RESCUERS began burying victims of a huge mudslide in the Philippines yesterday as hopes of finding more survivors all but evaporated.

Rescuers scrambled today to reach scores of people left stranded by a powerful typhoon that sliced through the Philippines on the heels of a rainstorm that killed more than 420 people with possibly hundreds more missing.

A FILIPINO held hostage in Iraq told his family in a videotaped message aired yesterday he would be home soon, but the militants holding him said he would be freed only after Manila withdrew its troops from Iraq.

A new “people power” revolt will erupt in the Philippines if movie star Fernando Poe Jr loses the presidential election through fraud, his party warned today – fighting words in a nation where popular protests have knocked two leaders out of office.