Man rescued from Haiti rubble two weeks after quake

A man has been pulled alive from the rubble in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince - two weeks after the earthquake that destroyed the city.

US troops rescued the man from the ruins of a building in the centre of the city, and he was taken to hospital.

He had been trapped under the rubble for 12 days, the US military said, and was severely dehydrated.

The rescue comes 14 days after the 7.0-magnitude quake, which killed as many as 200,000 people.

HAITI'S REMARKABLE SURVIVORS Emmannuel Buso, 21 - rescued after 10 days Marie Carida, 84 - saved after 10 days Mendji Bahina Sanon, 11 - trapped for eight days Lozama Hotteline, 25 - pulled out after seven days Elisabeth Joassaint, 15 days - buried for seven days, half her life Ena Zizi, 69 - rescued after seven days Haiti quake: Survivors' stories

Haiti has been rattled by at least 50 tremors since the original quake.

The survivor, a man in his 30s, was pulled from the ruins covered in dust and wearing only underpants.

"He was buried in the rubble for 12 days. The man had a broken leg and severe dehydration," a statement from the US military said.

Although he had been trapped by an aftershock rather than the initial earthquake, the man is the longest survivor so far under the rubble.

On Saturday, Haiti's government declared the search and rescue phase for survivors over.

It is estimated more than 130 people have been pulled alive by rescue teams in the Haitian capital since the quake.

However, many more have been rescued by ordinary Haitians, often with their bare hands.

Aid call

Earlier, Haitian President Rene Preval made an urgent appeal for more tents to house up to a million people left homeless by the tremor.

More than 130 people have been pulled alive from the ruins in Port-au-Prince

Mr Preval said 200,000 tents were needed before the expected start of the rainy season in May.

His call came as donor nations and organisations met in Montreal, Canada, to assess the aid effort.

Mr Preval, who lost his house in the quake, is planning to move into a tent on the lawn of the destroyed National Palace in the centre of the capital.

The Haitian government wants to relocate some 400,000 people, currently in makeshift camps across the capital, to temporary tent villages outside the city.

But aid workers warned that if the camps were too big they could pose security problems, including robberies, rapes and gang activities.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she "resented" criticism of American assistance to Haiti.

She pinpointed some media outlets which had "either misunderstood or deliberately misconstrued what was a civilian and military response".

German government warns against using MS Explorer

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems.

Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said that while they were aware of the warning, they did not agree with it, saying that the attacks on Google were by "highly motivated people with a very specific agenda".

"These were not attacks against general users or consumers," said Mr Baumgaertner.

"There is no threat to the general user, consequently we do not support this warning," he added.

Microsoft says the security hole can be shut by setting the browser's security zone to "high", although this limits functionality and blocks many websites.

However, Graham Cluley of anti-virus firm Sophos, told BBC News that not only did the warning apply to 6, 7 and 8 of the browser, but the instructions on how to exploit the flaw had been posted on the internet.

"This is a vulnerability that was announced in the last couple of days. Microsoft have no patch yet and the implication is that this is the same one that exploited on the attacks on Google earlier this week," he said.

"The way to exploit this flaw has now appeared on the internet, so it is quite possible that everyone is now going to have a go."

Microsoft traditionally release a security update once a month - the next scheduled patch is the 9th of February. However, a spokesman for Microsoft told BBC News that developers for the firm were trying to fix the problem.

"We are working on an update on this issue and this may well involve an out of cycle security update," he said.

Fix development

However, this is no easy task. Not only have the firm got to fix the loophole, but they have to ensure it does not create another one and - equally importantly - works on all computers. This is a challenge compounded by the fact they have to fix three different versions of its browser.

Microsoft said that while all versions of Internet Explorer were affected, the risk was lower with more recent releases of its browser.

The other problem facing developers is that the possible risk might not be prevented by anti-virus software, even when recently updated.

"We've been working to analyse the malware that the Chinese are using. But new versions can always be created," said Mr Cluley.

"We've been working with Microsoft to see if the damage can be mitigated and we are hoping that they will release an emergency patch.

Clinton visits quake-hit Haitians

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has become the first senior Western official to arrive in Haiti after the earthquake that flattened the capital.

Mrs Clinton told the Haitian people that the US would be "here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead".

Tens of thousands of people were killed and survivors have grown desperate as they wait for aid to arrive.

The UN has meanwhile confirmed the head of its mission in Haiti has been found dead in the rubble of its headquarters.

Earlier, Chinese rescuers told the Xinhua news agency that the body of Hedi Annabi, a Tunisian, had been recovered from the building in Port-au-Prince at 1422 local time (2022 GMT) on Saturday.

In a statement issued shortly afterwards, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also confirmed the death of Mr Annabi's deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa of Brazil, and the acting police commissioner, Doug Coates of Canada.

"Their dearest wish, I'm sure, would be that we carry forward the noble work that they and their colleagues performed so well," said Mr Ban.

Criticism 'not fair'

Mrs Clinton, who is being accompanied by US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Rajiv Shah, arrived on a US Coast Guard C-130 carrying aid and is to leave on another with evacuees.

After discussing the relief effort with the President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive at the airport, she told a news conference that the United States was "a friend, a partner and a supporter" of Haiti.

"We are here at the invitation of your government to help you," she told Haitians. "We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

"Speaking personally, I know of the great resilience and strength of the Haitian people. You have been severely tested, but I believe that Haiti can come back even better and stronger in the future."

Earlier, Mrs Clinton dismissed criticism that aid was not leaving the airport and being delivered to the people who needed it, saying 14 distribution centres were being established around the capital to deliver food and water to the two million people that the US and UN estimates need emergency aid.

The US military is also beginning to use a container port in Cap Haitian, in northern Haiti, which will greatly increase the volume of aid flowing into the country. Port-au-Prince's dock remains inoperable.

Reports coming out of Port-au-Prince had earlier indicated that a crowd of about 1,000 people was involved in a violent fight over goods in one of the city's central commercial streets.

A photographer for the Reuters news agency said that a group of men armed with knives, ice-picks, and hammers fought one another over clothing, toys and any other items they could find in destroyed houses and shops.

"It's anarchy there now, total chaos, the police have gone away," Chris Barria said. "They are fighting, hitting each other, throwing stones at each other."

But the UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, played down the incidents of violence. He told the BBC that the security situation in Haiti was calm, minor incidents apart.

Disaster 'like no other'

Estimates of how many people died following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday have varied.

The Pan American Health Organization put the death toll at 50,000-100,000, while Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said 100,000 "would seem a minimum".

He said more than 25,000 bodies had been collected and buried. Rescue workers have been racing against time to find survivors still trapped under the rubble.

On Saturday morning, a magnitude-4.5 aftershock struck close to the capital, forcing people to once again flee buildings.

Damage to the seaport, roads and other infrastructure has prevented the speedy distribution of supplies.

US authorities have taken temporary control of the airport to help distribute aid more quickly.

US President Barack Obama met two of his predecessors in the White House - George W Bush and Bill Clinton - to seek their support.

After the talks, Mr Obama said the two men would lead the US fundraising efforts through the Bush-Clinton Haiti Fund.

"America is moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in its history," Mr Obama said, while warning that recovery would take a long time.

President Bush urged Americans to send "cash", and President Clinton said Haitians "can escape their history and built a better future if we do our part".

A spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said aid workers were dealing with a disaster "like no other" in UN memory because the country had been "decapitated".

"Government buildings have collapsed and we do not even have the support of the local infrastructure," Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva.

Ms Byrs said the situation was even worse than the devastation wrought by the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia's Aceh province.

"It's worse than the Indonesian earthquake where at least we could get the support of some local authorities," she said.

Displaced people

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help three million people for six months.

Satellite and close-up images of Port-au-Prince devastation

But while aid may be arriving in huge quantities but there is little of sign of a co-ordinated aid effort on the ground, correspondents say.

Many people continue to leave the city, in search of food, water and medicine.

The UN is reporting a rise in the number of people trying to cross into the neighbouring Dominican Republic, and an influx into Haiti's northern cities.

Meanwhile, details are emerging about the extent of the damage beyond Port-au-Prince.

Up to 90% of the buildings have been damaged in Leogane, a town about 19km (18 miles) to the west, the UN said.

"According to the local police, between 5,000 to 10,000 people have been killed and most bodies are still in the collapsed buildings," Ms Byrs said.