Three people have died after heavy rains from a storm and the seasonal monsoon caused widespread flooding in the Philippine capital Manila and nearby provinces.

ROBOT BORIS

A typhoon has blasted through the northern Philippines, leaving at least 38 people dead and forcing more than half a million to flee its wind and rain.

A Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for three decades, refusing to believe the Second World War was over until his former commander returned and ordered him to surrender, has died in Tokyo aged 91.

FILIPINOS are used to a seemingly never-ending pattern of storms, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions, but typhoon Haiyan is now officially one of the deadliest disasters to strike the country.

Desperation gripped Philippine islands devastated by Typhoon Haiyan as looting turned deadly and survivors panicked over shortages of food, water and medicine, some digging up underground water pipes and smashing them open.

The United Nations is to launch an urgent aid appeal to help the Philippines recover from the ravages of Typhoon Haiyan.

Flooding caused by some of the Philippines’ heaviest rain on record has seen more than half of its capital city, Manila, submerged in water.

Divers have plucked two more bodies from a sunken passenger ferry and scrambled to plug an oil leak in the wreckage after a collision with a cargo ship.

A ferry with nearly 700 people aboard has sunk near the central Philippine port of Cebu after colliding with a cargo vessel, killing at least 17 people. Hundreds of others were rescued.

A man with domestic problems has shot dead eight people, including a pregnant woman and two children, after taking alcohol and drugs in a rampage near the Philippine capital Manila.

About 200 Muslim rebels led by their elusive chief have arrived in the Philippine capital for the signing of a preliminary peace pact aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.

A fresh deluge forced more evacuations along fast-rising rivers in the Philippine capital today as the city and surrounding areas struggled to deal with widespread flooding triggered by nearly two weeks of rain.

Widespread flooding that killed at least 11 people and paralysed the Philippine capital began to ease today as rescue efforts focused on a large number of distressed residents, some still marooned on their roofs.

Big waves have smashed a passenger boat into rocky outcrops and sunk the vessel in stormy weather in the south-western Philippines, killing at least five people, officials said today.

The Philippines foreign secretary says he and the Chinese ambassador have agreed to resolve diplomatically a stand-off involving a Philippine warship and two Chinese surveillance vessels in a disputed area of the South China Sea.

Two moderately strong earthquakes have hit the north western Philippines with no damage reported so far.

A moderately strong earthquake cracked buildings and knocked televisions and glassware from tables today in a central Philippine province, injuring at least five people and sending others rushing outside in panic, officials said.

If we did not exist we would not suffer. With population growth unsustainable, perhaps it is morally wrong to continue having children, says Professor Tom Moore

With funeral companies overwhelmed, a flood-hit Philippine city has organised the first mass burial of some of nearly 700 people killed in one of worst calamities to strike the region in decades.

The death toll from storm-triggered flash floods that devastated a wide swathe of the southern Philippines has risen to 521, the Philippine Red Cross said today.

A light aircraft has crashed into a school building near the Philippine capital Manila after its pilot requested an emergency landing shortly after takeoff.

More than 1,000 gays, lesbians and transgender people have marched in the Philippine capital to demand equal rights and an end to discrimination, and more support for an Aids programme.

Muhammad Ali was among the mourners on Monday at the funeral of long-time rival Joe Frazier in Philadelphia.

Boxing was today mourning the passing of one its finest heavyweights after Joe Frazier lost his battle with liver cancer.

Gunmen who took six people hostage in a bank near the Philippine capital Manila have surrendered after releasing their hostages unharmed.

A bomb-maker was killed by his own device as he tried to give Islamic school pupils a lesson in how to make explosives, it has emerged.

Ten construction workers plunged 25 storeys to their death today after a platform lift collapsed at a building site in the Philippine capital, officials said.

Police arrested four people who scuffled with riot police during anti-globalisation rallies ahead of this week’s Group of 20 summit, a police officer said today.

A PHILIPPINE woman who admitted giving birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then leaving him in the rubbish on the plane said she was raped by her employer, a lawmaker said yesterday.

The first typhoon to lash the Philippines this year killed at least nine people and left 10 others missing after flooding streets in the capital and toppling power lines.

An earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck west of the Philippines capital, Manila, today, seismology experts said.

Emergency rule was imposed on two Philippine provinces today as security forces found more bodies from one of the worst incidents of election violence in the nation’s history, taking the death toll to 46.

A typhoon battered the Philippine capital Manila as surrounding provinces were still reeling from recent flooding, sending residents of one town clambering on to rooftops today to escape rising waters.

One of the most destructive storms in years extended its deadly path across Southeast Asia today crushing homes in Cambodia and Vietnam after submerging much of the Philippine capital Manila.

RESCUERS pulled more bodies from swollen rivers yesterday as residents started to dig out their homes from under carpets of mud after flooding left 140 people dead in the Philippine capital and surrounding towns.

The number of dead and missing from Tropical Storm Ketsana has climbed to at least 106 people, according to Philippine officials.

Philippine officials said the number of dead or missing from Tropical Storm Ketsana climbed to at least 72 people.

At least 40 people have been killed after Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped more than 16 inches (40 centimetres) of rain on the Philippine capital, Manila, in just 12 hours, officials said today.

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 congressman killed in a bomb blast outside the Philippine legislature was a former member of an al-Qaida-linked militant group who switched sides to support a US-backed offensive against them, police said today.

A volcano just south-east of the Philippine capital of Manila erupted today, a day after ejecting ash, the Philippines’ chief volcanologist said.

Recovery teams resumed their search at the site of a buried Philippine village today, amid fears that time has run out for finding survivors of a massive landslide.

Police in the Philippine capital Manila went on heightened alert today, a day after authorities uncovered an alleged new coup plot against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and opposition groups called for a massive rally next week.