MOSCOW -- A civil plane with 172 passengers on board made an emergency landing at the Russian-run Khmeimim airbase in Syria, barely avoiding an Israeli missile attack, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

The Airbus 320 airliner, which took off from Tehran, had to change its route while approaching the Damascus International Airport in the early hours on Thursday, the ministry's spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a statement. (Russia-Plane-Emergency Landing)

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MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin to notify Washington about the intention of Manila to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between the United States and the Philippines, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Friday.

"President Duterte is instructing Executive Secretary (Salvador) Medialdea to tell Foreign Affairs Secretary Locsin to send the notice of termination to the U.S. government," said Panelo in a text message to reporters. (Philippine-President-U.S.)

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MANILA -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday approved 2 million U.S. dollars in funding to support efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The funds will supplement an ongoing regional technical assistance and strengthen the response capacity in Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, the bank said in a statement. (Philippine-ADB-Coronavirus)

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MANILA -- The Philippines has ordered a temporary ban on domestic and wild birds their products, including poultry meat, day-old chicks, eggs and avian semen from the Czech Republic in apparent move to prevent the entry into the country of the avian influenza virus.

The Philippine Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a memorandum order that the temporary importation ban was imposed after Czech Republic's State Veterinary confirmed to the World Organization for Animal Health that there is an outbreak of H5N8 bird flu in that country.(Philippine-Ban-Birds)

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ISLAMABAD -- A trainer plane of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) crashed into Jhang district of the country's east Punjab province after apparently developing a technical fault.

The Mirage aircraft was on its routine training sortie when it met the accident. No loss of life was reported in the crash as the only pilot of the plane successfully bailed out when the fault emerged in the aircraft, a PAF spokesman confirmed in a conversation with Xinhua. (Pakistan-Plane-Crash) Enditem

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