"Over 1,000 dead or missing in Philippine mudslides"

The Red Cross sent out an urgent plea for water, food and medicine Monday as Philippine officials said more than 1,000 people were dead or missing after mudslides swallowed whole villages.

The government's National Disaster Coordinating Centre (NDCC) in its evening report Monday confirmed 450 dead from the mudslides around Mayon volcano triggered by typhoon rains.

It listed a further 599 people as missing in the rest of the Bicol region.

Executive officer Glenn Rabonza said more than one million people had been affected by the disaster, with damage to property alone estimated at about 274 million pesos (5.53 million dollars).

The deadly mudslides were triggered by torrential rains from super typhoon Durian, which mixed with volcanic ash on the slopes of the Mayon volcano...

Meanwhile - "Indonesian 'mud volcano' could flow for years"

It could be years before a massive "mud volcano" which has forced thousands of people to flee their homes stops flowing, Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said on Monday.
A gas well near Surabaya in East Java operated by Lapindo Brantas Inc. has spewed steaming mud since May, submerging villages, industries and agricultural land.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared the area a disaster zone after the "mud volcano" inundated more than 400 hectares (1,000 acres) of land in Sidoarjo district and displaced some 13,000 people.

"As I speak, we have not gotten to the stage that we can stop the flow, so what is assigned to my ministry is to try to prevent further destruction...," Witoelar told a Jakarta Foreign Correspondents' Club lunch.

"At this moment, if I'm not mistaken, it's close to 200,000 cubic metres a day, it's beyond any pumps or dykes to be contained," he said of the mud flow....