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An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck Mindanao, Philippines on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said. The quake was at a depth of 63 km (39.15 miles), EMSC added.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (AP) — Muslims in the southern Philippines overwhelmingly approved in a referendum the creation of a new autonomous region in hopes of ending nearly half a century of unrest, election officials said. The Commission on Elections announced late Friday that the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is deemed ratified following a referendum on Monday. It says 1.5 million people voted in favor. Bangsamoro replaces an existing poverty-wracked autonomous region with a larger, better-funded and more powerful entity. It is the result of a tumultuous peace effort by the government in Manila and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front,...

MANILA, Philippines — The United States has remained the country most trusted by Filipinos, and Russia and China the least, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey. The poll, taken from Dec. 14 to 21 last year, showed 84 percent of Filipinos saying the Philippines should extend “a great deal/fair amount of trust” to the US. This was higher than the 79 percent recorded in March 2017. The US was followed by Japan and Australia with trust ratings of 75 percent and 72 percent, respectively. Great Britain/United Kingdom obtained 57 percent. Reacting to the survey result, Malacañang expressed optimism Filipinos’...

Australian pedophile Peter Gerard Scully, considered one of the world’s most depraved child traffickers and rapists, smiled as he was sentenced to life in a Philippines court. The former Melbourne, Australia, property developer was filmed smiling as he left the Cagayan de Oro city court in the southern Philippines province of northern Mindanao. He had just been sentenced to life in prison, along with his former girlfriend and accomplice, Carme Ann Alvarez. Scully, 55, faces up to 60 further charges for child murder, torture and abuse cases against children as young as 12 months. That includes the abuse of two...

Deadly clashes erupted between government troops and Islamist militants Tuesday in the southern city of Marawi, prompting Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law there and the rest of the island of Mindanao, the state-run Philippines News Agency reported. Duterte is cutting short an official visit to Moscow because of the clashes, PNA reported. Martial law will be in effect on the Muslim-majority southern Philippines island for 60 days "to suppress lawless violence and rebellion and for public safety, Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said, according to PNA. Clashes between government forces and the Maute group, an Islamist militant organization...

Fourteen survivors and victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 filed suit against Iraq in federal district court in Washington, D.C., last week, claiming that Iraqi officials gave money and training to Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols. McVeigh was executed last April. Nichols, convicted of manslaughter and given a life sentence in federal court, is awaiting trial in Oklahoma state court, where survivors are determined that he get a death sentence. Nearly a year after McVeigh's execution, the case remains controversial. Families of victims have accused the federal government of shoddy detective work, and some even have claimed...

The Philippines has its own version of Donald Trump, and he’s campaigning as hard for the presidency of the Philippines as is Trump in the U.S. He’s shouting out controversial charges and claims about as often as Trump, and he’s about the same age. The difference is that Rodrigo Duterte, the 70-year-old mayor of Davao, the country’s fourth largest city and largest on the strife-torn large southern island of Mindanao, is a long-time politico with a reputation for brutality whereas Trump is a real estate tycoon whose tough talk may or may not translate into deeds. While Trump was building...

State media report gunmen have kidnapped four people, including two Canadians and a Norwegian, from a resort in the southern Philippines. The official Philippines news agency reports the abductions took place Monday evening at the Oceanview Resort on Samal Island. ... The three foreigners are male, and the Norwegian is the manager of the resort. The southern Philippines has been plagued by unrest involving Islamist militants in recent years, including the taking of foreign hostages.

A Philippine army offensive against a Muslim rebel faction has forced 70,000 people from their homes, a district governor said on Friday as he appealed for an end to the fighting, saying he was running out of money to feed the displaced. The predominantly Christian Philippines has been battling Muslim rebels in the south of the archipelago for decades and while negotiations with the biggest group have raised hopes for peace, fighting with smaller factions erupts regularly. The latest clashes are between the army and a faction known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in a marshy region of...

**SNIP** The 11,000 strong rebel group, which dates back to the 1960s, aims to carve out greater autonomy in the Philippines for the Muslim minority in the South of the archipelago. The group was cited extensively in a federal case made against Yee and dozens of other defendants last March following a four-year investigation. Yee, ironically known for his gun control legislation, was arrested then on a host of charges including plotting to smuggle guns into the country to be obtained through MILF contacts brokered by his associate, Dr. Wilson Lim . In an affidavit unsealed last year, Yee spoke...

SNIPPET: "ZAMBOANGA CITY (2nd update, 1:56 p.m.) -- A powerful blast killed at least 3 people and wounded 27 others in a budget hotel packed with wedding guests in the southern Philippines, officials said Monday. The explosion, suspected to have been caused by a bomb, ignited a fire that gutted the two-story Atilano Pension House in downtown Zamboanga city late Sunday." SNIPPET: "Zamboanga city, a predominantly Christian trading hub 540 miles (860 kilometers) south of Manila, is located in a volatile region long troubled by a decades-long Muslim insurgency, extortion gangs and kidnap for ransom syndicates."

ZAMBOANGA, PHILIPPINES U.S. troops in the southern Philippines face the prospect of battle with descendants of the Muslim insurgents that brought U.S. General John "Black Jack" Pershing to the country more than a century ago. Before deploying to Basilan on the weekend, the Green Berets took seminars on the roots of Muslim rebellion in the poverty-wracked south as they brought Washington's war on terrorism to one of the most remote parts of the former U.S. colony. "It's an old war," said Datu Amil Jumaani, a Muslim professor who lectured the U.S. troops. Arab missionaries brought Islam to the Philippines in ...

Eight Marine soldiers were killed Monday afternoon in an ambush staged by Abu Sayyaf bandits in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, military officials said. AFP public affairs office chief Lt. Col, Romeo Brawner Jr, said troops from the 4th Marine Battalion Landing Team were on their way to their base when they were waylaid by the Abu Sayyaf at Sitio Talatac in Bato-bato village around 1:30 p.m. Lt. Col. Ariel Caculitan, head of the Marine Battalion Landing Team 4 (MBLT 4), said his men were able to return fire, resulting to the death of five bandits. “Five died on...

Note: The following text is a quote: Madhatta Haipe Extradited to U.S. for 1995 Hostage Taking Involving U.S. and Philippine Citizens WASHINGTON—The Justice Department today announced that Madhatta Haipe, a citizen of the Philippines, has been extradited from the Philippines to face trial in the District of Columbia for various crimes relating to the hostage taking of U.S. and Philippine citizens in 1995. Haipe was arrested Aug. 27 upon his arrival in the United States and is expected to make his initial appearance this afternoon in federal court in the District of Columbia to face a seven-count indictment filed on...

The estimated 600 American special forces in Mindanao are active participants in combat operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the Basilan and Sulu provinces against Abu Sayyaf bandits, former Navy Lt. Nancy Gadian, a whistle-blower on anomalies in the periodic holding of war exercises in the country involving American soldiers, said yesterday. Malacañang has insisted the 600 US troops stationed in Mindanao are not engaged in combat which is prohibited under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). "There were reports that they were actually embedded in the troops who are conducting actual operation or engagement," Gadian, who...

Carlos Conde, a Manila-based freelance journalist who writes primarily for the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune and other publications (and infrequently for Asia Sentinel) discovered Monday to his shock that his name had appeared on an "order of battle" apparently prepared by the intelligence staff of the 10th Infantry Division in Southern Mindanao. Conde, in a formal statement to the press, said he wasn't completely sure what that meant, but the implications are that the 100 names on the list are marked for assassination. One of the 100 was killed last year. In March, the New York-based Committee...

JAKARTA, April 14 (IslamOnline) - Alleged Al-Qaeda operative, Yazid Sufaat, denied terror charges, while he admitted that he met two Arab nationals at his condominium in Kuala Lumpur two years ago, a news report from Malaysiakini.com said on Sunday. However, Sufaat, high on the FBI list of suspects from South East Asia, who might be members or operatives of the Al-Qaeda, stressed the duo could not be involved in the Sept 11 attacks as they were amputees shopping for prosthetic legs in Malaysia. The 37-year-old pathologist and former army captain, who is also a businessmen in Malaysia, told this to...

Note: The following text is a quote: https://www.osac.gov/Reports/report.cfm?contentID=96569 YOU ARE HERE: Home > Reports > Consular Affairs Bulletins > Report Travel Warning: Philippines CONSULAR AFFAIRS BULLETINS East Asia / Pacific - Philippines 28 Jan 2009 Printer Friendly Email Article RELATED REPORTS 10 Aug 2008 WARDEN MESSAGE: MINDANAO (PHILIPPINES) URGES EXTREME CAUTION 4 Aug 2008 CONTINUED EXTORTION-RELATED VIOLENCE IN SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES The U.S. Department of State issued the following Travel Warning on January 27: The State Department warns U.S. citizens of the risks of travel to the southern Philippine islands of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago and urges extreme caution if...

SNIPPET: "ZAMBOANGA CITY—A wide swath of Western Mindanao and a large part of Lanao del Norte were plunged into darkness after rebels toppled down a transmission tower of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco), officials disclosed. 1Lt. Steffanie Cacho, Western Mindanao Command information officer, said the incident took place at about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday in barangay Tingin-Tingin, Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. Cacho said the rebels used four homemade bombs in toppling Line Tower 22. One of the bombs, she said, failed to explode. SNIPPET: "No one has claimed responsibility for the incident, the first to take place this year. Last...

One report said the bombs were packed with nails Two people have died in twin explosions at shops in the city of Iligan in the southern Philippines. At least 47 people were injured - two critically - in the blasts, which went off minutes apart in two shops packed with Christmas shoppers. Police have blamed "terrorists" for the bombs, and Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has vowed to bring the perpetrators to justice. Iligan is on the island of Mindanao, which has an active Muslim insurgency. There have been sporadic clashes between government troops and rebels fighting for self rule...