Philippines

The ferry MV June Aster had sailed from Manila and was near Coron in Palawan province when the fire started on Wednesday.

Gilberto Teodoro criticised Beijing after a Chinese military attaché’s note was handed to him while he was speaking at a Seoul defence forum.

The suspect initially fired at a teacher but it was not clear if the teacher was hit.

The Philippine weather bureau is monitoring a low pressure area that entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility on Sunday.

Around 7,300 people were staying in evacuation centres nationwide, while at least six people have been reported dead, most of them in landslides and flooding over the past week.

China claims most of the SCS as its own. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims over the area.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held bilateral talks with counterparts from Oman, the Netherlands, Brunei and Papua New Guinea.

Jaishankar, is on a two-day visit to Manila to attend a meeting of the Quad grouping as well as to participate in deliberations under the framework of the ASEAN bloc.