Philippines News

Tom Clark and Violet Halverson of Sartell and Ellen and Bob Nelson of Bowlus are home from a tour of the Philippines celebrating the 65th anniversary of the Leyte landings.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit the Philippines next week for talks with top Philippine officials that is expected to include human rights issues in the country, China's Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs as saying on Saturday.

A Norwegian government mediator is in the Philippines to seek the possible resumption of talks between the Philippine government and leftist Communist rebels, a senior official said Monday.

MANILA, Philippines - President Barack Obama will meet leaders of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, next month in a high-level affirmation of Washington's new policy of engaging the military-ruled country despite its dismal human rights record.

Philippine political affairs are rarely straightforward. The former Spanish and U.S. colony, which also endured occupation under Japan during the Second World War, has experienced major upheavals since independence was finally achieved-and recognised, this time-in 1946.

The United Nations General Assembly has endorsed a report which found both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants were guilty of serious human rights violations during the 22-day conflict in the Gaza Strip over Christmas and New Year.

Antonio 'Tony' Q Alabastro, a sub-editor with Borneo Bulletin, has been chosen to receive the 2009 Bagong Bayani Award, which honours Philippines' outstanding and exemplary Overseas Filipino Workers s, the Philippine Embassy announced yesterday.

Friday, 6 November 2009, 9:34 am Press Release: US Department of State - Background Notes October 2009 Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs PROFILE OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of the Philippines Geography Area: 300,000 sq.

The Philippine government aims to approve contracts to explore and develop the country's massive geothermal energy resources, which could attract more than $2.5 billion in private investment, an official said.

A powerful typhoon slammed into the northeastern Philippines on Saturday, killing four people, tearing roofs off houses and uprooting trees, but damage and flooding was much less than expected.

Tropical Storm Marinae is heading toward central Vietnam after lashing the central Philippines, where authorities say it killed at least 14 people.

Gunmen opened fire on a commuter bus in the restive southern Philippines, killing two and wounding eight passengers, authorities said on Thursday.

AGENTS of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police on Thursday night ended the checkered career of notorious robber Alvin Flores and three of his men in a gunbattle in Cebu.

The end for the heavily-armed suspects known for posing as cops came at 8 p.m. Thursday when operatives of the NBI led by Ruel Lasala and the Directorate for Intelligence under Director Eugene Martin raided the their hideout at the Tripina Ceneca Compound in Barangay Staca, Compostela, Cebu.

The Philippines has sent hundreds of armed policemen to the southern region of Mindanao to force the release of a kidnapped Irish priest after rejecting an offer of help from Muslim rebels, officials said on Wednesday.

At least 11 people are dead and six missing after Typhoon Mirinae roared across Manila and southern Luzon island before weakening into a storm and moving west of the Philippines toward the South China Sea.

Louisiana Association of Educators officials said Monday they will meet with the Avoyelles Parish School District's Filipino teachers who have joined hundreds of other Louisiana educators denouncing labor contract violations by their recruiter.

I was asked to pay $11,200 for a placement fee, and some of it I had to borrow from a company," said Amy F. Bihag, one of 20 Filipino teachers working for Avoyelles Parish schools. As she spoke, she broke into tears when referring to payments that have left her in deep in debt.

The firms have been used by some Louisiana school districts, including in Avoyelles, Caddo and East Baton Rouge parishes, to fill teacher positions.

Girls in gangs become more vulnerable when families can ill afford to feed them, increasing risk of being prostituted.

Thirty-nine fishermen on board 14 boats returned safely ashore hours after authorities declared they were missing, local media reported Monday.

Google has been implicated in copyright issues for more than four years, digitizing millions of books without permission.

However, Ms. Courtney Hohne, a Google spokeswoman said, “We take the view, backed up by international copyright law, that no copyright is violated in this process since the amount of text displayed is so small and it’s purely for information.”

“In fact, it’s comparable to a quotation from a book in a review or our Web search results, both of which are perfectly legal,” she added.

In October, Google offered to pay each U.S. based author at least $60 per book scanned, and 63 percent of future sales revenue. The company also said that it was “actively encouraging authors, publishers, and rights-holders around the world to register for the settlement”.

Philippine government Sunday rejected the kidnappers' demand to pay 2 million U.S. dollars in exchange of the freedom of an elderly Irish priest being abducted in the country's troubled south for three weeks.