Devotees covered in mud and banana leaves took part in the annual Taong Putik festival in the Philippine village of Bibiclat, honoring St. John the Baptist in a tradition that blends Catholic faith and local customs.

Two students opened fire in a high school in the central Philippines, killing three fellow students and wounding 20 others.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier says Europe is worried over tensions in the disputed South China Sea that could endanger freedom of navigation as happened in the Strait of Hormuz.

The International Energy Agency says Southeast Asia’s power sector is too open to risks from its dependence on imports of oil and gas from a limited number of suppliers.

Philippine officials say that years of disaster-preparedness drills helped prevent a larger casualty toll when one of the strongest earthquakes in 50 years struck the south.

The mayor of a quake-hit southern Philippine town is pleading for air force helicopters to transport food to stave off hunger in places isolated by landslides.

Aftershocks are rocking the southern Philippines days after a powerful earthquake that left at least 45 people dead and 17 others missing.

Rescuers are searching ruined buildings in the southern Philippines to ensure no one was still trapped a day after the strongest earthquake to hit the country in a half-century killed at least 37 people and displaced more than 32,000.

A powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake has rocked the southern Philippines, killing at least 35 people.

Cambodia has filed for compulsory conciliation under a U.N. maritime law agreement to resolve a sea border dispute with Thailand.

Sofya Dolce is a Filipina microbakery specializing in traditional Filipino sweet delicacies, handcrafted with care and elevated with a modern, elegant flair. Founded by Abigail Diocares, the business celebrates Filipino heritage through baked goods like polvoron and cassava cake while introducing more Jacksonville viewers and customers to authentic flavors from the Philippines. Sofya Dolce can be found at the Murray Hill Farmers Market every Wednesday from 5 to 8 p.m. and on the shelves at Abstrakt Filipino Essence, Soul Coffee, and Spruce Coffee. Viewers can follow @sofya.dolce on Instagram or email sofya.dolce@gmail.com for more information.

Rescuers have pulled three people from the rubble of a collapsed nine-story hotel under construction in Angeles City, Philippines.

A nine-story building under construction in a city north of the Philippine capital has collapsed, leaving at least one Malaysian tourist dead and 21 workers trapped.

The Philippine Senate has convened as an impeachment court for Vice President Sara Duterte's trial over criminal charges.

Beginning in the 1970s, just about every Filipino household in America was either hauling balikbayan boxes in person or mailing them to relatives back in the Philippines.

A burst of gunfire rang out in the Philippine Senate, sparking chaos in the building where authorities had tried to arrest a senator wanted by the International Criminal Court in connection with a deadly government crackdown on drugs.

A Philippine senator says he will fight any attempt to send him to the International Criminal Court to be prosecuted for an alleged crime against humanity and adds he never condoned extrajudicial killings when he led the country’s police force.

Bob Tebow, father of former Heisman Trophy winner Tim and founder of a mission-based organization that served Southeast Asia, died on Thursday night after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease. Tebow was 78 years old.

Judges at the International Criminal Court have confirmed crimes against humanity charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he allegedly oversaw while in office.

The United States and the Philippines have kicked off one of their largest combat exercises, aimed at deterring aggression in Asia.

Members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team were greeted with a welcome ceremony upon their return to the Islamic Republic after several of the players sought asylum in Australia.

North Korea has qualified for the Women’s World Cup again after a long absence following a doping scandal in 2011.

Iran’s national soccer team has finished the Women's Asian Cup group stage in Australia and now faces a return home to a country embroiled in war.

The Swedish military says that a Russian drone carried out an unauthorized flight off southern Sweden earlier this week while a French aircraft carrier was docked in the port of Malmö.

The International Criminal Court has started pretrial hearings on former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing three counts of crimes against humanity for deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he oversaw while in office.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte says she will seek the presidency in the 2028 elections.

The United States is planning to deploy more high-tech missile systems in the Philippines to help deter aggression in the South China Sea, where the treaty allies again condemned China’s “illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive activities.”.

The Philippine foreign secretary says the Association of Southeast Asian Nations does not recognize the recently held elections in Myanmar, the first since the army seized power in 2021.

Judges at the International Criminal Court have ruled that former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is fit to stand trial.

A ferry with more than 350 people on board sank early Monday near an island in the southern Philippines, killing at least 18 people.

Japan and the Philippines have signed a defense pact that will allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters.

A Philippine official says rescuers have detected signs of life in an avalanche of garbage that killed at least four workers and left more than 30 others missing.

A massive crowd of mostly barefoot Filipino Catholics is joining an annual procession of a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ in the Philippine capital, with some using the gathering to express outrage over a corruption scandal involving influential legislators.

The Philippines has evacuated nearly 3,000 villagers from a danger zone on the foothills of the Mayon Volcano after officials raised the alert level due to recent activity.

Police say an investigation that extended to the Philippines of two men accused of killing 15 people at a Sydney Jewish festival has found no evidence they were part of a “broader terrorist cell.”.

Southeast Asia is embracing the embattled offshore wind industry as it reels from U.S. President Donald Trump’s rejection of renewable energy.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have released 11 mariners held since a July attack on the ship Eternity C in the Red Sea, an assault that killed four on board and sank the vessel.

Thousands of demonstrators including from the dominant Roman Catholic church clergy are protesting in the Philippines, calling for the swift prosecution of top legislators and officials implicated in a corruption scandal.

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is to remain in detention at the International Criminal Court.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has refused to respond to an allegation by his estranged sister that he has been a longtime drug addict whose cocaine dependence has undermined his governance.

A Philippine court has convicted a dismissed town mayor, who officials say is Chinese national, of human trafficking charges for helping establish an illegal online gaming and scam complex where hundreds of Chinese and other foreign workers where forced to conduct scams.

Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos have gathered in Manila to demand accountability for a flood-control corruption scandal.

Taiwan has evacuated 8,300 people and closed schools before a tropical storm brushes the southern part of the island later Wednesday.

Taiwan has evacuated more than 3,000 people and closed schools and offices ahead of tropical storm Fung-wong.

Typhoon Fung-wong has blown out of the northwestern Philippines after causing floods and landslides.

Judy Bertuso feeds her husband Apollo in a tent on a basketball court in Quezon City.

Super Typhoon Fung-wong has slammed into the northeastern coast of the Philippines, leaving at least two people dead and forcing over a million to evacuate.

Former NBA star Tony Parker will start his coaching career in charge of France’s Under-17 team, the French basketball federation said Friday.

Typhoon Kalmaegi has brought fierce winds and torrential rains to Vietnam, and left at least five people dead and thousands of homes damaged before weakening into a tropical storm.

Typhoon Kalmaegi has killed at least 114 people in the Philippines and left even more people missing as it moved on to slam Vietnam.

Typhoon Kalmaegi brought fierce winds and torrential rains to Vietnam on Friday, days after the powerful storm battered the Philippines, where it left scores dead or missing.

Philippine officials say the death toll from the widespread flooding and devastation caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi in the country’s central region has risen to at least 114 with 127 others reported missing, many of them in a hard-hit province still recovering from a deadly earthquake.

Philippine disaster response officials say that Typhoon Kalmaegi has left at least 26 people dead.

A fast-moving typhoon was raking across the central Philippines after slamming ashore overnight from the Pacific, leaving at least one person dead, causing flooding and power outages and displacing tens of thousands of people.

Canada and the Philippines, both staunch critics of China’s increasingly coercive actions in the disputed South China Sea, have signed a key defense agreement that will allow their forces to hold joint battle-readiness drills.

U_S_ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says Washington and Beijing will establish military-to-military communications channels, adding that bilateral ties between the countries have “never been better.”.

Judges at the International Criminal Court have disqualified the court's chief prosecutor from the case against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

Chinese coast guard ships have used powerful water cannons and rammed a Philippine government vessel near Thitu Island in the South China Sea.

Philippine seismologists say that a new offshore earthquake with a preliminary 6.8 magnitude hit the same southern region struck earlier by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4.

The death toll in a powerful earthquake that hit the central Philippines late Tuesday has risen to 72 with nearly 300 others injured.

An offshore earthquake of magnitude 6.9 has jolted a central Philippine province and collapsed the walls of houses and buildings, killing at least 31 people.

Vietnam has evacuated thousands from its central and northern provinces as Typhoon Bualoi approaches faster than expected.

Another tropical storm has barreled across Philippine islands, causing at least four deaths and evacuations of more than 430,000 people from landslide- and flood-prone villages long battered by typhoons.

Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest storms to hit Asia in years, has caused massive destruction in Taiwan and the Philippines before slamming ashore in southern China.

Two former Philippine government engineers have told a televised inquiry that most flood control projects, road and other infrastructures they helped oversee in recent years in a province near the capital were substandard or overpriced to compensate for huge kickbacks given to congressmen and senators.

The crimes against humanity charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte allege his involvement in the killings of at least 76 people while he was president and earlier a southern mayor.

Southern Chinese cities have closed schools, businesses and airports as they brace for one of the strongest typhoons in years.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from northern Philippine villages and schools and offices were closed in the archipelago and neighboring Taiwan as one of the strongest typhoons this year threatens to cause flooding and landslides on its way to southeastern China.

Philippine police have arrested 49 people suspected of attacking officers in violent clashes near the president palace.

The Philippines is protesting a plan by China to establish a nature reserve at one of the most hotly disputed shoals in the South China Sea and demanding that Beijing withdraw it immediately.

China has approved the establishment of a national nature reserve at Scarborough Shoal, a disputed territory also claimed by the Philippines in the South China Sea.

A wealthy business couple has identified several Philippine congressmen and public works officials, alleging they forced them to pay huge kickbacks so they could secure lucrative flood-control projects from the government in explosive testimony during a nationally televised Senate investigation.

The Philippine defense chief has condemned China’s deployment of a swarm of armed coast guard forces, backed by a helicopter and a drone, closer to the Philippines' military outpost in a fiercely disputed atoll in the South China Sea.

Australia has launched its largest military exercises with Philippine forces, involving over 3,600 personnel in live-fire drills and a beach assault near the South China Sea.

The Philippine military has blamed China for a collision between two Chinese navy and coast guard ships in disputed waters.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. says his country will inevitably be drawn “kicking and screaming” in any war over Taiwan due to its proximity and the presence of large numbers of Filipino workers on the self-ruled island, despite China’s strong protest over such remarks.

India and the Philippines have staged joint naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea for the first time, antagonizing China.

A tropical storm is blowing across the Philippines’ mountainous north, worsening more than a week of bad weather that has caused at least 25 deaths and prompted evacuations in villages affected by flooding and landslides.

China’s Education Ministry has issued a safety warning for Chinese students in the Philippines, following what it describes as a series of criminal incidents targeting Chinese nationals.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet commander says China has failed to intimidate rival claimant states into surrendering their sovereign interests in the South China Sea despite its intensifying “bullying tactics” and the United States and other allied countries are ready to further boost deterrence against Beijing’s aggression.

The Philippines' ambassador to the U.S. said President Donald Trump will host his Philippine counterpart in the White House to discuss how the longtime treaty allies can further deepen their security and economic engagements and bolster deterrence against aggression in Asian security flashpoints.

Fifteen police officers in the Philippines are in custody over their alleged role in the abductions and suspected killings of 34 cockfighting enthusiasts.

Barbora Krejcikova has come back to avoid becoming the second consecutive Wimbledon women's champion to lose in the first round a year later.

The director of national intelligence says artificial intelligence is speeding up the work of America's spy services.

Filipino forces and villagers have been struggling to live in Beijing's shadow in the disputed South China while fighting isolation on remote islands.

A Chinese ship has run aground in stormy weather in shallow waters off a Philippines-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea, prompting Filipino forces to go on alert.

French President Emmanuel Macron has warned the United States and a large audience of Indo-Pacific nations that they risk a dangerous double standard as they concentrate on a potential conflict with China if that shift comes at the cost of abandoning Ukraine.

The U.S. is not ruling out a reduction in forces deployed to South Korea as the Trump administration determines what presence it needs in the region to best counter China.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thrusday asked all of his Cabinet secretaries to submit resignations in a “bold reset” of his administration following last week’s mid-term elections, which saw more opposition candidates win crucial Senate seats.

Manny Pacquiao is coming out of retirement.

Boxing great Manny Pacquiao is coming out of retirement to fight Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight crown in July.

A World War II-era Philippine navy ship to be used as a target in a combat exercise by American and the Philippine forces accidentally sank hours before the mock assault, prompting the drill to be cancelled.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba says his country and the Philippines will start talks on two proposed defense pacts to further boost their security alliance and would continue to fight aggression in disputed Asian waters in an obvious rebuke of China.

The mock battle scenarios under the annual Balikatan military exercises between the United States and the Philippines over the weekend have not only simulated real-life war.

The Chinese military has conducted large-scale drills around Taiwan as it again warned the self-ruled island against seeking formal independence.

The United States, Japan and the Philippines have staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Trump administration will work with allies to ramp up deterrence against threats across the world, including China’s aggression in the South China Sea.

The experience of growing up Filipino American in a diplomatic family led Carmina Montesa Aldana, a mother of twins, to co-found the Neurosurgery Outreach Foundation, or NOF, in Jacksonville. The organization focuses on providing crucial neurosurgical care to underserved communities.

The Philippine defense chief has called China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea as “the biggest fiction and lie” that no Southeast Asian country will accept.

A Philippine official says U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is scheduled to visit the Philippines, the first stop in his first trip to Asia next week, for talks that will include increasing deterrence against aggression in the disputed South China Sea.