A 42-YEAR-OLD Tibetan has arrived at the headquarters of the government-in-exile in India after cycling through Europe and Asia in a campaign protesting China's heavy-handed rule in the Himalayan region.
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The death toll from Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines has soared past 5600 and continues to rise. Source: AAP
REBUILDING areas devastated by a super typhoon that killed thousands in the Philippines will take up to five years and cost more than two billion dollars, officials said.
The comments came as the death toll from Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons to ever hit the country, continued to rise.
On Saturday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 5,632 people had been confirmed dead while 1,759 were still missing following the category five storm earlier this month.
"The total rehabilitation will take three to five years, depending on the pace of our support system and the projects we implement," Eduardo del Rosario, executive director of the NDRRMC, said.
He told reporters that President Benigno Aquino did not want to merely repair the damage but wants the new structures to be better than those that were standing before the storm.
"Our president wants the rehabilitation to be 'build-back better communities," so they can withstand future storms," del Rosario said.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson said: "We are looking at over a hundred billion pesos ($A2.42 billion) of reconstruction, from livelihood, commerce, social services," as well as infrastructure and power facilities.
That figure does not include the huge amounts already spent on immediate relief for the millions of people who were injured or left without food, water or shelter.
About 15 to 20 billion pesos will go to providing shelter with some 60,000 to 80,000 families to be re-settled in two to three years, said Singson.
This will include the people whose homes were destroyed by the storm as well as those who will have to move out of a recently-declared 40-metre "no-build zone" from the coastline, Singson added.
The zone is intended to prevent a repetition of the large number of deaths that occurred after Haiyan brought massive storm surges that flattened seaside communities.
A spokeswoman for the local UN office, Orla Fagan, told a news conference on Friday that donors had forked out $US164 million ($A180.41 million) so far.
IT appears that no Australians were in a Glasgow pub when a police helicopter crashed into the roof on Friday night killing at least one person.
There were more than 100 revellers in the Clutha pub when the incident occurred and the death toll is expected to rise.
Thirty-two people had been taken by ambulance to three Glasgow hospitals. Rescuers are still searching through the ruins of the pub.
"We are not aware of any Australians involved," a spokeswoman for the Australian High Commission in London said on Saturday morning.
"We remain in contact with the Scottish authorities."
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called it a "black day" for Scotland as he sent his condolences to the bereaved on Saturday.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said UK authorities had not advised it of any Australians affected "at this stage".
"The rescue operation is still underway," a spokeswoman told AAP in a statement.
A SIMPLE urine test may be able to distinguish between aggressive and low-grade bladder cancers, allowing doctors to tailor personalised treatments, say scientists.
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A PLANE crash near the remote western Alaska village of Saint Marys has killed four of the 10 people aboard, including a baby boy, an Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman said.
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THOUSANDS of trucks blocked highways and roads across France in ongoing protests over an environmental tax that continue to smoulder, despite the government putting the levy on ice.
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MILITANTS have attacked police protecting an anti-polio team in Pakistan's troubled northwest, killing one policeman and injuring another.
