Earthquake relief arrives in Haiti, gangs kidnap two doctors

Kidnapping prompts Port-au-Prince hospital to shut down for 2 days, further complicating relief efforts.

Relief for the victims of a powerful earthquake and tropical storm began flowing more quickly into Haiti on Thursday, but the Caribbean nation’s entrenched poverty, insecurity and lack of basic infrastructure were still presenting huge challenges to getting food and urgent medical care to all those who need it. Private relief supplies and shipments from the US government and others were arriving in the southwestern peninsula where the weekend earthquake struck, killing more than 2,100 people. But the need was extreme, made worse by the rain from Tropical Storm Grace, and people were growing frustrated with the slow pace. Adding to the problems, a major hospital in the capital of Port-au-Prince, where injured from the earthquake zone in the southwestern peninsula were being sent, was closed Thursday for a two-day shutdown to protest the kidnapping of two doctors, including one of the country’s few orthopaedic surgeons.