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MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:58 p.m.) — As Philippine prosecutors prepare to block the early release of US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton, President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday granted an “absolute pardon” to the US Marine who was convicted for the killing of Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude. "Cutting matters short over what constitutes time served, and since where he was detained as not in the prisoner’s control—and to do justice—the President has granted an absolute pardon to Pemberton. Here at the Palace,” Locsin wrote on a tweet. According to a primer by the Department of Justice Parole and Probation Administration, a...

MANILA, Philipp‎ines—The US Marine tagged in the killing of a Filipino transgender has been identified by the authorities and will be charged with murder on Tuesday. Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, a US Marine Corps 2nd Battalion 9th Marines assigned at West Pace Express, was positively identified by a witness in the killing of 26-year-old Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in Olongapo City on Saturday. Reading the Olongapo City Police director’s report, Senior Superintendent Wilben Mayor, Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson, said the witness identified Pemberton through a photo line-up process provided by the US Naval Crime Investigation Service (NCIS). The...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) -- The U.S. military turned over a Marine suspect in the gruesome killing of a transgender Filipino to the Philippine military's main camp in the capital Wednesday, easing a looming irritant over his custody, officials said. Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton had been detained on board the USS Peleliu at the Subic Bay Freeport, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Manila, after he was implicated in the death of 26-year-old Jennifer Laude, whose former name was Jeffrey....

A Philippine court on Tuesday convicted a U.S. Marine of killing a Filipino last year after he discovered she was a transgender woman in a hotel in the Philippines while he was on a break after participating in joint military exercises in the country. Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton was convicted of homicide by first strangling Jennifer Laude and then dunking her head into a toilet bowl in the hotel they had checked into after meeting in a disco bar in Olongapo city, northwest of Manila. He was sentenced to 6-12 years in jail, with time already spent in detention...

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Bureau of Immigration (BI) has issued a deportation order against US Marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton even as he is still on trial for the killing of a Filipino transgender last year. But the BI clarified the deportation order could not be immediately enforced pending clearance from the Olongapo City Regional Trial Court Branch 74, which is hearing Pemberton’s case. The Marine is being tried for the murder of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in October last year inside a motel room in Olongapo. BI spokesperson Elaine Tan said yesterday the bureau wanted Pemberton deported...

It was recently observed that Ron Paul was to the left of Obama on national security and the best evidence for that statement can be found when one year ago Ron Paul joined forces with Barney Frank​ on a proposal to gut national defense via a panel of experts, quite a few of whom were tied to George Soros​. In July 2010, Barney Frank and Ron Paul co-authored a Huffington Post article rolling out their Sustainable Defense Task Force. The Task Force “consisting of experts on military expenditures that span the ideological spectrum” would recommend a trillion dollars in defense...

A glass vial stopped with a cork during the Civil War has been opened, revealing a coded message to the desperate Confederate commander in Vicksburg on the day the Mississippi city fell to Union forces 147 years ago. The dispatch offered no hope to doomed Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton: Reinforcements are not on the way. The encrypted, 6-line message was dated July 4, 1863, the date of Pemberton's surrender to Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant, ending the Siege of Vicksburg in what historians say was a turning point midway into the Civil War.

A message in a bottle delivered to a Confederate general during the American Civil War has been deciphered, 147 years after it was written. In the encrypted message, a commander tells Gen John Pemberton that no reinforcements are available to help him defend Vicksburg, Mississippi. "You can expect no help from this side of the river," says the message, which was deciphered by codebreakers. The text is dated 4 July 1863 - the day Vicksburg fell to Union forces.

This Day In History | Civil War April 16 1863 Passage of Vicksburg Admiral David Dixon Porter leads 12 ships past the heavy barrage of Confederate artillery at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He lost only one ship, and the operation speeded General Ulysses S. Grant's movement against Vicksburg. Grant had been trying to capture Vicksburg for six months. A first attempt failed when General William T. Sherman's troops were unsuccessful in attacking Vicksburg from the north. Grant now planned to move his army down the opposite bank of the river, cross back to Mississippi, and approach the city from the east. The...