Day: July 31, 2024

MANILA: The European Union (EU) has released EUR1.2 million or PHP76 million in humanitarian aid for victims of the floods that hit Mindanao over the past month. In a statement dated July 30, the EU Delegation in Manila said the funding would help address the most pressing needs of people on the island, the hardest hit following several days of heavy rain caused by the southwest monsoon and the intertropical convergence zone. ‘The beginning of this year’s monsoon and typhoon season is proving very hard for people in the Philippines, and the EU is stepping up its assistance to the

MANILA: The Philippines will expand its “maritime cooperative activities” (MCA) with Japan, Australia, and other friendly nations, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr. said on Tuesday. “We will also bolster maritime cooperative activities and expand coordination with Japan and Australia and other like-minded nations, not only in these areas but in joint exercises and training as well, where applicable,” he said during the 2+2 Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. MCAs are joint naval and air patrols conducted by Philippine allies in its maritime territories. Teodoro said Manila would beef up the

MANILA: Members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) nabbed two Chinese nationals during an anti-human trafficking operation inside a suspected illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (POGO) facility in Pampanga province on Tuesday. In a report on Wednesday, CIDG chief Maj. Gen. Leo Francisco said the suspects, with aliases “Tiago” and “Tian Zhu” were arrested during the service of seven search warrants issued by the Guagua, Pampanga Regional Trial Court inside a village at the Clark Freeport Zone in Mabalacat City at about 5:30 a.m. Rescued from the operation were 13 Chinese nationals, including two females and three minors.

KORONADAL CITY: Three persons, including a Grade 10 pupil, died while six others were hurt in an accident along the national highway in Barangay Saravia here on Tuesday night. Police Master Sgt. Leo Dimaculangan, Koronadal City traffic chief, said two motorbikes and a government vehicle of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources-Soccsksargen (BFAR-12) were involved in the accident that occurred at 6 p.m. The fatalities were identified as Rogela Bayang, 25, of General Santos City, who was driving a motorcycle, and also Rhealyn Hilaria, 21, and her 15-year-old sister, both of this city, who were on a separate motorbike.

ISTANBUL: The Palestinian resistance group Hamas announced early Wednesday that its political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting his residence in the Iranian capital Tehran. “Hamas mourns to our great Palestinian people, to the Arab and Islamic nations, and to all the free people of the world, the martyr, the Mujahid Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the movement, who was killed in a treacherous Zionist raid on his residence in Tehran after participating in the inauguration ceremony of the new Iranian president,” the Palestinian group said in a statement on Telegram. Iranian state television also