One of the strongest typhoons ever recorded is pounding the central Philippines where it has caused landslides, destroyed buildings and killed at least three people.

Simone Orendain had this report from Manila.

Haiyan’s winds topped 275 kilometers per hour when it made landfall in the Philippines eastern-most provinces, the Samar and Leyte islands. Reports from one provincial coastline said the storm surge measured more than four meters high.
 
National roads in the earliest hit provinces are blocked by fallen trees. Power went out, leaving at least 12 provinces partially or completely in the dark.

Officials said that so far about 720,000 people have been affected in 29 provinces.

The Department of Transportation suspended all air, land and water transportation operations in the affected regions. Hundreds of flights have been canceled.

Simone Orendain,VOA News Manila.

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is going to Geneva on Friday to meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on the sideline of talks regarding Iran's nuclear program.

Kerry and Zarif will meet with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton at a time when an EU spokesman says the talks over Iran's nuclear program are entering "a serious phase."

A senior administration official traveling with Kerry says he is going to Geneva at Ashton's invitation "to help narrow the differences" in negotiations.

A different U.S. official said that process is now focused on getting Iran to pause its nuclear program to provide time for talks on a longer-term agreement. In return, the official said, the international community would ease some sanctions.
 
Kerry is going to Switzerland from Israel, where he met again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Friday morning. Kerry told President Shimon Peres late Wednesday that "on Iran, our eyes are wide open."

"Our hope is that Iran will understand that this is a simple obligation: show the world that you are pursuing a peaceful program. It’s not that hard. Lots of other nations do it. So we will remember our friends and their interests, and we will be very thoughtful and careful as we proceed,"

Kerry is going to Switzerland from Israel, where he met again with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chinese authorities say they have arrested a man suspected of setting off a series of explosions outside Communist Party offices in northern China that killed one person and wounded eight others.

Authorities said police found homemade bombs and bomb-making materials in Feng's home. Police also said that Feng had previoulsy served nine years in prison for theft.

No motive was given for the attack.

The price of Twitter stock shares nearly doubled in the first hour of trading Thursday for the popular social media Internet site.

The U.S.-based company offered initial shares in the messaging site at $26 on the New York Stock Exchange. But interest in the stock quickly pushed the price to a high of more than $50 a share before closing at just below $45.

By the closing bell, the social network was valued at $31 billion.

U.S. President Barack Obama said that he regrets his administration "wasn't as clear" as it needed to be about details of his health care reform program, and that he has directed his administration to "close some of the gaps" in the new law.

Obama spoke on national television Thursday, when he directed his apology to what he said are the 5 percent of Americans who bought insurance on their own and have since had their policies cancelled.

The Sochi Olympic torch is onboard the International Space Station, before being taken on an unprecedented spacewalk.

Accompanying the torch were three crew members: a Russian, an American, and a Japanese citizen, who blasted off on a Soyuz-FG rocket early Thursday from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Two Russian cosmonauts living at the station are expected to take the torch on a first-ever spacewalk on Saturday before bringing it home to Earth on Monday.

For more on this story and completely look at today's news,visit our website geilien.cn

Reporting from Washington,I'm Bill Michaels.VOA News.