MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Miriam Defensor Santiago, the fiery Ilongga senator and one of the country's most popular politicians, was laid to rest Sunday, October 2.

Santiago was buried at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City. 

Before the burial, a funeral Mass was held at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Cubao, where a public viewing had been held. The Mass was led by bishops Teodoro Bacani and Honesto Ongtioco, together with Fr Aris Sison. 

Family, relatives, close friends, and supporters attended the burial of Santiago, known for her service in all 3 branches of government: the executive, legislative, and judiciary.

Santiago's running mate in the 2016 polls, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and Marcos' mother Ilocos Norte Second District Representative Imelda Marcos were among those present.

Actress Heart Evangelista, a close friend of the late senator, and Cristina Corona, wife of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, were also at the necrological rites. 

Santiago was honored with a 21-gun salute by the Philippine National Police Honor Guards. Her family and Youth for Miriam volunteers also released doves and white balloons for her interment.

Santiago died on Thursday, September 29, at St Luke's Medical Center in Taguig City. She had battled lung cancer since 2011.

Nearly 50,000 people lined up at the cathedral from Thursday to Sunday morning to pay their last respects to the respected political icon. – Rappler.com 

KINGSTON, Jamaica (3rd UPDATE) – Hurricane Matthew meandered through the Caribbean on Sunday, October 2, moving more slowly but still packing a powerful punch, its sights set on Haiti, Cuba, and Jamaica.

The storm was 350 miles (565 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince at 1500 GMT, with top wind speeds of 140 miles (220 kilometers) per hour.

Its movement slowed from 5 to just 3 miles per hour as it ambled from the Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said on Sunday.

Caribbean authorities were scrambling to put preparations in place.

In Cuba, President Raul Castro traveled to the southeastern city of Santiago to personally oversee emergency operations just hours before the hurricane was due to hit. 

Matthew had the potential to be a storm for the ages, he warned residents.

"This is a hurricane it's necessary to prepare for as if it were twice as powerful as Sandy," the Cuban leader said, referring to the megastorm that hit with massive destructive force in 2012.

Officials at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba announced a mandatory evacuation for all non-essential personnel and family members.

The evacuation "happened early this morning, and it's still ongoing," an official at the base told AFP on Sunday.

Briefly a furious Category 5 hurricane late Friday, September 30, Matthew remains a still-dangerous Category 4, the strongest to hit the Caribbean since Hurricane Felix in 2007.

"Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the NHC warned in its latest advisory on Sunday.

On its current forecast track, Matthew's center will glance past Jamaica on Monday, October 3, dumping heavy rain on the island as it makes landfall on Haiti.

The storm is then expected to continue north, tearing across southern and eastern Cuba between Monday and Tuesday as it heads towards the Bahamas.

Forecasts predict the hurricane will dump 15 to 25 inches (40-60 centimeters) of rain over southern Haiti "with possible isolated maximum amounts of 40 inches."

The storm is also expected to drop 10 to 20 inches of rain over eastern Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and eastern Cuba, "with possible isolated maximum amounts of 25 inches."

"This rainfall will likely produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides," it warned.

Haiti, Jamaica batten down

Jamaicans waited in long lines at supermarkets, hardware stores, and gas stations Saturday to stock up on essentials before the storm's arrival.

"This is not a joking matter," Desmond McKenzie, minister of local government and community development, warned island residents.

"There is no room for any mischief to be made as we face one of the most severe natural disasters in quite a long while," he added.

Some Jamaicans complained that they had hunkered down with supplies in the past only to see storms pass by.

"I am tired of wasting my money buying food, gas, boarding up my house," said Michael Franklin, a taxi driver in Montego Bay.

"Then all we get is just a lot of rain and we can't get back our money."

The authorities were placing some 2,000 homeless people in shelters, and the country's garbage collectors were working around the clock to remove waste from streets and open areas, McKenzie said.

The army and reserves were called up to help limit the damage and hospitals throughout the island of almost 3 million people were standing ready, he added.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness toured areas of Montego Bay to check on preparations, and some Caribbean Airlines flights were cancelled.

The US Embassy in Jamaica said it would be closed Monday and Tuesday for consular services "due to the anticipated effects of Hurricane Matthew."

The US State Department also authorized non-essential personnel and diplomatic family members to leave Jamaica "due to the increasing strength" of the hurricane. It also urged US citizens "to depart Jamaica if possible."

In Haiti, the authorities increased the alert level from orange to the maximum red late Saturday.

The poorest country in the Americas is home to almost 11 million people, many living in fragile housing.

The Haitian officials urged southern island residents to prepare, warning that they were "first at risk."

"We invite them to secure the area surrounding their homes and begin to stock up on water and food," said Edgar Celestin, a spokesman for the Haitian civil protection agency.

America's Accuweather website warned meanwhile that Matthew could hit the US East Coast around midweek. 

"How significant impacts are along the Atlantic Seaboard will depend on Matthew's strength and proximity to the coast," it said. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Disaster management chief Ricardo Jalad allayed concerns about the country's readiness for upcoming typhoons because of movements of troops and assets from typhoon-prone areas to Sulu, where the military has intensified operations against terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.

"Other agencies are ready to take the role [of disaster response]," Jalad, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), told Rappler in a text message on Sunday, October 2.

"The Philippine National Police has the manpower and transportation assets. The Coast Guard has patrol craft which can be used for disaster response," Jalad added.

Akbayan Representative Tom Villarin raised the concern during plenary debates on the budget of the Department of National Defense (DND), which supervises the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

Villarin said it is crucial to preposition troops and assets in disaster-prone areas, highlighting that this was the lesson from Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), which flattened communities in central Philippines and killed at least 6,000 people in 2013. 

President Rodrigo Duterte vowed to destroy the Abu Sayyaf after the loose network of militants perpetrated a series of beheadings. 

Peace talks with communist rebels allowed the AFP to reduce military presence in traditional areas of the New People's Army, including typhoon-prone provinces in the country's eastern border, to augment troops in Sulu.

Jalad said the AFP is only one of the agencies tasked to respond to disasters, noting the role of local government units as well as civilian volunteers and organizations. (READ: New NDRRMC chief: Disaster preparedness everybody's responsibility)

"Disaster response is not an issue to hinder AFP from performing its current ISO (Internal Security Operation) mission which is their primary task anyway," said Jalad. 

"We are slowly departing from too much reliance on military assets for disaster response," he added.

Thousands of troops were deployed to Sulu in the southern Philippines as the new AFP chief vowed to "decimate" the Abu Sayyaf before he steps down in December. –Rappler.com

MANDHOLE, Pakistan – Pakistani military officials point to an Indian army post high on a forested ridge along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, insisting any incursions are impossible, after skirmishes ignited dangerous tensions between the nuclear rivals.

The army took the rare step of flying international media to the de facto border to make its case in a battle of competing narratives, after India said its commandos penetrated up to 3 kilometers into Pakistan on anti-militant raids. (READ: India weighs response on deadly raid at Kashmir base)

The presence of Indian forces so far across the Line of Control (LoC) would be a stinging blow to Pakistan, particularly after the 2011 US raid that killed Osama bin Laden which took place on its territory without its consent. 

The media visit came Saturday as India's army chief Dalbir Singh congratulated commandos involved in what New Delhi has described as "surgical strikes" to take out terrorist launchpads after a deadly attack on an Indian army base last month.  

Pakistan has flatly denied the claim, saying two of its soldiers were killed but only in cross-border fire of the kind that commonly violates a 2003 ceasefire on the LoC. 

The helicopter tour took journalists to sectors just two kilometers from the dividing line, and near the locations India said it targeted in assaults on 4 militant camps.

On hand were senior local commanders as well as army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, an omnipresent media personality who has taken center stage on Pakistani television since the tensions erupted.  

In villages like Mandhole, daily life was going on largely as normal despite the tensions, with shops and businesses open and children in pressed white uniforms walking to school.

"You have seen the lay of the land," said Bajwa, speaking from a command post overlooking the lush green Bandala Valley, with Pakistani and Indian fortifications visible on the opposite hill. 

"You can see the way the fortifications are built and the way Pakistan has layers of defence and they have layers of defence... the LoC cannot be violated," he said. 

"If they've caused that damage to us, we don't know any has been caused to us! You can go and meet the civilian population. Our side is open: to the UN mission, to the media, to the general public," he said.

'News spreads'

It was not possible to verify the general's claims, though villagers who spoke with a second AFP reporter in the area independent of the military-guided trip were also incredulous.  

Sardar Javed, a 37-year-old journalist for Kashmiri newspapers and a resident of Tatta Pani sector, which lies just west of India-controlled Poonch sector where one of the strikes was said to have been carried out, said he had seen no evidence of a raid.  

"I'm not saying it's not true because that's the army line. It's because I'm from the LoC and I'm a local journalist. News spreads fast around here and people get to know whatever happens," he said.  

Mountainous Kashmir is seen as one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints, where Indian and Pakistani soldiers watch one another across valleys divided by barbed wire and land mines.  

The bitter neighbours agreed on the de facto border in 1972, but both claim the territory in full. Two of their 3 wars have been fought over the Himalayan region. 

Areas close to the 720- kilometer LoC are normally off-bounds even for Pakistani nationals, and the past 3 years have seen a surge in cross-border shelling. 

Big lie?

Tensions have been simmering for months over unrest on the Indian side, where more than 80 civilians have been killed, mostly in clashes with security forces, during protests linked to the killing of a charismatic young separatist in July.

Some Pakistani observers say the vaunted raids are an attempt to shift the focus and allow India to escape scrutiny over its actions in Kashmir. 

Pakistan-backed militants were blamed for the attack on an Indian army base last month in which 19 soldiers were killed, prompting angry calls for action from the Indian public ahead of Thursday's action. 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has offered to mediate in the dispute as the international community urged restraint. 

Pakistan is eager to dispel to the world the notion it harbours terrorists, and to its own citizens, vanish the idea it can be pushed around by its bigger neighbour, with whom it has long attempted to maintain a semblance of military parity. 

India, for its part, seeks to diplomatically isolate Pakistan following a series of attacks that it blames on Islamist militants backed by its western neighbour.

Leaning on a walking stick in the pristine hillside village of Baghsar Saturday, 76-year-old local councillor Mirza Abdul Ghani told visiting journalists that the Indian claims were "a big lie."

"I myself am ready to fight if they dare – I have my weapon in my house," he said. – Rappler.com

NEW DELHI, India (3rd UPDATE) – India, the world's 3rd biggest carbon emitter, ratified the Paris agreement on climate change on Sunday, October 2, on the birthday of the country's famously ascetic independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, is the latest big polluter to formally sign onto the historic accord which now takes a major step towards becoming reality.

Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave said "India deposited its Instrument of Ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change" at the United Nations in New York.

"Great push to global actions to address climate change," he added on Twitter.

The accord, sealed last December in Paris, needs ratification from 55 countries that account for at least 55% of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

With India's move, a total of 62 countries accounting for almost 52% of emissions have now ratified the agreement to commit to take action to stem the planet's rising temperatures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that October 2, a national holiday, had been chosen as the ratification date because freedom fighter Gandhi had lived his life with a low-carbon footprint.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and others have voiced confidence the accord will come into force by the end of the year, after a string of nations joined up, including the United States and China, the two largest emitters.

"India's leadership builds on the continued strong political momentum from Paris for urgent global action on climate change," Ban said in a statement.

"Action on climate change is crucial for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a more prosperous, equitable and livable future for all people."

US President Barack Obama also commended India's move, writing on Twitter that "Gandhiji believed in a world worthy of our children. In joining the Paris Agreement, @narendramodi & the Indian people carry on that legacy."

France also welcomed India's ratification of the agreement. 

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal told AFP it would "allow the accord to come into effect in record time."

And the Elysee Palace "hailed" Delhi's move.

"This decision, following that of the European environment ministers, brings us close to the Paris accord coming into effect by the end of the year."

EU environment ministers agreed last week to fast-track the ratification.

The accord requires all countries to devise plans to achieve the goal of keeping the rise of temperatures within two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Environmentalists welcomed Sunday's move, but urged India to work to phase out heavily-polluting coal, which it relies on heavily for electricity. 

"India is one the very few large economies that has not made any promises of phasing out of coal," said Joydeep Gupta, director of "the third pole" website which focuses on environmental issues. 

"This government is good on renewable energy, but not good on environmental issues. There is a lot of pushing back on air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution," he told AFP.

India, the world's fastest growing major economy, has long insisted that it needs to keep burning cheap and plentiful coal to cut crippling blackouts and bring electricity to millions of poor living without it.

India, which accounts for 4.1% t of global emissions and is the 3rd largest carbon-emitting country, has not agreed to cap or cut its emissions outright like some.

Instead, it says it will hike up its use of green energy and reduce its emissions relative to its gross domestic product by up to 35% by 2030 from 2005 levels – meaning emissions will continue to grow but at a slower rate.

Modi has set an ambitious target of reaching 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022, up from about 20,000 at the moment.

Modi, and other leaders of developing nations, argued in Paris that rich countries must shoulder the lion's share of responsibility for tackling climate change as they have polluted most since the Industrial Revolution.

2015 was the hottest year on record, and 2016 is shaping up to be even warmer, US and European government scientists have forecast. – Rappler.com

LONDON, United Kingdom – Prime Minister Theresa May said Sunday, October 2, that Britain would start the formal process for leaving the European Union (EU) by the end of March 2017.

Before now, May has only said that Britain would not trigger Article 50 of the EU's Lisbon Treaty – which sets a maximum two-year clock ticking until a country's departure from the 28-member bloc – before the end of this year.

May said she would be giving further details during her speech Sunday to her governing center-right Conservative Party's on the opening day of its annual conference in Birmingham, central England.

"I've been saying that we wouldn't trigger before the end of this year so that we get the preparation in place," she told BBC television.

"We will trigger before the end of March next year," May added. (READ: Brexit: 5 potential consequences)

Earlier, she announced a "Great Repeal Bill" to end the authority of EU law once Britain leaves the union.

The legislation will overturn laws that make EU regulations supreme, enshrine all EU rules in domestic law and confirm the British parliament can amend them as it wants.

"This marks the first stage in the UK becoming a sovereign and independent country once again," May told The Sunday Times newspaper.

"It will return power and authority to the elected institutions of our country. It means that the authority of EU law in Britain will end." – Rappler.com

President Rodrigo Duterte is at the Masskara Festival in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. Watch him live! – Rappler.com

GENEVA, Switzerland (UPDATED) – Syrian regime forces advanced Sunday, October 2, in Aleppo after Russia unleashed dozens of air strikes, as the UN's top aid official decried the "living hell" suffered by residents in the city's rebel-held east.

The devastating 5-year war in Syria has ravaged second city Aleppo, once the country's economic hub but now torn apart by fighting between government troops and rebel forces.

The army of President Bashar al-Assad announced a major push on September 22 to capture Aleppo's opposition-held east and has gained ground in the city with the help of ally Moscow.

Dozens of air strikes pounded multiple battlefronts in the devastated city on Sunday, AFP's correspondent said. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian raids "helped regime forces to advance in the north of the city," where they reached the outskirts of the opposition-held Al-Heluk district.

If loyalist fighters seize Al-Heluk, Bustan al-Basha, and Sakhur – all rebel-controlled neighborhoods in Aleppo's north – they will confine opposition factions to a small section of the city's southeast.

Assad's Russian-backed military campaign in Aleppo has sparked international outrage after a series of air strikes on civilian infrastructure, including most recently on the largest hospital in the city's east. (READ: Syria army readies Aleppo offensive as civilian toll rises)

Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital on Saturday, October 1, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which supports the facility.

United Nations aid chief Stephen O'Brien fiercely criticized the attack and called on Sunday for immediate action to end the "living hell" of civilians in Aleppo's east.

"The health care system in eastern Aleppo is all but obliterated. Medical facilities are being hit one by one," O'Brien wrote.

'Unjustifiable' attacks

O'Brien said the latest indiscriminate bombings subjected residents to "a level of savagery that no human should have to endure."

"The clock is ticking. Stop the carnage now," he added. (READ: Syria regime advances in Aleppo, MSF decries 'bloodbath')

At the bombed hospital Saturday, an AFP journalist saw bloodstained hospital beds and dented equipment lying in disarray beneath blown-out windows.

"The hospital is being destroyed! SOS, everyone!" said SAMS radiologist and hospital administrator Mohammad Abu Rajab in an audio message distributed to journalists.

M10 had already been hit on Wednesday, September 28, along with the second-largest hospital in the area, M2.

That bombardment badly damaged the two facilities and left only 6 fully functional hospitals in east Aleppo, according to SAMS.

On Saturday, European Parliament president Martin Schulz called the hospital bombing a "war crime", tweeting that the international community "must unite to prevent (the) city's annihilation."

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said "the systematic targeting of structures and health workers is particularly unjustifiable."

The World Health Organization has called Syria the world's most dangerous place for health workers, and Aleppo in particular has seen much of its medical infrastructure destroyed or heavily damaged.

'Safe passage' for rebels

Syria's armed forces on Sunday called on rebel fighters in east Aleppo to abandon their positions "and let civilians live their normal lives."

"The Russian and Syrian armies will secure safe passage and aid" to any opposition fighters that defect, said the statement, distributed on Syrian state news agency SANA. 

Also on Sunday, Russian strikes in the central Syrian province of Hama killed 6 members of a rebel group that has received US backing, according to the Observatory. 

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said 13 Russian raids targeted a base used by Jaish al-Izzah, which was also hit by Moscow's warplanes in the early days of its military intervention in Syria last year. 

Diplomatic efforts to put an end to Syria's war – which has killed more than 300,000 people – have all but collapsed.

Russia and the United States brokered a ceasefire deal in early September, hoping it could open a path to peace – but the truce fell apart a week later.

Relations between the two world powers have since been strained, but their top diplomats have continued to seek a way forward.

Russia said its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke to his American counterpart John Kerry on Saturday and they "examined the situation in Syria, including the possibility of normalizing the situation around Aleppo."

They spoke again later that evening, the foreign ministry in Moscow said on Sunday, without providing additional details. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday, October 2, apologized for his controversial remarks about Adolf Hitler, which sparked outrage from the international community.

"Kasi ang sabi kasi ng tao, 'Ito si Duterte, Hitler 'to eh, killer.' Di sinabi ko rin sa airport pagdating ko [from Vietnam], 'O di sige, si Duterte ako, killer ako,'" the President said in his speech as guest of honor at the 37th Masskara Festival in Bacolod City.

(My critics were saying, "Duterte is like Hitler. He's a killer." So I said when I arrived at the airport from Vietnam, "Okay, fine, I'm Duterte, I'm a killer.")

"Nag-react ang Jewish community all over the world (The Jewish community all over the world reacted). I would like to make it [clear] now, here and now, that there was never an intention on my part to derogate the memory of 6 million Jews murdered by the Germans," Duterte said.

"They do not really want you to tinker with the memory [of Holocaust victims]. Alam natin 'yan (I know that), so I apologize profoundly and deeply to the Jewish community."

The President added that he only meant to refer to his administration's war on drugs.

"It was never my intention [to offend the Jewish community] but the problem was I was criticized using Hitler, [he was compared] to me. But I was very emphatic – sabi ko, papatayin ko ang 3 million na adik (I said I would kill 3 million drug addicts)." (READ: IN NUMBERS: The Philippines' 'war on drugs')

Last Friday, September 30, the President had lamented that some members of the international community have portrayed him as a "cousin" of Hitler. A few minutes later, however, he himself drew parallels between Hitler's annihilation of 6 million Jews and his controversial campaign against drugs.

"Hitler massacred 3 million Jews. Now there [are] 3 million drug addicts….I'd be happy to slaughter them," he said.

Duterte's reference to Hitler sparked condemnation, with the German government calling it "unacceptable." The German foreign ministry also summoned the Philippine ambassador to discuss the matter.

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter also criticized Duterte's remarks, saying he found the comments "deeply troubling."

Various groups have called out Duterte as well, among them Human Rights Watch, which said referencing Hitler and the Holocaust "are on their face obscene." Senator Manny Pacquiao's boxing promoter, Bob Arum, who has an Orthodox Jewish background, said it was "reprehensible."

Malacañang sought to snuff out the outrage on Saturday, October 1, with Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella saying that the Hitler reference "did not originate from the President," and came from Duterte's election rivals ahead of the May polls.

"The Palace deplores the Hitler allusion of President Duterte's anti-drug war as another crude attempt to vilify the President in the eyes of the world," Abella added.

Hitler is remembered now as a brutal tyrant under whose leadership the Nazis carried out the mass extermination of Jews in Europe during World War II. Six million Jews were killed in the attempt to "purify" the German race by eliminating all non-Aryans. (READ: LOOK BACK: Hitler and the Holocaust) – Rappler.com

BISHOFTU, Ethiopia (3rd UPDATE) – Dozens of people were feared dead in Ethiopia after police fired tear gas at protesters during a religious festival on Sunday, October 2, triggering a panicked stampede.

Opposition groups said more than 100 people had been killed in the chaos after thousands of people gathered at a sacred lake in the town of Bishoftu near the capital Addis Ababa.

The government said only that there had been "loss of lives" at the Irreecha (thanksgiving) ceremony, in which the Oromo community marks the end of the rainy season.

"The annual Irreecha (thanksgiving) festival has been disrupted due to a violence created by some groups...Loss of lives has occurred due to a stampede," read a government statement published by state media.

Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, told AFP there had been many fatalities, but there was no independent confirmation.

"Bodies are being collected by the government. But what I hear from people on the ground is that the number of dead is more than one hundred," said Gudina.

Ethiopia is facing its biggest anti-government unrest in a decade and some festival participants had crossed their wrists above their heads, a gesture that has become a symbol of protest by the Oromo community, according to an AFP photographer.

The event quickly degenerated, with protesters throwing stones and bottles and security forces responding with baton charges and tear gas grenades, with some reports of gunfire.

'Days of rage'

The police action sent people fleeing in panic and at least 50 people fell on top of each other into a ditch.

The AFP photographer said earlier he saw between 15 and 20 bodies that were not moving, some clearly dead.

Police demanded that the photographer leave the scene, where rubber bullets were seen strewn on the ground.

Oromo activists called for "5 days of rage" to protest the killings while a strong police presence was visible as the news of the day's events spread.

"This government is a dictatorship, there is no equality or freedom of speech. There is only TPLF. That's why we must protest today," said Mohamed Jafar, referring to the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front.

In 1991 the TPLF, then a rebel group, overthrew Mengistu Haile Mariam's dictatorship and now, as a political party stands accused of monopolizing power.

Every year millions of people in the Oromo region mark the Irreecha festival on the shores of Lake Harsadi, which they consider sacred.

The anti-government protests started in the central and western Oromo region in 2015 and spread in recent months to the northern Amhara region.

"For the last 25 years the Oromo people have been marginalized in many things. Today we come together as one to chant for our freedom," said one of the people at the festival, Habte Bulcha.

Together, Oromos and Amharas make up 60% of the population of the Horn of Africa nation and have become increasingly vocal in rejecting what they see as the disproportionate power wielded by the northern Tigrean minority in government and the security forces. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Tuluyan nang nagpaalam ang sambayanang Pilipino sa yumaong senadorang si Miriam Defensor Santiago. Narito ang ulat ni Patty Pasion.

(The Filipino people bade farewell to the late senator Miriam Defensor Santiago. Patty Pasion reports)

PATTY PASION, REPORTING: Naihatid na sa huling hantungan ang mga labi ni Senador Miriam Defensor Santiago dito sa Loyola Memorial Park sa Marikina. 

(Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is finally laid to rest here at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina.) 

Inilibing si Santiago sa tabi ng kanyang yumaong anak na si AR. 

(Santiago is buried beside her late son, AR.) 

Marami ang nakiramay sa huling pagkakataong masilayan at makidalamhati sa pagpanaw ng senadora. 

(Many people attend the burial for a last chance to mourn the senator's death.)

Bago magsara ang public viewing ng alas-onse ng umaga, may mga ilang tao pa rin ang pumila para masilayan ang labi ni Santiago. 

(Before the public viewing closed at 11 am, several people lined up to get a glimpse of Santiago's remains.) 

Isang funeral mass ang ginanap sa Immaculate Conception Cathedral ng ala-una nang tanghali kung saan nagbigay ng huling pasasalamat ang kapatid ng senadora na si Dr Nini Defensor. 

(A funeral mass was held at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral at 1 in the afternoon where the senator's sister, Dr Nini Defensor, expressed her gratitude.)

DR. NINI DEFENSOR, MIRIAM SANTIAGO'S SISTER: To family and friends and supporters not only here in the Philippines, but all over the world, her millions of friends in Facebook, we thank you not only for the words of condolence but the moral support when she gave her announcement about her serious illness. 

Ilang kilalang personalidad din ang sumama sa pamilyang maihatid si Santiago sa kanyang huling hantungan.

(Several personalities joined the family in laying Santiago to rest.)

Bandang alas-tres ng hapon ng dumating ang labi ng senadora sa loyola memorial park. Pinamunuan ni Fr Aris Siso ng pagbabasbas sa kanyang labi.

(Around 3 PM, the senator's remains reached the cemetery. Father Aris Sison led the blessing of her body.)  

Sa pagpapalipad naman ng kalapati at lobo nagbigay pugay kay Santiago ang kanyang pamilya at Youth for Miriam volunteers. 

(Santiago's family honored her with a release of doves and white balloons.)

Pumanaw si Santiago noong September 29. Mahigit 50,000 ang mga supporters na bumisita sa kanyang burol. 

(Santiago died on September 29. Over 50,000 supporters visited her wake.)

Matagal na nagsilbi bilang Senador si Santiago. Tatlong beses din siyang tumakbo sa pagkapangulo ngunit hindi pinalad na manalo.

(Santiago served as senator for a long time. She also ran for presidency thrice but failed to win.)

Maaalala ng bansa si Santiago bilang isa sa pinakamagaling at matapang na mambabatas. 

(The country will remember Santiago as one of the brightest and the fiercest legislators.)

Patty Pasion, Rappler, Marikina. – Rappler.com

BAKU, Azerbaijan (UPDATED) – Pope Francis on Sunday, October 2, called for a "stable peace" as he visited mainly Muslim Azerbaijan, several months after pushing for an end to a festering territorial feud while in arch-foe Armenia.  

The pontiff met in private with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev – who is accused by rights groups of ruthlessly stamping out dissent in the energy-rich country – before addressing a gathering of government officials.

The Pope – on the last leg of a Caucasus tour that also took him to Georgia – reiterated calls for peace he made 3 months ago in neighboring Armenia, with the two countries locked in a long-simmering conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"There is no alternative to patiently and assiduously searching for shared solutions by means of committed and sustained negotiations," he said in a carefully worded statement that did not mention the disputed territory explicitly, expressing sympathy "to the many people who suffer the effects of bloody conflicts."

Calling for "a new phase for stable peace in the region," the pope invited all players "to grasp every opportunity to reach a satisfactory solution."

Officially part of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of ethnic Armenian separatists since 1994 when a war between the two countries ended in a ceasefire but no formal peace accord.

Since then there have been sporadic outbursts of violence and a sharp spike in April saw several days of major clashes leave 110 people dead before a fragile Russian-brokered truce halted the fighting.

The conflict and bitterness unleashed after the collapse of the Soviet Union saw ethnic cleansing in both Azerbaijan and Armenian-controlled territory but the Pope praised the "benefits of multiculturalism" for the country.  

"May harmony and peaceful coexistence be evermore a source of vitality to the public and civil life of the country," Pope Francis said.

Poor rights record

The Argentinian Pope's meeting with Aliyev came just days after the strongman won a referendum on constitutional changes seen as consolidating his family's grip on power in the majority Shiite Muslim country.

Aliyev, 54, has led the ex-Soviet country since his father Heydar, a former Communist-era boss, died after a decade in power in 2003. 

He won a landslide election victory in 2013 despite OSCE observers pointing to significant problems with the vote.

Activists have raised concerns over Azerbaijan's poor rights record, accusing Aliyev's government of cracking down on activists and critical journalists.

Earlier on Sunday, the pontiff held a Mass for the country's tiny Catholic community in the capital Baku.

"You are a little flock precious in God's eyes," the Pope said in his homily to the country's few hundred Catholics. 

"The entire Church, which has for you a special sympathy, looks at you and encourages you."

Azerbaijan's Catholic community only counts some 570 faithful, according to the Vatican, with 7 priests serving in the Caspian Sea country's sole Catholic parish.

Francis arrived in Baku from neighboring Georgia, one of the world's oldest Christian nations, which fought a brief war with Russia in 2008 over two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The Moscow-backed territories are under what Georgia insists is a de facto Russian occupation. 

Francis spoke of the need for refugees to return to their homes and called for respect for national sovereignty, but he seemed to dodge potential Russian ire by avoiding the word "occupation."

The pontiff has been on drive to reach out to Orthodox communities around the world and received a warm welcome from Georgia's pro-Western leaders and the head of the country's Orthodox Church.

But a centuries-old doctrinal dispute saw Georgian Orthodox officials skip an open-air mass by Francis in Tbilisi and only several thousand worshippers – mainly from the small Catholic community – attended. – Rappler.com

IDLIB, Syria – The frail cries of 4-month-old Wahida made the rescue worker who carried her out of the rubble in Syria's Idlib break down in sobs. The full story is one of tragedy.

"I was in the shop when the airplane began carrying out air strikes," recalls 32-year-old father Yehya Maatouq almost matter-of-factly. 

He was speaking to AFP on the destroyed rooftop of his home in the northwest city of Idlib, clearing away cement and debris from Thursday's fateful raid.

"Right after the strike, I ran home and found our whole neighborhood had been turned upside-down. I went into our house and didn't find anyone there." 

Suddenly, Maatouq heard his wife's muffled voice from beneath the ruins of their second-storey home. 

"I looked everywhere until I lifted up a rock and I found her face underneath. I began to dig around her – thank God, she was awake and talking to me."

Along with the White Helmets rescue force, Maatouq then frantically went in search of his two daughters, 4-month-old Wahida and 3-year-old Sinar. 

"I began digging in the bedroom and I found my daughter (Wahida)'s hand. When I reached her, she just grabbed my finger."

As the White Helmets pulled back the large pieces of cement that had buried Wahida, her exhausted father lifted her tiny body out. 

"They took her to the hospital and thank God she was alive," Maatouq says.

Footage of the rescue posted by the White Helmets showed a volunteer holding up the tiny baby, her bright yellow outfit caked in dust, as he marches out of her destroyed home.

The unidentified volunteer cradles Wahida in his arms as he sits through a rocky ambulance ride, weeping over her as she coughs and grasps at his collar. 

"We've been working for two hours to get her out from under the rubble and thank God, it turns out she is alive," he says through his tears. 

But back at Wahida's home, her father was left grieving over her older sister, Sinar, and his own mother – both killed in the raid.

"My second daughter, the wall had fallen on top of her. She was dead. I wish I had lost everything else but not lost her," he tells AFP, his voice breaking.  

Maatouq, his wife, and Wahida moved in with relatives on the edge of Idlib while they try to repair their home. 

Wahida has scratches and bruises across her forehead, but she sits calmly in her father's arms, her dark eyes looking up towards the sky. 

Asked what he hopes for his future, Maatouq sighs.

"It's up to God. We can't even handle what we've been through already," he says. – Rappler.com

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish police on Sunday, October 2, detained a brother of the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is accused of masterminding the failed July coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the first time one of his siblings has been apprehended.

Kutbettin Gulen was detained by police acting on a tip-off at the home of a relative in the Gaziemir district of the western Izmir province, the state-run Anadolu news agency said. 

He is accused of "membership of an armed terror group," Anadolu said, without giving further details.

Kutbettin Gulen was being questioned by anti-terror police and Anadolu said books belonging to Fethullah Gulen himself were confiscated in the police raid. 

Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 15 coup plot.

Gulen denies the claims and his supporters ridicule the description of his group by the Turkish authorities as the Fethullah Terror Organization (FETO), saying he merely runs a peaceful organization called Hizmet (Service).

According to previous Turkish media reports, Gulen has 3 living brothers, Mesih, Salih, and Kutbettin, as well as two who are dead, Seyfullah and Hasbi. He also has two sisters, Nurhayat and Fazilet. Their current whereabouts are not known.

In July, the authorities arrested Gulen's nephew Muhammet Sait Gulen in the eastern city of Erzurum, long seen as one of the hubs for his supporters. 

Another nephew, Ahmet Ramiz Gulen, was arrested in August in the southeastern city of Gaziantep. 

But this is believed to be the first time a brother has been detained following the coup bid.

'Uproot the traitors'

Some 32,000 people have been arrested since the attempted putsch over their alleged links to Gulen, in a relentless crackdown that has caused international concern.

Those arrested include top former generals accused of organizing the coup but also people from every sector of life ranging from sweet pastry magnates to journalists to former footballers.

Speaking to a meeting of youth activists in Ankara, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed the crackdown would continue until Gulen's influence was eradicated from every aspect of life in Turkey.

"Now it's time to clear them out of all the structures. We will uproot these traitors from anywhere, from within the state, business, politics," he said.

"No-one should play the victim here," he said, vowing however to "act not with a feeling of revenge but with justice."

Turkish officials have scoffed at any suggestion there could be second coup bid but Yildirim warned there "can be no complacency and we will be ready for anything day or night."

In a televised speech to supporters in the town of Kazan outside Ankara, Erdogan vowed to apprehend the remaining alleged coup plotters still at large.

"'We are coming to your lairs!' we said and we came to their lairs. Now they are fleeing, looking for a hole to hide in," he said.

"Wherever they go, we will chase them, We will... bring them to account."

Turkey has asked the US authorities to extradite Gulen to face justice back home and expressed impatience with the slowness of the procedure. 

But Washington has insisted the full judicial process should be observed.

It is still not clear when the first trials will start but Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has said they will take place across the country, with special court facilities needing to be set up in some places. – Rappler.com

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Delegates at a global wildlife conference on Sunday, October 2, voted to ban international trade in African grey parrots, one of the world's most trafficked birds.

Prized for their ability to mimic human speech, the birds are a highly sought-after pet, but their numbers have been decimated in recent years by poaching and the destruction of their forest habitats.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in Johannesburg voted 95 to 35 in a secret poll to ban the global commercial trade of the parrot.

CITES said the vote result would give the African grey the "highest level of protection" by listing it in "appendix 1," which outlaws all international trade in animals facing possible extinction.

Dr Colman O'Criodain of conservation group WWF called the move "a huge step forward" in protecting the bird.

"Fraud and corruption have enabled traffickers to vastly exceed current quotas and continue to harvest unsustainable numbers of African grey parrots from Congo's forests to feed the illegal trade," he said.

"Banning the trade will make it easier for law enforcement agencies to crack down on the poachers and smugglers, and give the remaining wild populations some much-needed breathing space."

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) estimates that between 2.1 and 3.2 million African greys were captured between 1975 and 2013.

Susan Lieberman of the Wildlife Conservation Society said the parrot had experienced "significant population declines throughout its range in West, Central and East Africa."

"It is extremely rare or locally extinct in Benin, Burundi, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Togo," she said in a statement

"If this bird could talk – and it certainly can – the African grey parrot would say thank you."

The CITES treaty, signed by 182 countries and the European Union, protects about 5,600 animal and 30,000 plant species from over-exploitation through commercial trade.

The 12-day conference, which ends on Wednesday, October 5, is sifting through 62 proposals to tighten or loosen trade restrictions on around 500 species. – Rappler.com

BOGOTA, Colombia (3rd UPDATE) – Colombians hit their government with a shock defeat Sunday, October 2, when they voted by a razor-thin majority to reject a historic peace accord with communist FARC rebels.

Voters narrowly defied the government's plan to put 52 years of bloody conflict behind them, reversing the trend of earlier opinion polls.

The 'No' camp won by about 57,000 votes which translated into a lead of less than half a percentage point, electoral authorities said.

President Juan Manuel Santos admitted defeat in the vote but vowed to continue peace efforts.

"The majority has said 'No,'" he said in a televised address. But he vowed: "I will not give in, and I will continue to seek peace to the last day of my term."

FARC chief Rodrigo Londono, alias Timoleon "Timochenko" Jimenez, also vowed the force was committed to continuing peace efforts.

"The FARC deeply deplores that the destructive power of those who sow hate has influenced opinion," he said in a speech in Havana, Cuba, where the accord was negotiated. 

But it maintains "its willingness to use dialogue as the only weapon for building the future," he added.

Deadly conflict

Supporters of the accord had expected it to effectively end what is seen as the last major armed conflict in the Western hemisphere.

But Sunday evening's results were a crashing defeat for Santos and the accord that he signed with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Media and online commentators compared the drama of the result to that of June's surprise "Brexit" vote for Britain to leave the European Union.

Colombians voted 50.21% to 49.78% against the accord, according to results published online with 99.9% of votes counted. Turnout was low at just over 37%.

Authorities earlier said heavy rain caused some disruption to voting as Hurricane Matthew passed over the Caribbean.

'No Plan B'

Sunday's result threw the country's future into uncertainty.

"Colombia is betting everything on this plebiscite, socially, economically and politically," said Jorge Restrepo, director of conflict analysis center CERAC, ahead of the results.

Santos's government had said it had no Plan B if voters rejected the accord.

The accord itself stipulated that the peace must be ratified by Colombians in a referendum. That move was endorsed by the courts.

Opinion surveys by pollsters Datexco and Ipsos Napoleon Franco, published on September 26, indicated the 'Yes" vote would win by a margin of around 20 percent.

The polls forecast a 'No' vote of only about 35%.

Opponents of the deal, drawn up at peace talks in Havana, Cuba, resented the concessions made to the FARC, which has carried out killings, kidnappings and extortion.

"Peace is exciting, but the Havana accords are disappointing," said the leader of the 'No' campaign, former president Alvaro Uribe.

'No' to rewarding 'criminals'

Many voters said they were sick of war.

"This is the path to leaving a better country for our children," Santos said.

But others said the accord was a reward to a group they see as terrorists.

"It is absurd to reward those criminals, drug traffickers and killers who have made the country a disaster for the past 50 years," said Jose Gomez, a retiree of 70, who voted 'No.'

"If you reward crime, what moral authority do you have to tell a thief not to steal your mobile phone?"

Disarmament, politics

The deal called for the 5,765 FARC rebels to disarm in 6 months and convert into a political group with seats in Colombia's Congress.

The accord covered justice and compensation for victims and an end to the cocaine production that has fueled the conflict.

The FARC launched its guerrilla war on the government in 1964, after a peasant uprising that was crushed by the army.

The ideological and territorial conflict drew in several leftist rebel groups, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.

Colombian authorities estimate the conflict has left 260,000 people dead, 45,000 missing and nearly seven million displaced. – Rappler.com

SAO PAULO / RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Brazil's long dominant Workers' Party looked close to losing control of the biggest city Sao Paulo, exit polls showed Sunday, October 2, after nationwide municipal elections seen as marking a shift to the right.

An exit poll by Ibope showed Sao Paulo's incumbent Workers' Party mayor, Fernando Haddad, trailing with 20% behind Joao Doria from the centrist PSDB, with 48%. Unless final results give Doria over 50%, the two will meet again in a second round runoff on October 30.

In Rio de Janeiro, the leader was Marcelo Crivella from the socially conservative Brazilian Republican Party (PRB), considered the political wing of the wealthy evangelical Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, an exit poll showed.

Crivella, whose billionaire uncle founded the Universal Church, won 30% of the vote and looked set to face off against Marcelo Freixo from the leftist PSOL, who won 20%, according to an Ibope poll.

The elections for mayors and city governments across 5,568 municipalities in Latin America's biggest country were the first since Dilma Rousseff of the Workers' Party lost the presidency in a bruising impeachment battle in August.

They were also a litmus test ahead of presidential elections in 2018.

Among the earliest to cast a ballot in the financial powerhouse Sao Paulo was Rousseff's replacement, President Michel Temer from the center-right PMDB party.

Temer, who is deeply unpopular and was booed at the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics in August, abruptly changed his schedule to vote two hours earlier than previously announced, getting into the polling station before doors even opened to the public, an Agence France-Presse reporter observed. According to Folha newspaper the change was to avoid protesters.

But despite widespread public mistrust of Temer, the PSDB and other parties friendly to the new president were forecast to reshape the landscape dominated by the Workers' Party for the last 13 years.

David Fleischer, a political analyst at Brasilia University, predicted the Workers' Party would end up with less than half the mayoral seats it won 4 years ago. "It will be a disaster for the party," he said.

Brazilians want change as they struggle through a devastating recession and the fallout from a massive embezzlement and bribery scheme centered on prestigious state oil company Petrobras.

"The elections are our chance to chance this scenario," said accounting student Wemerson Guimaraes, 21, as he voted in Rio.

In Sao Paulo, retiree Clara Nunes, 64, predicted "the Workers' Party will lose many votes in this election."

"I think next year, with new politicians coming in, the situation could get better," she said.

Army deploys after killings

The army reinforced security in nearly 500 towns and cities across the country following a string of candidate killings.

The latest fatality was Jose Gomes da Rocha, shot dead along with a police officer while campaigning in Itumbiara in the state of Goias on Wednesday, September 28.

G1 news site reported Sunday that 7 polling stations have been attacked in the northeastern state of Maranhao, including an arson attack which damaged an electronic voting machine.

Shots were also fired at the mayor of Nova Erechim, in southern Brazil, who is not seeking reelection in Sunday's polls, G1 reported.

In Rio de Janeiro, 15 candidates or politicians have been murdered over the last 10 months, police say. Police numbers are being doubled in the state for the election, with officers guarding the transport of ballot boxes and the voting stations.

Suspicions in at least some of the cases have fallen on so-called militias – protection rackets formed by former or rogue police officers.

O Globo newspaper reported that militias were even forcing candidates to pay an "election tax" to campaign in areas under their control, with fees running from 15,000 to 120,000 reais ($4,600 to $37,000). – Rappler.com

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary's populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban suffered a blow Sunday, October 2, in his revolt against the European Union after low voter turnout voided his referendum aimed at rejecting a contested migrant quota plan.

Although a whopping 99.8% of voters backed his bid to reject the proposal, overall turnout fell well short of a 50% threshold.

Only 3.3 million of the 8-million-strong electorate cast a valid vote, and the National Election Committee declared the referendum void after counting the ballots on Sunday evening.

Opposition figures swiftly called on Orban to step down over the vote, after rights groups had accused him of whipping up anti-migrant fears despite there being only a few hundred asylum seekers in Hungary.

But the firebrand leader downplayed the significance of the low turnout and vowed there would be "legal consequences" regardless.

"Brussels or Budapest, that was the question, and the people said Budapest," he defiantly told supporters gathered in the capital on Sunday evening.

"I will propose to change the constitution (which) shall reflect the will of the people. We will make Brussels understand that it cannot ignore the will of Hungarian voters."

Orban did not reveal further details of the proposed amendment. 

"It looks like (Orban) wants to continue his fight with the EU on its migration policy, and the constitutional amendment is his way of doing that as it might trigger legal fights" with Brussels, analyst Bulcsu Hunyadi told Agence France-Presse.

'Totally unrealistic'

The firebrand leader has emerged as the standard-bearer of those opposed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "open-door" policy, in the wake of the bloc's worst migration crisis since World War II.

The EU migrant quota proposal – spearheaded by Merkel and approved by most governments in the bloc last year after antagonistic debates – seeks to ease pressure on frontline countries Italy and Greece, the first port of arrival for most migrants.

But implementation has been slow. 

Eastern and central European nations vehemently oppose the plan aimed at relocating 160,000 people, many of who fled war in Syria.

Neighboring Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said Sunday the EU should stop clinging to its troubled plan.

"The target is totally unrealistic," he told the German daily Welt am Sonntag, warning that disagreements over the plan could threaten "the cohesion of the entire European Union."

Hungary has not accepted a single one of the 1,294 refugees allocated to it under the scheme and instead joined Slovakia in filing a legal challenge against it.

Top EU officials had warned the referendum threatened to further split the quarreling bloc, already weakened by Britain's vote in June to leave the union – a decision Orban has blamed on the EU's handling of the migrant crisis.

'Brussels elite'

The referendum asked voters: "Do you want the EU to be able to mandate the obligatory resettlement of non-Hungarian citizens into Hungary even without the approval of the National Assembly?"

In an editorial, Orban warned on Saturday, October 1, that Hungarians had "a duty" to fight the failed "liberal methods" of the "Brussels elite."

"It's true that the campaign was exaggerated but no one can tell me if these migrants really are refugees of war," Zoltan, a 38-year-old lawyer and 'No' voter, told Agence France-Presse earlier Sunday.

More than 400,000 refugees trekked through Hungary toward northern Europe in 2015 before Hungary sealed off its southern borders with razor wire in the autumn and brought in tough anti-migrant laws, reducing the flow to a trickle.

Other countries on the so-called Balkan migrant trail followed suit, leaving some 60,000 migrants stranded in Greece.

Many of those migrants live in grim conditions in camps dotted around the Aegean islands and the mainland, desperate to continue their onward journey.

The EU said last week it hoped to relocate half of them by the end of 2017.

A deal struck in March with Ankara to halt the influx looks shaky in the wake of a coup attempt in Turkey in July.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere meanwhile said Sunday that Berlin wants to reinstate an EU rule, suspended in 2011, to return asylum seekers who entered the bloc via Greece to be forced to return there.

"We will take up discussions on this in a meeting with (EU) interior ministers" later in October, he told the Greek daily Kathimerini. – Rappler.com

PARIS, France – India's ratification of the Paris climate agreement on Sunday, October 2, brings the ambitious global warming deal a big step closer to coming into effect.

The accord, sealed last December in the French capital, is aimed at keeping global warming below two degrees celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

To come into force the deal must be ratified by at least 55 countries that account for at least 55% of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

The first of the two criteria has already been achieved, with 61 countries ratifying the deal ahead of India.

India, the world's third-largest carbon emitter with its population of 1.3 billion people, has brought the second criteria within sight.

Now a total of 62 countries accounting for almost 52% of emissions have ratified the agreement to tackle rising temperatures worldwide, according to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) website.

Canada, which accounts for 1.95% of global emissions, is expected to ratify the Paris agreement soon while on Friday, October 7 the 28 European Union nations agreed to fast-track the ratification procedure.

The process for the EU is more complicated as each individual member state must ratify the deal under its own system.

Some have already done so; Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia.

The two biggest greenhouse gas emitters, ahead of India – China (20.09%) and the United States (17.89%) – formally joined the party together last month.

US President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping handed ratification documents to UN chief Ban Ki-moon at a ceremony in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

The Paris accord should come into effect "before the end of the year," Ban said last week.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal, who hosted the COP21 Paris climate talks, hopes the deal will come into effect before COP (Conference of the Parties) 22 gets underway in Morocco on November 7.

The Paris accord was formally signed, though not ratified, by 75 countries in New York in April.

The deal requires all countries to devise plans to achieve the goal of keeping the rise of temperatures within two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and strive for 1.5ºC (2.7ºF) if possible.

Climate change experts estimate that it will require overall emissions cuts of 40-70% from 2010 to 050 to achieve the two degrees goal. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – From crocodile feedings to “overkills,” self-confessed hitman Edgar Matobato, has revealed sordid details about the so-called “Davao Death Squad” and President Rodrigo Duterte’s alleged involved in the vigilante group.

The “Davao Death Squad” is an alleged loose group of vigilantes that target rapists, thieves, alleged terrorists, and at times, according to Matobato, personal and political enemies of the former Davao City mayor and his son. Duterte has long been linked to the supposed death squad but no charges have ever been filed against him.

Matobato’s testimony – before a Senate committee probing the rise of killings in Duterte’s “war on drugs” – is the first time a supposed witness came forward and revealed his identity while detailing the alleged activities of the “Davao Death Squad.” The supposed former militia man said that Duterte himself (or through his supposed aides) ordered the killing of suspects and enemies, including political ones.

The death squad, he claimed, was composed of former militia men, commissioned and non-commissioned police officials, and rebel returnees or former communist fighters.

On Monday, October 3, for the first time since his supposed escape from Davao in 2014, Matobato will again see his supposed former comrades in the death squad.

In a privilege speech after her ouster from the Senate committee that had called for the probe, De Lima narrated the names of police personnel and civilians who supposedly made up the “Davao Death Squad. Some of them were supposedly under the Davao City Police Office’s “Heinous Crimes Section.”

Their names are as follows:

POLICE

• Senior Police Office 4 Arthur Lascanas
• Chief Inspector Jacy “Jay” Francia
• CInsp Fulgencio Pavo
• CInsp Ronald Lao
• SPO3 Jim Tan
• SPO4 Sanson “Sonny” Buenaventura
• SPO1 Reynante B. Medina
• SPO1 Bienvenido Furog
• SPO1 Vivencio “Jun” Jumawan
• SPO2 Enrique “Jun” Delos Reyes Ayao
• SPO3 Jun Laresma
• SPO2 Rizalino “Bobong” G. Aquino
• SPO3 Donito “Pogi” Ubales
• SPO1 Jun Bisnar
• SPO1 Gaston Aquino
• Senior Superintendent Isidero “Dick” Florivel/Florobel
• SSupt Rey Capote
• SSupt Tony Rivera
• SSupt Dionisio Abude

CIVILIANS

• Bienvenido Laud
• Alvin Laud
• Roly Engalia
• Arnold Ochavez

Sixteen of the police personnel – both active and retired – were present at the Senate on Monday for the hearing. Of the 16, 4 are already retired, according to Davao Region police director Chief Superintendent Manuel Gaerlan.

Senators with different affiliations – allies and critics of Duterte – had a quick debate over the "nomenclature" of the witnesses from Davao City. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, among Duterte's fiercest allies in the Senate, said the witnesses should not be termed as members, or alleged members of the so-called "Davao Death Squad" since nothing had been proven yet.

Among the first witnesses of the Monday hearing was Superintendent Dionisio Abude, former chief of the Davao City Police’s Heinous Crime Division, which Matobato claimed was created to house alleged hitman of the death squad.

Abude denied Matobato's allegations, narrating the division's achievements in the years he headed it.

The hearing is ongoing as of posting. – Rappler.com