BERLIN—A conference here made a breakthrough Sunday after delegates approved in plenary to ask the United Nations’ 179 members to legalize abortion as a mode of family planning, provide universal access to contraceptives, and uphold sex workers’ rights.

CINCINNATI (AP) – President Barack Obama declared yesterday that modern benefits like paid leave, minimum wage and Social Security “all bear the union label,” as he appealed to unions to help him win the health care fight in Congress.

MANILA, Philippines—The International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations’ arm for labor concerns, is sending a fact-finding mission to the Philippines to investigate complaints of trade-union rights violations in the country.

MANILA, Philippines — As the global financial crisis continue to wreak havoc across the global, companies in Australia might lay off foreign migrant workers, including Filipinos, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith said.

The Supreme Court has exempted indigent clients of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) from payment of legal fees. The High Court, in a 25-page resolution penned by Associate Renato Corona, approved the Rule on the Exemption from the Payment of Legal Fees of the Clients of the National Committee on Legal Aid (NCLA)…

Together with Union Impresores de Filipinas (UIF) president Alfredo Pullarca and Union Network International-Philippine Liaison Council (UNI-PLC) chairman Angelito Calderon, National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC) legal counsel and auditor Berteni “Toto” Causing administered the oath of office of the newly elected officers of the Kapisanan ng mga Kawani ng Koreo sa Pilipinas (KKKP…

The dramatic events which happened on Sept. 1 at the Club Filipino, where Mar Roxas, quoting from a speech of his grandfather, Manuel A. Roxas, the first president of the Republic, said he was putting “Country above self,” tossed the baton of leadership and, effectively, the presidential nomination, to the junior senator from Tarlac, Benigno…

The government yesterday blamed communist rebels of scuttling the resumption of Norwegian-brokered peace negotiations due to “unreasonable” demands by the armed group.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has cast doubt on the strength of any US economic recovery, warning it may be hit by a “double-dip” recession.

The Magna Carta of Women (MCW) has been enacted at last. It not only reinforces the existing laws’ command to the government, national and local, to physically protect women and girl-children, it also promotes the welfare of marginalized women and enumerates the rights that women have and the state must make sure no ones deprives…

More than 45 million registered voters are expected to vote in the 2010 elections, an official from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said Monday.

Fewer poor Filipinos are seeking treatment from private and government hospitals because of costlier medicines and healthcare services, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study said.

I received so many e-mails for my previous article on “The top 20 healthiest foods.” This time, let’s look at the opposite side of the coin. It’s the “unhealthy” or fatty foods we can’t resist eating, maybe because they’re sweet and succulent or we’re simply adventurous. Let’s start our list with number 10.

MANILA, Philippines -Dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) may dwindle and this could be a threat to economic growth, Nomura International Ltd. said in a report released during the weekend.

MANILA, Philippines – The Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, Inc. (CMP) warned yesterday that continued protests by some anti-mining groups “would send a wrong signal to investors interested in putting capital not only in mining, but in other ventures as well.”

MANILA, Philippines – To protect departing overseas Filipino workers from paying excessive fees, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) rejected a proposed congressional measure for the adoption of a compulsory liability insurance scheme for all OFWs.

MANILA, Philippines – There is no more P10-billion economic stimulus fund in the proposed budget of P1.541 trillion for next year.

CEBU, Philippines – Hundreds of workers have been retrenched by four garment factories at the Mactan Export Processing Zone, including Metrowear, Mactan Apparel, Fedder Apparel, and Global.

LONDON – FINANCIAL markets are likely to remain buffeted by uncertainty over government policy despite an unprecedented pledge by the world’s top finance officials to cooperate as the global economy emerges from recession.

The lingering global crisis has bought enough time to build new power plants in Luzon and Mindanao that was anticipated earlier to suffer electricity shortages very soon.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has helped set up Local Councils for the Protection of Children (LCPCs) in 24,093 barangays nationwide (covering 54 provinces, 101 cities and 963 towns) as of June 2009, as part of its heightened campaign to uphold the welfare and rights of Filipino minors.

A year after Lehman collapse WASHINGTON, D.C.: A year ago, the financial system appeared to be on the brink of a meltdown and the future of American-style capitalism in doubt.

EXPORTERS are shifting their focus to Asian markets as the US, Japan and Europe took a hit from the global financial crisis, an official of the Philippine Exporters Confederation (Philexport) said.“With recession hitting three of our top markets—US, Japan and Europe—we shifted marketing promotions to fast-growing Asia, particularly India and China,” Aniano Bagabaldo, Philexport executive…

PETALING JAYA – INDONESIA’S demand that its maids be paid a minimum RM800 (S$326) monthly salary has hit a raw nerve among Malaysians.

Mr Trichet (left) noted that central bankers from industrialised and emerging economies meeting at the Bank for International Settlements agreed that ‘we were observing a confirmation of some better indicators than previously anticipated.’

Internet in the Philippines (First of two parts) MANILA, Philippines – Internet use in the Philippines remains free, with most, if not all form of content, becoming available to all 24 million or so Internet users, about half of them below the age of 19.

Subic, Zambales, Philippines — House committee on labor and employment members have expressed appreciation for the implementation of work safety measures inside the Hanjin Heavy Industries Corp. (HHIC) shipyard in Subic, but said they wanted to see more improvement in labor safety inside the facility.

MANILA, Philippines – Agriculture Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla assured yesterday that the government would “maintain sufficient protection measures” for the agriculture sector.

MANILA, Philippines – It’s a bank, but it doesn’t make loans or pay interest on deposits.

This is a record third consecutive long weekend. And choosing my topic today inexorably brought me back to that oft-invoked but still misunderstood principle of Church-State separation which our Constitution says is inviolable (Article II Section 6). Obviously the reasons behind Malacañang’s declaration of September 7 (today) and September 21, 2009 as special non-working holidays…