Survivors walk in typhoon ravaged Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2013. The Philippines emerged as a rising economic star in Asia but the trail of death and destruction left by Typhoon Haiyan has highlighted a key weakness: fragile infrastructure resulting from decades of neglect and corruption. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) Aaron Favila

The big news: Death toll rises in the Philippines

Also: Jim Flaherty’s budget projections and a mafia hit in Acapulco

By Nick Taylor-Vaisey

November 12, 2013

The story
International aid slowly makes its way to the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan. Canada’s initial contribution of $5 million was supplemented yesterday by the deployment of Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team. The DART is awaiting orders in Hawaii. Meanwhile, the death toll among Filipinos continues to rise.

The stat
The death toll in the Philippines stands at 1,774.

The quote
“I was pleading with the soldiers. I was kneeling and begging because I have diabetes … Do they want me to die in this airport? They are stone-hearted.” —Helen Cordial, who hoped for safe passage away from the destruction on an air force cargo plane

What’s above the fold

The Globe and Mail	Looters are running rampant across the Philippines.
National Post	Ethical diets don’t last more than a year, says a study.
Toronto Star	Ontario’s waiting list for affordable housing includes 158,445 households.
Ottawa Citizen	The paper profiles Joseph Aldéric Boucher, who died during WWI.
CBC News	The death toll in the Philippines climbed to 1,774.
CTV News	Little international assistance has arrived in the Philippines.
National Newswatch	Jim Flaherty could predict a comfortable budget surplus in 2015-16.

What you might have missed

*THE NATIONAL*	Mafia. Moreno Gallo, a 68-year-old mobster who apparently earned the ire of Montreal’s Rizzuto crime family, was gunned down in Acapulco. The hit came on the third anniversary of mob boss Nicolo Rizzuto’s murder, which the family blamed Gallo for doing little to stop. Police call it a coincidence.
*THE GLOBAL*	Congo. A peace deal with the Congolese government and M23 rebels, thought to be close, has been delayed. The government wants to reexamine the language of the accord, because it has no intention of signing an agreement with the rebels—only a declaration that hostilities have ceased.