MANILA -- The Philippine Navy said on Thursday it deployed a helicopter to search for 11 missing passengers of two motorboats that capsized off Palawan province.
Commodore Alan Javier, the commander of the Philippine Naval Forces West, said the boats sank on Wednesday near Ilian Bay in Roxas, a coastal town northeast of Palawan's capital Puerto Princesa. (Philippines-Navy-Boat)
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CAIRO -- Egypt and Jordan signed on Thursday an agreement to establish a joint submarine optical fiber cable linking the Jordanian city of Aqaba and the Egyptian city of Taba, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.
The deal, dubbed "Coral Bridge," was signed between Telecom Egypt, Egypt's first integrated telecommunications operator, and NaiTel, a telecommunications service provider in Jordan and the communication arm of the Aqaba Digital Hub. (Egypt-Jordan-Submarine Cable)
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GAZA -- Hamas announced on Thursday that the movement is ready to observe a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issues a ruling calling for it as long as Israel reciprocates.
"If the court issues a ceasefire decision, the Hamas movement will adhere to the ceasefire as long as Israel adheres to that," the group said in a statement. (Hamas-Ceasefire-Gaza)
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ANKARA -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has approved the ratification of Sweden's membership in NATO, according to a protocol published in the country's official gazette on Thursday.
Erdogan published the law two days after the Turkish parliament passed the bill to approve Sweden's bid to join the Western military alliance. (Türkiye-Erdogan-Sweden's NATO Membership) ■
