800 tons of fish die, rot on Philippine fish farms

TALISAY, Philippines (AP) — More than 800 tons of fish have died and rotted on fish farms in a lake near Taal volcano south of Manila, with authorities blaming it on a sudden temperature drop.

The massive fish deaths started late last week but have eased. Officials have banned the sale of the rotting fish, which are being buried by the truckload in Talisay and three other towns in Batangas province, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources official Rose del Mundo said Sunday. The deaths are unrelated to recent signs of restiveness in Taal volcano, which is surrounded by the lake where many villagers have grown milkfish and tilapia — staple foods for many Filipinos, officials said. The volcano and lake are a popular tourist draw.

Government volcanologist Allan Loza said Monday that 115 earthquakes were detected in Taal in the past 24 hours compared to an average of 10 to 15 quakes daily in recent weeks, a sign that magma is rising from within the small volcano. Such unrest has been monitored since April, long before last week's fish deaths, he said.

Talisay agricultural officer Zenaida Macatangay said an initial investigation showed the deaths may have been caused by the temperature change as the rainy season set in last week after a scorching summer, which also depleted the lake's oxygen levels.

Schools of fish were seen swimming in circles before they floated dead to the surface in huge numbers. The deaths have occurred in the past at summer's end but in much smaller numbers, Mendoza said.

Some Taal lake areas turned white due to the massive numbers of dead milk-colored fish. Workers covered their noses with their hands or clothing Sunday as they scooped up the rotting fish and placed them into sacks.

"Many were sad and devastated because they invested a lot in these fish cages," Talisay Mayor Zenaida Mendoza told The Associated Press by telephone.

More than 400 tons of milkfish have died in Talisay alone since Friday in 84 out of about 1,000 fish pens — lake areas about half the size of a basketball court that are fenced off by bamboo poles and nets. Damage has been estimated at $770,000 (33 million pesos), Mendoza said. About 400 tons more have died in the other towns.

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Judgment Day forecaster points to new doomsday date

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The evangelical Christian broadcaster whose much-ballyhooed Judgment Day prophecy went conspicuously unfulfilled on Saturday has a simple explanation for what went wrong -- he miscalculated.

Instead of the world physically coming to an end on May 21 with a great, cataclysmic earthquake, as he had predicted, Harold Camping, 89, said he now believes his forecast is playing out "spiritually," with the actual apocalypse set to occur five months later, on October 21.

Camping, who launched a doomsday countdown in which some followers spent their life's savings in anticipation of being swept into heaven, issued his correction during an appearance on his "Open Forum" radio show from Oakland, California.

The headquarters of Camping's Family Radio network of 66 U.S. stations had been shuttered over the weekend with a sign on the door that read, "This Office is Closed. Sorry we missed you!"

During a sometimes rambling, 90-minute discourse that included a question-and-answer session with reporters, Camping said he felt bad that Saturday had come and gone without the Rapture he had felt so certain would take place.

Reflecting on scripture afterward, Camping said it "dawned" on him that a "merciful and compassionate God" would spare humanity from "hell on Earth for five months" by compressing the physical apocalypse into a shorter time frame.

But he insisted that October 21 has always been the end-point of his own End Times chronology, or at least, his latest chronology.

The tall, gaunt former civil engineer with a deep voice and prominent ears has been wrong before. More than two decades ago, he publicly acknowledged a failed 1994 prophecy of Christ's return to Earth.

To publicize his latest pronouncement, the Family Radio network posted over 2,000 billboards around the country declaring that Judgment Day was at hand, and believers carried the message on placards in shopping malls and street corners.

Asked what advice he would give to followers who gave up much or all of their worldly possessions in the belief that his Judgment Day forecast would come true, Camping drew a comparison to the nation's recent economic slump.

"We just had a great recession. There's lots of people who lost their jobs, lots of people who lost their houses ... and somehow they all survived," he said.

"People cope, he added. "We're not in the business of giving any financial advice. We're in the business of telling people maybe there is someone you can talk to, and that's God."

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Jake Cuenca meets obsessed fan at airport

The Judicial and Bar Council(JBC) has set the deadline for applications and nominations for the post of Ombudsman on May 16 and shall thereafter conduct public interviews of candidates.

Under the Constitution, the JBC, chaired by the Chief Justice, is vested with the authority to nominate to the president via shortlist the names of those qualified for the post.

The JBC opened the nomination and applications for Ombudsman following the resignation on May 6 of Merceditas Gutierrez. The Constitution mandates that the Ombudsman, apart from being a natural-born Filipino, should be a person of “proven competence, integrity, probity and independence” and must have been a judge or engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines for at least 10 years prior to appointment. The Constitution also mandates that any person appointed as Ombudsman must not have been a candidate for any elective office in the immediately preceding election and, at the time of appointment, at least 40 years old.

Apart from these minimum constitutional requirements, the JBC has its own Rules, promulgated in October 2000, which detail the process of screening and appointment.

In determining the competence of applicants or nominees, the JBC considers educational background – up to completion of law degree and other baccalaureate and post-graduate degrees completed, experience, performance, bar examination performance, civil service eligibility and grades in other government examinations, grants received and obtained, membership in local and/or international honor societies, and other accomplishments (authorship of law books, treatises, articles, legal writings, leadership in organizations).

The candidate’s experience in government service will also be evaluated, including posts held in the Judiciary(Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan, and courts of 1st and 2nd levels), the Executive department(Office of the President, cabinet, and agencies), the Legislative department (both elective and appointive), Constitutional commissions or offices, local government units (both elective and appointive), and quasi-judicial bodies.

For government service rendered, the candidate is required to submit official performance ratings and a verified statement of performance for the past 3 years, if he/she is currently holding a public post.

Experience in private practice, if any, will also be considered through certifications from members of the Judiciary and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines(IBP) and affidavits of reputable reference persons for service in courts of justice; and documents and certifications from reference persons for other private service rendered.

Experience in international organizations and foreign governments will also be considered.

Since integrity is an important qualification, the JBC requires candidates to submit certifications or testimonials from reputable government and private organizations; court clearances; clearances from the National Bureau of Investigation(NBI), police and other agencies the council may require.

The JBC may also order a background check on candidates to verify their reputation for integrity, their character and merits. Evidence as to the probity and independence of the nominee/applicant, including validated testimonies from reputable individuals and organizations, will also be considered.

“The Council shall take every possible step to verify the applicant’s record of and reputation for honesty, integrity, incorruptibility, irreproachable conduct, and fidelity to sound moral and ethical standards,” Rule 4, Section1 states.

In this regard, written opposition from a named oppositor to a candidate may be received by the JBC and hearings scheduled where the applicant/nominee is given an opportunity to “cross examine the oppositor and to offer countervailing evidence.”

Anonymous complaints are not entertained except when there is prima facie “probable cause sufficient to engender belief that the allegations may be true” in which case the JBC may direct the candidate concerned to comment in writing or during the conduct of public interviews, or call for a discreet investigation.

When a candidate’s integrity is challenged, he/she must be able to convince all JBC members to vote in favor of his/her nomination/application’s consideration.

Aside from Chief Justice Renato Corona, those who sit in the JBC as ex-officio members are Justice Secretary Leila de Lima; Sen. Francis Escudero, Senate Justice Committee chairman; and Rep. Niel Tupas, Jr., House Justice Committee chairman.The council’s regular members include Justice Regino Hermosisima, Jr. (Retired Supreme Court Justice Representative), Justice Aurora Santiago Lagman(private sector representative), Atty. Ma. Milagros Fernan-Cayosa(IBP representative), and Atty. Jose Mejia(academe representative)

Those who are nominated or apply to the post of Ombudsman must also be of sound physical, mental and emotional health, according to the JBC Rules, thus, applicants or recommending parties are required to submit sworn medical certificates and results of executive medical examinations conducted within 2 months prior to the submission of nomination or application. The JBC may require further medical and physical examinations should there be doubts on the submitted certificates/results.

Psychological and psychiatric tests are also conducted by the Supreme Court Medical Clinic or an council-accredited psychologist/psychiatrist on candidates.

Rule 4, Section 5 of the JBC Rules meantime lists the following as grounds for disqualification to the post:

1. Those with pending criminal or regular administrative cases;

2. Those with pending criminal cases in foreign courts or tribunals; and

3. Those who have been convicted in any criminal case; or in an administrative case, where the penalty imposed is at least a fine of more than P10,000, unless he has been granted judicial clemency.

In the case of personalities floated in the media and various fora as possible contenders to the post of Ombudsman, the following are considerations:

-Retiring Supreme Court Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales: decisions she has rendered being an incumbent member of the judiciary for soundness of judgment, courage, rectitude, cold neutrality and strength of character (Rule 5 on Probity/Independence)

-Former defense chief and former presidential bet Gilbert Teodoro: Constitutional bar on those who were candidates to an elective post in the immediately preceding election(Article XI, Section 

-former Commission on Human Rights(CHR) chair and incumbent Justice Secretary Leila de Lima: pending cases before the Ombudsman for plunder (for the revocation of an informer’s claim to reward in 2 tax evasion cases against the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and Bank of America, filed in December 2010), and violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for public officials (in connection with the resolution of an administrative cases involving an immigration official, filed on May 4, 2011).

De Lima was recently formally nominated by a Department of Justice(DOJ) prosecutor to the post of Ombudsman. In a one-page nomination letter received on Tuesday by the JBC secretariat, Assistant State Prosecutor Romeo Senson nominated his boss for her “incorruptible stand, integrity beyond reproach and character par excellance in serving the public.”

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Manny Pacquiao camp mulls legal action vs Mayweather

Pound-for-pound King Manny Pacquiao is back in the country after his succesful title defense of his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title vs “Sugar” Shane Mosley.

Upon his arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2, he addressed the media and once again thanked all his fans for their support as he was able to bring honor to the country once again. But as the Pacman was en route and airborne on his way home, little did he know that there was controversy brewing again on Twitter, this time coming from Floyd Mayweather Jr. himself.

Yesterday, Mayweather tweeted a link to an obscure boxing news site that had an article claiming that a former sparring partner of Pacquiao, who happend to be Filipino, claimed that he was the one injecting steriods to Manny at the Wild Card Gym, and that it began before the Oscar dela Hoya fight.

The story that Mayweather linked to was on Ringtalk.com

But strangely, that tweet of Mayweather and the content on the link on Ringtalk have both been erased.

Manny belied the allegations, saying he never used steroids, nor has he had a Filipino sparring partner in the US. He added that his lawyers will look into the issue if it can add merit to their ongoing case against the Mayweathers, or warrant a new case all together.

Shane Mosley also got into the picture on Twitter. His followers though got confused with his tweets and thought he believed the article and straight out accused the Pacman of steroid use as well. But Mosley later clarified his stand, and said the “the best man in the ring won that fight.”

Pacquiao appreciated the comments of Mosley, and commended him for being an educated gentleman who respects everyone.

Looking ahead to his next pegged fight in November vs Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny recalled his last fight with Marquez was at 130 pounds. While this 3rd fight is set at a catchweight of 144 pounds, he admits it’s gonna be different. He even kidded to be the underdog for this one.

But kidding aside, Manny promised to study the last 2 fights of Marquez well, knowing that he is a veteran fighter. But things have changed in the last 3 years since they fought, and that the added weight may have changed his style, too.

As for his work in Congress, the Sarangani congressman is looking forward to the groundbreaking of his hospital in his province.

Jinkee and Manny added that Paris Hitlon told them she was looking forward to visiting them here in the Philippines in the next few months.

After the brief press conference at the airport, the Pacman and his entourage proceeded to the New World Hotel to rest and have breakfast before going to Quaipo Church for mass, and then a couresty call to the President at Malacañang.

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Man jumps to death off world's tallest tower in Dubai

DUBAI (Reuters) - A man threw himself off the world's tallest building in Dubai, its developer said, plummeting to his death in the first suicide from Burj Khalifa tower.

The man, believed to be in his twenties and of South Asian background, jumped from the 147th floor of the 828-metre (2,717 feet) skyscraper and landed on a terrace on the 108th floor, local daily The National reported, but those details were not confirmed by the building's developer. Emaar said it had a recorded an "incident involving a male" at its Burj Khalifa site on Tuesday morning. "The concerned authorities have confirmed that it was a suicide and we are awaiting the final report," the statement said. It gave no further details on the incident. The man may have worked at a company inside the 160-storey building, the paper said, adding that police said statements showed a holiday he had requested was turned down.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger, wife Maria Shriver separate

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver, announced on Monday that they were separating. The surprise statement came four months after Schwarzenegger, the Austrian-born former bodybuilder turned Hollywood action star, left office in January after serving two terms as governor. "This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us," Schwarzenegger, 63, and Shriver, 55, said in the statement, which was issued jointly. "After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion, and prayer, we came to this decision together." The couple, who met at a charity tennis tournament in 1977 and married in 1986, did not indicate whether they would seek a divorce, but said they were living separately "while we work on the future of our relationship."
"We are continuing to parent our four children together. They are the light and the center of both of our lives," they said in the statement. "We consider this a private matter, and neither we nor any of our friends or family will have further comment. We ask for compassion and respect from the media and the public." The couple maintained their home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles during his two terms as governor, with Schwarzenegger commuting by jet to the state capitol in Sacramento. Schwarzenegger said in February that he was ready to make movies again and announced recently that he is developing a television show and comic book based on his political nickname "The Governator." An industry source told Reuters last month that Schwarzenegger was likely to star in a new "Terminator" movie that would reprise his most famous screen role as the virtually indestructible cyborg from the future. Shriver, an author and former journalist for NBC, is active with a number of volunteer organizations. Her mother was the sister of assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy and her father, Sargent Shriver, was the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1972. Sargent Shriver died in January at the age of 95. Though a lifelong Democrat, Shriver campaigned for her Republican husband when he sought to recall and replace then-Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, in 2003. She took to the stump to help Schwarzenegger win reelection in 2006.

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Battle of the news channels

TV networks used to devote less airtime to their news and public affairs programs because they generally do not generate enough advertising income to support the huge expense required by broadcast journalism. Times have changed. ABS-CBN was the first to open a news channel with its ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), formerly known as Sarimanok News Channel.
Last month, TV5 and GMA-7 decided to challenge the dominance of the 15-year-old ANC. On Feb. 21, The Kapatid Network launched Aksyon TV on UHF Channel 41 while the Kapuso organization premiered its own version, GMA News TV on Feb. 28 through the network's other VHF channel, the former QTV-11. TV5 can be viewed on Destiny on Channel 7 but not yet on the Lopez-owned Sky Cable, which has a commanding share of the cable market. The Lopez group, of course, owns ABS-CBN so loyalists of TV5 are crying "foul." Since I am a Sky subscriber, I have not been able to watch any of the Aksyon programs.

GMA News TV broadcasts through Channel 11 on free-to-air TV and Channel 24 on Sky. While ANC is on the air 24/7, GNTV signs off at 12 midnight and returns at 6 a.m. I anticipate, though, that it will match ANC's 24-hour schedule in the future, The Kapuso news channel uses Tagalog for all of its shows, which means that it's targeting the mass audience. This seems logical as a huge percentage of free-TV viewers belong to the CDE socio-economic class. ANC talents and guests usually speak English based on the assumption that cable subscribers belong to the ABC economic group.
GNTV identifies itself as a news and public affairs channel, and there's plenty on its schedule. Aside from the regular newscasts and hourly updates, issue-oriented shows are plentiful. I am particularly interested in Winnie Monsod's "Bawal ang Pasaway" (not the kind of title you would put on an ANC show) which will probably feature Winnie's well-researched comments on pressing issues of the day. Jessica Soho's "State of the Nation" had a revealing look at the state of the shipping industry the other day. Veteran journalist Malou Mangahas, who is known for her investigative reports, will be handling hot documentaries.
I notice though that the channel has more lifestyle and entertainment shows compared to ANC. This can probably be explained by GNTV's masa-oriented programming. There's a daily show biz newscast hosted by Rhian Ramos, a gossip show called Tweetbiz Insiders, a fashion-oriented production hosted by Solenn Heusaff, and various shows targeted at housewives. Then there are the holdovers shows like "American Idol" which will still run for three more months. There are also religious programs.
With three news channels, viewers who are tired of the endless teleseryes and talent search formats will now have more relevant choices. I wonder, though, how this will affect the profit and loss figures of the Big 3 networks. To start with, advertisers only allocate a small portion of their budgets to non-entertainment shows. With additional news groups competing for the small advertising pie, none of them will probably realize a profit.
I realize, of course, it's not all about a healthy bottomline. It's the psychic income that is driving ABS-CBN, TV 5 and GMA-7 to beef up their news departments. Prestige is a valuable commodity that can be more precious than the monetary earnings of a network.

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US says it wants access to bin Laden widows

ISLAMABAD – The United States wants access to Osama bin Laden's three widows and any intelligence material its commandos left behind at the al-Qaida leader's compound, a top American official said in comments broadcast Sunday that could add a fresh sticking point in already frayed ties with Pakistan. Information from the women, who remained in the house after the commandos killed bin Laden, might answer questions about whether Pakistan harbored the al-Qaida chief as many American officials are speculating. It could also reveal details about the day-to-day life of bin Laden, his actions since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the inner workings of al-Qaida.
The women, along with several children also picked up from the house, are believed to be in Pakistani army custody. A Pakistani army official declined to comment Sunday on the request, which U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon revealed on NBC's "Meet the Press."
The CIA and Pakistan's spy agency, known by the acronym ISI, have worked uneasily together in the past on counterterrorism, but the unilateral U.S. raid — done without Pakistan's advance knowledge — has exposed the deep mistrust that scars a complicated if vital partnership for both nations.
Even before the May 1 raid, the ISI said it was cutting cooperation with CIA to protest drone strikes close to the Afghan border, among other things. In the current environment, Pakistan could use the fact it has something Washington wants — bin Laden's widows — as leverage to reduce some of the pressure it is under.
Bin Laden was found in a large house close to a military academy in the army town of Abbottabad where he had been living for up to six years. His location raised U.S. suspicions that he had help from some Pakistani authorities, possibly elements of the powerful army and intelligence services.
Donilon said Washington had seen no evidence that the Pakistani government had been colluding with bin Laden — the public line taken by most U.S. officials since the raid, including President Barack Obama in comments also broadcast Sunday.
"But they need to investigate that," Donilon said. "And they need to provide us with intelligence, by the way, from the compound that they've gathered, including access to Osama bin Laden's three wives, whom they have in ... custody."
Donilon also said Pakistani authorities had collected other evidence from the house which the United States wanted to "work with them on assessing." U.S. commandos managed to seize a large and valuable intelligence haul that included videos, telephone numbers and documents, along with the body of bin Laden, before flying back to Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials.
The Pakistani government has strongly denied it knew of bin Laden's whereabouts, but Western governments have long regarded Islamabad with suspicion. Its armed forces have historical — some say ongoing — links with Islamist militants, which they used as proxies in Afghanistan and India.
The allegations of Pakistani collusion pose an acute problem for the Obama administration because few can see any alternative but to continue engaging with the country. Unstable and nuclear-armed, it remains integral to the fight against al-Qaida as well as to American hopes for beginning to draw down troops in Afghanistan later this year.
"We need to act in our national interest," Donilon said. "We have had difficulty with Pakistan, as I said. But we've also had to work very closely with Pakistan in our counter-terror efforts."
The American commandos killed bin Laden and up to four other people, including one of his sons, at the compound.
Pakistani officials have given little information, some of it conflicting, about the identities of the women and children left behind, including exactly how many there are and what they allegedly have been saying.
One of the wives is Yemeni, Pakistani officials have said. A copy of her passport, leaked to the local media, identifies her as Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah. She has allegedly told Pakistani investigators that she moved to the home in 2006 and never left the upper floors of the three-story compound, where bin Laden was living.
She is from the southern Yemeni province of Ibb, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of the capital, Sanaa. A family member there has sought a meeting with Pakistan's ambassador to Yemen to ask about her fate and whether she is to return to Yemen. The relative, a cousin named Walid al-Sada, said the ambassador did not know and promised to get back to the family.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tahmina Janjua said no countries have asked for the return of bin Laden's relatives. The Foreign Ministry in a statement last week said they were being well looked after and will be returned to their countries of origin.
When the Navy SEALs raided bin Laden's compound, they collected computer equipment and videos, including one that showed bin Laden huddled in a blanket and wearing a knit cap while seated on the floor watching television — an image that contrasts with the bin Laden seen in propaganda videos released over the years, which depicted him as a charismatic religious figure unaffected by the world's scorn.
But many Pakistanis, who are routinely misled by their government and live in a country where television and newspapers report conspiracy theories about the malign intentions of the United States uncritically, don't believe bin Laden has died.
"I think Osama did not die," said Mohammad Khan at a newspaper kiosk in Rawalpindi city. "I don't believe even 1 percent that he was martyred in Abbottabad. The making of a video is not a big thing for America. They can do what they want because they have the latest technology. They can make impossible things seem possible."

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Thousands march against violence in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY – An anti-violence march that began in a central state with a few hundred people and gathered thousands over a four-day trek reached Mexico's capital Sunday, led by a poet whose son was killed by suspected drug traffickers.
An estimated 20,000 people poured into the main Zocalo square in Mexico City, wearing white T-shirts saying "enough bloodshed" and carrying photos of poet Javier Sicilia's slain son. A few hundred people set off from Cuernavaca in the central state of Morelos on Thursday, marching silently along the 50-mile (80-kilometer) route. City officials said the march swelled to at least 20,000 after the bulk of protesters joined in Mexico City.
In a speech that drew deafening cheers, Sicilia demanded the resignation of Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna, lashing out at the government for failing to curb Mexico's relentless drug violence despite the deployment of thousands of soldiers and federal police to cartel strongholds across the country.
"If we have walked and arrived here in silence it's because our pain is so great and so profound, and the horror that causes it so immense, that there are no words to describe it," Sicilia said. "We still believe that it is possible to the country to be reborn and rise from ruin and show the agents of death that the sons and daughters of this country are standing up."
Gruesome violence has surged in the region southwest of Mexico City since drug kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva died in a December 2009 shootout with marines in Cuernavaca, leading to the splintering of his cartel. Rivals have routinely hung mutilated bodies from bridges along highways connecting Mexico City, Cuernavaca and the Pacific resort city of Acapulco.
Similar turf fighting has claimed more than 34,600 lives nationwide since President Felipe Calderon deployed federal forces in 2006 to battle cartels.
An unprecedented number of drug bosses have been captured or killed, leading to the splintering of their cartels and fighting that has reached horrific levels, including the discovery last month of secret graves with hundreds of bodies in the northern states of Tamaulipas and Durango.
"Where were the political parties, the mayors, the governors, the federal authorities, the army, the navy, the church, the lawmakers, the businessmen — where were we all — when the highways of Tamaulipas turned into death traps for defenseless men and women?" Sicilia said in his speech.
The vast majority of drug-related homicides remain unsolved, provoking widespread anger over the inefficiency of Mexico's overwhelmed and corrupt police.
Among those marching were relatives of Marisela Escobedo, a woman who was killed in northern Chihuahua state while protesting in front of government offices to demand justice for her slain daughter, another case that provoked national furor.
The poet's son, Juan Francisco Sicilia, was killed in Cuernavaca on March 28 along with six other people. Three alleged drug gang members have been arrested in the killings. Investigators say some of those killed may have had a run-in with the suspects days before the attack but that Sicilia was not involved.
Some marchers had T-shirts that read "We are all Juan." Others had signs reading "Marisela Escobedo is here."
Sicilia demanded to know why Calderon "decided to send the army into the streets in an absurd war that has cost us 40,000 lives and left thousands of Mexicans abandoned to fear and uncertainty."
Hours before the marchers reached Mexico City, federal police announced the capture of a suspected drug gang leader in Morelos.
Jose Zarco Cardenas, 22, had recently begun heading operations in Morelos for a gang that broke off from the Beltran Leyva cartel, the Public Safety Department said in statement Sunday. He was arrested in Mexico City on Friday along with an alleged accomplice.
(This version CORRECTS that authorities now say Sicilia's son was likely not involved in dispute with suspects.)

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Pacquiao easily beats Mosley to retain WBO title

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines retained his WBO welterweight title by recording an unanimous points victory over a lackluster Shane Mosley at the MGM Garden Arena on Saturday.

The 32-year-old southpaw dominated all 12 rounds against his defense-minded American opponent to improve his career record to 53-3-2 with 38 knockouts. It was Pacquiao's 14th consecutive win since his loss to Erik Morales in Las Vegas in March 2005, and enhanced his status as the world's best pound-for-pound fighter.

Fighting for the second time since winning a seat in his country's national congress last year, Pacquiao gained one-sided verdicts from all three judges -- 119-108, 120-108 and 120-107.

"Sugar" Shane Mosley, an 8-1 underdog against the 10-times world champion, slipped to 46-7-1 with 39 knockouts.

Loud chants of "Manny, Manny, Manny" rang out in the Garden Arena before the two fighters made their way to the ring.

Mosley came out first, led by American rapper and actor LL Cool J, before Pacquiao followed suit with Jimi Jamison of U.S. rock band Survivor singing the group's 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger."

Round one began with both fighters probing. Pacquiao connected early on with a left jab before Mosley landed a solid right-handed punch to the body.

TELLING COMBINATIONS

With the crowd again chanting "Manny, Manny, Manny" Pacquiao began to find a rhythm and he landed several telling combinations before ending the second round with a right hook followed by a straight left.

In round three, Mosley connected with another solid right before the Filipino sent the American crashing to the canvas with a crunching straight left set up by a right jab, only the third time Mosley had ever been knocked down.

Pacquiao began round four in the same vein, continually forcing Mosley to back-peddle, although the American connected with his first three-punch combination of the fight

In round six, Pacquiao kept moving forward and landed a solid upper cut before Mosley, mainly focused on defense, responded late on with a powerful right hook

The Filipino, wearing yellow gloves to give hope to those fighting hunger and poverty in the Philippines, kept Mosley on the retreat in round seven with his agile footwork and a series of probing combinations.

Pacquiao unleashed several accurate body and head jabs early in round eight against a tiring Mosley to maintain control as the crowd booed the American for his defensive strategy.

Mosley was initially more aggressive in round nine with his jab but the Filipino southpaw countered with a flurry of combinations before landing a crunching straight left on the American's chin.

Pacquiao, continually moving forward, forced Mosley back on to the ropes in the 10th round. The Filipino was surprisingly adjudged to have been knocked down after being pushed to the canvas by Mosley. Fired up, Pacquiao ended the round in aggressive mode, hitting Mosley late on with a withering left.

Sensing the chance of a knockout, Pacquiao kept coming forward in the final two rounds, pummeling his opponent at every opportunity and twice pinning Mosley against the ropes.

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South Korean man found crucified, wearing crown

he body of a man with his hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross and a crown of thorns on his head has been found in an abandoned stone quarry, South Korean police said Wednesday.

A man wearing only underwear, with a wound on the side of his torso and nylon strings tied around his neck, arms and stomach, was found crucified Sunday in Mungyong, about 115 miles (190 kilometers) southeast of Seoul, said Chung Ji-chun, chief of the violent crime section at Gyeongbuk Provincial Police Agency.

Two smaller crosses were erected on each side of the cross he was nailed to, Chung said.

Police also found nails, a hammer, an electric drill, pieces of wood and instructions on how to build crosses inside a tent near the scene, Chung said. An SUV belonging to the dead man was found nearby.

Police are waiting for a forensic report to determine the exact time and cause of the man's death and whether it was a homicide or suicide.

Chung identified the man as a 58-year old surnamed Kim.

Popular representations of the death of Jesus Christ depict him crucified between the crosses of two thieves, wearing a crown of thorns, a white cloth over his loins, with a wound on his side from a Roman soldier's spear.

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Manny Pacquiao scores first global endorsement deal, named first House billionaire

Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has been tapped to promote HP's new TouchPad tablet, his first global endorsement deal, Pacquiao's promoter Top Rank told Manila Standard Today. According to the report, neither Top Rank nor HP divulged how much the deal was worth, but the website Campaign Singapore estimated it to be worth US$1 million per year.
Top Rank said they submitted Pacquiao's name to HP, who was looking for an endorser for its TouchPad tablet, reports Manila Standard Today. Pacquiao's campaign will include HP laptops, printers, smart phones and other products.

Campaign Singapore wrote, "Confusion surrounding Pacquiao's representation had left many international brands reluctant to sign the boxing superstar, despite his multi-million-dollar appeal and fanatical fan base... But because Pacquiao's sponsorship deals tended to be domestic within his native Philippines, he was free to embark (on) the HP deal."

Pacquiao has also signed a three-year contract to endorse Texas-based State Street Produce, a company that supplies restaurants in the US, reports Manila Standard Today. The trade name "Pacquiao's Produce" will be featured in advertisements, produce boxes, delivery trucks and more.
One of ESPN The Magazine's Best Paid Athletes of 2010, Pacquiao has also been named the first billionaire in the House of Representatives, reports Inquirer.net. Ricardo Bering, chief of the House records division, said yesterday that the Sarangani congressman reported a net worth of over P1 billion in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

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Inside the Osama bin Laden Strike: How America Got Its Man

A crashed U.S. military helicopter is seen near the

hideout of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after a ground

operation by U.S. special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden's final night began with a group of four helicopters slicing through the night skies over Pakistan, making their way toward Islamabad from a U.S. base in northern Afghanistan. The mission, approved by President Barack Obama on Friday morning, had been set for early Sunday local time but was delayed by poor weather. Pakistani officials did not know they were arriving. The small, elite force flew low and fast, using terrain-following radar to hug the folds and valleys to avoid radar detection. It was after midnight when the team of U.S. commandos descended on the al-Qaeda chief's Abbottabad lair. "The walls around the compound were up to 18 ft. [5.5 m] high," a senior U.S. intelligence operative said Monday. "The balconies had 7-ft. [2 m]-high privacy walls. There were, in addition to wall heights, barbed wire along the top of the walls. The residents of the compound burned their own trash. There were two gates at the compound as well, and opaque windows," he continued. The White House summed it up more tersely. "It had the appearance of sort of a fortress," said John Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser.

(See "On Scene in Abbottabad at bin Laden's Last Stand.")
About two dozen Navy Seals and CIA enablers swooped down on the suburban compound in a pair of choppers, leaving a second pair lurking nearby in case they were needed. They came under fire almost immediately, giving U.S. forces all the justification they needed to amp up their firepower. Helicopters can be ungainly machines, easily downed by rocket-propelled grenades or a flurry of small-arms fire. In addition to the choppers, heavier guns — perhaps AC-130 gunships — were likely on station overhead to rain down suppressive fire as U.S. forces moved in aboard specially outfitted CH-47 and UH-60 choppers.
Seven thousand miles away, U.S. officials could only watch as the operation unfolded. At the White House, Obama sat stone-faced in the Situation Room as some of his aides paced. Long periods of silence passed as the small, trusted national-security team huddled around the video monitors. Intelligence professionals say they did not know for sure that bin Laden was in the compound. The case was good, but circumstantial. The likelihood, officials told the President, was between 50% and 80%.
(See Osama bin Laden's obituary.)
Senior Administration officials said they had been monitoring the compound since August 2010, when a courier known to be trusted by bin Laden, as well as the courier's brother, began living there. "Everything we saw — the extremely elaborate operational security, the brothers' background and their behavior, and the location and the design of the compound itself — was perfectly consistent with what our experts expected bin Laden's hideout to look like," one official said early Monday. "Our analysts looked at this from every angle, considering carefully who other than bin Laden could be at the compound. We conducted red-team exercises and other forms of alternative analysis to check our work. No other candidate fit the bill as well as bin Laden did."
(See pictures inside bin Laden's Pakistan hideaway.)
Early discussion of bombing the compound was scrapped in favor of a snatch and grab — the U.S. wanted bin Laden's body as evidence of his demise. Even in a bombing mission, U.S. or allied personnel would have had to go to the compound for evidence. It made more sense, although it was riskier, to raid the place and get bin Laden, dead or alive. "The men who executed this mission accepted this risk, practiced to minimize those risks and understood the importance of the target to the national security of the United States," a senior Administration official said.
(Did Pakistan know bin Laden was there?)
And so they went in. Twenty-four Seals fast-roped to the ground; a total of about 80 U.S. personnel took part, either in the air or below. One helicopter lost lift because the compound's high walls upset its supporting airflow, forcing it to make a hard landing. The commandos elected to destroy the helicopter rather than try to recover it: time was short. The Seals fired hundreds of rounds as they blasted their way into the compound, clearing it room by room, until the top two floors of the main three-story building were the only areas left to be cleared.
Midway through the 40-minute mission, Pakistani military forces began scrambling to investigate the attack — U.S. officials feared a clash between the U.S. troops and their unknowing Pakistani allies. And as the Seals moved through the compound, authorities back in Washington began to sweat. "It was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time, I think, in the lives of the people who were assembled here yesterday," Brennan said Monday. "The minutes passed like days ... it was clearly very tense, a lot of people holding their breath." The gunfire was almost ceaseless.
A woman, in some accounts believed to be one of bin Laden's wives, was shot. "She fought back when there was the opportunity to get to bin Laden," Brennan said of the lone woman who died in the raid. "She was positioned in a way that indicated that she was being used as a shield, whether or not bin Laden or the son or whatever put her there, or she put herself there ... she met her demise."
(See pictures of Americans celebrating the death of bin Laden.)
Then it happened. Back at the White House, a disembodied voice radioed, "We've ID'd Geronimo," referring to the agreed-upon code name for America's most wanted enemy. And then confirmation: Geronimo, Osama bin Laden, had been killed. It was 1 a.m. in Pakistan. No American casualties had been sustained. The three remaining helicopters took off bearing the commando team and the body of the slain al-Qaeda chief.
After undergoing DNA verification in Afghanistan, bin Laden's remains were flown to the U.S.S. Carl Vinson aircraft carrier. The body was washed, wrapped in a white sheet and placed in a weighted bag. A military official read a few religious passages in Arabic. And then, less than 24 hours after his death, and nearly a decade after the manhunt began, bin Laden's body slipped into the North Arabian Sea.

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Afghan Taliban likely to rethink ties to al-Qaida

KABUL, Afghanistan – Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, some analysts are speculating that al-Qaeda and its Afghan Taliban allies could go their separate ways, increasing the chances for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden's death is likely to revive a debate within the Afghan Taliban about their ties to al-Qaida — a union the U.S. insists must end if the insurgents want to talk peace. The foundation of their relationship is believed to be rooted in bin Laden's long friendship with the Taliban's reclusive one-eyed leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who might now find it more palatable to break with al-Qaida and negotiate a settlement to the war. Much may depend on the newly chastened power-broker next door: Pakistan.
"I think now is an opportunity for the Taliban to end their relations with al-Qaida," said Waheed Muzhda, a Kabul-based analyst and former foreign ministry official under the Taliban regime that was toppled in late 2001.
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, said it was too early to comment.
But the death of the world's top terrorist gives momentum toward finding a political solution to the nearly decade-long war, according to analysts familiar with U.S. officials' stepped-up effort this year to push a peace agenda.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Obama administration have said they will negotiate with any member of the Taliban who embraces the Afghan constitution, renounces violence and severs ties with al-Qaida. Informal contacts have been made in recent months with high-ranking Taliban figures, but no formal peace talks are under way.
The possible opportunity comes just as the spring fighting season is kicking into gear. The U.S.-led coalition hopes to hold ground in southern Afghanistan gained as a result of the addition last year of an extra 30,000 American troops. The Taliban's goal remains undermining the Afghan government, discrediting its security forces and driving the nearly 100,000 U.S. troops and other foreign forces out of the country.
Even before bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs at a compound in Pakistan on Monday, the links between the al-Qaida and the Afghan Taliban had weakened during the 10 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, Muzhda said. Mullah Omar's refusal to hand over bin Laden after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon prompted the U.S.-led assault on Afghanistan that ousted the Taliban from power. By siding with bin Laden, Mullah Omar's hardline regime lost control of the nation.
The goals of the two movements are not closely aligned. While al-Qaida is focused on worldwide jihad against the West and establishment of a religious superstate in the Muslim world, the Afghan Taliban have focused on their own country and have shown little to no interest in attacking targets outside Afghanistan. The car bombing in May 2010 in New York's Times Square was linked to the Pakistani Taliban — an autonomous group on the other side of the border.
But breaking with al-Qaida would mean forgoing some reliable funding channels in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Syria, according to a Western intelligence officer. Mullah Omar's association with bin Laden also gave him clout, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.
Al-Qaida shares its technical expertise in explosives and helps the Taliban traffic narcotics made with opium poppies grown in Afghanistan, he said. For their part, the Taliban allow al-Qaida to come into Afghanistan on the backs of Taliban fighters.
Still, some members of the Taliban's top leadership council have grown uncomfortable with al-Qaida, and a vocal minority want to distance themselves from the mostly Arab terrorist network, he said.
There are also cultural differences. Al-Qaida has viewed the Taliban as more backward, "kinda like West Virginia mountain folk — unrefined, uneducated," the officer said.
And "the older generation of Taliban leaders had long ago become fed up with the arrogance of Arab jihadists," Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote Monday in a column in the Financial Times.
Two other issues, according to the intelligence officer, could affect the Taliban's internal debate about al-Qaida. While Bin Laden had personal connections to Taliban leaders, the man expected to replace him, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, is a less charismatic, unifying figure. And top Taliban leaders now know that the U.S. might hunt them down in Pakistan even without the cooperation or knowledge of the Pakistani military — as was done with bin Laden.
In June 2010, CIA Director Leon Panetta estimated that there were probably only 50 to 100 al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan — that most of the terrorist network was, without question, operating from the western tribal region of Pakistan. Last month, Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said that while some al-Qaida fighters have been searching for hide-outs in rugged areas of eastern Afghanistan, he did not think they were making a comeback inside the country.
Abu Hafs al-Najdi — a senior al-Qaida leader in Afghanistan and the coalition's No. 2 overall targeted insurgent in the country — was killed in an April 13 airstrike in Kunar province, a hotbed of the insurgency in the northeast. In the past several weeks, coalition forces reported killing more than 25 al-Qaida leaders and fighters.
While the military offensive continues, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said recently that the United States had accelerated a diplomatic push to craft a political solution to the war. Marc Grossman, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan who is heading up the effort, met with Afghanistan and Pakistan officials on Tuesday in Islamabad and agreed to set up a so-called Core Group for promoting the Afghan-led reconciliation effort.
With little known about the secret inner workings of the Afghan Taliban's governing council, called the Quetta Shura, analysts can only speculate about the group's plans.
"The killing of bin Laden might motivate them to sever their ties," said Brian Katulis, of the Washington-based think-tank Center for American Progress. "I think the signal that the Quetta Shura and others are getting from people in Pakistan in the security services will be key."
The U.S. has accused Pakistan's military-run spy service of maintaining links with the Haqqani network, which is affiliated with the Afghan Taliban and closely aligned with al-Qaida. Pointedly, the Americans did not inform Pakistan about Monday's helicopter raid that killed bin Laden until it was over.
That bin Laden's hideout turned out to be a three-story home a short drive from the capital, Islamabad, and close to various Pakistani army regiments has raised suspicions in Washington that the Pakistanis may have been sheltering him. For years, Western intelligence had said bin Laden was most likely holed up in a cave along the Pakistan-Afghan border.
The Pakistani government has denied suggestions that its security forces knew bin Laden was there. Pakistani officials have long argued that they have done their part in the fight against militants and denounce allegations that they are backing insurgents.
"The raid was obviously deeply embarrassing for the Pakistanis," Katulis said. "They could either redouble their efforts to try to cooperate more closely with the U.S. or they can continue to play their passive-aggressive game."
Don't expect a near-term divorce with al-Qaida, said Michael Wahid Hanna, an analyst with The Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank.
"It makes no sense for the Taliban to concede this point on the front end — without receiving any commensurate concession from the other side," Hanna said. "Some of the Taliban I have spoken to have made the point that as long as the military fight escalates, they will cooperate with other forces who are willing to assist them in their fight against the U.S.-led coalition. They portray any pre-emptive severing of ties as a type of unilateral, partial disarmament."
Seth Jones, a RAND Corp. political scientist who advised the commander of U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan, said he suspects "the Taliban would interpret cutting ties with al-Qaida as kowtowing to the Americans."
Jones said that while the Taliban don't need al-Qaida to operate, they still retain ties with al-Qaida's senior leaders as they have for decades.
Former Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Abdul Hadi Khalid said some members of the Taliban want to split with al-Qaida. The fighting spirit of the Taliban has been dampened by recent brutal attacks around the country that killed scores of Afghan civilians — attacks he suspects were inspired by al-Qaida.
These Taliban members "feel they are going the wrong way," Khalid said.
However, Ahmed Wali Karzai, the half brother of the Afghan president, said top Taliban leaders directing the insurgency remain very closely associated with al-Qaida. Al-Qaida still helps train Taliban fighters, and foreign fighters aligned with al-Qaida continue to fight side-by-side with Taliban foot soldiers, he said.
"I don't know how they will be able to distance themselves," Karzai said.

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Property records give new insights into bin Laden

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan – The Pakistani who owned the compound that was Osama bin Laden's final hideaway meticulously bought up adjoining plots of land over two years and once cryptically told a seller that the property he bought for "an uncle" had become very valuable.
The new information that emerged Wednesday provided a new glimpse of one of two key figures who sheltered bin Laden in his last years and whose identities remain one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the al-Qaida chief. At the same time, Pakistan stepped up its attempt to convince the world that it didn't know where bin Laden was located. They maintain that the al-Qaida leader's ability to hide in Abbottabad, an army town just two hours drive from the capital, was the result of an oversight by the government, not double dealing.
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Wednesday that anyone who claimed his country hid bin Laden was "color blind."
During a visit to Paris, Gilani said that Pakistan shared intelligence with numerous countries in the fight against terrorism and had "excellent cooperation" with the United States. He said that "if we have failed, it means everybody failed," and an investigation would be ordered.
Many countries have expressed disbelief that bin Laden could have holed up under the Pakistani army's nose, and some U.S. Congressmen have said the U.S. should consider cutting billions of dollars in aid to the country if it turns out Pakistan knew where he was located. U.S. officials have long criticized Pakistan, a key but difficult ally, for failing to target Islamist militants on its territory.
Property records obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday show that a man named Mohammed Arshad bought the land in Abbottabad where bin Laden's compound was built. He bought the adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005 and paid $48,000.
Qazi Mahfooz Ul Haq, a doctor, told the AP that he sold a plot of land to Arshad in 2005. He said the buyer was a sturdily built man who had a tuft of hair under his lower lip. He spoke with an accent that sounded like it was from Waziristan, a tribal region close to Afghanistan that is home to many al-Qaida operatives.
"He was a very simple, modest, humble type of man" who was "very interested" in buying the land for "an uncle," the doctor said.
The doctor saw Arshad a few times after he sold him the land, he said. On one of those occasions, Arshad cryptically said, "your land is now very costly" — meaning valuable.
Arshad bought two other plots used for the compound in a less transparent transaction in November 2004, according to a review of the property records.
Raja Imtiaz Ahmed, who previously owned the two plots, said he sold them to a middleman who may have then passed them on to Arshad. He could not recall the middleman's name and was looking for records that would reveal it.
Neighbors of the bin Laden compound said one of the two Pakistani men living in the house who periodically ventured outside went by the name Arshad Khan, and roughly matched the physical description of Mohammed Arshad.
The two names apparently refer to the same man and both names may be fake. But one thing is clear — bin Laden relied on a small, trusted inner circle as lifelines to the outside who provided for his daily needs such as food and medicine and kept his location secret. And it appears they did not betray him.
Arshad is also suspected as the courier who unwittingly led the Americans to bin Laden after years of painstaking tracking.
U.S. officials have identified the courier as Sheikh Abu Ahmed, a Pakistani man born in Kuwait who went by the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. They obtained his name from detainees held in secret CIA prison sites in Eastern Europe and vetted it with top al-Qaida operatives like Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The man who periodically ventured outside bin Laden's compound with the suspected courier is believed to be his brother. American officials said the courier and his brother were killed in the American commando raid on the compound early Monday.
The courier was so important to al-Qaida that he was tapped by Mohammed to shepherd the man who was to have been the 20th hijacker through computer training needed for the Sept. 11 attacks, according to newly released documents from Guantanamo Bay interrogations.
The courier trained Maad al-Qahtani at an internet cafe in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in July 2001 so that he could communicate by email with Mohammed Atta, the Sept. 11 financier and one of the 19 hijackers, who was already in the United States.
But al-Qahtani proved to be a poor student and was ultimately denied entry to the U.S. when he raised suspicion among immigration officials.
The Guantanamo documents also revealed that the courier might have been one of the men who accompanied bin Laden to Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in December 2001 just weeks before the Taliban's final surrender.
Al-Kuwaiti inadvertently led intelligence officials to bin Laden when he used a telephone last year to talk with someone the U.S. had wiretapped. The CIA then tracked al-Kuwaiti back to the walled compound in Abbottabad, which was located near a Pakistani army academy.
Bin Laden was living in the house for up to six years before U.S. Navy Seals raided the compound and shot the al-Qaida leader.
One of bin Laden's daughters, who says she saw U.S. forces shooting her father, is in Pakistani custody, said a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the agency's policy.
A total of 10-12 people, including six or seven children, and a woman have been seized from the compound and are all in Pakistani custody, he said. The woman, whose nationality the official would not disclose, is wounded and undergoing treatment at a hospital, he said.
That bin Laden lived in Abbottabad for so long undetected has reignited long-standing suspicions that the country is playing a double game.
Some U.S. lawmakers have suggested that Washington cut or terminate American aid to Pakistan as a result. But others are advising caution — Pakistan has nuclear arms, is already unstable and the U.S. needs its support to withdraw from Afghanistan.
Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the discovery of bin Laden so close to an army installation was "embarrassing to them" but that institutional entities like the army, intelligence service and government likely didn't know about bin Laden's presence.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's defense minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the country's most wanted terrorist suspect Umar Patek was in Abbottabad to meet Osama bin Laden when he was arrested there early this year. Patek was injured in a raid by Pakistani intelligence agents on a house in Abbottabad on Jan. 25, but news of arrest only leaked out in late March.
A senior American counterterrorism official said Patek's arrest in Abbottabad "appears to have been pure coincidence" and that there were no indications that Patek met with bin Laden in Abbottabad.

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Despite economic growth, India lets its girls die

MORENA, India – The room is large and airy, the stone floors clean and cool — a welcome respite from the afternoon sun. Until your eyes take in the horror that it holds. Ten severely malnourished children — nine of them girls.
The starving girls in this hospital ward include a 21-month-old with arms and legs the size of twigs and an emaciated 1-year-old with huge, vacant eyes. Without urgent medical care, most will not live to see their next birthday.
They point to a painful reality revealed in India's most recent census: Despite a booming economy and big cities full of luxury cars and glittering malls, the country is failing its girls. Early results show India has 914 girls under age 6 for every 1,000 boys. A decade ago, many were horrified when the ratio was 927 to 1,000.
The discrimination happens through abortions of female fetuses and sheer neglect of young girls, despite years of high-profile campaigns to address the issue. So serious is the problem that it's illegal for medical personnel to reveal the gender of an unborn fetus, although evidence suggests the ban is widely circumvented.
"My mother-in-law says a boy is necessary," says Sanju, holding her severely malnourished 9-month-old daughter in her lap in the hospital. The woman, who goes by one name, doesn't admit to deliberately starving the girl but only shrugs her own thin shoulders when asked why her daughter is so sick.
She will try again for a son in a year or two, she says.
Part of the reason Indians favor sons is the enormous expense in marrying off girls. Families often go into debt arranging marriages and paying elaborate dowries. A boy, on the other hand, will one day bring home a bride and dowry. Hindu custom also dictates that only sons can light their parents' funeral pyres.
But it's not simply that girls are more expensive for impoverished families. The census data shows that the worst offenders are the relatively wealthy northern states of Punjab and Haryana.
In Morena, a sun-baked, largely rural district in the heart of India, the numbers are especially grim. This census showed that only 825 girls for every 1,000 boys in the district made it to their sixth birthdays, down from an already troubling 829 a decade ago.
Though abortion is allowed in India, the country banned revealing the gender of unborn fetuses in 1994 in an attempt to halt sex-selective abortions. Every few years, federal and state governments announce new incentives — from free meals to free education — to encourage people to take care of their girls.
In Morena, a Madhya Pradesh state government program offers poor families with one or two daughters a few thousand rupees (a few hundred dollars) for every few years of schooling, and more than 100,000 rupees ($2,250) when they graduate high school.
But while a handful of Indian women have attained some of the highest positions in politics and business — from late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi — a deep-rooted cultural preference for sons remains.
Even the government has accepted that it has failed to save millions of little girls.
"Whatever measures that have been put in over the last 40 years have not had any impact," India's Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said last month when announcing the census numbers.
In Morena's homes, villages, schools and hospitals lie some of the answers to why the country keeps losing girls.
In the district hospital's maternity ward, a wrinkled old woman walks out holding a just-born girl wrapped in a dirty rag like an unwelcome present. Munni, who uses only one name, is clearly unhappy. Her daughter-in-law has just given birth to her sixth girl in 12 years of marriage.
Will the daughter-in-law go through another pregnancy?
"Everyone wants boys. A boy takes care of you in your old age," Munni says.
As a mother-in-law, Munni will likely have enormous control over her son's wife, influencing how many children she has and nudging or bullying her to bear a son.
According to the current CIA "World Factbook," the United States has a birth ratio of 955 girls per 1,000 boys. In China, where families with a strong preference for boys sometimes resort to aborting their baby girls, there was a birth ratio of 885 girls per 1,000 boys.
District hospital head R.C. Bandil said his facility strictly obeys the law against using sonograms to reveal the gender of a fetus, adding that the sex ratio at birth there is as high as 940-945 girls per 1,000 boys.
Bandil said that for ages 6 and under, however, the ratio fell to 825 girls per 1,000 boys.
Part of the reason lies in the hospital's malnutrition ward.
"Women cry when they have girls," nurse Lalitha Gujar says as she spoons powdered coconut, peanuts and sesame seeds into bowls of fortified milk to nourish the tiny children.
All nine mothers of the sickly infant girls say they want sons — to look after them when they get old, because their sisters-in-law have more sons, because their mothers-in-law demand male children.
"If a woman has a boy, for a month she will be looked after. If she has a girl, she'll be back in the fields in three days," says Sudha Misra, a local social worker.
An exhausted mother who faces neglect, poor nutrition and blame for producing a daughter is likely to pass on that neglect, social workers say. For an infant, that can mean the difference between life and death.
"A malnourished child will get sick and the chances of death are very high," Bandil says.
Males get first priority. "First the husband is seated and fed, then the brothers and then whatever is left is fed to the girls," says Bandil. "If there are two mangoes in the house, first the boy will get to eat."
For the very poor, the pressures to bear sons result in mistreatment of both the baby girl and mother. And rich women are not immune to this mistreatment if they fail to bear male children.
For those with money, it's often about being able to locate a radiologist who, for a cost, will break the law and reveal the sex of the fetus, or being able to fly abroad for such tests.
A 2007 study by the rights group ActionAid India found that gender ratios were worse in urban areas, and that sex-selective abortions were more common among wealthier and higher-caste people who could afford ways to learn the gender of fetuses.
The law is not enough to combat "a society that values boys over girls," says Ravinder Kaur, a professor of sociology at New Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology.
"Laws are good because they may act as a deterrent" she says, but sex-selective abortions continue underground because "people find more devious ways."

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Kenya: Elephants killed near Prince William cabin

NAIROBI, Kenya – Four of seven elephants outfitted with GPS tracking collars have been killed on the forested slopes of Mount Kenya in recent months only a short hike from the rustic cabin where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton, conservation officials said Tuesday.
Save The Elephants fitted seven animals near Mount Kenya with collars over the last year to track their movements. More than half have been killed, and the group's founder, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, said he's worried about what may be happening to the elephants who aren't collared. "We've uncovered a poaching crisis near Mount Kenya that we didn't know about before," he said.
Douglas-Hamilton said the mountain's dense forest makes it difficult for rangers to patrol and protect elephants who have not been collared.
Save The Elephants official Lucy King said the group suspects the rise in poaching in northern Kenya is linked to a high demand for ivory in Asia.
"We're seeing a lot of Chinese nationals caught in the airport in Kenya with ivory in their luggage," she said. "We have to assume the Chinese are involved at some level."
Kenya has more than 30,000 elephants, so the deaths of four do not threaten its population.
The first killing came in October, the same month the royal couple traveled to a rustic log cabin where the two fished in a nearby pond and bundled up for chilly nights at high altitude. It's not known publicly if the two saw any elephants on their trip, but one of the four poached beasts died only 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the cabin, King said.
An elephant named Marani was shot to death in October. A second shooting death came in February. Two others were killed last month, including one suspected shooting death and one death caused by a snare.
Douglas-Hamilton described the agony of the last death, after a team member hiked through thick mountain terrain and through two gorges to find the starved corpse.
"She had been snared with a big rope round her leg and was tied to a tree," he said. "In her last days she had thrashed around and flattened the vegetation, but he found her emaciated. She must have died of lack of food and water."
Susie Weeks, who lives near the 17,057-foot (5,199-meter) mountain for her work with The Mount Kenya Trust, said the region is "rife" with snares and traps. She said ivory poaching began on the mountain in 2009 and has steadily increased.
"Although the snares seem to be laid for smaller game, like buffalo, we find dead elephant calves in these brutal and indiscriminate traps, and amputated or snared calves wondering around with serious infections they cannot possibly survive," she said.
Save the Elephants tracks the real-time movements of elephants it outfits with GPS collars, and the beasts' paths are traced on a special Google Earth mapping program. When an elephant stops moving on the map, the conservationists watching the elephants know there is a problem.
King said poachers shot one of the special collars with two AK-47 bullets. She said that suggests the poachers believe the collars increase the chances they might be caught.
Save The Elephants said more ranger patrols and financial support are needed on Mount Kenya to combat the attacks.

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Officials: SEALs thought bin Laden went for weapon

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama ordered grisly photographs of Osama bin Laden in death sealed from public view on Wednesday, declaring, "We don't need to spike the football" in triumph after this week's daring middle-of-the-night raid. The terrorist leader was killed by American commandos who burst into his room and feared he was reaching for a nearby weapon, U.S. officials said.
Several weapons were found in the room where the terror chief died, including AK-47 assault rifles and side arms, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they offered the most recent in a series of increasingly detailed and sometimes-shifting accounts of bin Laden's final minutes after a decade on the run. Obama said releasing the photographs taken by the Navy SEAL raiders was "not who we are" as a country. Though some may deny his death, "the fact of the matter is you will not see bin Laden walking this earth again," the president said in an interview taped for CBS' "60 Minutes."
He said any release of the photos could become a propaganda tool for bin Laden's adherents eager to incite violence.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said the president's decision applied to photographs of bin Laden, said to show a portion of his skull blown away from a gunshot wound to the area of his left eye, as well as to a video recording of his burial several hours later in the North Arabian Sea.
The president made no public remarks during the day about the raid, apart from the taped interview. But he arranged a visit for Thursday to ground zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center twin towers once stood.
After two days of shifting accounts of the dramatic raid, Carney said he would no longer provide details of the 40-minute operation by the team of elite Navy SEALs. That left unresolved numerous mysteries, prominent among them an exact accounting of bin Laden's demise. Officials have said he was unarmed but resisted when an unknown number of commandos burst into his room inside the high-security compound.
The officials who gave the latest details said a U.S. commando grabbed a woman who charged toward the SEALs inside the room. They said the raiders were concerned that she might be wearing a suicide vest.
Administration officials have said bin Laden's body was identified by several means, including a DNA test. Members of Congress who received a briefing during the day said a sample from the body killed at the compound in Pakistan was compared to known DNA from bin Laden's mother and three sons.
After two days of speculation about releasing the photographs, there was no detectable public debate in the U.S. about the merits of the raid itself against the man behind the terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001.
Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress the operation was "entirely lawful and consistent with our values" and justified as "an action of national self-defense." Noting that bin Laden had admitted his involvement in the events of nearly a decade ago, he said, "It's lawful to target an enemy commander in the field."
Holder also said the team that carried out the raid had been trained to take bin Laden alive if he was willing to surrender. "It was a kill-or-capture mission," he said. "He made no attempt to surrender."
Bin Laden had evaded capture for nearly a decade, and officials said he had currency as well as two telephone numbers sewn into his clothing when he was killed, suggesting he was prepared to leave his surroundings on a moment's notice if he sensed danger.
Administration officials said the two dozen SEALs involved in the operation were back at their home base outside Virginia Beach, Va., and the extensive debriefing they underwent was complete. Saluted as heroes nationwide, they remained publicly unidentified because of security concerns.
In addition to bin Laden's body, the SEALs helicoptered out of the compound with computer files, flash drives, DVDs and documents that intelligence officials have begun analyzing in hopes the information will help them degrade or destroy the network bin Laden left behind.
In New York on Thursday, Carney said, Obama will lay a wreath at the World Trade Center site and hold a private meeting with relatives of some of the victims of the attacks, in which jetliners hijacked by terrorists were flown into the side of first one tower, then the other.
The buildings collapsed within minutes, dooming office workers as well as rescuers who had run in hoping to save them.
A few days later, then-President George W. Bush stood amid the rubble and spoke through a bullhorn. When one worker yelled, "I can't hear you," the president responded, "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people — and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"
A decade — and long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan later — Obama said he had no intention of gloating.
Obama's decision not to release any photographs was unlikely to be the final word, though.
Some members of Congress have been shown at least one photo of bin Laden, and others have asked to see it, an indication of the intense interest generated by the raid.
The Associated Press on Monday requested through the Freedom of Information Act photos of bin Laden's body as well as other materials, including video taken by military personnel during the raid and on the USS Carl Vinson, the ship that conducted bin Laden's burial at sea. The government has 20 days to respond.
Some family members of those who died in the 9/11attacks have pressed to have the photographs released to document bin Laden's death, as have some skeptics in the Arab world. But many lawmakers and others expressed concern that the photographic images could be seen as a "trophy" that would inflame U.S. critics and make it harder for members of the American military deployed overseas to do their jobs.
Obama said he had discussed his decision with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates "and my intelligence teams, and they all agree."
Despite fears of revenge attacks, officials have yet to raise the national threat level.
The disclosure that bin Laden was living in relative comfort inside Pakistan in Abbottabad has provoked some administration officials and lawmakers to question the Pakistani government's commitment to the decade-long search for the terrorist leader.
Publicly, Pakistan issued a statement on Monday taking the U.S. to task for an "unauthorized unilateral action" that "cannot be taken as a rule."
But privately, according to one official, Pakistani Army chief Ashfaq Kayani offered congratulations when Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called to inform him after the operation, and urged a public release of the news. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the conversation.
The White House also announced Obama would visit Fort Campbell, Ky., on Friday to greet troops returning from Afghanistan, which the United States attacked in 2001 after its leaders refused to turn over members of the al-Qaida leadership living there.

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Kim Chiu celebrates birthday with abandoned children

One of today's hottest stars, Kim Chiu, celebrated her 21st birthday last April 19 with Grace To Be Born Shelter, a charity group who takes care of abandoned babies and unwed mothers.
At Kim's birthday lunch with the entertainment press on Tuesday, May 3, at ELJ Building in ABS-CBN, Kim talked about celebrating her birthday, her US trip and her upcoming TV series, "Binondo Girl."
Kim has tasted success early in her career—having various TV projects, movie offers and endorsements since the time she started as a housemate in "Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition." After years of painstaking work, Kim has already established her name as one of the country's premier young actresses.
It has been Kim's tradition to celebrate her birthday with a charity group and share her blessings, as a way of giving back. "Yearly, iba-iba yung charity ko para sa birthday ko. Ngayon, magkasunod na newborn babies. Ngayon yung pupuntahan ko yung mga abandoned children. Mga tinapon sa basurahan, iniwan sa CR," Kim told Yahoo! OMG Philippines.
For her 21st birthday, Kim chose Grace To Be Born Shelter for the abandoned babies and unwed mothers, which she visited on Tuesday. "Ang dami naming niresearch. Sila lang yung kaunti lang ang supply na nakukuha. Kaunti lang yung bumibisita. So naisip ko, ito na lang kase kawawa sila. Hindi nabibigyan ng mga gamit, mga gatas.Kawawa naman yung mga bata," Kim added.
As Kim also experienced hardship when she was younger, she made it a point to help other people on her own. "Kailangan meron akong charity na natutulungan. Kasi hindi naman lahat ng kinikita ko, para sakin lang. Syempre, meron din dapat sa ibang tao," Kim said.

Kim told the press she had a long birthday celebration, starting from their US trip last month until Tuesday. Kim toured the US with Star Magic artists for a series of concerts. "Magkakasama kami nila Angelica (Panganiban) at Maja (Salvador). 3 days free. Laging may pumapasok na waiter na may cake, so everyday birthday. Every night, nagbu-blow ng cake. Kahit na gabi-gabi birthday ko, okay lang," Kim happily shared. Along with other Star Magic artists, Kim visited Los Angeles, San Jose and New York, where she performed and spent a short vacation. "Nakita ko rin si Ben Stiller. Nagpapicture kami," Kim also said.
While in the US, Kim also did other projects such as magazine pictorials, where she posed alongside 90210's star, Matt Lanter. "Para siyang Filipina actress meets Hollywood star. Masaya naman, mabait siya. Tsaka parang close na kami," Kim said. In another pictorial, Kim wore the dress used by Glee's Amber Riley which is designed by Filipino-American couturier Oliver Tolentino.
After her US trip, Kim also celebrated her birthday at her new house with her family and friends from showbiz. "Nung Sunday, nagkaroon ako ng birthday sa bahay ko. Maraming pumunta. Sila Matteo, sila Jayson, sila Gerald, Star Magic handlers and mga road managers," Kim said. Maja Salvador provided the photo booth as her gift to Kim. Gerald, Kim's former boyfriend, gave her Salad Master ware for her kitchen.
Kim's love life is always talked about, so it's no wonder when Gerald's name is still always linked to her. The former on-screen partners were able to catch up on each other's lives in their US trip. "Masaya naman kami sa kanya-kanya naming buhay. Nung nasas States kami, iyon lang yung time na nagkasama kami. Madami naman kaming napag-usapan, katulad kung kamusta na kami, ano mga bago sa amin," Kim said.
Kim has a fair number of admirers, including DLSU's varsity player Simon Atkins and actor Jolo Revilla. But, Kim is quick to comment that she is still enjoying her single life. "Mas marami akong nakikita para sa sarili ko na wala akong kasama na ako lang. Kaya ko pala na ako lang. Masaya naman ako, marami akong kaibigan. Marami akong nakikilala. Hindi lang sya nakasarado sa isa," Kim said. She even joked that she might have a boyfriend next year instead.
"Binondo Girl," Kim's new series, is set to start filming this month. Kim topbills the series together with Matteo Guidicelli, Xian Lim and Jolo Revilla as her on-screen partners. "Si Xian, nakasama ko na sya sa 'My Only Hope.' At nakakasama ko rin sya lumabas-labas, mag-bowling kasama sila Maja. Okay naman sya, nakakatawa. Hindi halata sa kanya na kenkoy rin sya. Si Matteo, okay naman sya, nagbibisaya kami. Kasi pareho kaming Bisaya eh. Si Jolo naman, forever gentleman," Kim told Yahoo! OMG Philippines. Jolo Revilla recently revealed that he has a crush on Kim.
She plays a Chinese girl who comes from a poor family. The story also requires her to gain weight, which made Kim to gain some pounds recently. "Kailangan, kahit muscles. Dapat 115, 108 na ako ngayon. Kaya congratulations to me," Kim said. This is the first time that Kim will be paired with three leading men in one TV series. "Meron akong nagawa dito na hindi ko pa nagagawa sa ibang teleserye ko. Hindi pa siya pwedeng sabihin,pero kailangan kong lumaki, para syang Mulan," Kim said.
Blessings continue to rain on Kim. She has recently graduated from high school last March 10 and her family has recently moved to their new house. With all these blessings, Kim still continues to wish, "Sana magkaroon ako ng business bago matapos ang 2011. Kasi may bahay na at nakagraduate na ako," Kim said.

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In aftermath of bin Laden raid, new intelligence, shifting accounts

Hours after a team of U.S. Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid on his compound in Pakistan, President Barack Obama went on television to tell the nation about the triumph.
"Justice has been done," the president said.

Americans have been absorbing the world-changing news ever since, and several briefings by Obama national security officials from the White House, Defense Department, and CIA have followed. But some of the details have proven inaccurate and were later corrected, as Politico's Josh Gerstein noted.
For instance, White House spokesperson Jay Carney said Tuesday that--contrary to earlier officials' descriptions of a firefight between the Al Qaeda mastermind and U.S. forces--bin Laden didn't have a weapon during the Sunday raid. Bin Laden "was not armed," Carney said at the White House press briefing Tuesday. He was shot and killed after his wife "rushed the U.S. assaulter." You can watch Carney's exchange with the White House press corps in the video above.
Earlier, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, in a press conference Monday, said that bin Laden's wife had been killed after she was positioned as a human shield to protect bin Laden in the confrontation. Officials are now saying, however, that bin Laden's wife was injured (shot in the leg) but not killed, and that it was a separate woman who was killed by cross-fire during the forty-minute operation.
"Bin Laden died; the two al Qaeda facilitators--the brothers, who were--the courier and his brother in the compound; bin Laden's son Hamza; and the woman, presumed to be his wife, who was shielding bin Laden," Brennan said.
Asked by a reporter if bin Laden's wife was used as a shield for bin Laden, Brennan hesitated:
"I wasn't there so I hesitate to say," he said.
"But she was in front of him?" a reporter asked.
"But it was an effort to try to shield bin Laden from the ... " Brennan said, not completing the sentence, but presumably referencing the Navy SEALs then closing in on the terrorist leader.
Later in the press conference, Brennan was asked again if the woman killed was bin Laden's wife.
"That's my understanding. It was one of them," he responded.
"And he was using her as a shield?" the reporter, ABC's Jake Tapper, asked.
"She served as a shield. Again, this is my understanding--and we're still getting the reports of exactly what happened at particular moments--that when--she fought back; when there was the opportunity to get to bin Laden, she was positioned in a way that indicated that she was being used as a shield," Brennan said. "Whether or not bin Laden or the son, or whatever, put her there, or she put herself there, but, yes, that's again, my understanding that she met her demise, and my understanding is that she was one of bin Laden's wives."
A U.S. official told The Envoy Tuesday that Bin Laden's injured wife was left at the compound by the U.S. team, along with several other women and children. Another woman, who has not been publicly identified, was killed in a shootout during the raid on the compound's first floor, the official said.
(Indeed, the New York Times reported that one of bin Laden's wives actually identified bin Laden. A former senior U.S. intelligence official told the Times it was his understanding that it was the wife shot in the leg at the scene who identified bin Laden.)
U.S. officials explained the mix-up as hardly unexpected in the early aftermath of such a high-tempo operation.
"Two women were shot here. It sounds like their fates were mixed up," a U.S. official told Politico's Gerstein. "This is hours old and the full facts are still being ascertained as those involved are debriefed."
In total, the U.S. official said Tuesday, five people were killed in the raid: Bin Laden, his adult son, the Al Qaeda courier, the courier's brother, and an adult female — "not [bin Laden's] wife."
Ambiguity still surrounds the key break in the effort to track bin Laden down--the al Qaeda courier U.S. officials monitored and followed to the Abbottabad compound. The Associated Press reported Monday the man in question was a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani who used the nom de guerre Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti; the CIA later determined that his actual name was Sheikh Abu Ahmed, the AP reported.
But there are some suggestions that the courier's name and identity may be provisional too. Earlier reports suggested that Abd al-Khaliq Jan was the identity of the courier in question. And the New York Times' Carlotta Gall reported Tuesday from Abbottabad that the two brothers were, according to neighbors, cousins, and were known locally by the names of Arshad Khan and Tareq Khan.

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