Briefly

PHILIPPINES

Thousands displaced as typhoon batters

A powerful typhoon wrecked houses, caused towering tidal surges and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to emergency shelters as it cut across the northern Philippines on Sunday in the sixth major storm to hit the country in less than a month. Typhoon Man-yi slammed into the eastern island province of Catanduanes on Saturday night. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the typhoon, which was forecast to blow northwestward on Sunday across northern Luzon.

INDIA

Fire in hospital kills 10 newborns

A fire tore through a neonatal intensive care unit in a hospital in northern India, killing 10 newborn babies and injuring 16 others, The Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing authorities. The fire occurred late on Friday at a hospital in Jhansi city in India's Uttar Pradesh state. Officials said the blaze spread quickly through the ward, where 55 infants were being treated. An initial investigation points to lapses in safety protocols, including expired fire extinguishers and nonfunctional fire alarms, which officials say delayed rescue efforts.

FRANCE

Dinosaur skeleton fetches $6.4m

The skeleton of a 22-meter-long dinosaur fetched six million euros ($6.4 million) on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported, citing auction houses Collin du Bocage and Barbarossa. An anonymous collector snapped up the vegetarian apatosaurus, which was dug up in the United States, for 4.7 million euros rising to 6 million, including costs. The buyer pledged to allow it to be displayed in a museum. The skeleton of the giant herbivore is made up of 75 to 80 percent of the original bones and is roughly 150 million years old.

Agencies via Xinhua