Solana Emmanuelle is Maricel Laxa 5th child

Actress and TV host Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan gave birth on Thursday to her 5th child, a baby girl named Solana Emmanuelle.

Her husband Anthony Pangilinan broke the news on Twitter, posting: "Welcome Solana Emmanuelle or "Sunshine with Us!" 7:04pm 7/14/11 by water birth! MAJOR blessing all 10.4 lbs of her! Congrats Maricel!"

Anthony also disclosed that his wife gave birth at St. Luke's Medical Center in Global City, and it was the first water birth in the hospital's new birthing room.

Since Anthony was in Bicol, his daughter Ella, 15, coached Maricel during labor and delivery.

 

New all-time high for PSEi

The key Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 35.19 points or 0.8% to 4,458.74. The previous record of 4,439.61 was hit on July 5.

All subidices posted gains, led by the financial sector, which went up 1%.

Advancers outpaced decliners, 111 to 43, while 36 stocks were unchanged.

Top lender Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., the most actively traded stock by value, jumped 3.4% to P79.55.

East Asia Power Resources Corp. surged 34% to P2.62 after it was acquired by Century Properties Inc.

 

3 Pinoys reach Last 32 in Guinness Pool

World No.1 Dennis "Robocop" Orcollo,

defending champion Jundel "Jano" Mazon

and Carlo "Cool" Biado made it to the Last 32 of the 2011 Guinness World Series of Pool 10-Ball Challenge in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Orcollo ousted Adam Smith of Canada, 6-2, in their winner’s bracket match.

Mazon blasted Indonesian rival Rico Herman, 6-0  and

Biado winning over Germany’s Thorsten Hohmann, 6-5.

 

2 more Airbus planes for Cebu Pacific

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific has signed 6-year operating lease agreements with Dublin-based RBS Aviation Capital for 2 new Airbus A320 aircraft.

The planes will be delivered in March 2012.

Last month, Cebu Pacific ordered 30 new A321neos and seven A320 from Airbus for $3.8 billion, to be delivered between 2015 and 2021. The order was on top of 27 A320 aircraft purchases that will arrive from September 2011 until 2016.

 

Over 500k Pinoys become citizens of 8 OECD countries

521,253 Filipinos became naturalized citizens of 8 countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

From 2000 to 2009, OECD’s 2011 International Migration Outlook revealed that

386,739 Filipinos became naturalized citizens of the United States;

109,909 Filipinos became naturalized Canadians;

8,246 became naturalized citizens of New Zealand;

2,898 became naturalized Norwegians;

and 2,349 became Dutch.

From 2001 to 2008, 6,316 Filipinos became citizens of Spain while

4,152 became citizens of Korea.

And from 2005 to 2009, 644 Filipinos became citizens of Ireland.

For the year 2009, based on the number of naturalized citizens, Filipinos are the

second-highest naturalized foreign nationals in Ireland (410),

third-highest in the United States (38,934) and Canada (11,068),

seventh-highest in New Zealand (708),

eighth-highest in Norway (445),

and 13th-highest in the Netherlands (308).

 

As of 2008 data, Filipinos are the

ninth-highest number of naturalized foreign nationals in Spain (782)

and the third-highest in Korea (579).

 

NBA cuts workforce by about 11% in cost-cutting move

The National Basketball Association reduced its workforce by about 11 %, or 114 jobs.

Mike Bass, the league spokesman said on Thursday that the NBA cuts are not directly linked to the labor dispute but rather part of a $50 million cost-cutting plan.

"The layoffs are not a direct result of the lockout but rather a response to the same underlying issue; that is, the league's expenses far outpace our revenues," said the spokesman.

"The roughly 11 percent reduction in headcount from the league office is part of larger cost-cutting measures to reduce our costs by $50 million across all areas of our business."

NBA officials have said 22 of the league's 30 clubs are losing money which they claim to be $300 million.

 

OFW remittances at $9.7-B, up 6.2% from Jan-May

 

Filipinos working and living overseas sent home $9.7 billion during the first 5 months of 2011, up 6.2% from a year ago.

In May alone, dollar remittances amounted to $1.7 billion, representing an annual growth of 6.9%.

The BSP has projected remittance growth at 7% this year.

In 2010, remittances hit a record $18.76 billion, up 8.2% from a year earlier.

 

Cebu Pacific Manila to Kota Kinabalu for P488 only!



image from Cebu Pacific Air



Other International Flight Fare:

Manila to Taipei     P 888

Manila to Busan     P 2,088

Manila to Incheon P 2,088

Manila to  Osaka   P 2,088

Cebu to Busan       P 2,088

Cebu to Incheon    P 2,088

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Diether received P5-M wristwatch from Kris?

Actor Diether Ocampo denied talks that he received a wristwatch worth P5-million from Kris Aquino.

"Ewan ko. Mayroon bang relong pinadala? Baka naman hindi ako 'yon. Kayo talaga," Ocampo told members of the press during his birthday party celebration on Thursday.

 

 

South Sudan is UN's 193rd member

The General Assembly admitted South Sudan on Thursday as the 193rd member of the United Nations.

South Sudan became the first country to join the world body since Montenegro in 2006.

 

PNoy gives 1,600 houses to AFP, PNP men

President Aquino turned over 1,600 housing units to Armed Forces and Philippine National Police personnel in Bocaue Hills, Barangay Batia, Bocaue, Bulacan on Friday.

The President issued Administrative Order no. 9 on April 11, 2011, directing the implementation of the AFP-PNP housing project "that would provide permanent housing for qualified soldiers and policemen."

The housing project is targeting the construction of 21,800 housing units by the end of the year.

 

10M users sharing 1B posts a day on Google+

 

Google+ has already breached the 10-million user mark, confirming earlier estimates by avid social networking spectators.

 

Google CEO Larry Page said, "There’s also a ton of activity: we are seeing over 1billion items shared and received in a single day."

 

Paul Allen, founder of genealogy site Ancestry.com, estimated that Google+ had already surpassed 10 million users on Tuesday, "and could reach 20 million users by this coming weekend."

 

Despite the stellar growth, Google+ has yet a long way to go compare to the social networking giant, Facebook, which has more than 750 million worldwide.

 

BCDA remits P1.87B for AFP modernization

 

The state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) remitted a total of P1.874 billion to the National Treasury for the AFP Modernization Fund for the first 5 months of the year 2011.

 

BCDA President and CEO Arnel Casanova said that in the month of May alone, the BCDA remitted P29 million .

 

BCDA has generated  P51.021 billion  From May 1993 to end-May 2011

and has remitted  P33.045 billion.

Of this amount, P21.223 billion went to the AFP

P11.727 billion for the AFP Modernization Program and

P9.496 billion for the replication of military facilities.

 

The rest are national and local taxes and fees, replication of non-military facilities and housing, and compensation for informal settlers made to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and local government units (LGUs).

 

Convergys to hire 5,000 additional employees

Convergys Corp. will hire 5,000 more employees this year in celebration of its18th anniversary in the Philippines.

“In 8 years, Convergys has grown from 0 to nearly 25,000 employees in the Philippines based on the excellent service our employees provide to our client’s customer,” visiting Convergy president Andrea said.

The company will be opening their 15th site in Baguio with 600 seats and will increase the number of its employees to 30,000 by the end of the year.

Convergys will likewise open its 4th facility in Cebu City.

 

 

Smart unlimited text to all networks at P25

 

Smart Communications offers Lahatxt Unli 25 , an unlimited SMS or text messages to all networks.

To avail, simply text  LTU25 to 2266.

The package costs P25 and is valid for 24 hours.

Note:

Maintain load balance of P1

Offer is available from July 15 to Nov. 30, 2011.

 

 

 

"Hot money" tripled in the 1st 6 months

“Hot money” or net inflows of foreign portfolio investments tripled in the first half of the year as listed at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) and peso-denominated government securities.

 

Hot money surged 244 % from $686.57 million same period last year to $2.36 billion first 6 months of this year.