<span style="color: #222222;">In the Philippines, the number of deaths from a powerful storm that hit the country on Christmas has risen to 41, with tens of thousands still in evacuation centres.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">    </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Typhoon Phanfone left the Philippines yesterday after devastating several islands in the central Visayas, including popular tourist destinations, but the extent of the damage continued to grow as assessments came in.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">  </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">The latest report of the National Disaster Agency showed that over 1.6 million people were affected by the typhoon. The typhoon damaged over 260,000 houses and forced almost a hundred thousand people to flee to emergency shelters.</span>