Philippines

30 Jan 2019; AFP: A grenade attack on a mosque in the troubled southern Philippines killed two people early Wednesday, authorities said, just days after a deadly Catholic cathedral bombing and a vote backing Muslim self-rule.

The blast tore through the building as the victims were sleeping in the pre-dawn darkness on the insurgency-plagued island of Mindanao, which is home to the Philippines' Muslim minority.

ANKARA; 28 Jan 2019; AA: Turkey on Sunday welcomed adoption of Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which establishes an autonomous region for the Muslims living in southern Philippines.

“We welcome that the Bangsamoro Organic Law, establishing the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in southern Philippines, was adopted by people of the region according to the official results of the referendum,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The death toll has climbed to 27 in the twin explosions at a church in the conflict-plagued Sulu province of the southern Philippines on Sunday, the police said.

Police Chief Superintendent Graciano Mijares, Philippine National Police (PNP) director in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), told local media that so far his office has recorded 27 dead, including seven army soldiers, and 77 injured in the blasts that hit the Jolo Cathedral at 8:15 a.m. local time on Sunday.

COTABATO CITY, Philippines; 21 Jan 2019; AA: A referendum set to shape the future of Muslims in the southern Philippines has started on Monday.

The Bangsamoro Muslims, long deprived of freedom under the U.S. and the modern Philippine state, reached the final phase in an autonomy agreement signed with the government in Manila in July 2018.

On Monday, nearly 3 million people are voting on the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) under tight security measures in Cotabato City, the regional center of Muslim Mindanao.

COTABATO CITY, the Philippines, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Muslim Filipinos will cast their vote on Monday to ratify the landmark Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), a law that will pave the way for wider self-rule to the Muslim minority in the Philippines and is hoped to end the decades-old conflict in southern Philippines.

The Commission on Elections of the Philippines said a total of 2.8 million voters registered for the plebiscite.

Manila, Jan 6 (AFP) The death toll from a storm that devastated the Philippines shortly after Christmas rose to 126, authorities said Sunday, adding landslides caused by torrential rain were the top cause.

The storm hit central and eastern Philippine islands on December 29 and caused massive flooding and landslides.

More than 100 people died in the mountainous Bicol region southeast of Manila, regional disaster officials said.

MANILA, Dec. 31 (Xinhua)-- The death toll of landslides and flood triggered by heavy rains in the Philippines has risen to 68, the government agency said on Monday.

The deaths were mostly due to landslides and drowning in the Bicol region and Eastern Visayas in central Philippines, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in its latest report.

Fifty-seven of the deaths were reported from the Bicol region while 11 from the Eastern Visayas region.

The agency said there are still 19 people missing in both regions.

Manila, Dec 29 (AFP) A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippine island of Mindanao on Saturday triggering a brief tsunami warning.

The quake struck southeast of Davao City at a depth of 59 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said, a week after a volcano-triggered tsunami killed more than 400 people in neighbouring Indonesia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center warned "hazardous tsunami waves from this earthquake are possible" along the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — For over a century, the Bells of Balangiga have not rung in the Philippines, a silence that the president last year called “painful.” Now, the revered bells will once again be heard in the country.

MANILA, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- At least 31 Filipinos are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) each day in the Philippines, government data showed with the Department of Health (DOH) voicing alarm over the spread in the Philippines of HIV that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).