Rain, floods in Philippines leave 32 dead, others missing
Manila (AP): Heavy rains and floods that devastated parts of the Philippines over the Christmas weekend have left at least 32 dead and 24 missing, the national disaster response agency said on Thursday.
More than 56,000 people were still in emergency shelters after bad weather disrupted Christmas celebrations in the eastern, central and southern Philippines.
Images from the southern province of Misamis Occidental showed rescuers carrying an elderly woman on a plastic chair as they waded through a flooded street.
Some residents in the province were seen hanging on to floaters as coast guard rescuers pulled them across chest-deep floods using a rope.
Eighteen of the 32 deaths were reported in the Northern Mindanao region, while 22 of the 24 missing were from Eastern Visayas in the central Philippines and the eastern Bicol region, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said.
Most of the deaths were from drowning while among the missing were fishermen whose boats capsized, the agency said.
Over 4,000 houses were damaged by the floods along with roads and bridges, and some areas were without power or water, the agency reported.
A shear line the point where warm and cold air meet triggered rains in parts of the country, the state weather bureau said.
It forecast light to heavy rains in the next 24 hours for some of the same areas affected by the floods.
Death toll from heavy rains, floods and landslides in Philippines rises to 25 pic.twitter.com/sgrothX0kl
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) December 28, 2022
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rupee hits all-time intra-day low of 92.36 against US dollar
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee tumbled 35 paise to hit all-time intra-day low of 92.36 against the US dollar on Thursday as global crude oil prices kept rising overnight and showed no signs of easing amid the raging war in West Asia.
A stronger greenback, and weak sentiments in the domestic equity markets further weighed on the rupee, which was already on a weak footing in early trade due to heavy FII outflows, forex traders said.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the local unit opened at 92.25 but kept falling to hit an all-time intra-day low of 92.36 against the US dollar, losing 35 paise from its previous close.
The rupee had seen its previous record intra-day low of 92.35 against the greenback on March 9.
ALSO READ: J-K Congress condemns attack on former CM Farooq Abdullah, seeks accountability
On Wednesday, it declined 16 paise to settle at 92.01 against the US dollar.
The dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.18 per cent higher at 99.40.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading higher by 6.72 per cent at USD 98.16 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, the Sensex plunged 445.26 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 76,418.45 points, while the Nifty was down 121.70 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 23,745.15.
Foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 6,267.31 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
