A senior health and safety inspector has expressed serious concerns for farm safety this year following the worst year for farm deaths in almost 20 years in 2014.

At least one man was killed and 45 fishermen were missing after a powerful typhoon battered the northern Philippines, toppling power lines and dumping heavy rain across mountains, cities and the food-growing plain.

Thousands of Filipinos shovelled muck and debris from flood-ravaged homes, shops and roads under a shining sun today after nearly two weeks of non-stop rain shut down the capital and forced hundreds of thousands to flee from the deluge.

The Health and Safety Authority has launched a new website featuring farmers who tell how accidents affected their families and friends.

Friends and family have buried the ex-policeman who hijacked a bus in the Philippines, on which eight Hong Kong tourists died.

A sacked policeman armed with an automatic rifle seized a bus in the Philippines capital Manila today with 24 passengers, most of them Hong Kong tourists, in a bid to demand his reinstatement, police said.

A wooden-hulled ferry with nearly 100 passengers capsized after being battered by big waves in the north-eastern Philippines, drowning at least 22 people and leaving more than 30 missing.

A bomb exploded in the southern Philippines today, amid warnings of more terrorist attacks a day after suspected al-Qaida-linked militants detonated an explosive that killed six people.

Just five minutes could save the life of someone on a farm this year, the Health and Safety Authority insisted today.

Chemical company ADM of Ringaskiddy was convicted and fined €30,000 today after pleading guilty to two criminal offences of breaching health and safety legislation after a fatal accident at the plant two years ago.

Two police officers have been arrested in relation to the beheading of three young men in the Philippines.