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China has “enforced maritime management and exercised sovereign jurisdiction” over an uninhabited reef in the disputed South China Sea, planting the country’s flag on the tiny sand bank just kilometers from a key Philippine military outpost. Photographs released by Chinese state-run media on Saturday showed China Coast Guard officers unfurling the flag as part of an effort to effectively seize Sandy Cay reef, which Beijing calls Tiexian Jiao, earlier this month. The reef, located in the flash point Spratly Island chain, is also claimed by Taiwan, Vietnam and the Philippines. Sandy Cay also sits just over 3 kilometers from Thitu...

Bangkok -- Search teams in Myanmar recovered more bodies from the ruins of buildings on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake killed more than 3,100 people, as the focus turns toward the urgent humanitarian needs in a country already devastated by a continuing civil war. United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, will visit the area on Friday in an effort to spur action following the March 28 quake. Ahead of the visit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims “to match the...

A former Hawaii resident, and longtime green card holder, is among those being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. HONOLULU (Hawaii News Now) -- Green card holders are officially Lawful Permanent Residents of the United States, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. But being a resident of the United States is very different from being a citizen. Lewelyn Dixon immigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii 50 years ago. She graduated from Farrington High School and has been working as a lab technician at the University of Washington. Dixon was returning home to Seattle from a family trip...

Three years ago, the most powerful political families in the Philippines joined hands to secure the nation’s biggest election victory in four decades. Now they are locked in a feud that threatens to derail one of Asia’s economic growth stars. In dramatic events on Tuesday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s government arrested and deported his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte to face the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The move came just over a month after the impeachment of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, by allies of Marcos. A Senate trial, which would determine whether she gets removed from office,...

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has landed in the Netherlands and been taken into the custody of the international criminal court (ICC) on allegations of overseeing death squads in his bloody “war on drugs”. Duterte was arrested in Manila on Tuesday and placed on a private jet to Rotterdam by police. The plane landed on Wednesday afternoon and taxied into a hangar. An ambulance dropped medics nearby before they wheeled a gurney inside the aircraft. The ICC later released a statement saying Duterte had been “surrendered to the custody” of the court. It added that “as a precautionary measure,...

March 10 (UPI) -- Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was arrested Tuesday morning in Manila on an International Criminal Court warrant for crimes against humanity over his bloody war on drugs. He was arrested at 9:20 a.m. local time after he arrived in Manila from Hong Kong aboard Cathay Pacific flight CX 907, the Philippines government said in a statement. "The former President and his group are in good health and were examined by government doctors to ensure his well-being," the statement said. This is a developing story.

MANILA (UPDATED) — The Philippine Army on Tuesday said the US' Mid-Range Capability (MRC) missile system recently transferred to an undisclosed location in the country would be used in the upcoming Combined Arms Training Exercise (CATEX) Katihan in February. China calls US missile deployment in Philippines 'dangerous' But Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala said the use of the Typhon missile launchers will be limited to subject matter expert exchanges (SMEEs), which will focus on the orientation and familiarization of the capability. “The second iteration of the SMEEs with the MRC between the US Army Pacific (USARPAC) and the Army Artillery...

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte said Saturday she has contracted an assassin to kill the president, his wife and the House of Representatives speaker if she herself is killed, in a brazen public threat that she warned was not a joke. Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin referred the “active threat” against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to an elite presidential guards force “for immediate proper action.” It was not immediately clear what actions would be taken against the vice president. The Presidential Security Command immediately boosted Marcos’ security and said it considered the vice president’s threat, which was “made so brazenly in...

An escalating series of clashes in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China could draw the U.S., which has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, into the conflict. A 60 Minutes crew got a close look at the tense situation when traveling on a Philippine Coast Guard ship that was rammed by the Chinese Coast Guard... After the Chinese Coast Guard ship — 269 feet long and nearly twice the size of the Cape Engaño — pulled away, the Filipino crew found a three-and-a-half foot hole in the hull.... The ship Vega and her team was on...

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines wants to upgrade its military with mid-range missiles and advanced fighter jets, two senior security officials said on Thursday, spending at least $33 billion as it modernises its defence in the face of growing regional tensions. The military wants to acquire more cutting-edge weaponry, armed forces chief Romeo Brawner told reporters, hours after Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro announced the Philippines was reviewing offers to buy more weapons. "We are wanting to get more of the latest weapons systems. That includes the mid-range capability," Brawner told a joint media conference with U.S. Indo-Pacific Commander Samuel Paparo...

MANILA—The US military is open to the possibility of escorting Philippine ships in the disputed South China Sea, depending on consultations under the allies’ 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command said Tuesday amid a spike in hostilities between Beijing and Manila in the disputed waters. Adm. Samuel Paparo’s remarks, which he made in response to a question during a news conference in Manila with Philippine Armed Forces chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr., provided a glimpse of the mindset of one of the highest American military commanders outside the US mainland on a prospective operation that would...

The Philippines and China have again clashed in the South China Sea, with Manila and Beijing trading accusations of responsibility for the latest maritime skirmish between the two neighbors amid their fight over sovereignty of the disputed waters. The incident occurred Sunday within the Spratly Islands, a disputed archipelago that is claimed by the Philippines and China, along with several other Asian nations. The Phillipines accused China of ramming and causing the engine failure of a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessel that was on a "humanitarian mission" to resupply Filipino fisherman. It said eight ships of China's navy...

The Biden administration has warned China against continuing to conduct armed attacks on the Philippines, but China has blatantly ignored the warning, repeatedly harassing Philippine naval vessels and severely injuring its sailors over the past several months. Beijing, for its part, has accused Washington of using the Philippines as a pawn and seems to have every intention of continuing to escalate the dispute. That dispute centers on the Second Thomas Shoal, a disputed reef within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, but also within China’s illegal “nine-dash line” maritime claim in the South China Sea. The Daily Signal depends...

The government is “open to the idea” of the Philippines serving as a “processing area” for Afghan nationals displaced by their homeland’s conflict before they are resettled in the United States, a Department of Justice (DOJ) official said on Tuesday. One year after a Senate inquiry was launched to tackle Washington’s request, Justice Undersecretary Raul Vasquez told reporters that talks with the US Embassy regarding the details of a possible agreement were still ongoing. “Initially, we discussed [hosting] a few hundred [Afghan nationals] and if it works out, then we’ll accommodate more,” he said. Vasquez added that their main concern...

Just because it's not front page news at the moment doesn't mean this may not be one of the most important stories in the world right now. As discussed here and here, the conflict between China and the Philippines has been escalating for most of the past year. China claims that all of the islands in the South China Sea belong to it and the Philippines refuses to comply, especially with regard to island that are within its Exclusive Economic Zone.China has been harassing Philippines' ships and fishing vessels for months but last week it threatened to release proof of...

OPINION China’s recent outcry over the alleged breach of ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ with the Philippines reveals a profound irony, given the history of its coercion and deceit There is a huge amount of insincerity and gall involved in the Chinese complaint that the Philippines had torn up the bilateral ‘Gentleman’s Agreement,’ between Beijing and Manila. While the term ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ has an implicit assumption of ‘trust’ as a fundamental tenet besting a relationship, which may otherwise not be legally binding -- to even imagine that there has been any element of ‘trust’ between these two sparing countries, is to put oneself...

A Philippines Coast Guard vessel was water cannoned by Chinese vessels on Tuesday in waters near Bajo De Masinloc. The Philippines Coast Guard vessel was on a resupply mission. #china #phillipines #news VIDEO AT LINK........................

TUGUEGARAO CITY, CAGAYAN, Philippines — Two Cagayan Valley lawmakers have filed separate resolutions asking the appropriate committee of the House of Representatives to look into the reported surge of Chinese students in colleges and universities in this city amid the country’s tension with China over the West Philippine Sea. Representatives Joseph Lara of Cagayan’s third district and Faustino “Inno” Dy V of Isabela’s sixth district said the presence of large numbers of Chinese nationals in this region and other parts of the country pose a risk to the country’s national security and economy, particularly since these foreigners had been involved...

Friction has grown between Manila and Beijing in recent months over competing claims in the South China Sea. "These waterways are critical to the Philippines, to its security, to its economy," Mr Blinken said. "They're also critical to the interests of the region, the United States and the world," "That's why we stand with the Philippines and stand by our ironclad defence commitments, including under the mutual defence treaty." The visit is also likely to be seen as bolstering American support for Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has tilted towards Washington unlike his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who pushed ties...

Gun laws in the Philippines aren't as atrocious as many other countries in southeast Asia, but they're still wildly draconian compared to most states in the U.S. There are an estimated 4 million gun owners in the country, but in order to lawfully possess a gun owners have to jump through numerous government-imposed hoops like psychological testing and training mandates, and some guns that are commonly owned here are off-limits to the average Filipino. This week, however, the Philippine National Police announced that soon civilians will be able to purchase and possess semi-automatic rifles; a major change to the country's...