ֱ

Tropical storm battering Philippines leaves at least 24 people dead in flooding and landslides

Tropical storm battering Philippines leaves at least 24 people dead in flooding and landslides
Philippine Coast Guard personnel rescue residents trapped on rooftops after flood waters rose from heavy rains brought by Tropical Storm Trami on Oct. 23, 2024. (Philippine Coast Guard via Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 24 October 2024

Tropical storm battering Philippines leaves at least 24 people dead in flooding and landslides

Tropical storm battering Philippines leaves at least 24 people dead in flooding and landslides
  • Deaths mostly due to drowning in the hard-hit Bicol region and nearby Quezon province
  • Most of the storm deaths were reported in the six-province Bicol region, southeast of Manila

MANILA: Widespread flooding and landslides set off by a tropical storm in the northeastern Philippines on Thursday left at least 24 people dead, swept away cars and prompted authorities to scramble for motorboats to rescue trapped villagers, some on roofs.
The government shut down schools and offices — except those urgently needed for disaster response — for the second day on the entire main island of Luzon to protect millions of people after Tropical Storm Trami slammed into the country’s northeastern province of Isabela after midnight.
The storm was blowing over Aguinaldo town in the mountain province of Ifugao after dawn with sustained winds up to 95kph and gusts up to 160kph. It was blowing westward and was forecast to enter the South China Sea later on Thursday, according to state forecasters.
At least 24 people died, mostly due to drowning in the hard-hit Bicol region and nearby Quezon province but the toll was expected to rise as towns and villages isolated by flooding and roads blocked by landslides and toppled trees manage to send out reports, police and provincial officials said.
Most of the storm deaths were reported in the six-province Bicol region, southeast of Manila, where at least 20 people died, including 7 residents in Naga city, which was inundated by flash floods as Trami was approaching Tuesday, dumping more than two months’ worth of rainfall in just 24 hours at high tide, regional police chief Brig. Gen. Andre Dizon and other officials said.
While thousands of villagers, who were trapped in floodwaters, have been rescued by government forces, many more needed to be saved Thursday in the Bicol region, including some on roofs. About 1,500 police officers have been deployed for disaster-mitigation work, Dizon said.
“We can’t rescue them all at once because there are so many and we need additional motorboats,” Dizon told The Associated Press by telephone. “We’re looking for ways to deliver food and water to those who were trapped but could not be evacuated right away.”
Flash floods swept away and submerged cars in some parts of Naga city while mudflows from Mayon, one of the country’s 24 active volcanoes, in nearby Albay province, engulfed several vehicles, Dizon said.
Stormy weather remained in the region, hampering relief efforts, officials said.
The government’s disaster-mitigation agency said more than 2 million people were affected by the storm, including 75,400 villagers who were displaced from their homes and are sheltering on safer ground.
About 20 storms and typhoons batter the Philippines each year. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest recorded tropical cyclones in the world, left more than 7,300 people dead or missing and flattened entire villages.


Ivory Coast tightens protest ban ahead of presidential vote

Ivory Coast tightens protest ban ahead of presidential vote
Updated 7 sec ago

Ivory Coast tightens protest ban ahead of presidential vote

Ivory Coast tightens protest ban ahead of presidential vote
  • Ban applies to all political parties and groups except the five candidates officially approved to contest the October 25 vote
ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast authorities have imposed a sweeping two-month ban on political rallies and demonstrations just a week before a presidential election, in a move further restricting opposition activity.
The ban, announced late Friday by the interior and defense ministries, applies to all political parties and groups except the five candidates officially approved to contest the October 25 vote.
It comes amid rising tensions following the exclusion of opposition heavyweights Laurent Gbagbo and Tidjane Thiam from the race.
Hundreds of people rallied at protests in Abidjan last weekend, with security forces dispersing crowds. Sporadic unrest, including road and school blockades, has been reported in several regions.
Around 700 people have been arrested over the past week, according to public prosecutor Oumar Braman Kone, who said phone data revealed calls for attacks on public institutions which he described as “acts of terrorism.”
On Thursday, 26 protesters were sentenced to three years in prison for public order offenses, and another 105 are due to stand trial next week.
The opposition coalition, which includes Gbagbo’s African Peoples’ Party – Ivory Coast (PPA-CI) and Thiam’s Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI), has denounced President Alassane Ouattara’s bid for a fourth term.
Amnesty International urged authorities to stop “repressing” protests, but Justice Minister Sansan Kambile defended the crackdown, citing national security concerns.
Ouattara faces four challengers, including former minister Jean-Louis Billon and ex-first lady Simone Gbagbo.

Thailand ex-PM Abhisit reinstated as conservative party leader

Thailand ex-PM Abhisit reinstated as conservative party leader
Updated 18 October 2025

Thailand ex-PM Abhisit reinstated as conservative party leader

Thailand ex-PM Abhisit reinstated as conservative party leader
  • Abhisit Vejjajiva led Thailand from 2008 to 2011 during the global financial crisis
  • His leadership was marred by the military crackdown on ‘Red Shirts’ protesters in 2010

BANGKOK: Thailand’s oldest political party voted Saturday to reinstate as its leader a conservative ex-premier who led the country during a bloody military crackdown on “Red Shirts” protesters.
Abhisit Vejjajiva, who led Thailand from 2008 to 2011 during the global financial crisis, gained early popularity for his eloquent debating style.
But his leadership of the Democrat Party was marred by the military crackdown on “Red Shirts” protesters in 2010 that killed more than 90 people and left over 2,000 wounded.
Abhisit was branded by rivals as “the PM with blood on his hands” and his political career faltered in the following years amid internal party divisions, leading him to resign as its leader and then withdraw his membership in 2023.
On Saturday, party members voted with 96 percent support to reinstate him as leader in a vote broadcast on local media.
“I thank everyone for trusting my ability once again,” the 61-year-old – wearing the party’s blue color – told members after the vote.
“My heart never left here.”
Thailand is currently governed by a minority government, with Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul pledging to dissolve parliament and hold a new election within four months.
Analysts say Abhisit’s comeback could position the Democrat Party as a key player in the next polls where he will likely be its leading candidate.
“People already have long-standing connections with him and the Democrat Party,” Ekkarin Tuansiri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkla University, told public broadcaster ThaiPBS, adding “but it won’t be easy.”
Founded in 1946, the Democrat Party was once a political powerhouse and a long-time rival to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s Red Shirts movement, but it has struggled in recent years with declining support and internal discord.
Born in England and educated at Oxford, Abhisit – a dual Thai-British national – has often been accused by rivals of being out of touch with Thais and evading the kingdom’s compulsory military service for men.


Pakistan defense minister, intelligence chief due in Doha for talks with Afghan Taliban

Pakistan defense minister, intelligence chief due in Doha for talks with Afghan Taliban
Updated 18 October 2025

Pakistan defense minister, intelligence chief due in Doha for talks with Afghan Taliban

Pakistan defense minister, intelligence chief due in Doha for talks with Afghan Taliban

KARACHI: Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and intelligence chief will be traveling to Doha today, Saturday, to hold talks with representatives of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani state media reported, hours after another Pakistani airstrike in Afghanistan.

The fierce battles between the two neighbors along their long, porous border broke out last Saturday and have led to the deaths of dozens of people on both sides, with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes in Kandahar and Kabul before a two-day truce that expired Friday evening.

Pakistan “conducted precision aerial strikes” in Afghan border areas on Friday, a security official said, adding that it targeted the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Friday’s strikes killed three Afghan cricketers among 10 people, authorities said.

The latest strikes ended 48 hours of calm between the two countries which was earlier reportedly extended for talks between Pakistani and Afghan officials in the Qatari capital of Doha.

“Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif and Intelligence Chief Lt General Asim Malik are scheduled to depart for Doha on Saturday,” the state-run Pakistan TV reported. “Taliban delegation is expected to be of equivalent seniority.”

Islamabad said the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group had been involved in a suicide bombing and gun attack at a military camp in the North Waziristan district that borders Afghanistan, which left seven Pakistani paramilitary troops dead on Friday.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board said that three players who were in the region for a tournament were killed by Friday’s airstrikes, revising down an earlier toll of eight.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump offered to help end hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“I do understand that Pakistan attacked or there is an attack going on with Afghanistan,” he said in a meeting with the Ukranian president Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

“That’s an easy one for me to solve if I have to solve it. In the meantime, I have to run the USA. But I love solving wars.”

The clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan broke out amid Islamabad’s claims that the Afghan Taliban had been sheltering banned militant groups like the TTP and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which carry out cross-border attacks against Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegations.


Thousands flee Philippine coast as storm approaches

Thousands flee Philippine coast as storm approaches
Updated 18 October 2025

Thousands flee Philippine coast as storm approaches

Thousands flee Philippine coast as storm approaches
  • Eye of the storm forecast to brush past Catanduanes, an impoverished island of 270,000 people
  • Fengshen will bring heavy rainfall, along with a ‘minimal to moderate risk’ of coastal flooding

MANILA: Thousands of residents of a Philippine island left their homes along the Pacific coast Saturday as weather experts warned of coastal flooding ahead of the approach of Tropical Storm Fengshen, rescue officials said.
The eye of the storm was forecast to brush past Catanduanes, an impoverished island of 270,000 people, later in the day with gusts of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) an hour.
Fengshen will bring heavy rainfall, along with a “minimal to moderate risk” of coastal flooding from 1-2 meter (3-2 foot) waves being pushed ashore by the disturbance, the government weather service said.
More than 9,000 residents of Catanduanes moved to safer ground, the provincial disaster office said, in a well-rehearsed routine on the island that is often the first major landmass hit by cyclones that form in the western Pacific Ocean.
The Catanduanes provincial government ordered local officials to “activate their respective evacuation plans” for residents of “high-risk areas” including the coast, low-lying communities and landslide-prone slopes, rescue official Gerry Rubio said.
The neighboring provinces of Sorsogon and Albay also called for preemptive evacuations, but official figures were not immediately available.
The Philippines is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, routinely striking disaster-prone areas where millions of people live in poverty.
Scientists warn that storms are becoming more powerful as the planet warms due to human-driven climate change.
Fengshen comes as the country reeled from a series of major earthquakes that killed at least 87 people over the past three weeks.


Anti-Trump protesters fire arrows at Colombian police, injuring four

Anti-Trump protesters fire arrows at Colombian police, injuring four
Updated 18 October 2025

Anti-Trump protesters fire arrows at Colombian police, injuring four

Anti-Trump protesters fire arrows at Colombian police, injuring four
  • Colombian defense ministry shares images depicting a chaotic scene outside the embassy
  • Protest group stages the event outside to denounce the right-wing agenda of US leader

BOGOTA: Four police officers in Colombia’s capital were injured Friday after protesters outside the US embassy fired arrows and explosives during a rally against President Donald Trump’s policies, officials said.
“Delinquents, some of whom were hooded, attacked the embassy with incendiary devices, explosives and arrows,” said Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan.
“Four police officers were wounded in the face, legs and arms.”
The defense ministry shared images depicting a chaotic scene outside the embassy, with one showing an officer with an arrow lodged in his arm.
The protest group, which called themselves “Congreso de los Pueblos” (People’s Congress), staged the event outside the embassy to denounce the right-wing agenda of Trump, a spokesperson for the group, Jimmy Moreno, said.
“We are demonstrating for our sovereignty, no more interference from the United States, against everything the United States has been involved in the genocide of Palestinians, its interference in Latin America, and the threats it has been making in the Caribbean... against the Venezuelan Bolivar model,” Moreno said.
The group began staging protests Monday in various locations throughout Bogota, but they did not turn violent until Friday.
Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro, who has found himself at odds with Trump at various points this year, said in a post on the social network X that he “ordered maximum caution with the US embassy in Bogota.”
“A more radical group has attacked the police guarding the embassy, with several young people injured with arrows,” he added.
The protest group expressed agreement with Petro in a bulletin but called on the government to build “an anti-imperialist front.”