MIAMI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Friday it has stopped flying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States for medical attention following concerns by some state governments about who will pay for the treatment.

“At this moment in time, yes, the flights have stopped,” said Navy Captain Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the military’s medical emergency airlifts.

“We have to have a destination to bring them to,” Aandahl said, citing media reports Florida had told the U.S. government that the state needed help paying for the care.

“If Florida isn’t taking them … and I can’t confirm this, but I think Georgia has made a similar statement, so if we can’t bring them anywhere for treatment, then they’re staying in Haiti.”

MIAMI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Friday it has stopped flying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States for medical attention following concerns by some state governments about who will pay for the treatment. "At this moment in time, yes, the flights have stopped," said Navy Captain Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the military’s medical emergency airlifts. "We have to have a destination to bring them to," Aandahl said, citing media reports Florida had told the U.S. government that the state needed help paying for the care. "If Florida isn’t taking them … and I can’t confirm this, but I think Georgia has made a similar statement, so if we can’t bring them anywhere for treatment, then they’re staying in Haiti." He said the flights had stopped on Wednesday. "The fact that medical flights aren’t taking place does not mean that Haitians who need care aren’t getting it," Aandahl added. "We have the medical facilities again on the island as well as offshore." The New York Times quoted Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for Florida Governor Charlie Crist, as saying the governor’s request for federal help might have caused "confusion." "Florida stands ready to assist our neighbors in Haiti, but we need a plan of action and reimbursement for the care we are providing," Ivey said, according to the Times. Crist’s request did not state how much the medical care for the earthquake victims was costing his state but the Times reported the cost could be in the millions of dollars. The newspaper quoted Dr. Barth Green, co-founder of Project Medishare for Haiti, a nonprofit group tied to the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, as saying the suspension of medical evacuations could be very harmful for patients. "People are dying in Haiti because they can’t get out," Green told the Times. More than 500 quake victims had been treated in Florida hospitals, with hospitals in other states also having taken in injured Haitians, according to the Times. The devastating quake in the impoverished Caribbean country on Jan. 12 killed up to 200,000 people. (Editing by John O’Callaghan)

MIAMI, Jan 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. military said on Friday it has stopped flying Haitian earthquake victims to the United States for medical attention following concerns by some state governments about who will pay for the treatment. "At this moment in time, yes, the flights have stopped," said Navy Captain Kevin Aandahl, a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the military’s medical emergency airlifts. "We have to have a destination to bring them to," Aandahl said, citing media reports Florida had told the U.S. government that the state needed help paying for the care. "If Florida isn’t taking them … and I can’t confirm this, but I think Georgia has made a similar statement, so if we can’t bring them anywhere for treatment, then they’re staying in Haiti." He said the flights had stopped on Wednesday. "The fact that medical flights aren’t taking place does not mean that Haitians who need care aren’t getting it," Aandahl added. "We have the medical facilities again on the island as well as offshore." The New York Times quoted Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for Florida Governor Charlie Crist, as saying the governor’s request for federal help might have caused "confusion." "Florida stands ready to assist our neighbors in Haiti, but we need a plan of action and reimbursement for the care we are providing," Ivey said, according to the Times. Crist’s request did not state how much the medical care for the earthquake victims was costing his state but the Times reported the cost could be in the millions of dollars. The newspaper quoted Dr. Barth Green, co-founder of Project Medishare for Haiti, a nonprofit group tied to the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, as saying the suspension of medical evacuations could be very harmful for patients. "People are dying in Haiti because they can’t get out," Green told the Times. More than 500 quake victims had been treated in Florida hospitals, with hospitals in other states also having taken in injured Haitians, according to the Times. The devastating quake in the impoverished Caribbean country on Jan. 12 killed up to 200,000 people. (Editing by John O’Callaghan)

  By Ross Kerber        BOSTON – Standing just a few feet from the flag-draped casket of Senator Edward Kennedy, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger shared the best political advice he said he ever got from the uncle of his wife, Maria Shriver. When speaking in public, stay away from the specifics. ”He was a big believer in giving the broad vision,” Schwarzenegger told Reuters. Once you start getting into details, the questions never stop, the Republican governor said Kennedy, a Democratic Party titan, once told him, adding, “They’ll always try to squeeze you for more details.”Schwarzenegger spoke at the end of an all-star political gathering at the library and museum for the senator’s  late brother President John F. Kennedy. Billed as a “celebration” of the Massachusetts senator’s life and career, the event was also part wake and part political seminar as political figures told tale after tale about Kennedy, long a towering figure in U.S. politics.There was the time Kennedy tried to squeeze into a subcompact car with fellow heavyweight, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Arizona Republican Senator John McCain recounted delightful squabbles on the floor of the U.S. Senate.Speaking before picture windows overlooking the Boston skyline, former Iowa Senator John Culver, who played football with Kennedy at Harvard University in the 1950s, got the biggest laughs from the crowd of more than a thousand. Culver recalled how the young Kennedy once dragged the unknowing Midwesterner to a near-death experience crewing his sailboat in rough seas.”After a while, I was more terrified of him than the storm,” Culver said.Days after Kennedy’s death on Tuesday at age 77 from brain cancer, the gathering was another reminder of the Kennedy family’s drawing power. Scores of police and Secret Service agents shut down roads leading to the library and set up a rope line to keep more than 100 journalists and their cameras at bay at the museum entrance.More of the evening was spent in laughter rather than tears.Kennedy would have wanted it that way, said Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, a political party in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.”Ted Kennedy was full of crack,” Adams said, using an Irish expression for fun and mischief rather than a drug reference. “I know that has a different meaning here.”Photo credit: REUTERS/Brian Snyder (Attendees watch video at Boston memorial service for Senator Edward Kennedy)