Militarization of the South China Sea

As if China’s latest move of establishing a military garrison on the disputed Paracel Islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) is not bad and provocative enough, now comes Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirming that it will complete the installation of a certain number of cannons and mortars on Taiping Island in the South China Sea next month in a move to enhance its military presence in the disputed seas amid the escalating conflict over the region.

Taiwan controls the Dongsha Islands, the largest island group in the South China Sea, as well as Taiping Island, the largest of the Spratly Islands and the only one where fresh water is available.

A total of eight sets of 40mm autocannons and a certain number of 120mm mortars is said to be shipped to the island by the end of August after a legislative committee demanded in May that the MND should do so on Taiping Island and Dongsha Island within six months.

What we seem to be seeing now is the beefing up of arms and forces in the most unlikely place between these two antagonistic countries.

China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province which it has vowed to retake, by force if necessary.
It must be recalled that Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China (ROC) government, which fled the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, at first claimed to represent the whole of China, which it intended to re-occupy. It held China's seat on the United Nations Security Council and was recognized by many Western nations as the only Chinese government.

But in 1971, the UN switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing when the sleeping giant started waking up and flexing its muscles and the ROC government was forced out.

While China belittles Taiwan’s existence as a sovereign state, Taiwan’s leaders, however, claim that it is clearly much more than a province, arguing that it is a sovereign state, as it has its own constitution, democratically-elected leaders, and over 400,000 troops in its armed forces.

With the militarization of the South China Sea by the Chinese and Taiwanese governments, not to mention the minuscule presence of naval forces from the Philippines and Vietnam, which are both active participants in the sovereignty dispute in the region, the more that we see tension building up and the prospect of resolving the dispute slipping away.

For as long as China continues asserting, for historical reason, its claim of sovereignty over nearly all of the sea, which is believed to hold vast amounts of oil and gas, a rich fishing grounds and is home to shipping lanes that are vital to global trade, it leaves no doubt in everybody’s mind that the region will be an inevitable flashpoint in the years to come.

Time to intervene in Syria

What used to be a public demonstration as part of the wider Arab Spring on March 15, 2011 that developed into a nationwide uprising demanding the end to nearly five decades of Ba’ath Party rule, as well as the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, has now turned into a deadly civil war between the government forces and the Free Syrian Army.

Not only has death toll been climbing every day but the conflict itself has created a humanitarian problem of unimaginable proportion, as it always happens, displacement, being a by-product of war.

Perhaps it would have been understandable if war is fought between two countries or between races, for one legitimate reason or another, but when war is fought within your own country, killing your own people, making them go elsewhere fearful, hungry and homeless simply because they had had enough of your ruthlessness and wants you to step down and you don’t want to because you think it is God’s given right for you to rule, then something has got to be done.

"What is the world waiting for?" asked one Syrian woman while holed up in a makeshift bomb shelter with her sick son. "For us to die of hunger and fear?"

Indeed, these are echoes of what is being heard in Syria since that fateful day in March 2011 and actions have been made but to no avail.

The United States, the European Union, the Arab League and Turkey are all enforcing sanctions against Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, but the violence has only worsened.

For months the UN and Arab League's special envoy, Kofi Annan, has tried to persuade the Syrian government and his opponents to implement his internationally-backed six-point peace plan.

A U.N. Security Council resolution backing the Arab League’s plan to encourage a post-Assad transition in Syria was vetoed by Russia and China. The veto left many in the international community disgusted and concerned that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad will continue to escalate the killing of civilians.

In fact the veto powers of Russia and China has only emboldened al-Assad in going after the opposition with all the fire power that he has in his resources.

Meanwhile, the unrelenting onetime ragtag militias of the Syrian opposition that has evolve into a more effective Free Syrian Army with the help of some of al-Assad’s high ranking officers who have abandoned him is sustaining their fight against the regime with  an increasingly sophisticated network of activists in southern Turkey that is smuggling crucial supplies across the border, including weapons, communications gear, field hospitals and even salaries for soldiers who defect.

The network reflects an effort to forge an opposition movement linking military, governmental and humanitarian organizations, that together can not only defeat the vastly superior military of President Bashar al-Assad, but also replace his government.

The rising sophistication of the effort underscores the evolving nature of the conflict and how control over the north and northwestern areas of the country is slowly slipping away from the government.

Not only that. The conflict is even getting closer to the presidential residence after an explosion at the National Security Bureau in Damascus caused by a suicide attack reportedly killed al-Assad's brother-in-law, the defense minister and a former defense minister.

If that is not bad enough, what is making it worst for al-Assad is that another 600 Syrians reportedly made their way to Turkey recently, and two Syrian brigadier-generals were said to be among the group. According to reports, there are now 20 Syrian generals who have turned their backs on al-Assad.

After this humiliating incident, what the Free Syrian Army is apprehensive about now is that al-Assad’s embattled regime might resort to using chemical weapons

Syria has the “biggest chemical weapons arsenal in the world,” according to Israel’s deputy chief of the general staff, Major General Yair Naveh. Israel has voiced concern about what will happen to them if the Damascus regime falls.

No doubt, the time to intervene in Syria’s conflict, sooner than later, is of the essence.

Magnetic material in trout determines its movement

A new study by German scientists led by Dr. Michael Winklhofer, from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, has found out that trout have cells in their noses that act like miniature compasses to help them navigate.

According to the study the cells, which are believed to exist in other animals, contain iron-rich deposits of a magnetic material called magnetite.

They were found in trout by suspending nasal cells in a solution and moving them using a rotating magnetic field.

The cells were then separated off and examined in more detail.

Each "magnetoreceptor" cell had magnetite particles firmly anchored to its membrane.

Tests suggested the cells were capable of detecting magnetic north as well as small changes in magnetic fields.

They were about 100 times more sensitive to magnetic fields than had been expected.

Scientists have long suspected that many animals, including migratory birds, fish and even cows, possess a magnetic sense.

The study published in the journal Proceedings Of The National Academy of Sciences, said their rotating field technique was able to "unambiguously identify" magnetic cells.

They concluded: "Our results show that the magnetically identified cells clearly meet the physical requirements for a magnetoreceptor capable of rapidly detecting small changes in the external magnetic field."

Similar magnetic cells could explain how cattle are affected by power lines, the scientists added.
Previous research has shown that cows tend to line up in a north-south direction when they graze.
But cows grazing under power lines face in random directions, suggesting that their magnetic sense has been disturbed.

China’s despotic incursions in other country’s territory

Not being done yet bullying the Philippines and other sovereign countries in the region over territorial dispute in the South China Seas, China has shifted its sights and now is causing an uproar in Japan by telling its government to respect Beijing’s “indisputable sovereignty” over islands claimed by both countries in the East China Sea.

The islands referred to here are islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

Like the contested Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Seas, the Senkaku or Diaoyu also lies in rich fishing grounds and are thought to contain valuable mineral reserves.

Tokyo recognizes a private Japanese family as owner of the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, which the government intended to purchase, but claimed otherwise by China, thus, the intrusion into Japanese territorial waters by Chinese patrol vessels.

It has been reported that the owner of the islands is demanding that either the Japanese government or the Tokyo government, which is also vying to buy the islets, construct a naval base to secure Japan's sovereignty over them.

It will be remembered that the Senkakus were controlled by the US after World War II, but were returned to Japan together with Okinawa. Chinese claims over the islands emerged in the late 1960s, about the time that a UN survey revealed the existence of a big hydrocarbon deposit beneath them.

Again, as in the Spratly and Scarborough dispute, the Chinese government issued a statement, saying, that “the Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islets have always been China’s territory since ancient times.”

Unlike the small and poor nation claimants in the South China Seas that is being bullied with impunity by China, the latter has to think twice its actions towards Japan since it has been confirmed by the State Department that the Senkakus, which lies between Okinawa and Taiwan, "fall within the scope of Article 5 of the 1960 US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Co-operation and Security".

But, the most important question now is: What can you do to a UN member who refuses to recognize international agreements such as the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which were crafted to settle disputes?

It is even useless to bring the issue to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which normally could settle questions of boundaries and questions of sovereignty, because China has said, time and again, that it would not agree to the jurisdiction of ICJ.

If China, in this regard, is dishonoring the UN charter and its preamble, how could an organization of lesser eminence, the 10 members of Southeast Asian regional body ASEAN, be able to stop China from making despotic incursions on other country’s territory?

It is for a reason, therefore, that Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario sounded desperate when he denounced Chinese “duplicity” and “intimidation” in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

“If Philippine sovereignty and jurisdiction can be denigrated by a powerful country through pressure, duplicity, intimidation and the threat of the use of force, the international community should be concerned about the behavior,” Del Rosario said in the recently concluded annual ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

World’s largest solar power plant may be life threatening

A study a few years back has confirmed that birds flying through a solar field meet sudden death upon accidental contact with a solar panel or suffers a slow death when their feathers are singed or burned off.

The question now is: How dangerous would the world’s largest solar power plant currently being built in the Mojave Desert be to humans and wildlife?

The plant is being equipped with 170,000 garage-door size solar mirrors and a specialized GPS device that will align the plants giant mirrors to track the sun across the desert sky, bouncing radiation to the tops of three 45-story towers which will then heat the water inside the towers to 1,000 degrees, creating steam power for electricity creation.

Because of the enormousness of the Ivanpah plant, and the fact that this type of technology has never before been used, researchers are worried about the dire consequences the massive mirrors would have on public safety especially that, for now, they are just relying mostly on computer modeling to provide answers.

Critics of the project, which includes the Defense Department, say no one can specify the dangers because no solar plant has been built on this scale—but it might vaporize birds, blind drivers miles away, flip small airplanes, or even attract Air Force heat-seeking missiles.

Even if the proponents of this huge project find the skeptics wrong, still threatening issues lie present, one way or another, since the federal government is said to be planning more than 100 solar projects in the Mojave Desert.

Drinking water from garden hose is unsafe

Whether you are in Asia experiencing the hot days or in countries welcoming the advent of the summer months, here is one precaution that should be taken to heart, especially if you have children playing around outdoors all the time, enjoying the sun and getting thirsty.

A recent study by the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan released on HealthyStuff.org has found out that the water from common garden hoses is full of toxic materials that could harm the human body.

The study reported that 100 percent of the garden hoses sampled contained plastic additives including phthalates or plasticizers currently banned in children’s products.

According to Health Stuff, consumption of these hazardous plasticizers can disturb normal hormonal processes and are linked to birth defects, altered levels of reproductive hormones, increased breast cancer risk, and asthma.

Also discovered were high levels of lead and bisphenol A (BPA).

Lead is found in the brass fixtures at the mouth of gardening hoses and, out of the of 90 garden hoses screened, 33 percent of products contained levels of lead that exceeded those considered safe for children.

Apparently, garden hoses are not regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which monitors America's public drinking supply. The study's findings showed that levels of lead in water coming from garden hoses they tested exceeded legal safe levels 100 percent of the time.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines BPA as an industrial chemical used to make hard, clear plastic. The chemical component is said to have detrimental effects on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.

The study found levels of BPA at 20 times higher than those of safe drinking water levels.

Hotel room most contaminated places

This does not concern me much since I seldom travel and much less stay in a hotel. But I find the subject interesting and I am blogging about it if only to forewarn those who happen to visit this site when they go traveling and staying in hotels.

According to researchers from the University of Houston led by Katie Kirsch, among the surfaces in a hotel room that is most likely to be contaminated with potentially sickness-inducing bacteria, including streptococcus and staphylococcus, are the bedside lamp switch and the television remote.

The study, according to Kirsch, was not intended to scare people away from staying in hotels, but was rather aimed at improving cleaning practices. It was conducted in three hotel rooms located in Texas, Indiana and South Carolina, where the researchers collected samples from 19 surfaces.

They tested the levels of total aerobic bacteria and coliform (fecal) bacterial contamination on each of the surfaces.

The lowest levels of contamination were found on bed headboards, curtain rods and bathroom door handles.

While some of the most contaminated samples, including the toilet and the bathroom sink, were to be expected, the highest levels of contamination, however, were found in the maid’s cleaning cart,  including gloves, mops and sponges – noting that these items would easily carry the bacteria from room to room.

'Identifying high-risk items within a hotel room would allow housekeeping managers to strategically design cleaning practices and allocate time to efficiently reduce the potential health risks posed by microbial contamination in hotel rooms,' Kirsch explained.

An old disease afflict regular Americans again

Reports say there seem to be a flare-up again of an old disease in America called gout.

A type of arthritis, gout afflicts more men than women and the most common symptom is pain in the big toe.

Though the big toe is the most common location for gout-related pain, the unbearable throbbing may spread to the ankles, wrists and elbows, and other joints. The pain can be so intense and severe that it may cripple the sufferer; even the slightest touch on the tender spot may propel him or her to scream in anguish.

The painful inflammatory condition, caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood, may seem to be a thing of the past, but thanks to fructose-sweetened soft drinks, purine-rich foods, and general obesity, it has doubled in frequency over the past few decades in the US, the report said.

Regular diet of purine-rich food particularly organ meats like livers and kidneys, some vegetables and, sadly, even beer, appear to be chiefly to blame for the gout flare-up.

It has been said that if you are afflicted with gout, that you are in the company of admirable men. Benjamin Franklin, Alexander the Great, and Charlemagne, as well as Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton all suffered from gout.

Perhaps the most famous sufferer of all was Henry VIII of England, who in addition to having a voracious desire for wives was also quite the glutton. Every evening, he'd indulge in a side of venison accompanied by multiple glasses of wine.

It is for this reason that gout has long been regarded as "the disease of kings," because historically, it was kings who could pay for the expense of such a self-indulgent diet.

Pharmaceutical companies have new drugs coming to fight gout, but in the meantime, drink plenty of water (and coffee, at least for men over 40) and avoid those risky foods.

‘The Gap’ angel dies at 85

       Don Ritchie: The angel of 'The Gap'

‘The Gap’ is a notorious Sydney beauty spot made perfect for people who wanted to commit suicide.

The ‘angel’ is Australian Don Ritchie who is said to be credited with saving at least 160 people or even more as his family avers.

Ritchie, 85, was a former navy seaman who served in WW II who later built a corporate career and then moved into his Watsons Bay house overlooking ‘The Gap’ beauty spot cum suicide spot.

It is said that in his earlier years, Ritchie would physically restrain people from jumping off the cliff, like when he once tackled a man on the edge of a cliff to prevent him from killing himself, while his wife called the police. However, as he got older, he would simply offer distraught people at the edge of the Gap a cup of tea and someone to talk to.

'The Gap'

His daughter, Sue Ritchie Bereny, said her father had loved to look out from his front room at the ocean, but was also very sensitive to troubled souls.

He told his daughter an offer of help "was all that was often needed to turn people around, and he would say not to underestimate the power of a kind word and a smile," she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Father Tony Doherty from Rose Bay Parish and a good friend of Ritchie's also told ABC News about the first time he saw Don literally talk someone off the ledge.

"I watched this figure gradually encourage [a man] to come back to the safety of the cliff," said Father Doherty. "He has this wonderful soft, appealing voice that encouraged this little fellow not to jump."

But, was Ritchie always successful in his attempt to stop suicides?

Not really, as when he related to an instance where he spoke to a quiet young man who just kept looking straight ahead.

"I was talking to him for about half an hour thinking I was making headway," said Ritchie. "I said 'why don't you come over for a cup of tea, or a beer, if you'd like one?' He said 'no' and stepped straight off the side his hat blew up and I caught it in my hand.''

Ritchie won numerous community awards and a Medal of the Order of Australia for his efforts, and was named an Australian local hero of the year in 2011.

Flesh-eating bacteria causes havoc on young woman’s life

                      Aimee Copeland

What started as a simple gash on a young woman’s left calf brought about by a zipline accident is now horribly threatening her very existence.

This is the story of Aimee Copeland, 24, of Snellville, Georgia, and a graduate psychology student at the University of West Georgia, who was kayaking with friends along the Little Tallapoosa River in Carrollton, but stopped and got lured to riding a home-made zipline.

Unfortunately, during the ride, the line snapped sending her down and in the process suffered a deep cut on her left calf.

She sought medical treatment and beside the two dozen staples she received for closing the wound, she also was given pain killers and antibiotics.

Feeling more intense pain days after, a friend took her to an emergency room, and it was only then that she learned of the shocking diagnosis given to her by the doctors that she was suffering from necrotizing fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating bacteria that can destroy skin, fat and muscle.

Physicians told the young woman the infection had already spread to her thigh and hip, and that her whole leg would have to be amputated.

Miss Copeland was flown to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, where doctors performed a high-hip amputation of her left leg and removed further infected tissue from her abdomen.

During the procedure, Aimee went into cardiac arrest but was resuscitated.  She, however, remains battling for her life inside the intensive care unit.

The doctors are now left with the daunting thought that because of the virulence of the bacteria, perhaps her hands and right foot might also be cut off, if only to save her life.

Smuggled capsules containing ‘baby flesh’ seized in SoKor

Please tell me this isn’t true.

But if it comes from China, would one still wonder if some unscrupulous, greedy, businessman would come up with some ghoulish, if not bizarre, product just so he could make a fast buck by selling it at a very low price and for idiotic reasons?

It is still fresh in everybody’s mind the recalled dangerous toys made in China that followed a series of health scandals worldwide involving food, drugs and other products imported from China, from poisoned cough syrup to tainted toothpaste and pet food.

What has been uncovered in South Korea (SoKor) recently could very well be the mother of all product anomalies coming from China.

SoKor custom authorities recently revealed a disturbing find when they intercepted thousands of smuggled capsules filled with the powdered flesh of dead babies, believed to be stamina boosters and having medicinal powers. Indeed, this is very Chinese in concept.

Reportedly made in northeastern China, the contents are said to have been dried in microwave.

The intended recipients of the capsules, transported via luggage and mail, were ethnic Koreans who have moved to South Korea after living in China.

Nearly 17,500 capsules have been recovered since August 2011, the Korea Customs Services said in a statement.

According to the custom authorities the smuggling have been on the radar of customs officers since a Korean investigative report aired in August, 2011, revealed that some hospitals in China sold dead fetuses and placentas to illegal manufacturers.

SoKor has reportedly been reluctant to criticize China directly over the incident, out of fears of creating diplomatic friction with the country.

But does this mean that the world community will condone this perverse business by some wicked Chinese entrepreneurs?

Largest ‘fossil forest’ discovered in US

To better appreciate the discovery of the world’s largest fossil forest, one has to understand first how coal is formed because the remains of rainforests could likely be found only where there are coal seam deposits.

Coal is a black or brownish black combustible mineral formed about 300 million years ago when the earth was covered by swampy forests of scale tress (lycopods) giant ferns, horsetails, and club mosses. Layer upon layer of these plants died and were compressed and then covered with soil. As the layers were successively covered their access to the air was limited and this stopped the full decomposition process creating peat.

For the peat to become coal, it must be buried by sediment. Burial compacts the peat and, consequently, much water is squeezed out during the first stages of burial. Continued burial and the addition of heat and time causes the complex hydrocarbon compounds in the peat to break down and alter in a variety of ways.

The gaseous alteration products (methane is one) are typically expelled from the deposit, and the deposit becomes more and more carbon-rich as the other elements disperse. The stages of this trend proceed from plant debris through peat, lignite, sub-bituminous coal, bituminous coal, anthracite coal, to graphite (a pure carbon mineral).

          Fossilized fern

The recent discovery of the fossil forest in the underground coal mines in eastern Illinois only relates what the past was for the state. Long ago, it was the site of one of the world’s first rainforests dominated by tall, asparagus-like trees believed to extend for up to 100 miles and preserved in the ceiling of a coal mine some 250 feet below the surface.

The compacted remains of these forests are encased in shale above coal seams. After the coal is extracted the fossils can be seen in the mine ceiling.

According to scientists, the forest was preserved when an earthquake dropped the area a few feet allowing flooding from an adjacent river, which drowned the vegetation and buried it in sediment. The sudden flooding in the submerged block killed the rainforest. Mud and silt rushed into the depression, preserving the stumps and logs in a layer that eventually became shale.

Note fossilized tree trunk between shale  ceiling and coal seam

Researchers have traced a five-mile route through the forest, stopping to measure huge fossilized trees still stand rooted in their original but compacted soil, surrounded by fallen leaves.

One fallen scale tree, measuring more than 100ft long, was traced by researchers until it disappeared into an as yet unexploited coal seam.

"What's extraordinary about this discovery is that this forest has been preserved in its growth position," said one of the scientists who saw the site. "It's an upright forest with trees still standing upright."

It is said that the forest can be viewed only from below. The scientists who discovered it had to crane their necks, illuminating the ceiling with miners’ helmet lamps.

Japan turns off last active nuclear reactor

        One of Japan's nuclear power plant

What is Japan without nuclear reactors?

This question is being asked since we all know that resource-poor and energy-hungry Japan can’t seem to do without nuclear power, a technology that had provided a third of its electricity until the 3/11 disaster at Fukushima.

But, bite the bullet Japan did when it switched off the nation's last operating nuclear reactor leaving this third largest economic giant without atomic power for the first time in more than 40 years.


             Anti-nuke protest symbol

This came on the heels of a massive march by Japanese anti-nuke activists in Tokyo, waving traditional koinobori fish banners that now double as symbols of the anti-nuclear protest movement.

“A new era in Japan with no nuclear power has begun,” said Gyoshu Otsu, a 56-year-old monk who joined a protest against nuclear power in front of the industry ministry in Tokyo which supervises the nation’s power utilities.

Protest organizer Masao Kimura said: “It’s a symbolic day today. Now we can prove that we will be able to live without nuclear power.”

As the reactor shuts down, Japan’s entire stable of 54 reactors will be offline.But, is this move for good?

Most likely, it isn’t and will not be or it will have a dire effect on Japan’s economy that will reverberate all over the world, especially within members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international economic organization founded to stimulate economic progress and world trade.

Japan can't simply afford to be without nuclear power reactors for long to sustain their standing as a nation.
Some of the plants now off line will eventually go back in service, but only after passing new safety tests and gaining the approval of local residents.

Most importantly, the reactors must now pass International Atomic Energy Agency-approved stress tests.

‘Supermoon’ to light sky over the weekend

As I write I can only wish it won’t rain so it won’t spoil anything about the grand show that is the ‘Supermoon’ occurring over the weekend.

Supermoon is what they call the biggest and brightest full moon as it appears from our perspective as earthlings.
It is said that at 11:34 p.m., the moon will be about 221,802 miles from Earth. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average.

That proximity will make the moon appear about 14 percent bigger than it would if the moon were at its farthest distance, said Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory. The moon's distance from Earth varies because it follows an elliptical orbit rather than a circular one.

According to Chester, like any full moon, the supermoon will look bigger when it's on or near the horizon rather than higher in the sky, thanks to an optical illusion.

In fact, to view this weekend's supermoon to best effect, look for it just after it rises or before it sets, when it is close to the horizon.

He went on to say that the supermoon will bring unusually high tides because of its closeness and its alignment with the sun and Earth, but the effect will be modest.

But, that is how far as its occurrence goes. Anything else about a "must-have-been-a-full-moon" effect in crime or crazy behavior is just a folklore.

The last supermoon, on March 19, 2011, was about 240 miles closer than this year's will be. Next year's will be a bit farther away than this year's.

Freedom Tower now tallest building in the US

They finally found a name for it.

They called it Freedom Tower, and what a fitting name for a skyscraper that is the One World Trade Center, standing as a symbol of resilience and strength of a nation targeted by terrorist.

The One World Trade Center built in Lower Manhattan, NY, replaces the World Trade Center twin towers destroyed by terrorists in 2001.

It has risen from the hallowed Ground Zero, not only as a reminder of what happened on 9/11, but a defiant symbol of power against those wanting to undermine the resolve of a nation that stands for freedom and democracy.

The timing of its completion can only be described by some as ‘poetic justice.’ Who would ever imagine that it will fall closely to the first anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death?

The Freedom Tower, which started construction in April 2006, has 104 floors and with a 408-ft (124-m) cable-stayed spire added on top of the roof, the total structure now reaches the symbolic height of  1,776ft (541m), thus, surpassing the Willis Tower (formerly known as the Sears Tower) in Chicago, and making it the tallest building in the US.

In the shadow of the new tower is the 9/11 memorial, made up of two reflecting pools in the footprints of where the twin towers used to stand.

Nutella spread had health concerns

“Breakfast never tasted this good!”

That is what Ferrero USA, Inc. says in the ads about its product – the Nutella chocolate-hazelnut breakfast spread.

There are important questions, however, to be answered, like: Is this popular spread, that lists sugar, palm oil, hazelnuts, cocoa and skim milk as its main ingredients, healthy? Is their product advertisement telling the truth?

Apparently, a young California mother believes otherwise; deceiving, she says, as she legally questioned the wholesomeness of Nutella.

Athena Hohenberg, the mother of a preschooler in San Diego, California, led in filing a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturer of Nutella, alleging that Ferrero has pitched Nutella as something "healthier than it actually is."

Nutella's US website (www.nutellausa.com) recommends the chocolatey dark spread, with 200 calories per serving, as a way "to turn a balanced breakfast into a tasty one" when combined with whole grain bread or a bagel.

However, on verifying further the product’s nutritional information, Hohenberg, a rental property manager, was "shocked to learn that Nutella was in fact, not 'healthy, nutritious' food, but instead was the next best thing to a candy bar she'd been feeding her four-year-old daughter, and that Nutella contains dangerous level of saturated fat.

Being a class-action lawsuit and not denying that Ferrero erred in their product’s alleged health benefits, the company has reportedly set aside $3.05 million for resolving/settling the issue with some consumers, including Hohenberg.

Of the award sum, $2.5 million will be divided among claimants. It comes to a payment of about $4 a jar for up to five jars.

Sold in more than 100 countries, Nutella was invented in 1944 by Pietro Ferrero in a pastry shop in Alba, northern Italy. He died in 1949, but the company, which also makes Ferrero Rocher chocolates and Tic Tac candies, stayed in family hands.

China shuns diplomatic solution on shoal dispute

Enclosed the red line are the disputed areas in the South China Sea

How else would one interpret the latest Chinese declaration over the highly disputed Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal or what Beijing calls Huangyan Island, when this economic giant and military bully ignores the sovereign rights of a small, struggling, nation and claims the whole South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) and what is underneath it as its territory by virtue of historical grounds and that it won’t never go to court to settle the matter?

A declaration of hostilities, sort of, isn't it?

Is this the way to settle territorial disputes in the 21^st century by intimidation, provocation and military muscle flexing instead of using diplomatic approach as the appropriate and rational way of settling issues that has to do with sovereign rights?

The court referred to here is the International Tribunal on the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany, where the country feels would be the real arbiter for such a contentious issue.
The Philippines insists that the shoal belongs to the country simply because of its extreme proximity to Zambales, which is 220 km only, compared to 840 km from the nearest coast of China in Hainan province.

Yet, China wants that the Philippines should “fully respect China’s sovereignty” and with a threatening tone even said that the Philippine government must “commit to the consensus we reached on settling the incident through friendly diplomatic consultations, and not to complicate or aggravate this incident so that peace and stability in that area can be reached.”

Is this saying that China is giving the Philippines an ultimatum?

If China has historical proof to show that the contested shoal is part of their territory, then why can’t they agree to show it to the whole world or bring it to the ITLOS? Why swiftly reject the proposal of the Philippine government that the dispute be resolved by the UN-backed ITLOS?

On the other hand, what the Philippines will bring to the ITLOS, with or without Chinese representatives, are old maps of the ‘Archipelago Filipino’ dating back to Spanish colonial times showing that “Bajo Scarburo,” the shoal now called Panatag by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), is a constituent part of Sambalez (now Zambales province).

Senator Edgardo J. Angara, who has a collection of ancient maps of the country said that the maps would easily disprove the territorial claim of China to the shoal and its surrounding waters, which in the first place do not show any historical or legal grounds under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (Unclos).

“It’s clear that Scarborough Shoal is part of our cartography during the Spanish colonial times,” he said. “We have maps (reproduced) from the original, which was made in 1734. During that time, Scarborough is already part of the Philippines.”

An 1875 map was the “product of the most comprehensive mapping and charting work in the Philippines lasting more than 20 years (1849-1870).”

Angara said the original maps were deposited at Spain’s Museo Naval de Madrid.

The question now is: If this testament to our ownership of the shoal is not honored by China, what will stop them from disembarking on our territory and stripping us of our dignity?

Let us be pragmatic about it. We need help. We can’t stand on our own. We need the support of the world community before this part of the world becomes a flashpoint.

Shell-like mole removed from ‘Turtle Boy’

With all kinds of aberration happening to people everywhere, here is another one that has changed the life of a boy from being abnormal and pathetic to being normal and productive, thanks to a compassionate British doctor who performed the surgery.

This is about Didier Montalvo, a 6-year-old boy who earned the moniker ‘Turtle Boy’ in his native Columbia because of a shell-like mole that covered his back. The mole grew directly proportional to his body growth.

The doctors call this rare condition as Congenital Melanocytic Nevus (CMN).

Didier became the subject of ridicule to the extent that his family was even ostracized because superstitious neighbors thought that the boy’s condition was due to evil forces. The boy even suffered the ignominy of not having been baptized and not having been allowed to attend school.

The plight of Didier got to the attention of Dr. Neil Bulstrode, a plastic surgeon and an expert in treating patients with CMN, who wasted no time in flying to Columbia to help a team of surgeons remove Didier’s birthmark, which had grown so big that it was feared it could become malignant.

Didier today, a happy kid (Photo courtesy of U.K.'s Channel 4)

According to Dr. Bulstrode, “Didier’s was the worst case I had ever seen. Effectively three quarters of the circumference of his body was affected.”

Dr. Bulstrode is said to carry out about 40 CMN removals a year on patients at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the U.K.

Didier is now living a normal life and accepted in the society after a successful and free surgery, courtesy of the humanitarian effort of the British doctor.

China giving North Korea moral authority

 

After North Korea’s (NoKor) failed \rocket launch attempt, which was described by the United States as more of a disguised ballistic missile test, and condemned strongly by the UN Security Council and the international community, now comes China cuddling the shamed rogue hermit nation and praising the leadership of the young despot, Kim Jong-Un.China’s most senior official on foreign policy, Dai Bingguo, is not helping attain world peace by even vowing for closer ties with a nation that is spending more money for armaments at the expense of millions of poor and malnourished citizens.

What Bingguo did instead, to the consternation of world leaders and its peaceful neighbors in the region, is grant NoKor, a belligerent nation, the moral authority to continue oppressing its people, to keep on terrorizing its friendly neighbors and not to let-up making the world peace hostage with their menacing nuclear weapons testing.

“Under the leadership of Korean Workers’ Party First Secretary, comrade Kim Jong-Un, the North Korean Party, government and people will certainly make new achievements in the cause of building a strong and prosperous country,” Bingguo was quoted as saying during a meeting in Beijing with Kim Yong-Il, a visiting top official with North Korea’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party.

China is of course NoKor’s sole major ally and source of economic support. But that’s not all.
On a closer look, the State Department is said to have broached with China allegations that Beijing supplied North Korea with technology for its missile program.

The allegations were made last week by US Congressman Mike Turner, who cited an expert as saying a new missile launcher unveiled in a Pyongyang military parade was likely based on a Chinese design.
Today, China is scratching NoKor's back and propping it up. Tomorrow, China will start claiming its reward by participating in the harvest of NoKor’s natural resources.

You bet it's not all thank you for China.

ASEAN should be a force to reckon with

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a group of ten member countries that was organized to encourage political, economic, and social cooperation in the region for the good of each country and the welfare of their people.

According to ASEAN’s guiding document, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC), there are six fundamental principles members have to adhere to and they are:

1) Mutual respect for the independence, sovereignty, equality, territorial integrity, and national identity of all nations.

2) The right of every State to lead its national existence free from external interference, subversion or coercion.

3) Non-interference in the internal affairs of one another.

4) Settlement of differences or disputes by peaceful manner.

5) Renunciation of the threat or use of force.

6) Effective cooperation among themselves.

From these fundamental principles one will immediately notice that the ASEAN is devoid of any military alliance. The organization is simply anchored on economic grounds.

Having said that, while member nations has respect for one another’s sovereignty, each member also demands that nations outside of their organization must also recognize their dominion over their lands and whatever else that belongs legally to them.

It is in this context that as the whole world is seeing how China is flexing its military muscles with impunity in the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea, as the government has come to call it, specifically in areas where the Spratly group of islands (south of the Phl)and the Scarborough Shoal or Panatag Shoal (north of the Phl) are located, the Aquino government is asking the ASEAN to take a stand on the dispute with China over territorial claims as other member nations have also a stake in some parts of the contested region.

While we are claiming only that which the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) guarantees as within the 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), China’s argument, however, is that the whole of the West Philippine Sea is theirs on the basis of [its] nine-dash line claim, using a historical record.

China's historic nine-dash claim

The nine-dash claim is China’s delineation of its territory in the South China Sea, with nine dashes on the map that enclose all of the Spratly archipelago, parts of which are claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.

But, how could, for instance, China include in its claim the Scarborough Shoal, a protrusion of reefs lying north of the Spratlys and only 120 km off Zambales province on the western coast of Luzon? How could it be theirs when it is even less than the 200 nautical miles EEZ as prescribed by UNCLOS when it talks about the country’s continental shelf?

If China is claiming a solid mass that close to our shore, what will stop China from claiming Palawan later on?  It is for this reason that the ASEAN, as a group of respected nations with equally respected and competent leaders, should come out supportive of our claim and united and forceful in condemning the aggression and expansionist role China is playing in the region of the South China Sea, for if it could happen to us, it could, without doubt, happen to them, too.

The Philippines is thankful for Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario for spearheading this move and for standing by his argument that ‘abiding by the rules set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is the legitimate way of dealing with conflicting territorial claims in the disputed waters.’

ASEAN must show China that even without military alliance it remains a force to be reckoned with.