KAKAMMPI News

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide availability of tax subsidies that are crucial to the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, handing a major victory to the president.   The court ruled on a 6-3 vote that the 2010 Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, did not restrict the subsidies to states that establish their own online healthcare exchanges. It marked the second time in three years that the high court ruled against a major challenge to the law brought by conservatives seeking to gut it.   Chief Justice John Roberts was joined by fellow conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy and the court's liberal members in the majority.   "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them," Roberts wrote, adding that nationwide availability of the credits is required to "avoid the type of calamitous result that Congress plainly meant to avoid...

Some 200 overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) have availed of the four-month general amnesty granted by the Sultanate of Oman to illegal or overstaying foreign workers there, the Department of Labor and Employment said Thursday. More than half of these OFWs, or 110, have already arrived home, with 28 more scheduled to depart Oman on June 28, the DOLE said. The remaining OFWs will be repatriated after the Holy Month of Ramadan, according to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, citing a report from Labor Attache to Oman Nasser Mustafa. The amnesty, which took effect on April 1 and will end on July 31, enables illegal immigrants to rectify their status. “The four-month amnesty is part of Oman's efforts to regulate the presence of foreign workers there,” Baldoz said. Mustafa's report also said distressed OFWs staying at the Migrant Workers and Other Filipinos Resource Center (MWOFRC) have availed of the amnesty, with 17 of them already in the Philippines. At present, there are only eight...

Two Filipinos were voted into Canada's annual list of  Top 25 Immigrants  for inspiring fellow migrants with years of dedicated community service. Ver Cruz  and  Maria Santos-Greaves  were voted into the Canadian Immigrant's people's choice awards for their respective efforts in providing education and medical aid to both immigrants and locals. Cruz established the Vercore Business Academy in April 1994 upon arriving in Canada with his wife to help fellow migrants develop skills necessary for proper employment. "We provided skills such as business communication both in person and on the telephone, and office reception techniques among other soft skills," Cruz said. Despite budgetary constraints for marketing and advertisement, his school have managed to help newcomers from Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Poland, Italy, Brazil, Greek, Portuguese, Egypt, and the Philippines for over 21 years. Meanwhile, Santos-Greaves worked as a dollar store clerk, education sa...

(Updated 5:02 p.m.)  Raul Pangalangan, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, was elected to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday. According to a Tweet by the Coalition for the ICC (CICC), Pangalangan was elected as judge with 59 votes to 25 during the resumed 13th session of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP). coalitionfortheicc   @_CICC Dr. Raul Pangalangan of # ThePhilippines elected as # ICC judge with 59 votes to 25 at resumed session of ASP13 12:45 AM - 25 Jun 2015 He was nominated alongside  Ibrahim Ajazy , former Minister of Justice in Jordan and current dean for University of Jordan Law. The Philippine Mission of the United Nations announced Pangalangan's appointment on Thursday and congratulated Team Philippines "for a job well done." CICC convenor William Pace said Pangalangan's election was crucial for the ICC as it "gives the Asia-Pacific region a full representation i...

A designer was charged before a United Arab Emirates court for allegedly filming his Filipina flatmates while they were undressing, UAE news sites reported late Wednesday. Prosecutors accused the suspect, 37, of installing a small camera in a dress he hung in the washroom's door late last year, Gulf News reported. But he failed to show up before the Dubai Court of First Instance on Wednesday and thus did not enter a plea. Presiding judge Fahd Al Shamsi is expected to hand out a ruling on July 8. The  designer was also accused of trying to molest  and breach the privacy of his two Filipina flatmates, as he shared the house with a number of women. Prosecutors' records The Gulf News report said the defendant admitted to prosecutors he fixed the camera in September before his flatmates discovered it in November. “I also fixed another camera in a woman’s bedroom without her knowledge to film her undressing whenever she was inside. I filmed several video footage of women getting und...

The Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong will be closed on July 1, on the anniversary of the establishment of Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of China. In an announcement on its website, the consulate general said there will be "no official transactions including OEC issuance" on July 1. " Please plan ahead ," it advised Filipinos there. However, it said it can be contacted in an emergency at: 9155-4023 (consular assistance) 5529-1880 (labor) 6345-9324 (OWWA) web: www.hongkongpcg.dfa.gov.ph Facebook: Philippine Consulate General in Hong Kong email: hongkong.pcg@dfa.gov.ph fax: 2866-9885 —  Joel Locsin /LBG, GMA News

NEW YORK - The League of Kitchens initiative solves at least two problems: It provides talented, immigrant home cooks with cash and New York foodies with a chance to do more than just sit in the kitchen and listen to stories of the old country.   "The immigrant is the host. She is the expert. And you are her guest and her student," explained Lisa Gross, founder and chief executive of The League of Kitchens, which brings New York foodies to the homes of immigrants for intimate dinners.   The daughter of a Korean immigrant and a Jewish New Yorker, Gross had "always been interested in the way that foods can bring people together in different ways" and while a graduate art student in Boston living on her own for the first time, day-dreamed about cooking with her grandmothers.   Those dreams became the basis for The League of Kitchens, a business where foodies and tourists learn how to make Afghani, Argentinian, Bangladeshi, Greek, Korean, Indian, Lebanese o...