Philippines

Rescuers in the Philippines were diving into a lake and scouring isolated villages on Sunday to locate dozens of missing people as the death toll from Tropical Storm Trami hit 100.

Trami, which rammed into the Philippines on Oct. 24, was among the deadliest storms to hit the Southeast Asian country this year.

The Philippine's military chief said Thursday he hoped a key defense pact with Japan allowing for the deployment of troops on each other's territory will be signed at security talks next week.

Japanese Defence Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa are set to meet with their Philippine counterparts in Manila on Monday.

President Ferdinand Marcos said on Sunday the Philippines "will not be intimidated" by anyone after a violent clash between the Filipino navy and the Chinese Coast Guard in the South China Sea.

Thousands of Filipino and American troops kicked off joint military exercises in the Philippines on Monday, as Beijing's growing assertiveness in the region raises fears of a conflict.

A pair of boxing shorts worn by the great Muhammad Ali in his famous Thrilla in Manila fight are set to be auctioned off for an eye-watering $6million.

Ali's silk Everlast shorts, which are pure white except for a black belt line and black racing stripes on each leg, are autographed by the boxing legend himself and remain in excellent condition.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the United States stands by its "ironclad" commitments to defend longtime ally the Philippines against armed attack in the South China Sea.

Southeast Asian and Australian leaders on Wednesday warned against actions that "endanger peace" in the South China Sea, following fresh confrontations between Beijing and the Philippines in contested waters.

Simmering tensions in the trade corridor threatened to boil over this week, when Chinese boats in the Spratly Islands were accused of hounding Philippines vessels.

Taiwan woke up Monday to toppled trees, floods, and persistent rainfall after Typhoon Haikui made landfall on the island and swept overnight across its central mountain ranges.

Haikui initially appeared to leave the island but made a second landfall early Monday in southwestern Kaohsiung, before it was downgraded to a severe tropical storm.

The United States and the Philippines announced on Thursday an agreement to expand American military presence in the Southeast Asian country, where U.S. forces would be granted access to four more Philippine military camps, effectively giving them new ground to ramp up deterrence against China's increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan and in the disputed South China Sea.

The death toll from a storm that battered the Philippines has jumped to 98, the national disaster agency said Monday, with little hope of finding survivors in the worst-hit areas.

Just over half of the fatalities were from a series of flash floods and landslides unleashed by Tropical Storm Nalgae, which destroyed villages on the southern island of Mindanao on Friday.