Ban to visit quake-hit Haiti Sunday

NEW YORK - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon plans to visit Haiti Sunday to show his solidarity with the earthquake-ravaged Haitian people and United Nations staff.

The UN office announced Friday that Ban will use the opportunity to assess the destruction and international efforts to assist the Caribbean nation, which was devastated by Tuesday’s magnitude-7 earthquake. The death toll is expected to be in tens of thousands.

Ban met with Haitian UN staffers at United Nations headquarters Friday in New York to give them “comfort and offer his condolences”, a spokesman said.