Overnight, heavy clashes erupted in the predominately Sunni city of Marawi in the southern Philippines after security forces and ISIS sleeper cells battled it out for hours on end. 2 soldiers and 1 police officer were killed in the initial skirmishes although no civilians were injured by crossfire, a military source told Al-Masdar News. Subsequently, the Philippine Army withdrew from most of the city on Tuesday morning, thereby making it the first city in southeast Asia to come under Islamic State control.

She lived with us for 56 years. She raised me and my siblings without pay. I was 11, a typical American kid, before I realized who she was. By Alex Tizon.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte said he could not commit to visiting the White House after President Trump invited him this weekend, saying “I am tied up.” “I cannot make any definite promise. I am supposed to go to Russia; I am supposed to go to Israel,” he said, according to Yahoo News. Trump's invitation to Duterte, who has been accused of backing the vigilante execution of people involved in the drug trade and threatening journalists and political opponents, drew criticism from human rights groups.

A leader of the Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf group has been killed in a shootout with Philippine soldiers on the island of Bohol, where the military is hunting down insurgents planning to kidnap tourists, the military and officials said on Saturday. Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said "one lawless element" was killed in the clash but he could not give the man's identity.

The Philippine Court of Appeals has upheld a guilty verdict on a U.S. Marine for killing a transgender woman nearly three years ago, a case that stirred debate over the U.S. military presence in its former colony. A lower court had found Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton guilty of killing Jennifer Laude in a hotel in Olongapo, outside a former U.S. navy base northwest of the capital, in 2014.

Miners sift through hundreds of kilos of sand and clay, gathering roughly a quarter of a gram of gold dust. By Alex Wheeler.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday, March 25, blasted critics who say he "kills the poor" in an anti-drug campaign that has claimed the lives of more than 7,000 people. "They say, 'Duterte kills the poor.' I haven't heard of the children of Lucio Tan or Gokongwei selling drugs," Duterte said in a speech in Bisaya. "Of course it will be the poor people because the poor are ignorant and more likely to be hit," Duterte said in speech at the Kaamulan Festival in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, National Geographic's Ryan Duffy joined Filipino crime beat reporters on Manila's graveyard shift. On a tip, the American rides in a convoy of press cars to the scene of a vigilante killing. So begins a new feature on the Philippines' drug war, which airs Monday. It shows the aftermath of the first of five deadly shootings reported that night; one of over 7,000 since Rodrigo Duterte began his so-called war on drugs on July 1.

Philippine President Duterte wants more Filipino women to have access to contraceptives, which reportedly will run out in the Philippines by 2020 unless a Supreme Court order is overturned. Ana P. Santos reports.

The Philippines cannot claim Benham Rise as its own territory despite it being part of the country's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, Beijing said. In 2012, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf approved the submission of the Philippines in 2009 with respect to the limits of its continental shelf in the Benham Rise region. This enables the Philippines to carry out exploration and development of natural resources in the area.

A fictional show about a fictional top U.S. diplomat has evoked a real response from the Philippine diplomatic service. The Philippine embassy in the U.S. is taking exception with how an upcoming episode of the CBS drama series Madam Secretary portrays a President of the country. In the trailer for an episode entitled "Break in Diplomacy," scheduled to air in the U.S. on March 12, the series' eponymous Secretary of State, Elizabeth McCord (played by Tea Leoni), is seen throwing a punch at a character playing the Philippine President and bloodying his nose, after he makes sexually suggestive moves at her during a private meeting.

The Philippines is the latest country to sign the Paris Agreement on Climate Change restricting greenhouse emissions. A senator said President Rodrigo Duterte signed the agreement on Wednesday, which aims to slash greenhouse gases and keep global temperature increases “well below” two degrees Celcius. The agreement, which came into force on Nov 4 last year, is set to transform the world’s fossil-fuel-driven economy within decades.

The Philippines and Germany condemned on Monday the beheading of an elderly German captive by Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militants who posted a video of the killing after a deadline for a $600,000 ransom passed. The video showed a machete-wielding militant behead Jurgen Kantner. The German had appealed for help twice in short video messages, saying he would be killed if ransom were not paid.

Once, when Rodrigo Duterte got to talking about his anti-drug campaign, he mused about murdering his children. If his son used drugs, he said in April, he would kill him himself. But seven months and some 7,000 deaths into his self-proclaimed “drug war,” the Philippine president’s children are alive and well. The same cannot be said for thousands of Filipino children and youths.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's most outspoken political opponent could soon find herself behind bars. A Manila court issued a warrant for her arrest as part of Duterte's so-called war on drugs.

Before Rodrigo Duterte's bloody war on drugs had even begun, allies of the Philippines president were quietly preparing for a wider offensive. On June 30, as Duterte was sworn in, they introduced a bill into the Philippine Congress that could allow children as young as nine to be targeted in a crackdown that has since claimed more than 7,600 lives. The bill proposes to lower the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 years old to prevent what it calls "the pampering of youthful offenders who commit crimes knowing they can get away with it."

A massive fire swept through a crowded shanty town near the docks in Manila, destroying houses and leaving 15,000 people homeless, authorities in the Philippine capital said on Wednesday. Seven people were injured in fire that broke out late on Tuesday night and raged for 10 hours as it spread rapidly, engulfing more than 1,000 makeshift houses, fire officer Edilberto Cruz told reporters. About 15,000 people were left homeless and were temporarily sheltered in evacuation centers...

President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines has created incentives to kill and “an economy of murder,” according to a new report by Amnesty International. More than 7,000 drug-related killings have taken place in the nation since Duterte came to power seven months ago. According to an officer who spoke to the rights group, police are paid $160 to $300 extra in cash—secretly, back at headquarters—for each extrajudicial execution disguised as a legitimate operation. They receive no bonus for mere arrests, however.

On the Night Shift. By James Fenton.

Unshaken by a blessing from Pope Francis, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has hit back at priests and bishops critical of his war on drugs, accusing clergymen of homosexuality, child molesting, hypocrisy and corruption. “You asked for it,” he said. “You expose me, fine. I expose you. Why? When you commit mistakes it's OK, but when we do, no? Bullshit. That’s stupid,” the president said during a speech to newly-promoted police officers at Malacañan on Thursday.