SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea broke its daily record for coronavirus infections for a second straight day on Thursday with more than 5,200 new cases, as pressure mounted on a health care system grappling with rising hospitalizations and deaths.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) — China's foreign ministry summoned Japan's ambassador in Beijing for an "emergency meeting" on Wednesday, after former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said neither his country nor the United States could stand by if China attacked Taiwan.

TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan's flag airlines halted new reservations on Wednesday and the government widened a travel ban amid escalating alarm over Omicron after a second case of the coronavirus variant was detected in the country.

MANILA (Reuters) — Alphabet Inc's Google said on Wednesday it will ban political advertising on its platform in the run-up to Philippine elections in May next year to choose a successor to President Rodrigo Duterte.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The rising level of violence in the islands across the Micronesian region has the Pacific Judicial Council pushing efforts to educate and train youth to manage their emotions in a health way.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Department of Defense is calling for a further buildup of military assets in the Marianas as part of a newly approved global force posture review.

MANILA (Reuters) — Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte's preferred successor, Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go, announced on Tuesday he was dropping out of the presidential race, leaving the administration without a candidate in next year's polls.

TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Tuesday, a day after closing its borders to all foreigners in one of the world's toughest precautionary measures.

MAJURO — The Marshall Islands is one of only a handful of nations never to have experienced a single case of community transmission of Covid-19. Its border closure in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 and later implementation of one of the world’s strictest quarantin…

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Dr. Nathaniel Berg, the chairperson of the governor's Physicians Advisory Group, said local residents should be preparing but not panicking about a strain of Covid-19 that has been labeled a "variant of concern."

MANILA (Reuters) — The Philippines on Sunday further tightened border controls to keep out the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, adding seven European countries to a travel ban that initially covered seven African nations.

LONDON/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) — The Omicron coronavirus variant spread around the world on Sunday, with new cases found in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia even as more countries imposed travel restriction to try to seal themselves off.

MAJURO — Preliminary results of the Marshall Islands national census are startling. Instead of expected modest growth, the Marshall Islands has seen a 26% drop in its population.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam's Catholic Church has come up with a revised proposed payment of $27.96 million to $34.38 million to those who claimed they were raped or sexually molested by priests and other members of the clergy when they were minors, dating back to the 1950s.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — For decades, the tiny Marshall Islands has been a stalwart American ally. Its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean has made it a key strategic outpost for the U.S. military.

LONDON/BERLIN/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) — Britain, Germany and Italy detected cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant on Saturday and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new steps to contain the virus, while more nations imposed restrictions on travel from southern Africa.

WASHINGTON/GENEVA (Reuters) — The discovery of a new coronavirus variant named Omicron triggered global alarm on Friday as countries rushed to suspend travel from southern Africa and stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic suffered their biggest falls in more than a year.

LONDON (Reuters) — Britain on Thursday said it was concerned by a newly identified coronavirus variant spreading in South Africa that might make vaccines less effective and imperil efforts to fight the pandemic.

THE National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea has condemned the use of water cannons on Philippine supply vessels by three Chinese Coast Guard vessels on Nov. 16, 2021 in Ayungin Shoal

KOROR (Palau International Coral Reef Center) — A recently published scientific paper from the Palau International Coral Reef Center or PICRC and the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University mapped the distribution of heat resistant corals throughout the Palau Archipelago. The study, wh…

WASHINGTON (Press Release) —  The United States  Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs applauds the completion of the Colonia Wellness Center in Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia. The project was jointly funded by the United States government through the Compact of F…

SEOUL (Reuters) — A little known sect led by a pastor who pokes eyes to heal is at the center of a Covid-19 outbreak in South Korea, as the country reported a new daily record of 4,116 cases and battles a spike in serious cases straining hospitals.

BRUSSELS/PRAGUE (Reuters) — Coronavirus infections broke records in parts of Europe on Wednesday, with the continent once again the epicenter of a pandemic that has prompted new curbs on movement and made health experts think again about booster vaccination shots.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) — Mexico will analyze administering booster vaccine doses against Covid-19, especially for older people, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday, softening his previous stance on the need for a third shot.

MANILA (Reuters) —  Relatives of people killed in the Philippine war on drugs have accused the government of attempting to evade accountability by asking the International Criminal Court or ICC to defer its investigation.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — James Rumbaua Damaso was found guilty of having 139.1 grams of methamphetamine on him when federal agents pulled him over back in 2019.

SEOUL (Reuters) — A policewoman's failure to intervene in a stabbing incident has re-ignited a debate over passive policing in South Korea, with some leading conservatives saying the campaign to increase the number of female officers in the force has gone too far.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Rustico Rosales, 68, lost his hotel job when the pandemic upended the tourism industry, and he's had no luck finding new employment.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) —  Riots broke out in cities across the Netherlands on Sunday, the third night in a row that police clashed with mobs of angry youths who set fires and threw rocks to protest Covid-19 restrictions.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) — Police and protesters clashed in the streets of Brussels on Sunday in demonstrations over government-imposed Covid-19 restrictions, with police firing water cannon and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and smoke bombs, witnesses said.

MAJURO — United States congressional leaders have ramped up pressure on the White House to elevate focus on negotiations over Compacts of Free Association with the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau — and to resolve all outstanding issues in the U.S. nuclear test lega…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States on Friday called Chinese actions in using water cannon against Philippine resupply boats in the South China Sea "dangerous, provocative, and unjustified," and warned that an armed attack on Philippine vessels would invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The island and its local government can expect yet another billion dollar boost from the federal government if the Build Back Better Act becomes law.

(Reuters) — U.S. prosecutors on Thursday announced sex-trafficking charges that girls and young women were coerced to have sex with the founder of a Philippines-based church who is a friend and adviser to President Rodrigo Duterte.

MANILA (Reuters) — The Philippines has approved a plan to allow entry soon to foreign tourists vaccinated against Covid-19, its tourism ministry said on Friday, following moves by other Southeast Asian countries to relax travel curbs.

MAJURO — Every year, a potential showdown looms between island countries and distant water fishing nations at the annual meeting of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission that happens early next month — over one issue or another.

MANILA (Reuters) — The Philippines on Thursday condemned "in strongest terms" the actions of three Chinese coast guard vessels that it said blocked and used water cannon on resupply boats headed towards a Philippine-occupied atoll in the South China Sea.

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services) — On Nov. 15, 2021, the 22nd Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia began its second special session.

MANILA (Reuters) — The son of late Philippines strongman Ferdinand Marcos has emerged as the person to beat in the 2022 presidential race, after President Rodrigo Duterte's popular daughter decided not to contest the country's top job.

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services) — David W. Panuelo, president of the Federated States of Micronesia, has launched the Coconut National Export Strategy CocoNES which was created via presidential order.

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The governor's office said pandemic restrictions will be eased heading into the holiday season.

HAGÅTÑA — Two people, both of whom were not vaccinated but suffered from other health conditions, have been deemed Covid-19 related fatalities.

KOROR —  Palau’s Non-Communicable Disease “Hybrid” Survey shows that 22.2% of adults have diabetes and 36% are almost there — meaning that nearly half of Palau’s adult population is affected by diabetes.  

WASHINGTON — The United States Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs is pleased to announce that Deputy Assistant Secretary Keone Nakoa last week concluded numerous meetings in Hawai’i with federal, state, and non-governmental organization representatives where they discusse…

MANILA  (Reuters) — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte will compete for a seat in the country's Senate in elections next year, his top aide said on Monday, ending speculation that he would run for vice president against his own daughter.

THE United States Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs has announced that $33,732,400 in Compact of Free Association funding for fiscal year 2022 for the Republic of the Marshall Islands was approved by the bilateral Joint Economic Management and Financial Accountability Co…

HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam is within striking distance of China's current military capabilities, according to an annual report from the Department of Defense.

MANILA (Reuters) — The Philippines' presidential race got more crowded with the last-minute entry of Rodrigo Duterte's long-time aide, in another twist to an election likely to be dominated by powerful family dynasties rather than reforms.