MANILA, Philippines - Pounding rain from a tropical storm swelled rivers and sent walls of water rushing through the southern Philippines while people were asleep, killing more than 200 with scores missing, officials said Saturday. Some of the dead were swept out to sea from the worst-hit coastal cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in the Mindanao region, which is unaccustomed to the typhoons that are common elsewhere in the archipelago nation.

Cagayan de Oro city councilor Alvin Bacal said 107 people had died in the flooding in his city alone, citing military figures. In Iligan, 79 bodies were recovered in the city after more than 12 hours of continuous rain from Tropical Storm Washi overflowed a river and sent muddy floodwaters cascading from nearby mountains, Mayor Lawrence Cruz said. About 250 people are unaccounted for in Iligan, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang.

A man in Cagayan de Oro said he heard a cry for help around 10 p.m. while the floodwaters were still low. "Suddenly, there was a very strong rush of water," the man, who was not identified, told a local TV station. Ayi Hernandez, a former congressman, said he and his family were resting in their home late Friday when they heard a loud "swooshing sound" and water quickly rose ankle deep inside his home. He decided to evacuate to a neighbor's two-story house. "It was a good thing because in less than an hour the water rose to about 11 feet," the height of the ceiling of his house, he said.

LA Times: Flash floods kill more than 450 in Philippines
New York Times: Flooding Kills Scores in Southern Philippines
The Telegraph: Hundreds die as tropical storm Washi sweeps across Philippines

Iran's Intelligence Ministry has arrested a CIA spy of Iranian descent, foiling an intricate American plot to carry out espionage activities in the Islamic Republic. - According to an Iranian Intelligence Ministry statement, the American spy is a CIA analyst who had experience working for the Military Intelligence Division (MID) of the US Army in military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and was tasked with carrying out a complex intelligence operation and infiltrating the Iranian intelligence apparatus. The statement said the operative underwent intense intelligence straining before beginning his mission. He was identified by Iranian intelligence upon arriving at the Bagram Airbase. According to the report, Iranian intelligence agents surveilled the said spy and monitored his actions after entering Iran. The CIA spy was arrested after attempting to start his espionage activities in Iran. The statement continued that further information about this arrest will be made public in the coming days.

Raw Story: Iran intelligence arrests CIA spy

It's a new world! I get to say bought and paid for by the Israel lobby every other minute now without being accused of being a conspiracist because Tom Friedman said so in the New York Times! Well, here's another bought-and-paid-for group. United Against Nuclear Iran, started by Dennis Ross, the Israel lobbyist who then went into the Obama administration at a high level. And Gary Samore, who is still at Obama's right hand as his czar on weapons of mass destruction. UANI has big Israel lobbyists like Irwin Cotler, Leslie Gelb, Fouad Ajami, and Alan Solow on its board. You gotta open the window here and let me breathe!

Commenting on Iran's recent downing of an aggressive US drone, a former CIA agent says the Iranian Army's experts managed to hack the aircraft's cyber system and then brought it down. - The downing of the drone by Iran was another defeat for the United States in the area of espionage, Robert Baer, a former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, who used to operate in the Middle East, was cited by French-language Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes as saying, IRNA reported on Saturday. On December 4, the Iranian military's electronic warfare unit announced that Iran had downed with minimal damage the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance aircraft, while it was in violation of the Iranian airspace. On December 6, two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the drone had been part

The US government has made an example of Bradley Manning to prevent others from challenging the American empire. - Private Bradley Manning was just 22 years old when he allegedly leaked hundreds of thousands of US State Department cables and video evidence of war crimes to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks. For that act of courage that revealed to the world the true face of the American empire, he faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. After waiting more than 18 months, half of which he spent in torturous solitary confinement that he was only removed from after an international outcry and the resignation of a top State Department official, Manning is finally getting a shot at justice - if we can think of a military court as justice - when his case moves to the pre-trial hearing phase this Friday. But whether Manning is ultimately found guilty or not is beside the point: All one needs to know about American justice is that if he had murdered civilians and desecrated their corpses - if he had the moral capacity to commit war crimes, not the audacity to expose them - he'd be better off today. Indeed, if Manning had merely murdered the nameless, faceless "other", as his Army colleagues on the notorious Afghan "Kill Team" did, he would not have had his right to a speedy trial blatantly violated. If Manning had intentionally killed unarmed civilians, posed for pictures with their dead bodies and slashed their fingers off as souvenirs, he would not have had his guilt publicly pronounced by his own commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama, months before he so much as saw the inside of a military court. If he had killed poor foreigners instead of exposing their deaths, he might even stand a chance of getting out of prison while still a young man.

Jason Ditz: Bradley Manning Hearing Finally Begins