DOH sends medical teams to evacuation sites

The Department of Health (DOH) dispatched on Friday medical teams to evacuation centers to ensure proper basic medical services. Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said he ordered regional DOH offices to ensure the presence of the medical teams and coordinate with local disaster offices about areas that need health personnel. READ: Marcos wants medical teams at all evacuation centers “I have also instructed the emergency purchase of medicines for...

China's foreign minister warns Philippines over US missile deployment

BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has warned the Philippines over the U.S. intermediate-range missile deployment, saying such a move could fuel regional tensions and spark an arms race. The United States deployed its Typhon missile system to the Philippines as part of joint military drills earlier this year. It was not fired during the exercises, a Philippine military official

Meralco: 73,000 still without power

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said power restoration works continued, with the number of its consumers affected now down to around 73,000, as of 3 p.m. Friday. In a statement, Meralco said the remaining consumers hit by service interruptions were mostly in Metro Manila and Bulacan. Some areas in Rizal, Cavite, Laguna and Batangas were also affected. Of the total affected consumers, more than 57,000 were in flooded areas. READ: 4 Luzon...

'Damage is not a solution, education is a must'

A week on, the BBC returns to Harehills to see how the area is recovering from a night of disorder.

UN says 51 million Filipinos ‘food insecure’

About 51 million Filipinos experienced moderate or severe “food insecurity’’ from 2021 to 2023, making the Philippine situation the worst in Southeast Asia, according to a United Nations study. The UN’s latest report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World showed that the country had the highest number of moderately or severely food-insecure individuals in the region, comprising nearly half of the 115.8 million people facing...

Japan's Sado mines added to World Heritage list

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labour was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing. Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

Ayungin arrangement will be honored, Manalo says after meeting China FM

Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting in Laos and both affirmed that a recently agreed arrangement in resupply missions in Ayungin Shoal will be honored, diplomatic sources told GMA News Online. The Philippines conducted a rotation and reprovisioning mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal on Saturday and "no untoward incident was reported," a...

Pagasa: LPA spotted east of Mindanao

A low pressure area (LPA) east of Mindanao was detected within the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) but the chances of it becoming a tropical cyclone remained “low,” the state weather bureau said on Friday. In its 4 p.m. update, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said the LPA, located 900 kilometers east of southern Mindanao, was unlikely to intensify in the next 24 hours. But Pagasa...

Forest City: Inside Malaysia’s billionaire real estate complex turned ‘ghost town’

Risa Hontiveros: No letup in Pogo probe amid shutdowns

Despite an order from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to shut down all Philippine offshore gaming operators (Pogos), a Senate committee that focused national attention on this Chinese-dominated industry will continue its inquiry into the impact of the business on the nation, the panel’s head, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, said on Friday. “It’s not over yet,” Hontiveros said in a statement. Arrest orders Alice Guo, the suspended mayor of Bamban, Tarlac,...

DOH issues health advisory for Bataan oil spill

The Department of Health (DOH) on Saturday issued a public health advisory for those affected by the Bataan oil spill, particularly for responders and clean-up workers. "Bagamat ang Oil Spill ay hindi pangakaraniwang trahedya, maaari itong magdulot hindi lamang ng pagkasira sa lamang dagat ngunit pati na rin sa kalusugan ng mga tao mae-expose dito," DOH said in a post on social media. (Although an Oil Spill is not a unusual tragedy, it can cause...

Blinken criticises China's 'escalating actions' at sea ahead of Wang meeting

By Simon Lewis VIENTIANE (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, shortly before meeting his Chinese counterpart on Saturday, urged Southeast Asian countries to help address challenges including Beijing's "escalating and unlawful actions" in the South China Sea. Blinken also called the civil war in Myanmar "heartbreaking" and stressed to foreign ministers of the Association of

Central Luzon bears brunt of super typhoon Carina

MABALACAT CITY—Despite leaving the Philippine area of responsibility on Thursday, Supertyphoon “Carina” (international name: Gaemi) left 502 villages flooded in Central Luzon region, affecting 1.137 million people while claiming the lives of at least nine people. Carina enhanced the southwest monsoon (“habagat”) as it cut a path of destruction over Luzon, triggering landslides and floods at its peak early this week. Data from the regional police...

PCG: No cargo spill from sunken tanker

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Friday has deployed floating barriers and dispersants to contain the little engine oil from the tanker that sank in the waters off Limay town in Bataan province early Thursday. Rear Adm. Armand Balilo, spokesperson for the the PCG, said there was no leak yet from the 1.4 million liters of industrial fuel that the Philippine-flagged oil tanker “MT Terra Nova” was carrying. He said what the PCG started...

Wellspring apologizes to Puyat family, Abby Binay over 'Gil Tulog' campaign

MANILA, Philippines —The company behind an advertising campaign for a sleep supplement apologized to the family of the late Senate President Gil Puyat and to the Makati City government over a marketing strategy that involved changing the street name of Gil Puyat to "Gil Tulog." Tulog in Filipino means sleep. In a statement on Friday night, Wellspring said offending anybody was never its intention, and the wordplay in the campaign was used solely...

My family went to help landslide victims and ended up dead

Meselesh Gosaye's home area in Ethiopia was hit by two landslides that buried hundreds under the mud.

15 elementary, high schools in QC to start classes in August

Fifteen elementary and high schools in Quezon City will push back the opening of their School Year 2024-2025 classes to August, the local government unit said on Saturday. The 15 schools were affected by Typhoon Carina and the enhanced Southwest Monsoon this week, the Quezon City government said in a Facebook post. The following schools will start classes on August 1: Sto. Cristo Elementary School Balumbato Elementary School Cong. Reynaldo...

France travel disruption expected to last for days

Thousands more passengers could face delays or cancellations after an arson attack on France's train network on Friday.

PNP, AFP recapture Baguio military stockade escapee

National Capital Region Police Office policemen and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines servicemen recaptured a convict who escaped from the Baguio City military stockade last July 22. Quoting Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr., Sam Nielsen reported Saturday on Super Radyo dzBB that the 30-year-old escaped person deprived of liberty was caught Friday in Makati City's Barangay Pio del Pilar. A...

Australia signs $1.4 billion deal to upgrade navy submarines

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia said on Saturday it had signed a A$2.2 billion ($1.4 billion) four-year contract with state-owned submarine builder ASC to upgrade the navy's Collins class submarines. The "sustainment contract" is part of a government pledge to keep the diesel-electric powered Collins-class fleet "a potent strike and deterrence capability", Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said

Heavy traffic on roads to Philippine Arena as INC celebrates 110th anniversary

MANILA, Philippines — In line with the 110th anniversary of the religious group Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) at Ciudad de Victoria on Saturday, roads along the Philippine Arena may experience heavy traffic and motorists were urged to take alternate routes. The event, which started at 6 a.m. this Saturday, is ongoing. "Please expect high volume of traffic in the area during this date. Motorists are encouraged to take alternate routes and allow more...

Officers on poignant ride for fallen colleagues

The 17 riders are wearing bracelets to commemorate their former colleagues who died while on duty.

Paris Olympics launched by historic river parade

A historic boat parade down the River Seine launched the Paris Olympics with spectacular French flair Friday, as the City of Light welcomed the world’s greatest athletes for a sporting extravaganza. Braving torrential rain, some 300,000 people lined the river banks to cheer on the armada carrying competitors past the city’s iconic sights: the Eiffel Tower bearing the five Olympic rings, the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral. The wildly ambitious...

Manila archdiocese starts calamity fund drive

Metro Manila’s Roman Catholic dioceses have started a donation drive for people affected by the heavy rains and floods brought by Supertyphoon “Carina” and the enhanced southwest monsoon. In a circular issued on Friday, Cardinal Jose Advincula, archbishop of Manila, said there will be a second collection during all masses on Saturday evening and for the whole day of Sunday in parishes, chaplaincies and mission stations of the archdiocese, which...

Families pay tribute to four friends killed in crash

Andrei Tudorov, Lyuben Gogov, Narcis Titianu, and Ioan Toma died when their car hit a tree.

New York family of Holocaust victim reclaims Nazi-looted art

US authorities announced Friday the return of another artwork stolen by Nazis to the family of Fritz Grunbaum, the Austiran-Jewish cabaret performer and collector who originally owned it. The drawing, by Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele, was returned at a ceremony Friday by another Austrian-Jewish family, who purchased the piece without knowing that it had been stolen.

Philippine forces sail to hotly disputed shoal without incident for first time since deal with China

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine government personnel transported food and other supplies Saturday to a fiercely disputed shoal occupied by a Filipino navy contingent but closely guarded by Beijing’s forces in the South China Sea and no confrontations were reported, Philippine officials said. It was the first Philippine government supply trip to the Second Thomas Shoal, which has been the scene of increasingly violent confrontations between...

‘Sabotage’ on French rail network before Olympics: What we know

Arson attacks scrambled France’s high-speed rail network for tens of thousands of passengers on Friday, after what officials called premeditated acts of “sabotage” just hours before the Paris Olympics opened. Friday’s attacks were launched as the French capital was under heavy security ahead of the Games opening ceremony, with 300,000 spectators and an audience of VIPs expected at the event. READ MORE: Locked-down Paris nervously awaits Olympics...

Bangladesh says student leaders held for their own safety

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest. - 'Carried out raids' - The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organised by Students Against Discrimination that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Israel tells Gazans to temporarily vacate southern Khan Younis areas

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military told Palestinians to temporarily evacuate southern neighborhoods of Gaza's Khan Younis region so it could "forcefully operate" there, telling them to relocate to a humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi, a statement from the military said on Saturday. The fighting, more than nine months since the start of Israel's invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7 attack,

Kim calls for 'people's paradise' on Korean War anniversary

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for the building of a "people's paradise", as Pyongyang marked the anniversary of the end of the Korean War on Saturday. Kim said on Friday that it was the "sacred mission and duty of our generation" to "reliably defend our ideology and social system" and "build a people's paradise", according to Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency.

Woman who died of ME was ‘frightened no doctors could help’

A young woman who died from ME said that it was “frightening to discover that there are no doctors who can help you” just months before her death, an inquest was told. Maeve Boothby O’Neill died from the debilitating illness myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) in October 2021 at the age of 27. The inquest into her death on Friday heard an account from t...

Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, alleged Mexican kingpin, pleads not guilty to US charges

By Luc Cohen and Drazen Jorgic NEW YORK (Reuters) -Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, the notorious alleged co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, pleaded not guilty to U.S. drug charges on Friday after he and a son of a Mexican drug lord were arrested in Texas in a dramatic achievement for U.S. law enforcement that could usher in a seismic shift to Mexico's criminal landscape. Court records showed that

BSP ready to welcome more digital banks

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will resume accepting applications for digital banking licenses in the country after three years, a move that would open up the nascent industry to more players as it navigates the path to profitability. It is still unclear how many digital banking slots would be up for grabs to prospective players, but BSP Governor Eli Remolona Jr. told the Inquirer that a circular on this matter will be released “soon.”...

30 things that you can't do in some countries

We all know that each nation has its own set of rules and laws, which are crucial to ensure a country's stability. However, certain things we take for granted in our daily lives are banned in some countries. Some of these laws are even considered normal by these countries' citizens, rarely causing problems with their popultations.

Think La Niña, Marcos tells Filipinos

LUCENA CITY—Despite the troubles brought about by the supertyphoon and enhanced southwest monsoon, President Marcos urged Filipinos and government officials to intensify their preparations for the La Niña phenomenon. “We have to prepare for the next flood. This is the first typhoon within the La Niña phenomenon. There’s a long way to go. So, we have to prepare. Let’s think about preparing,” Mr. Marcos told national and Quezon government...

Arrests made in drive-by shooting investigation

Hertfordshire Police says it is treating previous incidents of targeted violence as connected.

Mumbai heavy rains: Three-storey building collapses in Navi Mumbai; 2 rescued, search underway for missing

The incident occurred in Shahad-Belapur Village around 5 am, leading to a large-scale rescue operation involving teams from the Fire Brigade and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Officers remain at scene of security alert near Dungiven

Police say the area is likely to be closed for some time and cordons are in place.

Water sources in BARMM’s flood-hit areas positive for E. coli

COTABATO CITY—Health authorities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) alerted disaster response front-liners in flooded areas in the region to urge local residents to boil water they use for drinking and preparing food. The advisory followed the release of test results suggesting that water sources in many parts of Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte provinces and in the towns of the Special Geographic Area...

'PH-China ties can serve shared goals, regional peace'

MANILA, Philippines — Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian said the restoration of Philippine-China relations could serve the common aspirations of Chinese and Filipino peoples, as well as contribute to regional peace. In his speech during the 97th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Friday, Ambassador Huang said: "Let us remember the common aspirations of our two peoples, work together to...

School holiday 'boredom' blamed for 999 hoax calls

A police force is urging parents to educate their children about the dangers of making prank calls.

Mexico’s president downplays drug cartel violence

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador thanked Guatemala on Friday for helping the nearly 600 Mexicans who have crossed into Guatemala to escape drug cartel violence, but also minimized the violence that drove them there. In his first comments since the refugees fled earlier this week, the president went on to add that Mexico is a large country, and like many other parts of the world, “there are conflicts.” “Our (political)...

Divers attempt to reach sunken Philippine oil tanker

Divers will attempt Saturday to inspect the hull of a Philippine tanker carrying 1.4 million litres of industrial fuel oil that sank off Manila as authorities race to avert an ecological catastrophe, the coast guard said. It took months to clean up after a tanker carrying 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil sank off the central island of Mindoro last year, contaminating waters and beaches of the island and devastating the fishing and tourism...

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 883

As the war enters its 883rd day, these are the main developments.

New street mural celebrates city's textile history

Polish street artist NeSpoon says the piece of work took her more than three days to complete.

FSB foils militant attacks in southern Russia, RIA reports

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Saturday it had thwarted a series of planned militant attacks in the southern region of Dagestan, state news agency RIA reported. The planned attacks were allegedly aimed at police forces and an Orthodox Christian church. FSB said it had arrested three Russian citizens in the city of Kaspiysk and identified them as members of an

Marcos: ‘Do everything’ to open classes July 29

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday urged schools to reopen as scheduled next week “as much as possible,” even if teachers have to meet their students outside classrooms as a consequence of the recent typhoon, which damaged some school buildings and turned others into emergency shelters. He ordered the Department of Education (DepEd) to “do everything” to start classes on Monday, July 29, for school year 2024-2025. READ: Marcos: Start of...

'No untoward incident' in PH's first resupply mission in Ayungin under new China deal

The Philippines resumed its resupply mission for its small navy contingent in Ayungin Shoal Saturday without "untoward incidents," the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Saturday, a week after it signed a provisional arrangement with China "It was the first RORE mission conducted under the ambit of the understanding reached between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China on principles and approaches for the conduct of RORE...

Hungary to allow nuclear plant to exceed Danube water temperature limit

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary is planning to allow the temperature limit for a section of the Danube which receives cooling water from the Paks nuclear power plant to be exceeded for security of supply reasons, the energy ministry said in a statement on Friday. The plant's four reactors operate by using the water of the Danube to cool its operations. Currently, according to the regulation, the