Feb 9, 2010 5:50 pm US/Eastern
Haiti Raises Quake Death Toll To 230,000
Nation's Communications Minister Says Number Of Dead From Jan. 24 Earthquake Not Definite
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) ―
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Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP/Getty Images
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A woman sweeps at the national stadium which has been transformed into a makeshift camp in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 28, 2010.
Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images
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U.S. Army soldiers from the 82nd Airborne carry an injured women to an awaiting Navy helicopter as they medivac her after she was injured during the earthquake to the USNS Comfort on Jan. 23, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Haiti's government has raised the death toll for the Jan. 12 earthquake to 230,000 from 212,000 and says more bodies remain uncounted.
The government initially estimated 150,000 dead on Jan. 24, apparently from bodies being recovered in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince, the capital that was near the epicenter.
Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Tuesday the government now counts 230,000 deaths.
But she says the new figure is not definitive. She says it does not include bodies buried by private funeral homes in private cemeteries or the dead buried by their own families.
The new figure gives the quake the same death toll as the 2004 Asian tsunami.
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