Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday that the country has enough food and fuel to meet citizens’ needs, Dow Jones Newswires reports. She said the government has adequate resources to enable business recovery and to help rebuild houses, and she wants the private sector to play a major role in the rebuilding effort. “Soon it will be the time to get back on our feet and entrepreneurs will be up to the challenge,” she said, according to the news service…

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive “demanded more information on Wednesday about foreign aid pouring into the earthquake-stricken country and urged that his government not be sidelined in reconstruction efforts,” Reuters reports. “Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive decried a lack of coordination by aid donors with his government but stopped short of saying all bilateral aid should be funneled through the government. ‘We don’t know who has given money to NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and how much money have they given. …

As part of her trip to Latin America, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton handed out 25 satellite phones on Tuesday in Chile and said the U.S. would help “in any way the government of Chile asks us to,” the Washington Times reports (3/3). “Clinton toured an area of the airport where tea, flour and other supplies were being loaded into boxes for shipment to parts of the country where supplies are short,” the Associated Press/New York Times reports. “Meeting with the country’s president-elect [Sebastian Pinera], Clinton said she is sure Chile is handling the disaster well…

A Refugees International report, released on Tuesday, says U.N. aid efforts in Haiti since the earthquake have not been sufficiently coordinated with local groups, the New York Times reports. Among other things, the lack of coordinated response has enabled sexual abuse of women and girls in temporary camps, according to Emilie Parry, an aid consultant who helped write the report. She said some girls have been trading sex for shelter and noted that there is no night watch system in the camps, which are housing many of Haiti’s homeless earthquake survivors, according to the newspaper…

During a scheduled trip to Latin America, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Chile Tuesday “to offer support” after a major earthquake struck over the weekend, Bloomberg/BusinessWeek reports (Boyd/Smith, 3/2). Though the Chilean government initially passed on outside aid, it “changed course” and requested international assistance on Monday, according to the New York Times (Barrionuevo/Lacey, 3/1). Clinton brought 20 satellite phones with her and will use the trip to “assess what the United States can do to help the country recover,” USA Today reports. She said the U…

During a phone call on Monday, Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, asked U.N. officials to provide more tents, latrines and hurricane-proof shelter to improve housing and sanitation for Haitian earthquake survivors living in temporary camps, the Associated Press writes. According to Clinton, the needs of many people who survived the earthquake are not being met. Clinton “also called for strengthening job and agricultural programs

Free Economies Essential For Disaster Preparedness The earthquake in Chile “was the fifth biggest ever measured, and several hundred times larger than the one that killed more than 220,000 in Haiti,” according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. The editorial highlights Chile’s preparation for earthquakes, including stricter building codes. “But such preparation is also the luxury of a prosperous country, in contrast to destitute and ill-governed Haiti…

Since a major earthquake hit Haiti last month, “power has returned to nearly half” of the neighborhoods around Port-au-Prince, but the rebuilding of the country’s power system “is starting almost from scratch,” the Associated Press/New York Times writes in an article examining the prospects for Haiti’s electric utility. “Even before the Jan. 12 quake, electrical service in Haiti meant an average of 10 hours of power a day delivered by a rickety grid to just a quarter of the population - not even half of them paying customers…

Haitian and U.N. officials on Tuesday said they planned this week to begin “decompressing” the capital of Port-au-Prince by removing rubble to make space for people to return to their homes or temporarily resettle, Reuters reports. “The ‘Debris Management Plan’ drawn up by experts from the United Nations, the United States and other countries with Haitian government officials marks the next big push by the international relief operation following major distributions of food, water and shelter materials to earthquake victims,” according to the news service…

The Government of Japan committed US$2 million (JPY180 million) to UNICEF to reinforce immunization services for children and women in Haiti. The timely contribution provides UNICEF with the much-needed equipment for the cold-chain system and funds for vaccines and immunization activities…