Asia readies for next storm as death toll tops 350

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The Philippines began evacuating a province near Manila on Thursday ahead of a looming typhoon, as rain falling on the saturated capital added to the misery of victims of recent floods and stoked fears of another disaster.

The sky has been clear over the sprawling metropolis for the past few days, allowing the more than 2 million people whose homes were inundated to begin scraping off the mud and muck left behind by Typhoon Ketsana.

That storm cut a destructive path across four Southeast Asian countries and killed at least 386 people - 280 in the Philippines, 92 in Vietnam and 14 in Cambodia. Laos was also hit, but no deaths were reported.

The steady drizzle that fell on Manila for a couple of hours Thursday came as Typhoon Parma - a storm forecasters said is already more powerful than Ketsana - edged closer to the eastern coast.

It could hit on Saturday, with sustained winds of up to 120 mph and gusts up to 140 mph, the government's weather bureau said.