- As Global stocks mixed amid Korea jitters
The U.S. said on Tuesday that it was providing 15 million dollars in aid for the southern Philippine city of Marawi, which has been ruined by months of fighting between troops and Islamic State-allied militants.
U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, said the assistance would support emergency relief operations and long-term rehabilitation programmes for Marawi City, 800 kilometres south of Manila.
“We all look forward to the end of the crisis, and the end of the fighting and suffering,” he said at a news conference in Manila.
“We have been and will continue to support the Philippine government’s efforts to deal with the crisis,’ Kim said.
He said about a quarter of the assistance would be earmarked for the delivery of such relief supplies as safe drinking water, hygiene kits and shelter materials for more than 600,000 people displaced by the conflict in Marawi City.
The rest of the aid would focus on restoring basic public services such as health care, water and electricity, kick-starting livelihood projects, and promoting community programmes to counter violent extremism.
Troops are making a push to end the conflict that began on May 23 when hundreds of militants attacked Marawi City after government forces tried to arrest a local leader of the Islamic State terrorist movement.
The conflict has left more than 840 people dead, including 136 soldiers and 620 militants.
The terrorists have also executed 45 civilians, while 40 people have died from illnesses in evacuation centres.
The fighting is now concentrated in the centre of Marawi City, where buildings, houses and other infrastructure have been destroyed amid airstrikes, heavy artillery fire and bombings during the conflict.
Meanwhile, stock markets were subdued on Tuesday after South Korean warships carried out military exercises amid tensions over North Korea’s weekend nuclear test explosion.
Tokyo and Seoul indexes closed lower earlier, but Germany’s DAX was up 0.6 percent to 12,172 and France’s CAC 40 0.1 percent higher at 5,106 after a survey showed the eurozone economy is growing at a robust pace.
London’s FTSE 100 was flat at 7,411 after a similar survey of business activity showed a slowdown. On Wall Street, which had been closed on Monday for Labor Day, futures for the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor’s 500 index were off 0.2 percent.
South Korean warships conducted live-fire exercises at sea following U.S. warnings of a “massive military response” after North Korea’s biggest nuclear test to date. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting and American Ambassador Nikki Haley said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is “begging for war “The rhetoric on North Korea has stepped up a gear, or maybe two,” Rob Carnell of ING said in a report.
“Markets are not as panicky as you might expect against this background, though the direction is as one would expect.” Carnell noted news reports that Japan plans to evacuate its citizens from South Korea if U.S. military action appeared likely. “So packed planes from Seoul heading to Tokyo might be our first clue that a U.S. strike is coming,” he said.
ASIA’S DAY: Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 percent to close at 19,385.81 and Seoul’s Kospi lost 0.1 percent to 2,326.62.
The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.4 percent to 3,384.32 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.1 percent to 27,741.35. India’s Sensex advanced 0.3 percent to 31,807.05 and benchmarks in Taiwan and Southeast Asia also gained. Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 was unchanged at 5,706.20 while New Zealand declined.
Benchmark U.S. crude gained 62 cents to $47.91 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 6 cents on Monday to close at $47.29. Brent crude, used to price international oils, advanced 24 cents to $52.58 in London. It fell 41 cents the previous session to $52.34.
The dollar declined to 109.35 yen from Monday’s 109.72 yen. The euro edged down to $1.1893 from $1.1897.
Additional report from ABC
