LDS missionaries leave Haiti

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has pulled all 64 of its non-native missionaries out of Haiti because of increasing tensions there.

The United States put 50 Marines in the Caribbean nation Monday to protect its embassy there, after a revolt to unseat the president intensified.

"The safety of missionaries around the world is our utmost concern," Dale Bills, LDS Church spokesman, said. "We have been monitoring the situation in Haiti very closely and have decided to temporarily transfer all non-Haitian missionaries now serving in Haiti to other missions outside of the country. Native Haitian missionaries who continue to serve in their homeland have been asked to follow previously announced precautions: to avoid crowds and areas where demonstrations are occurring and to remain indoors whenever they feel it is not safe to be out. Missionaries have also been transferred from areas where civil unrest has occurred recently."

The LDS Church has more than 10,000 members in Haiti.