Typhoon toll rises to 477, Philippines pleads for help

NEW BATAAN The Philippine government appealed for international aid on Thursday after a quarter million people were left homeless and 477 confirmed dead after the country's worst typhoon this year. 

    TyphoonBophaploughedacross Mindanao island on Tuesday. Officials said many of the 477 dead were poor migrants who had found work at landslide-prone sites. Rescuers said they were looking for 380 missing while seeking help for more than 250,000 others sheltered in schools and other buildings. President Benigno Aquino sent supplies by ship to 150,000 people on Mindanao's east coast. 
    SocialWelfareSecretaryCorazon Soliman said the government had asked the Switzerland-based InternationalOrganizationforMigration to help it build bunkhouses to ease pressure on evacuation camps. The US, Japan and Singapore have offered emergency assistance, while International Federation of Red Cross has appealed for more aid.

Typhoon Bopha flattened towns, leaving a quarter of a million people homeless