In brief: Preval: Quake toll could hit 300,000
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico – The president of Haiti said Sunday the death toll from his country’s earthquake could reach 300,000 once all the bodies are recovered from wrecked buildings.
Speaking after arriving in Mexico for regional meetings that will include discussion of Haitian aid needs, Preval gave no indication of how he reached the figure.
“You have seen the pictures, you know the numbers, more than 200,000 bodies picked up in the streets, counting those that are still underneath the rubble, perhaps we could arrive at 300,000 deaths,” Preval said at a meeting between Mexican officials and the countries of the Caribbean trade bloc.
Haiti’s government has placed the death toll at between 170,000 and 230,000. The country’s chief epidemiologist has said he believes the government is making a lot of estimates.
Preval will also attend the Unity Summit of Latin American and Caribbean nations convened by the Rio Group starting today.
Dozens killed in Portuguese floods
FUNCHAL, Madeira Islands – Rescue workers in Madeira dug through heaps of mud, boulders and debris Sunday, searching for victims buried by floods and mudslides that have killed at least 42 people on the popular Portuguese island.
Residents looking for missing loved ones were directed by local authorities to the resort’s international airport, where a makeshift morgue has been set up.
More than 120 other people were injured and an unknown number were missing, possibly swept away or smothered, authorities said, adding the death toll could still rise. Of 248 people who were forced to flee their homes for temporary shelters, 85 have been allowed to return home.
Army pilots die in ‘hard landing’
BAGHDAD – The U.S. military says two Army helicopter pilots have been killed in an accident on a base in northern Iraq.
The military said in a statement that there were no “enemy forces” present and no hostile fire reported.
It said the aircraft made a “hard landing” Sunday near an airfield inside the base, but gave no further details. The military often uses the phrase “hard landing” to mean a crash.
The statement said the accident was under investigation, and the pilots’ names are being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.
Lufthansa strike grounds flights
BERLIN – Hundreds of flights by German airline Lufthansa have been canceled after more than 4,000 of its pilots began a four-day strike.
The airline said today that despite the walkout organized by the cockpit pilots union, it was maintaining many domestic flights and short-haul routes across Europe, though many of its long-haul flights to the U.S., including New York and Denver, were canceled.
Other flights to Africa, South America and Asia were still scheduled to operate.
“Usually we have 1,800 flights a day,” the airline said. “For today, we foresee about 1,000 flights planned, but there may be more flights that could canceled during the day.”