TOKYO – Typhoon Songda churned northeast along Pacific coasts in southern Japan Sunday, bringing with it heavy rains and staying on course to hit Tokyo as it weakened, weather officials said.

It was expected to be downgraded to a depression late Sunday but could still dump torrential rain on the northeast coast, which was devastated by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

A total of 57 people suffered storm-related injuries on the southern Okinawan islands, police said. Of those, five were seriously hurt.

The typhoon, packing winds of up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) per hour, was located about 100 kilometers off the southwestern tip of Shikoku island at noon (O300 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Agency official Takeo Tanaka said the storm, losing strength, could reach Tokyo at around 9:00 am (0000 GMT) Monday.

It was not clear whether it would directly hit the disaster-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, more than 200 kilometres northeast of the capital.

But the typhoon has already brought heavy rain to the Fukushima region, prompting fears that run-off water may wash away radioactive materials from land into the Pacific Ocean.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has been pouring synthetic resins over the complex to prevent radioactive deposits from being swept away by winds or rain.

BEIJING – Authorities said a blast at a chemical plant in eastern China has killed three people and injured eight others.

The government of Zibo city in Shandong province said in a statement Sunday that police were investigating the cause of the explosion at a chemical plant owned by Shandong Baoyuan Chemical Co. Ltd.

The statement said the Saturday night blast killed two people at the site while a third person died later at a hospital. Eight other people who suffered slight injuries were being treated at a hospital.

Industrial accidents are common in China due to lax regulations and safety controls.

KUALA LUMPUR – A team of UN atomic energy experts began a week-long visit to Malaysia on Sunday to review the safety of a proposed Australian rare earths refinery that has drawn protests.

Following public concerns that radioactive waste from the plant could leak out and harm the environment, Malaysia has put the project by Australian miner Lynas on hold, pending the independent panel’s review.

A nine-member team led by a senior official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived this weekend to review the plant, which is under construction near the town of Kuantan in eastern Pahang state, said an official from the International Trade Ministry.

The team is meeting Malaysian government officials on Sunday before traveling to eastern Malaysia on Monday to meet residents and inspect the construction site for three days, he said.

They are expected to present their final findings by end of June, the official said.

The Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) was scheduled to begin processing rare earth – used in high-tech products from iPods to missiles – in the third quarter of 2011.

But activists and residents say they fear radioactive waste produced by the plant would not be disposed of properly and could endanger them and the environment.

Pending the panel’s review, the government has said it will not issue a pre-operating licence to Lynas and has barred imports of raw materials from Australia to be processed at the facility.

A similar facility built by a Japanese firm in another part of Malaysia was forced to shut down in 1992 due to protests.

Lynas has insisted the plant poses no safety threats. It has said any waste would be placed in safe, reliable engineered storage cells to avoid any leakage.

Lynas has described the facility as the largest of its kind in the world set to be one of the few sources of rare earths outside China.

TOKYO – Emergency workers on Sunday restored the cooling system of a reactor which had come to a halt after escaping major damage from the March 11 quake and damage at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The water pump to cool the reactor and the pool for spent nuclear fuel at the facility’s No. 5 unit was found to be at a standstill late Saturday, the plant’s operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said.

The work began at 8:00 am Sunday (2300 GMT Saturday) to replace the pump and it was completed in four and a half hours.

“There was a motor problem in the pump and we replaced it with a backup pump which is operating now,” TEPCO official Ryoko Sakai said.

The temperature of water in the reactor, which was 68 degrees Celsius when the trouble was found, reached 93.7 degrees Celsius before the backup pump was activated, the official said.

The 9.0-magnitude quake and monster tsunami ravaged cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, causing it to leak radiation from damaged reactors into the environment, including the Pacific Ocean, in the worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Of the plant’s six reactors, the No.1, 2 and 3 units are presumed to have suffered a meltdown, TEPCO has said.

The No. 5 and 6 reactors were in a cold shutdown for regular checkups at the time of the disaster. They have remained stable as an emergency power generator continued supplying electricity to them.

BEIJING – China will expand a ban on free shopping bags, state media said, as it tries to further curb its addiction to plastic in a bid to rid the country of “white pollution” that clogs waterways, farms and fields.

Bookstores and pharmacies nationwide will soon be forbidden to give out free plastic bags, joining the ranks of supermarkets that have had to charge for shopping bags since June 1, 2008, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

On that day, China also banned the production, sale and use of ultra-thin plastic bags, becoming one of only a few nations around the world to take such tough measures.

Quoting Zhao Jiarong, deputy secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, the report said the government would also step up its crackdown on the illegal use of plastic bags.

But she did not say when bookstores and pharmacies would have to start charging for the bags they give out.

China – the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter – has some of the world’s worst water and air pollution after rapid growth over more than 30 years triggered widespread environmental damage.

Around three billion plastic bags were being used daily in China before the 2008 ban. Since then, according to the NDRC, people have used at least 24 billion fewer plastic bags every year, the report said late Saturday.

Dong Jinshi, vice chairman of the International Food Packaging Association in Beijing, told AFP late last year that as many as 100 billion plastic shopping bags may have been kept out of landfills as a result of the law.

CHANLOUNG – Sitting in the shade of a large tree and surrounded by a group of women, Cambodian midwife Ly Siyan holds up a colourful poster displaying a range of contraception options.

She patiently waits for the giggles to subside when she points to a condom, aware that the two dozen women in the village of Chanloung in northwest Siem Reap province have rarely experienced such an open discussion about sex.

Once the 37-year-old has their full attention again, she talks about long-term contraceptive methods and debunks some of the more persistent myths about their side-effects.

For mother-of-two Beun Chem, 27, who wants to hold off having more children so she can focus on running her small shop, the midwife’s explanations are eye-opening.

“I am happy to learn about contraception and reduce some concerns I had. Now I want to try the implant.”

She said she first heard about the device – which is inserted under the skin of a woman’s arm and can prevent pregnancy for up to five years by releasing hormones into the bloodstream – on television.

But “I didn’t know where they would put it”, she said, laughing.

As one of Cambodia’s first and only mobile midwives, Siyan has criss-crossed Siem Reap province on her motorbike to give these sex education talks to women in remote areas.

Her efforts are part of a new project called “midwives-on-motos” which currently operates in five provinces.

Launched by Marie Stopes International, a non-profit reproductive health organization, the program aims to improve family planning in Cambodia by travelling to where the services are most needed.

According to the most recent Cambodian government survey, a quarter of married women in the impoverished nation have unmet family planning needs.

For some women, especially in rural areas, it can be easier to get an abortion than seek out contraception.

Abortion rates are high as a result, with 56 percent of Cambodian women aged 15-49 reporting at least one abortion, official figures show.

“Rural and remote areas of Cambodia remain with limited access to reproductive health services,” said Nesim Tumkaya, officer-in-charge of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the country.

“In Cambodia, abortion is legal, though we would like to see it minimized by ensuring that every woman and man has access to contraception,” he said.

But simply improving access to services is not enough, said Siyan.

Another key challenge is to get women in this modest and traditional country to open up about their sexual health concerns.

“Younger girls especially can be very shy,” the experienced midwife said. “They do not talk openly to us but they chat with their friends and that’s how misunderstandings spread. So I try to get them to open up by sharing my own experiences.”

Even in Cambodia’s towns and cities, where health services are easily available, timidness and privacy fears remain a barrier to seeking help with unwanted pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

“Our traditions and customs make women feel shy talking about sexual health or reproductive health,” Cambodian Women’s Affairs Minister Ing Kantha Phavi told AFP.

“Sometimes, a mother doesn’t dare broach the topic with her daughter. This can be dangerous because the girls lack information on protection and prevention.”

And as Cambodian youngsters are increasingly having sex before marriage, more education was imperative, the minister said.

“Our society is developing and we should focus on educating girls about sexual and reproductive health in the family and in school programmes… so that they can take care of themselves.”

Sex education is not compulsory in Cambodian schools and teachers often give students only the most basic information.

Given the cultural sensitivities, organizations like Marie Stopes also train women from all walks of life, from sex workers to office workers, to act as peer educators and give advice to friends or colleagues about safe sex and treatment options.

The UNFPA said this approach was “very effective”.

“Peers have easy access to their friends or community members and they can relate their experiences in a convincing and friendly way,” Tumkaya said.

One of these peer educators is Sar Ousa, 24, who works as a waitress in a beer garden in Siem Reap, a bustling tourist town in the eponymous province that is home to the famed Angkor Wat temples.

“If the girls have a question, they come to me. They know who I am,” said Ousa.

She has on occasion accompanied colleagues, some of whom supplement their meagre salaries by sleeping with customers for money, to get tested for HIV.

But even popular Ousa can’t convince everyone to come to her for help.

“Many girls want to keep their problems private,” she said, “So they go to hidden places because they don’t want anyone to know they might be pregnant or have an STD, which puts them at risk of unsafe treatment from unqualified carers or unregistered clinics.”

Ing Kantha Phavi said she shared those concerns but was encouraged by the efforts made by trailblazers like mobile midwives and peer educators.

“I believe that little by little Cambodia can change the habits that bring danger to women,” she said.

WASHINGTON – The vast majority of countries around the world have become more accepting of homosexuality, with the exception of Russia and other former socialist countries, a new study has found.

The report, compiled by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, examined general trends in over 30 countries regarding their attitudes towards homosexuality.

Approval of homosexuality increased in 27 countries and decreased in only four: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Russia, the study noted.

The growth in approval ratings was stronger than the decline.

The study rated the top five most tolerant countries regarding homosexuality as the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and Belgium, according to the survey.

The bottom half of the list consisted of seven ex-socialist states, East Asian nations, Latin American countries and Cyprus, South Africa, and Turkey.

In Russia, 59 percent of the population felt that homosexual behavior was wrong in 1991 compared with 64 percent in 2008, the study showed.

In Russia on Saturday, Moscow police detained three global gay rights leaders and dozens of Russians in a violent end to a rally that activists tried to stage near the Kremlin wall despite a ban.

The small crowd of young marchers was attacked by members of an ultra-Orthodox group who had successfully lobbied Moscow to ban the event.

Organizers said the three Westerners and most of 30 Russians were released after a few hours of detention.

TOKYO – Japan’s center-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan, under fire for his handling of the response to the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, faces the threat of a no-confidence motion this week.

Although Kan’s opponents have only a slim chance of rallying enough support for a successful motion in the Diet legislature, the move would be a fresh headache for Tokyo’s premier, who has been in office for less than a year.

Leaders of the main conservative opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and their smaller ally the New Komeito party threatened the move on Friday against Kan, Japan’s fifth prime minister in as many years.

A rebel powerbroker in Kan’s Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Ichiro Ozawa, long dubbed the “Shadow Shogun”, did not rule out supporting a move to oust Kan, according to an interview published by The Wall Street Journal.

Kan’s approval ratings slipped below 20 percent shortly before the March 11 calamity which sparked the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago and threw the country back into recession.

A political truce ended about a month after the disaster, and the LDP has rejected Kan’s offer for it to join a national unity government.

Ichiro Aisawa, the LDP’s Diet affairs chief, told reporters Friday: “The LDP and New Komeito, both parties, shared the understanding that we are in a situation where we should submit a no-confidence motion.”

The motion could come this week, a senior LDP lawmaker said, according to the Kyodo News agency, and the parties were to decide on the timing after a debate on quake reconstruction on Wednesday.

Kan has taken some bold steps since the disaster, including shutting down a second quake-prone nuclear plant southwest of Tokyo, the Hamaoka plant, and announcing a radical energy policy review that stresses clean renewables.

But Kan’s critics have faulted his handling of disaster relief and the slow pace of building temporary new homes for tens of thousands made homeless by the monster tsunami that hit the northern Pacific coast.

The DPJ’s scandal-tainted veteran Ozawa – who last year narrowly failed in an attempt to oust Kan as party president and premier – told the Wall Street Journal that he was considering whether to back a move against the premier.

He told the paper he was “thinking about how to deal” with a no-confidence motion and said: “If the prime minister cannot implement policies, it’s meaningless for him to stay in power”.

“The sooner he is replaced, the better,” Ozawa added.

If the motion were passed – which would require scores of DPJ lower house lawmakers to defect to win a lower house majority – the premier would have to either resign or call a snap election.

Ozawa, who years ago defected from the LDP, was indicted this year over an alleged violation of campaign-funding laws. He has maintained his innocence.

Asked about his political future, he said: “I’m an old soldier. Have you heard of General MacArthur’s words, ‘Old soldiers just fade away’? I was thinking about just fading away, but now I feel I have a bit more work to do.”

Tomoaki Iwai, a Nihon University politics professor, said for now Kan’s opponents would face an uphill battle in pushing through a no-confidence motion. “It will be very difficult,” he told AFP.

“More than 80 DPJ members would be needed in order to pass the no-confidence motion against Kan, but I doubt so many people would have resolve that strong…. When Ozawa held a meeting recently with his DPJ supporters, only 60 people gathered.”

He also said that the DPJ rebels would have to split away from the party and that this was unlikely because “Ozawa wants to take control of the DPJ”.

“For Kan, if the motion is rejected, he would be able to avoid the most immediate crisis and would no longer need to dissolve parliament,” said Iwai.

“He would still have to deal with some members who are unhappy about his administration inside the party, but a failed no-confidence motion may actually solidify his political standing somewhat.”

KUALA LUMPUR – Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has left hospital after recovering from a chest infection, the national news agency Bernama reported.

The 85-year-old long-time leader had undergone treatment including chest physiotherapy at the National Heart Institute since May 18. Bernama said Mahathir was discharged Saturday.

Mahathir stepped down as prime minister in 2003 after 22 years in power. But he remains an influential figure, who often speaks up on current issues.

Last October, Mahathir was admitted to a hospital in Melbourne for a similar chest infection.

He has undergone two coronary bypass surgeries, one in 1989 and the latest in 2007.

SYDNEY – Police in Australia, Colombia and Panama combined to smash a major drugs syndicate, arresting 14 people and seizing a large quantity of cocaine, they said on Sunday.

In a joint operation, authorities found more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of the drug worth tens of millions of dollars concealed in hydraulic oil in the Queensland town of Mackay on Friday.

A 38-year-old Australian man and two Colombian nationals, aged 30 and 42, were arrested and face a total of 26 charges, including importing a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug.

A third Colombian, 24, was also arrested in Mackay, with investigations ongoing.

In simultaneous action, Colombian police arrested seven nationals in Medellin on charges of drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit a crime.

Panama authorities arrested three of their nationals at the same time on trafficking charges in Panama City in an operation that began in September 2009.

The head of the Australian Federal Police’s Brisbane office, Mark Walters, said the cocaine was destined for Australia’s major eastern cities.

“This operation has dismantled a cocaine syndicate at every level, from the organisers, investors and financiers to the dealers peddling these drugs on our streets,” he said.

“We’ve choked the drug supply at the source in South America, apprehended the facilitators in Central America, we’ve taken out the major players of an organised crime syndicate within Australia.

“We’ve put the drug distribution networks on notice in Australia’s major cities.”

Australian police intercepted the cocaine-laced oil when it first arrived in Melbourne by sea on May 10, monitoring the consignment as it was ferried to Brisbane and then transported by rail to Mackay.

BAGHDAD— More than a dozen bomb attacks in and around Baghdad on Sunday left 16 people dead, including 10 people killed in a suicide attack, and more than 70 wounded.

The series of attacks comes just days after blasts against police in a tense northern city killed 29 people, with just months to go before all US forces must withdraw from Iraq amid question marks over whether local security forces are up to the task of maintaining stability in the war-wracked country.

A total of 12 roadside bombs, three vehicles packed with explosives and one suicide attacker struck in the spate of morning blasts on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear to what extent, if any, the violence was coordinated.

The deadliest attack saw 10 people killed and 15 wounded in a suicide bombing in the town of Taji, 25 kilometERs (15 miles) north of the capital, officials from the interior and defence ministries said, on condition of anonymity.

Among the casualties were six police killed and 10 wounded.

A car bomb had initially gone off at around 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) in the town, and when residents and ambulance crews arrived at the scene, the suicide bomber blew himself up, the official said.

Four roadside bombs and a car bomb near a police station in the south Baghdad neighborhood of Al-Amil killed two people and wounded 15, including three policemen, while a roadside bomb in Saidiyah, also in the south, wounded three people.

Two separate roadside bombs, one near a hospital and another near a popular market, in the predominantly Shiite north Baghdad district of Sadr City left two people dead and 14 wounded, the interior ministry official said.

Police at the scene, however, told an AFP journalist that one of the blasts had been a car bomb.

Also in north Baghdad, a car bomb targeting a police brigadier general’s convoy killed a civilian and wounded five people, including two of the senior commander’s bodyguards.

Two roadside bombs in central Al-Wathiq square killed one person and wounded 12, six of them policemen, while a bomb blast in eastern Beirut Square wounded six.

Two people were wounded by two roadside bombs that were ostensibly targeting a civilian spokesman for Baghdad’s security command centre in east Baghdad.

Sunday’s violence comes a day after seven people were killed in attacks in the disputed northern province of Kirkuk, further raising tension in the oil-producing region after three bombings killed 29 people in Iraq’s deadliest day since late March.

Kirkuk lies at the center of a tract of disputed territory that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate in their autonomous region in the north over the opposition of its Arab and Turkmen communities.

Currently, US forces participate in confidence-building tripartite patrols and checkpoints with central government forces and Kurdish security officers in Kirkuk and across northern Iraq.

But the withdrawal of some 45,000 US troops still in Iraq must be completed by the end of the year, according to the terms of a bilateral security pact.

Violence is down dramatically in Iraq from its peak in 2006-07, but attacks remain common. A total of 211 Iraqis were killed in violence in April, according to official figures.

Originally posted at 03:18 pm | Sunday, May 22, 2011

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—Police and military forces raided here, on Saturday, a gun-making facility found illegally manufacturing, repairing or tampering with high-powered firearms.

Government forces seized several guns and paraphernalia and equipment for the repair and manufacture of, and tampering with high-powered firearms.

Recovered from the raid on the house of Gualberto Gonzaga in Doña Soledad Subdivision in Labangal village here, were barrels and butts for an M60 machine gun, a unit receiver assembly of an M60 machine gun, a .45 pistol, .38 revolver, receivers of M16 rifles, assorted bullets, a canister of 155mm bullet, welding machine and paraphernalia and equipment for gun making, repair and tampering, according to Colonel Joselito Kakilala, commanding officer of the Army’s Joint Task Force-Gensan.

Kakilala said the existence of this kind of facility could be considered a serious security threat.

“That’s why we put on our bullet-proof gadgets during the raid because of the high firepower capacity of the target,” he said.

Kakilala said Gonzaga, who was with his family, did not resist arrest.

Senior Superintendent Lester Camba, the police’s deputy regional director for administration, said they were preparing charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against the suspect.

Camba said Gonzaga had been operating the facility for quite sometime and that nobody in the neighborhood knew about it.

Camba said they were still trying to know Gonzaga’s clients.

Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio hailed the police and military for the efficient intelligence operation leading to the discovery of the facility.

MANILA, Philippines—For those in urban areas and in many parts of the Philippines, corn may not compare to rice as the food of choice. But the Department of Agriculture (DA) said urbanites should not turn up their noses on the grain because of its health benefits and its potential to help the country attain food security.

The DA said on Sunday it has stepped up the production of low-glycemic white corn seedlings to encourage more Filipinos to include it in their diet to ease the demand on rice, the country’s main staple.

According to the DA, it will provide P7 million yearly in the next five years to the Institute of Plant Breeding-University of the Philippines in Los Baños (IPB-UPLB) to produce white corn seedlings.

The IPB, which has received a total of P40 million from the DA in the past, has been propagating the high-yielding corn variety called IPB Var 6.

IPB Var 6 gives a yield that is nearly comparable to commercial white corn hybrid. Based on the national corn testing, the yield of IPB Var 6 in Luzon was at an average of 5.84 metric tons (MT) per hectare; 5.45 MT per hectare in the Visayas; and 4.47 MT per hectare in Mindanao.

The DA has been promoting white corn as an alternative or extender to rice. According to the DA, Filipinos’ rice consumption has been increasing significantly over the years. Data from the agency said Filipinos have each been consuming about 120 kilos of rice annually.

Since the country cannot produce rice enough for national consumption, the government has been importing rice from abroad to fill in buffer stocks and keep prices stable.

This year, the country imported about 860,000 metric tons of rice to ensure food security. Some 200,000 metric tons of it was imported by the National Food Authority from Vietnam at about P4 billion. The rest was brought in by the private sector.

According to DA, only about 20 percent of Filipinos in the Visayas and Mindanao eat white corn as main staple. Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, who has called on Filipinos to mix corn and rice, and other agriculture officials said this number should rise as white corn would be more beneficial than rice.

“Ultimately, this will lessen demand for rice. Just by increasing demand for corn, and we can definitely grow it productively and cheaply, we would no longer have to import rice. This is actually a part of the DA plan,” said Dr. Artemio M. Salazar, UPLB-IPB deputy director and National Corn RDE (Research, Development, and Extension) Network head.

Salazar said those in urban areas should think about including white corn in their diet.

Unlike rice, white corn has low glycemic index (GI). Low GI makes white corn slower to digest thereby releasing glucose gradually into the blood stream, thus lessening the risk of diabetes.

“Later on we’ll turn this over to the private sector because there is a big demand for it since many Filipinos are now diabetics. And this is the perfect food for diabetics,” said Salazar. Diabetes is now a top degenerative disease and a major cause of death in the Philippines.

Aside from giving consumers the health benefits, white corn will impact significantly in reducing hunger and malnutrition in the uplands. Corn, unlike rice, is also easier to grow and less capital-intensive.

“You don’t need capital-intensive irrigation facilities because corn grows whereever there is rain. The only other thing we have to provide them is the corn mill,” he added.

Salazar said the UPLB has developed a mini-corn mill that is cheaper than the high-capacity machines available in the market.

The mill would be perfect for barrios, he said, as it could process 100 kilos of corn grains per hour. At such capacity, a continuous eight-hour milling produces enough food for more than 1,000 people, assuming 300 grams of consumption per day, Salazar said.

LUCKNO – At least 42 people have been killed by lightning and fierce storms in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, an official said Sunday.

High speed winds and torrential rain lashed several districts of the state since Friday, uprooting trees, destroying houses and bringing down power cables.

“We have been informed that 42 people have been killed and 50 are injured,” government spokesman Diwakar Tripathi told AFP.

Most of those killed were either homeless or poor people living in shanty town housing, he said.

Four children were killed in Lakhimpur district as houses collapsed during violent summer storms, while three members of a family were killed by a falling electricity cable.

The state government ordered payments of 100,000 rupees (2,200 dollars) to family members of those who have died.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines—Illegal cutting of trees threatens the scenic town of Lake Sebu, dubbed as the Summer Capital of South Cotabato.

Police and local environment officials netted on Saturday 1,316 board feet of Gemelina lumber manufactured out of illegally cut trees.

The lumber was abandoned in remote Talisay village in Lake Sebu town by unidentified men who scampered in different directions upon seeing the law enforcers coming.

Last week, environment officials from the regional office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources seized more than 3,000 board feet of illegally cut hardwood species from the same town.

Also last week, regional and provincial environment workers confiscated about 13,000 board feet of illegal lumber from another remote Tasiman village in Lake Sebu.

This prompted the provincial government to closely monitor illegal logging activities not only in Lake Sebu but in other parts of the province.

Sanguniang Panlalawigan member Ernesto Catedral, chairman of the committee on environment, urged concerned law enforcement agencies to strictly implement environmental laws to protect the remaining forest resources of the province and stop illegal logging.

The provincial government, he said, has been trying to craft a program that would address the problem of illegal logging in the long term.

The provincial government has passed a landmark ordinance banning open pit mining as a method of extracting mineral deposits anywhere in the province.

The passage came despite strong lobbying by the foreign-backed Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI), main proponent of the multibillion-dollar copper and gold exploration project in the mountains of Tampakan town, South Cotabato.

DAVAO CITY, Philippines–Gays and transgenders slammed Dionisia Pacquiao, mother of boxing champion and Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao, over her statement on homosexuals using contraceptive pills as breast enhancers.

Goya Candelario, spokesperson of the Progressive Organization of Gays (ProGay Philippines), said Dionisia’s jab at gays and transgenders—as she assailed Senator Miriam Santiago—was “scary and dangerous.”

“We want Mommy Dionisia to know that we are deeply offended and scared that her words can again revive the ‘disease model’ of homosexuality and transexuality in Philippine society,” Candelario said in a statement.

He said that she and “her fellow Filipino transgenders are taking offense at the homophobia and transphobia that Dionisia’s remarks can help cultivate.”

Dionisia recently had a word war with Santiago who criticized her son for opposing the controversial Reproductive Health bill.

The exchange turned hilarious, with Pacquiao’s mother screaming the word “malaswa” over and over again—which she said must be given attention by Santiago and those who have been criticizing her son.

She was also quoted as saying: “Tingnan mo, mga bakla, kaiinom ng pills, hindi na bagay inumin ng mga bakla kasi lalaki sila. Ginagawa sila ng Diyos na lalake. Umiinom talaga sila ng pills para magsilaki ang dede. Bawal ‘yan!” (Look, gays take in pills but gays should not do so because they’re men. God made them to be men. But they take in pills to make their breasts grow. That is prohibited.)

Candelario admitted that many “low-income transgenders take female hormones in contraceptive pills to enhance their femininity.”

“The practice should not be considered immoral, illegal or a state of mental disorder,” the ProGay leader said.

“Many of us have to take some form of female hormones because our livelihood in the beauty and tourism industries depend on enhanced feminine features. However, because of expensive hormones that only high-income transgenders can afford, we urban and rural poor gays and transgenders can only access the cheaper birth control pills,” she added.

Candelario and other gay and transgender health advocates are pushing for health teachings among the gay, transgender and lesbian working class population “so that we can better understand the effects of hormones and other reproductive health technologies.”

A survey conducted by ProGay among transgender groups in the slums of Manila indicates that “many trans girls take pills in their early teens on the advice of elder transgenders in order to get an early start at the job market of overseas entertainers.”

The group believes that education campaigns should be extended to this vulnerable group to reduce the risks of contraceptive pill usage.

The group has a health advisory service that counsels transgenders about the health risks of dosing on pills, and the risks include blood clots, obesity, liver disease and cardiovascular diseases.

“We should work to remove discrimination and homophobia in health care services for LGBTs (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) because the World Health Organization has already declared in 1990 that homosexuality is not a mental illness. Therefore, we ask people like Ms. Pacquiao to join us bakla, gays and transgenders in improving our health awareness, and not use hurtful words,” Candelario said

Candelario’s group is an active advocate for the passage of the comprehensive Reproductive Health bill.

If passed, he said, not only women of reproductive age can get access to health care but also the low-income LGBT residents of the Philippines.

“That is why we are pleading with Ms. Pacquiao to come out with a better view of transgenders and gays. She should understand our situation in order to see how much we can benefit from the approval of the RH bill,” he said.

JERUSALEM – Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn will plead not guilty to sexual assault charges and will be acquitted, his lawyer told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper on Sunday.

In an interview with the daily, Benjamin Brafman said he was confident his client would be acquitted on charges of sexually assaulting a 32-year-old hotel maid in a New York hotel.

“He’ll plead not guilty and in the end he’ll be acquitted,” Brafman told Haaretz during a brief visit to Israel, where some of his family live.

“Nothing is certain, but from what I’ve discerned in the investigation, he will be acquitted… He has impressed me very much. Despite the circumstances, he’s doing well,” Brafman said.

“He’s not happy to have been accused of actions he didn’t take,” he added.

Brafman is known in the United States for having taken on several high-profile legal cases, including the defense of Michael Jackson and rapper Sean Combs.

SYDNEY – Australia plans the world’s toughest laws on tobacco promotion but Health Minister Nicola Roxon denied Sunday the government’s ultimate goal was a complete ban on smoking.

Under proposed legislation, due to take effect next year, all logos will be removed from cigarette packets, which must be a drab olive-green color and be plastered with graphic health warnings.

The big tobacco companies have vowed to fight the move in the courts.

Anti-smoking advocates were quoted in the media Sunday as saying a smoking ban could be a reality within 10 to 15 years, but Roxon said that was not part of her agenda.

“No, I don’t think it is,” she told the Ten Network’s “Meet the Press” programme when asked if a complete ban was where she was ultimately heading.

“I think what is logical about it is if tobacco were a brand new product today, seeking to come on to the market, and we knew about tobacco what we know now, it would not be a legal product.”

“But the truth is that it has been a legal product for many, many years. We’re trying to make sure that we tackle the last remaining method that tobacco companies use to market their products.”

“We know it is successful in marketing their products, because we know that they are determined to stop it and they are very fearful about what it will do to their business. We know it affects their profits. It means it is good to reduce the number of smokers. That is the public health aim we have.”

Mike Daube, president of the Australian Council on Smoking and Health, told the Melbourne Age newspaper public support for banning tobacco was growing.

“The way smoking trends are going, it’s not unrealistic to think that we should see an end to the commercial sale of cigarettes within 10 to 15 years,” he said.

Around 15,000 Australians die of smoking-related diseases every year, with tobacco use costing the country Aus$31.5 billion ($32.9 billion) annually in healthcare and lost productivity.

Smoking in prohibited in virtually all enclosed public places in Australia, such as pubs, restaurants and workplaces.

BERLIN – Sixteen-year-old Germans were allowed for the first time on Sunday to vote in a regional election as nearly half a million electors went to the polls in the state of Bremen, in northern Germany.

Voters have to be 18 and over to vote in the other 15 German states and in federal elections.

Those aged 16 and over are nevertheless allowed to vote in municipal elections in seven states.

The election result in Bremen, the smallest of Germany’s states, was expected to return to power the outgoing ruling coalition of social-democrats (SPD) and Greens, while Angela Merkel’s consevative Christian-Democrats were likely to be swept into third place, according to opinion polls.

Chancellor Merkel’s allies in the federal government, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), were likely to lose all their seats in the regional assembly, opinion polls predicted.

Initial exit poll results were expected around 16H00 GMT.

NICOSIA – Ayman al-Zawahiri, the longtime Egyptian number two to Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader killed earlier this month, has called on Saudis to take up this year’s wave of Arab revolt.

In an audiotape which the jihadist network’s media arm Al-Sahab said was recorded before bin Laden’s death on May 2, Zawahiri said it was Western governments that had backed the veteran strongmen in Egypt and Tunisia who were overthrown by popular uprisings earlier this year, US monitoring agency SITE reported.

“Zawahiri addressed the uprisings and current events in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, and called for additional revolutions in Yemen and Saudi Arabia,” the monitoring group, which specializes in jihadist websites said.