SINGAPORE: Asian governments need to roll out fresh stimulus measures to stop their economies from sinking further as the region reels from collapsing exports, regional analysts said.

CONGRESS will invoke its oversight powers to stop private schools from unduly increasing tuition at this time of crisis, an official said yesterday.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) – The research firm IDC said Thursday that worldwide personal computer shipments fell 1.9 percent during the fourth quarter and projected an 8 percent drop in the first half of the year.

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – Two still unidentified gunmen shot dxCC Radio Mindanao Network broadcaster Nilo Labares late Thursday night, the latest in a series of media figures targeted, according to police.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. unemployment rate rose to a 25-year high of 8.1 percent in February as employers, buckling under the strain of a severe recession, axed 651,000 jobs, government data showed on Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – Six of the largest military hospitals in Saudi Arabia are in need of more than 4,000 healthcare professionals, technicians and medical personnel, making it the biggest market for overseas Filipino workers, a recruitment leader said yesterday.

WHILE some companies in South Korea are replacing Filipinos with local workers to cut labor cost, this is the exception rather than the rule, South Korean Ambassador Choi Joong Kyung said yesterday.

CEBU, Philippines – To help ease the impact of climate change, Cebu City Councilor Nestor Archival wants to include the school curriculums a subject on environment.

MANILA, Philippines – Metro Manila was ranked seventh “most vulnerable” to climate change among provinces and districts in Southeast Asia.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has expressed concern over the growing number of Filipinos losing their jobs as it admitted that the government does not have enough back-up plans for these retrenched workers.

Mining companies in the Philippines are cutting staff, putting some projects on hold and scrambling for cash as the global crisis financial drags down commodities prices, industry officials say. The economic slowdown could not have come at a worse time for the resource-rich southeast Asian country, which had been trying to rebuild the mining industry…

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Unidentified gunmen shot and wounded a broadcaster in the latest attack on journalists in the southern Philippines.

Metro Manila is the seventh most vulnerable to climate change among 132 provinces or districts in Southeast Asia, according to a new study.

Mining companies in the Philippines are cutting staff, putting some projects on hold and scrambling for cash as the global crisis drags down prices commodities, industry officials said.

22M women globally face retrenchments–ILO   Local job losses are outpacing the number of laid-off overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)—and causing greater worry for the government—the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – Citigroup expects the Philippines to post a budget deficit of P197 billion this year or 2.4 percent of the country’s total economic output.

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Two men were buried alive while digging for the foundation of a house they were building in Alicia, Isabela Wednesday morning. Authorities said the bodies of Marlon Callawit, 27, and a certain Berlito were retrieved hours after the cave-in. – Charlie Lagasca, Philippine Star

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Two men were buried alive while digging for the foundation of a house they were building in Alicia, Isabela Wednesday morning.

MANILA, Philippines – The business process outsourcing industry is projecting a 200 percent increase in jobs this year as the world’s biggest companies struggle to cut down on costs by outsourcing some of their operations to countries like the Philippines where labor is cheaper.

Economists call it the underground economy. I think the more descriptive term is guerilla economy. Even after an economic crisis melts into a more normal economy, significant portions of our people remain in underground economy mode. It is as if we are in a perpetual state of war. I guess we are… war on poverty.

MANILA, Philippines – Around a third of the pre-need companies operating in the country are forecast to wind down operations and just focus on servicing existing clients rather than continue to compete for a shrinking base of customers, an industry source said.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The United States spiraled deeper into recession to start 2009, forcing widespread cutbacks and layoffs among everyone from blue-collar workers that once churned out construction equipment to white-collar professionals like business consultants and accountants.

MANILA, Philippines – With a vision to make the country a world-class tourism capital, the Senate ratified last Thursday the Tourism Act of 2009 before it adjourned its session for a five-week Holy Week break.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), may grow between 3.8 percent and 4.3 percent this year, an economist from the University of Asia and the Pacific (UAP) told an economic forum yesterday.

As usual, the government’s plan to set up a stimulus package for pump priming our economy and cushioning the impact of the global financial meltdown has become controversial. Critics once more express fears that it may just be another political gimmick in preparation for the coming 2010 elections. And since the funds for the package…

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo appealed yesterday to the members of the judiciary to swiftly resolve human rights cases in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines slid five notches lower in the 2009 Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report, released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The House appropriations committee approved yesterday a P100-million allocation for a new study on the viability of commissioning the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP).

A wannabe-philosopher friend once asked me what would happen if a cockroach fell into a bathtub filled with soapy water. Would the cockroach become clean, or would the water become dirty?

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) decided yesterday to cut its key rates by another 25 basis points, the third reduction in policy rates since December.