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Swerte mga bataa...

Siya miasoy nga ang duha ka mga bata naagian sa mga volunteer sa Israel sa Barangay Canagahan, lungsod sa San Remigio, Sugbo samtang nangita og lugar diin ibutang ang dalang water purifier.

Una silang gihiling sa tent hospital sa Bogo City nga gipabarog sa Israel alang sa ilang medical mission apan tungod kay kuwang ang ilang dalang kagamitan, nakahukom ang mga doktor nga adto ipahigayon sa ilang nasod ang operasyon sa duha ka mga bata.

Si Cresencia Lopez, 74, apohan nga ba­baye ni Rex, misaysay nga andam na ang mga sinena sa iyang apo kinsa iyang gihulagway nga “excited” na sa maong biyahe.

Ang 9-anyos nga bata niisip sa maong libreng operasyon nga sayong Pinaskohan ug gasa sa iyang adlawng natawhan karong Enero 17, 2014.

“Nalipay ko kay maoperahan na ko. Advance Pinaskohan ug binirthdihan ni nako,” nagkanayon si Rex uban sa pahiyom dayon duko samtang naglingkod sa sofa sud sa buhatan ni Gobernador Hilario Davide III.

Si Rex, giubanan sa iyang lola samtang si Yanny, 12, giubanan sa iyang inahan nga si Jocelyn dihang miduaw sila sa Kapitolyo aron makigkita sa gobernador ug ni Bise Gobernador Agnes Magpale.

Ang duha pulos mga tinun-an sa Canagahan Elementary School sa San Remigio, Grade 3 si Rex ug Grade 4 si Yanny.

SuperBalita Cebu
Ni Sheila C. Gravinez
Monday, November 25, 2013


ANDAM nang mobiyahe sila si Rex Niño Lopez Recto ug Yanny Sayson Millor, pulos taga lungsod sa San Remigio, pai­ngon sa nasod sa Israel ugmang adlawa.

Si Rex ug Yanny, pulos mga batang bungi, libre nga operahan sa mga doktor sa Israel.

Si Capitol Public Information Officer Ethel Natera niingon nga mismo ang Israeli doctors ang mitanyag og libreng operasyon sa duha ka mga bata didto sa ilang nasod.

Ang Israel nagpadala og medical ug technical personnel sa Pilipinas aron motabang pag-atiman sa medikal nga panginahanglanon sa mga molupyo sa amihanang Sugbo nga mga naapekta­han sa bagyong Yolanda.

Karong adlawa, mapupos na ang medical mission sa mga doktor ug nars sa maong nasod.

Si Natera nagkanayon ang Israeli embassy maoy mihikay sa gikinahanglang mga dokumento uban sa tabang sa mga opisyal sa siyudad sa Bogo alang sa pagbiyahe nila ni Rex ug Yanny.

Quote from: islander on November 26, 2013, 09:43:20 AM
if i were the tv news reporter, this would have been one of my best scoops. 

Way to go! Three scoops for Fr. Chic!

How about our pets? Well, researchers know dogs can be sneaky. In one experiment, dogs were instructed not to take food from boxes, a few of which were rigged with noisy bells. Yet when a researcher wasn’t looking, the dogs would steal a meal, and would deliberately avoid the boxes with bells to avoid detection.

The evidence gathered so far suggests that many clever animals are capable of deception, and some can make basic predictions about the "knowledge states" of others. They can predict what others can see, and sometimes what others can hear, and they can use that information for their own benefit. They know who is knowledgeable and who is naive. Perhaps we should give their mind-reading talents more credit.

Then Hare added a twist: when the dominant chimp was replaced with a second dominant who hadn't seen the food â€" all she could see was opaque barriers â€" the subordinate had no problem gobbling it down. The conclusion? Chimpanzees don't just know what others see; they also know what others know.

Animal trickery

The so-called "Hare task" has since been adapted and modified for a wide range of animals. A clever experiment in which rhesus monkeys could steal food either from a silent box or from a box outfitted with bells showed that they anticipated what others would and would not hear. Another set of studies demonstrated that ravens, too, know what others do and do not see. The food-caching corvids were more likely to hide their caches in a spot hidden from the view of others. If, while caching, they discovered a potential raider watching them, the ravens usually picked up and tried to hide their cache elsewhere. Together, these experiments demonstrate both the ravens' gaze-following abilities and their tactical deception skills.

The flaws of such experiments led evolutionary anthropologist Brian Hare to develop a more naturalistic, species-appropriate test for chimpanzees. That meant he had to think like a chimpanzee. What he devised was a clever situation in which a subordinate chimp could compete for food with a more dominant chimp.

In his experiments, Hare set up enclosures containing two chimps, one at either end. He placed food in the centre. Thanks to well placed barriers, sometimes both chimps could see the food; sometimes only one.

In one instance, Hare allowed a dominant and a subordinate chimp to watch as he put food in the middle. However, the food was obscured from the dominant one once it was placed down.

As is typical for chimpanzees in this sort of scenario, the subordinate all but ignored the food, leaving it for the dominant. Subordinate chimps know better than to take food from dominant group members, just as Dilly knew not to let Beethoven catch her eating that banana. Even though the dominant couldn’t see the food, it knew where it was.

One way that researchers tried â€" experimentally â€" to get at the question of chimpanzee theory of mind in the subsequent years was “gaze-following”. Could a chimpanzee tell what you're looking at by following your gaze? In 1996, psychologists Daniel Povinelli and Timothy Eddy gave some juvenile chimps a test: the apes were given a choice to ask for food either from a human who could see them clearly, or from to a human whose eyes were hidden, such as by wearing a bucket on his head. In most cases, they begged indiscriminately. It seemed that the young chimps didn't care whether a human was actually able to see them while begging for food in all but the most obvious cases.

If chimps couldn't even understand what others could and couldn’t see, then it seems unlikely that they could deceive, let alone attribute more sophisticated goals and intentions to others. How could the story of Dilly and Beethoven be explained? Like the experiments of the 1970s, the reason could be that Povinelli and Eddy had thrust their chimpanzees into a strange situation. The experiments had arbitrary conditions that were perhaps not obvious to the chimps, such as the rule that they were only allowed to make one choice per trial. From the chimp's perspective, it could actually be quite reasonable to beg from everyone until someone hands over a tasty treat.

Not only did Dilly appear to infer Goodall's intention in leaving the banana for her, but she also understood that Beethoven would gobble up the banana himself if given half a chance. By stifling her food call, she could keep Beethoven in the dark, none the wiser about her illicit snacking.

Trick of the mind

Still, at the time it was verboten for researchers to infer emotion, intention, or motivation within an animal. Goodall would describe the behavior "as if" it was deceptive.

And it certainly was a stretch to say that this meant chimpanzees had theory of mind. Scientists needed empirical evidence derived from controlled experiments before they could make any firm conclusions.

Open and shut case? Not so fast. Chimpanzees have trouble comprehending the pointing gesture in the first place. Pointing with their hands and fingers is not part of their own behavioral repertoire. It simply wasn't a fair test.

Then, in 1987, science writer Virginia Morell witnessed a now-classic example of apparent chimpanzee deception while visiting Jane Goodall at Gombe National Park in Tanzania. The two were hiding in a feeding station, a spot where Goodall and her team sometimes handed bananas out to passing chimps. A high-ranking male called Beethoven ambled by, along with Dilly, an orphan who Beethoven had adopted. Beethoven immediately let out a food call, standard behavior for a chimpanzee. After promptly devouring the whole bunch â€" chimpanzees tend not to share food, even with their infants â€" Beethoven settled down for an afternoon nap, leaving a hungry Dilly to groom him. Goodall then made eye contact with Dilly and held up a single banana. "It was as if a signal passed between her and Dilly," Morell recounted on the website Slate this year. "Dilly did not utter a food cry, as chimpanzees normally do, but simply watched as Goodall placed the banana outside on the ground. Then Dilly quietly made her way to the fruit, downed it in three bites, and just as quietly returned to the snoring Beethoven."

Over the next few columns in the Uniquely Human series, I will be exploring the mind-reading abilities of humans and animals in all forms. We start with one of the most basic aspects of theory of mind: the ability to deceive somebody. Successful deception, after all, requires you to imagine what somebody else would think. The question is, are we the only species capable of such trickery?

To find out, we first have to look to experiments conducted more than 30 years ago. In 1978, psychologists David Premack and Guy Woodruff wondered if chimpanzees have theory of mind. At the time, researchers thought that deception might be a good way to get at the question, so Premack and Woodruff tried to see if chimpanzees could be taught to deceive fellow chimpanzees. If a snack was hidden in one box, could they learn to trick a competitor into searching in the second box by pointing at it? The researchers only managed to teach two of four chimpanzees to do this, and it took them a whopping five months to get it right. It wasn't the most convincing evidence.

http://www.bbc.com/
Uniquely Human | 25 November 2013
Jason G Goldman

   

(Science Photo Library)


Deception helped us become one of Earth’s dominant species, because it requires us to step into someone else’s shoes. Are we the only ones with this talent?

Do you know what I’m thinking? Probably not, but you will have a pretty good idea that I have my own thoughts, perceptions and intentions. This “theory of mind” is something that we take for granted, yet the ability to step into somebody else’s shoes is what has helped to make us such a success as a social species. Is it a trait only humans have?

Iring ni Bugsay...

In court, she refused to accept a lawyer provided by the Saudi embassy, fearing pressure to return home.

But Huda did accept to be represented by a lawyer appointed by a Yemeni non-government organisation called Hood, who said he hoped for a favourable outcome.

"This is a humanitarian case, and must not raise tensions between the two countries," lawyer Abdel Rakib al-Qadi told AFP.

He indicated that Sanaa had come under pressure from the Saudi authorities to ensure Huda's return.

She is currently under arrest and on trial for illegal entry. If found guilty, she faces expulsion.

No decision was announced on Sunday, and the court set the next hearing for December 1 as it awaited a UN High Commissioner for Refugees ruling on a request for asylum.

A UNHCR representative confirmed to AFP that Huda had initiated proceedings to be granted refugee status in Yemen.

If she succeeds, it will be difficult for the authorities in Yemen to expel her.

Huda's case has also come to the attention of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

On November 19, HRW urged Yemen not to repatriate her and to take into consideration the fact that returning to her family could put her life at risk.

"She fears physical harm from her family members, whom she said have beaten her in the past, if she is returned to Saudi Arabia," HRW said in a statement.

14 hours ago





Sanaa (AFP) - A young Saudi woman on Sunday urged a Yemeni court to let her stay and marry the man she loves, defying norms in both deeply conservative countries.

In a case reminiscent of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, Huda al-Niran, 22, defied her family and crossed the border illegally to be with her beloved.

As she pleaded her case to be able to stay and marry Arafat Mohammed Tahar, 25, her supporters demonstrated outside the Sanaa courthouse, sporting headbands proclaiming "We are all Huda."

The lovers' plight has gripped imaginations in both Yemen and Saudi Arabia, where the young woman's courage is seen as astonishing.

She not only went against the wishes of her family, who said she could not marry Tahar, but also dared to flee the country and follow him to Yemen.

Photo courtesy of Bibi delos Reyes

The rest of Bantayan had over 11,000 houses that were severely damaged, while over 5,000 more suffered minor damage.

“It was a big help. We were able to sleep soundly at night even when it rained. We can now also work indoors tying together sea weed that we will later put out to sea,” Felix Nipangge said.

Apart from fishing, the community also grows sea weed which they harvest each month and sell at about P10 a kilo for raw sea weeds, and P50 a kilo for dried ones.

He looked at the roof and asked me how long the material might last.

When I told him that it could sustain them for a few more months up to even a year, Felix smiled with relief on his face. He looked at his family as they carried the sea weeds bound together, making their way to the shore.

Maybe in a month’s time, they would be able to harvest from what little they had salvaged and start their lives over again. â€" KDM, GMA News

Without a boat, and with everything lost from the typhoon, the families could not afford to buy construction materials and nipa leaves for a new house.

The men had to gather bits and pieces of whatever they could find to put together into something that might resemble a liveable abode. For three nights the families slept under the sky with their wet clothes on, protected only by flimsy blankets as the rain poured down.

During the day, they had nowhere to hide from the scorching sun since there was no shade on the island.

Victor Giducos gathered materials he could find to rebuild his home. He also utilized the donated shelter kit as an improvised roof.

When groups from Habitat for Humanity Philippines came, giving them emergency shelter kits donated by UK Aid through HFH Great Britain, the families found a sense of hope. They installed the materials and used them for roofing and to build the walls of their new homes.

On Thursday, local officials made its rounds to ask residents living in the tiny islands to evacuate to Bantayan’s gymnasium. Huddled in this gym were thousands of families, including the 113 from Botong Island. Anita’s husband, Melchor, and four other men stayed behind Botong to watch over their homes and livestock, including the two pigs raised in their backyard.

By Friday, strong winds came, destroying portions of the gym’s roofs and creating havoc to the structures outside. It was the most frightening day for Anita and her family.

Houses were reduced to rubble, roofs and walls ripped & strewn throughout the island.

“My granddaughter was crying,” she said, “begging us to go home because she was afraid of the wind.”

When Yolanda’s fury subsided and the families made their way back to the tiny island, they were shocked by the scene that welcomed them. What was once paradise to them had been reduced to rubble. Wood, leaves, GI sheets, and all their belongigs were strewn everywhere. Their boats were destroyed, preventing them from going out to fish and earn their keep.

GMA News Online â€" 18 hours ago


Three year old Me-An was not feeling well and she was feverish the past few days after calamity struck their region.

Her grandmother, Anita Paciño, explained that Me-an had been exposed to the rain and sun, and hadn't been fed well. Anita narrated how the child had cried heavily when Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) made landfall on the cluster of islands at the northern part of Cebu province.

Only a few boats are left on Bantayan Island, most were destroyed during Yolanda's fury.

The Paciños lived in Botong, one of the small islands in the municipality of Bantayan, Cebu. Bantayan is known for its pristine beaches frequented by tourists.

This one is riding into the sunset...

Bwahaha!

Morag stuffed toy galing...

Agoi, kon di silent type, alingugngog jamo.

Credit: Getty Images/Inset - Everett


11. Bonus Classic Entry: Charlie Chaplin
Offspring: 11

What can we say? He wasn't called 'The Tramp' for nothin'.

Clint Eastwood, Alison Eastwood, and Scott Eastwood at the Los Angeles premiere of 'Invictus' in 2009


10. Clint Eastwood
Offspring: 7

Who knew Dirty Harry had such a fatherly instinct. Only twice married, Eastwood has fathered seven children with five different women.

Credit: WireImage


9. Kirk Cameron
Offspring: 6

Kirk Cameron and his wife, Chelsea Noble, have passed their "Growing Pains" on to six children, the four eldest of which are adopted: Jack (born 1996), Isabella (born 1997), Anna (born 1998), Luke (born 2000), Olivia (2001), and James (2003). So far there have been no reports of Jack, Luke or James switching bodies with their dad.

Credit: Getty Images


8. Dustin Hoffman
Offspring: 6

Dustin Hoffman has a half-dozen "Little Fockers" running around, the first of which he had with his first wife, Anne Byrne: daughter Jenna (born 1970); Hoffman also adopted Karina (born 1966), Byrne's daughter from a previous marriage, before they divorced in 1980. Hoffman later had four children with his second wife, Lisa Gottsegen: Jacob (born 1981), Rebecca (born 1983), Maxwell (born 1984), and Alexandra (born 1987). We imagine they're all highly amused by "Hook" and Dad's occasional "Rain Man" impersonations.

Credit: FilmMagic


7. Zack Snyder
Offspring: 6

He makes blockbuster movies like "Man of Steel" and "Watchmen," and yet Zack Snyder still has time for family â€" a large-scale family, at that. Snyder has six children: the four eldest from his first marriage to Denise Weber and the two youngest from his relationship with Kirsten Elin, who was his line producer on commercials. Snyder and his second wife (and producer), Deborah Snyder, have been married since 2004 and so far have only had cinematic children together â€" big, loud, temperamental ones.

Credit: Splash News


6. Robert De Niro
Offspring: 6

It's only appropriate that "The Godfather" himself would have something of an impressive family. Robert De Niro and his first wife, Diahnne Abbott, have a son, Raphael, and De Niro also adopted Drena, Abbott's daughter from a previous relationship; later, he and his long-term partner Toukie Smith had twin sons, Julian and Aaron (born 1995), who were conceived by in vitro fertilization and delivered by surrogate mother.

De Niro and his second wife, Grace Hightower, had a son, Elliot (born 1998). While they split in 1999, their divorce was never finalized and they renewed their vows in 2004, which led to a daughter, Helen, born in 2011 via surrogate.

Credit: Pacific Coast News


5. Steven Spielberg
Offspring: 6

Hollywood's most profitable film director dealt with his own daddy issues (seriously, have you seen "E.T."?) by becoming a terrific â€" or at least prolific â€" father himself. Spielberg and his first wife, "Carrie" star Amy Irving, had one son, Max (born 1985); and he and his second wife, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" beauty Kate Capshaw, had three children: Sasha (born 1990), Sawyer (born 1992), and Destry (born 1996).

Spielberg and Capshaw also adopted a daughter, Mikaela (born 1996); prior to their marriage, Capshaw adopted a son, Theo (born 1988), whom Spielberg later adopted as well. Is this family situation an epic adventure waiting to be written or what?

Credit: FameFlynet


4. Brangelina
Offspring: 6

Hollywood's most formidable super couple are as known for their formidable family as they are for their film careers, charity work, and various philanthropic pursuits. They have three adopted children: Maddox (born 2001), Pax (born 2003), and Zahara (born 2005); and three biological children: Shiloh (born 2006) and twins Knox and Vivienne (born 2008). They plan on naming their next kid either Bob or Jane.

3. Kevin Costner
Offspring: 7

The father of Superman (on Earth, anyway) is definitely a superdad offspring. He had three children with his first wife, Cindy Silva: Anne Clayton (born 1984), Lily McCall (born 1986), and Joseph (born 1988); a son with Bridget Rooney: Liam (born 1996); and three children with his second wife, Christine Baumgartner: Cayden Wyatt Costner (born 2007), Hayes Logan (born 2009), and Grace Avery (born 2010). It's unknown as to whether they've all agreed to play catch with him at least once.

Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage


2. Eddie Murphy
Offspring: 8

Eddie Murphy's eventual transition from foul-mouthed comic to family-film leading man was reflected in his personal life as well, as he had five children with his longtime companion Nicole Mitchell: Bria L. Murphy (born 1989), Myles Mitchell (born 1992), Shayne Audra (born 1994), Zola Ivy (born 1999), and Bella Zahra (born 2002). Murphy also had a child with Tamara Hood, son Christian Murphy (born 1990); with Paulette McNeely, son Eric Murphy (born 1989) … and, after a DNA test provided confirmation, with former Spice Girl Melanie Brown, daughter Angel Iris Murphy Brown (born 2007).

Credit: FameFlynet


1. Mel Gibson
Offspring: 8

The Passion of Mad Mel has resulted in one daughter and six sons with ex-wife Robyn Denise Moore: Hannah (born 1980), Edward (born 1982), Christian (born 1982), William (born 1985), Louis (born 1988), Milo (born 1990), and Thomas (born 1999). Mel and Robyn split in 2009, the same year he had a daughter, Lucia, with Russian pianist Oksana Grigorieva. It's too bad that Mel and Oksana had split by 2010, if only because we'd love know if they would have followed the same pattern of having all boys after starting with a girl.

By Bryan Enk
November 22, 2013 6:08 PM
Yahoo Movies



Credit: Disney


Remember the running gag in "Old School" in which Vince Vaughn cues his kid to cover his ears whenever something adults-only was about to be said with the command "Earmuffs"? Now imagine Vince Vaughn doing that … to over 500 kids.

"Delivery Man" finds Vaughn as a chronic underachiever who gets smacked in the face with a big ol' existential crisis when he discovers that he's fathered 533 children via a series of anonymous donations to a fertility clinic over 20 years ago. It's a coming-of-age story featuring a fortysomething man coming to terms with responsibility and seizing the day as he finds ways to be a good dad to some of them … without actually revealing his identity.

In honor of Hollywood's most accomplished on-screen father, here's a look at the most active famous real-life babymakers in the business. (You'll notice almost all are male â€" there don't appear to be many well known actresses with six or more kids, it turns out.)

The scandal broke in July, when a whistleblower revealed that up to half the money being allocated to local projects from discretionary government funds was being stolen.

Amid widespread outrage over the claims, Mr Aquino went on national television in October to declare: ''I have never stolen. I am not a thief. I am the one who goes after thieves.''

Last week, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled the scheme unconstitutional, a decision some analysts said might work to Mr Aquino's advantage by allowing him to allocate funds directly to typhoon construction efforts.

A political analyst at the University of the Philippines, Prospero de Vera, said the whole relief effort had been politically polarised.

''This will be the defining moment of Aquino's administration and he needs to act very strongly and be very focused and rise above political bickering,'' he said.

Some commentators compared Mr Aquino's performance to former US president George W. Bush's mishandling of the hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans in 2005.

Mr Aquino acknowledged a breakdown in the country's emergency response as he toured affected areas this week.

''The systems failed … We had a breakdown in power, a breakdown in communications, a breakdown in practically everything,'' he said, adding that local authorities had responsibility as first responders.

''But the destructive force of this typhoon was of such a magnitude that even those personnel … were victims themselves.''

Even before the storm hit, Mr Aquino was struggling to contain a scandal involving the alleged misuse of legislators' funds for local development projects such as schools, health centres and roads.

After the scale of the disaster became clear, Mr Aquino ordered an investigation into ''lapses'' by local government, inflaming decades-old enmity between his powerful political clan and another led by Imelda Marcos, the wife of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Mr Aquino pointed his finger at Alfred Romualdez, 51, the nephew of Mrs Marcos and the mayor of the coastal town of Tacloban on Leyte where the most deaths occurred.

''It appears [Tacloban] was not that prepared, let's just say, compared to other areas,'' Mr Aquino told reporters in Manila the day after the typhoon hit.

But Mr Romualdez defended his preparations, saying they were approved by national government officials 24 hours beforehand. ''They said everything was OK,'' he said.

Instead of an empathetic statesman-like response to a disaster that has killed thousands, destroyed towns and affected 14 million Filipinos, Mr Aquino has seemed aloof and looked to deflect blame for the slow response to one of the most powerful storms on record, critics say.

Veteran Manila commentator Amando Doronila said the day the typhoon struck was a ''day the government disappeared''.

''It laid bare the disturbing issue: Where is the government? More specifically, who is in charge during emergency,'' he wrote in the Philippine Daily Inquirer which ran the headline: ''Who's in charge here?''

He said survivors on the island of Leyte greeted Mr Aquino's party as ''harbingers of despair''.

During a visit to the fishing town of Guiuan on Samar Island, where the typhoon hit with gusts of 315km/h, only a few dozen survivors turned up to hear Mr Aquino speak and most were kept beyond hearing distance by rope. ''There was no empathy for what the people are going through just to survive,'' a Philippine journalist who was there said later.

November 24, 2013
Lindsay Murdoch
South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media


The Philippine President is being likened to George W. Bush after hurricane Katrina, writes Lindsay Murdoch in Cebu.



Philippine President Benigno Aquino, right, distributes disaster relief items to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan during his visit to Palo. Photo: Reuters


During the first three years of his rule, Benigno Aquino carefully crafted his image as a corruption fighter who was turning the Philippines away from being the Sick Man of Asia into one of the region's fastest growing economies.

But President Aquino is facing the biggest crisis of his presidency as his administration struggles to help the 4 million people made homeless by typhoon Haiyan, which swept across the central Philippine islands on November 8. Reconstruction is estimated to cost almost $6 billion.

Criticism of the way the 53-year-old son of former president and democracy hero Cory Aquino has handled the disaster has been scathing since he played down the extent of the devastation in the first few days, saying initial death toll estimates were too high and blaming the ''emotional trauma'' of some officials.

There have also been several incidents involving military aircraft flying close to each other. In October, Chinese military aircraft flew near Japan three days in a row, and Japan scrambled fighter jets each time in response.

The new Chinese rules mean aircraft have to report flight plans to China's Foreign Ministry or civil aviation administration, maintain radio contact and reply promptly to identification inquiries, keep radar transponders turned on, and bear clear markings of their nationality and registration.

The Defence Ministry said it was the "administrative organ" for the zone, Xinhua said.

The zone is outside China's territorial airspace, but Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said in an interview carried by Xinhua that its establishment had a sound legal basis and accorded with common international practices.

He noted that other countries had established similar zones and said China would put more in place in future.

"It is a necessary measure in China's exercise of self-defence rights. It has no particular target and will not affect the freedom of flight in relevant airspace," Yang said.

(Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, and Steve Holland and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)

PROTEST

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said Japan had lodged a strong protest with China's embassy in Tokyo and reiterated its position that the islands belonged to Japan and China's action was not acceptable.

"Setting up such airspace unilaterally escalates the situation surrounding the Senkaku islands and has the risk of leading to an unexpected situation," Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The United States expressed its "strong concerns" to China, with the White House saying the "escalatory development" increased regional tensions and affected U.S. interests and those of its allies.

"We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement. "This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations."

Patrol ships from China and Japan have been shadowing each other near the islets on and off for months, raising fears that a confrontation could develop into a clash.

It also released Defence Ministry identification rules for aircraft in the area.

"China's armed forces will adopt defensive emergency measures to respond to aircraft that do not cooperate in the identification or refuse to follow the instructions," Xinhua said.

Xinhua said the rules came into force on Saturday and the Chinese air force conducted its first patrol over the zone. The patrol included early warning aircraft and fighters, it said.

Japan scrambled fighter jets on Saturday afternoon against two Chinese reconnaissance planes over the East China Sea, the Japanese Defence Ministry said.

A ministry spokesman declined to comment on whether there was any connection between the Chinese patrol activity and the two reconnaissance planes. He said one of the aircraft, a TU-154, came as close as 40 km (25 miles) to what Japan considers its airspace above the disputed islands.

By John Ruwitch
2 hours ago



A Chinese military plane Y-8 airborne early warning plane flies through airspace between Okinawa prefecture's main island and the smaller Miyako island in southern Japan.


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China on Saturday bolstered its claim to islands that Japan says it owns, warning that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.

Ties between the Asian powers have been strained for months by the dispute over the islands in the East China Sea, called the Diaoyu by China and the Senkaku by Japan, which are believed to be surrounded by energy-rich seabed.

China's government-run Xinhua news agency published a map and coordinates for the newly established "East China Sea Air Defence Identification Zone", which covers most of that sea including the disputed islands.

The belfry is among just a few buildings still intact after Super Typhoon Haiyan killed 14 people in Balangiga, where a well-organised evacuation plan kept fatalities low.

"We don't have any animosity against the American people," said Deladia, standing in front of a monument recreating the ambush of U.S. troops. But the bells, he said, are "part of our historical heritage".

Every September 28 the town re-enacts the 1901 Balangiga "incident" in which 48 occupying U.S. soldiers died in an ambush at the old church that triggered retaliation in which U.S. forces razed homes and killed thousands.

The dispute reflects America's long ties to the Philippines, which declared independence from Spain in 1898 with the help of U.S. forces. When the United States went on to colonise the country, a war of independence erupted.

As the United States expands its military and economic interests in Asia to counter a rising China, fewer countries are more strategically important than the Philippines and its string of islands in the busy South China Sea.

Marciano Deladia, a chief aide to the mayor, and other residents are thankful for the U.S. packets of rice and other food. "But we want our bells back," he said.

The town built the belfry in 1998 in the hope that the United States would return three bells it says were stolen as trophies during the 1899-1902 Philippine-American War. One is believed to have been rung to signal the start of the attack.

Two of the bells are at the Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. The third is part of a travelling museum now at a base in South Korea.

"HISTORICAL HERITAGE"

The dispute over the Balangiga bells underscores the difficulty the United States will face in transforming goodwill over its aid to typhoon victims into a bigger military presence on the ground in the Philippines.

Although the two countries are close allies, mistrust still lingers over America's previous role as the Philippines' colonial master, as well as its longtime support for the brutal and kleptocratic regime of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

By Nathan Layne | Reuters â€" Fri, Nov 22, 2013


BALANGIGA, Philippines (Reuters) - In the devastated coastal Philippine town of Balangiga, a Roman Catholic belfry with a maroon steeple rises from the rubble, a battered symbol of resistance for a people with mixed feelings about the U.S. military now helping them survive.

After one of the world's most powerful typhoons roared across the central Philippines and killed more than 4,000 people, U.S. military helicopters are flying in aid to desperate regions such as this once-picturesque fishing village of 12,600 people in ravaged Samar province.

It was here 112 years ago that one of the darkest chapters of American colonialism began: the island-wide massacre by U.S. soldiers of thousands of Filipinos, including women and children, in response to the killing of 48 U.S. soldiers by rebels.

After months of bloodshed, animosity has festered for more than a century over the ultimate insult: seizure of the town's church bells by U.S. troops. In recent years, the Philippine government has demanded their return.

Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Inside one of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa.(Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Inside one of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

The basin inside one of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

A light inside one of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

One of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

The front door of one of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Decor inside one of the shacks at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

The shebeen, titled 'Shebeen' at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

A communal fire pit at Shanty Town on November 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Bloomberg notes shantytowns have grown across South Africa as the nation's affordable housing program has failed to keep up with population growth. With nearly a quarter of the workforce unemployed, millions of South Africans live in makeshift shacks.

And while many have criticized its initiative as highly insensitive and inappropriate, the Emoya Luxury Hotel & Spa boasts:

Now you can experience staying in a Shanty within the safe environment of a private game reserve. This is the only Shanty Town in the world equipped with under-floor heating and wireless internet access!

A Look Inside A South African Shanty Town? Well, Not Quite
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Posted: 11/20/2013 2:25 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/20/2013 2:25 pm EST


At first glance, these photos of a shanty town appear to offer a glimpse into the lives of millions of South Africa's poor. But that's not the case.

The shacks pictured below are part of a luxury hotel offering tourists the experience of sleeping inside a metal hut for a mere $85 (R 850).



One of the shacks at Shanty Town on Nov. 15, 2013, in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Charl Devenish/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

Gansu Province, China

Farmers across China's Gansu Province, one of the country's driest regions, are already struggling to cope with the effects of climate change, as droughts and arid land contribute to the region's vast poverty. The United Nations says warming temperatures are shrinking glaciers in central Asia and the Himalayas, which typically replenish China's rivers.

China recently completed its first National Census of Water, and found that as many as 28,000 of the country's rivers have disappeared since the 1990s. The study did not identify reasons for the loss of the rivers, but the research showed an alarming trend of dwindling water resources throughout the country.

China currently has 2,100 cubic meters (74,000 cubic feet) of water resources per person â€" roughly 28 percent of the global average, according to Reuters. But as the country's population grows, these supplies could dry up sooner than expected.

The Alps

The Alps, one of the most famous mountain ranges in Europe, have long been a tourism hotspot, famous for their top-notch ski resorts and as a popular year-round destination for outdoors enthusiasts. But climatologists warn that global warming could spell trouble for the sprawling alpine region.

Since the late 19th century, temperatures in the Alps have been steadily rising, from an average yearly temperature of 49.3 degrees F (9.6 degrees C) in the late 1800s to today's average of 51.4 degrees F (10.8 degrees C), according to Gilles Brunot, a meteorologist based at the ski resort Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in southeastern France.

But concerns about global warming's effect on the Alps extend beyond the region's ski industry. About 40 percent of Europe's freshwater originates from the Alps, which stretch from Austria in the East to France in the West, dipping into parts of Italy and Monaco in the South. Climate change is threatening the area's water cycle, which includes patterns of precipitation, snow and glacier cover.

Mumbai, India

The Indian metropolis of Mumbai is one of the places at risk of dangerous and costly floods due to climate change, according to a report released earlier this year by the World Bank. Economists at the World Bank examined 136 large coastal cities, and evaluated their coastal defenses and level of protection.

The report identified Mumbai as one of the coastal cities that face a high risk of devastating floods due to global warming. Researchers found the city's existing defenses against flooding and storm surges are only designed to withstand current conditions, not for the anticipated rise in sea levels that will make future floods more devastating.

While coastal defenses are a start, "if they are not upgraded regularly and proactively as risk increases with climate change and subsidence, defenses can magnify â€" not reduce â€" the vulnerability of some cities," study leader Stephane Hallegatte, an economist at the World Bank, said in a statement.

Newtok, Alaska

Newtok, and many other villages in Alaska, are built atop permanently frozen soil, called permafrost. As ocean temperatures increase, Alaska's permafrost melts, causing the ground to erode and many of these remote, coastal towns to sink.

Newtok is located on the western coast of Alaska, on the edge of the rising Ninglick River. The flood-prone town already sits below sea level, and researchers have said the entire village could be underwater within a decade. [What 11 Billion People Mean for Climate Change]

Now, members of the community are hoping to relocate Newtok's 350 residents to higher ground, at a site roughly 9 miles (14 kilometers) away. But there are financial and political barriers. For instance, the U.S. Government Accountability Office estimates that moving the town of Newtok could cost up to $130 million.

Great Barrier Reef

Satellite measurements have demonstrated that the waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef have warmed by 0.36 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) on average over the past 25 years. This warming has led to a decline in the amount of seafloor covered in thriving coral.

A 2012 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that half of the Great Barrier Reef was lost in the past 27 years.

Warming oceans, linked to rising emissions of carbon dioxide, increase the risk of coral bleaching â€" a phenomenon that disrupts the symbiotic relationship between corals and the organisms that live within their tissues and provide food the corals need to survive.

Higher-than-normal ocean temperatures cause corals to expel the tiny animals and algae that live inside them. This turns the corals white and places the reef-building animals â€" and the entire ecosystem â€" under stress.

LiveScience.com
By Denise Chow, Staff Writer
21 hours ago


The effects of a warming planet are likely to be vast and varied â€" ranging from increased droughts and coastal flooding to reductions in snow and ice. But while most climate predictions look ahead to the potential risks 50 or 100 years from now, there are places around the globe that are already being impacted by global warming.

Here are five places where climate change is already hitting close to home:

ABRA CADABRA

Inspired by Bodnar’s own experience with the devastating aftermath of Chernobyl, the Emergency Bra is available for purchase online for the affordable price of $29.99 (a small cost to pay for getting away with your life when disaster strikes). The bra, which won the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health Prize, is available in sizes 32B to 40C. It also performs multiple functions: an everyday bra, a nursing bra, a strapless bra, and two face masks.

While you might think that such a functional piece of underwear would be blase in terms of style, the Emergency Bra is actually an alluring red with frills. We love the fact that this bra not only saves women’s lives, but it also empowers them to save another person’s life, as well. “Isn’t that wonderful that women have two breasts, not just one?” Bodnar tells CNET. “We can save not only our own life, but also the life of a man of our choice next to us.” (Don’t worry, gents, a counterpart design is in the pipeline.)

“Emergency Bra” Doubles as a Gas Mask When Disaster Strikes
http://www.ecouterre.com/
by Yuka Yoneda , 09/29/10





Double Ds that double as gas masks? It may sound like a joke, but Elena Bodnar’s “Emergency Bra” is no laughing matter, especially if you find yourself in a situation where having a gas mask handy spells the difference between life and death. Worn under clothing like a regular brassiere, the undergarment separates into two masks that can be pulled over the nose and mouth to filter out harmful airborne pollutants, including those released by fire, radiological or biological attacks, explosions, and natural disasters. If people had readily available gas masks in the first hours after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster, Bodnar says, they might have avoided breathing in the iodine-131 that resulted in radiation sickness.

Is This the World's Most Perfect Dog?
By Elise Solé, Shine Staff
10 hours ago


By now, you’ve probably heard of the “Cava-poo-chon,” an adorable new breed of dog that’s taken the Internet by storm over the last few days. The Cavalier King Charles Spaniel/Bichon Frisé/Miniature Poodle was bred on a farm in Pine, Arizona, with the help of a geneticist and a reproductive veterinarian, and has been called everything from “the ideal designer dog” to “the world’s most perfect puppy” for its youthful mug that miraculously won't ever show signs of age, along with its high intelligence and robust health.

The Cava-poo-chon is offered in two varieties: Curly and very curly. And with its fluffy, butterscotch coat, inky-black eyes, and “Who me?” expression, the 10-pound dog is clearly poised for world domination. As further proof, his asking price ranges from $2,000 to $3,500.   

But is all the hype justified? After all, we’ve seen his look before â€" the Cava-poo-chon suspiciously resembles the Goldendoodle, an equally adorable Golden Retriever-Poodle hybrid, and the Maltipoo, a cutesy-wootsy Maltese-and-Poodle combo.

And plenty of other coveted, designer dogs have been around for years. There's the Puggle, a 30-pound Beagle-and-Pug mash-up originally born in Wisconsin; the Chorkie, a Yorkshire Terrier-and-Chihuahua crossbreed who loves children but hates being stared at; and the Bassetoodle, an oblong-shaped Basset Hound-Poodle mix with a stubborn streak. These guys are no less cute than the Cava-poo-chon, they just have bad PR campaigns.

And finally, the Cava-poo-chon may not even be legit. Both the American Kennel Club and the American Kennel Club don’t recognize the new type of dog as an official breed, and according to People, one expert even referred to the dog as a gimmick.

This picture taken on November 1, 2013 shows rescued cats in a cage in Wuxi, east China's Jiangsu province. Animal activists are combing a forest in eastern China for more than 1,000 kittens rescued from a meat supplier only to be let loose by the local authorities, an organiser said on Monday. -- AFP