PHILIPPINES: China will not be allowed to remove a Philippine military outpost from a disputed South China Sea shoal, a navy official said today, a day after four Filipino navy personnel were injured in a confrontation between Chinese and Philippine ships.

In Manila, officials summoned a Chinese diplomat to receive a strong protest over Tuesday’s confrontation off Second Thomas Shoal, where a small Filipino navy contingent has guarded a stranded warship since the 1990s.

VENEZUELA: This year’s presidential election will take place on July 28, the birthday of the late leader Hugo Chavez, officials announced on Tuesday.
Incumbent Nicolas Maduro is widely expected to seek re-election, but main opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has been banned from standing after a January ruling by Venezuela’s top court upheld an earlier administrative decision.

SPAIN: Four migrants have been found dead and 64 rescued after a boat from Mauritania reached the Canary Islands.

The migrants arrived on the island of El Hierro on Tuesday night, with the survivors including two women and nine children, Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said.

Two were hospitalised in Tenerife, while 14 were taken to a local hospital.

POLAND: Farmers and their supporters staged their most violent protest to date today, with some throwing stones at police and trying to push through barriers around parliament, injuring several officers.

Over a dozen people were arrested.

Farmers are angry over EU climate policies and Ukrainian food imports that they say threaten their livelihoods.