Four U.S. Marines took the witness stand Tuesday at the murder trial of their comrade accused of killing a local transgender woman in the Philippines, lawyers who attended the closed-door proceedings said.

The American servicemen were asked to testify on what the defendant, Private First Class Joseph Pemberton, had told them shortly after the October 24, 2014 killing, the lawyers said.

Three Muslim militants and a soldier were killed in the southern Philippines on Thursday when government troops raided a bomb factory of an Al-Qaida-linked group, a military official said.

The troops encountered about 30 armed members of the Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group in the southern island of Basilan, resulting in a four-hour gun battle, said Navy Captain Roy Vincent Trinidad, chief of a special security task force.

At least 28 people were killed and dozens more feared dead after a fire tore through a factory producing flip-flops in the Philippine capital Manila on Wednesday, the city's fire marshal said.

Firemen said they counted 28 bodies but were only able to retrieve three as the gutted building threatened to collapse after the blaze, which began before noon (0400 GMT), destroyed the building.

Beijing expressed anger Wednesday after reports the United States was considering ramping up its military presence in disputed South China Sea waters and confronting Chinese territorial claims with ships and aircraft.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter asked staff to explore sending Navy surveillance aircraft and vessels to islands which Washington believes have been rapidly built up by China in recent months, the Wall Street Journal said Tuesday, citing officials.

Two Japanese destroyers and one of the Philippines' newest warships began historic naval exercises in the flashpoint South China Sea on Tuesday, showcasing a deepening alliance aimed at countering a rising China.

The day-long war games, the first bilateral naval exercises between the former World War II enemies, took place less than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from a Philippine-claimed shoal now under Chinese control.

Typhoon Noul crashed into the southern Japanese island chain of Okinawa Tuesday, after killing two people in the Philippines, bringing surging waves and howling winds as it headed towards the mainland.

Heavy rain and gale-force gusts were lashing a wide swathe of the archipelago, television footage showed, as pedestrians struggled with their umbrellas and scurried for shelter.

Pakistan on Monday handed one of its highest civilian awards to two foreign ambassadors killed in a helicopter crash in a remote northern valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan region.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced the award at a memorial ceremony held in Islamabad on Tuesday, saying it would also be conferred to the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors, killed in the same incident. 

Two people were killed after a powerful storm grazed the country's northeastern tip over the weekend, civil defense officials said Monday.

Many of the people who evacuated from the storm's path started to return home late Sunday night, after Noul -- the fourth and strongest storm to hit the Philippines so far this year -- whipped coastal villages with wind gusts of up to 220 kilometers (137 miles) per hour.

The Philippines' navy chief said Sunday it would hold a joint exercise with Japan in the South China Sea, but emphasized the collaboration was unrelated to China's land reclamation efforts in the disputed waters.

Two warships from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) will take part in the exercise with a single Philippine ship after making a port call in the Philippines this month, said Vice Admiral Jesus Millan.

More than 2,000 people were fleeing their homes as Typhoon Noul struck the northern Philippines Sunday, triggering warnings of possible flash floods, landslides and tsunami-like storm surges.

The storm's movement has slowed slightly but it has also strengthened to pack gusts of 220 kilometers (137 miles) per hour, said Esperanza Cayanan, chief of the government's weather monitoring division.