Who would have thought that someone who only had $200 in his pocket, a one-way ticket, and no permanent address when he first arrived in New York in 1985 would later become a leader in the field of evolutionary and ecological genomics and be appointed as the dean for Science at New York University? It certainly isn’t your typical story of one Filipino’s personal evolution in the Big Apple for but it wasfor professor Dr. Michael Purugganan.

An independent network of survivors of religious sexual abuse has named Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, and two others as the most promising papal candidates.

Aside from Cardinal Tagle, also in “least worst” papal candidates list of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) are: Christoph Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna, Austria; and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, Ireland.

SNAP chose them for their words and actions in regard to the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Syrian rebels who seized 21 Filipino UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights want the Red Cross to escort them out of the area because of fighting with Syrian government forces, the Philippine military said yesterday.

Reacting to the military report, Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard “Dick” Gordon inquired with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to validate it.

The Manila Bulletin won its third consecutive Best Newspaper in English award at the 11th Gawad Tanglaw Awards rites held Thursday evening at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran – Calamba, Laguna.

The award was received by Manila Bulletin Publisher and President Atty. Hermogenes P. Pobre.

Balita, Manila Bulletin’s sister tabloid publication in Filipino language, was elevated to the Gawad Tanglaw Hall Of Fame as it won the Best Newspaper In Filipino award for the fifth consecutive year. The Balita editorial team, led by its Editor Aris Ilagan, received the award.

BUTUAN CITY — Officials of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) disclosed Thursday that the construction of more power projects will stabilize the electricity-starved country’s second largest island of Mindanao.

In a press briefing with newsmen at the Inland Resort Hotel and Convention center here, the NGCP officials laid down the agency’s transmission development plan, the overview of the Mindanao grid, Mindanao grid system development and the Mindanao power projects.

ILOILO CITY, Iloilo — The provincial government of Iloilo has appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec-6) to grant its exemption request to give financial aid during the election ban. Last February, Dr. Neneth Pador, chief of the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO), sent a request to Comelec-6 for the province to continue the disbursement of aid to individuals in crisis situations (AICS). However, Comelec-6 regional director Renato Magbutay denied the request of exemption. Magbutay cited Section 1 of Comelec Resolution No.

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — Elements of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 confiscated a total of 10 second-hand Honda Fit cars, believed to be smuggled into the country, from a car store in this city.

The NBI agents were armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Teresita Galanida when they swooped into the JJRS Call Mall Sales in Barangay Basak, Mandaue City.

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – About 377 barangays covering 17 cities and municipalities in Central Visayas are up for a detailed geohazard assessment and mapping in a zoom-in scale of 1:10,000 this year to be undertaken by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to return to sugar planters in Negros Occidental some P10.8 million in advance value-added tax (VAT) on its sales of refined sugar from 2007 to 2008.

In an en banc decision, the tax court presided by Justice Juanito Castaneda Jr. affirmed the decision of its first division that the VAT was erroneously collected from the Negros Sugar Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

CAUAYAN, Negros Occidental — Japan has funded the construction of a P3-million plant for lemongrass oil distillation in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, which will serve as an alternative livelihood source of farmers in the area.

Japanese Ambassador Toshinao Urabe and Auke Idzenga, chairman of the Management Committee of Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc. (AIDFI), signed the grant contract for “The Project for Construction of Plant for Lemongrass Oil Distillation in Negros Occidental” at the Embassy of Japan.