Fil-Am Siblings Among Boston Ballet's Principal Dancers

Jeffrey and Lia Cirio (Source: bostonballet.org)

Two of the Boston Ballet's principal dancers are Filipino American siblings Lia and Jeffrey Cirio, report The FilAm.net. The Cirio siblings are such outstanding dancers they have been featured in Boston’s leading publications and dance magazines.

PH Freelancers Dominate World Marketplace

Elance-oDesk boasts of more than 8 million freelancers spread across 180 countries, one eighth of whom — a full 1 million people — hail from the Philippines. These freelancers perform work in a wide range of fields, from design and programming to administration and marketing, reports Mashable.com. From January 2010 to April 2014, the country’s freelancers have earned more than $207 million (9 billion PhP).

Libya Fears Health Care Collapse If Filipino, Indian Staffers Flee

Libya has warned of a "total collapse" of its health care system as the chaos plaguing the country threatens to send into flight many of the Filipino and Indian staff on whom its hospitals depend, reports ABS-CBN News.

OFW Returnees From W. Africa Checked Daily for Ebola

Health authorities are closely monitoring the condition of seven of 15 Filipino OFWs who returned last month from Sierra Leone, in West Africa, where an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 700 people, reports Inquirer.net. Most of the OFWs were construction workers repatriated from Sierra Leone on orders of their employers due to the Ebola outbreak, which has also stricken Guinea and Liberia.

494 New HIV Cases in PH Reported in June

The Department of Health on July 31 reported there were 494 new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in June 2014, a 15-percent increase compared with the 431 recorded in the same period last year. This brought to a total 2,814 cases this year, with 66 deaths, reports Interaksyon.com.

Training Video Insulting to Filipinos Withdrawn

Filipino community leaders and the Philippine Embassy on June 28 lauded a California-based company for its decision to delete a scene in its customer service training video that negatively portrayed Filipino healthcare workers, reports Inquirer.net. Entitled “It’s a Dog’s World,” the video showed two Filipina healthcare employees gossiping in Tagalog in front of an American patient.

Filipina Nurse Abducted, Raped in Libya

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that a female Filipino nurse in Tripoli, Libya was abducted, raped, and then released July 30, reports Inquirer.net. The Filipino nurse was abducted in front of her residence by four Libyan youths, taken somewhere, raped and then released.

PH Per Capita Income Rises to $2,765

World Bank data showed that alongside the expansion of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) came the rise in the purchasing power of Filipino consumers, reports Inquirer.net. From a GDP per capita of $1,832 in 2009, it steadily rose until last year, when the Philippine economy grew to second fastest in Asia with a 7.2-percent expansion, the GDP per capita further climbed to $2,765.