Asia-Pacific
Man rescued from rubble 14 days after Haiti quake
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-27 11:23
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 A man carries a dog from a destroyed building in downtown Port-au-Prince January 26, 2010. [Agencies] |
Jobs, Aid and Aftershocks
In a bid to get the economy going, the United Nations is offering 150 gourdes ($3.77) a day plus food rations to those willing to take jobs clearing rubble from roads and removing waste that posed a potential health threat.
More than 5,500 Haitians had already started the two-week jobs, loading debris on trucks and hauling it to landfills.
Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive returned from an international donors meeting in Montreal, where he had made an impassioned plea for sustained long-term aid.
Bellerive also said there had been 45 aftershocks. Another one, magnitude 4.9, struck western Haiti later on Tuesday.
In Washington, the US space agency, NASA, said it would send surveillance flights over Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which share the island of Hispaniola, to look for signs that more earthquakes may hit the area.
The US military said it could scale back its involvement within six months as other international organizations assume larger roles providing security and disaster relief. It does, plan to help build a 5,000-bed hospital to provide longer-term care to quake victims.
The United States has dispatched more than 15,000 military personnel to Haiti, with about 4,700 are deployed on the ground.
There were signs the ruined capital was slowly returning to life. A city garbage truck hauled away piles of rubbish at a makeshift camp and a long line snaked outside a bank. A street market along Rue Geffrard was crowded and chaotic.
The capital's destroyed downtown commercial area, however, had few open shops. Scavengers picked at smashed buildings for planks of lumber, steel bars and other building materials.
The Haitian government says about 1 million Haitians were displaced from their homes in the capital. It had tents for 400,000 to be used in temporary tent villages to be built outside the city, but said 200,000 more would be needed.
