MARKET day in Port au Prince exudes an air of normalcy, masking the tension that sporadically boils over into riots and crime sprees in the Haitian capital, making the role of UN peacekeepers (photo below), including Filipino soldiers and policemen, indispensable. --IMELDA ABAÑO

RISKS to agricultural growth, a continued weakening of manufacturing, a decline in government consumption and the fragile state of exports and imports top the threats to the Philippine economy’s ability to sustain growth this year, as serious global challenges are seen to prevail, the congressional think tank has said in a report.

TOKYO—The world faces an “oil crisis,” and the International Energy Agency (IEA) stands ready to release emergency stockpiles even as the biggest consumers discuss measures to contain spiraling demand, the agency’s chief said.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—In recent weeks, United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti, among them Philippine police officers and soldiers, have had clashes with heavily armed kidnapping gangs whose activities are increasing.

The peacekeeping mission has expressed alarm over the growing number of kidnappings, gang activity and other acts of criminality in the Caribbean nation that is still struggling—four years after democratic elections for a new government—for political stability and economic progress.

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to lift the restraining order it imposed against it on May 30, a move that stopped the corporate regulator from investigating the alleged defiance by the Lopez group of an order on the use of proxy shares.

WITH the failure of the House of Representatives to pass the bill extending the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), which expired on Tuesday, Speaker Prospero Nograles filed a joint resolution to have the program extended until December 31 this year.

AMID soaring commodity prices, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) expressed concern for the plight of children, particularly those in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and Caraga, considered the two child-poorest regions in the Philippines.

STARTING today, two noteworthy publications are joining forces to offer readers the best of the past and the present. The Chinese Commercial News, the country’s oldest Chinese broadsheet, and the BusinessMirror, the country’s fastest-growing newspaper, are combining their distribution muscle to service a larger audience.

A TOTAL of 26 private-sector groups and farmers’ cooperatives, individual and institutional users, such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), took up 27,630 metric tons (MT) out of the 200,000 MT allocated for the private sector in an auction held Wednesday.

THE country might benefit from the $12-billion annual remittances of overseas Filipino workers (Ofws), but the medical brain drain poses one of the most serious threats to its people’s well-being.

MEMBERS of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), along with their East Asian dialogue partners, have established a regional think tank that will provide intellectual and capacity-building support for the creation of an Asean single-market economy by 2015.

FOLLOWING the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) ruling on meter- deposit refunds, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said Wednesday it will abide by the decision of the regulatory body once it receives the resolution. The refund order includes corresponding interest.

MORE STORIES ...