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MANILA, Philippines --- Human rights lawyer and activist Neri Colmenares on Thursday said he will run for senator in the 2022 elections. "The officers and leaders of Makabayan have decided that I will run and I will file my certificate of candidacy," he said in an interview with ABS CBN News Channel. Colmenares, chairman of Bayan Muna, is a former Bayan Muna party-list representative who will be trying his luck in the Senate for the third time. READ: 1Sambayan eyeing Colmenares in 2022 Senate slate "That is the decision now, I will run for a Senate seat in 2022 if only that is to deliver the sharpest message of critique to the candidates of President [Rodrigo Duterte]," h...

Keep on reading: Colmenares to try luck in Senate for third time in 2022

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday allowed a booster dose of the Pfizer Inc and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for those aged 65 and older and some high-risk Americans, paving the way for a quick rollout of the shots. The booster dose is to be administered at least six months after completion of the second dose, and the authorization would include people most susceptible to severe disease and those in jobs that left them at risk, the FDA said. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel could vote on Thursday on the use of a third shot of the vaccine, an agency official said at a public meeting of the panel on Wednesday. President ...

Keep on reading: Pfizer COVID vaccine booster dose okayed for Americans aged 65 and older

A number of key Democrats say that their party should take matters into its own hands and raise the national debt limit by itself once Republicans block their plans as expected in the Senate, underscoring the lack of options facing the White House and Democratic leaders in the face of stiff GOP resistance.

Melvin Van Peebles, a trailblazing African-American director who helped champion a new wave of modern Black cinema in the 1970s, has died, his son announced Wednesday. He was 89.

SYDNEY --- Police in Australia's second-largest city of Melbourne prepared for the fourth day of anti-lockdown protests on Thursday after more than 200 arrests a day earlier, while COVID-19 cases across the state of Victoria hit a daily record. Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in the city of 5 million since officials earlier this week ordered a two-week closure of building sites and made vaccines mandatory for construction workers to limit the spread of the virus. Police used capsicum spray and foam baton rounds on Wednesday to disperse protesters who gathered at a memorial honouring war service, prompting veteran groups and some politicians to speak out against...

Keep on reading: Melbourne faces more anti-lockdown protests as daily cases hit pandemic high

Lima,Peru --- Peruvian workers laying gas pipes found the remains of eight people buried in a common tomb with food and musical instruments some 800 years ago, an archaeologist said Wednesday. The bodies of adults and children had been wrapped in plant material, with corn, dishes, and a variety of wind instruments, including flutes, placed around them, Cecilia Camargo, an archaeologist hired by the Calidda gas company whose workers made the discovery, told AFP. The eight had lived in the ancient town of Chilca some 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Lima. Some had been buried with shells on their heads and had bags in which coca leaves, traditionally chewed as a stimulant, are ke...

Keep on reading: Gas pipe workers find 800-year-old bodies in Peru

BRASILIA --- The death of a 16-year-old who had a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 was due to a prior blood clot condition not related to the vaccine, Brazil's health regulator Anvisa said Wednesday. Concluding an investigation into the death earlier this month, Anvisa said it was caused by an auto-immune disease suffered by the adolescent. The Pfizer vaccine is the only one approved for minors in Brazil. "It was a characteristic clinical picture of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disease," the regulator said in a statement. Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is a rare disorder that causes blood clots to form in small blood vesse...

Keep on reading: Brazil regulator says adolescent death unrelated to Pfizer shot

https://youtu.be/qxM-C65JhAc MANILA, Philippines --- La Nia will likely start in October, the state weather bureau said Thursday. There was a 70 to 80 percent chance that La Nia will form in October and persist until the first quarter of 2022, Benison Estareja of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration said. La Nia is characterized by unusually cool ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific. There will be above normal rainfall conditions in most of the country in October. More rainfall is expected over the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, Southern Luzon, Eastern Visayas, Caraga, parts of Cagayan Val...

Keep on reading: La Niña likely to begin in October and prevail until Q1 2022 – Pagasa

The US Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday it would grant emergency use authorization for a booster dose of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine in people 65 and older, people at high risk of severe disease and people whose jobs put them at risk of infection.

San Jose State University will pay a total of about $1.6 million to some of the female students and student-athletes who alleged they were sexually assaulted or harassed by a campus athletic trainer over more than a decade, the US Department of Justice said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON --- A U.S.-trained Afghan pilot was talking to Reuters on a smuggled cellphone from Tajikistan, where he is being held when something strange happened - his voice started looping, repeating everything he had just said, word for word. His fiancee, an American nurse in Florida, was on the line too and started to panic. She shouted his name, but his words kept cycling back. "I was freaked out," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect him. "The worst things came to my mind." Whatever the reason for the telephone glitch, which only happened once, it added to a deep sense of anxiety for the couple. It also came amid growing feelings of impatience and unc...

Keep on reading: Echoes, uncertainty as Afghan pilots await US help in Tajikistan

MANILA, Philippines --- All COVID-19 test kits available in 2020 had a shelf life of six months, Director-General Eric Domingo of the Food and Drug Administration said in the second taped briefing of the week with President Rodrigo Duterte that started airing late Wednesday night. Domingo made the clarification after the Senate blue ribbon committee questioned in a hearing why the Department of Health (DOH) bought test kits that would expire in just six months. The DOH bought the test kits through the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). READ:PS-DBM grilled over P5-B testing kits that did not meet required specs The six-month expiration...

Keep on reading: DOH had no choice but to buy test kits with a six-month shelf life – FDA chief

MEXICO CITY --- People-smuggling crimes in Mexico this year have more than tripled since 2020, the government said Wednesday, as the country battles to cope with a sharp increase in illegal immigration at the U.S. border. Between January and August, Mexico registered 1,232 people-smuggling crimes, a jump of nearly 228% from the 376 logged during the same period in 2020, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez told a regular government news conference. Government officials say many migrants pay people smugglers to make their way on the perilous journey from Mexico's southern border with Guatemala up to the United States. Rodriguez made the announcement alongside President Andr...

Keep on reading: Mexico reports people-smuggling surge amid jump in migration

The body of 22-year-old "van life" traveler Gabby Petito was discovered on Sunday in a U.S. national park in Wyoming, more than two months after she left on a cross-country road trip with her fiance, Brian Laundrie. Police are searching a Florida wilderness for Laundrie, who has not been seen since September 14. Here is a timeline of events in the case: JUNE Petito and Laundrie leave his parents' home in North Port, Florida, in her white 2012 Ford Transit van. They drive north to Petito's home state of New York to attend her brother's high school graduation. JULY July 2: The couple leaves New York, headed west on a lengthy road trip across the United States. Petito plans ...

Keep on reading: TIMELINE: ‘Van life’ road trip ends in death of Gabby Petito

Haitian migrants cross the Rio Grande River back and forth between Mexico and the US as CNN's Matt Rivers reports the crisis at the US-Mexico border is deepening.

Algiers,Algeria --- Algeria said Wednesday it has closed its airspace to all Moroccan planes due to "provocations and hostile practices" by its neighbor, in the latest dispute between the countries at odds mainly over Western Sahara. The move comes after Algeria broke off diplomatic ties with Morocco on August 24, accusing it of "hostile actions" following months of heightened tensions between the two North African countries. Morocco called the severing of ties "completely unjustified" and said the decision was based on "false, even absurd pretexts". Relations between the neighbors have been tense for decades due to Algeria's support for the Polisario Front, which demands a self...

Keep on reading: Algeria closes airspace to all Moroccan planes

MANILA, Philippines --- The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will push local governments to finish the distribution of social aid for people in areas placed last August under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) last August, Secretary Eduardo Ao said. Ao showed a report on the COVID-19 aid distribution during President Rodrigo Duterte's taped briefing on Wednesday night, showing that Laguna and Bataan had distribution rates of 99.08% and 80.33%, respectively. In Laguna, only three local government units have not completed disbursements --- San Pedro with 99.76%, Santa Cruz with 98.49%, and Calamba with 94.48%. In Bataan, two LGUs --- Samal and Abucay ---...

Keep on reading: DILG will push LGUs to finish aid distribution within the week – Año

Buenos Aires,Argentina --- Argentina on Wednesday made a nearly $1.9 billion payment toward a $44 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The payment was confirmed to AFP by Argentine officials. Argentina has received $44 billion of a $57 billion loan from the IMF arranged under former president Mauricio Macri. After taking office, his successor Alberto Fernandez refused to accept the rest of the loan. So far this year, Argentina has paid the IMF $950 million in interest. It must make another interest payment of $400 million by November, as well as pay another $1.9 billion toward the debt by December. Argentina, the IMF's biggest debtor, has been in rec...

Keep on reading: Argentina makes $1.9 billion debt payment to IMF

Multiple lawmakers angrily stormed out of a classified briefing with members of the Biden administration on Afghanistan on Wednesday morning, according to three sources familiar with the briefing.