Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- So many doctors are answering Haiti's call for medical aid that the largest hospital in Port-au-Prince has a new problem: organizing and finding good use for them all.

"I think there is a lot of confusion," said Marivittoria Rava, a longtime volunteer with the charity Friends of the Orphans, which runs a children's hospital caring for some post-operative patients from the general hospital.

Rava said that medical supplies and resources have improved, but the crush of volunteer doctors in Port-au-Prince can complicate treatment in the city while there is great need for help in other places hit by the earthquake.

iReport:  Looking for loved ones in Haiti

The general hospital has nine operating rooms, but a near platoon of volunteer surgeons. That leaves many standing by for work, though there are relatively few nurses.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta learned medical teams are taking their first steps to organize and see how many of them are needed. Representatives from each volunteer doctor group at the general hospital gathered for a quick, to-the-point meeting over the weekend.

"We are all well-staffed," Dr. Paul Auerbach of Stanford University told the group. "The issue is coordinating."

Auerbach is the point person to try and control the surge of doctors. Over the weekend, he and volunteer groups started tackling some basics of treatment: how to ID patients, keep records and make rounds.

Among the problems with the large number of doctors, Auerbach said, is that patients can have their dressings opened three or four times in close succession as one and then another crew of doctors come to evaluate their wounds.

To change that, charity groups have set up shifts and literally drawn lines, sketching maps on hospital walls showing who is working where. They are also identifying medical centers outside Port-au-Prince, where there is need for the booming supply of doctors in the capital.

Full coverage

Space is also an issue. A team from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is carefully assessing the buildings that survived on hospital grounds, trying to find a stable place for post-operative care. Patients now recover in tents or are taken to other hospitals.

As the city's main hospital is brimming with doctors, it is in need of nurses and physical therapists.

Thousands of amputees will need significant, specialized help from physical therapists, but few are available.

Nurses are in short supply. A nursing school on the grounds of the general hospital was crushed in the earthquake, killing some of the people who would be giving care now. The flood of outside volunteers is mostly doctors, not nurses.

Interactive map of where to find aid, hospitals in Haiti

At one point over the weekend, a mass of 12 medical workers gathered around a tiny premature infant. Someone called out, "If you're not a doctor, step away!" Immediately someone else responded, "We're all doctors!"

Even as they juggle an abundance of doctors, many volunteers said they worry the general hospital in Port-au-Prince could again face dire need after this first wave of medical staff rotates out of Haiti over the next two weeks.

Those on the ground advise doctors who want to help Haiti to wait and volunteer in a few weeks or months.

What was crushed in the earthquake?
Who are in short supply?
Where was the hospital located?

Answer: nursing school

Answer: Nurses

Answer: Port-au-Prince

Summary:
Largest hospital in Port-au-Prince has too many doctors; coordination is a problem .
Patients have dressings opened three, four times in close succession by different medics .
Volunteer nurses and physical therapists are in short supply .
Nursing school on grounds of general hospital was crushed in earthquake .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Survivors still emerged from collapsed buildings in Haiti's devastated capital Sunday, nearly five days after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the impoverished island nation.

U.S. and Turkish rescuers plucked three people, including an American woman, from the rubble of a supermarket Sunday, and were continuing to search for more people in the ruins. The survivors had been living on the store's supply of food and water, rescuers said.

Elsewhere, a team from New York rescued a 55-year-old man from the remains of a four-story building after using a rescue camera to locate him. And an Israel Defense Forces team said Sunday it had rescued a Haitian government worker from the ruins of a customs office Saturday.

The rescues lent a sense of urgency to those still working to find signs of life among the collapsed buildings, who know that time is running out for those still alive. Nearly 30 international rescue teams continue to comb the disaster areas for more survivors.

While there has not been an official count, U.N. estimates of the number of casualties in the capital alone range from 100,000 to 150,000.

Get the latest developments in Haiti

By Friday, 13,000 bodies had been recovered, said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet. Among the dead are 16 Americans, the State Department said Sunday.

More than 300 U.N. staffers are unaccounted for. Thirty-seven are confirmed dead, including the top two civilian officials at the U.N. mission in Haiti, a peacekeeping and police force established after the 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Why Haiti is different

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was in Haiti Sunday and visited the site of the U.N.'s collapsed mission. He assured survivors of U.N. assistance despite the organization suffering the gravest loss in its history.

The United Nations "will continue to work with the major international donors who have been generous enough to provide humanitarian assistance, dispatching search-and-rescue teams. This is a moment of sadness but it is also a moment of Haiti's need," he said.

Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, will travel to the country on Monday to meet with officials and deliver aid supplies, his foundation announced Sunday. He is set to meet with Haitian President Rene Preval and other members of the local government as well as aid workers, to discuss how to proceed with recovery operations.

The visit comes two days after President Obama announced the formation of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, a major fundraising effort for victims of Tuesday's earthquake led by Clinton and former President George W. Bush.  Presidents Bush, Clinton team up for Haiti   On Saturday, a man said to be the head of the capital city's tax office was carried out of the rubble on a stretcher, to wild cheers from residents. And a 2-month-old baby with broken ribs was pulled out and airlifted to Florida in critical condition.

But in many cases, rescue operations turned into recovery ones.

A Los Angeles rescue team answered the desperate pleas of a mother who believed her young daughter was trapped alive beneath the rubble of a day care center in downtown Port-au-Prince.

They searched for eight hours Saturday. At some point, the distinct sounds of tapping from within the crushed concrete stopped. As rescue personnel pulled away, the mother -- who stood praying silently during the rescue efforts -- stayed put, holding on to hope.

How to help: Impact Your World

More California rescuers patiently chipped away at concrete and debris Sunday morning, trying to reach a woman who sent a text message saying she was buried beneath the ruins of a collapsed bank. The Los Angeles County Search and Rescue team had been looking for the woman since Saturday afternoon when a text arrived: "I'm OK but help me, I can't take it anymore." But the hours ticked by, with no sign she was still alive.

Despite the best attempts by aid groups, the country remains in dire need of food, water and medical aid.

In open

What did the rescue teams find in the rubble?

Nearly how many teams from around the world continue the search efforts?

Answer: three

Answer: three people,

Answer: Ban Ki-moon

Answer: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Answer: 30 international rescue

Summary:
NEW: Rescue teams from U.S., Israel, Turkey find people alive in quake rubble .
NEW: Nearly 30 teams from around the world continue to comb debris for survivors .
U.N. secretary-general visits Haiti, site of U.N.'s worst loss of life ever .
Port-au-Prince airport remains overwhelmed by planes bringing supplies .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Teams of rescuers in Haiti's capital rushed to the city's Caribbean Market on Tuesday after a machine used to clear rubble caused a secondary collapse, trapping at least one Haitian in the rubble.

A French excavation team was working the site, which collapsed in the January 12 earthquake, said Lt. Col. Christophe Renou of French Civil Protection. The team spotted a body in the rubble and brought in an excavation machine, which resembles a bulldozer, to attempt to reach the body, he said.

The machine tipped into a hole, however, and caused further collapse, Renou said. Several Haitians were in the building at the time, he said, some helping in the search and others looking for useful items. Teams are aware of at least one person alive, confirmed with radar.

Renou said he believes more people are trapped, but he doesn't know how many or whether they are alive.

The French crews called U.S. and Mexican teams to the site to help with the rescue. The U.S. team brought more radar and lifting devices to try to extract the known survivor and reach any others, said Norman Skjelbreia, an incident commander from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The rescue mission is complicated, he said, by the Caribbean Market's debris and rubble and an adjacent building that is partially collapsed.

More than 212,000 people died in the earthquake, Haitian officials said, and bodies are being recovered every day.

Rescuers pulled an apparent survivor of the original quake, Evan Muncie, 28, from the rubble of a market on Monday. Doctors found him suffering from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but without significant crushing injuries.

Muncie's family told staff at the hospital that he had been missing since the quake, and was found in the wreckage of a market where he sold rice. Muncie told doctors that someone brought him water while he waited for rescue, but sounded confused and sometimes thought he was still in the rubble.

By Wednesday, Muncie was in stable condition, according to University of Miami hospital spokeswoman Nery Ynclan, who said he was more alert and aware of his surroundings and was answering questions.

Ynclan said Muncie had eaten and even asked for chocolate -- which staff provided in small quantities. Muncie will be at the hospital at least another week, she said. His brother and mother arrived Monday at the hospital to be with him, she said.

Ynclan also said that crews returned Tuesday to the the site where Muncie was found and determined he may have been trapped in a room with some food or water. He was likely not pinned down, she said, but scrapes on his hands and feet indicate he may have tried to climb out.

CNN's Ingrid Formanek and Danielle Dellorto contributed to this report.

How many people were alive in the rubble?

Answer: he doesn't know

Answer: a machine used to clear rubble

Answer: at least one person

Answer: secondary collapse,

Answer: a machine used to clear rubble

Answer: at least one person

Answer: partially collapsed.

Answer: mission is complicated,

Summary:
Bulldozer at Caribbean Market causes secondary collapse .
At least one person is alive in rubble; condition of others unknown .
Rescue complicated by debris, adjacent building that is partially collapsed .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans accused of trying illegally to take 33 children from Haiti had met with a Haitian police officer and a Dominican official the week before being stopped at the border, interpreters who worked with the group said Wednesday.

One interpreter said the officer offered to help the Americans with the paperwork required  take the children out of the country.

The Americans -- five men and five women, some of whom are members of Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho --were arrested in Haiti after being turned back from the Dominican Republic border on Friday night.

A Haitian lawyer representing the Americans told reporters Wednesday that the arrests were illegal and that their clients had only been trying to help.

The Americans, who were interviewed Wednesday by Judge Isai Jean Louis, are to appear Thursday before the attorney general, who is handling the case, lawyer Edwin Coq said.

Around noon Wednesday, Haitian authorities took away for questioning a Haitian police officer who works at the Dominican Embassy, officials said.

They said he would be asked whether he provided illegal paperwork to the Americans to facilitate their efforts to remove the children from the country.

Three interpreters who had translated for the Americans told CNN that the Americans met last week at least twice with the officer -- at the embassy and consulate.

Full coverage of Haiti earthquake, aftermath

The Americans have said they had the permit they thought they needed from the Dominican authorities, but the Dominican consul general told CNN that that was not the case.

Carlos Castillo said he met Friday with Laura Silsby, the leader of the group. He said he told her the documentation was not in order and warned her that, if she were to attempt the trip, she could be accused of child trafficking.

"The Haitian authorities contacted me, they called me, and they told me that she was telling them she had the authorization from the Dominican authorities to cross the border, which was a lie," Castillo said.

CNN's Karl Penhaul attempted to get comment from the jailed Americans in Haiti's capital, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to his questions by singing "Amazing Grace" and praying.

The group, New Life Children's Refuge, said it was "rescuing" abandoned children by moving them to the Dominican Republic, where it was building an orphanage. The group's effort came after an earthquake last month killed tens of thousands in Haiti.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince said Sunday that the Americans had been detained for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."

SOS Children's Villages, where Haitian authorities took the 33 children after the Americans' arrests, said at least 20 of the kids aren't orphans and many others have relatives such as aunts and uncles.

Search for the missing, found

Several residents of the village of Calebasse, more than an hour from Port-au-Prince, told CNN this week they had voluntarily handed over their children to Silsby.

The parents said Silsby told them she would give their children a better life and promised that they could see them whenever they wanted.

Told Monday that many of the children had living parents, Silsby said during a jailhouse interview, "I did not know that."

She added, "In our hearts, our intention was to help children that had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents."

But the interpreters said they translated conversations between Silsby and the parents in Calebasse and that Silsby must have been aware of the children's status.

Jean Sainvil, a pastor who helped find children from a camp in the Delmas neighborhood of the capital, told CNN that the Americans told him they were seeking orphans.

Sainvil said he rounded up 20 children and handed them to the Americans on Thursday, though the translators put the number he helped at 13.

Some of those who were receptive to his call apparently included parents. "One of them turned five children over," he said. "Mother came out with children, said 'You can have them all

What were they arrested for?
Who is interviewing the officer?
What did the policeman offer to do?
How many Americans were arrested?

Answer: trying illegally to take 33 children from Haiti

Answer: Judge Isai Jean Louis,

Answer: offered to help the Americans with the paperwork required

Answer: Ten

Summary:
Interpreter: Policeman offered to help the Americans take the children out of Haiti .
Ten Americans were arrested after trying to take children into Dominican Republic .
Group acknowledged children did not have passports to leave country .
Haitian authorities say they're interviewing police officer .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans detained and accused of child trafficking in Haiti after they allegedly tried to bus 33 children into the Dominican Republic insist their effort was an attempt to get the children to a shelter.

But Haiti's prime minister said Sunday that the group was kidnapping the children.

"From what I know until now, this is a kidnapping case," Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN. "Who is doing it -- I don't know. What are the real objectives or activities -- I don't know. But that is kidnapping and it is more serious because it's involving children," he said.

"The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents, they wanted to return to their parents."

How far should aid workers go?

U.S. embassy officials visited the Americans over the weekend at a jail near the airport in Port-au-Prince, where they are being detained. They are being treated well and are holding on to their faith, the Americans said.

"We came into Haiti to help those that really had no other source of help," Laura Silsby, a member of the Idaho-based charity, New Life Children's Refuge, told CNN on Saturday.

"We are trusting the truth will be revealed and we are praying for that."  Full coverage

The group of five men and five women said they were trying to move the children to the Dominican Republic in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that devastated parts of Haiti, flattening the capital and killing tens of thousands. But a Haitian judge has charged the 10 with child trafficking, they said.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince said Sunday that the Americans have been detained for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."

"God is our provider and God gives us strength and comfort," said Carla Thompson, one group member. "We have our Bibles and we are OK."

Government approval is needed for any Haitian children to leave the country, and the group acknowledged that the children have no passports.

Jeanne Bernard-Pierre, general director for Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare, said the children will be interviewed in the coming days to determine whether they have living relatives.  Search for the missing

The group said it believed the children were orphaned, and it was going to house them in a converted hotel in the Dominican Republic.

George Willeit of SOS Children's Villages -- who said that Haitian police and the social ministry brought the children to his group -- said some of the children have living relatives.

"Some of them for sure are not orphans," he told CNN. "Immediately after she arrived here, a girl -- she might be 9 years old -- was crying loudly, 'I am not an orphan, I do have my parents, please call my parents,' " he said.

"And some of the other kids as well, they have their phone numbers, even, with them from their parents," he said. He said he believes that at least 10 are not orphans.

Mel Coulter, the father of 23-year-old Charisa Coulter, who is among those arrested, told CNN affiliate KTVB that the group thought it had all of the necessary documents to transport the children out of the earthquake-ravaged country, but apparently lacked some paperwork.

"They want to bring kids out who have no home, who have no parents, who have no hope -- and this was an attempt to give them the hope that they've lost in Haiti," he said Saturday.

The group "went down on Thursday night fully expecting that they had everything they needed, all the documentation that they needed," he said.

"When they tried to bring some of the kids out [Friday] night they were stopped at the border and [they] said that there was a paper missing," he said. "So they

What did the children not have while leaving the country?

Answer: Haiti

Answer: passports.

Answer: kidnapping the children.

Answer: passports.

Answer: Ten Americans

Summary:
Idaho-based missionaries arrested for trying to move children across Haitian border .
Group admits children did not have passports needed to leave country .
Children from orphanages damaged in the quake, said church's Web site said .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans detained last week while trying to take 33 Haitian children out of the country were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association, a government official said.

Information Minister Marie Laurence Lassegue's announcement came shortly after the five men and five women left a hearing at the prosecutor's office.

Under Haitian law, anyone accused of kidnapping a child is not eligible for bail, the attorney general's office said.

Conviction on the kidnapping charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison; the criminal association charge carries a penalty of three to nine years, according to a former justice minister.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday night that the judge in the case has three months to decide whether to prosecute.

"We hope that he will decide long before those three months," he said. "He can release them, he can ask to prosecute them."

If a decision is made to prosecute, the case would be heard before a jury, he said.

Told that the families of the detained Americans had pleaded for him to intervene, Bellerive said he could not.

"Those people are not in the hands of the government; they are in the hands of justice," he said. "We have to respect the law. It is clear that the people violated the law. What we have to understand is if they did it in good faith."

Bellerive said the Haitian government was open to the possibility of the case being transferred to a U.S. court but said the request would have to come from the United States. "Until now, I was not asked," he said.

He expressed gratitude for the work of the vast majority of Americans who have helped in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake that he said killed at least 212,000 people.

The Americans were turned back Friday as they tried to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic without proper documentation. They said they were going to house them in a converted hotel in that country and later move them to an orphanage they were building there.

"We can confirm that the 10 American citizens remain in custody in Haiti," said State Department deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid. "We continue to provide appropriate consular assistance and to monitor developments in the legal case."

The Americans have said they were just trying to help the children leave the earthquake-stricken country.

Some of the detained Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters said Wednesday that they were present when group members spoke with the children's parents. Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children over to the Americans, who promised them a better life and who said they could see their children whenever they wanted to.

Government approval is needed for any Haitian child to leave the country, and the group acknowledged that the children had no passports.

Some members of the group belong to the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. One of the church's ministers asked for privacy and would not discuss the matter.

"I know you have many questions but we don't have answers right now," Drew Ham, assistant pastor, said in a note to reporters.

P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, has said that U.S. officials have been given unlimited consular access to the Americans and that U.S. and Haitian authorities are "working to try to ascertain what happened [and] the motive behind these people.

"Clearly, there are questions about procedure as to whether they had the appropriate paperwork to move the children," he said Wednesday.

CNN's Karl Penhaul in Port-au-Prince, Dan Simon in Meridian, Ohio, and Jill Dougherty in Washington contributed to this report.

How many Americans were charged with kidnapping?

What did the Haitian government say about the  group?

Who did Missionaries say they were trying to help?

Answer: kidnapping children and criminal association,

Answer: Ten

Answer: open to the possibility of the case being transferred to a U.S. court

Answer: children

Answer: children

Answer: Ten

Summary:
10 Americans charged with kidnapping, criminal association .
Missionaries denied bail because kidnapping charges involve children .
Missionaries say they were trying to help children leave country .
Haitian government says group was trying to kidnap children .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Ten Americans held in Haiti on charges of illegally trying to take 33 children out of the country were scheduled to have their first court hearing Monday afternoon, according to the U.S. State Department.

P.J. Crowley, a department spokesman, said Monday that U.S. and Haitian authorities are "working to try to ascertain what happened [and] the motive behind these people. Clearly there are questions about procedure as to whether they had the appropriate paperwork to move the children."

The Americans were turned back Friday night as they tried to take the children across the border into the Dominican Republic. At least some of the group are members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho.

The missionaries say they were just trying to help the children start a new life. Central Valley's senior pastor, Clint Henry, reiterated that point Monday, saying the group's intentions were "upright and pure."

"The intention was simply to go down and try to be an aid in ministering to children that had been orphaned in the quake," the pastor said. "It was our intention to be part of a new orphanage. The decision was made that we could house those children in the temporary sites."

But Haiti's prime minister said Sunday the group was kidnapping the children.

"From what I know until now, this is a kidnapping case," Jean-Max Bellerive told CNN. "Who is doing it, I don't know. What are the real objectives or activities, I don't know. But that is kidnapping, and it is more serious because it's involving children."

He added, "The children certainly were not fully willing to go, because in some cases, from what I heard, they were asking for their parents, they wanted to return to their parents."

U.S. Embassy officials visited the Americans over the weekend at a jail near the airport in Port-au-Prince. They are being treated well and are holding on to their faith, the Americans said.

"We came into Haiti to help those that really had no other source of help," Laura Silsby, a member of an Idaho-based charity, New Life Children's Refuge, said on Saturday.

"We are trusting the truth will be revealed, and we are praying for that."

The group of five men and five women said they were trying to move the children to the Dominican Republic after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake January 12 that devastated parts of Haiti, flattening the capital and killing tens of thousands. But a Haitian judge has charged the 10 with child trafficking, they said.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince said Sunday that the Americans had been detained for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."

Government approval is needed for any Haitian children to leave the country, and the group acknowledged that the children have no passports.

Jeanne Bernard-Pierre, general director for Haiti's Institute of Social Welfare, said the children will be interviewed in the coming days to determine whether they have living relatives.

The Americans said they believed the children were orphaned, and they were going to house them in a converted hotel in the Dominican Republic.

Georg Willeit of SOS Children's Villages, who said that Haitian police and the social ministry brought the children to his group after they were taken from the American group, said some of the children have living relatives.

"Some of them for sure are not orphans," he said. "Immediately after she arrived here, a girl -- she might be 9 years old -- was crying loudly, 'I am not an orphan, I do have my parents, please call my parents,' " he said.

"And some of the other kids as well, they have their phone numbers, even, with them from their parents," he said. He said he believes that at least 10 are not orphans.

Mel Coulter, the father of Charisa Coulter, 23, who is among those arrested, told

How many Americans are being held?
What does the Prime Minister claim?
What did the prime minister say?
how many americans held in haiti?

Answer: Ten

Answer: group was kidnapping the children.

Answer: the group was kidnapping the children.

Answer: Ten

Summary:
Ten Americans held in Haiti, accused of illegally trying to take 33 children out of the country .
They were detained Friday as they tried to take children across border into Dominican Republic .
The missionaries say they were just trying to help the children start a new life .
But Haiti's prime minister said Sunday the group was kidnapping the children .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The American missionaries in Haiti facing kidnapping charges for trying to take 33 children out of the country last week made an earlier, unsuccessful attempt at taking dozens of other children, a Haitian police officer said.

The officer did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals. He told CNN on Monday that he had stopped the 10 Baptist missionaries, including group leader Laura Silsby, on January 26 as they tried to transport 40 children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

The officer said he discovered Silsby and the nine other Americans on a bus in Port-au-Prince's Pétionville neighborhood after receiving a tip from a concerned citizen.

He stopped the group and ordered the children to get off the bus. He then directed Silsby to the Dominican Embassy.

"I said what happened, and she [Silsby] told me, 'I have the paperwork to cross the Haitian-Dominican border with 100 children,' " the officer said. A former attorney for the group, Edwin Coq, said the officer has testified of his account.

Prosecutors questioned the officer last week in the case against the missionaries. Prosecutors no longer suspect him of any wrongdoing, and he is now a witness, according Coq, who is familiar with the prosecution's case file.

The police officer's superiors also confirmed his version of events. Attorneys for the Americans did not immediately answer calls for comment.

Full coverage of the earthquake's aftermath

The 10 missionaries were charged Thursday with kidnapping children and criminal association for trying to take 33 children out of Haiti.

Earlier Monday, Jorge Puello, a Dominican attorney who said he was hired to represent the group, said they had authorization from the Dominican Republic to bring the children across the border.

Puello showed reporters a manila folder he said contained documents that prove the Americans had authorization to bring the children into the Dominican Republic, but he did not show the documents to reporters.

Dominican authorities have said the Americans did not have permission, and Puello did not say whether the group had the authorization of Haitian officials.

The Americans have said they were trying to help the children get to a safe place after January 12's magnitude-7.0 earthquake, which has left more than 200,000 dead.

iReport: Looking for loved ones in Haiti

Arriving outside the Haitian attorney general's office Monday, Puello said a church hired him that counts some of the jailed Americans among its members. He did not identify the congregation.

Coq announced over the weekend that he had resigned. Puello said Monday that Coq had been fired but gave no details.

Some of the Americans have said they thought they were helping orphans, but their interpreters said this week that they were present when group members spoke with some of the children's parents.

Some parents in a village outside Port-au-Prince said they had willingly given their children to the Americans, who promised them a better life. The parents also said they had been told they could see their children whenever they wanted. But the Dominican consul general has said he warned the group's leader, Silsby, about trying to cross the border without proper documents.

Silsby and four other Americans arrived for an appearance before an examining judge Monday. One of them, Paul Thomson, referred reporters to a passage in the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians, in which the apostle Paul tells early Christians, "It seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like men condemned to die in the arena."

The passage continues, "To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly."

What did police officer's superiors confirm?

Answer: to transport 40 children from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

Answer: 40

Answer: American missionaries

Answer: The American missionaries in Haiti facing kidnapping charges for trying

Answer: his version of events.

Answer: kidnapping

Summary:
Ten Americans in Haiti charged with kidnapping 33 Haitian children .
Officer says the group had tried to take another group of children out of country illegally .
He says he stopped bus with 40 kids on it, directed group leader to Dominican Embassy .
Police officer's superiors confirm his version of events .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The Dominican consul general Wednesday rejected the claim from an American church leader that she thought her paperwork was in order when she attempted to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, saying he had told her it was not. "I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking," Carlos Castillo said he told the group's leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday. Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince. "This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal," Castillo said. A CNN reporter attempted to get reaction to Castillo's comment from the jailed Americans, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to questions by singing "Amazing Grace" and praying. Told earlier that many of the children had living parents, Silsby said, "I did not know that." She added, "In our hearts, our intention was to help children that had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents." But the interpreters the group had used said the conversations between Silsby and the parents in the Haitian town of Calebasse made clear to them that Silsby must have been aware of the children's status. Full coverage of Haiti earthquake aftermath SOS Children's Villages, an Austrian charity, said that it has determined that at least two-thirds of the children are not orphans. Authorities on Wednesday questioned a Haitian police officer who works at the Dominican Embassy about whether he provided illegal paperwork to Silsby and the other Americans to facilitate their efforts as alleged by interpreters who had translated for the Americans. The interpreters told CNN the Americans met at least twice last week with the officer, at the embassy and consulate. "He told them that he could help, and he was helping them with some paper," said interpreter Steve Adrien. "We did not meet him in a police station, but in the street in a car." The Americans met again with the man in Port-au-Prince on Thursday, near the Dominican Embassy, the translator said. Isaac Adrien, Steve's brother and another of the interpreters, said the group came away from the meeting with a document from the embassy that the Americans took with them to the border Friday in their unsuccessful attempt to cross. iReport: How you can help A Haitian lawyer representing the Americans told reporters that the arrests themselves were illegal and that their clients had only been trying to help. They are to appear Thursday before the attorney general. The group, New Life Children's Refuge, said it was rescuing abandoned children by moving them to the Dominican Republic, where it was building an orphanage. At least some of the group are members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho. Several residents of the village of Calebasse, more than an hour from Port-au-Prince, told CNN they voluntarily handed over their children after Silsby told them she would give them a better life. Pastor Jean Sainvil told CNN he rounded up 20 children from a camp in the Delmas neighborhood of the capital. "I just got the word out that I am going to look for some children to be going with a group of missionaries," he said. Some of those who responded apparently included parents. "One of them turned five children over," he said. He said no money changed hands. The group has no experience running an orphanage, has not registered as an international adoption agency and has not filed with the U.S. government as a nonprofit. Church pastor Clint Henry was unfazed. "I believe that the kind of knowledge that it takes to begin an organization that works that way was in place," he

The U.S church griuo is being held by who?

what does the Dominican consul general says about the woman?

How many children were turned away from the border?

how many americans, besides Laura Silsby, turned back from border with 33 Haitian children?

Answer: Laura Silsby,

Answer: "I warned her, I

Answer: Silsby and nine other

Answer: "I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking,"

Answer: 33

Answer: nine

Summary:
Dominican consul general: "This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal."
Laura Silsby, 9 other Americans turned back from border with 33 Haitian children .
The U.S. church group is being held by Haitian authorities .
Haiti and Dominican Republic share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The U.S. price tag for relief in Haiti has hit $170 million, the federal government announced Thursday as ton after ton of relief supplies headed into the island nation through a crucial reopened pier. The vast majority of the committed federal aid -- $140 million -- is from the U.S. Agency for International Development under the State Department, according to the Office of Management and Budget. And the need within Haiti -- still reeling from last week's devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake -- only grows by the minute. After days of being closed to much needed food and supplies, the south pier at Port-au-Prince was channeling aid into the leveled capital city. The supplies were brought into Port-au-Prince on trucks traveling on a repaired gravel road leading from the port. Sidewalks were crowded with street vendors and kiosks and many small food stores were open. Dozens of stalls at a dusty market sold fruits and vegetables along a pocked and rut-filled dirt side street. A smaller market on a street corner saw some business. However, the longest and most visible lines in Haiti's capital were not for food, water or gas -- they were for money. Earthquake survivors need cash and are waiting hours outside wire transfer businesses, including Western Union, that are starting to reopen. "I have not eaten for two days," said 32-year-old Anderson Bellegarde, who waited more than six hours outside a money-wiring branch. "I'm only drinking water." Meanwhile, a Dutch Navy ship, the Pelikaan, was docked at the city's south pier Thursday, unloading 90 tons of humanitarian aid. Two other ships had previously offloaded containers. The reopened pier is older and smaller than the north pier, which was rendered unusable by the January 12 earthquake. The south pier was damaged, but Haiti port authorities and the U.S. military were able to put it back in adequate shape. Workers also repaired the road leading into the city and laid gravel on it. Unloading of aid, however, was a slow process. The road allows only for one-way traffic, meaning a truck drives to the end of the pier, is loaded with supplies, and then drives out. Also, because of concerns about overloading the pier, only one truck is allowed on it at a time. Repairs on the pier continue, said U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Mark Gibbs. "We're working on it. We've got a long ways to go. ... If we lose this pier, that's it. We can't bring in anything." However, the reopening of the pier and the repairing of the road represented a major development in efforts to get aid to earthquake victims, in that ships can carry much more cargo than air airplanes. Authorities hope to get two-way traffic going on the pier by Friday, which would speed up the process. A 5.9-magnitude aftershock Wednesday stopped efforts at the pier for about three hours. U.S. Navy divers had to go back in the water and reassess the pier's structural integrity, officials said. There was no immediate word if two less intense aftershocks Thursday, measured at magnitude 4.9 and 4.8, also caused a delay. Full coverage  |  Twitter updates Lt. Gen. Douglas Fraser of U.S. Southern Command announced the pier's reopening on Thursday in Washington. Officials hope to move about 150 containers of aid Thursday and 250 on Friday. They want to increase that to 800 containers a day. The reopening comes as U.S. officials have been stung by criticism of aid efforts in recent days. Some of that criticism has been leveled by aid groups such as Doctors Without Borders, who blamed five victims' deaths on delays, saying several flights carrying medical supplies had been diverted from the Port-au-Prince airport into the neighboring Dominican Republic. Working under adverse conditions with limited supplies, medical teams have been forced to improvise. List of missing, found in Haiti | Are you there? | Impact Your World Renzo Fricke, field coordinator for Doctors

how much tons of humanitarian aid unloads?

What nationality was the ship unloading humanitarian?

Where are planes with medical supplies going?

Answer: 90

Answer: Dutch

Answer: Dutch

Answer: the south pier at Port-au-Prince

Answer: Haiti

Summary:
New route allows supplies to enter Port-au-Prince .
Dutch ship unloads 90 tons of humanitarian aid .
U.S. official: Military sometimes confused about what the planes are carrying .
Flights with medical supplies being diverted from Haiti, says Doctors Without Borders .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The head of a humanitarian aid group and a few of his colleagues survived 50 hours beneath the rubble of a hotel, with the help of a few things he keeps in his bag for his two young children.

"We had one Tootsie Pop and we did share that," said Rick Santos, president and CEO of IMA World Health.

He also had a bit of gum.

While the supplies helped, Santos said, "I think we made it because we talked to each other, we helped each other, and we had this hope that we would be rescued at some point."

Two of his colleagues did not survive.

Santos and five colleagues had been walking through the lobby of the Hotel Montana last Tuesday when he saw one of the chandeliers swing. "And before it even made its way down, just everything crashed and collapsed on top of us," he told CNN's "American Morning" on Monday.

"Immediately we were looking around talking to each other, trying to see if everyone was OK. Unfortunately two of my colleagues were pinned down by rubble and were injured. So we did what we could to help ease their pain at that moment."

Santos had some over-the-counter pain medicine and gave it to them.

I'm alive! Messages from Haiti

"My biggest fear initially was that there wasn't going to be enough air for the six of us," he said. Then, when it became clear there was enough air, "We started talking about what we need to do. And, you know, from the size of the earthquake, from what we heard and what we felt and how fast the building fell, we knew it was a big quake."

The next morning, they could hear sledgehammers pounding as rescuers were checking to see if there were survivors. The trapped group screamed and banged on the walls, and rescuers heard them. The rescuers asked how many there were; Santos answered eight -- six in his group, and two other men trapped in an elevator shaft.

"They said, 'Are you well?' And we said, 'No, we're hurt.' And that was it. Then it really wasn't until we were rescued, till 7 p.m. the next night, that actually somebody came. We heard nothing. In fact, the second night was really dark for us. I think we were just -- we were just shattered that nobody came back and said anything to us."

The group used their cell phones to illuminate the space. Santos said only one of his colleagues could move, and she looked for air spaces and light.

"Every time we might have heard a voice or something like a saw or something, we would scream and yell, but there was no response," Santos said.

Then, on Thursday, came a voice. "We all started to scream and shout at the top of our lungs. And we heard a voice come back to us saying, you know, 'Hello, we're here. We're going to rescue you.' "

It took four hours to get the group out. Rescuers had to cut through layers of concrete, pull the trapped people out by their feet and squeeze them through a hole in the concrete only about 2 feet wide.

"I'm just amazed that we actually survived," said Santos. He added that he is grieving for his two colleagues who died.

While Santos is relieved to be reunited with his family in the United States, his thoughts are with the people of Haiti.

The whole time he and the others were down there, Santos said, "As much as we were praying for ourselves, we were also praying for the people of Haiti and of Port-au-Prince. Because we knew how bad this was going to be, just from the way the building fell, and the aftershocks, which were just tremendous."

IMA World Health provides health care services

When did the rescuers get them out?
What did rescuers do to help them?
Who was pinned under the rubble?
What caused the rubble to occur?

Answer: Thursday,

Answer: cut through layers of concrete, pull the trapped people out by their feet and squeeze

Answer: The head of a humanitarian aid group and a few of his colleagues

Answer: a big quake."

Summary:
Rick Santos and 5 colleagues were pinned under rubble by Tuesday quake .
Wednesday morning, they heard searchers and talked to them, but then nothing .
Rescuers finally came back and got them out on Thursday night .
Two of Santos' colleagues died in the debris of collapsed Hotel Montana .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- The steeple clock at Port-au-Prince's St. Pierre Catholic Church is stopped at 4:53, the hour at which a devastating earthquake struck Haiti nearly one week ago.

The church gates were closed Sunday. The doors shuttered. But it seems Tuesday's quake has only strengthened the religious fervor many Haitians carry in their souls.

"A lot of people who never prayed or believed -- now they believe," said Cristina Bailey, a 24-year-old clerk.

In parks and backyards, anywhere a group gathers, the prayers of the Haitians can be heard. Last week, the call-and-response chanting and clapping that accompany those prayers pierced the darkness of night and the pre-dawn hours -- sometimes as early as 4 a.m. The singing and praying was particularly intense in Champs de Mars plaza, where hundreds of people have taken refuge. But the scene was repeated throughout the city, with preachers on megaphones exhorting the faithful, who responded with lyrics like "O Lord, keep me close to you" and "Forgive me, Jesus."

Many preachers are telling followers not to lose faith, that God remains with them regardless of what's happened.

Most Haitians don't feel abandoned, Bailey said.

"People don't blame Jesus for all these things," she said. "They have faith. They believe that Jesus saved them and are thankful for that."

Perhaps few personified that deep belief better than 11-year-old Anaika Saint Louis, who was pulled from the rubble Thursday night and later died. Her leg had been crushed, and doctors thought they might have to amputate her feet. She said she didn't care.

"Thank you, God, because he saved my life," she said. "If I lose my feet, I always had my life."

Jean Mackenle Verpre also suffered a crushing leg injury and was freed after 48 hours underground.

Asked what kept him going, he answered without hesitation: He believes in Jesus Christ and put his life in God's hands.

Colonized by France, Haiti is a strongly Catholic country. Christian motifs are everywhere in Port-au-Prince. Many vehicles bear signs like the one painted on the windshield of a truck on Rue Delmar: "Merci Jesus," it said. A woman passing by on Avenue Christophe chanted softly: "Accept Jesus."

"In Haiti, you have Protestants and Catholics, and you have your percentage of each," said J.B. Diederich, a native-born Haitian who now lives in Miami, Florida, but returned to the Caribbean for several days after the earthquake. "But everybody is 100 percent voodoo."

Voodoo is widely acknowledged but practiced only behind closed doors, with practitioners often placing candles and icons on the floor of a home and dancing to music and drums.

Followers believe the world is under the power of loas -- spirits and deities who act as intermediaries between humans and God. In voodoo, disasters like Tuesday's quake are not the result of natural forces, but displeasure by a loa.  See complete coverage of Haiti earthquake

"It's in every apartment. The voodoo is our culture," 25-year-old Alex Gassan said. "It's like the folklore."

Gassan proudly calls himself a Catholic, pulling out a crucifix necklace from under his shirt to show a reporter.

Many observers have a simple explanation for what makes Haitians so devout.

"Because in all poor countries, you have to believe in something," said Agnes Pierre-Louis, the Haitian-born manager of her family-owned hotel. "If they don't have that, they don't have anything."

Added Diederich: "They leave everything in the hands of God. When you have so little, what else can you turn to?"

who is widely acknowledged but practiced only behind closed doors?

Answer: abandoned,

Answer: Many preachers

Answer: abandoned,

Answer: Voodoo

Answer: not to lose faith,

Answer: Voodoo

Answer: Haitians

Summary:
Many preachers tell followers not to lose faith .
Most Haitians don't feel abandoned by God, says one Hatian .
Voodoo is widely acknowledged but practiced only behind closed doors .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Thousands of people were pushing for rescue efforts in Haiti to continue Sunday, after a 24-year-old man was pulled alive from the ruins on Saturday, 11 days after the nation's devastating earthquake. The Haitian government says it will be switching from a search and rescue operation to a search and recovery mission. But families of Americans who were staying at the leveled Hotel Montana are fighting that, and started an online petition Saturday in an effort to continue search efforts there "until all the survivors are accounted for." As of Sunday morning, 2,395 people had signed the petition and sent 6,216 messages to the Senate, Congress and the White House, said Sue Keller, a friend of a family whose relatives are among the missing. The families hope to have at least 5,000 signatures by Monday, she said. The Haitian government has said more than 111,000 people died in the January 12 quake, which registered 7.0 in magnitude. But on Saturday, a French rescue team was able to save one life as they pulled Wismond Jean-Pierre from the rubble of the Hotel Napoli Inn in Port-au-Prince. According to his brother, Jean-Pierre worked in the hotel's grocery store and survived his week and a half in the rubble by consuming cookies and beer. Dehydrated but apparently without injury, Jean-Pierre was even talkative as he was placed in an ambulance and driven to a hospital. Lt. Col. Christophe Renou, a French rescuer briefly overcome with emotion, called the three-hour effort "a miracle." Other members of the team -- assisted by American and Greek workers -- were seen weeping after Jean-Pierre was freed. Rescues like Jean-Pierre's, and others that have happened in the week following the disaster, sparked hope among families of the missing. But the emotional rescue came on a day when much of Haiti was mourning as operations largely shifted from rescue to recovery, and the country's president attended the funeral of an archbishop who was one of the victims. A Mexican rescue team had pulled the body of 63-year-old Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot from ruins near the national cathedral, which he oversaw as archbishop of Port-au-Prince. The cathedral was destroyed. At the funeral, President René Préval was asked to respond to criticism that he has not shown strong public leadership and has been largely unseen in the aftermath. "This is not about politics today," he said. CNN iReport:  Looking for loved ones in Haiti The most recent death toll is the worst caused by an earthquake since the 2004 Asian tsunami that resulted from a temblor, and the second-highest death toll from an earthquake in more than three decades, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. "Rescue teams continue to work in Port-au-Prince, we continue to hope that they will be able to find people still alive, but as time passes, we must gradually shift our resources from rescue to recovery," Nick Birnback, spokesman for U.N. peacekeeping operations, said Saturday. International search teams have rescued at least 132 people since the quake struck, the U.N. said. Birnback said the priority now is to remove bodies and clean up affected areas to avoid health hazards and the spread of disease. He said the United Nations will start bringing in heavier equipment, which will allow teams to move concrete and damaged homes. More than 600,000 people have also been left homeless in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Interactive map of where to find aid, hospitals in Haiti Meanwhile, up to 140 flights a day are regularly arriving at the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport, compared with 25 in the immediate aftermath of the January 12 quake, OCHA said Saturday. To relieve congestion at the airport, humanitarian cargo is being moved to a forward dispatch area at one end of the runway. The Las Americas airport in Santo Domingo, in neighboring Dominican Republic, is starting to report congestion as

How many days after the quake was the 24-year-old survivor pulled from the hotel?

Answer: more than 111,000 people

Answer: January 12

Answer: more than 111,000 people

Answer: The Haitian government says it will be switching from a search and rescue operation to a search and recovery mission.

Answer: 111,000 people

Answer: 11

Answer: a 24-year-old man

Answer: switching from a search and rescue operation to a search and recovery mission.

Answer: families of Americans

Summary:
24-year-old pulled from hotel ruins 11 days after quake offers hope more are alive .
More than 111,000 have died since the January 12 quake, the Haitian government says .
Families are protesting the switch from search/rescue to rescue/recovery .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- U.S. helicopters carrying food hovered above the ground in one area of the battered Haitian capital on Saturday, flinging out boxes to the anxious crowd. It was a chaotic scene as hundreds of Haitians without food and water for four days swarmed toward the boxes, ignoring the wind and dust kicked up from the helicopters' blades.  A similar scene erupted Friday when a food convoy with the World Food Programme was forced to leave an area after men in the crowd starting pushing and shoving their way to the trucks. Elsewhere, people stood in long, orderly lines for food, according to a CNN crew, although anxiety about whether there was enough to go around permeated the wait. In Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, U.S. troops handed out about 2,500 meals Saturday, before they ran out. Seventy soldiers arrived with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Petionville to set up a distribution base and a landing zone for helicopters. They began handing out meals about 2 p.m. "Our goal is to get supplies out to the people who need it the most," Col. Mike Foster said. "We got a good start." Authorities set up more than a dozen aid distribution points across battered Port-au-Prince, as aid workers toted medical supplies into the battered island nation. Still, although some progress could be observed four days after Tuesday's devastating earthquake, problems persisted. Get the latest developments on Haiti A CNN crew observed U.N. World Food Programme personnel who were trying to move food from a warehouse damaged from the earthquake. The building has large cracks up its side, weakening the walls. Its doors could not be forced fully open to allow a forklift through, so workers were painstakingly hand-carrying the supplies out. Despite the difficulties, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, said he did not believe that violence will increase, as long as distribution of food continues. "I think it won't get any more violent than it is now," he said. Also Saturday, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush kicked off a fundraising drive -- a donation push called the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, similar to the appeal led by Clinton and Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush, for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami. The drive was announced at the White House, with President Obama flanked by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. "We're moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe," Obama said. Obama said his predecessors will tap into "the incredible generosity, the ingenuity, the can-do spirit" of Americans.  See full coverage of Haiti The leaders said the best way for Americans to help Haiti is to donate money. "I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water," Bush said. "Just send your cash." Aid delivery has been slowed by damaged roads, the destroyed port and bottlenecks at the airport. As TV images showed people jostling for aid, U.S. officials reiterated what they said has been a continuation of relief efforts: Ongoing search and rescue operations; the establishment of 14 aid distribution points; finding alternatives to the damaged port, distributing water containers, water purification units, medical supplies, and establishing medical clinics and field hospitals. Israel was establishing a field hospital to treat thousands of victims from the earthquake, expected to absorb 500 casualties a day. The U.N. World Food Programme said it plans to reach 2 million people "with one-week rations of ready-to-eat food," and UNICEF said it is distributing water purification tablets, dehydration salts and other supplies, specifically to halt diarrhea infections and diseases. The U.S. Southern Command said the military is supplying many resources. About 4,200 U.S. military personnel are currently supporting task force operations, and 6,300 military personnel are scheduled to arrive by Monday, the command said. Aid efforts from the USS Carl

Which former presidents kicked off the fundraising drive?

What number of meals did US troops hand out in a Port-au-Prince suburb on Saturday?

What number of US military personnel are currently supporting operations?

Answer: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

Answer: former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

Answer: 4,200 U.S. military personnel

Answer: about 2,500

Answer: 4,200

Summary:
U.S. troops handed out about 2,500 meals Saturday in Port-au-Prince suburb .
Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush kick off fundraising drive .
USS Carl Vinson brings helicopters, hospital beds and operating rooms .
4,200 U.S. military personnel currently supporting operations, 6,300 scheduled by Monday .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- We had not been in Port-au-Prince in a month, not since those horrible days following the earthquake when the city looked like wreckage.

The city seemed so upbeat when we arrived Saturday morning on one of the first flights in since commercial airlines resumed service. Musicians wearing Western Union T-shirts greeted us near the hanger that now passes as baggage claim. Next to our hotel, street vendors peddled souvenirs outside a tent city surrounding the presidential palace.

But those optimistic signs were eclipsed Sunday night when a torrent of rain poured down on this wounded city where outdoor tent communities have sprouted up in every empty space. Then, just after 4:30 a.m. Monday, an aftershock of magnitude 4.75 shook and shook and finally gave a last forceful jerk before stopping. You could hear the wails on the street, the confused voices of people arguing over whether to stay outside or risk going back in.

This one-two punch of natural forces reverberated through the most vulnerable communities.

Full coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti

Ariana Manassero, 17, raced into the main room of her home following the tremor. Her parents direct the Maison de Lumiere, but the girls' home is unstable, so Ariana watches over the little ones at her house. They immediately started screaming. "When is it going to end?" she asked before spending her day coddling some very traumatized children.

Daphne, 4, clung to Ariana, shaking, acting out, sobbing for no good reason. The big quake on January 12 had rattled a cinder block wall in her play yard, crushing her leg, which now has a cherry red cast. The aftershock left her completely undone.

All day, staff members of Maison surveyed the damage to their community. A tent city they helped build across from their school had puddles of water sitting in the "homes."

Women ran up to the staff asking for food, new tarps and clean water for their children. The same scene unfolded in a nearby ravine whose inhabitants had attended a Sunday morning service at Maison. That day, women from the ravine had come escorting children who'd been washed with soap and rain water. Singing and laughing had filled the air.

By Monday, the heavy rain had soaked their tents where the "roofs" are made of scarves and sheets. The weather had become a great equalizer, reducing the people and the animals to the same conditions. In one alley, a father bundled a newborn with whatever he could find. In another, a dog cuddled her new puppies. Baby goats foraged for food in the garbage. Chicks picked at droppings.

No one had eaten fresh food in a week, and the Maison staff brought baby formula and rice. People pushed aside the dogs, the goats and the chicks and neatly lined up. Sad stories floated around the crowd. A woman who had attended the services had died after the aftershock, her heart suddenly seizing. A missionary worried aloud about a newborn wrapped in plastic whose parents had no formula for the baby's first five days.

The situation only worsened early Tuesday.

For the second time in as many days, an earthquake struck in the overnight hours.

The magnitude 4.7 aftershock was centered about 20 miles west-southwest of Port-au-Prince. It hit at 1:26 a.m. Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A second smaller quake shook the area a few minutes later. No immediate reports of damage were made, but the aftershock sent frightened people once again out into the bug-filled night.

When is this going to end? It doesn't seem like an answerable question.

The rain swells the latrines and unearths the sewage. Aftershocks rattle nerves and rearrange piles of debris. People sleeping outside now feel threatened by the rains, but sleeping inside carries the threat of the seemingly never-ending aftershocks.

In the food line, the crowd was so quiet for people who looked hungry and faced a long wait. Not much to say when a step forward is followed by a big

When did the crew return to Port-au-Prince?

What quickly squelched the new-found hope?

Answer: Saturday morning

Answer: wreckage.

Answer: torrent of rain poured down

Summary:
CNN's Soledad O'Brien and her crew return to Port-au-Prince more than a month after quake .
At first, they see signs of optimism among the people .
A torrential rain and sharp aftershocks quickly squelch the new-found hope .
Misery continues to stalk people who are weary of battling nature's harsh realties .


Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- When the earth started to shake on January 12, Rocher Joseph-Michelet was in his tiny, one-room apartment, composing lyrics for the upcoming Carnivale in Port-au-Prince. He ran out the door to find an entire two-story building, crumbling and falling in his direction. "They break down. I fell down, I was on my back," he said. In heavily-accented English, peppered with American slang, Joseph-Michelet described how he was all-but buried under the rubble... and then rescued by members of his hip-hop group. "Thanks to God, thanks to my friends," he said. "I'm so proud it's them come to save me." Joseph-Michelet is better known by his stage name "MRJ." He is a member of a neighborhood hip-hop group called Sekte Atis Lib, or S.A.L. They are six childhood friends from the same poor neighborhood who rap in Creole. MRJ escaped the earthquake with minor injuries. Many other residents of his neighborhood weren't so fortunate. "Two days after the disaster, we [carried] 39 dead bodies... from here to the central cemetery," said Gaby Guerrier, the manager of the band. He spoke while standing on a rooftop which offered a view of a devastated urban landscape of collapsed and dangerously sagging cinderblock apartment buildings. The members of S.A.L. have been forced to abandon their homes in this tightly-packed community of concrete houses and narrow alleyways. "It's too dangerous, nobody wants to live in the houses again," said Guerrier's younger brother Panarothy, also known as the rapper named "Next." He led CNN on a tour, past a large wall mural showing S.A.L.'s name in jagged graffiti, to the sprawling, fetid camp where the band, their families, and some 4,500 other displaced Haitians now live. The artists have helped each other build crude shacks out of plywood and rusting metal sheeting, along a winding dirt alleyway they have playfully nick-named "Big Man Street." Twenty-one year old Geffrard Jonel, a.k.a. Fame, has already decorated the walls of his hut with posters of soccer teams and music groups. He said he and three others slept in the tiny room, along with some unwanted visitors. "Rats!" he yelled, to peals of laughter from the rest of the group. Despite the unbearable conditions, spirits among the band's members appeared remarkably high. "If you get angry with it, you get angry at God," said the manager, Gaby Guerrier. "We are not more important than those people who are dead. God just leave us alive. We thank him for that." Perhaps because of this infectious optimism, 25-year-old "Next" has been appointed the leader of a camp association, representing all 4,500 residents. "If I have a problem, I'll come to him," said one resident named Levi Lazard. "Because he is the one that can make the people listen to him." On the day CNN visited, Next and about ten other colleagues had just completed construction of a sandbag platform to house a large water bladder and distribution system donated by Irish aid organization Concern. Residents with buckets and jugs were already lining up for a taste of fresh water. "We want to make the people, the survivors live better," Next explained. He then issued an appeal for other aid organizations to come and help the community. "We need something else specially for the children," he said. "We need to make a place for the children for education. There's no school. It's destroyed." Three weeks after the earthquake, residents of this camp were stripping away vegetation and small trees from the surrounding area, and the air was thick with the sound of hammers and saws as people worked to construct new ramshackle homes. Before the earthquake, only one member of

which country is in rubble from an earthquake?

Answer: Haiti

Answer: Rocher Joseph-Michelet

Answer: Port-au-Prince.

Answer: Sekte Atis Lib, or S.A.L.

Answer: "We want to make the people, the survivors live better,"

Answer: Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Answer: Creole.

Summary:
Members of rap group S.A.L. tell of life amid the rubble of Haiti .
Rocher Joseph-Michelet's friends rescued him after the earthquake .
Since the quake, they have been using music to lift survivors' spirits .
Group raps amid shelters made of bed sheets and sticks .


Portland, Oregon (CNN) -- Two F-15 fighter jets escorted a passenger jet that had been headed for Hawaii back to Portland International Airport in Oregon after a passenger in coach became "uncooperative," an airline official said Wednesday. Hawaiian Airlines Flight 39 took off from Portland at 10:10 a.m. with 231 passengers and a crew of 10 when -- 90 minutes into the flight -- its captain decided to turn around the Boeing 767, said Keoni Wagner, the airline's vice president of public affairs. The fighter jets intercepted the plane at 1 p.m., North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a written statement. It landed at 1:16 p.m. without further incident, the TSA said. The military decided that fighters should accompany the flight after receiving "indicators" of a problem, said Lt. Cmdr. Gary Ross, a NORAD spokesman. He declined to elaborate on those indicators but noted that NORAD often must make decisions with limited amounts of time and information about whether fighter jets should accompany commercial flights that may be experiencing problems. "There was little time to react," he said. "The prudent thing to do was to scramble" the jets. Upon the plane's return, the passenger -- a 56-year-old Salem, Oregon, man -- was escorted from the plane with his female companion without incident, the FBI and the Port of Portland said in a joint statement. The FBI said it was not releasing his name because he had not been charged. FBI agents and Port officers interviewed the passenger and his companion, the flight crew and others, then released the two and referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney's Office for review. Local and federal officers searched the plane, then allowed it to depart again for Hawaii, absent the pair. Oregon Air National Guard spokesman Sgt. John Hughel said command post officials told him they did not know who had placed the call for the escort. In a statement, the Transportation Security Administration said the captain decided to return the plane to Portland "due to a suspicious passenger who made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag." Port of Portland Public Information Officer Martha Richmond told CNN that the plane was turned around "due to concerns the crew had." Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Wagner said pilots occasionally return a jet to the airport from which it took off. But, he said he had never known one of the flights to be escorted by fighter jets. "That's new for us," he said. John Cornelio, also a NORAD spokesman, said the command routinely monitors events in the air via the Domestic Events Network, a sort of party line that includes representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies involved in national security. The FAA acknowledged last November that it notified military authorities 69 minutes after losing radio contact with Northwest Flight 188, which had overflown its destination of Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. Under standard procedures, the FAA managers should have reported the incident to the Domestic Events Network five to 10 minutes after losing contact with the flight. Radio contact was eventually restored and the plane was redirected to its destination, where it landed without incident. Afterward, the FAA promised to take steps to prevent a repeat of that failure. The incident was one of two that occurred Wednesday. A Northwest Airlines flight preparing to take off from Miami International Airport in Florida for Detroit's Wayne County International Airport instead taxied back to the gate after a passenger "was heard making inappropriate remarks and acting disruptively," the airport said in an incident statement. At the gate, local law enforcement and TSA personnel met the aircraft and all passengers were taken off the plane. The passenger and three companions were questioned by Miami Dade County police. The aircraft was searched and cleared for its flight. CNN's Mike M. Ahlers contributed to this story.

What number of passengers were on board?

What person made the decision to turn around?

When did the captain decide to turn around the plane?

Answer: 231

Answer: NORAD

Answer: Hawaii

Answer: 231

Answer: captain

Answer: had not been charged.

Answer: 90 minutes into the flight

Summary:
NEW: NORAD says decision made after receiving "indicators" of a problem .
Hawaiian Airlines Flight 39 took off from Portland at 10:10 a.m. with 231 passengers .
90 minutes into the flight, captain decided to turn around the Boeing 767, said airline official .
FBI: Not releasing name of alleged unruly passenger because no charges yet .


Prague, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Fireworks and rock 'n' roll echoed across central Prague on Tuesday as thousands of marchers commemorated the 20th anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution" that toppled Communist rule. The peaceful 1989 uprising began with a student march to mark a 1939 clampdown on opposition in what was then Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. It drew 15,000 people -- students as well as teachers, professors and ordinary Czechs who had grown weary of state control. Ivan Pilip, one of the students who took part, said the march "was very different" from previous demonstrations he had joined. "There was a different group of people," he said. "We feel that people that participated in such events before had come, and they're ready to do something. And it was more and more visible every minute." The protest was held a week after the opening of the Berlin Wall, as pressure was building on the Communist governments of Eastern Europe. When the demonstrators tried to divert the march to central Prague's Wenceslas Square, they were attacked by police -- a response that led tens of thousands more people to join mass demonstrations that lasted another 10 days. "My kids cannot understand today what was moving our minds and hearts that day 20 years ago," Pilip's wife, Lucie, said Tuesday. "We watched television today to show them what we had come through these 20 years, and I think it's an enormous success." The protests led to talks between government officials and the Civic Forum, a group of dissidents led by playwright Vaclav Havel. The Communist Party ceded power in December, and Havel became president. "Many of our citizens who took part in the democratic changes died already with a feeling that they contributed to something that meant a lot," Havel said Tuesday. "In our ordinary, daily lives, we tend to forget our friends of that time -- our comrades, free-thinking individuals." The anniversary march was capped by a concert that featured dissident musicians of the day, along with American folk singer Joan Baez. Havel himself appeared onstage with a guitar, but told the crowd, "Don't worry, the guitar doesn't mean I'm going to play today." Musicians, actors and other artists played major roles in the protests. Michael Kocab, now the Czech Republic government's human rights minister, was a rock singer who became the revolutionaries' key negotiator. "In the beginning there was many times this idea, 'What am I doing here,'" Kocab told CNN recently. "I knew in the future I'd get used to it. And five or 10 days later, I forgot I was a musician and I submerged myself in political negotiations. And I liked it." The celebration was organized by Opona, a nonprofit group established to observe the milestone anniversary of the dismantling of the Iron Curtain. "Our inspiration to do this was from our memories -- we still remember the times that preceded the events," said David Gaydecka, one of the organizers. "We believe that the changes in those 20 years have been positive despite all those maladies which came along with the freedom." -- CNN's Phil Black and Fionnuala Sweeney contributed to this report.

What was the march in 1989 in memory of?

Which anniversary of the fall of communist rule is mentioned?

In what year did students clash with the police?

What year did the students and police clash?

Answer: 20th

Answer: "Velvet Revolution"

Answer: to mark a 1939 clampdown on opposition in what was then Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

Answer: 20th

Answer: 1989

Answer: march to mark a 1939 clampdown on opposition

Answer: 1989

Answer: 1989

Summary:
Czech students take to the streets to mark 20th anniversary of fall of communist rule .
Student clashes with police in 1989 triggered events that rid then-Czechoslovakia of totalitarianism .
The march in 1989 was in memory of the students who perished under the Nazis .


Prague, Czech Republic (CNN) -- Presidents and princes paid their final respects Friday to Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president, writer and dissident who helped bring down his country's Communist regime and end the Cold War.

Dignitaries inside Prague Castle's towering St. Vitus Cathedal included former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while thousands of admirers stood outside in cold temperatures to watch the funeral on big screens.

Havel, a shy but iron-willed intellectual endowed with a playful sense of humor and a powerful moral compass, died Sunday at the age of 75.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who was born in Prague, praised a man she said was pleased to have had as a friend.

"Few were as Czech as Vaclav Havel, but his wit and kindness, his wisdom and the depth of his thoughts spoke to all," she said, addressing mourners in Czech during the funeral.

His former political advisor Jiri Pehe called Havel "a politician who wasn't a politician, catapulted into politics by history. Throughout his presidency he was a dissident politician who liked to do things in a different way."

Speaking before the funeral, Pehe said he would remember Havel more for his personality than his politics, recalling his "booming laugh" and saying: "to work with him was a joy ... To be around him was simply inspiring."

Dissident friends of Havel arrived grim-faced for the funeral Friday. Many hugged each other before going into St. Vitus Cathedral.

Havel's picture stood to the side of the altar draped in black ribbon in a state funeral both grand and religious, an irony given his personal modesty and the fact that the Czech Republic is among the least religious countries in Europe.

Former dissident and Havel friend Petr Uhl refused to come to the funeral, saying Havel was not a Christian and none of his predecessors had had a state funeral of this kind.

Havel was "a great figure of our modern history. ... A man whom we will remember with thanks and respect has gone," Czech President Vaclav Klaus told mourners, who also included French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and his predecessor John Major, and singer Suzanne Vega.

Havel's widow Dagmar sat next to Klaus in the front row, a few seats down from Ivan Havel, the late writer's closest living blood relative.

Members of the public fought back tears as the Czech song "My Country" swelled at the end of the funeral over a gun salute.

Then they burst into applause -- as did some inside the cathedral -- as six soldiers shouldered Havel's coffin and carried it out to a waiting hearse.

Prague Castle did not announce where or when Havel would be buried, saying it was up to his family.

Authorities estimated that 30,000 people lined up to bid farewell to Havel when his body lay in state on Wednesday and Thursday.

They waited for hours in freezing weather in the early winter night before the funeral to pay their last respects, holding flowers, candles and notes to lay by his coffin. Many of the messages, from those handwritten by schoolchildren to those printed off computers, bore the same words: "Thank you, Mr. President."

Alena Sturmova, who came with her husband and son, remembers being at Prague Castle when Havel was elected the first post-Communist president of her country, almost 22 years ago to the day.

Seeing him there on a balcony, instead of the Soviet-backed authorities who had governed her country her entire life, meant something special to her, she said: "Maybe the possibility of freedom."

Her husband, Daniel, called Havel "a symbol of the Velvet Revolution," when Czechs and Slovaks overthrew an ossified regime by pouring into Prague's Wenceslas Square and jingling their key rings as a signal to their leaders to go home.

Havel was a symbol of that revolution, Daniel Sturm said by way of explaining why he and his family were waiting to lay flowers by Havel's coffin.

"We just wanted

Who is one the world's most famous dissident?

Answer: Vaclav Havel,

Answer: 30,000

Answer: the former Czech president, writer and dissident

Answer: Presidents and princes

Answer: Czech Republic

Summary:
World leaders attend the funeral of Vaclav Havel, who helped end communism in Czechoslovakia .
Thousands of Czechs waited for hours in cold weather to pay their last respects .
Havel became one of the world's most famous dissidents in the 1970s .
"Truth and love must triumph over lies and hatred," Havel insisted .


Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- After the Republicans and Democrats met at the White House summit on health care, it was clear that the parties are very far away from a bipartisan agreement. Indeed, few participants walked away with the sense that they were any closer to a deal.

The White House did make clear that it was willing to move forward on health care without Republican support. The choice now becomes whether Democrats should use the budget reconciliation process to pass some parts of health care legislation. According to recent reports, Democrats are considering having the House pass the bill that was already approved in the Senate and then dealing with a package of additional reforms through reconciliation.

Programs that are considered under the reconciliation process are not subject to a Senate filibuster. Democrats would only need 51 votes, not 60, to pass those parts of the bill that are included under reconciliation.

Reconciliation was created through the Budget Reform Act of 1974 in an effort to streamline the budget process, strengthen the ability of Congress to make tough decisions regarding deficits, and to make legislative decision-making more efficient.

Congress quickly expanded on the types of measures that could be considered under reconciliation until 1985 and 1986, when the Senate passed rules proposed by Sen. Robert Byrd that limited what could or could not be included when using this process.

Before moving forward, Democrats must consider two questions. The first is whether using reconciliation to pass health care is legitimate or an abuse of the process. Republicans have charged that this would be akin to forcing the program through the chamber rather than passing the bill through negotiation and compromise.

On this question, the answer is easy. Reconciliation has been as much a part of the Senate in the past three decades as the filibuster. According to an article that was published in The New Republic, Congress passed 22 reconciliation bills between 1980 and 2008. Many important policy changes were enacted through this process, including the Children's Health Insurance Program, COBRA (which allows people who switch jobs to keep their health care), student aid reform, expansions in Medicaid and several major tax cuts.

NPR's Julie Rovner reported that most of the health care reforms enacted in the past two decades have gone through reconciliation. President Ronald Reagan was one of the first presidents to make aggressive use of reconciliation when he pushed through his economic program in 1981. Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker said then that speed had been essential because "Every day that this is delayed makes it more difficult to pass. This is an extraordinary proposal, and these are extraordinary times."

Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all used reconciliation as well. It is worth noting that these presidents, particularly George W. Bush, also made use of sweeping executive power to circumvent Congress altogether.

The second question is more difficult and it involves perceptions. If the Democratic leadership wants to use this tactic, they have to convince enough members of their own party that this won't scare off independent voters. This argument was harder to make in 2009 than in 2010. But after a year of dealing with paralysis in the Senate and highly effective Republican obstruction, more Democrats are coming on board.

The leadership must be proactive in responding to the criticism about reconciliation. They will have to explain that reconciliation is a legitimate process by pointing to the history.

They will also have to connect the dots for voters frustrated with the ineffective government by explaining that the constant use of the filibuster has turned the Senate into a supermajority institution where both parties have found it extraordinarily difficult -- virtually impossible -- to pass major legislation.On this point, Republicans and Democrats actually agree.

Indeed, as Democrats make this decision, Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning is objecting to a unanimous consent order and single-handedly preventing the Senate from passing an important bill to assist unemployed workers.

Democrats must also convince hesitant colleagues that the payoff could be greater than the cost. While, in the short-term, Republicans will complain that their opponents have rammed through social policy in some sort of unnatural procedural move, Democrats are facing these kinds of

How many votes will be used to pass health bill?

Answer: having the House pass the bill that was already approved in the Senate and then dealing with a package of additional reforms through reconciliation.

Answer: 51

Answer: Democrats

Summary:
Democrats are considering using method to pass health bill with 50, not 60 Senate votes .
Julian Zelizer says the process has been used many times in recent decades .
He says Democrats have difficult political choice of whether to move ahead .
Zelizer: If they don't, they will be on the defensive anyway and have no accomplishment .


Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- As he stood before the delegates of the 1964 Republican Convention in San Francisco, California, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the party's presidential nominee, said, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

The delegates, who had booed New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller when he called for the party to respect moderation, were thrilled. Many of Goldwater's supporters were determined to push their party toward the right wing of the political spectrum. They felt that their party leaders, including President Eisenhower, had simply offered a watered-down version of the New Deal.

Yet Goldwater soon learned that extremism could quickly become a political vice, particularly to a party seeking to regain control of the White House. The right wing of the Republican Party in the early 1960s inhabited a world that included extremist organizations, such as the John Birch Society, that railed against communism.

The Birchers developed a huge network of local activists, reaching more than 100,000 members. They published pamphlets and books and threw their support behind local candidates. Some mainstream conservative outlets depended on supporters who were in these groups. Many right-wing organizations in the South were opponents of civil rights and advocates of racial segregation.

During the fall campaign of 1964, President Johnson devastated Goldwater and his running mate, William Miller, by painting them as an extremist duo with close ties to military hawks and racist demagogues.

Since Miller, a New York congressman, was known for his close ties to the right, Democrats could charge that Republicans had not balanced their ticket.

The "Daisy" advertisement had Americans look into the eyeball of a young girl as it reflected the image of a nuclear explosion. Another advertisement showed images of the Ku Klux Klan decked out in their garb and carrying burning crosses.

The ads played on statements by the candidates and extremist organizations. The narrator of the KKK ad reminded viewers that Robert Creel, grand dragon of the Alabama KKK, had said: "I like Barry Goldwater. He needs our help."

Democrats certainly had their extremists as well in the 1960s, as all the discussions about Bill Ayers and the Weathermen in the 2008 campaign reminded us. Yet in the 1960s, the Democratic leadership was removed from these elements of the liberal spectrum.

Indeed, radical left-wing activists were primarily revolting against what they saw as the bankrupt leadership of the Democratic Party.

They hated Lyndon Johnson even more than they hated Richard Nixon. Always nervous about being tagged by Republicans in a conservative era as too close to socialism, Democrats in Congress and in the White House since the 1960s have tended to distance themselves from fringe elements of the left.

Now Republicans are facing the danger of being associated with extremism once again. Last week, following the vote on health care, members of Congress have were the targets of death threats and vandalism.

In the final hours of the health care debate, there were reports about how health care opponents uttered racial slurs at Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights movement, and sexual epithets against Rep. Barney Frank, who is openly gay.

Sarah Palin sent out a statement on Twitter that urged followers, "Don't Retreat, Instead-Reload!" Palin explained later that her use of those words was not about "inciting violence," but rather about inspiring people to get involved in the political process.

Some ugly elements of the Tea Party movement, which have been held in check since the original Washington protest in September, have returned to the  political debate.

In the short-term, the Tea Party movement has helped to revitalize the Republican Party.

Without question, the kind of energy that has been fostered by the activists associated with these groups has helped Republicans mobilize their supporters and can clearly be helpful at bringing out the vote in the midterm elections.

By generating interest in the libertarian and anti-government arguments of conservatism, the movement will help keep conservatives motivated after their

When did Barry Goldwater say his quote?
What did Goldwater say?
What hurt the GOP in that election?

Answer: 1964

Answer: "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

Answer: Republicans are facing the danger of being associated with extremism once again.

Summary:
In 1964, Barry Goldwater said: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice."
Party's association with extremists hurt the GOP in that election, Julian Zelizer says .
He says extreme reactions to passage of health care bill pose danger for Republicans .
Zelizer says Democrats have extreme fringe but have taken pains to dissociate from far left .


Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- In recent weeks, there have been two important stories developing about the 2012 campaign. On the surface, they have nothing to do directly with Herman Cain, Mitt Romney or Michele Bachmann.

The stories revolve around money. American Crossroads, a political action committee founded by Karl Rove, is gearing up so that it can provide campaign funds to Republican candidates across the nation. The organization is determined to repeat its accomplishments in 2010, just on a much grander scale.

On the other side of the aisle, there have been stories about big bundlers who are raising enormous amounts of money for President Obama's re-election campaign. According to the Huffington Post, Anna Wintour, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jon Corzine and Harvey Weinstein are among the 100-plus bundlers who have raised more than $50 million for the president. According to the Washington Post, the financial and banking sectors have given President Obama more money than all the Republican candidates combined. Seems like Wall Street is not that scared of a second term.

With all the ups and downs of the last decade, one thing has been constant. Private money continues to flood the political system. As a result of the Supreme Court's decision to eliminate the ban on corporate spending, the problem will only get worse.

The vast amount of private money in American politics causes enormous problems for the nation. There are many problems that money makes it more difficult for the government to resolve. The power of private money, and the enormous influence of the interest groups and individual donors who provide it, prevents government from tackling fundamental issues of the day, including issues where there would otherwise be some agreement between the two parties.

For all the talk about reducing the long-term deficit and rationalizing federal spending, the chances of accomplishing this goal are minimal unless the campaign finance system is repaired. Interest groups in Washington fight hard to defend the status quo.

One of the classic examples of what political scientists called the "iron triangle," â€” the ironclad alliance between interest groups, government agencies and congressional committees in defense of specific programs â€” has been the defense budget.

Since the Cold War, federal dollars have gone to defense contractors who reap huge profits from the production of certain weapons systems. These companies have become integral to the economy of the communities in which their plants located, and they are protected by the legislators who represent those areas as well as Pentagon officials. Agricultural programs are another case where lobbying makes innovations or reductions in spending difficult.

The congressional supercommittee dealing with deficit reduction is spinning its wheels. Indeed, The Hill reported that members of the deficit reduction committee are receiving sizable amounts of contributions from special interest groups, many of which represent sectors (such as health care) that are opposed to what the panel is attempting to accomplish.

Without addressing the political dynamics that have fueled many of today's budgetary problems, it will be difficult for Congress to enact substantial changes, or to make sure that any successful reforms last over time.

A second problem is the power of financial and business interests in Washington. This is a theme that preoccupies both Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street activists. Why did Wall Street receive so much assistance through TARP while homeowners have been allowed to languish? Protesters on the right and left talk about how policies are skewed toward these interests and how average middle-class Americans don't receive the same kind of attention from the nation's leaders.

Business and financial interests achieve their influence in many ways. But their ability to deliver dollars to the campaign chests of candidates is crucial. Donating funds helps to ensure that these interests have a seat at the table. In 2009, as Ron Suskind recounts in his new book, "The Confidence Men," Democrats learned firsthand as the health care industry successfully pushed the administration to eliminate crucial measures that were intended to control costs and save money to pay for expanded insurance. This story has been repeated in a number of policy sectors.

The final problem that money fuels is gridlock. Everyone hates when Congress doesn't seem capable of doing anything.

What country does this take place in?
What was the scandal

Answer: American

Answer: private money in American politics

Summary:
Julian Zelizer: The flood of money into U.S. politics is a scandal .
He says money from powerful interests prevents rational choices on budget cutting .
It helps explain why Wall Street got bailed out, and U.S. homeowners didn't, he says .