SINGAPORE — A scheme training Filipino women to efficiently run neighborhood stores grabbed top prize at an global UN-sponsored contest aimed at empowering impoverished women in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

NEW YORK — Outsourcing of services has been a persistent cause of panic and protectionism in recent years, especially in the United States since the 2004 presidential election. Back then, the Democratic candidate, Sen. John Kerry, upon hearing that digital x-rays had been outsourced from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for examination by radiologists in…

Banana exporters in Mindanao are worried over the rising value of the peso against the US dollar, saying it is making them less competitive in the world market.

As the world awaits what happens in Libya and seeks diversion from gloomy predictions about the global economy, it preoccupies itself with the most recent development in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn saga. This week, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office moved to drop rape charges against the former chief of the International Monetary Fund.

REAL wages in the Philippines have stagnated over the past two decades as the monopolies have been taking advantage of the large supply of job seekers fighting for a few jobs in the country, the Asian Development Bank says in a report.

LAWMAKERS on Monday night urged the government to impose family planning on the recipients of government handouts under its P39.8-billion dole program after Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the average number of children among the poor beneficiaries was five.

MANILA, Philippines – Japanese firms are looking at the Philippines as an alternative manufacturing site following the disasters that hit Japan months ago, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Some groups backing the Reproductive Health (RH) bill are for abortion and are part of a movement seeking to eliminate the world’s poor people. Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III expressed this concern on Tuesday, the second day of Senate debates on the controversial measure. In particular, Sotto mentioned the Family Planning…

MANILA, Philippines — Beginning September 1, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will apply a new rate payment according to illness in 11 medical and 12 surgical cases in all accredited healthcare institutions nationwide.

ALU News Release Ban asbestos campaign gathers students’ signatures to hasten approval of Ban Asbestos Bills HB 896 & SB 89 23 August 2011, Quezon City— The Associated Labor Unions’ (ALU) advocacy on asbestos begins today to hold a series of lectures to senior public high school students in Quezon City about the risks of…

After pocketing P5 million in a government check handed out by the government’s chief peace negotiator Dean Marvic Leonen, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front negotiating panel flatly rejected yesterday the government’s counter-proposal on how to resolve the conflict between the government and the MILF, ending the resumption of the peace talks a day ahead of…

THE communists on Sunday accused the Aquino administration of “scuttling the peace negotiations” by rejecting their offer to hold formal talks in Oslo next month.

Two reports, released one after the other by financial and economic think tanks that have found Manila nearly the cheapest city worldwide when it comes to cost of living, come with a downside: they also disclose that Manila has low wage and purchasing power levels. They indicate that while Manila may be a boon to…

NEW YORK—Baby boomers heading into what used to be called retirement age are providing a 70 million-member strong market for legions of companies, entrepreneurs and cosmetic surgeons eager to capitalize on their “forever young” mind-set, whether it’s through wrinkle creams, face-lifts or workout regimens.

It takes a lot of courage and political will for politicians to embrace causes unpopular to the Catholic Church. Traditionally, most politicians have safely avoided antagonizing the Church for fear of losing votes.

THE country’s fish production may decline by 5 percent this year following the government’s imposition of conservation measures, an official said over the weekend.

THE congressional allies of President Benigno Aquino III are headed for a clash today with Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman over when the government will end its multi-billion-peso dole program and how many recipients there should be.

SYDNEY, Australia – Australian scientists gazing billions of years back in time with powerful radio telescopes on Monday warned that the universe’s lights — the stars — were quite literally running out of gas.

MOBILE and fixed broadband service in Philippines remains a luxury for majority of Filipinos despite falling prices, according to Ovum.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said on Monday the deployment ban of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Libya remains despite the possible end of hostilities there.

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine exporters are maintaining their 10-percent growth target for 2011 despite the financial crisis in the United States, as they bank on the rising share of the Asian emerging markets in the country’s total exports to improve revenues.

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) had started a company-wide information drive about the spin-off program after its workers’ union rejected management’s offer for a dialog.

MANILA, Philippines – The dramatic expansion of both the office sector and shopping and mixed-use developments in the Philippines in the last decade has attracted the interest of key investors attending a recent Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) Singapore chapter meeting in the island state.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported yesterday more than 26,000 aliens are presently studying in various schools throughout the country, making the Philippines as the major education center for foreign students.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang has appealed to the Philippine Airlines Employees’ Association (PALEA) not to go on strike and instead go through the proper legal processes to settle their dispute with the national flag carrier.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte yesterday said that the House of Representatives is going to push through with the proposed amendments to the economic provisions of the Constitution even as an ongoing survey among lawmakers showed that there are currently 68 percent or 153 lawmakers who are in favor of amending the Charter.

MANILA, Philippines – Many workers in Metro Manila are now leaving their jobs to seek better ones. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday that employment opportunities remained bright in Metro Manila despite the closure of commercial establishments in the region. Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said DOLE records showed more workers quit their…

About 85 percent of the total 17,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) working in Syria were undocumented and were illegally recruited and victims of human trafficking, according to Blas Ople Policy Center (BOPC).

A ranking member of the House of Representatives yesterday junked the results of a survey claiming that at least 90 percent of respondents believed that Congress and the Judiciary are not doing their best in the fight against corruption.

For continuously failing to solve our country’s poverty problem, some members of Congress and the Executive seem to be bent on intruding into, instead of protecting the more personal aspects of the citizens’ life — marriage and family. Aside from the RH bill, they are now proposing a Divorce bill.