U.S. to Haitians: Go Home! U.S. immigration authorities have ordered 30,000 Haitians to get out. But that decree is easier said than done, according to Haitian officials, who say their impoverished, hurricane-slammed nation needs time to prepare for the return of its citizens. Following a three-month moratorium on deportations in early December, Customs officials have been sending deportees with valid passports back home, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports. The lack of travel documents has resulted in longer stays for Haitians in crowded detention centers, said a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Currently, there are about 600 Haitians being detained and more than 240 others under a form of house arrest whereas they’re being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets.

U.S. is ready to airlift peacekeepers to Darfur

. The U.S. is ready to airlift as many as 4,000 peacekeepers, including Ethiopians and Egyptians who make up the U.N.-African Union mission to Darfur, the U.S. envoy for Africa said Monday.  The mission started deploying in Darfur in January but remains at less than half of the 26,000 authorized to go there. The mission has also complained of Sudanese government stonewalling and transport problems. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer, who arrived in Khartoum from a trip to Congo Monday, said the Sudanese government has made “important progress” recently in speeding up the deployment of the peacekeepers, The Associated Press reports. “There has been important progress,” Frazer said. “But we are looking to get at least 3,000 to 4,000 (peacekeepers) in Darfur. We certainly have offered the U.N. to help do airlift if they need to bring in both troops and to move equipment.” Sudanese Foreign Minister Deng Alor said the United States’ offer to help ferry more troops and equipment into Darfur was first made in September, during Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha’s visit to New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly. After Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was accused of genocide in Darfur in July, Sudanese authorities eased some procedures including issuing visas for promised troops. The move was an apparent response to Western demands for cooperation with the international community. Al-Bashir has dismissed the charges brought against him by the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court. He says his country won’t recognize the tribunal, but his government is also lobbying supporters and others to freeze the international prosecution.

Tennis star captures first U.S. Open title in six years

Serena Williams is a U.S. Open champion again. The star disposed of challenger Jelena Jankovic Sunday following a rainout of the scheduled Saturday competition. Last week, Williams eliminated her sister Venus from the tournament in the siblings’ first meeting since Venus captured the Wimbledon title earlier this year. The Open win is Serena’s first in six years, and the win makes her the No. 1 women’s tennis player in the world rankings.

ESPN analyst is in fantasy land, critics say. In an attempt to keep it “real” about Blacks and Fantasy football, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith is taking a virtual beating in the fantasy sports blogopshere. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, about 93 percent of all fantasy players are White. But “to hell with fantasy. I’m about what’s real!” Smith wrote in the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine.  ”I’m not surprised to learn that so few Blacks are among the 30 million people who participate in fantasy sports. I’ve always thought that a lot of these guys [and 96 percent of them are guys] are nerds, desperately in need of more sociable leisure-time activities. Leisure time for Black folks historically consists of direct interaction, the kind of experience you get at a family barbecue or hanging out with friends. Sitting in front of a computer screen pretending to be Bill Parcells? Sounds like work to me.” The reaction to Smith’s article from some Black sports bloggers has been anything but nice.  Uzo Ometu, an African-American fantasy player who also writes the Sportswatcher blog, says, “The average fantasy football player is around 30 years old, makes about $75,000 a year and has a connection to a fast Internet provider. I’m sorry, but that’s just not your typical brother living in the lower-income parts of Brooklyn, N.Y. Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of well-educated and successful Black people, who are not only making gobs of money, but who are also football fans who love playing fantasy football. Unfortunately, successful Black people [economically speaking] make up just a small percentage of the Black population as a whole, which is why we are thoroughly underrepresented in the fantasy football populous.”

Bengals star legally changes his name

Back in the day, boxer Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali for religious reasons. NBA star Lloyd Bernard Free became World B. Free to make a political statement. NFL receiver Chad Johnson? He’s Chad Javon Ocho Cinco now. “Have I ever had a reason for why I do what I do?” he asks. “I’m having fun.” The Bengals star has legally changed his name to the Spanish translation of his jersey number 85. The Bengals have no comment on Cinco’s re-invention – understandably.                                                                                       

Venus, Serena may be headed for another tennis face-off. Venus and Serena Williams didn’t get that Wimbledon rematch they seemed headed toward during the Beijing Olympics. Both sisters were eliminated from singles competition before they combined to win doubles gold. The U.S. Open, however, presents another possibility for the pair to go head-to-head after Venus took the title several weeks ago. Both sisters advanced this past weekend and will face each other in the Open’s quarter-finals this week if they each get one more win. “I think that, definitely, the Wimbledon win helped me…if I don’t have a perfect practice, I don’t get really upset about the whole tournament,” Venus says. The sisters are the only two former champions still competing in the tournament.

Is the GOP concerned that its own candidate can’t stand up to the standard?

Pamela On Politics: Republicans appeared to have disserted the platform of family values for the 2008 presidential race, and no doubt it’s because their nominee’s checkered record might not stand up to the scrutiny of his challenger. Read more at Pamela On Politics.

Lawmaker: Bill Clinton’s faltering image in Black society is his own fault.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-highest-ranking member of Congress and a member of the Black Caucus, said that former President Bill Clinton ought to look in the mirror if he wants to see who’s responsible for his falling out with Black America. Speaking to ABC News last week, Clinton said that the South Carolina Democrat was once a friend of his, but that he “was not Hillary’s supporter. Never. Not ever. Not for a day.” Find out what else he said and how Clyburn responded at BET.com/News.