Other News

Cloudy skies, rains expected in parts of PHL

(Eagle News) — Cloudy skies and rains are expected in parts of the country. According to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms are expected over Bicol Region, MIMAROPA and Quezon. PAGASA said this was due to the low pressure area estimated in the vicinity of Coron, Palawan. Flash floods or landslides due to moderate to at times heavy rains are possible. Metro Manila, meanwhile, will […]

Shanghai eases Covid curbs in step towards ending lockdown

SHANGHAI, China (AFP) — Shanghai eased a range of Covid-19 restrictions on Wednesday in a step towards returning to normal after a two-month lockdown that confined residents of the megacity to their homes and battered China’s economy. The commercial hub of 25 million people was closed down in sections from late March, when the Omicron virus variant fuelled China’s worst outbreak since Covid first took hold in 2020. After some rules were gradually relaxed over […]

Venezuela’s stuffed toy ‘hospital’ brings joy to kids

  by Margioni Bermudez  Agence France-Presse CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Judith, a 90-year-old great-grandmother in Venezuela, examines a stuffed animal meticulously in her hands before finding a hole. “This one needs surgery,” she says, adding “we’re going to sew it up here.” Judith is one of 40 volunteers at what amounts to a hospital for stuffed toys. Since being founded in 2017, the hospital has delivered 30,000 recycled toys to schools and associations in poor […]

Biden says US to send Ukraine ‘advanced rocket systems’ to hit ‘key targets’

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday confirmed the United States will send more advanced rocket systems to Ukraine with ability to strike what he called “key targets” of Russia’s invasion force. “We will provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine,” Biden wrote in The New York Times. A US official told reporters that […]

One killed, 9 injured in Yangon bomb blast: Myanmar police source

A bomb blast killed one person and injured nine others in a busy district of central Yangon on Tuesday, a Myanmar police source told AFP. The blast occurred around 3:20 pm local time (0850 GMT) near a bus stop,” the police source said, requesting anonymity. “One man died in hospital and nine others are injured.” A bomb squad team was working to determine if the blast came from a grenade or mine, the police source […]

China makes second largest Taiwan defence zone incursion this year

  China has made the second largest incursion into Taiwan’s air defence zone this year with Taipei reporting 30 jets entering the area, including more than 20 fighters. Taiwan’s defence ministry said late Monday it had scrambled its own aircraft and deployed air defence missile systems to monitor the latest Chinese activity. In recent years, Beijing has begun sending large sorties into Taiwan’s defence zone to signal dissatisfaction, and to keep Taipei’s ageing fighter fleet […]

Ukraine identifies ‘few thousand’ war crimes in Donbas

by Danny KEMP Ukraine has identified several thousand suspected war crimes in the eastern Donbas region where Russian forces are pressing their offensive, Kyiv’s chief prosecutor said Tuesday. The cases in the industrial region are among some 15,000 across Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on February 24, prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said. “Of course we started a few thousand cases about what we see in Donbas,” Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague as she […]

Philippines summons Beijing diplomat over South China Sea ‘harassment’

MANILA, Philippines (AFP) — Manila revealed on Tuesday that it had summoned a senior Beijing diplomat to protest the alleged harassment of a marine research vessel by a Chinese coast guard ship in Philippine territorial waters. The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was also reviewing reports on the “presence of foreign coast guard vessels around Reed Bank”, site of the 2019 sinking of a Filipino fishing vessel that sparked domestic outrage. The revelation came […]

Ukraine convicts two Russians for shelling villages

  KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Two Russian soldiers were both sentenced to more than 11 years in jail on Tuesday after a Ukrainian court found them guilty of firing artillery at civilian areas. The verdict comes one week after a court in the capital Kyiv handed a 21-year-old Russian solider a life sentence for killing a civilian — the country’s first judicial reckoning on Russia’s invasion. Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov, the servicemen convicted on […]

Pres. Duterte, President-elect Marcos greet VP-elect Sara Duterte on 44th bday

  (Eagle News) – Both President Rodrigo Duterte and President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., greeted the presidential daughter, Vice-President-elect Sara Duterte, on her 44th birthday on Tuesday, May 31. President Duterte said he is wishing his daughter “good health and success” as she takes on the role as Vice-President after her inauguration initially scheduled on June 19. “The President’s wishes for our Vice President-elect are good health and success in her role as the second-highest […]

PHL files diplomatic protest vs China for unilateral fishing moratorium over South China Sea

DFA says China’s fishing moratorium has “no basis in law” and violated PHL sovereign rights   (Eagle News) – The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has filed a diplomatic protest against China for its unilateral fishing moratorium that was first imposed on May 1 this year in parts of South China Sea. The DFA filed the diplomatic protest against the People’s Republic of China’s “unilateral imposition of a three-and-half-month fishing moratorium […]

Israel signs UAE free trade deal, its first with an Arab state

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AFP) — Israel signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab country, building on their US-brokered normalisation of relations in 2020. Israel’s ambassador to the UAE, Amir Hayek, tweeted “mabruk” — or congratulations in Arabic — alongside a photograph of Emirati and Israeli officials holding documents at a signing ceremony in Dubai. Israel has described as “historic” the deal abolishing customs duties […]