JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A plane carrying Haiti's Jean-Bertrand Aristide has taken off from South Africa, ending his seven years in exile and carrying him home to adoring crowds and to questions about what influence he will have on a fragile country.
U.S. President Barack Obama had tried to keep the hugely popular but controversial figure away from his country until it holds a presidential election this weekend.
Aristide's lawyer Ira Kurzban has said Aristide will be back in Haiti by noon on Friday.
Aristide, a former slum priest, was twice elected president of Haiti and remains wildly popular among the Caribbean nation's majority poor. Thousands and thousands of people are expected to welcome him home.
