Palace has high hopes for Smartmatic-TIM

Malacañang on Sunday made it clear that it had only high expectations from the Smartmatic-Total Information Management (TIM) consortium in handling the historic full automation of Philippine elections in 2010.

Pope condemns ‘heinous’ Cotabato blast

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI condemned Sunday the "heinous" bomb attack outside a Catholic church in the Philippines which killed five people and said resorting to violence never solved anything.

H1N1 spoils Brunei sultan’s birthday fete

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN -- Brunei has put on hold celebrations to mark the birthday of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah after a swine flu outbreak, the government said over the weekend.

‘Anarchists’ behind Metro bombs -- Palace

A top Malacañang security official on Sunday said authorities had identified the group behind the string of bomb-related incidents in Metro Manila and were now working to arrest the perpetrators.