Supporter of mayoral bet shot dead in Iloilo town

A supporter of a mayoral candidate in an Iloilo town was shot dead on Wednesday by suspected members of the New People’s Army, a local police spokesperson said on Thursday.

Lenny Liza, a supporter of reelectionist Mayor Salvador Divinagracia Jr. from Calinog town, was killed by a group of 15 NPA rebels in Barangay Agcalaga at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Supt. Ranulfo Demiar of the Region VI police said.

Liza was in a convoy with the town mayor when their vehicles were stopped by the group of rebels, Demiar said.

The rebels immediately ordered all passengers to step out of the vehicles and held everyone in the convoy at gunpoint, he added.

The NPA members then searched for Liza in the group that accompanied the mayor, took the victim away from the others, and shot her in an instant, according to Demiar.

After killing Liza, the rebels disarmed Divinagracia’s two police escorts and allowed the convoy to leave, the local police spokesperson said.

Eight bullets from M14 rifles and 10 M16 rifle bullets were recovered from the crime scene, he added.

According to Demiar, initial investigation shows that the rebels killed the mayor’s supporter due to Divinagracia’s refusal to pay permit-to-campaign fees to the NPA members.

A special task force has already been created to further investigate the incident, he said.

Seventeen municipalities in Iloilo — including Calinog — have been earlier named as “hot spots" for the upcoming May polls due to intense political rivalries and active movement of armed rebels.

The military has earlier said that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)'s extortion activities among politicians during the election season has become its main source of income for the past 11 years, earning for the group over a billion pesos during the said period.

The CPP however defended its “permit-to-campaign" policy, saying that it prevents election violence in certain areas known as NPA turfs.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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Ship that damaged barrier reef took 90 minutes to report crash

The master of a Chinese coal carrier that ran aground and cut a long gash in the Great Barrier Reef didn't alert Australian authorities to the crash for an hour and a half, investigators said Thursday.

A preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the Shen Neng 1 slammed into the reef and shuddered to a halt just after 5 p.m. on April 3, but noted it was not until 6:40 that the master reported the grounding to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

The gap in time — and whether it was reasonable — is just one factor the bureau will examine in its investigation. The crash left a two-mile (three-kilometer) scar on the reef, damaging a shoal so badly experts estimate it may need up to 20 years to heal.

The 47-year-old master, Jichang Wang, and 44-year-old chief officer, Xuegang Wang, appeared briefly in Gladstone Magistrates Court in Queensland state Thursday.

Jichang Wang was charged with liability for a vessel causing damage in a marine park, an offense that carries a maximum 55,000 Australian dollar ($51,200) fine.

Xuegang Wang was charged with being in charge of the vessel when it caused the damage, and faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to AU$220,000.

Both men were granted bail, and Xuegang Wang was ordered to surrender his passport. The next hearing was scheduled for June 9, but the men are not required to appear. Neither has spoken about the crash or investigation of their actions.

"We hope the Australian side will handle this in a fair manner," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.

Coral shredded the ship's hull, causing it to leak 2-3 tons of fuel oil.

Most of the oil was dispersed by a chemical spray and did little or no damage to the reef itself, but officials said Wednesday they believe some has begun washing up on the beach of a wildlife sanctuary.

The crash happened after the crew decided to take a shortcut, and failed to correct course as planned, the transport bureau said in its report.

By the time they realized they had drifted into a dangerous area and tried to turn, it was too late — the ship was already shuddering as it slammed into Douglas Shoal.

The bureau said it will focus part of its investigation on whether fatigue played a role in the crash, and will examine the company's work and rest policies.

The report noted the chief officer was at the helm when the ship ran aground, while the master was in his cabin tending to paperwork.

The officer felt "very tired" shortly before the grounding, and had only slept around two and a half hours in the previous day and a half, the report said.

"There is no single contributing factor, there's a range of things," the transport bureau's chief commissioner Martin Dolan told reporters.

The Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage site because of its gleaming waters and environmental value as home to thousands of marine species.

The accident occurred in the southern tip of the reef, which is not the main tourism hub.

The Australian Federal Police said officers executed a search warrant on the ship on Wednesday. It was not clear what they were looking for.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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WePad launched to challenge Apple's iPad

Neofonie GmbH's, a small German company of some 180 employees, is setting out to take on Apple's iPad with their new tablet PC that promises even more for your money.

The WePad offers a bigger screen, a webcam, and USB ports.

But Neofonie GmbH's founder and managing director, Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen, insists that the WePad is not an "iPad killer," as it has been dubbed in some blogs. "We are a different kind of device, we have more features, we are more flexible," he says.

Apple's iPad will go on sale in Germany at the end of April, according to the company's Web site. This would give the iPad roughly a three-month lead on its German competitor.

Neofonie claims it already has some 20,000 people interested in signing up for a pre-order, even though orders won't be formally accepted before April 27. The WePad is to be assembled by a manufacturer in Asia—which Ankershoffen refuses to name—that can ramp up production capacity according to demand.

But what makes the WePad so different from the iPad is its 11.6-inch screen (compared to the smaller 9.7 inch screen of the iPad). This is powered by an Intel chip and relies on a Linux software which is compatible with Google's Android and all Flash applications.

Ankershoffen says the WePad’s ability to play Flash will be a big advantage. "It is an alternative device to the Apple iPad, a so-called tablet PC with which you can consume multimedia at home, you can play (games) and browse the Web, also with Flash (applications)," he says.

Another difference is the system's openness: two USB ports allow users to connect all kinds of devices with the WePad, from external keyboards to data sticks.

The WePad's basic version, which comes with Wi-Fi and 16-gigabyte storage, is set to cost US $600, while the larger 32-gigabyte version with a fast 3G modem is US $770. In comparison, the iPad—which hit stores in the U.S. on April 3—is on sale there starting at US $499 for the smallest version, coming with Wi-Fi and a 16 GB storage.

Unlike the iPad, which can only use specific applications, the WePad will come with a complete open-source office package.

People who want to put music on their WePad do not have to have any particular software—a blow at Apple's devices that require particular Apple software like iTunes.

Neofonie casts the WePad as helping the media industry find a way to market paid content and hopes to appeal to publishers, some of whom are disgruntled with Apple's pricing policy and restrictions.

The device would allow publishers to sell their content on its platform without monopolizing the customer relationship, as Apple's iTunes or Amazon's Kindle do. For example, Gruner + Jahr, one of Europe's largest magazine publishers, already has a partnership with Neofonie, offering the company's flagship magazine, Stern, on the platform.

The WePad is thus also entering in competition with other e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle.

But the competition doesn't just ride on the iPad and the WePad.

Tim Danton, Editor of PC Pro, says Dell is next in line to launch their version of a tablet PC. And the company already has a clear image of the customer they're aiming for: the suburban mother.

"Dell is looking to create its own tablet and they think they found a completely new type of buyer. They think they found something called a suburban mum and they reckon that this suburban mum, she's currently got things like a phone in her bag and she's got a sat-nav device in her bag and they think they can throw that all away in favor of what Dell is going to be producing, which is a little 5-inch tablet device," he says.

However, all these companies will have to prove that these new touch-screen devices will not only amaze the tech-savvy early users, but will also appeal to mainstream consumers at a time when people bearing the brunt of the global recession are already hooked up to smart phones, laptops, e-book readers, set-top boxes and home broadband connections.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

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