'Major' damage as super typhoon hits US islands

WASHINGTON, July 06 (AFP): A "super typhoon" with the force of a category-five hurricane tore through the US Pacific territories of Northern Marianas and Guam on Monday, with authorities saying they had received reports of "major" damage on the small island of Rota.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said that the "entirety" of Rota was in the eye of Super Typhoon Bavi, with winds of up to 180 miles (290 kilometers) per hour before moving "ever so slowly away" westwards.

But the group of islands - several thousand kilometres (miles) west of the mainland United States - was by midday still being buffeted by fierce winds and driving rain that left residents holed up indoors. When the storm first hit early Monday.