Heavy rain in Japan leaves 12 dead

Heavy rain in Japan triggered floods and mudslides Wednesday that swallowed houses and destroyed roads, with at least 12 people killed and 11 missing since the start of the rainy season.
The rain has also been devastating in the neighbouring Korean peninsula. At least 150 people there are believed dead or missing, mostly in the impoverished communist North, according to officials and aid workers.
From western to central Japan, residents evacuated houses for shelters as muddy water swamped city streets and mudslides tore up highways. The weather temporarily caused Shinkansen bullet trains to stop as the weather agency warned of more to come.
"We believed we were living on firm ground. So this is very shocking," a middle-aged woman told Fuji television after a landslide in central Fukui prefecture.
As much as 500 millimeters (20 inches) of rain has drenched parts of Japan since Saturday, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.