29746: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-President-Cancer (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Dec 29 (AP) -- Haitian President Rene Preval said Friday
after undergoing tests in Cuba that his prostate cancer has not returned.
   Preval, 63, said he would go back to see his Cuban doctors on March 18,
but that the health of his prostate was "under control."
   "The Constitution says that if a president is not in good health, he
can't continue with his functions but that doesn't apply to me because I'm
in good health," he said upon arriving back in Haiti.
   Preval revealed earlier this month that blood tests showed possible
signs of cancer, but that the results were inconclusive. He was diagnosed
with prostate cancer in 2001, the final year of his first presidential
term, and was treated in Cuba.
   Preval's health has added to the uncertainty facing his young coalition
government, which has struggled to stabilize the divided and impoverished
Caribbean nation almost three years after a bloody rebellion toppled former
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
   An 8,800-strong force of U.N. troops and international police provides
the only real security in the country, which is plagued with well-armed
gangs.