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Desperate Haitians turned rubble-strewn streets and parks into makeshift hospitals and refugee camps on Thursday in the absence of any noticeable response from authorities in Haiti after Tuesday's earthquake. With the 7.0 magnitude earthquake collapsing the presidential palace, a string of ministries and the headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, Haiti faces a dangerous vacuum in security and government. The Caribbean nation of 9 million people, the poorest in the western hemisphere, has a turbulent history of conflict, social turmoil, dictatorship, fragile institutions and devastating natural catastrophes. Many in the capital Port-au-Prince picked away at shattered buildings...

Like at a lot of publications, Newsweek was forced to start its week over when the earthquake hit Haiti. Give the magazine credit for an artful recovery. The Washington Post Co.-owned publication has tapped President Barack Obama to pen a cover story on Haiti for the Jan. 25 issue hitting newsstands on Monday. Newsweek was readying a story about the Google-China row when the earthquake hit. Editor Jon Meacham scrapped his plans and hit the phones in search of the highest authority he could find to weigh in, according to a person familiar with the matter. He reached David Axelrod,...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Aid groups asked companies to donate cash to help earthquake relief efforts in Haiti instead of supplies like clothing and tents that they cannot distribute yet because of the devastation. World Relief groups are trying to address immediate needs such as clean water and medical supplies, and also are trying to keep airspace around Haiti clear for those needs. Planes full of supplies headed to the Port-au-Prince airport on Thursday, but they arrived faster than ground crews could unload them. Aviation authorities had to restrict non-military flights from U.S. airspace because they feared the planes would...

For 200 years the Caribbean nation has suffered from natural disasters and violent rulers By any standards, Haiti represents a very great concentration of misery and dashed hopes. In January 1804 – a key date in the history of a bedevilled country – the African slaves overthrew their French masters and declared the world’s first black republic. Haiti became an emblem of slavery’s longed-for abolition. And the slave leader, Toussaint L’Ouverture, was hailed by William Wordsworth, among other Romantics, as a “morning star” of the Americas. Since independence, however, emperors, kings and presidents-for-life have misruled the Caribbean nation through violence...

...The New York Times lectured Haiti on April 18 (2008) that “Haiti, its agriculture industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself.” Unfortunately, the article did not talk at all about one of the main causes of the shortages -- the fact that the U.S. and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers. This is not the only cause of hunger in Haiti and other poor countries, but it is a major force. Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?...

Here is a CBS News report that shows "Before" and "After" Satellite shots of the Haitian Capital City of Port-Au-Prince as a result of the 7.0 Earthquake that struck there Tuesday. The report uses "Google Earth" satellite imagery to focus in on some key landmarks such as the Presidential Palace, the National Cathedral. The images reveal utter devastation in the city. . . . . (VIDEO)

SMUG ALERT!George Clooney is leading an effort to organize a Jan. 22 primetime telethon to raise money for aid to victims of the earthquake in Haiti. The details of the telethon were in the embryonic stage as of Thursday afternoon, but the existing plan is for it to air from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern. MTV Networks said it is collaborating with Clooney on the telethon, and HBO and CBS confirmed they are on board.

In the wake of the devastating earthquake, American eyes are again turned toward Haiti—something that only seems to happen when yet another disaster strikes, and never during the daily chaos and misery that plague the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I’ve spent a good deal of time in Haiti, reporting first on the repression under the Duvaliers, then on the rise of Jean-Bertrand Aristide's popular movement, and then on the 1991 military coup that brought him down. I was there during the period of the 1994 military intervention that restored Aristede to power. US interest in the country seemed...

Here is video of the news that an 11 year-old girl that was pinned under an iron beam in Haiti has been rescued after hours of work! Reports had been done about the girl earlier in the day as rescuers tried to free her. They were having to decide whether or not to amputate her leg to free her, or continue to try to free her and save the leg. They were able to cut the beam off of her and get her out with her leg intact, although she is badly injured. She is now being treated at a...

The destruction has been described as unimaginable. But for the people of Haiti, the effects wrought by Tuesday's catastrophic earthquake are all too real. It is now two days since the disaster ripped their island apart - but few are able to comprehend the sheer scale of the crisis. Much of the capital Port-au-Prince lies waste. In public squares and makeshift hospitals, in playing fields and parks, stunned survivors squat motionless on blankets or stagger around with glazed eyes. Rescue workers make desperate - and frequently futile attempts to prise away masonry to free trapped victims. But in many cases,...

Desperate Haitians have spent a third night in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, waiting for promised aid that is slowly trickling in following Tuesday's devastating earthquake. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was expected to drop anchor off the Haiti coast Friday where it will serve as a floating airport for helicopters carrying rescue teams and supplies. Troops and planeloads of desperately needed food and medicine from many countries began slowly arriving in Haiti Thursday after the worst earthquake in 200 years reduced the capital city to rubble. The aid flights, however, have swamped the main airport.

As I write, we don't know the extent of the damage wrought by the earthquake that rocked the coast of Haiti on Tuesday. But a tragic number of people have been killed or injured, and early estimates indicate that nearly 3 million people -- almost a third of Haiti's population-- may need aid, making this one of the great humanitarian emergencies in the history of the Americas. I met with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday and with other key U.N. leaders to discuss Haiti's immediate and long-term needs. Those who are still alive under the rubble must be...

In one of the world's worst slums, Cite Soleil, a school named after the daughter of Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine aspires to nourish and educate (Snip) PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti | Tucked into the western edge of this capital city is a slum so wretched and so dangerous it is strictly off-limits to U.S. government personnel. More from this series Valley missionaries continue to return to Haiti Aid workers find themselves preparing children for a future that may never come Haitians have learned to put their trust in the hands of the Lord The name, ironically, means "City of the Sun." "Nobody...

With thoughtful insight into the devastation that struck Haiti yesterday, Link TV board member Danny Glover spoke with our friends at GRITtv today to discuss steps forward for the Haitian capital. Glover points out that in this great moment of internationalism, the U.S. has the opportunity to rebuild its relationship with Haiti, and he voices a warning that disasters like this will inevitably strike again as climate change continues.

The White House on Thursday dismissed a comment by evangelical preacher Pat Robertson that Haiti's earthquake was retribution for the country swearing a "pact to the devil" as "utterly stupid." Robertson weighed in on Haiti's history on his Christian Broadcasting Network show "The 700 Club" on Wednesday. Haitians were originally "under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil," said the 80-year-old former presidential candidate. "They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so,...

Call Pat Robertson crazy or, worse yet, insensitive for his remarks following the earthquake in Haiti. To a reasonable person (by which I mean an NPR listener's self-concept), the notion Tuesday's 7.3 magnitude earthquake was punishment for a 200 year old pact with the Devil sounds crazy or, worse yet, insensitive. This perhaps particularly so to a reasonable person recalling Robertson's remarks along similar lines following 9/11. The trouble for critics of Robertson's insensitivity (I have seen no sympathy for the devil troubling him), is that Haitians say much the same thing themselves. The commonly accepted date for the start...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is firing back at Rush Limbaugh after the conservative talk radio host urged people not to donate to relief efforts in Haiti. Spokesman Robert Gibbs says there are always people who say "really stupid things" during a crisis. He says it's sad that Limbaugh would use the power of his pulpit to convince people not to assist those in need.

Haiti Earthquake: No Food, No Water... And Gutters Running With Blood WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT Liz Hazelton 14th January 2010 16 Britons missing after quake rips island apart Hillary Clinton: 'Biblical' damage is on par with the 2004 Asian tsunami Aid workers begin to pour on to island as emergency fund launched. Britain pledges $10m in aid as Brown describes 'tragedy beyond imagination' Tens of thousands of people are facing a second catastrophe tonight as they struggled for survival on the devastated island of Haiti. With no food, no water and no shelter, aid agencies were in a desperate race against...

Here is video of Rush Limbaugh trying to explain his comments to a caller that is accusing him of discouraging donations for Haiti and politicizing the earthquake. The caller said she heard about Limbaugh's comments from the Huffington Post. (Video)Limbaugh said to the caller after she constantly interrupted, "what I'm illustrating here is that you're a blockhead, what I'm illustrating here is that you're a close-minded bigot, who is ill informed. I am being patient and tolerant and I'm trying to explain this to you and you're totally closed to it, I am hitting you with piercing penetrating logic and...

President Obama has tapped George W. Bush, a prime target of Democratic criticism during the presidential campaign for his response to Hurricane Katrina, to help lead Haiti relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated the country two days ago. Bush will join up with former President Bill Clinton, who is also the United Nations special envoy for Haiti. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama, who spoke with Bush Wednesday evening, is looking to replicate the relief effort that Clinton and George H.W. Bush led after the 2004 tsunami that struck Asia. "The president...