In the Philippines, the death toll from two weeks of storms has risen to 712. According to government figures released today the number of people confirmed killed from tropical storm Parma, which dumped rain relentlessly on the northern Philippines for a week, was 375. Parma first hit the main island of Luzon on October 3 as a typhoon, and then caused dozens of major landslides and widespread flooding as it pounded the area with rain. It arrived exactly one week after tropical storm Ketsana caused the heaviest single day of rain on the nation's capital, Manila, in more than 40 years. The civil defence office said the death toll from Ketsana remained at 337.