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  MANILA, Philippines---The northeast monsoon or amihan will continue to bring cloudy skies with light rains over parts of Luzon in the next 24 hours, the weather state bureau said Wednesday. In its 24-hour public weather forecast, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Ilocos Region, the Cordillera Administrative Region, and Cagayan Valley would experience cloudy skies with light rains on due to Amihan. Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated light rains also due to Amihan. Visayas and Mindanao, meanwhile, are seen to experience partly cloudy to cloudy sk...

Keep on reading: Amihan to bring cloudy skies, light rains across Luzon—Pagasa

Via her company JuVee Productions, American actress Viola Davis will join forces with HBO to produce the new show "House of Chow", which will initially be written by Ken Cheng and directed by Jude Weng ("Black-ish", "The Good Place"), reports Deadline. The series will tell of the difficult collaboration between Vicky and Charlie Chow, a somewhat estranged 30-something brother and sister. In order to give meaning to their dysfunctional and disappointing lives, the pair team up to revive the family's Chinese restaurant. Their success in this venture will depend on their ability to trick the food critics of Los Angeles into believing that they are happy to be right where...

Keep on reading: Viola Davis to produce HBO’s latest comedy ‘House of Chow’

MANILA, Philippines --- The novel coronavirus or 2019nCoV, the new virus which originated from Wuhan, China, is less infectious than measles, an official from the Department of Health (DOH) said Wednesday. "What we are saying is the [novel] coronavirus... is less [infectious], this one, mas nakakahawa ang tigdas [measles are more infectious]," Dr. Ferchito Avelino, officer-in-charge of DOH Epidemiology Bureau, said in a press briefing in Quezon City. Avelino explained that those infected with the new virus can be transmitted to two to four persons "only at close range." But Health Chief Francisco Duque III said those infected with measles can be transmitted to 18 persons. To ...

Keep on reading: DOH exec: nCoV ‘less infectious’ than measles

MANILA, Philippines---The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has announced that 1,242 out of 2,229 passed the January 2020 Architect Licensure Examination. The results were released Wednesday, just three working days after the last day of the examination which was held in Manila, Baguio, Cebu, Davao, Legazpi and Zamboanga last Jan. 24 and Jan. 26. Richel Gonzales Sapasap of Saint Louis University topped the exam with 84 percent. She was followed by Megan Joyce Herrera Cruz of UP-Diliman and Denzel Lance de Leon Dantis of Mapua University with an 83.2 percent rating. Sitting in third place is Karsten Arco Asuque of Adamson University with 83 percent. The complete list of pa...

Keep on reading: 1,242 hurdle architecture licensure exam

Canadian superstar Justin Bieber announced that his fifth studio album will arrive on Feb. 14 via RBMG/Def Jam. He also shared another cut from the much-anticipated follow-up to 2015's "Purpose", entitled "Get Me". https://twitter.com/justinbieber/status/1222023231881662464 This new single finds the 25-year-old vocalist teaming up for the first time with American singer-songwriter Kehlani, with the pair crooning in the chorus "Oh, you don't compare, don't fit in with 'em, do you get me?/ Judgin' by the way you open up, you get me." "Get Me" gives a taste of the "R&B/pop" direction that Bieber is taking with his upcoming new album, "Changes", which is led by the much-...

Keep on reading: Justin Bieber details new album ‘Changes’

The helicopter carrying basketball superstar Kobe Bryant and eight others crashed into a Calabasas, California, hillside with a "high energy impact," the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

SAN ILDEFONSO, BULACAN---Two robbery suspects were killed in a clash with police here on Tuesday (Jan. 28) evening. Col. Emma Libuano, Bulacan police chief, said the slain suspects, still unidentified, clashed with policemen at the village of Sumandig past 11 p.m. on Tuesday. Investigators said policemen chased the motorcycle-riding suspects who, at gunpoint, took a Yamaha Mio motorcycle from their victim at another village in this town. Recovered from the slain suspects were .38-caliber revolvers and two motorcycles they allegedly stole. Also found were shells for 9 mm pistol. Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando and Central Luzon Police Director Brig. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia had asked...

Keep on reading: 2 robbery suspects killed in clash with cops in Bulacan

MANILA, Philippines --- A party-list lawmaker on Wednesday filed a resolution opposing the unilateral decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), saying the move was an "impulsive decision." Magdalo Rep. Manuel Cabochan III filed House Resolution No. 676 after Duterte threatened to scrap the VFA if the United States will not "rectify" the revocation of Senator Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa's visa. While recognizing that VFA may have "contentious" terms, Cabochan said that the agreement has helped the Philippines in terms of ensuring the security of Filipinos. "The impulsive decision to abrogate VFA based merely on personal motivations will c...

Keep on reading: Impulsive! Solon bucks Duterte’s ‘unilateral decision’ to end VFA

BEIJING--A virus similar to the SARS pathogen has claimed 132 lives since emerging in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and spread around the world. Here are the places that have confirmed cases of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus: CHINA As of Wednesday, more than 5,900 people have been infected across China, the bulk of them in and around Wuhan. Most of the 132 who have died were in that region, but officials have confirmed multiple deaths elsewhere, including the first in the capital Beijing. Macau, a gambling hub hugely popular with mainland tourists, has confirmed seven cases as of Tuesday. In Hong Kong, eight people are known to have the disease. Of thos...

Keep on reading: The global spread of the coronavirus: Where is it?

Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto shut down rumors they snubbed each other at a recent promotional event for their new movie "Block Z." Fans began to speculate that the former couple were not on friendly terms after a video of them not minding each other circulated online last Friday, Jan. 24. The short clip was uploaded on a YouTube channel titled "JMilSev 22" on the same day. Garcia and Barretto finally addressed the video and the rumors surrounding it at a bloggers' conference for the film today, Jan. 29. James Banaag of ABS-CBN uploaded the actors' sentiments on Twitter. "Okay kami (ni Julia). 'Wag sana bigyan ng meaning lahat ng galaw namin (We are fine. [Hopefully people] do ...

Keep on reading: ‘We’re not fighting’: Joshua Garcia, Julia Barretto address ‘deadmahan’ video

ILOILO CITY---Twelve Chinese nationals in Iloilo and Aklan are now being monitored by health authorities for signs of the deadly novel coronavirus (nCoV) in procedures that are now routine amid growing fears of nCoV spreading to the Philippines The monitoring comes as international health experts said there were indications that carriers of the virus don't show symptoms at least two weeks after infection. This meant that carriers would appear to be healthy but still capable of transmitting nCoV. In Iloilo City, health workers on Wednesday (Jan. 29) placed under medical observation a three-year-old Chinese boy who developed fever after arriving from China. Dr. Mary Jane Roches Ju...

Keep on reading: 12 Chinese in Iloilo, Aklan monitored amid nCov fears

MANILA, Philippines---Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon wants the Senate to assert its role in treaty termination or withdrawal amid the government's plan to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.   On Wednesday, Drilon filed Senate Resolution No. 305, urging the chamber to "express its sense that termination of, or withdrawal from treaties and international agreements concurred in by the Senate shall be valid and effective only upon concurrence by the Senate."   "The power to bind the Philippines by a treaty and international agreement is vested jointly by the Constitution in the President and the Senate," he said i...

Keep on reading: Drilon reso urges Senate to assert role on treaty, deal withdrawal

A 9-year-old boy in Louisiana can deadlift 230 pounds and is breaking records for his weight class.

After taking methamphetamine, a man climbed a pole and walked on a utility line in Texas, United States, claiming that he did so because dogs were going to bite him. Antonio Gomez, 23, was spotted by one Ernesto Garza last Monday, Jan. 27 atop a utility line in the city of Austin, as per ABC-affiliate KVUE yesterday, Jan. 28. "Didn't know the circus was in town," Garza yesterday joked on Reddit along with a photo of Gomez's stunt. https://www.reddit.com/r/Austin/comments/euu7t4/didnt_know_the_circus_was_in_town_south_first_and/ Authorities said they responded to a call on Monday afternoon reporting the incident, which led to the arrest of Gomez, who turned out to be high ...

Keep on reading: Man walks on utility line while high on meth, jailed for resisting arrest

Australia has been devastated by its worst bushfires in decades. More than 2.3 million hectares have been burned, and around half a billion animals may have been affected. Scientists say climate change made them more intense, and a similar effect has been observed in California.

  TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol ---- At least one died while five others were injured when a Philippine Army truck slammed into an eatery in Barangay Katipunan in Carmen town, Bohol past noon on Wednesday. Police Corporal Niezel Pescante, investigator of the Carmen Police Station said the Army truck was traveling at the national highway to Barangay Rosariohan in Batuan town for an activity at 12:45 p.m. when the driver lost control of the vehicle. The truck hit the carinderia owned by Brenie Rejas, where students of the Katipunan National High School (KNHS) were having lunch. Pescante said Roda Mae Niere, 18, a senior high school student at KNHS, died on the spot while five...

Keep on reading: Army truck slams into eatery in Bohol; 1 dead, 5 hurt

BUTUAN CITY----A soldier and a government militiaman were killed in an ambush by New People's Army (NPA) guerrillas in Marihatag town, Surigao del Sur province on Tuesday (Jan. 28). In a report, Lt. Krisjuper Andreo Punsalan, civil military operations officer of the Army's 3rd Special Forces Battalion, said the attack killed Ramie Tabano Austria, 40, militiaman, of Marihatag, and Pfc Arwin Saclet Niegos, 33, a native of Palawan. A separate report from the Caraga regional police office said Niegos and Austria were about to hop on a motorcycle to follow another motorcycle carrying soldiers and headed to their base at the village of Mararag when they were attacked. As the two reach...

Keep on reading: Soldier, militiaman killed in NPA ambush in Surigao Sur town

MANILA, Philippines --- University of Perpetual Help was looking for a breakthrough win to jack up its NCAA women's volleyball campaign. On Wednesday, it found what it was looking for, and more. Perpetual inflicted three-time champion Arellano its first defeat, exacted vengeance from last year's finals, and gained dramatic inroad to the Final Four with their fifth consecutive victory. "It's about time we enter the Final Four with a twice-to-beat," said Perptual coach Macky Carino in Filipino. "We wanted to experience entering the semifinals as favorites." It's still far down the road, of course, as the Lady Altas would need two more wins to make it to the semis outright and a...

Keep on reading: Perpetual wins 5th straight, topples Arellano

  BEIJING --- Passengers on a Malindo Air flight with two confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, have been placed under isolation and observation in a hotel in Dongli district, Tianjin, in northern China. The passengers from the Malindo Air Flight No. OD688 from Sabah, Malaysia, arrived in Tianjin last Saturday (Jan 25). Upon their arrival, all 31 passengers together with the flight crew members - including 16 foreign travelers from Malaysia and Bolivia - were sent directly to a hotel for isolation, because three passengers on the flight were reported to have fever. The first case on the flight, confirmed on Sunday, was a person aged 71 from Wuhan, the epicenter o...

Keep on reading: Passengers on Malaysia’s Malindo Air flight in isolation in China after 2 confirmed with virus

MANILA, Philippines---The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has completed the construction of a four-story evacuation center in Brgy. Greater Fairview, Quezon City. The newly-completed facility hastoilet and shower rooms, infirmary and pharmacy, laundry and drying area, centralized kitchen, stock room, breastfeeding room, roof deck, paging system room with security cameras, generator, garbage segregation facility, wheelchair ramp, elevator, fire alarm system, fire exit, and accommodation area with a capacity of 156 beds and allotment of one bed per family. "Alongside equipping each center with all needed facilities is ensuring that it will be gender-sensitive with ...

Keep on reading: 4-storey evacuation center in Quezon City completed