Sorted by date Results 1 - 19 of 19
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Typhoon Usagi swamped rural villages in floods, knocked down power and displaced thousands more people before blowing away on Friday from the northern Philippines, which has now been pounded by five major storms in less than a month. A new storm in the Pacific could strengthen into a powerful typhoon before hitting the Philippine archipelago on Sunday, according to state forecasters. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the onslaught caused by Usagi, which was blowing toward southern Taiwan on Friday. I...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A recently signed agreement will open a direct line of communication between the presidential offices of China and the Philippines to help prevent any new confrontation from spiraling out of control in the disputed South China Sea, according to highlights of the accord seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday. China and the Philippines have created such emergency telephone hotlines at lower levels in the past to better manage disputes, particularly in two fiercely disputed shoals where the Philippines has accused C...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the Philippine president on Monday in a rare Asian trip to urge regional leaders to attend a Swiss-organized global peace summit on the war in Ukraine that he accuses Russia, with China's help, of trying to undermine. Zelenskyy arrived unannounced and under heavy security in Manila late Sunday after speaking over the weekend at the Shangri-La defense forum in Singapore. He was given a red-carpet welcome with military honors Monday at the presidential palace before m...
SANTA ANA, Philippines (AP) — The far-flung coastal town of Santa Ana in the northeastern tip of the Philippine mainland has long been known by tourists mostly for its beaches, waterfalls, fireflies and a few casinos. But that's changing after the laid-back town of about 35,000 people, which still has no traffic light, became strategically important to America. The United States and the Philippines, which are longtime treaty allies, have identified Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province as one of nine mostly rural areas where rotating b...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Filipino villager has been nailed to a wooden cross for the 35th time to reenact Jesus Christ's suffering in a brutal Good Friday tradition he said he would devote to pray for peace in Ukraine, Gaza and the disputed South China Sea. On Friday, over a hundred people watched on as 10 devotees were nailed to wooden crosses, among them Ruben Enaje, a 63-year-old carpenter and sign painter. The real-life crucifixions have become an annual religious spectacle that draws tourists in three rural communities in Pampanga p...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The United States renewed a warning Monday that it would defend the Philippines in case of an armed attack under a 1951 treaty, after Chinese ships blocked and collided with two Filipino vessels off a contested shoal in the South China Sea. Philippine diplomats summoned a Chinese Embassy official in Manila on Monday for a strongly worded protest following Sunday's collisions off Second Thomas Shoal. No injuries were reported but the encounters damaged a Philippine coast guard ship and a wooden-hulled supply boat o...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A Philippine court on Thursday found key members of a powerful political clan guilty of a 2009 massacre in a southern province that left 57 people dead, including 32 media workers, in a brazen execution-style attack that horrified the world. Families of the victims and media watchdogs welcomed the convictions but said the fight for justice was far from over. Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes sentenced eight members of the Ampatuan family led by former town Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., who she said oversaw and led the k...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Archaeologists who discovered fossil bones and teeth of a previously unknown human species that thrived more than 50,000 years ago in the northern Philippines said Thursday they plan more diggings and called for better protection of the popular limestone cave complex where the remains were unearthed. Filipino archaeologist Armand Salvador Mijares said the discovery of the remains in Callao Cave in Cagayan province made the Philippines an important research ground on human evolution. The new species is called Homo l...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Unlike many of his slain comrades, the touted new leader of the Islamic State group in the southern Philippines lacks the bravado, clan name or foreign training. Not much is known about Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, but the attacks attributed to him heralding his rise are distinctly savage: A deadly bombing, which authorities say was a suicide attack by a foreign militant couple, blasted through a packed Roman Catholic cathedral in the middle of a Mass. The Jan. 27 attack, which killed 23 people and wounded about 100 o...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping said Tuesday negotiations between Beijing and Southeast Asian nations on a nonaggression pact to prevent clashes in the disputed South China Sea could be concluded in three years and promised that any differences will be dealt with peacefully. Xi made the assurances after holding talks with President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials on a visit to the Philippines aimed at deepening relations with the American treaty ally. Xi's overnight visit to the Philippine capital, Manila, was his l...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine authorities were evacuating thousands of people from the path of the most powerful typhoon this year, closing schools, readying bulldozers for landslides and placing rescuers and troops on full alert in the country's north. More than 4 million people live in areas at most risk from the storm, which the Joint Typhoon Warning Center in Hawaii categorized as a super typhoon with powerful winds and gusts equivalent to a category 5 Atlantic hurricane. Typhoon Mangkhut is on course to hit northeastern Cagayan p...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The most powerful typhoon of the season is closing in on the northern Philippines, where officials ordered precautionary evacuations and closures of schools and offices and urged farmers to quickly harvest their crops to reduce damage. Forecasters said Typhoon Mangkhut, considered as the strongest this year, could hit northern Cagayan province on Saturday. It was located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) away in the Pacific with sustained winds of 265 kilometers (165 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 325 kph (201 m...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president says he has no intention of going into war over territorial feuds but will order the navy to fire if other countries extract resources from waters within his country's exclusive economic zone. President Rodrigo Duterte told a news conference late Friday that the Philippines will continue talks with China over disputed South China Sea territories. He also stressed the Philippines' sovereign rights over Benham Rise, a vast offshore frontier off his country's northeast. "But just the same, we c...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Glowing-red lava spurted in a fountain and flowed down the Philippines' most active volcano on Tuesday in a stunning display of its fury that has sent more than 34,000 villagers fleeing to safety and prompted police to set up checkpoints to stop tourists from getting too close. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the lava flowed as much as 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the often cloud-shrouded crater of Mount Mayon, while ash fell on several villages in northeastern Albay province. Officials st...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Tens of thousands of villagers in the southern Philippines spent their Christmas morning in emergency shelters Monday as the region dealt with the aftermath of a powerful storm that left more than 150 people dead. Tropical Storm Tembin unleashed landslides and flash floods mostly in the hard-hit provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and on the Zamboanga Peninsula. It strengthened into a typhoon before blowing out of the country Sunday into the South China Sea toward Vietnam. The death toll stood at 164 on M...
MARAWI, Philippines (AP) — Gunfire rang out sporadically and explosions thudded as Philippine soldiers fought Tuesday to regain control of the last pocket of Marawi controlled by Islamic militants, with President Rodrigo Duterte declaring the southern city liberated from "terrorist influence." The military, boosted by the deaths of two key militant leaders the day before, hopes the fighting is the final phase of defeating a dwindling band of fighters who are now trapped in an area the army says is about 2 hectares (5 acres). Duterte visited t...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Southeast Asia's top diplomats slammed North Korea with a sharp rebuke Saturday over its intercontinental ballistic missile tests and admonished Pyongyang to comply with its duty of helping avert conflicts as a member of Asia's biggest security forum. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers, however, were split on an American proposal to suspend Pyongyang from the ASEAN Regional Forum, a 27-nation bloc that includes North Korea and its bitter adversaries the U.S., South Korea and Japan. The A...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine president said his threat to launch airstrikes against tribal schools because they allegedly teach subversion would apply only when the buildings are empty, a clarification that still raised concern he was advocating a war crime. President Rodrigo Duterte responded to a question in a news conference late Thursday that the bombings will be done at night and maintained that the schools were teaching students to become subversives and were operating without government permits. Still, Carlos Conde of the U...
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The foul-mouthed Philippine president, who once called the pope a "son of a bitch" and told Barack Obama to "go to hell," says he has promised to God he won't spew expletives again. President Rodrigo Duterte's profanities have become his trademark, especially when threatening to kill drug dealers as part of his war on illegal drugs that has left thousands dead since he took office at the end of June. Duterte made the stunning pledge on arrival in his southern hometown of Davao city late Thursday from a trip to J...
