Worldcrunch
A scam at the Manila International Airport, involving security personnel planting bullets in the luggage of unsuspecting passengers to extort money, caused outrage throughout the Philippines earlier this month. As reported by KBR, carrying a single bullet on the Southeast Asian island is illegal. Several Filipino and foreign passengers have claimed in recent weeks that […]
MAMBURAO — In partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), those who fish the waters here in the town of Mamburao are using traditional handlines rather than large trawler nets in the deep waters off Mindoro Strait, in a bid to position the area as a Philippine hub of sustainable tuna fishing. With traditional handlines, or kawil, they catch only the mature and high-quality tuna. “We go out there into the Mindoro Strait, about 300 fishermen in several boats,” says the Tuna Fisheries Association’s Roberto Cueto. “When we’re not catching much, we stay there for days.” But Cueto, who started […]
CONFUSION AND FIGHTING IN BURUNDI Violent broke out this morning in the Burundi capital of Bujumbura between soldiers loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza and forces who claimed to have staged a coup. The situation is very uncertain in the capital, as reports suggest the attempted coup is still ongoing, RFI reports. EXTRA! PRINCE CHARLES’ MEMOS […]
Dubbed the “Fight of the Century,” Saturday’s welterweight title boxing match between American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Filipino Manny Pacquiao failed to live up to the hype. In what some instead consider the most boring fight of the century, Mayweather won by unanimous decision after an uneventful 12 rounds lasting 40 minutes. Pacquiao is […]
Locals used to cook their food in bubbling pools of steaming groundwater. Now a project is underway to turn it into electricity.
Why do so many Filipinos own and carry weapons? One theory points to the influence of former American colonial rulers.
SALAWAG — In the multi-player online battle video game Defense of the Ancients, or DotA, the aim is to conquer the opposing team on the other side of the map. The graphics are impressive, and the play is challenging. But for some, the game is not just about friendly competition, after it’s been blamed as a contributing factor in the Dec. 15 murder of a 19-year-old, who was allegedly stabbed by his friend outside a computer gaming shop after the two were playing the game. The boy responsible is now in government custody, and the incident pushed local officials to […]
Images that made the news.
Second only to India in terms of scale, the Philippines’ customer service outsourcing industry in is growing, offering well-educated English speakers willing to work the night shift.
The Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa is known as the “prison without walls,” because even violent convicts here can work and live on this vast land with relative autonomy.
It’s been 20 years since the U.S. had troops in the Philippines. With new plans in the works for a Filippino-U.S. base-sharing, much has changed – both locally and geopolitically.
MANILA — Sometimes to get around Manila, you need to take a trike, otherwise known as a motorcycle with a sidecar. The drivers weave around the traffic and up onto sidewalks. Trikes are noisy and emit a lot of exhaust too. But not the one Alfredo Forelo drives. A few months ago, the 38-year-old traded in his old one for a new, battery-powered e-trike. It holds up to eight passengers and is so quiet that it can hardly be heard. On the old tricycles, he used to get sick a lot, he says — colds, flu, asthma. But not anymore. […]
PALAWAN — Chito Villarin starts up the engine of his small fishing boat. The 36-year old makes his living by sailing into the waters of the South China Sea, off Palawan’s west coast, in the hopes of bringing back a good catch. “I catch different types of fish and octopus,” he says, adding that he travels about 20 kilometers into the water. But Filipino fishermen like Villarin aren’t the only ones casting off into these waters. Foreign poachers are frequently found off the coast of Palawan, and the authorities here are trying to stop them. “Narcotics trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, […]
PALAWAN — For 25 years, Filipino lawyer Gerthie Mayo-Anda has tirelessly campaigned for better legal protection of the environment. Often called a forest hero, in the 1990s she established the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) to halt environmental destruction through court. “I thought it was important to establish a public interest environmental law group where my knowledge and skills as a lawyer can be utilized to help the poor and marginalized communities,” she says. Her group has filed dozens of cases against illegal logging, fishing and mining. “For now, the most difficult field is mining and coal because the parties […]
Monday, January 5, 2015 AIRASIA BLACK BOXES MAY NEVER BE FOUNDThe AirAsia flight QZ8501 recovery mission has resumed today with improved weather conditions. The Indonesian navy found what could be the jet’s tail section, but officials have warned that the aircraft’s black boxes may never be recovered. Meanwhile, leaked documents published in The Jakarta Post […]
Like generations before who’d set off for North America, Asia and Western Europe, emigrants from the Philippines have arrived over the past decade in a growing Poland to find work.
December 19, 2014 KURDS BEAT ISIS ON MOUNT SINJARKurdish forces have broken a months-long ISIS siege on Mount Sinjar after a two-day offensive backed by U.S. airstrikes. The BBC describes it as the Kurds’ “biggest victory yet” against the terrorist group. Thousands of displaced people had been trapped on the mountain in northwestern Iraq since […]
Monday, December 8, 2014 ISRAEL ACCUSED OF BOMBING SYRIA Syria has officially asked the United Nations to impose sanctions on Israel after accusing the Israeli military of bombing the international airport in Damascus and another target in the countryside near the Syrian capital. “This direct aggression by Israel was carried out to help the terrorists” […]
Tuesday, December 2, 2014 UKRAINE AND REBELS AGREE ON CEASEFIRE Ukrainian authorities and pro-Russian rebels have “agreed in principle” on a “total ceasefire” in the eastern region of Luhansk, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe announced. According to the OSCE, heavy weapons will start being withdrawn from the region on Dec. 6. Such […]
After Typhoon Haiyan, the scale of misery in the Philippines is hard to measure. For one mother and father in the hardest hit city, it is infinite.
TACLOBAN — The pictures emerging from the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan last weekend show utter devastation. Experts will say that no two natural disasters are ever the same, yet it can often be useful to learn from reactions to past calamities. United Nations agencies were quick to announce the call for funds to support the […]
Does the classification of tropical storms need changing? With sustained winds of 195 miles per hour, and gusts close to 235 mph, the super typhoon Haiyan, which left a trail of destruction in the Philippines and beyond, was the most powerful cyclone to make landfall in recent history. So much so in fact that some […]
Tuesday, October 28, 2014 ISIS SAYS KOBANI BATTLE “NEARLY OVER” In a new video showing captive British journalist John Cantlie, and which The Washington Post calls “bizarre,” ISIS claims that the battle for the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani is “is coming to an end. The Mujahideen are just mopping up now.” The video, made […]
Squalid conditions in the overcrowded slums of the island country force people to look for new shelters.
AP, BBC Worldcrunch MANILA – The season’s most powerful typhoon hit the north of the Philippine islands early Monday morning, leaving one person dead, with at least 23 others missing, according to the Associated Press. Typhoon Utor brought winds of up to 130 mph and torrential rains to the country’s main island of Luzon, toppling […]
Domestic workers from the Philippines have faced sexual abuse by their employers in places like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. Now they also accuse Manila’s own embassy employees.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014 ISRAEL TARGETS HAMAS LEADERS IN FRESH STRIKES The Israeli air force is continuing to strike Gaza, targeting the residences of four Hamas leaders hours after warning 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes, AP reports. This comes after Hamas rejected an Egypt-brokered ceasefire yesterday. Blogger Richard Silverstein writes that a well-placed Israeli […]
Wednesday, June 25, 2014 UKRAINE CEASEFIRE TEETERS Following yesterday’s request by President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Senate repealed a law, passed when tensions with Kiev were at their highest, that allowed Putin to use military intervention in Ukraine, RT reports. Despite this step towards a political solution, there are growing doubts over the temporary ceasefire […]
MOSCOW WORRIED BY NATO BUILDUP Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow was concerned by the “unprecedented” increase in U.S. and NATO activity along the Russian border and urged U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel to help “turn down the rhetoric” over the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, Reuters reports. This comes after U.S. troops were deployed in the […]
BIDEN VISITS KIEV IN SHOW OF SUPPORT U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with Ukrainian leaders Tuesday in a show of support for the new government. Speaking in the capital’s Parliament building, Biden said the U.S. stood with Ukraine in the face of “humiliating threats,” the BBC reports. Earlier, a phone conversation between Biden and […]
OVER 70 PEOPLE EXECUTED IN CONGOArmed groups executed more than 70 men and women in villages in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo between late January and early February, AFP quotes the UN mission MONUSCO as saying. According to the organization, most of the people were killed with machetes in a bid “to spread […]
LAMINGAN – It’s late November, patches of a green mountainous landscape are piercing through the morning fog. They follow a regular pattern, typical of palm oil plantations. The trees’ bases are surrounded by burned vegetation – a sign that pesticides were used. The palm oil plantation, started in 2005 by Nakeen, a subsidiary of the […]
MANILA STANDARD TODAY (Philippines), THE INDEPENDENT (UK), AP Worldcrunch MANILA – Angry residents beat a man to death and threw rocks at firefighters after a shantytown fire killed seven people on Christmas day, reports the Associated Press. The man was reportedly beaten to death by his neighbors after shouting that he started Tuesday’s fire in […]
MANILA TIMES (Philippines), REUTERS, BBC NEWS (UK), NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch MANILA – The death toll from a typhoon that swept through the Philippines archipelago jumped to 238 on Wednesday with hundreds missing, reports Reuters. At least 156 people are known to have died in the Compostela Valley province alone, when Typhoon Bopha struck […]
Worldcrunch As Sandy pummels the United States, the Pacific typhoon season has been well underway on the other side of the world, resulting in some 500 deaths and $3.36 billion in total damages in Asia. Take a look at the five storms that you may have missed: 1. Typhoon KhanunIn mid-July, Typhoon Khanun swept over […]
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (Philippines), CHINA TIMES (Taiwan) Worldcrunch BANGKOK– A new survey that ranks cities with the “most promiscuous men” has been making the buzz all over Asia over the past few days, the China Times reported. The survey was conducted by SeekingArrangement.com, an American-based dating website. According to the Bangkok Post the study involved […]
DIE WELT (Germany) Worldcrunch Predicting earthquakes, floods, droughts and other assorted disasters is hardly an exact science. Still, as the just published 2012 WorldRiskReport notes, just how badly natural catastrophes hit comes down to how well prepared is the country’s government to respond. In a risk index that includes 173 countries, experts of the Bonn-based […]
PHILIPPINE STAR, PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER (The Philippines), BBC (UK) Worldcrunch Tens of thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the Philippine capital Manila due to severe floods. Ten people were killed on Tuesday in a landslide caused by the torrential rain, reports the Philippine Star. Eight members of a family, including a two-month old […]
PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, PHILIPPINE STAR (Philippines) Worldcrunch MANILA – Seven people have been confirmed killed from the onslaught of typhoon Saola (also named typhoon Gener) in the Philippines, the Philippine STAR reports. Several others are still missing. Philippines’ National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that 8,298 families or 40,477 […]