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Caution advised for Filipino travelers amid Myanmar crisis, recruitment scams
The bureau made the statement Monday, a week after four Filipinos who had fallen victim to illegal recruitment were repatriated amid ongoing clashes in Myanmar......»»
Pentagon amps up posture in Mideast in response to ‘escalations’
The United States warned against any "escalation" in the Middle East in the wake of Israel's war with Hamas, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sunday, hours after the Pentagon moved to step up military readiness in the region. The United States has seen a "prospect of a significant escalation of attacks on our troops" in the region, Austin said Sunday, adding that the US military was preparing for "the ability to respond." "If any group or any country is looking to widen this conflict and take advantage of this very unfortunate situation that we see, our advice is: don't," he told ABC News. "We maintain the right to defend ourselves and we won't hesitate to take the appropriate action," he added. His comments came hours after the Pentagon said it was upping readiness in the region in response to "recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces." Austin ordered the activation of air defense systems and notified additional forces that they may be deployed soon. Austin did not say how many US troops would be added to those already in the region. The Pentagon's moves came after what Austin had earlier described in a statement as "detailed discussions" with President Joe Biden. "These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for US forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel," Austin said. The steps continued the Biden administration's response since Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip stormed Israel on October 7, taking more than 200 hostages and killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials. tensions rising Israel has since vowed to destroy Hamas, and says around 1,500 of the group's fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the area initially under attack. Austin said he had activated deployment of a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and additional Patriot battalions "throughout the region." "Finally, I have placed an additional number of forces on prepare-to-deploy orders as part of prudent contingency planning, to increase their readiness and ability to quickly respond as required," Austin said. Tensions are rising along Israel's northern border with Lebanon after the Israeli army traded fire with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah amid fears of a new front opening as Israel battles Hamas. In south Lebanon on Saturday, Hezbollah said four of its fighters were killed. Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said one of its fighters was also killed. Armed factions close to Iran have threatened to attack US interests in Iraq over Washington's support for Israel. Multiple Iraqi bases used by US-led coalition troops have been targeted in several attacks in recent days. Israel's military said Saturday it would intensify strikes on Hamas-controlled Gaza ahead of a planned ground invasion. The military has pounded Gaza with relentless strikes in response to Hamas's 7 October attack. The bombing campaign has killed more than 4,650 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, and reduced swaths of the densely populated territory to ruins. A first trickle of aid entered the Palestinian enclave from Egypt on Saturday, but the 20 trucks permitted to cross have been described as a "drop in the ocean" given the needs of 2.4 million residents. The post Pentagon amps up posture in Mideast in response to ‘escalations’ appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
DoH opposes proposal to make Phl manufacturing hub for HTPs
The Department of Health on Thursday maintained its position against the production and use of heated tobacco products amid a proposal to make the Philippines a manufacturing hub for HTPs. In a statement, the Health Department warned that the eventual realization of the plan would encourage more HTP users in the country, which is counter-productive to the government’s long history of fighting against the use of tobacco products. “With the increasing prevalence of vape and HTP use and the emergence of cases of EVALI (e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury), the DOH cautions that marketing the Philippines to multinational corporations as a manufacturing hub of vapes and HTPs may result in the proliferation of these harmful products and worsening tobacco epidemic in the country, and will undermine efforts to prevent and restrict access to these products, especially among the youth,” the agency said. Earlier this week, Trade and Industry Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo encouraged manufacturers of HTPs to make the country the next manufacturing hub for their products. According to the DOH, the move would also be “contrary” to the policy intent of Republic Act 11900, or the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-nicotine Products Regulation Act, which aims to protect the public from any potential hazards of HTPs. The agency urged economic managers to reconsider its proposal which it said would later on outweigh its economic gains. “Economic managers should consider the long-term economic burden resulting from these harmful products due to premature sickness and deaths, which outweighs potential economic gains from investing in these industries,” it said. The post DoH opposes proposal to make Phl manufacturing hub for HTPs appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
India announces new French fighter jet deal as Modi visits Paris
India announced a new multi-billion-dollar deal for French fighter jets on Thursday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Paris for a two-day trip that will see him feted as the guest of honor during France's national day celebrations. India's defense ministry said that the country intended to order 26 more Rafale jets as well as another three Scorpene-class submarines, with the price and other terms still being worked out. India is one of the biggest buyers of French arms, and Modi announced a landmark deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets during a 2015 trip to Paris that was worth around 4.0 billion euros at the time. Some of those Indian-piloted Rafales will take part in a flypast on Friday during France's Bastille Day military parade where Modi will sit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron as guest of honour. "This closeness is not limited to just the leaders of two countries, it is in fact a reflection of the unwavering friendship between India and France," Modi told an enthusiastic crowd of Indians living in France on Thursday evening. Despite differences over the war in Ukraine and tensions over human rights in India, Western democracies are courting Modi and India as a counterweight to China in Asia. Macron's red carpet welcome comes weeks after Modi was given the rare honor of a White House state dinner in Washington -- a city he was once banned from visiting. "India is one of the pillars of our Indo-Pacific strategy," an aide to Macron told reporters this week on condition of anonymity. Human rights But amid the pomp and diplomatic courting in France, a resolution from the European Parliament on Thursday served as a reminder of Modi's controversial leadership style and Hindu nationalist agenda that has critics at home and abroad. Sitting in Strasbourg in eastern France, EU parliamentarians approved a motion that urged India to end violence in the country's restive northeastern Manipur state and to protect minorities there. Clashes between the majority Meitei, who are mostly Hindus, and the mainly Christian Kuki tribe have left at least 120 people dead, 50,000 displaced and over 1,700 houses destroyed, the parliament said. It criticized the "nationalistic rhetoric" of the local state government, run by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party. Modi's role during Bastille Day in France was "an affront not only to India's minority communities, journalists and human rights defenders but also to India as a democracy," the text's chief negotiator, Pierre Larrouturou, said. A protest called against Modi drew only a few dozen people in central Paris on Thursday. Strategic partnership Modi has visited France four times since Macron came to power in 2017, while Macron was honored with a state visit to New Delhi in 2018. Aides on both sides have talked up the personal chemistry between the two leaders and pointed to cooperation on climate change, space technology, and nuclear power as part of a 25-year-old "strategic partnership" between France and India. Modi told the French newspaper Les Echos that bilateral trade had doubled in the last nine years and Macron's "thinking really matches ours". India and France "are naturally compatible" and "we see France as one of our foremost global partners," Modi added. Few observers expect Macron to raise rights concerns with Modi publicly. "The fact that explains France's relative success in this relationship is that unlike the US, the UK, Canada, Germany and a few other European countries, you've hardly seen France commenting on the internal affairs of India," Constantino Xavier from the Centre for Social and Economic Progress, a New Delhi-based think tank, said this week. "That has been appreciated on the Indian side." Modi has been dogged by allegations he was complicit in religious violence during his tenure as chief minister of the western state of Gujarat in 2002 when around 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian riots. The Indian government and judicial probes have cleared him of culpability. Since his first crushing electoral victory in 2014, he has also been denounced by rights groups for increased discrimination and violence towards the country's Muslims, as well as stifling independent media. "Diversity is the biggest strength of our democracy," he told the meeting on Thursday evening that also lauded the country's economic growth. Many European and American businesses, including US tech giant Apple, are ramping up production there to mitigate the threat of supply chain disruptions from China. The war in Ukraine has heightened concerns in the West about the risk of conflicts disrupting the flow of key raw materials and technology from China, but it has also exposed a rift with India. New Delhi, which has long sought to balance its ties with Moscow and the West, has declined to condemn Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and has emerged as a top buyer of discounted Russian oil during the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The post India announces new French fighter jet deal as Modi visits Paris appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
DOH cautions public on dengue amid El Niño
The Department of Health has cautioned the public against contracting vector-borne diseases such as dengue after the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration declared the onset of the El Niño phenomenon in the country......»»
Wagner chief to leave Russia in deal to ease crisis
The chief of the rebel Wagner mercenary force will leave Russia and won't face charges after calling off his troops' advance on Saturday, Moscow said, easing Russia's most serious security crisis in decades. The feud between Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russia's military brass came to a violent head in the past day, with his forces capturing a key army headquarters in southern Russia and then heading north to threaten the capital. Within hours of Prigozhin's about-face, the Kremlin announced he would leave for Belarus and Russia would not prosecute either him or the group's members. It had been a dramatic day of developments, with President Vladimir Putin warning against civil war, Moscow telling locals to stay off the streets and Kyiv revelling in the chaos engulfing its enemy. The tide shifted suddenly when Prigozhin made the stunning announcement that his troops were "turning our columns around and going back to field camps" to avoid bloodshed in the Russian capital. Prigozhin, who has feuded bitterly with Moscow's military leadership even as his outfit led parts of Russia's Ukraine offensive, said he understood the importance of the moment and did not want to "spill Russian blood". - Wagner troops cheered - By early Sunday Wagner had pulled fighters and equipment from Rostov-on-Don, where they had seized the military headquarters, said the regional governor. But before they left, dozens of residents were cheering and chanting "Wagner! Wagner!" outside the military headquarters they had captured. Authorities in the southern Lipetsk region announced the lifting of restrictions after earlier reporting Wagner fighters in their territory, where the local capital is just 420 kilometres (260 miles) south of Moscow. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said he had negotiated a truce with Prigozhin, drawing thanks from Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later told reporters that the "criminal case against him (Prigozhin) will be dropped. He himself will go to Belarus." Peskov also said that members of Wagner who had taken part in what authorities termed an "armed rebellion" will not be prosecuted. "Avoiding bloodshed, internal confrontation, and clashes with unpredictable results was the highest goal," Peskov added. Kyiv revelled in the chaos that engulfed its enemy. "Prigozhin humiliated Putin/the state and showed that there is no longer a monopoly on violence," presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. While Russia claimed the rebellion had no impact on its Ukraine campaign, Kyiv said the unrest offered a "window of opportunity" as the nation pressed its long-awaited counter-offensive. - Moscow's warning - The United States and its allies publicly stayed on the sidelines as officials waited to see how the revolt would play out. US President Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain amid concerns that Putin's control over the nuclear-armed country could be slipping. Moscow issued a stiff warning to the United States and allies to stay back. "The rebellion plays into the hands of Russia's external enemies," the foreign ministry said. Before Prigozhin's climbdown, Russian regular forces had launched what one regional governor called a "counter-terrorist operation" to halt the Wagner advance northwards up a main highway towards Moscow. In the capital, the mayor urged Muscovites to stay indoors and declared Monday a day off work. Security was tightened in the city centre, with armed men in flak jackets guarding the parliament building and Red Square closed off to the public. "I don't know how to react. In any case it's very sad this is happening," 35-year-old Yelena told AFP, declining to give her last name. The measures came after Prigozhin announced his troops had taken control of the military command centre and airbase in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, the nerve centre of Russia's offensive in Ukraine. - 'A blow to Russia' - Responding to the challenge in a televised address, Putin accused Prigozhin of a "stab in the back" that posed a threat to Russia's very survival. "Any internal turmoil is a deadly threat to our statehood and to us as a nation. This is a blow to Russia and to our people," Putin said, demanding national unity. "Extravagant ambitions and personal interests led to treason," Putin said, referring to Prigozhin, who began building his power base as a catering contractor. Another Putin ally, Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, declared that he had dispatched his own units to help quash the Wagner rebellion. Armed Wagner fighters deployed around administrative buildings in Rostov and tanks were seen in the city centre. As the insurrection force headed north through Voronezh and Lipetsk towards Moscow, the capital's mayor announced that "anti-terrorist" measures were being taken. Critical facilities were "under reinforced protection", TASS reported, citing a law enforcement source. While Prigozhin's outfit fought at the forefront of Russia's offensive in Ukraine, he repeatedly blamed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, for his fighters' deaths. bur-jmm/jj © Agence France-Presse The post Wagner chief to leave Russia in deal to ease crisis appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Senegal government websites hit by cyberattack
A cyberattack purportedly claimed by the Anonymous hacking group took down dozens of government websites in Senegal, where tensions are simmering nine months before a presidential election, officials said on Saturday. The @MysteriousTeamO account, claiming to belong to the hacker group Anonymous, said on social media that it had targeted websites run by the presidency and those using the domain of the government, including the defense ministry and the health ministry. It also claimed to have affected the site of the national airline Air Senegal. Most of the affected sites were back online by mid-afternoon on Saturday, but access to some remained intermittent. Global internet monitor NetBlocks told AFP that the attack started at around midnight on Friday and had affected "dozens of government websites, networks, and online services". "There do appear to be intermittent restorations in service, however, these have not been sustained and the attack is ongoing," NetBlocks added. The @MysteriousTeamO account said the attack was in "solidarity" with Senegalese citizens and their right to freely choose their president. Government spokesman Abdou Karim Fofana acknowledged the attack, which he described as a distributed denial-of-service attack, designed to overwhelm the target with a flood of internet traffic, preventing the system from functioning normally. The relevant department said its teams were working to return to normal "as soon as possible," he said in a statement. The attack comes amid a tense political climate in the West African country. The opposition has denounced what it says is a growing crackdown by the government of President Macky Sall. Uncertainty over whether he will run for a controversial third term, as well as the rape trial of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, has fuelled tensions in the relatively stable nation. Sonko has refused to appear in court, claiming the authorities are plotting to keep him out of the presidential race. Having previously withdrawn to the south of the country during the trial, on Friday Sonko began a high-risk return to the capital Dakar, intending to draw out supporters along the way with a so-called "caravan of freedom". Local media reported clashes between Sonko's supporters and security forces on Friday surrounding his arrival at Kolda in the south -- still a long way from Dakar. Sonko's party said on Saturday that a 37-year-old father had died in the clashes, blaming the authorities. AFP was unable to confirm that the man died during the clashes. The post Senegal government websites hit by cyberattack appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Negros town villagers flee homes amid AFP-NPA clashes
Around 65 families evacuated their homes as New People’s Army rebels clashed with Army soldiers in Sitio Ulo-Tuburan in Barangay Buenavista in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental on Wednesday......»»
Foreign nations evacuate citizens in Sudan
Evacuation flights for foreigners were continuing in Khartoum, Sudan early Monday, with hundreds of people flown out overnight on military planes amid clashes of army and paramilitary forces there. Foreigners also fled the capital Khartoum in a long United Nations convoy, while millions of frightened residents hunkered down inside their homes, many running low on water and food. More than 1,000 European Union citizens were evacuated from conflict-hit Sudan over the weekend, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters on Monday. British and Canadian forces have rescued diplomats and their families in Sudan’s capital city and they are now safe outside the country, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. Germany and France, meanwhile, said they had also begun evacuating their nationals and those from other countries. Two French planes carrying around 200 people of multiple nationalities landed in Djibouti. The German army said it had evacuated 101 people on the first of three military aircraft sent to Sudan. The first Airbus A400M “landed safely in Jordan” at around midnight local time, the Bundeswehr said on Twitter. Another plane with 113 people was on its way to Jordan, it said. Italy evacuated about 300 people in total, according to their foreign ministries. Egypt, Sudan’s large neighbor to the north, said it had evacuated 436 nationals by land. Long convoys of UN vehicles and buses were seen leaving Khartoum heading east to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, 850 kilometers away by road, carrying “citizens from all over the world,” according to one Sierra Leonean evacuee. Across the city of five million, army and paramilitary troops have fought ferocious street battles since 15 April, leaving behind charred tanks, gutted buildings and looted shops. More than 420 people have been killed and thousands wounded, according to UN figures, amid fears of wider turmoil and a humanitarian disaster in one of the world’s poorest nations. Forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, are fighting for control of the city and the country. The post Foreign nations evacuate citizens in Sudan appeared first on Daily Tribune......»»
Northern Samar villagers flee homes amid NPA attacks
At least 500 families or more than 1,000 people from two barangays in Catubig, Northern Samar have evacuated their homes amid attacks by New People’s Army rebels and clashes between government troopers and the insurgents......»»
Risk is high : DOH cautions against visiting crowded places as holidays near
The health department on Monday warned the public against going to crowded places with the threat of the coronavirus still looming amid the approaching holiday. .....»»
PBA cautions players
The PBA has cautioned its players against negotiating with foreign clubs amid talks that Japanese B.League squads are eyeing a couple more PBA superstars as their Asian import......»»
Marcos tells Filipinos to serve others during Holy Week
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s message to Filipinos during Holy Week encourages tham to "serve others.".....»»
Iraqis display full might vs Philippines XI
Iraq rained goals on host Philippines in a 5-0 shutout that pushed the Filipinos to the brink in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers Tuesday at the packed Rizal Memorial Stadium......»»
Killua
News on the brutal killing of Killua, the Golden Retriever from Bato, Camarines Sur, has ignited a wave of public outcry, particularly among animal-loving Filipinos......»»
Digital TIN IDs issued reaches 100,000
he Bureau of Internal Revenue has issued 100,000 tax identification number IDs in digital form as more Filipinos opt out from lining up at district offices......»»
Mayor Uy posts cryptic messages amid Igacos power problems
ISLAND Garden City of Samal (Igacos) Mayor Al David Uy posted cryptic messages regarding the power crisis in Igacos......»»
88% of Pinoys oppose Cha-cha – Pulse Asia
Public opinion on Charter change, which last year was roughly divided among Filipinos, is now largely skewed toward those opposed to changing the country’s Constitution, a survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed......»»
No Pinoy hurt in Baltimore bridge collapse
The Philippine embassy in Washington has not received any report of Filipinos hurt in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland on Tuesday......»»
Bullish amid wars
Two hot wars and a trade war are ongoing......»»