It's past midnight in Zamboanga and Benigno Aquino III slouches in his chair, a glass of Coke in one hand and a cigarette in another. He's tired and bleary-eyed and wracked by a cold. A grueling day of audiences, processions and interviews in three different provinces across the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is drawing to a close in the hotel lobby. While aides and well-wishers murmur around him, Aquino stands and holds out his arms as if awaiting ...

Landslides unleashed by tropical depression Parma across the Philippine province of Benguet have killed at least 122 people and left 31 missing, officials said Friday. Four people had been found alive in debris and at least 22 had been injured by landslides that started Thursday afternoon and continued all night, affecting several municipalities, said Elmer Foria, police senior superintendent. Parma, which had been downgraded from a typhoon, poured more rain onto sodden and already weakened ground. Flooding had ...

Philippines Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III announced he will run for president Wednesday, a month after the death of his late mother, the popular former President Corazon Aquino. "I'm accepting the challenge to lead this fight," said Noynoy Aquino, the state-run Philippines News Agency (PNA) reported. Aquino, 49, is the only son of Corazon Aquino, who died on August 1, and the late Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, a senator who opposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos and was assassinated in 1983 on returning ...

The last missing person was rescued a day after a ferry carrying more than 900 people capsized in Philippine waters, officials said Tuesday. The woman was pulled from the water about 8 p.m. Monday ( 8 a.m. ET), according to the Philippine Coast Guard. The rescue meant everybody was accounted for, authorities said. Nine people were killed and 958 rescued after the SuperFerry 9 capsized Sunday, officials said. The ferry had left the city of General Santos bound for ...

Botanists believe they have discovered one of the world's largest carnivorous plants in Southeast Asia. The giant pitcher plants were located in Palawan, central Philippines by a team led by UK botanist Stewart McPherson. The second largest species, now called Nepenthes attenboroughii has been named in honor of the UK's world-renowned natural history presenter Sir David Attenborough. The new discovery measures about 30 centimeters in diameter and are formed in the shape of a large ...

At least 44 people, including 23 Filipino soldiers, died Wednesday in fighting between the Philippine military and Islamic militants, the country's armed services said on Thursday. The fighting was sparked by military raids on Abu Sayyaf militant training camps in the villages of Silangkum and Baguindan on the southern island province of Basilan, said Steffani Cacho, public information officer for the Philippine Armed Services. Thirty to 40 militants were killed, but only 21 bodies had been recovered, the military ...

Ben Steele hated the young man as soon as he saw him. The man's almond-shaped eyes, dark hair and olive skin -- Steele had seen those Asian facial features before. He saw that face when he watched Japanese soldiers behead sick men begging for water, run over stumbling prisoners with tanks and split his comrades' skulls with rifle butts. "Men died like flies," Steele says. "I thought for a while I would never make it." Steele, now 91, is one ...

Millions danced in the streets and a national holiday was announced by Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to mark the latest victory of the island nation's great 21st century hero: boxing great Manny Pacquiao. The fighter also known as "Pac-Man" won in a knockout, beating British boxer Ricky "the Hitman" Hatton on May 2 and becoming the International Boxing Organization and Ring Magazine World Light Welterweight champion. It was a world record–tying sixth division title and fourth ...

One of two aid workers still held by militants in the Philippines has been freed, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday. ICRC officials spoke briefly by telephone to Andreas Notter and confirmed he is free, an ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva, Switzerland, said, but no other details were immediately available. The Philippine News Agency said Notter's captors released him Saturday morning. The agency cited a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Edgard Arevalo, who himself cited "sketchy reports" that ...

The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it is "extremely worried" about the fate of three aid workers kidnapped in the Philippines in January. The ICRC said Wednesday the kidnappers had made "direct threats." It did not provide details on those threats. Mary Jean Lacaba, Eugenio Vagni and Andreas Notter were seized by armed men riding motorcycles January 15 on the island of Sulu, the ICRC has said. The aid workers were in the region to inspect a ...