• GUIUAN, Philippines (AP) -- The knock of hammer on nail, the buzz of chain saws, the swish of brooms clearing up debris from wrecked homes and yards: The sound of people putting their lives back together rings out across this devastated town.
• A week after the typhoon struck the Philippines, there is immense need along this coast, much of it untouched by an aid effort that is struggling against clogged airports, blocked roads and a lack of manpower.
• But amid the desperation, a spirit of resilience was clearly evident Friday as the residents of Guiuan (GEE-wan) and other battered towns started rebuilding their lives and those of their neighbors -- with or without help from their government or a foreign aid groups.
• At 6 a.m., Dionesio de la Cruz was hammering together a bed, using scavenged rusty nails. He has already built a temporary shelter out of the remains of his house.
• "We're on our own, so we have to do this on our own," 40-year-old said as his wife and mother slept on a nearby table. "We're not expecting anybody to come and help us."
• ___

• HONG KONG (AP) -- They gather in California churches, in Hong Kong shopping malls, at prayer vigils in Bahrain and on hastily launched Facebook pages. Philippine overseas workers, cut off from home after a super-typhoon killed thousands, are coming together to pray, swap information and launch aid drives.
• Above all, many of the more than 10.5 million Filipinos abroad -- some 10 percent of the country's population -- are desperately dialing phone numbers that don't answer in the typhoon zone, where aid is still only slowly trickling in and communications have been largely blown away.
• "I call again, and I keep trying and trying and trying but no one answered," said Princess Howard, a worker at a money transfer business in Hong Kong, of her at

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