One in four young people in poor countries cannot read single sentence: UN...
UNITED NATIONS: One in four young people in poor countries are unable to read a single sentence, a UN report said on Wednesday, focusing on poor quality education that is failing to ensure that...
View ArticleWhole year GDP at 7.2%, Q4 at 6.5%
The Philippine economy grew “remarkably” in 2013 as the fourth quarter gross domestic product (GDP) posted 6.5 percent, amounting to 7.2 percent economic growth for the whole year of 2013, according to...
View ArticleBIFF death toll rise to 52 as Maguindanao fighting slowed down
COTABATO CITY: A dozen more Moro bandits were killed as the military offensives against Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) entered its fifth day, the Army said Friday. Colonel Dickson Hermoso,...
View ArticleSyria foes spar over blame for ‘terrorism’ as talks near end
Geneva: Syria’s warring sides on Thursday (Friday in Manila) got bogged down in a dispute over who was responsible for the violence in the country, as peace talks in Geneva focused on “terrorism”....
View ArticleItalian court finds Knox guilty of murder
FLORENCE: An Italian court has pronounced US student Amanda Knox guilty of murder and sentenced her in absentia to 28 years and six months in prison in what she condemned as an “unjust verdict”. Chief...
View ArticleBieber: latest child star battling (very public) fall
LOS ANGELES: Justin Bieber is the latest in a long line of troubled former child stars to veer off the rails. The question now is can those around him save the teen from a complete train wreck? And if...
View ArticleYahoo Mail accounts breached with stolen passwords
SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo alerted users of its free email service on Thursday (Friday in Manila) that hackers slipped into accounts to loot information using stolen passwords. The California company did not...
View ArticleIan Thorpe in rehab
SYDNEY: Australia’s five-time Olympic swimming gold medallist Ian Thorpe has been admitted to a Sydney hospital battling depression and alcohol abuse, a report said on Friday. The 31-year-old, one of...
View ArticleWorld’s oldest flamingo dies in Australian zoo, aged 83
SYDNEY: Staff at Adelaide Zoo were in mourning Friday after the world’s oldest flamingo, and their oldest resident, died aged 83. The flamingo, known as “Greater” after his species, was put to sleep on...
View ArticleUS to seek death penalty for accused Boston bomber
WASHINGTON: The United States is to seek a rare federal death penalty for the surviving young student accused of the Boston marathon bombings, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Attorney General Eric Holder said on...
View ArticleUkraine leader slams opposition after taking sick leave
KIEV: President Viktor Yanukovych on Thursday (Friday in Manila) savaged the opposition for inflaming tensions in Ukraine’s crisis after he unexpectedly went on sick leave with no end in sight to the...
View ArticleBieber smoked pot, took Xanax before Miami arrest
MIAMI: Teen idol Justin Bieber smoked marijuana and took the anti-anxiety drug Xanax before his arrest in Florida last week, police said on Thursday (Friday in Manila), a day after he was charged over...
View ArticleFIREWORKS BURST AS YEAR OF THE HORSE GALLOPS IN
BEIJING: Fireworks illuminated the skies across Asia and millions of families gathered together on Friday to usher in the Year of the Horse, kicking off a week of celebrations that included a...
View Article‘Yolanda’-hit areas in new storm’s path
Storm signals were raised in 34 provinces on Friday as Storm Basyang gathered strength as it approached the country. Among the areas in Basyang’s path are Leyte and Samar, which were devastated by...
View ArticleBIFF vows to crush military offensive
ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) vowed to repulse a massive assault by the military that has killed at least 40 of the group’s members after five days of clashes. The Army...
View ArticleThe shared geopolitical challenges of Germany and Japan
Germany and Japan have pursued relatively unassertive foreign policies since the end of World War II, but the vagaries of geopolitics are forcing them to change course in dramatic ways. On Thursday,...
View ArticleEmerging market turmoil and the US taper
The US Federal Reserve’s decision to taper monetary expansion by another $10 billion Wednesday has major ramifications for world markets. In comparison to the total amount being spent on a monthly...
View ArticleMaking the choice between infinitives and gerunds – III
In the second part of this discussion last week, we saw that the following sentence with the full infinitive phrase “to run away” doesn’t sound right: “Rather than to run away from a difficult...
View ArticleThe right to die
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago has two bills that I’m very enthusiastic about. The first seeks to institutionalize a long overdue Code of Conduct in the Senate. The second is what she calls the “Natural...
View ArticleOf what use are wetlands ?
Tomorrow, February 2, is World Wetlands Day. In the Philippines, wetlands or lupaing tubig are usually associated only with mangrove areas. The 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands Conservation, however,...
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