Philippines

The last event on Jacinda Ardern's programme at the East Asia Summit in Manila was a late night meeting with controversial president Rodrigo Duterte who had high praise for New Zealand.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrived in Manila last night for the East Asia Summit, where she will be mixing with almost the same crew she met at Apec in Vietnam.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte taunted the head of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Saturday, asking if he was a paedophile because of his focus on the killing of teenagers in the government's bloody war on drugs.

The Philippine capital's police chief ordered that the entire 1200-member police force in one of Manila's biggest areas be relieved of duty and retrained on Friday (local time) in response to a series of controversies, including the killing of two teenagers.

At least 26 people died overnight in police operations in the Philippines capital Manila, authorities said on Thursday (local time), a second night of heavy bloodshed this week in an intensification of President Rodrigo Duterte's fierce war on drugs and crime.

At the beginning of the battle that has raged for the past 12 days in Marawi City at the southern end of the Philippines, dozens of Islamist militants stormed its prison, overwhelming the guards.

Police carried out killings in the Philippine city of Davao under the instruction of then mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the current president, according to a former policeman who said he was part of a "Davao death squad" tasked with eliminating criminals.