Manila - Philippine troops seized a cache of explosives allegedly intended for al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers on a southern island, a military spokesman said Saturday. The explosives were confiscated on Friday during a raid on the house of a man suspected to be supplying bomb materials to the Abu Sayyaf rebels in Jolo town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.
Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday led a tearful farewell to four close aides who died in a helicopter crash in a northern mountain range.
Four other people were killed in the crash on Tuesday in the mountains of Tinoc town in Ifugao province, 270 kilometres south of Manila.
"We mourn the death of our dear friends and colleagues, who died while serving their country," a teary-eyed Arroyo said televised statement. "I will miss them so much in my official family."
Manila - Environmental watchdog Greenpeace Thursday urged the Philippine government to prevent the passage of the largest-ever transport of reprocessed nuclear waste via the country's waters next month.
Greenpeace said a shipment of 1.8 tons of radiotoxic plutonium in mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel intended for nuclear power plants in Japan is travelling via the Cape of Good Hope and the south-west Pacific Ocean from France, where the cargo left on March 5.
Manila - The Philippines plans to dispatch a team of 133 police officers to join a UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor, a police spokesman said Thursday.
Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome said the officers scheduled to leave Manila on Friday and April 17 form the third police contingent that would be sent to East Timor.
"The Philippines continues to be the leading provider of police officers to the UN peacekeeping operations around the world," Bartolome said.
Manila - The Philippines on Wednesday mounted search and rescue operations for a missing air force helicopter carrying senior staff of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo amid reports that the chopper could have crashed and exploded.
The Bell 412 helicopter, carrying five passengers and two pilots, was on its way to Banaue town in Ifugao province, 270 kilometres north of Manila, from the nearby mountain resort city of Baguio when it went missing Tuesday.
Manila - Twelve factory workers were killed and five injured when a boiler at a Styrofoam packaging plant exploded in the Philippines, police said Wednesday.
The explosion occurred Tuesday evening as night shift employees worked at the factory in Santa Maria town in Bulacan province, just north of Manila.
The town's police chief, Superintendent Marcos Rivero, said five workers died on the spot while others were trapped under concrete and steel debris as the blast destroyed the factory.
Manila - Philippine troops seized a cache of explosives allegedly intended for al-Qaeda-linked Muslim militants holding captive two European Red Cross workers on a southern island, a military spokesman said Saturday. The explosives were confiscated on Friday during a raid on the house of a man suspected to be supplying bomb materials to the Abu Sayyaf rebels in Jolo town on Jolo island, 1,000 kilometres south of Manila.
Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Thursday led a tearful farewell to four close aides who died in a helicopter crash in a northern mountain range.
Manila - Environmental watchdog Greenpeace Thursday urged the Philippine government to prevent the passage of the largest-ever transport of reprocessed nuclear waste via the country's waters next month.
Manila - The Philippines on Wednesday mounted search and rescue operations for a missing air force helicopter carrying senior staff of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo amid reports that the chopper could have crashed and exploded.
Manila - Twelve factory workers were killed and five injured when a boiler at a Styrofoam packaging plant exploded in the Philippines, police said Wednesday.
