Yesterday there was little news available from Haiti, so optimism remained. But as more info about yesterday's earthquake comes out, it looks grim. The prime minister says hundreds of thousands may be dead. The government has almost ceased to function.

[Haitian President Rene] Préval, in his first interview since the earthquake, said the country was destroyed and he believed there were thousands of people dead but was reluctant to provide a number...

"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,'' he said. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.''

Among those trapped inside the Parliament building but still alive was the president of the Haitian Senate, Kely Bastien.