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Philippines

Philippines’ Arroyo arrested for vote rigging

Philippine police arrested ex-president Gloria Arroyo at her hospital bed on Friday on charges of conspiring with a feared warlord to rig an election, an offence that could lead to life in jail.
The events capped a tumultuous week in Philippine politics that had seen the government block Arroyo, 64, from leaving [...]

Read More » No commentNovember 19, 2011

Philippine troops seize camp as thousands flee

Troops have overrun a hideout occupied by gunmen in the southern Philippines after a week of fighting that left 13 dead and forced thousands of civilians to flee, officials said Thursday.
Most of the estimated 100 gunmen holed up in the remote camp on Mindanao island had fled, although two surrendered earlier, said Philippine [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 27, 2011

Killer Asia floods swallow children who can’t swim

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — It took only a second for the murky floodwaters swamping parts of Asia to swallow Nguyen Phuoc Hien’s baby. His 3-year-old daughter had been playing happily while her aunt studied, but somehow, the girl slipped quietly outside the family home deep in Vietnam’s southern Mekong Delta.
When Hien’s [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 27, 2011

Philippines gets world’s largest Ten Commandments

A building-sized edifice carved with the Bible’s Ten Commandments was unveiled Wednesday in the Philippines, making it the largest tablet of its kind, according to Guinness World Records.
The tablet, a copy of the rules supposedly handed down by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, was inaugurated by city officials on a [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 27, 2011

10,000 flee fighting in southern Philippines

About 10,000 people have fled their homes amid fighting between Muslim rebels and government forces in the southern Philippines, a civil defence official said Tuesday.
The displaced population accounts for about one in seven residents of the towns of Payao, Alicia and Talusan on Mindanao island, home of a decades-old Muslim insurgency, said provincial disaster monitoring [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 25, 2011

Philippine workers planning return to Libya

The Philippines said Friday that many of the thousands of its workers who fled Libya due to unrest this year would likely return now that former leader Moamer Kadhafi has been killed.
“The Philippines congratulates the Libyan people for their latest victory and the total liberation of Libya,” the foreign affairs department said in [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 22, 2011

6 more Filipino soldiers found dead after clash

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops have recovered the bodies of six more soldiers following fierce fighting with the country’s largest Muslim rebel group that has sent both sides scrambling to stop the violence from further damaging shaky peace talks.
Tuesday’s fighting on southern Basilan island between army special forces and members of the 11,000-strong Moro [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 21, 2011

Two Philippine soldiers dead in new guerrilla attack

Two Philippine soldiers were killed Thursday in a fresh Muslim guerrilla attack on a southern island following the killing of 19 soldiers earlier this week, the army said.
Two army trucks in a convoy were ambushed by suspected Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) men along a road on the island of Mindanao, said an army report [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 21, 2011

Italian priest shot dead in Philippines

A Italian Catholic priest was shot dead inside his church compound in the troubled southern Philippines on Monday, police said.
An unknown gunman shot Fausto Tentorio in the remote farming town of Arakan on Mindanao island, police said.
A “suspect suddenly appeared and without provocation shot the victim hitting his body”, regional police spokesman Resty Damasosaid in a report released to the media.
Tentorio was taken [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 17, 2011

Iranian, Filipino take top Asian film awards

An Iranian film that reveals the “heart and soul” of its director has shared the top award with a production from the Philippines at Asia’s largest cinematic event.
Morteza Farshbaf?s “Mourning” was handed one of two US$30,000 prizes given in the New Currents award at the 16th Busan International Film Festival and the first-time director said he hoped his film [...]

Read More » No commentOctober 14, 2011