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CANADA – PhilCentral websites, which conducts research studies in collaboration with various international institutions and organizations, says there are now some 300,000 to 350,000 Canadians of Filipino descent most of them living in urban areas. Canada only had a small population of Filipinos until the late 20th century. It said the Filipino Canadians are the third largest Asian-Canadian group in the nation after the Chinese and Indian communities.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA- U.S. Senator Sam Brownback announced a new addition to his Iowa campaign. Emma Nemecek has been hired to serve as Southeast Iowa Field Representative. Nemecek, a Linn County Resident, ran for the Iowa House of Representatives against Ro Foege in 2006. She is Filipino native, born into poverty in Basilan City, Philippines, an area fraught with political and religious conflict under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. - Jean Kennedy Schmidt, one of the nurses dubbed the "Angels of Bataan" who were held prisoner in the Philippines during World War II, has died. She was 88. Schmidt died March 3 at her home from complications of a fall, her daughter, Susan Johnson of Bemidji , Minn. , said Friday. With Schmidt’s death, only three of the nurses are believed to be alive, said Elizabeth M. Norman, who wrote the 1999 book "We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan ."

WASHINGTON D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi hailed Rep. Michael Honda, a California Democrat and Japanese American, for bringing into focus the issue of "Comfort Women" of World War II. Rep. Mike Honda recently held hearings recently on a resolution asking Japan to issue a stronger apology to the Comfort Women who were used as sexual slaves by the Japanese invaders in Asia during World War II.

UNITED NATIONS – The Philippines has one of the highest rates of forest loss in the world, the United Nations has reported: this, in the face of government efforts to protect the remaining forests with schemes such as community-based forest management.

LAS VEGAS – March 16, Former Philippine Basketball Association star Rudy "The Destroyer" Distrito was convicted of manslaughter  for the 2004 killing of a Mexican in Las Vegas, Nevada. ABS-CBN news website said a Nevada court sentenced Distrito to a minimum of four to a maximum of 12 years in prison.

Distrito was initially charged with murder for the slaying of 24-year-old Mexican national Juan Amaya in 2004. Prosecutors said Distrito stabbed Amaya to death as an act of revenge after Amaya married Distrito’s mistress.

1. black hawk down - *ibong maitim sa ibaba*

2. dead man's chest - *dodo ng patay*

3. i know what you did last summer - *uyy... aminin!*

4. love, actually - *sa totoo lang, pag-ibig*

Three Little Words That Work!!

1)The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..."

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

When your date drinks too much, there are two possible explanations: Maybe he's an alcoholic or maybe you're too ugly.

WASHINGTON - A congressional group representing Americans of Asian and Pacific heritage is pushing for a repeal of a 60-year-old law and award veterans' benefits to Filipinos who fought with US forces in World War II.

This came as Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, chairman of the Senate veterans affairs committee, scheduled a hearing on a counterpart Filipino veterans' bill April 11. The House veterans affairs committee chaired by Rep. Bob Filner has tentatively scheduled its own hearing April 16.

MANILA – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has set up Special Boards of Election Inspectors (SBEIs) to conduct the voting and counting of votes expected to be cast by 504,110 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) staying in over 150 countries, according to the Manila bulletin.

Of this number only 27,240 are registered in North and South America, the Comelec said.

The OFWs registered under Republic Act 9189 or The Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 will be able to vote in the senatorial and party-list elections, which for them start on April 14 and end at 3 p.m. on May 14, 2007.

WASHINGTON D.C. – The non-governmental organization, Asia America Initiative, based here and in the Philippines, will bring 25 million pesos [$500,000] of vital medicines to the Integrated Provincial Hospital in Jolo, Sulu, in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, as part of the ongoing Development for Peace in Sulu [DPIS] project.

The donation makes AAI the largest medical contributor to the southern area of the ARMM. The medicines, donated by US-based MedPharm, Inc. are to be distributed in March, 2007. The shipment includes a broad spectrum of vital antibiotics, burn ointments, oral rehydration salts, and anti- parasitic medicines for 50,000 elementary and preschool children.

BROOKFIELD, Wisconsin - Dr. Jefferson M. Calimlim, Sr. and his wife, Elnora, also a physician, checked in to two separate federal prison facilities in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, it was confirmed by Federal Bureau of Prisons employees in the facilities.

Calimlim, Sr., 62, entered the CI (Correctional Institution) NE (Northeast) in Youngstown , Ohio at 1:38 p.m., almost the same time that Dr. Elnora M. Calimlim (nee: Mendoza ), 61, checked in to United States Penitentiary Hazelton at Bruceton Mills, West Virginia .

UNITED NATIONS – Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations Hilario Davide Jr. was elected early this month as vice president for Asia of the UN Economic and Social Council. With his election, the Philippines retains a key seat in the world body. This was the same position that his predecessor, Ambassador Baja Lauro once occupied.

The 54-member council is one of the principal organs of the UN dealing with international economic and social issues.

The former Philippine chief justice took over from Baja Jr. who was recalled by Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo last month.