10'000 USA Troops in Haiti[ 545 ]

US sending 10,000 troops to earthquake-hit Haiti

Makeshift camps are sprouting up in Port-au-Prince

BBC Friday, 15 January 2010

Up to 10,000 US troops will be on the ground or off the coast of Haiti by Monday to help deal with the earthquake aid effort, US defence officials say.

Aid distribution has begun, but logistics continue to be extremely difficult, UN officials say.

Tuesday's earthquake has left as many as 50,000-100,000 people dead.

US President Barack Obama described the scale of the devastation as extraordinary and the losses suffered as "heartbreaking".

AT THE SCENE Matt Frei, Port-au-Prince No-one is in charge. The president is sleeping at the airport with quite a few journalists and aid workers. Earlier this morning, I stood on top of the rubble of the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Senate - where a few senators had been killed when the quake hit. Their bodies have been dragged out and put in body bags. The representatives of state are literally lying on the pavement slowly rotting away. This is a citizenry left to its own extremely meagre resources. You've got ordinary people trying to administer IV drips to their family members who are slowly dying, but not a single doctor or nurse at the general hospital.

In a statement at the White House, he said the US would "do what it takes to save lives and help people get back on their feet".

Correspondents say survivors seem increasingly desperate and angry as bottlenecks and infrastructure damage delay relief efforts.

Many are spending another day without food and shelter in the ruined capital.

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes told reporters that 30% of buildings throughout Port-au-Prince had been damaged, with the figure at 50% in some areas.

The Pan American Health Organization has estimated that the death toll could be as high as 100,000.

The US has already sent an aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, to Haiti and the USS Bataan, carrying a marine expeditionary unit, is on its way.

President Obama: "The scale of devastation is extraordinary ... and the losses heartbreaking"

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm Mike Mullen, said a hospital ship and more helicopters would be sent in the coming days, carrying more troops and marines.

He said the total number of US troops would rise to between 9,000 and 10,000.

"Right now, I mean, literally as we speak, the Vinson (aircraft carrier) and the company from the 82nd Airborne who got there last night are focusing on delivering water from the helicopters offshore to the people of Haiti."

They want us to provide them with help, which is, of course, what we want to do David Wimhurst UN spokesman Tech tools offer Haiti lifeline How survivors are found Haiti desperate for help Survivors' stories LIVE: Haiti earthquake

US defence secretary Robert Gates said the relief effort was the "highest priority for US military assets in this hemisphere", and all necessary resources would be made available.

He described infrastructure problems which have led to delays in aid distribution as "facts of life".

"I don't know how ... [the US] government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it has," he said.

The announcements came after Mr Obama pledged full American support in a phone call to his Haitian counterpart Rene Preval.

The US president also said he would meet former Presidents George W Bush and Bill Clinton on Saturday to discuss Haiti.

Relief problems

The UN said a total of about $310m (£190m) in international aid had been pledged so far for the relief effort.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: "Food and water are in critically short supply"

It will launch an emergency appeal for $550m later on Friday, officials said.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that distribution of food and medicine was under way, but correspondents say there is little immediate sign of a co-ordinated relief effort on the ground.

The UN's World Food Programme says two million people will need food aid, but it has so far managed to feed just a few thousand.

Meanwhile, the head of the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said thousands of people were waiting for surgery in Haiti's hospitals, AFP news agency reported.

Port-au-Prince's small airport is filled to capacity and US air traffic controllers have taken charge to help manage the influx of planes.

Mr Holmes said everyone was "working desperately" to resolve the problems and the capacity to deal with flights was rising.

The port is too damaged to use and roads are blocked by debris, although the main route from the Dominican Republic is now clear.

Satellite and close-up images of Port-au-Prince devastation

The BBC's Andy Gallacher, in Port-au-Prince, says survivors are dying in huge numbers, and clean water, food and medical supplies are desperately needed.

"We hear on the radio that rescue teams are coming from the outside, but nothing is coming," said one man, Jean-Baptiste Lafontin Wilfried.

David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the Brazilian-led UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, said: "Unfortunately, they're slowly getting more angry and impatient."

The UN headquarters has collapsed and correspondents say there is little official presence in Port-au-Prince despite incidents of looting.

To magnify this image of Port-au-Prince mouse over the left-hand panel About 45,000-50,000 people have died since Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude earthquake and 300,000 have been made homeless, the UN estimates. Aid groups say it is a race against time to find trapped survivors. Plane-loads of rescuers and relief supplies are arriving from the UK, China, the EU, Canada, Russia and Latin American nations.

Haitians await foreign disaster relief...[ 544 ]

Desperate Haitians await foreign disaster relief

Catherine Bremer and Andrew Cawthorne

Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:16am EST

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PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Thousands of people injured in Haiti's massive earthquake spent a third night twisted in pain, lying on sidewalks and waiting for help as their despair turned to anger.

World | Natural Disasters

"We've been out here waiting for three days and three nights but nothing has been done for us, not even a word of encouragement from the president," said Pierre Jackson, nursing his mother and sister who lay whimpering with crushed legs.

"What should we do?"

Desperate Haitians blocked streets with corpses in one part of Port-au-Prince to demand quicker relief efforts following Tuesday's catastrophic quake, which flattened buildings and killed tens of thousands, leaving countless others homeless.

Bodies lay all around the hilly city, and people covered their noses with cloth to block the stench of death. Corpses were piled on pickup trucks and delivered to the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, where hospital director Guy LaRoche estimated the bodies piled outside the morgue numbered 1,500.

More than 48 hours after disaster struck, masses of people clamored for food and water, as well as help in digging out relatives still missing under the rubble.

Shaul Schwarz, a photographer for TIME magazine, said he saw at least two downtown roadblocks formed with bodies of earthquake victims and rocks.

"They are starting to block the roads with bodies. It's getting ugly out there. People are fed up with getting no help," he told Reuters.

Angry survivors staged the protest as international aid committed by 30 countries began arriving in Port-au-Prince in dozens of planes that clogged the city's small airport.

The Haitian Red Cross said it believed 45,000 to 50,000 people had died and 3 million more -- one third of Haiti's population -- were hurt or left homeless by the major 7.0 magnitude quake that hit its impoverished capital on Tuesday.

"We have already buried 7,000 in a mass grave," President Rene Preval said.

The Haitian Red Cross said it had run out of body bags.

Doctors in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, were ill-equipped to treat the injured. Relief workers warned that many more people will die if the injured, many with broken bones and serious loss of blood, do not get first aid in the next day or so.

"The next 24 hours will be critical," said U.S. Coast Guard officer Paul Cormier, 54, a qualified emergency worker who has triaged 300 people since Tuesday.

AID BOTTLENECK

Planes full of supplies and search and rescue equipment began to arrive at Port-au-Prince airport on Thursday faster than ground crews could unload them, jamming the limited ramp space and forcing arriving aircraft to circle for up to two hours before landing.

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged an initial $100 million for Haiti quake relief on Thursday and enlisted former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush to help raise more, vowing to the Haitian people: "You will not be forsaken.

The United States was sending 3,500 soldiers, 300 medical personnel, several ships and 2,200 Marines to Haiti.

The U.S. Navy said its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson will arrive on Friday to serve as a "floating airport" for relief operations by its 19 helicopters.

The United States pledged long-term help for the crippled Haitian government. The presidential palace, the parliament, the cathedral and many government buildings collapsed. The main prison also fell, allowing dangerous criminals to escape.

Nations around the world pitched in to send rescue teams with search dogs and heavy equipment, helicopters, tents, water purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams. But aid distribution was hampered because roads were blocked by rubble and smashed cars and normal communications were cut off.

Relief agencies' offices were damaged and their staff dead or missing. The port was too badly damaged to handle cargo.

Many hospitals were too battered to use, and doctors struggled to treat crushed limbs, head wounds and broken bones at makeshift facilities where medical supplies were scarce.

Makeshift tents were strung everywhere and Haitians at one informal camp approached journalists shouting "water, water."

"Please do anything you can. These people have no water, no food, no medicine, nobody is helping us," said Valery Louis, who organized one of the camps.

Haitians clawed at chunks of concrete with bare hands and hammers, trying to free those buried alive. From time to time, aftershocks shook the city, sending panicked people running away from buildings.

A 35-year-old Estonian, Tarmo Joveer, was freed from the rubble of the United Nations' five-story headquarters early Thursday, and told journalists he was fine.

The U.N. said at least 36 members of its 9,000-strong peacekeeping mission had been killed and scores remained missing. Brazil said 14 of its soldiers were among the dead.

Fourteen people were pulled alive on Thursday from the landmark Montana Hotel, which was largely flattened. Chilean Army Major Rodrigo Vazquez, who was directing the rescue, said: "We estimate 70 more inside. This is devastating."

(Additional reporting by Tom Brown, Kena Betancur and Carlos Barria in Port-au-Prince, and Steve Holland in Washington; writing by Anthony Boadle; editing by Bill Trott)

Haiti,The 7.0-magnitude earthquake.[ 543 ]

Aid groups race against time in Haiti

January 14, 2010 -- Updated 1622 GMT (0022 HKT)

Watch live reports from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Anderson Cooper is on the scene for firsthand accounts of the devastation from the earthquake.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Countries and aid groups large and small worked Thursday to help survivors in quake-ravaged Haiti in an international effort rivaling the response to the 2004 Asian tsunami.

People dug furiously to rescue loved ones from the rubble of Port-au-Prince as international aid groups scrambled to provide medical care, food and water to tens of thousands after Tuesday's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

President Obama on Thursday promised $100 million in immediate American relief aid to Haiti -- an amount he said would grow in the year ahead.

"One of the largest relief efforts in recent history" is en route to Haiti, he said at the White House. Elements of the U.S. military have been dispatched to the stricken Caribbean country and ensured its airport is operating, he added. The first waves of U.S. rescue and relief workers are "on the ground and at work," he said.

"To the people of Haiti, we say clearly and with conviction, you will not be forsaken," Obama said. "You will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you."

Video: Makeshift hospital in Haiti

Video: An 'absolutely horrible scene'

Video: Social media sites help in search

Video: Haitian president among homeless

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• Haiti
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Haitian airspace was opened Thursday to charitable organizations, enabling humanitarian aid to be flown in, a Red Cross official said. But the limited infrastructure in Haiti doesn't appear to be able to accommodate the flood of aircraft headed there.

One humanitarian flight from the University of Miami couldn't take off because it couldn't land in Haiti and another was hovering in the air above the country, CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reported in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the next 24 hours "critical to save those lives that can be saved."

"Once we can get communications up so we can tell people where to go, what kind of help they can expect, we'll be able to better manage the crisis," Clinton said on CNN's "American Morning."

She said the United States is providing a communications network to shore up the battered Haitian government infrastructure.

People around the world have tapped into social media Web sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to find out about survivors and keep up with the crisis.

Watch as rescue teams gear up for hard work

Clinton said $3 million had been raised through a State Department program in which individuals with U.S. cell phones can donate $10 to the Red Cross, by texting "Haiti" to 90999.

The quake affected roughly one in three Haitians -- about 3 million people, the Red Cross estimated. It was so strong that it was felt in Cuba, more than 200 miles away.

See CNN's complete coverage of the quake

Precise casualty estimates were impossible to determine. Haitian President Rene Preval said Wednesday he had heard estimates of up to 50,000 dead, but that it was too early to know for sure. The Haitian prime minister said he worries that several hundred thousand people were killed.

And Felix Augustin, the Haitian consul general to the United Nations, said more than 100,000 may have perished.

The death toll of U.N. personnel, including military and police officers, stands at 22, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday. About 150 U.N. staff members remain unaccounted for in the earthquake's aftermath, he said.

Search and rescue units geared up to save trapped people in the capital, where the quake pancaked houses and chased others out in the streets, prompting thousands to sleep out in the open on mattresses and cardboard boxes. Rubble-strewn roads, downed trees and a battered communications network hampered humanitarian groups trying to get supplies to victims.

Watch a heartbreaking tour of the devastation

The calamity has overwhelmed doctors. Clinton said Port-au-Prince hospitals have collapsed and the few facilities still open can't handle the needs of the injured. The United States and other countries were dispatching medical supplies, facilities and personnel, and Clinton said that will be a challenge.

"This is a large area involving many, many, many millions of people who have been cut off from access. Just getting to people to provide the medical assistance they need is proving to be very difficult," Clinton said.

Impact Your World: How you can help

Clinton said the U.S. and other countries' search and rescue teams have begun their work in Port-au-Prince to search for the missing, from residents sandwiched in their homes and to others who are unaccounted for, including some members of the Haitian parliament, the U.N. peacekeeping force and Doctors Without Borders.

The overcrowded national penitentiary in the capital collapsed, and inmates escaped, prompting worries about looting, said Edmond Mulet, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations. But Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the population has remained relatively calm in the face of the disaster.

Are you there? Submit an iReport

Clinton said the United States is providing security help to the United Nations, which was devastated by the collapse of its headquarters, a peacekeeping and police force established after the 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

"The authorities that existed before the earthquake are not able to fully function. We'll try to support them as they re-establish authority," Clinton said.

She said a contingent of 2,000 U.S. Marines will help the international peacekeepers who have served as police in Haiti, which doesn't have an army.

"We've got the 82nd Airborne and other military assets coming in. We had a military team reopen the airport so we can start to handle the big heavy planes," she said.

The United Nations announced $10 million in aid; the World Bank pledged $100 million. Agencies, celebrities and charities mobilized relief efforts, including the Samaritan's Purse, Islamic Relief USA, Jewish Federations of North America, Salvation Army, Catholic Relief Services, Jolie-Pitt Foundation and musician Wyclef Jean's Yele Foundation.

Watch as U.N. program vows more food aid

Belize, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, France, Guyana, Israel Iceland, Japan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom also offered aid.

The Oil at US, $ 81 [ 542 ]

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Oil near $81 on US economy, demand optimism

PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer

Published: 12:13 a.m., Monday, January 4, 2010

Oil prices climbed to near $81 a barrel Monday on optimism that a gradual U.S. economic recovery in 2010 will boost demand for crude.

Cold weather in the eastern United States and gains by other currencies against the dollar also helped support prices.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for February delivery was up $1.55 to $80.91 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 8 cents to settle at $79.36 on Thursday. Trading was closed Friday for the New Year holiday.

Oil has flirted with the $80 level the last two trading days after jumping from $69 a barrel last month on signs the U.S. economy may be improving. The unemployment rate fell to 10 percent in November from 10.2 percent in October, and the government is scheduled to announced December's results later this week.

"Most people expect the economy to get better this year, and demand should follow," said Victor Shum, an analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "But traders so far lack the conviction to trade oil above $80 for long simply because of there haven't been clear indications of growing demand yet."

Other analysts also underlined that there was still a way to go before thirst for oil returned to earlier levels.

"The bottom line is that demand is improving, but is still a far cry from what it once was," said a report from U.S. consultancy Cameron Hanover.

Uncertainties about demand, high stockpiles of crude and refined products and trading positions defined by the technical analysis of prices were also seen affecting the market.

"We do not think that the fundamental picture and the price structure will allow for the current crude oil prices to be sustained in 2010," said Olivier Jakob of Switzerland's Petromatrix.

Analysts were divided about the impact of a dispute between Russia and Belarus, which is a transit country for oil shipments to Europe through the Druzhba pipeline.

Officials in Belarus said Monday that supplies of Russian oil to Belarus and transit shipments to Europe were continuing despite a dispute over prices.

"Russian crude flows via the northern leg of the Druzhba line are vital, especially for German and Polish refiners, and any uncertainties around feedstock supplies are supporting concerns around the future of the already strongly pressured refiners," said JBC Energy in Vienna.

Petromatrix's Jakob, however, was reminded of a similar dispute between Russia and Belarus in 2007, which was quickly resolved and led to a sharp fall of 7 percent in oil prices.

A weaker dollar also supported prices, making oil cheaper for investors holding other currencies.

Colder weather has also lifted crude prices recently by boosting demand for heating oil and natural gas.

In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil rose 4.98 cents to $2.1654 a gallon and gasoline gained 3.74 cents to $2.0903 a gallon. Natural gas jumped 26.4 cents to $5.836 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude for February delivery rose $1.57 to $79.50 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

___

Associated Press writers Alex Kennedy in Singapore and Yuras Karmanau in Minsk, Belarus, contributed to this report.

Cat, as post at railway company... [ 542 ]

Cat 'stationmaster' gets promoted to executive post at railway company

Tama, a cat stationmaster of Kishikawa Line's Kishi Station, is pictured at its appointment ceremony as an executive of Wakayama Electric Railway Co. on Sunday. (Mainichi)

KINOKAWA, Wakayama -(Mainichi 03-01-2010)- The cat stationmaster of a railroad station here has been appointed as a corporate executive of the Wakayama Electric Railway Co., the company has announced.

The train operator has promoted 10-year-old female cat Tama, currently a stationmaster of Kishi Station on the Kishikawa Line, to the post of operating officer in recognition of her contribution to expanding the customer base.

This is the first time in the world for a cat to become an executive of a railroad corporation, a company official said. Tama will continue to serve as the stationmaster while assuming the new role.

The cat has climbed the ladder of success swiftly since she was first appointed as the stationmaster in January 2007. Tama was promoted to "Super Stationmaster" the following year and to corporate executive in a mere three years since her first appointment. Tama is officially introduced as an operating officer on the company's Web site.

Since the company took over operation of the Kishikawa Line from the Nankai Electric Railway Co. in 2006, annual users have increased by about 300,000 to some 2.2 million. As the company considers Tama has played an important role in increasing passenger numbers, it decided to reward the cat's contribution with accelerated promotion.

Some 100 fans visited the official appointment event on Sunday to congratulate the cat.

"Tama has also contributed to drawing public attention back to felines as dogs continue to enjoy greater popularity," said President Mitsunobu Kojima. The railroad company plans to rebuild Kishi Station into the shape of cat's face this summer.

As Tama has already gained 0.3 kilograms in the past three years, it refrained from accepting a hike in wages, which is paid in cat food.