BY CARLA GOMEZ  (www.visayandailystar.com)
A Research Institute for Tropical Medicine test yesterday confirmed that one of the two American missionaries earlier confined at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City was positive for Influenza A(H1N1), Health Regional Director Ariel Valencia said.
Found positive for H1N1 was a 20-year-old male from San Diego, California, who [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO
Health Regional Director Ariel Valencia said the 17-year-old student found positive for Influenza A(H1N1) was discharged from the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City yesterday and, so far, there is no indication that anyone who came in contact with her was infected.
The student was hit by A(H1N1) at De La [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ  (www.visayandailystar.com)
Smuggled sugar seized  at the Manila and Subic ports has dramatically increased by about 400 percent this year, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela said yesterday.
The Bureau of Customs  in a report furnished Coscolluela  said P36 million in sugar had been seized from the Manila and Subic ports from January to December  12, [...]

BY GILBERT BAYORAN (www.visayandailystar.com)
All guns issued to the 1,400 policemen in Negros Occidental will be silent starting today, in a move by their superiors to discourage them from indiscriminate firing of their arms during the Christmas and New Year’s eve celebrations.
Senior Supt. Manuel Felix, provincial police director, yesterday supervised the taping of gun muzzles at [...]

 BY PATRICK PANGILINAN (www.visayandailystar.com)
An official of the Diocese of Bacolod yesterday said that the church will continue to operate the educational facility left by the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation in La Carlota City, Negros Occidental.
Brethen Rye Gamala, chancellor-secretary of the diocese, said in a telephone interview that they are now finalizing the [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)

The New People’s Army is going on a five-day unilateral ceasefire December 24 to 26 and December 31 to January 1 in “unity with the Filipino people’s holiday traditions”, the Communist Party of the Philippines Central Committee announced yesterday.
“We welcome the CPP ceasefire so that everyone can observe the holidays in peace,” [...]

(www.visayandailystar.com)
Pope Benedict XVI has honored six lay persons of the Diocese of Bacolod with Papal Awards, Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra said yesterday.
The information was relayed to Navarra in a letter from Archbishop Edward Joseph Adams, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, a press release from the Bishop’s House said.
Invested with the Knighthood of the Order of [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
Leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday came up with a joint resolution that would extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program for another six months, but Negros Occidental congressmen opposing the inclusion of the compulsory acquisition provision, said they would vote against the move.
The House of Representatives adjourned [...]

 BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
The Bureau of Customs Enforcement and Security Service at the  Port of Cebu has seized fourteen  container vans declared as imported rice, but found to be mixed with imported sugar from Thailand, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Rafael Coscolluela said yesterday.
The SRA was informed that the seized goods were part of a shipment [...]

BY GILBERT BAYORAN (www.visayandailystar.com)
Another Globe Telecom cellsite was bombed and destroyed by about 10 suspected New People’s Army rebels Saturday night in Brgy. Mabini, Escalante City, Negros Occidental.
Chief Inspector Santiago Rapiz, Escalante police chief, yesterday said the suspects gained entry by destroying the cyclone fence of the unmanned and isolated Globe Telecom cellsite, and placed [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
 “The only way to stop Charter change now is for the people to unite and tell the President enough is enough, we will not allow it.”
If the people do not unite, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo may succeed at remaining in power beyond 2010, Jimmy Regalario, Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya chairperson, warned at a [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
Members of the  Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board  yesterday signed Wage Order No. 17 that will give workers in Western Visayas a P15 daily wage increase by Dec. 25, Labor Regional Director Aida Estabillo said.
She said the members of the board  signed the Implementing Rules and Regulations for the new [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra yesterday called on Negrenses to let their voices be heard by joining a prayer rally against Charter change, saying “the present government has no moral ascendancy to change the Constitution.”
The bishop also called on the congressmen of Negros Occidental to listen to the people’s voices and act according [...]

BY GILBERT BAYORAN (www.visayandailystar.com)
VICTORIAS CITY – Supt. Remus Zacharias Canieso, 6th Regional Mobile Group, claimed yesterday that they may have been outnumbered and outgunned by the New People’s Army rebel ambushers, but never outfought.
He was referring to the hour-long gunbattle with rebels who ambushed them in Victorias City, Wednesday, and claimed the life of a [...]

BY GILBERT BAYORAN (www.visayandailystar.com)
A policewoman was killed, and four were injured in an ambush perpetrated by about 30 suspected New People’s Army rebels in Victorias City, Negros Occidental, at about 2 p.m. yesterday.
Police investigations showed that the victims who are all policewomen and members of the 6th Regional Mobile Group, were accompanying Supt. Remus Zacharias [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
Members of the  House of Representatives threw out the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo by a vote  of 183-21 with three abstentions 1 a.m. today, Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella said.
They voted to uphold the report of the House justice committee dismissing the impeachment complaint against Arroyo for being “insufficient in [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
After their long, gruelling ordeal in Bangkok, Filipinos on board the Philippine Airlines rescue plane from Thailand broke out in loud applause at 11:25 last night as it touched down at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“We are so happy and relieved to be home,” Edith Villanueva, Sugar Industry Foundation Inc. president, told [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)
The heads of the two transportation groups in Negros Occidental  welcomed the announcement yesterday of new price rollbacks by Shell and Petron effective today,  but said it still was not enough considering the huge drop in fuel prices in the world market.
Elizabeth Katalbas, president of the Federation of Bacolod City Drivers Associations, [...]

BY CARLA GOMEZ (www.visayandailystar.com)

United Negros Drivers Operators Center members are expected to voluntarily lower their fare to P7 Monday in response to the drop in fuel prices, UNDOC secretary general Jesse Ortega said yesterday.“We are dropping our fare rates by 50 centavos from the P7.50 mandated rate even without an order from government as [...]

BY CHRYSEE SAMILLANO(www.visayandailystar.com)
Bacolod Comelec registrar Mavil Majarucon yesterday appealed to the public to register as early as possible.
Majarucon said the resumption of the system of continuing registration of voters will start on Tuesday and will run until Dec. 15, 2009.
She said the registration will be held at the Bays Center in Bacolod City from [...]

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday morning declared Bacolod’s 29th MassKara Festival open at the Bacolod public plaza amid a shower of confetti and balloons filling the sky with a kaleidoscope of colors.
She also did a bit of dancing to the beat of the MassKara music with a festival dancer.
“The masks at the MassKara festival are [...]