Day 3 of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona in the philippines
Day 3 of the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona
Day 2 of CJ Corona’s impeachment trial (Jan 17, 2012)
DAY 1: CHIEF JUSTICE CORONA IMPEACHMENT TRIAL
World to Tops 2050 economy
Posted by: CNN.com business producer, Kevin Voigt
(CNN) – The global research department of HSBC has released a report predicting the rise and fall of the world’s economies in the next 40 years.
The world’s top economy in 2050 will be China, followed by the United States. No surprises there – since China’s reforms in the 1980s, economists have said it’s not a question of if, but when, China’s collective economic might will top the U.S.
But among the smaller, developing nations, there are several surprises by HSBC prognosticators:
* By 2050, the Philippines will leapfrog 27 places to become the world’s 16th largest economy.
* Peru’s economy, growing by 5.5% each year, jumping 20 places to 26th place – ahead of Iran, Colombia and Switzerland. Other strong performers will be Egypt (up 15 places to 20th), Nigeria (up nine places to 37th), Turkey (up six spots to 12th), Malaysia (up 17 to 21st) and the Ukraine (up 19 to 45th).
* Japan’s working population will contract by a world-top 37% in 2050 – yet HSBC economists predict it will still be toward the top performing economies, dropping only one spot to the 4th largest economy. India will jump ahead of Japan to 3rd on the list.
* The big loser in the next 40 years will be advanced economies in Europe, HSBC predicts, who will see their place in the economic pecking order erode as working population dwindles and developing economies climb. Only five European nations will be in the top 20, compared to eight today. Biggest drop will be felt northern Europe: Denmark to 56th ( -29), Norway to 48th ( -22), Sweden to 38th (-20) and Finland to 57th (-19).
HSBC 2050 list of top economies (change in rank from 2010)
1) China (+2)
2) U.S. (-1)
3) India (+5)
4) Japan (-2)
5) Germany (-1)
6) UK (-1)
7) Brazil (+2) 
Mexico (+5)
9) France (-3)
10) Canada (same)
11) Italy (-4)
12) Turkey (+6)
13) S. Korea (-2)
14) Spain (-2)
15) Russia (+2)
16) Philippines (+27)
17) Indonesia (+4)
18) Australia (-2)
19) Argentina (2)
20) Egypt (+15)
21) Malaysia (+17)
22) Saudi Arabia (+1)
23) Thailand (+6)
24) Netherlands (-9)
25) Poland (-1)
26) Peru (+20)
27) Iran (+7)
28) Colombia (+12)
29) Switzerland (-9)
30) Pakistan (+14)
“If we step away from the cyclicality, there are two ways economies can grow; either add more people to the production line via growth in the working population, or make each individual more productive,” the report says.
In other words, demographics – the size of your working population – along with the opportunities to flex that muscle help determine long-term economic trends. Big factors on the back half of that equation: Education opportunities, democratic governments or strong rule of law (a caveat that explains China and Saudi Arabia’s high placement).
“We openly admit that behind these projections we assume governments build on their recent progress and remain solely focused on increasing the living standards for their populations,” the report says. “Of course, this maybe an overly glossy way of viewing the world.”
Chief factors that may derail economies moving forward, the report says: War, energy consumption constraints, climate change, and growing barriers to population movement across borders.
Mexico Baluarte Bridge is world’s tallest
world tallest bridge
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has inaugurated the world’s tallest bridge.
The 403m (1,322ft) tall Baluarte bridge spans a deep ravine in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains in northern Mexico.
It is part of a new highway crossing some of Mexico’s most rugged terrain, from Mazatlan on the Pacific Coast to Durango in the interior.
The cable-stayed bridge is so tall that the Eiffel Tower would easily fit under its central span.
“This project will unite the people of northern Mexico as never before,” President Calderon said at the inauguration ceremony.
Officials from the Guinness World of Records were on hand to present him with an award recognising the engineering feat.
‘Devil’s backbone’
The opening of the 1,124m (3,687ft) long bridge is part of celebrations to mark 200 years of Mexico’s independence from Spain.
It is expected to open to traffic later this year, and Mexican officials hope it will boost tourism and commerce in the region.
The Mazatlan-Durango highway replaces a notoriously dangerous winding road known as the “Devil’s backbone” that crosses the jagged peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental.
As well as Baluarte, there will be eight other bridges over 300m high, as well as more than 60 tunnels.
Officials say it will reduce the journey between Mazatlan and Durango by about six hours.
Eventually, it will form part of a modern highway linking the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
As the highest cable-stayed bridge in the world, it surpasses the famous Millau Viaduct in France.
source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-16434200
Pinoy travel photographer wins first place NatGeo photo contest
Filipino travel photographer George Tapan’s photo on Onuk Island, Palawan won First Place in a National Geographic photo contest, besting about 20,000 entries from 130 countries. George Tapan
source :http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/photo/13856/pinoy-travel-photographer-wins-natgeo-photo-contest#
$150bn damages over fatal burning at Texas Jury awarded
A Texas jury has awarded $150bn (£96bn) to the family of a boy who died of skin cancer 12 years after being set on fire and badly burned.
Robbie Middleton, then aged eight, was alleged to have been sexually assaulted by the same attacker two weeks earlier.
The symbolic sum – the largest personal injury award in US history – is being seen as a plea to police to arrest the suspect, a convicted sex abuser.
The previous largest award was a $145bn fine against tobacco companies.
Craig Sico, lawyer for the Middleton family, said his aim was to pressure prosecutors in Montgomery County, Texas to charge Don Wilburn Collins, now 26, with murder.
“The jury told us afterwards the reason they made this the largest verdict [in US history] at $150bn was because they wanted to make sure their message was heard,” Mr Sico told the AFP news agency.
Collins was convicted of a separate child sexual assault in 2001 and has been in and out of prison ever since, once for refusing to be registered as a sex offender. He is due to be paroled in September 2012.
‘Difficult case’
The Middleton family allege that Collins set Robbie Middleton on fire after tying him to a tree and dousing the eight-year-old in petrol.
The young boy managed to escape but suffered third-degree burns over 99% of his body.
He went through five months of skin-replacement surgery, but died on 29 April 2011 of skin cancer. The cancer was caused by the burns, Mr Sico said.
Lawyer David Walker told the Los Angeles Times that Collins was not charged in either alleged attack because “the case was very, very difficult, with evidence that was not clear or necessarily compelling at that time”.
Mr Walker said that Middleton’s injures made it “extremely difficult” to tell officials what had happened.
“There will be people who will say that’s an excuse,” Mr Walker said, “but the professionals here worked very hard.”
The criminal case was reopened earlier in 2011, but Mr Walker said any arrests would be dependent “upon the results of that further investigation”.
source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16296489
a holiday shop in a Mongolian yurt In Hong Kong
Shanghai Tang erected a cluster of Mongolian yurts, called gers, atop the roof of one of the piers that juts out into Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour
Space in Hong Kong is scarce and real estate prices are high.
Restaurants flock to the upper floors of high-rises where rent is cheaper, young professionals try to find bargain apartments in fringe areas and many bars shut down after a year because they can’t make enough to pay the bills. But it didn’t seem likely that Shanghai Tang, one of Asia’s few homegrown luxury retailers, would face the same kind of rent squeeze.
The former flagship store on Pedder Street, in the heart of Hong Kong’s downtown financial district, was a two-story 1920s Art Deco space characterized by its colourful, quirky details. Earlier this year, Abercrombie & Fitch outbid Shanghai Tang for the coveted property when its lease was up, allegedly offering the landlords $7 million Hong Kong dollars a month, or 250% more than what Shanghai Tang had been paying. Forced out of a historic location – the brand’s first boutique, though it now has more than 40 worldwide – Shanghai Tang turned to Asia’s exiles of ages past to come up with a stopgap solution.
Invoking the spirit of Mongolian nomads, Shanghai Tang erected a cluster of Mongolian yurts, called gers, atop the roof of Central Pier 4, which juts out into Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. It acts like a full-service store until 31 December, while another temporary loft-like location just upstairs from their shut-down boutique on Pedder Street will operate until 20 February. The new flagship will open its doors in the spring of 2012, but the address has yet to be announced.
Despite its makeshift location, Shanghai Tang is not poverty-stricken — it has seven other outposts in Hong Kong, not to mention plenty of business savvy and a powerful owner (the Richemont Group, a Swiss company that also controls other high-end brands like Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Piaget and Montblanc). But the pop-up shop does have a rugged feel, because it’s alfresco, and continues to sell Shanghai Tang’s pricey Chinese-style haute couture as well as provide the label’s well-respected bespoke tailoring services. The gers also house a limited-edition collection of Mongolian-inspired products, like chunky jewellery, fur-trimmed leather handbags, ornamented enamel picture frames, candles
Most Magical Places in the World
Wizards, sorcerers, hobbits and goblins. This maybe the stuff of fairy-tales but you can bring magic to life! Visit these breath-taking magical destinations and live out your own travel legend!
Travel and make-believe certainly go hand in hand.
Whether it’s royal palaces, enchanted forests or magical lagoons, traveling the world can bring your favorite fairy-tales to life!
So grab your wand, mount your white horse and take a virtual journey through the 15 most magical places in the world!
Castle-Hill-Huddersfield
Castle-Hill-Huddersfield
Bavaria-Fores
Mars rover sets off recently
APE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A rover of monster truck proportions zoomed toward Mars on Saturday, the biggest, best-equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet.
NASA’s six-wheeled, one-armed wonder, Curiosity, will reach Mars next summer and use its jackhammer drill, rock-zapping laser machine and other devices to search for evidence that Earth’s neighbor might once have been home to the teeniest forms of life.
More than 13,000 invited guests jammed the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday to witness NASA’s first launch to Mars in four years, and the first flight of a Mars rover in eight years.
Mars fever gripped the crowd.
NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, wore a bright blue, short-sleeve blouse emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, “Next stop Mars!”
She jumped, cheered and snapped pictures as the Atlas V rocket blasted off. So did Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist in charge of Curiosity’s laser blaster, called ChemCam.
Curiosity is as big as a car. But NASA’s Mars exploration program director calls it “the monster truck of Mars.”
“It’s an enormous mission. It’s equivalent of three missions, frankly, and quite an undertaking,” said the ecstatic program director, Doug McCuistion. “Science fiction is now science fact. We’re flying to Mars. We’ll get it on the ground and see what we find.”
The primary goal of the mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time — or might even still be conducive to life. No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.
Curiosity’s 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras.
No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated. Curiosity will also:
• Have 10 science instruments to sample Martian soil and rocks, and with unprecedented skill, analyze them on the spot.
• Measure radiation.
• Check weather, including temperature, wind and humidity readings. Daily weather updates are planned.
source: http://www.freep.com/article/20111127/NEWS07/111270461/Mars-rover-sets-off-mission
Philippine Airlines back to pre-outsourcing
As the Christmas peak season nears, flag carrier Philippine Airlines fully restored its flights and frequencies to “pre-outsourcing” levels at its hub at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2, effective Thursday.
PAL said it is also restoring full in-flight meal service following the transition to third-party service providers and the protest of ex-workers at its In-flight Center in Pasay City.
“As PAL’s service providers gradually fill up their manpower complement, all operational requirements, from passenger handling to ground handling of all PAL flights, shall now be done in PAL’s home base at Terminal 2,” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said in a news release.
The airline said its flights are now consolidated at NAIA-2. Earlier, flights between Manila and Bacolod, Dipolog,Dumaguete, Ozamiz, and Zamboanga were temporarily housed at NAIA-3.
Earlier, PAL resumed its cargo operations on both domestic and international flights.
On the other hand, Davao, one of PAL’s major destinations, has returned to its normal four-daily-flight schedule a month after it embarked on its outsourcing program.
PAL deploys its flagship Boeing 747-400 to Davao twice daily.
The flag carrier used to mount 45 to 50 domestic and 80 international flights daily. Starting Thursday, daily domestic flights will average 50 to 60 while international flights will remain at 80, for an average daily flights of 140.
Villaluna said PAL’s signature meals presentation and its wide array of complimentary drinks are also back on board.
Transition woes
“We thank our loyal passengers for bearing with us during these difficult times. We promise to exceed your expectations the next time you board a PAL flight,” she said.
Following an outsourcing program that took effect October 1 and affected some 2,300 workers, PAL had to reduce domestic flights by 30 percent, while international flights were down 12 percent.
The reduction came after a work stoppage staged by some of its ground workers prior to the implementation of its outsourcing plan.
In-flight operations were likewise hampered when separated workers encamped at the gates of PAL’s Inflight Center along MIA Road, Pasay City.
PAL filed criminal charges of grave coercion against 41 former employees in the Pasay City prosecutor’s office over anOctober 29 incident when protesters barred a PAL truck from leaving the facility’s premises. — ELR, GMA News
source: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/239469/nation/philippine-airlines-back-to-pre-outsourcing-mode
natures new seven wonders PUERTO PRINCESA UNDERGROUND RIVER
The above are the provisional New7Wonders of Nature based on the first count of vote results on 11/11/11.
It is possible that there will be changes between the above provisional winners and the eventual finally confirmed winners.
The above provisional New7Wonders of Nature are listed in alphabetical order, not in any position or ranking.
The voting calculation is now being checked, validated and independently verified, and the confirmed winners will be announced starting early 2012 during the Official Inauguration ceremonies.
source: http://www.n7w.com/