MANILA, Philippines—The Secretary General of ASEAN has called on the global community to act immediately on climate change issues to save the planet from irreversible damage due to global warming.

Residents of Davao City have filed a petition before the Supreme Court urging the high tribunal to order a stop to aerial spraying of pesticides and fungicides in banana plantations which they say pose a danger to their health.

These ending words from Rhett to Scarlet in the film classic Gone With the Wind fittingly summarizes the attitude of most males to the Reproductive Health, or RH bill Congress is deliberating on.

Here are the most common circumlocutions and their single-word equivalents:

STATE-OWNED Philippine National Railways (PNR) plans to privatize the operation and maintenance of the Caloocan to Alabang rail system and its Bicol line.

AS the government clears the debris generated by Typhoon Ondoy, the Philippines’ financial sector is beginning to see the extent of the damage on their balance sheet.

Jakarta – The 2015 deadline set by the United Nations Millennium Declaration to improve human development is fast approaching. Goals that 189 countries signed onto include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, and ensuring environmental sustainability by…

BANGKOK – The two-week climate talks here reached a sour ending yesterday, with tension rising between developed and developing countries amid failure of government negotiators from around 190 nations to firmly agree on fundamentals for a treaty that would ensure continued restraint on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as well as support for mitigation and adaptation…

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association (PIRA) revealed yesterday that initial claims for losses related to tropical storm “Ondoy” have reached P11 billion.

MANILA, Philippines – Billions of pesos worth of loans are at risk of ending up in default due to the devastation wrought by tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng.”

MANILA, Philippines – It would take nearly five months for floodwaters in communities around Laguna de Bay to recede even as over a million residents living around the lake continue to be at great risk of more destructive flooding if rains continue, officials warned yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is likely to miss its P30-billion revenue target from privatization this year because of poor investor appetite, a state-run think-tank said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – The European Commission (EC) has extended €3.9-million (about P270-million) technical assistance to the Philippine government to address extra-legal or extra-judicial killings.

Compostela Valley, Philippines—The female “baylan” was at the midpoint of the ritual when she suddenly stopped. She felt something had perched on her arm and her chants fell to an abrupt crescendo.

LOCAL insurers are likely to get hit with more than $236 million (nearly P10.8 billion) in non-life claims alone from the devastating floods caused by storm Ondoy, an industry association said yesterday.

To best position IT operations for success, CIOs must strive to find sustainable reductions in fixed IT costs. Here’s how. Reducing IT costs while improving IT capabilities may appear to be a paradox. But by focusing on fixed IT costs and following a strategy of sustained cost reduction, organizations can invest in new capabilities and…

The US economist widely credited with having predicted the financial crisis has warned we are already “planting the seeds of the next crisis”. Nouriel Roubini told the BBC that he is concerned about the growing gap between the “bubbly and frothy” stock markets and the real economy.

The eurozone economy has seen the worst of the recession and is “out of freefall”, the president of the European Central Bank has said. Jean-Claude Trichet added that the region was “stabilising” and was “expected to recover at a gradual pace” but that “uncertainty remains high”.

More than six in 10 Filipinos were dissatisfied with the performance of President Gloria Arroyo, results of the latest survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) said.

At least 400,000 squatters blocking key drainage channels of a giant lake on the edge of the Philippine capital need to be uprooted to fix Metro Manila’s flooding crisis, a government official said Thursday.

Europeans also to help Manila solve killings Instead of flushing out the around 100,000 undocumented Filipinos in Europe, the European Union (EU) plans to legalize their stay for helping keep the continent’s economy afloat amid the global economic crisis.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – The Philippine media took center stage in the just concluded general assembly of the Confederation of ASEAN Journalists (CAJ) held at the Nikko Hotel here from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, with the election to the regional vice presidency of National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC) president, Benny Diaz Antiporda.

MANILA, Philippines – Six out of 10 Filipinos remained dissatisfied with the performance of President Arroyo in the past three months, bringing down her new net satisfaction rating to a “bad” -38 as discontent worsened outside the capital and across all economic classes, the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

MANILA, Philippines – The Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC) upgraded yesterday its 2009 and 2010 economic growth forecasts for the Philippines as Asian economies are set to lead global economic recovery.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government continues to lag behind its target to reduce poverty by the end of 2015, the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang believes the rehabilitation of Metro Manila and nearby provinces will take several years and billions of pesos. Presidential economic spokesman Gary Olivar said the size of the problem is of national concern as displaced families from calamity-hit areas and those living in flood-prone areas must be permanently relocated.

Customers can expect lower charges, no cut-off notices in their power and water bills as utilities join relief agencies to lessen the damage in calamity-hit communities.

MANILA, Philippines—Vice President Noli de Castro has announced a three-month moratorium on loan payments to the Home Development Mutual Fund, better known as Pag-IBIG Fund, as additional relief assistance for members whose homes were damaged by Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana).

MANILA, Philippines—After receiving dole-outs for more than a week, victims of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana) in Metro Manila will be given a chance to earn a living.

The country is expected to miss development targets set under the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations (UN) mainly as a result of increasing poverty and corruption under the watch of President Arroyo.