Tropical storm races towards Philippines

MANILA • A strong tropical storm barrelled towards the Philippines yesterday, threatening the disaster-prone nation's east coast with giant waves, flooding and landslides, civil defence officials said.

Forecasters said that Tropical Storm Melor could strengthen into a full-fledged typhoon by today, when it is expected to strike the central island of Samar.

No evacuations were ordered, but the authorities said they could be if the storm, with winds reaching 140kmh, hits Samar, a farming island that is home to 1.5 million people.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Senior Uighur official killed in Xinjiang raid

BEIJING • A senior ethnic Uighur security official was killed in a police raid on a "nest of terrorists", the Chinese state media reported, giving details of a previously unannounced operation in the far western region of Xinjiang.

The region, which is home to the mainly Muslim Uighur people, has seen hundreds killed during the past few years in violence that the government has blamed on Islamist militants.

The official People's Daily on Saturday named the dead official as Maimaitijiang Tuohuniyazi, a deputy head of public security in Aksu.

REUTERS

K-pop band deported by US lacked work visas

LOS ANGELES • Members of a K-pop girl band detained at the Los Angeles airport and sent back to South Korea lacked the proper work visas, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

The agency that represents the band, Oh My Girl, said the United States immigration authorities suspected they might be sex workers after the eight performers were held at the airport for 15 hours on Dec 9. But it seems US agents denied the young women entry because they lacked the required P1 entertainment visa.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE