WASHINGTON — MUCH ATTENTION IS BEING GIVEN TO the April 2 Summit Meeting in London of the leaders of countries represented in the so-called Group of Twenty (G-20), who describe themselves as an informal grouping of finance ministers and central bank governors of “systemically important” industrialized and developing economies.

MANILA, Philippines – Three helpers, including a 17-year-old girl, were almost roasted alive in a factory in Quezon City that caught fire Sunday night.

BERLIN – The European Union is poised to alter its southeast Asia trade policy to deal with individual members of the ASEAN trade alliance rather than with the bloc as a whole, a senior official said Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One in five U.S. workers say the recession is causing them mental health problems, as they battle anxiety and fear over the potential loss of their jobs, new research shows.

MANILA, Philippines – From world’s leading supplier of seafarers, the Philippines may soon become parking and dumping area for foreign vessels.

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has started implementing a program that provides indefinite visa to foreign investors and businessmen who employ at least 10 Filipino workers as part of the government’s job-generation strategy.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported yesterday that more overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) are getting jobs abroad rather than being retrenched even with the prevailing global economic crisis.

MANILA, Philippines — Exporters based in the Northern Mindanao region will maintain their employee numbers despite significant decline in sales, according to a survey by the Confederation of Philippine Exporters Foundation Region 10 Inc.

MANILA, Philippines — TECHNICALLY, YOU DO NOT CUT cost; you cut wastes or “unnecessary cost.”

MANILA, Philippines — IF YOU CAN’T BUILD IT, why not save on it? A power plant, that is.

MANILA, Philippines—Going green is not a luxury but a necessity, a member of the Philippine construction industry said during a construction expo here.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will greatly benefit from the approval of the ASEAN-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) because there are a lot of products that the local producers can sell to the European market, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is reportedly pushing for the delay of the full implementation of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) in light of the current global economic recession.

Before job-hunting abroad CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—Nursing board topnotcher Rosario Pasimio admits she’s looking forward to an overseas posting to help her family. But for now, she will serve as a nurse in the Philippine countryside.

MANILA, Philippines – Resigned Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG) president and chief operating officer Romero Quimbo said his resignation was not prompted by any political pressure but was a purely professional decision to pursue his political plans in Marikina in the 2010 election.

MANILA, Philippines — The head of the Quezon City Police District Traffic Enforcement Group wants passengers jeeps in the city to have a uniform length and size, saying the extended jeepney bodies were not safe and have been contributing to traffic problems.

MANILA, Philippines – Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms are still struggling to find qualified workers from the ranks of graduates of Philippine colleges and universities.

MANILA, Philippines – Taiwan has added the Philippines to its list of countries eligible for visa exemption.

MANILA, Philippines – Thousands of jobs await Filipino workers in South Korea and Canada, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

BALER, Aurora, Philippines – Nine Chinese nationals and two Filipinos were arrested by police after they were caught illegally hauling quarry sources along the coast in Casiguran, Aurora, police reported yesterday.

Sablan, Benguet, Philippines – Already cold dead, 20-year-old Jeffrey Kayachen was dug up by rescuers from the boulders and concrete of the rip-rap wall they were constructing here on Friday afternoon.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines’ dream to become the region’s business process outsourcing (BPO) hub may soon become a reality with the coming onstream of a $250-million new international submarine cable network that promises to provide faster and more resilient connectivity to the world.

Over the last century, the forest area in the Philippines has fallen from 21 million hectares in 1900 to just less than 6 million in 1996 (DENR 2002). As recorded, large area of forestlands were already converted to tree plantation, mining and marginal upland agriculture which gave a 200,000 hectares per year deforestation rate in…

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) today debunked criticisms that its conduct of job fairs is just a plain show or gimmick, saying that it, in fact, solicited a total of 1.34 million job vacancies from January to November last year.

IN GOOD TIMES or bad, people go out to drink, either to celebrate or get totally wasted. Either way, club and bar owners have always had it good.

TACLOBAN CITY – Thirty-three students from Guinsaugon in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte who were orphaned by the landslide that destroyed their village in 2006 have graduated from high school.

TO FOREIGNERS, it must strike as amazing that it is only now – in the closing years of the first decade of the 21st century – that we Filipinos are venturing into automating or computerizing our election system. What is even more amazing is that we are the oldest democracy in Asia!

THERE are three automated systems being considered for the 2010 elections.

THE BILL “Mandating the Immediate Rehabilitation, Commissioning, and Commercial Operation of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant” is moot. There’s no way that it could and should be executed.

MANILA, Philippines – Don’t be choosy, take the emergency job.