Haiti president steps down without successor in place

• Two dead in IV  rig fire off coast of Mexico

Haiti’s President Michel Martelly has stepped down at the end of his term amid tension over how he is to be replaced.

No successor has yet been chosen as opposition supporters challenge a deal to select an interim leader.

The first day of carnival has been called off over the threat of more opposition protests.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is still struggling to recover from a huge earthquake in 2010.

The last-minute deal aims to prevent the country from plunging into an immediate power vacuum.

In a speech, Mr Martelly said his biggest regret was that January’s presidential election had been postponed.

The runoff vote to elect his successor was shelved because of fears of violence and allegations of fraud.

It will now be held on April 24, with a new president due to be sworn in on 14 May.

Under the latest agreement, parliament will elect an interim president and install a transitional government for a four-month term.

Mr Martelly is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election but has thrown his weight behind Jovenel Moise, a banana exporter who won the first round of the presidential election in November.

But the result has been contested by the opposition challenger, Jude Celestin.

He accused the electoral authorities of favouring Mr Moise and threatened to pull out of the runoff vote.

Prime Minister Evans Paul – who is due to remain in his post until parliament agrees his replacement – has appealed for calm.

On Friday, protesters beat a man to death in the capital, Port-au-Prince, in a clash with ex-soldiers.

Meanwhile, two workers were killed and at least seven injured Sunday in an oil platform fire off the coast of Mexico, state petrol company Pemex said.

The blaze broke out in a “compression area” on the rig located off the southeastern state of Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico, Pemex reported on Twitter.

It said nine injured workers were airlifted away for medical treatment and added later that two workers died.

The fire was brought under control and the platform did not need to be evacuated, Pemex added.

Two Pemex installations in the same area suffered explosions last year, one of which killed four people.

Pemex is a key source of income for Mexico’s government. It has suffered lately from falling world oil prices and from theft of oil by criminal gangs.

The company’s production plunged from 3.4 million barrels a day in 2004 to 2.2 million in early 2015.

BBC with additional report from MSN