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MANILA - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that she is optimistic a peace pact between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will happen before President Arroyo steps down in 2010. Clinton said she believes Mrs. Arroyo is ready to make "difficult decisions" regarding the peace talks with the MILF before the end of her term.

Is surely this one. From an article in the Christian Science Monitor, of all places. Has no-one there watched American Pie? PS - Is it not also the worst possible acronym for a group of Islamic nutters? Talk about undermining yourself from the very start. Although I guess they can be excused, as they definitely haven't seen that iconic slice of American movie-making...

[most likely MILF, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, or Abu Sayaff] From ABS-CBN: Philippine authorities and church officials on Sunday launched fresh appeals for the safety of an elderly Irish priest they fear may be in dire need of medical attention eight days after he was abducted by unknown gunmen. Thousands of flyers were being handed out in coastal communities on the troubled southern island of Mindanao seeking help to get medicines delivered to Father Michael Sinnott, 79. Flyers being distributed in Mindanao "We appeal to your kind heart that the medicines will be delivered to Father Sinnott who currently has...

Police: Mich. Woman Had Sex With Biological Son By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS September 12, 2009 WATERFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- A Detroit-area woman accused of having sex with her biological son after finding him on the Internet has been charged. Police say 35-year-old Aimee Louise Sword of Waterford Township is facing one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct after two counts were dropped earlier this week. Authorities haven't said when or where she and the teenager met, but said she gave him up for adoption more than 10 years earlier. She surrendered to police in April. Sword is free on...

A Muslim separatist rebel wanted for arson and bombings has been arrested in the southern Philippines, police said on Saturday. Smawtin Basilan, who is a member of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and who had a 12,000-dollar bounty on his head, was arrested at his home in Midsayap town Wednesday, police said. Basilan is believed to be a top lieutenant of MILF commander Ameril Umbrakato, one of two MILF leaders wanted for large-scale attacks on several mostly Christian towns and provinces in the south in August last year. The attacks led to the deaths of over 300 people...

The quote of the week comes from pregnant Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova: "You know, it's probably the new thing to be pregnant. It's not to have the Chanel python bag. It's to be pregnant." The 25-year-old joins fellow Victoria Secret models Adriana Lima, Gisele Bundchen and Heidi Klum, who are also expecting. As for baby names, Kurkova won't say. "There are a few names that we like. But I'm keeping them a secret. I don't want Adriana or Heidi or Gisele stealing my baby's name."

Air Force pounds MILF lairs with rockets By James Mananghaya Updated June 08, 2009 12:00 AM MANILA, Philippines - Air Force attack planes pounded yesterday the position of Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Guindulungan, Maguindanao, as fighting between government troops and guerrillas entered its fourth day, a military spokesman reported. Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman for the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said SF 21 Marchetti planes conducted two bombing runs between 11 a.m. and 12 noon. He said that scores of MILF rebels are believed dead because of the accuracy of the rockets fired from the Air Force...

A former Holly High School music teacher accused of having sex with two students was sentenced to jail Wednesday and barred from most unsupervised contact with minors. Ranee Sue Proper hugged supporters before facing Oakland Circuit Judge Edward Sosnick, who sentenced her to five years probation, with the first nine months of that in Oakland County Jail. The judge also ordered her to participate in sex offender treatment and not to have any unsupervised contact with minors under 18 other than her own children and relatives’ children.

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...

COTABATO, Philippines (AFP) - As many as 10 Muslim separatist guerrillas were killed in a pre-emptive air strike by the military in the southern Philippines on Tuesday, a military spokesman said. An air force OV-10 bomber plane spotted about a hundred armed Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) members massing in Kalamansig town on the southern island of Mindanao and dropped a bomb on them, said Lieutenant Colonel Julieto Ando. "They were planning to attack our soldiers so we launched the air offensive," said Ando, adding that troops spotted about 10 bodies after the attack but were unable to recover them....

http://www.longwarjournal.org/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?tag=Philippines&blog_id=7 # BLOG ENTRY - QUOTE: http://www.longwarjournal.org/today-in/2008/12/the_moro_islamic_liberation_fr_1.php Moro Islamic Liberation Front killed nine people during attacks on villagers in the provinces of Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat on Christmas eve, and continued raids on Christmas day. MILF refused to change its negotiating position or representatives, but demanded a cabinet-level official head the peace panel. Find related articles: Philippines Posted by Bill Roggio on December 25, 2008 10:33 PM | Permalink

Santa Claus will be busy trying to supply presents for this family. An American woman has given birth to her eighteenth child - and her husband says the couple want still more children. The fact that they are only giving their children names beginning with the letter 'J' has not slowed them up one bit. Last night Michelle delivered the baby girl by Caesarean section at a hospital in Arkansas. The baby, named Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar, weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces (3.26 kilograms) and was 20 inches (51 centimetres) long. "The ultimate Christmas gift from God," said Jim Bob Duggar,...

A Democratic congressman compared Caroline Kennedy to Sarah Palin, saying the would-be senator hasn't proved she has the "guts and the gumption" to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton. Rep. Gary Ackerman of Queens said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the Kennedy legend and connections won't be enough to make her a successful senator if Gov. David Paterson appoints her to the U.S. Senate. "Everyone knows who she is, but I'm not sure what she is," said Ackerman. "Eventually she has to get in the ring, and face the public." Kennedy launched a kind of listening tour last week, in...

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...

Peace advocates are scrambling in a last minute bid to reduce the prospect of the Mindanao crisis spiraling out of control following the Supreme Court October 14 decision to rule the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MOA-AD) unconstitutional. Amoran Andy Andoga, founding chairman and national president of the Filipino Muslim Democratic Alliance (FIMDA), says Muslim organizations and other groups need to go beyond fact-finding visits. "We have to make steps bolder and more meaningful," Andoga told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project. He says his group along with other non-government Muslim organizations are trying to convince the government and...

I don't think there is any precedent in our history for the shameful manner in which the Left has treated Sarah Palin. Left-winger Andrew Sullivan gleefully posted a particularly disgusting example of the phenomenon today; it's a YouTube video titled "Red, White and MILF." Watch it only if you have a strong stomach. If you don't know what "MILF" means--I'm sure most of our readers don't--Google it. I can remember when Sullivan was a respected journalist, not a gutter smear merchant and borderline pornographer. His descent exemplifies the Left's decline in recent years to a baboon-like level of discourse. The...

Top Philippine court rejects Muslim autonomy deal By OLIVER TEVES MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine Supreme Court threw out on Tuesday a proposed accord to grant minority Muslims expanded autonomy after Christian protests and renewed fighting convinced the government to abandon the deal. The court had already blocked the planned Aug. 5 signing of the agreement after Christian politicians in the main southern region of Mindanao, scene of a decades-long Muslim rebellion, claimed it violated the constitution and could lead to the partition of the Philippines. The move angered Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas, who went on a rampage...

MANILA, Oct 12, 2008 (AFP) - Eight soldiers, including an officer, were wounded in intense fighting with Muslim separatist rebels in the southern Philippines Sunday, the military said. Troops backed by two armoured vehicles clashed with about 60 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) guerrillas near the town of Mamasapano in the southern island of Mindanao, it said.

Muslim rebel attack kills 11 in southern Philippines [Oct. 2, 2008] Eight Muslim rebels and three soldiers have been killed in the latest outbreak of fighting in the troubled southern Philippines, a military official said. Guerrillas of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fired on an army patrol in Datu Piang town in the island of Mindanao yesterday, killing the three soldiers and wounding 12, local army commander Colonel Marlou Salazar said. Military reinforcements backed by armoured vehicles arrived later, prompting the rebels to flee using civilians as cover, he added. The bodies of eight rebels were recovered from...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...