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Urgent!!! World’s mostly Islam friends of RP begin arriving for SNAMMM

MANILA, March 14 — Top foreign ministry officials of foreign governments participating in a special thematic meeting of the 49-year-old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) began arriving in Manila today, including no less than the President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Libya’s Ali Abdulssalam Treki. President of the 64th Session of the UNGA, Treki [...]

Freezing weather, sand storms to hit central and east China

BEIJING, March 14 — China Meteorological Administration (CMA) issued an alert Sunday morning, warning a temperature drop and sand storms brought by a cold wave would sweep central and east China over the next two days. Temperatures in the central and east parts of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northeastern parts of the nation's northwest [...]

EU to impose sanctions on Iran if UN fails in action: Finnish FM

HELSINKI, March 14 — The European Union will seek new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program should the United Nations fail to take any actions, Finnish foreign minister said Saturday. "I think we'll be able to convince Russia and China and I'm quite hopeful that we'll get something in the Security Council," said Alexander [...]

Thai gov't likely to declare state-of-emergency: gov't source

BANGKOK, March 14 — The government is likely to enforce a state-of-emergency decree Sunday to cope with the escalating tension in Bangkok after tens of thousands of provincial anti-government red-shirted protesters arrived in the city Saturday, The Nation online reported. The report quoted an unidentified "senior government source" as saying Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is [...]

Premier says China to continue to work with other countries to tackle climate change

BEIJING, March 14 — China will continue to work with other countries to advance the international efforts in tackling climate change, Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday after the close of the annual parliament session. Wen said he wrote to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, respectively, at the end of [...]

Drug violence kills 25 in Mexico

MEXICO CITY, March 14 — Drug-linked violence claimed 25 lives including five police officers in Mexico's Pacific coast Guerrero state Saturday, security officials said. Gunmen opened fire at a night-time police patrol on the outskirts of Acapulco, a major beach resort city in Guerrero, killing five police officers. Four civilians were found beheaded and another four [...]

Russian airmobile hospital to help Chile quake victims

MOSCOW, March 14 — Two Russian emergencies ministry planes have arrived in Chile carrying rescuers, supplies and equipment including a mobile hospital to help the earthquake-stricken country, a ministry's spokeswoman has said. "Two Il-76 transport planes have landed in Santiago," the spokeswoman said, adding some 50 doctors arrived in the country on board the planes. On [...]

Conservation confab begins in Doha, focus on bluefin tuna

DOHA, March 14 — An international conference to conserve endangered wildlife opened Saturday in Doha, Qatar, with focus on a Monaco-proposed ban on all cross-border trade in bluefin tuna from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. During the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and [...]

UN chief visiting Haiti today

By Betwa Sharma UNITED NATIONS, March 14 — Two months after a devastating earthquake hit Haiti, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is visiting the country for a second time today, to assess the situation on the ground and to prepare for the upcoming donors conference. More than 200,000 people died in the natural disaster that struck the [...]

Storm leaves hundreds of thousands of families in northeast U.S. in dark

NEW YORK, March 14 — Powerful winds are ripping through northeast U.S. Saturday with winds gusting over 80 kilometers per hour, and as much as 12 centimeters of rain falling across parts of the region. According to local media reports, strong winds and heavy rain have knocked out power to more than 450,000 customers, diverting [...]

DND-AFP bent on pursuing modernization program — Gonzales

MANILA, March 14 — The defense and military establishments are working 24/7 to jump-start the long-dreamed-of modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) now that it is already possible. Defense Secretary Norberto Gonzales made this announcement during the Philippine Army change of command ceremony which he presided on Friday in Camp Bonifacio. Gonzales said [...]

Puno wants roadblocks in child and gender issues removed

MANILA, March 14 –Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno wants all roadblocks in child and genders issues removed in Philippine society as early as possible. In his keynote address at the multi-sectoral National Summit on Family Courts held last Friday at the Manila Hotel, Puno urged the various government stakeholders to take a deeper [...]

Verzosa cites signing of peace covenant among politicians in Cotabato City

MANILA, March 14 — The Philippine National Police (PNP) is seeing the peaceful and orderly conduct of the May presidential elections with the signing of another peace covenant in Cotabato City last week. PNP Director General Jesus Versoza and Lawyer Ray Sumalipao, Comelec regional director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), graced the [...]

Military hails heroism of soldier slain in clash with NPA in Davao City

MANILA, March 14 – A top military official on Sunday paid tribute to the soldier who was killed in the latest attack by the New People's Army using an improvised explosive device. Three other soldiers were wounded when communists rebels blasted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in the village of Pandaitan in Paquibato district in [...]

Quirino: Latest province to be cleared of NPA threat

MANILA, March 14 — The province of Quirino formally had its internal security responsibility handed over to local government officials through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed last March 5 after it was declared free from the threat of the communist New People's Army (NPA), which the military also calls as the Communist Terrorist [...]

NPA rebel killed in Davao del Sur

MANILA, March 14 — A New People’s Army (NPA) fighter was killed in a clash with soldiers in the village of Sibulan in Sta. Cruz town, Davao del Sur province Saturday morning, the military reported Sunday. Ernesto Baldevieso, alias Noknok, believed to be under local terrorist leader Exequiel Daguman, alias Rey, of Local Terrorist Group-51, [...]

SC affirms unseating of Malabon-Navotas solon

By Priam F. Nepomuceno MANILA, March 14 — The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the ruling of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) which earlier ordered the unseating of Malabon-Navotas Rep. Alvin Sandoval. The SC also declared legal the HRET decision proclaiming Josephine Veronique Lacson-Noel as the winner in the May 2007 elections in the [...]

PNP ready for this week's SNAMMM's interfaith dialogue at PICC

MANILA, March 14 – All systems go for the security of the Special Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting (SNAMMM) that will be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City this week. Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Jesus Verzosa has activated a special task force to secure delegates of the SNAMMM [...]

NPA rebels kill mine worker, abduct 2 brothers in ComVal province

CAMP APOLINARIO, Davao City, March 14 — In a show of ruthlessness, communist New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists shot dead a mine worker and later abducted two brothers of the victim in the village of Calabcab in Maco town, Compostela Valley (ComVal) province Friday evening, the military reported on Sunday. Capt. Emmanuel R. Garcia, chief [...]

Earthquake hits Halmahera, Indonesia

HONG KONG, March 14 — An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale occurred in Halmahera, Indonesia at 0103 GMT on Sunday morning, according to a release by the Hong Kong Observatory. The epicenter was initially determined to be at 1.7 degrees south latitude and 128.1 degrees east longitude, about 220 kilometers north of Ambon, [...]