Typhoon Doksuri shuts businesses, grounds flights in Taiwan

Southern Taiwan on Thursday shut businesses and schools while airlines cancelled hundreds of flights amid warnings of landslides and floods as Typhoon Doksuri churned past the island en route to China where it will make landfall later this week. As of 10:15 a.m. (0215 GMT) Typhoon Doksuri, categorised at the second-strongest typhoon level by Taiwan's weather bureau, headed towards the southern Taiwan Strait with maximum winds of 191 km (118 miles) per hour. At one point Doksuri was a super typhoon, but lost some of its strength after it lashed the coastline of the northern Philippines on Wednesday, bursting banks of rivers and leaving thousands without electricity. Doksuri killed five people in the Philippines, according to the country's disaster agency. Taiwan's weather bureau issued wind and rain warnings on Thursday for the southern and eastern part of the island, including the major port city of Kaohsiung where businesses and schools were closed and landslide warnings issued. All domestic flights and ferry lines were suspended in Taiwan while more than 100 international flights were cancelled or delayed. Railway services between southern and eastern Taiwan were shut.<br/>