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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS