UPSIDE DOWN. President Benigno Aquino III and US President Barack Obama 

in a press conference at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on Saturday

According to some sources, ABS-CBN does not want to broadcast the wrong installation of the Philippine Flag in United Nations Summit even before Sunday. No Presidential staff for Noynoy made a move to correct this. Is Philippine at war now since the flag has been reverted? The officiali photo above, which is also posted on gov.ph show Obama, President Benigno Aquino, and the inverted Philippine flag -- with its red section on top instead of blue.

President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III on Thursday he expressed regret over the handling of the August 23 hostage crisis that left eight Hong Kong hostages and the hostage-taker himself dead.

"This incident will not define this administration. In the end, my administration will be judged on what we have accomplished and what we will accomplish in the coming years: a reduction in poverty and the restoration of a government that is honest in its efforts to build a better nation," Aquino uttered during a rare panel interview with TV news anchors from three broadcast networks of the Philippines.

Aquino said he was repeatedly assured that the Special Action Force (SAF), which he said is capable of handling such a situation, would immediately be deployed to the Quirino Grandstand in case there is a need for a tactical assault.

China's Ambassador Liu Jianchao met with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Thursday and discussed the Philippine government's investigation into the August 23 hostage tragedy that left eight Hong Kong tourists dead.

Liu said he and De Lima talked about the "mutual respect" between the two nations amid the global backlash against Philippine law enforcement authorities for their bungled hostage rescue operations.


De Lima chairs the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), which is set to hold on Friday its clarificatory questioning for persons that had key roles in handling the hostage drama last week.

The committee's other members are: Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo as vice chair; Teresita Ang-See, chairperson of the Citizens Action Against Crime, representing the Filipino-Chinese community; Herman Basbaño, president of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, representing the media; and Roan Libarios, governor of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao, representing legal luminaries.

The proceedings will also be held on Saturday and Monday next week.

On the other hand, The Philippine Embassy in Beijing has advised Filipinos there to keep a "low profile" as tension still exists between the Philippines and China over the August 23 hostage tragedy in Manila where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.

The past May election resulted to President Benigno Aquino being elected as the President of the Philippine Republic. Looking forward to advance and bolster the economy by doubling tourist arrivals and reducing corruption, this was the goal of the administration. But the recent August 23 Manila Hostage crisis proves it wrong somehow. The benchmark stock index yesterday fell the most in 11 weeks and the peso had its biggest drop since June 7.

Moreover, in a recently held press conference, President Noynoy Aquino decided to break the silence and offer sympathy to those people included and involved in the said crisis. Here is President Noynoy Aquino’s official statement regarding the hostage crisis that happened last August 23, 2010 at the Quirino Grandstand:


P-NOY'S PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO:

President Obama, defending the right of the Muslims to build a 13-storey cultural center and a mosque to be named Cordoba House at a stone's throw from Ground Zero. The US President gave his support for the project in the presence of US Congressmen, government officials and diplomats, stressing out that this project should be pushed through, otherwise, it would contradict to US' commitment to religious freedom. 

Marking the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan,Obama highlighted what opposing parties have avoided mentioning; that the project is short distance away from the hallowed Ground Zero and on private land subject to local laws. Obama further stated that the United States welcomes people of all faith to live in the country and the law treats all religious groups as equal. Furthermore, he said, that the project must have the "GO" signal of the concerned authorities just like any other project of any religious community in the USA.

Iraq's military is ready and able to take over security operations as the United States ends it combat role and prepares for a major troop withdrawal, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Sunday. With this, The United States will withdraw about 4,000 troops from Iraq by the end of October, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Last remaining batches of American soldiers were pulled out of Iraq on Thursday, a sign that United States will be ending its opeartions in the said Middle Eastern country. The last of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division armored vehicles rolled into Kuwait Thursday morning, seven-and-a-half years since former President George W. Bush launched an all-out war against then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on suspicion that the oil-rich country in the Middle East was keeping weapons of mass destruction. However, thousands of military and civilian deaths later, the U.S. has still to find the purported WMD cache of Hussein’s regime.

China has officially claimed the title as the world’s second-largest economy next to the United States after erstwhile no.2 Japan suffered a significant fall in gross domestic product in the second quarter compared to three months ago.

The Japanese government announced on Monday that the country’s annualized GDP growth in the second quarter was only 0.4 percent, a big drop compared to the first-quarter growth of 4.4 percent. Japan’s second-quarter numbers suggest that global recovery from recession is not yet in full swing despite the continuing surge of the Chinese economy.