WASHINGTON – Parents who let their kids romp in the mud and eat food that has fallen on the floor could be helping to protect them against maladies like heart disease later in life, a US study showed Wednesday.

COPENHAGEN – Developing nations at the UN climate conference rejected as “insignificant” on Friday an EU pledge of 7.2 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars) to help them tackle global warming.

COMMENTARY MANILA, Philippines – What shalle we do with gold? The highly vulnerable countries like the small-island states and the Philippines are now suffering irreversible damage and irreparable injury as a result of climate change.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) yesterday urged the labor and management sectors to adjust work standards to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change not only on workers but also on business and economy.

GOVERNMENT financial institutions (GFIs) have released as much as P170.3 billion in loans for nearly 150,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) under the SULONG Program since 2004, according to SB Corp., the program’s lead convenor.

Taiwan proposes two international cooperation schemes on combating and mitigating climate change. Climate change caused by human activity-induced global warming is one of the toughest challenges the world is facing. Through more than two decades of international cooperation, Taiwan has been successfully introducing advanced policies and technologies into its environmental protection infrastructure.

FIRST, it looked like the division of the house in the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was clearly between the rich, developed nations and the poor, economically and industrially developing nations together with the poor, rather economically and industrially underdeveloped nations. To simplify the dichotomy:

Dear PAO, I am an employee of a private company for three years now. I would like to know if I am still entitled to a full 13th-month pay even if I will be on maternity leave for two months. Our human resource department said my benefit would be pro-rated. It is my understanding that…

The Philippines has graduated from a low-income country category to the lower middle-income country category, making it eligible for a multimillion-dollar grant from the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), the Department of Foreign Affairs reported Thursday.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday warned anew about the dangers of unprotected sex and intravenous use of illegal drug amid the alarming increase of HIV/AIDS cases in the Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines – To further uphold the rights of consumers, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is proposing changes in some provisions in the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers.

The rising number of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines has prompted an advisory from the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Manila to clinics conducting medical exams to Filipino workers bound for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman to intensify its tests and screening for workers to be deployed to the Middle East countries.

In the faint hope that presidential candidates may listen, I will suggest a few goals that they should commit to if they become president. They should do so through a publicly-signed, notarized document, now, so we know they are committed.

HOME Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund) warned employers that have yet to register with it, or have failed to collect contributions from their employees or remit the same to the agency, to comply with the law by the end of this month.

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the Philippines is the only Southeast Asian country to have recorded an increase in the absolute number of poor people since 1990.

CONSUMER confidence has flagged since October this year, with the sentiment expected to remain subdued well into the first quarter of 2010, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

On International Human Rights Day December 10, a United Nations official criticized the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for denying the petition of gays and lesbians to accredit a sectoral party and dismissed fears about martial law imposed in Maguindanao.

(Excerpts from the keynote speech of Dr. Felizardo Y. Francisco, Director IV, CHED, Office of Programs and Standards, at the 35th Annual General Assembly Meeting of the Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions [PAMI] held at AMOSUP Hospital Building, Davao City on December 5)

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday that foreign portfolio investments inflow registered in the first 11 months of the year amounted to $431.42 million on the back of sustained remittances, strong international reserves, healthy banking system, robust corporate earnings, and rising price of gold.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday extended the government’s $700 billion financial bailout fund to October next year, saying the economy still faced “significant challenges.”

MANILA, Philippines – Foreign direct investments (FDI) climbed by 6.8 percent in the first nine months of the year amid higher equity infusions and robust reinvested earnings, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

WASHINGTON – The Philippines was thwarted in its bid to get a multimillion-dollar grant from the US Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) for failing to meet performance benchmarks, particularly control of corruption, but was allowed to continue the process of developing a compact grant in 2010.

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MANILA, Philippines – Senator Panfilo Lacson revealed that more than P568 million has been used to fund at least eight non-working call centers for the “Patrol 117” hotline last year.

MANILA, Philippines–The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will likely keep its policy rates at current record lows until the middle of 2010 to further boost the economy, which is seen to recover only modestly from the impact of the global economic crunch.

MANILA, Philippines—Global food prices are on the rise again, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday, with the agency’s Food Price Index registering four straight months of increases.

MANILA, Philippines—The rising number of HIV and AIDS cases in the country has so worried the Saudi embassy here that it advised medical clinics processing overseas Filipino workers bound for Middle East countries to intensify medical exams and screening for workers to be deployed there, it was learned Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines–Household spending in overseas remittance-rich Philippines as well as around Asia is rebounding in a big way despite the recent global financial turmoil—and the boom appears sustainable, according to British banking giant HSBC.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Budget and Management on Thursday said all national government workers will get an additional P7,000 as Christmas bonus starting next week.