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China Conducts Military Patrol in South China Sea, Warns Philippines

A China Navy Ship with bow number 574 observes the Philippines United States Japan Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity off a disputed South China Sea shoal on Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
A China Navy Ship with bow number 574 observes the Philippines United States Japan Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity off a disputed South China Sea shoal on Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
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China Conducts Military Patrol in South China Sea, Warns Philippines

A China Navy Ship with bow number 574 observes the Philippines United States Japan Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity off a disputed South China Sea shoal on Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)
A China Navy Ship with bow number 574 observes the Philippines United States Japan Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity off a disputed South China Sea shoal on Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP)

China's military said it had conducted a patrol in the South China Sea on Friday, the day US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reaffirmed Washington's commitment to Manila, which disputes some of Beijing's claims in the waterway.

A spokesman for the Southern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army said on Saturday that the Philippines frequently enlisted foreign countries to organize "joint patrols" and "disseminated illegal claims" in the region, destabilizing the area.

Hegseth met his counterpart Gilberto Teodoro and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Friday in Manila, the first stop on a tour of Asia that also includes Japan. The same day, the United States, Japan and the Philippines held naval drills in the South China Sea.

The Philippine embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

China claims almost all the South China Sea - through which $3 trillion in commerce moves annually - overlapping with sovereignty claims by the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei.

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Ukraine Pounds Kursk with Drones, Killing One and Injuring Nine, Russia Says 

A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Pounds Kursk with Drones, Killing One and Injuring Nine, Russia Says 

A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)
A Russian flag flies in front of a culture center damaged by a missile attack, what local authorities called a Ukrainian military strike, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the town of Rylsk in the Kursk region, Russia, March 19, 2025. (Reuters)

Kyiv forces hit Russia's Kursk region that borders Ukraine with dozens of drones, killing an elderly woman, injuring nine people and sparking fires in several buildings in the region's administrative center, Russian authorities said on Tuesday.

The Russian defense ministry, which releases data only on how many drones its forces destroy not how many Ukraine launches, said 109 drones were downed over the Kursk region overnight.

"Kursk has been subjected to a massive enemy attack overnight," the Kursk region administration said in a post on Telegram messaging app.

"Unfortunately, an 85-year-old woman died."

A multi-storey apartment building was damaged as a result of the drone attack, with several flats catching fire, acting mayor of Kursk, Sergei Kotlyarov said on Telegram. Residents have been evacuated to a nearby school, he added.

The region's administration posted photos of a multi-storey apartment building with blown out windows and fire damage to the facade. Drones also hit an ambulance garage, damaging 11 cars, it said.

On Monday evening, three people were killed in the region as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, officials said.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war, which Russia launched with a full-scale invasion on Ukraine more than three years ago. But thousands of civilians have died in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.

Kursk and other Russian regions on the border with Ukraine have been subject to frequent air and land attack by Kyiv forces who say their goal is to undermine Moscow's overall war efforts.

Ukrainian troops last year staged a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region of which the city of Kursk is the administrative center. Ukrainian forces still remain in parts of the region, although Russian forces have recaptured much lost territory.

The attack follows a Russian missile and bomb attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy over the weekend that killed 35 people and injured at least 119.