MANILA, May 1 -- Malacanang will hold next week a comprehensive forum on the swine flu virus to share information and best practices from experts and map out appropriate defensive strategies for public health.

NEW YORK, May 1 (PNA/Xinhua) -- Wall Street ended mixed Thursday after the third largest U.S. automaker Chrysler announced it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Wall Street opened higher in the morning as investors welcomed a surprise decline in new jobless claims and earnings beating estimates.

When the largest corporations began taking about the green agenda by introducing eco-friendlier products or by reducing their operations' environmental impact, many marked this as a victory in the environmental front.

Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada has been ordered arrested on perjury charges stemming from his revelation that former Arroyo spokesperson Mike Defensor offered him money to keep his mouth shut about his abduction from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport; Jovito “The Butcher” Palparan who is being linked to the spate in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances wherever he was assigned is on his way to Congress, and so is Ma.

HONÀ KO, TAMA NA an kabalintunaan para ipasabot an sarong klase nin pag-agrangay. Alagad matapos magluwas an ‘Vestiges of progress’ digdi sa column ko pirang semana na an nakakaagi, naenkaminar ako kan pirang mga katood sa internet na bilogon logod bilang sarong paghiro o movement an agrangay sa palta-rason nang pagbugtak nin mga karatulang kulang na sanang hayagan nang sabihon kan mga politiko na iboto sinda sa paaboton na pirilian. Sabi ngani kan sarong nagkomento sa ginibo kong grupo sa paagi kan Facebook(dot)com, nakakarima-rima na suboot an practice na ini sa Pilipinas. Alagad orog na digdi sa Bikol, haros daing pagduwa-duwa an satong mga linalaoman kuta nang mga namamayo sa pagbugtak kan saindang mga lalawgon asin ngaran—in big, all-caps, bold letters— sa mga karatula binubugtak sa mga proyekto asin iba pa, na sa totoo sana, mayo man kamanungdanan.

MANY SEE Yuppies as young professionals who are restless in pursuing upward mobility, pursuit of excellence and material comfort. There’s something more behind the Yuppie phenomenon. The term yuppie may not sound serious but the “reality it describes is one of the more significant recent developments in Western culture.” The mentality of a yuppie that creates a sub-culture in our society speaks about a conscious drive of many people today for success and wealth, for having a beautiful body and moving up the ladder of career, for being well-dressed and having prestige, for luxuriating in material comfort and achieving optimally everything that is potentially attainable within our limits. This conscious drive that moves people brings with it “unashamed ambition and the expressed desire, in a manner of speaking, to leave the pack behind.” What is important for a yuppie is to set oneself, through excellence above others.

That the Bikol bishops as a group have decided to publicly oppose the persistent and ongoing mining operations at Rapu-rapu Island in Albay, even to the extent of writing a letter of appeal for support from the Pope, underscores the gravity of the present evil they are battling. Our communities need to join in this campaign to stop mining at Rapu-rapu.

As administration allies push for amendments of economic provisions in the Constitution, research group IBON Foundation says that the resolution seeking to allow corporations to own land and land-based resources in the Philippines are based on an outmoded ideology which believes that liberalizing the economy to greater foreign investment will lead to development.

IRIGA CITY --- In its quest to further improve its corporate communication strategies, the University of Northeastern Philippines here has sent its media relations director to attend a two-day media seminar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia held from March 30-31.

BAGHDAD, April 24 -- A terrorist bombing in Diyala, east of Iraq, killed 45 and injured 67 Iranians on Thursday. Based on latest dispatches, the terrorist incident overall killed 47, including 45 Iranians, and injured 70 others, including 67 Iranians, who traveled to Iraq to visit the country's holy sites.