Pinoy Meets World

A powerful predawn quake hit parts of Bicol and Southern Luzon on Thursday, but the Philippine Institute of Volcanology of Seismology said it was too far from land to cause damage.

Phivolcs seismologist Henremagne Penarubia said the quake was recorded at 2:49 a.m., with the epicenter traced northeast of Virac, Catanduanes in Bicol.

“Magitude-6.0, medyo malakas siya pero ang location medyo malayong dagat (It was measured at Magnitude 6.0, but it was too far from land to cause damage),” Penarubia said in an interview on dzBB radio.  Read more... (160 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – – Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Wednesday revealed the culture-changing company’s latest must-have device, a touchscreen tablet computer annointed the “iPad.”

“We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product,” said Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant last year and was making just his second public appearance since September.

The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) color screen and resembles an oversized iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3 cms) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kgs) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory.  Read more... (210 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago on Tuesday walked out of a Senate plenary session after criticizing Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and fellow senators who engaged in gutter talk during Monday’s floor debates on the ethics case of Senator Manny Villar.

In an impassioned speech, Santiago reminded her fellow senators that the rules of the Senate frown on the use of improper language during debates in the plenary, especially against each other.

“Our language and behavior did not serve the nation…Our parliamentary immunity entitles us to freedom from liability in anything we say or do against anybody except our fellow senator or against any public institution such as the institution of the presidency, Congress or Supreme Court,” she said.  Read more... (199 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

NEW YORK (AFP) – – A significant Pablo Picasso painting was damaged after a woman attending art class lost her balance, fell into “The Actor” and tore it, The Metropolitan Museum of Art said.

The unusually large canvas, measuring 77.25 by 45.38 inches (196 by 115cm), sustained a vertical tear of about six inches (15cm) in the lower right-hand corner in the accident on Friday.

The museum, located on the eastern edge of New York’s Central Park, did not elaborate on why the woman fell.  Read more... (132 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

MANILA, Philippines – President Arroyo reactivated yesterday the El Niño Task Force and ordered the release of P1.7 billion to fund emergency measures to mitigate the detrimental effects of the dry spell on the fisheries and agriculture sectors.

The effects of El Niño could result in as much as P20 billion in economic loss in the next six months, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

Immediately after its reactivation, members of the task force, chaired by Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, met at the Palace to come up with “a comprehensive and integrated action plan to address the coming El Niño phenomenon,” Secretary Conrado Limcaoco, officer-in-charge of the Office of the Press Secretary, told a news briefing.  Read more... (151 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

MANILA, Philippines – They’re selling like hotcakes and Manny Pacquiao hasn’t placed his orders yet.

Tickets to the March 13 fight between the Filipino pound-for-pound champion and challenger Josh Clottey are out, and with still 50 days left before the big day, promoters might be forced to have a few thousands more printed.

According to ESPN.com, more than 20,000 tickets were sold in the first three hours of sales Saturday. Because of the size of the venue, tickets prices were slashed more than half of what they used to be for Pacquiao fights.  Read more... (226 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino troops detailed as peacekeepers in Haiti were trapped inside a collapsed building housing the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Port-au-Prince following a massive quake that devastated the Caribbean nation yesterday morning.

Other Filipino peacekeepers rushed to the scene to dig out their comrades and other UN workers from the ruins of the seven-story building, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Reporting to the DFA, the Philippine Mission in the United Nations said it could not determine at this point if there were any casualties among members of the Philippine military and police contingents.  Read more... (168 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)