MikeLigalig.com

Ang inahan sa makong pasayan...

Quote from: chicogon on March 07, 2013, 05:53:55 PM


Palag mo?

Hmm, morag taga Balingsya ni si Ondoy. Si Bugsay ang ga-design sa iyang swivel chair...

Debutante, Dinaliri ng Bisita
Friday, March 8, 2013


KULONG ANG isang lalaking bisita sa debut ng biktima sa Caloocan City Linggo ng umaga.

Nakilala ang suspek na si Jonathan Lanang, 23, ng Carmelite Village, San Lazaro, Tala ng lungsod.

Sa naantalang ulat ng pulisya, dakong alas-7 noong gabi ng Marso 2, 2013, nagkaroon ng pagtitipon sa bahay ng biktimang edad 18 ng nasabing lugar dahil nag-debut ang dalaga.

Tumagal ang kasayahan hanggang alas-4 ng madaling-araw, Marso 3, 2013, na naging dahilan upang magpasya ang mga bisita na sa bahay na ng biktima makitulog.

Dakong alas-6 ng umaga, nagising ang biktima matapos makaramdam ng kirot sa kaselanan at nang magmulat ay nakita ang kamay ng suspek na nakapasok na sa kanyang panty na naging dahilan upang magsisigaw ang dalaga.

Nagising ang kuya ng biktima na naging dahilan upang humingi ng tulong sa mga pulis at ipadakip ang suspek. (MARY H. SAPICO) http://www.pinoyparazzi.com/

Hmm, kinsa kaha ni...

By Joe in West Virginia, US • Posted on May 15, 2012
http://www.sunnyskyz.com/





It was a beautiful, sunny, Spring day. I had just finished driving my daughter to the airport to catch an early morning flight. My sons and I then went to a fast food place for breakfast before heading back home. After eating we all got into the car and pulled out of the parking lot. The restaurant was at the very top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill was a stop sign so we found ourselves at the end of a long line of traffic waiting while the cars at the bottom turned onto the main road one at a time.

As I looked down to the bottom of the hill my eyes saw an elderly man standing by the stop sign. His clothes were old and worn. He held a cardboard sign with the words: Need Help Please! written on it. My heart went out to him and I imagined myself in his situation. As car after car turned onto the road without stopping for him, I reached for my wallet to look for whatever cash was left in it. As I was pulling it out of my pocket, though, I saw a young woman walk up to him along the side of the road. She was carrying a bag full of take out food from the restaurant I was just at. I watched as the old man thanked the young girl and smiled as she reached in to give him a hug.

Suddenly a loud HONK! from the car behind me made me realize that I hadn't been moving forward, because this simple choice for kindness had so captured my attention and my heart. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill both the man and lady who had helped him were gone. Yet, as I drove home the sun seemed to shine even brighter and Heaven felt a bit closer to Earth.

A choice is such a powerful thing. It can touch a heart and change a life. It can bring us closer to God and make Heaven smile. Each day we are given a thousand choices. May you make all of yours for kindness. May you make your whole life a choice for love, joy, and God.

Agoi, nag-EB man ni sila...

Itadakimasu!

Frog Sashimi

So you think you're bold enough to feast on any foreign food. But can you stomach swallowing a living -- and moving -- animal part? Fans of "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern," a Travel Channel TV show, may remember the pilot episode in which the host visited a Tokyo sushi restaurant and ate a frog's still-beating heart. The Japanese eatery that served the pulsating organ is called Asadachi, and all of its dishes are intended to improve virility. Order the frog sashimi and the chef will cut open the frog in front of you and hand you its still-beating heart between a pair of chopsticks. Then the chef will slice and dice the frog into a plate of raw-frog sashimi while you take a bite of the warm, pumping heart. Sashimi is chilled raw seafood chopped up, so the rest of your meal will consist of cold, uncooked frog flesh. Don't expect raw beating hearts to be served everywhere -- this special frog dish is a delicacy that can only be found in select Japanese restaurants. --http://www.independenttraveler.com/

Hmm, gisuyop o giapil og kaon ang kabhang?

Hmm, applicable kaayo ni sa Lahad Datu standoff...

Ug ningpadayon ko: Ang Sistine Chapel usa sa mga kapilya sa Apostolic Palace, ang opisyal nga pu­y-anan sa Santo Papa sulod sa Vatican City. Ug sa Sistine Chapel magtapok ang mga cardinal, o College of Cardinals, sa dili madugay aron pagpili og sunod nga santo papa, o conclave. Wala pay klaro kanus-a ang conclave. Apan sigun sa balita, may bag-o nang santo papa sa di pa mag Semana Santa, panapos kong yawyaw dayong yarok sa akong tagay.

“Pakpak!” syagit pa sa grammarian sa grupo, dayong ingon, “Ang sunod pangutana bay: Ngano man nga tiguwang na kaayo ang mga cardinal college lang gihapon?”

Kung ang conclave contest sa pagkabugalbugalon, kandidato ka pagka santo papa, ako siyang giingnan. Ug nangatawa ming tanan.

Matod pa sa English, “There are two kinds of annoying people in the world: drunk people when we’re sober and sober people when we’re drunk.” Sa laing pagkasulti, kinahanglan hubog ang tanan aron magkasinabot. Kung naay magsumbagay sa tubaan, usa ray hubog ana. Ang kontra tarong pa.

Depende pud ni sa anad. Kung palainom na kang daan sama nako, makasabot ka sa hunahuna sa hubog bisag wa pa ka kainom. Mao nga imbis likayan nako ang pangutana kay usik lang sa oras, ako ning gitubag, kay basig di ko paimnon o makulatahan ba hinuon. Ug labot pa, akong obligasyon isip Katolikong Kristiyano ang pagpasabot sa mga hubog sa katilingban nga lahi ang “sixteen” sa “Sistine.”

Ug ningbarog ko atubangan sa grupo ug namulong, nga ang “Sistine” gikan sa Italyanong pulong nga “Sistino,” nga kinuha pud sa Italyanong pangan nga Sisto, nga gikan pud sa Latin nga Sixtus. Si Pope Sixtus IV ang nagpatukod ini nga kapilya niadtong 1473.

Nahuman kini pagka 1481 ug gikonsagrar pagka 1483. Sa ato pa, ang pangan sa kapilya
pahinungod diay sa santo papa nga nagpatukod niini.

“Amen!” singgit pa sa mga tambay samtang usa kanila ningtunol sa akong unang tagay. “Amen!” ningsinggit pud ko.

ni Lorenzo Niñal
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/
Thursday, March 7, 2013


ANG nakanindot aning naay krisis o kontrobersiya sa simbahan, maedukar ang mga tawo sa mga mahinungdanong butang sa ilang pagtuo. Pananglitan, kung wa pa mi-resign ang santo papa, di unta maghisgot ang mga tambay sa eskina sa mga butang sama’s Vatican.

“Bay, English teacher man gyud ka ug graduate pa gyud sa seminaryo,” hinubog nga estorya sa tambay nga katagay nako niaging semana, “Ngano man nang “Sixteen Chapel” di man plural? Sixteen Chapels unta na, di ba?”

Nagtuo mong di kamao’g grammar ang mga tambay? Daghang brayt ug maru sa eskina. Ang akong sayop awahi kung ning-apil sa tagay. Pag-abot nako sa eskina, hubog na ang mga bugoy. Kamong sweto og inom, kahibawo mo unsa kalisud ning ma-estorya’g hubog nga limpyo pa ka’g utok. Ang bali ini sakto sab, lisud pud sa hubog ang makig-estorya sa wa nakainom.

Sabah dihah, Joseh!

Quote from: hubag bohol on March 08, 2013, 05:39:20 PM
"In the end, the village decided they wanted to hold a cleansing ceremony and ordered the couple to pay 20 million rupiah ($2,000) to fund the ritual."

Agoi, mahal jamo jerjera...

By: Agence France-Presse
March 8, 2013 4:35 PM


DENPASAR, Indonesia - Officials on the Indonesian island of Bali are considering putting up "no sex" signs at Hindu temples after a lusty Estonian couple were caught in the act.

Police took the pair in for questioning after they were found by youth leaders who had gone to check up on repairs at the temple in the village of Saraseda.

"They said they really did not know that sex at temples was prohibited in Bali, so we just let them go and left it up to the village heads to decide how to handle the case," Gianyar district police chief Hadi Purnomo told AFP Friday.

"In the end, the village decided they wanted to hold a cleansing ceremony and ordered the couple to pay 20 million rupiah ($2,000) to fund the ritual."

The couple admitted they had also used the temple's outdoor shower before having sex, Purnomo said, and apologized.

District officials are now discussing whether to add "no sex" signs to the temples besides the usual "no eating" and "no smoking" warnings.

Quote from: islander on March 08, 2013, 03:58:30 PM
but you fit together!  why waste a great relationship?

Oh, I was going to sacrifice my happiness for yours...

Malabed's masterpiece:

"In the case of president Marcos, it was difficult work. He was a vegetable. The body was full of oedema (fluid)," he said.

Marco's body remains on display at the family's ancestral home in the northern Philippines.

Malabed continues a successful business in Manila, where he is often called to work on celebrities, politicians and other high-profile figures.

Malabed detailed some chemicals that would need to be used.

"You need to inject fluid into the arteries after draining blood from the veins. You use a hypodermic needle for that. Then you replenish it regularly. It has to be checked regularly to arrest any sign of decomposition," he said.

Malabed honed his skills as a young man helping his father embalm thousands of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, working at a converted hangar at a US air base north of Manila in the 1960s.

He built his reputation working on his own embalming practice in Manila from the early 1970s, then became so well respected in the business that he was tasked to embalm the body of Marcos after he died in exile in 1989.

He said the methods employed would depend on the condition of the corpse of Chavez, who his successor said on Thursday would be preserved "for eternity".

"What is important is they must not delay (choosing an embalmer). The longer they delay it, the more difficult it would be," Malabed said.

While Venezuelan authorities said they wanted Chavez embalmed "like Lenin", Malabed said he would not use the same techniques as those employed for the Soviet revolutionary leader.

"I was told they preserved Lenin using resin. It's like making a block of ice. You have a box, you pour water on it and freeze it. If I were asked to do it (embalm Chavez), I would do it differently," he said.

A Philippine mortician famous for putting dead dictator Ferdinand Marcos into a glass display case offered his services on Friday to the deceased Hugo Chavez, whom Venezuela wants embalmed "like Lenin".

Manila-based embalmer to the stars Frank Malabed stressed experts must act quickly if they wanted to successfully preserve the Venezuelan president, who died on Tuesday from cancer.

"I have not been contacted for it but I am always expecting a call. I will process anyone, anywhere," Malabed, 62, told AFP.

Philippine mortician offers to embalm Chavez
AFP News â€" 2 hours 35 minutes ago



Filipino mortician, Frank Malabed, pictured at his residence in Manila on October 24, 2012. Malabed, famous for putting dead dictator Ferdinand Marcos into a glass display case, offered his services on Friday to the deceased Hugo Chavez, whom Venezuela wants embalmed "like Lenin."

Quote from: islander on March 07, 2013, 06:05:25 PM

No such green bird. An excrementalist's imagination is at work here...

Quote from: BolBuhol on March 07, 2013, 05:29:50 PM
ikstasi ikstano ikstasi ikstano.

...ikstasi ikstano ikstayes ikstano ikstaja iktstanein ikstada ikstanyet ikstaoo iksgtadili.

= Botoy smiling

Bitaw tuod. Pero unsaon na lang ang heart, mabuak morag garapon...

Isog jamo...

Quote from: islander on March 06, 2013, 11:34:30 PM
morag nakakitag nawong ug tblander...

Hmm, bungoton?

Agoi, gugma!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/


Dear Heartline,

I need your advice. Meron akong bf na mahal na mahal ko siya. Paminaw nako binuangan lang ko niya. Pero always mi maglaag. Tapos ako naga-gasto kay wala daw syay kwarta. Gasto pud ko kay love nako siya. Pero daghan man diay siya og babae. Unsaon man nako ni?

Ni Guam P. Logroño
Thursday, March 7, 2013


UPAT ka mga bayut nga nailang fashion designer sa Metro Cebu na­sikop sa buy-bust-operation kagahapon sa kaadlawon.

Matag usa kanila nakuhaan og illegal nga drugas nga Ecstacy sa ilang tagsa ka possession dihang sila gisikop sa mga pulis sa may Wilson st., Barangay Lahug, dakbayan sa Sugbo.

Ang Ecstasy usa ka stimulant drug nga momugna og hallucinations ug mosinati og high ang mogamit niini.

Gibalhog sa mga pulis si Ivan Briones Belocura, 37, alias Inday, nagpuyo sa nahisgutang lugar, human nakuhaag usa ka capsule sa Ecstacy sa gipahigayon nga buy-bust operation sa mga sakop sa Reginal Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Group (RAIDSOTG-7).

Lakip sa nasikop ang mga kustomer nga sila si Junjie Saavedra Ignacio, 24, ulitawo, fashion designer, taga Velpal 1, Minglanilla, Cebu; Glenn Cardeño Libradilla, 23, ulitawo, fashion designer, taga Mohon, dakbayan sa Talisay; ug Ryan Lariego Dumago, 31, ulitawo, fashion designer / make-up artist, taga Barangay Tung­haan,
Minglanilla.

Ang mga suspek nakuhaan og tagsa ka capsule sa Ecstacy nga ang kantidad tag P1,500 matag usa.

Si Sr. Insp. Henrix Bancoleta, team leader sa RAIDSOTG-7, niingon nga usa ka tuig na nga nagbaligya og Ecstacy si Belocura.

Matod niya nga sagad sa mga kustomer niini mga kaila lang ug mga fashion designer.

Usa nila ka kauban nga pulis maoy nagsilbing poseur buyer, nipalit sila og usa ka Ecstasy.

Dihang gidunol ni Belocura ang drugas dali siyang gisignit, lakip ang tulo ka mga kustomer.

Ang upat ka mga dinakpan gibalhog sa karsel sa PRO-7 ug kuhaan unta og pamahayag sa Sun.Star Superbalita sa ilang habig apan way bisan usa kanila nga nitingog.

Quote from: BolBuhol on March 07, 2013, 03:33:23 PM
manoghimo ka na gid isa sang mga tb milyonir gid haw  kon ma amkon mo hang byodang milyonir.

Hmm, sang aton pa, pode na gid akong manog-apod-apod sang dalar sang ibang mimbir tro Wistiln Yonyon...

AFP News/Jay Directo - Protesters burn a portrait of Philippine President Benigno Aquino (L) and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak (R) in front of the Malaysian embassy in Manila on March 5, 2013. Malaysian forces searched house-to-house Wednesday after armed Filipino invaders apparently escaped a military assault, as a Philippine guerrilla warned more fighters had arrived.

The CDC is trying to make healthcare facilities more aware of the resistant germs, since their spread can be controlled with proper precautions and better practices. Israel, for instance, cut CRE infection rates in all 27 of its hospitals by more than 70 percent in one year.

Such measures include such standard infection control precautions as washing hands, as well as grouping patients with CRE together and dedicating staff, rooms and equipment to the care of patients with CRE alone, and using antibiotics sparingly. When an acute-care hospital in Florida had a yearlong CRE outbreak, implementing such measures cut the percentage of patients who got CRE to zero from 44 percent. (Editing by Doina Chiacu and Mohammad Zargham)

Only six states require healthcare providers to report cases of CRE to public health authorities.

Last month, CDC reported that unusual forms of CRE - with such exotic names as New Delhi Metallo-beta-lactamase and Verona Integron-mediated Metallo-beta-lactamase - are becoming more common in the United States. Of the 37 unusual forms ever identified, the last 15 have been reported since July.

The germs themselves spread from person to person, often on the hands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals. They can easily pass their antibiotic resistance - contained in a speck of genetic material - to other kinds of germs, making additional kinds of bacteria potentially untreatable as well, CDC said.

That "can create additional life-threatening infections for patients in hospitals and potentially for otherwise healthy people," the CDC said in a statement.

CATHETERS OR VENTILATORS

These patients often have catheters or ventilators, which can allow bacteria "to get deeply into a patient's body," Frieden said. In addition, such seriously ill patients are often receiving antibiotics. When the antibiotics wipe out susceptible bacteria, the coast is clear for CRE to proliferate.

In one of the worst outbreaks, 18 patients at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, contracted a CRE strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae in 2011. Seven patients, including a 16-year-old boy, died. The outbreak began when a patient unknowingly infected with CRE was transferred from a New York City hospital.

Northeastern states report the most cases of CRE, which "is prevalent in a number of hospitals in the New York area," said Dr Arjun Srinivasan, CDC's associate director for healthcare-associated infection prevention programs. He said patients and their families should ask a hospital or nursing home if it was monitoring for CRE and if it had any cases.

Enterobacteriaceae bacteria include more than 70 species that normally live in the water, soil and human digestive system, such as the well-known E. coli. Over the years, some Enterobacteriaceae have become resistant to all or almost all antibiotics, including last-resort drugs known as carbapenems. Present in one U.S. state in 2001, the superbugs have now spread to 42, Frieden said at the news conference.

Over the past decade, the proportion of Enterobacteriaceae that are resistant to the last-ditch antibiotics rose to 4.2 percent from 1.2 percent.

Almost all CRE infections occur in patients receiving medical care for serious conditions in hospitals, long-term acute-care facilities (such as those providing wound care or ventilation) or nursing homes.

By Sharon Begley, Reuters
Mar. 05, 2013 12:35PM PST


NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Nightmare bacteria" that have become increasingly resistant to even the strongest antibiotics infected patients in 3.9 percent of all U.S. hospitals in the first half of 2012, including 17.8 percent of specialty hospitals, public health officials said on Tuesday.

"Our strongest antibiotics don't work and patients are left with potentially untreatable infections," Dr Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. He said doctors, hospitals and public health officials must work together to "stop these infections from spreading."

At a news conference, he added, "it's not often that our scientists come to me and say we have to sound the alarm, but that's what we are doing today."

Over the past decade more and more hospitalized patients have been incurably infected with the bugs, Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which kill up to half of patients who get bloodstream infections from them, according to a new CDC report. The report did not say how many patients were killed by the bacteria.

...and just as harder to increase one's physical activity.

Samot...

Agoi, zaon na lang...

AFP News â€" Wed, Mar 6, 2013



AFP News/ALMINA - Lesbian couple Koyuki Higashi (L) and Hiroko light a candle at their wedding reception in Tokyo on March 1, 2013. They became the first gay couple to tie the knot at Tokyo Disney Resort, both decked out in fairytale white dresses despite an initial ruling that one had to wear men's clothes.


Two lesbians have become the first gay couple to tie the knot at Tokyo Disney Resort, both decked out in fairytale white dresses despite an initial ruling that one had to wear men's clothes.

"My love Hiroko and I wore wedding dresses and had a mini-parade in DisneySea, a place I also love," Koyuki Higashi, 28, said on Twitter.

"I was really happy!" she said.

The event on Friday was the first homosexual wedding in the popular amusement park even though gay marriage has no legal standing in Japan.

"We may not have a law that applies to us, but when someone congratulates us for the wedding, I will proudly say 'thank you!'" said Higashi.

The couple first hit the headlines after the theme park initially told them there would be no problem with the ceremony provided they dressed "like a man and a woman".

A staff member said a same-sex wedding would create "repercussions" among visitors if both brides wore wedding dresses or both grooms donned tuxedoes.

But just few days later the resort operator got back in touch to say their initial response had been wrong and gay couples were free to mix and match their attire.

Higashi posted photos from the celebration on her Twitter site, showing both brides clad in white and accompanied by Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Pack of predators: Camera phone pictures reveal the sharp-toothed mass congregating near the Sunshine State
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/

By FLOYD WHALEY
Published: March 6, 2013


MANILA â€" An air and ground assault by Malaysian forces killed at least 13 of the nearly 200 militants seeking to reclaim part of Borneo Island for a Filipino sultan, Malaysian police officials said on Wednesday afternoon.

Sporadic fighting continued on Wednesday in remote coastal areas of the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah as the police and soldiers scoured rugged territory, searching house to house to find Filipino rebels who escaped the large-scale assault on Tuesday. At least 40 people have died so far in the fighting.

The Malaysian state news agency, Bernama, said the police warned on Wednesday that some of the rebels were “impersonating as members of the public.”

“The mopping and searching will cover a wider area given there are signs the intruders moved to another location,” Chief Ismail Omar of the Malaysian National Police told reporters on Wednesday, without providing further details.

Unsa kahay gikahimut-an ni kitty?

Quote from: islander on March 06, 2013, 05:20:29 PM
swirti tuod si lolo hubag.

Agoi, hilom, oi, basin masuhong...

Seventy-sixâ€"year old Abelardo Nabong does not have social security to rely on. He moved to the U.S. in 2006 and has a hard time looking for a job.

His wife, Erlinda, is a senior herself, but has to work as a caregiver for another senior. They rely on her meager income to pay for rent and to send money home to their children and grandchildren.

Erlinda said, “You have to make a lot of sacrifices here in America.”

While Urrutia wants to stay in America, the Nabongs said the tough conditions here make them wish they were back in the Philippines.

These already struggling seniors may brace for more hardships, after federal budget cuts that came into effect on Friday.

More than four million home-bound and disabled seniors may have to go hungry this year because of cuts to Meals on Wheels Programs.

The American Medical Association said that more seniors could also have a harder time getting healthcare through Medicare. Doctors’ reimbursements will be cut by two percent by April 1, which may further lessen the access of seniors to physicians.

By Henni Espinosa, ABS-CBN North America Bureau
Posted at 03/06/2013 11:03 AM | Updated as of 03/06/2013 11:03 AM


SAN FRANCISCO â€" In today’s tough economy, more and more senior citizens in America are struggling to make ends meet.

A joint study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University shows that many people in America do not have enough money to live comfortably in their old age. It noted that 46 percent of senior citizens in the U.S. have less than $10,000 in financial assets when they die. Most of them are totally dependent on social security payments as their only source of income.

In the study, many said they cannot afford to pay for emergency and unexpected costs, such as expensive medical treatments not covered by Medicare or Medicaid.

Eighty-five-year old Jesus Urrutia moved to the U.S. 30 years ago and worked as a security guard. He only relies on his $900 a month pension from social security. He shares a two-bedroom rental with his daughter and her children. "Living on a small, fixed income is hard," he said.

China wants to protect North Korea so that the United States cannot easily or readily help re-unify the two Koreas, which would give the United States a much larger geopolitical footprint in China's sphere of influence. The seven-member politburo in China really does consider this a possibility, even though it sounds bizarre: North Korea rejected direct negotiations with the U.S. that would have started at the ministerial level. Kim Jong Un believes he ought to deal with President Obama directly, as Ambassador Rodman noted.

One question remains: How much influence does China actually have in North Korea? A puppetmaster Beijing is not. North Korea regularly ignores China's requests, hassles Chinese commercial ventures, hides its activities from Beijing, and shows no sign of following the prescription that Beijing has written for its neighbor, which mainly calls for more butter, and less guns. As a matter of policy, China seems to be patient because it has no other choice, and because it knows from its own normalization that change takes decades and often results from external shocks that are out of the control of any government.

What does North Korea want? Time. Independence. Respect. Better relations with South Korea. These China cannot give it.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un claps
after inspecting the army's artillery firing
drill on Feb. 26. Photo: REUTERS/KCNA


No instability: On the one hand, this means that a war or other catastrophe in North Korea would result in a flood of refugees into China, inter-group conflict, significant dislocation and serve as a catalyst for destabilizing social movements in China. China thus supplies North Korea with food and oil. The oil goes to the North Korean military, which is the largest employer in the country.

No nukes: China is most critical of North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Since China does not control North Korea, having an uncontrolled nuclear-armed neighbor is tantamount to a declaration of independence. Keeping North Korea non-nuclear keeps North Korea in a position of subservience. It must rely on China to broker relations with the rest of the world. If North Korea successfully becomes a nuclear power â€" meaning that it can reliably produce weapons and weapons systems â€" then the United States, counter-intuitively, could become the broker of North Korea's relations with the outside world.

This is not inconceivable.

March 3, 2013, at 8:25 PM


To the outside world, there are things about North Korea even more confusing than Dennis Rodman's sudden renaissance as a diplomat. One is why China bothers to care so much about North Korea, to be its patron and protector, its representative to the outside world.

Max Fisher of The Washington Post has a pithy summary: "No war, no instability, no nukes." Six words, three reasons, each worth unpacking a little.

Obviously, China does not want North Korea to go to war with South Korea, or with any other country in the region. The reasons are as self-evident as they would be if Canada were to declare war on Mexico. On a more subtle level, though, China's status as a world power diminishes significantly if North Korea becomes an independent belligerent. There is also an inverse correlation between North Korean belligerency and Japanese nationalism, another malignant force for China.

The contentious report also says the Vatican rushed Teresa's sainthood push for publicity's sake, noting that Catholic officials fast-tracked her beatification and ignored evidence that refuted her "miracles."

Despite the study's inflammatory findings, researchers claim they aren't out to smear Mother Teresa, writing that it is "likely that she has inspired many humanitarian workers whose actions have truly relieved the suffering of the destitute and addressed the causes of poverty and isolation." They did say, however, that "the media coverage of Mother Teresa could have been a little more rigorous."

In the end, this study will probably do very little to hurt Mother Teresa's legacy. She was so popular that nearly 250,000 people flocked to Rome in 2003 to attend her beatification. For her biographer Navin Chawla and countless others, her belief that "each individual was a divine manifestation, each to be comforted, held, rescued, fed and not allowed to die alone" was enough to make up for any other faults.

How did researchers reach this controversial conclusion? The team of Canadian researchers studied nearly 300 documents, and discovered reports of poor hygiene standards and a shortage of medicine, supplies, and care in Mother Teresa's 517 "homes for the dying" â€" although not for lack of cash. According to the report, her organization, the Order of the Missionaries of Charity, received hundreds of millions of dollars in donations. 

Of course, this isn't news to fans of Christopher Hitchens, the erudite atheist who made it his mission to battle religious dogma before he died in 2011. He even wrote a book on the topic called, crudely enough, The Missionary Position:     

Bear in mind that Mother Teresa’s global income is more than enough to outfit several first-class clinics in Bengal. The decision not to do so, and indeed to run instead a haphazard and cranky institution which would expose itself to litigation and protest were it run by any branch of the medical profession, is a deliberate one. The point is not the honest relief of suffering but the promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjugation.

By Keith Wagstaff | The Week â€" 8 hrs ago





A new study claims the beloved nun might not have been as helpful to the poor as she could have been.

It's highly likely that one day, the Catholic Church will officially recognize Mother Teresa as a saint, a position she's held in the popular imagination for years. A new study in the religious studies journal Religieuses, however, says that the late Mother Teresa's reputation is mostly hype â€" a result of a church declining in popularity trying to boost its image.

Mother Teresa's biggest supposed sin? According to the Times of India, it was "her dubious way of caring for the sick by glorifying their suffering instead of relieving it."

Quote from: hubag bohol on March 06, 2013, 10:01:51 AM
"Manghiram ra na siya og uniform aron makasulod sa City High ug sa Kapitan Tomas kay naa man na siyay kalagot sa akong barkada nga dunay gang. Uyab man to nila ilang gikasamukan," ni Jhacent Cotillar, higala sa suspek.

Pastilan, gadali man tawon ning mga bataa. Sayo kaayo ang tanan--ang pag uyab2x ingon man ang pagkakriminal ug pagbakwit ngadto sa sunod nga kinabuhi...

Agoi, unsa gud ning balitaa...

By David Beasley | Reuters â€" Thu, Feb 7, 2013


ATLANTA (Reuters) - A former doctor at a federal prison in Atlanta was sentenced on Thursday to two years and a month behind bars for sexually assaulting three male inmates in Georgia who sought medical treatment from him, court officials said.

Lewis Jackson, 34, still faces sentencing in Washington after pleading guilty in January to sexually assaulting a male inmate at the District of Columbia jail in 2008, federal prosecutors said.

"The federal inmates who relied on Dr. Jackson for their care believed he would treat them humanely," said Sally Yates, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. "His conduct cost him his license to practice medicine and ensured he will spend the next several years as an inmate himself."

Jackson worked as a doctor at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta from January 2011 to July 2012. The molestation occurred in October 2011, prosecutors said.

Jackson denied the charges at first but admitted to the abuse after agents from the Justice Department played a tape an inmate made secretly, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty in Georgia in November to three charges of sexual abuse.

Ngil-ara pud mobuhat of news title ning SunStar, oi...

DAVAO. Naghilak ang inahan human naugkat ang patay nga lawas
sa mga bata nga nasunog didto sa General Malvar, Barangay 7-A
Poblacion, siyudad sa Davao kagahapon sa buntag. (Jeepy P. Compio)


Dugang ni Orilla nga nagpasalamat siya nga nakapailawom sa training sa pagsumpo sa sunog ang mga molupyo sa lugar tungod kay napawong dayon ang kalayo.

"Nag-training ni sila last week. So, sila na ang mi-respond dayon dinhi, ilang gipang-rescue ang mga tigulang," suma ni Orilla.

Mga biktima gihaya karon sa Angel Funeral Homes samtang gihan-ay ang hinabang pinansiyal sa barangay pinaagi sa City Social Services and Development Office. (Alger Dura/Jeepy Compio)

DAVAO. Gidayongan sa mga personahe sa punerarya ang patay
nga lawas sa mga bata nga nasunog didto sa General Malvar,
Barangay 7-A Poblacion, siyudad sa Davao, kagahapon sa buntag.
(Jeepy P. Compio)


Wa sab natabang ang amahan ang mga biktima tungod kay nagtrabaho siya niadtong higayona.

"Mao nalang ni (sunog na sila) ang akong naabtan gikan sa trabaho," pahayag ni Roger nga gipugngan ang mga luha sa kaguol.

Si Fire Officer 1 Joribel Kidlat, fire investigator, nagbutyag sa nga ilang gisusi karon ang electrical short circuit ug gisindihan nga katol ang hinungdan sa sunog.

Suma niya nga duha ka balay ang partially damaged ug usa ang totally damaged sa maong sunog nga wa pa matino kon pila ang danyos.

Si Barangay 7-A Poblacion Kapitan Joseph Orilla nagbutyag nga dako ang ilang pagtuo nga sinindihan nga katol ang hinungdan sa sunog.

"Among nahibaloan nga pirmi naay katol ilang balay," sulti sa kapitan.

Ni Alger Dura
Sunday, March 3, 2013
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/


TULO ka mga bata ang nalitson dungan sa pagkaugdaw sa ilang gipuy-ang balay nga nasunog alas 11:45 kagahapon sa buntag, Dominggo.

Ang sunog nahitabo sa #77 Alley, General Malvar, Barangay 7-A Poblacion, siyudad sa Davao.

Namatay mao si Jerome Aguas, 7, ug iyang mga igsuon nga sila Rose Mae, 6, ug Roselyn, 1.

Si Roger, amahan sa mga biktima, nagbutyag sa Sun.Star Davao SuperBalita nga nahurot pagkamatay ang ilang anak tungod kay natulog sila sud sa ilang balay dihang misilaob ang kalayo.

"Gibilin ni sila sa akong asawa kay nagpalit siya og ilang miryenda mao nga wala sila naluwas," suma ni Roger nga nahinabi sa tigsuwat.

Si Lorna May, inahan sa mga bata, nagbutyag samtang naghilak nga wa siya nagdahum nga mahitabo kadto sa iyang mga anak sanglit dali lang kaayo siya sa tindahan.

Agoi, pwede nang minyoan ni Botoy kay kaedad ra sila. Ang nakaparat lang kon mangitag batan-on si Iya...

Ang suspek mao si Daniel (bansagon gitago sanglit menor), 14, molupyo sa Barangay Buhangin, ning siyudad.

Si Daniel kasamtangang nagtungha sa maong eskwelahan, Grade VI section Universe.

Gibutyag sab sa adviser sa suspek nga si Almy Grace Velasquez nga wala siya nasayod nga dunay dalang kutsilyo ang iyang estudyante.

"Sa akong pagkasayod, buotan ug hilumon man na siya. Wala ko kabalo nga naa diay na siyay dala nga kutsilyo. Bisan sa pagkasayod nga naa siyay gang -- wala ko kabalo," pung sa adviser.

Dugang nasayran nga second year high school student ang biktima sa Davao City National High School (DCNHS), apan naundang na kini pagtungha gumikan milakaw ang iyang inahan sa Manila.

"Manghiram ra na siya og uniform aron makasulod sa City High ug sa Kapitan Tomas kay naa man na siyay kalagot sa akong barkada nga dunay gang. Uyab man to nila ilang gikasamukan," ni Jhacent Cotillar, higala sa suspek.

Gisugilon sab ni Merlinda Amistoso, principal sa Kapitan Tomas, nga kulang ang ilang guwardiya nga magbantay sa seguridad sa mga tawo nga mosulod-gawas sa maong tunghaan.

"Kulang gyod ang atong guwardiya. Usa ra god ni siya diha sa buntag ug usa sab sa gabii. Kuwang gyod mao na ang among problema karon," suma sa principal.

Ang biktima nakaangkon ug duha ka samad dinunggaban sa dughan nga maoy hinungdan sa hinanaling kamatayon niini.

Ang suspek anaa karon gikustodiya sa Women and Children's Protection Desk (WCPD) sa San Pedro Police Station.

Ni Jeepy P. Compio
Tuesday, March 5, 2013



DAVAO. Gihiling sa mga sakop sa Soco ang lawas ni Alvin Ederosas,
estudyante sa Davao City National High School, human gidunggab
sa menor de edad nga estudyante sa Kapitan Tomas Monteverde
Central Elementary School kagahapon sa buntag. (Jeepy Compio)


NAHAGBA sa gate sa tunghaan ang usa ka estudyante human gidunggab patay sa usa ka grade 6 pupil niadtong Martes alas 10:55 sa buntag.

Nahitabo ang krimen sulod sa tunghaan sa Kapitan Tomas Moterverde Central Elementary School sa dalang Ponciano, siyudad sa Davao.

Ang biktima mao si Alvin Ederosas, 16, residente sa Purok 5, Baryo Tagalog, Barangay 4-A Poblacion, ning siyudad.

Gisaysay sa guwardiya nga si Reynaldo Cañete nga nakurat na lamang siya sa hitabo gumikan kay nakita niya ang biktima nga nagkadugo samtang nagdagan dayon nahagba kilid sa guard house.

"Nakurat ko sa pagkakita nga nagkadugo ug naglisod nag dagan. Wala nakagawas sa gate, diri gyud siya natumba kilid nako," sulti sa guwardiya.

Nasayran nga gikan ang biktima kilid sa room sa grade 6, ug una pa nahitabo ang pagdunggab, nagkasinumbagay ang biktima ug usa ka grade 6 pupil nga maoy midunggab kaniya.

MANILA (AFP) - A self-proclaimed Philippine sultan said on Tuesday his gunmen would "fight to the last man" as Malaysian troops mounted an operation to end a deadly three week-old stand-off in Sabah on Borneo island.

"The crown prince, the royal security forces, and the many patriots who landed (in Sabah) voluntarily will fight to the last man protecting their ideals and aspirations," their leader Jamalul Kiram III said in Manila.

Kiram sent his younger brother Raja Muda Agbimuddin Kiram and several dozen supporters, some armed, to the Malaysian state of Sabah on February 12 to stake a claim on behalf of the heirs of a defunct sultanate which once controlled parts of Borneo, including Sabah.

The self-proclaimed sultan said the gunmen's leader was his crown prince and was leading the sultanate's "royal army".

Malaysian security forces mounted an air and land offensive on Tuesday to end the deadly stand-off that has claimed 27 lives.

Published on Mar 05, 2013
5:09 PM





A self-proclaimed Philippine sultan, Jamalul Kiram III (above), said on Tuesday his gunmen would "fight to the last man" as Malaysian troops mounted an operation to end a deadly three week-old stand-off in Sabah on Borneo island. -- PHOTO: AFP

MANILA (AFP) - Battle-hardened Muslim guerrillas have sailed from the Philippines to reinforce followers of a self-proclaimed Filipino sultan who are battling Malaysian forces, one of their leaders said on Wednesday.

The fighters are veteran members of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) who waged a decades-long insurgency against the Philippine government before signing a 1996 peace pact, Muhajab Hashim told AFP.

"Many have slipped through the security forces. They know the area like the back of their hands because they trained there in the past," Mr Hashim told AFP.

"We are expecting more of them to join (the fighting) even if our official instruction is for them to refrain from going."

Published on Mar 06, 2013
9:24 AM





Thousands of Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members displaying their weapons during a rally on the volatile island of Jolo in southern Philippines. According to one of their leaders, some of the battle-hardened Muslim guerrillas have sailed from the Philippines to reinforce followers of a self-proclaimed Filipino sultan who are battling Malaysian forces in the Malaysian state of Sabah. -- PHOTO: AP

Twelve Filipinos made it to the Forbes' list of World's Billionaires issued on March 2013.


NAME   NET WORTH (in billion US dollars) 
Henry Sy & Family   $13.5 
Lucio Tan & Family   $5 
Enrique Razon, Jr.   $4.9
Andrew Tan   $3.95
David Consunji & Family  $2.8 
George Ty & Family   $2.6
Lucio and Susan Co   $2   
Robert Coyiuto, Jr.  $1.6 
Tony Tan Caktiong & Family   $1.4 
Andrew Gotianun & Family   $1.2 
Roberto Ongpin   $1.2 


http://www.affordablecebu.com/

Quote from: islander on March 05, 2013, 03:40:45 PM
“May the College of Cardinals work like an orchestra, where diversityâ€"an expression of the universal churchâ€"always works toward a higher and harmonious agreement,” Benedict said, according to AP.

We hope that no one strikes a discordant note.

Quote from: bugsay on March 06, 2013, 09:12:01 AM
kon atong comelec mauy mo handle sa election...makabaton  gyud tag pinoy nga Pope.

Bwahaha! Naa ba kahay uwan-uwan?

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías


Born: July 28, 1954
Died: March 5, 2013
Presidential term: February 2, 1999 â€" March 5, 2013
Party: United Socialist Party of Venezuela
Spouse: Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez (m. 1997â€"2004), Nancy Colmenares (m. 1977â€"1995)
Children: Rosines Chavez, María Gabriela Chávez, Rosa Virginia Chávez, Hugo Rafael Chávez


R.I.P.

After more treatment, Chávez declared himself cancer-free and went on to rout Capriles in Octoberâ€"because, he said, voters still revered him for “pulling Venezuela out of the swamp it was sunk in” before he came to power. Yet two months later he was back on an operating table in communist Cuba, where he could keep his true condition a more tightly guarded secret, and the world would not hear from him again. What he couldn’t hide was the fact that his revolution was far too much a one-caudillo show, evidenced by the government indecision back in Caracas during his long absences in Havana. Chavez’s Vice President and hand-picked successor, Nicolás Maduro, is likely to win the upcoming special election to succeed him. But, given that Chávez’s 2012 victory margin was almost 10 points lower than what he got in 2006, it’s hardly certain that Chavism can be the same force without Chávez that populist Peronism, for example, has remained in Argentina after Juan Perón. Still, whatever Chávez’s legacy is, Washington and the rest of the world need to remember the unmistakable reasons for Chávez’s rise to powerâ€"chief among them a failure to build the kind of democratic institutions in Latin America that can close the region’s unconscionable wealth gap. That flaw still lingers, which is why the memory of Chávez should too.

HURRICANE HUGO IN DECLINE

Lula, who also won re-election in 2006, was now Latin America’s standard bearer, and Chávez’s hemispheric star began to dim. In 2007 he held a constitutional referendum whose central question was whether to eliminate presidential term limits; Venezuelan voters, feeling perpetual-revolution fatigue, defeated it. Chávez simply forced another plebiscite on the issue little more than a year later and won, but in the process he made himself look more like Castro.

As the global recession sent oil prices south again, Chávez’s failure to rein in a raft of crisesâ€"including petro-corruption inside his own revolution, which produced a cohort of wealthy Chavistas known as the “Boli-bourgeoisie” as well as military leaders, like one of his Defense Ministers, General Rangel Silva, accused by the U.S. of aiding drug lordsâ€"began to stand out, as did declining investment and production at PDVSA. With Barack Obama in the White House instead of Bush, Chávez no longer had a yanqui villain to help him distract Venezuelans from those domestic problems.

The opposition, as a result, began making electoral inroads. Then, in June of 2011, Cuban doctors found and removed a tumor near Chávez’s pelvis. Eight months later it reappeared, and most pundits questioned how he could carry on a re-election campaign in 2012, especially now that the opposition finally had a viable candidate in Capriles, the Governor of Miranda state adjoining Caracas, to challenge him. (This despite Chávez’s efforts to bench rivals via an arbitrary law that disqualified politicians from elections if they’d merely been accused of corruption in the past, a ploy the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned).

That debacle was typical of Chávez’s utterly incompetent opposition, as was its failed attempt to oust him in a 2004 recall referendum. By then, oil prices were in dizzying ascent, and Chávez’s social spending at home and aid abroad, called petro-diplomacy, was lavish. Leftist presidents were being elected across Latin America, including Lula in 2002, and Chávez was their standard bearer, if not the whole region’s. His big aim, as he told me in 2006, was to replace the two-centuries-old Monroe Doctrine, which had all but codified America’s dominance in the Americas, with his Bolívar Doctrine. It would be a “counterbalance” to U.S. hemispheric hegemony, he said, “a doctrine of more equality and autonomy among nations, more equilibrium of power.” And to a surprising extent, he and Latin America have realized that goal in recent years.

For much of his 2000-2006 term, Chávez’s socialist bark was usually worse than his bite. (U.S. diplomats were known for cabling back to Washington: “Don’t listen to what Chávez says, watch what he does.”) He revered Castro, and imitated the Cuban dictator’s cult of personality, but could emulate Fidel only to a point. As U.S. journalist Bart Jones wrote in his 2007 Chávez biography, Hugo! The Hugo Chávez Story From Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution, “Venezuela was not Cuba, and [Chávez] knew it.” But as Chávez’s petro-power swelled, so did his head and his mission to be, as he told Jones, a global “subversive.” If his verbal assault on Bush at the U.N. won him kudos in some quartersâ€"he even said the U.S. President had left behind a satanic “smell of sulfur” at the lecternâ€"it cost him standing in many others, especially as he allied Venezuela more closely with international pariahs like Iran and Syria.

LA REPUBLICA BOLIVARIANA

Chávez, inaugurated in 1999, rewrote Venezuela’s Constitution to make what he called its “sham” democracy more “participatory.” Under the new charter he won a special presidential election in 2000 that gave him a fresh six-year term. He began jetting all over the world to forge ties with leaders who, like him, disdained Washingtonâ€"and, more important, to get fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC) to pump up oil prices. The success of that campaign took the Bush Administration by surprise and increased the annual revenues of Venezuela’s state-run oil monopoly, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), from less than $15 billion in 1998 to more than $85 billion in 2008.

But despite Chávez’s democratic credentials and his vast social projects, known as misiones, participatory democracy increasingly meant concentrating power in the hands of el comandante. His subordination of the legislative and judicial branches, his politicization of PDVSA and his frequent, hours-long television rants so divided Venezuela that in April of 2002 Chávez himself was the target of a coup. For two days he was ousted from office; but TV images of the elite reveling in Miraflores, as if it were again their private country club, sent Chávez supporters pouring out of Caracas’ hillside slums to restore him to power. The event hardened his socialist leaningsâ€"and his hatred of the Bush Administration, which despite its denials was widely believed to have backed the coup.

All that came to a head on February 4, 1992. Chávez, then a paratrooper lieutenant colonel, directed a coup against then President Carlos Andrés Pérez, a cogollo, or chieftain, notorious for corruption scandals even as he imposed austerity measures on Venezuela’s working class.

The putsch, which killed scores of civilians as well as soldiers, collapsed after Chávez failed to take the Miraflores presidential palace in downtown Caracas. Still, the insurrection was cheered by millions of fed-up Venezuelans, half of whom lived in poverty, as well as by millions more across Latin America who’d been left behind by the region’s capitalist reforms. Chávez, a charismatic speaker who Barrera and Marcano note had a “religious and emotional bond” with the poor, became the people’s hero when, while being led away in his trademark red beret, he declared on live television that his uprising was over only “for now.” He was right: the next year Pérez was ousted on corruption charges; in 1994, popular clamor forced then President Rafael Caldera to release Chávez from prison. The cashiered officer decided to take power via ballots instead of bulletsâ€"and four years later he won the presidency with an astonishing 57% of the vote.

FROM THE PLAINS TO THE PUTSCH

Either way, it’s not so surprising that Chávez favored the communism of Castro over the centrism of Lula. Born in rural Sabaneta, Venezuela, in central Barinas state, on July 28, 1954, Chávez grew up poor on the llanos, or plains, raised largely by a grandmother instead of his teacher parents. In Barinas he absorbed the sort of nationalist Marxism that got a boost in 1959 from Castro’s revolution in Cuba. Chávez learned to demonize the imperialista U.S. and deify the Caracas-born Bolívar, who would become the namesake of Chávez’s own Bolivarian Revolution. He exalted the llaneros, the oft-defiant plains cowboys embodied by his great-grandfather, who had led a revolt against an early 20th-century dictator.

Chávez’s schoolmates called him Tribilín, or Goofy, and made fun of his rustic shoes. But like so many Venezuelan lads of his social class, he found redemption in baseball (he was a good enough pitcher to get a tryout from the pros) and the army, where his Bolivarian self-image and his resentment of Venezuela’s venal, Washington-backed upper crust helped form an officer poised for rebellionâ€"and convinced of his own grandiose destiny. As Venezuelan journalists Alberto Barrera and Cristina Marcano note in their Chávez biography, Hugo Chávez Sin Uniforme (Hugo Chávez Out of Uniform), the military cadet had a messianic knack for drawing “parallels between landmark events in his life and historic events” involving Latin American icons like Bolívar (whose remains Chávez would exhume in 2010 for a macabre autopsy).

After winning another six-year term by a landslide three months later, Chávez did turn further left. But chasing the mirage of ideological purity, be it capitalist or socialist, too often creates its own demons, especially authoritarian government and mismanaged economies. Chávez was never quite the dictator his critics claimed, and he did reduce Venezuela’s inexcusably high povertyâ€"a large reason he won re-election last October despite Venezuela’s growing economic and security problems. Even as cancer made it hard for him to campaign, he remained the nation’s most popular political figure and defeated his opposition challenger by 11 points. Nonetheless, thanks to his own reckless and arrogant impulses, history isn’t likely to remember Chávez as fondly as his followers will.

It’s less likely to recall him as the crusader who toppled Venezuela’s criminally corrupt oligarchy in 1998, and more as the demagogue who led a failed but bloody coup in 1992. More as the President who oversaw disastrous property and business expropriations, “media responsibility” laws that made insulting el comandante a criminal offense, and the elimination of presidential term limits that he hoped would let him rule for life. It will view him less as the reformer who enfranchised Venezuela’s poor, and more as the blowhard who presided over food shortages, the world’s highest inflation rate and South America’s worst violent crime rate. Less as the Bolivarian who worked for Latin American integration and countered U.S. hegemony in the Americas, and more as the polarizer who hurled sophomoric insults at Washington as well as foes at homeâ€"like his centrist opponent in last year’s election, Henrique Capriles, whom he called “a low-life pig” during a national TV address.

In other words, leftists like Lula were the genuine 21st-century socialists, and their rise made the more doctrinaire Chávez less influential well before his cancer was diagnosed in the summer of 2011. Ironically, you can trace that decline back to September 2006, when oil prices were soaring and Chávez was at the height of his power and popularity at home and across the developing world. He could bash Bush at the U.N. and hear applause from Caracas to Karachiâ€"yet in a TIME interview the day after that speech, he all but forecast how his global and regional relevance would wither from then on.

As he drank a succession of guayoyos, or cups of Venezuelan coffee, Chávez told me with his famously caffeinated conviction that he now planned to turn even harder leftward. “I no longer think a third way is possible,” he said, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. “Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. Only socialism can create a genuine society.”

Chávez called himself a “21st-century socialist.” In reality he was a throwback to the dogmatic and authoritarian 20th-century socialism of Castro, Cuba’s former dictatorâ€"and, in fact, to the 19th-century caudillo tradition of Chávez’s demigod, South American independence hero Simón Bolívar. Chávez hoped that being democratically elected would obscure the fact that he didn’t govern all that democratically. It didn’t. So it’s tempting to dismiss him as an anachronism, a vulgar populist famous for calling then U.S. President George W. Bush a malodorous “devil” at the U.N. in 2006, an erratic retro-revolutionary whose country’s vast petro-wealth let him indulge his Marxist nostalgia.

Chávez was all of those things. But if he was a leader behind his times, he still managed to influence them. Voters don’t make a radical like Chávez their head of state unless they’re mad as hell, and his stunning ascent in fact altered the western hemisphere’s conversation when it needed to be altered. When Chávez was first elected in 1998, post-Cold War Latin America was awash in free-market reforms. Those changes were necessary, but their implementation was criminally negligent, and the region’s already epic inequality simply widened. Chávez’s bellicose neo-statism was hardly the antidote, but his Bolivarian Revolution, which steered Venezuela’s oil wealth to the barrios for a change, was a wake-up call. It re-opened the door for the Latin American leftâ€"and, fortunately, more moderates than Marxists walked through it, including former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose capitalist-socialist “third way” has since helped narrow the region’s wealth gap and brought countries like Chile to the brink of development.

Death Comes for El Comandante: Hugo Chávez (1954-2013)
By Tim Padgett | Time.com â€" 2 hrs 52 mins ago





Like his idol, Fidel Castro, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was one of the most garrulous and pugnacious leaders Latin America has ever known. That makes his death in Caracas today, March 5, at age 58, after a long and secrecy-shrouded fight with a cancer whose type he refused to disclose, feel all the more incongruous. Chávez, who for all of his 14-year rule was as loud and ubiquitous a fixture in Venezuela and Latin America as salsa music on the sidewalks, departed the stage in uncharacteristic silence after not having been seen or heard from publicly for three months.

But Chávez’s demise is likely to spark a constitutional upheaval inside Venezuela, where he and his socialist, anti-U.S. revolution controlled the world’s largest oil reserves, and where an electorate bitterly polarized over his governance must now hold a new presidential election within the next month. The most hotly debated issue is sure to be Chávez himself and his frenetic legacyâ€"whether his firebrand reign in the end represented an advance or a setback for the Latin American left.

By IAN JAMES and FRANK BAJAK | Associated Press â€" 46 mins ago


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) â€" President Hugo Chavez was a fighter. The former paratroop commander and fiery populist waged continual battle for his socialist ideals and outsmarted his rivals time and again, defeating a coup attempt, winning re-election three times and using his country's vast oil wealth to his political advantage.

A self-described "subversive," Chavez fashioned himself after the 19th Century independence leader Simon Bolivar and renamed his country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

He called himself a "humble soldier" in a battle for socialism and against U.S. hegemony. He thrived on confrontation with Washington and his political opponents at home, and used those conflicts to rally his followers.

Almost the only adversary it seemed he couldn't beat was cancer. He died Tuesday in Caracas at 4:25 local time after his prolonged illness. He was 58.

During more than 14 years in office, his leftist politics and grandiose style polarized Venezuelans. The barrel-chested leader electrified crowds with his booming voice, and won admiration among the poor with government social programs and a folksy, nationalistic style.

His opponents seethed at the larger-than-life character who demonized them on television and ordered the expropriation of farms and businesses. Many in the middle class cringed at his bombast and complained about rising crime, soaring inflation and government economic controls.

The opposite is actually true in this case. Bed rest can prevent the lower back from fully recovering â€" or at the very least, delay the recovery significantly. Patients who continue to engage in ordinary activities recover faster and usually have fewer problems with recurring pain and other back troubles. Interestingly, many studies have shown that this is not just true of back problems, but also many other medical problems. Thirty-nine independent studies found bed rest to be more harmful than good in a broad range of illnesses. -- http://listverse.com/

Quote from: islander on March 05, 2013, 03:52:55 PM
china might as well send one-fourth of its population to establish residence at scarborough shoal.

Come to think of it, unsa kahay maneuvers sa China karon nga distracted ta sa Sabah?