A massive winter storm was barreling toward Washington D.C. on Friday, with the system poised to drop near-record snowfall on the U.S. capital before walloping New York and other East Coast cities with blizzard conditions.

 Wide areas of the central Philippines were plunged into darkness on Tuesday as powerful typhoon Melor barreled into the coconut-growing region, causing flooding, storm surges and forcing almost 800,000 people to evacuate their homes,