Maniolas

The new and improved Dacia Duster will have the same price tag as the previous model.©Raphaël Hetier / Dacia (Relaxnews) – The new and improved Duster was squarely in the spotlight at Dacia’s stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show, presenting a redesigned, more dynamic body. At a time when a number of car makers are “urbanizing” their SUVs, the Duster still stands out as a tough and rugged off-road adventurer. Dacia, the Romanian car manufacturer owned by Renault, has presented a new, better-equipped version of its Duster, which it will most likely sell at the same price as the previous model. The SUV now includes cruise control, assisted rear parking and a path control system, in addition to a fresh new design that matches the brand’s other 2014 models. Along with its style upgrade, the Duster has also become more efficient. Dacia reports that the model’s new TCe 125 fuel engine has an average fuel consumption of just 6L/100km, and a new shift-up indicator alerts drivers through a visual signal when shifting into the next gear will increase efficiency. For the protection of passengers and drivers, the Duster is now equipped with front airbags and head-thorax side airbags, as well as visual and audio alerts when the driver or passengers have failed to buckle their seatbelts. The back seat includes ISOFIX car seat attachments to ensure maximal safety for child passengers. Dacia is reportedly going to market the new Duster at the same price as its predecessor, which is currently Read More …

EXPORTERS are pushing for intensified actions against diseases affecting banana production in Mindanao to meet the growing demand for higher quality products of the overseas markets. In a resolution adopted during the recent Mindanao Export Congress, they noted that infestation of various diseases such as fusarium wilt and black sigatoka affect the overall quality of their banana output, thus lowering their profits as well. To address this issue on such diseases, the Mindanao exporters said that the Department of Agriculture (DA) should strengthen the provision of support programs. “The international market of banana requires standards and requirements that exporters need to meet,” they noted. Likewise, exporters underscored the need to undertake more stringent accreditation processes by the private and government sectors on bananas. This, as while the sectors have aligned accreditation programs to monitor the quality of banana produced for exports, the number of exporters who ship low-quality bananas are increasing. “Consequently, this affects the trade of bananas in the international market,” they said. Exporters added the accreditation policies and procedures of the Bureau of Plant Industry-Plant Quarantine Services (BPI-PQS) should be reviewed and enforced to ensure that international standards for farms and packing houses are complied. Edgar Bullecer, chief executive officer of agricultural producer Paglas Group of Companies, identified weather and diseases as among the problems and constraints facing banana producers. Financing and market stability also remain perennial problems of the sector. “Bad quality bananas that manage to reach the export market compromise the image of overall Philippine banana,” Read More …

Which is worse for a child — to be abandoned since birth or to be abandoned at an age when he’s already aware of it? At five o’clock in the morning last Thursday, Maryann went about her usual order of the day  prepare for their carinderia  when she noticed an infant at the display shelf. It was a baby boy. And with the little baby was a plastic bag with extra clothes, a diaper and a feeding bottle with milk. Whatever the mother’s reason was for abandoning her child, she made sure that the baby boy would be fed. “Maybe the mother left the baby with us because she saw that we had a business and could take care of the child,” said Maryann. The last time I saw an abandoned baby, she was placed in a grocery bag made of cloth and placed on a tree. They turned over the baby boy to the local barangay and then to DZMM, which in turn, called the attention of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). It was not the first time that I went to the nursery for abandoned children of the DSWD. The room was quiet with a male nurse attending to their new client, Baby Boy. He was the smallest of all the children there, being the newest one, at four days old. Most of the children were quietly sleeping, oblivious to our presence. A boy caught my attention. He was the oldest of the lot. My Read More …

JANET Napoles, the alleged mastermind behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam, had a good night’s sleep on her fifth day of detention at a police camp in Laguna, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Friday. PNP spokesman Senior Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac said Napoles “verbalized that she had a good sleep” inside her spruced up detention room inside Fort Sto. Domingo in Sta. Rosa, Laguna. Napoles also had a good serving of scrambled egg, meat loaf and rice for breakfast around 6:30 a.m., Sindac added.” (From Philstar, 6 Sept. 2013) I was out of the country for the last couple of weeks, and had missed the Janet Napoles saga for that duration. Coming back into the country, these were the stuff of headlines that greeted me. The only thing I could think about was – how lucky for the rich! Lucky indeed. Spruced up detention room all to herself? Most common criminals have to content themselves with a cramped and dirty detention cell, often shared with forty other inmates. A jail in Sta. Rosa? She is neighbours with the rich and famous of the posh subdivisions there. And a breakfast of scrambled egg, meat loaf and rice? Lucky for her, because in most jails, the only thing they get is a scoop of rice and some salt to eat. But this is how the cookie crumbles for the rich. Remember Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo, who had to be transported to her cell in a helicopter? Remember Mayor Joseph Estrada, when he himself was incarcerated? Read More …

Associated Press 2:02 pm | Thursday, September 5th, 2013 In this Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013, photo, traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York. Stock futures were mixed Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2013, with the U.S. moving closer to a military confrontation in Syria. AP BANGKOK— Good news about the U.S. economy, including strong auto sales, helped boost Asian stock markets Thursday. A Federal Reserve survey released Wednesday showed that all 12 of the Fed’s districts reported moderate economic growth from July through late August. More good news came from the auto industry: General Motors and other carmakers posted strong sales in August, giving the industry its best month in six years. That data comes on top of the Institute for Supply Management’s report, released Tuesday, that said U.S. factory production rose in August at the fastest pace in two years. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index swung between losses and gains before rising 0.3 percent to 14,093.36 after the Bank of Japan said following a policy meeting that the world’s No. 3 economy was “recovering moderately.” The central bank’s policy board also said the bank’s monetary easing policies would be maintained for the time being, Kyodo News reported. Andrew Sullivan, trader at Kim Eng Securities in Hong Kong, said investors were anticipating a press conference later Thursday by Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda. Analysts were waiting to hear what Kuroda might have to say about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plans to raise sales taxes from Read More …