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| Horror stories as 10000 feared dead in Typhoon Haiyan - USA TODAY Posted: 10 Nov 2013 08:23 AM PST MANILA — As many as 10,000 people may have died when one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded destroyed entire villages and devastated cities with huge waves and winds of nearly 150 mph. On Sunday, the Philippines were still trying to comprehend the destruction that Typhoon Haiyan brought to this string of islands in the Pacific. Corpses hung from tree branches and were scattered along sidewalks and among flattened buildings. People raided grocery stores and gas stations in search of food, fuel and water. A weakened but still powerful Haiyan was churning through the South China Sea toward Vietnam, which was evacuating tens of thousands of people. In the Philippines, authorities were still trying to get to islands that no one had been able to communicate with since the typhoon struck Friday. But those reached revealed immense damage to homes, roads and buildings. STORY: Filipino Americans gather funds STORY: How you can help survivors Frantic relatives crowded into the Villamor Airbase in Manila to wait for transport planes that were rescuing people from at least six of the archipelago's more than 7,000 islands that were hit hardest. Maritess Tayag, in her 40s, and her sister, Maryann, 29, arrived at the airport dizzy, shaken and thirsty but elated to be alive. They came from their home in Tacloban on the island of Leyte, one of the hardest hit by the typhoon. "I was in the house — trapped in my room. The water is up to my nose — I cannot breathe anymore. I am trying to save myself," said Maritess Tayag, describing the early hours of Saturday when ceaseless wind drove dark seawater mixed with foul-smelling water from canals higher and higher into their homes. Her brother was in the house, too, trying to keep his head above the rising water, she said. But, "It reached up over his head. Then a big wave of fast flood reached up higher." "I feel I would die at this moment because I can't — I don't know what I will do," she said, crying. "I cry a lot of cry shouting 'Mom!' Open, open please open help us somebody." Her younger sister and sister-in-law made it to the roof. Her brother and mother did not, she said, and both are probably dead. Maryann described their town as looking as if it was a "World War II city" and said everyone was trying to flee in fear after the typhoon winds ended Saturday. "It was almost a stampede at the airport in Tacloban," she said. "Everyone was trying to get on the plane. It's really, really terrible." It was not until Sunday that authorities communicated with Leyte. The sisters said there was no power or phone service. They said they saw looting everywhere. Food and water are almost non-existent, they said. "It's all washed out ... including the hospitals and malls, by the strong winds and floods that came," Maritess said in a quivering voice. "The hardest thing is ... seeing you mother floating in the flood and you don't know what to do. You just see there and the only thing is have to save yourself," Maryann said. "I could not save her because she drowned already, and it was not just water from the sea but mixed with dirty water — color black, like came from river and smell like canal." Regional police chief Elmer Soria said he was briefed by Leyte provincial Gov. Dominic Petilla late Saturday and told there were about 10,000 deaths on the island, mostly by drowning and from collapsed buildings. The governor's figure was based on reports from village officials in areas where Typhoon Haiyan slammed Friday. Tacloban city administrator Tecson Lim said that the death toll in the city "could go up to 10,000." A mass burial was planned Sunday in Palo town near Tacloban. If the typhoon death toll is confirmed, it would be the deadliest natural catastrophe on record in the Philippines, topping both the 5,100 killed by Tropical Storm Thelma in November 1991 and the 5,791 killed after a magnitude-7.9 earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Moro Gulf in the southern Philippines in 1976. President Benigno Aquino III flew around Leyte by helicopter on Sunday and landed in Tacloban to get a firsthand look at the disaster. He said the government's priority was to restore power and communications in isolated areas and deliver relief and medical assistance to victims. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Aquino was "speechless" when he told him of the devastation the typhoon had wrought in Tacloban. "I told him all systems are down," Gazmin said. "There is no power, no water, nothing. People are desperate. They're looting." In Vietnam, emergency responders are shifting gears as Haiyan's forecasted path has moved northward, leaving residents in the central part of the country briefing a sigh of relief. STORY: Vietnam prepares for storm Francis Markus, spokesman for the Red Cross in Vietnam said that the unpredictable trajectory of the storm has stretched the country's emergency response resources thin, creating new challenges as preparations have shifted from the center to the north of the country. And while the central area was spared the brunt of Haiyan, Vietnam is still on high alert as the deadly typhoon approaches. "We don't really have an idea of the severity with which this northern region is going to be hit," said Markus. "I think everybody's been very shocked by the horror of the impact of Haiyan in the Philippines and it means we really have to do the maximum to prepare for it in Vietnam and in China and certainly not be complacent." Maresca reported from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Contributing: Doyle Rice from McLean, Va.; The Associated Press |
| Iran: Nuclear deal can be done says Hague - BBC News Posted: 10 Nov 2013 07:38 AM PST
10 November 2013
Last updated at 08:00 ET
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague: "A deal is on the table and it can be done" A deal can be reached with Iran to curb its nuclear programme, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague has said. The outline of an agreement was "on the table" although he acknowledged current talks were "formidably difficult". The international community has long suspected Iran of aspiring to have nuclear weapons but it says it is only enriching uranium for civil purposes. Talks between Iran and the five UN Security Council members, plus Germany, ended without resolution on Saturday. But Mr Hague told the BBC's Andrew Marr show he believed progress had been made in Geneva and it was vital to keep up the momentum. 'Some gaps'"On the question of will it happen in the next few weeks, there is a good chance of that. A deal is on the table and it can be done. But it is a formidably difficult negotiation, I can't say exactly when it will conclude," he said. Asked why the negotiations had apparently stalled, Mr Hague said there were "still some gaps" between Iran and other leading members of the international community, including the US, UK and Russia. He said: "They are narrow gaps. You asked what went wrong, I would say that a great deal went right. "This is a very difficult negotiation but it's fundamental to international peace and security over the next few years so we have to persist." Under the deal floated in Geneva, Iran could freeze expansion of its nuclear activity in return for limited relief from international sanctions which have been in place for years. Iran has said all sides can "build on" the dialogue in Geneva and there was "the impetus to reach an agreement". But Israel has criticised the alleged offer put to Tehran as "dangerous" and said it would press the US and other world powers to "avoid a bad deal". But Mr Hague said the members of the UN Security Council were "clearly united" and it was clear the parties were "closer together now" than before the three days of talks. "We were all saying the same thing to Iran and supporting the same deal and that is something for the Iranians to think carefully about," he added. Meanwhile, a member of Jordan's ruling family has said there is the potential for a "really serious breakthrough" at the next scheduled talks on 20 November. Prince Hassan Bin Talal told the Dermot Murnaghan show on Sky News there were "many enemies" who stood in the way of a possible agreement but a resolution would have major implications for the security of the region. "I think this is the first step towards a regional architecture for a conference on security and co-operation," he said. Separately, Mr Hague said it would be wrong for the UK to join a boycott of the forthcoming Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka, saying he could more effectively challenge the country about its human rights record by attending. And he also reiterated the UK's view that recent revelations about alleged mass surveillance by US security agencies - among information leaked by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden - had damaged the UK's national security. "By speculating about our capabilities, it makes it easier for those who are seeking to damage our country and kill people, it makes easier for them to evade interception and that it something which is very serious and very damaging." |
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