Philippine rescuers retrieve bodies after landslide

Flash floods and landslides set off by torrential rains left at least 47 people dead, including in a hard-hit southern Philippine province, where as many as 60 villagers are feared missing and buried in a deluge of rainwater, mud, rocks and trees, officials said Saturday.

Eleven bodies, mostly of children, were dug up Friday by rescuers using spades in Kusiong Village of Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao, according to the Interior Minister for a five-province Muslim Autonomous Region. Dozens of provinces and cities were under storm alerts including the capital, Manila.

More than 7,000 people were protectively evacuated away from the path of the storm, which was not expected to strengthen into a typhoon as it approached land, government forecasters and other officials said.