UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to visit Tacloban City

UNITED NATIONS - UN leader Ban Ki-moon will go to the typhoon-stricken Philippines city of Tacloban this week to highlight the growing number of weather disasters. "2013 was another year of extreme weather -- as we saw most recently with Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). On Thursday, I will depart for Manila and Tacloban for a firsthand assessment of the aftermath," Ban said Monday as he announced the visit. The UN secretary general is to arrive in Manila on Friday for talks with government leaders and will go to Tacloban on Saturday, UN spokeswoman Eri Kaneko said. "He will visit affected communities in Tacloban," Kaneko said. The UN leader will leave the Philippines on Sunday. The Philippines government says that more than 6,000 people died in the November 8 typhoon -- one of the strongest storms ever recorded -- which badly hit Tacloban and surrounding regions. Almost 1,800 people are still missing. Ban said that he is organizing a major summit on climate change for September 23 next year, just ahead of the UN General Assembly. — Agence France-Presse