Free Republic

New Year's firecrackers left at least one man dead and 380 others injured, and caused a fire that gutted 1,000 shanties in the Philippines despite rain and a government warning campaign, officials said Friday. A drunken man lit a dynamite-like firecracker called "Goodbye Philippines" and embraced it in Manila as it exploded, ripping his jaw and killing him, Health Secretary Janet Garin announced. Fire officials said a rocket lit by revelers set an abandoned hut ablaze, sparking a fire that razed about 1,000 shanties in Manila's Tondo slum district and displacing several thousand families. Many superstitious Filipinos usher in the...

Robert DeNiro may be one of the best actors of his generation but when it comes to the hospitality industry, the star apparently has a lot to learn. Nobu Hotel Manila, which is co-owned by the actor, chef Nobu Matshuhisa and movie producer Meir Teper, was named as the worst new luxury hotel of 2015 by Luxury Travel Intelligence (LTI), a members-only group that touts membership comprised of jetsetters and high net worth individuals, on their annual best and worst new hotels list. DeNiro, who has worked with the lauded Japanese chef in his growing restaurant empire, was not able...

These are times not to tarry in the winds of fear but to concentrate now completely on the harvesting of souls for the gifts shall follow and be enacted with this movement( I see a Pendulum) for it is the heartbeat( Mercy /|\ Grace)and The "T"estimony of My Son. You see you are more than able bodied fishermen and greater than just an apostolic order for I created you bigger,wider,deeper and for greater things than these for My hand is upon you heavy now in these last hours and the fields are not only ripe but must be taken in...

Curry led the Golden State Warriors to the NBA title overGolden State Warriors star Stephen Curry vowed to win a second straight National Basketball Association title during a visit to the Philippines on Saturday. Curry's visit to Manila was a godsend for the tens of millions of Filipinos who play or follow the game. "We feel like we're still the team to beat," the NBA's most valuable player (MVP) told reporters in the capital when asked about his team's odds of defending their title during the 2015-2016 season that starts on October 27.

Saddam, the ATM of Al Qaeda By Christopher S. Carson FrontPageMagazine.com | November 15, 2004 The Report of the 9/11 Commission has been digested, and the news media outlets have seized upon it as confirmation of their view that al Qaeda is a kind of purely stateless entity that never had "operational links" with rogue states like Iraq. Somehow, goes the thrust of the Report, Osama bin Laden was for years able to finance, train and supply an international terrorist corporation that had ongoing jihad operations in fifty countries - by himself, on no more than a $30 million personal...

Pope Francis, during his recent love-filled tour of the Phillippines, raised his hand in a salute and prompted some Internet tongue-wagging. Standing next to Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle in Manila, the Pope raised his index and pinkie fingers, keeping his third and fourth fingers down and his thumb extended. The cardinal did the same. All of which prompted the Los Angeles Times to post on its music blog that the pontiff might have been making the sign of the horns, a heavy metal staple among concert fans, or perhaps a centuries-old devil sign.

"Between 6 to 7 million" attended the final big mass in the Philippines on the feast of the Santo Niño. In his homily, the Pope said: “the devil hides behind the allure of being ‘modern’, ‘like everyone else’. Francis also met the father of the volunteer who died in Tacloban yesterday “God created the world as a beautiful garden,” “but man has disfigured that natural beauty”, creating social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption”. Rain poured down on the millions of faithful that gathered in Rizal Park in Manila to attend the mass celebrated by Francis on the final...

Pope Francis met with street children during his visit to the Philippines on Jan. 16, 2015. Credit: ANSA/OSSERVATORE ROMANO. Manila, Philippines, Jan 17, 2015 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Deviating from his schedule of events in the Philippines, Pope Francis had a brief but emotionally intense encounter with former street kids in Manila yesterday. “I saw a sense of paternity from the Pope, also physically in his embrace, his caress, his affection that the kids immediately noticed. So all of them wanted to be in contact with him,” Father Antonio Spadaro S.J. told CNA on Jan. 16. “It was a...

China's southern regions are bracing for a powerful typhoon that has ripped through the Philippines, killing dozens and forcing more than 400,000 people to flee their homes. The official death toll from Typhoon Rammasun has climbed to 38, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said on Thursday. Ten people have been injured and eight are missing. Typhoon Rammasun made landfall in the Philippines on Tuesday, just eight months after Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of the country in November 2013. The eye of Typhoon Rammasun passed south of Manila after cutting a path across the main island of...

<p>Police in the Philippines abused suspected criminals with a 'wheel of torture' game, according to human rights groups.</p>

More than 1.5 million people converged on the Philippine capital on Monday for a powerful Christian sect's evangelical event, causing traffic chaos that shut down large parts of the megacity. The gathering of the secretive and politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) in the historic district of Manila forced all schools and some government offices to close. See your ad here The Supreme Court, as well as some basketball games in the highly popular college league, were also suspended, while Manila's governing authority urged private employers to give their staff a paid day off to avoid the traffic....

Your certainty of my truth is your saving grace . so contend for the faith you carry into battle confronting the enemy IS your sword of truth for in your knowing the battle is already mine subsides all doubt and quenches the fiery darts that pierces one's soul . So protect your heart with the Knowledge of the Overcomer for it IS THE ANSWER to the arsenal that IS yours as you OVERCOME ALL DOUBT ! Revelation 2:7 He who is able to hear, let him listen to and give heed to what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches)....

EMERGENCY MESSAGE TO U.S. CITIZENS September 28, 2012 THE EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES IS TRANSMITTING THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION AS A PUBLIC SERVICE TO U.S. CITIZENS IN THE PHILIPPINES. PLEASE DISSEMINATE THIS MESSAGE TO ALL U.S. CITIZENS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION OR NEIGHBORHOOD. THANK YOU. Threat Against American Citizens in Manila The U.S. Embassy advises American citizens in the Philippines that a threat against American citizens in metropolitan Manila, specifically the Pasay City neighborhood, has been detected by reliable security forces. This threat remains in effect until October 10, 2012. In response to the threat, the U.S. Ambassador has ordered an...

Deadly torrential rains submerged much of the Philippine capital and surrounding areas on Tuesday, forcing nearly 270,000 people to flee their homes with more flooding expected in the north of the country as a tropical storm passes through the region, officials said. Steady rains for the past 10 days, killing more than 50 people, are set to continue until Wednesday, the Philippines weather bureau said, fuelled by tropical storm "Haikui" in the Philippine Sea northeast of Taiwan. The storm is headed for China's Zhejiang province where more than 250,000 people have been evacuated ahead of expected landfall late on Wednesday....

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- Philippine authorities say a mentally ill man who fatally stabbed his barber after he was teased about his new haircut has been shot dead inside a jail by the victim's brother. Mayor Alex Centina of central Calinog town says the brother of the slain barber pretended to be bringing food to the detained Benjie Lozada on Tuesday. Then, he shot him in the face in front of Lozada's mother.

SNIPPET: "MANILA, Philippines—A group of suspected Filipino hackers allegedly financed by a Saudi-based terrorist cell was arrested by agents of the Philippine National Police and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) disclosed on Thursday." SNIPPET: "The group was allegedly behind attacks on the US telecommunication firm AT&T that resulted in $2 million in losses to the company in 2009. In a statement, the CIDG said the group also had links to the Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)." SNIPPET: "ATCCD chief Senior Supt. Gilbert Sosa identified the suspects as Macnell Gracilla,...

SNIPPET: "They say they police intelligence unit arrested Asdatul Sahirun on Sunday at a shopping mall in the capital's Malate tourist district."

On December 28 a news service reported a 35 year old United States Navy Officer Lt. Cmdr. Scintar Buenviaje Mejia died when he jumped headfirst into a concrete floor from a ten foot high stairway platform. The story as reported was that on December 26, Lt. Cmdr. Mejia had been arrested as a drug currier by police at Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He was attempting to board a Philippine Airlines Flight from Manila to Los Angeles when he was stopped. The police held up a bag containing white powder they claimed to have found in Mejia’s luggage which they...

Security beefed up for ex-US President Clinton’s Manila visit this week 11/08/2010 | 09:17 AM Police in Manila have tightened security for the upcoming visit of former US President William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton to the Philippines this week. Radio dzBB reported that the Manila Police District assured enough security for Clinton, whose visit comes after the US issued a travel advisory on possible terror attacks on the Philippines Manila Police District deputy director for operations Senior Superintendent Fidel Posadas said they started security preparations as early as last week. Clinton is scheduled to speak in the Philippines on November 10...

A year ago J Street — the putatively progressive fledgling counter to the Israel lobbying group AIPAC — was riding high. They had just received a write up in the New York Times Magazine that was somewhere between a press release and a love poem and, with a complaisant Obama in the White House, the tiny organization seemed poised to be a significant player in the Middle East discussion. My, as grandma said, have times changed. For starters, J Street’s director, Jeremy Ben-Ami, has shown himself to be a Junior Beltway Pinocchio, serially denying his organization had the financial backing...