Presidential prerogative
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin and outgoing US Ambassador Sung Kim, who made his farewell call at MalacaƱang last Monday, were both caught by surprise when the President decided to just cut through the red tape and issue an absolute pardon to Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, a US Marine who was being held in a detention facility at Camp Aguinaldo for the killing of a transgender woman in 2014......»»
Xinhua world news summary at 0630 GMT, March 18
MOSCOW -- Russia's incumbent President and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin, who is set to win reelection, said he would do his utmost to achieve national development goals on Monday morning. Putin has won 87.32 percent of the vote after 95.04 percent of all ballots were counted, according to data from the Russian Central Election Commission as of Monday morning. (Russia-Presidential Election) - - -.....»»
Losses to Philippine agriculture due to El Nino reach 31 mln USD
MANILA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The El Nino dry spell and ensuring drought have caused over 1.75 billion pesos (roughly 31 million U.S. dollars) in damage to Philippine agriculture, a senior government official said Wednesday. This year's losses due to El Nino are still low compared to 2009 when the damage to agriculture reached 17 billion pesos (302 million dollars), Presidential Communications Office Assistant Se.....»»