of tidal wave, a journalistic explosion that sweeps the entire country,” said Justin Nordstrom, an associate professor of history at Penn State Hazleton who has studied the Menace. “There are people paying attention to this newspaper — urban settings, rural settings — all across the country.”

On its banner, the Menace sometimes bore the logo of skull and crossbones wearing a papal hat, as well as a drawing of a public school, which is described as “the antidote for papal poison.”

“OPEN ROME’S PRISON HOUSES IN AMERICA!” blared one headline for a December 1911 story that claimed the church was murdering the babies of nuns and throwing the infant corpses into a pit.

In the same issue, the Menace urged its readers to vote against all Catholic political candidates regardless ofOfficials warned 2.5m high waves and landslides as evacuation under way ahead of Nock-Ten’s arrival.

Thousands of residents were fleeing coastal and other hazardous areas in eastern Philippines as the powerful typhoon Nock-Ten barrelled towards the archipelago.

Philippine and international weather services said the typhoon, named after a bird found in Laos, was set to hit Bicol on Sunday before reaching the rest of the main island of Luzon on Monday.

Officials warned 2.5-metre high waves and landslides posed the biggest threats as Nock-Ten closed in on the Bicol peninsula and nearby islands.

“We went around with megaphones and gave instructions to our people to have breakfast, pack and board the military trucks,” Alberto Lindo, an official of Alcala, a farming village of 3,300 people near the active Mayon volcano, told AFP