Kidnapping raises risks for aid workers in Haiti

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that destroyed large swathes of Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010 leveled the country in ways both brutally obvious and unexpectedly subtle. The ruins of an estimated 250,000 homes served as evidence of the quake’s raw physical power. The ruins of the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly, and multiple five-star hotels showed that in a country where poverty is rife and a few families hold a monopoly on power, money is no defense against the vagaries of geology.  

Two months after Haiti's January 12 earthquake, aids groups were still scrambling Friday to provide for the 1.3 million people left homeless amid growing insecurity in Port-au-Prince.The kidnapping of two female aid workers, a Belgian and a Czech, cast a shadow over the relief operations carried out by more than 300 foreign organizations in Haiti.It was the first abduction to occur in Haiti since the earthquake, Haitian police said.

Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) said one of its planes carrying vital medical equipment to Haiti's quake victims has repeatedly been prevented from landing at Port-au-Prince.The cargo plane, carrying drugs, surgical supplies and two dialysis machines, "was turned away three times from Port-au-Prince airport since Sunday night despite repeated assurances of its ability to land there," MSF said in a statement.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF - Medecins Sans Frontieres) warned on Monday that a measles epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo was spiralling out of control.MSF said that more than 21,000 people have been infected and 210 have died since the outbreak was identified in September 2010, although it believes the death toll may be higher."The measles epidemic is spiralling out of control" said Gael Hankenne, MSF head of mission in Congo.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) urged international donors Tuesday to ensure Haitians continue to get free health care in the wake of January's devastating earthquake.All public and most private health providers have offered care free of charge since the January 12 quake, which killed more than 220,000 people and left hundreds of thousands with horrific injuries, many requiring amputations.

Camps for refugees and migrants in Italy are "ineffective," the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF - Doctors Without Borders) said Tuesday."The way migrant centres are run seems to be in great part ineffective," MSF said in a statement."More than 10 years after the centres for migrants were established in Italy, they are managed as if they were thought of as emergency camps" and are capable of "barely satisfying primary needs," it said.

Prosecutors on Thursday considered a request to release 10 Americans charged with kidnapping in quake-hit Haiti over their bid to take a busload of children out of the country, the judge said.Judge Bernard Saint-Vil told AFP he had sent the defense team's request for provisional release to the prosecutor after more than two days of hearings, including testimony from the Americans and parents of the children.He said he did not make a recommendation to the prosecutor, though Saint-Vil has final say in the case.