Typhoon Lupit on course to hit Philippines

The Philippines began evacuating thousands of people in northern areas prone to floods and landslides on Wednesday ahead of a powerful typhoon sighted over the Pacific. Typhoon Lupit, which means fierce in Filipino, was expected to make landfall around the far northern tip of the Luzon region by Thursday and dump more rain on typhoon-weary provinces, the weather bureau said. Fishermen in the town of Aparri, lying on the northernmost tip of Luzon island, are expecting Lupit to wreak havoc on their livelihood. They have secured their boats, anticipating the typhoon's landfall.The Philippines is still recovering from two recent typhoons -- Ketsana and Parma -- which brought record-high rainfall that flooded the capital Manila and large swathes of farmland in northern provinces. More than 850 people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.