Visiting Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been briefed on a campaign by Hawaii’s two senators to get compensation promised six decades ago to Filipino soldiers who fought for the US during World War II.
One of the senators, Daniel Inouye, has inserted US$198 million for them into the economic stimulus bill making its way through the US Senate. Inouye is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
It was uncertain whether the money remained in the bill that Senate negotiators apparently agreed to on Friday night.
Arroyo met on Friday with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, but a State Department official who spoke about the meeting did not mention the Filipino veterans and their long drive for compensation.
The two exchanged compliments when they greeted each other outside the State Department.
Arroyo congratulated Clinton on her new job.
“I am very happy to be here to congratulate you on your appointment and your love fest of a confirmation,” the Philippine president said, and Clinton laughed.
Clinton described the Philippines, a former US commonwealth in Southeast Asia, as “one of our closest and most important allies, not just in Asia, but on so many issues around the world.”
A State Department official who outlined their private talks did not indicate that they discussed the Filipino veterans.
About 200,000 Filipinos served alongside US soldiers to defend the Philippines, then a US commonwealth, from the 1941 Japanese invasion and to resist subsequent Japanese occupation.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF WAR: Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe was in Kyiv because ‘it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny’ A dozen leaders from Europe and Canada yesterday visited Ukraine’s capital to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion in a show of support for Kyiv by some of its most important backers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the visitors greeted at the railway station by Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha and the president’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak. Von der Leyen wrote on social media that Europe was in Kyiv “because Ukraine is in Europe.” “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is
RSS