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Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Saturday ordered urgent aid distribution in a southern province where landslides have been triggered by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which has killed 45 people across the country so far.

Heavy rains and strong winds pounded the capital, Manila, and surrounding areas for most of Saturday as Nalgae forced tens of thousands of people to leave their homes and disrupted peak holiday travel in much of the nation.

Nalgae is the second deadliest cyclone to hit the Philippines this year, with the disasters agency reporting 45 deaths, mostly in hard-hit Maguindanao province. Another 33 people have been injured and 17 are registered missing.

"We could have done better in Maguindanao in terms of preparing. The 40 deaths, with 10 people missing there is a little too high," Marcos said in a briefing with disaster officials.

He ordered the immediate distribution of drinking water and purifying systems to the province and other parts of the badly affected southern Philippines.

In the country's capital region, which includes Manila and other cities, flooding prompted authorities to suspend classes and sports events.

Airlines have cancelled 116 domestic and international flights to and from the Philippines' main gateway, which stopped operations from 0800 to 1400 GMT because of strong winds, the transport ministry said.

Nearly 7,500 passengers and workers, and 107 vessels, were stranded in the country's ports, the coast guard said.

Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan on Saturday ordered the closure of the city's cemeteries, where millions had been expected to visit during the extended All Saints' Day weekend.

Nalgae has maintained its strength, with maximum winds of 95 kilometres (60 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 115 kph (71 mph) as it cut through the main Luzon island and headed to the South China Sea, the state weather agency said.

Another tropical depression gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean could enter Philippine territory on Tuesday, it added.

Almost 170,000 people have been forced from their homes by the storm, nearly a third of whom were sheltering in evacuation centres, government data showed.

In the central Leyte province, coast guard personnel led residents through chest-deep floodwaters, with rescuers using a plastic chair and an old refrigerator to float children and elderly people to safety, photos shared by the weather agency showed.

Marcos said the aid response should be stepped up once Nalgae exits land areas - on Sunday morning, according to the latest forecasts.

"Let us not wait for the helicopters and air assets to fly. If the weather is not good, look for more ways to deliver relief goods, water and medicines," he said.

The Philippines sees an average of 20 tropical storms annually. In December, category 5 Typhoon Rai ravaged central provinces, leaving 407 dead and more than 1,100 injured. (Reuters)

Tunisia will soon enact difficult economic reforms that have been delayed for years, the central bank governor said on Saturday, adding that financial authorities were trying to keep the dinar currency stable.

Tunisia this month reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $1.9 billion rescue package that could be finalised in December.

Tunisia has been in need of international help for months as it grapples with a crisis in public finances that has raised fears it may default on debt and has contributed to shortages of food and fuel.

The IMF agreement is also critical to unlock bilateral aid from country donors that want reassurance Tunisia will put its finances on a more sustainable footing.

The reforms are expected to include reducing food and energy subsidies, in addition to reforming public companies and reducing public sector wages in real terms, according government officials.

"In times of crisis, we find serious solutions. We did not take difficult reforms for years. During this period, we will," Marouan Abassi, the central bank governor, told reporters.

He added that Tunisia aimed to keep the dinar stable and to give clarity to investors.

Opposition politicians and Tunisia's powerful UGTT labour union have warned of a "social explosion" if painful reforms are implemented. (reuters)

Outgoing Lebanese President Michel Aoun told Reuters on Saturday his nation could be sliding into "constitutional chaos", with an unprecedented situation of having no one in line to succeed him and a cabinet that is operating in a caretaker capacity.

Aoun is set to leave the presidential palace on Sunday, a day before his six-year term ends, but four sessions in the nation's fractured parliament have failed to reach consensus on a candidate to succeed him.

Aoun said in an interview an 11th-hour political move to address the constitutional crisis might be possible, but added "there is no final decision" on what that could involve.

Aoun's presidency is inextricably linked in the minds of many Lebanese to their country's worst days since the 1975-1990 civil war, with the financial crisis that began in 2019 and the deadly Beirut port blast of 2020.

In the days after the blast, Aoun said he had received a report about the roughly 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored at the port of Beirut weeks before they detonated and killed some 220 people.

He declined to comment on the blast on Saturday.

Aoun's son-in-law Gebran Bassil, who was put on a sanctions list by the United States in 2020 for alleged corruption, has presidential ambitions, according to political sources.

Bassil has denied the allegations of corruption, and Aoun said on Saturday the sanctions would not stop Bassil from eventually being a presidential candidate.

"Once he's elected (as president), the sanctions will go away," Aoun said, without elaborating.

In his final week as president, Aoun signed a U.S.-brokered deal delineating Lebanon's southern maritime border with Israel - a modest diplomatic breakthrough that would allow both countries to extract natural gas from maritime deposits.

He said powerful Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah, which sent unarmed drones over Israel and threatened to attack its offshore rigs multiple times, had served as a "deterrent" that had helped keep the negotiations going in Lebanon's favour.

"It wasn't coordinated (with the government). It was an initiative taken by Hezbollah and it was useful," Aoun said, adding that the Lebanese army "had no role" in this regard.

He said the deal paved the way for gas discoveries that could be Lebanon's "last chance" at recovering from a three-year financial meltdown that has cost the currency 95% of its value and pushed 80% of the population into poverty.

Lebanon has otherwise made slow progress on a checklist of reforms required to gain access to $3 billion in financing from the International Monetary Fund.

Aoun said he would stay involved in politics in Lebanon even after he leaves office, particularly to fight Central Bank governor Riad Salameh, one of the president's main political adversaries.

Salameh is being in investigated in Lebanon and at least five countries abroad on charges of corruption and embezzlement of public funds, charges he denies. (Reuters)

Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernised U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the "nuclear threshold" and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning.

Russia has about 2,000 working tactical nuclear weapons while the United States has around 200 such weapons, half of which are at bases in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Amid the Ukraine crisis, Politico reported on Oct. 26 that the United States told a closed NATO meeting this month that it would accelerate the deployment of a modernised version of the B61, the B61-12, with the new weapons arriving at European bases in December, several months earlier than planned.

"We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency.

The 12-ft B61-12 gravity bomb carries a lower yield nuclear warhead than many earlier versions but is more accurate and can penetrate below ground, according to research by the Federation of American Scientists published in 2014.

"The United States is modernizing them, increasing their accuracy and reducing the power of the nuclear charge, that is, they turn these weapons into 'battlefield weapons', thereby reducing the nuclear threshold," Grushko said.

The Pentagon said it was not going to discuss the details of the U.S. nuclear arsenal and that the premise of the Politico article was wrong as the United States had long planned the modernisation of its B61 nuclear weapons.

"Modernization of U.S. B61 nuclear weapons has been underway for years, and plans to safely and responsibly swap out older weapons for the upgraded B61-12 versions are part of a long-planned and scheduled modernization effort," Pentagon spokesman Oscar Seara said.

"It is in no way linked to current events in Ukraine and was not sped up in any way," Seara said in an emailed statement.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the gravest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to nuclear war.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked.

The comments raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared last month it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces control parts of. Putin says the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against Russia.

'STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE'

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Oct. 6 that Putin had brought the world closer to "Armageddon" than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, though Biden later said he did not think that Putin would use a tactical nuclear weapon.

Putin has not mentioned using a tactical nuclear weapon but has said he suspects Ukraine could detonate a "dirty bomb", a claim Ukraine and the West say is false.

The U.S. B61 nuclear bomb was first tested in Nevada shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Under Barack Obama, U.S. president from 2009 to 2017, the development of a new version of the bomb, the B61-12, was approved.

Russia's Grushko said that Moscow would also have to take account of the Lockheed Martin F-35 which would drop such a bomb. NATO, he said, had already strengthened the nuclear parts of its military planning.

NATO "has already made decisions to strengthen the nuclear component in the alliance's military plans," Grushko said.

Russia's ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Saturday on Telegram that the new B61 bombs had a "strategic significance" as Russia's tactical nuclear weapons were in storage, yet these U.S. bombs would be just a short flight from Russia's borders.

The United States, according to the U.S. 2022 Nuclear Posture Review published on Thursday, will bolster nuclear deterrence with the F-35, the B61-12 bombs and a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile. (Reuters)