Snapshot: Haiti Earthquake

U.S. military helicopters swooped down on Haiti's wrecked presidential palace to deploy troops and supplies on Tuesday as a huge international relief operation to earthquake survivors gained momentum.

NEWS

* U.S. troops in combat gear arrive by helicopter at the presidential palace and move to secure the capital's main hospital.

* U.N. Security Council unanimously agrees to boost the number of U.N. troops and police in Haiti by 3,500.

* Haiti's Police Chief Mario Andresol says his depleted force needs the help of U.N. peacekeepers, noting that 4,000 criminals escaped from damaged prisons.

* Some 52 rescue teams race against time to find people still alive under collapsed buildings, after saving 90 people. Tens of thousands still believed buried.

* The World Health Organization says at least 13 hospitals are working in or around Port-au-Prince. Doctors warn of threats to survivors from infection and disease.

QUOTES

"We do not know exactly what they have come to do but I think they are here to help us, so we tell them welcome." -- Alex Michel, 40, watching U.S. military helicopters arrive at the presidential palace.

"We are not passed the emergency phase yet, but we are starting to look at the long term ... There is a risk of cholera and tetanus, and a huge need for mobile medical units." -- aid worker Margaret Aguirre of the International Medical Corps.

"The situation is tense but calm. Of course there are lootings because the population is on edge." -- Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in Geneva.

"I have several people hurt in my house and need fuel to take them to hospital or at least buy food, water and bandages. This is my fourth time trying to buy gas." -- Serge Basler, 50, in a crowd at a Total gas station.