Chinese fishing boats sink off Philippines

Two Chinese fishing boats sank in rough seas in a typhoon off the Philippines and at least 12 people are missing.

The ships sank off Palawan island, in the South China Sea, on Tuesday night. Earlier, Chinese official media said Beijing had sent three vessels and a helicopter to pick up more than 700 fishermen left stranded by the typhoon on and around islands in the South China Sea. Typhoon Hagibis, which has weakened to a tropical depression, killed 14 people in the Philippines last week, went west toward Vietnam and then made a dramatic U-turn over the South China Sea before returning to the Philippines. More than 400 fishermen from the southern province of Hainan province and 29 from the Philippines remain stranded in the Nansha area.Storms regularly batter the Philippines. Last year, Typhoon Durian killed 1,200 people and left 120,000 homeless when it crashed through Bicol in December.
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