The US military has resumed evacuation flights for critically injured Haitian earthquake victims.
The flights had been halted since Wednesday in a dispute about where the patients would be treated and the costs of their care.
Hundreds of patients had already been evacuated to the US for treatment, most to Florida hospitals, since the devastating quake on 12 January.
Suspension of the flights had increased pressure on emergency medical teams in Haiti who are working around the clock to treat seriously injured survivors, either in damaged local hospitals or in emergency clinics that have been set up.
The 7.0-magnitude quake left around 170,000 people dead, wounded around 200,000 and left more than 1m homeless and desperately short of food, water and medical attention.
News emerged yesterday that Haitian police detained 10 members of a US Christian charity group, who allegedly tried to leave the country with more than 30 children who survived the earthquake.
Five men and five women with US passports and two Haitians were arrested as they tried to cross into the neighbouring Dominican Republic with a busload of children aged between two months and 14 years.
Speaking just outside her detention cell near Port-au-Prince airport, Laura Silsby, head of the Idaho-based New Life Children's Refuge charity, insisted the group's aims were entirely altruistic.
But Patricia Vargas, director of the Haitian centre where the children are being cared for, said that most of the youngsters insist they still have family.
The US embassy in Port-au-Prince said the group was being held for ‘alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration’.
Haitian officials have raised concerns about child trafficking and warned that legitimate adoption agencies may rush to take orphans before proper checks have been conducted.
The UN food agency has also launched a massive food effort targeted at vulnerable women in a bid to ease some of the chaos surrounding the massive international relief effort.
The World Food Programme said it would open 16 fixed collection sites in Port-au-Prince, aiming to feed two million people in two weeks.
Only women will be allowed at the sites to avoid scenes at chaotic mobile handouts that have sometimes seen children and women muscled aside in the scramble for bags of rice, beans and cooking oil.
Diseases such as diarrhoea, measles, and tetanus are rising in tent camps, prompting UN agencies and the government to prepare a mass vaccination drive.
50 tonnes of Irish aid to arrive tomorrow
A consignment of 50 tonnes of essential humanitarian supplies sent from Ireland is expected to arrive in the Dominican Republic tomorrow.
The aid, which is supplied by the Government and will be distributed by Concern and Trócaire, includes plastic sheeting and tents for shelter; water containers and sanitation equipment.
This shipment is the second consignment which the Government has provided for the Haitian people and brings the total aid supplied to more than 130 tonnes.
These supplies are sufficient to provide shelter, clean water and the basic infrastructure for survival to12,000 families.
They are scheduled arrive in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic at approximately 10pm, and will be transported over-land to Port-au-Prince, where they will be distributed by Concern and Trócaire on behalf of the Irish people.
