NEW BATAAN - Desperate families begged for food, days after Typhoon Bopha brought death and destruction to parts of a southern Philippine island, as the storm returned to the north of the country. Northern areas escaped with heavy rain after the storm weakened. But scenes of hardship were everywhere in southern areas that last week felt the full fury of the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year. Officials said 548 people are confirmed dead, most of them in the southern island of Mindanao. Officials said the number of missing shot up to 827 from previous figures of 500 unaccounted for, after reports of more missing fishermen. AFP
DHAKA - Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse armed protesters staging blockades across Bangladesh as part of an opposition push to get an independent administration to oversee next year's general election. Activists from the country's two main political parties hurled home-made bombs and threatened to use guns, witnesses said. Supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, and its allies set ablaze about 30 buses, trucks and cars in the capital Dhaka and other parts of the country. Reuters