Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
Shenyang, China (AFP) by Matthew WALSH Once jailed for murder, Cao Yongsheng now makes a living caring for the dead, benefitting from a bold rehabilitation scheme that’s giving some of China’s most serious criminals a second life as funeral workers. It is a rare campaign to help former prisoners, many of whom say a lack of reform programmes, a resultant skills shortage and deep-seated discrimination push them towards reoffending. Cao served 17 years behind bars […]
ABOARD THE BRP MALABRIGO , April 27, 2023 (AFP) – A Chinese coast guard ship cut off a Philippine patrol vessel carrying journalists in the disputed South China Sea, causing a near-collision, an AFP team on board another boat saw. The near-miss off the Spratly Islands on Sunday was the latest in a steady string of incidents between China and the Philippines in the contested waterway. AFP was one of several media outlets invited to […]
Beijing, China | AFP | Thursday 4/27/2023 by Jing Xuan TENG From Ukraine to the Middle East, Beijing is positioning itself as a mediator with a leading role in solving the world’s crises. Xi Jinping’s phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday was the Chinese and Ukrainian presidents’ first contact since Beijing’s strategic ally Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. AFP answers some key questions about China’s diplomatic ambitions and its plans for Ukraine: – What […]
by Sebastian Smith Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol warned North Korea it would face a nuclear response and the “end” of the leadership there if Pyongyang uses its own arsenal. Speaking at the White House after Oval Office talks during only the second state visit so far in the Biden presidency, the two leaders said the US security shield for South […]
Padang, Indonesia | AFP | Tuesday 4/25/2023 A 7.1-magnitude earthquake rattled residents on islands west of Indonesia’s Sumatra on Tuesday, forcing them to flee to higher ground before an hours-long tsunami warning was lifted. The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 3 am (2000 GMT Monday), was in the sea near the Mentawai islands at a depth of 15.5 kilometres (more than 9 miles), the United States Geological Survey said. No casualties or severe […]
Mohammed Shahabuddin, a former judge and a ruling party official, was sworn in as the president of Bangladesh on Monday, just months before a general election. Shahabuddin, 73, was an anti-corruption commissioner and fought in the country’s 1971 war of independence against Pakistan, the presidential palace said. “He was sworn in as the 22nd president of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh today,” Shampad Barua, secretary of the president, told AFP. He was elected by lawmakers […]
British tycoon Richard Branson Monday urged Singapore to halt the imminent execution of a man sentenced to death over one kilogram of cannabis, saying it “may be about to kill an innocent man”. Singaporean Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, is scheduled to be hanged on Wednesday, the city-state’s Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) has said. “Tangaraju was actually not anywhere near these drugs at the time of his arrest. This was largely a circumstantial case that relied on […]
Beijing, China | AFP | Monday 4/24/2023 China and Singapore will hold joint naval drills this week, Beijing’s defence ministry said on Monday. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy will dispatch its frigate Yulin as well as the Chibi minesweeper for the drills, which will take place around Singapore from “end-April to early May”, the ministry said in a statement. The two countries agreed last year to hold the drills at a meeting of […]
Paris, France | AFP | Monday 4/24/2023 Following the grim discovery in Kenya of the bodies of more than 50 suspected cult members believed to have starved themselves to death, we look at other notorious killer sects. – 914 dead, Guyana jungle apocalypse – In one of the most dramatic mass murder-suicides of modern history, 914 adults and children from a US cult died in the jungle of the small South American country of Guyana […]
SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol flew to Washington Monday for a six-day state visit, as the allies move to bulk up military cooperation over North Korea’s expanding nuclear threats. Pyongyang has conducted another record-breaking string of sanctions-defying launches this year, including test-firing the country’s first solid-fuel ballistic missile this month — a key technical breakthrough for Kim Jong Un’s military. In response, Yoon has pulled South Korea closer to […]
Japan ordered its military Saturday to prepare to shoot down a North Korean ballistic missile after Pyongyang said this week it was ready to launch its first military spy satellite. Placing the satellite into orbit would require a long-range projectile, which North Korea is banned from launching because the United Nations views such exercises as tests of ballistic missile technology. On Saturday Japanese minister Yasukazu Hamada told the country’s Self-Defense Forces “there is a possibility […]
The Philippines’ top diplomat has expressed his concern to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang over escalating tensions in waters around Taiwan, Manila said on Saturday. Philippine foreign secretary Enrique Manalo met Qin as the two countries seek to deepen economic ties while also managing their dispute in the South China Sea, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement after the talks. “Secretary Manalo reaffirmed the Philippines’ adherence to the One China Policy, […]
