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July 4, 2011 | AP

Police officers watch in the background as protest leader Elly Pamatong burns a mock Chinese flag during a brief Fourth-of-July protest at the US Embassy on Monday July 4, 2011 to call for US support in the Philippines' claim of the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea. The Spratlys, a chain of barren, largely uninhabited islands, reefs and banks in the South China Sea are claimed wholly by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and partly by the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. The islands are believed to be atop vast oil and gas deposits. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)