Filipinos on high alert for super typhoon

MANILA • Millions of people in the Philippines were on high alert yesterday for one of the strongest typhoons to ever hit the disaster-battered country, with the authorities warning of giant storm surges and destructive winds.

Super Typhoon Haima was forecast to hit remote communities in the far north of the country at about 11pm yesterday, bringing winds almost on a par with catastrophic Super Typhoon Haiyan that claimed more than 7,350 lives in 2013.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Japanese ministers visit Yasukuni Shrine

TOKYO • Two Japanese Cabinet ministers visited a controversial war shrine yesterday, after a mass visit by lawmakers angered China and South Korea, which see it as a painful reminder of Tokyo's aggressive past.

The ministers - internal affairs chief Sanae Takaichi and Mr Katsunobu Kato, in charge of women's empowerment - are close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did not visit the Yasukuni Shrine during this year's four-day autumn festival.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Bad weather holds up search for MH370

SYDNEY • An undersea search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 will be delayed by up to two months because of bad weather in the Indian Ocean during the winter, the authorities said.

The authorities from Malaysia, Australia and China initially expected to finish searching a 120,000 sq km target area by the end of this year.

"Due to poor weather conditions over the Southern Hemisphere, it is expected searching the entire... area will be completed by around January/February 2017," they said in a statement yesterday.

REUTERS

Housewife jailed over ISIS images

KUALA LUMPUR • A Malaysian housewife was jailed for two years by a High Court after she pleaded guilty to possessing 139 images related to terrorist activities by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in her mobile phone.

Justice Azman Abdullah sentenced Siti Nor Intan Shafinaz Johari, 27, after she pleaded guilty to the charge yesterday.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK