Philippines president-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte has extended an offer of cabinet posts to the communist party of the nation, where a decades-old conflict with leftist rebels has killed tens of thousands.
I'm sure the Philippines can defend their interests in the South China Sea without our help...
Duterte said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) might have the opportunity to fill posts in the Department of Agrarian Reform, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Foxes, chicken coops...
Duterte said, "I have kept open [these departments] because they said they are the most oppressed. Those are the only departments I can concede to them [leftist groups], provided they are qualified educationally."
Referring to the CPP's armed wing the New People's Army (NPA), he emphasized, "when I reach my oath-taking... they must realize I am the government and I am the enemy but I offer my hand in peace and we can talk."
Before the May 9 polls, Duterte had invited the CPP's exiled founder -- Jose Maria Sison, his former professor at a Manila university -- back to the Philippines. Duterte said, "Yes, he [Sison] is welcome. I am happy with the statement that he is coming home. I would very much want to talk to him about resolving the insurgency problem."
Sison, 77, currently lives in the Netherlands, having fled to Europe after negotiations with the Philippine government failed in 1987.
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[CNN] The Abu Sayyaf, which beheaded a Canadian hostage last month, has threatened to execute another foreign captive if a P600 million ransom isn't paid by June 13.
Canadian Robert Hall and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad, two of four hostages kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf on Samal Island last September, once again appeared in a video acquired by the SITE Intelligence Group.
Sekkingstad and Hall were wearing orange shirts, in a jungle surrounded by masked militants. Hall said, "I'm told to tell you that on June the 13th at 3 pm, I will be murdered if the demand is not met. I appeal to my government, the Philippine government as I have appealed before for help."
Sekkingstad likewise asked help from the governments of Norway, Canada and the Philippines. The ransom "worth 6 hundred million pesos" was in the text displayed on the video.
Hall, Sekkingstad, and Filipino Tess Flor are still being held by the Abu Sayyaf after the militants beheaded another Canadian, John Ridsdel, on April 25. A plastic bag containing Ridsdel's severed head was later found on a street in Jolo, Sulu.
The video also showed eight gunmen wearing military-style camouflage uniforms and carrying assault rifles holding two flags. One black flag with white Arabic characters is similar to the flag carried by Daesh fighters.
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Posted by: ryuge ||
05/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[The Nation] Four soldiers in a teacher-protection unit were wounded when a bomb hit their military vehicle in Pattani province. The armored vehicle was hurled into the sky, hit an electrical wire and landed upside-down on the road. The four troops ended up having difficulty breathing and had ringing ears, due to the blast and the impact.
A policeman said, "The bomb was remotely detonated as soon as the military vehicle reached the spot," adding that the bomb could have contained 20 to 30 kilograms of explosive. The hole on the road at the site was one meter deep and two meters wide.
The incident occurred on the first day of a new academic year for most schools.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Philippines president-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte has extended an offer of cabinet posts to the communist party of the nation, where a decades-old conflict with leftist rebels has killed tens of thousands.
[CNN] The Abu Sayyaf, which beheaded a Canadian hostage last month, has threatened to execute another foreign captive if a P600 million ransom isn't paid by June 13.
[The Nation] Four soldiers in a teacher-protection unit were wounded when a bomb hit their military vehicle in Pattani province. The armored vehicle was hurled into the sky, hit an electrical wire and landed upside-down on the road. The four troops ended up having difficulty breathing and had ringing ears, due to the blast and the impact.
