Hard life for Australia's homeless
BBC News, Sydney
Life on the streets is a maze of uncertainty and danger for Australia's army of homeless people.
The Wayside Chapel is a safe haven for Sydney's homeless people"You're always worried someone's going to rob you, or beat you or set you on fire when you're asleep, which has happened on a few occasions," explains Snowy, who has been living rough for seven years.
Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has made homelessness a priority for the new Labor government. He has ordered his MPs to visit hostels for those without a home to gauge the scale of the problem.
"The turn away rate for people (at) homeless shelters is horrific," Mr Rudd told Australian television.
"Turn away rates of something like 80% or 90%. Now this is just wrong in a country as wealthy as ours."
Charities estimate there are more than 100,000 homeless people in Australia with indigenous people the hardest hit.
This transient population includes families with small children and divorced women as well as those suffering addiction and mental illness.
You can be functioning quite well and have a mental illness hit you in the same way that a truck would run you over
Pastor Graham LongSome are without a place to stay for a few days, while others spend their lives looking for a safe place to sleep in doorways and parks.
Many homeless Australians are 'lounge surfers', who rely on the hospitality of relatives and friends and are always on the move.
Government agencies and charities are all working to ease this crisis. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7144303.stm>
CSC to Introduce New SALN Forms
By Gemma Bagayaua Tuesday, 18 December 2007 They will be more exacting for those who use government office to amass wealth and a welcome relief for the lowly employees.
If you are a government employee, chances are you have expressed frustration over the annual filing of the sworn statement of assets and liabilities (SALN). After all, making a mistake in filling up the form could land you into serious trouble.
The SALN is supposed to be a tool that the public can use to monitor and prosecute public officials who have amassed wealth unexplained by their known income. The SALN was one of the key documents government prosecutors used in graft charges filed against former presidents Joseph Estrada and Ferdinand Marcos. It is commonly used in lifestyle check investigations.
Too often than not, however, due to loopholes in the law and flaws in the way the forms were crafted, the corrupt are able to evade detection, according to Civil Service Commission Chairperson Karina David. Meantime, she says, lowly government employees who have little to declare to begin with and are only trying to comply with what is required in the forms are exposed to potential charges of perjury.
“The (current) forms require you to get the market value (every year). Who would know that? So you hazard a guess. That’s falsification. Every time you do not fill out a form properly, you can be charged.”
Moreover, she says, hardly any big fish is convicted on the basis of the SALN alone. “Right now, the SALN is only used as corroborating evidence. That was not the intention.” <http://www.newsbreak.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4016&Itemid=88889051>
Castro letter stokes speculation
BBC News, Havana
Cuban President Fidel Castro's statement that he does not intend to hold on to power is the first time since he was taken ill in 2006 that he has given any indication about his political future.
Fidel is a candidate for re-election to the National Assembly in January"My basic duty is not to cling to office, nor even more so to obstruct the rise of people much younger," was his surprise message, read out on state television.
His role was, he said, "to pass on experiences and ideas whose modest value arises from the exceptional era in which I lived".
Although not a resignation letter, the statement does suggest that Mr Castro may not resume office but instead continue in the role of elder statesman advising the government on key issues. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7150258.stm>
Kyrgyz opposition wins no seats
Kyrgyzstan's main opposition party has failed to gain any seats in parliament, despite receiving more than 8% of the vote in recent national elections.
President Bakiyev's party has taken 71 seats out of a possible 90Ata Meken - the main rival to President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's Ak Zhol - fell foul of election laws requiring a party to win 0.5% of the vote in each region.
Officials said Ata Meken had not gained enough votes in the second city of Osh.
Earlier reports suggested the Supreme Court had cancelled the regional rule, but officials said this was not true.
Ata Meken has promised "large-scale" protests, accusing the Central Election Commission of "falsifying the results" in Osh.
Akylbek Sariyev
Central Election Commission"We consider these elections were conducted dishonestly, with flagrant violations of legislation," Ata Meken said in a statement.
The BBC's Central Asia correspondent, Natalia Antelava, says Ata Meken needed only 600 votes in Osh to secure the 0.5% share they needed.
Party activists claim to have proof they received at least 3,000 votes.
Reuters news agency reported that at least one member of the country's 12-strong election commission was unhappy with the conduct of the ballot.
"Everything has been rigged - I am not taking part in this," Akylbek Sariyev said at a commission meeting on Thursday.
But the commission's head, Klara Kabilova, denied the vote was rigged, saying unidentified Estonian computer hackers had caused confusion by attacking the commission's website. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7153479.stm>
Fresh optimism in Turkmenistan
Turkmen children now spend longer at school, and are allowed to learn foreign languages
When the USSR collapsed, Turkmenistan's leader Saparmurat Niyazov simply pulled the Iron Curtain tightly around his nation, and tucked it away from the world's view.A year after his death, the BBC's Natalia Antelava visited the country and found that the curtain is beginning to rise, revealing a nation that seems to defy all expectations.
Under the huge golden statue of their deceased ruler, two dozen people danced and sang in celebration.
The air filled with the beat of drums and excited screams. Girls laughed as young men, twisting and twirling, threw themselves on the ground.
Tatyana
Turkmenistan residentIt is a tradition in Turkmenistan for wedding parties to visit the monument of Niyazov, the man known as Turkmenbashi - Father of the Turkmen - who turned his energy-rich nation into one of the most isolated corners of our planet.
His eccentric decrees and bizarre laws have always made headlines - he brought fame to Turkmenistan by banning opera and ballet, outlawing beards and renaming months of the year after himself and his family members.
The flamboyant weirdness of his rule often took the global media's attention away from the real issues - political oppression and total lack of freedom.
Blinded by Niyazov's eccentricity, the world seems to have ignored the normal side of Turkmenistan. And a year on since Niyazov's death, that is the side that seems to be thriving.
Brighter place
Tatyana, an attractive, 36-year-old single woman, told me why she would never want to leave the country.
"Look at our neighbours - in Afghanistan, there is chaos and bloodshed. Iran can get bombed any minute. Uzbekistan is so poor, people are fleeing the country.
Turkmen couples still meet beneath golden statues of Niyazov"Here we have peace, we have stability and we know what will happen tomorrow."
And now, she added, there is more hope and optimism here than ever before.
A year since Niyazov's death, Turkmenistan is a brighter place. The change brought by the new President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been slow but steady.
It is now easier to travel, the internet is no longer banned, schools teach foreign languages, and the government is talking about opening up the country's enormous natural gas reserves to foreign investors.
The new president has reopened rural libraries, which were banned in Niyazov's time - people in the villages, the late leader used to say, did not read books anyway. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/7155476.stm>
Iraq's other Kurdish rebel group
BBC News, northern Iraq
The Kandil mountains are bandit territory, rising like an impenetrable fortress along the north-eastern border of Iraq.
Commander Gabar denies getting western support for his groupThe Party of Free Life of Kurdistan's (PJAK) press officer, a Turk called Roj with an Australian passport, said he could not guarantee me an interview with the commander but he would take me to the camp if I was prepared for an uncomfortable journey.
The PJAK is a sister organisation to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
While the US wants the Iraqi government to comply with Turkey's demands and drive PKK fighters from the Kandil mountains, where they have been launching attacks on Turkish military targets, the PJAK continues to operate against Iran from the Iraqi side of the border, and the Iranian government alleges it does so with American financial support.
East of Raniya, I followed his jeep for over an hour up a tortuous track strewn with boulders and so steep that at times it seemed safer to get out and walk. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7148405.stm>
OFW families savings go to junk cars, new homes
12/22/2007 | 11:41 PM
Recent central bank data doesn’t bode too well for those selling cars and houses to families of overseas Filipino workers. Majority of OFW families are either deep in debt to lenders for the overseas stint or they prefer to save money.
Whatever is in between the latter two major spending, as cited in the recent consumer expectations survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, are spent on food and education.
Just ask 44-year-old Clarita Quisel, a housewife and fish vendor here.
Her husband, who’s now in Qatar, had just finished repaying some P65,000 in debt prior to his overseas trip last year.
Despite that, she says it’s still an uphill climb to save P20 a week or nearly a dollar within 14 days.
“We’re still hard up," Quisel told the OFW Journalism Consortium and sweeps her hand to their one-bedroom house on a 70-square meter lot.
With the strengthening of the peso against the American greenback, Quisel says she augments the P9,000 (US$219.50 at $1=P41) monthly remittance her husband sends every month.
Much of that takes care of our daily needs as well as for the children’s schooling, she explains. All three of their six children are in school.
Scratch out Quisel among either the 1.4 percent of OFW households who said they would buy a car or the 1.1 percent who said buying a house is a spending priority.
These figures represent a poll of 2,526 Filipino households in Metro Manila and 2,561 outside of NCR polled by the BSP for the fourth-quarter consumer expectations survey.
The survey got responses from 2,445 households in Metro Manila and 2,524 from the provinces, out of the targeted 5,087 respondents.
With a 96.8-percent (2,445 households) and 98.5-percent (2,524 households) questionnaire retrieval rate from the NCR and the provinces, respectively, the survey methodologically represents all Filipino households.
Some 469 of the total number of respondents to this first nationwide consumer survey are OFW households, says Winecito Tan of the BSP’s Department of Economic Statistics.
And most of these households are saving than spending. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/73897/OFW-families-savings-go-to-junk-cars-new-homes>
HK schools close amid flu fears
All kindergartens and junior schools in Hong Kong have closed early for their Easter holiday, after a flu-like illness killed three children.
The government described the move as a "precautionary measure" to ease parents' fears.
Almost 200 people had been affected, officials said. At one school, some 30 students showed flu-like symptoms.
Experts are working to identify the virus and assess whether it poses a broader threat.
But health officials played down fears of a return of the Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus.
World Health Organisation spokesman Peter Cordingley said it appeared to be "regular seasonal flu", the Associated Press news agency said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7291169.stm>
Future of RP education bleak, UN goals unmet as deadline nears
The writers attended a seminar-workshop on Reporting on the MDGs last year sponsored by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and the United Nations Development Programme.By BRENDA BARRIENTOS and ALLAN VALLARTA, GMA News Research03/25/2008 | 06:17 PM
Conspicuous are the five empty seats in Erlinda Numeron’s small class of 35. Numeron teaches second grade at Malixi Elementary School, and five of her students have left without finishing the term.
Within any given school year, the increasing number of empty seats inside Malixi’s classrooms is a common sight; most of the students who drop out are the children of farmers.
Malixi Elementary School is a barangay school nine kilometers from the town center of Tagbina in Surigao del Sur. Tagbina is a farming community, with most residents making a living out of coconut farming and kopra production.
These children in Numeron’s class, and all the other children who fail to make it to school, are the concern of government officials tasked to meet the country’s commitment to the Millenium Declaration.
In September 2000, the Philippines committed to improve the lives of the poor and signed the Millenium Declaration along with 191 countries. This entailed a commitment to achieve the eight Millenium Development Goals (MDGs).
Among the MDGs, the lag in universal access to primary education is most pronounced. In fact, MDG monitoring notes that access to primary education worsened in school year 2005-2006, with the enrollment rate dropping more than 10 percent from the 2000 figures.
Groups monitoring the MDG may have fair reasons to doubt that the Philippines could meet the target of 100 percent primary education to all Filipino children by 2015.
Sixty-year old Numeron has spent almost half her life teaching in Malixi. “Ang pangunahing dahilan kung bakit kakaunti lang ang pumapasok sa eskwelahan ay ang layo ng tirahan ng mga estudyante sa paaralan. Karaniwan sa kanila ay naglalakad ng 1.5 kilometers araw-araw para lang pumasok sa eskwela," she says.
Children leave their houses before daybreak to get to class on time, trudging on dirt roads for most of the kilometer-long walk ahead.
Poverty compounds the problem. Midway through the school year, Numeron says, parents will ask the teacher to excuse their child. The child has to stop schooling to contribute to the family income.
In the just released Philippine Poverty Statistics, Surigao del Sur is among the top 20 poorest provinces in the country with almost half of its families considered poor.
These days, however, Numeron has something to be optimistic about. “Mag-uumpisa na kami magbigay ng bigas sa mga estudyante namin," she says.
The Department of Education’s School Feeding Program gives out a bag of rice to each student to encourage them to attend class. In Malixi, the supply is limited: only pre-school and grade 1 pupils will be taking home those 1-kilo bags of rice everyday.
Halfway to the hurdle
The UN Millennium Declaration laid out the MDGs as a worldwide agenda to reduce poverty and all its forms by 2015.
The MDGs deal with the following major issues in the country:
- eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- achieve universal primary education
- promote gender equality and empower women
- reduce child mortality
- improve maternal health
- combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- ensure environmental sustainability
- develop a global partnership for development
Seven years to the deadline, or halfway through the hurdle, the National Economic Development Authority says the country has made advances in terms of poverty reduction, nutrition, reducing child mortality, combating HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases and access to safe drinking water.
However, efforts seem to have fallen short on the other targets.
The Philippine Midterm Progress Report published by NEDA report says that in all the three indicators to achieve the universal primary education – elementary participation rate, cohort survival rate and completion rate – the probability of attaining the 2015 target was consistently assessed as “low."
Says NEDA, “The country needs to work harder on targets concerning universal access to education, maternal mortality and access to reproductive health services."
Looking at school year 2005-2006, the NEDA report says only eight in 10 elementary-age children are in school (participation rate). Only seven in 10 will reach Grade VI (survival rate). And only seven will get to finish elementary education (completion rate).
The numbers in Tagbina, Surigao del Sur may seem to represent this picture. DepEd records show Tagbina’s cohort survival rate of 65.01 percent in the school year 2005-2006. This means roughly seven in 10 students in Tagbina get to the sixth grade.
In Malixi Elementary School, teacher Numeron says about 20 students from grade 1 to grade 6 drop out each year. This school year, five of Numeron’s second grade students have already left school.
The failing numbers, whether in small towns like Tagbina or in the national level, have not been lost to record-keepers.
Candido Astrologo Jr. of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) says the Philippines lags by 15 years in terms of primary education. “Instead of improving in meeting the target for education, we are lagging behind kasi ang rate of progress natin ay nasa 1990 pa. Parang hindi tayo umuusod nyan," he says. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/86124/Future-of-RP-education-bleak-UN-goals-unmet-as-deadline-nears>
Prescott tells of bulimia battle
John Prescott talks about his bulimia
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has confessed to suffering from the eating disorder bulimia.
He told BBC News 24 that he suffered in misery and in silence for 10 years because of the shame of being a high-profile man with the illness.
He writes in the Sunday Times that he would gorge on food and then vomit.
Mr Prescott explains how he could "sup a whole tin of condensed milk", eat trifles "for ever" and eat through an entire Chinese restaurant's menu.
The 69-year-old told the BBC: "I never admitted to this out of the shame and embarrassment.
"I found it difficult as a man like me to admit that I suffered from bulimia - the doctors told me that it was probably due to stress.
"I eventually managed to control it and to stop it a few years ago."
Susan Ringwood, BeatMr Prescott emphasised part of his motivation for the revelation was to de-stigmatise the illness and encourage others to seek help.
He said: "I want to say to the millions of people, do take advice, it can help and it can help you out of a lot of misery that you suffer in silence." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7357008.stm>
Sex on Ecuador's political agenda
South America correspondent, BBC News
Ms Soledad Vela wants laws covering life, health and sexual education
A woman from the governing party in Ecuador has proposed that a women's right to enjoy sexual happiness should be enshrined in the country's law.
Her suggestion has provoked a lively debate in conservative Ecuador.
Maria Soledad Vela, who is helping to rewrite the constitution, says women have traditionally been seen as mere sexual objects or child bearers.
Now, she says, women should have the right to make free, responsible and informed decisions about sex lives. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7382010.stm>
Cuba lifts ban on home computers
BBC News, Havana
The computers cost almost $800, while the average wage is under $20
The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access.
This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks.
Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look.
The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month.
But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad.
Since taking over the presidency in February, Raul Castro has ended a range of restrictions and allowed Cubans access to previously banned consumer goods.
In recent weeks thousands of Cubans have snapped up mobile phones and DVD players.
But only now have the first computer stocks arrived.
Internet access remains restricted to certain workplaces, schools and universities on the island.
The government says it is unable to connect to the giant undersea fibre-optic cables because of the US trade embargo. All online connections today are via satellite which has limited bandwidth and is expensive to use.
Cuba's anti-American ally, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, is laying a new cable under the Caribbean.
It remains unclear whether, once the connection is completed, the authorities will then allow unrestricted access to the world wide web. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7381646.stm>
Burma cyclone death toll 'at 243'
Cyclone Nargis has since moved towards Thailand where storm warnings have been issued. However, it appears to be lessening in force. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7382298.stm>
A pole and tree lie uprooted in a Rangoon street on 4 May
Eyewitnesses say Rangoon is littered with debris
A tropical cyclone has killed at least 243 people in Burma and damaged thousands of buildings, according to state television.
Parts of the Irrawaddy region were hit particularly badly, with three out of four buildings reportedly blown down in one district.
Burma has declared Irrawaddy and four other regions, including the main city Rangoon, to be disaster areas.
Rangoon has been without power and water, its streets full of debris.
Winds of about 190km/h (120mph) battered the Irrawaddy, Rangoon, Bago, Karen and Mon regions.
Military and police personnel have been carrying out rescue operations.
Protective measures