Briefly

THE PHILIPPINES

Death toll from year's worst typhoon hits 375

The death toll rose to 375 following the strongest typhoon to batter the Philippines this year, with dozens of people still missing and several central towns and provinces grappling with downed communications and power outages and pleading for food and water, officials said on Monday. At its strongest, Typhoon Rai packed sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour and gusts of up to 270 km/h before it blew out on Friday into the South China Sea. Another 500 people were injured and 56 were missing, a police tally showed. The toll was expected to increase because several towns and villages remained out of reach due to downed communications. The losses also sparked comparisons to the damage caused by Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

GERMANY

Failures admitted over Berlin terror attack

Five years after a terror attack killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier acknowledged on Sunday that the government had not lived up to its duty to protect its citizens that day. His comments came at a Sunday evening commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the terror attack on Berlin's Breitscheidplatz. On Dec 19,2016, a terrorist plowed through a crowd of Christmas market-goers in a large truck, killing the 12 and injuring dozens more in the German capital. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

KAZAKHSTAN

Japan's space tourists return safely to Earth

A Japanese billionaire, his producer and a Russian cosmonaut safely returned to Earth on Monday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station. Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his producer Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin made a soft landing in a Russian Soyuz capsule on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:13 am about 150 kilometers southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan. Maezawa, 46, and his 36-year-old producer Hirano were the first self-paying tourists to visit the space station since 2009. Misurkin was on his third space mission.

Agencies Via Xinhua