Manila - The European Commission is ready to provide more aid to Myanmar but the hermitic South-East Asian country must open up to dialogue with donors on the needed development assistance, a senior European aid official said Tuesday.
Koos Richelle, director general of the commission's Europe Aid Cooperation, said there has been little progress in providing aid to Myanmar because of the military junta's refusal to discuss development programmes needed by the country.
Manila - Emerging Asia's capital markets are starting to stabilize, but their recovery could be lengthy and hard amid uncertainty over the global economic downturn, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said Tuesday.
The Manila-based ADB urged the region's relatively resilient economies to help the equity, bond and currency markets recover as the global crisis ebbs and investor appetite returns, by improving regulation and supervision.
Manila - Muslim militants abandoned a farm worker they abducted during a raid on southern Philippine village as troops closed in on them, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
Government security forces found the hostage, Hernald Jace Delos Chavez, in the jungles of Al-Barkah town in Basilan province, 900 kilometres south of Manila, on Monday evening.
Captain Neil Estrella said Abu Sayyaf rebels left Chavez behind as they fled government troops closing in on their hideout.
Manila - The Philippine military has tightened a security cordon around Muslim militants holding captive an Italian Red Cross worker, officials said Monday.
Italian Eugenio Vagni, 62, was one of three Red Cross workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila, on January 15. He is reportedly suffering from a hernia injury.
The rebels have freed Vagni's two colleagues, Swiss Andreas Notter on April 17 and Filipino Mary Jean Lacaba on April 2.
Cotabato City, Philippines - Three people were injured Monday when a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said.
Major Randolph Cabangbang said the explosion occurred while the Rural Transit Inc passenger bus was traveling on a highway in Kabacan town in North Cotabato province, 960 kilometres south of Manila.
Cabangbang said three bus passengers were injured in the blast and were treated in a nearby hospital.
Manila - Five suspected kidnappers were killed in a shootout when police raided their hideout to rescue a 23-year-old victim in a northern Philippine city, police said Monday.
The hostage was unharmed in the firefight on Sunday evening in Urdaneta City in Pangasinan province, 165 kilometres north of Manila, Superintendent Wilson Lopez said.
Lopez, operations chief of the provincial police, said commandos swooped down the suspects' safe house after receiving information that the hostage was being held there.
Manila - The European Commission is ready to provide more aid to Myanmar but the hermitic South-East Asian country must open up to dialogue with donors on the needed development assistance, a senior European aid official said Tuesday.
Manila - Emerging Asia's capital markets are starting to stabilize, but their recovery could be lengthy and hard amid uncertainty over the global economic downturn, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report said Tuesday.
Manila - Muslim militants abandoned a farm worker they abducted during a raid on southern Philippine village as troops closed in on them, a military spokesman said Tuesday.
Manila - The Philippine military has tightened a security cordon around Muslim militants holding captive an Italian Red Cross worker, officials said Monday.
Cotabato City, Philippines - Three people were injured Monday when a bomb exploded inside a passenger bus in the southern Philippines, a regional military spokesman said.
