BANGKOK: Southeast Asian nations and key regional partners will use a summit next week to discuss their follow-up to a G20 plan to lift the world out of recession, Thailand’s premier said Sunday.

THE bad loan ratio of universal and commercial banks edged up in January this year as the amount of non-performing debt rose amid a drop in total outstanding loans, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. has urged the Arroyo administration to take appropriate measures needed for the early resolution of and to improve conviction rate of unsolved murder cases involving media people.

Labor Day is happening in a few weeks’ time. And because we are a country that unfortunately has this habit of making grand, dramatic— sometimes, token—actions to coincide with special occasions instead of putting in place programs that are sustainable and that produce lasting results, government has been quite busy putting together its annual package…

TAIPEI—Taiwan has cut the number of foreign workers and maids working on the island by 24,000 since November, as a result of the global economic slowdown, it was reported Sunday.

PRESIDENT Arroyo has ordered officials to look into the books of oil distributors following another round of increases in pump prices last week, which could have been unnecessary, an official said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) warned yesterday of deeper economic difficulty as a growing number of Filipino workers are getting laid off from their jobs abroad.

Seoul (ANTARA News/Asia Pulse) — Asian countries are expected to announce the details of a proposed credit guarantee body next month, aimed at bolstering regional debt markets, a high-ranking Seoul official said Sunday.

Alan Codizar’s family noticed the smell after two months of staying in their house in Catalunan Grande, a village about 5 kilometers from Davao City’s downtown area.

AO#199page1 in PDF format   AO#199page2 in PDF format

MALALAG, DAVAO DEL SUR, Philippines—The global recession continues to hurt international shipping companies, forcing them to have their ships berthed in ports with lower fees, a port official said Saturday.

With classes already ended in most schools, the next and last important function of the present school year is the commencement exercises. This used to be reserved only for the graduating students, but the ceremony is now performed on all scholastic levels, from the postgraduate, collegiate, secondary, intermediate, primary, and even the preparatory for the…

MANILA, Philippines — No amount of “stimulus package” from the government would be enough to help the poor at this time of crisis if individual Filipinos are not willing to do their part, according to Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales.

Oil players have added a new burden to the constantly increasing prices of fuel products, one peso on each liter of diesel fuel and on every liter of kerosene as well as 50 centavos on each liter of gasoline.

The leadership of the House of Representatives yesterday set in motion a fresh initiative to look into reports of syndicated smuggling of refined fuel products in various parts of the country which translates into yearly tax loss ranging from a low of P803 million and a high of P16 billion.

The US unemployment rate soared to a 25-year high in February after 651,000 jobs were lost as the economic downturn tightened its grip.

BEIJING (AP) — The G20 summit’s promise to Asia of money to help credit-starved exporters and a bigger voice in global finance should help the region revive growth, business leaders and economists said Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – The global market value of biotechnology crops reached $7.5 billion in 2008, up from $6.9 billion in 2007.

MANILA, Philippines – Shell companies in the Philippines (SciP) country chairman Edgar Chua joined major players from the business sector and non-government organisations (NGOs) in spearheading a project called “The Philippine Imperative”, which draws up a roadmap of solutions with adaptation and mitigation strategies to complement the efforts of the local and national government in…

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile filed yesterday a joint resolution urging President Arroyo to modify the existing compensation and position classification system of government employees to encourage civil servants to become more competitive.

MANILA, Philippines – Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has filed a bill seeking to lower government royalties from the use of indigenous sources of energy to bring down the cost of electricity to consumers from such sources.

MANILA, Philippines – Half of the estimated 12 million LPG tanks in use nationwide are considered defective and substandard, according to an official of the Directorate for Fire Safety and Prevention (DFSP).

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang said the Philippines’ inclusion in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) list of “uncooperative tax havens” is a wake-up call for officials, and called for prompt legislative action to get the country off the list.

The government is now preparing the anti-poverty proposal to be submitted to the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) after the Philippines became eligible to apply for a large-scale grants as a “Compact” level beneficiary of the US-government corporation.

The expansive grounds of the Meralco compound in Ortigas was recently transformed into a carnival setting for three days to celebrate the company’s 106th year and “Employees Week.” It turned out as a meaningful endeavor for its employees who pooled their resources in treating the streetchildren to a “Fun-tastic Friendship Fair.”

The effects of the global crisis on the employment of Filipino workers have bottomed out as displacements due to the crisis stood still with the return to their regular jobs of some 14,021 temporarily laid off workers and those under flexible work arrangements in 53 firms, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today said.

Illustration of electromagnetic frequency from www.weizmann.ac.il The information I am about to share may very well change your life significantly. Nothing esoteric. Just information. There’s this little boy who did not sleep well in his room … a family who couldn’t heal their candida infection … this lady who had consistent pains in her upper…

LONDON (AP) — Asian nations, who dominate the roster of industrializing economies, have won a greater say in salvaging and reshaping the global system that brought them unprecedented prosperity but now threatens to reverse that progress.

MANILA, Philippines – A top labor recruiter identified yesterday nurses and hotel workers as the most “unemployable” or those likely to end up jobless.

MANILA, Philippines – Businessmen are asking the government to delay a plan of opening up the local market by reducing taxes on imported goods.