Aquino vows aid as Philippine flood toll tops 1,000

CAGAYAN DE ORO, (Philippines), Dec 20 : Philippine President Benigno Aquino pledged aid Tuesday to communities hit by flash floods that walloped the south, as the official toll topped a thousand dead or missing. Aquino flew to Mindanao island to inspect the ports of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, choked with drying mud and crumpled homes, as well as hundreds of decomposing corpses that have raised health fears. Mass burial plans for some of the dead that were announced a day earlier were called off Tuesday, with officials saying each would be fingerprinted and DNA samples taken from them first for future identification. - AFP