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/ 27 September 2006
The 12-million residents of Philippine capital Manila are readying for a possible direct hit from a typhoon after the storm slammed into the country’s central region on Wednesday, stranding thousands of ferry passengers. ”Since 1995, there has been no strong typhoon that has crossed this close to Manila,” Nathaniel Cruz, the chief weather forecaster, told reporters.
Three Filipino energy industry workers kidnapped in Nigeria have been freed and handed over to Philippine embassy officials, the foreign department said on Monday. Cornelio Fallaria (51), Daniel Monteagudo (49) and Alberto Torres (50) were turned over to embassy officials, Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos told reporters.
Ominous posters around Legaspi city, in the Philippines, show the nearby Mayon volcano erupting forcefully, shooting fiery sparks into the sky with blood-red lava dripping from its mouth. But the words on the poster are cheerful rather than frightening: "Visit Legaspi: Mayon Eruption 2006."
Mayon volcano in the Philippines could soon unleash a huge cloud of deadly gases and ash, experts warned on Sunday, as 40Â 000 people prepared for a second week in crowded evacuation centres. Four powerful ash explosions rocked the spectacular 2Â 460m peak on Saturday, covering nearby communities to the north-west with a light layer of dust.
A Philippine army offensive against Muslim rebels on the remote south-western island of Jolo may have foiled a plan to launch bombings in the capital Manila, officials said on Friday. Hundreds of troops, backed by United States intelligence, have been combing the hilly jungles near Indanan town to flush out members of the Abu Sayyaf group.
Strong winds and giant waves, boosted by a south-west monsoon, have wiped out hundreds of shacks on stilts and left thousands of people homeless in the southern Philippines, local government officials said on Thursday. A number of people were missing after giant waves swept four coastal villages out to sea.
Rescuers on Wednesday raced against time to get stragglers away from the rumbling Philippine volcano Mayon, with nearly 40 000 people so far fleeing the danger zone. A two-day effort by the military and local government has seen 39 278 people safely evacuated from villages surrounding the mountain.
With two water buffalo dragging wooden sleds laden with sacks of dried coconut meat, farmer Bienvenido Belga descended the slope of the Philippines’ simmering Mayon volcano as an evacuation of tens of thousands moved into full swing. But then Belga hitched up his two bullocks and began another arduous ascent back up the mountain.
The United States is ready to isolate North Korea internationally over its nuclear weapons programme, the top US State Department envoy on the country said on Sunday. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the North Koreans ”seem to like to isolate themselves”.
Twenty Filipino seamen kidnapped by pirates in Somalia in March have been released and are on their way home, officials said on Monday. The men were freed unharmed on Saturday, and it wasn’t immediately clear whether any ransom had been paid, said Roy Cimatu, the government’s special envoy to the Middle East.
Nine people were wounded early on Sunday as three near-simultaneous explosions rocked Manila and the city of Lipa on the eve of Philippine Independence Day, police said. All of the injured were hit by shrapnel as a bomb tore through an outdoor chicken market in Lipa, 75km south of Manila, police said. All of the injured were hit by shrapnel as a bomb tore through an outdoor chicken market in Lipa, 75km south of Manila, police said.
One of the Philippines’ most active volcanoes continued spewing ash overnight, raising fears of a possible eruption and leaving one man dead, officials said on Saturday. The Philippine Institute of Vulcanology and Seismology said an explosion from the 1 565m summit of Bulusan sent ash and steam 1km into the air and showered ash on surrounding villages.
Sixteen-year-old Chris Neil Sugui ponders his future as he and younger brother Mark cast their finely meshed net in the warm waters of the South China Sea for milkfish fingerlings. The few pesos they will earn for their hard day’s work will not buy them out of their bleak predicament — they do not have enough money for school.
Cocooned in rural seclusion, Donsol, a placid little town, long kept a big but unintended secret: In the first half of the year, the sea swarms with the world’s largest fish. Whale sharks — some as big as a bus — have put on an annual show for local folks for generations, roaming close to shore and seemingly unafraid of humans, who left the fish alone.
The World Health Organisation on Tuesday accused the global tobacco industry of continuing to use misleading labels to lure millions of people, including children, to take up smoking. On the eve of World No Tobacco Day, WHO said it would focus on the "tobacco industry’s lies" and the great variety of deadly tobacco products.
The Philippines began cleaning up on Sunday after tropical storm Chanchu claimed 32 lives, left large parts of the country under water and forced thousands to flee their homes. By midday on Sunday Chanchu was 430km out in the South China Sea, charting a west-south-westerly course and packing winds of up to 140kph, according to the weather bureau.
Tropical storm Chanchu continued to lash the Philippines on Saturday, leaving at least 21 people dead as heavy rains triggered landslides and left parts of the country under water. Floodwaters submerged two provinces in the central Visayas region, and several villages in Leyte’s Sogod town were cut off landslides and floods damaged a bridge and vital highway.
Tropical storm Chanchu slammed into the Philippines overnight, causing flash floods and landslides that forced the evacuation of hundreds of villagers, disaster-relief officials said on Friday. The storm, the first to hit the Philippines this year, left more than 6 000 people stranded.
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/ 25 February 2006
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo faced criticism from prominent Filipinos on Saturday for declaring a state of emergency to quash a coup plot, with a former president and military commander saying the move will hurt the Philippines unless it is rescinded soon. Meanwhile, police raided the offices of a newspaper critical of Arroyo.
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/ 21 February 2006
The threat of more rain-triggered landslides slowed the search on Tuesday for survivors in an Philippine elementary school buried by up to 35m of mud when a mountain collapsed on a village last week. Rescue teams used sensors in an effort to detect sounds and movements similar to those monitored on Monday.
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/ 20 February 2006
Rescue workers in the Philippines refused to give up hope of finding survivors in an elementary school buried by up to 35m of mud, digging into the night on Monday after detecting what the provincial governor called "signs of life". Technicians used high-tech gear such as seismic sensors alongside shovels and rescue dogs.
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/ 20 February 2006
A loud explosion rocked the grounds of the Philippine presidential palace on Monday, causing no casualties or damage, as a group of self-proclaimed military rebels vowed an ”explosive protest” against President Gloria Arroyo. A second explosive device went off in Manila’s financial district of Makati, wounding a boy.
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/ 17 February 2006
About 200 people were believed killed and 1 500 others were missing in the central Philippines on Friday when a landslide buried an entire village, the Red Cross said. The first footage from the devastated village showed a sea of mud covering what had been lush green valley farmland.
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/ 17 February 2006
About 200 people were believed killed and 1 500 others were missing in the central Philippines on Friday when an entire village was buried in a landslide, the Red Cross said. The landslide hit the village of Guinsaugon in Saint Bernard town in the southern part of Leyte island at about 10.45am local time.
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/ 6 February 2006
The organisers of the Philippines game show where 74 people were killed in a stampede were guilty of security lapses and could now face criminal charges, an official said on Monday. Interior undersecretary Marius Corpus said it would be up to judiciary officials to determine if the organisers of the <i>Wow-wow-wee</i> show should be held criminally liable.
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/ 4 February 2006
Housewife Esperanza Marasigan wailed in despair as she searched for her missing relatives among the scores of people crushed to death in a stampede at a television game show in the Philippines on Saturday. ”Help us, help us. I think my sister is dead,” Marasigan cried, as hundreds of others milled around outside a Manila sports stadium that became a death trap for fans.
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/ 30 January 2006
Threats to destabilise the Philippine government of President Gloria Arroyo still remain despite the arrest of a renegade military officer, a military spokesperson said on Monday. Although he would not give details, Lieutenant Colonel Tristan Kison said a shadowy group had been trying to recruit junior officers.
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/ 13 December 2005
A 2m-long python caused a commotion at a Manila police station on Tuesday, with rattled police officers used to battling tough criminals forced to destroy an officer’s desk where the snake slithered in to hide, officials said. The incident started before dawn when a bystander saw the python near a fast-food restaurant in a nearby district.
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/ 21 October 2005
Catalino Bactat has spent nearly all his adult life guarding Ferdinand Marcos, from the time when his boss was the most powerful man in the Philippines and now as a mass of dried tissue in an airless glass case. "He was a good man, the president was a disciplined man. He was not a soldier for nothing," Bactat says of Marcos.
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/ 13 September 2005
Huge blasts at a suburban Manila police ammunition dump injured at least 107 people, damaged several buildings and homes and set off security jitters in a capital long wary of possible terror attacks and a coup, officials said. Police ruled out sabotage or terrorism. The explosions were apparently touched off by lightning.
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/ 13 September 2005
Feisty Philippine lawyer Haydee Yorac, who led the recovery of more than -million of ill-gotten wealth of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, died on Tuesday in the United States due to a lingering illness. Yorac (64) died in Chicago, Illinois, while being treated for ovarian cancer.
At least 30 people, including several children, were wounded on Sunday in a ferry bomb blast in an area of the southern Philippines plagued by Muslim insurgents, officials said. The crudely-made bomb was hidden among liquefied petroleum gas tanks, and the explosion ripped through the back section of the ferry as it was about to leave for Zamboanga.