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Haiti’s devastated by the collapse of a school; a South African legend passes; and Beyoncé hits the stage of the World Music Awards. See pics.

Another school falls down in Haiti. Days after a school collapsed in the nation, killing more than 90 people, another school, this time in Haiti’s capital, collapsed Wednesday, reports CNN. The minor collapse affected only a portion of the building and injured nine children. The students are from the Grace Divine and Secondary School in Port-au-Prince, and lives were lost in the collapse, according to Haiti’s head of operations for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Children who were jumping and dancing during a musical caused the collapse, she said. But this building, like the school building that collapsed last week, suffered from faulty construction, says a local journalist. “This is the same kind of problem of construction as in the school last week. It’s weak construction. It’s not solid,” said Clarens Renois. The scale of damage in this latest collapse doesn’t come close to Friday’s tragedy. Haitian President Rene Preval has called for an investigation into last week’s collapse that killed 93 people and injured 150.

Sudan’s government announces ceasefire in Darfur. Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has announced a ceasefire in the Darfur region, the BBC reports. “I hereby announce our immediate unconditional ceasefire between the armed forces and the warring factions, provided that an effective monitoring mechanism is put into action and observed by all involved parties,” he said. He made the announcement after he got the final recommendations of the Sudan People’s Initiative (SPI). But members of a prominent rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said they wouldn’t agree to the ceasefire, Reuters reported. A Sudanese official, Jalal al-Dugair, said the government will create contracts with the rebel groups to encourage them to abide by the ceasefire agreement. Bashir has been criticized worldwide for not doing enough to stop violence against Black Africans in the region, and he’s even wanted by an international court for allegedly facilitating war crimes in the nation. The government hopes that the call for ceasefire will take some of the pressure off of him and show the court, as well as the world, that he is doing something to stop war crimes, reports the news service.  However, declared ceasefires, in the past, have not gone according to plan. Although, this agreement, according to a government official, addresses all rebel concerns and will be aided by the United Nations. About 300,000 people have died since the violence, between ethnic rebels and militias suspected to be linked to the government, started in 2003. Another 2.5 million people have been made homeless.

Caribbean nations need to do more to fight HIV/AIDS, says official.

Countries across the Caribbean need to boost their HIV/AIDS care, treatment, education and prevention programs, says a United Nations official. Speaking recently in front of the United States Chiefs of Mission Conference of HIV/AIDS, Karen Sealy, head of the UNAIDS Caribbean office said that 38 people in the region die every day due to AIDS-related causes, reports the Caribbean Media Corporation.  There are 55 new cases of HIV in the Caribbean daily, she said, and prostitutes, along with men who have sexual relations with other men, are among the high-risk groups. Drug users are also contracting HIV/AIDS in higher numbers. “We know that the spread of HIV in the Caribbean is in fact being fueled by serious gaps in gender equality. …All the countries of the Americas which have homosexuality as a crime are now located in the Caribbean region,” Sealy said. Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning touted his nation’s work to reduce spread HIV/AIDS, including providing free antiretroviral drugs to pregnant women at government clinics, but admitted more needs to be done. The Caribbean region is behind only sub-Saharan Africa in its HIV/AIDS rate, reports the Caribbean Media Corporation. About 230,000 people in the region are living with HIV/AIDS and 14,000 people died from AIDS last year, according to Kaiser.
 
Somalia’s government and militia will observe ceasefire.
There might soon be some relief in Somalia. The government and the one of the nation’s main opposition groups have agreed to abide by a ceasefire that actually was negotiated back in June during U.N.-sponsored talks. The ceasefire will be implemented as troops from Ethiopia, who’ve been in Somalia trying to stabilize the nation’s interim government, start withdrawing troops next month, reports the BBC. The government and the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia will come together to create a unified government, they say. As a part of the agreement, when Ethiopian troops (a popular target for rebel attacks) leave they will be replaced by African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi at first, then eventually a joint “police force,” reports the BBC. But the other militias who are also fighting the government are not included in the agreement at all. Some diplomats say Somalia’s problems will not totally improve until they are included.