Intel disclosed Friday that it has received a subpoena from the FTC for records about Intel's microprocessor sales, which dominate the world market with a roughly 80 percent share.
The FTC's two-year investigation had been considered "informal" until that point, and Intel, which is already fighting antitrust charges in the European Union and was fined this week by antitrust regulators in South Korea, said it had been cooperating.
By opening a formal investigation, Intel said, the FTC will be able to get access to documents revealing Intel's communications with certain customers — documents Intel couldn't voluntarily provide because of a protective order that is part of a sweeping antitrust lawsuit AMD filed in 2005 that isn't expected to go to trial until 2010.
"From our perspective, it's not a surprising event nor is there any really substantive change in the relationship we've had with the FTC," Bruce Sewell, Intel's general counsel, said in an interview.
The FTC's intensifying look at Intel's business practices is a result of AMD's long-running campaign to convince antitrust regulators around the world that its business has been hurt by Intel's aggressive tactics. AMD also said Friday that it received a subpoena this week from the FTC — though the company said it is not a target of the investigation.
The two companies have been fighting for years over what AMD claims is Intel's intimidation of computer makers into striking exclusive deals for the chips they use in their new machines.
AMD claims the rebates and financial incentives Intel offers to those companies for buying more Intel chips are designed to prevent AMD from gaining market share — and that Intel threatens those manufacturers that it will retaliate if they introduce models based on AMD's chips.
AMD argues that Intel's volume discounts are sometimes so steep that AMD can't cut its own prices enough to compete without losing money on the sales.
Intel has repeatedly denied breaking any laws. It said Friday that the sharp drop in microprocessor prices over the past seven years shows that the "evidence that this industry is fiercely competitive and working is compelling."
In an interview last week with The Associated Press, before the company received the subpoena, Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini noted that Intel has been investigated by the FTC and the Department of Justice before, and he said he stands by the company's actions.
"I think there's nothing we've done that warrants further investigation by the U.S. government," Otellini said.
Should the FTC find Intel violated federal law, Intel could face severe fines, and the way the world's computer chips are bought and sold could change.
AMD said the probe helps it hold Intel accountable for sales strategies that it argues have hurt AMD's business and technology consumers.
"Intel must now answer to the Federal Trade Commission, which is the appropriate way to determine the impact of Intel practices on U.S. consumers and technology businesses," Tom McCoy, AMD's executive vice president and chief administrative officer, said in a statement. "In every country around the world where Intel's business practices have been investigated, including the decision by South Korea this week, antitrust regulators have taken action."
Another major legal headache for Intel is the lawsuit AMD filed against it in U.S. District Court in Delaware in 2005 — a case that could mean billions of dollars in damages if AMD wins. The parties are now exchanging documents in the "discovery" phase of that case.
AMD's complaints have also triggered antitrust investigations in several countries outside their home U.S. market as well.
The European Union has accused Intel of paying manufacturers to delay or cancel product lines using AMD chips and selling the manufacturers its own chips below the average cost of producing them.
And on Thursday, Intel was slapped with a $25.4 million fine by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, which accused the semiconductor giant of using hefty rebates to convince Samsung Electronics Co. and other South Korean computer makers to not use central processing units, or CPUs, manufactured by AMD.
Intel shares fell 97 cents, or 4.06 percent, to close at $22.90 on Friday. AMD shares fell 35 cents, or 4.5 percent, to close at $7.43. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/99904/(Update)-FTC-opens-formal-probe-of-Intel-chip-business>
Missile practice for Moon mission
BBC News
Penetrator missiles were fired into a wall of sand at 1,100km/h (700mph)
Tests on a UK-led technology at the heart of a planned Moon mission have been a spectacular success, according to the experts involved in the project.
Three penetrator missiles were fired into a sand bunker in Wales, designed to mimic the lunar surface.
Professor Alan Smith, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told BBC News the results had exceeded expectations.
He is a leading figure in the Moonlite mission, which hopes to fire instruments into the Moon in 2013.
A BBC team witnessed the final day of the tests at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) test site at Pendine, near Tenby.
The site has been open since 1940 but is now operated by Qinetiq, the privatised MoD spin-off company which developed the penetrator technology.
Three projectiles were tested on three consecutive days at the end of May.
They look like missiles but, rather than exploding on impact, they are designed to stay intact to protect the scientific instruments inside. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7438270.stm>
UK firms 'top Europe wealth list'
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Vodafone was among the firms driving its wealth creation forward in 2007.
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Large UK-owned companies are outstripping their European rivals when it comes to creating wealth, a study has concluded.
Banks and oil firms topped the 2007 Value Added Scoreboard research by the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).
It measures wealth by valuing a firm's sales, minus the cost of its bought-in goods and services.
About 23% of "added value" by Europe's top 750 firms came from the UK.
Germany was the next most productive country, making up 19.7% of the total, with France (18.5%) in third place.
'Well-placed'
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HOW FIRMS CAN 'ADD VALUE'
Introduce new innovative products
Sell more existing products and services e.g. better marketing, new markets
Reduce costs of bought-in items
Improve productivity by reducing costs of bought-in items needed
Source: BERR
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The study allowed firms to be compared on their "wealth creation efficiency", said the government's science and innovation minister, Ian Pearson.
Value added by the top 800 UK-based companies grew 9.6% over the previous year to £636.3bn, the report said.
Royal Dutch Shell, BP, HSBC, Vodafone and the Royal Bank of Scotland were the UK's top five wealth generators.
The leading non-UK firms were DaimlerChrysler (ranked 2nd), French oil firm Total (3rd) and Russian energy giant Gazprom (5th).
Of the top 50 companies, 42 were based in the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland.
UK financial markets were "well placed to handle the current global uncertainty", Mr Pearson added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7442747.stm>
Natural lab shows sea's acid path
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By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website |
Natural carbon dioxide vents on the sea floor are showing scientists how carbon emissions will affect marine life.
Dissolved CO2 makes water more acidic, and around the vents, researchers saw a fall in species numbers, and snails with their shells disintegrating.
Writing in the journal Nature, the UK scientists suggest these impacts are likely to be seen across the world as CO2 levels rise in the atmosphere.
Some of the extra CO2 emitted enters the oceans, acidifying waters globally.
Studies show that the seas have become more acidic since the industrial revolution.
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The only way of reducing the impact of ocean acidification is the urgent reduction in CO2 emissions
 Carol Turley
Plymouth Marine Laboratory |
"It's clear that marine food webs as we know them are going to alter, and biodiversity will decrease," he told BBC News.
"Those impacts are inevitable because acidification is inevitable - we've started it, and we can't stop it."
Natural lab
Corals construct their external skeletons by extracting dissolved calcium carbonate from seawater and using it to form two minerals, calcite and aragonite. Molluscs use the same process to make their shells.
As water becomes more acidic, the concentration of calcium carbonate falls. Eventually there is so little that shells or skeletons cannot form.
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ACIDIFYING OCEANS
The oceans are thought to have absorbed about half of the extra CO2 put into the atmosphere in the industrial age
This has lowered its pH by 0.1
pH is the measure of acidity and alkalinity
The vast majority of liquids lie between pH 0 (very acidic) and pH 14 (very alkaline); 7 is neutral
Seawater is mildly alkaline with a "natural" pH of about 8.2
The IPCC forecasts that ocean pH will fall by
"between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st Century, adding to the
present decrease of 0.1 units since pre-industrial times"
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Globally, the seas now have an average pH of about 8.1 - down about 0.1 since the dawn of the industrial age.
Around the vents, it fell as low as 7.4 in some places. But even at 7.8 to 7.9, the number of species present was 30% down compared with neighbouring areas.
Coral was absent, and species of algae that use calcium carbonate were displaced in favour of species that do not use it.
Snails were seen with their shells dissolving. There were no snails at all in zones with a pH of 7.4.
Meanwhile, seagrasses thrived, perhaps because they benefit from the extra carbon in the water.
These observations confirm that some of the processes seen in laboratory experiments and some of the predictions made by computer models of ocean ecosystems do also happen in the real world.
"I can't count the number of times that scientific talks end with 'responses have not yet been documented in the field'," said Elliott Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute (MCBI).
"This paper puts that to rest for several ecologically important marine groups." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7437862.stm>
20-year CARP fails to end feudal relations especially in Negros Occ
As Republic Act 8532 or the law extending the CARL’s appropriation until 2008 expires on June 15, data obtained by GMANews.TV from the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) show that there are still 1,173,706 hectares of private agricultural landholdings (PAL) in the country that have not yet been distributed to farmer-beneficiaries (FB).
According to the DAR data, the 1.17 million hectares of PALs are still in the hands of 81,541 landowners. At three hectares per beneficiary, the balance could benefit 391,235 farmers.
Most of these undistributed landholdings — about 12.6 percent of the total balance or 147,889 hectares — are found in Negros Occidental, touted as the country’s bedrock of feudalism.
These Negros landholdings, according to the DAR data, are held by 6,329 landowners or 23 hectares per landowner.
The total area of Negros Occidental lands could benefit 49,296 tillers, if the farms would be distributed to them at 3 hectares per beneficiary.
PALs should have been first
In a study, peasant federation Task Force Mapalad (TFM) claimed that instead of following CARL’s mandate of prioritizing the coverage of PALs, the DAR acquired and distributed “less contentious landholdings," such as government-owned lands.
“Had the government religiously followed the original intent of the CARL, Negros could have long been practically freed of problems on land tenure improvement as early as 1998," said TFM in its study.
It said that under the CARL, PALs in excess of 50 hectares “shall be distributed immediately" to landless farmers and farm workers “with the implementation to be completed within a period of not more than four years."
Meanwhile, TFM said the same law mandates that PALs above 24 hectares to 50 hectares should have been finished on the fourth year of the CARL or in 1992. While the distribution of those with sizes of 24 hectares and below should have started on the sixth year of the law’s implementation or 1994, and completed within four years or in 1998.
TFM helps FBs in Negros Occidental, and in other provinces acquire the lands they till through the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).
The organization has so far helped 3,150 FBs acquire and occupy 7,200 hectares of farmlands in 312 haciendas in Negros Occidental.
Undistributed PALs in Negros
The DAR data also show that most of the undistributed PALs in Negros Occidental — 45 percent or 66,604 hectares — are landholdings with sizes above 50 hectares. Some 37.5 percent or 55,388 hectares are above 5 to 24 hectares, while the remaining 17.5 percent or 25,896 hectares are those with sizes of above 24 to 50 hectares.
TFM said the DAR data showed “that Negros Occidental lagged behind the schedule (mandated under the CARL)."
“Asset redistribution through CARP implementation was so slow that this gave so much time for the landowners to consolidate their forces and set up machinations to ensure than the CARP will never be a success in Negros," TFM said in its study.
The same study also claimed that only about 18 family groups with interlocking genealogical relations control most of the vast sugar plantations in Negros Occidental where 80 percent of sugar is produced.
The TFM said these are the families of Lizares, Jalandoni, Lacson, Lopez, Javellana, Montelibano, Montilla, Arroyo, Villanueva, Soriano, Javellana, Benedicto, Ledesma, Araneta, Gonzaga, Montinola, Yulo, and Cojuangco. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100310/20-year-CARP-fails-to-end-feudal-relations-especially-in-Negros-Occ>
House defers CARP extension vote, enraged farmers protest
Radio dzBB's Rowena Salvacion reported that several farmers attending the session jumped off the gallery, prompting House security to scramble and haul many of them away.
"Ngayon kitang kita na panalo bakit kailangan ipagpaliban. Ibig sabihin nito, nagbababuyan dito (Now we see the CARP extension bill winning, then they suddenly shelve it. Now it is obvious these lawmakers are making a mockery of us)," some of the female farmers screamed.
The incident came a week after farmers stormed the office of House speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. after he promised to pass the CARP extension bill only to have it shelved.
Nograles promised the farmers the bill would be passed this week.
But at Tuesday night's incident, Nograles was not at his post. Deputy speaker Amelita Villarosa was acting speaker at the time.
The House members also decided to discuss the renewable energy bill instead of the CARP extension bill.
Many farmers booed loudly when it was announced that the House would issue a joint resolution instead to extend CARP's land acquisition and distribution.
A separate report by radio dzBB's Roland Bola said security was tightened outside and inside the Batasan complex where the lawmakers were still holding session.
Police also closed off the gates of the Batasan Complex after the farmers' colleagues who were waiting outside started to light torches in protest of the CARP bill's shelving.
- GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100349/House-shelves-CARP-extension-bill-enraged-farmers-stage-protest>
DAR chief: No need for special session on CARP
dismissed call for a special session for the proposal to extend the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
Pangandaman made the remark during in a briefing in Malacañang where he said that even if the bill is not passed within the year, neither the Department of Agrarian Reform or the CARP would be abolished as both would continue to operate December 2008.
He said that what is set to lapse in December is the Land Acquisition and Distribution component of CARP.
He said the two other components – the support service program, and the dealings of agrarian justice - would continue to be implemented by DAR.
He also clarified that CARP would not lapse on June 15 after it was extended up to December 2008 when Republic Act No. 6657, or the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL), was amended in 1998.
Pangdaman said that with the commitment of Congress to pass the House Bill 4077 when Congress reopens in July, he is confident that it would be extended.
He said that the House of Representatives even passed a resolution Tuesday night expressing its commitment to pass HB 4077 when it resumes sessions in July. He said the resolution also clarifies that the CARP has not expired in June but would be in effect until the end of the year.
He said the misunderstanding stemmed from the time the RA 6657 was passed on June 10, 1988 and took effect on June 15. He said some thought it would expire exactly 10 years after the extension became a law.
"They decided to come up with a resolution last night habang tinatalakay itong panukalang batas na ito dahil ang kanilang tingin ay magtatapos pa sa December this year, so mayroon pa silang panahon para matalakay iyong mga proposed amendments. Therefore, instead of passing the bill last night ang ginawa nila nagpasa sila ng resolution saying that they will further deliberate on the proposed amendments as they will need more time to study this," he said.
Pangandaman said that CARP needs to be extended for at least another five years to give the government enough time for the acquisition and distribution of the remaining 1.8 million hectares under the program.
Of the 1.8 million hectares, 1.2 million hectares of which would be acquired and distributed by DAR and the 600,000 hectares by the department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Under CARP the DAR oversees the acquisition and distribution of private agricultural land while DENR handles public lands.- GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100564/DAR-chief-No-need-for-special-session-on-CARP>
Two dead in Europe fuel protests
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One driver was run over and killed in Granada during the protest
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Two lorry drivers have been killed in fuel protests in Spain and Portugal as the hauliers' strike continues.
One was killed in the Spanish city of Granada when he was run over by a van trying to drive through a picket line.
The other driver died after reportedly trying to stop a lorry at a barricade near Alcanena, north of the Portuguese capital Lisbon, on Tuesday.
Spaniards are stockpiling fuel and food as hauliers blockade major cities in protest at rising diesel prices.
Regarding the death of the driver in Spain, a Spanish interior ministry spokesman told national radio: "We regret the death of this person and hope it makes everyone realise that no dispute is worth the death of anyone."
A second day of talks between the government and hauliers' representatives was suspended after the death was reported.
Firefighters tackled burning lorries near the city of Alicante
Another lorry driver is reported to have suffered serious burns as he
slept in his vehicle when it caught fire in what is thought to be a
strike-related incident, Spanish media said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7447869.stm>
Honour for biomaterials pioneer
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Professor Robert Langer pioneered biomedicines
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One of the most prolific inventors in medicine has won the prestigious Millennium Technology Prize.
Professor Robert Langer's biomaterials research has allowed for more accurate and controlled release of drugs into patients' bodies.
His work has had a significant impact on fighting cancer and heart disease, with more than 100 million people using medicines delivered via his designs.
The 800,000 euros award is seen as an unofficial Nobel Prize for technology.
It is given every second year for a technology that "significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future".
Professor Langer received the award at ceremony in Helsinki, Finland.
His work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology involved finding a way to gradually release drug molecules into a patient's body.
Too large
The problem was that drug molecules were too large to slip through the microscopic holes in any of the available polymers (synthetic materials) that encapsulated the medicine.
His solution was to develop a polymer with a three-dimensional matrix structure that allowed drug molecules to pass through and into a patient's system.
He began his work in 1974 and by the early 1990s his polymers were being used in wafers to deliver medicines directly into the brains of cancer patients.
The wafers represented the biggest change in treatment for brain cancer patients in 25 years.
The Millennium Technology Prize awarded Professor Langer 800,000 euro while five other technologists shortlisted for the prize each received 115,000 euros.
The shortlisted laureates were Sir Alec Jeffreys, creator of DNA fingerprinting; Professor David Payne, co-inventor of an optical amplifier which transformed telecommunications; his co-inventors, Prof Emmanual Desurvire and Dr Randy Giles; and Dr Andrew Viterbi, whose eponymous algorithm aids modern communications.
The two previous recipients of the Millennium Technology Prize are Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, and Shuji Nakamura, creator of energy efficient LEDs. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7448215.stm>
World music pioneer in web revival
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By Robert Plummer
Business reporter, BBC News |
In today's globalised, digitised music industry, record companies may be on the run, but the enterprising individual artist has never had it so good.
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Ahmed Fakroun's career shows the effect of the web on the music industry
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While downloads may pose a threat to the time-honoured business model of the major labels, many forgotten acts have been able to revive their fortunes by selling their songs over the web, direct to the consumer.
Yet even by 21st-Century standards, the career of world music pioneer Ahmed Fakroun is unusual, to say the least.
Born in the Libyan city of Benghazi, he spent long periods in the UK and France in the 1970s and 1980s, recording a handful of singles and albums that now fetch high prices on record collectors' websites.
But he was reduced to a mere mention in specialist music encyclopaedias after Libya's years of international isolation made it difficult for him to market his music to the outside world.
However, he recently came to prominence among obscurity-hungry club DJs when some of his early songs were rediscovered, re-edited and reissued anonymously.
Thanks to internet chat forums and blogs, his identity was soon revealed - and taking advantage of his renewed visibility, he has made his music available legally on download store 7digital. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7434014.stm>
New cities rise from Saudi desert
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By Crispin Thorold
BBC News, King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia |
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KAEC will have a large port, leisure resorts, schools and universities
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Six major developments will be built across the Kingdom over the next 15 years, the centrepiece being King Abdullah Economic City, 100km (62 miles) north of Jeddah.
The new city is rising from the sands of the Arabian Desert and when complete it will stretch over 150 sq miles (388 sq km).
The developers say that by 2020 more than one million jobs will have been created, in a city that will be home to two million people.
"This is on a scale unheard of before in the world," said Fahd al-Rasheed the CEO of Emaar, The Economic City, which is developing the site.
"[The King Abdullah Economic City] includes one of the largest ports in the world, an education zone, a resort zone etc. It is the size of Washington DC and is being built in 15 years".
Diversification
With the price of oil showing no sign of weakening, the government of Saudi Arabia is planning for a future when the commodity will eventually run out.
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You are not just talking about the economy and getting revenues - you are talking about creating job opportunities
Saad al-Dosari, Rabigh Refinery and Petrochemical Co
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During the last oil boom, vast sums of money were spent by the government on projects that failed - Saudi Arabia famously tried to "make the desert bloom" with water-intensive agriculture schemes.
Now the Kingdom is trying to invest more sensibly in the future to solve several challenges:
- Diversification of the economy
- A booming population (40% of Saudis are under 15)
- Growing unemployment
- Improving skills and education amongst Saudis
"I think it is most important for Saudi Arabia to diversify," said Saad al-Dosari, the President and CEO of the Rabigh Refinery and Petrochemical Company, near Jeddah.
Inside the desert city
"You are not just talking about the economy and getting revenues. You are talking about creating job opportunities.
"You are talking about establishing an industrial infrastructure for the future generations".
Expatriate labour
The new industries will include the production of aluminium, steel, fertilizer and petrochemicals.
An army of foreign workers, mostly from South Asia, are building the infrastructure that is needed and the accompanying residential areas. The labourers are cheap and are prepared to do jobs that Saudis refuse to do.
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King Abdullah is seen as a reformer in a conservative political establishment
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Take the water bottling plant run by the Delta Marketing Company in Jeddah.
Just 12% of the workforce on the factory floor is Saudi, including 40 women. In the whole company, a fifth of the workers are Saudi, which meets the government quota but is still low by international standards.
"Low-educated Saudis have very few choices," said the Water Division manager, Nidal Abdul Kareem, who is Jordanian.
"[They can] work in the unskilful work with low salaries and compete with the expats. Or they can stay at home without work and some of them unfortunately like to stay at home without work. Sometimes you feel strange that they don't like to work."
Foreign influence
Despite the difficulties Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly in the process of enormous change, which is being fuelled by the oil boom and globalisation.
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The construction programme is taking place on a massive scale
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There will be several universities in the new economic cities, which reforming Saudis believe could be the catalyst for social freedoms.
"This is part of a Kingdom-wide change in philosophy whereby we are improving education systems," said Mr Rasheed.
"In KAEC we will have a global education system that aspires to have students graduate at a global level in terms of their understanding of the world, how they view the world and how they want to be a part of it."
In Saudi Arabia you need to read between the lines. Most reformers quietly suggest that the cities of the future will be much freer than the rest of the country.
But will women be able to drive in the new cities? Will men and women be able to mingle freely in the developments as they do in the West or in many other Middle Eastern countries?
No one including the King seems prepared to answer those questions directly just yet.
Reform is coming but in a country with a strong religious
establishment it will be a gradual and slow process. The King Abdullah
Economic City seems likely to be at the forefront of the change. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7446923.stm>
Kidnappers free cameraman; P2M paid for 'board, lodging'
Reports quoted Undersecretary Amilasan Amilbajar of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Mindanao as saying a P2-million "board and lodging fee" was paid in exchange for Valderama's freedom.
"[Angelo] Valderama is finally freed. He will undergo medical examination and debriefing by government authorities. We are still waiting for developments on the other hostages," Superintendent Julasirim Kasim, the Sulu police chief, told GMANews.TV.
Valderama was released to Indanan Mayor Isnaji Alvarez in the village of Sinumaan in Talipao, Sulu, at about 8:30 p.m., said Kasim, National Police provincial director.
As of posting time, the kidnappers were still holding ABS-CBN reporter Ces Drilon and another cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion, including their guide, Professor Octavio Dinampo, of the Mindanao State University.
Valderama was undergoing a "debriefing" as of posting time in the provincial capital of Jolo, Kasim said, adding that the cameraman was "OK naman" and had no visible bruises or torture marks.
"Valderama looks OK," Kasim said.
Alvarez said Valderama was freed as a "gift." He refused to say if a ransom was paid to secure Valderama's release.
The kidnappers earlier asked for Alvarez, a former Moro National Liberation Front leader, to negotiate for the release of the hostages.
Alvarez is running for governor in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections in August.
It was not immediately known whether ransom was paid in exchange for the release of Valderama, but the kidnappers have reportedly demanded as much as P50 million for the hostages.
The kidnappers originally demanded P10 million, but radio network dzRH on Thursday said the bandits asked for P50 million.
The report said the hostages should have been freed on Wednesday after unnamed negotiators agreed to pay the ransom.
The radio network, which quoted "unnamed sources privy to the negotiations," also reported that the kidnappers already lowered their demand to P25 million.
The reports could not be independently confirmed.
Alvarez said Valderama was freed as a "gift." He refused to say if a ransom was paid to secure Valderama's release.
ABS-CBN earlier issued a statement saying it would not pay ransom to avoid emboldening kidnap-for-ransom groups "to abduct other journalists, putting more lives at risk." <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100834/Kidnappers-free-cameraman-P2M-paid-for-board-lodging>
Remaining captives' families plead for hostages' freedom
This, as the families of the broadcast journalist and cameraman expressed relief over the release of assistant cameraman Angelo Valderama.
In a joint statement that was read over a radio station, the families of the two abducted members of the ABS-CBN news team said they were “happy and deeply relieved that Angelo Valderama has been freed."
However, the victims’ families pleaded to the bandits to be compassionate and free the remaining captives - including Drilon, Encarnacion and Mindanao professor Octavio Dinampo - the soonest possible time.
“We appeal to the kidnappers to also immediately release Ces and Jimmy as an act of compassion and humanity," the families said in the joint statement.
The victims’ relatives also took time to thank the people who have been staying beside them throughout the ordeal, which began Sunday. “We thank everyone for praying for us in this most critical time," they said.
On Thursday night, Valderama was released to the Abu Sayyaf’s chosen emissary, Indanan Mayor Isnaji Alvarez in Sinumaan Village in Talipao, Sulu.
Refusing to say if ransom was paid, Alvarez said Valderama was released by his abductors as a “gift."
However, reports quoted Undersecretary Amilasan Amilbajar of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Mindanao as saying a P2-million "board and lodging fee" was paid in exchange for Valderama's freedom.
Earlier reports said that the hostage-takers initially demanded a P10-million ransom then jacked it up to P50 million, before slashing that amount in half.
Armed men believed to be members of the Abu Sayyaf group took the journalists on Sunday while they were on their way to the town of Maimbung in Sulu. - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/100934/Remaining-captives-families-plead-for-hostages-freedom>
Man linked to abduction of TV crew in Sulu surrenders
On Saturday, QTV’s Balitanghali reported that kidnapped ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Cecilia Victoria "Ces" Oreña-Drilon was able to renew her communication lines with government negotiators. This was the day after it was reported that Abu Sayyaf militants cut off their lines with the group working for the release of Drilon’s group.
The report said Drilon and the kidnappers, believed to be still in Sulu province, were unable to communicate with the negotiators because the journalist’s cell phone lost battery power.
Drilon’s mobile phone was being used by the terrorist group in its communication with the negotiators.
Earlier, Indan Mayor Isnaji Alvarez — the hand-picked emissary of the Abu Sayyaf faction holding the captives — believed that the kidnappers cut off communication lines with him, putting negotiations to a halt.
But on Saturday, QTV said Drilon was able to talk again to the negotiators, telling them that she requested her kidnappers to allow her again to talk to her family.
She even asked the negotiators to buy her tissue paper, the report said, quoting Jun, the son of Mayor Alvarez, who helps his father in the negotiations.
Drilon also reportedly told the negotiators that the abductors granted her request of allowing Dinampo to communicate on the phone with his loved ones.
The family of the university professor sent medicines to relieve Dinampo of his arthritis and hypertension, the report said. - ARCS, GMANews.TV
In an interview with radio dzBB's Benjie Liwanag in Sulu on Saturday, Major Gen. Juancho Sabban said the man identified as Juamil "Mameng" Biyaw went down the mountains and "voluntarily surrendered."
Sabban is the commander of the military-led Task Force Comet formed to look into the kidnapping case involving ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Cecilia Victoria "Ces" Oreña-Drilon, camera man Jimmy Encarnacion, and university professor Octavio Dinampo.
The three, along with Angelo Valderama, assistant cameraman of Drilon, were abducted last June 7 in Maibung town in Sulu reportedly by a faction of Abu Sayyaf militants. Valderama was released on Thursday, June 12, after kidnappers were reportedly paid P100,000 for the hostage's "board and lodging."
Biyaw was with the kidnapped victims when they were on their way to the lair of the terrorist group last week supposedly to pursue a story through an interview with Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron, also known as Kumander Putol.
Charges
Biyaw, reportedly known in Sulu as a military agent, is from Sandah village in Patikul, a fourth class municipality in the province.
Sabban said Biyaw surfaced through the help of a certain Sam Majusa, formerly of the Moro National Liberation Front, who is now with the National Security Agency. He said it was Majusa who convinced Biyaw to show up and prove his innocence.
The task force chief said his group was coordinating with Chief Supt. Joel Goltiao, police chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, for the possible kidnapping charges that would be slapped against Biyaw.
Authorities will get Biyaw's statements and conduct full investigation before filing charges against him, according to Sabban.
"Makakatulong ang statement niya, and 'yong association niya kay Dinampo, and 'yong purpose nila kung bakit sila pumunta doon (His statement, his association with Dinampo, and their purpose in going to Sulu will help us in our investigation)," said Sabban.
The arrest of Biyaw and the filing of charges against him won't affect the ongoing negotiations for the release of Drilon's group believed to be still in Sulu, according to Sabban.
He likewise appealed to media to be "cautious in coming out with statements that are not verified."
Out of fear
In a separate interview with Liwanag also on Saturday, Biyaw said he surfaced because he feared that he would be blamed for the disappearance of Drilon’s group.
Biyaw said that on June 7, he and his “boss" Dinampo, picked up Drilon’s group from the SSC Hostel in Jolo, Sulu. He said they went to Timbangan, a village in the province’s Indanan town. The group was on board a yellow Tamaraw jeep.
Afterwards, Biyaw said he was instructed by Dinampo that they should go to an area near Ajit River. “Pero hindi ko alam ‘yon…nagpatulong kami sa mga taon doon (But I didn’t know the place so we asked people there to help us locate the area)."
He said that when they reached the river, they saw about 10 young-looking men, who were mostly armed. Biyaw said that was the last time he saw Drilon’s group with Dinampo. He said he caught fever and decided to pull out of the place and hide in the mountains. - ARCS, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101171/Man-linked-to-abduction-of-TV-crew-in-Sulu-surrenders>
Troops fire cannons on foes amid hostage drama in Sulu
It was not yet known if the attacks targeted Abu Sayyaf members holding three people hostage or another faction of the militant group who reportedly has links to both the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, blamed for the spate of terrorism in southern Philippines.
The sounds of the loud explosions from Howitzer canons reverberated throughout Jolo, Patikul and Indanan towns. The firing began at around 3 a.m.
Military officials in the southern Philippines have imposed a news blackout on the crisis. It was unknown if the firing was a prelude to rescue the hostages. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered police and military forces to rescue all the hostages.
Militants are holding ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Cecilia Victoria "Ces" Oreña Drilon, her assistant cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion, and university professor Octavio Dinampo.
The three, along with Angelo Valderama, Drilon's cameraman, were kidnapped on June 8 in Maimbung town while on their way to a secret meeting with senior Abu Sayyaf leader Radullan Sahiron. Abductors freed Valderama on June 12.
The kidnappers were demanding as much as P50 million for the release of all the victims.
The huge ransom has reportedly lured more militants to join the faction of the Abu Sayyaf group holding Drilon's group.
Authorities fear that ransom paid to the Abu Sayyaf would be used to purchase weapons and fund terrorism in southern Philippines, where government security forces are also battling other Muslim and communist separatist rebels in the past four decades.
Washington listed the Abu Sayyaf as a foreign terrorist organization. It has offered rewards of up to $5 million for the capture Abu Sayyaf's top leaders. US troops have been deployed in Sulu province since 2006 to assist the Philippine military in defeating the militant group. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101209/Troops-fire-cannons-on-foes-amid-hostage-drama-in-Sulu>
Justice sought for death of female OFW in Saudi Arabia
Baja left the country for Saudi Arabia last May 6, 2007. Her employment abroad was facilitated by the Aisis International Manpower Inc. which has its office in Malate, Manila. She signed a contract stating that she would be employed as a patient server in Saudi Arabia. However, she ended up being a domestic helper.
In January this year, Baja’s family was alarmed after receiving a series of text messages from her: the first pleading for help from her brother and a second message telling them that she did not know what her employers were doing to her and that she felt like losing her mind.
Their greatest fear was confirmed when they received news February 27 that Eugenia died three years earlier. But it was only by March 2008 that Garcia received a letter from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) informing them of her sister’s death. Garcia was first told that Baja died from an illness. But DFA officials later told her that Baja committed suicide by hitting her head with bathroom tiles.
At that moment, their long struggle to have Eugenia Baja’s remains repatriated began. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101222/Justice-sought-for-death-of-female-OFW-in-Saudi-Arabia>
Abductors talking directly to Ces Drilon's family - mayor
Indanan, Sulu Mayor Alvarez Isnaji said Monday his role had been reduced to a "runner" or "courier" of the supposed ransom to be paid for Drilon.
"Sabi nila, to my face, hindi, wala na, meron kaming agreement sa pamilya, sorry (They told me to my face, don't make any demands because we have an agreement with Drilon's family. Sorry)," Isnaji said in an interview on dzXL radio.
Isnaji said he had wanted to "beg" the abductors to release Drilon soonest as a "humanitarian" gesture, and not to "touch" her. He said he was ready to "kneel" before them.
But he said money turned out to be the bottomline for the abductors, who are also holding Drilon's cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion and university professor Octavio Dimampo.
Last week, the abductors had freed assistant cameraman Angelo Valderama.
"Parang lumuluhod ako sa Abu Sayyaf na ito, sa commander na ito, pero hindi pa rin nakikinig sa akin. Ang gusto pala nila pera pala (I was ready to kneel before their commander but they refused to listen to me. The bottom line for them was money)," Isnaji said.
He said that while he has not yet been completely bypassed, his role in the "negotiations" had been reduced to that of a runner or courier.
Isnaji, initially selected by the Abu Sayyaf as "negotiator," is running in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections this August.
"Meron silang direct contact sa pamilya. Yan ang weakness ko, everytime makipag-usap ako sa kanila, sabi nila sorry meron kaming pinagusapan, approved na nila, dadalhin na lang ang pera sa iyo, maghintay ka na lang. Mukhang pushman lang ako rito (They would claim they have direct contact with Drilon's family. That weakened my position. Every time I tried to contact them they would tell me, sorry, we reached a deal with her family. They approved it and will send the money to you so you can bring it to us. So in effect, I'm just a courier here)," he said.
On the other hand, Isnaji said he had talked to Drilon's siblings, who he said were crying because they had no money for ransom.
He also cited "unverified" reports that Drilon's mother was "very sick" because of worry. He said some of the reports even indicated she suffered a stroke.
Isnaji said Drilon herself was crying the last time he talked to her.
"Iyak nang iyak nga siya, sabi niya bakit siya pinabayaan doon sa bundok. Ang nanay at pamilya walang wala, meron siyang anak 4 walang mapakain doon (She was crying and saying why she was abandoned in the mountains. She said her family had no money but she has four children to feed)," he said.
Isnaji said he has not established communications with ABS-CBN or its officials in Sulu or in Zamboanga City. "Walang kontak, never, negative (We have not established communications at all)," he said.
Isnaji said the Abu Sayyaf group that abducted Drilon and company are now younger and "more aggressive." He said they could be the second generation of Abu Sayyaf leaders. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101303/Abductors-talking-directly-to-Ces-Drilons-family---mayor>
Inflation dangers 'threaten Asia'
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Rising food prices could lead to spiralling inflation in Asia
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The threat of high inflation remains a major worry for Asia, and could undo the progress made in the past 20 years, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says.
ADB managing director Rajat M Nag said inflation in 2008 would exceed the 5.1% annual figure predicted in April.
Rising fuel and food prices were the chief dangers behind inflation that affected Asia "good growth story".
Rising inflation could also hit investment and corporate earnings, and destabilise governments in the region.
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In Asia, roughly about a billion people are vulnerable to the food and fuel price increases
Rajat M Nag, Asian Development Bank
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On Friday India said its inflation had risen at its fastest rate in seven years. And earlier in June South Korea said its inflation had hit a seven-year high as a result of rising energy and food costs.
In Vietnam inflation is more than 25% and the government has said the issue is the biggest challenge it faces.
Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines and Indonesia are facing inflation rates of between 7.5% and 11%. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7455296.stm>
NHS trusts 'failing on hygiene'
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Cleanliness is one area covered by the hygiene standards
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A quarter of NHS trusts in England are failing to meet at least one of the government's standards on hygiene, a watchdog has said.
The Healthcare Commission found no improvement since last year, despite the focus on areas such as cleanliness.
Next April, trusts will have to meet a range of standards in order to be given a "licence for business".
The commission warned that meant the 103 failing trusts had just 10 months to address its findings.
Just under a third of them also failed to meet all of the 11 standards on hygiene last year. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7453037.stm>
Armed men release 23 hostages in Lanao del Norte
Brig. Gen. Hilario Atendido, commander of the military's Task Force Tabak, said the kidnappers released the 23 hostages around 5 p.m at the village of Balindad in Munay town.
"They were used as human shields in the event the military and the police conduct pursuit operation," Atendido said.
He added that the suspects’ main objective was to steal carabaos and horses from the residents.
The freed civilians were taken to a military camp and would be later brought to their homes. - GMANews.TV<http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101654/Armed-men-release-23-hostages-in-Lanao-del-Norte>
UNO to Arroyo: Invest more on education
"The reason the education sector in the Philippines is doing so poorly is because we are not investing enough in education," UNO spokesperson Adel Tamano said in a statement.
Tamano, who is also president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, reminded President Arroyo that the government is constitutionally mandated to prioritize education for the people.
"The constitution mandates that the highest budgetary priority must be education but the reality is that the GMA administration spends only 16 percent of the budget on education and 56 percent on debt servicing. With priorities like that is it any wonder why our state universities and colleges are lagging behind our Asian neighbors," he said.
Tamano cited that last May, a report published by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) pointed out that since the Arroyo administration came to power in 2001, all key performance indicators in education have floundered.
He said the PCIJ’s published report noted that the percentage of schoolchildren, who reach up to grade six, is down from 75.9 percent in 2001 to 69.9 percent in 2006.
The same report also showed that Elementary dropout rate in 2001 was 5.75 percent and increased to 7.36 percent in 2006.
“Those who repeat a grade is also up, from 1.95 percent in 2001 to 2.89 percent in 2006. The Per capita spending for education in 1996 was pegged at P1,108. In 2006, it was P1,014. The figure was lower in 2005, at P975. In the last decade, the highest per capita spending for education was P1,337, in 1998,” Tamano quoted the PCIJ report as saying. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101652/UNO-to-Arroyo-Invest-more-on-education>
Abductors threatened to behead me many times - cameraman
Encarnacion and veteran journalist Cecilia Victoria Oreña-Drilon arrived in Manila from Zamboanga City shortly after noon Wednesday and briefly entertained questions from the media.
The two were accompanied by Sen. Loren Legarda and driver Angelo Valderama, who was freed earlier by the abductors.
"Oo, maraming beses na gusto nila akong pugutan. Itatali ka nila nang ganun. Kapag (lumampas daw sa) ultimatum, papatayin daw ako (There were many instances they told me they would cut off my head. They tied me and told me that if the ultimatum expires, they would kill me)," Encarnacion said.
"Maraming beses na akala ko katapusan ko na. Tinali na kami…nakakatakot na experience (There were many tmes I thought we were going to die. We were tied. It was a frightening experience)," he added.
In describing their abductors, Encarnacion said they numbered to more than 20 men and their ages were wide-ranging.
"Halu-halo sila. Puro lalaki sila. Hindi ko mabilang, kasi iba’t ibang mukha ang nakikita namin. Basta more than 20," he said.
Drilon, Encarnacion and Valderama were seized along with Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo on June 8 in Maimbung town in Sulu.
Valderama was released on June 12 while the remaining captives were freed shortly after midnight Tuesday.
As of posting time, Drilon, Encarnacion and Valderama are undergoing a medical checkup at the Medical City Hospital in Pasig City. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101830/Abductors-threatened-to-behead-me-many-times---cameraman>
I don't think I'll be allowed to go back to Sulu again - Ces
“I don’t think my office and my family would allow me to go there (Sulu) again. Pero malawak naman ang Mindanao ‘di ba?" Drilon said upon arrival at the Ninoy International Airport from Zamboanga City around 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Abu Sayyaf bandits on Wednesday morning released Drilon, who works for ABS-CBN network, along with her cameraman Jimmy Encarnacion and Mindanao-based professor Octavio Dinampo. They spent nine days in captivity.
Their driver, Angelo Valderama, who was abducted with them, was released last June 12.
Drilon arrived in NAIA with Encarnacion and Valderama. They were accompanied by Sen. Loren Legarda.
“Lubos na nagpapasalamat kaming tatlo. Nagpapasalamat ako sa gobyerno. Ang dami-daming tumulong. I had no idea na ang daming nagdadasal, nagmamahal habang nasa kadiliman kami na hindi naming alam kung mabubuhay pa kami," Drilon said.
(We are greatly thankful for the government. There were many individuals who helped. I had no idea that many people who prayed for us and showed their love while we were in the darkness, not even knowing if we will live.)
Admitting she did not heed prior warnings, Drilon said she felt sorry for endangering the lives of Encarnacion, Valderama, and Dinampo, a professor from the Mindanao State University who served as the new team’s guide in Sulu.
“I put the lives of my team in danger so it was really a very sobering experience to me," she said.
The broadcast journalist also showed equal concern on the pressure that her family had to go through during their ordeal.
“I was so irresponsible in a way to do that to my children and my mother and my sisters and brothers, to put them in an ordeal like that," she said.
She also shared how the four of them uplifted each other’s spirit while being held by abductors, which Encarnacion said numbered to more than 20.
Drilon and Ecarnacion are set to check in at the Medical City Hospital in Pasig City to undergo a medical check-up and stay there for several days.
A radio report said that security has already been tightened at the said hospital even as rooms had already been prepared for Drilon and Encarnacion.
Doctors and nurses are already on standby to check if the victims developed any allergy or sickness, as the two were brought and kept in the mountains.
The report quoted Drilon as earlier saying that mosquitoes breeding in the camp where she and the three others were kept were big. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101827/I-dont-think-Ill-be-allowed-to-go-back-to-Sulu-again---Ces>
Central bank receives mixed signals from IMF
In an email message, the head of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said that institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “talk of one thing and mean another," referring to policy advice dispensed by the Washington-based organization.
Earlier, the IMF cited the BSP’s efforts in controlling high prices without curbing economic expansion.
However, Takatoshi Kato, the IMF’s deputy managing director, said that Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines “appear to have fallen behind the curve in terms of their interest rate policy."
Kato was referring to the recent decision of monetary officials to hike interest rates to control high prices, the first time it applied growth curbs in two years.
The decision underscored the dilemma faced by monetary officials around the world that involves striking a balance between keeping goods prices stable without reducing economic growth.
“From a monetary policy standpoint, my message to international organizations, if they want to be helpful, they have to be consistent with the assessment they provide to member countries," BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco said.
Tetangco, who heads the influential seven-member monetary board, was apparently stung by Kato’s comments on Philippine inflation during the Asia-Europe Finance Ministers’ meeting in South Korea. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/101892/Central-bank-receives-mixed-signals-from-IMF>
Skills shortage hits games firms
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Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News |
The games industry says British universities are failing to equip graduates with the skills it needs.
The warning comes from the industry campaign group "Games Up?", which says games developers in Britain are facing a serious skills shortage.
The lobby group says there are now 81 video games degree courses at British universities.
But only four are accredited by Skillset, the government body which monitors such courses.
Demanding course
David Braben, chairman of Frontier Developments and a spokesman for "Games Up?", said: "95% of video gaming degrees are simply not fit for purpose. Without some sort of common standard, like Skillset accreditation, these degrees are a waste of time for all concerned."
The warning came as executives from across Europe's games industry gathered for the GameHorizon conference in Gateshead. The North East of England is one of the centres of a games industry whose activities are spread widely across the UK.
At Northumbria University, which offers a degree course in Computer Games Engineering, staff say that prospective students are often put off by the requirement for Maths A-Level. Dan Hodgson, who is the course leader, says the games industry is very demanding and the university makes that clear to aspiring students.
"We do have people who don't have the right mindset. We consistently tell them that this is one of the hardest courses we offer at this university. It's certainly not for the sort of people who want to laze around and play games for three years."
Death of maths
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Fewer people are taking maths degrees
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The games developers say that they are struggling to find in the UK the kind of high-powered mathematicians and computer scientists that they need to build increasingly sophisticated products.
"We are facing a serious decline in the quality of graduates looking to enter the industry," said David Braben.
"The death of maths, physics and computer science graduates is hitting us hard." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7460870.stm>
What the UK can teach US cities
The British have long looked to US cities for inspiration. Now Americans are starting to seek UK solutions to their urban problems, says Dermot Finch of the Centre for Cities.
Gleaming skyscrapers, the land of opportunity, pursuit of the American Dream - many admire major cities in the United States and their dash of extra polish. In 2006 alone, more than 30,000 Brits left to try their luck Stateside.
Leading Labour and Conservative figures regularly look to the likes of New York and Chicago to fix urban problems back home. The Tories' new welfare to work proposals were modelled on existing schemes in New York and Wisconsin. And John Prescott and David Miliband both made ministerial study tours of the US a top priority.
But the reality behind the shining urban bastions of the American dream isn't always so rosy. When it comes to preventing urban sprawl and tackling congestion, UK cities are actually further ahead.
So what can UK cities - which have benefited from a decade of strong economic growth - teach their Atlantic neighbours? <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7452723.stm>
DOJ chief: Raps vs Isnaji can complicate matters in Sulu
According to Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, the negotiator was highly-influential in the area and enjoys a wide following among residents.
Isnaji and his son Haider - who were hand-picked by the group of abductors to negotiate for the release of kidnapped ABS-CBN broadcast journalist Ces Drilon, her crew and a Mindanao professor - were placed under arrest by authorities after a debriefing in Camp Crame Thursday.
Gonzalez said that Isnaji is highly respected in Sulu and is in fact running for the gubernatorial race in Sulu in the coming elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on August. He said that Isnaji’s stature in Central Mindanao is as high, if not exceeding, as Misuari.
Isnaji is said to be part of the original 300 members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).
“He (Isnaji) is a VIP (very important person) in Sulu. Maybe that’s why the kidnappers chose him; they trust him to relay their message. (But) it will complicate a lot of situations if he will be aggrieved. We don’t know what his followers will do," said Gonzalez in an interview with reporters.
He said that the fact that the kidnappers asked for Isnaji was a circumstantial evidence, which the accused should explain.
While admitting that he has yet to see the evidence that the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has on Isnaji, Gonzalez said that the kidnapping should be investigated as it could be part of a scheme to raise funds for the coming ARMM polls.
“They should be made to answer all the questions. They seemed to be close (to the abductors). These people are close to them. If the kidnapping is in aid of the elections, then it will have less impact on the Abu Sayyaf. It would just appear that they have just been used. Ginamit lang sila," he said.
From the beginning, Gonzalez had said that even the negotiators should be investigated and debriefed.
“I have not foreclosed that idea. I said that even Professor Octavio Dinampo should be investigated," he explained.
In another forum, Gonzalez took a jab at the Lopez-owned Manila Electric Company, saying that there is a possibility that the kidnapping of Drilon, her cameramen Jimmy Encarnacion and Angelo Valderama, and Mindanao State University professor Octavio Dinampo was meant to cover up the Meralco controversy.
“It’s a far-fetched idea. It’s a wild theory, but it could be a possibility. You just can’t dismiss it," he said during a news forum in Quezon City.- GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/102146/DOJ-chief-Raps-vs-Isnaji-can-complicate-matters-in-Sulu>
Obama reverses financing pledge
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Barack Obama said every resource was needed to beat John McCain
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Democrat Barack Obama has said he will not take public financing, allowing him to raise unlimited private funds in his campaign for the US presidency.
His decision means he will forgo more than $80m (£40.5m) that would have been available for him to fight Republican John McCain for the White House.
Candidates who accept public money cannot raise funds from private donors.
Mr Obama set records raising money for his campaign for the Democratic nomination during the primary contests.
The decision reverses his earlier promise to use the federal public financing system if his Republican rival also did so.
The Obama campaign team said Mr McCain was already using privately-raised funds in his campaign and that the public finance system was "broken". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7463813.stm>
Getting the French to work
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By Alasdair Sandford
BBC News, Paris |
Christine Lagarde, the country's first female minister for finance and the economy, says it is time for French people to "roll up their sleeves" and stop thinking about holidays.
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French minister Christine Lagarde wants to transform the work culture
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Her approach is calm and conciliatory, bearing little resemblance to the fire and brimstone of her boss, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Yet Christine Lagarde shares the president's convictions when it comes to the French and the world of work.
Until three years ago she was chairman of the law firm Baker and McKenzie, whose main offices are in Chicago.
Her entry into French politics was sudden.
Called up by the former government of Dominique de Villepin, she left the US on a Tuesday afternoon and was at her desk as trade minister the following morning.
Rapid progress
She says she was struck on her return by an "ethical change" in the French.
"Instead of thinking about their work, people were thinking about their weekend… organising, planning and engineering time off," she says.
Not that Christine Lagarde believes that life should be "work and nothing else".
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Mr Sarkozy's proposed reforms have prompted strikes across France
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Looking out from her office window in the huge Soviet-style finance ministry, she points out the barges on the River Seine below - a reminder she says, of how slow things can be when other events are moving at high speed.
Making rapid progress recently has been the minister's pet project, a bill to modernise the French economy.
Last week it passed its first reading in the National Assembly and will shortly go before the Senate.
"More enterprises and more competition" were the objectives, she told parliament earlier this month, in order to obtain three concrete results: "more growth, more jobs and more purchasing power".
Christine Lagarde's task is to sell some of the most challenging reforms of the Sarkozy era to the French people.
Her call for harder work, as well as the measures contained in the economy bill, can touch a raw nerve. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7466348.stm>
Embroidered T-shirt: Price £4, cost misery
Dan McDougall
Primark is rightly being exposed over the use of child labour in the
finishing of cheap clothes. But as evidence against retailers stacks
up, shoppers are kidding themselves if they don't shoulder some of the
blame, says Dan McDougall.
The key question behind sweatshop investigations into major
corporations like Monday night's Panorama special on Primark is
abundantly clear: do consumers, the UK shoppers who spend billions in
the High Street, truly care where their £4 hand-finished blouse
comes from? The answer, to the shops at least, is yes. And it is
reflected in the growth of ethical sourcing policies led by firms like
Marks and Spencer's.
A decade ago the duties of a corporation were almost exclusively focused on one thing: profit.
Now, though, corporate social responsibility appears to be in the
ascendant. Episodes such as the Enron boardroom scandal and
exposés of retailers' reliance on child labour, like the one I
carried out into Gap Inc last year, have forced companies to be more
open and honest. They do this because they believe the consumer cares
about where his morning coffee comes from or the shirt he puts on his
back before going to work.
Collusion between retailers, consumers and glossy mags, with all their
'dress for less' features, has anaesthetised most of us from the murky,
circuitous supply routes of international fashion
Lucy Siegle
Gap acts over Indian child labour
"Transparency" has become the watchword, and the mere mention of
sweatshops now makes clothing manufacturers such as Primark or The Gap
anxious.
Transparency is what Gap displayed in response to revelations about
their production process and what Primark claims it is trying to do by
firing three of its key Indian suppliers in the run up to tonight's
Panorama documentary. To its credit, Gap admitted the problem, sought
to fix it and promised to radically re-examine the working practices of
its Indian contractors.
But increasingly it is consumers, and not the corporations, who have the biggest role to play in the fight against exploitation.
"The public has a major role to play in the fight against child
labour," says Bhuwan Ribhu, of the New Delhi-based Global March Against
Child Labour, which leads the campaign against under-age working in the
sub-continent. "They need to learn more about who makes the products
they buy, and support organisations with programmes to stop child
labour. Raise funds, join campaigns and talk to friends to make more
people aware of the seriousness of the issue." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7468927.stm>
The secret of Bill Gates' success
By Charles Miller, BBC Money Programme
From schoolboy to software titan, Bill Gates on how it all started
As Bill Gates prepares to end his full-time work at Microsoft, he tells
the BBC in an interview that it wasn't just what Microsoft did, but
what his rivals didn't do that let Microsoft get ahead.
"Most of our competitors were very poorly run," he tells Fiona Bruce, for The Money Programme.
"They did not understand how to bring in people with business
experience and people with engineering experience and put them
together. They did not understand how to go around the world."
Sir Alan Sugar, one of Britain's computer pioneers with his Amstrad
range, testifies to Microsoft's global mobility even as a comparatively
small company in the 1980s.
Amstrad, in Brentwood, Essex, was visited by a Microsoft salesman - or
"mid-Atlantic smoothie" as Sir Alan describes him - who came to sell
Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system.
Bill Gates explains how internet fever changed Microsoft in the 1990s
Sir Alan declined, telling the salesman he was quite happy with the
rival DR-DOS system from Digital Research for his new computer,
explaining that "we're a consumer electronics manufacturer here, we're
not a bunch of geeks, we don't give a sh**".
But the Microsoft man wouldn't take no for an answer, and "was
constantly coming back each day" to the Amstrad offices, Sir Alan says,
until a deal was done. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7464074.stm>
Boat race fuels ecology argument
By Nick Parry
BBC Wales
Dolphin calf off the Pembrokeshire coast. Photo by Adrian Shephard
The waters around Pembrokeshire are home to a variety of dolphin
Can the demands of tourism and conservation be squared?
The Round Britain Power Boat Race is getting ready to leave
Pembrokeshire - having arrived there by road due to bad weather - after
finding itself embroiled in the latest round in the debate within the
county.
Marine charity The Sea Trust says fast moving boats passing through
environmentally sensitive areas could kill or maim dolphins and other
wildlife.
It also believes the race sends out the wrong message to tourists
visiting a corner of Wales where over 180 miles of coastline has
National Park status and the off shore islands are designated SSIs
(Sites of Scientific Interest).
Friends of the Earth Cymru has gone as far as to demand one of the sponsors, Tesco, withdraws its backing.
But the overnight stop at Milford Haven on Sunday coincides with a week-long maritime festival on the port's waterway.
With tourism estimated to be worth £300m annually to the
Pembrokeshire economy others argue such events are needed to provide
visitors with a broad range of activities and help raise the profile of
the county. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/7444456.stm>
Audio slideshow: Colossus Mark II rebuild
At Bletchley Park, the famous home of World War II code breakers, work
is continuing to rebuild one of the original Colossus computers, which
were so vital to the Allied war efforts.
The manor house is now home to the National Museum of Computing, which
is dedicated to preserving the work of the some of the most important
computers in history.
The Colossus rebuild started in 1993 and the work is not yet finished.
Tony Sale, the chief architect of the re-build, began the work relying
on black and white photos. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7466174.stm>
Visa taps into Facebook following
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Facebook is popular, but struggles to succeed commercially
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Visa, the world's largest credit card network, is paying Facebook $2m (£1m) to advertise its small business service on the popular social networking site.
The company is giving $100 (£51) advertising credits to the first 20,000 US start-ups that download its service via Facebook.
Visa's online service is designed to help small firms run their businesses more efficiently.
The company aims to tap into Facebook's global audience of 80 million people.
About 80,000 small businesses already have profiles on Facebook and thousands of Internet programmes have been developed specifically for the social networking site.
But the majority of these applications are based on social activities, such as gaming, listening to music and picture-sharing, rather than commerce.
The problem for Facebook, and its advertisers, is that few programmes generate any revenue.
Visa and Facebook say they think small companies that receive the advertising credits will then use the social networking site to market their services and products online in the future.
"That's certainly what we are hoping for," said Dan Rose, vice-president of product development at Facebook. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7471038.stm>
NZ signs historic Maori land deal
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Seven Maori tribes will manage the land collectively
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In a historic settlement, the New Zealand government has signed over huge tracts of forest land to the ownership of seven Maori tribes.
The NZ$420m ($319m) agreement transfers ownership of nine forests - covering 435,000 acres (176,000 hectares) of land - in the central North Island.
Hundreds of Maori, some in traditional dress, thronged parliament to witness the signing of the accord.
"It's a historic journey we are on," Prime Minister Helen Clark said.
"We came into politics to address injustice and seek reconciliation. Thank you for walking that road with us on this historic day," she added, according to AP news agency.
The settlement - the largest single deal between the government and Maori tribes - seeks to address grievances dating back to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
The treaty guaranteed the indigenous Maori people use of their land and resources in return for ceding sovereignty to the British crown. But land seizures and ownership breaches followed.
'Sustainable future'
The forests signed over are mainly large commercial pine plantations, generating about NZ$13m a year in rents.
The settlement also hands over rents that have accumulated on the land since 1989.
Between them, the seven tribes or iwi include more than 100,000 members. They will manage the land collectively, setting up a holding company structure and forestry management structure.
The chairman of the collective, Maori paramount chief Tumu Te Heu Heu, said the objective was to provide tribes with "a strong, durable and sustainable economic future", in particular young members and the coming generations.
"This is our legacy to them," he said, according to AP.
Maori make up about 15% of New Zealand's 4.2 million population,
but are among the country's poorest citizens, experiencing high
unemployment, and poor health, education and housing compared to other
New Zealanders. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7472653.stm>
Nintendo 'least green tech firm'
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By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News |
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Nintendo says it did not take part in the Greenpeace survey
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Games firm Nintendo has come bottom of a ranking of the world's most eco-friendly electronics firms.
The quarterly Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics ranks 18 electronics firms by how green their production processes and products are.
In the latest guide most firms have seen their ranking plummet as the charity introduced new, stricter guidelines for evaluating companies.
Nintendo said its scored low because it had not provided data for the survey.
"Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey and produce a report, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information," the firm said in a statement.
"Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore 'ungraded' in the resulting report.
But Greenpeace countered the company's statement and insisted it had been graded.
"There is no choice," Iza Kruszewska, toxics campaigner for Greenpeace, told BBC News.
She said the charity had regularly contacted the games firm since 2007 but had not had any response. The charity had been forced to use information from Nintendo's website, she said.
""They've decided not to engage," she said.
Strict standards
The guide was first started in August 2006 and is now in its eighth edition.
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Microsoft were second from bottom in the latest list
|
It ranks the top market leaders of the mobile phone, computer, TV and games console markets according to their policies and practices on toxic chemicals and recycling.
The charity said that the guide has already led to a reduction in the amount of toxic chemicals being used in the electronics industry.
"We know that brands are putting pressure on their suppliers to meet our commitments," said Ms Kruszewska.
The latest guide also includes new stricter guidelines.
"For this edition we tightened the e-waste and chemical criteria and we also added a new energy requirement," said Ms Kruszewska.
The new energy guidelines score a company for disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions, their commitment to absolute cuts in their own emissions and support for mandatory global emissions reductions.
In particular, Greenpeace has asked companies to state support for a "strong post Kyoto agreement" on their international websites.
"We see companies scoring zero on all energy criteria," added Ms Kruszewska.
"Clearly it is going to take companies some time to improve on our demands,"
The latest guide also assessed the energy efficiency of a selection of each company's products to see if they meet or exceed the US Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star rating.
This sets minimum standards for energy efficiency for many types of electronic products.
"Not only should all their products meet these standards, but 30% should exceed it to score full marks," said Ms Kruszewska.
In the latest version Sony and Sony Ericsson were the only companies to score more than five out of 10.
Nintendo came bottom of the list with a score of less than one.
Earlier this year, Nintendo was criticised by Greenpeace for its "non-existent" environmental policy.
Microsoft came second from bottom; a position that reflected its "low score on climate criteria".
A spokesperson for the firm said: "Microsoft is committed to environmental sustainability and has many programs and policies in place to lessen our footprint.
"In our consumer electronics business, we comply with and exceed all environmental guidelines and regulations.
We are committed to making ongoing progress on environmental
issues while maintaining product durability, safety and performance." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7473366.stm>
PAO wants Sulpicio to show bodies of ship passengers, both dead and alive
In an interview on dzBB radio, PAO chief Persida Acosta led a legal team to the Sulpicio Lines office in Manila Thursday to gather information for the prospective petition they will file before the Court of Appeals.
"Idudulog namin ito sa korte para maghain ng petition to produce the dead, and in the case of survivors, magfa-file kami ng petition for writ of habeas corpus (At the relatives' request, we will ask the court to order Sulpicio to produce the bodies of the dead and the living bodies of survivors)," Acosta said.
Acosta said the PAO hopes to speak to representatives of Sulpicio Lines and relay to them the impatience of the relatives to wait for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to identify the bodies.
"Limang araw na naghihintay ang mga kamaganak (The relatives have been waiting for more than five days)," she said.
For its part, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) said it has set up a complaints center along Roxas Boulevard, near the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex.
The VACC said that with the long list of requirements sought by Sulpicio Lines to qualify for compensation benefits, the victims are beginning to doubt its sincerity in offering P200,000 to the families of each fatality. - GMANews.TV <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/>
Healing Florida's 'River of Grass'
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By Kathryn Westcott
BBC News |
Florida's Everglades - the world-renowned wetland area that has been under siege for more than a century - has been offered a lifeline.
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The Everglades is a symbol of America's natural beauty
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This week, the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, announced plans to buy more than 800sq km (300sq miles) of land used for growing sugarcane, and restore it to its natural state.
The state of Florida will pay the firm US Sugar $1.7bn for the land, which will be turned into marshes and waterways.
The aim is to restore the fabled "river of grass", a 160-kilometre (99-mile) long, shallow river flowing unimpeded from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.
Lake Okeechobee is the second-largest freshwater lake wholly within the continental United States.
Water management
Environmentalists hope the latest moves will restore a fragile ecosystem that supplies fresh water to the aquifers of southern Florida.
They have described the proposal by Mr Crist as the largest ecological restoration project in the history of the US.
Jeff Danter, Florida state director of Nature Conservancy, told the BBC how the project could revitalise the region.
"As humans moved into the Everglades over the last more than 100 years, they've continually diverted the water through ditches and canals for a variety of reasons: agriculture, drinking water and that sort of thing," he said.
"It has got to the point where the system no longer works the way it used to and that's had a really detrimental effect on most of the life in the Everglades. The government has committed billions of dollars to try to restore the Everglades but this, we're very hopeful, will make that job a lot easier."
According to Michael Grunwald - journalist and author of The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise - the Everglades, which once covered four million acres of swampland, has shrunk to half its original size.
"Half of it has gone, the other half is in an ecological mess," he said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7472760.stm>
Life in Everest's commercial shadow
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By Charles Haviland
BBC Nepal Correspondent |
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Namche is expanding rapidly as tourists teem into town
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En route to Everest, it takes a foreigner two days from the nearest airstrip to walk up to the village of Namche Bazaar.
And yet it is known as "the Japan of Nepal", a place where almost everything can be got.
For example, a sign on the door of Namaste Lodge and Restaurant says "we have cheese fondue" - a tempting proposition to a foreigner in a country whose staple diet is rice and lentils.
Opening the door confirms it - yak cheese fondue is available on certain days with an hour's notice.
Namche Bazaar is completely untypical of its surroundings.
The Kiran Shopping Centre and Grocery, for example, has the obvious trekking essentials – woolly hats, torches, tinned meat, batteries, playing cards – but also less likely fare, such as cigars, numerous bottles of wine, olive oil, fridge magnets, nappies, prawn crackers and Irish cream liqueur.
The woman settled comfortably at the cash till is too busy
with customers to tell me whether everything sells well. Clearly, it
does. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7473829.stm>
Solons decry lack of govt aid, ask Palace to release funds
At the same time, some lawmakers decried the government's slow response to the needs of typhoon victims.
One even said that Iloilo province, which has about 1.5 million residents, got a measly disaster assistance of 250 "family packs" and 1,000 sacks.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon on Thursday said that what is important now is the rehabilitation of Panay Island which produces about 800 metric tons of rice yearly.
“There are four provinces for the first time being hit by a typhoon of this magnitude… I think the more important and serious issue is that of rehabilitation," he said.
He said that if the entire island is contributing 800 metric tons of rice for the country, then the country lost the same after the typhoon.
“Rehabilitation will require the deployment of a lot of funding. I hope Malacañang is listening to me because I am now asking that Malacanang release my PDAF to the four provinces of Panay Island… I would like it to be allocated towards the rehabilitation of the island," he said.
Biazon appealed to Malacañang to release his PDAF (more popularly known as pork barrel) which the Department of Budget and Management had been holding for the past four years amounting to P800 million.
Each senator is allocated P200 million PDAF from the national budget yearly. Opposition senators complained that their pork barrel has been held hostage by Malacañang for many years now.
Biazon said that since Panay Island were severely damaged by typhoon Frank, Malacañang might as well release his PDAF to these provinces.
For his part, Sen. Francis Escudero asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to free billions of pesos in impounded funds in the national budget.
Escudero identified at least P6.6 worth of funds which if added to the Calamity Fund of P2 billion for the year can aid typhoon victims and repair damaged public infrastructure.
"There is no reason why aid should come in trickles to flood-hit areas when there are certain segments in the national budget, other than the Calamity Fund, which can be tapped for disaster work," Escudero said.
He identified some these funds as P2- billion Kilos Asenso Fund, the P3.6 -billion financial subsidy to local government units and, P1- billion Kalayaan Barangay Fund.
"This is bigger than the $100,000 aid the President got from the US State Department, one which was met with profuse thanks from her, as if she had won the lotto, when in fact she has at her easy disposal all the above-mentioned funds to use in times like this" he said.
He added that the funds are classified as "lump-sum" funds and have not been earmarked for any particular area, "so there is flexibility and wider latitude on where to apply these."
Escudero said "local government leaders I canvassed have told me that they have yet to receive any allotment from Kilos Asenso or Kalayaan Barangay which means that these funds technically are still on embargo."
Earlier, Iloilo Rep. Ferjenel Biron and Iloilo vice gov. Rolex Suplico decried slow government response to the devastation in their province.
This was validated by Sen. Ramon “Bong" Revilla Jr. who lashed out at against the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) which he said failed to equally distribute government relief goods to the regions ravaged by the typhoon.
Revilla had met Iloilo Governor Niel Tupaz and Iloilo City Mayor Gerry Treñas who both lamented the seeming shortcomings of the national government in their jurisdiction.
According to the two local officials, NDCC provided a measly 250 “family packs" of relief goods which consist of three kilos of rice, seven cans of corned beef and seven cans of sardines each for Iloilo City and 1000 thousand sacks of rice for the whole Iloilo province.
“We can not prevent the residents of Iloilo and Region 6 as a whole to ask whether there is favoritism on the side of the NDCC if the national government will not address this issue," warned Revilla who noted that the population of Iloilo City is around 400,000 while Iloilo province has more than one and a half million residents.
The NDCC reported on Tuesday that Region 6 or Western Visayas was the hardest hit by the typhoon.
Aside from Saranggani in Region 12, the provinces of Aklan and Iloilo which is under Region 6 have been placed under a state of calamity.
“Honestly, there is dismal support here in Iloilo. We know that there are so many who were affected, but the people here should be given equal attention by the national government. If not, their assistance will only be worthless and they will look inutile," Revilla said.
For his part, the lawmaker promised to make representations in Manila and ensure that Iloilo gets the support and assistance it needs. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/103442/Solons-decry-lack-of-govt-aid-ask-Palace-to-release-funds>
Airlines seek higher fuel surcharge for one-way passengers
If approved, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will be charging anywhere between $4 to $15 for each passenger flying one way to China, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macau, USA, and Canada.
In its fare hike application, PAL intends to hike China surcharges to $58 from $54. Similarly, it seeks to increase fuel fees to $74 from $59 in Indonesia, $54 from $34 in Korea, $34 from $29 in Singapore, $40 from $35 in Hong Kong, $40 from $35 in Macau, and $129 from $119 in USA and Canada.
For its part, budget carrier SEAIR also asked the Civil Aeronautics Board’s permission to hike fuel surcharge by P200 within Luzon, Mindanao, Luzon to Visayas flights, and P150 for Visayas to Mindanao routes.
Other foreign airlines with similar pending applications are Northwest that intends to hike fees to $70 from $40 on the Philippines-Japan route.
Thai Airways also wants to hike fuel fees to $105 from $45 on its Manila-Bangkok route; Malaysia Airlines Berhad, from $34.70 to $56 for Philippines to Malaysia; and Singapore Airlines, from $30 to $35 from Singapore to any ASEAN-member countries.
The fuel surcharge, imposed on top of regular fares, is a temporary relief given by regulators to allow airlines to reduce losses from the spiraling jet fuel prices.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said jet fuel surged to more than $150 per barrel.
Besides account for a third of an airline’s operating cost per passenger, fuel is also the second-highest expense next to labor.
Earlier, the government approved PAL’s petition to raise fuel surcharge for its domestic operations. Fuel fees for PAL’s Luzon-Visayas flights is now at P1,030.
Surcharges for the the Luzon-Mindanao, Visayas-Mindanao, and within Luzon flights rose to P1,180, P900, and P780 to P1,380, P1,100, and P880, respectively. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/103656/Airlines-seek-higher-fuel-surcharge-for-one-way-passengers>
Sulpicio blames Pagasa for ‘Princess’ tragedy
News reporter Jun Veneracion said in a GMA Flash Report that lawyers from the shipping lines blamed the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) during the resumption of the investigation by the Board of Marine Inquiry in Manila.
During the inquiry, the Sulpicio Lines presented as its witness, Nestor Ponteres, Sulpicio's port captain in Cebu City who claimed that the shipping company was informed six hours late by Pagasa regarding typhoon Frank's changing course on June 21.
Ponteres said he was in constant communication with the capsized ship's missing captain, Florencio Marimon Sr, before the accident happened last Saturday.
In a mobile phone conversation about Saturday noon, Marimon allegedly told Ponteres he was getting "confused" by Pagasa's belated warning.
Ponteres added that their company has alternate routes that MV Princess of the Stars could have taken had the warning been relayed earlier.
The Cebu port captain also belied accusations that Marimon erred, adding that he was "the best master we have."
The television report said that the second day of hearing is expected to go on until later in the day since Sulpicio Lines said it still has seven more witnesses to present before the investigating body.
For his part, Pagasa director Prisco Nilo told GMA News in a separate report that while predicting the behavior of a typhoon cannot always be precise, they make sure to release weather updates to the public.
"Our warning everywhere is always updated a number of times in a day, usually four times a day taking into consideration that (weather) forecasting is not an exact science," Nilo said.
He added that shipping companies also have the responsibility to closely monitor the weather condition when deploying vessels to ensure a safe voyage.
During the first day of the BMI hearing on Wednesday, Sulpicio officials blamed the Philippine Coast Guard, saying the government agency is tasked to plot routes for vessels during a bad weather, as cited in a 1998 memorandum circular.
The BMI had said, however, that an updated memorandum circular on June 2007 placed responsibility on the ship's owner and captain.
In Wednesday's hearing, the investigating body had found out that the Sulpicio Lines has been using an outdated set of guidelines when sending off vessels during inclement weather. - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/103653/Sulpicio-blames-Pagasa-for-Princess-tragedy>
Central Asia's child Aids tragedy
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By Natalia Antelava
Central Asia correspondent, BBC News |
|
Doctors who treated Bekhruzbek are now accused of infecting him with HIV
|
She had taken her son to hospital near their village in southern Kyrgyzstan because he had heat stroke.
Eight months later he was diagnosed with HIV. "I thought my life was over," she said.
The doctors who treated Bekhruzbek are now on trial, accused of infecting him.
There are 78 other babies who have contracted HIV inside hospitals in Kyrgyzstan. Three of them have died, and new cases continue to emerge.
Most of their parents do not want to talk - so great is the stigma.
"My husband left me, he is in Russia now. The night when we got the test results he slept on the other side of the bed. I accidentally touched him and he kicked me," said Dilfusa.
Dilfusa, in her early twenties, is now also HIV positive. Like 16 other mothers in Kyrgyzstan, she contracted the virus through breastfeeding.
It is rare, but it happens - yet no-one warned her, she says, that she should not have nursed.
Fourteen medical workers in Kyrgyzstan have been accused of negligence, malpractice and corruption.
The prosecution alleges that doctors charged parents for equipment which they had used again and again.
Crumbling system
But it is not just individual doctors, it is the entire medical system in Kyrgyzstan and across Central Asia that is on trial.
This system is part of the region's Soviet legacy.
Soviet healthcare - just like much in the USSR - was huge, centrally managed and inflexible.
|
The situation in hospitals is similar everywhere, it just happened that it was discovered in Shymkent
Bahit Tumeneva,
former Kazakh health official |
Doctors followed the orders of the Communist Party, but they were well paid and had plenty of resources.
As the USSR fell apart, so did its health system. Hospitals lost funding, many doctors left for better paid jobs overseas, leaving the crumbling medical system unprepared for new challenges like HIV/Aids.
As the international community began to pour tens of millions of dollars into HIV/Aids prevention, very little was spent on reforming the health system itself.
Donors are beginning to realise that this was a mistake.
"I think trying to address the problem of HIV/Aids without investing in health systems is inefficient use of resources," says Gabit Islmailov of the World Health Organisation.
"I think this is a realisation that is coming to the mind of many donor agencies."
But it has come too late for the growing number of children already affected, and not only in Kyrgyzstan. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7474998.stm>
Central American leaders hit EU rules vs immigrants
The leaders were gathered in El Salvador for a regional summit. They said on Friday that they were "profoundly concerned" over the "implications the decision will have for the human rights and dignity of people."
The European Parliament approved legislation this month allowing illegal immigrants to be detained for up to 18 months to decrease flight risk during deportation procedures. A re-entry ban of up to five years may be imposed on expelled immigrants who do not cooperate or are deemed a threat.
The new EU guidelines also provide detained migrants basic rights, including access to free legal advice. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/103854/Central-American-leaders-hit-EU-rules-vs-immigrants>
Human costs of new India rail link
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By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Agartala |
There were 28 rebel attacks during the construction of the rail link
To begin with, 36 people - railway workers and security forces guarding the tracks - died in some 28 rebel attacks during work to link the north-eastern city of Agartala in Tripura state to the rest of the country.
That's not all.
A total of 67 people connected with work on the rail link were kidnapped by the rebels. Only 19 were freed after ransom payouts.
The fate of the rest is still unknown.
On top of all that, a raging tribal insurgency in Tripura has ensured that the $186m, 109km-long (68-mile) link took 15 years to build.
But by the end of June, the link will be complete and Agartala will become the second state capital of north-east India - after Assam's capital, Guwahati - to find a place on India's railway map.
Big network
Trains first reached Tripura in 1964 when the railway was extended to the state's northern business hub, Dharmanagar. Later it was extended further to Kumarghat.
"But it has taken more than 40 years since then to connect Agartala by rail," said Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.
In the last two years, Tripura's communist-led government has successfully contained the tribal insurgency.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has declared the railway link in Tripura a national project and more connections are planned. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7470704.stm>
World petrol congress opens in Spain
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By Marian Hens
BBC News, Madrid |
One of the most prestigious events in the international oil and gas industry, the World Petroleum Congress (WPC), is opening in Madrid this weekend.
It comes at a time when Spain's economy is suffering from the record oil prices that show few signs of cooling.
Under the motto, "A world in transition: delivering energy for sustainable growth," the Congress - often referred to as the Olympics of the oil industry - is expected to attract more than 4,000 delegates from 60 countries.
Delegates will include energy ministers and key decision-makers from the largest oil companies, such as BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Gazprom.
"We are a unique forum, because our membership represents over 95% of the world oil and gas production," Dr Pierce Riemer, WPC's director general, told the BBC.
"Madrid will be our largest event ever. Oil prices will be a focus, but also climate change, water and young people."
Jorge Segrelles, president of the Spanish organising committee, said: "Madrid should be proud to host this meeting at a time when oil has taken centre stage worldwide."
Food price anger
But not everyone is happy that Spain is hosting the event.
Spanish consumers are still under shock after thousands of truck drivers went on a massive strike earlier this month, demanding government compensation for losses caused by the soaring price of fuel.
They have seen their businesses affected as fuel prices have increased by 20% since the beginning of the year.
The protest disrupted deliveries, caused shortages of fresh food in supermakets and, coupled with a fishing strike, left fish stalls bare.
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Tempers ran high during the Spanish truckers' strike
|
The crisis came off the back of a sharp increase in food prices, which has been a blow to many Spanish households.
Food price inflation in the country is currently the highest in the eurozone, with flour, milk and sunflower oil prices rising by between 20% and 40% during the last year.
Oil prices have helped push the country's official inflation rate to 4%, the highest level for 10 years and well above the rate expected by Economy Minister Pedro Solbes.
"Spaniards are already feeling the pinch of a tumbling housing market and higher interest rates," says Jaime Pastor, of Madrid's Autonoma University.
"In addition, the government has recently proposed an increase in electricity bills of over 5% on average. The energy crisis could escalate into a social crisis," he adds.
"Many Spaniards are resenting the oil lobbies and they won't be so pleased to see them gather in Madrid." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7477900.stm>
Court fines eBay over fake goods
The French court case began a year and a half ago
A French court has ordered eBay to pay 40m euros (£31.6m; $63m)
to luxury goods group LVMH for allowing online auctions of fake copies
of its goods.
LVMH said eBay's French site had not done enough to stop the sale of counterfeit bags and perfumes.
The brands affected include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy.
An eBay statement said LVMH was trying to "protect uncompetitive
commercial practices at the expense of consumer choice" and added that
it would appeal. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7481241.stm>
EU pressed for more lobbying data
By Laurence Peter
BBC News
European Commission, Brussels
Lobby groups spend huge sums to influence EU laws
The European Commission has defended its new voluntary register of
lobbyists amid criticism from groups who say it is not transparent
enough.
A day after its launch, the register had 42 lobbyists listed.
"The idea is that people adhere to principles and commit to increased
transparency," said a spokeswoman for Commission Vice-President Siim
Kallas.
An estimated 15,000 lobbyists seek to influence EU legislation. Critics want more regulation of their activities.
But the spokeswoman, Valerie Rampi, said lobbying in the EU was
"radically different" from the United States, where there is a
mandatory register of lobbyists, setting out funding for specific
issues.
Ms Rampi told BBC News that the European Commission "gives subsidies,
but it's not like a government giving contracts - there is no business
money financing politics".
She said the number of groups registering on the commission's website had doubled in 24 hours, "and that's a good start".
Joint EU list planned
The European Parliament has called for a mandatory register of
lobbyists covering not only the parliament itself, but also the
Commission and the Council of Ministers, which together approve
legislation.
The three legislative branches are setting up a joint working group to
establish a common register, which the parliament hopes will be in
place by the next European elections, in a year's time.
"We want a one-stop shop. Lobbyists will have to register only once and it will be de facto mandatory," Ms Rampi said.
She said MEPs were demanding that lobbyists obtain access badges to
enter the parliament's premises - and that would oblige them to
register on the joint list.
You can't follow people who go from high-ranking public positions into lobbying, and conflicts of interest go unnoticed
Chris Coakley
Greens-EFA spokesman
The commission's register sets out different financial disclosure requirements, depending on the nature of the lobby group.
Consultancy firms and law firms lobbying on behalf of others are
expected to state their turnover related to lobbying of all EU
institutions, based on their latest annual accounts.
But "in-house" lobbyists - including companies, professional
associations and trade unions - can simply provide an estimate of the
cost of their lobbying, which does not have to satisfy accountancy
rules.
Non-governmental organisations and think-tanks have to publish their total budget and main sources of funding. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7471672.stm>
South Korea's newest city emerges
By Linda Duffin
BBC News, Songdo, South Korea
Songdo is being built on land reclaimed from the sea.
A 20-minute drive from South Korea's main international airport, a new
city is rising out of the mud flats at the edge of the Yellow Sea.
Songdo lies at the heart of a $200bn (£100bn) development which
its creators hope could reinvigorate the country's flagging economy.
Growth is slowing in the world's 13th biggest economy, thanks to the
global credit crunch and South Korea's place on the map, squeezed
between low-cost China and hi-tech Japan.
But the government is hoping to turn that geographical position to its
advantage and transform itself into a regional business hub for
north-east Asia.
Songdo is central to that ambition.
Location, location, location
It is in the Incheon Free Enterprise Zone (IFEZ) which means there will be financial incentives for overseas firms to relocate.
We will build in all this functionality...Whatever the citizens want to make their lives easier.
Catherine Maras, Microsoft
But will companies be willing to relocate in the middle of a global slowdown?
"I think a risk can be changed into an opportunity," says Lee Heon-seok, Commissioner of Incheon Free Enterprise Zone Authority.
And location is on its side, according to Stan Gale, a US developer helping to build Songdo.
"It's an hour-and-a-half's flight to Shanghai from Incheon Airport,
it's an hour-and- a-half to Tokyo, and there are 50 cities with a
population of over a million within a short plane ride of this
location."
Foreign investment in South Korea is falling and the government wants to lure overseas firms to Songdo. But not just any firms.
South Korea is finding it hard to compete with the low wage bills offered by China and Vietnam.
So it wants to move away from the labour-intensive industries on which
it built its fortunes and towards knowledge-based business.
"Not necessarily IT," says the boss of IFEZ's Business Opportunity Bureau, Min Hee-kyong.
"It could be anything from art all the way to bio or nanotechnology, the brain-based industries." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7425192.stm>
Preparing the Battlefield
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.
by Seymour M. Hersh July 7, 2008
Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded “the coherence of military strategy,” one general says.
Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded “the coherence of military strategy,” one general says.
Related Links
Audio: Seymour M. Hersh talks about the White House and Iran.
Iran;
Bush, George W. (Pres.) (43rd);
Foreign Policy;
Presidential Findings;
Covert Operations;
Fallon, William (Admiral);
Congressional Oversight
L ate last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to
fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to
current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources.
These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred
million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by
Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious
leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority
Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They
also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected
nuclear-weapons program. <http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/07/080707fa_fact_hersh>
Paris 68: Revolution or charade?
By Henri Astier
BBC News
School students and teachers demonstrate in Paris against education reform, 10 Apr 08
French demonstrators today's cherish the spirit of 1968
The unrest that shook France in 1968 was both spectacular and short-lived.
For a few heady weeks cobblestones flew, a workers' strike paralysed
the country, General de Gaulle's government tottered - until its
authority was restored by a snap election on 30 June.
The voters had clearly had enough agitation. The conservative majority
was increased, the revolution was postponed, and everyone headed for
the sun.
But although the radical flame rapidly burnt itself out - its memory is very much alive.
The 40th anniversary came complete with dozens of books, hundreds of
articles, special editions of magazines, daily debates on TV and radio,
comic strips - and a growing chorus of sceptics who feel the whole
thing was overdone. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7475973.stm>
The NHS in numbers: Then and now
* Health
* Finance
* Staff
As the NHS turns 60, BBC News is giving it a health check. Watch out
for reports, features and analysis on TV, radio and the web.
In 60 years the NHS has changed dramatically - in terms of what it
provides, how it is administered, who works there and how much it costs
to run.
Here is an at-a-glance look at some of the changes. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7475035.stm>
There's No Place Like Home
What I learned from my wife's month in the British medical system.
by DAVID ASMAN
Wednesday, June 8, 2005 12:00 a.m. EDT
"Mr. Asman, could you come down to the gym? Your wife appears to be
having a small problem." In typical British understatement, this was
the first word I received of my wife's stroke.
We had arrived in London the night before for a two-week vacation. We
spent the day sightseeing and were planning to go to the theater. I
decided to take a nap, but my wife wanted to get in a workout in the
hotel's gym before theater. Little did either of us know that a tiny
blood clot had developed in her leg on the flight to London and was
quietly working its way up to her heart. Her workout on the Stairmaster
pumped the clot right through a too-porous wall in the heart on a
direct path to the right side of her brain.
Hurrying down to the gym, I suspected that whatever the "small" problem
was, we might still have time to make the play. Instead, our lives were
about to change fundamentally, and we were both about to experience
firsthand the inner workings of British health care. <http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006785>
Warning as France takes EU helm
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Mr Sarkozy is to travel to Ireland next week to hear people's concerns
|
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said "something isn't right" with the European Union, as France took over the rotating presidency of the bloc.
Speaking on national French TV, Mr Sarkozy warned that Europe's citizens were losing faith in the project.
Correspondents say France's grandiose EU presidency plans are in doubt after the Irish Lisbon treaty No vote.
Poland's president reportedly said it would be pointless for him to sign the treaty, given Ireland's rejection.
Lech Kaczynski told Polish daily newspaper Dziennik he would not
approve the document, even though it has been ratified by Poland's
parliament, reported AFP news agency. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7482197.stm>
Mother's junk food 'harms child'
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Junk food may leave a lasting health legacy
|
Eating a poor diet when pregnant or breastfeeding may cause long-lasting health damage to the child, animal studies suggest.
The offspring of rats fed fatty, processed food had high levels of fat in their bloodstream and around major organs even after adolescence.
The animals had a raised diabetes risk - even if they ate healthily.
'Good' cholesterol dementia risk
|
Around 700,000 people currently suffer from dementia in the UK
|
Too little of one type of cholesterol has been linked by research to memory loss and Alzheimer's disease.
UK and French scientists studied 3,673 civil servants, revealing low levels of "good" cholesterol were associated with poor memory.
Doctors might be able to uncover high-risk patients using blood tests, they said in a US heart journal.
But other experts said the study did not yet support larger diet trials aiming to boost levels.
The relationship between levels of HDL, or "good", and LDL, or "bad" types of cholesterol is thought to be important in the development of other serious conditions such as heart disease and stroke.
Higher levels of HDL, in particular, are believed to protect against damage to blood supply caused by the narrowing of the arteries.
There is also evidence that "good" cholesterol can influence the laying down of the beta-amyloid "plaques" that are a distinctive feature in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
|
This suggests that low HDL cholesterol might also be a risk factor for dementia
Dr Archarna Singh-Manoux
Study author |
Regular exercise and eating less saturated fat, while eating more "healthy" fats such as olive oils, can boost levels. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7481818.stm>
Baghdad sees tentative rebirth
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By Nicholas Witchell
BBC News, Baghdad |
|
Shops and markets in Baghdad are seeing an upturn in business
|
The streets of Baghdad are back in business. The teashops are busy. The shops and markets are bustling.
After years when there seemed to be no end to the city's trauma, people are feeling more confident.
Why, even property prices in Baghdad are rising. According to one estate agent we spoke to, they have doubled in the past four months.
Yes, things are better in Baghdad.
But before we get too carried away, it is important to stress that the improvements, while real, are plainly very brittle.
As US officials readily concede, comments about "breakthroughs" and "corners being turned" are premature.
|
Promote reconciliation: we cannot kill our way out of this endeavour
US army counterinsurgency guidelines
 |
The gains are fragile and reversible.
Indeed, as an influential report from the US Congress stated a few days ago, Iraq's security environment "remains volatile and dangerous".
It is just not quite as volatile and dangerous as it was this time last year.
Much of the credit for the improvements is undoubtedly due to the increase in US forces which began in the early months of 2007.
American troops came onto the streets in greater numbers and confronted the insurgents and militia groups.
New strategy
But it was not simply American force of arms which made the difference.
The US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, adopted a new approach.
It is instructive to read the "Commander's Counterinsurgency Guidance" which was issued recently to all US forces in Iraq.
These are some of the headings:
|
US soldiers have been told to patrol on foot - not from vehicles
|
"Serve the population: give them respect: gain their support."
"Live among the people: you can't commute to this fight."
"Walk: stop by, don't drive by: patrol on foot and engage the population."
"Promote reconciliation: we cannot kill our way out of this endeavour."
By and large, that is what the Americans have attempted to do and, by and large, it appears to be working.
From a peak last summer, when security incidents were occurring at the rate of well over 1,000 a week, there has been a steady decline until now they are, according to the Americans, at their lowest point for four years.
Micro grants
But the US strategy has involved more than putting more men in and among the Iraqi population.
The Americans have also thrown money at Iraq.
As a recent BBC Panorama programme reported, huge amounts of this money appear to have disappeared into the pockets of corrupt officials and unscrupulous companies.
But, at grassroots level, large amounts have been getting through to shops and small businesses in the form of micro-grants distributed by local US commanders.
|
Some businesses have received grants from the US
|
In reality, these grants can be quite substantial.
For example, in one main street in west Baghdad, every shopkeeper has been given $2,500 (£1,250) for basic improvements.
In addition, the Americans have been paying for neighbourhood defence forces, the so-called Sons of Iraq, which have offered employment and wages, and thus weaned people away from the temptation of joining the militia groups.
In total, in that one main street alone, the Americans say they have invested $750,000 (£375,000).
The local US officer who has been running the scheme believes it has been money well spent.
"The better economic situation feeds back into the security situation because now somebody doesn't have to go to the insurgency to get money to feed their family," he said.
"They can work, they can go to their job, so it's created a positive cycle."
That kind of local initiative, repeated many times, plus the painfully slow process of political reconciliation, the improved effectiveness of Iraq's own armed forces, and the cautious engagement of outside companies in the Iraqi economy (most notably in the oil industry) is starting to have an effect. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7482307.stm>
Iraq seeking help to develop oil
Interview with former Iraqi oil minister Dr Mohammad Bahr Al-Uloom
Iraq has begun the process of opening up its oil industry to foreign investment in an effort to boost output of the country's key income earner.
Iraq is seeking external help to boost output from six key oil fields and has attracted interest from leading US, Asian and European producers.
Oil production is currently at its highest since the 2003 invasion.
Indian Communists mull withdrawal
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The Communists are opposed to the nuclear deal
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India's main Communist party is discussing when to withdraw support to the government over a civilian nuclear deal with the US, a party leader says.
Communist leader Prakash Karat's comments came amid reports that the Congress-led coalition could go ahead with the deal and risk early elections.
The left parties argue that the deal would give the US undue influence over India's foreign and nuclear policy.
The government and its leftist allies have failed to break the deadlock.
India is under pressure from Washington to sign the deal before the US presidential elections in November.
The Communists, who have 59 members in parliament, say they will
withdraw support for the government if it goes ahead with the deal. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7482650.stm>
Hong Kong-based airline's profit to be slashed by high fuel costs
The Hong Kong-based airline said it paid 60 percent more for jet fuel in the first half compared to the same period in 2007. The most recent spot price for jet fuel was more than 90 percent higher than the company's average price last year, it said.
Earnings during the first-half and full-year periods “are expected to be disappointing," the carrier said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. "It is not possible to estimate accurately the effect of high jet fuel prices on the 2008 financial results."
The company’s 2007 net profit surged 72 percent on strong demand for first- and business-class travel despite the continued rise in fuel prices. Net profit for the 12 months that ended December 31 rose to 7.02 billion Hong Kong dollars ($900 million) from HK$4.09 billion in 2006. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/104563/Hong-Kong-based-airline-to-be-slashed-by-high-fuel-costs>
‘Frank,’ ‘Princess’ knock down Romblon economy
A radio report said according to Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap, many residents could not even buy low-priced rice supplied by the National Food Authority (NFA) after the collapse of the province's fishing industry.
A fishing ban was imposed in Romblon last Friday over fears of pesticide poisoning after the capsized MV Princess of the Stars was found to be carrying a 10-metric ton shipment of endosulfan - a pesticide used in pineapple plantations.
“Alam mo ang NFA dito nagbobomba ng bigas, walang bumibili e dahil walang pera ang tao. Ang buong ekonomiya ng Romblon dependent po ito sa fishing industry (You know, the NFA here are pouring out rice but no one’s buying because the people have no money. The entire economy of Romblon is dependent on the fishing industry)," a radio dzXL report quoted Yap as saying.
“Talagang knocked down din ang local government dito e (The local government is really knocked down)," he added.
In the interview, Yap said the national government is finding ways to help revive Romblon’s economy.
“Lahat ng mga magsasakang nangangailangan ng assistance, mga rice seeds na gustong magtanim kaagad pinabibigay na po namin, mga vegetable seeds rin (All farmers who need assistance, we’ve given them rice seeds. We are giving them vegetable seeds as well)," Yap said.
“Imagine mo naman e itong Romblon 30 minutes lang to sa Boracay ang gulay dito galing pa sa Divisoria (Just imagine, Romblon is only 30 minutes away from Boracay but the vegetables here come all the way from Divisoria)," he added.
Effects of the fishing ban are not only felt in Romblon.
Trade Secretary Zenaida Maglaya had earlier said in an interview that fish prices in Metro Manila markets went down by P10 to P20 due to the scare caused by the ban.
Last Monday, fish dealers at the Navotas fish port also attributed slow sales to the fishing ban. - Johanna Camille Sisante, GMANews.TV<http://www.gmanews.tv/story/104565/Frank-Princess-knock-down-Romblon-economy>
Firm launches face recognition technology in RP
XID Technologies, a company that has offices in Redwood City, California and Singapore, unveiled in the country last June 27 its flagship product dubbed “Face Logon Xpress", an application that allows PCs or establishments to be accessed only by authorized users.
Top XID executives led by CEO Mike Holt and sales director Steve Seah formally launched the face recognition technology at the Ascott hotel in Makati during a press briefing arranged by local IT distributor Columbia Technologies Inc. (CTI) and Acer Philippines.
According to Holt, biometrics solutions, specifically face recognition technology, has been around for sometime but it has not been widely adopted because of its high error rate.
“One of the factors that severely affect this high error rate is lighting, especially outdoors, because it can change the way a person looks. This is the reason why they are only used in enclosed areas such as airports and offices," explained Holt.
The executive said that XID set out early on to fix the problem so that outdoor users, particularly mobile workers who carry their laptops around, can have access regardless of the lighting conditions.
The secret behind the breakthrough, Holt said, is the company’s facial synthesis technology which detects, recognizes, and synthesizes the human face.
It automatically generates thousands of face images from a single 2D photo, allowing the technology to accurately perform face recognition in different lighting environments and angles, he said.
Additionally, Holt said the product can compensate for extreme conditions such as complete darkness by allowing users to access the PC through the use of a default password instead of the camera.
The company said that while the faces of the earth’s six billion people could each be a potential customer, their targeted customers for now are mobile workers and establishments that need light-sensitive door access technology.
Acer Philippines, for its part, said it can bundle the technology in its PCs and laptops. “It can compensate the biometric solutions that we already have in our products so our customers can have a higher level of security," said Agnes Espino, marketing manager of Acer Philippines. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/104559/Firm-launches-face-recognition-technology-in-RP>
NHS dentistry reforms 'failing'
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Contract reforms were designed to improve NHS dentistry
|
Changes designed to improve NHS dental services in England have not been successful, a report by MPs says.
The new contract, introduced in 2006, was intended to simplify charges and make it easier to find an NHS dentist.
But the Commons Health Committee said access remained "patchy" and there had been a sharp fall in the number of complex procedures.
The Department of Health insisted the reforms - which were later adopted in Wales - were starting to work. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7483182.stm>
EU plans cross-border healthcare
|
The healthcare plan is part of an EU "social Europe" package
|
The European Commission is poised to unveil a healthcare package that could give patients new rights to seek medical treatment elsewhere in the EU.
Patients would not have to get their doctor's approval for non-hospital care abroad, officials are quoted as saying.
EU ministers and Euro MPs will discuss the proposals once they are unveiled.
Only costs similar to those in a patient's home state would be covered. About 1% of operations performed in the EU involve people from other countries.
Non-hospital care would be reimbursed by the home state up to the level the patient could expect at home, according to reports.
But the state would not reimburse expensive treatment received abroad that was unavailable in the patient's home country. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7484198.stm>
EU trade chief lambasts Sarkozy
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has accused French President Nicolas Sarkozy of undermining him and Europe's position at world trade talks.
Mr Mandelson told the BBC his job had been made more difficult, and he would continue to negotiate a trade deal on behalf of the EU's 27 states.
He said EU concessions would boost the world economy and developing nations.
Mr Sarkozy said the commissioner's plan to cut agricultural subsidies and tariffs would destroy European jobs.
The French leader made his comments on Tuesday as France began its six-month presidency of the EU.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7484606.stm>
France plans revolution in space
|
By Matt McGrath
BBC science correspondent |
|
More than science: Projects such as Galileo carry political significance
|
Ambitious plans for European missions to the Moon and Mars are being considered by the French government.
It wants to kick-start a revolution in space by letting EU politicians not bureaucrats decide on priorities for the European Space Agency (Esa).
The French say that if Europe fails to change its approach to space, it will fall behind Japan, China and India.
Paris is seeking an alliance with the UK to drive the agenda forward during the French presidency of the EU.
'Political pilot'
President Nicolas Sarkozy's well-known admiration for all things American now extends to space exploration. Speaking to the BBC, a senior official involved in French space policy said that it was time to shake up the European Space Agency and make it more like the US space agency (Nasa) by giving it a new, politically-led direction.
The French take over the rotating presidency of the European Union on 1 July and are planning to make space policy a key area for reform.
The official said that Europe was in danger of becoming
redundant in global space terms and it needed an agency that followed a
clear political agenda. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7482232.stm>
Virgin rapped on broadband speeds
|
Consumers are still confused about how fast broadband services really are
|
A complaint lodged by BT about the speeds of Virgin Media's broadband service has been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The challenge centred around its advertisement "Hate to Wait?", which ran in the national media and featured download times for songs and TV shows.
BT argued that Virgin's usage caps meant that downloads during peak times would be slower than advertised.
The ASA has agreed and ordered Virgin to make it clear that speeds will vary.
Confusing megabits
In its adjudication it said that the advert did not make it clear that customers on Virgin Media's lower speed packages would only be able to download TV shows at the speeds advertised during off-peak hours.
It ruled that Virgin Media needed to clarify that download times would be restricted during peak hours.
Virgin Media argued that, for users of its M 2Mbps (megabits per second) package, a TV show downloaded during peak hours would only take a few minutes longer to download.
But it did admit that users would be subject to its so-called traffic management system, which caps data usage during peak hours. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7483675.stm>
The battle for Tbilisi's soul
|
By Matthew Collin
BBC News, Tbilisi |
A coloured stained glass window decorates a renovated balcony in Tbilisi
But it was already too late. As the small group of conservationists held their protest, construction workers were standing nearby, preparing to start knocking it down.
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Demolition is an emotive issue in historic Tbilisi
|
The historic building was cleared for demolition after the authorities deemed that it was too damaged to be renovated.
It will be replaced by a modern office block.
One of the protesters said this showed that a "battle for the soul of the city" was under way.
The dispute pits the conservationists, who believe the
architectural heritage of Tbilisi's old town district is under threat,
against profit-seeking developers and the city council, which lacks the
finances needed to restore the Georgian capital's magnificent but
crumbling architecture. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7478392.stm>
Ukraine's hybrid healthcare system
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By Gabriel Gatehouse
BBC News, Kiev |
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All high-tech extras - such as screws and rods - are paid for by the patient
|
In a hospital in the Ukrainian capital, neurosurgeon Igor Kurylets, is working on a patient's back.
An 18-year-old woman lies face down on the operating table, with about 30cm of spine exposed.
The operation may look somewhat primitive: there is a lot of rather violent bashing, scraping and screwing going on. But this is in fact a state-of-the-art procedure.
During the four-hour operation, the patient's spine will be realigned from an inverted S-shape to a straight, ordinary looking back.
Holding it all in place will be rods and screws, designed in the United States and imported to the patient's specifications.
This is the only clinic in the former Soviet Union which uses this pioneering technique. It is located inside a much larger hospital, which is run by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) - the successor organisation to the Soviet KGB.
|
It used to be illegal to pay for medical services in a state hospital
|
"It is a state hospital", Dr Kurylets explained, as he continued working on the patient's spine, "but we cannot run, for example, this surgery from the [state] budget, because we need different types of screws, different instruments and things like that."
All the basic medical provisions are supplied by the state-run hospital. All the high-tech extras - the screws and rods, the specialised x-ray equipment - are paid for separately by the patient.
Dr Kurylets was one of the people who pioneered this hybrid system in Ukraine 10 years ago. And the idea is slowly catching on.
Until then, it was illegal to pay for any medical services in a state hospital. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7484095.stm>
Project aims to change US healthcare
The US is one of the richest countries in the world - but on basic
measures of health, like life expectancy, it lags behind many poorer
countries.
As the state of Massachusetts pioneers a new scheme to increase state
involvement and get everyone insured, the BBC's Jill McGivering asks
whether it could be a model for the rest of the country.
Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston is private, making most of its money from patients' fees.
US hospital. File photo
The US spends more on healthcare than any other country
A tour of the facilities is certainly impressive. It bristles with multimillion-dollar technology.
But it could be more efficient. Dr David Torchiana, a hospital chief executive, told me paperwork eats up a vast amount.
"We send bills to probably about 25 different payers," he said.
"Every one of them has a different set of rules. If you printed out our
regulations around billing for radiology studies, it would be a pile of
paper seven inches thick."
'Crazy' system
That sort of waste disturbs those who see chronic imbalance in the US system.
All the rewards come from more procedures. The more talking you do, the more time you waste and the less money you make
John McDonough
Healthcare for All
Americans spend more than twice as much per person on health as the
British. Yet more than 40 million Americans - about 10% of the
population - are completely uninsured.
John McDonough, who heads consumer lobby group Healthcare for All, describes the system as "crazy".
"All of the incentives right now in our system reward healthcare
providers for the volume of services they provide," Mr McDonough said.
"So, all the rewards come from more procedures. The more talking you do, the more time you waste and the less money you make."
The effect is that people with money have treatments they may not need and see specialists when a more junior doctor would do.
At the other end of the scale, the poor can't afford even the basics. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7484028.stm>
What should Big Oil's role in Iraq be?
By Richard Thompson
There is no question that Baghdad needs the expertise and capital of international oil companies to kick-start its oil industry.
Workers on an Iraqi oil pipeline near Basra
Greater stability has helped Iraqi oil but it needs more investment
Thirty years of war, sanctions and poor government have left the country's oil infrastructure in tatters.
Despite having the world's third-largest proven oil reserves, Iraq's
production of 2.5 million barrels a day is only the 12th biggest. And
although production has recently recovered to the levels seen before
the 2003 US-led invasion, it is still about 1 million barrels a day
below its peak in the late 1970s.
What is at stake now is how it revives its oil industry and the role that Big Oil will play.
If it was left to the oil companies and their political supporters in
the West, they would be quickly granted a share of Iraq's oil in return
for heavy investment in the country.
But most Iraqis are unhappy with this formula. They don't agree that
Iraq should give away its principal asset to foreign companies.
Instead, they feel that the role of the international oil companies
should be limited to that of contractors paid a fee to carry out work.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7485685.stm>
£3.2bn giant carrier deals signed
The Ministry of Defence has signed contracts worth £3.2bn to build the UK's biggest ever aircraft carriers.
The 280-metre-long HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be capable of carrying up to 40 aircraft.
The contracts will create or secure 3,000 jobs at Govan, in Glasgow, 1,600 at Rosyth, in Fife, 1,200 in Portsmouth and 400 in Barrow in Furness.
The defence secretary said the vessels were needed to launch military strikes and humanitarian operations.
Peace-keeping role
HMS Queen Elizabeth will come into service in 2014 and HMS Prince of Wales in 2016. The total cost of both vessels, including additional features like electronics, will be almost £4bn.
Each ship will be a similar size to the ocean liner, the QE2, with a flight deck the size of three football pitches.
This will make them more than three times the size of the existing Invincible-class carriers.
|
The two aircraft carriers will provide our forces with the world-class capabilities they will need over the coming decades
Defence Secretary Des Browne
|
Each 65,000-tonne vessel will be crewed by 1,450 sailors and airmen.
The building of the two aircraft carriers is expected to create or secure a total of 10,000 jobs across the UK.
The project is going ahead despite serious misgivings among some in the military about the huge financial burden it will place on a defence budget already under severe pressure.
The Army and RAF are already expecting cuts to equipment funds and defence analyst Andrew Brookes told the BBC that Britain could not afford the contracts.
"We can't afford the cost of the aircraft carriers, the cost of the Joint Strike fighters to go on them, and all the replenishment, escort and protecting vessels," he said.
"We can't afford that without a major increase in funding which I can't see coming."
But Defence Secretary Des Browne said the carriers were "an affordable expenditure" and were not being purchased at the expense of other areas.
"The two aircraft carriers will provide our forces with the world-class capabilities they will need over the coming decades," he said.
"They will support peace-keeping and conflict prevention, as well as our strategic operational priorities."
Speaking in Govan, Mr Browne said the carriers would provide "very large floating bases for the Navy and the RAF", entirely under "sovereign control".
"They will allow us to project force," he said. "But they will
also allow us to make a contribution to the protection of the sea lanes
of the world, because as a trading nation we rely on those being
secure." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7486683.stm>
Pirate fishing boats target Africa
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By John James
BBC News, Abidjan |
Ivory Coast is calling on the United Nations to lift an arms embargo that it says has prevented the defence of its waters from illegal fishing boats.
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The fishing industry provides a staple food for Ivorians
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The country has been under a UN arms embargo since 2004, when a ceasefire in the civil war between the northern and southern halves of the country broke down.
Under the embargo, the government says it cannot buy the spare parts needed to repair two navy boats that used to patrol the country's waters.
Fishing unions say catches have declined by three-quarters to 40,000 crates a year since the start of the conflict because of illegal fishing.
"It's a vital sector," says Jeanson Djobo, the government's director of fish production.
"Fish is a staple food, so if the fishing sector dies, it'll create lots of problems for Ivorians."
"So we're calling on the international community for the embargo
to be lifted, so we can repair our boats and start patrolling and
arresting." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7484090.stm>
Tackling Qingdao's invading algae
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By Quentin Sommerville
BBC News, Qingdao |
Young recruits from the People's Liberation Army threw off their shoes and stood knee-deep in the thick green algae that has overwhelmed the Qingdao coastline.
Some had shovels, others used pitchforks, but mostly they worked with their hands to tear up great lumps of the heavy, sodden weed.
More than 10,000 of the recruits have been deployed.
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Young soldiers have been mobilised to help with the clean-up
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"We're working nine-hour days. I've been here six days, and still more and more of it keeps coming," said one of the soldiers.
With every wave more of the algae comes ashore. Earth-moving equipment has arrived and long mechanical conveyor belts; perhaps they will speed up the progress.
On one of the beaches is holidaymaker Wang Weizhong. The sludge ruined his holiday, and his anticipation of the Olympic Games.
"We are really disappointed," he said. "We had no idea something like this would happen here."
"We came for the pretty scenery, to get a taste of the preparations and excitement of the Olympics," he said.
Locals say the algae has never been so thick here - agricultural and industrial pollution are thought to be responsible.
But China, embarrassed by the most vivid proof yet of its environmental problems, says the algae is a natural occurrence, and blames the sea for being too salty, the sun for being too hot.
At a news conference earlier in the day one official suggested that algae could be good for you.
"The Japanese eat it," she said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7486814.stm>
Google must divulge YouTube log
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Google owns video site YouTube
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Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.
The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.
Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a "set-back to privacy rights".
The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.
While the legal battle between the two firms is being contested in the US, it is thought the ruling will apply to YouTube users and their viewing habits everywhere.
Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount Pictures, has alleged that YouTube is guilty of massive copyright infringement.
The UK's Premier League association is also seeking class action status
with Viacom on the issue, alleging YouTube, which was bought by Google
in 2006, has been used to watch football highlights. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7488009.stm>
Bright ideas in the Wild West
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By Jonathan Marcus
Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News |
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Luminaries gathered in spectacular surroundings to trade ideas
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Aspen, high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in what used to be the "Wild Wild West" is perhaps an unlikely setting for a festival of ideas.
Nestled between soaring peaks, it was once famed as a frontier silver-mining town. It enjoyed a brief boom towards the end of the 19th Century. But its prosperity was short-lived and it settled into a long period of decline.
But Aspen revived in the years after World War II with a new boom based on tourism - skiing and outdoor pursuits. There are still patches of ice on some of the mountain tops as I sit here even in July.
But ideas also contributed to this resurgence: this high-altitude setting is also the home of some lofty thinking, hosted by the Aspen Institute - organisers of the Ideas Festival - which brings together politicians, academics, artists and people from the world of commerce for a week-long session of brain-storming and debate.
All of these people have come here with one central conviction. It is that ideas matter and especially so in a presidential election year. Men and women can change the world by thinking about problems and by approaching them in new ways.
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Audiences clearly share a profound unease about the capacities of their government
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Hundreds of people pay to attend - it is probably the most intellectual holiday camp in the world, set on a university-like campus with electric golf carts shuttling back and forth.
The festival opened with several key-note speakers offering brief summaries of their "big ideas"; a kind of smorgasbord for the brain.
Professor Lawrence Lessig of the Stanford Law School focused on what he sees as the corrupting effect of the quest for money in the US political system.
"The most impossible idea that you will hear during the festival will be the one that makes you put trust and faith in our government," he said.
John Holdren of Harvard University issued a clarion call for America to assume leadership in the struggle against climate change.
Senior physician Dr David Katz's big idea was what he called "a food supply for dummies" - simple labelling of all food-stuffs to show what was healthy, with the goal of trying to turn back the rising tide of diabetes and heart disease. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7488333.stm>
More Pinoys to go abroad if rise in fuel costs continues
Ellene Sana, CMA's executive director, said that for lack of opportunities in the Philippines that is worsened by the high prices of fuel and food, more Filipinos would be forced to work abroad to provide for the needs of their families.
“Sa hirap ng buhay ngayon mas marami ang mangingibang bansa para maghanap ng trabaho na may mas mataas na sweldo (Due to the difficult life in the Philippines, more Filipinos will go abroad to look for work with higher salaries)," said Sana during a media forum at the Sulu Hotel in Quezon City.
Prices of fuel products were raised on Saturday, the 18th time this year, amid worsening inflation, which hit 11.4 percent in June, the highest in 14 years.
Sana said about 100 documented Filipinos leave the country every hour to work abroad, or about 3,000 per day if undocumented Filipinos will be included.
She said the increase of Filipino overseas workers could also mean the rise in the cases of exploitation of OFWs, especially among women.
“Ang nakukuha naman trabaho ng mga kababayan natin especially the women ay 'yong trabaho na tinatanggihan ng mga local sa bansa na pupuntahan nila. Ito 'yong mga trabaho na dirty, demeaning, and dangerous, (The jobs they get overseas, especially women, are those that local residents refuse.These are the jobs that are dirty, demeaning, and dangerous)," Sana said.
She cited the case of Filipino nurses and caregivers who would be hired under the controversial Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement. The jobs will be offered to Filipinos not because there is a shortage of nurses and caregivers in Japan, but because the Japanese don't want to be employed in said jobs, according to Sana.
With the expected increase of Filipinos working abroad, Sana urged the government to expand and strengthen programs protecting Filipino migrant workers.
Meanwhile, civil society organizations from the Philippines and other countries in Asia, Europe, and South and Central America will convene in Manila on July 11 and 12 for the launching of the People's Global Action on Migration, Human Rights, and Development.
The People’s Global Action is a parallel event to the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which will be hosted by the Philippine government in October this year.
Organizers of the event said the Manila forum would be an opportunity to hundreds of delegates from all over the world to discuss the concerns and interests of migrant workers. - Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105302/More-Pinoys-to-go-abroad-if-rise-in-fuel-costs-continues>
Google faces 'Street View block'
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Street View includes photos of many US cities
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Google's plans to launch a mapping tool in the UK could be referred to the Information Commissioner.
Street View matches photos of locations to maps, including passers-by who were captured as the photograph was taken.
Privacy International, a UK rights group, believes the technology breaks data protection laws.
"In our view they need a person's consent if they make use of a person's face for commercial ends," said Simon Davis of the group.
Street View has already been launched in the US and includes photos of streets in major American cities. Photographing of areas in the UK, including London, is believed to have started this week.
Some individuals in the US have complained about their images being used and Google has said it removed their presence on request.
The company has said it had begun to trial face blurring technology, using an algorithm that detects human faces in photographs.
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Photos of real world locations are tied to maps
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But Privacy International says it has doubts about the technology.
It has written to the search giant and asked for technical information about the system.
If the group does not get the answer it seeks within seven days, Mr Davies said it would write to the Information Commissioner seeking a suspension of the service in the UK. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7488524.stm>
Drop by drop, of wisdom
Alex James went to Burkina Faso for Christian Aid
Blur bassist Alex James has swapped a life of carousing in bars for
composting in Oxfordshire. But a recent trip to Burkina Faso taught him
some important lessons about working the soil that are as relevant to
gardeners in Britain as farmers in Africa.
Burkina is a country that doesn't have weather in the sense we have
weather. It has a climate - very hot and dry for half the year, and
then very hot and wet.
The effects of climate change are already being felt out on the plain.
It's gradually getting hotter and the wet season is getting shorter.
Practically everyone is a subsistence farmer, and because they've been
forced to adapt, they're leading the way in sustainable practices.
Burkina Faso garden
Each plant has a soil wall to keep water close to the roots, topped with mulch to stop evaporation
We have had only a taste of this with hosepipe bans in the hottest and
driest of summers. Water butts and drought-resistant plants sold like
hot cakes in 2006, but last summer much of the UK had more water than
it knew what to do with.
So what can we learn from the people who farm on the parched plains of West Africa?
Burkina Faso ranks 174 out of 177 on the UN's developing nations index,
about as poor as a country can be. So I'm not ready for the devastating
beauty of the place when I visit with Christian Aid. Sure, it's awful
too - I see a dead body lying in the road and what can be worse than
that?
At Zongou, I see a new reservoir, built by the townspeople, that has
transformed 100 acres of savannah into an idyllic market garden.
Successful farms in the West do emanate a certain grandiose majesty.
There is something beautiful about the scale of intensive farms, the
way that a skyscraper is beautiful - slightly austere, but magnificent.
The human scale of the succession of tiny, precious gardens sprouting
rice, bananas, aubergine, cabbages is of a different order, the closest
thing to paradise I've seen. But it's as close to paradise as it is to
ruin.
Alex and Alli
Meeting Alli, whose compost contains "weapons-grade" goodness
Allie, 78, shows me his compost. He's dug two swimming pool-sized pits
with a pick axe and a shovel, and filled them with a gigantic terrine
of layers of animal dung, straw and vegetable waste to produce a
weapons-grade organic fertiliser. I've made a smaller version at home
in Oxfordshire, but instead of digging a pit, I've built a big box.
But plants need water more than anything else, and Alli also shows me
how to make a demi-lune, a semi-circular vegetable bed with soil in a
ridge around the edge to help trap the rain when it arrives. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7489620.stm>
Gender 'impacts on transplants'
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Male and female kidneys are slightly different
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Swiss researchers looked at almost 200,000 operations, finding an 8% increase in the chance of failure when male kidneys were given to women.
Writing in The Lancet medical journal, they suggested same-sex transplants should be considered in future.
However, the UK Transplant Authority said its own research had not found any gender difference.
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The
science is still too premature to suggest that allocation schemes from
dead donors or selection of living donors for transplantation take
notice of this effect
Dr Connie Davis
University of Washington |
The idea of the "sex" of donor tissue influencing how it is received by the recipient's immune system is not a new one.
In stem-cell transplants, men who get cells from a female are at an increased risk of dangerous "graft-versus-host" disease, and women who get "male" cells are more likely to reject them, or have an immune reaction to molecules specific to males found on the surface of cells.
The researchers from the University Hospital in Basel examined the outcome of a total of 195,516 transplants between 1985 and 2004 at more than 400 hospitals in Europe.
They found that "graft loss" - the rejection of the new organ - was more likely in kidneys from female donors than those from male donors after both a year and 10 years.
The biggest difference was the transplantation of male kidneys
into female recipients, where the chances of failure in the first year
were 11% higher than average, and 8% more likely overall. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7489539.stm>
Calatagan farmers start fencing land vs mining firm
"We are fencing our lands to remind them that this is ours and to thwart all future attempts of Asturias (Chemical Industries) to convert an agricultural land into a mining site," Virginita Malaluan, spokesperson of farmers, told GMANews.TV in an interview.
The fencing project, which was launched Saturday, would initially cover a 9.7-hectare farmland designated by Asturias Chemical Industries as its relocation site for the farmers that will be displaced once the firm starts its mining activities in the area.
Armed with hammers and head hats, the farmers began fencing the area at about 11 a.m. using cut bamboo trees and barbwires.
"We will not give up our property. These farmlands are legally and rightfully ours. They would be unlawfully entering private lands should they insist on installing their equipment in our farmlands,"
Malaluan said.
Joining the farmers were representatives from the church, agrarian reform, non-government organizations, and students from De La Salle University and Ateneo De Manila University.
"I think it is not only the schools but also the parishes and churches that must unite since perhaps this is the only way by which we can achieve long-term changes in our society," said Bro. Joemari Manzano, a Jesuit seminarian, in a separate interview.
Last June 28, workers of Asturias allegedly tried to bring in several trucks with mining equipment to begin their project in the area, but the farmers stopped them by barricading the streets and demanding for legal documents authorizing their entry.
Three days later, the farmers received reports that the mining firm would once again try to enter the community after its trucks were sighted at the nearby Balayan town.
They said these things happened despite an April 29 order by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to temporarily suspend the mineral exploration permit of Asturias in Baha and Talibayog in order "to prevent untoward incidents in the area."
The series of events, Malauan said, likewise prompted the farmers to fence their respective lands.
GMANews.TV tried to get in touch with Gary Sevilla, Asturias community project officer, but his cellphone was turned off. He was also not responding to our text messages.
In an early emailed statement sent by Asturias legal counsel Micaela Rosales, she said that based on the Bureau of Mines Geological investigation in 1965, the land being claimed by the farmers "has always been classified not as agricultural but mineral land."
She also claimed that the 507-hectare disputed property was acquired by Asturias "with the court's consent" and not grabbed as alleged by the farmers.
The land in Baha and Talibayog, originally owned by the late Ceferino Ascue, was distributed to by the national government to 312 farmer beneficiaries in 1989 under Presidential Decree No. 27 and Operation Land Transfer.
Most of the farmers have fully paid their amortization on the Land Bank of the Philippines and have been issued emancipation patents (EPs).
In 1994, however, the heirs of Ascue, using the original certificate of title, sold the whole 800-hectare property, including the 507-hectare land owned by the farmers, to Asturias Chemical Industries.
The firm plans to build a cement plant complex and industrial park in the area.
Asturias later protested before the Department of Agrarian Reform that the land should not have been distributed to the farmers since it contained minerals, which the DAR agreed.
On July 28, 2005, the Supreme Court upheld the DAR decision that the property is a "mineral land."
Asturias has a 25-year mineral production sharing agreement (MPSA) with the DENR, covering 2,336 hectares of land in the villages of Baha, Talibayog, Punta and Hukay in Calatagan. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105341/Calatagan-farmers-start-fencing-land-vs-mining-firm>
Alternative education: The poor’s way out of illiteracy and ignorance
Were it not for Sagip Dunong (Saving Education), a Catholic Church-run alternative learning system (ALS) for poor and less-educated residents in Dasmariñas, Cavite, Omilan says she would have never gone back to school.
The last time Omilan was in class was 53 years ago when she enrolled in a public elementary school in her hometown of Aroroy in Masbate. But she never even made it through Grade 1. The physical challenge of just getting an education was simply too great: “Alas kuwatro pa lang ng umaga, gising na ako. Apat na kilometro ang lalakarin ko at tatlong ilog ang dadaanan ko bago ako makarating sa paaralan (I had to wake up at 4 am, walk three kilometers and forge three rivers before I even got to school)."
Life did not get any better after she quit school. Omilan had to leave home to seek work as a domestic helper and before the age of 18 she was already married with three children. Her husband continually beat her yet 20 years passed before she plucked up enough courage to take her children and leave. All those years, she was working as a housemaid. She still is.
Omilan admits that her life was made even harsher because she was illiterate. “I was often insulted. People laughed at me because I couldn’t read or write," she said.
While of an age where her career prospects are extremely limited, Omilan is determined to finish elementary school at least. “I want to teach my grandchildren to help make up for all those times I didn’t help my own children with their homework," she said in her native tongue. Like her, her three children failed to make it beyond elementary level.
Omilan is just one of about twenty students in her class who are categorized as having ‘zero education’. Like her, most, if not all, of her classmates live a hard and daunting life. One is a 19-year-old seeking a new chance after a four-year-term in prison. Another is an 18 year-old boy who gave up on his own education so he could go work in a slaughterhouse, feed his family and send his siblings to school.
Omilan and the rest of her classmates are among the four million Filipinos judged to be illiterate according to a 2003 Functional Literacy and Mass Media Survey of 10 to 64 year-olds.
They also count among the 16 million Filipinos aged 16 and older who have not finished basic education comprising elementary and high school. According to the Department of Education (DepEd), they constitute almost one fifth of the country’s entire population.
Through Sagip Dunong, Omilan alongside other adults and children are given a second chance at education. DepEd provides the curriculum and supervises the whole program. The schedule of teaching is organized to match the needs of the students, many of whom struggle to hold down day jobs to put food on the table for their families.
Teaching them is both tough and fulfilling according to Mary Jane Gonzaga, one of the only two teachers helping around 200 students in the program. It is not just about leading lessons in class, she says. It is also about being part counselor and mentor, helping them set goals and achieve their dream of a proper education.
“This isn’t just a profession for us. It is a vocation. Through this, we are able to really help people," says Gonzaga who receives only 4,000 pesos (USD 90) a month. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/104892/Alternative-education-The-poors-way-out-of-illiteracy-and-ignorance>
G-8 blamed for surge in prices of food and fuel
Wrapping up a four-day conference for indigenous peoples held in Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, the group issued a declaration expressing "profound concern over the state of the planet."
"We believe that the economic growth model and modernization promoted by the G-8, which suggests that we can control and dominate nature, is flawed," read the statement from the group, which brought together representatives from 11 countries and 17 ethnic groups, including the Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan.
"This dominant thinking is responsible for climate change, the global food crisis, high oil prices, increasing poverty and disparity between the rich and the poor, and the elusive search for peace," it said.
The group urged the G-8 to adopt more "sustainable consumption practices" that have been practiced by native peoples for centuries.
"We are not saying we are totally against markets. We believe in small markets, local markets," Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, chairwoman of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, said at a press conference.
"We don't believe in shaping your whole economy to provide the luxury needs of the people in rich countries," she said. "We believe a market should provide goods and services for the use of its citizens."
The group plans to give the declaration to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to be distributed to the other G-8 leaders during their summit at Lake Toya, south of Sapporo, this coming Monday through Wednesday.
With climate change a key topic at the G-8 summit, indigenous activists highlighted that the G-8 members — the U.S., Japan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Russia and Canada — are among the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
"Indigenous peoples are among the most impacted by the effects of climate change" because of their "close relation to their environment," said Ben Powless, a Canadian and member of the Mohawk people.
The group also called on the U.S., Canada and Russia to adopt the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, approved by the U.N. General Assembly in September 2007. That nonbinding declaration affirms the equality of more than 370 million indigenous peoples and their right to maintain their own institutions, cultures and spiritual traditions.
The U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand voted against the U.N. declaration because it was incompatible with existing laws. Russia abstained.
"Because our struggles are just, as long as we stay firm in our demands, we will be able to get somewhere," Tauli-Corpuz, a member of the Igorot people of the Philippines, said during the final plenary session of the conference, attended by 350-400 people on each of the four days.
Despite voting against the U.N. declaration, Australia apologized in February to its indigenous people for past mistreatment, and Canada apologized in June to its native population for the country's past assimilation practice of taking children from their families and forcing them to attend state-funded schools.
The group gathered in Sapporo also welcomed the Japanese government's recognition for the first time last month of the Ainu as an indigenous minority — long an Ainu goal. They also called on Tokyo to issue an official apology to the Ainu for its past assimilation policies.
Tokyo's recognition of the Ainu as an indigenous people carries no legal implications, and an eight-person committee has been created to discuss what further policies the government might take. The indigenous conference's statement criticized the makeup of this panel, which includes only one Ainu. More than half the panel should be Ainu, it said. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105333/G-8-blamed-for-surge-in-prices-of-food-and-fuel>
G8 leaders face series of crises
This year's G8 summit is one of the most heavily guarded ever
Rising food and oil costs, an uncertain global economy, climate change and Zimbabwe's political crisis face the G8 leaders who are gathering in Japan.
The summit is being held at a secluded resort on the northern island of Hokkaido guarded by some 20,000 police.
Protesters have been gathering ahead of the three-day forum starting on Monday.
A US official said the gathering was likely to "strongly condemn" Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe over a disputed presidential election run-off vote.
The Group of Eight (G8) consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
Leaders begin arriving on Sunday. US President George W Bush arrived in time to celebrate his 62nd birthday in Japan.
China, India and South Africa will be among other key nations attending.
Japan has spent a record sum of money and deployed about 20,000 police to seal off the summit at the remote lakeside resort of Toyako. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7491833.stm>
G8 summit: The key issues
The G8 summit of industrialised nations opens in Toyako on the Japanese island of Hokkaido on Monday. Here, BBC correspondents preview the issues likely to dominate the talks.
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Arroyo reorganizes CHED board of advisers
MANILA, Philippines - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the reorganization of the six-man board of advisers of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) with the addition of two members to represent the private sector. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105345/Arroyo-reorganizes-CHED-board-of-advisers>
UN to urge revamp of Afghan aid
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By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Kabul |
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The UN wants aid spending to be more co-ordinated
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The UN's envoy to Afghanistan is set to outline a new plan on spending foreign aid, amid concerns that millions of dollars have been wasted.
The envoy, Kai Eide, wants international aid money to be spent through the Afghan government, in return for a crackdown on corruption.
Mr Eide says that too much aid money is spent on salaries and goods in the countries that provide it.
Last month, 80 countries pledged a further $22bn (£11bn) for Afghanistan.
Now the donors and the Afghan government are being told to deliver - to
get schools, clinics, agriculture and electricity to the people who
need it. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7491825.stm>
Pro-Chavez Catholics under fire
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By James Ingham
BBC News, Caracas |
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Mr Chavez has clashed with the Catholic Church in the past
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Religious leaders in Venezuela have criticised a recently formed church that openly backs President Hugo Chavez's socialist politics.
The Reformed Catholic Church was set up by a group of Anglicans and Catholics who wanted to put more emphasis on helping the poor.
But the ruling body of the Catholic Church says its members are criminals who are trying to divide the Church.
The Church and the government have been in frequent conflict in Venezuela.
Catholicism is practised widely in Venezuela, but the new group's open support for President Chavez's socialist policies is deepening those divisions.
Feathers ruffled
The Reformed Catholic Church was set up by a group of priests from a mixed background.
It has a small following - several thousand people in the west the country.
But despite its size, its philosophy has ruffled a few feathers.
The Venezuelan Episcopal Conference, the ruling council of the Catholic Church, has described the founders as delinquents.
Its vice president, Archbishop Roberto Luckert, has accused the new organisation of taking government money and mixing politics with religion.
But Enrique Albornoz, who was appointed as the Reformed Church's first bishop last week, denies the allegations.
"We support the work the government is doing for the poor," he told the BBC, "but we don't take any political line."
The breakaway organisation is unusual in supporting Mr Chavez.
The Catholic Church has often clashed with the president, accusing him in the past of taking Venezuela down a path to dictatorship.
He in return has criticised the Church for being elitist and ignoring the country's poor. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7491821.stm>
Inquiry urged into UK territory
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The islands have a British governor but self-govern internal affairs
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MPs are urging the Foreign Office to launch an inquiry into the running of a British territory in the Caribbean.
A Commons Foreign Affairs Committee report raises concerns over allegations of corruption and intimidation in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The MPs criticise the Foreign Office and British Governor Richard Tauwhare for failing to act over the claims.
The islands' premier, Michael Misick, denied corruption when he appeared before MPs in London in December.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7491426.stm>
Grief leads father to make bomb-defusing robot
Brian Hart didn't channel his grief quietly. Committed to "preventing the senseless from recurring," he railed against the military on his blog for shortcomings in supplying armor to soldiers. The one-time Republican teamed with liberal Sen. Edward Kennedy to tell Congress that the Pentagon was leaving soldiers ill-equipped.
And then Hart went beyond words to fight his cause. He became a defense contractor.
He founded a company that has developed rugged, relatively inexpensive robotic vehicles, resembling small dune buggies, to disable car bombs and roadside explosives before they detonate in hot spots like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now, Hart has won over the military brass he so harshly criticizes. Three years after starting Black-I Robotics Inc., Hart and his four employees won a $728,000 contract from the Pentagon in June to further develop the "LandShark" robot.
Technology to protect troops is a subject uncomfortably close to home for Hart, who says the death of his son, Army Pvt. First Class John Hart, left him in "total devastation." Brian Hart can't forget the call he got from his son in Iraq a week before he was killed by a gunshot Oct. 18, 2003.
"He asked me to help him: `Get us body armor and vehicular armor,'" Brian Hart said. "He thought he'd be killed on the road in an unarmored Humvee. And a week to the day later, he was."
The Pentagon contract requires Black-I to supply three of its six-wheeled, electric-powered vehicles this year and provide support.
The military will test two units, while Boston's Logan airport will get one for bomb-disposal duties. If tests go well, soldiers in Iraq could be using the robots as soon as next year, Hart says.
His company also is trying to secure an additional $1.5 million in Pentagon funding next fiscal year. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105346/Grief-leads-father-to-make-bomb-defusing-robot>
Paulson admits regulatory errors
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Mr Paulson held talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday
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The impact of the global credit crunch could have been minimised by better regulation of US banks, US Treasury Secretary has admitted.
Henry Paulson denied the regulatory system had "failed" but acknowledged that it could have "performed better".
He told the BBC his main focus was limiting the "spillover" from the banking crisis to the US economy.
In the same interview, Chancellor Alistair Darling said that rising oil prices were a "real problem".
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FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME
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With oil prices now above $145 a barrel, Mr Darling said G8 leaders meeting next week urgently needed to address the requirement for increased crude supplies.
Oil woes
Mr Paulson held talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday, and staged a joint news conference with Mr Darling after meeting top UK bankers.
In his remarks, Mr Paulson warned that there was no easy, short-term solution to high oil prices, and said that the cost of oil was likely to prolong the US slowdown, possibly into 2009.
He said the current level of oil prices was "unacceptable to the American people" and that all his efforts were focused on dealing with the matter.
But he admitted that the basic problem was that there was not enough oil to meet the growing demand - and it was not clear whether producers such as Saudi Arabia actually had the capacity to increase output further.
In the longer term, he argued that a wide range of measures, including energy conservation, the development of more oil fields, and switching to cleaner technology, could bring about a reduction in the oil price.
And he announced that the UK and the US would be bringing forward plans
for a large clean energy loan facility at the G8 meeting next week. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7486692.stm>
Book tells about Mandela's life through spaghetti, milk
After all, what he ate, where he ate it and those who prepared it serve as the basis for "Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela."
Although Mandela was absent Saturday, many of those who first prepared the dishes, including former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, were on hand for the banquet organized by his daughter Zindzi. The event was part of the national celebrations for Mandela's 90th birthday later this month.
Rural women were flown in to prepare dishes from Mandela's native southeastern region of South Africa and lamb-on-the-spit was grilled to the exacting standards of George Bizos, the Greek-South African lawyer celebrated for defending anti-apartheid leaders.
Readers curious about the fare can use "Hunger for Freedom" as a cookbook — complete with instructions involving an ax and a pig's head for one stew. Few cook books, though, come with such extensive personal stories.
The book's author, Pretoria-based anthropologist and chef Anna Trapido, calls it a "gastro-political biography," weaving in the stories of the men and women who struggled for freedom alongside Mandela.
"You can always understand the society that produced the food by looking at the food," said Trapido, whose previous book, "To the Banqueting House", was an award-winning survey of African cuisine and its influence on what the world eats, written with Burundian-Belgian chef Coco Fathi Reinarhz.
The society presented in "Hunger for Freedom" is a pot bubbling with ingredients from Africa, Asia and Europe, and a range of classes, religions and politics. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105347/Book-tells-about-Mandelas-life-through-spaghetti-milk>
French to shell out over snails
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By Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris |
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Only about 1% of snails processed in France are French
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Producers warn the price of snails - one of France's more exotic foodstuffs - is about to soar, because of economic development in eastern Europe.
France consumes more than 14,000 tonnes of snails every year but practically none of them are actually French.
With the most prized species now under protection, the industry relies on central and east European imports.
But economic progress in countries like Poland and Bulgaria means less appetite for the hard work of snail-gathering.
Until now, every year rural families there could earn a decent wage from collecting the animals in the fields and woods.
So the companies which buy the snails are putting up their salaries in order to keep their employees, which means they are going to have to put up their prices in order to stay solvent.
With only a few snail farms still active in France itself,
mainly in the hills of Burgundy, the French Federation of Preserved
Food Industries is warning that the days of cheap snails are over. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7491890.stm>
Asia, Europe explore opportunities for science, technology research
The head of the European Commission’s directorate-general for esearch, Director-General Jose-Manuel Silva Rodriguez is currently in the country to meet with ASEAN science and technology counterparts who are currently holding the Fifth Informal ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on science and technology.
Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of delegation of the European Commission in the Philippines, said this is the first time that they have been invited to the ASEAN meeting to hold dialogues, confirming the importance of cooperation between the two groups.
“International cooperation in scientific research is an essential component of the EU-ASEAN cooperation more generally," said MacDonald.
Among the fields of S&T, MacDonald took note of the importance of international research cooperation in agriculture given soaring world food prices. He said the commission would like to strengthen its cooperation in agricultural research.
Silva Rodriguez will particularly hold bilateral meetings with the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam and the International Rice Research Institute on this aspect.
Aside from agricultural research, the Commission is also supporting research in sustainable aquaculture, medical research, and information technology, among others.
The European Commission is supporting research in advanced IT through the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Research, Educaton and Government Information Network or Preginet, a high-bandwidth digital infrastructure for education and research.
Preginet is connected to the commission’s Trans-Eurasia Information Network 3 (TEIN 3) whichy improves interconnection and data exchanges between research communities in Asia and Europe.
The European Commission is tapping its latest Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development or FP7, a funding source for the years 2007-2013, to promote international cooperation in S&T. - Veronica C. Silva, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105470/Asia-Europe-explore-opportunities-for-science-technology-research>
Beijing's remarkable Olympic makeover begins on its sidewalks
"Ha-pi-tu-mi-te-yu," he intoned.
Wow, I thought, six years out of Beijing have turned my once almost fluent Chinese to mush.
Then, it hit me. This was English. "Happy to meet you?" I asked.
He beamed proudly.
Give Beijingers this much: They sure want Olympic visitors to feel at home.
In the seven years since the Olympic movement anointed Beijing as host of the 2008 Summer Games, "makeover" doesn't begin to describe the transformation of the capital.
English-language and anti-spitting lessons for the masses. Entire neighborhoods ripped down and rebuilt. Cutting-edge Western architects let loose to create futuristic landmarks amid forests of gleaming new towers. The ancient capital has taken on an edgy, neon-electric 21st-century feel.
You have to search harder, in back alleys that the wreckers' balls have yet to reach, for the quiet, intimate village-like atmosphere that long set Beijing apart from more cosmopolitan Hong Kong and Shanghai. In smoothing the rough edges, some charm has been lost.
First-timers and those like myself who haven't been here for a while may find the new Beijing a bit of a jolt. Who knew that the world had so many construction cranes, or produced so much concrete, glass and steel?
The shock of witnessing such voracious change leaves one wondering whether the rest of the world can compete with a waking power as hungry as China. From touchdown at Beijing International Airport, with its new Terminal Three, the world's largest, everything seems designed to impress.
All the modernization makes Beijing easier to visit: ATMs on many blocks, cool art galleries in old Soviet factories, hangouts for backpackers, swanky hotels for the well-heeled, late-night shopping, more clubs than even the most insomniac reveler could get through in a weekend.
The taxis are clean, the buses are new, and there are more subway lines.
Restaurants are plentiful and generally clean, offering all varieties of Chinese cuisine and many foreign ones — a turnaround from a generation ago when food was scarce and eateries few and dingy.
A nice touch: Many now display color photos of their dishes. No more point-and-hope ordering from menus that often used to be only in Chinese, and where menus are in English, far fewer mistakes. A favorite from the old days, a hole-in-the-wall whose menu offered fried carp with the "a'' and the "r'' reversed. That eatery, like many old haunts, has now gone, replaced by an office building.
For sightseeing, new landmarks compete for time and attention with older marvels, like the sprawling and ancient Forbidden City and its gate featuring a giant portrait of Mao Zedong — one of the few visible reminders that this is, at least nominally, still a communist country.
The Olympic architectural jewel is the 91,000-seat, $450 million National Stadium which Beijingers call the Bird's Nest because of the latticework of steel beams wrapped around the exterior. It will host the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events.
The massive security Chinese officials are rolling out poses an Olympic-sized question: Will it kill off the fun, feel like prison, seeing guys in uniform across the city? Perhaps. But the upside is that if a police officer asks you to move on, there's a fair chance he'll be polite and understandable.
A pre-Olympic "Good Manners Campaign" promoted courtesy and orderly queuing and frowned on swearing, spitting and littering in public. One of the Beijing government's slogans, according to state media, was: "Spitting kills even more than an atomic bomb." Paper spit bags have been passed out. In three weeks here in May and June, I didn't hear anyone noisily clearing their throat in public — a once common sound.
Beijing authorities have also given English lessons to 400,000 people, state media say. Most taxi drivers, hotel employees and all Olympic volunteers have received etiquette and English training. More than 10,000 police officers have received basic work-related "police English" and even some Japanese, Russian and Arabic training.
Among the phrases taught: "Welcome to Beijing, the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games. I recommend visiting the Great Wall; it is one of the seven wonders of the world." - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105464/Beijings-remarkable-Olympic-makeover-begins-on-its-sidewalks>
Cops confirm retrieved drums contain sulfur, gear oil
Police officials from San Fernando town said they were able to confirm the contents of the two drums after the fisherman who retrieved the containers on Sunday finally agreed to turn them over to Coast Guard officials.
The fisherman, identified as Jaime Runes of Barangay (village) Agtiwa in San Fernando, initially demanded “compensation" in exchange for the drums, adding he would rather sell them than give it to government officials.
The two drums were believed to have come from the ill-fated MV Princess of the Stars, which capsized off Sibuyan Island three weeks ago. The upturned passenger ferry was reported to be carrying several cargoes of chemicals including a toxic pesticide called endosulfan.
Chief Inspector Reynaldo Reyes, San Fernando police chief, personally inspected the two drums and said that one of them contained gear oil, a sulfur-smelling substance used to reduce friction and wear in metal surfaces of machines.
The second drum, a blue one, contained 29 kilograms of sulfur, Reyes added. Sulfur, which appears yellow in color, is widely used in making fertilizers and gun powders.
The two drums are currently being stored by authorities in Barangay Agtiwa, pending laboratory tests.
San Fernando Mayor Nanette Tansingco said further inspection of the waters off the town’s coast should be undertaken to ensure that no toxic chemical contamination happened.
In the same radio report, Tansingco also suggested that a National Pesticide Analytical Laboratory be set up in the town to expedite laboratory testing of the chemicals - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105459/Cops-confirm-retrieved-drums-contain-sulfur-gear-oil>
UAE waives billions of Iraqi debt
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The news came as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki visited the UAE
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The United Arab Emirates has cancelled the entire debt owed to it by Iraq - a sum of almost $7bn (£3.5bn) including interest and arrears.
The Gulf state also appointed a new ambassador to Iraq, in a move which eases Baghdad's diplomatic isolation.
The news was announced during a visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
Correspondents say Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbours have been wary of fostering ties with Iraq's mainly Shia government because of its links with Iran.
Last month, the UAE's foreign minister became the highest-ranking official from an Arab nation to visit Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
The US has been pushing its Arab allies to send ambassadors to Iraq to bolster Mr Maliki's government.
Soon after Mr Maliki arrived on his two-day visit, the UAE named its
former envoy to India, Abdullah al-Shehi, as its new ambassador to
Baghdad. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7492115.stm>
Fears over Bulgarian nuclear boom
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By Oana Lungescu
BBC News, Bulgaria |
Two safety scares in June at nuclear plants in Slovenia and the Czech Republic have led to renewed calls for Europe to abandon nuclear power. But with energy prices soaring, the nuclear sector is actually on the rise.
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The plant provides a third of the country's electricity needs
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The EU already has the highest number of nuclear plants in the world and Bulgaria is leading those member states determined to increase their nuclear dependence.
Nestling in the heart of the countryside, not far from the Danube, the Kozloduy nuclear plant powers Bulgaria's economy.
Over one third of the country's electricity comes from this sprawling showcase of Soviet design, which started operating in 1974.
In the vast turbine hall at Kozloduy's Unit Six, the noise is deafening and the temperature reaches 40 degrees.
A small Bulgarian tricolour stands on top of a machine and not just because the plant has become a symbol of national pride.
"We had some technical problems with the unit at first," an engineer explains, "so we thought the flag would bring luck and prevent future malfunctioning."
For extra cover, on either side of the flag, someone hand-painted two protective blue eyes.
It is an odd mix of superstition and high technology, but Bulgaria feels it needs all the help it can get. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7488508.stm>
NZ emissions plan upsets farmers
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By Phil Mercer
BBC News, Sydney |
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Agriculture emits about half of New Zealand's greenhouse gases
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Farmers in New Zealand have criticised a bold plan by the government to make the country carbon neutral by 2040.
The agricultural sector thinks the plan to reduce net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero is unsustainable.
Concerns have also been raised by steel companies, which have insisted that a proposed emissions trading scheme would make them uncompetitive.
The government is trying to win support from minor parties to legislate on the scheme before an election this year.
'Economic sense'
Beef and sheep farmers believe the trading system will damage their business.
They have insisted that they have met their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and that their emissions are below what they were in 1990.
Agriculture emits about half of New Zealand's greenhouse gases. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7492587.stm>
India's fight over 'national interest'
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By Soutik Biswas
BBC News, Delhi |
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Manmohan Singh says the nuclear deal is a historic one
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What constitutes the national interest in India, a country trying to reconcile economic growth and inequality at home and pining to claim its place in the world at the same time?
Is it a landmark nuclear deal with the United States under which India will get access to US civilian nuclear technology and fuel?
An agreement which the government says will help meet some of oil-scarce India's spiralling energy demands. One, which it insists, will deepen strategic relations with a country with whom India had a near-hostile relationship during the Cold War.
Or does the national interest lie in taming runaway double-digit inflation - the highest in over a decade - that is choking growth and showing no signs of abating?
Or does it lie in tackling a stubborn unemployment problem that persists despite a recent economic boom?
The failure to come to a bipartisan answer to this tricky
question - why can't a government carry off a nuclear deal and tackle
poverty at the same time? - has plunged India into a bout of fresh
political uncertainty. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7489160.stm>
MEPs back contested telecoms plan
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In the UK some net users have been warned off file-sharing sites
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European politicians have voted in favour of amendments to telecoms law which campaigners say could be used to curb privacy online and file-sharing.
Digital rights groups in Europe have formed a loose coalition to highlight their opposition to the amendments.
But MEPs have denied that the amendments are aimed at throwing file-sharers off the net.
MEP Malcolm Harbour, who helped oversee the so-called Telecoms Package, said it was "about improving users' rights".
"There has been a great deal of dismay in the committee at the interpretation being put on these amendments," he told BBC News.
"They have nothing to do with copyright enforcement. The interpretation of them is alarmist and scare-mongering and deflects from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights," he said.
But campaigners say one of the amendments - which could allow
governments to decide which software can be used on the web - makes it
easier to enforce the controversial "three strikes" law which the music
industry is keen to use in order to clamp down on file-sharers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7495085.stm>
G8 fails to set climate world alight
ANALYSIS
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website
G8 leaders believe they have planted the seeds of climate success
At first sight, the G8 agreement on climate change promises much.
Leaders are "committed to avoiding the most serious consequences of
climate change", and determined to stabilise greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere at levels that would avoid "dangerous climate change".
In fact, this is exactly what leaders of nearly 200 countries signed up
to in the original UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
agreed at the 1992 Earth Summit. So if re-stating a 16-year-old
commitment is progress, then this is clearly a success.
The question ever since Rio has been what to do about it. But the
reality of negotiations within groups such as the G8 is that every
party needs to emerge with bits of language that they can point to and
say "I won". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7494891.stm>
Internet security breach tackled
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Even correctly-typed addresses could be misdirected, thanks to the flaw
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Computer experts have released software to tackle a major security glitch in the internet addressing system.
The flaw, discovered by accident, would allow criminals to redirect users to fake webpages, even if they typed the correct address into a browser.
Internet giants like Microsoft are now distributing the security patch.
Security expert Dan Kaminsky said that the case was unprecedented, but added: "People should be concerned but they should not be panicking."
He discovered the error in the Domain Name System (DNS) about six months ago.
DNS is used to convert web addresses written in words - such as www.bbc.com - into the numerical sequences used by computers to route internet traffic around the world.
The glitch would make it simple to operate "phishing" scams, in which users are directed to fake webpages supposedly for genuine banks or businesses and tricked into disclosing credit card details or other personal data.
Mr Kaminsky held talks with computer giants such as Microsoft, Sun and Cisco in March, and has been part of a team engaged in secret research since then, developing the security patch which has now been released simultaneously for all computer platforms.
Technical details are being kept secret for another month to give companies a chance to update their computers, before hackers try to unpick the patch.
Personal computers should pick up the patch through automated updates. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7496735.stm>
G8 to move against Mugabe allies
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Sanctions would target specific members of Mr Mugabe's government
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G8 leaders meeting in Japan have said they will seek targeted sanctions against members of the Zimbabwean government over last month's polls.
Their call for financial and other measures against individuals "responsible for violence" in Zimbabwe marks a change of stance for Russia.
The G8 also called for a special UN Security Council envoy to report on the situation in Zimbabwe and help mediate.
African leaders earlier told the G8 they opposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.
South African President Thabo Mbeki, the chief regional negotiator on Zimbabwe who has been urging a unity government, reportedly told G8 leaders that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.
Senegal's leader, Abdoulaye Wade, told the AFP news agency: "I said that sanctions... wouldn't change the regime."
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe won re-election after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) pulled out of a June run-off presidential vote, citing state-sponsored violence. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7495807.stm>
Battle to save Cambodian dolphin
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By Guy Delauney
BBC News, Kratie |
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Sun Mao has been trying to stop the dolphin decline
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He is looking for one of the world's rarest mammals - the Mekong Irrawaddy dolphin.
Older people in this part of northern Cambodia talk of how they used to take the dolphins for granted.
Little effort was needed to see them in their dozens. Now, scientists say, there are less than 100 remaining. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7448013.stm>
Euro MPs to vote on airfare ads
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By Chris Mason
BBC News, Strasbourg |
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The exact cost of a plane ticket could become a lot clearer for passengers
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Europe's MPs are due to vote on whether to ban airlines from advertising fares that do not include the taxes and charges passengers have to pay.
It is widely expected that misleading advertising and booking websites across the European Union will be outlawed.
This would mean that ads would have to include all unavoidable costs - probably by the end of 2008.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA), an umbrella group with 35 members, has welcomed the changes. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7496677.stm>
Del Monte eyes countersuit vs Sulpicio over endosulfan shipment
Radio dzBB's Sam Nielsen reported that Del Monte general manager Cito Alejandro said they are now "studying" their legal options on the matter.
Alejandro questioned the multimillion-peso damage suit lodged by Sulpicio against Del Monte over a 10-ton endosulfan shipment aboard the capsized vessel.
He branded as baseless Sulpicio's claim that Del Monte should be accountable for "misdeclaration" of cargo when it did not mark the endosulfan as dangerous.
The discovery of the endosulfan prompted authorities to call off ongoing rescue and relief efforts near the ship, and impose a fishing ban on nearby San Fernando town in Romblon.
Meanwhile, Sulpicio amended its civil case against the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) after a judge pointed out their "lapse."
Radio dzBB's Tuesday Niu reported that Manila judge Silvino Pampilo Jr. said the respondent in the complaint should be a person and not a government agency.
Sulpicio amended its complaint to include Pagasa chief Prisco Nilo and weather services head Nathaniel Cruz as respondents.
Sulpicio accused the two of neglect of duty in making an accurate forecast, which it blamed for the capsizing of the ill-fated vessel. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/105926/Del-Monte-eyes-countersuit-vs-Sulpicio-over-endosulfan-shipment>
Hydrogen refuel station unveiled
Car fuelled by home-brewed hydrogen
A hydrogen refuelling station which could be installed in the home as an alternative to visiting a petrol station has been unveiled.
Users will need a hydrogen-powered car to go with it although the system can also be used for heating and cooking.
Hydrogen has long been touted as an alternative energy source to carbon-hungry fossil fuels. One of the biggest obstacles to wider adoption of fuel-cell vehicles is the lack of hydrogen fuelling stations.
A home refuelling station could provide much needed infrastructure to
kick-start a hydrogen-based economy thinks Sheffield-based ITM Power,
the firm behind the system. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7496331.stm>
Indian silk 'hit by China quake'
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By P Sivaramakrishnan
BBC Tamil service |
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The Indian silk industry says it is under pressure
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Indian silk producers say their industry has been badly hit by a shortage of raw silk from China following the May earthquake.
The quake in Sichuan province killed an estimated 70,000 people.
It also affected about a million people in 60,000 villages in the Indian silk industry, the main organisation for silk exports in India says.
The Silk Export Promotion Council says that India usually imports 10,000 tonnes of raw silk from china annually.
Domestic silk yarn production amounts to nearly 16,000 tonnes annually.
But officials say that the recent earthquake in Sichuan province destroyed the majority of mulberry gardens in the area and as such China is unable to meet its domestic requirements, let alone make up the shortfall in India.
Prior to the quake, India was importing raw silk yarn from China at $20-21 per kilogram.
But after the quake officials say that the price has risen by at least $6 a kilo.
Silk producing towns are spread across northern, eastern and southern India.
The industry is also feeling the effects of competition from synthetic yarn manufacturers.
Officials point out that some polyester fabrics - which look like pure silk - cost only 20% of the price of pure silk fabric.
Many in the Indian silk industry argue that the government should now relax import duty on raw silk from China. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7495634.stm>
Doctors' strike shuts hospitals in Nepal
Doctors had shut down hospitals in the capital, Katmandu, on Wednesday and expanded the strike to the rest of the country on Thursday. Emergency services remained open.
Doctors groups say there have been several incidents over the past year in which people attacked or threatened hospitals and doctors over allegations of negligence in their relatives' deaths.
Dr. Kedar Narsingh of the Nepal Medical Association said the strike would continue until the government responds to their demands.
"The government has not even bothered to call us for talks and has not taken us seriously," he said. "We will continue our protest until the government responds positively."
In the latest incident, the family of a patient who died after kidney surgery threatened doctors at a hospital in Katmandu over the weekend.
Narsingh said the government had promised better security at hospitals two years ago after a similar incident led to a doctors' strike, but that little has been done. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106152/Doctors-strike-shuts-hospitals-in-Nepal>
French firm 'quits Iran gas deal'
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Total was reportedly the last major western energy firm interested in Iran
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The boss of French energy giant Total says he will not invest in Iran because it is too risky.
The firm had been due to develop gas fields in the south of the country, but Christophe de Margerie told the Financial Times it would not go ahead.
The announcement comes a day after Iran test-fired a series of missiles, amid weeks of rising tensions with Israel and the US over its nuclear ambitions.
Analysts say the move will be a big blow to Iran's energy industry.
"Today we would be taking too much political risk to invest in Iran because people will say: 'Total will do anything for money'," Mr Margerie told the newspaper.
Early on Wednesday Iran test-fired a missile capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
Iran state media said nine missiles had been fired in total,
including a new Shahab-3, with a range of 2,000km (1,240 miles). <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7498902.stm>
Outgoing SSS chief wishes pension funds won’t be misused
This was the advice of outgoing Social Security System president Corazon dela Paz, who would step down from office on Aug. 1 after her seven-year stint in office.
"Kailangan alagaan ito ang pondo gamitin lang sa (ilalim) ng batas (Use the funds for lawful purposes only)," she said in an interview on DZRH Thursday.
Dela Paz also said she has no regrets heading the SSS, even as she thanked its employees for showing to her that government employees are not the slobs many perceive them to be.
"Ako nagpapasalamat sa nagging SSS employees at members sa pagbibigay tiwala sa akin nitong pitong taon (I am thankful for the SSS employees and members who trusted me the last seven years)," she said.
Dela Paz will formally exit the SSS on Aug. 1, when Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri takes over. Malacañang named Neri new SSS chief Wednesday.
The outgoing SSS chief also said her stint in government proved an eye-opener as she learned not all government employees are sloppy or corrupt.
Under her watch, she said SSS employees were willing to sacrifice salary cuts and slashes in benefits just to keep the agency afloat.
Contrary to the perceptions of some people, SSS employees have demonstrated that government employees are not useless or corrupt. They were willing to take cuts in salaries and benefits, and go without increases or promotions, she said in Filipino.
Dela Paz said the sacrifices the SSS employees made under her watch was "a big issue" for her.
She also asked SSS employees to keep the agency responsive to the needs of its members.
"Ang aming ginawa palaguin ito para sa oras ng pangangailangan ng member maibibigay namin ang tulong maski kaunti lamang. Yan ang issue bakit may social security (We have improved the SSS so that in times of need, the SSS will be there for its members)," she said. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106100/Outgoing-SSS-chief-wishes-pension-funds-wont-be-misused>
Anti-government protests hit Peru
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By Dan Collyns
BBC News, Lima |
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Protest leaders called for more investment in health and education
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Thousands of people have joined marches and strikes in Peru to protest against the government's free-market policies.
They say the government has not spread the wealth from an economic boom.
Strikers gathered in one of Lima's main squares waving red flags, accusing President Alan Garcia of being a traitor to his socialist roots.
There was transport disruption across the country, but the protests were largely peaceful. Police say they arrested about 200 people.
The protesters say the president's free market policies are benefitting only the business sector and multinational companies, leaving the poor behind.
They complain that Peru is enjoying one of the world's highest growth rates, but pay remains low and the cost of living keeps on rising. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7498949.stm>
G8 summit: How did leaders fare?
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7498599.stm>
India gives nuclear plans to IAEA
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India would get access to US civilian nuclear technology
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India has submitted its plans for safeguarding its civilian nuclear facilities to the world nuclear regulatory body.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) approval of the plan is a key condition for putting into effect a nuclear deal between India and US.
Left-wing parties in India have pulled out of the governing coalition in protest in protest against the deal.
The government says it is needed to meet soaring energy demands.
India is under pressure from Washington to sign the accord before the US presidential elections in November.
Reports say a restricted draft of India's plans for safeguarding
nuclear facilities has been given to IAEA's 35 member nations ahead of
a meeting to approve the agreement.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7498951.stm>
Outgoing SSS chief advises members: Protect your funds
“You have to be vigilant and make sure that the funds will be used properly and in the interest of all the SSS members," Dela Paz, who will be replaced by Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Romulo Neri on August 1, said in a press briefing in Makati City.
Before that, in a television interview, Dela Paz said some quarters have allegedly expressed intentions to utilize the funds of SSS members for the government’s pro-poor agenda.
"What I was saying was that it's not included in the [SSS] Charter. Using the funds has limits," she said, adding that there are a lot of problems in the country that needs to be dealt with funds.
She said that SSS funds cannot be used to finance pro-poor projects of the government "unless it is defined in the Charter."
The SSS is a government-controlled financial institution.
Dela Paz admitted that her decision may have been received negatively by some people but said she had to "make a stand." She however said health issues, and not politics, were the reason behind her decision to leave the SSS.
“Any time you’re in a position like this you go through decisions that others might not like," she said without naming names.
Dela Paz said that in her nearly seven-year tenure at the pension fund, operating expenses have been kept down through cost-saving measures.
At the same time, she said that they were able to increase the maximum salary credit from P12, 000 to P15, 000. Contribution rate, which has been fixed at 8.4 percent since 1979, was increased to 9.4 percent in 2003 and to 10..4 percent in January last year, she said.
She also said that contribution payments have exceeded benefit disbursement by P1.21 billion, making it the first surplus in seven years. Likewise, the SSS fund life strengthened from 2015 to 2036.
Pension was also raised by 10 percent in 2006 followed by another similar across the board pension hike in August 2007.
Dela Paz said she believed that SSS will remain in good hands with Neri at the helm.
“I know him for quite some time though (we’re) not very close, and I know him to be very intelligent. He had better knowledge and experience to plan for our country’s future. Neri has what it takes to be a good SSS president," she said.
Dela Paz appealed to the public to give Neri a chance to serve the SSS.
At the same time, she belied reports that with Neri at the pension fund, the administration could utilize SSS as a “milking cow" for the 2010 presidential elections.
“I am not worried about that. I’ve seen them disapproved proposals that did not passed the SSS standards," she said, adding that the SSS board “is highly competent, knowledgeable and would not allow itself to be used" by personalities with vested interest. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106222/Outgoing-SSS-chief-advises-members-Protect-your-funds>
Financial 'super cop' role for Fed
Ben Bernanke (right) and Henry Paulson
The US wants to beef up its oversight of financial institutions
For decades, Wall Street has banged the drum for de-regulation.
In capitalist America, the idea that financial markets are best left alone has been dearly held. And it has helped make America rich.
But the bomb-shell of the near collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns and the credit crunch has exploded some of that confidence in self-policing markets.
Now, the financial system here in the United States could get its biggest shake-up since the Great Depression of 1933. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7500980.stm>
Voters' data 'should not be sold'
The report calls for tighter controls on sources of spam and junk mail
Town halls should be banned from selling edited versions of the electoral rolls, a report on the use of personal information has said.
The government-commissioned report said allowing voters' details to be sold to commercial firms sent a "poor message".
It also said people should have a right to know who firms shared their details with and firms which deliberately broke privacy rules should face large fines.
The government said it agreed measures needed to be taken to increase trust.
The review, headed up by Information Commissioner Richard Thomas and Wellcome Trust director Dr Mark Walport, was commissioned a week before HM Revenue and Customs lost two discs containing personal details of 25 million people.
Fining powers
The review said that across the public and private sectors data sharing was "shrouded in confusion" and the public had little insight into how their personal information was used.
Mr Thomas said he was concerned about the practice whereby councils sold on "edited" versions of the electoral roll - from which people can opt out - which were often used by direct marketing companies.
"We feel that selling the edited register is an unsatisfactory way for local authorities to treat personal information," he said.
Richard Thomas
Information Commissioner
"It sends a particularly poor message to the public that personal information collected for something as vital as participation in the democratic process can be sold to anyone for any purpose."
The review called for wide-scale reform, including suggesting that ministers launched their own inquiry into firms which gathered and sold on people's personal details.
It also recommended that the information commissioner be given powers to impose fines against private or public sector bodies which deliberately or recklessly broke privacy rules. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7500826.stm>
Malnourished in bountiful Lombok
BBC News, Lombok
Lower slopes of Lombok's volcano
The land is fertile but world prices are having an impact on livelihoods
It is never fun going to the doctor - even when it is just an open-air clinic under a bamboo shelter. And the babies gathered here are making some noise about it.
Their mothers sit with them, under the shadow of Lombok's towering volcano, waiting for their turn - a multi-coloured flock settled on the dusty village ground.
Lingsana has brought her 18-month-old daughter to be weighed.
One by one, the children are called up.
They are placed carefully in an old sack, slung under brass weights, and the results called out to be neatly recorded by the health workers in a large exercise book.
Lingsana's baby weighs just 7.3kg (16.1lb) - far too small for her age.
The World Food Programme says child malnutrition on this Indonesian island has reached 40% in some places.
You can see it in villages and school playgrounds - stunted children with the tell-tale reddish hair.
Vitamin imperative
And part of the problem here, says the WFP's country director Angela van Rynbach, is not how much they eat, but what they eat.
She says meals here often consist of a disproportionate amount of rice and very few vegetables.
Lingsana and baby at health clinic
It's better for my children to eat more rice, rather than more vegetables
Rauhon, Mother
"Of course you need the carbohydrate," she told me, "but you also need the vitamins."
The WFP has been trying to teach local women to add vegetables and beans to the rice to improve child malnutrition.
At first glance, this should not be a problem.
Down at the market, there are plenty of stalls selling fruit and vegetables.
And many of the communities living on the lower slopes of the volcano are living on fertile land.
The little village of Senaru is one example. You can grow pretty much anything here - the village is surrounded by fields of cassava, beans and aubergines. Spinach grows between the houses.
But of the 33 children who live here, 10 are underweight.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7493704.stm>
UN calls for more family planning
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By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva |
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Hundreds of thousands of women die in childbirth each year
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The United Nations is calling for more investment in family planning to reduce poverty, slow population growth and ease pressure on the environment.
In a report marking World Population Day, the UN estimates that the number of people on the planet will grow from 6.7bn to 9.2bn by the year 2050.
That means greater demand for food, water and fuel.
Such growth is unsustainable, the UN says, as climate change degrades arable land and reduces water supplies.
The hard truth is, the UN adds, the world does not even want so many new people. More than 200 million women, many in the developing world, do not have access to contraceptives.
Hundreds of thousands of women die in childbirth each year or from botched illegal abortions and women are crucial to the world's food production - in Africa and Asia they grow over 80% of crops.
Access to contraceptives would give women the chance to plan their families and the resulting slower population growth would, the UN says, ease pressure on food supplies and reduce damage to the environment.
Providing family planning to all those who want it will cost $1.2bn a year, but the UN says at the moment less than half that is being spent. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7501005.stm>
Weak US dollar hits papal profits
The Vatican made a loss last year as the weaker dollar reduced the value of donations from the faithful in the United States.
Almost a quarter of the $79.8m (£40.4m) worth of offerings it received came from collections made in US churches.
But as the dollar lost 15% of its value against the euro, the Catholic Church's governing body made a loss of 9.1m euros (£7.3m: $14.3m) in 2007.
That was despite receiving a single anonymous donation of $14.3m. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7501486.stm>
Study: As gas prices go up, auto deaths drop
Professors Michael Morrisey of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and David Grabowski of Harvard Medical School said they found that for every 10 percent increase in gas prices there was a 2.3 percent decline in auto deaths. For drivers ages 15 to 17, the decline was 6 percent, and for ages 18 to 21, it was 3.2 percent.
Their study looked at fatalities from 1985 to 2006, when gas prices reached about $2.50 a gallon. With gas now averaging more than $4 a gallon, Morrisey said he expects to see much greater drop — about 1,000 deaths a month.
With annual auto deaths typically ranging from about 38,000 to 40,000 a year, a drop of 12,000 deaths would cut the total by nearly a third, Morrisey said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"I think there is some silver lining here in higher gas prices in that we will see a public health gain," Grabowski said. But he cautioned that their estimate of a decline of 1,000 deaths a month could be offset somewhat by the shift under way to smaller, lighter, more fuel-efficient cars and the increase in motorcycle and scooter driving.
Morrisey said the study also found the "same kind of symmetry" between gas prices and auto deaths when prices go down.
"When that happens we drive more, we drive bigger cars, we drive faster and fatalities are higher," he said. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106563/Study-As-gas-prices-go-up-auto-deaths-drop>
Angeles City wants ban on wearing of crash helmets
Mayor Francis “Blueboy" Nepomuceno said the move was in respond to the clamor of the business community in the light of numerous robberies perpetrated by motorcycle-riding men wearing crash helmets.
The head gears make it impossible for witnesses to identify the perpetrators.
The mayor said the “No Helmet Zone" around the city ordinance will ensure that motorcycle-related crimes will be lessened.
Nepomuceno asked Vice Mayor Vicky Vega-Cabigting to look into the possibility of passing the ordinance.
In a recent meeting, local officials reviewed the peace and order situation in the city.
The meeting was held during the first day in office of the new officer-in-charge of the Angeles City Police Office, Senior Superintendent Pierre R. Bucsit, who presided the presentation on the crime situation.
Bucsit said crime distribution for index-crime showed physical injury as the highest with 33 percent and rape cases as the lowest with 2 percent. – Ashley Manabat, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106567/Angeles-City-wants-ban-on-wearing-of-crash-helmets>
Firms 'miss' social site success
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By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley |
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Business are failing to tap into the potential of social networking sites
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Researchers for Gartner found that huge opportunities for improving the management of large firms exist.
"Businesses which harness how employees use these sites stand to increase savings, productivity and profits," said Gartner researcher Jeffrey Mann.
He told the BBC the challenge was how to apply this to the corporate world.
The Gartner survey discovered that social networking sites, instant messaging email, chat and file sharing are attracting significant levels of interest online.
Their work was undertaken across 18 countries and territories between October and December of last year. It found that 38% of more than 4,000 PC and mobile phone users connect to sites like MySpace and Facebook via PCs.
Single people and teenagers and more men than women came top in
terms of usage. The survey revealed that in large part they went online
for entertainment purposes or to keep up with friends and family. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7501073.stm>
NEDA: Arroyo SONA to focus on realignment of spendings
Director General Augusto Santos Augusto Santos said the President wants expenditures focused on social programs, infrastructures and environment protection.
"Gusto gawin ng gobyerno, ‘yung parang kailangan pagbutihin ang expenditures, ilagay sa tamang lugar, sa social programs, infrastructures, and programs to protect the environment (She wants the government to improve its expenditures and put money in social programs, infrastructure and measures to protect the environment)," Santos said on government-run dzRB radio.
Malacañang also said it plans a media campaign on the government's "achievements" in time for the SONA, the annual speech the President delivers before a joint session of Congress to announce spell out the accomplishments and thrusts of the administration.
Santos said the Philippines has been caught in a "global economic crisis" that he said can be dealt with through the help of both government and the private sector.
But Santos insisted the government's economic fundamentals remain in place.
He said the NEDA's economic projection is that there will still be economic growth this year, though it will likely be lower than last year.
In the same program, Presidential Management Staff head Cerge Remonde said many of the government's infrastructure projects are under way, most of them ahead of schedule.
Remonde also said the SONA will be "maganda at (good and) very interesting," adding the only delays will be in the construction of airports.
Security
Meanwhile, police in Metro Manila have started security preparations for the SONA before the joint session of Congress in Quezon City on July 28.
Metro Manila police chief Dir. Geary Barias said Saturday he is coordinating with security in the House of Representatives, while arranging meetings with leaders of groups planning protests.
"Continuous ang ating meeting with security ng Batasan. Sa Lunes ibi-brief ko ang staff sa Crame sa preparation. Ang gusto mag-rally sa SONA ng mahal na pangulo nariyan sa template (We are holding continuous meetings with security at the Batasan complex. I will present a preliminary plan to the Philippine National Police hierarchy at Camp Crame on Monday. We will basically use the same templates in dealing with past rallies in past SONAs of the beloved president)," Barias said also on dzRB radio.
Barias said that so far, his command has not received any intelligence information of any plan by terrorist groups to strike during the SONA.
On the other hand, he said he wants to meet with anti-Arroyo groups planning protests for the SONA. He said he wants to convince them to keep their activities peaceful.
Barias said that with coordination with organizers, police had managed to keep rallies marking the Mendiola Massacre of 1987 and Labor Day peaceful.
He said the police will seek to assure the groups that they can air their grievances, but will seek an assurance from them that they will follow the "rule of law."
"Hopefully sa ganitong pamamaraan magiging mapayapa pa rin ang SONA. Hindi mawawala yan ang demo at rally na magaganap sa SONA (Hopefully we can keep the rallies peaceful during SONA. We know the rallies won't go away during SONA so what we can do is to make sure they are peaceful)," he said. - GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/106586/NEDA-Arroyo-SONA-to-focus-on-realignment-of-spendings>
Mexico probes online 'hitmen ads'
Just a click away: Online 'killers' boast a professional service
Mexican police are investigating a number of classified ads on the internet which purport to be from hitmen offering the services.
The ads can be found alongside ones for private tuition or domestic help.
In one of them, a person describing himself as an ex-military killer offers "discreet, professional services" for $6,000 (£3,000).
Hired killers are a problem across a country which has seen at least 1,400 killings this year.
Most of the killings are related to drug cartels battling for control of the illegal drugs trade to the US. Reports say the cartels have camps to train killers.
The dead include dealers and gunmen as well as more than 400 police officers and other public officials, this year. Some 25,000 troops are now deployed around Mexico to try to break the cartels.
But correspondents say an ineffective justice system means many killers are never caught.
Help needed
That may be why they are prepared to publically look for work. In the online adverts on one classified site, one advert reads: "Assassin ex-military professional and discreet. Work guaranteed in 10 days or less. Have worked in Spain. $6,000. Serious requests only" and gives a hotmail address as a contact.
Another offering "hitman for hire" asks: "Problems with a certain person? Do you want me to solve it? Write to me. 100% professional, we don't take money in advance."
The classified ads site also appears to be a place where those needing the services of a killer might go.
One advert in the Wanted section reads: "I need to contact a killer for a probable contract in the DF (Federal District of Mexico) must be reliable. it is a simple job."
Police spokesman Miguel Amelio said the problem of hitmen is one that "the whole country is facing: people who offer their service and charge for killing someone".
He told the Reforma newspaper that police had not ruled out the fact that the ads were fake, but all were being investigated. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7503519.stm>
Global Economics-07
Globalisation Index
News Index
Index Nation States
Index Cultural Systems
Some personal Reflections on the News
Theory Forming and Articulation
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