Rejoicing queue lines suffer a blow as the estimates for death constantly wind back numbers. The Philippine civil defence office, in the continuing drudge and aftermath of a non-politically elected landslide, took the number of dead down a notch on Monday. From the initially impressive 1408, floating bodies of a census led calculations to reel back to at least 913 taken by the mud of Guinsaugon, in the central island of Leyte.
With a local population of approximately 1420, a slither of hope remains that the number may yet increase again given unknown numbers of visitors in the area.
Where one regions find a hole in their numbers, another finds a boon of numbers in their holes.
Scouting more than just cranky fridges and imploded basketballs, 100 corpses have been found at a garbage dump on the outer edge of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Relatively fresh, the bodies are believed to be only a teaser of what may else lie beneath the mounds of trash.
"When we take the trash and earth away we will probably find more bones," said Roger Ancelotti, director of the Rio de Janeiro state criminal institute.
Environmentally friendly volunteers and enthusiast for future generations looking for their own find on Clean Up Australia Day may be sorely disappointed if hopes are not in check.
Written on Tuesday, 21 February 2006