Australia lead the series 2-0 and with two matches remaining the best result for the visitors can only be a drawn series.

Australia were able to complete their innings and made a modest 225 all out with a single delivery in their innings unused.

Michael Clarke topscored with 46 as Ravi Rampaul took 4 for 61. Dwayne Smith, who opened the bowling in place of the injured Kemar Roach supported admirably with 3 for 45 from a full quota of 10 overs. The left handed veteran – Michael Hussey – contributed 44 runs to the Aussie total as none of their batsmen reached the half century mark.

There were however contributions throughout the order with James Hopes getting 30 and captain Ricky Ponting 22.

A rain intervention at the commencement of the run chase caused the Windies target to be revised to 151 from 24 overs but it never got going proper as the weather prevented what could have been an entertaining run chase.

The Windies had made two changes for the game. One was forced the other optional. Kemar Roach’s place was taken by all rounder Darren Sammy while Runako Morton, opener in the first two ODIs, was dropped for Wavell Hinds who was slotted into the middle order and Travis Dowlin moved up to the opening position.

Two ODIs remain with the Windies needing to win both to draw the series. (Caribnet)

UNITED NATIONS (Bloomberg) — Haiti faces a major food crisis due to a lack of support for farmers who begin planting in March for a harvest that usually produces 60 percent of the nation’s grains, fruits and vegetables, the United Nations said.

“We are alarmed at the lack of support,” Jacques Diouf, director general of the Food and Agricultural Organization said after meeting Friday in Rome with Haitian Agriculture Minister Joanas Gue and heads of the World Food Program and International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Jacques Diouf director general of the Food and Agricultural Organization. AFP PHOTO

The FAO has received only 8 percent of $23 million sought for seeds, fertilizer and tools to enable farmers to plant their crops next month, the agency said. At the same time, the UN has pledges for 95 percent of the $575 million in aid requested after the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left 1 million homeless.

Haitians consume about 1 million tons of cereals a year, 37 percent of which are grown locally, the FAO said.

“The economic and social reconstruction of Haiti requires a revival of food production and massive investment in rural areas,” Diouf said.

Margareta Wahlstrom, who is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon’s special representative for disaster risk reduction, expressed concern for long-term reconstruction priorities. It will take at least a decade to rebuild damaged schools, hospitals and infrastructure, she said.

“Haiti is in a vulnerable situation due to the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons,” Wahlstrom said. “There is great urgency now to give particular attention to structural safety for temporary schools, hospitals and camp settlements. Camps must be built in safe locations with resistant materials and adequate drainage systems to be able to withstand the next hurricane season.’

Wahlstrom said 10 percent of the estimated $10 billion reconstruction effort should focus on reducing Haiti’s vulnerability to disasters, including hurricanes. (Caribnet)

“The situation remains dire… the need for food, shelter, medical supplies and basic security is enormous, and the coming rainy season will pose new challenges,” press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

More than 200,000 people were killed and 1.2 million were left homeless by the January 12 quake, which destroyed large parts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and crippled its institutions.

“Infrastructure that was destroyed in minutes will take years to rebuild,” Gibbs noted, but pledged that “the United States continues to stand with our Haitian friends as they recover.”

Haitians Friday gathered at emotional ceremonies across Port-au-Prince to mark one month since the disaster, the worst on record in the Americas.

President Rene Preval, who has rarely appeared in public in the last few weeks, declared Haiti “will not die” and acknowledged he could not find words to express his pain.

Gibbs paid tribute to the thousands of military and civilian-led responses to the disaster from the United States.

“Having reopened the main airport and port to enable a massive international humanitarian effort, our servicemen and women are supporting the distribution of urgently needed food, water, medicine and shelter until these functions can be fulfilled by the rapidly-expanding civilian operation and the United Nations.”

The people of Haiti, the White House said, have “amidst unimaginable suffering… inspired the world with their faith, strength of spirit and determination to rebuild.

“In the difficult months and years to come, they will continue to have a friend and partner in the United States of America.”

There are over 15,000 US military personnel stationed in Haiti or off its coast, although the mission has been reduced as teams trained to deal with the immediate aftermath of the quake left the country. (Caribnet)

“In my capacity as UN Special Envoy for Haiti, I will continue to work with the Haitian government and people, international donors and multilateral organizations,” Clinton said in a statement.

Former US president Bill Clinton. AFP PHOTO

The statement came just hours after he was released from hospital in New York following successful surgery to clear up a clogged artery.

Clinton is a special UN envoy to Haiti and also works with fellow former US president George W. Bush in coordinating fundraising.

Exactly a month after the earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and left some 1.2 million homeless, Clinton said there had been “a generous outpouring of support from donors all over the world.”

He said the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and his own Clinton Foundation Haiti Relief Fund had secured “impressive” donations.

“So far, we’ve allocated seven million dollars to organizations providing medical care, food, water, shelter, and education,” he said, “and we will continue to provide assistance in the months and years to come.”

Clinton also praised Haitians for doing “so much with very little.” (Caribnet)

The quake was centred 60 miles (95 km) east-southeast of the city of Guantanamo, where the United States has its Guantanamo Naval Base. The US Geological Service said the quake was centred about 6.2 miles (10 km) below ground.

The area is 160 miles (257 km) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 that levelled much of the city and killed more than 200,000 people.

The Haitian quake last month shook eastern Cuba but not badly enough to cause injuries or damage.

In the town of Baracoa, at Cuba’s eastern tip and about 35 miles (56 km) north-northwest of the epicentre, employees at the Communist Party headquarters described Friday’s earthquake, which struck at 7:09 a.m. EST (1209 GMT), as strong but brief.

“The ground shook strongly but it happened faster than the Haitian earthquake. Luckily, it passed quickly,” a party worker said in a phone interview.

“So far, there are no known injuries or collapses, nor are they evacuating people,” he said. (Caribnet)

MIAMI, USA (AFP) – The 2010 hurricane season beginning in June will be more active than usual and there is an increased chance that devastated Haiti will be hit by a strong hurricane, US weather experts have said.

“The 2010 Atlantic hurricane season will be somewhat more active than the average,” Colorado State University’s (CSU) top hurricane expert William Gray told AFP.

Forecasters Philip Klotzbach (R) and William Gray

He said there was a 49 percent chance that a tropical storm would track close to Haiti this year.

Gray’s team predicts between 11 and 16 tropical storms will form in the Atlantic this year, up from the average nine to 10.

They expect between six and eight of those to become full-fledged hurricanes, by comparison with the usual five to six that gain the designation each year.

The team forecasts up to five of those storms will become major hurricanes, reaching the top three categories in the Saffir-Simpson scale, producing wind speeds ranging from 111 to 155 miles (96 to 155 kilometers) per hour.

The chance that the Caribbean as a whole will be hit by a major hurricane is 58 percent — above the normal 42 percent probability of the past century, according to their study conducted in December.

Gray said Haiti’s vulnerability to a major hurricane this season was not significantly higher than usual.

“The average is around 10 to 15 percent that Haiti would be hit any one year,” he said, adding that in 2010 the average “is a little bit higher now, but not much.”

On Thursday, Haiti was hit by its first torrential rain since the January 12 earthquake, which killed at least 217,000 people and left more than one million homeless, living in precarious, makeshift camps.

“The normally weak infrastructure in Haiti is now virtually non-existent, and so a hurricane would be devastating,” CSU team researcher Phil Klotzbach told AFP.

“It should also be pointed out that it does not even take a full-fledged hurricane to do a tremendous amount of damage to Haiti,” he added. “Tropical Storm Jeanne in 2004 dropped about 12 inches of rain near Gonaives, and over 2,000 people died.”

“For the 2010 hurricane season, we have 49 percent probability of a tropical storm tracking within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of Haiti,” Klotzbach said.

International relief organizations working in Haiti are already concerned about the onset of the 2010 rainy season on the island, which begins in April.

French Red Cross president Jean-Francois Mattei on Thursday warned of the impending disaster the season could bring, including “torrential rains, flooding and landslides.”

The hurricane season — from June to November — often brings death and grief to the Western hemisphere’s poorest nation, which is practically denuded of its moisture-absorbing tropical forests.

In the 2008 hurricane season, Haiti was pounded by four storms that left more than 800,000 people homeless and devastated its agriculture.

Last year, Haiti, the Caribbean, and the US mainland were spared from major storms during a relatively calm hurricane season, thanks to the storm-dampening effects in the Atlantic of the El Nino climate pattern.

Gray, whose 25 years of studies have made him one of the leading US experts on hurricanes, predicted that “El Nino activity will be mostly dissipated by August when we get into the hurricane season,” favoring greater storm activity. (Caribnet)

Juhel Browne jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com

Metal scanners are to be used by the police for the first time ever, to scan people at random as they enter Port of Spain for the Parade of the Bands on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

Senior Superintendent Glen Hackett told the Express yesterday that the metal scanners are being used to ensure no one brings any weapons into what is being called the Carnival City on Monday and Tuesday, as part of law enforcement’s zero tolerance policy regarding crime during Carnival 2010.

’This is the first time (the scanners are being used). It is an initiative of the Acting Commissioner of Police and the Minister of National Security (Martin Joseph),’ Hackett said during an interview after the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs’ Update on Carnival 2010 and media brunch at Queen’s Hal, St Ann’s.

Elaborating further, Hackett said they will be metal scanners similar to the ones used by security officers at entry points in many Carnival fetes. He said the scanners would be used with what he called conventional searches, to ensure that no one brings any weapons into the capital city during Carnival 2010.

He said roadblocks and check points will also be set up at strategic locations around the capital city as part of a security grid.

’All persons who are found with weapons or implements designed or meant to cause injury to persons will be charged,’ Hackett said.

The media brunch also featured several performances, including one from 2010 Junior Calypso Monarch, Aaron Duncan, 6, who almost stole the show with his rendition of ’Doh Waste It.’ In addition, Duncan also extempoed with Phillip ’Black Sage’ Murray, and appeared to have caught the more experienced calypsonian off-guard with his ability to respond to any lyrical challenge thrown at him.(Trinidad Express)

Gyasi Gonzales and Phoolo Danny-Maharaj

running dry: A security officer walks past the water fountain at the International Waterfront Centre in Port of Spain yesterday. In light of the current nationwide water shortage, the pumps for the fountain were switched off. -Photo: ROBERTO CODALLO

THE water fountain at the International Waterfront Centre (IFC) in Port of Spain was yesterday switched off after the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) issued more restrictions on the use of water.

For the last few weeks, WASA has been reminding both private and public consumers to be more responsible in their usage of water, due to low water reserves and what is expected to be an unusually brutal dry season.

Yesterday, in addition to restrictions already imposed on the use of hosepipes and similar type apparatus for watering gardens or washing of motor cars, WASA also debarred the use of decorative fountains, waterfalls and other outdoor artistic features which utilise water, pressure washers and water sprinklers.

As a result, the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago, which manages the IFC, agreed to shut down the fountain there.

In a statement on the matter, UDeCOTT said, ’In keeping with the restrictions set out by WASA, UDeCOTT has agreed to shut off its fountain at the Port of Spain International Waterfront Centre.’

Meanwhile, residents living in one of the richest areas of South Trinidad resorted to hauling water out of a neighbourhood swimming pool to wash vegetables and clothes yesterday.

People living at Hosein Avenue, Gulf View, La Romaine, said they had not received water in their taps for the past week.

WASA’s communications manager, Ellen Lewis, acknowledged the problem. She said a crew had been working to improve the reliability of the supply in the area, and residents could expect water in the taps today.

A resident said WASA was having problems finding the point where the water mains were connected underground.

’We offered to help them because we have the plan of the area, but WASA does not seem to be interested,’ the resident said.

The resident said they had been put on a Saturday and Tuesday schedule ’but since last weekend, we did not get any water supply. Some of us have to use water from the neighbour’s swimming pool to bathe, wash clothes and do other chores. And we are buying water to drink’. (Trinidad Express)