N. Korea’s Kim to make official visit to Vietnam in ‘coming days’ 0 SHARES Share it! Share TweetBy Agence France-PresseNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un will soon make an official visit to Vietnam, officials said Saturday, as Hanoi prepares to host Kim and US President Donald Trump for a summit next week. “Kim Jong Un will pay an official visit to Vietnam in the coming days,” Vietnam’s foreign ministry said Saturday on its Facebook page. Kim and Trump will meet on February 27-28, the second summit between the two leaders aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal. Kim is expected to travel to Vietnam by train, stopping at the Dong Dang train station near the China border before making the 170-kilometer (105 mile) journey to Hanoi by car.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 06:00 UTC
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Leila de Lima has asked the public not to allow President Rodrigo Duterte’s tyranny to attack democracy as the Philippines commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the historic Edsa People Power revolution. “As we commemorate the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, we cannot allow this tyrant to further assault and erode our democracy,” De Lima said in a dispatch from Camp Crame in Quezon City on Saturday. ADVERTISEMENTDe Lima then said the Duterte administration has denied its role on silencing its critics such as Rappler’s Maria Ressa who was arrested for cyberlibel charge. “Malacañang has acquired the habit of denying that it is behind the persecution of critics and opponents of the Duterte regime,” De Lima said. ADVERTISEMENT“In all of these cases, Duterte has perverted the rule of law by ordering the DOJ and OSG, and influencing, if not intimidating, the courts to do his bidding,” she said.
Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 23, 2019 05:59 UTC
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines — A pilot of a chemical sprayer plane was injured in a crash in Ampatuan town on Saturday. Investigators from the Maguindanao provincial police office identified the pilot as Dennis Pandi. Pandi was immediately rushed to a hospital by employees of the Amardi Banana Plantation in Ampatuan. Pandi works for the Davao Airworks, operator of planes providing chemical spraying services to agricultural companies on contract basis. “He avoided hitting our banana packing plant so his plane fell on one spot of the plantation,” Mauricio said.
Source:Philippine Star
February 23, 2019 05:54 UTC
BAGUIO CITY, Philippines —- Garbed in white g-strings or native blouses and skirts, close to a thousand Ibaloys danced to the beat of gongs along downtown Baguio on Saturday (Feb. 23), the 9th Ibaloy Day. Baguio Ibaloys, and Ibaloys from neighboring Benguet towns, proceeded to the Ibaloy Heritage Park inside the almost a century-old Burnham Park, where elders performed a thanksgiving ritual called “Owik.”ADVERTISEMENTThe Saturday celebrations showcased Ibaloy culture. In October last year, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on Filipino Languages) installed a 10-foot-tall steel marker at the Ibaloy Park, recognizing Ibaloy as a key Filipino language that needed to be preserved. Ibaloy Day was established, through a city council resolution on September 2009, to commemorate the American Supreme Court decision that recognizes the land rights of Ibaloy herdsman Mateo Cariño in 1909. Most of Baguio served a local cattle industry, which was pushed to the outskirts after the American colonial government built the summer capital.
Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 23, 2019 05:53 UTC
El Chapo wants new trial, hearing to probe jury misconduct 13 SHARES Share it! Guzman’s attorneys said they want Cogan to quiz the jurors about their behavior during the trial. They asked for an additional month to prepare their motion for new trial, which is due next week. “It’s clear we have to get them back into court and get some answers about some massive misconduct,” Guzman attorney Jeffrey Lichtman told The Associated Press this week. “We hope it will lead to Joaquin Guzman getting the fair trial that he deserves.”
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 05:52 UTC
In letters, Whitey Bulger fondly recalled old days, Alcatraz 0 SHARES Share it! Prison was nothing like his days at Alcatraz, with its “great view” and clear-cut rules, Bulger said. Bulger wrote about the little excitements of prison life — “tonight we had an ice cream cone!” — and his treatment by other inmates. But feel Catherine was treated too harshly,” Bulger wrote. It’s all gone.”Tucked into some of the letters were pictures of Bulger as a young man or Alcatraz.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 05:44 UTC
Fly-past honors WWII airmen who died saving UK children 0 SHARES Share it! The fly-past brought tears to the eyes of 82-year-old Tony Foulds, for he was one of those children at that park. The plane circled over the stretch of green and one of the airmen waved his arms at the kids. “No one will ever tell me any different: I killed these lads,” Foulds told The Associated Press. Harry Estabrooks of Mound Valley, Kansas, flight engineer and top turret gunner; Sgt.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 05:38 UTC
A woman who died after eating at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain may have suffered food poisoning, a local court said on Friday. The 46-year-old woman died on Sunday after dining with her family at the RiFF restaurant in the coastal city of Valencia. ADVERTISEMENTThe woman’s husband and 12-year-old son suffered food poisoning after eating at the restaurant but “they have made a good recovery,” the court said in a statement. Another 29 people who ate at the restaurant in the three days before her death also developed food poisoning, it said. But “their symptoms were very mild, including mostly vomiting” and they made a good recovery, it said.
Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 23, 2019 05:37 UTC
As prices soar, Turkey’s Erdogan woos voters with vegetables 0 SHARES Share it! In campaign speeches, Erdogan has portrayed the economic downturn as a foreign plot against the country and has vowed to fight food price hikes in the same way that the country has fought terror groups. Inflation hovered around 20 percent in January, with food and non-alcoholic beverage prices up 31 percent on the year — a 15-year high. In Istanbul, the ruling party-run municipality moved some workers employed by its catering and hotelier company to the food stalls. Erdogan said the government markets would continue until the local elections and could become permanent if “opportunists” continue hiking prices.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 05:26 UTC
READ: LOOK: Aftermath of deadly two-bus collision in Compostela ValleyPAMI president Peaches Atayde-Buendia and PAMI operations manager and spokesman Bong Nocum personally handed over the insurance benefits to the families of the victims in Davao City. Initially, Despi survived the road accident but eventually expired in the hospital as the attending physicians tried to revive him. On the other hand, Bachelor Express Inc. the other bus company involved in the mishap paid Francisco Cabellida and Ruth Salopado P200,000 each as insurance compensation for their injuries. Nocum said the accident insurance benefits increased from P200,000 to P400,000 effective January 1, 2019 based on the new LTFRB resolution. 1-UTAK chairman Vigor Mendoza insisted the increased passenger accident insurance coverage needs to be enforced to make it responsive to current situation.
Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 23, 2019 05:26 UTC
Ireland publishes no-deal Brexit bill it hopes it won’t need 0 SHARES Share it! The Irish government plans to fast-track the bill through Ireland’s parliament before the U.K.’s scheduled departure from the bloc on March 29. But Coveney said a no-deal Brexit would be “lose, lose, lose — for the U.K., for the EU and for Ireland.”“I hope we never have to use the provisions set out in this piece of legislation. With Brexit just five weeks away, May is stuck between an intransigent EU and a resistant U.K. Parliament. May must tell Parliament on Tuesday whether she is ready to re-submit her Brexit deal for approval.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 05:25 UTC
Vote for honest candidates with no corruption record – CBCP 1142 SHARES Share it! This coming elections, choose good candidates,” Varquez said in a Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines News post. The bishop lamented how previous elections in one of the country’s poorest provinces were marred by rampant vote buying and selling. The Church leader called on the voting public to vote for honest candidates who have no corruption record. Balanga Bishop Ruperto C. Santos has, earlier, urged his flock “to vote only candidates who have a good track record and with the common good and interest in mind.”
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 05:14 UTC
MANILA, Philippines — A magnitude 5.2 earthquake rocked the province of Zambales on Saturday noon, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said. ADVERTISEMENTThe report said the strong tremor struck at 12:14 p.m. Phivolcs said the quake was felt at an Intensity III in Olongapo, Zambales, and at an Intensity II in Guagua, Pampanga. An Intensity I quake was also felt in Malolos City in Bulacan, and Dagupan City in Pangasinan. Despite the strong magnitude, Phivolcs said no damages and aftershocks could be expected.
Source:Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 23, 2019 04:52 UTC
White House ‘strongly condemns’ Venezuela use of force after troops kill 2 1 SHARES Share it! Share TweetBy Agence France-PresseThe US “strongly condemns” the Venezuelan military’s use of force, the White House said Friday after troops shot dead two indigenous people who were part of a group trying to keep the country’s border with Brazil open to humanitarian aid. “The United States strongly condemns the Venezuelan military’s use of force against unarmed civilians and innocent volunteers on Venezuela’s border with Brazil,” a statement said. “The Venezuelan military must allow humanitarian aid to peacefully enter the country. The 35-year-old leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly declared himself interim president last month and is calling for fresh polls, branding Maduro a “usurper” and accusing him of rigging his re-election last May.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 04:49 UTC
‘Abused’ Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong risk deportation 0 SHARES Share it! Share TweetBy Agence France-PresseTwo Saudi sisters trapped in Hong Kong say chronic physical abuse by male family members prompted them to flee the kingdom, where they now fear they will be forcibly returned. While their parents were sleeping, the sisters retrieved their passports and boarded a flight from Colombo to Hong Kong. Fearing they were about to be “forcibly abducted”, the sisters entered Hong Kong as visitors. The Saudi consulate in Hong Kong did not respond to requests for comment.
Source:Manila Bulletin
February 23, 2019 04:44 UTC