UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that he is "deeply saddened to confirm the tragic death" of his special representative to Haiti, Hedi Annabi, and his deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa.

    In a statement issued at the UN Headquarters in New York, Ban said, "In every sense of the word, they gave their lives for peace."

File photo taken on Jan. 21, 2008 shows Hedi Annabi attending a press conference in Brasilia, capital of Brazil. Hedi Annabi, chief of United Nations (UN) in Haiti was found dead among debris in the quake-destroyed UN headquarters in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Chinese rescuers announced on Jan. 16, 2010. (Xinhua/Brazil News Agency) Photo Gallery>>>

    Also confirmed dead were the acting police commissioner, Doug Coates of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ban said.

    Annabi, a Tunisian national who was head of the UN Stability Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), was found dead among debris in the quake-destroyed UN Headquarters in Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Chinese rescuers announced in the capital on Saturday.

    Xinhua reporters witnessed Annabi's body being recuperated by the Chinese rescue team on Saturday afternoon. He was believed to be in a meeting with a high-ranking delegation from China when the quake struck the small island country.

    "Our hearts are with them, the families and friends of Hedi, Luiz, Doug and the many other UN heroes who gave their lives for Haiti and for the highest ideals of the United Nations," said the secretary-general. "Their dearest wish, I am sure, would be that we carry forward the noble work that they and their colleagues performed so well."

    Annabi was born in 1944, he joined the United Nations in 1981 and served as deputy head of UN peacekeeping operations from 1997 to 2007. He assumed his Haiti post in September 2007.

    Annabi "was a true citizen of the world. The United Nations was his life and he ranked amongst its most dedicated and committed sons," Ban said. "He was passionate about its mission and its people."

Chinese peacekeeping police wait for the return of their buried colleagues in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, Jan. 16, 2010. Six bodies of eight Chinese peacekeeping police buried in the debris of Haitian earthquake have been found by the press time. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) Photo Gallery>>>

    "He gave of himself fully -- with energy, discipline and great bravery," he said. "From his start as a desk officer for Cambodia to his involvement in literally every peacekeeping operation the UN launched for over a decade, he was the gold standard of service against which all who had the privilege to work with him were measured.

    "An icon of UN peacekeeping, there was no better representative of the international civil service. A mild man with the heart of alion, he is remembered by those who knew him for his dry sense of humor, his integrity and his unparalleled work ethic -- he was thefirst in and the last out every day for his entire career.

    "He was proud of the UN mission in Haiti -- proud of its accomplishments in bringing stability and hope to Haiti's people, proud of his UN staff," he said.

Liu Xiangyang (L), deputy chief of the National Earthquake Disaster Emergency Rescue Team, salutes to a Chinese victim in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, on Jan. 16, 2010. The bodies of all eight Chinese police officers who were buried during the Haiti quake had been found as of early Sunday morning Beijing time, the Ministry of Public Security said. (Xinhua/Yuan Man) Photo Gallery>>>

    "Luiz Carlos da Costa, from Brazil, was for many, many years a legend of UN peacekeeping operations," the secretary-general said. "His extraordinary professionalism and dedication were matched only by his charisma and warmth, and his devotion to his many friends."

    "Over decades, he brought many of the finest and most talented staff to the United Nations. He was a mentor to generations of UN staff," Ban said. "He knew them; he knew their families; and his heart was always open to hear their story and to help them."

    "His legacy lives in the thousands that serve under the blue flag in every corner of the globe."

    "Doug Coates was a long-serving member of the international law enforcement community," Ban said. "He was a true friend of Haiti and the United Nations. He was a great police officer who believed to his core in the importance of rule of law and justice." 

Chinese peacekeeping police salute to the body of their buried colleague in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti, Jan. 16, 2010. Six bodies of eight Chinese peacekeeping police buried in the debris of Haitian earthquake have been found by the press time. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli) Photo Gallery>>>

Clinton meets with Haitian President Rene Preval 

    PORT AU PRINCE, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Haitian President Rene Preval on Saturday.

   She arrived Haiti on Saturday. Full story

Haiti plans massive evacuation of quake-hit homeless 

Photo taken on Jan. 16, 2010 shows a shelter of the earthquake refugees in Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti. (Xinhua/Yuan Man) Photo Gallery>>>

   PORT AU PRINCE, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Haiti government plans a massive evacuation of citizens made homeless by Tuesday's earthquake, which registered 7.3 degrees on the Richter scale, the nation's interior minister, Antoine Bien-Aime said on Saturday.

    "In many cases we are going to have to move the population and we plan to build temporary camps to host the homeless," Bien-Aime said. Full story

Quake destroys 90% of Haitian town Leogane 

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. (Xinhua/Yuan Man) Photo Gallery>>>

    PORT AU PRINCE, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake destroyed 90 percent of Leogane, the municipality 30 kilometers west of Haiti's capital that was the epicenter of the quake, United Nations spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said on Saturday.

    Haitian police said that between 5,000 and 10,000 residents of the town, with a population of 134,000, had died and that many of them remain trapped in the rubble. Between 40 percent and 50 percent of buildings collapsed in nearby towns Carrefour, population 334,000; and Gressier, 25,000. Full story

Canada to send troops to Haiti for quake relief

    OTTAWA, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Canada will send more than 1,000 soldiers to Haiti next week for quake relief, the Globe and Mail reported on Saturday.

    The report said the army had told 800 troops from CPB Valcartier in Quebec to be ready to deploy to Haiti.Full story

Rescue continues as international community mobilized to help quake-hit Haiti 

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. (Xinhua/Yuan Man) Photo Gallery>>>

    PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Rescue efforts continued in Haiti on Saturday as the international community has been mobilized to provide the devastated island nation's earthquake survivors with medical assistance and other humanitarian aid.

    In the first three days after the magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck on Tuesday, aid workers spared no efforts to find any signs of life. A number of people have been saved from the rubble of Haiti's capital city but in most cases, more bodies were pulled out of the rubbles. Full story

UN Haiti casualties worst ever for staff 

    UNITED NATIONS, Jan.16 (Xinhua) -- Walking up the First Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, central New York City, butting against the icy north wind sweeping down the East River alongside UN World Headquarters this past week, one plodded to the promise of warmth, in a pain similar to, but certainly not as cutting as the hurt UN staff suffered with the loss of so many colleagues in the Jan. 12 Haiti earthquake.

    The headquarters staff, too, plods through daily routines, but now it is against the bone-chilling news of entrapment and death of their own, members of the global UN family, people they worked and partied with, shared news of personal triumphs and tragedies with. Full story