This palace is here forever

Haitis National Palace lies in ruins,so the boys of Delmas 40 refugee camp built a cardboard substitute.

Haitis National Palace lies in ruins,so the boys of Delmas 40 refugee camp built a cardboard substitute. The 12-foot-wide house of military ration boxes tops a ridge above a sprawling tent city near a base for the US Armys 82nd Airborne division. The boxes are held up by wooden poles and coat hangers. A mini Haitian flag flies in front and a painted sign proclaims it the palais national.

When the white-sheet roof billows,you can almost see one of the tapered domes of the real palace that for eight decades crowned Port-au-Prince.

Id never been in a national palace before,so we built one, said Jhonny Narcisse,32. He,like the others,form the rap group D-Clan. Narcisse calls himself B-Deep. Louissant Bennigchton,25,is the front man,aka J B Madjigriddi. His dreadlocks are partially covered by a burnt-orange knit cap. He has a beard and horn-rim glasses. At night,19 guys sleep on the dirt floor of the palace that looks down on a makeshift camp that has formed on a golf course.

The musicians are working on a song about the quake that destroyed all their homes called Bible Story. For now they freestyle a verse in English and Creole: We need the food. We need to eat. We are heroes. We are heroes. They laugh and sway,beatboxing.

There are other signs around the palace. One declares the southwest side as Port-au-Princes new cathedral. And one facing the US soldiers who direct food distributions to the 50,000 people sleeping in the valley below reads: God Bless America 4 American Food.

The D-Clans say the soldiers keep turning them away,so they pool their money to go out,buy rice,and cook it in a corner of their palace. Where they buy it,they dont say. The soldiers behind say they dont turn anyone anyway. One starts to talk about the new government building behind their post,but an officer calls him away.

This palace is here forever, Bennigchton said,his friends clapping in approval. Until the owner wants the land back.

UN: Haiti calls off search amp; rescue

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Port-au-prince: Haiti has declared the search and rescue phase for survivors of the earthquake over,the United Nations said on Saturday,saying there was little hope of finding more people alive 10 days after much of the capital was reduced to rubble.

The statement from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs comes the day after an Israeli team reported pulled a man out of the debris of a two-storey home and an elderly woman was rescued.

Spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said she was unable to comment on the rescue reports. But she said the governments Friday afternoon decision didnt mean rescue teams still searching for survivors would be stopped from carrying out whatever work they felt necessary. AP