Clinton Visits Chile, Pledges Support in Wake of Deadly Earthquake

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged U.S. support Tuesday to earthquake-stricken Chile during the third stop on her six-nation tour of Latin America.

Clinton told reporters in Santiago the United States stands ready to help Chile in any way the government needs.

Speaking alongside Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Clinton said the U.S. is "grateful" for what Chile did in Haiti after that country's devastating earthquake earlier this year. She said the Chilean rescue teams were "some of the best" in the world.

During her brief visit to the Chilean capital, Secretary Clinton is holding talks with Chile's president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, who takes office next week.

Secretary Clinton also brought much-needed satellite phones to the country. Other details of U.S. aid are being discussed during Clinton's visit.

On Monday, Clinton met in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who asked for help mediating Argentina's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

Clinton said the U.S. will encourage both nations to engage in diplomacy, but will not commit to a more involved role.

Clinton began her trip in Uruguay.

Her next stop is Brazil, where on Wednesday she plans to urge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to join the United States in supporting new U.N. sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.

She also plans to visit Costa Rica and Guatemala before heading back to the United States.

The U.S. takes a neutral position on the competing claims over the British-held Falkland Islands, which are nearly 500 kilometers from the South American coast. Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the Falklands, which it refers to as Las Malvinas. It seized the islands in April 1982, and held them for two months until British forces retook control.

Source:voanews.com/

Man, daughter fall 13 floors in Chile quake

CONCEPCION, Chile — When their 13th-floor apartment began to shake, Alberto Rozas pulled his 7-year-old daughter into the bathroom doorway and waited for it to stop.

Instead, they fell.

Plummeting as their brand-new apartment building toppled like a felled tree, they hugged each other all the way down.

Rozas had no idea which way was up until he looked through his apartment's shattered window and spotted light — "the light of the full moon."

Rozas and his daughter, Fernanda, clambered up and to safety with nothing more than a few cuts, scrapes and bruises.

"The earthquake and the fall were one single, horrible thing," Rozas told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I held onto her and she never let me go."

Rozas' neighbors who lived on the other side of the hall found themselves trapped beneath the structure, while rescuers painstakingly used electric saws and a generator-powered hammer to cut into the concrete.

"We don't have any listening devices or cameras," said Ian Argo, a firefighter commander.

As of Sunday, 23 people had been pulled alive from the 15-story Rio Alta building and seven bodies had been removed. An estimated 60 people remained trapped inside.

Socovil, the company that opened the concrete-and-glass structure last June, issued a statement saying it had complied with all building codes. But many residents were angry.

"The construction was obviously poor," Rozas said.

Abel Torres, 25, had a view of the Bio Bio River from his sixth-floor apartment. He had just gotten home from his job at a nightclub when the quake hit at 3:34 a.m.

"My TV fell on top of me and suddenly I saw stars shooting across my window," he said.

Torres and his roommate stacked furniture to reach that window — now a skylight — and escaped without clothes, coated in dust.

On the second floor, Maribel Alarcon and her husband Gunther rushed to comfort their 2-year-old son Oliver when he started crying moments before the temblor.

Their concern was their salvation: Oliver's bedroom was the only place spared in their apartment.

"We prayed a lot," Alarcon said. "And if God let us survive, that was because someone was going to rescue us."

Much higher in the building, Rozas was sleeping alongside his daughter when the shaking began.

"There was dust, noise, everything falling," he said. "We went to the bathroom doorway. Then there was the fall. Finally it stopped."

After they climbed out of the wreckage, Rozas took Fernanda to her mother's house, then returned to help firefighters understand the layout of the toppled building.

He retrieved medicine and clothes for Fernanda. And his own guitar.

Source:AFP