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Like all Volvos, the S60 looks different from other sedans, which is a good thing. Despite only subtle styling changes since its 2001 debut, the S60 remains visually alluring, if not outright seductive, with its arcing roofline. The style is understated, not flashy.
Pronounced "shoulders" at the base of the side windows connect front and back fenders and evoke past Volvos. They create a sculpted look from every angle and can be appreciated each time you approach the vehicle and look down to grab the door handle.
Volvo styling has changed a lot in the last 20 years. "We used to build square cars because they crashed better," says spokesman Dan Johnston. "With stronger metals and advances in design and engineering for safety, we can now make a car look better and crash better than before." While the S40, S60 and S80 all look similar, the midsize S60 seems the best proportioned.
Our test vehicle's $450 metallic silver paint and low-profile tires on multispoke 17-inch wheels gave the car visual punch.
Airborne, the much touted super vitamins for travelers, claiming powerful resistance boosting traits - loses class action suit and is made to pay 23.3 . . .
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Airborne settles lawsuit for $23.3 million
The herbal supplement firm will settle class action lawsuit that alleges false advertising; money will be refunded to consumers, non-profit advocacy group says.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Airborne - the herbal supplement company that once claimed to help fight off colds - will pay $23.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought against the company for false advertising, according to one of the groups that joined the suit.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit advocacy group, said the company will refund money to consumers who bought Airborne's product. It will pay for advertisements in major publications instructing consumers on how to get their money refunded.
"There's no credible evidence that what's in Airborne can prevent colds or protect you from a germy environment," said CSPI Senior nutritionist David Schardt. "Airborne is basically on overpriced, run-of-the-mill vitamin pill that's been cleverly, but deceptively, marketed."
According to the company's Web site, Airborne was created by second-grade teacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell, who "studied the benefits herbal therapies used in Eastern Medicine." The site says Airborne "boosts the immune system with seven herbal extracts and a proprietary blend of vitamins, electrolytes, amino acids and antioxidants."
A recorded message at the toll-free number of the class-action settlement administrator said that Airborne Health Inc. has admitted no wrongdoing. Airborne Inc., Airborne Health Inc. and Knight-McDowell Labs are among the defendants in the class action lawsuit, filed in the Central District of California in U.S. District Court.
"Defendants deny any wrongdoing or illegal conduct," the message says, "but have agreed to settle the litigation."
A hearing to consider final approval of the settlement is scheduled for June 16.
Airborne changed their advertising campaign when a plaintiff filed suit against the company in March 2006.
That came after an ABC News report disclosed that the company's clinical trials were not conducted by doctors or scientists, but instead carried out by two laypeople.
Advertisements stopped mentioning the study and cold-curing claims and instead touted claims that it helped boost the body's immune systems.
In late 2006 the CSPI joined the suit as co-counsel against Airborne and in 2007 the Federal Trade Commission and an assembly of state attorney generals began investigating the firm's cold-curing claims professed since its creation in 1999.
Customers interested in more information about how to recieve a refund should log onto
This is something else, hehe.
Now the kids over at NZ have lost their innocence.
================
Wellington - Television viewers watching a rugby match on New Zealand's Prime Sky channel Sunday afternoon were suddenly switched to a hard core pornography channel, news reports said.
Irate parents telephoned complaints after their children found themselves watching graphic sex on something called Desperate Black Wives. One father said that it had robbed his 8-year-old son of his innocence, the rival TV3 channel reported.
Sky Television issued an apology, blaming a 'system distribution fault' for screening 3 minutes 50 seconds of 'inappropriate material.'
The Metro
Waiting for my Line
A little over half past Nine
I see people
I haven't ever seen
Everyday
No matter,
It will take me there
. . . Home
- Don Miguel
Here is the AP news feed
Betancourt Children Rejoice as she is freed.
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer
PARIS - For Ingrid Betancourt's children, her release Wednesday after being held hostage for six years in the Colombian jungle filled an immeasurable void they had lived with as they grew into adulthood.
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Her daughter, Melanie, was breathless as she spoke to reporters in the French presidential palace Wednesday night, her voice trembling with emotion.
"Merci, merci," she said. She was 16 when her mother was seized.
"It's hard to find words," her brother Lorenzo Delloye added, his cheeks ruddy with excitement. Lorenzo, who was 13 when she was taken hostage, thanked "the entire world" for his mother's freedom.
"We won a fight for liberty," he said. "It's the best moment of my life."
A Colombian army operation freeing the French-Colombian Betancourt, 3 American defense contractors and 11 other hostages elicited cheers, tears of joy and relief acrossFrance, where French President Nicolas Sarkozy and thousands of supporters had campaigned for her release.
Her children, who live in France, were heading to Bogota on Wednesday to be reunited with her — their first meeting since she was kidnapped by rebels in 2002 while campaigning for Colombia's presidency.
While Sarkozy spoke alongside them, Melanie tenderly ran a finger down Lorenzo's cheek, and the two held hands. She urged that other hostages still in the jungles not be forgotten.
The release was a major boost for Sarkozy, who made freeing Betancourt a priority the night he was elected president in 2007. He hailed the release operation as a "big success."
Sarkozy urged the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to stop "this absurd and medieval conflict" with the Colombian government. He said France was ready to offer asylum to FARC fighters who renounce violence.
Leaders across the world welcomed the news of Betancourt's release and called on the FARC to release the remaining hostages, believed to number around 700.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the "FARC to immediately and unconditionally release the remaining hostages, whose security is their responsibility," according to a statement from Ban's office.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI's spokesman, The Rev. Federico Lombardi, told The Associated Press that the Vatican hopes the release will be the start of a pacification process for Colombia.
In Washington, Human Rights Watch commended Colombian security forces for carrying out the operation without civilian casualties and called on FARC rebels to release the remaining hostages.
EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was "extremely relieved and very happy... At the same time our hearts go out to those who remain in captivity. Ingrid Betancourt's fate has shed a harsh light on the cruel and inhumane conditions in which they are being held."
European Parliament member Richard Howitt, who has campaigned for a prisoner exchange in Colombia and has visited FARC-held territory, hailed her release as vindication of her supporters' efforts across two continents.
In a statement, he added, "It is essential that Europe and the world does not lose interest in the hundreds of Colombians who remain missing in what remains the world's worst hostage crisis."
___
Associated Press writers Philippe Sotto, Christine Ollivier, Laurent Pirot and John Leicester in Paris, Paul Ames in Brussels and John Heilprin at the United Nationscontributed to this report.Ingrid Betancourt was born in 1961 in Bogotá, Colombia, but she spent much of her youth in Paris. Her father, Gabriel Betancourt, intermittently served as the assistant director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and as minister of education, positions that moved the family between Colombia and France. Pope Paul VI administered Betancourt's first communion, and she exchanged lines of poetry with Pablo Neruda, a family friend. However, as she recalled in her book, Until Death Do Us Part, a family maid informed Betancourt that she lived a privileged life, telling her: "You must not forget, Ingrid, that the world does not resemble the one you're living in today. Reality is painful, life is difficult, and someday it may be painful and difficult for you too."
Betancourt has related that much of her involvement in politics stemmed from her early life in Paris. As a child, she would hide and listen to her parents discuss Colombian politics with their friends. She also grew to believe that because of her own special status, she should give something back. In Until Death Do Us Part, she recalled her father telling her, "'You know Ingrid, Colombia has given us a great deal.… Because you've had so many opportunities, you now have a debt to Colombia.'" Betancourt attended the Institute of Political Science in Paris, where she laid the groundwork for her future involvement in government. She also met a French diplomat, Fabrice Delloye, and the two married.
For the next ten years, Betancourt traveled with her husband as his work took him to France, Ecuador, the Seychelles, and the United States. The couple also had two children, Melanie and Lorenzo. Betancourt kept abreast of Colombian politics by keeping in contact with her mother, Yolanda Pulecio, who held a seat in the legislature. Although Betancourt expressed a desire to return to Colombia, her husband worried about the dangers. In 1986 she visited Colombia with her eldest child, reacquainting herself with her native land, and feeling more than ever the need to return and become involved in politics.
This was a few minutes before I went to sleep last night, fiddling with the iMac and just being foolish in my room.
My former big boss Ramon Ang, RSA as we used to call him, never ceases to amaze me with his cutthroat business deals. This one is a huge JV on Food Security, where one million hectares of government land will be developed by both San Miguel and the Kuok Group, providing, capital and technical expertise to the farming communities and with an all important guarantee to buy all produce.
Way to go !
(source: inquirer.net)
MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE 3) San Miguel Corporation, Southeast Asia's biggest food and drinks group, will spend up to $1.0 billion in a joint venture with Hong Kong's Kuok group to develop farm land, its chairman said Thursday.
Eduardo Cojuangco said the project, in collaboration with the Philippine government, would develop one million hectares of land. He said the two companies were willing to spend up to $1,000.00 per hectare.
The two companies signed a memorandum of agreement with the government at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City Thursday.
Dubbed "Feeding Our Future," the project will provide a sustainable, adequate supply of grains, sugar and other basic staples.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said this partnership "offers a signal that food security transcends both public sector and private institution."
"We thank San Miguel and the Kuok group for their generosity and cooperation in food security," she said in a speech.
The two companies will offer financial assistance, technical expertise and a guarantee to buy all agricultural produce. All land will be owned by the Philippine government.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, and the National Power Corporation will identify, evaluate, and review government lands suitable for food production.
The land may include logged-over areas, idle portions of military camps and reservations, idle portions of land granted to state universities or colleges, and idle portions of ancestral lands.
"We are ready to help our government in any way possible, whether it is providing seed money to help farmers pay for shallow wells, basic agricultural inputs such as hybrid seeds and fertilizer, and extending technical expertise," San Miguel president Ramon Ang said in a statement.
Arroyo also thanked San Miguel and the Kuok group for donating $500,000 each to the victims of typhoon Frank. (With a report by Lira Fernandez)
After 6 years of captivity by Colombian Rebel Group, FARC, Ingrid Betancourt who has both Colombian and French nationalities, a former presidential candidate is free, after an "impeccable operation" by the military.ILOILO CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said excessive rainfall, not mining and logging, was to blame for the massive flooding that ravaged Panay Island.
The DENR issued the statement amid comments made by environmental and Church groups that denuded forests caused the region’s worst flooding.
In a statement, DENR Regional Executive Director Lormelyn Claudio said abnormal amounts of rainfall triggered the floodwaters that inundated entire villages.
“Extreme rainfall on June 20 saturated the soil, loosened root systems and, with strong winds, trees were uprooted and were carried downstream,” said Claudio.
She said the rainfall reached 354 millimeters in a day, much higher than the region’s average monthly rainfall of 196 mm.
This was compounded by high tide that reached 1.8 meters. High tide prevented excess water in the Tigum and Aganan Rivers, main tributaries of Iloilo, from flowing into the sea.
Claudio said because of this, the waters accumulated and spread to low-lying areas.
The DENR claimed there has been no significant logging on Panay Island for the past decade.
Claudio said that forest cover in Western Visayas had even increased to 16 percent in 2007 from 2 percent in 1986 to 8.72 percent in 2002 because of reforestation programs.
She refuted reports, including those of local officials, that logs were carried by floodwaters.
Mayor Isabelo Maquino of Sta. Barbara town, one of the hardest hit areas, earlier said in a meeting of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council, that logs swept by the floodwaters slammed into and destroyed bridges.
“Uprooted trees, not illegally cut trees, were inventoried by our teams,” said Claudio.
Environmental groups in Western Visayas called on officials to take the massive flooding as a warning and wake up call to stop and prevent the further destruction of the island’s environment.
The Madia-as Ecological Movement (MEM) said officials should now heed the oft-repeated warning of environmental groups and experts.
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) and experts earlier blamed mining and logging for the massive flooding in the region.
But the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines last week said the Church and other groups should investigate first before blaming mining as the cause of the flooding
El desastre del "Doña Paz"
(source: http://www.grijalvo.com/Bay/Desastre_Donna_Paz.htm)
1) Situación y circunstancias del lugar
La República de Filipinas es una nación de islas (unas 7.100) que cubre un área aproximada de 1.850 por 1.120 Kms. En las 880 islas habitadas viven unos cincuenta millones de personas, por lo que no debe sorprendernos que los filipinos utilicen habitualmente el ferry como medio de transporte: del registro de viajeros de 1987 se deduce que este medio fue utilizado por once millones de personas. Pero lamentablemente, este país también tiene un luctuoso récord: se estima que al año pierden la vida en el mar entre 20.000 y 40.000 personas en Filipinas, muchos como consecuencia de accidentes de pequeñas embarcaciones por colisiones, hundimientos, “hombre al agua”, etc. Pero la flota mercante filipina también tiene unos cien ferrys grandes (de más de 250 T.R.B.), uno de los cuales sufrió el peor desastre marítimo en tiempos de paz – una tragedia que se llevó casi el triple de vidas que el hundimiento del Titanic.
http://www.hazardcards.com/card.php?id=14
Esta es la única foto del Doña Paz que he encontrado en Internet.
No estoy seguro que sea el mismo barco.
Pertenece a “Sulpicio Lines” y parece ser del mismo tipo.
2) El ferry: un poco de historia
El Doña Paz - ex Don Sulpicio, ex Himeyuri Maru - tenía unas dimensiones de 93,1 metros de eslora, 13,6 de manga y 8,1 de puntal. Desplazaba 2.324 T.R.B. El casco era de acero, tenía capacidad para 1.518 pasajeros y la tripulación la componían sesenta marinos. Fue construido por los astilleros Onomichi Zosen K.K., en Onomichi, Japón, y botado en 1963. El 5 de junio de 1975, tras sufrir un incendio a bordo, fue completamente reformado y rebautizado Doña Paz. Pertenecía a la naviera “Sulpicio Lines”.
3) La travesía
En la mañana del domingo, 20 de diciembre de 1987, partió de Taclobán, en la isla de Leyte, con rumbo a la capital, Manila, unos 600 km. al Norte. Iba atestado de pasajeros deseosos de pasar sus próximas vacaciones de Navidad con sus familiares. El buque tenía licencia para transportar 1.518 personas, pero en esta travesía la cifra de pasajeros superaba ampliamente lo permitido. El manifiesto de pasaje registraba una cifra de 1.586, aunque el número real estaba en torno a 4.400. Los pasajeros iban hacinados de manera inhumana, de suerte que dormían cuatro en una litera. Cientos de ellos se acomodaban como podían en los pasillos de los camarotes, ocupando casi cualquier rincón de las tres cubiertas del ferry.
Mapa del lugar del accidente
La noche oscura cayó a medida que el “Doña Paz” se dirigía hacia el Norte a través del Mar de Sibuyan, en el corazón del archipiélago. Puso rumbo al estrecho que separa las islas de Mindoro y Marinduque – la línea marítima más transitada de las Filipinas. Alrededor de las 22:00 hora local sólo vigilaba el puente un oficial de segunda; los demás estaban viendo la televisión o bebiendo cerveza en el bar de a bordo. Mientras tanto, el pequeño petrolero “Vector”, de 639 Tn., navegaba en dirección opuesta transportando una carga de 8.800 barriles de productos inflamables.
4) La colisión
Se desconoce por qué no se percataron ambas naves de sus luces de navegación, pero lo que está claro es que pasadas la diez de la noche colisionaron, provocando una deflagración al arder la carga del petrolero. Una gran bola de fuego eclosionó como consecuencia del petróleo derramado por el impacto, convirtiendo ambas naves en un holocausto.
Sorprendentemente, el “Doña Paz” no tenía radio, por lo que no pudo enviar llamadas de emergencia. De tal magnitud debió ser el incendio que otro ferry, que pasaba a unos 13 km. de distancia, divisó las llamas e inmediatamente se dirigió hacia el lugar del accidente, llegando hacia las 22:30. Su capitán describió el dantesco escenario de “llamas de una altura de un edificio de diez pisos”. Estuvieron buscando alrededor de la catástrofe durante tres horas y media. Sólo encontraron veintiséis supervivientes, que habían sufrido graves quemaduras. Veinticuatro eran del “Doña Paz”, que finalmente zozobró a media noche. Y sólo dos pertenecían al “Vector”, que se hundió poco después. A la mañana siguiente empezaron a aflorar cadáveres calcinados a lo largo del litoral de Mindoro y hasta al menos una semana después, siguieron emergiendo cuerpos del lugar del siniestro. Pero en total, tan sólo fueron recuperados 275 cadáveres.
5) Investigación y conclusiones
Las autoridades empezaron diciendo que habían embarcado sólo 1.586 pasajeros, A medida que se iban personando los deudos, hubieron de reconocer que la cifra real había sido de 4.317. Si a esto añadimos los 58 tripulantes y los 11 marineros del “Vector”, tenemos que el número total de bajas ascendió a 4.386 – el mayor desastre ocurrido en el mar en tiempos de paz en cuanto a número de víctimas.
La investigación concluyó que hubo negligencia por parte de las Autoridades Marítimas al permitir que el “Doña Paz” navegara en condiciones de sobrecarga de pasaje y sin cumplir los requisitos de equipo de navegación exigibles. Una ulterior investigación atribuyó la responsabilidad al “Vector”, aunque los armadores del petrolero mantienen que la culpa del accidente fue del ferry.
Hay muy poca información en Internet sobre este suceso terrible, al menos en castellano y en inglés. Si usted que lee esto puede aportar datos a partir de fuentes en tagalo o en otros idiomas, le rogamos que nos la haga seguir.
