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Haiti earthquake: Monday news updates

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Look here for news updates on the aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti. All times are Haiti local time, which is the same as Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. and five hours behind GMT.

(CNN) -- Monday, January 18

10:32 p.m. -- The Haitian National Police force in Port-au-Prince, normally with 4,000 people, has dropped to about 1,500 people since last week's quake, according to National Police Chief Mario Andresol. Many of those who haven't reported to work are dead or injured, he says.

9:56 p.m. -- The American Red Cross and UNICEF's United States Fund have raised nearly $5 million since 8 p.m. ET, when "Haiti How You Can Help," a special "Larry King Live," started, according to CNN's Larry King. The show ends at 10 p.m. ET and is scheduled to repeat at midnight. How you can help

9:47 p.m. -- Maxine Fallon, the 23-year-old student rescued today in the rubble of a building at Universite G.O.C. in Port-au-Prince, says she was pressed in the same position, with legs folded uncomfortably and very little wiggle room, for all six days she was trapped, CNN's Chris Lawrence reports. Watch Video | Read

9:39 p.m. -- The American Red Cross and UNICEF's United States Fund have raised $2.9 million since 8 p.m. ET, when "Haiti How You Can Help," a special "Larry King Live," started, according to CNN's Larry King. The show lasts until 10 p.m. ET.

9:36 p.m. -- While visiting the injured at a U.N. clinic in Port-au-Prince, Haitian President Rene Preval says his country -- already the Western Hemisphere's poorest -- needs not only medicine and food, but also long-term reconstruction assistance. "The more we receive help, the more we can take care of them," he said.

9:12 p.m. -- A U.S. Air Force cargo plane on Monday, bypassing the gridlock at Haiti's main airport in Port-au-Prince, dropped 40 pallets of bottled water and ready-to-eat food on a field just north of the airport, CNN's Larry Shaughnessy reported. "There are so many relief agencies funneling through the airport that it has kind of created a bottleneck," U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Leon Strickland said en route to the drop point. "We're going to put things directly out of the air onto the ground and open up another distribution point north of the [Port-au-Prince] airfield."

8:31 p.m. -- The following video shows CNN's Anderson Cooper dragging a bleeding boy from a crowd as looting went on Monday in a Port-au-Prince street. The video includes graphic content. Viewer discretion is advised. Watch Video

7:39 p.m. -- The student saved today from the rubble of a Port-au-Prince university building, 23-year-old Maxine Fallon, says she prayed for someone to find her. "I had hoped I would be rescued," Fallon said. Doctors told CNN that Fallon is suffering from severe lacerations and trauma to her organs, among other injuries. She was drifting in and out of consciousness and was transported to a field hospital in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville, CNN's Chris Lawrence and Arthur Brice reported. Read

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6:41 p.m. -- A volunteer at Sacre Coeur Hospital in northern Haiti said the facility has large numbers of open beds, but no easy way to get patients there from Port-au-Prince. "My surgeons are sitting around looking at each other, wondering why they came," Tim Traynor told CNN. The hospital, in Milot, has more than 200 beds but fewer than 30 patients, Traynor said. He said the U.S. Coast Guard has flown some injured people up from Port-au-Prince, "one or two or three or four people at a time." Another volunteer, Carol Fipp, said: "Shout it from the mountaintops: We need helicopters."

6:35 p.m. -- Limited runway space and battered telecommunications networks are hindering efforts to get food, water and medical aid into the hands of desperate Haitians, relief agencies say. The U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, says another big obstacle is Haiti's damaged infrastructure, which is making it difficult to move aid from the airport quickly.

5:41 p.m. -- A 12-year-old girl on whom CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta performed brain surgery on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson this morning is "doing very well," Gupta says. Shrapnel had penetrated her brain. A military helicopter flew Gupta from Port-au-Prince to the aircraft carrier for the procedure.

5:23 p.m. -- The people who've just rescued student Maxine Fallon from the crumbled university knew to go there because text messages had been sent from beneath the rubble, said paramedic Clever Sobrino, who added that more trapped survivors are believed to be inside. Read

5:20 p.m. -- The student who has just been rescued from the Port-au-Prince university rubble, Maxine Fallon, 23, was treated by an Israeli doctor and taken to a U.N. treatment center on the back of a CNN truck, CNN's Chris Lawrence reports. A paramedic had flagged down the truck, which was passing through the area, and asked that the truck be used to take Fallon to the treatment center.

5:09 p.m. -- A university student has been pulled out of the rubble of a school in Port-au-Prince and taken to a hospital.

5:05 p.m. -- In his interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon couldn't give a timeline for how long it will take to get the abundance of aid collected for Haiti flowing freely into the country. "We are in an initial stage of this, coordinating and organizing effective way of delivering aid," Ban said. Read

4:27 p.m. -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tells CNN's Christiane Amanpour that 46 U.N. staff members have died as a result of last week's earthquake, and he fears that number could rise. The previous confirmed toll was 37. The U.N.'s mission headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed in the earthquake. Read

4:11 p.m. -- Two South Florida residents talk to CNN affiliate WFOR about their mother's rescue Video from a Port-au-Prince grocery store 108 hours after the earthquake.

3:46 p.m. -- The U.S. State Department now says the number of Haitian children who have left Haiti to be with adoptive parents in the U.S. since last week's earthquake is 24, not 150 as officials said Sunday. The State Department says it's working on nearly 300 cases of Americans who are waiting to adopt Haitian children, and 200 of those cases are being accelerated, CNN's Elise Labott reports.

3:30 p.m. -- A campaign using text messages to raise money for the Red Cross has tallied more than $21 million for relief efforts in Haiti, CNN's Doug Gross reports. The total has obliterated the nearly $4 million that, according to the Red Cross, was donated to all charities by mobile texts in all of 2009. Read

3:25 p.m. -- At a press conference, Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean tearfully denies recent allegations that he misappropriated funds from his Yele Haiti charity. Meanwhile, experts on nonprofits say they can't find serious wrongdoing, except for a lapse of discipline in filing his taxes, CNNMoney.com reports. Read

3:17 p.m. -- CNN's Anderson Cooper provides more detail on the looting he saw in downtown Port-au-Prince on Monday: Several hundred people broke into a damaged supply store, and some of them -- young men holding two-by-fours with nails hammered into them -- began attacking each other. One boy collapsed onto the street in a pool of blood. Some people came with money, buying supplies from looters -- in some cases hoping to sell for more somewhere else.

1:50 p.m. -- Twenty-four Americans are confirmed dead in the Haiti quake, the State Department said. About 25 other American deaths have been reported but not confirmed.

1:47 p.m. -- U.S. Muslims have raised more than $800,000 for Haiti's earthquake victims since a call to help went out at Friday prayers across the country, according to the group Islamic Relief USA. "We will probably reach our million dollar goal by this afternoon," spokesman Anwar Khan told CNN on Monday.

1:24 p.m. -- Former President Bill Clinton has arrived in Haiti, accompanied by his daughter, Chelsea, to check on relief efforts.

12:58 p.m. -- CNN's Anderson Cooper reports widespread looting in downtown Port-au-Prince. "People are actually stealing this, then will sell it later and then they'll use that money for their families," Cooper said.

12:40 p.m. -- The amphibious assault ship USS Bataan and accompanying ships with more than 2,200 Marines on board were arriving off Haiti on Monday, the Pentagon said. The Marines bring with them heavy lift and earth-moving equipment, a dozen helicopters and additional medical support capabilities.

12:33 p.m. -- Rescue crews in Haiti have saved more than 75 people from the rubble, and continue to search for survivors six days after the earthquake, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten said Monday.

12:20 p.m. -- Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a medical doctor, arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday to help in the relief effort. The Tennessee Republican will be working at Baptist Mission Hospital in Haiti with the international relief agency Samaritan's Purse, according to a statement from Hope Through Healing Hands, Frist's nonprofit aid organization.

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12:09 p.m. -- Military officials now say three Americans, not 30, were injured in an incident outside the Port-au-Prince airport. They are being treated for injuries that are not life-threatening, CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence reports.

11:40 a.m. -- Military officials in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, tell CNN Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence that 30 Americans have been hurt.

10:37 a.m. -- Rick Santos, president and CEO of the humanitarian organization IMA World Health, said he and a few of his colleagues survived 50 hours beneath the rubble of a hotel, sustained by a Tootsie Pop and a bit of chewing gum. Read

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8:22 a.m. -- CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson assisting in the care of a 12-year-old girl with a serious head injury. The military sought Gupta's help, and he was taken to the ship by helicopter. CNN has been told that the girl's condition is stable.

8:15 a.m. -- Bill Clinton, the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, is set to meet with local officials to discuss how best to proceed with recovery operations in Haiti.

6:30 a.m. -- The Pentagon said it will have 7,000 personnel in Haiti on Monday working on earthquake relief. U.S. military personnel have supplied 130,000 rations and 70,000 bottles of water as of Monday morning, it said.

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