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WASHINGTON, June 17, 2024 (AFP) – A Filipino sailor was killed when Yemen’s Huthi rebels attacked a bulk cargo carrier last week, the White House said Monday, condemning their actions as terrorism. The Iran-backed Huthis have launched dozens of drone and missile strikes in the vital shipping zones of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since November, describing them as retaliation for the Israel-Hamas war. But National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said […]
MANILA, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – The Philippines said Tuesday one of its navy personnel was severely injured after the China Coast Guard rammed a Philippine vessel near Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. “A Philippine Navy personnel sustained severe injury after the CCG’s (China Coast Guard’s) intentional high-speed ramming during the rotation and resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre (LS57) on June 17,” a military statement said. The shoal, which hosts […]
MANILA, June 17, 2024 (AFP) – The Philippine government on Monday accused Chinese ships of ramming and damaging its boats in the South China Sea during a confrontation in waters off the Second Thomas Shoal, home to a garrison of Filipino troops. “The People’s Liberation Army-Navy, China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia vessels engaged in dangerous maneuvers, including ramming and towing,” Manila’s national task force on the West Philippine Sea said in a statement. […]
BANGKOK, June 18, 2024 (AFP) – Thai prosecutors on Tuesday formally indicted influential former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra under the kingdom’s strict royal insult laws over comments he made nearly a decade ago. The case against the 74-year-old billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, is one of four before the courts that could unleash fresh political instability in the coup-prone kingdom. Thaksin, the patriarch of the Pheu Thai party that […]
BEIJING, June 17, 2024 (AFP) – Philippine and Chinese vessels collided near the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea on Monday, the Chinese Coast Guard said, as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims over the disputed area. Known in Chinese as the Ren’ai Reef, the Second Thomas Shoal has seen an escalating number of confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships in recent months. These have often taken place during Philippine attempts […]
MANILA, June 16, 2024 (AFP) – The Philippines has sought recognition from the United Nations for its claim to an extended continental shelf off the island that is closest to a hotly disputed region of the South China Sea. China claims almost the entire waterway through which trillions of dollars in ship-borne trade passes annually, and huge unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under its seabed. The sea is also important as […]
SINGAPORE, June 15, 2024 (AFP) – Beaches on Singapore’s top resort island of Sentosa, which also house luxury waterfront homes, were shuttered on Saturday due to an oil spill at a nearby port, maritime authorities said. The oil spill resulted from an accident on Friday at the Pasir Panjang terminal between a Netherlands-flagged dredger and a stationary Singapore-flagged bunker vessel, Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said. Waters of three popular beaches on the island […]
By Jing Xuan TENG SHANGHAI, June 15, 2024 (AFP) – New Chinese coast guard rules took effect Saturday, under which it can detain foreigners for trespassing in the disputed South China Sea, where neighbours and the G7 have accused Beijing of intimidation and coercion. Beijing claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea, brushing aside competing claims from several Southeast Asian nations including the Philippines and an international ruling that its stance has no […]
MAKASSAR, Indonesia, June 8, 2024 (AFP) – A woman has been found dead inside the belly of a snake after it swallowed her whole in central Indonesia, a local official said Saturday. The husband of 45-year-old Farida and residents of Kalempang village in South Sulawesi province discovered her on Friday inside the reticulated python, which measured around five metres (16 feet). The mother-of-four had gone missing Thursday night and failed to return home, forcing a […]
MANILA, June 7, 2024 (AFP) – As two Philippine vessels meet on the high seas to transfer a sick Filipino soldier, China Coast Guard boats shadow, block and bump them, according to video released by the Philippine Coast Guard on Friday. The incident happened last month during the medical evacuation of a soldier who was stationed on a grounded Philippine Navy vessel on Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed South China Sea. The Philippine […]
MANILA, June 5, 2024 (AFP) – Heavy rain washed volcanic mud and debris through a village in the central Philippines on Wednesday, two days after a nearby volcano erupted. Mount Kanlaon on Negros island exploded Monday evening, sending a plume of ash, rocks and gases five kilometres (three miles) into the sky. Images posted on Facebook and verified by AFP on Wednesday show a torrent of grey mud and rocks, known as cold lava flow, […]
JAKARTA, June 4, 2024 (AFP) – Indonesia deported one of Thailand’s “most wanted” fugitives on Tuesday to face murder and drugs charges in his home country, a police official said, after he escaped custody last year. Chaowalit Thongduang, a 37-year-old also known by the moniker “Pang Na Node”, was arrested by police on the Indonesian resort island of Bali last week. He was escorted to the capital Jakarta’s international airport under guard by ten police […]
