Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
PANAMA CITY, Panama (AFP) – Panamanian authorities announced Thursday that as part of an operation to disrupt a sex trafficking ring, 10 children were rescued and three people in Panama and Costa Rica were arrested. “The victims in this case range between the ages of four and 16 and the people involved are close relatives” of the minors, said Emeldo Marquez, a senior Panamanian prosecutor. He explained that the relatives “facilitated” the shipment of the […]
by Moises AVILA TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AFP) — Honduras president-elect Xiomara Castro is due to be sworn in as the country’s first woman president on Thursday, as confusion reigns over who will be head of congress during her four-year term. Two rival factions in Castro’s left-wing Libre party have voted in their own president of congress and negotiations to reach a solution stalled overnight on Wednesday. Luis Redondo, who has the support of Castro and much […]
by Agnès PEDRERO Next week’s World Trade Organization ministerial conference, the global trade body’s biggest gathering in four years, was postponed at the last minute Friday due to the new Omicron Covid-19 variant. The WTO hoped the four-day gathering in Geneva would breathe new life into the crippled organisation, which has been stuck for years trying to make progress on resolving issues like fishery subsidies. New director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was also hoping, against the odds, […]
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AFP) — There are now more than half a million people using El Salvador’s bitcoin wallet, President Nayib Bukele announced. The country of 6.6 million people this month became the first to adopt bitcoin as legal tender alongside the US dollar, which has been the official currency for two decades. “We currently have more than half a million users (of the Chivo wallet),” Bukele tweeted late Monday. The “Chivo Wallet” is […]
by Carlos Mario Marquez and Moises Avila SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AFP) — El Salvador on Tuesday became the first country to embrace bitcoin as legal tender, with consumer demand crashing its brand-new cyber “wallet” system even as the currency’s value seesawed against the US dollar. Under the initiative of President Nayib Bukele, Salvadoran consumers can now legally use bitcoin — along with the US dollar which has been the official currency for two decades […]
Climate change and increasingly extreme weather events, have caused a surge in natural disasters over the past 50 years disproportionately impacting poorer countries, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) said on Wednesday. According to the agencies’ Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes, from 1970 to 2019, these natural hazards accounted for 50 per cent of all disasters, 45 per cent of […]
The United States on Saturday urged its citizens in Afghanistan to avoid traveling to the Kabul airport, citing “potential security threats” near its gates. The warning from the US embassy in Kabul provided no detail on the danger, but a White House official later confirmed that aides had briefed President Joe Biden on “counterterrorism operations” in Afghanistan, including against the Islamic State group. Conditions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport have been chaotic amid the crush […]
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AFP) — A volcano in northwest Costa Rica erupted on Monday, spewing an enormous column of smoke into the air in what could be its biggest outburst in years, authorities said. The Rincon de la Vieja volcano’s nearly three-minute eruption in the early hours of the day belched a column of smoke almost two kilometers (1.2 miles) high, depositing ash on surrounding areas but causing no damage or injuries. The volcano, […]
