Storm in Philippines killed 10

After 10 Dead in Philippines, Storm Heads to China.

A super typhoon that killed 10 people and flattened forests in the northern Philippines dumped heavy rains on the capital Tuesday as it headed across the sea to menace its next likely targets in southern China.

Typhoon Megi struck the Philippines on Monday with ferocious winds of 140 miles (225 kilometers) per hour, but initial assessments showed relatively light damage and casualties, partly because the storm struck sparsely populated areas. Philippine officials also cited their massive emergency preparations days ahead of the storm.

Food vendor Nesie Callaotit, her husband and two children were hurriedly packing clothes to flee to safety when the wind yanked off half of their tin roof, exposing their house in northeastern Isabela province to pounding rain and the horrifying wind.

They held on to a wooden post for three hours, weeping and praying together, until the chaos eased.

"All of us were in tears," the 40-year-old Callaotit said. "We thought it was our last day together."

After it exited into the South China Sea on Tuesday, Megi was almost stationary packing winds of 108 mph (175 kph) but was forecast to regain strength before its expected landfall in southern China on Thursday. Chinese authorities evacuated 140,000 people from a coastal province.

The storm could also eventually hit Vietnam, which already was suffering from unrelated flooding that has killed 41 people. On Monday, surging currents on Vietnam's flooded main highway swept away a bus and 19 of its passengers, including a boy pulled from his mother's grasp.

Isabela province in the northeast Philippines, Megi's entry point, bore the brunt of the Typhoon Megi's destruction while more than 8,000 people rode out the typhoon in sturdy school buildings, town halls, churches and relatives' homes.

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Philippine bus accident

35 dead in Philippine bus accident.

Thirty-five people were killed when a packed passenger bus plunged into a deep ravine in the northern Philippines on Wednesday, authorities said said.

The bus, carrying 47 Filipinos, had just left the mountain resort city of Baguio when its brakes failed, local fire chief Senior Superintendent Richard Villanueva told AFP.

National police spokesman Senior Superintendent Agrimero Cruz told reporters that 35 people were confirmed dead.

"Six other passengers were rescued seriously injured and unconscious, while the rest (were) rescued with injuries," he said.

The bus conductor, John Patrick Flores, said he survived by jumping out of the door before the vehicle plunged into the ravine.

"The driver tried to ram the bus into a mango tree to prevent it from falling, but failed," he said.

Police Senior Inspector Leo Guay, who led the search and retrieval operations, said the destroyed vehicle rested on its side on shrub-covered ground.

He said the steep slope made it difficult for rescuers to retrieve the mangled bodies from inside the wreckage.

"There were a few survivors, including the driver and the conductor. It happened very quick, the driver just lost control," Guay said.

Guay said police were in the process of informing relatives of the victims, but said no one from the company that owned the bus had so far come forward to help.

Baguio is about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Manila.

Road accidents, often involving old buses and careless drivers, are common in the Philippines.

Fifteen people were killed last month when a bus slammed into a concrete wall in Cebu, the Philippines' second biggest city.

Twenty-one people, among them Iranian medical students, were killed a month earlier, also in Cebu, when a bus fell off a cliff.

Philippine - Zambo airport blast

Philippine airport blast kills 2, wounds governor.

A Philippine governor who led a military campaign against Muslim militants said Friday he believed he was the target of a bombing at a southern airport that grazed him and killed two other people, including one of the attackers.

About two dozen other people were wounded, one seriously, late Thursday when the blast ripped through the arrival gate as passengers — including Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan — were leaving the Zamboanga city airport.

Police said one of two assailants was carrying the explosives in his backpack, and they were investigating whether they went off prematurely or were triggered remotely. There is no history of suicide bombings in the Philippines, which has grappled with a decadeslong Muslim insurgency in the country's restive south.

Police did not immediately provide any details about the second suspected attacker.

U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas, who was supposed to visit Zamboanga on Friday, said he postponed the trip because it would be a burden to security personnel investigating the attack. He offered U.S. assistance in the probe.

"I deplore this heinous crime that victimized ordinary travelers," Thomas said in a statement. He had been due to fly to the airport.

Zamboanga, a major economic and transport hub on southern Mindanao Island, has been targeted before in bombings by the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group, which is notorious for kidnappings and beheadings. It is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, and the U.S. military has deployed special forces to the region to help train and arm Filipino troops fighting the militants.

Tan, governor of Sulu island province — an Abu Sayyaf stronghold south of Zamboanga — sustained a small wound near his ribs when the blast went off as he and other passengers disembarked from a plane arriving from Manila, about 540 miles (860 kilometers) north of Zamboanga. He was later discharged from hospital.

"I believe I was the target," Tan told reporters, saying the device went off just a yard (meter) away from him. "I saw the flash very clearly."

An enemy of the Abu Sayyaf militants, he has been targeted before. He escaped unharmed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his convoy in Sulu in May last year. A town mayor and at least three security escorts were wounded in that attack.

On Friday, Tan suggested his political rivals could be connected to terrorists but did not elaborate. "I have received intelligence reports that I would be bombed again, in Zamboanga or Sulu or Manila. Not only bombed, they may even use a rocket-propelled grenade," he said.

Newly elected President Benigno Aquino III, facing his first security crisis since assuming office in June, condemned the violence and ordered authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, said his spokesman, Edwin Lacierda.

21 dead as Typhoon Conson batters Philippines

Deadly storm cuts power across northern Philippines

At least 21 people were killed in a deadly typhoon that destroyed houses, toppled trees and caused massive power outages in the Philippines, officials said on Wednesday.

Sixty people remained missing as Typhoon Conson swept through the northern and eastern Philippines, bringing heavy rains and strong winds, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and rescue officials said.

Among the missing were six people in the western province of Bataan and 51 in the eastern provinces of Catanduanes and Camarines Norte, the NDCC said.

The weather bureau said Conson made landfall late Tuesday in north—eastern Quezon province, with sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour (kph) and gusts of up to 150 kph.

Conson weakened on Wednesday into a tropical storm, with maximum sustained winds of 95 kph and gusts of up to 120 kph, as it headed toward the South China Sea, the weather bureau said.

President Benigno Aquino III met with senior relief and rescue officials on Wednesday at the military headquarters to assess the havoc brought by Conson.

Mr. Aquino urged officials of the weather bureau to take steps to improve forecasts to minimize damage caused by typhoons.

“This is not acceptable,” he said. “All other agencies have met their responsibilities at this point, but your information is sorely lacking. We have had this problem for quite a long time.” Four people, including a mother and her two—year—old daughter, were killed after being hit by debris and falling trees in Cavite province, just south of Manila, Governor Jonvic Remulla said.

In Laguna province, four more were crushed to death by a wall that collapsed in Binan town and one was drowned in flash floods in nearby Calamba town. Six also drowned and three were missing when their houses were swept away by floodwaters in Laurel and Talisay towns in the nearby province of Batangas, provincial rescue officials said.

In Rizal province, two people were killed when they were crushed by falling poles in Taytay town, police said.

Major Harold Cabunoc, a regional army spokesman, said three people drowned in the eastern province of Camarines Norte.

The NDCC said one fisherman drowned when his boat sunk in Mariveles town in Bataan.

More than 100 houses were destroyed by strong winds or swept away by floodwaters in Taytay town in Rizal province and in Noveleta town in Cavite province, local officials said.

Many roads in Manila were blocked by electrical poles and trees toppled by Conson’s winds, which also caused heavy equipment used in the construction of an overhead highway to collapse.

A wide area in Manila and nearby provinces lost power after transmission lines were damaged and electric posts were toppled. Most school classes were suspended while some offices called off work.

Several local and domestic flights from Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport were suspended early Wednesday while four international arrivals were diverted to the central city of Cebu.