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About 2.9 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months due to lack of food, although the number of hungry-suffering population was significantly down from the record high in the previous quarter, a recent survey finds.

The survey, conducted by Social Weather Stations and published on local newspaper the Business World on Monday, said the proportion of families which experienced hunger at least once in the last three months were down to 15.5 percent from 23.7 percent recorded at the end of last December.

People under severe hunger, or respondents who said they often “did not have anything to eat”, dropped to 4.4 percent, or about 810,000 families. The new figure is one point higher than the ten-year average severe hunger rate of 3.4 percent, the survey said.

The survey, which polled 1,200 households across the country, said the decline in overall hunger can be traced to drops in both moderate and severe hunger.

“We hope this trend continues because putting food on the tables of the poorest Filipino families is the priority of the President,” Philippine Press Secretary Cerge Remonde was quoted assaying.

He attributed the drop in hunger reading to the effective implementation of the administration’s anti-hunger policies.

About one third of the Philippine population, or roughly 29.7 million Filipinos, lived under the one-dollar-a-day poverty line. The administration, led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, vowed to bring down the poverty incidence to between 17-19 percents in 2010 when she steps down from the top executive post.

Economists urged the government to invest more capital to sustain pro-poor programs amid the global economic recession; otherwise the poverty-relieved goal will remain far-reaching.

The government forecasts the economy to expand between 3.7 percent and 4.4 percent this year.

Five more companies on Tuesday bought shares previously owned by the bankrupt Sanlu Group, a Chinese dairy firm at the center of last year’s melamine contamination scandal.

The stakes were auctioned in Shijiazhuang, capital of the northern Hebei Province, said sources with the Jiahai Auction Co.,Ltd.

The assets at the auction Tuesday morning included Sanlu’s shares in four Hebei-based companies and a Tianjin company — the Tianjin Sanlu Ltd., Co, from which the Sanlu held 51 percent of the shares. Auction of the company’s shares failed to win bids this past April as the starting prices were too high.

The auction was not open to media.

According to an unnamed auctioneer with Jiahai, most of the buyers were shareholders of these enterprises. But he didn’t give details of the buyers.

Two more auctions are expected to be held on May 8 and 12, when more shares, as well as trademarks and 12 patent rights, are to be under the hammer.

Four planned auctions of Sanlu’s assets have been held — the last one being the April auction that failed to win any bids.

Sanlu Group, which was based in Shijiazhuang, had been China’s leading seller of milk powder for 15 years until the melamine adulteration scandal broke in September last year. The group’s revenue hit 10 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007.

The company’s tainted baby milk powder was found to have caused the deaths of at least six children and sickened more than 300,000others.

From Aug. 2 to Sept. 12 in 2008, Sanlu Group produced 904 tonnes of melamine-tainted baby formula powder and sold 813 tonnes of the tainted products, making 47.5 million yuan (6.9 million U.S. dollars).

The Ministry of Health said it was likely the tainted milk scandal with Sanlu Group at its center killed at least six babies. Another 294,000 infants suffered kidney stones and other urinary problems.

Sanlu Group, partly owned by New Zealand dairy product giant Fonterra, stopped production on Sept. 12. A bankruptcy petition for Sanlu has been filed in the face of a 1.1 billion yuan debt.

On Dec. 19, the group borrowed 902 million yuan to pay the medical fees of children sickened by its melamine-tainted baby formula and to compensate the victims.

Last year, 1,173 suspects in Hebei Province were arrested over these charges, local government said.

Meanwhile, 1,244 government employees were investigated on corruption accusations.

The province’s total arrests last year were put at 43,000.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on Sunday called on all sides in Honduras to keep restraint to avoid the escalation of domestic chaos after the June 28 coup, local media reported.

She made the call in Washington before heading for El Salvador, also reiterating her support for Honduran ousted leader Manuel Zelaya.

She said she hoped that the Honduran political crisis could be resolved peacefully and citizens’ rights be fully protected.

The Argentine president had planned to accompany Zelaya to return home on Sunday together with Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa Delgado and Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo.

But as the Honduran post-coup government refused to let Zelaya’s plane land in Tegucigalpa, the Organization of American States (OAS) decided that Zelaya would be accompanied by the current President of the UN General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockmannnn while the three presidents would go to El Salvador.

Zelaya’s plane failed to land at the airport in the Honduran capital Sunday because the runway was blocked by military vehicles and groups of soldiers.

Zelaya had to land in Nicaragua and is expected to fly to El Salvador. He vowed to try again Monday or Tuesday to return home for a reinstatement.

The Argentine president’s office said Zelaya will hold talks with OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, Cristina, Correa and Lugo in El Salvador on how to handle the situation.

Zelaya was removed from office in a military coup on June 28, just hours after some 200 soldiers surrounded his official residence and forced him to board a plane to Costa Rica after a referendum scheduled for the same day on changing the country’s constitution put Zelaya at odds with the military, the courts and the legislature.

In the vote, Hondurans were asked whether they would back an official referendum in November, to be held alongside the scheduled presidential election, on changing the constitution to allow a president to seek re-election.

The opposition accused Zelaya, whose current term expires next January, of seeking reelection through the referendum, while the Supreme Court and the attorney general said that the vote was illegal.

The Congress announced after the coup that Roberto Micheletti would replace Zelaya as the country’s acting president.

Both the United Nations and the OAS have condemned the coup and called for an immediate reinstatement of Zelaya.

Nuclear power is emerging as an option key source of “green energy” for most developing Asian countries, in order to stem the spike in greenhouse gas emission which came along way with the region’s economic success, experts who participated in a Manila forum said.

The growing concern over climate change — and how it will hurt the region’s environment, human health and economy — has forced economic planners, advocates and business leaders in Asia to search for a stable energy source that can moderate the carbon emissions, they said.

“Developing Asian countries — whether they like it or not — should take a look at nuclear power as a source of energy,” said Piyasvasti Amranand, chief advisor of the Bangkok-based Energy for Environment Foundation and former Thai energy minister at Friday’s closing of the Asia Clean Energy Forum.

The three-day forum was organized by the Asian Development Bank(ADB) and the United States Agency for International Development.

Piyasvasti said renewable energy sources — such as wind power and biofuels — are indeed environment-friendly, but they may not be enough to meet the needs of the fast-growing region.

In Thailand, for instance, Piyasvasti said it will be difficult to rely on biofuels for its energy requirements as it doesn’t have enough land for fuel crops like oil palm.

“Nuclear power is proven technology and it won’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions,” Piyasvasti said.

From 1990 to 2006, the average annual 3.5 percent GDP growth rate in Asia resulted to annual energy consumption growth rate of 3.2 percent. But the region’s dependence on fossil fuels has also raised its greenhouse gas emissions, and now accounts for 30 percent of the world’s nearly 30 billion metric tons carbon emissions, the Tokyo-based Asia Pacific Energy Research Centre (APERC) said in a report.

According to APERC, Asia consumed 2,558 million tons of oil equivalent (MTOE) in 2006, most of which were sourced from coal and oil. The threat of climate change won’t stop Asian economies from using fossil fuels, but they will definitely include other energy sources that won’t contribute to global warming.

Naoko Doi, senior economist at the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan, said that the trend is moving towards the development of low-carbon technology and diversifying of energy sources which include renewables and nuclear power.

China and India — the twin biggest economies and largest energy consumers in Asia — are actively developing nuclear power in line with their respective policies on energy security and clean energy.

China’s top economic planning body — the National Development and Reform Commission — in May announced that it has developed an energy development plan that focuses on increasing the share of nuclear power and renewable energy such as wind and solar power totheir total energy sources.

Currently, coal accounts for 70 percent of the roughly 980 MTOE that China consumes each year, while renewables and nuclear energy only account for less than 10 percent.

The Indian government, on the other hand, plans to increase the production of nuclear power generation from its present capacity of 4,000 megawatts to 20,000 megawatts in the next decade, according to data issued by the Asian Development Bank.

Last year, the Indian government sealed a nuclear pact with the U.S. government. The pact will give India access to nuclear reactors, fuel and technologies from the U.S. and supported India’s plan to develop its nuclear power capacity.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had endorsed nuclear energy as one of the “commercially available climate change mitigating technologies,” IPCC chairman Rajendra K.Pachauri, described nuclear energy as a “green technology” as it doesn’t contribute to carbon emission that causes the global warming.

But not everyone agrees with this view. Environmental watchdog Greenpeace International has been actively campaigning against nuclear energy, arguing that it’s not only expensive and inefficient but also harmful to the environment.

“When it comes to combating climate change, nuclear energy cannot deliver the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in time; any emissions reductions from nuclear power will be too little, too late and come at far too high a price,” according to a paper issued by Greenpeace in April.

Greenpeace said that no one has yet found a solution to the hazards posed by nuclear wastes.

“Despite the billions already invested in research and development for dealing with radioactive waste, new experiments are still being presented as ’solutions’; methods that will not be ready for a long time, may never be commercially viable or do little to solve the long term waste problem,” the group said.

For Pachauri, nuclear energy may be an option for those who want to develop green technology. But he admits that nuclear power isn’t for everyone.

“Nuclear energy provides a solution (to our climate change problem), but its not a solution (fit) for every country in the world. You need a certain infrastructure, engineering skills and safety standards that are followed very strictly. Not every country can ensure that,” he said.

Chinese stocks rose to a weekly high on Friday after the securities regulator lifted a nine-month ban on initial public offerings (IPOs), indicating investors’ strengthened confidence in the market based on ample liquidity and clearer signs of economic recovery.

The Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks the bigger of China’s bourses, rose 26.59, or 0.9 percent, to 2,880.49 at close, its highest close since July 28, 2008.

The CSI 300 Index, measuring exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen, gained 0.7 percent to 3,080.

“We expected the new IPOs to be the biggest bad news for the capital market this year,” said James Yuan, chief investment officer of Everbright Pramerica Fund Management Co Ltd. “But now it is not as daunting, thanks to the improved economy, more liquidity and new listing rules.”

Guilin Sanjin Pharmaceutical Co, a medium-sized drug firm, on Thursday night received regulatory approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) to seek a stock exchange listing, marking the resumption of IPOs since September last year.

The company said it plans to float 46 million A shares on the Shenzhen bourse on June 29 and will start a road show for the same on June 22.

“The restarting of IPOs of smaller firms rather than the big caps indicates that the government aims to stabilize the market,” said Dong Chen, senior analyst, CITIC China Securities. “If the market does not panic after the new round of IPOs, the regulator will grant more approvals next week, but probably for small caps.”

Earlier reports said China State Construction Engineering Corp (CSCEC), the country’s biggest home-builder, would probably be among the first batch of companies to issue 12 billion shares to the public and raise about 40 billion yuan.

Based on the number of new shares to be issued and the average price-earning ratio on the secondary market, analysts said the 32 companies now waiting could raise as much as 70 billion yuan through their IPOs.

“The loose monetary policy, coupled with the huge advance of the Shanghai Composite Index, has bolstered confidence that the stock market can withstand the added supply of stock,” said Dong.

“Meanwhile, the anticipation of gains on their investments may propel more investors to test the market waters, when the bullish trend becomes clear,” he said.

China’s major market barometer has surged nearly 58 percent this year, thanks to the government’s timely launch of the 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package and loose monetary policy.

The resumption of IPOs is also expected to give a strong boost to brokerages whose earnings are expected to improve on the investment banking revenues.

CITIC Securities gained 2.8 percent to 29.54 yuan, the highest in a year, while Sinolink jumped 10 percent to 21.46 yuan.

Shares of medical companies also outperformed on news of drugmaker Guilin Sanjin’s listing and the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.

Beijing Tiantan Biological Products, a biological bacterin producer, jumped to its 10 percent daily limit for the second day in a row to 26.26 yuan after it said on Thursday that it had started to research bacterin for fighting the H1N1 flu virus.

The economic downturn, which has exposed the deficiencies in Russia’s economic structure, may well serve as an opportunity for the country to restructure its economic development model, analysts say.
ANTI-CRISIS MEASURES

Russia, the world’s largest energy supplier, is sliding into its first recession in a decade as the global financial crisis dampens demand for oil and other commodities.

The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 9.8 percent year-on-year in the first four months of this year. In the same period, industrial production tumbled 14.9 percent, foreign trade volume plunged 45.3 percent and investment slipped 15.8 percent.

The Russian Economic Development Ministry has lowered its forecast for economic growth in 2009 from a 2.2 percent decline to a 6.6 percent contraction in view of the deteriorating economic indicators.

Against the dismal economic backdrop, the Russian government has been seeking ways to move out of the shadows of the crisis.

In an anti-crisis program adopted on Friday, the government pledges responsible macro-economic policy aimed at maintaining economic stability and creating incentives for the growth of the public’s savings.

The plan also calls for stronger investment in the economy and the formation of an entirely new model of economic growth.

The government already spent 1.4 trillion rubles (46.7 billion U.S. dollars) from its oil funds to carry out anti-crisis measures.

In a new federal budget for 2009 approved in April by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, education, health care and pensions took priority, and 17.5 percent of expenditure was earmarked for the real economy.

Meanwhile, Russia’s central bank has cut interest rates three times in a row since April in an effort to channel funds into the real economic sectors, reducing the refinancing rate to 11.5 percent from 13 percent.

The boys sat in circles on the massive green carpet and girls sat upstairs on the blue-colored ground of al-Shafei mosque in Gaza City, all reiterating phrases of the Quran.

The aim is to memorize as much as possible of the Muslim’s holy book in a period of no more than two months, according to Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip and sponsors the Quran summer camps across the impoverished enclave.

Salah Yassin, 14, was sitting at the head of a male circle, peeking at a copy of Quran to make sure that if another younger boy recited correctly. “I have taken a Quran-rules course in the mosque and now I’m passing my knowledge to these boys.”

The “Summer without Boredom” program is one of the latest activities Hamas launched to permeate through the complex society in Gaza by attracting children to join its camps where they learn Quran, sports, basics of self defense and numerous skills.

“We want at least 10,000 students to memorize the entire Quran this summer,” said Abdel Rahman al-Jamal, a Hamas lawmaker who also chairs the Quran and Sunna association.

But a few blocks down to the west of the mosque, groups of young girls rejoiced in joyful playing inside a beachside camp of bright-colored tents under a United Nations flag.

Unable to restrict the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) work, Hamas, which routed forces of secular president Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, is racing with the international organization to flaunt the fringe benefits of its Islamic program. Abbas’ Fatah movement is not allowed to hold any type of activities in the Gaza Strip.

Badria Shamalakh, 8, said she joined the UNRWA camp because it presents “many nice things” like water games, drawing, sports and swimming.

Nisreen, a young mother, used to send her two children to an UNRWA camp in the past four years. Today, she will send the girl to an Islamic camp “as a way of change” and the boy will continue his the UNRWA seaside camp.

“Mohammed is eager to go to his camp this summer after he learnt that there would be swimming pools there,” Nisreen said about her son.

But Salah, who wants to be an Islamic religious teacher when he grows up, prefers to join the mosque-hosted camp rather than the UNRWA one. “In the mosque, there are better morals and treatment, but there (in the UNRWA) they don’t care about prayer.”

Salah believes that spending summer time inculcate the Quran provides you with countless benefaction. “When I die, I will go to heaven immediately and will be the happiest.”

The UNRWA-run camps are good too, said Salah’s grandfather Abu Yousef Yassin. “But here it is still better because the pupil will remain polite.”

Every morning, Abu Yousef walks to the mosque with Salah and three granddaughters, monitoring their progress in the lessons. “They have completed memorizing three Sura (chapters) in one week,” the white-bearded man said proudly.

Dr. Fadel Abu Heen, a respected independent sociologist, said the families became badly affected with the political rift between the Palestinian factions. “Those who are against the Islamic trend and want to send their children to a summer camp find no place but the UN camps.”

The organizers of the camps have their own goals “and some of them could be political since the political groups stand behind many of these camps,” he added.

In eastern Gaza City alone, Hamas has opened 40 summer camps, hoping that up to 4,500 children aging between 6 and 17 would enroll, Mohammed al-Dalou, a Hamas official, added.

“We are teaching the children how to love al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Palestine,” he explained, urging the families not to hesitate in sending their children to the camps “since they will be taught the principles of their religion too.”

For swimmers at the 2009 Universiade, tattoos may beautify their body but Chinese character tattoos bring fortune to them.

The swimmers from across the countries had their b odies adorned with tattoos of Chinese characters. Other styles of tattoos like biker, Celtic, Japanese, Maori, erotic, fairy, and animals were also seen as swimmers swam in the Universiade swimming pool near the famous Saint Markus. But Chinese characters were etched on the bodies of many swimmers.

Alena Nyvltova, Czech backstroke swimmer says: “On my back, the Chinese character tattoo is ‘fu’ which means fortunate, I hope the fortune will stay with me forever. And the tattoo on my leg is ‘Ming Yun, meaning destiny. I wish I can grasp my own fate,” she said, adding,” my teammates choose Chinese characters tattoos for their rich meaning.

She says Chinese character is just like a Chinese box to me, full of mystery. You never know what is in the inside. But these characters are meaningful and also beautiful.

Like Nyvltova, Petra Chocava also has Chinese characters tattoos etched on her body. One on her back, a tatoo “neng” means energy. The other is on her waist-”Jian Kang ” meaning health. The one on her belly is “Sha”, meaning sand.

“I love sand, and always go to the beach. And this character looks so beautiful,” says Chocava.

In butterfly race swimming pool, Italy swimmer Paolo Bossin shows his Chinese characters tattooed on his leg - Xing, Shui, Ai, which means fortunate, water and love. He says all the three things are important to me.

A swimmer from Poland sitting next to Bossin, shows off his tattoo on his chest, which says “Yong,” meaning brave.

At the entrance of the swimming pool, guard Dales has “sheng” meaning god tattooed on his hand and “Di” (brother) on his neck. “I am the little brother in my family, so I tattooed it.

While the trend signifies the faith and respect the swimmers have in Chinese characters, tattoos also reflect the general public’s fascination with the art form.

Soccer star David Beckham has tattooed his body with a Chinese proverb: “Death and life have determined appointments. Riches and honor depend upon heaven.” The proverb is etched on his left nipple extending to his groin.

The percentage of births to unmarried women in the United States has been rising sharply, but it’s way behind Northern European countries, a new U.S. report on births shows.

Iceland is the leader with 6 in 10 births occurring among unmarried women. About half of all births in Sweden and Norway are to unwed moms, while in the U.S., it’s about 40 percent.

France, Denmark and the United Kingdom also have higher percentages than the United States, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. and at least 13 other industrialized nations have seen significant jumps in the proportion of unmarried births since 1980, said Stephanie Ventura of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Rates have doubled and even tripled in these countries, according to the CDC report released Wednesday.

“Basically we’re seeing the same patterns,” Ventura said, noting the trend has accelerated in the last five years.

Experts are not certain what’s causing the trend but say there seems to be greater social acceptance of having children outside of marriage.

“The values surrounding family formation are changing and women are more independent than they used to be. And young people don’t feel they have to live under the same social rules that their parents once did,” said Carl Haub, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C.

But there are differences in how unmarried pregnancies are viewed in different countries.

In the United States, unmarried mothers are more likely to be on their own and — traditionally — they are more likely to be poor and uneducated, experts said.

In northern Europe, men and women more often live together in unmarried, long-term, stable relationships, Haub said. Because of declining birth rates in some European countries, people tend to be more focused on whether the baby is born healthy instead of whether the mother is married, Haub said.

He predicted that the total number of births internationally will decline — that’s already happening in some European countries — because of faltering economies. But he expects trends in the percentage of mothers who are unmarried will persist.

The CDC previously has reported on the percentage of U.S. births to unmarried mothers. The new report gathers previously released information from other countries to make an international comparison.

The report shows trends from 1980 to the most recent years available — 2007 for the United States and most of the other countries, but 2006 for six nations.

Japan had the lowest percentage of unmarried births, with 2 percent in 2007, up from 1 percent in 1980.

Increases were much more dramatic in the other countries, with Italy rising from 4 percent to 21 percent, Ireland from 5 percent to 33 percent, Canada from 13 to 30 percent, and the United Kingdom from 12 percent to 44 percent.

The U.S. proportion of unmarried births rose from 18 percent to 40 percent during that period, according to the report.

Cameron Diaz’s father Emilio Diaz died after developing pneumonia while she was working on the film “My Sister’s Keeper,” according to media reports Tuesday.

The famous actress found it easy to sympathise with her “My Sister’s Keeper” character Sara Fitzgerald, whose daughter has terminal cancer, even though she isn’t a mother herself.

She said: “I think we all related to the fact that there isn’t anything that you wouldn’t give someone that you love that deeply. You do whatever it takes to keep that person alive. I think that that’s something that spoke to most of us, for this film, and what I think is so effective in the film.”

Cameron also praised her 13-year-old co-star Abigail Breslin for her brave performance.

Abigail plays Sara’s other daughter Anna, who is a designer baby born to help keep Kate alive. However, Anna decides she wants the right to make her own medical decisions.

Cameron said: “What was amazing about working with Abigail was that I realised you see her and you’re like, ‘Oh, she’s just a little girl,’ but she’s got so much power within her. She’s just a powerhouse …I was amazed by how strong she is.”