Paedophiles held in Haiti

Haitian Social Affairs Minister Yves Christallin said the police arrested five men and five women with US passports, and two Haitians, as they tried to cross into the Dominican Republic with the children on Friday night.

He said two pastors were also involved, one in Haiti and one in Atlanta, Georgia.

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'This is an abduction, not an adoption,' said Mr Christallin.

Mr Christallin said the US citizens did not have the proper documents to take the children out of Haiti, nor letters of authorisation from their parents.

The children were aged two months to 12 years and had come from different places, he said.

'What is important for us in Haiti is that a child needs to have an authorisation from this ministry to leave the country,' he said.

US embassy officials were not immediately available to comment on the case.

Haitian officials have voiced fears that child traffickers will take advantage of the chaos after Haiti' s massive 12 January quake to slip out of the country with children in illegal adoption schemes.

There is also concern that legitimate adoption agencies may rush to take earthquake orphans out of the country before proper checks have been conducted to confirm their parents perished.

Haiti' s quake severely crippled government agencies and pitched the country into a communications morass.

In an interview with NBC news, a family member of one of those arrested said the Americans believed the matter was a misunderstanding over documentation.

They were identified by Mr Christallin as members of an Idaho-based charity called New Life Children' s Refuge.

Haitian police chief Mario Andresol said the Americans were being held at the Judicial Police headquarters in Port-au-Prince and that the children had been transferred to a facility north of the city, in Croix de Bouquets.

He said an investigation was under way to determine how the children came into the Americans' custody.

'Now it' s up to the Justice Department do to their job,' Chief Andresol said.

A document posted online by the group asks for donations to bring 100 Haitian children to safety in the Dominican Republic and for volunteers to take care of the children during two-week stints.

Under the heading 'Purpose,' it reads: 'Rescue Haitian orphans abandoned on the streets, makeshift hospitals, or from collapsed orphanages.'

It says the group has leased a 45-room hotel in Cabarete as a temporary shelter for the children.

It also includes a prayer request 'for God to continue to grant favor with the Dominican government in allowing us to bring as many orphans as we can into the DR.'

Mr Christallin said it was 'too bad that it was Americans who have been implicated in this affair, because they are helping us (with earthquake relief), as many countries are.'

Haiti health chief calls for urgent shelter ahead of rain

Haitian Health Minister Alex Larsen said the government is 'moving as fast as possible' to shelter quake-hit refugees ahead of heavy rains due as soon as next month that could trigger a public health disaster.

'There's discussion going on right now on how to deal with this issue quick enough,' Mr Larsen said after a briefing yesterday by World Health Organization officials about the influx of desperately-needed medical supplies.

The UN has warned that if heavy rains arrive -- perhaps as early as mid-February -- while as many as a million Haitians are still homeless it could provoke a public health catastrophe, spreading disease through dense, insanitary makeshift encampments.

The disaster left over 170,000 people dead -- including thousands of bodies still rotting under the mountains of debris, increasing the risk of contamination especially if heavy rains soak through the tangled ruins.

The beleaguered government, struggling to cope after the massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed much of the capital and surrounding areas, has set up 'a commission to deal with this exact problem -- they met this morning,' Larsen said, declining to provide further details.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the capital have since the January 12 quake been sheltering in squalid encampments in city parks.

The minister said it was necessary to ensure 'better sanitation (in the camps) to prevent the emergence of communicable diseases,' saying such a development was 'the biggest concern for the government of Haiti.'

Haiti's wet season usually starts in May, but storms could come earlier.

Mr Larsen said the government anticipated 'a small rain season' ahead of the full season around the time of normally joyous Carnival celebrations in mid-February -- now cancelled due to the cataclysmic quake.

I bet they were going to sell them