Residents in Manila waded through waist-deep floodwater, dodging branches and flying debris today as a powerful typhoon sent surging waves as tall as palm trees crashing over seawalls and submerging entire areas of the Philippines capital.

The US and Australia today warned of possible terrorist attacks in Manila and the southern Philippines, sparking a security alarm in the bustling capital with additional deployments of police patrols and intelligence agents.

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.

The white-shelled roof of the Sydney Opera House fell dark today, one of the first landmarks to turn out the lights in an hour-long gesture to be repeated by millions of people around the world who are calling for a binding pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

At least four people were killed and dozens of others injured when a powerful explosion rocked a crowded shopping centre in the capital of the Philippines today.

The death toll from a powerful typhoon that cut across the northern Philippines today rose to at least 48 with dozens of people missing in floods and landslides as residents mounted a massive cleanup.

DIVERS returned to a half-sunken, gutted ferry yesterday to search for 184 passengers missing since a fire aboard the ship last week, as the Philippines government played down claims by a Muslim militant group that it had planted a bomb that caused the blaze.

The number of missing in a ferry fire in the Philippines rose to 180 late today when officials realised that some people were counted twice after being rescued.

A POWERFUL explosion ripped through a passenger ferry carrying about 900 people in the Philippines early yesterday, sparking an inferno that left more than 100 people missing.

Scores of people were missing today after a passenger ferry carrying more than 850 people between Philippine islands caught fire near Manila.

Philippines rescuers have retrieved five more bodies from a twin-engine commuter airplane that crashed in Manila Bay.

Philippines coastguard salvage workers today retrieved the main part of a twin-engine commuter plane that crashed into Manila Bay, possibly from engine trouble, allowing inspection of the wreckage to begin, officials said.

At least 14 people are known to have died when a twin-engine commuter plane crashed into Manila Bay in the Philippines shortly after take-off.

At least six people were killed when a twin-engine commuter plane crashed into Manila Bay in the Philippines shortly after take-off.

A fire tore through a shantytown in metropolitan Manila today, killing two people and displacing about 5,000 residents, officials said.