U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon will go to the typhoon-stricken Philippines city of Tacloban this week to highlight the growing number of weather disasters.

"2013 was another year of extreme weather -- as we saw most recently with Typhoon Haiyan. On Thursday, I will depart for Manila and Tacloban for a firsthand assessment of the aftermath," Ban said Monday as he announced the visit.

Twenty-two people were killed when a commuter bus plunged from an elevated highway onto a van in Philippine capital Manila on Monday, police said, warning the death toll could rise.

Twenty of those who died in the accident in the sprawling city were on board the bus, with the other two fatalities from the van, traffic investigator Jose Abuyog said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Saturday attended mass at a cathedral in Vietnam, where he served during the war, in a trip aimed at shoring up Southeast Asian ties amid myriad regional tensions.

Kerry, a practicing Catholic whose experiences during the Vietnam War inspired his political activism, visited the French-colonial era Notre Dame Cathedral in southern Ho Chi Minh City as he began his first official visit to the nation as the top U.S. diplomat.

The number of people dead after one of the world's strongest typhoons struck the Philippines has risen above 6,000, the government said Friday, with nearly 2,000 others still missing.

Five weeks after Super Typhoon Haiyan destroyed entire towns across the nation's central islands, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council put the official death toll at 6,009, making it the Philippines' deadliest recorded typhoon.

Gunmen shot dead a broadcaster in the Philippines on Wednesday, police said, the third such fatal attack in two weeks in one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen attacked Rogelio Butalib, 44 in the southern city of Tagum on Mindanao island, said regional police spokesman Chief Inspector Jed Clamor.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino Monday hailed a power sharing deal with Muslim rebels, saying a final accord to end the decades-long rebellion was within reach but warned that "contentious" issues remained.

The crucial power sharing annex signed in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday had been considered highly contentious, with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels seeking greater authority over a proposed autonomous region in the south which will cover Muslim-dominated regions of the mainly-Catholic archipelago.

The Philippine government and Muslim rebels on Sunday signed a crucial power sharing accord, paving the way for a final peace agreement aimed at ending a decades-long insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

The power sharing annex had been considered as one of the most contentious with Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels seeking greater authority over a proposed autonomous region in the south which will cover Muslim-dominated regions of this mainly-Catholic archipelago of 100 million.

Gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead a radio broadcaster in the southern Philippines in the second such murder in a week, police said on Sunday.

The killing of Michael Diaz Milo, host of a daily radio show and a program director of DXFM radio, further worsened the Philippines' standing as one of the most dangerous places for journalists.

Gunmen aboard a speedboat shot dead five members of a fishing crew in a mysterious attack in the seas of the southern Philippines, the coast guard said Saturday.

The five were part of a fishing fleet off the troubled southern islands of Sulu when the gunmen attacked them on Friday, said coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Jomark Angue.

A Jordanian TV reporter who was held for 18 months by Islamic militants in the Philippines said on Friday his ordeal would be added to a book he is writing on global 'hotspots'.

Al-Arabiya reporter Bakr Atyani, who walked free from the hands of the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group on Wednesday, also said he hoped to return to the Philippines despite his harrowing experience.