While saying it respected the extension of martial law in Mindanao, the Commission on Human Rights on Friday, December 15, stressed “the need to address account of human rights violations on the ground.”

Australia should introduce a law forcing religious leaders to report child abuse, including Catholic priests who are told of abuse in the confessional, according to a report into institutional child abuse released on Friday.

Negros’ Kanlaon Volcano remained restive with 1,217 volcanic earthquakes recorded over the past 24 hours, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Friday, December 15.

Two years after the Mediterranean migrant crisis blew a hole in the European Union, a tentative effort to patch up differences over what to do with refugees underlined continuing rifts among the bloc’s leaders.

Japan will impose additional sanctions on North Korea following repeated threats by Pyongyang’s missiles and nuclear program, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Friday.

'Our earth is too ‘ot, and it’s getting even ‘otter,' the singer narrates in the animated video called 'The Very Hot Snowman.'

Two said Hoffman sexually assaulted them in 1987. A third woman said he exposed himself to her in 1980, when she was 16.

The Philippine embassy in Israel denied any plans to move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, contrary to reports last week that President Rodrigo Duterte had reached out to Israel’s foreign ministry to discuss the matter.

A teenager and his grandfather were killed by masked gunmen in Barangay Tangos, Navotas while Caloocan City, a couple died in an ambush in Barangay 171 Bagumbong, all on Thursday night.

(UPDATE - 10:14 a.m.) While attention in Asia has been distracted by the North Korean nuclear crisis in the past year, China has continued to install high-frequency radar and other facilities that can be used for military purposes on its man-made islands in the South China Sea, a U.S. think tank said on Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed bilateral relations and situation in the Korean Peninsula during a telephone call, the Kremlin said in a statement early on Friday.

The online video’s message was clear: Supporters of Islamic State who could not travel overseas to join the militant group should carry out attacks wherever they were in the United States or Europe.

Malaysia’s central bank said it had issued draft regulations for digital currency businesses, but said that such currencies were still not legal tender in the country.

(UPDATE 4 -12:29 p.m.) Tropical storm “Urduja” (international name “Kai-Tak) resumed its "slow movement" late Friday morning, December 15, towards its expected Saturday landfall over Eastern Samar or neighboring Northern Samar after intensifying slightly and hovering "almost stationary" earlier.

The Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption, formerly headed by Martin Diño, who became instrumental in paving the way for President Rodrigo Duterte's 2016 candidacy, wants former President Benigno Aquino III and other ex-public officials charged with plunder.