<span style="color: #222222;">In Philippines, a strong earthquake left two people dead and injured dozens in the northern part today.<br />''<br />''The Head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Renato Solidum said, the 7-magnitude quake was centered in the hard-hit province of Abra in a mountainous area. Local media reports that the temblor set off small landslides and damaged buildings and churches and prompted terrified crowds and hospital patients in the capital to rush outdoors.<br />''<br />''Government officials told media, a villager died when he was hit by falling cement slabs in his house in Abra, where at least 25 others were injured and were mostly confined in hospitals. A construction worker was hit by debris and died in the strawberry-growing mountain town of La Trinidad in Benguet province, where some roads were shut by landslides and boulders. Five people were injured when rocks and debris pummeled their SUV and a truck on a hillside road in Mountain Province near Benguet, officials said. Many houses and buildings had cracked walls, including some that collapsed in Abra.<br />''<br />''The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake's strength at 7.0 on Richter scale and depth at 10 kilometres. Shallower quakes tend to cause more damage.<br />''<br />''The Philippines lies along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire', an arc of faults around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur. A  7.7 magnitude quake killed nearly 2,000 people in the northern Philippines in 1990.</span><br />