Haiti Or Hades

ON SUNDAY, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER JESSE JACKSON began a fast in support of HIV- infected Haitians wishing to immigrate to the U.S. He was quickly joined by Olden Polynice, the Haitian-born center for the Detroit Pistons basketball team. But the growls of their stomachs fell on deaf ears. On Thursday the Senate voted to prevent people infected with the AIDS virus from immigrating to the U.S. The prohibition had been a matter of policy; the Senate action is a step toward making it law. "It was a meanspirited vote," says Jackson.

The vote was a setback not just for Jackson but for Bill Clinton as well. During the presidential campaign, Clinton said he'd change the policy. Jackson plans to continue his fast, which was inspired by the more than 200 Haitians at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who are also shunning food in protest. Meanwhile, bad news keeps rolling in for Haitians. In Miami a Haitian man surrendered to authorities after hijacking a DC-3. And off the coast of the luckless island, a ferryboat that may have been carrying as many as 1,000 people (nonrefugees traveling around the island) sank during a rainstorm. Only about 300 people are known to have survived, though more might have escaped.