Filipino peacekeepers abroad were honored at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), with a medal presented to the widow of a peacekeeper who died in the line of duty.
DFA Secretary Alberto Romulo presented the Dag Hammarskjold Medal to Immaculate Batalla, widow of Philippine Army Lt. Col. Renerio Batalla, who died of malaria on Oct. 24 [...]

A Filipino illustrator and a local publishing house have been included in the 153 nominees selected from 60 countries up for a prestigious Swedish award.
Filipino Albert Gamos has been nominated for the category of “Illustrator” while local publisher Adarna House as “Promoters of Reading” in the 2009 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial [...]

A 19-year-old college freshman cannot believe his luck: He is one of only two Filipinos to be invited to President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, an event that excludes even his country’s president.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Paul Michael Pilares Cruz said, describing the moment the invitation arrived by mail from the Congressional Youth Leadership Council Foundation, a not-for-profit organization that has secured seats for students from around the globe.

Overseas Filipinos and retirees remain the most active buyers of residential property in the Philippines, boosting market demand, a top official of an international real estate services company said.
The bulk of overseas Filipino workers and retirees from around the world residing in the Philippines or considering residence here who invest in the property market target [...]

The election atmosphere is now alive in Austria as the country goes out to vote for their candidates to the National Assembly on Sunday, September 28.
Some Filipinos said that they already have decided on whom to vote for. They added that they have already set the criteria for the candidates and are hoping that these [...]

An organization aimed at helping financially-challenged Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates was recently launched in Dubai.
The Filipino Expatriates in UAE Foundation Inc. was formally launched at the Metropolitan Hotel in Dubai on August 22.
“The principal objective of this foundation is to establish a huge financial facility overtime, whose capital fund will not be touched, [...]

Gone for Beijing, Ryan Jaranilla will serve as senior executive chef for the 2008 Summer Olympics. The kitchen will be open around the clock to nourish 12,000 of the world’s elite athletes and the 5,000 media professionals who will cover the event. Chef Ryan (the name he likes to go by) is second in command over it all, reporting to the directing chef. Each day, the menus will be different and tailored to the diets of the different types of athletes. Recognizing the potential challenges, “A weightlifter will probably want a heavier meal than, let’s say a gymnast, and I have to be sensitive to their cultural food preferences, too,” he says.

Still recuperating from a grueling 36-kilometer trek up Japan’s highest peak, veteran Filipino runner Ronald Villafria said he is thankful for his experience in last month’s Mount Fuji Marathon.
Villafria, 34 and a long-time restaurant employee in the island of Saipan in the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands, managed to conquer Mount Fuji’s [...]

LOS ANGELES — A group of Filipino and American war veterans who fought side by side against Japanese forces in the Philippines during the World War II met again recently, in a dinner-gathering at Sheraton Hotel in Universal City to “celebrate their survival.”
The event, which was organized by the Los Angeles-based Filipino Veterans Foundation also [...]

KHURAIS - Deep in the Saudi desert, 28,000 Asian workers are racing to get a giant oil processing complex ready to help King Abdullah keep a vow to meet world demand for crude.
In a year’s time, the Al-Khurais field will be supplying 1.2 million barrels a day of Arab light crude to thirsty global markets, [...]