Duterte last year declared the Philippines’ "separation" from the United States.
South-east Asian leaders endorsed easier monetary policies and made a stand against protectionism on Sunday as they concluded a summit.
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/ 24 February 2009
Thousands of supporters of ousted Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded the seat of government on Tuesday, reigniting the kingdom’s political turmoil.
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/ 13 February 2009
Abhisit Vejjajiva has admitted that authorities set boat people from Burma adrift, following weeks of allegations of cruelty against the migrants.
Rebuilding Burma’s cyclone-devastated south and bringing aid to millions will cost -billion over the next three years, the UN and Asean say.
Burma’s junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a move likely to dismay Western nations who promised millions of dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis. Officials drove to the Nobel laureate’s lakeside Rangoon home to read out a six-month extension order in person.
Foreign aid workers on Tuesday pressed into Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, testing the junta’s pledge to open up areas where one million people have yet to receive aid three weeks after the cyclone. Six foreign staff based in Rangoon with the United Nations Children’s Fund were allowed to join teams of mainly Burma workers.
In an apparent breakthrough for delivering help to millions of Burma’s cyclone survivors, the military government agreed to allow in ”all” aid workers, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said on Friday. The UN Secretary General met junta supremo Than Shwe in his remote new capital of Naypyidaw for more than two hours to ask him to permit more foreign expertise.
With an impassive handshake, BUrma junta supremo Than Shwe greeted Ban Ki-moon in his remote new capital on Friday at the apex of a high-stakes aid mission by the United Nations chief for the victims of Cyclone Nargis. The 75-year-old Senior General’s stony-faced silence gave no clues as to whether he would overcome his deep suspicions of the outside world.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon flew to Burma on Thursday to press the ruling generals to allow a full-blown international aid effort for 2,4-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis. The government’s official toll is 77 738 people killed and 55 917 missing, and it also estimates the damage to the economy at -billion.
Western powers kept up the pressure on Burma’s generals on Thursday to allow a massive aid effort as relief workers struggled to help an estimated 2,5-million people left destitute by Cyclone Nargis. The European Union’s top aid official has warned that the military government’s restrictions on foreign aid workers were increasing the risk of starvation.
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/ 21 January 2008
Burma is going ”downhill on all fronts”, a senior United States diplomat said during a visit to Vietnam on Monday, urging regional neighbours to pressure the junta running the country. ”The regime in Burma is absolutely refusing to take any positive steps at all,” said US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel.