text of which was approved on 30 May in Dublin, Ireland.
(more…)

Here’s a few more lines from Bill Canny, CRS’ country representative for Haiti who’s in Port au Prince and seeing first-hand the catastrophe that the storms have left in their wake.

As people begin to rebuild their lives we are working with our local partner Caritas Haiti on getting out much needed food and supplies. Since the storms hit we’ve been distributing mosquito nets, bedding, clothing, household items, and hygiene packs that include soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes, detergent and combs. We’ve also started a cash-for-work, clean-up program. Volunteers are put to work cleaning up the debris and damage from Ike and the previous storms. By paying people to clean up their communities we help to get the local economy moving again and allow our beneficiaries to purchase what they need most.

In the Gonaives area alone there are still some 300,000 people in immediate need. CRS hopes to reach 100,000 affected Haitians. For approximately every $100,000 we spend, we can reach 1,000 families or 5,000 people. We are distributing a family food ration that is good for a family of five for 15 days. This cost $80 and includes: 55 lbs of rice (25 kilos), sardines, peanut butter, bread, salt and spices and charcoal for cooking.

More grim news on Haiti with this Jacksonville.com story by the AP’s Travis Reed.

From the story: “After this storm, there’s nothing,” said Gonaives’ assistant mayor Jean Francois Adolphe, who joined more than 100 Haitian leaders in Miami to solicit help and learn how the country could help itself. “Everything is under dirt. The person that had stores, the people that did commerce, they all have to start at zero now, and they’re in great despair. They’ve almost given up hope.”

The BBC quotes U.N. special envoy to Haiti Hedi Annabi: “There is not a single house that has not been destroyed or damaged, that is not full of two or three feet of mud.”