Maniolas

PRAYER FOR PEACE Filipino Muslims bow down to Allah outside Mindanao’s first ever pink mosque at Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province, as they observe the start of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting. Devotees of Islam are expected to abstain from food, drinks and other physical needs during daylight hours. The fast is one of the five pillars of Islam, which also include the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. JEOFFREY MAITEM/INQUIRER MINDANAO LONDON—Before the fast, let there be a shopping feast. From Harrods in Knightsbridge to the glittering diamond stores in Mayfair, London has long attracted big spenders. But every year around the holy month of Ramadan, which starts this weekend, a wave of spectacularly rich Middle Eastern shoppers arrives and takes retail therapy to a whole new level—complete with an entourage of bodyguards, chauffeurs and Gulf-registered Rolls-Royces and Ferraris flown in just for the occasion. Retailers call the boost in business the Ramadan Rush: A hugely lucrative and fast-growing market driven by wealthy Arabs who travel to Britain to escape the desert heat and indulge in buying luxury gifts before flying home for a month of fasting and increased religious observance. Another surge takes place during the Eid holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan. The spike in shoppers during the summer months has been so regular and noticeable on London’s streets that some have jokingly dubbed the phenomenon the “Harrods Hajj,” after the traditional Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. “London is the place in Europe Read More …

In this June 24, 2014 file photo, new packs of cigarettes displaying pictorial health warnings are arranged on the counter by a shop attendant for photographers at a convenience store in Jakarta, Indonesia. Tobacco companies on Tuesday largely snubbed an Indonesian law requiring them to put graphic photo warnings on all cigarette packs being sold, marking another setback in a country that’s home to the world’s highest rate of men smokers and a wild, wild west of advertising. AP FILE PHOTO JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia became the newest country to mandate graphic photo warnings on cigarette packs on Tuesday, joining more than 40 other nations or territories that have adopted similar regulations in recent years. The warnings, which showcase gruesome close-up images ranging from rotting teeth and cancerous lungs to open tracheotomy holes and corpses, are an effort to highlight the risks of health problems related to smoking. Research suggests these images have prompted people to quit, but the World Health Organization estimates nearly 6 million people continue to die globally each year from smoking-related causes. The tobacco industry has fought government efforts to introduce or increase the size of graphic warnings in some countries. Here are a few places where pictorial health warnings have made headlines: ____ INDONESIA: THE LAW: 40 percent of pack covered by graphic photos. TIMING: Deadline to be on shelves was June 24. BACKGROUND: Many tobacco companies missed Tuesday’s deadline to comply with the new law requiring all cigarette packs in stores to carry graphic Read More …

After tagging contaminated heparin as the cause of chills experienced by some patients at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute last May, Philippine health authorities have issued an advisory against two brands of the product. The Food and Drug Administration issued Advisory 2014-049 where it warned against the use of Meparin 5 (1000 IU/ml) and Meparin 25 (5000 IU/ml). It advised hospitals, health facilities and the general public to “stop the use” of these products manufactured by MedChem International Ltd – India, “regardless of the batch.” Also, it advised government and commercial pharmacies to stop dispensing these particular drug products. However, the FDA advisory dated June 25 did not specifically say if the two products could be behind the chills experienced by some patients at the NKTI last May. Last Tuesday, a report on “24 Oras” said contaminated heparin is being eyed as the cause of the chills experienced by at least 44 patients at the NKTI last May. The “24 Oras” report added the manufacturer and distributors of the contaminated brand had been notified, though the DOH at the time declined to identify the brand and manufacturer. Quality problem The FDA said it found Meparin 5 batch N-3176 contaminated with bacteria. It earlier issued a recall order on Meparin 5 batches N-3176, and put other batches of this product on quality hold. In a phone interview with GMA News Online on Thursday, Thelma Barros, company pharmacist of the brands’ distributor, Pharma-Surrey International, Inc., said that they conducted a voluntary Read More …

China can’t assert its ownership of territories in the South China Sea on the basis of a new map that places almost all of the disputed waters within its national boundaries, the Philippines said on Thursday. China’s new official map contains ten dashes instead of the usual nine dashes that forms a tongue-shaped perimeter around the South China Sea, encroaching on the territories of its smaller Asian neighbors like the Philippines.  The tenth dash, placed outside the South China Sea, was added beside Taiwan—a self-ruling democratic island that broke away from the mainland in 1949—to imply its status as a Chinese province. “The map per se will not make the territories that you claim yours. If it were so, then let’s all draw our own maps,” Foreign Affairs Charles Jose told a press briefing. The new map, which GMA News Online published as early as in 2013, is viewed as another attempt by China to reinforce its claims in the South China Sea. Foreign news wire agency Reuters reported on the new map on Wednesday. Jose said the Philippines didn’t recognize the Chinese map, calling it “unreasonably expansive.” “Your map should be based on international law,” Jose said. “No country in the world recognizes the nine-dash line of China.” Jose expects the map to be nullified should the Philippines get a favorable ruling on the case it filed in 2013 against China before the Netherlands-based tribunal operating under a United Nations convention.  Manila is asking the court to declare China’s Read More …

The Supreme Court has ordered the transfer of the venue of the multiple murder trial of suspects in the Jan. 6, 2013 Atimonan bloodbath from Quezon province to Manila. In a two-page notice of resolution, the high tribunal’s First Division granted the request made by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to transfer the trial venue from the Regional Trial Court Branch 61 in Gumaca, Quezon to the Manila RTC. In his request submitted to the high court in October last year, Arellano cited the “greater risk involved” in transporting all the accused from Camp Crame in Quezon City to Gumaca to attend hearings, as well as the higher costs in doing so. Arellano also argued that the “climate in Gumaca is not conducive to the holding of trial as the witnesses, as well as the accused, are vulnerable to threats from extremists in the area, considering the political and economic status of the personalities involved in these cases, and the geographical location of the said municipality.” Thirteen policemen, including the wounded mission commander Supt. Hansel Marantan, have been ordered dismissed from service in connection with the alleged Atimonan rubout. All the respondents were found guilty of serious irregularity in the performance of duty, according to a March 5 decision signed by Philippine National Police chief Director General Alan Purisima. They have since pleaded not guilty to the charges. Aside from changing the trial venue, the high court also authorized the executive judge of the Manila RTC to raffle the case and ordered the jusge that Read More …