Mexican telecom giant Carlos Slim has topped Forbes magazine’s billionaire’s list – the first time since 1994 that an American has not led the rankings. Mr Slim’s fortune rose by $18.5bn (

From their perch in Tagaytay, tourists for years reveled in awe-inspiring views of Taal Lake without knowing the messy truth. Squalid checkerboards of floating fish cages were spreading pollution with excess feeds and causing fish kills that indicated a dying lake. Enter a movie-star governor who once played Darna.

It took the University of the Philippines in Diliman more than four years to fully automate student council elections among 20,000 students. Can the Comelec do it for 50 million voters with barely a year of preparation? UP graduate student and GMANews.TV writer Jerrie Abella gives a first-hand account of electronic voting.

Twenty-four years ago, the nation was swept up in a miraculous wave of magic that toppled two decades of dictatorship without bloodshed and catapulted the Philippines to worldwide fame. For veteran and young musicians, the EDSA revolution left a legacy that continues to be reflected in their songs.

Back in the 1970s, labor migration was seen by the government not as a problem but a solution to rising unemployment and inadequate foreign exchange earnings to pay for increasing foreign debts.

What the presidential candidates say about OFWs

They may have brought home the bacon – $17 billion in 2009 or over 10 times bigger than last year's expected foreign direct investment – but more than an economic force, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have evolved into a social phenomenon that the country”s next president needs to resolve decisively.

In the wake of the tremor that ravaged Haiti, government agencies in Manila are increasing their efforts to educate residents and building owners about earthquake risks. After all, the active Valley Fault System, better known as the Marikina Fault, traverses the nation”s capital and can move anytime, experts say. Are we ready for The Big One?

Another version of the story came out in the news. Ramos was said to be on the side of management, for which he was killed by leftists.

Tarlac City Councilor Abel Ladera, who was murdered on March 3, 2005, was a former sugar mill worker who grew up in one of the barangays of Hacienda Luisita. He became an engineer, then a city councilor.

The 94-kilometer Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx) is presently the longest highway in the Philippines. It connects the Subic Bay Freeport, the Clark Freeport, and Tarlac City.

The following account of the January 5, 2005 shooting at the west gate of Las Haciendas subdivision in Hacienda Luisita is taken from testimonies delivered during the January 12, 2005 Senate hearing on the incident.

After the massacre of 2004, eight more people who were either leaders or supporters of the Luisita strike were murdered in Tarlac. A GMANews.TV investigation reveals that a survivor of one shooting testified in 2005 that Sen. Noynoy Aquino had appealed to him about a “superhighway”, which turned out to be the now controversial SCTex.

An unlikely rise in population in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao means more funds from the national government and more votes in the May elections, leading demographers to suspect fraud in the latest census. The main Ampatuan bailiwick, for example, grew by an astounding 13.6 per year.

Many Pinoys will spare no expense to have whiter skin. That”s why store shelves are flooded with whitening products, with some brands now in sachets. But there is increasing evidence of health risks, with some whiteners found to contain toxins including mercury, which accumulates in the body and can lead to liver or kidney damage.

Get a glimpse into the lives of the seven people who died during the Luisita Massacre.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas declared an Assumption of Jurisdiction over the Luisita dispute on November 10, 2004. Sto. Tomas said quelling the strike was a matter of national interest because Luisita was one of the country”s major sugar producers. This paved the way for sending government troops to stop the strike.

The strike of the farm workers” union (United Luisita Workers” Union or ULWU) on November 6, 2004 at Gate 1 of the sugar mill was not covered by the assumption of jurisdiction of the Labor secretary.

As Sen. Noynoy Aquino campaigns for the presidency, new attention has been focused on events of five years ago when labor strife on his family's sugar estate left seven dead. This is the third of a series that examines the tortured history of Hacienda Luisita, an issue that would face another Aquino administration.

When the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was implemented in Hacienda Luisita in 1989, the farm workers” ownership of the hacienda was pegged at 33%, while 67% was retained by the Cojuangcos.