WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Swift relief response, including offering financial aid and equipment support, is of paramount importance to the rescue efforts in earthquake-hit Haiti, two scientists in the United States said Wednesday.

    "Time is the most important factor in earthquake rescue," Zhigang Peng, an assistant professor at the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences of Georgia Institute of Technology, said in an interview with Xinhua.

    Peng referred to the "Golden 72 hours," the most precious time in saving lives after natural disasters such as earthquakes strike.

    Victor Tsai, a geophysicist at the United States Geological Survey, told Xinhua that a quick dispatch of aid, including needed machinery, was perhaps the most important thing to do in earthquake relief efforts.

    "Of course Haiti is extremely poor, so financial aid from other sources and countries will be necessary if rescue efforts are to succeed," Tsai said.

    A magnitude-7.3 quake rocked the Caribbean country of Haiti on Tuesday, crushing thousands of buildings, including the presidential palace and the UN peacekeeping headquarters, and trapping an untold number of people in the rubble in the capital city Port-au-Prince.

    On the cause of the earthquake, the two experts said the Caribbean islands lie on a plate boundary between the Caribbean plate and the North American plate, a seismically active region where earthquakes are prone to occur.

    "Tuesday's earthquake helped relieve some of the stress that was building up on that plate boundary, and is an expected consequence of the motion known to occur there," Tsai said.

    On the many aftershocks following the earthquake, Peng said that "a magnitude-7 earthquake is expected to produce many aftershocks that could last for months to years. Some of them could be large enough to cause additional damage."

    Though seismologists still can not accurately predict the time of large earthquakes, casualties and losses can be drastically reduced by improving building standards, the experts said.

    "There is a saying in seismology that 'Earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do,'" Tsai said, adding that humans can play a big role in remedying the situation even though they can not predict or get rid of earthquakes.

    Better building quality requires the collaboration between scientists, engineers and policymakers, Peng said, adding that Port-au-Prince had been destroyed several times in the past few hundred years by earthquakes and other natural disasters.

    "Hence it is very important to ensure quality of the building, especially at cities that are close to major active faults," he added.

China sends rescue team to quake-hit Haiti, donates $1 mln

    BEIJING, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- China sent a 60-member Chinese search and rescue team to quake-hit Haiti on Wednesday evening and the Red Cross Society of China has decided to donate one million U.S. dollars of emergency aid to the Caribbean country.

    A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday local time, collapsing a hospital and damaging government buildings in its capital city of Port-au-Prince. Full story

World Bank to provide additional emergency aid to Haiti

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank said Wednesday it will provide an additional 100 million U.S. dollars in emergency grant funding to support recovery and reconstruction in Haiti in response to a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that caused extensive damage and casualties in the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

    "This is a shocking event and it is crucial that the international community supports the Haitian people at this critical time," a World Bank press release quoted bank group President Robert B. Zoellick as saying. Full story

16 UN staffers confirmed dead in Haiti: Ban

UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here Wednesday that 16 UN staffers were confirmed dead in Haiti in the wake of Tuesday's devastating earthquake.

The 16 include 11 Brazilians, one Argentine, three Jordanian police officers, and one Chadian officer, said Ban. Full story

"Scale of catastrophe in Haiti is very high," says UN peacekeeping chief

    UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations deals with humanitarian crises all the time but the devastating earthquake in Haiti has stricken especially close to home, said the head of UN peacekeeping forces Alain Le Roy here Wednesday.

    With the number of fatalities among UN staff members rising, LeRoy said the emotion is "extremely high." Full story

ECLAC calls on int'l community to aid quake-hit Haiti

    MEXICO CITY, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) on Wednesday called on the international community to send urgent humanitarian aid to Haiti, which was hit by a magnitude 7 earthquake.

    In a statement issued on Wednesday in Mexico, ECLAC also expressed its solidarity with the Haitian people, adding that the earthquake left thousands of deaths and hundreds of missing people, including staff of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah). Full story

Major quake rocks Haiti, many nations ready with assistance

Scared people stand nearby a collapsed building after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Port-Au-Prince of Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.(Xinhua/AFP Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    MEXICO CITY, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A major earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday and "catastrophic" casualties were feared although no official reports are currently available.

    The magnitude-7.0 quake, the strongest ever recorded in the area, collapsed a hospital in a hillside district of Port-au-Prince, according to local media reports. Full story