Five ways the world could end

With a year packed full of strong solar flares affecting communications, future volcanic predictions and giant asteroids passing dangerously close to Earth, what kind of cataclysmic events are most likely to push humans to the brink of extinction? We look at some of the most popular doomsday theories and examine whether these five natural phenomena could end the world as we know it – or whether they are just pure science fiction.

Meteorites and asteroids

Giant pieces of rock falling from space made exciting plots for ‘90s sci-fi movies like ‘Armageddon’ and ‘Deep Impact’. Meteorite impact or The ‘Alvarez’ hypothesis met criticism when the theory was first raised in 1980, but it has since been widely accepted that a meteorite strike could have actually wiped out the whole dinosaur population over 65 million years ago.

The last known meteorite to hit Earth, causing significant damage, was in 1908 when a meteorite the size of a ten-storey building exploded over Siberia, flattening 80 million trees over 2,000 square kilometres near the Tunguska River. Luckily, the region was so remote that the strike didn’t harm anyone. Programme scientist for Near Earth Objects at NASA told Yahoo! News: “Such an event releases energies on the order of a few megatons of TNT, because of the velocity at which they impact – many kilometres per second. The Hiroshima atomic bomb released the equivalent of about 15 kilotons of TNT. So even relatively small asteroids could cause the damage equivalent to a very large nuclear weapon if they were to strike the Earth.”

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Russian scientists have issued some more apocalyptic predictions. An asteroid dubbed ‘Apophis’, estimated to be the size of two football fields, could collide with Earth as early as 16 April 2036 if a change in gravity causes it to fall out of its orbit. While they admit it is theoretically possible for the asteroid to hit Earth, they note that the chances are remote; in fact, they put the odds at one in 233,000. Sergei Smirnov, a spokesman at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Observatory, said: “How much of a threat this asteroid actually presents will be impossible to assess until 2028, when it approaches our planet. If it does strike, our planet will face a continental disaster and major climate change. And if the asteroid falls into an ocean, the disaster could assume global proportions.”

[Related feature: Dates the world was supposed to end]

Solar storms

Powerful solar storms exactly like the ones the world witnessed at the beginning of 2011 occur once every eleven years as the sun’s magnetic field flips over. ‘Solar Cycle 24’ has been building gradually with the number of sunspots and solar storms set to reach a ‘solar maximum’ by 2013. Super solar flares send great geysers of hot gas and huge quantities of charged particles erupting from the surface into space. These flares of charged particles, called ‘coronal mass ejections’, slam into the Earth's magnetic shield impairing electrical devices in their path.

In 1859, the ‘Carrington Event’, a solar flare which lasted eight days, wreaked havoc on all of the world’s telegraphs and set buildings on fire. The National Academy of Sciences says that in modern times the solar flares could knock out 300 important transformers within 90 seconds and cut power for 130 million people. They also estimated that during the first year after a solar storm, damage could be as high as £1.2 trillion with a recovery time of four to ten years. A spokeswoman from the Heliophysics division at NASA told Yahoo! News: “Saying solar flares would end the world is a little drastic. But in terms of affecting us as humans, it is very damaging to our lifestyles; it can destroy communications that we are very dependent on, like power lines and GPS satellites.”

As the sun is said to become more turbulent as it approaches the peak in its activity cycle around 2013, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir John Beddington, warned: “We've had a relatively quiet period of space weather. We can't expect that quiet period to continue. At the same time over that period the potential vulnerability of our systems has increased dramatically, whether it is the smart grid in our electricity systems or the ubiquitous use of GPS in just about everything we use these days. The situation has changed. We need to be thinking about the ability both to categorise and explain and give early warning when particular types of space weather are likely to occur.”

Pole shift

According to some modern astronomers and an ancient Mayan prophecy, on the winter solstice of 21 December 2012, Earth will be in exact alignment with the sun and the centre of the Milky Way galaxy - an extraordinary event which happens once every 25,800 years. No one knows exactly what effect this alignment will have on Earth, but the Mayans believed that the consequences of the inter-galactic occurrence would be catastrophic, prompting the world’s end. It is imagined that a magnetic field effect reversal will take place, where the entire mantle of the earth would shift in a matter of days, changing the position of the North and the South Pole. Such a rapid change in the Earth’s dynamics would result in earthquakes, tsunamis, global climatic change and eventually the ultimate planetary disaster, similar to the one depicted in the disaster movie ‘2012’.

Despite their beliefs, polar shift has been backed by some scientists, albeit not at the rapidity the Mayans believed. Renowned scientist Albert Einstein is known to have been an advocator of the theory and according to a 2006 study by Princeton University, geologist, Adam Maloof said that the Earth’s poles have shifted before. The study found that the North Pole could have rested in the middle of the Pacific Ocean 800 million years ago, placing the state of Alaska as far south as the equator.

However, NASA disagrees, predicting that the polar shift event will not mean that Earth meets it fate. Experts debunked the theory, saying: “Nothing bad will happen to Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012. There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible.”

Super volcano eruptions


2010’s eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland brought air travel across Northern Europe to a virtual standstill, but if one of the largest known super volcanoes was to blow, it could cause a global disaster of biblical proportions. According to volcanologists, the last super volcano to erupt was Mount Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia, 75,000 years ago. Thousands of cubic kilometres of ash and sulphur dioxide were thrown into the atmosphere - so much that it blocked out light from the sun all over the world, resulting in global temperatures plummeting by 21°c. It is imagined that black acidic rain would have fallen due to gas poisoning. Such an event supposedly eradicated mankind, cutting the population to just a couple of thousand people, and three quarters of all living plants in the northern hemisphere are thought to have been killed.

Now international scientists speak about the possibility of a future eruption of one of the largest known prehistoric volcanoes - the Yellowstone caldera in Wyoming, which sits above a large magma chamber and is showing more signs of activity. Observers say that an eruption would result in a mega disaster coating half the US in a layer of ash up to one metre deep, killing livestock and putting thousands of human lives at risk. Scientists say that it typically erupts every 600,000 years, but the last eruption occurred 640,000 years ago, meaning the next one is long overdue.

Global warming

Should the Earth’s average temperature continue to rise at the rate it has done over the last 50 years, the face of the Earth as we know it will change, say climatologists. The reasons for this type of man-made climate change have been well-documented and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says it’s not too late to save our planet as leading figures try to stop the ill-effects that the Earth’s population and living species will experience from the so-called ‘greenhouse effect’ before the world becomes unbearable for man to live in.

The IPCC has drafted the worst-case scenario. According to an assessment of how global warming could progress beyond 2100 - the normal time frame of model predictions - if temperatures rise by even 6°C rainforests will be wiped out, fertility of many soils will be destroyed and the Arctic will be left ice-free even in midwinter. London will be as hot as Cairo with air quality so poor it would endanger human respiratory systems. The world’s most populous low-lying cities like Tokyo, New York, Mumbai, Shanghai and Dhaka will be engulfed by floods after an eleven-metre rise in sea levels. Extreme weather events, like hurricanes and droughts will become more common, with climate change spreading more infectious diseases.


[Related feature: 12 easy ways to reduce your carbon footprint]


Doctors warn that global warming will also create more heat-related deaths from cardiovascular problems and strokes. Young children and the elderly will be especially vulnerable to higher temperatures. Scientists claim that humanity will be reduced to a few last survivors living near the poles with it eventually going extinct over the next couple of centuries if we don’t stop emissions.

When Yahoo! News asked The Union of Concerned Scientists about what impact global warming is having on our world, they maintained: “While higher temperatures and rising sea levels resulting from climate change may make some parts of the world effectively uninhabitable, it would not be scientifically accurate to put climate change in the same world-ending category as impact by a large asteroid. Instead, we should think of climate change as presenting us challenges for which we must prepare as well as opportunities for reducing emissions and the associated climate change risks that come with them.”

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Actor Tyron Perez found dead

Young actor Tyron Perez, who rose to fame in the GMA-7 reality-based talent show "Star Struck" and has since transferred to ABS-CBN as a Star Magic talent was found dead Thursday night, December 29, in Valenzuela City. He was 26.

Star Magic, which co-manages Tyron with director Jerry Lopez-Sineneng, said in a statement: "Our deepest condolences to the family of Tyron. Let's pray for the eternal repose of his soul."

Circumstances surrounding his death are still being investigated as of posting time.

Valenzuela City Police told Yahoo! Philippines OMG! that Tyron's lifeless body was found at the passenger backseat of his black Toyota Altis parked at the South Service Road of the North Luzon Expressway in Barangay Ugong, Valenzuela City. SPO2 Richard Bautista of the Valenzuela City Police investigations unit said that initial SOCO findings reveal a fatal gunshot wound on Tyron's right temple, with a .22-calibre firearm beside the body. Police investigation, which includes determining if the gunshot wound was self-inflicted, is still ongoing.

Tyron was last seen at the Star Magic Ball earlier this year. According to Star Magic, they haven't been in communication with Tyron since the event.

His last television appearance was in the remake of "Mula Sa Puso" this year. He also starred in another ABS-CBN drama, "Momay" in 2010.

Tyron is survived by his wife Liv Espino, a flight attendant he married in 2009.

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Government treatment of Arroyo fair, 7 of 10 Filipinos think

The Aquino government’s treatment of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regarding the cases she is facing has been “only fair,” according to seven out 10 Filipinos (69 percent) nationwide in a Social Weather Stations survey.

The Fourth Quarter Social Weather Report also said that 17 percent of respondents believed government had been “too harsh,” while 13 percent said government had been “too lenient.”

Arroyo spent Christmas at Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, where she is detained on nonbailable electoral sabotage charges.

The survey asked respondents to complete the following statement: “What is your opinion about the administration’s treatment of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regarding the cases that she is facing? Would you say that the treatment of the administration has been…”

Three options

They were presented with three options: “Too harsh,” “too lenient” and “only fair.”

The survey also found that nearly three of four adult Filipinos (73 percent) had “little trust” in Arroyo. With only 11 percent expressing “much trust” in her, Arroyo’s net trust rating plunged to a “very bad” minus-62 (much trust minus little trust), down from minus-40 (19 percent much trust, 59 percent little trust) in June.

This was even lower than Arroyo’s “record-low” of minus-52 (16 percent much trust, 68 percent little trust) posted in November last year, according to the survey, results of which were first reported in BusinessWorld on Monday.

Socioeconomic classes

Majorities across areas also believed that the government’s treatment of the former President had been “only fair”—79 percent in Mindanao, 78 percent in Metro Manila, 66 percent in Balance Luzon and 59 percent in the Visayas.

Majorities across socioeconomic classes also held a similar view—71 percent among class ABC, 69 percent among class D and 69 percent among class E—as did 71 percent among men and 68 percent among women.

Eighty-two percent among college graduates, 70 percent among high school graduates, 68 percent among elementary graduates, and 63 percent among those who have attended some elementary or no schooling at all also believed that government treatment of Arroyo had been “only fair.”

Twenty-four percent in the Visayas, 17 percent in Luzon outside Metro Manila, 15 percent in Mindanao and 10 percent in Metro Manila said the government’s treatment of Arroyo had been “too harsh” while 16 percent in Luzon outside Metro Manila, 15 percent in the Visayas, 12 percent in Metro Manila and 5 percent in Mindanao said the government had been “too lenient.”

Among class E, 17 percent said government had been “too harsh,” along with 16 percent among class D and 15 percent among class ABC. Fourteen percent among class ABC said government had been “too lenient,” as did 13 percent among class D and 12 percent among class E.

Little trust

Among those who had “little trust” in Arroyo, 76 percent said government treatment had been “only fair,” while 77 percent said government had been “too lenient.” Fifty-nine percent of those who had “little trust” in her said government had been “too harsh” on her.

Among those who said government treatment of Arroyo had been “only fair,” 73 percent were satisfied with President Benigno Aquino III, while only 12 percent were dissatisfied. Satisfaction with the President was lower among those who said government had been “too harsh” on Arroyo (69 percent) or “too lenient” (60 percent), SWS also noted.

The survey, conducted from December 3 to December 7, used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults. It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Inquirer Research

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For Muslims celebrating Christmas, it's a holiday, not a holy day

With Christmas comes tradition in the Traband household: A plate of cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer. A stocking full of treats for Omar, the family dog. A noble fir decorated with golden garland and keepsake ornaments.

But there is no angel atop the tree.

Sahira Traband feels that would conflict with her family's faith.

They are Muslims.

"The magic of Christmas is the part we celebrate," said Traband, 45. "We didn't get into the whole religious thing."

At a time when the holiday is being pulled in different directions — some people replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" so as not to offend, while others campaign to "Keep the Christ in Christmas" — it's not uncommon for Muslims to use the occasion as an entry into American culture, no different from signing up their children for Little League.

Just how many Muslims do observe the holiday is unclear, since it is a personal choice fellow faithful might criticize. But if they were to ask, Muslims might discover they know a family or two who put up trees or send letters to Santa.

That fact may come as an even bigger shock to those outside the community who regard Muslims and their faith as being at odds with Western lifestyles.

"To me, Christmas, unless you're going to go to church, is a pop culture holiday," said Maha Awad, a producer and media consultant who is working with the TLC reality show "All-American Muslim."

Though Jesus is regarded as a prophet in Islam, celebrating Christmas "is not a religious practice," Awad said.

In her San Fernando Valley home, much of the holiday revolves around her 4-year-old daughter, Sarah, who attends an Islamic school on Sundays and is memorizing parts of the Koran. Awad takes her to visit Santa; they put up a tree and decorate the house with lights and stockings.

"Islam is our religion and Christmas is just a fun holiday we partake in," said Awad, whose father is Palestinian and mother Egyptian. Growing up in Los Angeles, "it was absolutely part of assimilating," she said.

Most clerics, however, will argue that followers of Islam should not participate in the Christian holiday, despite its commercialization. A small number of Muslims even go so far as to say that wishing someone a "Merry Christmas" is tantamount to blasphemy.

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Still, many Muslims — as well as Jews, Buddhists and other non-Christians — celebrate the day. The act of putting up some tinsel, said Emil Ali, a Muslim, doesn't conflict with their religious beliefs.

The lawyer, who works at the Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., remembers having to defend himself when he was 12 years old and another Muslim boy told him that celebrating Christmas was forbidden. He responded that the Koran doesn't forbid having a tree.

Now some of his more conservative friends jokingly say he's becoming Christian.

"I don't think Christmas is very religious," said Ali, 26, whose mother is from Pakistan and father from Tanzania. "When you're in an American country, you want to blend in and assimilate."

For Ali, sending out holiday cards and decorating his house with lights is just part of being a good neighbor. Not doing it, he said, would be akin to keeping his empty trash cans by the curb.

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Celine Acut Angers Netizens for Rude Post About Sendong Victims

MANILA, Philippines - Screen captures of supposed Facebook posts have gone viral, angering Filipinos and fueling their drive to help victims of tropical storm "Sendong" (international name Washi).

The posts were supposedly written by a certain Celine Acut, a Filipino living in France, and a certain Van Carumba, a Cebu native living in the United Arab Emirates.

“[A]ccording to the news, almost all of the victims are poor families, so its better that they all die this early…whats the point of living a life which is full of hunger, at least they are now resting with peace..they are worthless, they are unproductive and their lives has no value at al.. they are just making more problems to the society so as i said its better that they have died this early.. they don’t desserve a chance to live because they are poor, they are not VIP anyways,” Acut’s first post said.

“[I] even wish sendong to come back and flash away those remaining poor families over there,” said her second post.

Van Carumba, meanwhile, posted on December 19, “Buti nangyari yan sa CDO (Cagayan de Oro)…Di pa namamatay lahat ng tao jan.” One person commented on her post, saying “Wag ka naman ganyan, di lahat ng taga-Cagayan de Oro may kasalanan sayo.”

Acut’s Facebook profile has since been deleted, but the page was cached by Google on December 20. Screen captures of her profile posted online show that she studied at Mindanao State University-Iligan; lives in Le Petit-Paris, France; and is engaged.

Carumba’s Facebook page is still active, but all her wall posts have been hidden aside from the controversial one she posted on Monday.

Acut and Carumba are now the subject of angry posts on social networking sites such as Twitter and Tumblr, and the screen captures of their posts have been posted on several blogs as of press time. Pages have even been created on Facebook specifically to bash them.

One page on Acut had 1,544 likes, while the other had only 138. A page dedicated to Van Carumba had 451 likes as of press time.

Neither Acut nor Carumba could be reached for comment.

It is not certain if Acut is a real person or a figure created by people seeking to involve others in efforts to help the victims of tropical storm Sendong.

According to Camama Marwah from the Registrar’s Office of the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, they have no records of a Celine Acut graduating from their school.

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‘Sendong’ death toll now 1,018

THE Eastern Mindanao Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines has retrieved 16 more bodies, raising to more than 1,000 the number of dead from Tropical Storm Sendong (international codename: Washi), which devastated the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in Northern Mindanao last week.

Waters off the two cities were littered with bodies, officials said on Thursday.

The command’s spokesman, Col. Leopoldo Galon, said that as of 7 a.m. also of Thursday, the fatalities numbered 1,018, with most of the deaths (666) reported in Cagayan de Oro, followed by Iligan (283).

Deaths were also reported in other parts of Mindanao—Bukidnon province, the Caraga region, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)—and in Western Visayas.

Galon said that the search for several missing persons was continuing.

Latest data from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) showed that the number of victims has increased to over 641,000 or 92,964 families.

In Cagayan de Oro, forensic experts from the Philippine National Police (PNP) also on Thursday were still identifying over 130 cadavers through DNA analysis, fingerprint test or dental test.

Senior Supt. Liza Sabong, deputy chief for administration of the PNP Crime Lab, said that this number excluded bodies being examined by other forensic experts from the National Bureau of Investigation.

With the bodies of victims of Sendong still littering the waters off southern Philippines, officials also on Thursday expressed fears that diseases could strike the survivors of the storm.

The official death toll from last weekend’s disaster, which swept away shantytowns built near major rivers, has exceeded a thousand. Some authorities, however, said that hundreds more could be missing and might never be found.

NDRRMC chief Benito Ramos said that Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Navy vessels had been drafted for a huge rescue effort to find bodies floating amid debris up to a hundred kilometers away.

“By this time, there will be no survivors, just dead bodies,” he said after Sendong brought heavy rains that spawned flash floods, overflowing rivers and mudslides that buried bodies or swept them into the sea.

Ramos put the death toll at 1,010 while the NDRRMC put the number of missing at 51.

But Mayor Lawrence Cruz of Iligan said that in his city alone, more than 400 residents had been reported missing, with another 283 confirmed dead.

“We could only assume [that] they are dead already. There is so much mud that has to be cleared up and maybe the missing are buried deep inside,” Cruz added.

Philippine Red Cross official Gwendolyn Pang said that at least 900 bodies had been recovered and confirmed that some 400 people had been reported missing.

She, however, pointed out that the exact toll might never be known as some of those reported missing may in fact be among the dead, and there could be many more whose disappearance was never reported.

“Many will never be found and we don’t know how many are really missing. No one will report them because entire families were swept away,” Pang said.

A Navy vessel recovered 11 badly decomposed bodies off the coastal town of Salay on Wednesday, Navy spokesman and Lt. Col. Omar Tonsay said.

“Recovering bodies at sea is difficult because of the sheer volume of debris. You have to ram logs and risk holing your hull or entangling your propellers,” Tonsay added.

Ramos said that the maritime search could continue for two more weeks, but warned that many bodies might have sunk underwater and would never be found.

The main priority now is finding permanent shelter for the thousands displaced by the floods, particularly the more than 43,000 housed in cramped evacuation centers, he added.

Health officials have warned of the risk of epidemics breaking out at the camps, which remain without proper water supply and sanitation.

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Why we all need Christmas ?

MANILA, Philippines — Aside from the religious and spiritual significance of Christmas, there are other practical reasons why I and so many other people need it. The way I look at it, each year is like a chapter or a race which starts at the beginning of the year and ends towards the holiday season. Therefore, it is only fitting that we celebrate the completion of another year with Christmas and New Year back to back.

First is the holiday break adds at least two more days within a span of a week to your freedom from work. Considering that there are times when a whole year literally goes by without you being able to avail of a vacation leave, any break is certainly a welcome one. The nice thing about this is that no one, even the toughest boss, will think badly about you for not going to work on Christmas or New Year’s Day, unless of course you were previously scheduled to be on duty on the holiday shift. What to do with the time? This is the best time to spend time with your kids and loved ones since they too are on holiday, and this is one of the few times that everyone has a break.

Second is the gift giving, particularly from your employer, aside from the 13th month pay. This is also the season you get all sorts of gifts from your business associates, relatives and friends. However, what I really like about this tradition is that this is also a golden opportunity for you to give gifts to people who have made a difference in your life and show them your appreciation. When you have a hectic schedule a lot of times we forget or don’t have the time to say thank you and give a token of our gratitude. I also find that there is much less awkwardness in giving something to someone as a Christmas present than in any other occasion.

Third is all the different parties and get-togethers that seem to fill up every day in December does serve a deeper purpose. For the office parties, we use the occasion to give awards and speeches, but this is also a good time to get to know people more, and that means your peers, subordinates and superiors. With everyone in a good mood, this is the perfect time to smoothen out any rough spots by apologizing or explaining yourself. Meeting old friends this time of the year allows you to catch up on what is happening to your old buddies and talk about the “good old days”. Reunions and parties with relatives is another wonderful event in that it gives the younger generation the chance to meet up with their peer group and know who their relatives are before becoming nothing more than faint memories.

The Christmas season also gives you the chance to be in charge of being with people you like. Parties for specific groups, like your company, association, relatives, reunions and the like, gives you little leeway in who is going to be there. However, organizing your own party with your own guest list and just inviting specific people that cuts across the spectrum of your relationships can be quite satisfying. Hosting these affairs may entail some logistical challenges and some cost but it is certainly worth it since enjoying the company of the wonderful people in your life is priceless.

Finally, there are some Christmas traditions that you may have started or gotten used to. You will know if they are good ones when you and the other people involved look forward to it every year, these are the ones that you want to keep on going since it provides a foundation for stronger relationships and good memories. It could be anything from a reunion with old school mates, a family trip, putting up the Christmas tree together, visiting the oldest living relative and so many other traditions both old and new.

Remember that we are only here for a limited time and we will be remembered for the things we have done and leave behind. I think that we all want to leave good memories and a lasting positive impression of ourselves to those that we leave behind. Much like missing friends and relatives that have moved on, I too would like to be missed when I am gone. To me, that is what Christmas is for, to make new memories and cherish old ones. Not only do I need Christmas, I really want it! Merry Christmas to everyone!

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No Christmas at home for Arroyo: Philippine court

A Philippine court on Wednesday rejected detained former president Gloria Arroyo's request to spend Christmas at home or use her mobile phone and computer in the hospital where she is being held.

The 64-year-old Arroyo, who says she is suffering from a rare spinal illness, is expected to be tried as early as next month on charges of rigging the 2007 senatorial elections.

She was arrested in her hospital bed at a private Manila hospital last month and held without bail, but the court later ordered her to be moved to the government-run military hospital.

"They (Arroyo's family) are allowed to spend Christmas at the (hospital) from December 24 to 26 and from December 31 to January 2," court clerk Joel Pelicano said.

But Arroyo won other concessions from the court, including an hour's walk on the hospital grounds and a visit to the hospital chapel every day.

"We respect the decision of the court if that is (the judge's) decision," said Ferdinand Topacio, a member of Arroyo's legal team.

President Benigno Aquino, who was elected to replace Arroyo in 2009, has accused his predecessor of election sabotage and of massive corruption during her term from 2001 to 2010.

He blocked a Supreme Court order to let Arroyo travel abroad for medical care in November ahead of her arrest, and has made convicting Arroyo the centrepiece of his anti-corruption campaign.

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Jollibee Buying Into Restaurant Chain

MANILA, Philippines — Jollibee Foods Corporation, through wholly-owned Singapore unit JSF Investments Pte. Ltd., has formally initiated its plan to invest $60 million in the southeast Asian restaurant business of the SuperFoods Group.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Jollibee said it is acquiring a 50 percent stake in the business of the SuperFoods Group consisting of a 49 percent share in SF Vung Tau Joint Stock Company of Vietnam and a 60 percent interest in Blue Sky Holdings Limited of Hong Kong.

The SuperFoods Group owns and operates various brands, including Highlands Coffee Shops in Vietnam, Highlands Coffee Packaged Products, and Hard Rock Café franchised stores in Macau, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Very recently, the SuperFoods Group also acquired the Pho 24 brand and restaurants which have presence in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Cambodia and Japan. The annual sales of the SuperFoods Group amount to about $30 million.

Highlands Coffee serves Vietnamese coffee and light meals in trendy coffee shops and sells packaged coffee through retail outlets. Pho 24 serves traditional Vietnamese dishes with rice noodles as its core product.

Jollibee and its prospective partner Viet Thai International Joint Stock Company (VTI) aims to offer Asian mass consumers high quality coffee and café experience at affordable prices through Highlands Coffee Shops and Highlands Packaged Products.

They also aim to serve the Asian mass consumers high quality Vietnamese food at affordable prices through the Pho 24 brand and restaurants.

Jollibee also plans to serve Highlands Coffee in the restaurants of its various brands in order to upgrade the quality of its coffee at prices its consumers can afford.

Currently, Highlands has 54 stores in Vietnam while Pho 24 has 48 restaurants in Vietnam, 11 in Indonesia, 4 in Hong Kong, 3 in Tokyo, Japan, 1 in Cambodia and 2 in the Philippines.

In the Philippines, franchising rights for operating Highlands Coffee Shops was granted to IP Ventures.

The subscription to 50 percent of the business of SuperFoods will be an implementation of an earlier agreement under which Jollibee will invest $25 million for half of the SuperFoods business and a $35 million loan to VTI. It also advanced $5 million to SuperFoods. (JAL)

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Get Paid for Playing Games

Hey! Are you a gamer? Yeah, I thought so. And you like your games a lot too, huh? I can see that. What would you say if I paid you to play games?

No, that’s not a scam. Just what the founders of Twitch.tv are saying.

You don’t have to just play games anymore. You can now potentially play games, stream it online, and earn cash from it. Twitch.tv offers a partner programme (similar to YouTube’s) for anyone who can hit 500 concurrent viewers and 25,000 views on their channel. In an interview with BusinessInsider.com, Justin Kan, founder and chairman of Justin.tv, Twitch.tv’s mother project, claimed most users hit those numbers with ease.

This might be a new dawn for gamers who like to earn some part time cash while playing games. Twitch.tv is a side venture of the popular web streaming site Justin.tv. Kan and his CEO Emmett Shear are huge gamers, and this contributed to their interest in Twitch.

Twitch.tv allows people to watch a live stream of your screen while you play, and they can chat with each other on the side, too. It was built as a way to make professional video gamers more mainstream, but you don’t have to be a pro to play. Signing up is free, and so is being made partner.

More and more professional gamers are turning to broadcasting online, and Kan believes this is because the audience for gaming prefers staying online. It’s a growing trend, especially in spectator games like StarCraft. But if you’re well loved, it might not even matter what you play. Popular StarCraft II commentator, Sean ‘Day[9]’ Plott, gets viewers even when he’s just streaming a single player game.

If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at streaming, gaming and learning how to do a little side business, Twitch.tv could be a nice place to explore all 3 possibilities. With more than 12 million unique visitors a month, and with an audience that grows by more than ten percent every month, it definitely marks a new age in broadcasting games.

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N.J. plane crash: Investigators search for clues in Morris County tragedy

MORRIS COUNTY — The takeoff from Teterboro Airport seemed uneventful.

Behind the controls of the single-engine, turbo-prop plane, according to friends, was Jeffrey F. Buckalew, who was flying his family — his wife Corinne, their two children and their dog — along with a colleague on a trip down to Georgia for a combination business meeting and early holiday getaway.

Within minutes, FAA officials said, there was a brief discussion with ground controllers about icing conditions ahead and an expected climb to a higher altitude. A garbled transmission followed. And then, 14 minutes after takeoff Tuesday morning, the plane dropped off radar.

On the ground, the first call came in at 10:04 a.m. Witnesses in Morris Township described a revving noise high above, and a loud whistling sound, like an incoming shell. Then a tremendous crash.

All five aboard the small plane were killed when the aircraft tumbled out of control, broke apart in mid-air, and hurtled to earth, spreading a half-mile-long swath of charred, mangled wreckage and bodies across Interstate 287 and beyond.
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The falling debris barely missed a pickup truck traveling in the southbound lane, but authorities said no vehicles were hit on the busy highway, which would have been jammed with morning rush-hour commuters just an hour or two earlier.

"It was a very traumatic accident," New Jersey State Police Lt. Stephen Jones said.

The victims were not immediately identified by authorities. However, the plane was registered to Buckalew and officials at Greenhill & Co., the Manhattan investment bank where he worked. The company reported that he and his wife, both 45, their children, Jackson and Meriwether, all of New York City, and former New Jersey resident Rakesh Chawla, 36, who also worked at the firm, were apparently on board. The two children were in first and fifth grade.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, said the 6-year-old Socata TBM-700 — a French-made, low-wing, six- to seven-seat aircraft powered by a jet turbine driving a single propeller — entered an uncontrolled spin, falling from an altitude of 17,500 feet.

"It’s too early to tell if it was mechanical or something the pilot did," NTSB air safety investigator Robert Gretz said at a late-afternoon news conference.

Gretz later told reporters a hand-held global position system device had been recovered at the scene, though it was still unclear whether it was turned on at the time of the crash and what, if anything, it might reveal.

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Aquino is no Fidel Castro, says DoJ chief – Global Nation

MANILA, Philippines – It is unfair to compare President Benigno Aquino III with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said Wednesday. De Lima was reacting to constitutionalist and Jesuit priest Joaquin Bernas’ comment over the radio that the pronouncements made by Aquino during the First Criminal Justice Summit were “disturbing” and smacked of tyranny. At the same time, Bernas praised Corona for not going down to the level of the President’s ranting.

De Lima told reporters that critics should get to know the President first before they could compare him to Castro.

“They probably do not know the President that is why they are saying such things. I don’t think he [the President] has the tendency to be a dictator,” De Lima said.

De Lima added that the President merely voiced out his disappointment over the Supreme Court’s decisions that seemed to make it difficult for the government to run after former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

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Kim Jong Il, Dead At 69

Kim Jong Il, supreme leader of North Korea, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack during a train ride, state television reported Monday. He was 69, according to official sources. Kim, known in his homeland as “The Lodestar of the 21st Century” and by more than 2,000 other titles, is reported to have had a history of serious ailments, including diabetes, stroke and pancreatic cancer. He may have been on dialysis at the time of his death. In North Korea, he was considered a “contemporary god.”

Kim formally assumed power over the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea is formally known, in October 1997 by becoming General Secretary of the Korean Workers’ Party. His elevation to supreme leader, a little over three years after the death of father Kim Il Sung, was the first dynastic transfer of power in a communist-bloc state. The younger Kim also ruled the nation as Chairman of the National Defense Commission, the highest state institution in North Korea. His father, whose embalmed body is on display in Pyongyang, remains the country’s president.
Jang Song Thaek: North Korea's Regent, Or Its Next Ruler? Gordon G. Chang Gordon G. Chang Contributor

Kim Jong Il successfully consolidated power after his father’s sudden death and, despite predictions to the contrary, kept the regime together. In 1994, he scored a diplomatic triumph by getting the United States to sign an agreement preserving his nuclear program. Kim then steered North Korea through a famine that was its gravest crisis since the American advance to the Chinese border during the Korean War.

The famine resulted in the deaths of as many as two million North Koreans. Since then, agricultural production has recovered, but the country still relies on food assistance from the international community, especially neighboring China. Beijing is thought to provide approximately 45 percent of the North’s foodstuffs—as well as about 90 percent of its oil and 80 percent of its consumer goods.

In July 2002, Kim sponsored structural economic changes, which failed to lift output on a sustained basis. He also permitted the creation of economic zones and tourist enclaves. The country emerged from its most recent downturn in 2008, according to the authoritative Bank of Korea in Seoul. During Kim’s rule, the North remained destitute, scoring last or near the bottom on virtually every human development index. He maintained, and perhaps enlarged, a system of concentration and death camps he inherited from his father.

The Dear Leader, as Kim was known, maintained his position within the regime by strengthening the hand of the Korean People’s Army with his songun, or military first, policy. Approximately 1.2 million North Koreans—out of a total reported population of about 24 million—are in uniform, backed up by at least five million reservists. Although large, the military’s conventional-warfare capabilities have eroded in recent years due to the lack of resources, especially fuel for training.

As a result of the decline in military preparedness, Kim increasingly relied on the country’s unconventional weapons. The Army first detonated a nuclear device in October 2006, and a second test followed in May 2009. The country conducted three long-range missile tests—all during Kim’s tenure—and continued to add to its large stocks of chemical and biological agents. He reportedly sold nuclear weapons and missile technologies in recent years to various customers, especially Iran and Syria. Talks to disarm Kim’s state have floundered, leaving the country in possession of its small nuclear arsenal.

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Holiday Recipe: Prime Rib

It's not difficult to roast a perfect prime rib, so long as you have a good heavy cast iron skillet and digital meat thermometer handy.

First, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Season the outside of meat with steak seasoning. Pat the seasoning into the sides of the meat.

Sear meat on top of stove in the cast iron skillet (you can use a heavy skillet, but the cast iron is the best choice as it gives it the best crust). You will have to sear each side separately, about three-to-five minutes per side at high heat. Keep turning until all the sides are seared. Sear does not mean burn, just brown it and turn, as cast iron can heat up to a very high heat. Beware that you cannot be distracted while you are doing this step - you must pay attention and keep turning it and searing.

Insert the digital meat thermometer probe into thickest part of the roast (don't hit the bone with the probe) and place it on a broiler pan, bone side down, and roast at 200 degrees until the temperature reaches 130 for bright pink (medium rare). If you like it a bit closer to medium, go to 135 but I wouldn't go beyond that as it will start to get well done. It will take about 45 minutes per pound up to a maximum of four to five hours. Be sure to go by the temperature, not the time.

Next is the most important step in roasting: Let it rest about 20 minutes before slicing. This assures you will have a very juicy roast. Use a large knife to slice off the bones, then slice into slices as thick as desired and serve with ground horseradish.

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Long Island Serial Killer The Latest Notorious Murder Case In NY Suburb

OAK BEACH, N.Y. -- It's the largest murder investigation ever on New York's Long Island – 10 people slain and strewn along a remote beach highway over 15 years, possibly all victims of the same serial killer. But it's not the first time the New York suburbs have been in the national spotlight for its homicides.

Back in 1974, Ronald DeFeo killed his parents and four siblings in the "Amityville Horror" murders. Colin Ferguson opened fire on a commuter train in 1993, killing six and wounding 19. And this year on Father's Day, four people were executed in a pharmacy robbery in Medford.

Then there are serial killers Joel Rifkin and Robert Schulman. Most of their victims were prostitutes; 17 for Rifkin and five for Schulman, back in the 1990s.

The so-called Gilgo Beach murder mystery, however, is something altogether different.

"The biggest investigation I've ever been involved in," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer told The Associated Press. "It's garnered the most publicity of any case that I've handled over more than 30 years in the police business."

A website is dedicated to tracking "the Long Island serial killer," a two-hour documentary aired this month on A&E and the deaths have been covered on CBS' "48 Hours." Dormer has even received media attention for his role in the case in his native Ireland.

And it all happened nearly by accident.

On Dec. 11, 2010, a Suffolk police officer and his cadaver dog were in the dunes about 15 miles east of Jones Beach. They were looking for 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, a missing Jersey City, N.J., prostitute who vanished seven months earlier after meeting a client for sex in Oak Beach, about three miles away.

They happened upon the remains of a woman. That discovery prompted a wider investigation. Two days later, three more sets of remains were found near the first. But none were Gilbert.

Police expanded their search more than 15 miles along the highway, bringing in more K-9 units and putting officers on horseback. Fire departments stretched aerial ladders over a thicket of underbrush and pine trees infested with poison ivy so officers could search from overhead. State police sent officers to assist and Suffolk police academy recruits were called in.

The FBI supplied aerial surveillance photos of the region and other technical assistance.

By April, the search had yielded the remains of 10 victims. Police believe nine were linked to the sex trade. The first four found were strangled elsewhere and dumped, Dormer said; he would not confirm reports they were wrapped in burlap.

In March, the head, hands and forearm of a woman who worked as a prostitute in Washington and New York City were found. The rest of her dismembered body had been located in 2003 in Manorville, about 45 miles to the east. She was identified as 20-year-old Jessica Taylor.

Like Taylor, the first four victims were all in their 20s. They were last seen leaving to meet clients for sex. They were: Melissa Barthelemy, 24, a Buffalo native who lived in the Bronx; Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, last seen leaving a Long Island hotel; Amber Lynn Costello, 27, originally of Wilmington, N.C., but recently living in North Babylon, N.Y; and Maureen Brainerd-Barnes, 28, of Norwich, Conn. Five other victims have yet to be identified.

Then there is the mother and child.

Police say their remains were found seven miles apart along the parkway. Police released photos of matching jewelry each were wearing, but their IDs remain a mystery.

It is not unheard of for a woman to bring along a child for an online sex encounter, Dormer said.

Another unidentified victim was a man dressed in women's clothing.

The whereabouts of Gilbert, the woman who sparked the investigation, remained a mystery, until a few days ago.

She was last seen running hysterically from a client's home in Oak Beach, a gated community along Ocean Parkway several miles from where the other victims were found. This week, police found her personal effects in marshland near Oak Beach. They continue to look for her remains.

Dormer said officers suspect she drowned in the marshland, and her death is not believed to be connected to the serial killer case. Still, Dormer said, "if it wasn't for Shannan Gilbert's disappearance, we may never have found the remains of the other victims."

Authorities initially suspected that because of the number of victims, the fact that some were dismembered and some not, and the nearly 15 years between the first and last killings, that multiple culprits must be responsible.

But Dormer said authorities now believe one person killed them all. He argued it is not unusual for serial killers to evolve and adjust their methods. He conceded, however, that others disagree, including some in his own department.

But among those who agree is Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an expert on serial killers.

"The likelihood that more than one person is a serial sexual murderer on Long Island is close to zero," he said. "This is not like in the movies. This type of different methods of operations occurs quite frequently."

Schlesinger explained why victims of one killer – serial killers are nearly always men_ could be left in different conditions. "It could be as simple as he realized it was too much of a hassle," Schlesinger said. "The women killed years ago were dismembered, the recent women were not. He might have figured it was too much trouble."

He also explained the passage of time between killings.

"They guys have a compulsion to kill, but they also can control it," he said. Or "maybe he was in prison for a time."

No suspects have been identified despite a $25,000 reward and more than 1,200 tips, but a man believed to be the killer has made contact with one family.

In the days after Melissa Barthelemy was reported missing in 2009, someone used her cell phone to call her teenage sister in Buffalo at least a half-dozen times. The caller eventually admitted to the girl he was the killer.

New York City police tracked the call to midtown Manhattan and searched near Pennsylvania Station and the Port Authority bus terminal, but the signal went dead. Cellphone records showed a call from Massapequa, on Long Island. Police canvassed the area, asking around at local hotels, but turned up nothing, the official said. There have been no calls in several years.

Melissa Cann of New London, Conn., wants people to remember the victims as more than anonymous prostitutes. Her sister, Maureen Brainerd-Barnes, was found along Ocean Parkway last December. She said her sister was trying to get out of the escort business but had received an eviction notice when she went to meet what turned out to be her last client.

"Everyone knows that these women went down a wrong path in life," Cann said. "But they were still normal human beings with families that loved them."

Cann has formed a bond with the mothers and other relatives of the other women, speaking almost daily and sharing thoughts via Facebook. Several of them are planning a vigil at Oak Beach on Tuesday.

"She was always there for me with emotional support, so I am going to be there and fight for her and for justice for the rest of my life," Cann said of her sister.

But, she added, "It's not all about Maureen. There's a killer out there. He didn't just destroy the lives of 10 people. He destroyed the lives of 10 families."

Many on Long Island have treated the events of the past year with mostly a shrug. Hundreds of thousands trekked to state and town beaches last summer, setting up umbrellas and frolicking in the surf where murder victims had been strewn nearby.

"I feel awful for the victims, of course," said Diane Gentile a legal secretary from Westbury. "But I'm not really worried about a serial killer. There's a better chance of getting killed on a Long Island Rail Road train or walking into a pharmacy. I'm more worried about someone trying to break into my house."

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Neti pots are dangerous if used improperly, DHH warns

Louisiana health regulators warned residents Tuesday about the dangers of using neti pots improperly. A neti pot, which looks like a genie's lamp, is commonly used to irrigate sinuses. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals issued its warning following a second death this year caused by Naegleria fowleri, the so-called brain-eating amoeba. A 51-year-old DeSoto Parish woman died after using tap water in a neti pot to irrigate her sinuses and became infected by the deadly amoeba, which entered the body through her nose. In June, a 20-year-old St. Bernard Parish man died under the same circumstances.

"If you are irrigating, flushing, or rinsing your sinuses, for example, by using a neti pot, use distilled, sterile or previously boiled water to make up the irrigation solution," said Louisiana State Epidemiologist, Dr. Raoult Ratard. "Tap water is safe for drinking, but not for irrigating your nose."

It's also important to rinse the irrigation device after each use and leave open to air dry, he said.

The very rare infection typically occurs when people go swimming or diving in warm freshwater lakes and rivers. In very rare instances, health experts said such infections may also occur when contaminated water from other sources, such as inadequately chlorinated swimming pool water or heated tap water less than 116.6 degrees, enters the nose when people submerge their heads or when people irrigate their sinuses with devices such as a neti pot.

DHH said the amoeba causes the disease primary amebic meningoencephalitis, a brain infection that leads to the destruction of brain tissue. In its early stages, symptoms may be similar to symptoms of bacterial meningitis and can include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting and stiff neck. Later symptoms include confusion, loss of balance, seizures and hallucinations.

After the start of symptoms, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within one to 12 days.

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SOPA is China-style censorship say Google, Twitter, eBay

Nine Internet godfathers have taken out full-page ads in the New York Times, saying SOPA is an offer they will refuse. Founders of giants like Yahoo, eBay, Google and Netscape claim the bill will “undermine the framework” of free expression.

The bill is intended to crack down on websites operating outsidethe United States. If passed, the legislation would allow the US government to shut down any site illegally hosting copyrighted content. Lawmakers behind the Stop Online Piracy Act say it would deal a blow to online pirates and producers of counterfeit brand products like designer fashion items or medicine.

But the signatories, who include top men and women from services like Wikipedia, PayPal, Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube, believe that online services would be required to monitor what users link to and upload, which would have a "chilling effect on innovation."

They also insist that the bill would give Washington Internet censorship rights similar to “China, Malaysia and Iran” and are urging Congress not to risk the “tremendous benefits the Internet has brought to hundreds of millions of Americans and people around the world.” And it seems their collective voice is being heard, as both Democrats and Republicans in the US have decided to oppose the bill. From Ron Paul to Nancy Pelosi, more and more politicians are adopting an anti-SOPA stance.

However, many support the act, with the US entertainment industry being the strongest lobbyist for SOPA. An unprecedented coalition of major entertainment unions, guilds, studios and networks want the government to act against what it labels “digital theft”. Giants like Viacom, Disney and TimeWarner have all pledged their support for SOPA – but many are very skeptical about this, with weblogs pointing out the almost-threatening tone of messages leaked from Viacom and NBC, urging partners to support SOPA in rather direct language.

An NBC email leaked by TechDirt claims that withholding support for this legislative act could “adversely affect our business relations” with their partners. Viacom has taken the idea even further, releasing an anti-piracy video with employees begging to keep their jobs. It gets to the point where someone actually claims that if you don’t buy Viacom product, Spongebob may cease to exist. And the video, of course, was NOT posted on YouTube (whom Viacom is suing for $1 billion), where it would be free, but on the company’s website, where it’s costing Viacom’s bandwidth. The main message: “free” is equated to “stealing”; piracy costs people money and jobs. Except for Viacom’s CEO, who made $84 million in 2010.

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Barbara Walters scoop: Herman Cain wants to be SecDef!

Herman Cain could see himself as Defense secretary, the ex-GOP presidential candidate told Barbara Walters during an interview for her program, '10 Most Fascinating People of 2011.' He's been reading up. Barbara Walters' show, “The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2011,” aired Wednesday night, if you haven’t heard. One of her picks was Herman Cain, the ex-Godfather’s Pizza chief who flamed out of the GOP presidential race amid continued allegations of sexual misconduct. Though it started off slow, Ms. Walter’s interview produced something of a scoop: Asked which Cabinet post he’d like, Mr. Cain said he could see himself being secretary of Defense.

“If I could influence the rebuilding of our military in the way it should be, that would be a task I would consider,” said Cain.

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Walters reacted with disbelief. This is the same Herman Cain, after all, who previously did not appear to know that China already possesses nuclear weapons. Then there was that time his tongue tied itself in knots when he was asked whether he approved of President Obama’s Libya policy.

Walters resurrected the Libya snafu, then pointed out that a SecDef is expected to know the names of the other countries in the world.

“Yes, but I have been doing my homework ever since that difficulty,” said a smiling Cain.

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U.S. War in Iraq Declared Officially Over

BAGHDAD — The United States military officially declared an end to its mission in Iraq on Thursday even as violence continues to plague the country and the Muslim world remains distrustful of American power. In a fortified concrete courtyard at the airport in Baghdad, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta thanked the more than one million American service members who have served in Iraq for “the remarkable progress” made over the past nine years but acknowledged the severe challenges that face the struggling democracy.

“Let me be clear: Iraq will be tested in the days ahead — by terrorism, and by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself,” Mr. Panetta said. “Challenges remain, but the U.S. will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges to build a stronger and more prosperous nation.”

The muted ceremony stood in contrast to the start of the war in 2003 when an America both frightened and emboldened by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, sent columns of tanks north from Kuwait to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

As of last Friday, the war in Iraq had claimed 4,487 American lives, with another 32,226 Americans wounded in action, according to Pentagon statistics.

The tenor of the hour-long farewell ceremony, officially called "Casing the Colors,” was likely to sound an uncertain trumpet for a war that was started to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction it did not have. It now ends without the sizable, enduring American military presence for which many military officers had hoped.

Although Thursday's ceremony marked the end of the war, the military still has two bases in Iraq and roughly 4,000 troops, including several hundred who attended the ceremony. At the height of the war in 2007, there were 505 bases and more than 170,000 troops.

According to military officials, the remaining troops are still being attacked on a daily basis, mainly by indirect fire attacks on the bases and road side bomb explosions against convoys heading south through Iraq to bases in Kuwait.

Even after the last two bases are closed and the final American combat troops withdraw from Iraq by Dec. 31, under rules of an agreement with the government in Baghdad, a few hundred military personnel and Pentagon civilians will remain, working within the American Embassy as part of an Office of Security Cooperation to assist in arms sales and training.

But negotiations could resume next year on whether additional American military personnel can return to further assist their Iraqi counterparts.

Senior American military officers have made no secret that they see crucial gaps in Iraq's ability to defend its sovereign soil and even to secure its oil platforms offshore in the Persian Gulf. Air defenses are seen as a critical gap in Iraqi capabilities, but American military officers also see significant shortcomings in Iraq's ability to sustain a military, whether moving food and fuel or servicing the armored vehicles it is inheriting from Americans or the fighter jets it is buying, and has shortfalls in military engineers, artillery and intelligence, as well.



"From a standpoint of being able to defend against an external threat, they have very limited to little capability, quite frankly," Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the outgoing American commander in Iraq, said in an interview after the ceremony. "In order to defend against a determined enemy, they will need to do some work."

The tenuous security atmosphere in Iraq was underscored by helicopters that hovered over the ceremony, scanning the ground for rocket attacks. Although there is far less violence across Iraq than at the height of the sectarian conflict in 2006 and 2007, there are bombings on a nearly daily basis and Americans remain a target of Shiite militants.

Mr. Panetta acknowledged that “the cost was high — in blood and treasure of the United States, and also for the Iraqi people. But those lives have not been lost in vain — they gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq.”

The war was started by the Bush administration in March 2003 on arguments that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and had ties to Al Qaeda that might grow to an alliance threatening the United States with a mass-casualty terrorist attack.

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How to avoid heart attacks this Christmas

Avoid the Christmas rush, prepare more salads and fruits for noche buena and resist the temptation of returning to the buffet table for seconds.

Concerned over the prevalence of heart attack cases during the holiday season, the Department of Health has issued a raft of tips to make Christmas and New Year celebrations among Filipinos safer and merrier.

Heart experts who spoke at a press briefing on Friday said the Christmas season—celebrated the longest in the Philippines—has over time proven to be “bad for the health” of Filipinos, particularly those with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and existing heart conditions.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona advised the public to watch out for their health during the protracted holiday festivities to prevent and control non-communicable diseases (NCDs), or what are referred to as lifestyle-related diseases.

Citing a study of the Philippine Health Statistics in 2006, Ona said NCDs are the top leading causes of death in the country. These include cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic lower respiratory diseases and diabetes.

These diseases are linked to four “most common but preventable risk factors: smoking, unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity and alcohol use,” said Ona.

Holiday overindulgence

People around this time of year tend to overindulge in food and alcohol and go through unnecessary stress because of heavy traffic and worries about Christmas shopping and their limited budget, according to Dr. Dante Morales, a cardiologist.

Usually, heart attack and stroke incidents peak from December to January, noted Morales, who is also president of the Philippine Society of Hypertension and senior vice president of Manila Doctors Hospital.

“The source of stress often comes from the rushed holiday preparations, from buying gifts and worrying about the lack of money,” said Morales.

“People around this time of year also neglect the observance of a healthy lifestyle by overindulging in food and alcohol during parties,” he added.

Merrymakers with heart conditions and diabetes, among other non-communicable diseases, also tend to neglect their maintenance medicines, he said.

Peak of heart diseases

Morales also cited studies in the United States showing that the peak of heart diseases occurs during the Christmas season, particularly four to five days after Christmas Day.

“While there are no similar studies yet in the Philippines, we have observed the same trend in our hospitals,” added the cardiologist.

Dr. Norbert Lingling-Uy, another cardiologist, said revelers must also be conscious about the food served in parties or during the noche buena and media noche, the large midnight family feasts to celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, respectively.

Healthy alternatives

While the usual Christmas staples like lechon (roast suckling pig), ham and fried chicken cannot be avoided, at least 30 percent of the food served must consist of fruits and vegetables, said Uy, president of the Philippine College of Physicians.

Some of the healthy dishes that can be served during the holiday festivities are steamed fish, baked instead of fried chicken, and a vegetable garden salad with vinaigrette, according to the health experts. An alternative to the calorific meat-filled pasta would be seafood pasta, they said.

And skip the mayonnaise please, they added.

The DOH has suggested 12 ways of ensuring a healthy and stress-free holiday season:

Prepare early, avoid the Christmas rush to prevent stress.

Give children toys that are safe and appropriate to their age and abilities.

Buy only legitimate and registered food and toy products to ensure safety.

Prepare healthy food, including vegetables and fruits, for noche buena and media noche.

Make sure that meals to be served are unspoiled and fresh to avoid food poisoning.

Be sure to eat moderately when attending parties.

Skip fatty and salty foods for a healthy heart.

Stay sober and drink moderately. Do not drink and drive.

Engage in regular exercise like jogging, walking and dancing to keep fit.

Get enough rest and sleep.

Avoid firecracker-related injuries.

Start a new culture of celebrating Christmas and greeting the New Year by mounting organized fireworks display in villages or town plazas.

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