It’s going to be another long and hard battle for Barangay Ginebra in the coming PBA Fiesta Cup.

WHEN Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that He was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and He preached the word to them. They came bringing to Him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above Him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.

IN 1814, 81 years before the discovery of X-rays, Abraham Colles, a surgeon from Dublin, accurately described a fracture of the wrist that now bears his name. Colles’ fracture refers to a break in the radius, one of the forearm bones. The radius is just above the wrist on the side of the thumb.

THE Church and the United Nations are one in promoting and working toward peaceful coexistence of peoples regardless of faith affiliation, ethnicity, and culture. Both acknowledge that peaceful coexistence among the peoples of the world can be achieved by according each other greater respect and fostering greater tolerance for diversity.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon warned that more people could go hungry during the crisis year, in addition to the already staggering one billion people in the world suffering from extreme hunger. Speaking at the recent High Level Meeting on Food Security for All in Madrid, he said that while food prices have gone down for the time being, this is bound to be temporary and that the number of hungry people will rise again.

IN last Sunday’s column, we revisited Philippine media’s PRO and CON commentaries on PGMA’s sudden side-trip to Washington, D.C. last February 5 to attend the National Prayer Breakfast (NPB), which President Obama addressed. That was Obama’s first major speech before a select international audience of 3,500 guests representing over 100 countries – and anticipated by many as an early launchpad for his foreign policy initiatives. In keeping, however, with the spiritual beginnings and religious character of the NPB, President Obama stuck to inspirational themes, mainly modern-day applications of the Golden Rule. He left it to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to announce priority US thrusts in our Asia-Pacific home region before taking off on her first trip abroad to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China. While in Tokyo, Clinton gave strong warnings against Nokor missile testing and nuclear weapons proliferation.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has finished the clearing of the 24,000-hectare Taal Lake in Batangas province of illegal fish structures.  

The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the National Power Corporation (NPC) to pay a Pampanga landowner of the full value of his property that was expropriated in 2002 for the construction of transmission lines in the lahar affected areas in the province.  

Senator Rodolfo Biazon yesterday shrugged off the walkout staged by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) during a Senate meeting on reproductive health bill.