Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday filed to contest the Senate elections next year, seeking a way to remain in politics while facing an international probe into his deadly drug war.Duterte, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second six-year term, submitted his candidacy at the Commission on Elections office, minutes before a deadline to join the race. A lawyer submitted the paperwork on behalf of the president, according to documents seen by AFP, quelling spec

Thousands of children in the Philippines were allowed to return to classrooms Monday for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, as a pilot re-opening of schools got under way.While nearly every country in the world has already partially or fully re-opened their schools to face-to-face learning, the Philippines has kept them closed since March 2020.Kindergarten teacher Zyrex Damayo said he was "a bit nervous" as he greeted eight of his students at the Siocon Elem

Cambodia has announced that fully vaccinated foreign travellers can visit the kingdom without quarantine from Monday, giving a boost to the COVID-hobbled tourism industry.Travel restrictions imposed to tackle the pandemic put the brakes on Cambodia's burgeoning tourism industry – revenue plummeted to US$1 billion last year, down from nearly US$5 billion in 2019, when the country attracted 6.6 million visitors.Prime Minister Hun Sen made an unexpected announcement on Sunday night that all

United States (US) President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold a virtual summit on Monday as tensions between the countries deepen.The competing superpowers surprised many last week by issuing a joint declaration to address climate change, at talks in Glasgow, Scotland.But growing concerns of a military confrontation over Taiwan have thrown their differences into sharp relief.The pair's third meeting will address several thorny topics.Cybersecurity, trade and nuclear n

United Nations (UN) climate change summit host Boris Johnson, on Sunday hailed a last-ditch agreement to tackle global warming but said he was disappointed it did not go further on tackling use of high-polluting coal.Nearly 200 countries on Saturday pledged to speed up the fight against rising temperatures, after two weeks of non-stop negotiations.British Prime Minister Johnson called the 11th-hour deal "truly historic" and said it signalled "the beginning of the end for coal p

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:China Donates 500,000 More Vaccine Doses To SyriaChina donates 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to war-torn Syria, which has one of the world's lowest inoculation rates and what the United Nations (UN) calls an alarming rise in cases.The latest shipment raises to almost two million the number of such deliveries to Syria in a week.Austria's Unvaccinated Set For Lockdown Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg say

It was almost as if the pandemic had never happened. In Cologne, thousands of revellers in fancy-dress jostled side by side in a tightly packed throng as they counted down to the start of the annual carnival season at 11 am on 11 November.In Paris, the bars and clubs were open late and filled to bursting on Wednesday, with Armistice Day a national holiday.

Philippines "First Daughter" Sara Duterte on Saturday entered the vice-presidential race for the 2022 elections, in a surprise move that could boost the chances of presidential hopeful Ferdinand Marcos Jr winning the country's highest office.Outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second term, also flagged plans to contest the vice presidency – triggering chaotic scenes at the Commission on Elections office handling last-minute changes

Here are the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis:First Foreign Tourists Return To Vietnam After almost 20 months without international travellers, more than 400 tourists touch down in Vietnam from South Korea and Japan, with arrivals required to show a vaccine certificate and a negative test.The flights to the southern resort city of Nha Trang come ahead of Vietnam's plans to reopen the resort island of Phu Quoc to vaccinated foreign visitors on 20 November – with hope

A large-scale French study suggesting symptoms of so-called long COVID may be more due to psychological factors than to infection with the virus has sparked debate among patients and scientists.The report that appeared earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association focused on nearly 27,000 participants across France who took antibody tests to screen for COVID infection. After the subjects had received the antibody test results, researchers asked them whether the