Free Republic

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dealt a major blow to the United States on Tuesday (February 11), after he terminated a two-decade-old Visiting Forces Agreement-- delivering on threats to downgrade an alliance crucial to U.S. interests. A spokesman for the president - who has clashed with the former colonial ruler over several issues - said he decided to pull the plug on the two-decade troop rotation pact to enable the Philippines to be more independent with its relations with other countries. "As the President said, it's about time we rely on our own resources, we have to strengthen our own capability...

President disapproves of alliance and made decision after ally’s visa was rescinded Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, has given formal notice to the US of his decision to scrap a bilateral agreement covering visiting American troops, following through on repeated threats to downgrade the defence alliance. The visiting forces agreement (VFA), signed in 1998, accords legal status to thousands of American troops rotated in the country for humanitarian assistance and military exercises, dozens of which take place annually. Duterte, who has made no secret of his grudge with the US and his disdain for his country’s close military...

The Philippine Department of Health said a 44-year-old Chinese man from Wuhan was admitted on Jan. 25 after experiencing a fever, cough, and sore throat. He developed severe pneumonia, and in his last few days, “the patient was stable and showed signs of improvement, however, the condition of the patient deteriorated within his last 24 hours resulting in his demise." The man's 38-year-old female companion, also from Wuhan, also tested positive for the virus and remains in hospital isolation in Manila. President Rodrigo Duterte approved a temporary ban on all travelers, except Filipinos, from China and its autonomous regions. The...

BEIJING: China imposed a lockdown on Sunday (Feb 2) on a major city far from the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, as its death toll from the disease soared to 304 and the first fatality outside the country was reported in the Philippines. The events added to deepening concern about the potential for the virus to spread, as governments around the world closed their borders to people from China. Struggling to contain the virus, authorities took action in eastern city of Wenzhou on Sunday - some 800 kilometres from Wuhan, the metropolis at the heart of the health emergency -...

MANILA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Blood samples taken from pigs in a southern province in the Philippines, the world's 10th-largest pork consumer, tested positive for the African swine fever virus, the Department of Agriculture said on Sunday. It was the first reported case of African swine fever infections in Davao Occidental province and elsewhere in Mindanao, the southern island of the Southeast Asian nation.

A Florida man turned lizard smuggler pleaded guilty this week in federal court to trafficking live water monitor lizards from the Philippines. Akbar Akram, of Holiday, Florida, near Tampa, admitted to illegally importing more than 20 live water monitor lizards in 2016, according to the plea documents. The documents say Akram stuffed the lizards into socks and sealed them with tape, before hiding them inside electronic equipment which was shipped under a false label.

The first death outside China connected to the novel coronavirus respiratory illness was announced Saturday by the World Health Organization. The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, responded by banning travel from the island nation to China. The deceased was described as a 44-year-old resident of Wuhan, China, the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak, who had traveled to the Philippines, WHO Philippines officials said in a news conference. A second person in the Philippines was confirmed to have the virus but has so far survived, they said. The 44-year-old, who experienced fever, coughing and a sore throat before he was hospitalized,...

Authorities have warned of an "imminent hazardous eruption" from Taal volcano. Lava has begun spewing from a volcano in the Philippines, as authorities warned of an “imminent hazardous eruption.” The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said that “weak sporadic lava fountaining and hydrovolcanic activity” had been observed at the crater of Taal volcano, which is situated on an island in a lake around 45 miles south of the capital Manila. On Sunday, a giant plume of ash was sent up by the volcano, blanketing nearby areas and leading to all flights in and out of Manila airport to...

Its been made official that there was a terrorist attack on the United States December 6th at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida. The attack that killed three and wounded eight was perpetrated by Saudi Air Force Lieutenant Mohammed Saeed Alshamrami who was undergoing military training. The confirmation today came not from the President of the United States, nor the Secretary of State nor the Secretary of Defense, but from Attorney General William Barr..... Special Commentary Back before 9/11 terrorism was seen as strictly a law enforcement matter in the days of President Bill Clinton. Now it looks like...

Philippine authorities have urged a "total evacuation" of nearly half a million people near the capital Manila, after a volcano spewed ash up to nine miles (14 kilometers) into the air Sunday prompting warnings of a possible "explosive eruption." The Taal Volcano, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) south of the capital Manila on the island of Luzon, is one of the country's most active. Images from the scene on Monday showed streams of lava beginning to gush out the volcanic vent, the sky above still thick and dark with ash and steam. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS)...

A couple in the Philippines went ahead with their wedding Sunday despite the eruption of a volcano spewing ash into the sky behind them. Chino and Kat Vaflor were tying the knot at a venue 10 miles from the Taal Volcano when wedding photographer Randolf Evan captured dramatic shots of the couple with the ash plume seemingly overhead. Evan said everyone at the wedding at Savanna Farm Tagaytay by Solange stayed "calm" as the couple said "I do." The venue later posted a picture of the couple at the altar, swirling clouds in the distance, and wrote, "The wedding continues!"...

A volcano in the Philippines has emitted a giant plume of ash, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of some 8,000 people living nearby. The plume coming from the Taal volcano, south of the capital Manila, stretched about 1km (0.6 miles) into the sky. Rumbling sounds and tremors were also reported around Taal - the Philippines' second-most active volcano - on Sunday. Authorities raised the alert level, warning that a "hazardous eruption" was possible within weeks. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology also warned residents living nearby of a possible "volcanic tsunami".

The Philippines has banned two U.S. Senators from visiting the country and may impose more restrictions on American citizens over the detention of a leading critic of President Rodrigo Duterte. “We will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our processes as a sovereign state,” Philippine presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said, according to a transcript of a press conference provided by the government. Panelo said Duterte ordered the Bureau of Immigration to deny Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), from entering the country.The government is protesting a provision included in a spending package passed by Congress...

The Philippines has banned two U.S. lawmakers from visiting and will introduce tighter entry restrictions for U.S. citizens should Washington enforce sanctions over the detention of a top government critic, the president's spokesman said on Friday. President Rodrigo Duterte will impose a requirement on U.S. nationals to get visas should any Philippine officials involved in the incarceration of Senator Leila de Lima be denied entry to the United States, as sought by U.S. senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy. Duterte's move comes after the U.S. Congress approved a 2020 budget that contains a provision introduced by the senators against anyone...

MANILA (Reuters) - At least 11 people have been killed and more than 300 treated in hospital after drinking coconut wine in the Philippines, including some who were celebrating at a Christmas party, health and local authorities said on Monday. The poisoning occurred in Laguna and Quezon, two provinces south of Manila, and all had consumed lambanog, a drink popular in provinces and consumed widely during holidays and celebrations. Many were admitted to hospitals on the urging of mayor Vener Munoz in Rizal, Laguna, where the deaths occurred between Thursday and Sunday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her weekly podcast on Saturday to sound the alarm on the country’s skilled labor shortage, saying it could force companies to move elsewhere. […] Germany wants to tackle the shortfall domestically by providing “good training for as many people as possible,” Merkel said. At the same time, Berlin is looking to recruit qualified people from other European Union countries, and further afield. There are already 2.5 million people from EU countries working in Germany. “But that alone is not enough, and that is why we also have to look for skilled workers from outside the...

A powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake in southern Philippines killed at least one person Sunday and caused the collapse of a three-story building, sparking a desperate effort to reach an unknown number of people who may have been trapped inside, officials said. The temblor sent holiday shoppers fleeing from malls in a panic, with people evacuating homes and other buildings as well, according to reports. The quake struck an area about 3.7 miles northwest of Padada town in Davao del Sur province at a depth of 18 miles, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said. President Rodrigo Duterte, who is...

China’s actions in the SCS in recent years—including extensive island-building and base-construction activities at sites that it occupies in the Spratly Islands, as well as actions by its maritime forces to assert China’s claims against competing claims by regional neighbors such as the Philippines and Vietnam—have heightened concerns among U.S. observers that China is gaining effective control of the SCS, an area of strategic, political, and economic importance to the United States and its allies and partners. Actions by China’s maritime forces at the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea (ECS) are another concern for U.S. observers. Chinese...

The first-ever highway partially made of reclaimed plastic was inaugurated in Mexico on Nov. 13. The 2.5-mile stretch of highway in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico used 1.7 tons of recycled plastic, or the equivalent of 425,000 plastic packaging units, according to Dow Plastics Technology Mexico. "The advantage of using recycled plastic products is that they can be used on all types of highways, not only in high-performance products, which can extend the life span of any paved road," Paula Sans, Dow Mexico's director of packaging and specialty plastics, said in a release. The newly paved stretch of...

Philippine senators have called for an investigation into the security implications of China’s part ownership of the national energy grid after officials said engineers in Beijing could plunge the entire country into darkness with the flick of a switch. National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) president Melvin Matibag confirmed there was a “possibility” of such a scenario during deliberations in the Senate on Tuesday over the government budget for 2020. The State Grid Corporation of China holds a 40 per cent stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), a private consortium which bagged the franchise in 2009 to run...