Updated

A fire tore through a passenger ferry in the Philippines, and the death toll has now risen sharply to 35 after Coast Guard crews recovered 30 additional bodies, up from the five initially confirmed dead. Rescuers had boarded the vessel roughly 40 hours after the blaze began, hampered by thick, toxic fumes and extreme heat, as dozens remained unaccounted for. The sharply higher toll makes this one of the deadliest maritime disasters in the Philippines in recent years, with families continuing to wait for news of missing relatives as recovery operations continue and authorities investigate the cause of the fire.