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  • Party-list canvassing may take 10 days
    Party-list canvassing may take 10 days

    By Mikha Flores, VERA Files The Commission on Elections resumed the suspended canvassing of party-list votes on Monday and said it may take them up to 10 days to finish the process and proclaim the winners. A total of 111 … Continue reading →

  • On election day, PWDs in Pasig help their own to vote Tinig Ng Botante
    On election day, PWDs in Pasig help their own to vote

    By Mylah Reyes Roque, VERA Files Election day was no ordinary day for Jun Macasieb and Noli Prestado. Both were patiently waiting at the Maybunga Elementary School in Pasig the entire morning of Monday last week to assist fellow voters … Continue reading →

  • Failed election in village keeps council members in suspense Tinig Ng Botante
    Failed election in village keeps council members in suspense

    By Reyan L. Arinto, VERA Files Tacloban City – The proclamation of two city council officials in Calbayog City hangs in the balance after the Commission on Elections declared a failure of elections in one of the city’s far-flung villages. … Continue reading →

  • Intel fetes Pinoy student for developing fungicide vs 'banana blight' GMANews

    Judel Jay Tabsing of Panabo National High School won fourth place in the plant sciences division of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for developing a possible fungicide for the dreaded "banana blight". Banana blight is caused by a particular type of fungus that quickly spreads from plant to plant, potentially wiping out an entire country's supply of bananas. In the 1950s, the blight spread through central America from Panama –hence the term, "Panama Disease".

  • NPA earned 'only' P26M in recent election racket — military GMANews

    Communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels were able to rake in P26 million in extortion activities during the recently concluded midterm elections, the military said Wednesday, citing reports.According to Maj. Ramon Zagala, public affairs office chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the figure was way lower than the supposed P500 million target of the rebels.“Documents and reports reveal that the New People’s Army targeted P500 million during the elections, but they were only able

  • N. Korea fires sixth missile in three days
    N. Korea fires sixth missile in three days

    North Korea fired a sixth short-range missile into the Sea of Japan on Monday, defying warnings from UN chief Ban Ki-moon and South Korea after a flurry of similar tests at the weekend.

  • Extreme global warming seen further away than previously thought Reuters

    By Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle OSLO (Reuters) - Extreme global warming is less likely in coming decades after a slowdown in the pace of temperature rises so far this century, an international team of scientists said on Sunday. Warming is still on track, however, to breach a goal set by governments around the world of limiting the increase in temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, unless tough action is taken to limit rising greenhouse

  • Obama walks a fine line with Myanmar president's landmark visit Reuters
    Obama walks a fine line with Myanmar president's landmark visit

    By Paul Eckert WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will walk a fine line between fostering a U.S. ally in China's backyard and trying to defend human rights when the president of Myanmar becomes the first head of his country to visit the White House in 47 years on Monday. Rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers fear Obama has moved too quickly since forging a dramatic breakthrough in relations in 2011 after half a century of military rule in Myanmar, also known as Burma. U.S. ...

  • Japan parliament approves child abduction treaty AFP News
    Japan parliament approves child abduction treaty

    Japan's parliament on Wednesday approved an international treaty on child abductions after decades of pressure from the United States and other Western nations.

  • Pakistan's Imran Khan leaves hospital after fall AFP News
    Pakistan's Imran Khan leaves hospital after fall

    Pakistani politician Imran Khan left hospital Wednesday, two weeks after breaking bones in his back in a fall at a rally for the country's general election, where his party scored a major breakthrough.

  • Bird flu costs China industry $6.5 bln: state media
    Bird flu costs China industry $6.5 bln: state media

    China's human H7N9 bird flu outbreak has cost the country's poultry industry more than 40 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) as consumers shun chicken, government officials said, according to state media.

  • Thai economy contracts in first quarter AFP
    Thai economy contracts in first quarter

    Thailand's economy shrank 2.2 percent in the three months to March from the previous quarter -- the first contraction in more than a year -- as manufacturing output fell, official data showed on Monday.

  • Malaysia hydropower meeting to open amid controversy AFP News
    Malaysia hydropower meeting to open amid controversy

    The world hydroelectric industry's decision to meet in a Malaysian state where dams have uprooted rainforests and native peoples is drawing bitter fire from environmental and tribal groups.

  • China's Li offers to help end Pakistan energy crisis Reuters
    China's Li offers to help end Pakistan energy crisis

    By Nick Macfie ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - China and Pakistan should make cooperation on power generation a priority, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, as Islamabad seeks to end an energy crisis that triggers power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, bringing the economy to a near standstill. Li arrived in the Pakistan capital under extra-tight security on Wednesday on the second leg of his first official trip since taking office in March after a visit to Pakistan's and China's arch rival, India. Li's plane

  • Indonesian MPs say proposed new bank law should limit foreign ownership Reuters

    (Adds quotes, detail) By Fathiya Dahrul and Rieka Rahadiana JAKARTA, May 22 (Reuters) - Indonesian MPs said they want anew banking law, under discussion since late last year, to limitforeign ownership to a maximum of 50 to 51 percent and suggestedit could make it to the statute books by next year. MPs have not publicly discussed a percentage figure before. ...

  • New Xbox: What’s Better, What’s Missing Upgrade Your Life
    New Xbox: What’s Better, What’s Missing

    Eight years after the debut of the Xbox 360, Microsoft has announced the Xbox One.

  • Yahoo unveils makeover of Flickr site AFP Relax
    Yahoo unveils makeover of Flickr site

    Reinvigorated technology player Yahoo! Monday unveiled a dusted-off design of its Flickr photo platform only hours after the company's dramatic acquisition of blogging site Tumblr.

  • Look out, Siri – IBM’s Watson coming soon to smartphones BGR.com
    Look out, Siri – IBM’s Watson coming soon to smartphones

    IBM spoke of shrinking its intelligent supercomputer Watson down to smartphone size last summer, and now it appears that the company is getting close to achieving that goal. Watson, which gained notoriety by famously trouncing two champions on Jeopardy, will not initially come to smartphones as a stand-alone app like Siri or Google Now, though it could eventually give both services a run for their money. Instead, IBM will partner with a number of companies including ANZ Bank, Nielsen, Celcom,

  • WeChat Now Has 50 Million Users Outside of China Tech in Asia
    WeChat Now Has 50 Million Users Outside of China

    Parineeti Chopra and Varun Dhawan add star power to WeChat in India. Early last month we mentioned that WeChat, the China-made messaging app, had 40 million users outside of the country. Today Tencent ...

FEATURED BLOGS

  • Comelec threw efforts of PWDs to waste—NCDA exec

    By Darlene Cay, VERA Files Efforts of persons with disabilities and advocates in promoting the right of PWDs to suffrage went to waste in last week’s midterm elections, no thanks to the Commission on Elections, the executive director of National … Continue reading → More »

  • PNoy to Comelec: Proceed with barangay polls

    By Mikha Flores, VERA Files President Benigno Aquino III said on Tuesday the country should proceed with the scheduled barangay election this October instead of postponing it, as suggested by the Commission on Elections. “I’m nervous about the postponement. There … Continue reading → More »

  • Comelec, poll watchdog trade accusations

    By Mark Pere Madrona, VERA Files The verbal tussle between the Commission on Elections and the Automated Election System (AES) Watch over the conduct of the mid-term election further intensified on Tuesday after the watchdog called for the resignation of … Continue reading → More »

  • Voting assistors: Helping PWDS or manipulating votes?

    By Yen Blanco Delgado and Barry Barraca, VERA Files ZAMBOANGA CITY— An abnormally high concentration of supposed persons with disabilities (PWD) voting in a single barangay sounded the alarm for volunteers of the Zamboanga City chapter of Legal Network for … Continue reading → More »

  • MILF to set up political party this year

    By Carolyn O. Arguillas, MindaNews and VERA Files DARAPANAN, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao – The victory of the President’s party in last week’s elections is victory for the peace process, Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front … Continue reading → More »

  • ARMM’s Hataman vows to lower poverty incidence to ‘single-digit during our term’

    By Carolyn O. Arguillas, MindaNews and VERA Files COTABATO CITY – OIC Governor Mujiv Hataman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), recently proclaimed winner in the ARMM gubernatorial race, has vowed to lower the double-digit poverty incidence in … Continue reading → More »

  • Comelec wants barangay polls postponed

    Not another election please. Just a week after the mid-term polls, the last thing the Commission on Elections would like to think about is another election. On Monday, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes, Jr told reporters he would like to see … Continue reading → More »