Kuwait to send $10m in urgent aid to Philippines

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Wednesday ordered that $10 million in urgent relief aid be sent to typhoon-ravaged Philippines, where thousands of people are feared dead. "In sympathy with the victims of the destructive typhoon that ravaged the Philippines ... the emir ordered $10 million in urgent relief aid to help face this humanitarian catastrophe," the official KUNA news agency cited State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah as saying. The U.N. has launched an appeal for more than $300 million in aid. U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters in Manila the money was needed for "food, health, sanitation, shelter, debris removal and also protection of the most vulnerable". The United Nations estimates 10,000 people may have died in the city of Tacloban alone, where five-meter (16-foot) waves flattened nearly everything in their path as they swept hundreds of meters across the low-lying land. However, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said late Tuesday he believed that number was "too much", adding that 2,500 "is the figure we're working on", despite the rapidly climbing toll and the bodies still littering the streets of Tacloban.