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A toddler who ‘woke up’ at her own funeral is reportedly dead. Startled mourners thought they had caught a miracle on camera when the toddler they were about to bury ‘woke up’. The three-year-old from Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur in the Philippines, was pronounced dead at 9am on Friday and was set for burial at 1pm on Saturday. But during the funeral her family, friends and loved ones got the surprise of their lives when the little girl came back to life. People started recording the unbelievable scenes after a priest was preparing to administer the last sacrament and someone...

---snip--- Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines have been forming an alliance against China, as China has been moving to annex other countries' territories in the South and East China Seas. Relations between Vietnam and China have become particularly hostile since China deployed an oil rig in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone (EEZ). (See "China's neighbors react to new South China Sea claims" from last week.) Now Australia is signaling that it is also joining this alliance. The change in policy was indicated in a statement by Australia's foreign minister, Julie Bishop, during a visit by Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe to...

A leading Islamist social-media propagandists and jihadist, Australian-born Musa Cerantonio, was arrested in the Philippines island of Cebu today. The arrest was announced by the Philippines police who arrested him early today along with immigration agents. He was hiding in a village in Barangay Pajac, Lapu-Lapu just outside of Cebu City. In addition to Cerantonio, police arrested Joean Montayre of Negros Occidental. Montayre was officially arrested for failing to pay a bill at the hotel she and Musa Cerantonio had been staying together. She is also a person of interest in the case against Cerantonio. SunStarCebu (via YouTube)Musa Cerantonio had...

Two communist rebels were killed and two policemen wounded in a firefight on Thursday afternoon in the southern Philippines, officials said.

Like most of its Asian neighbors, the Philippines has been a net energy importer for decades. The country’s dependence on hydrocarbons is relatively lower as compared to South Korea or Singapore as it has alternatives such as geothermal, hydropower and other renewable sources for electricity generation. But rising energy consumption and the expected depletion of gas resource at the offshore Malampaya field – the country’s major gas development – in a decade’s time has induced the Philippines to seek alternative energy supplies. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) import, together with the accompanying gas receiving facilities, is one of the options being...

A man in Philippines who was planning to celebrate his landmark 30th birthday with his perfect family in July 2014, received a major setback when he was diagnosed with stage four cancer in May. According to a YouTube upload by Hasset Go, the man did get to fulfil his last wish and tie the knot in a fairytale wedding in what was described as a moving ceremony to the love of his life and the mother of his two-year-old daughter. Tragically, a mere 10 hours after the loving couple said their vows, the man breathed his last and passed away...

MAY/JUNE 2013 Historical Fiction: China’s South China Sea Claims Mohan Malik The Spratly Islands—not so long ago known primarily as a rich fishing ground—have turned into an international flashpoint as Chinese leaders insist with increasing truculence that the islands, rocks, and reefs have been, in the words of Premier Wen Jiabao, “China’s historical territory since ancient times.” Normally, the overlapping territorial claims to sovereignty and maritime boundaries ought to be resolved through a combination of customary international law, adjudication before the International Court of Justice or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or arbitration under Annex VII...

Confrontation in the South China Sea 19 April 2012 A tense standoff between China and the Philippines continued this week, as Beijing demanded that Manila withdraw a coast guard vessel from the waters around Scarborough Shoal, which both countries claim. China maintains that the entire South China Sea is an internal Chinese lake and asserts sovereignty over all the islands, islets, and rock outcroppings in that massive waterway through which one third of the world’s trade passes. Scarborough, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island and Manila has renamed Panatag Shoal, is about 125 nautical miles off the Philippine coast but at...

There is a great deal of confusion and ignorance about the jihadist organization ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) which has been waging a terror campaign in those two nations for some time now, culminating most recently in the seizure of Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. ... ISIS has a specific goal in mind and that is the formation of an Islamic state ruled by Shariah. This is very important to understand because this is a common goal of all the major jihadist organizations across the world. It is shared by al Qaeda, Hamas, Lashkar e Taiba, Abu Sayyef,...

Australian-born Musa Cerantonio, considered by authorities to be one of the top Islamist social-media propagandists, has been living in various parts of the Philippines for roughly a year, reported today by Rappler Philippines. The 29-year old former Christian has been under investigation by Australian Federal Police, who likewise traced him to the Philippines, which has a large population of foreign-born residents due to its influence in the Business Process Outsource (BPO) market. Cerantonio has successfully utilized Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media outlets to recruit and serve as propagandist for the radical Islamist movement. He recently celebrated the Islamic...

South Korea will donate a corvette warship to the poorly-equipped Philippine navy amid growing tensions -- particularly with China -- over maritime territorial disputes in the region, the government said Thursday. The "Pohang-class corvette" will be decommissioned by the end of the year and donated to the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said in a statement issued this week. It was unclear if the donation would include the ship's weapons systems. South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwang-jin informed his Filipino counterpart Voltaire Gazmin of the donation during his visit to Seoul on May 30, the statement added....

The Department of Foreign Affairs cites the 'deteriorating security situation' as reason for the voluntary repatriation of Filipinos who are working mostly in American military bases in Baghdad.Filipinos in Iraq are being asked to voluntarily return to the Philippines at government expense. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Saturday, June 14, raised the crisis alert level for all areas in Iraq to Level 3 which signals voluntary repatriation. It cited the “deteriorating security situation” as reason for the repatriation. There are an estimated 500 overseas Filipino workers in Iraq working mostly in American military bases in Baghdad, the capital....

None of the attempts to make the Philippines a US state have been successful, or taken seriously, so far.MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Did you know that there have been attempts to make the Philippines a state of the United States of America? Since the Philippines came under US rule in 1898, some ilustrados (upper class Filipinos) advocated the annexation of the Philippines to the US, but didn’t succeed. Pro-US statehood movements persisted even after the US granted independence to the Philippines in 1946. Several organizations have lobbied for US annexation, and even made it a campaign platform. None of these efforts...

The United States military is set to return to the Philippines 22 years after being evicted. The imminent arrival of US forces has renewed focus on the thousands of "Amerasians" fathered by US military personnel. Aya Lowe went in search of this forgotten generation. Mary-Jane Stephens lives in a gritty one-room house with her three children and three grandchildren. Two sprawling mattresses pushed together make up the sleeping area, while one stove, sofa and TV make up the rest of the household. Continue reading the main story Philippines Direct branding graphic From selling peanuts to making a mint Your pictures:...

WASHINGTON — The United States' top naval officer said the Navy’s growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region is beginning to show results and shape events, but acknowledges it will be ‘a long-term effort.’ Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the Chief of Naval Operations, said he hopes the U.S. Navy will be able to expand cooperation with India once its new government takes its place. Speaking Monday at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Greenert said the growing military-to-military dialogue with China is beginning to show results, especially in the South China Sea, where maritime tensions between China and its...

A large number of People’s Liberation Army troops have reportedly been spotted heading towards the China-Vietnam border as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, reports Hong Kong’s Sing Tao Daily. Sing Tao Daily is generally considered to be aligned to Chinese state media. Thousands of Chinese nationals living or on business in Vietnam have already fled the country amid anti-China riots, which were sparked by a tense standoff between Chinese and Vietnamese naval ships near a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters off the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea on May 4. The Chinese foreign ministry...

China began evacuating hundreds of its nationals from Vietnam (via at least 2 planes and 5 ships) as the anti-China protests have become increasingly deadly following Beijing's attempt to deploy an oil drill in Vietnamese dispuited waters (detailed here, here, here, and here)... *CHINA SENDING 5 SHIPS TO VIETNAM TO EVACUATE CHINESE: XINHUA*HUNDREDS OF VIETNAMESE SECURITY IN CENTRAL HO CHI MINH CITY*VIETNAM PRIME MINISTER ISSUES DIRECTIVE TO PREVENT PROTESTS*VIETNAM GOVT TAKES ACTION TO PREVENT RIOTS: BINH Hundreds of police and security forces are in central Ho Chi Minh city and the Chinese consulate is under heavy guard. Tensions across...

(CNN) -- Anti-Chinese protests in Vietnam have turned violent with demonstrators setting on fire a number of factories in a southern Vietnamese industrial park. Properties in the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Parks (VSIP) I & II in Binh Duong were targeted Tuesday by thousands of protesters demonstrating over China's deployment of an oil rig into waters that both countries claim as sovereign territory. Reports suggest the demonstrators targeted factories owned by Chinese firms, although CNN received a report that the arson was indiscriminate, with Korean-, Taiwanese- and Japanese-owned properties also torched by the angry mob.

Hanoi/Manila Reuters: Thousands of Vietnamese set fire to factories and rampaged in industrial zones in the south of the country after protests against Chinese oil drilling in a part of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam, officials said on Wednesday. The brunt appears to have been borne by Taiwanese companies in the zones in Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces as rioters mistook the firms to be Chinese-owned. Vietnamese officials gave few details, but said gates to factories were smashed and windows were broken. Police said they were investigating. A Singapore foreign ministry spokesman said the premises of a...