Above: Michel Martelly and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier this week (UN Photo: Eskinder Debebe)

Haitian President Michel Martelly said he had changed his mind on an earlier position against the presence of UN peacekeepers in the country in an interview in New York. “I think that the absence of our own defense, our own army, justifies its existence,” he said. The president, a former pop singer, also said he would retake the stage in December for a concert aimed at raising money for the country’s schools. [AP via Washington Post]