Haitian immigrants granted reprieve in US

President Clinton has instructed the United States immigration authorities to postpone for a year the expulsion of thousands of Haitians who've been threatened with deportation.

Mr Clinton said the decision -- expected to affect some twenty thousand people -- had been taken in part because of what he called the fragile situation in Haiti.

The United States recently granted permanent residency or extra protection from deportation to nearly half a million Central Americans.

Many arrived in the US in the 1980s at the height of the region's civil wars.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service