3 killed as typhoon Mangkhut hits Philippines
Manila, Sep 15: At least three people died and four others were injured as typhoon Mangkhut slammed into the Philippines on Saturday, bringing ferocious gale-force winds and pounding rains, officials said.
The Philippines National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said two emergency responders died in a landslide in the Cordillera Administrative Region of Luzon Island and another girl apparently drowned in Marikina river in Metro Manila, Xinhua news agency reported.
Mangkhut, the strongest storm anywhere on the planet in 2018, made landfall in Cagayan province, on the northern tip of Luzon Island at about 1.40 a.m. (local time), with gusts as high as 325 km per hour.
After the centre of the storm passed the Philippines, Mangkhut's winds slowed enough for the typhoon to lose its "super" status, but it remained a very powerful storm system with maximum sustained winds of 215 kph, equivalent to a category 4 hurricane.
After ripping through Luzon, the typhoon headed west into the South China Sea towards Hong Kong and southern China.
Almost all buildings in the Philippines' Tuguegarao city sustained damage. Strong winds pulled off entire roofs and threw large chunks of debris into the air. Communications were down in places, said officials.
Tuguegarao airport in northern Luzon, a vital transportation hub, was also damaged, potentially complicating efforts to bring in humanitarian aid, CNN reported.
The Philippines military sent two C-130 airplanes and 10 helicopters to Cagayan province for typhoon relief and rescue efforts, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was cited as saying by Philippines News Agency.
An estimated 5.2 million people in the Philippines were within 125 km of the projected path of the typhoon, the NDRRMC said earlier. Thousands were evacuated amid warnings.
The scale of the typhoon could be felt in the Philippines capital Manila, more than 340 km from the eye of the storm, where heavy overnight rains led to widespread flooding in urban areas.
Authorities in Hong Kong urged residents to stay indoors. Weather experts said it may be the strongest tropical storm to hit the territory in decades. In nearby Macau, shops were boarded up and residents were sticking tape on their windows.
The NDRRMC warned that Mangkhut's devastating impact may be similar to that of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which led to over 7,000 deaths, disappearances and affected 16 million in November 2013.
Between 15 and 20 typhoons pass through the Philippines every year during the rainy season, which began this year on June 8.
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India, China decide to resume Kailash Mansarovar Yatra
New Delhi, Jan 27 (PTI): India and China on Monday decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra as the two sides agreed to take certain people-centric steps to "stabilise and rebuild" ties.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said this following Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri's talks with his Chinese counterpart Sun Weidong in Beijing.
It said the two sides also agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries.
"As agreed between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at their meeting in Kazan in October, the two sides reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relations comprehensively and agreed to take certain people-centric steps to stabilize and rebuild ties," the MEA said.
"In this context, the two sides decided to resume the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra in the summer of 2025," it said.
The MEA said the two sides also agreed to hold an early meeting of the India-China expert level mechanism to discuss resumption of provision of hydrological data and other cooperation pertaining to trans-border rivers.
It said the two sides agreed to take appropriate measures to further promote and facilitate people-to-people exchanges, including media and think-tank interactions.
"They agreed in principle to resume direct air services between the two countries; the relevant technical authorities on the two sides will meet and negotiate an updated framework for this purpose at an early date," the MEA said.
