In Vietnam, a Cuban rat poison finds new market

 News
May 312013
 
In Vietnam, a Cuban rat poison finds new market

Associated Press 3:18 pm | Friday, May 31st, 2013 A Vietnamese salesman displays several grains of salmonella-based rat poison on his tongue in Hanoi,Vietnam. AP HANOI, Vietnam—His wares banned in much of the world, the Vietnamese salesman hawking a rat poison laced with salmonella sought to prove the bait was as safe as claimed. He sliced open a packet with a pair of rusty scissors, dipped his finger into the sticky, bad-smelling rice, brought out a few grains and then chewed them gingerly. “It tastes a little bitter, that’s all,” said Nong Minh Suu. He chose not to swallow the unhulled grains, instead spitting them out after a few seconds before lighting a cigarette. “When rats eat this, 100 percent of them will be killed. It is absolutely safe to human health.” Rat poisons normally come with warnings against human consumption and medical directions about what to do if accidentally eaten. Not so “Biorat,” a bait produced in Vietnam by a Cuban-state owned company that earns foreign exchange for the Castro government. The company claims the salmonella strain it includes is “harmless” to everything — humans, the environment, pets and other animal species — apart from rats. That is disputed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a US federal government agency, and other international health institutions including the World Health Organization. Biorat’s production and sale in Vietnam is a legacy of the cozy ties between Cuba and Vietnam, two nations on opposite sides of the world but whose Read More …

Japan ‘comfort women’ mayor survives censure

 News
May 302013
 
Japan ‘comfort women’ mayor survives censure

Philippine Daily Inquirer 6:29 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto attends the city’s assembly in Osaka Thursday, May 30, 2013. The mayor of Japan’s second-largest city survived a censure motion at the assembly Thursday despite his inflammatory comments over Japan’s wartime sex slavery, remarks that sparked an international uproar. AP PHOTO/KYODO NEWS TOKYO—A Japanese mayor who caused a storm with his comments on wartime “comfort women” survived a censure motion filed by local politicians on Thursday. Council members in the western city of Osaka rejected the motion against mayor Toru Hashimoto, who is also joint leader of the national Japan Restoration Party, city officials said. Hashimoto prompted outrage at home and abroad by suggesting that battle-stressed soldiers during World War II needed the services of up to 200,000 sex slaves from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere who were forcibly drafted into Japanese brothels. The non-binding motion had earlier been expected to be approved. But the New Komeito Party, which holds the balance of power on the council, reversed its earlier stance and voted against it. Ichiro Matsui, Osaka prefectural governor and a close aide to Hashimoto, earlier hinted that if the motion was passed, Hashimoto would resign to force a mayoral election in which he would seek reelection. On Tuesday Hashimoto canceled a trip to the United States after the US denounced his remarks as “outrageous and offensive.” Seeking to contain the fallout from his comments, the former TV pundit said Monday that Tokyo should Read More …

WHO calls for total ad ban as globe marks World No Tobacco Day Friday

 News
May 302013
 
WHO calls for total ad ban as globe marks World No Tobacco Day Friday

By Philip C. TubezaPhilippine Daily Inquirer 5:10 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday called for a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship as it marks World No Tobacco Day Friday. The WHO said the ban should include point-of-sale (POS) advertising or store sales promotions, the last refuge of advertisers still allowed in most countries where all other kinds of tobacco advertising have been banned. It said that children were exposed to POS advertising, since cigarettes were often sold near racks of candy and other items aimed at children. “As called for in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, governments must comprehensively ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship,” said Shin Young-soo, WHO Western Pacific regional director. Aggressive “We must halt the tobacco industry’s aggressive marketing of its products, which cause addiction, suffering and millions of deaths each year,” he said. The WHO noted that after Hong Kong banned tobacco advertising in broadcast media, billboards and print media, it was found that brand recognition remained high at 30 percent to 64 percent among children whose families were nonsmoking because POS advertising and sponsorship were not controlled. To subvert marketing bans, the tobacco industry has shifted to forms of indirect advertising, such as sponsorship of sports or cultural events and viral marketing, including word-of-mouth, the WHO said. Leading cause The global organization warned that tobacco use was a leading cause of preventable death, killing nearly six million people every year around Read More …

Watching video, Taiwan probers weep

 News
May 302013
 
Watching video, Taiwan probers weep

By Nancy C. CarvajalPhilippine Daily Inquirer 4:53 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 Taiwanese investigators look at a portion of a ship involved in the alleged shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman as they ride a rubber boat with Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) members on Tuesday May 28, 2013. They reportedly became emotional while watching a video of the encounter between the PCG and a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the waters off the northern Philippines that resulted in the shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman. AP PHOTO/AARON FAVILA MANILA, Philippines—Taiwanese investigators in Manila reportedly became emotional while watching a video of the encounter between the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and a Taiwanese fishing vessel in the waters off the northern Philippines that resulted in the shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman. “Some of them cried and others uttered ‘it’s excessive,’” said the source who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak on the parallel probe of the May 9 incident by Taiwanese and Philippine investigators working in both Taipei and Manila. The source said several PCG personnel were shown in the video shooting at the Taiwanese vessel, the Kuang Ta Hsing No. 28. Fisherman Hung Shih-cheng, 65, was killed. The source described the video as close to two hours and showing the earlier activities of the boat, the MCS-3001, jointly manned by the PCG and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). The footage, taken by one of the PCG personnel, showed that the Taiwanese fishing Read More …

Group calls for support of CA domestic workers bill

 News
May 302013
 
Group calls for support of CA domestic workers bill

By Joseph PimentelAJ Press/INQUIRER.net News Partner 4:41 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 LOS ANGELES–Fil-Am organizations are urging the public to call their local state assembly member and ask them to support AB 241, the California Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. Filipino Migrant Center officials sent out a mass email to their supporters, asking them to support the bill, which would provide labor protections to household workers, caregivers and childcare providers working in private homes. These include the right to overtime pay, meal and rest breaks, uninterrupted sleep for live-in workers and use of kitchen facilities, FMC officials said. The bill will be voted on the assembly floor this week before it moves to the senate labor committee. “The Filipino Migrant Center works with Filipino caregivers to fight for fair wages, a safe and healthy work environment and dignity and respect and the right to organize,” officials wrote on the email. There are around 200,000 domestic workers in the state, tens of thousands of whom are Filipinos. This is the third time the issue has been brought up to the state legislature, each time the bill reached the governor, only for the governor to veto it. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill, AB 889, because he believed a possible “drafting error” and that it could cost the state nearly $200 million in uncertainties. Brown asked for the State Department of Industrial Relations to look into the matter further, before he would consider signing a similar bill again. Read More …

Travel firms aren’t job recruiters, says POEA

 News
May 302013
 
Travel firms aren’t job recruiters, says POEA

Philippine Daily Inquirer 4:39 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) on Thursday warned Filipinos wishing to work abroad about immigration consultants and travel agencies that offered overseas jobs. POEA Administrator Hans Leo Cacdac said that offering overseas employment in the guise of visa assistance without a license or authority from the POEA constituted illegal recruitment under the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act. “Immigration consultants are required to obtain a license from the POEA before they may engage in recruitment and placement activities, regardless of the visa under which deployment shall be made eventually,” said Cacdac in a statement. He said jobseekers need not engage immigration consultants who charge thousands of dollars for supposed working visas to countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. Unnecessary expenses “By having an agent, they would be paying for information and counsel that are free and readily available in those countries’ respective websites,” Cacdac said. “Also, the documents required by the immigration offices of those countries could only be produced by the applicant and not by the consultant,” he said. Cacdac said that those wanting to work or migrate to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada or Australia could visit the following websites: www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/; www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/; www.cic.gc.ca/english/index-can.asp; and www.immi.gov.au/skilled/. He said travel agencies also were not allowed to engage in the recruitment and placement of Filipino workers. He noted that some travel agencies included in their tour packages “the opportunity to hunt for jobs” in Read More …

Unicef: Focus on children, not their disabilities

 News
May 302013
 
Unicef: Focus on children, not their disabilities

Philippine Daily Inquirer 4:12 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—Children with disabilities (CWDs) and their communities will both benefit if society focuses on what these children can achieve, rather than on what they cannot do, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said in its annual report on the State of the World’s Children. Concentrating on the abilities and potential of CWDs will create benefits for society as a whole, according to the report that Unicef released Thursday. “When you see the disability before the child, it is not only wrong for the child, but it deprives society of all that the child has to offer,” said Unicef executive director Anthony Lake. “Their loss is society’s loss; their gain is society’s gain.” The report lays out how societies can integrate CWDs to allow them to play a full part in society and prevent discrimination against them. It points out how inclusive education broadens the horizons of all children even as it presents opportunities for CWDs to fulfill their ambitions. In the Philippines, census data showed 201,896 CWDs reported in 2002, with about 2.9 percent of the Filipino population having some form of disability. Vision-related disabilities recorded highest at 50 percent, followed by motor-related and mental disabilities (both at 14 percent), and hearing disability (13 percent). The World Health Organization estimates that 4.5 percent of the global population are disabled. The Unicef report said CWDs were the least likely to receive health care or go to school. They were among Read More …

HK turns back pregnant Chinese posing as Filipina

 News
May 302013
 
HK turns back pregnant Chinese posing as Filipina

By Philip C. TubezaPhilippine Daily Inquirer 3:35 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines—Philippine immigration authorities arrested a couple from China after one of them tried to slip into Hong Kong by pretending to be a Filipino, Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said Thursday. David said Fong Waiyan and his wife, Fan Yueying, were arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) on May 11 after Hong Kong immigration sent them back to Manila after discovering that Fan was using a fake Philippine passport. He said Fan wanted to give birth to their second child in Hong Kong to avoid penalties under the mainland’s “one-child” policy. “The couple left Manila using their Chinese passports. But upon arriving at the Hong Kong airport, Fan pretended to be a Filipino by presenting a fraudulent Philippine passport to the immigration officer,” David said. “The woman was denied entry due to a dubious immigration departure stamp on her passport and Fong decided to go back with her to Manila,” he added. David said the couple would be deported to China and blacklisted as soon as the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) board of commissioners issues the order for their summary deportation. Fan will be deported for knowingly using a spurious travel document with the aid of her husband, who will also be kicked out for harboring and giving comfort to an illegal alien. Uso Dan Salasim, Naia-BI intelligence unit head, said Fan readily confessed to using Read More …

2015 Apec to showcase everything Filipino–DFA

 News
May 302013
 
2015 Apec to showcase everything Filipino–DFA

By Tarra QuismundoPhilippine Daily Inquirer 2:54 am | Friday, May 31st, 2013 MANILA, Philippines—It will be a yearlong showcase of everything Filipino. The Philippines has begun preparations for hosting the annual Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum and related meetings in 2015, the second time the country will be hosting this important global forum that is expected to gather world leaders, top business executives and thousands of other participants. “It’s going to be a one-year celebration,” Laura del Rosario, undersecretary for international economic relations at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), told a press conference Tuesday on the Apec 2015 preparations. “When people come, we want to make sure they not only get a lot of work done but they enjoy themselves here. It’s really a lot of fun in the Philippines, they know that,” said Guillermo Luz, co-chair of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC), who is also involved in organizing what could be the country’s biggest hosting of an international event this decade. Key cities around the country will be hosting 21 Apec meetings—senior officials’ meetings and ministerial meetings, among them—throughout 2015, culminating in the Apec Leaders’ Summit around October or November, Del Rosario said. The Philippines hosted the 1996 Apec summit in Subic, Zambales province. With each meeting expected to draw between 500 and over 1,000 participants, the event could bring in 13,000 to more than 20,000 participants from Apec’s 21 Pacific Rim member-nations—and the organizers are bent on making the visit memorable for each one. “It’s a Read More …

Slug cross-matching will determine fisherman's killer – Taiwan prosecutor

 News
May 302013
 
Slug cross-matching will determine fisherman's killer - Taiwan prosecutor

The National Bureau of Investigation and the Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau will compare slugs taken from the body of the Taiwanese fisherman who was shot and killed May 9, with tests slugs taken from the confiscated weapons of Philippine Coast Guard sailors involved in the shooting. Taiwan’s Pingtung district attorney, Chih-Ming Hsieh, explained in an interview aired over GMA 7’s “24 Oras”, “It is of paramount importance to find out who shot the victim to death and do a cross match and have a better picture of that fact.” NBI investigators are set to fly back to the Philippines on Friday with the evidence they had gathered in Taiwan. The information and evidence will be used in the final report they will draft, as well as possible recommendations, on the May 9 shooting. Meanwhile, overseas Filipino workers in Taiwan feared the repercussions if the NBI investigation results did not favor the Taiwanese nor match the parallel investigation of the Taiwanese Criminal Investigation Bureau. As things stood, OFWs were still being randomly attacked by irate Taiwanese. Two Filipino workers, identified only as Eric and Melchor, recalled how two Taiwanese men on a motorcycle suddenly attacked them while they were bicycling home. “Napasigaw ako nung tumama yung helmet niya sa likod ko,” said Melchor, “Sobrang sakit talaga.” “Hindi muna kami lumalabas masyado para di mapaginitan,” he added. “Sana naman ay matapos na agad ang imbestigasyon at isipin din ang kapakanan naming mga OFWs dito sa taiwan,” worried Eric. — DVM, GMA News

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