Illegally-Acquired Marcos Properties To Be Sold

The Philippines has finally decided last 18 January to sell off the stolen properties worth some 65.8 million pesos (US$ 1.5 million) seized from the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

The seven properties, seized in 2012, consist of land in the resort towns of Tagaytay, south of Manila, as well as in Puerto Galera and Calapan that were under the ownership of Marcos ally Jolly Bugarin, then the head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), a statement said.

Dutch Are Against Cowardly Male Migrants

Clashes erupted last 18 January in a small Dutch town during violent protests against the planned opening of a center for asylum seekers, Dutch media and officials said.

In a repeat of scenes seen in several Dutch towns and villages since late last year amid growing tensions over record numbers of migrants, police intervened to disperse about 1,000 people who rallied in central Heesch.

Germany Starts Sending Back Illegals

Germany has finally started to refuse Muslim migrants entry at its southern border by sending them back to Austria every day since the beginning of the month, Austrian police said last 11 January.

Attacks on women in Cologne and other German cities on New Year's Eve have prompted hundreds of complaints, with police suspicion resting on asylum seekers, putting pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her open-door migrant policy.

Cologne Women Wants Safe Streets

Around 500 women staged a noisy protest last 9 January in the German city of Cologne against a shocking rash of sexual violence during New Year's festivities that was blamed on migrants, AFP reports.

Carrying signs bearing slogans like "No violence against women," "No means no! It's the law! Stay off of us!" and "Illegal Migrants Go Home," the women banged pots and blew whistles as they rallied outside Cologne's famed Gothic cathedral.

Let the Deportation Begin

U.S. immigration agents conducted the first raids this year targeting the deportation of families who flocked across the United States' southern border over the past two years, a senior government official said last 4 January.

Jeh Johnson, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that the 121 illegal migrants and foreign criminals were rounded up during raids in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina were primarily members of Central American families that crossed into the U.S. via Mexico since May 2014. Most were placed in family detention centers in Texas to await deportation.