Two armed men took over a bus in the Philippine capital Manila on Wednesday and were holding 31 nursery school children and two teachers hostage, apparently to highlight corruption in the country. The gunmen, believed to be armed with grenades, an Uzi submachine gun and a revolver, freed one child who was running a fever in a three-hour stand-off.
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/ 9 December 2006
A typhoon swept into the central Philippines on Saturday, a day after it forced the government to hastily shelve a gathering of Asian leaders on a resort island south of the storm’s projected path. Typhoon Utor is the second storm to batter the archipelago in as many weeks and brought gusts of up to 150kph and heavy rain to the island of Samar, about 600km south-east of Manila.
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/ 1 December 2006
At least 388 people are confirmed dead and 96 missing after rivers of mud and volcanic ash triggered by Typhoon Durian swamped villages in the Philippines, the Red Cross said on Friday. All the dead are in the eastern province of Albay, said Philippines Red Cross spokesperson Teresa Arguelles.
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/ 27 September 2006
The 12-million residents of Philippine capital Manila are readying for a possible direct hit from a typhoon after the storm slammed into the country’s central region on Wednesday, stranding thousands of ferry passengers. ”Since 1995, there has been no strong typhoon that has crossed this close to Manila,” Nathaniel Cruz, the chief weather forecaster, told reporters.
A Philippine army offensive against Muslim rebels on the remote south-western island of Jolo may have foiled a plan to launch bombings in the capital Manila, officials said on Friday. Hundreds of troops, backed by United States intelligence, have been combing the hilly jungles near Indanan town to flush out members of the Abu Sayyaf group.