Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants US troops out of his country in the next two years and is willing to scrap defence pacts with longtime ally Washington if necessary.
The US has a small number of Special Forces on the southern island of Mindanao to aid counter-terrorism operations.
Russia Hits Out at UN Aid Chief
Russia has accused the United Nations' aid chief of bias and arrogance after he told the Security Council that Aleppo had become a kill zone under Russian and Syrian bombs.
The accusations have drawn sharp responses from the United States, Britain and France in one of the stormiest council sessions on Syria in weeks.
Russia is facing pressure at the United Nations to rein in its Syrian ally and halt the air strikes in rebel-held east Aleppo, where 250,000 civilians have been living under siege since July.
As per a report, global wildlife populations have fallen by 58% since 1970.
The Living Planet assessment, by the Zoological Society of London and WWF, suggests that if the trend continues the decline in wildlife populations could reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020.
Animals living in lakes, rivers and wetlands are suffering the biggest losses.
According to the Nasscom-Zinnov startup report titled "Indian Startup Ecosystem Maturing – 2016," India continues to harbour the third largest startup base, marginally behind the UK.
The report was released on the sidelines of Nasscom Product Conclave 2016 in Bengaluru.
The report predicts continued growth in the number of startups in 2016, with Bengaluru, NCR, and Mumbai continuing to lead.
HUL Q2 Net Up
Hindustan Unilever has reported a 11.5% growth in net profit.
Sales, however, grew at slow pace of 1.5% during the period.
The company said during the quarter, in a challenging context where market growth continued to be under pressure, its domestic consumer business grew at 2%.
The profit after tax before exceptional items grew by 9%.
The crew members of Expedition 49 on the International Space Station (ISS) will return to Earth after completing 115 days in space since their launch in July this year. The three astronauts will depart from the orbital outpost on 29th October.
According to NASA, Expedition 49 Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the space station and land in Kazakhstan.
Six medallists from the 2008 Beijing Olympics were among nine competitors to fail drug tests as part of an International Olympic Committee campaign of retesting stored samples.
The list of athletes to have their medals stripped includes Ukraine`s Olha Korobka, Belarus`s Nastassia Novikava, Andrei Rybakou, wrestlers Soslan Tigiev of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan`s Taimuraz Tigiyev and the sixth medallist was Russia’s Ekaterina Volkova.
All six tested positive for the steroid turinabol.