hDeath toll from floods passes 650

hDeath toll from floods passes 650

MANILA, Philippines

Authorities rushed drinking water and body bags today to two southern Philippine cities devastated by tropical-storm-related flooding, which has killed more than 650 people.

Coffins were running out, and funeral parlors were unable to keep up with the mounting death toll in the southern cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, where 552 people died in the floods, according to the Philippine National Red Cross.

In Iligan, relief workers began to dig mass graves for dozens of bodies, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said.

“The funeral parlors can no longer accept bodies,” he said. “So this day, we’re digging shallow graves for unclaimed bodies. There are about 50 cadavers that are already decomposing.”

Suspect says victim owed him money

NEW YORK

A man charged with dousing a woman in flammable liquid and tossing a Molotov cocktail on her in an elevator told police he set her on fire because he was angry that she owed him $2,000, authorities said Sunday.

Jerome Isaac of Brooklyn was arrested Sunday on murder and arson charges in the death of 73-year-old Deloris Gillespie. The 47-year-old Isaac reeked of gasoline when he entered a police station overnight and implicated himself in Gillespie’s death, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Manning hearing

FORT MEADE, Md.

A computer-crimes investigator testified Sunday he found more than 10,000 diplomatic cables and other sensitive information on the work computer of the Army private charged with spilling a mountain of secrets to WikiLeaks.

Moreover, Special Agent David Shaver told a military hearing he discovered evidence that someone had used the computer to streamline the downloading of the cables with the apparent aim of “moving them out.”

It was the government’s first hard evidence linking Pfc. Bradley Manning with the wealth of confidential government information that showed up on WikiLeaks: battlefield reports from Iraq and Afghanistan, diplomatic communications, a military video showing a U.S. helicopter attack that killed 11 men, and more.

Shaver’s appearance capped the third day of a hearing that will determine whether Manning will be court-martialed on 22 charges, including aiding the enemy.

Tribal leader killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says an adviser to the minister of tribal and border affairs has been assassinated.

Abdul Baqi Raghbat, the former director of border and tribal affairs in Kandahar province, was killed Saturday by a gunman as he was walking in Kandahar city.

Karzai condemned the killing and said in a statement Sunday that Raghbat was targeted because he worked for the government.

Outnumbered on the battlefield, insurgents are conducting targeted attacks against officials aligned with the Afghan government and the U.S.-led coalition.

Combined dispatches