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Torrential rains unleash landslides that kill 7 in southern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Torrential rains set off two landslides that killed seven people and floods that displaced more than 3,000 villagers in the southeastern Philippines, officials said Friday.

A boulder-laden landslide buried a house and killed a couple and their two daughters Friday in the coastal city of Mati in Davao Oriental province, disaster-response and provincial officials said.

Rescuers used earth-moving equipment to retrieve the bodies, according to Ednar Dayanghirang, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense.

In Monkayo, a gold-mining town in Davao de Oro province near Davao Oriental, the remains of three people were dug up after their house was buried late Thursday by a landslide, Dayanghirang and other officials said.

Nearly 10,000 were affected by the downpours in recent days, including more than 3,200 people who were forced to move to emergency shelters or with relatives, Dayanghirang said.

Several outlying provinces and towns were forced to cancel classes and work, he said.

The downpours and thunderstorms occurred well ahead of the typhoon season, which usually starts in June, and were caused by cold wind interacting with warm and moist air from the Pacific, forecasters said.

About 20 typhoons and storms each year batter the Philippine archipelago, which also lies in the so-called Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common, making the Southeast Asian nation one of the world’s most disaster-prone.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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