Rescue continues
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Ban will travel on Sunday to Haiti, spokesman Martin Nesirky told Xinhua on Friday.
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A volunteer treats an injured at a hospital in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, on Jan. 16, 2010. The hospital is full of the earthquake patients with insufficient medical care. [Yuan Man/Xinhua] |
"He would visit Haiti on Sunday to show his solidarity with the people of Haiti and U.N. staff, and to assess the humanitarian assistance effort and the scale of the disaster for himself," the spokesman said.
Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that among 40 rescue teams registered at the On-Site Operations Coordination Center, 17 have started their missions while six more were due to arrive soon.
She added her office had opened a special aerial route between the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince to speed the delivery of aid.
The German Red Cross (DRK) said Saturday that a German mobile hospital was on its way to Haiti.
The mobile hospital, with 200 crates of medical supplies and three all-wheel-drive vehicles, can treat up to 250 people a day.
DRK spokesman Svenja Koch said that the mobile hospital could be put into operation within a day if a suitable location was found.
Also on Saturday, a Boeing-747 jumbo jet carrying 90 tons of emergency humanitarian relief material donated by the Chinese government took off from Beijing for Haiti.
The 13 million yuan (1.9 million U.S. dollars) quake-relief donation, including tents, stretchers, food, medicines, clothing and water purification equipment, was China's first batch of relief aid for the stricken country.
The aid is part of an relief package worth 30 million yuan (4.41 million U.S. dollars) announced by the Chinese government Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she would go to Haiti on Saturday with Rajiv Shah, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to meet Preval and inspect U.S. rescue efforts on the island.
Meanwhile, a "Hope for Haiti" telethon originating from Los Angeles, New York and Haiti was to be broadcast on all major networks next week to raise funds for the earthquake victims, organizers announced Friday.
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An injured woman is carried out of a hospital in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, on Jan. 16, 2010. The hospital is full of the earthquake patients with insufficient medical care. [Yuan Man/Xinhua] |
The two-hour telethon was to be broadcast from the three cities, with actor George Clooney hosting in Los Angeles, musician Wyclef Jean hosting in New York and CNN's Anderson Cooper broadcasting from Haiti.
The Jan. 22 telethon will be broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT. The telecast will also be made available to MTV Networks International, CNN International and National Geographic channels worldwide.
Brazilian Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said in Brasilia after returning from a trip to Haiti early Friday that the Brazilian air force had built a field hospital in Port-au-Prince and the navy was considering transporting a medical center to Haiti.
Other countries including Cuba, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Finland, Lebanon and Poland have also offered relief funds, goods and materials or sent rescue teams.
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