Time running out as aid fails to reach Haiti

A massive international air and sea lift of aid to earthquake-devastated Haiti was struggling last night to overcome ­obstacles in delivering rescue teams and emergency help to the more than 2 million people in need of immediate assistance.
Confronted by bottlenecks caused by wrecked runways, port ­facilities and roads, aid experts were warning it could be days before the relief effort gets fully under way, even as thousands of people remained unaccounted for beneath the rubble of Tuesday's quake and bodies were piled in the ruined streets.
The Red Cross estimated 45,000-50,000 people were been killed in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Last night Haiti's president, René Préval, said: "We have already buried 7,000 people in a mass grave."
Aid agencies fear the crucial 72-hour window to find survivors would be missed if the help did not start getting through. Compounding the ­desperate problems, America's civil aviation ­authority was forced to halt planes leaving the US for Haiti.