Young gangsters torched cars, fired in the air and terrorised people blocks from the presidential National Palace in a prelude to what many fear will be another fearsomely violent day in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.

MACHETE-WIELDING supporters of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide are turning their wrath on Haiti’s demoralized police force, beheading some of their victims in a campaign imitative of the insurgency in Iraq.

Supporters of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide called for a third day of demonstrations to demand his return today and hurled rocks at passing cars on streets littered with debris and overturned vehicles in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Violence erupted again yesterday in the Haitian capital of Port-Au-Prince as the decapitated bodies of three police were found, bringing the death toll to at least seven people in two days of protests by Haitians demanding the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Bloated bodies and weeping relatives filled mortuaries today as Tropical Storm Jeanne killed more than 570 Haitians with the toll expected to rise.

Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover has boycotted a cruise to Haiti that he helped to organise, over the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the US-backed interim government that replaced him.

AMERICAN and Canadian troops yesterday rushed to a town left completely submerged by flooding and where health officials feared 1,000 people could be dead in that town alone.

Haitians turned to US-led troops and international agencies for help as the death toll climbed to about 900 following floods that ravaged Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Hundreds more were missing and presumed dead.

The death toll from the floods that swept across the Caribbean island of Hispaniola – where Haiti and the Dominican Republic lie – rose to more than 500 today.

The death toll from flooding in the Dominican Republic and Haiti rose to at least 363 today as villagers desperately searched for loved ones feared swept away by the torrent of mud from swollen rivers.

RESCUE workers dumped 60 corpses into a mass grave yesterday as the death toll rose to 270 in floods that swept away a small village on the Dominican Republic's border with Haiti.

Rescue workers dumped 60 bloated corpses into a mass grave today as the toll continued to rise in floods that swept away a small village on the Dominican Republic’s border with Haiti.

Ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide is today expected leave Central African Republic on a long-haul flight to Jamaica, returning to the Caribbean for the first time since fleeing into exile weeks ago.

Former Haitian exile Gerard Latortue has been sworn in as the country’s prime minister, promising to unite the country after months of bloodshed and political strife that led to the ousting of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

THE United Nations yesterday launched an urgent appeal for $35 million to help Haiti after a bloody revolt against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide left the impoverished country facing a humanitarian crisis.

US marines shot and killed one of the gunmen who fired at a huge demonstration of protesters celebrating the flight from Haiti of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

At least five people died and many were wounded when gunmen fired on thousands of protesters demanding the prosecution of Haiti’s exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

BEFORE a raging fire, rebel fighters in this bleak western town offered metal scraps to a voodoo war god, portending still more violence for Haiti.

Shots were fired today during a protest at Haiti’s National Palace, where demonstrators were calling for former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to be tried for corruption.

SUPPORTERS of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide criticised the foreign occupation of their country yesterday as Haitian officials began to patch together a new government.

Rebels began patrolling the streets of the Haitian capital as rebel leader Guy Philippe declared himself the new chief of the military and threatened to arrest the country’s prime minister.

A REBEL convoy was greeted with jubilation when it rolled in to the capital yesterday as US troops hit the streets to help quell the violence following the departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today to send a military force immediately to restore order in Haiti, hours after the country’s embattled president fled into exile.

HAITI descended into chaos yesterday hours after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled the island nation as looters ransacked Port-au-Prince police stations, prisons were opened and residents of the capital ran for cover as gunfire crackled.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide today left Haiti bowing to pressure from a rebellion at home and diplomats from abroad, his Cabinet minister and close adviser Leslie Voltaire told The Associated Press.

Pro-government mobs looting the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince have withdrawn from the streets after a plea from President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Rebels were within 25 miles of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince today, as militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide torched barricades, hijacked cars and looted the city’s only operating hospital.

Rebels who have launched a bloody uprising took control of another town today, closing in on the capital as Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide appealed for foreign peacekeepers and the country lurched toward chaos.

Rebel fighters are converging on the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and waiting for the order to attack, their leader said today.

Foreigners, some guarded by US Marines, were fleeing Haiti in droves today, as looting erupted in the capital and pressure grew for an international intervention and for President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down.

An opposition coalition, insisting that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resign, rejected a US-backed peace plan to avert all-out civil war as Haiti’s leader urgently appealed to the world for help.

US Marines were protecting the country’s embassy in Haiti today as rebels threatened to attack the capital in a bid to overthrow President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

REBELS set their sights on the rest of Haiti yesterday after swooping in to take the country’s second-largest city in an escalation of a bloody rebellion against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Rebels who overran Haiti’s second city began detaining people identified as supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide today, and said they soon will attack the capital.

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide agreed to a US-driven peace plan today to head a government with political opponents, saying rebels will be disarmed and a new government will hold elections.

Militants loyal to Haiti’s President Jean-Bertrand Aristide have attacked protesters demanding he resign with barrages of shotgun fire, stones and bottles.

SCORES of foreigners, including missionaries and aid workers, streamed out of Haiti yesterday, fleeing a surging rebellion and mounting violence in government-held areas.

Scores of foreigners including missionaries and aid workers streamed out of Haiti today, fleeing a surging rebellion and mounting violence in government-held areas.

HAITI'S government yesterday rejected proposals that President Jean-Bertrand Aristide step down to end a bloody uprising, while rebels threatened the Caribbean nation's second-largest city.

Haiti’s second-largest city was under threat from rebels today as frightened police barricaded themselves inside their station saying they could not repel an attack on the last major government bastion in the north.

A REBEL force trying to oust President Jean-Bertrand Aristide grew in size as former exiled paramilitary troops joined the insurrection and aid workers hurried to get doctors and supplies to the cut-off north.

Haitian rebels in nearly a dozen towns went on a rampage that has left at least 42 dead and prompted fears of a coup d’etat, in the strongest challenge yet to embattled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide,

Hundreds of Haitians looted TV sets, mattresses and sacks of flour from shipping containers in the port town of St Marc, one of several communities seized by rebels in a bloody uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Police reinforcements fought bloody battles with gunmen as they tried to retake Haiti's fourth-largest city from rebels.