PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Deploying heavy rescue equipment onto a collapsed building roof, Chinese rescuers on Thursday began to scour the rubbles of the crumbled buildings in Haiti for survivors and victims.

    Amid stench of the dead, the search-and-rescue work has been carried out hectically at the ruins of the headquarters of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital.

    "The rescue work started at 9 a.m. local time (1400 GMT), but it has run into many bottlenecks," said Hung Jianfa, leader of the Chinese emergency rescue team.

    According to Huang, the quake has caused severe property damages and casualties. "Buildings on the street were badly damaged, and many hillside buildings entirely crumbled."

    The impoverished Caribbean country was struck by a catastrophic quake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale on Tuesday. Eight Chinese police officers are missing after the quake, according to China's Ministry of Public Security.

    The 18 people working for Chinese companies and enterprises in Haiti are all safe and sound, according to Chinese business representative in Haiti Wang Shuping.

    "We can hardly manage to deploy the heavy rescue equipment to the rescue scene as a great number of homeless people are stranded on streets," Huang said.

    The Haitian government's disaster relief system was paralyzed as the quake wreaked havoc on traffic and disabled communication networks, Huang said.

    "There are no loading or unloading machines at the Port-au-Prince airport, so we have to unload all the rescue equipment and first aid products manually."

    As a result, the rescue work has seriously slowed down, Huang said, adding that despite all the difficulties, his team will make all-out efforts in their rescue work in coordination with rescuers from other countries.

    "We've conducted cooperation with the U.S. rescue team, and we also share quake-relief information with the Russian team," he said.

    Huang added they would also carry out cooperation with other rescue teams on information sharing, medical rescue and on-site coordination.

    Over the past years, the Chinese rescue team had carried out successful cooperation with international rescue teams from various countries including Mexico, Singapore and Switzerland.

    Some members of the Chinese rescue team had taken part in rescue mission after the tsunami in 2004.

    The team arrived in Port-au-Prince on early Thursday morning, with 50 members of the International Rescue Team of China, three sniffer dogs and more than 20 tons of equipment and humanitarian aid.

Chinese doctors in action to assist quake-devastated Haiti

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A wood board improvised as a table with all medicine on it -- this is a "mobile hospital" the Chinese rescue team was able to set up to treat those injured in Haiti's capital city Port-au-Prince after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the impoverished Caribbean country on Tuesday.

    A large number of injured Haitians have stood in line waiting to be treated by the Chinese doctors on the plaza in front of the quake-affected Prime Minister's Office building.  Full story

Chinese rescue team arrives in Haiti, eight Chinese still missing 

    BEIJING, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese emergency rescue team arrived in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince early Thursday local time, to help the rescue operation after an earthquake in which up to 100,000 people are feared dead and eight Chinese are still missing.

    Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told a regular press briefing four of the missing Chinese were peace-keepers while the other four were from a six-member working group of the Ministry of the Public Security.  Full story

China sends rescue team to quake-hit Haiti, donates one million dollars

    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