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In the Philippines, president-elect Rodrigo Duterte has announced his intent to bring back the death penalty, 29 years after its abolition was formally adopted.

Duterte stressed the need to revive the death penalty which, he said, would serve as “retribution” for those who committed crimes.

He said those who insist that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime do not understand his position on the issue.

“The death penalty might be a deterrence to commit a crime but that is one school of thought,” Duterte said. “Death penalty to me is the retribution. It makes you pay for what you did.”

Even without capital punishment, Philippine police have killed more than 60 drug suspects all over the country in the six weeks since Duterte was elected on May 9.

The death penalty was abolished in 1987 during the time of President Corazon Aquino but was revived in 1993 under President Fidel Ramos. Around a handful of convicts were executed during the abbreviated term of then president Joseph Estrada.

Crimes punishable by death include murder, rape, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a devout Catholic, signed a law abolishing capital punishment in 2006.

Duterte reiterated that he would not hesitate to kill those who seek to destroy the youth, which he said is the future of the country.

“Do not destroy my country because I will kill you. Do not destroy my children because I will kill you,” he said.

Duterte, who has pummeled critics of his strong anti-crime drive, said he would just ignore Commission on Human Rights Chairman Chito Gascon, who has been critical of his plans.

“If you know Gascon or if he is your friend, tell him I won’t follow him,” he said.

Duterte also made an unusual threat against incoming senator Leila de Lima, who vowed to scrutinize the law enforcement operations of the next administration.

“If De Lima does not shut her mouth, I will kill her â€" with love. If she agrees, I don’t know,” he remarked. â€" AP, Alexis Romero

(The Philippine Star) | Updated June 23, 2016 - 12:00am


VATICAN CITY â€" Pope Francis is amplifying his opposition to capital punishment, saying it’s an offense to life, contradicts God’s plan and serves no purpose for punishment.

In a video message to an anti-death penalty congress in Norway, Francis declared the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty.

Francis has gone beyond his predecessors and traditional Catholic teaching in saying there is simply no justification for the death penalty today. He said Tuesday that rather than rendering justice, it fosters vengeance.

Church teaching allows for recourse to capital punishment when it is the only way to defend lives “effectively” against an aggressor.

“It must not be forgotten that the inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal,” he said.

Francis sent the video message to the delegates of the sixth World Congress against capital punishment, currently being held in Oslo, Norway.

The pontiff did not mention any particular country in his message.

He stressed the practice of capital punishment brings no justice to victims.

“Indeed, nowadays, the death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of the convicted person,” Francis said in the message.

The World Congress in Oslo discussed the need to sustain the move in abolishing the death penalty in some countries.

As of today, 140 nations have abolished the death penalty, as compared to only 16 countries in 1977.

The Republic of the Congo, Fiji, Madagascar, Mongolia and Suriname become the latest countries to formally abolish capital punishment.

The death penalty is prevalent in Asia and the Middle East, with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran responsible for 89 percent of recorded executions in 2015. This does not include China, where official statistics on its use are considered a state secret.

China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US are the five biggest executioners in the world.

Other countries have passed counterterrorism laws that expanded the list of crimes punishable by death.

So far, the Tribunal has exercised jurisdiction on the determination of the nature of disputed features (see Article 121) such as Scarborough Shoal as well as mischief, Gaven, McKennan, Hughues, Johnson, Cuarteron and Fiery Cross reefs; the environmental impact of China’s activities near Scarborough and Second Thomas shoals; and aggressive maneuver against Filipino vessels near the Scarborough Shoal.

Though China has formally boycotted the arbitration proceedings at The Hague, and has vigorously argued against compulsory arbitration (under Art. 287, Annex VII of UNCLOS), the Arbitral Tribunal at The Hague provided the Philippines an unprecedented opportunity to leverage the UNCLOS as a basis to resolve maritime disputes in one of the world’s most critical Sea Lines of Communications (SLOCs).

With the jurisdiction hurdle out of the way, the Philippines’ case has paved the way for other claimant states to consider similar options. As an indication of the possibility for a ‘lawfare multiplier’, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Japan have contemplated the option of taking China to international court over disputes across the Western Pacific. Even if they don’t actually file a case, they can extract concessions from China by simply threatening to do so.

More importantly, a favorable ruling (to the Philippines) could provide the legal pretext for other major powers such as America, Japan and other likeminded states to conduct sustained, multilateral Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) across the disputes waters.

The Philippines and its allies also hope that the tribunal will also pass a favorable verdict on key items such as the validity of China’s expansive nine-dashed-lien claims and (newly-concocted) doctrine of historical rights, which many objective observers believe are not consistent with prevailing international law.

What is at stake here is no less than protecting global commons under the auspices of international law. The alternative is the tragedy of great power politics and the rule of the jungle in high seas.

China has tried to procedurally sabotage the Philippines’ case by citing exemption clauses under the UNCLOS (see Art. 298, Annex VII), questioning the competency of the Tribunal to adjudicate what Beijing describes as fundamentally sovereignty-related disputes, and argued that compulsory arbitration is premature since all avenues of conciliation haven’t been supposedly exhausted.

Since arbitration bodies under UNCLOS don’t have the mandate to address sovereignty claims, however, the Philippines astutely repackaged its complaint as a matter of sovereignty rights and maritime entitlements. Last October, the arbitral tribunal at The Hague unanimously voted in favor of exercising jurisdiction on the Philippines’ case, thus rejecting Beijing’s efforts to sabotage Manila’s laudable legal effort.

Despite China’s refusal to participate in the proceedings, the tribunal judges (under Art. 9, Annex VII) have proceeded with arbitration, but have (under Art. 5, Annex VII) continuously provided Beijing the opportunity to present its case formally or through informal channels like, say, positions papers and statements by Chinese public officials.

In a 10-page summary, the judges argued that the Philippines’ case “was properly constituted” and that the Southeast Asian country’s “act of initiating this arbitration did not constitute an abuse of process [as asserted by China].”Reassuringly, it argued that “China’s non-appearance in these proceedings does not deprive the Tribunal of jurisdiction,” and “international law does not require a State to continue negotiations when it concludes that the possibility of a negotiated solution has been exhausted.”

In short, the Philippines was right to resort to compulsory arbitration, because negotiations with an intransigent China were going nowhere. The Tribunal, however, didn’t exercise jurisdiction on all of the Philippines’ arguments against China, opting to cover 7 out of 15 items. But other items were left for either further clarification or further consideration since they “do not possess an exclusively preliminary character.”

Four centuries after the publication British jurist John Selfen’s The Closed Sea (Mare clausum), which argued for exclusive sovereign control of international waters, Beijing is inching closer to transforming the South China Seaâ€" which handles up to a third of global maritime commerce, four times as much energy transport as the Suez canal, and more than a tenth of global fisheries stockâ€"into what some would call a virtual Chinese lake.

“The Sea, by the Law of Nature or Nations, is not common to all men, but capable of private Dominion or proprietie as well as the Land,” Selden wrote in the The Closed Sea (Mare clausum) in 1635. It was a direct rebuttal of Dutch Jurist Hugo Grotius’ influential book, The Free Sea (Mare Liberum), which served as the foundation of modern international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

For Grotius, high seas are global commons that, by their very nature, should be accessible to the entire humankind on a non-exclusive basis. And this is precisely what the Philippines’ arbitration case is all about: Preserving shared and rule-based access to global commons such as the South China Sea. It is about ensuring the modern principle of ‘rule of law’ against the ancient principal of ‘might makes right’.

Perturbed by the prospect of an embarrassing legal setback, China has embarked on a systematic effort to delegitimize the Philippines’ arbitration case and misrepresent its nature. Beijing has lashed out at the arbitration proceedings and in a comically desperate fashion has sought to undermine the legitimacy of the arbitration body by setting up its own international courts and (supposedly) rallying up to sixty countries, mostly poor and many landlocked, to question the Philippines’ arbitration manoeuvre.

06/22/2016 11:48 pm ET | Updated 1 hour ago
Richard Javad Heydarian


In the coming days, an obscure arbitral tribunal, formed under the aegis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is expected to issue a final ruling on the Philippines’ complaint against China’s expanding (military and civilian) footprint across the world’s most important waterway, the South China Sea. Let’s put things into perspective.

In the last two years, China has reclaimed 3200 acres (1,295 hectares) of land to build gigantic artificial islands in Spratly chain of islands, giving birth to a sprawling network of civilian and military installations across the disputed waters. Singlehandedly, China in recent years has reclaimed almost two dozen times more than all other claimant states combined in the past half-a-century. And nothing compares to China’s futuristic and highly sophisticated artificially-built islands in the high seas.

China is even more dominant in other portions of the disputed waters. Its control of the Paracel chain of islands is a fait accompli, while the Pratas chain of islands are under the administration of what Beijing considers as a renegade province, Taiwan, which will likely be eventually reincorporated into a Greater China. There are reports that China may soon also establish military facilities on the Scarborough Shoal, which lies just 200 kilometres away from Philippines shores but w whopping 900 kilometres away from nearest Chinese coastline. There are concerns that China may soon establish an exclusion zone in the area.

The sheer scale, speech and technological sophistication of China’s reclamation activities, the ever-larger deployment of Chinese fishermen-cum-militia forces, stationing of advanced military hardware like high-frequency radars and surface-to-air-missile systems, the augmentation of Chinese coast guard, submarine and naval presence in the area, not to mention an uptick in Chinese aerial interception of foreign reconnaissance aircrafts in the South China Sea - they all underscore Beijing’s intent on dominating what it describes as its blue “national soil”. Soon, China may be in a position to establish an “exclusion zone” in the area, imperilling freedom of overflight and navigation for regional and external military forces in the area.

Shrinking cocaine market

However, the global cocaine market appears to be “shrinking” despite top producer Colombia recently massively upping its output, the UN agency said.

Global coca cultivation fell by more than 30 percent between 1998 and 2014, due in part to national eradication efforts and alternative development programs for farmers.

In a study released last July, the UNODC said cultivation in Colombia had risen 44 percent in 2014 to 69,000 hectares (175,000 acres)â€"slightly over half of the global growth area, but still way below the peak levels reached two decades ago.

But the increase has so far not translated into more cocaine entering the global market, and consumption in both the US and Europe continues to drop, the latest report said.

The UNODC said the Colombian surge may have been linked to peace talks between the government and the FARC guerilla force.

It said the rebels were thought to encourage farmers to grow coca to then benefit from alternative development programs once a deal is reached.

The rebels, who were to sign a definitive ceasefire with the government later on Thursday, have previously said they would cut all ties to the cocaine trade, currently a major source of income. AFP

US ‘epidemic’

Of the world’s estimated 29 million heavy drug users, some 17 million are addicted to opiates, which include heroin, opium and morphine.

Asia remains the world’s largest market for opiates, accounting for an estimated two thirds of all users.

Over the last two years, record opium output in Afghanistan has sparked a large increase in cheaper heroin supply to the United States.

As a result, heroin-related deaths reached the highest level in a decade, almost doubling from 5,925 in 2012 to 10,800 in 2014 in the US.

The UNODC said the US “epidemic” still showed no signs of abating.

The report also found there were signs that heroin shipments to Europe were on the rise, with a higher number of seizures recorded by customs in Italy and France.

June 23, 2016 5:13 pm


VIENNA: Global opium production plunged almost 40 percent last year but the world remains awash with heroin, the narcotic that still kills the most people worldwide, the United Nations said Thursday.

“Heroin continues to be the drug that kills the most people and this resurgence must be addressed urgently,” said Yury Fedotov, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a new report.

It said that production of opium, which is processed into heroin, fell to 4,770 tons in 2015, down 38 percent from the previous year.

However, 2014 was one of the strongest years on record and last year saw a poor harvest in Afghanistan, the world’s biggest opium producer accounting for 70 percent of global output.

The report also said the sharp fall was “unlikely” to lead to “major shortages” in heroin supplies since traffickers have built up massive stockpiles in recent years.

“There’s no reason to think that heroin production in Afghanistan is over,” the report’s lead researcher Angela Me told Agence France-Presse.

“There’s still a lot of heroin in the market.”

NEGLECTED

There are more than 258 million widows worldwide, nearly 10 percent of whom live in sub-Saharan African, according to the Loomba Foundation's 2015 World Widows Report.

Around one in 10 African women are widows, yet there is little data on their lives or well-being.

Widows are often overlooked because they do not know their rights, or feel compelled to stay silent about the abuse they face, said Naana Otoo-Oyortey, head of women's rights charity FORWARD.

"Widows may not see the rituals as violating their rights, but as a normal way to honor their husband. Even if they want to speak out, they know there will be repercussions," she said.

While many African countries such as Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Ghana have laws to protect widows' rights, these are often trumped in rural areas by customary laws, campaigners say.

Widows' rights activists across Africa are now pushing to change harmful cleansing rituals.

Rather than having sex with a relative of her late husband, many widows in Zimbabwe offer a bowl of water if they want to stay with the family.

In Sierra Leone, women were encouraged to wash stones instead of corpses during the Ebola outbreak to avoid spreading the virus.

"Traditional cleansing rites helped spread Ebola until they were halted and changed ... there is no reason these alternative mourning rites could not become common," said WRI's Brewer.

Several civil society groups across sub-Saharan Africa work to inform widows of their rights, support their inheritance claims, and provide refuge for those evicted or ostracized.

But Marthe Chantal Ngouassa, president of the Cameroonian charity Widows in Distress, said governments too often neglected widows and ignored the hardships they faced.

"All widows have the same problem - they are marginalized, stigmatized and abused," she said. "The death of the widow begins with the death of the husband."

HIV THREAT

Widows across Africa are often kicked out of their homes by their in-laws because national and community laws do not allow them to inherit their husband's property, or because women do not know if they have rights to the land, campaigners say.

In Cameroon's capital Yaounde, Berthe sits outside her flimsy house, watching her two sons play football as she recalls the beautiful home they lived in before her husband's death.

After the funeral last year, her husband's brother and sister asked Berthe if they could see the deeds for the house.

Without thinking, the newly widowed mother handed them over. A year later she was told the house had been sold.

"When I threatened to complain, they beat me nearly to death - saying I was just a poor woman married to a rich man," said Berthe, who now carries facial scars and walks with a limp.

Fearing the consequences, many widows decide not to pursue their land rights, said lawyer Yveline Ntanfa Bandji, director of the Douala-based Women's Counselling and Information Center.

Yet widows are entitled to live on their late husband's land until they die, and their children, not the in-laws, are the legal heirs, she said.

With no income or possessions, widows forced out of their homes are vulnerable to rape and may resort to selling sex to survive, putting them at greater risk of HIV, experts say.

Many women in Africa are widowed very young after marrying much older men. If they cannot support their children they may in turn marry off their own daughters early, said Bethany Brown, an expert on widows at Human Rights Watch.

"There is a vicious cycle of widowhood and early marriage - impoverishment among widows is a major factor in perpetuating child marriage," she added.

Millions of widows in sub-Saharan Africa are left destitute after being disinherited and robbed of their property, women's rights campaigners said ahead of International Widows' Day on Thursday.

Many, like Clarisse, are abused and exploited by their in-laws, forced to undergo cleansing rituals or marry one of their husband's relatives in a practice known as widow inheritance.

Traditional cleansing rituals are intended to rid a widow of her husband's spirit. In some communities widows are forced to have sex with a stranger, in others they have to clean their husband's corpse and then drink the dirty water.

Widow inheritance, cleansing rites and the eviction of women from their homes are fuelling the transmission of HIV across the continent, and may have contributed to the spread of the world's worst Ebola outbreak in West Africa, experts say.

"Widows are damned if they go through the rituals and damned if they don't," Karen Brewer of Widows Rights International (WRI) told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from London.

"If you accept these inhumane and degrading rituals, you run the risk of disease. If you don't, you are condemned for not saying goodbye to your husband, and are abused and ostracized."

From cleaning corpses to sex with strangers, widow rituals fuel disease in Africa
Published June 22, 2016


DOUALA/DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Clarisse's husband died of malaria last year in the Cameroonian city of Douala, she was kicked out of their home by his family and forced to marry his brother.

After having sex with her new husband, the 34-year-old discovered she had syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease that can lead to blindness and stroke if untreated.

"He accused me of infidelity. He called a meeting of our families and told them I was a prostitute," she said tearfully, fiddling with the gold wedding ring from her first marriage.

"Everyone accused me of being a witch and said it was me who had killed my husband ... my stepmother threatened to kill me," added Clarisse, who fled with her daughter to the outskirts of Douala, where she lives in an old wooden shack on a riverbank.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/
Published June 14, 2016 6:44pm
Updated June 14, 2016 8:28pm


Eight Philippine universities led by the University of the Philippines are included in the latest Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings on the top 350 universities in Asia.

UP ranked 70th in the 2016 QS rankings, unchanged from last year, followed by the Ateneo de Manila University which went up 15 places from 114th in 2015 to 99th this year.

De La Salle University (DLSU), meanwhile, had the biggest leap in the QS rankings with a 40-point jump from 183rd to 143rd spot, overtaking the University of Santo Tomas (UST), which dropped 14 points from 143rd to 157th.

UST, however, is the lone Philippine university that received four QS stars.

According to the QS website, the star rating system “allows students to get a wider picture of an institution's qualities, looking at everything from employability of graduates, to sports facilities and community engagement.”

“It is designed to reflect the nuanced mission of universities, and the needs of students who may be interested in things other than those to which traditional rankings are necessarily limited,” the London-based career and education firm added.

Siliman University, Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro, and Ateneo de Davao University, meanwhile, were in the 250-300 bracket while University of San Carlos in Cebu was in the 301-350 bracket.

QS uses nine indicators to compile the University Rankings: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations paper, papers per faculty, staff with a doctorate degree, proportion of international faculty and students, and the proportion of inbound and outbound exchange students. â€"Joseph Tristan Roxas/KBK, GMA News

Human eyes are different from those of other animals in this regard. Our pupils and irises are darker from the white part of the eyeball known as the sclera, and this contrast is why you can tell when someone's looking at you or simply looking past you.

Other species have less visible sclera, which is advantageous for predators that don’t want their prey to know where they’re looking. However, human survival is more dependent on communication, which is why we evolved to have larger, white sclera, which help us make eye contact.

But when head and body positions don’t provide much information, research shows that we can still detect another person’s gaze extraordinarily well because of our peripheral vision.

We evolved to be this sensitive to gaze to survive. Why? Because every look someone throws your way is a potential threat.

Clifford tested this by asking study participants to indicate where various faces were looking. He found that when people couldn’t determine the direction of a gaze â€" because of dark conditions or the faces were wearing sunglasses â€" people typically thought they were being watched.

He concluded that in situations where we’re not certain where a person is looking, our brain informs us that we’re being watched â€" just in case there's a potential interaction.

“A direct gaze can signal dominance or a threat, and if you perceive something as a threat, you would not want to miss it,” Clifford said. “So simply assuming another person is looking at you may be the safest strategy.”

MNN.com
LAURA MOSS
November 19, 2015, 5:18 p.m.


If you’ve ever felt like someone was watching you, you may have attributed that awareness to a sense of unease or a prickling on the back of your neck. But there’s nothing psychic about it; your brain was simply picking up on cues. In fact, your brain is wired to inform you that someone is looking at you â€" even when they’re not.

“Far from being ESP, the perception originates from a system in the brain that's devoted to detecting where others are looking,” writes social psychologist Ilan Shrira. This concept may sound confusing, but it actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it as a survival instinct.

Many mammals can tell when another animal is looking at them, but the human “gaze-detection system” is particularly good at doing this from a distance. We’re able to easily discern where someone is looking.

This system is especially sensitive when someone is looking at you directly, and studies have found that particular cells fire when this happens.

“Gaze perception â€" the ability to tell what someone is looking at â€" is a social cue people often take for granted,” Colin Clifford, a psychologist at the University of Sydney's Vision Center, told the Daily Mail. “Judging whether others are looking at us may come naturally, but it's actually not that simple as our brains have to do a lot of work behind the scenes.”

When you catch someone looking at you, what is it that clued you in? Often, it’s as simple as the position of the person's head or body.

If both the head and body are turned toward you, it’s clear where the person's attention is focused. It’s even more obvious when the person's body is pointed away from you but their head is facing you. When this happens, you immediately look to the person’s eyes to see where they're looking.

The quasi-satellite was given the label of asteroid 2016 HO3, though surely it ought to be in line for a more charismatic title sometime soon. Scientists also assure that the space rock is no threat to our planet or to our main squeeze, the moon.

"The asteroid's loops around Earth drift a little ahead or behind from year to year, but when they drift too far forward or backward, Earth's gravity is just strong enough to reverse the drift and hold onto the asteroid so that it never wanders farther away than about 100 times the distance of the moon," said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The same effect also prevents the asteroid from approaching much closer than about 38 times the distance of the moon. In effect, this small asteroid is caught in a little dance with Earth."

"Our calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth's companion for centuries to come," he added.

Earth has captured a second moon, says NASA
A mini-moon has been orbiting our planet for only around 100 years.
MNN.com > Earth Matters > Space
BRYAN NELSON
June 17, 2016, 4:54 p.m.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbbAnVU4rmY


Well, this is awkward. Earth's relationship with the moon is no longer a monogamous one. Scientists have identified a second, mini-moon orbiting our planet that has probably only been around for about 100 years, reports NASA.

This second moon looks to be a recently captured asteroid, and like a mistress, its subtle dance with Earth may be fleeting, only sticking around for a few centuries. Still, it's a remarkable event that proves just how dynamic our gravitational relationship is with near-Earth objects.

The video above showcases in detail the path of the new moon's orbit as it bobs up and down like a tiny float in choppy water. As said, it's small, measuring in at only around 120 feet across and no more than 300 feet wide, which is probably why it has taken so long for scientists to spot it. (It was only just spotted last April.) Its distance from Earth varies from between 38 and 100 times the distance of our planet’s primary moon.

Philippines media reported on Monday that drug dealers were killed when they resisted arrest during operations in Manila, Laguna, Bulacan, Rizal, Bohol and Cebu at the weekend.

Police said many of those killed in those raids and undercover stings had chosen not to go quietly.

"Our undercover agents killed two known drug peddlers in sting operations," Adriano Enong, police chief in Rizal province just to the east of Manila, told reporters.

"There was a shootout between undercover police officers and drug peddlers when the men sensed they had sold 500 pesos ($10.80) worth of drugs to policemen," he said.

Manila Archbishop Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle gave special prayers on Sunday urging incoming state officials to avoid a culture of death and reprisal. Those prayers will be read each day before the new government takes office in the deeply religious, predominantly Catholic Philippines.

Catholic bishops have been disturbed by statements attributed to Duterte warning of killings, and by his plan to seek the return of the death penalty by hanging.

Duterte has also said some journalists were killed because they were corrupt.

In southern Davao City, where Duterte was mayor for more than 20 years, rights groups documented a total of 1,400 unsolved murders from 1998, most of them petty criminals and street-level drug peddlers. Duterte denies any involvement.


(Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Martin Petty and Paul Tait)

4 hours ago
By Manuel Mogato


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine police killed 11 suspected drug dealers during operations at the weekend, police said on Monday, adding to a surge of drugs-related killings since Rodrigo Duterte swept an election last month on promises to wipe out crime.

Duterte's single-issue campaign of tackling illegal drugs and other crime within six months, and his staunch advocacy of extrajudicial killings, struck a chord with Filipino voters. However, rights groups have rebuked him over concerns that, as president, he would live up to his nickname of "the punisher".

The more than 40 drug suspects killed since Duterte's May 9 election victory compares with the 39 deaths recorded in the four months before it, said National Police spokesman Wilben Mayor.

Duterte takes office on June 30 and has repeatedly reassured police they would have his full support if they killed criminals who resisted with violence. He has also warned that police found to be involved in the drug trade would suffer the same fate.

Speculation has been rife in Manila that some police involved in the drugs business were clearing the decks before Duterte takes office by eliminating criminals who could implicate them.

However, incoming national police chief Ronald dela Rosa said drug peddlers were killed in legitimate operations.

"I would know if these people were killed in rub-outs," he said in a radio interview.

You may have heard the saying that the ocean is “95 percent” unexplored. Marine biologists feel that it is a gross oversimplification. Scientists today, using tricks involving satellites, radar, and a lot of math, have managed to map ocean terrain to a maximum resolution of 5 kilometers (3 mi). While this is still only accurate up to a point, it is a lot more detailed knowledge than some people realize. Marine biologists have a pretty good idea what trenches, dips, and ridges exist in the ocean and are regularly updating their technology and improving their mapping.

However, marine biologist John Copley, even while pointing out the fallacy of the meme, also admits in Scientific American than in practicality, we probably have much less than 5 percent of the ocean actually explored. True full sonar coverage of an areaâ€"which would allow us to find wrecks as small as flights like MH370â€"is something we have only achieved for less than 1 percent of the ocean.

In terms of actually knowing what is physically happening in most of the ocean, how the ecosystem is, and what all the various creatures are in it, our knowledge is probably even less. As far as marine biologists are concerned, the ocean is an almost limitless place for exploration. We could spend thousands of years and trillions of dollarsm and there would still be the vast majority yet to discover and understand. -- http://listverse.com/

Photo credit: William Henry Wheeler


A lot of bizarre trends emerged after the invention of photography. The most famous of these trends was post-mortem photography, which showed us how death-obsessed the Victorians were due to the high mortality rate back then. However, that wasn’t the only morbid photography trend that was popular at that time. In 1853, a prominent photographer named Oscar Rejlander started an equally disturbing trend known as “Headless Portraits.”

Oscar, sometimes considered the father of art photography, combined negatives and formed pictures of living people beside their own decapitated heads. Soon, there was a huge demand for these photographs, and several photographers adopted the technique.

People took pictures in which their heads were everywhere but on their neck. They held their decapitated heads tucked under their arms, some placed theirs on a platter, while others even dangled it from their own hands with a knife on the other hand. No one was left out of this bizarre fun, as even children were known to take headless portraits. -- http://listverse.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtE3llzYYgo

Published June 20, 2016 12:49pm
By SHARON REICH, Reuters


It's easy to see why this humanoid robot got the job as the newest staff member at Belgium's AZ Damiaan hospital.

Pepper speaks 19 languages, knows her way around the place, and has the perfect bedside manner.

Employed to welcome patients and visitors, it was developed by Belgium's Zora Bots to improve health care.

The company's Fabrice Goffin says Pepper is not like other humanoid robots on the market.

"The robot itself is a metre 20 high, so it is not like Arnold Schwarzenegger with a leather jacket and an 'I will be back' robot, it is a quite nice robot and the reactions are positive for the moment for as long as it does not take jobs but it is not the case for Pepper," said Fabrice Goffin, Zora Bots co-CEO.

The robot was designed with specialized software that works on any device with internet access.

A complete charge gives it up to 20 hours of walk and talk time. And at a mellow pace of 3 kilometres per hour all patients are able to keep up with Pepper, even slower moving ones.

In its first week on the job, Pepper was assigned to the maternity ward.

"It is another way of making contact and maybe it is reassuring that it is a robot for some people. So it can be, I know. The baby was really sure, he did not mind putting his hands on it. It did not frighten him so I think it will be important. Especially for children," said Bieke Vandeputte, a mother.

With a personal touch like Pepper's, heading to the hospital could become a new kind of experience, one that even puts a smile on patients' faces. â€" Reuters

By: Leo Udtohan
@inquirerdotnet
Inquirer Visayas
01:44 PM June 20th, 2016
 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol â€" Police killed an alleged drug pusher and arrested seven others in a buy-bust operation inside a drug den on Sunday night.

The fatality was identified as Rogaciano “Tano” Omus, Jr., a resident of Pamaong Extension, Cogon District, in this city.

Supt. George Acol Vale, Tagbilaran police chief,  described Omus as a “notorious” drug dealer whose customers were usually students and tricycle drivers.

Omus sold P500 worth of shabu to an undercover policeman at an abandoned house owned by his brother in Cogon District, in this city, at 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

When a drug bust was announced, the suspect  resisted arrest, pulled out his .38 caliber revolver from his waist and fired at the police officer, said Vale.

This prompted the policeman to shoot the suspect.

Police recovered from the crime scene sachets of suspected shabu and several drug paraphernalia and a .38 hand gun.

The police also caught seven persons allegedly sniffing shabu inside the house.

They were identified as Marjune Melo, 28; Nicanor Ingking, 45; Cornelio Colata, 23; Venerando Camanzo, 24 and  Michael Ray Ronco, 18, all from Tagbilaran City.

The two others were minors from Dauis and Panglao towns.

Vale said charges of violation of  the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, would be filed against the suspects who were detained at the Tagiblaran police station.

He said the two minors would be turned over to the city Social Welfare and Development Office.  SFM/rga

We’re sure these two will be friends for life. Now go hug your furry best friend!



All image source: ErikBurton/Imgur

Through all the laughs and snuggles, Soren is always by Erik’s side. Erik writes, “His color has changed quite a bit, and he’s gotten bigger, but he’s still that little kitten.”

There is no questioning who is the King of this household.

But Soren also has a fun side. We hear he’s the master of ridiculous Apples to Apples pairings.

A truly loyal best friend, Soren is always willing to lend a paw when Erik needs help studying.

“He is such a quirky cat,” Erik writes on Imgur, “He has his own personality, and he’s so outgoing. Some cats are just kind of, you know, there. Not this guy.”

Like any good kitten would, Soren scoped out the best napping spots.

It didn’t take long for Soren to make himself at home.

Erik and his girlfriend named the kitten Soren, after Soren Kierkegaard the Danish Poet, and the bond between these two was set!

The little kitten had already left his paw prints on Erik’s heart, so he came back the next day to adopt his new friend.

Of course, before leaving the shelter, Erik stopped to play with the small cat. The two hit it off immediately.

Erik’s girlfriend entreated him to take the little guy home, but not wanting to make a rash decision, he gave himself some time to think about it first.

Man Falls for a Shelter Kitten and Shares the Story of Their Companionship in Photos
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/
Kate Good
June 19, 2016 


If you have adopted a dog or cat in your lifetime, you know that they can completely change your world. After they wrap their little paws around your heart, life before dog or cat (B.D. or B.C. respectively) almost seems like a dark distant memory. We have to say we owe a lot to our fur babies for teaching us how to enjoy the little things in life and learning how to love unconditionally.

Given the amazing bonds that we’ve seen develop between animals and humans, we can’t say that this epic love story between a man and his rescue kitten comes as a surprise. Still, surprise or not, their relationship is incredibly sweet.

When Imgur user, ErikBurton, walked into the local humane society with his girlfriend, he met the little ball of fluff who would soon become his new best friend, Soren the kitten.

Amateur: The police spokesperson in the Philippines said Abu Sayyaf outsources the role of ‘targeting victim’, ‘kidnapping’ and ‘ransom negotiations’.

Logically, the Islamic organisation allegedly receiving the RM12 millions must be linked to them.

RM2.6 Billion Turkey Haram: If it is true, well and good. But, what is feared is that the story might be another fiction.

As Zahid has said, the Islamic body has no terrorist link and as such a legal one in Philippines. Since, it is a legal body, why isn't the name of the body revealed?

Secondly, transferring so much money to another country might infringe the host country's currency laws. So were the relevant authorities in the Philippines informed and permission granted before giving such a huge sum?

Lastly, Zahid claimed that the money would help the Islamic body in its struggle. Now, struggle against what? If it is a struggle against the Philippines, wouldn't that money amount to interfering with the country's affairs?

Malaysia888: If one can lie about RM2.6 billion, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when it comes to this RM12 million.

Vijay47: If JK Rowling wrote a story with a plot line a tenth of what Zahid comes out with, the world would have laughed her out of town.

And here we have the deputy prime minister dishing out a fable that money raised to free kidnap victims were donated for some Islamic group "which assists in an Islamic struggle".

This completely defies logic or the intelligence of a cow. If the funds raised were no longer needed, they should have been returned to the donors. Were the families consulted?

Gaji Buta: Which country can produce increasingly incredible news on a daily basis? On Wednesday, it was Sungai Besar Umno chief Jamal Md Yunos ‘rescuing’ Chinese fishermen and now, this.

Stay tuned for the next release of 'Amazing Tales' by Umno. Popcorn already on standby.


The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers.

Anonymous S303: The Filipino Islamic body should return this blood money as there is no reason for them to have such money.

The contributors certainly did not intend for the money to be paid over to such a “body in the Philippines which assists in an Islamic struggle” and the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) did not have such a mandate to ‘donate’ to an Islamic body?

What about the RM1 million obtained from family members mortgaging their property. The Philippine government should check on this as it is a mode of ‘financing terrorism’ under their money-laundering law.

Jasper: Why is the entity that received the money not named?

If the police decided not to pay the ransom, were they authorised to give it to another entity that has no relationship with the Abu Sayyaf group? Should the money not have been returned to the donors?

Worried Sick: If what Zahid said is true - that the government gave the RM12 million to an 'Islamic body' in the Philippines - it will be interesting to watch what will happen if the families concerned were to sue the government in a court of law for the return of the money.

However, if the families are themselves accomplices in the matter, then Zahid is just playing a game of words.

The Analyser: Of course, it wasn't a ransom. In fact, the Abu Sayyaf men knew nothing about the donation, right? They just returned the fishermen to Sarawak out of the goodness of their Islamic hearts, being Ramadan and all that.

By the way, did you get a receipt from the anonymous ‘Islamic body’ in the Philippines? The donors might need that for taxation purposes.

I guess the next move will be for the anonymous Islamic body to send out more 'missionaries' to Sabah to convert a few more highly priced Chinese fishermen to their cause.

Watchdog: Were the hostages Muslims? If not, isn't this ‘haram’ money to be received by an Islamic charity?

https://www.malaysiakini.com/
YOURSAY
Published Today 7:18 am     Updated Today 7:24 am


 
YOURSAY | ‘If one can lie about RM2.6b, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised about this RM12m.’

Zahid: RM12m raised by kin given to Filipino Islamic body

FellowMalaysian: DPM and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi tells us the hostages' families had managed to raise RM12 million and this was paid not as ransom but to an Islamic body in the Philippines which is not linked to terrorism nor crime.

The DPM is expecting us to believe that the relatives are super rich and raising millions was a breeze, and that there are 'organisations' in the Philippines which are true to Islamic struggles but parley with the kidnappers and abductors, and which upon receiving the RM12 million 'donation' from the Malaysian authorities purportedly only to be used for Islamic upliftment activities, has miraculously managed to 'persuade and convince' the kidnappers into releasing the four victims without having paid them any money from the RM12 million raised?

And the DPM talked with a straight face before issuing a public statement 'clarifying' the circumstances as to what led to the confusion. Zahid expects us to believe his story as to him, Malaysians are gullible and will accept anything he said.

Kuasa Rakyat: In Malaysia, the word ‘donation’ is a very popular word. It is almost certain that the Abu Sayyaf group collected the ‘donation’ from the so-called Islamic body, which received the ‘donation’ from Malaysia.

Kawak: If the Islamic body has nothing to do with the kidnappers, how come the victims were released after payment?

This is a play on words. Is interest on loan the same as profit-sharing dividends on loans given out? In substance, the money was paid to secure the release. You can call it ransom or donation. It is the same.

The shoal is one of many maritime disputes at the center of a legal case the Philippines has brought against China before an international court in The Hague. The Permanent Court of Arbitration is due to rule this month on the case, but China has already vowed to ignore the tribunal’s decision, which is expected to favor Manila.

If China succeeded in taking over Scarborough, it could build airstrips there and enable Beijing to draw a “strategic triangle” linking reefs and islands in the Paracel Islands to the west and the Spratlys to the south, effectively fencing off the South China Sea, experts say. That could pave the way for Beijing to declare a possible air defense identification zone in the area, demanding commercial and military aircraft seek permission before flying through it.

Allowing China to seize complete control of the shoal and launch land reclamation work would represent a “geopolitical loss” for Washington that would be unacceptable, Blair said.

For the United States, the Scarborough Shoal represents “at least a pink line, if not a red line,” Blair said.

If a clash erupted, China would find itself in a difficult position, hundreds of miles from its military bases. Any Chinese aircraft would need to be refueled just to arrive at the location.

“From everything I know militarily, that would be a bad place for China to pick a fight,” he said.

The feud over Scarborough Shoal flared up in 2012, and the United States tried to mediate a deal to defuse the argument. The Philippines complied with the deal and withdrew its ships, but the Chinese never pulled back their vessels and continue to deploy ships at the mouth of the shoal’s bay.

The United States has conveyed its solidarity with the Philippines through a number of symbolic steps in recent months, but has stopped short of publicly announcing any red lines.

Asked if the United States had issued a warning to China not to undertake land reclamation at Scarborough Shoal, State Department spokesperson Anna Richey-Allen said the United States regularly holds discussions with Chinese officials about developments in the South China Sea.

“Beyond that, I cannot comment on the specific content of our diplomatic engagements,” Richey-Allen told Foreign Policy.

“Since 2012, Chinese Coast Guard vessels have sought to block fishing access to the area, restricting the long-standing commercial practices of others. We are concerned that such actions exacerbate tensions in the region and are counterproductive,” she added.

In April, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made a point of stepping foot on an American aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, as it patrolled waters west of the Philippines. He then paid a visit to the annual Balikatan exercise, which involved 5,000 troops from the United States, 3,500 troops from the Philippines, and 80 forces from Australia and included an amphibious operation on a hypothetical South China Sea island.

After the exercise, the Pentagon sent out A-10 Thunderbolt warplanes to conduct patrols over Scarborough Shoal.

At Scarborough Shoal, China Is Playing With Fire: Retired Admiral

Dan De Luce   
June 17, 2016


A former U.S. commander warns that Beijing would be taking a big risk if it started dredging on the disputed shoal near the Philippines.

China would risk a potential military confrontation with the United States if it started dredging on a disputed shoal off the coast of the Philippines, retired U.S. Navy Adm. Dennis Blair said Thursday. And in a clash with the United States and its allies in the Philippines, Beijing almost certainly would lose, he said.

“If the Chinese push there, I think there’s going to be trouble,” said Blair, who once oversaw U.S. forces in the region as the former four-star head of Pacific Command. “And it’s trouble that the United States and the Philippines are going to win because the military situation is set up that way.”

To assert its power in the South China Sea and back up its expansionist territorial claims, Beijing has sent out fishing fleets in contested waters and built up artificial islands atop reefs in the past two year years, constructing airstrips and deep-water harbors that can accommodate naval ships.

In a growing rivalry over the strategic waterway, both China and the United States have stepped up patrols of naval ships, reconnaissance planes, and fighter jets in the disputed waters. The deployments have amounted to “shadow boxing” between the two powers and the risk of conflict has remained relatively low, said Blair, who also served as director of national intelligence during President Barack Obama’s first term.

But unlike the disputed Spratly Islands, which are the subject of multiple rival claims from China and several other Southeast Asian countries, the Scarborough Shoal effectively pits Beijing directly against Manila.

With the shoal located less than 150 miles from the Philippines, but 500 miles from China, experts believe Manila has a strong legal case in the disputed claims. The stakes are high as the Philippines has a mutual defense treaty with the United States that could possibly be invoked if Manila sought to defend what it considers sovereign territory.

“I would be surprised if the United States hasn’t told China it’s a shoal too far for them,” Blair told a group of reporters at a briefing at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, where he serves as CEO. “It hasn’t been said publicly, but I hope we have done so privately.”

Tensions rose this week at the shoal after Chinese Coast Guard vessels prevented a Philippine nationalist group from planting a Filipino flag on one of the rock outcroppings.

The humiliated hunk however was hooked on a promise he made to his mother Patsy to never divorce Niemi for fear that she would reveal a dark secret that would ruin his career.

Joan Leighton, who runs the private fan-based chat room called “Perfectly Patrick,” posted a possible explanation as to why Swayze refused to divorce Niemi during a discussion about her infidelities.

“Patsy said to me that she made Patrick promise he’d never divorce Lisa until she [Patsy] was dead… and Lisa threatened to reveal it…. and it would be a scandal… that would hurt maybe someone plus hurt the Swayze family,” Joan wrote in an April 27, 2016 post.

A longtime die-hard fan, Leighton admitted to Radar that she wrote the post but claimed she was just reacting to what was being post by others on the site. She did however call Niemi a “black widow.”

Two months before Swayze died, Niemi, now 60 and remarried, stunned all of Swayze’s friends and family by banning anyone from visiting him at their California home called “Rancho Bizarro.”

And that included his mother Pasty, who died in September 2013  at age 86 â€" shortly after Niemi attempted to toss her out of the Simi Valley home Swayze had purchased for her and the widow inherited.

“Could you imagine not being able to see your son who is dying?” a family friend close to Patsy told Radar. “It was unexplainable. There is no excuse for it and I don’t know what Lisa was thinking.”

Even more stunning, Swayze wasn’t allowed to leave.

“She wouldn’t let me see him two months before he died!” the pal complained.

“She wouldn’t even let him go outside the ranch… She pretty much kept him prisoner.”

Unable to communicate by phone, the lonely actor, eager for contact with the outside world, would frequently call friends and family in the middle of the night!

“He’d call me a 2 a.m. after she had already passed out and we would talk at that time!” the friend claimed. “It was unusual but yet again that was Lisa, she was that way.”

It was during the same two-month period that Swayze signed a new will that left his entire $40 million estate to Niemi and absolutely nothing to his family.

But a year-long investigation by Radar has discovered the Ghost star hid a dark secret and actually died from a broken heart â€" because Niemi had several affairs with both men AND women.

“He loved her with all his heart but it was a serious love-hate relationship,” the longtime friend told Radar.

“She would beat on him and he would beat on the walls and furniture. They fought and I covered up a lot of that â€" they destroyed hotel rooms, cars, their house …. It was abusive.”

When asked if Niemi would hit Swayze during his 21-month cancer fight, the friend told Radar: “Oh yeah, it didn’t matter. She wouldn’t hit him with stuff â€" she would claw at his arms and neck. She would punch and slap him.”

“As he got sick, he was defenseless,” his pal added.

“Cancer bought him from 180 pounds to 90 pounds. She always had to upper hand because he wouldn’t hit her. He was adamant about never ever laying his hands on her.”

In fact, the friend charges Niemi was neglecting her dying husband whenever his main care giver, younger brother Don Swayze, 57, was working or out of town.

“Lisa would be gone for hours doing whatever she was doing and Donnie would come in and Patrick would be lying in his own feces and pee,” the pal said.

The friend who spent years with Swayze and another family insider said Niemi was an “evil” moody control freak who was in charge of every aspect of the actor’s life, his money, movie roles even how much he could spend at the store.

“He had another friend before me and Lisa had a falling out with him â€" so she pretty much forbade [Patrick] from ever seeing the friend again,” the pal said.

Swayze’s childhood friend, Charlotte Stevens, told Radar she encouraged the star to dump Niemi, who he married in 1975, because of several affairs known only to his family and close friends.

“We would talk like old friends, like what was going on in our lives and [the affairs] would come up,” Stevens, 63, told Radar.

“I would tell him, ‘You mean to tell me she’s having these affairs and you haven’t stepped out on her?’ And he would say, ‘No I don’t want it used against me.”

By Radar Staff
Posted on Jun 13, 2016 @ 6:41AM



FameFlynet


In his tragic last days, wasting away from savage pancreatic cancer, Patrick Swayze was imprisoned in a house of horrors â€" deserted by his cheating, abusive wife, who left the dying star to wallow in his own filth!

That’s the shocking charge by one of the “Dirty Dancing” icon’s closest friends, who rips the lid off what was believed to be a Hollywood fairy-tale marriage that lasted 34 years, ending when Patrick, 57, died of cancer on Sept 14, 2009.

According to the friend, Patrick’s personal hell was made worse in his final months because wife Lisa Niemi kept the actor, who’d shrunk to a pitiful 90 pounds, a prisoner in his own home â€" banning his mother and loved ones from visiting.

Other local officials are applying their own brand of justice. One mayor in a town south of Manila parades suspected drug pushers around town to shame them. Another in the central Philippines has offered police 50,000 pesos ($1,000) for every criminal killed.

Duterte’s pick to head the national police, former Davao police chief Ronald dela Rosa, supports nationwide implementation of the Manila program if a law provides for it.

He also lauds the other mayors’ campaigns because “at least they are doing something, unlike other local chief executives who play blind and deaf to the problem of drugs in society, some even contributing to the drug problem.”

At an earlier news conference, he described how he expects police to confront drug criminals: “If they put up a fight, we will kill them. If they don’t put up a fight, we will fight with them. If they do not fight back, they will live.”

Asked during a television interview about due process to be accorded to a drug criminal, Dela Rosa said with a smile: “he will be given the right to remain silent … forever.”

Loretta Ann Rosales, former head of the Commission on Human Rights, said Duterte’s loose talk threatens the rule of law and “brings out the beast” in law enforcers and officials.

“I don’t think we should keep silent on summary killings that go on in the process of this so-called anti-crime drive,” she said. “That to me has to be addressed very strongly and people should not take it complacently.”

Apprehended minors are turned over to social workers and most are released to their parents with warnings. Adults caught drinking alcohol outdoors are warned the first time and can be fined, detained or both the next, said Police Chief Inspector Bernabe Irinco Jr., who led the Manila operations.

“We are doing this so our young people can be free of crimes,” Irinco said.

Tough talk on crime helped Duterte win the May 9 election by a wide margin and has resonated with the poor, whose neighborhoods suffer the most from drugs and related crimes. Human-rights watchdogs fear his promise to replicate crime-fighting measures he used in Davao may lead to widespread rights violations.

Duterte has repeatedly vowed to kill drug criminals, but denies allegations he was involved in killings of alleged criminals in his city by motorcycle-riding assassins known as the “Davao death squads.”

At his victory party in Davao, he encouraged citizens to shoot and kill drug dealers who resist arrest and fight back in their neighborhoods. He offered bounties to the police and military for the capture of drug lords “dead or alive.”

“My payment for a drug lord, if killed, is 5 million (pesos, or $109,000). If alive, it’s only 4.999 million,” he told supporters during his victory party.

Several killings since Duterte’s election have borne marks of vigilante justice. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on five of them in three central provinces earlier this month. A piece of cardboard beside one body stated that the dead man was a thief and a drug addict.

Last month, at least five suspected criminals were reportedly killed by gunmen in Davao, and other bodies have turned up elsewhere in the country.

Originally published June 16, 2016 at 11:38 pm Updated June 17, 2016 at 12:56 am
By TERESA CEROJANO
The Associated Press


MANILA, Philippines (AP) â€" In a crackdown bearing the Philippine president-elect’s name, police have rounded up hundreds of children or their parents to enforce a night curfew for minors, and taken away drunk and shirtless men roaming metropolitan Manila’s slums. The poor, who were among Rodrigo Duterte’s strongest supporters, are getting a foretaste of the war against crime he has vowed to wage.

During a surprise sweep witnessed by The Associated Press last week, a girl who appeared to be about 10 years old was dragged to a police van for curfew violation. She protested that she had been outside only to take out the garbage. A boy about the same age cried, “I do not want to go!” A slightly older-looking boy, looking terrified, dropped the box of a rice and beef meal he’d just bought when police apprehended him.

A bewildered mother sleeping on a sidewalk with her toddler wailed when a social worker took her son, and she was dragged to a police vehicle. “Where is my child? I will go crazy here!” she shouted, pleading with police to “please have mercy on me.”

The woman wore a rubber bracelet bearing Duterte’s name. She relaxed when a social worker brought her son to the same vehicle.

The crackdown is dubbed “Oplan Rody.” Oplan is short for operation plan, while Rody is both an acronym for “Rid the Streets of Drinkers and Youth” and the nickname of Duterte, who becomes president June 30.

In the weeks since the tough-talking mayor of southern Davao city won the presidential election, energized police and local officials have dusted off little-enforced city ordinances like night-to-dawn curfews for minors, a ban on drinking alcohol in the streets and shirtless men in public places.

Rolando Roxas, father of a 14-year-old boy apprehended while buying noodles, said it’s probably a good lesson for the children not to roam the streets at night.

But Jocelyn Chavez is angry. She is a small-time vendor who works at night to support her five children, and she had to forego her day’s earnings to get her daughter, who she said was picked up while taking out the garbage. “If I don’t work we will all have nothing to eat,” she said.

Ni JEEPY P. COMPIO


USA ka 37-anyos nga lalaki ang gibalhog sa San Pedro Police Station human nagmaoy sud sa bar kay gikataw-an siya dihang nagpakita sa iyang kinatawo nga daw gamay nga botelya sa white flower.

Ang insidente nahitabo alas 12:45 kagahapon sa kaadlawon sud sa balay kalingawan sa Rizal Street, Barangay 3-A Poblacion, dakbayan sa Davao.

Ang gipriso mao si Gerry (bansagon gitago), 37, minyo, technician, nagpuyo sa Palma Gil Street, ning dakbayan.

Base sa blotter nga natala ni Police Officer 2 (PO2) Perfecto Tuloy Jr., duty desk officer sa presinto dos, nasayran nga lango sa ilimnong makahubog ang suspek nga nagpahambog sa iyang gamay nga kinatawo.

Una niini, ang suspek nagbahis-bahis atubangan sa nagkanta sud sa bar kinsa namulong nga gusto niya ang nagkanta dayon gipangutana kung pila ang bayad sa iyang pagkababaye.

Laing guest sa bar nagreklamo kay iya sab nga giinsulto nga di siya niini gumikan tambok kini og lawas.

Miulbo ang kasuko sa uban nga bisita dihang nag-maoy na ang suspek nga nagpa-ila nga pulis.

Naghubo ang suspek atubangan sa mga bisita kay gipanghambog ang iyang kinatawo.

"Nahagit nalang gayud ko sa pagpakita, gipasiwil nako. Ug garbo pod nako nga gamay ko'g kinatawo.

Magbuot diay sila nga mao man ni gihatag sa Ginoo sa ako?" saysay sa suspek nga nahinabi sa SuperBalita Davao kagahapon atubangan ni PO3 Rizalito Clapiz III, imbestigador sa Homicide and Arson Section sa maong presinto.

Sukad sa pagsuwat ning balita, ang suspek kasamtangan nga gibalhog sa selda sa kapulisan.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Davao Hunyo 09, 2016.

Ni DOMILYN R. PICO


DAVAO DEL NORTE -- Usa ka 18 anyos nga estudyanteng babaye midangop sa buhatan sa kapulisan human gibugno ug napaakan ang liog sa gikaaway sud sa diskohan, alas 12:45 sa kaadlawon didto sa Highlight Restobar sa dalang Lapu-lapu, dakbayan sa Tagum, kagahapon.

Biktima giila nga Lilia (tinuod nga ngalan gitago sa Superbalita), dalaga, taga Compostela Valley Province.

Sumala pa nga naglingaw-lingaw lang ang biktima kuyog ang mga barkada sud sa diskohan, dihang kalit nga dunay kagubot nga nahitabo sa mga batan-on.

Gialegar sa biktima nga usa ka Mae (apilyedo gitago tungod menor-de-edad), 17, estudyante usab ug taga dakbayan sa Tagum ang miatake kaniya.

Nasayran nga misukol og pakigbugno ang biktima kang Mae apan bisan og maguwang siya niini, siya matud pa ang nakahiagum og tuo-wala nga laparo sa suspek.

Wa pa matagbaw ang suspek, matud pa, gipaak pa gayud ang iyang liog nga nakahiagum og samad ug bun-og.

Ala una sa kaadlawon, kagahapon, gilayon nga midangop ang biktima sa kapulisan sa Tagum City Police Station apan gipangita pa ang suspek.

Hangtud sa pagsulat ning balita, wa pay taho unsa ang gidangatan sa reklamo sa biktima.

Wa na usab matino kung lalaki o uyab ba ang hinungdan sa maong kagubot sud sa diskohan.


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Davao Hunyo 17, 2016.

USA ka babaye nga giingong bugaw ang gipusil sa iyang kustomer human wala magpagamit ang boring kagahapon, pasado alas 5:25 sa buntag.

Ang biktima mao si Maricel Labrado Inggo, 33, usa ka bugaw ug taga Sitio Laray, Barangay Ina­yawan, dakbayan sa Sugbo.

Sumala pa, naglakaw ang biktima kuyog sa iyang kapuyo nga si Renero Kyamko sa nahisgutang dapit dihang duha ka wala mailhing lalake ang kalit nibutho sa ilang luyo nga nagmotorsiklo.

Ang back-rider niini nga armado sa wa matino nga armas ang kalit lang nipusil kang Inggo.

Sa pasiunang imbestigasyon sa Waterfront Police Station 3 sa Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) nga gipanguluhan ni SPO2 Arnold Sialana, ang gunman maoy nakalalis ni alyas Kim, usa ka sex worker.

Ang maong sex worker nga gihatag ni Inggo gii­ngon dili 'magpagamit.'

Giingong gipangayo og balik sa kustomer ang kuwarta nga iyang gibayad kang Inggo apan, wala na kini gibalik sa biktima.

“Nibayad niya wala man nagpagamit,” matod ni PO2 Marlon Gonzales sa Police Station 3.

Napikal ang kustomer hinungdan nga nilakaw kini.

Naigo si Inggo sa luyong bahin sa iyang ulo ug gidala sa iyang mga kauban sa Cebu Adventist Hospital.

Nagpadayon ang imbestigas­yon ug ang pagpa­ngita sa wa mailhing gunman nga nisibat human sa hitabo.
Katrena A. Cortes, STC - Masscomm intern


Gipatik sa mantalaang Superbalita Cebu Hunyo 13, 2016.

He he, kanta ta...

Kon ikaw kalibangon
Dagan lang sa baybayon.
Kon ikaw walay ilo
Inudnod sa dakong bato.
Pilia ang may sisi
Aron lubot o mongisi.
Tambali og Mercurochrome
Aron lubot mo molagom.

Co-author of the study Dr Malcolm Kendrick, an intermediate care GP, acknowledged the findings would cause controversy but defended them as “robust” and “thoroughly reviewed”.

“What we found in our detailed systematic review was that older people with high LDL (low-density lipoprotein) levels, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, lived longer and had less heart disease.”

Vascular and endovascular surgery expert Professor Sherif Sultan from the University of Ireland, who also worked on the study, said cholesterol is one of the “most vital” molecules in the body and prevents infection, cancer, muscle pain and other conditions in elderly people.

“Lowering cholesterol with medications for primary cardiovascular prevention in those aged over 60 is a total waste of time and resources, whereas altering your lifestyle is the single most important way to achieve a good quality of life,” he said.

Lead author Dr Uffe Ravnskov, a former associate professor of renal medicine at Lund University in Sweden, said there was “no reason” to lower high-LDL-cholesterol.

But Professor Colin Baigent, an epidemiologist at Oxford University, said the new study had “serious weaknesses and, as a consequence, has reached completely the wrong conclusion”.

Another sceptic, consultant cardiologist Dr Tim Chico, said he would be more convinced by randomised study where some patients have their cholesterol lowered using a drug, such as a stain, while others receive a placebo.

He said: “There have been several studies that tested whether higher cholesterol increases the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol in elderly patients and observing whether this reduces their risk of heart disease.

“These have shown that lowering cholesterol using a drug does reduce the risk of heart disease in the elderly, and I find this more compelling than the data in the current study.”

The British Heart Foundation also questioned the new research, pointing out that the link between high LDL cholesterol levels and death in the elderly is harder to detect because, as people get older, more factors determine overall health.

“There is nothing in the current paper to support the author’s suggestions that the studies they reviewed cast doubt on the idea that LDL Cholesterol is a major cause of heart disease or that guidelines on LDL reduction in the elderly need re-valuating,” a spokesman said.

High cholesterol 'does not cause heart disease' new research finds, so treating with statins a 'waste of time'

by Henry Bodkin
12 JUNE 2016 • 7:06PM


Cholesterol does not cause heart disease in the elderly and trying to reduce it with drugs like statins is a waste of time, an international group of experts has claimed.

A review of research involving nearly 70,000 people found there was no link between what has traditionally been considered “bad” cholesterol and the premature deaths of over 60-year-olds from cardiovascular disease.

Published in the BMJ Open journal, the new study found that 92 percent of people with a high cholesterol level lived longer.

The authors have called for a re-evaluation of the guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis, a hardening and narrowing of the arteries, because “the benefits from statin treatment have been exaggerated”.

The results have prompted immediate scepticism from other academics, however, who questioned the paper’s balance.

High cholesterol is commonly caused by an unhealthy diet, and eating high levels of saturated fat in particular, as well as smoking.

It is carried in the blood attached to proteins called lipoproteins and has been traditionally linked to cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral arterial disease and aortic disease.

Published June 10, 2016 2:48pm
By AYA TANTIANGCO, GMA News


The month-long observance of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan began on June 6 and Muslims around the world have started abstaining from food, drinks, sexual relations, and sinful speech and behavior.

The "sawm" or fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam and according to Marcina Morados, Dean of the University of the Philippines Islamic Studies, there are many benefits for a Muslim who observes fasting during this month.

A report by GMA News reporter Mariz Umali said the dawn to sunset fast is not a mere diet practice.

Non-Muslims should recognize the holiness of the occasion.

Despite abstaining from food and water among other restrictions, it is "business as usual" for Muslims. They still go to school or work as usual.

In Islamic countries, Muslims are given certain privileges like shortened work hours. Eating in public and open display of food and water are also prohibited, with restaurants required to drape their windows with black curtains.
 
As a courtesy to those fasting during Ramadan, non-Muslims are enjoined not to schedule working lunches or offer them food or water any moment before the sun sets.

Non-Muslims are however, welcome to join Muslims for Iftar or the meal to break the fast after sunset.

You may also greet them "Ramadan Kareem", "Ramadan Mubarak" or "Happy Ramadan."

"Ang okasyong ng Ramadan ay pwede nating gamitin para i-highlight natin 'yung common universal values between Islam and Christianity," Dean Morados said.

Ramadan may be likened to the Lenten season for Christians, wherein believers are encouraged to give up vices, abstain from meat and fast on Fridays.

Bwahaha!

Delikado bitaw nga maapsan ta aning mga Bitkong...

https://www.instagram.com/kristinalechner/

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/
06/10/2016 POSTED BY ADREA


If anyone ever had a doubt about man’s best friend, they need only hear the story of Jacky to change their mind.

In the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, there is a dog being heralded as a hero for giving his life up to save his owner.  Gurdev Singh, a farmer, was sleeping outside of his house which is located in a small village not far from the Dudhwa National Park.  Jacky, Singh’s every faithful companion, slept right beside him, until disturbed by a tiger he smelled in the immediate vicinity. Jacky tried to rouse Singh and alert him to the imminent danger.

As Singh drowsily awoke,the tiger attacked and Jacky began to defend his owner.  The dog gave the farmer enough time to grab a stick, yell out, and start to defend against the animal. In the horrific frey, Jacky, severely injured, was dragged off by the viscous animal. Singh’s family rushed out of the house and quickly began their search for the four-year-old hero. Sadly, Jacky’s body was recovered some distance away.  Forest officials were notified of the tiger’s presence, and the family, grieved over their loss, buried the dog who had so heroically fought off the tiger without thought to himself, only that of his owner.

“Jacky’s mother was a street dog and my children, Supreet and Gulshanpreet, took it in four years ago as a pup. It was a part of our family and used to follow them to school. Gulshanpreet is inconsolable and didn’t eat for a day. Jacky returned the favour of a few chapatis a day by giving up its life. I wish humans could learn from it how to love others and show devotion,” Singh told the Times of India.

A forest ranger stated the tiger’s appearance in the village was not entirely surprising, given the population of large cats in the region is very high and, as humans have encroached on the area, they will often come into villages looking for food.

Jacky, greatly missed by his family, is a standing testament to the loyalty of a dog to their humans.  He gave his own life saving the one who had taken him out of a life on the streets.  Jacky is the true personification of the word loyalty.

To return to the question you started with as a teenager, are we machines?

The formal theory of conscious agents I’ve been developing is computationally universal â€" in that sense, it’s a machine theory. And it’s because the theory is computationally universal that I can get all of cognitive science and neural networks back out of it. Nevertheless, for now I don’t think we are machines â€" in part because I distinguish between the mathematical representation and the thing being represented. As a conscious realist, I am postulating conscious experiences as ontological primitives, the most basic ingredients of the world. I’m claiming that experiences are the real coin of the realm. The experiences of everyday life â€" my real feeling of a headache, my real taste of chocolate â€" that really is the ultimate nature of reality.

I suspect they’re reacting to things like Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff’s model, where you still have a physical brain, it’s still sitting in space, but supposedly it’s performing some quantum feat. In contrast, you’re saying, “Look, quantum mechanics is telling us that we have to question the very notions of ‘physical things’ sitting in ‘space.’”

I think that’s absolutely true. The neuroscientists are saying, “We don’t need to invoke those kind of quantum processes, we don’t need quantum wave functions collapsing inside neurons, we can just use classical physics to describe processes in the brain.” I’m emphasizing the larger lesson of quantum mechanics: Neurons, brains, space … these are just symbols we use, they’re not real. It’s not that there’s a classical brain that does some quantum magic. It’s that there’s no brain! Quantum mechanics says that classical objects â€" including brains â€" don’t exist. So this is a far more radical claim about the nature of reality and does not involve the brain pulling off some tricky quantum computation. So even Penrose hasn’t taken it far enough. But most of us, you know, we’re born realists. We’re born physicalists. This is a really, really hard one to let go of.