There were at least two  Filipino crew members were hurt aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground last Friday off the coast of Grosetto in Tuscany, Italy, according to the Philippine Embassy in Rome.

In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Ambassador to Italy Virgilio Reyes on Sunday said one of the seafarers had a broken arm while another suffered from hypothermia. They were among the 300 Filipino crew members from Magsaysay Maritime Corporation, the manning agency that supplied crew members for the ill-fated Costa Concordia.

Reyes did not identify the injured seamen.

But the envoy quoted a rescued Filipino crew member as having said “Filipino crew members are generally safe.”

“An official roll call (of the vessel ‘s 1,000 crew) is still being undertaken,” Reyes said.

The embassy had “dispatched a seven-man emergency response team to Grosetto to evaluate the situation on the ground and to provide the necessary assistance to Philippine nationals.”

“The Filipino seamen are being supported by Magsaysay Shipping Corp., their (Manila-based) manning agency,” according to the mission.

Initial reports reaching the embassy disclosed that the cruise ship ran aground “last Friday evening off the coast of Grosetto.”

“Around 4,000 persons were on board the vessel, including 4,000 crew members, around 300 of whom are Filipinos,” said the same reports.

“The Italian Coast Guard immediately responded to the scene to rescue the passengers, who were brought to the nearest island, Giglio, in emergency life boats. The passengers and Filipino crew members are temporarily housed at a church, hotels and schools in Giglio. Many of them have been transported to the mainland, the reports added.

Amateur video: Shocked Costa Concordia passengers escape sinking liner

Costa Concordia accident: Aerial video of dramatic rescue operation

Costa Concordia Panic, confusion aboard sinking cruise ship CNN

Anderson Cooper and Robin Lim

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino-American midwife who helps poor women have healthy pregnancies and births in Indonesia, has been recently named 2011 CNN Hero of the Year.

In Sunday’s star-studded ceremony at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, Robin Lim received the CNN Hero of the Year 2011 award from Anderson Cooper.

“Today on our Earth, 981 mothers in the prime of their life will die — and tomorrow again and yesterday. And I’m asking you to help change that. We don’t even know how many babies are lost, but all of us can help change that,” Lim said emotionally, as she accepted the honor.

Lim, who was born to an American soldier and a Filipina mother, decided and pursued to become a midwife after her younger sister died from pregnancy complications some years ago.

She and her husband sold their house in Hawaii, and moved to Bali, Indonesia to pursue her “calling” to follow in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother, Vicenta Munar Lim, who served as “healer and baby catcher for her people” in Baguio, even after the second World War.

In Indonesia, Lim noted pregnant women are 300 times more likely to die in the next 12 months than women who are not pregnant.

Fondly called as “Ibu Robin” (Mother Robin), she has been running her free clinics Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth) in Bali and Aceh with Indonesian midwives since 2003. The clinic provides free prenatal and birthing services for poor Indonesian women. Lim also provides training for young midwives.

Christy Turlington Burns, model and founder of Every Mother Counts, introduced Lim as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes during the ceremony. She recalled having a life-threatening complication during her own pregnancy.

“My wish is that every mother all over the world has the same chance surviving childbirth I had. My friend Robin Lim shares that wish and she spends her days and nights making it so,” Burns said.

With Lim being named CNN Hero of the Year, her non-profit Bumi Sehat Foundation will receive a $250,000 grant. This is on top of the $50,000 given to each of the Top 10 CNN Heroes.

The CNN Heroes awarding ceremony was also attended by stars such as Jerry Seinfeld, Sofia Vergara, will.i.am., Miley Cyrus and Kid Rock.

CNN Heroes is a multi-platform campaign that “shines a spotlight on individuals who go to extraordinary lengths to serve others.” This year, the campaign reportedly received over 10,000 submissions from more than 100 countries.

In 2009, Filipino Efren Peñaflorida, who started a “pushcart classroom” to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, was named CNN Hero of the Year. He was the first Filipino to win the award.

Apple Chairman and former CEO Steve Jobs is dead. The Apple co-founder who made personal computers, smartphones, tablets, multimedia and digital animation mass-market products passed away today October 5th, 2011 after a long bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He was just 56 years old.

Steve Jobs has been suffering from many health issues as well after he was diagnosed and had surgery in August of 2004. Apple this year announced in January about his indefinite medical leave and eventually stepped down from his CEO role late August.

He also had a liver transplant in April 2009 while on a six-month leave of absence that year. He still worked for a year and a half after that before he announced himself stepping down as Apple CEO last August. ”I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” Jobs told his employees.

A legendary businessman in American history and technology icon in the global computing industry, Jobs has  transformed computers not just as machines that not only anyone could use, but something that we would enjoy using. He made them something that would be part of our lives. And he did that again and again with the Mac, the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Apple and personal computing originated with the launch of the Apple I in 1976. Together with Steve Wozniak, they started and formed Apple Computer in a garage. He continued developing the Mac which up to now continued to enjoy rapid market share.  In the early 2000s, legal digital music recordings were brought into the mainstream with the iPod and iTunes, then iPhone blew-up and revolutionize the  mobile phone industry in 2007. Jobs played an instrumental role in the development of all three, and still managed to find time to transform the best computer-generated movie studio Pixar. Pixar’s films were innovative and it pushed the boundaries of CGI to such an extent that even today its early films still look great.

Jobs attended Reed College in Oregon but dropped out after a year. He had a brief stint with Atari then spent some time in India furthering his interest in Buddhism. Back in California, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple in 1976. By 1985, Apple CEO John Sculley whom he convinced to leave Pepsi and Joined Apple, removed Jobs from his position leading the Mac team. Jobs later on resigned from Apple. He founded NeXT which would later on be the development model for Apple’s software operating systems. He married Laurene Powell in 1991,  a Stanford MBA student whom he met on an entrepreneurialism speech Jobs gave in 1989. They had three children, Reed born in 1991, Erin in 1995, and Eve born in 1998. Jobs also had another daughter named Lisa whom he refused to acknowledge for the first few years but eventually reconciled with her and her mother Chris-Ann Brennan,  who was his girlfriend during high-school. In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple which is in shambles and losing money at the time. He immediately brought back glitter, buzz and profitability to the company making Apple today the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world surpassing ExxonMobil’s market capitalization in August.

n 2005, he inspirationally remarked in his transcript of speech to Stanford students: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Later, in 2007, Jobs and rival Bill Gates appeared together in a lengthy interview at the D: All Things Digital conference exchanging mutual praise with each other and prophetically quoting the Beatles: “You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.”

Jobs leaves behind his wife, four children, two sisters, and 49,000 Apple employees. We will surely miss him. Computing industry and technology will never be the same without him.

As a small tribute, you may want to download and use this simple wallpaper that we made for him. Goodbye Mr. Jobs. Job well done.

Steve Jobs wallpaper tribute. Click on image to download wallpaper.

MANILA, Philippines – “It was a dream come true”, Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup exclaimed after entering the top 5 of the Miss Universe 2011 beauty pageant, and placing 3rd runner-up.

“I was so happy. I didn’t think that I would be actually part of 16 lang. I’m so happy and I owe it all to the Filipino people,” Supsup said in an interview.

This year’s Miss Universe title goes to Miss Angola Leila Lopes.

Miss Ukraine Olesya Stefanko was the first runner-up, Brazil’s Priscila Machado placed 2nd runner-up, Supsup placed third and China’s Luo Zilin was 4th runner-up.

Supsup ranked a place higher than her predecessor, Venus Raj, who was fourth runner-up in the 2010 pageant.

Supsup was topping the final fan rankings and was one of the strongest contestants in the competition.

In the crucial question and answer portion, American actress Vivica A. Fox asked Supsup, “Would you change your religious beliefs to marry the person you love? Why or why not?”

“If I had to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love because the first person that I love is God who created me and I have my faith and my principles and this is what makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God too,” Supsup answered.

Shamcey Gurrea Supsup was born on May 16, 1986 in General Santos City, the same town where world boxing icon, Manny Pacquiao came from.

She graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree in architecture. She also topped last year’s Architecture Licensure Examination.

Sexy Shamcey in the swimsuit round.

Most elegant candidate in evening gown competition.

A recent report by researchers under the World Health Organization (WHO) have again confirmed that oral contraceptives can directly cause cancer. CBCP News mentioned this as a “setback for lobbyists seeking billions of pesos in yearly taxpayer-funded subsidies to distribute pills nationwide for free under the reproductive health (RH) bill”.

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of WHO, classified the pill as a “Group 1” carcinogen, which means the highest level of evidence of cancer risk. Other Group 1 carcinogens include asbestos, arsenic, formaldehyde, and plutonium.

IARC Monographs are published to provide concensus evaluations and evidences about various agents that can cause or increase the risk of cancers in humans. Prior to this third report, France-based IARC previously formed working groups evaluating carcinogency in pills in 1988 and 2005. Monographs of these findings were published in 1989 and 2007 respectively.

The US National Cancer Institute also acknowledged that pills could cause breast cancer, advising women “who are concerned about their risk for cancer to talk with their health care provider.”

Pro-life groups in the Philippines have consistently called on RH bill lobbyists to bare information on the dangerous side effects of pills and other contraceptives such as the IUD to the public.

According to latest government data, only 16% of Filipino women use the pill. And only about 60% of contraceptive pill users know about “possible side effects.” It was also unclear what side effects were properly dissimenated by government health workers, and whether women were informed that pills are carcinogens.

Rainbow lighted Empire State building goes viral today on Twitter. Thousands of tweets and retweets were credited to the colorful picture of the tallest building in New York City in purple, red, orange, blue and green lights.

The building goes on multicolored not because of the gay marriage bill, it is actually the Pride Week celebration in New York City, and the Empire State building was already schedules to be displayed in rainbow lights for the weekend. The North/South sides displays red, orange and yellow, while the East/West sides displays purple, blue and green.

(c) 2011 AFP News – A new craze sweeping the Internet known as “planking” claimed a life in Australia Sunday and authorities fear the tragedy may not be the last. This latest craze has gone viral in Facebook boasting over a hundred thousand fans in Facebook Planking Australia.

Planking involves someone lying flat on their stomach with their arms against their bodies in unusual and sometimes dangerous situations, with photos of their exploits shared through social media sites.

Police last week warned “plankers” of the dangers and their fears have been realised with the death of a man in Brisbane who plummeted from a seventh-storey balcony and died at the scene.

“This morning we have seen a young man take this activity a step further and attempt to plank on a balcony. Unfortunately he has tragically fallen to his death,” Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett said.

The man, who has not been named, and another person had been out during the night and were planking in various locations on their way home.

“It is what we’ve been fearing,” added Barnett, but could not say whether it was Australia’s first death from the craze. Barnett said he was worried that more injuries would occur as people try to out-do each other by planking in increasingly precarious positions to get the ultimate photo.

“Police fear that as planking gains popularity there may be more injuries and potentially further deaths,” he said, adding that it may appear to be light-hearted fun but can quickly turn to tragedy.

“Accepting a risk of injury for yourself is one thing, but the potential is there for others to be injured as a result of your behaviour.”

Last week, also in Queensland state, a 20-year old man was arrested after being allegedly found “planking” on a police car. He was charged with being on police equipment without lawful excuse.

Police issued warnings of the dangers at the time but the publicity only seemed to fuel the fad.

“If other people break the law during this activity they will be charged as well,” warned Barnett.

“But no penalty will ever return this young man to his family and friends. This is a tragedy and our condolences go to the family.” Barnett added.

Facebook tributes immediately started pouring in for the dead man.

“R.I.P Fellow planker,” said one posting on the Facebook Australian Planking page.

“I didn’t know him, but he was a planker like the rest of us.”

Another wrote: “Stay safe dudes, plank carefully.”

But not everyone was sympathetic.
“Seriously, people are so dumb. Get over this stupid planking thing,” another post said.

A series of enormous earthquakes struck off the Pacific coast of northeastern Japan on early Friday afternoon, March 11, 2011,  measuring at least magnitude 8.9, seismologists said, generating huge tsunamis that devastated coastlines and prompting tsunami warnings for multiple neighboring countries.

The initial 8.9-magnitude earthquake at 2.46 p.m. local time (0546 GMT) was centered about 130 km (80 miles) east of Sendai in Japan, on the nation’s main island of Honshu. It struck about 24.4 kilometers (15.2 miles) deep, making it a shallow earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

NHK WORLD News

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Manila (Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network) – American investment bank Merrill Lynch has picked the Philippine peso as among its two currency favorites this year 2011, saying that Philippine’s local currency was undervalued by about 10-15 percent given the strength of the country’s external surplus.

Merrill Lynch foreign-exchange strategist Ashok Bhundia told reporters Monday (January 10) that the peso and the Singapore dollar were among his firm’s top currency picks for this year.

“The peso, we believe, is mainly being supported by remittance inflows, which remain very strong. The growth dynamics is getting structural boost from a reform-minded government and if expectations prove right, we should see the fiscal position improve structurally,” Bhundia said.

Based on a statistical model used by Merrill Lynch in estimating the sustainable level of current account, Bhundia said the country’s surplus was “a little too large.” As such, he said the local currency needs to appreciate to attain an equilibrium, thereby explaining the perceived undervaluation of the peso.

However, he said external jitters would likely bring the local currency under pressure in the 2nd quarter. In particular, risk aversion from the lingering fiscal crisis in Europe is seen bringing the local currency to about 43.50 against the US dollar by June from around 42:$1 by March this year.

But the currency upswing is seen resuming in the second half, bringing the peso to 42 by September and further to 40 against the greenback by end-2011.

Another factor that would underpin the strength of the peso and other Asian currencies, he added, would be the likelihood that China would allow the renminbi (RMB) to appreciate.

The Philippines is also seen as among the few countries where the risk of resorting to capital controls was very low given recent pronouncements from the Central Bank (BSP) rejecting such an idea.

What the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) had instead done, Bhundia said, was to stop rolling over maturing foreign-exchange currency swaps, which had the effect of squeezing peso liquidity by shutting down onshore borrowing rates in peso. But he said this was a very “technical” response that could not likely be sustained going forward.

“We don’t think central banks will lean against appreciation. What they will lean against is too rapid appreciation,” he said.

Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) announced on Friday, August 27, that a total of 37,679 out of 91,008 examinees passed the Nurse Licensure Examination held on July 3 and 4 of 2010.  The July nursing board exam was held in Manila, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Dagupan, Davao, Iloilo, La Union, Legazpi, Lucena, Pagadian, Pampanga, Tacloban, Tuguegarao and Zamboanga.

Aside from the duly accomplished oath form or “Panunumpa ng Propesyonal,” the requirements that the board passers should bring are as follows:

1. Current community tax certificate (cedula)

2.  2 pieces passport-size pictures (colored with white background and complete name tag);

3.  1 piece 1″ x 1″ picture (colored with white background and complete name tag);

4.  2 sets of metered documentary stamps;

5.  1 short brown envelope with name and profession indicated on it;

6.  A payment of P450 for 2010-13 annual fee and initial registration fee of P600.

PRC officers are reminding those who will take their oaths, must come in their white gala uniform and wear their nurse’s caps and white duty shoes.  Wearing earrings and corsage are not allowed and their hair must not touch the collar.

The oath-taking ceremonies who took their examination in Manila will be held before the Philippine Nursing Board on September 20 and 21 at 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. at the SMX Convention Center, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City.  Tickets for the oath-taking will be available at the Philippine Nurses Association office at 1663 F.T. Benitez Street, Malate, Manila from September 1 to 20, 2010 on a first-come, first-served basis.

It’s nice to find good news nowadays like these.  Congratulations to all board passers!