Roach on Pacquiao training: 'One of our best camps ever'

ABS-CBNnews.com Posted at 11/14/2014 11:19 AM | Updated as of 11/14/2014 11:19 AM


MANILA, Philippines – Trainer Freddie Roach is very satisfied with how Manny Pacquiao's training camp has progressed with just over a week to go before the Filipino boxer defends his WBO welterweight belt against Chris Algieri in Macau.

Pacquiao spent the entirety of his training camp in his hometown of General Santos City, and aside from a brief break to play basketball in the PBA, it has been smooth sailing for the "Pacman" and his team."

"It's a great training camp, one of the best we've ever had," Roach said. "From Day 1, it's been a great camp. Maybe one of our best camps ever.

" Roach reported that there have been "no problems whatsoever" during the camp and that Pacquiao's "fire" and "explosion" were present right from the start. "I love where Manny Pacquiao is right now," he said.

The trainer's primary concern now is getting the "Pacman" to slow down, as the boxer still wants to go full speed ahead even as Roach wants him to start tapering off. "I gotta worry about overdoing it right now," said Roach.

"He wants to go, go, go, and I want him to start slowing down and save for the fight." "We've already peaked right now, and we're maintaining it. We're going down in rounds, so the sparring is gonna be less and less," he added.

"We do have two more days of sparring left." "It will be more of going through the motions and going over the game plan.

" With Pacquiao in great shape and focused on his title defense, Roach doesn't foresee any problem on fight night. "He's 100 percent ready," said the trainer. "Algieri, you're over your head this time."

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Contaminated water could cause amoebiasis

Experts say that drinking unclean water could pose dangers of contracting amoebiasis, a disease capable of affecting a contracted individual’s bowel movement, possibly producing occasional to frequent bloody stools.

This disease is caused by the protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. Oftentimes, amoebiasis is contracted by a person who consumes unclean food or water contaminated by the parasite.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), amoebiasis is a worldwide disease prevalent in unclean areas especially among developing countries.

A person infected with amoebiasis could possibly experience diarrhea or dysentery.

Chronic amoebiasis, a more serious form of the disease, could take toll on the human body causing fatigue, weight loss and occasional fever.

The parasite could also transfer to other organs, known as extraintestinal amoebiasis.

According to Dr. Jill Buensuceso, an internal medicine expert, amoebiasis could be a long-term disease if neglected.

"Maiingest yun ng tao, sa loob ng tao nagiging cyst. 'Yun 'yung form na mahirap na mamatay at 'yun 'yung pwede magtagal, posibleng lifetime (Once ingested by humans, it could possibly form a cyst which is difficult to eliminate, and could possibly thrive inside the body for a lifetime)."

Experts add that unclean practices could contribute to the spread of the disease. For instance, people who contracted the disease have the Entamoeba histolytica parasites in their feces.

If they do not wash their hands properly, there is a possibility that the parasites could transfer to objects touched by the person.

To avoid waterborne diseases, DOH advises the public to always properly wash water containers, and ensure the cleanliness of a household’s water supply. The public must also undertake frequent sanitary measures to ensure safety.

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WATCH: Couple in zombie-themed wedding video

In Sunday's episode of "Rated K," newly-weds Paffu and Cyndee Camara explained why their wedding video showed them being chased by zombies in the streets of Manila. ---RATED K, ABS-CBN, November 2, 2014




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Global warming already causing widespread impacts

By Alister Doyle, Reuters Environment Correspondent

Posted at 11/02/2014 7:44 PM | Updated as of 11/02/2014 7:44 PM

COPENHAGEN -- Governments can keep climate change in check at manageable costs but will have to cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2100 to limit fast-worsening risks, a U.N. report showed on Sunday.

The 40-page synthesis, summing up 5,000 pages of work by 800 scientists already published since September 2013, said global warming was now causing more heat extremes, downpours, acidifying the oceans and pushing up sea levels.

"There is still time, but very little time" to act at manageable costs, Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told Reuters.

He was referring to a U.N. goal of limiting average surface temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times. Temperatures are already up 0.85 C.

To get a good chance of staying below 2C, the report says that world emissions would have to fall to "near zero or below in 2100." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will help present the report in Copenhagen on Sunday.

The study, given authority by the approval of officials from more than 120 governments in a week of editing, will be the main handbook for 200 nations which are due to agree a U.N. deal to combat global warming in Paris in late 2015.

Renewables, nuclear

The report points to options including energy efficiency, a shift from fossil fuels to wind or solar power, nuclear energy or coal-fired power plants where carbon dioxide is stripped from the exhaust fumes and buried underground.

But carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are little tested. In most scenarios, the report says "fossil fuel power generation without CCS is phased out almost entirely by 2100."

China, the United States, the European Union and India are top emitters.

Without extra efforts to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, "warming by the end of the 21st century will bring high risks of severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts globally," it said.

"Irreversible" could mean, for instance, a runaway melt of Greenland's vast ice sheets that could swamp coastal regions and cities or disruptions to monsoons vital for growing food.

"Fighting climate change is affordable...but we are not on the right pathway," said Ottmar Edenhofer, a German scientist who was a co-chair of an IPCC report in March about tackling climate change.

Deep cuts in emissions would reduce global growth in consumption of goods and services, the economic yardstick used by the IPCC, by just 0.06 percentage point a year below annual projected growth of 1.6 to 3.0 percent, it said.

"We must act now to reduce dangerous carbon pollution," said California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to avert risks to health, food supplies, water and infrastructure.

Environmental groups welcomed the report, including its focus on zero emissions. "This is no longer about dividing up the pie. You need to get to zero. At some stage there is no pie left for anyone," said Kaisa Kosonen of Greenpeace.

The report also says that it is at least 95 percent sure that manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, rather than natural variations in the climate, are the main cause of warming since 1950, up from 90 percent in a previous assessment in 2007.

The report draws on three studies about climate science, impacts ranging from crop growth in Africa to melting Arctic sea ice, and solutions to warming published since September 2013. It is likely to be the first document that policymakers read.

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Palace: Half-day work for gov't employees Friday

ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 10/30/2014 8:35 PM | Updated as of 10/30/2014 8:35 PM

MANILA - Work in government offices on Friday, October 31, 2014, will be half-day, the Palace said Thursday night. In a memorandum circular signed by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr., the Palace said the move aims to give government employees full opportunity to properly observe All Saints' Day on November 1, a special non-working day, "and to allow employees to travel to their respective provinces." The Palace memo said work in government offices, with the exception of agencies that provide vital services, is suspended from 12 p.m. onwards Friday. "Those agencies whose functions involve the delivery of basic and health services, preparedness/response to disasters and calamities, and/or the performance of other vital public services shall continue with their operations and render the necessary services," it said.

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Is killing ISIS leader a good idea?

Editor's note: Robert Baer is a CNN national security analyst, a former CIA operative and author of "The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins." The views expressed are his own.

CNN -- It's a good bet that right now, someone somewhere in Washington has come up with a plan to decapitate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) by assassinating its boss, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and moving down through his lieutenants.

Argued in hushed tones over a polished conference table, I have no doubt this sounds like a no-lose proposition (and certainly a better alternative to invading Iraq and Syria). But if ISIS is in essence al Qaeda 2.0, then it is hard not to see the assassination of Osama bin Laden as having had very mixed results -- and as holding some important lessons for U.S. policy makers.

The fact is that assassinations are, at best, tricky -- the cure can be worse than the disease. And a cure is almost certain to fail when you have absolutely no idea what the disease is that you're treating.

It may comfort us to dismiss ISIS as a group of bloodthirsty terrorists doomed to collapse under their own psychosis and violence. But while ISIS does of course employ terror as a tactic, getting hung up on the word "terror" causes us to miss a more critical truth: that ISIS is a straight-line manifestation of an aggrieved religious sect -- orthodox Sunni Islam. And it's becoming more apparent by the day that a lot of Sunni Muslims believe they're on the losing end of history, and that if they don't hit back, things will get a lot worse.

Indeed, Sunnis, despite making up the large majority of Muslims globally, haven't fared well in recent times. The 2003 invasion of Iraq dispossessed the Sunnis in that country of both their power and wealth. Insult was added to injury when the United States handed power over to a sectarian Shia government bent on revenge against the Sunnis.

ISIS allegedly using poison gas Chambliss: Killing ISIS 'only' option Female Peshmerga on the front lines We can go on all we like about democracy and the rule of law, but the way the Sunnis view it is that we wantonly empowered their Shia rivals. Sunnis aren't doing much better anywhere else. The minority Alawite regime in Syria -- the Alawites are a Shia offshoot -- continues to slaughter large numbers of Sunnis. Another Shia offshoot sect in Yemen recently took over Sana, the capital. And for the last decade, the American drone campaign over Pakistan's tribal belt has never let up, "breaking the back" of al Qaeda and the Taliban.We may dismiss them as terrorists, but for a small but growing number of Sunnis they're the closest thing they have to a resistance group. Even in solidly Sunni Egypt, the military is doing its best to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, the beating heart of political Sunni Islam.
An international aid worker who's negotiated with ISIS on hostage releases recently told me that militant Muslims look at their predicament in the starkest of existential terms, namely that that the United States is out to destroy Islam. They're convinced the U.S. deliberately caused the death of 300,000 Muslims in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and in retaliation for 9/11, and that it won't stop until the Sunnis start to fight back.

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State of Maine, nurse who went to Africa at odds over Ebola quarantine

CNN -- Not long ago, Kaci Hickox was fighting Ebola in West Africa, doing what she could to treat those with the deadly disease. Now, she's in the middle of a different fight -- in the middle of Maine.

A Maine official said late Wednesday afternoon that the state is in the process of filing a court order to require Hickox to abide by a 21-day quarantine. This measure is meant to prevent her from spreading Ebola, given her hands-on role with the deadly virus.

Nurse refuses Ebola quarantine rules In a written statement, Gov. Paul LePage said Hickox "has been unwilling to follow the protocols set forth by the Maine CDC and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control for medical workers who have been in contact with Ebola patients." The statement didn't say which protocols she was resisting but added LePage is seeking legal authority to enforce a quarantine.

 Nurse facing mandatory quarantine Obama: The U.S. does not 'run and hide' Photos: The Ebola epidemic Photos: The Ebola epidemic Mandatory Ebola quarantine for military And on Tuesday, state health commissioner Mary Mayhew said, "If an individual who came in direct contact with Ebola patients has returned to Maine and is not willing to avoid public contact and stay in their home voluntarily during the period they are at some risk, we will take additional measures and pursue appropriate authority to ensure they make no public contact."

Yet Hickox -- a Doctors Without Borders volunteer in Sierra Leone who has twice tested negative for Ebola -- isn't ready to stay put.

'I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies'

"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," she said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, referring to Maine' officials' plan for her to remain quarantined at home through November 10. "I remain appalled by these home quarantine policies that have been forced upon me."

One of Hickox's lawyers, Norm Siegel, told NBC's Matt Lauer state officials had until Thursday to adjust their approach, and if they tried to physically apprehend Hickox, her legal team would take the matter to court.

President Barack Obama has been vocal in recent days against policies such as quarantines or travel bans based more on fear than scientific fact. While he did not mention Hickox by name, he said Wednesday that health care workers like her -- who risk their lives and livelihoods by going to West Africa, to help those in need and try to curb the deadly outbreak -- are "heroes" who "deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."

By Greg Botelho, Jason Hanna and Ashley Fantz, CNN

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