Rescuers struggling to
reach flood victims

MANILA – Search and rescue teams yesterday struggled to reach areas of the northern Philippines cut off by storm-triggered landslides and flooding that have left more than 600 people dead, officials said.

In the heavily-damaged northern province of Pangasinan, many towns remained under water while landslides had virtually cut off mountainous communities from rescuers, disaster relief officials said.

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the government had sent tons of food, medicines and clothes to a military base in the north but delivery to affected communities was slow.

IN JAPAN
Obama City hails Nobel Prize

TOKYO – The small Japanese port city of Obama hailed Friday its namesake, US President Barack Obama, who was earlier sensationally awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just nine months into his term.

"I knew he was talking about world peace, but I cannot believe this has come so soon," Seiji Fujiwara, a local tourism official who led a support campaign for the US president, told Jiji Press.

Obama means "small shore" in Japanese, and the residents of the small central city of 32,000 people have rallied behind Barack Obama since his presidential campaign as a junior senator.  

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