Aid makes it to Haiti, but not onto streets

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Aid is reaching earthquake-torn Haiti, but getting it to the people who need it remains a challenge.

Large quantities of medications, baby formula and other relief supplies are sitting on the tarmac and in warehouses at the Port-au-Prince airport, but no one is moving it out, according to CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta.

"It's like everywhere we go, just walking through the airport, outside the airport even, people are saying, 'We need supplies,' " Gupta said.

Gupta found pallets of formula, pain medication and antibiotics standing unattended next to the runway.

U.S. military personnel in a warehouse tent at the airport gave Gupta a trash bag full of supplies to take back to a hospital he had visited earlier but couldn't explain why there seemed to be no organized system for distribution.

"There is stuff here waiting to be taken out, that's a true statement," said Air Force Col. Ben McMullen, deputy commander of the Joint Special Operations Air Component. "Is it a lot? I can't speak to it. I will tell you the reason you got it is that everyone on this side, specifically the U.S. government side, is dedicated to getting as much stuff outside as they can. ...

"It's a shame, because you would hope that everything could get out there within seconds. But that kind of infrastructure just isn't in place."

Over at the city's port, authorities pushing to clear bottlenecks hope to restore two-way traffic at the south pier sometime Friday.

The magnitude 7.0 quake that rocked the impoverished nation on January 12 damaged its capital's north and south piers. Haitian authorities and the U.S. military had restored one-way traffic to the south pier, which is the smaller of the two, by Thursday.

Port-au-Prince's north pier remains unusable.

The bottlenecks have delayed food and medical aid to the estimated 3 million Haitians who have been affected by the quake.

At least 72,000 people have been confirmed dead in the quake, according to Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

Canadian troops, meanwhile, were working to open an airport in Jacmel on Thursday, another step that could speed delivery of relief supplies. Jacmel, a seaside town about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Port-au-Prince, is considered Haiti's cultural capital.

Delayed relief supplies have led to at least five deaths, according to the aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières.

Working under adverse conditions with limited supplies, medical teams have been forced to improvise.

Renzo Fricke, field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said staffers had to buy a saw in the market so surgeons could do amputations. A CNN crew loaned a medic a pocketknife for another operation.

Lacking rubbing alcohol, doctors have used vodka to sterilize equipment and instruments. Surgical patients are receiving over-the-counter pain medicine because doctors lack stronger medication. One nurse used a string of Christmas lights as a makeshift extension cord. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen saw a belt used as a tourniquet. When that broke, a garden hose was used.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that not all aid, particularly medical supplies, has been getting through fast enough. The situation is improving, however, they said.

That offered limited comfort to some Haitians.

"I have not eaten for two days," 32-year-old Anderson Bellegarde said Thursday. "I'm only drinking water."

Bellegarde had waited more than six hours outside a money-wiring branch. Businesses such as Western Union are starting to reopen and are attracting the longest and most visible lines in Haiti's capital, as quake survivors scramble for cash.

Sidewalks were crowded with street vendors and kiosks, and many small food stores were open. Dozens of stalls sold fruits and vegetables at a dusty market along a pocked and rut-filled dirt side street.

More than 300 aid distribution sites are up and running, a senior U.S. administration official said. More than 700,000 meals and 1.4 million bottles of water have been delivered, along with 22,000 pounds of medical supplies, said Lt. Gen. Douglas Fraser of the U.S. Southern Command.

About 120 to 140 flights a day are coming into the single-runway Port-au-Prince airport, compared with 25 a day just after the quake struck last week. More than 840 have landed since the airport was reopened, but there is a waiting list of 1,400 to come in, Fraser said.

To improve air traffic, the U.S. military said Wednesday it had obtained landing rights at the Dominican Republic's air base at San Isidro, about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east of Port-au-Prince.

International aid contributions since the quake have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars. U.S. spending for relief in Haiti has hit $170 million, the federal government announced Thursday.

About 13,100 U.S. troops are in and around Haiti -- nearly 2,700 on the ground and 10,400 more offshore. Many Marines spend time in Haiti during the day but sleep on ships at night. More U.S. troops are to arrive by this weekend, bringing the total to about 4,600 troops on the ground.

CNN's Arthur Brice, Susan Candiotti, Jill Dougherty, Eric Marrapodi, Lisa Desjardins and Elise Labott contributed to this report.

Most bakeries sticking to old prices

PETALING JAYA: The price of at least one brand of bread has gone up while several other bakeries said they would “wait and see” before making any decision.

Checks around shops in the Klang Valley revealed that the price of Gardenia bread had gone up by 20 sen. The white sandwich loaf used to cost RM2, but is now retailing at RM2.20.

The prices of other brands of bread have remained the same.

On Dec 31, the Government announced that the subsidy for white bread was being removed. It also announced that the price of sugar was up by 20 sen a kg.

In Penang, several bakeries said they would wait and see before making any decision on the retail prices.

Maliia Bakery director Siti Suhailla Mohd Yusoff said the bakery planned to maintain its retail price of RM1.70 for the 420g sandwich loaf over the next few months.

She added that the retail price would be increased to RM1.90 once the bakery’s two other main competitors agreed to the hike.

“From our previous experience, too sudden a price hike will affect our sales,” she said.

She added that the bakery would maintain its retail price until it came up with a new packaging to increase the 420g sandwich loaf to 450g.

Patchee Bakery Sdn Bhd managing director Syed Saahil Saif also said the bakery would hold back any price hike.

He said the bakery was using ingredients from old stockpiles.

“These could last for at least a month,” he said.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohd Zain Mohd Dom had announced the withdrawal of subsidy on white bread (effective yesterday) and removed it from the price control list.

Deputy Domestic Trade, Coopera-tive and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Tan Lian Hoe said there was no necessity for the price of bread to be increased by between 20 sen and 30 sen.

“After the subsidy removal for bread, 1kg of bread will only cost an extra 20 sen. If 1kg of bread cost an extra 20 sen, how can one loaf of bread cost 20 sen more? It is unfair and definitely not a reason for traders to increase the price of bread.”

Traders, she said, should not take the opportunity to increase prices.

“They must practise corporate social responsibility. We hope consumers will also execute their power in hand as there are many brands in the market,” she added.

Tan also urged traders to cooperate with the Government and use less sugar in their products in line with its healthy lifestyle campaign.

Flight 253 hero recounts thwarting Christmas bombing attempt

December 30, 2009 4:54 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- The seven-hour flight from the Netherlands to Michigan had been uneventful. Passengers bided time watching movies or trying to catch shut eye.

But as Northwest Flight 253 made its final approach to Detroit on Christmas, the actions of one man put at risk the lives of nearly 300 passengers on the jetliner -- and the quick thinking of another helped prevent disaster.

Jasper Schuringa, a Dutch filmmaker, appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" for a second time Tuesday night, recounting how he and others subdued an al Qaeda-linked suspect from detonating explosives that the man had attached to his underwear.

That suspect, Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab, is now charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft in a plot that the militant group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has claimed responsibility for. A senior administration official said late Tuesday that new information suggests the 23-year-old Nigerian man's plot may indeed have had ties to the group.

"First, I thought it just might be a crazy guy to actually carry a firecracker onto the airplane," Schuringa said Tuesday night. "It came as quite a shock when I heard he had ties to al Qaeda."

From Detroit, Schuringa had a connecting flight before his final destination: a vacation with friends in Miami, Florida.

As the plane neared Detroit, Schuringa said, he heard what sounded like a firecracker going off.

"First, it was just 'bang,'" he said. "And you're trying to look around, like where's this bang coming from."

Immediately afterward, someone screamed "Fire!"

Schuringa said he noticed a man on the left side of the aisle, sitting still while on fire.

"A normal person would stand up, and he wasn't standing up," he said. "So then I knew, this guy is trying to do something."

Schuringa said he jumped over the passenger next to him, reached across the aisle and lunged for the suspect, now identified as AbdulMutallab.

View timeline of bombing suspect

"He was getting on fire. And he was still holding the device, the bomb," Schuringa said. "And he was still holding it in his hands. And I had to, like, rip the bomb out of his hands."

Schuringa said the man just stared at him, but did not let go of whatever he was holding onto.

In an earlier appearance on "Larry King Live," Schuringa described how he yanked the object from the man, stamped out the fire with his hands and tossed it.

With the help of crew members and other passengers, the man was then taken to the front of the plane, handcuffed and stripped to make sure he wasn't carrying anything else.

Through it all, the man appeared dazed.

"He was staring into nothing," Schuringa said.

Investigators now say AbdulMutallab was allegedly carrying PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate -- enough of it to blow a hole in the aircraft.

But the device he used failed to detonate fully, instead setting off the fire, authorities said.

Part of the explosive device was sewn into the suspect's underwear. FBI agents recovered what appear to be the remnants of a syringe near the seat.

Because the syringe was destroyed, investigators are having trouble determining the accelerant the suspect tried to use to light the explosive.

"When I was interrogated by the FBI, I was trying to think what I was actually holding, because it was very thick," Schuringa said. "It's just like everything just happened in the blink of an eye. But it's quite scary to hold a bomb in your hands. Not something you do every day."

Among the passengers on the Friday flight were Wisconsin native Richelle Keepman and her family. They were returning from Ethiopia with two children they had adopted.

On "Larry King Live" on Tuesday, she called Schuringa a hero.

"We're just so thankful that you did what you did and the other passengers who helped, because your bravery saved us," she said.

Schuringa said his action was just a knee-jerk reaction.

"There's so much going on in your mind, you're not afraid," he said. "You just don't think and just jump."

Keepman said the security at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport was nothing like what she is used to in the United States.

"We walked through and did not have to take our shoes off," she said. "Also, my mother had a water bottle in her bag that she'd completely forgotten about. And it went right through and we didn't realize it until we were on the plane."

Keepman said she hasn't had time to relive the experience as she introduces the adopted children to life in America.

"With the children being home and they're seeing snow for the first time and just so many new things, our focus right now is just on the fact that we're here and we're able to live these moments with them," she said.

However, she remembers one odd detail. Amid the commotion, a man about 10 seats in front of Keepman was capturing it all with a camcorder.

"It was definitely a little out of the ordinary," she said. "I mean, I don't know why he was standing up and we were supposed to be seated and he was filming it."

A person familiar with the investigation told CNN that investigators have pored through tapes that several people shot during the incident. But none has provided anything useful to the investigation, because each was captured after the fire began or has an obstructed view.

Schuringa said he too tries not to think too much about the day.

"Like Richelle, I think we're all happy we're still alive and living for another day," he said. "Of course, for everybody it's quite a big shock that a person like that can try to take out our lives. And that's just unimaginable."