Port-au-Prince, Haiti — A transitional council created to reestablish democratic order in Haiti signed a degree Sunday firing the country's interim Prime Minister Garry Conille and replacing him with Alix Didier Fils-Aime, a businessman who was previously considered for the job. The decree, set to be published on Monday, was provided to The Associated Press by a government source. It marks even more turmoil in an already rocky democratic transition process for Haiti, which hasn't held democratic elections in years in large part due to the soaring levels of gang violence plaguing the Caribbean nation. Fils-Aime, is the former president of Haiti's Chamber of Commerce and Industry and in 2015 ran an unsuccessful campaign for Senate. The businessman studied at Boston University and was previously considered for the position as a private sector candidate for the post before Conille took the seat. Conille, a longtime civil servant who has worked with the United Nations, served as prime minister for only six months. The transitional council was established in April, tasked with choosing Haiti's next prime minister and Cabinet with the hope that it would help quell turmoil Haiti. But the council has been plagued with politics and infighting and has long been at odds with Conille. Organizations like the Organization of American States tried and failed last week to mediate disagreements in an attempt to save the fragile transition, according to reporting from The Miami Herald. The process suffered another blow in October when three members on the council faced corruption accusations, from anti-corruption investigators alleging that they demanded $750,000 in bribes from a government bank director to secure his job. The report was a significant blow to the nine-member council and is expected to further erode people's trust in it. Those same members accused of bribery, Smith Augustin, Emmanuel Vertilaire and Louis Gerald Gilles, were among those to sign the decree. Only one member, Edgard Leblanc Fils, did not sign the order.

IQUIQUE, Chile — Over a thousand years ago, the hundreds of giant geoglyphs carved into the desert in northern Chile were a bustling scene. They marked sources of water in the vast arid landscape and were where locals came together to trade skins, animals and fish. Now the carvings are scarred with hundreds of tire tracks from motorcycles and off-road vehicles tearing through the art creations in the landscape and permanently disfiguring them. "It's practically destroyed by motorcycles, off-roaders," said Jose Barraza, general director of the regional national patrimony office. He said various groups were trying to preserve the site to prevent any more destruction - but also without restoring it to its former glory, to show the error of people's ways in the future. "[It] will be an example that shows future generations what not to do with our heritage, no matter how painful or how much anger, discomfort or resentment we feel towards it," he said. Local resident Angelo Araya says the community has been working with a local museum and authorities to try and "put an end to the destruction." The goal, Araya says, is to stop motorcycle and off-road vehicles from damaging the site further and "to make everyone aware that this is not just a heritage site, but that it belongs to all of us." The site has gone through many phases, going from a place to barter, to an abandoned site, to one where people were looking for gold. Eventually Chile's national forests association CONAF turned the area into part of the Pampa del Tamarugal National Reserve. Sand board instructor Franco Diaz said the government should physically close off access to the sites as the geoglyphs are difficult to spot. "If a jeep driver goes behind the hill, he won't notice if there's a geoglyph," Diaz said. "They should close the perimeter and protect these sites that are over 1,000 years old."

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s international airport shut down temporarily Monday after gangs opened fire at a Spirit Airlines flight landing in Port-Au-Prince, the U.S. State Department and the airline said. The latest violence came as a new prime minister was sworn in.  The flight, headed from Fort Lauderdale to Port-Au-Prince, was hit multiple times by gunfire as it was set to land in Haiti’s capital, striking a flight attendant, who suffered minor injuries. Photos and videos obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane. The flight was diverted and landed in the Dominican Republic, according to Spirit Airlines. It appeared to be part of what the U.S. Embassy called “gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince which may include armed violence, and disruptions to roads, ports, and airports.”  In other parts of Haiti’s capital, firefights between gangs and police broke out. Rounds of gunfire echoed through the streets as heavily armed officers ducked behind walls and civilians ran in terror. In other upper-class areas, gangs set fire to homes. Schools closed as panic spread in a number of areas. The turmoil comes a day after a council meant to reestablish democratic order in the Caribbean nation fired the interim Prime Minister Garry Conille, replacing him with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime. The council has been marked by infighting and three members were recently accused of corruption. On Monday, suit-clad diplomats and security officials flocked to the swearing-in ceremony, set to take place in the afternoon. The country has seen weeks of political chaos, which observers warned could result in even more violence in a place where bloodshed has become the new normal. The country's gangs have long capitalized on political turmoil to make power grabs, shutting down airports, shipping ports and stirring chaos. The transitional council was established in April, tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and Cabinet with the hope that it would help quell violence, which exploded after Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. The council was meant to pave the way to democratic elections, which haven’t been held in years in Haiti. Gangs have capitalized on that power vacuum to make their own power grabs. But the council has been plagued with politics and infighting, and has long been at odds with Garry Conille, the interim prime minister they handpicked six months ago, who they fired yesterday. Organizations including the Organization of American States tried and failed last week to mediate disagreements to save the fragile transition. 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday that it will prohibit U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot a Spirit Airlines flight. The United Nations also said it will suspend flights, "obviously limiting the flow of humanitarian aid and humanitarian personnel into the country."  The bullets hit the plane when it was about to land Monday in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, injuring a flight attendant. It was part of a wave of violence that erupted in Haiti as the country swore in its new prime minister after a politically tumultuous process.  Life in much of Haiti's capital was frozen after the wave of violence, which came to a head when gangs shot the Spirit Airlines airplane Monday, forcing the airport to shut down. Photos and videos obtained by The Associated Press show bullet holes dotting the interior of a plane. A number of airlines suspended flights to Haiti through Thursday, but it was unclear how long closures could drag on.  Neither the former interim prime minister, Garry Conille, nor the newly inaugurated Alix Didier Fils-Aime commented on the violence.  But Luis Abinader, who as president of the neighboring Dominican Republic has cracked down on Haitian migration, called firing on the airplane terrorism.  "This was a terrorist act; the countries that are following and helping Haiti should declare these armed gangs as terrorist groups," Abinader said in a news conference.  On Tuesday, heavily armed police in armored cars outside the airport checked trucks used for public transportation passing by.  Schools were closed, as were banks and government offices. The streets, where just a day before gangs and police were locked in a fierce firefight, were eerily empty.  The sound of heavy gunfire was heard in the streets in the afternoon — a reminder that despite political maneuvering by Haiti's elites and a strong push by the international community to restore peace, the country's toxic slate of gangs kept its firm hold on much of the Caribbean nation.  The United Nations estimates that gangs control 85% of the capital. A U.N.-backed mission led by Kenyan police to quell gang violence struggles with a lack of funding and personnel, prompting calls for a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The United States recognized businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aime as the newly appointed prime minister of Haiti, a State Department spokesman said in a statement Tuesday.   Matthew Miller said the U.S. “looks forward to working with” Fils-Aime and the Transitional Presidential Council “to advance progress against urgent priorities in the coming months.”  Fils-Aime, the former chairman of the board of Haiti’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was sworn in Monday, replacing Garry Conille, who served as the country’s prime minister for only six months.    Conille is a doctor who previously ran UNICEF’s Latin American regional office. The TPC and Conille had been at odds. Several organizations recently tried to mediate the disagreements, according to the Miami Herald.  The transitional council was created in April to choose the Caribbean country’s prime minister and Cabinet, paving the way to the restoration of the democratic process to the gang violence-plagued country.   Democratic elections have not been held in Haiti since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021.    “The United States welcomes the commitment of the TPC and the new prime minister to release a joint action plan that outlines their vision to improve security and governance, and to set a path toward free and fair elections,” Miller’s statement said.  “The United States views it as vital that they clearly delineate the roles and responsibilities of the TPC vis-à-vis the prime minister and include measures to hold one another accountable as appropriate while preventing further gridlock,” the spokesman said.  As Fils-Aime was being sworn in, gangs shot at a Spirit Airlines airplane as it was attempting to land at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. The flight was diverted to the Dominican Republic, where it landed.    The U.S. Embassy in Haiti said in an alert Monday that it was “aware of gang-led efforts to block travel to and from Port-au-Prince which may include armed violence, and disruptions to roads, ports and airports.”    The alert also said the U.S. Embassy was “aware of a temporary pause in operations at the Toussaint L'Ouverture airport.”    In addition to the gang violence that has clung to Haiti, the country has never fully recovered from a devastating earthquake in 2010.   Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press. 

TORONTO, canada — A teenager is in critical condition in a British Columbia children's hospital, sick with Canada's first presumptive human case of avian influenza. "This was a healthy teenager prior to this, so no underlying conditions," said provincial health officer Bonnie Henry in a news conference on Tuesday. "It just reminds us that in young people this is a virus that can progress and cause quite severe illness, and the deterioration that I mentioned was quite rapid." British Columbia health officials said on Saturday the province had detected Canada's first human case of H5 bird flu in a teenager. Henry said the province is still identifying the exact strain but assumes the case is H5N1. The World Health Organization says H5N1's risk to humans is low because there is no evidence of human transmission, but the virus has been found in an increasing number of animals, including cattle in the United States. Henry would not disclose the teen's gender or age but said the patient had first developed symptoms on November 2 and was tested on November 8, when admitted to a hospital. Symptoms included conjunctivitis, fever and coughing. As of Tuesday, the teen was hospitalized with acute respiratory distress syndrome, she said. The teen had no farm exposure but had been exposed to dogs, cats and reptiles, Henry said. No infection source had been identified. "That is absolutely an ongoing investigation." More severe illness takes place when the virus binds to receptors deep in the lungs, she said. Public health officials had identified and tested about three dozen contacts and had not found anyone infected with the virus. There has been no evidence that the disease is easily spread between people. But if that were to happen, a pandemic could unfold, scientists have said. Earlier in November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked that farm workers exposed to animals with bird flu be tested for the virus even if they did not have symptoms. Bird flu has infected nearly 450 dairy farms in 15 U.S. states since March, and the CDC has identified 46 human cases of bird flu since April. In Canada, British Columbia has identified at least 26 affected premises across the province, Henry said Tuesday, and numerous wild birds have tested positive. Canada has had no cases reported in dairy cattle and no evidence of bird flu in samples of milk.

The recent summit underscored Hong Kong's position as a "super-connector" and "super value adder," solidifying its status as a premier regional business hub and a vital link to the global market, that could support the eight major steps announced by President Xi Jinping last year to enhance the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

The United States on Wednesday said Israel must avoid any Gaza-like military action in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned it risked "destruction" like that in the Palestinian territory.

Taiwan was on "alert" as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier to its south on Sunday, the self-ruled island's defense ministry said.

Former US president Donald Trump's cryptocurrency platform had a faltering sales launch Tuesday, with only a fraction of its digital tokens that went on the market finding a buyer.

North Korea confirmed that it has blown up sections of roads and railways leading to South Korea, calling it a "hostile state," North Korean state media reported Wednesday.

At least two TV channels in a northern Afghan province stopped showing images of living beings during their broadcasts, journalists told AFP on Tuesday, in line with orders from morality police.

Around 500 participants took part, including representatives from ASEAN, the EU and its Member States, youth and individuals with special needs. The event took place along Jalan Sudirman, leading to Gelora Bung Karno, Senayan, Jakarta.

Joe Biden pledged a peaceful transfer of power Thursday after Donald Trump's decisive US election win, while the Republican showed his intent to ditch the outgoing president's policies by suggesting he would talk to Vladimir Putin.

The Paris climate agreement's goals "are in great peril" and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku.

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