Haiti, a small, impoverished Caribbean nation, is slowly coming to terms with the calamitous earthquake of January 12, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale and was followed by several powerful aftershocks. The toll on human life is estimated at 45,000-50,000 by the Red Cross.
Forty-eight hours after an earthquake devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the first emergency assessment teams were yesterday still trying to establish just how many people had died.
The sketchy picture from the area underlined the mammoth task facing an international rescue mission that swung into action yesterday.
The US and other nations were on Friday racing to send help to Haiti where tens of thousands of dead and injured remain buried in rubble or laid by the roadside after the country
Haiti's Prime Minister on Thursday warned the death toll may top 100,000 in a calamitous earthquake which left streets strewn with corpses and thousands missing in a scene of utter carnage.
U.N. building, presidential palace among those flattened
Haiti: Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still trapped.
Most of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are facing extreme or high risk of food shortages, according to a Food Security Risk Index ranking of 148 nations.
Somalia and Sri Lanka are among the countries at greatest risk from climate change, while the US and Japan are within the top 15 nations least at risk.
Africa and much of South Asia face extreme risk from climate change but top carbon polluters will be relatively shielded from its ravages, according to a ranking of 166 countries obtained by AFP on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka is among much of South Asian and African nations that face extreme risk from climate change but top carbon polluters will be relatively shielded from its ravages, according to a ranking of 166 nations obtained by AFP yesterday.
The world faces a permanent food crisis and global instability unless countries act now to feed a surging population by doubling agricultural output, a report drafted for ministers of the Group of Eight nations has warned.
