2010-01-17 BBC
BBC News with Fiona McDonald.
The United Nations in Geneva says the earthquake in Haiti is the worst disaster ever confronted by the organization in terms of logistics because of the complete collapse of local government and infrastructure. It said Haiti's airport was clogged, its roads blocked, and hospitals had few if any doctors. Tens of thousands of victims have still received no aid whatsoever four days after the quake. In the capital Port-au-Prince, huge lorries have been helping to clear the streets of rubble, so the assistance can get through. And terrible though the conditions are there, it's feared things could be even worse elsewhere in Haiti where even less help has so far arrived. Our correspondent Mark Doyle went to see.
The scene in an hour's drive west of Port-au-Prince is apocalyptic. Almost every single building on the road I'm driving on now has been flattened. Reinforced concrete roofs have fallen to the floors below or have jammed into the ground at crazy angles. The destruction here is even more dramatic than the dreadful conditions in the capital. People have fled to the surrounding sugarcane fields or into mangrove swamps, anything to get away from the nightmare of the falling buildings. I've seen a long line of people queuing up at a single working water tap. Tens of thousands are living in the open in church compounds, school playgrounds and marketplaces. The population here are in profound shock.
Reports coming out of Port-au-Prince say a crowd of about a thousand people has been involved in a violent fight over goods in one of the city's central commercial streets. A photographer for the Reuters news agency said that a group of men armed with knives, ice picks, and hammers fought one another over clothing, toys and any other items they could find in destroyed houses and shops. The incident comes hours after a senior United Nations official Alien Edward warned of the security threat from the delay in the distribution of aid.
President Obama, who's enlisted the support of his two predecessors in the White House, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, said Americans stood united with the people of Haiti. He said the United States was launching one of its largest ever relief efforts. From Washington, here is Paul Adams.
Putting aside their past differences and presenting a united front, the three presidents all spoke of the immense challenge posed by the earthquake and of their determination to work together to help Haiti not just immediately but over the long term. President Clinton, already the UN special envoy for Haiti, called the administration's response so far truly extraordinary. President Bush, visiting the White House for the first time since leaving office, said terrible tragedies brought out the best in the American people.
The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already arrived in the stricken country on a US Coast Guard plane which was also carrying emergency food rations as well as other supplies.
World News from the BBC.
The former Prime Minister of Iraq Ayad Allawi has formally unveiled a new non-sectarian alliance that will contest March's parliamentary elections with him as leader. From Baghdad, Jim Muir reports.
In addition to liberal secular and nationalist groups, the alliance calling itself the Iraqi Bloc also includes a number of prominent Sunni leaders, among them the current Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. Standing in the front bow, as the new bloc was announced, was another well-known Sunni leader Saleh al-Mutlaq. It's widely reported but not officially announced that he's among 499 would-be candidates disqualified by the Accountability and Justice Commission. It's an independent body charged with rooting out people associated with the former Baath's system.
A six-power meeting in New York to look at renewed ways of halting Iran's continuing defiance of United Nations resolutions on its nuclear program has ended with no decisions being made. They are trying to convince Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program even though Iran itself says this is for purely peaceful purposes. The Americans were expected to push for tougher sanctions. But China, which has said the time is not right, only sent a low-level diplomat to the meeting.
Spain says the number of illegal immigrants reaching the country by sea from Africa dropped by nearly half in 2009 compared with the previous year to just over 7,000. The government attributed the fall to improved cooperation with African countries and better policing of Spain's borders.
Hundreds of international observers have been deployed to monitor Sunday's presidential election in Ukraine. The European security organization, the OSCE, says it now has 600 in place,. 18 candidates are standing. Recent opinion polls in Ukraine have suggested the most popular is Viktor Yanukovych who lost to President Yushchenko in 2004. Mr Yushchenko was also standing again as his Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.