Port-au-Prince - The number of deaths in Haiti in the wake of four major storms in August and September has more than doubled to at least 793, reports said Saturday.

A further 300 people were still missing, Haitian civil defence director, Marie Alta Jean Baptiste was quoted as saying in media reports in Port-au-Prince.

In early September, authorities had estimated 326 deaths.

Port-au-Prince - Hurricane Ike,

Port-au-Prince/Santo Domingo/Washington  - At least 136 people have died in Haiti as a result of Tropical Storm Hanna, officials said Friday, as it sped toward the southeastern US coast.

Forecasters at the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) were also tracking two other storms - Ike and Josephine - that have been brewing in the Atlantic Ocean and heading west.

The centre of Hanna was located about 180 kilometres east of Daytona Beach, Florida, and the storm was moving northwest with maximum sustained winds of 100 kilometres per hour.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - The Haitian Senate approved economist Michele Pierre Louis as the new prime minister of the impoverished Caribbean country.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - A group of about 50 former officers occupied a former prison in northern Haiti, the UN stabilization force Minustah said.

The prison in Cap Haitien was seized after protests in the city Ouanaminthe, located on the border with the Dominican Republic, Minustah commander Neris Mauro Corbo of Uruguay told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Tuesday.

The reason for the mutiny was not known at this point, General Corbo said, adding that the uprising had been peaceful until now.

Minustah was working on establishing a dialogue between the opposing parties.

Haiti's army was disbanded in 1995 after a military coup.

Port-au-Prince - The lower house of Haiti's Parliament on Thursday backed the nomination by President Rene Preval that would put a woman into the office of prime minister.