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[Body] => The police seized 25 boxes of imported cigarettes intercepted in Maitum town in Sarangani on Thursday.
Police Brig. Gen. Alexander Tagum, director of Police Regional Office-12, said Friday the contraband was in a van that has since been impounded.
"The driver of that truck and his helpers were unloading some of their merchandise in Barangay Piñol (in Maitum) when patrolling policemen saw them. They were immediately surrounded and prevented from leaving,” Tagum said.
Investigators estimated the value of the confiscated Casablanca cigarettes from Indonesia at P375,000 to P420,000. — The STAR/John Unson
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-21 08:32:18
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[Body] => Manila Mayor Isko Moreno announces the cancelation of festivities and celebrations related to the Chinese New Year in the city on 1 February due to the transmission of the coronavirus Omicron variant and spike in COVID-19 cases.
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-21 07:46:00
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[BiteID] => 838
[Body] => Spain is spearheading calls for governments to start tackling COVID-19 as any other endemic respiratory virus like seasonal flu, despite WHO opposition and warnings that the approach is premature.
With governments and populations worldwide desperate for an end to the pandemic, discussion about when the virus might be reclassified has intensified.
"Spain wants to lead this debate because it is timely and necessary to do so," Health Minister Carolina Darias says, adding that Spain asked the European Center for Disease Prevention (ECDC) to "study new strategies" to deal with COVID-19. — AFP
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-20 17:54:23
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[Body] => The Philippines records 31,173 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the total to 3,324,478.
Active cases are at 275,364 or 8.3% of total.
The positivity rate is still high at 43.3%.
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-20 16:29:45
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[BiteID] => 903
[Body] => Thailand will resume its quarantine-free travel scheme from February 1, officials say, after the program was suspended due to the fast-spreading Omicron COVID-19 variant.
Pandemic travel curbs have hammered the kingdom's tourism-dominated economy, sending visitor numbers dwindling to a trickle.
Fully vaccinated travellers will now be able to enter under the "test and go" scheme as long as they take COVID-19 tests on the first and fifth days after arriving, spokesman for the country's Covid-19 taskforce Taweesin Visanuyothin tells reporters. — AFP
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-20 14:52:02
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[Body] => A potentially explosive report into the handling of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church will on Thursday be published in Germany, with former pope Benedict XVI among those in the spotlight.
The report by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW) will analyze how abuse cases were dealt with in the archdiocese of Munich and Freising between 1945 and 2019.
The Munich archdiocese, which commissioned the report, said it will examine "whether those responsible complied with legal requirements... and acted appropriately in dealing with suspected cases and possible perpetrators". — AFP
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-20 13:27:33
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[Body] => The US Supreme Court rejects a bid by former president Donald Trump to block the release to a congressional committee of documents related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Trump, citing executive privilege, had sought to prevent the documents held by the National Archives from being given to the committee investigating the assault on Congress by Trump supporters.
Trump, who has been accused of fomenting the assault on the Capitol, had asked the nation's highest court to stay a ruling this month by a federal appeals court which rejected his attempt to keep the documents and records secret.
But the Supreme Court, in an 8-1 vote, refuse to issue a stay and upheld the appeals court ruling. — AFP
[LastUpdate] => 2022-01-20 10:06:21
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