Maquiling Quest -Los Baños, Laguna 2009

Written on 6:40 PM by yahoo

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philwebsupport.com

Amazing cycling race for Mt. Makiling rehab
By Maricar Cinco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:40:00 11/25/2009

Filed Under: Cycling
EQUIPPED ONLY WITH A compass, biking enthusiasts pedaled through Mt. Makiling to complete the 15 pit stops in a 45-kilometer race up and down the summit.

Eleven pairs of mountain bikers from Manila, Bulacan, Cavite and Laguna joined the Maquiling Quest, an adventure competition that was started in 2002 by the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems-University of the Philippines Los Baños (MCME-UPLB) and the municipal government.

“We used to have celebrities and reporters in what was like an ‘Amazing Race’ (a popular reality game show) where they had to complete challenges before they could proceed to the next stop,” said organizer Roberto Cereno.

On Nov. 21, the race required not only stamina but also mental ability in a merger of mountain biking and orienteering. It also coincided with the 99th anniversary of the proclamation of Mt. Makiling as a forest reserve for science and research study.

Makiling, a potentially active volcano rising 1,090 meters above sea level and covering 4,244 hectares in the towns of Los Baños and Bay towns and Calamba City in Laguna and Sto. Tomas town in Batangas, is the only intact forest reserve in the country.

“We want to promote Mt. Makiling as an ecotourism destination, for hiking and bird-watching,” he added.

Makiling suffered grave damages wrought by Typhoon “Milenyo” (International name: Xangsane) in 2006. Fourteen people residing in the mountain died and the damaged trails have yet to be completely restored.

Cereno said Milenyo was considered the worst typhoon to hit Makiling, dumping 400 ml of rainfall in two hours. In September, Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (Ketsana) rained 400 ml of water in eight hours.

The normal rainfall there is only at 2,500 ml per year.

“With Ondoy, we have once again proven its worth as a forest reserve,” Cereno said.

The mountain acts like a sponge that absorbs the rainfall before the water is gradually released through the tributaries, thus preventing flash floods and landslides in the lower areas, he said.

If not for its presence, Los Baños and Bay towns, and Calamba would have been totally washed out at the onslaught of Ondoy.

“With these damages to Mt. Makiling that is already in its pristine state, how much more could have happened to other forests? That’s why we also want to create public awareness. While they’re enjoying nature, people are being educated [on forest preservation],” Cereno said.

The funds raised from the registration fees and sponsorships will be used to rehabilitate the mountain trails, he said.

The bikers also had their share of the task by each planting a tree sapling at the Agila base, the final pit stop closest to the highest peak, before heading back to the starting point at the UP College of Forestry and Natural Resources.

Overturns

The map was designed through a global positioning system with 15 control points designed by the UP Outdoor Recreation Group (UP ORG) and the UP Mountaineers.

In each stop, the bikers were only given the bearing, or clues indicating degrees and distance to the next control point. The control points or pit stops were placed at random spots.

“If they were good navigators, they could even find shortcuts,” said Dr. Abe Padilla, a professor at UP Manila and member of UP ORG.

Whreachelle Cordova, 27, and her male partner were the first to hit the finish line.

Cordova, who is from Manila, is a member of the Philippine Mountain Biking Forum. She regularly bikes since 2006.

“It was my first time [in Makiling and] I enjoyed it,” she said, despite stumbling as she sped down the rocky trail.

Padilla said the entire leg was expected to be completed in three hours, but the actual race took the participants six hours.

Only five teams completed the course. Organizers had to cut off the race at 3 p.m. as fog began to cloud the trail and dump rains.

Some bikers collapsed, while others got lost.

“We had overturns. We got lost in the second and third control points because we went to the opposite direction of the trail,” said Chris Paragas, 26, of the mountaineering group from Mapua Institute of Technology.

Sunday Ombrob, 33, and his partner Edison Tesco, 41, who are members of the Makiling Campus Runners based in Los Baños, won third place despite using an old compass and a piece of paper as ruler that even astounded the organizers.

“This is not only a race, but it also has an environmental [advocacy],” said Padilla.

“We are joining again next year,” said Cordova, after beating the rest of the male


bikers.



Philippine Daily Inquirer


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Posted in 7-11 Eating Contest, American Country Music Awards, amsterdam, Aquathlon, asian, BANGKOK, cark, china, democracy, JABBAWOCKEEZ, Laguna 2009, Los Baños, Maquiling Quest, Mayoyao, mountaneering | Comment Now!

Iraq leader, Obama discuss future troop pullout

Written on 9:21 PM by yahoo

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BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sen. Barack Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday discussed a "general time horizon" for any American troop withdrawals from Iraq, al-Maliki's office said.

The Iraqi government has been pushing for the United States to set a general timetable to spell out troop withdrawals.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi also met with Obama Monday and told reporters afterward they discussed the security agreement.

"I told Sen. Obama (that) Iraqi and American negotiations regarding this are ongoing, and today new Iraqi-American negotiations on this agreement have started with Iraqi written proposals and have a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq," he said.

The Bush administration has opposed timetables for troop withdrawals. But al-Maliki and President Bush last week agreed to a "general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals" on troop cuts.

The prime minister reiterated that principle with Obama, according to a statement from al-Maliki's office.

"Developments of the situation and the circumstances is what will decide the presence of foreign troops in Iraq, but without keeping open-ended dates," al-Maliki said, according to a statement from his office.

"With the developments on the ground, we can set a vision and clear horizons regarding this issue, and this is a view both sides agree on in the ongoing negotiations."

Al-Maliki's office quoted obama as saying he is "supportive and committed to preserving the gains achieved by the Iraqi government" under al-Maliki's leadership and that he admires the prime minister's courage.

Obama has proposed withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office. Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Iraqi government's "vision" is that most U.S. combat troops would be out of Iraq by 2010. Asked if that stance is part of the current negotiations, al-Dabbagh said, "No. This is the Iraqi vision."

A German magazine on Saturday quoted al-Maliki as saying he backed Obama's proposal, but al-Dabbagh has said that his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

In a statement Sunday, the magazine, Der Spiegel, said it "stands by its version of this interview."

In the magazine interview, al-Maliki did not indicate that he was endorsing Obama over Sen.

John Mcaine, the presumptive Republican nominee.

McCain does not think American troops should return to the United States until Iraqi forces are capable of maintaining a safe, democratic state. He has been a strong advocate of the "surge" -- the 2007 escalation of U.S. troops -- and has said troops should stay in Iraq as long as needed.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal -- who's been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for McCain -- on Monday criticized Obama's push to remove troops in 16 months as an "arbitrary timetable based on politics versus a plan based on the actual results on the ground."

"One of the reasons I'm supporting [McCain] -- he has made it clear he would rather lose an election than lose a war. He's made it very clear -- let's listen to the commanders on the ground," Jindal said on CNN's "American Morning."

McCain last week chided Obama for laying out his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before talking to Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Obama met with Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, in Baghdad on Monday.

He also met with Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab who is one of Iraq's two vice presidents; Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq; British Maj. Gen. Barney White Spunner, commander of Multi-National Division South East; and Maj. General Abdul Aziz, the Iraqi army's 14th Division commander.

Obama's stop in Iraq marks his second visit to the country. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's trip abroad began in Kuwait and Afghanistan and will go on to Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Germany, France and Britain. The senator from Illinois first visited Iraq in 2006.

Obama arrived Monday afternoon in the southern city of Basra, according to U.S. Embassy spokesman Armand Cucciniello.

Obama is traveling with Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee and is an outspoken critic of the Iraq war.

Obama has said that if he's elected, he would commit more troops to Afghanistan and would order the military to end the war in Iraq, which he has called a "dangerous distraction" from the Afghan battle.

Obama spent Saturday and Sunday in Afghanistan, where he met with U.S. troops at three bases and with Afghan President Hamid Karzai -- a leader the Democratic senator has criticized for doing too little to rebuild the war-torn nation.

The fight in Afghanistan recently has become a more pressing issue on the political radar. More coalition forces have died in Afghanistan than in Iraq in May, June and so far in July.

Last week, in a major address laying out his foreign policy position, Obama said, "As should have been apparent to President Bush and Sen. McCain, the central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was."

He said part of his strategy would be "taking the fight to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

cnn

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Two killed in blinding sandstorm on L.A.-area highway

Written on 5:26 AM by yahoo

LANCASTER, California (AP) -- Markan Rios stood beside a crumpled van on a desert highway, bewildered and trembling as he clung to a white tennis shoe.

It belonged to his girlfriend, who had just been whisked away by paramedics, but Rios -- a Brazilian tourist who speaks neither English nor Spanish -- had no idea where to find her. Another family member stood sobbing nearby and recalled seeing a deep gash across his wife's forehead before she, too, was taken away by ambulance.

"All my family was in this van, all 11," said Fernando Amaral Pontes, who had blood on his jacket sleeve and side.

Rios and Pontes were in one of more than a dozen vehicles that slammed into one another Tuesday during a blinding sandstorm in the high desert north of Los Angeles. The accident killed at least two and injured 16, including nine of the 11 people in Rios and Pontes' van.

Two of the injured were in critical condition after the crash that left vehicles scattered across Highway 14, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Ron Haralson said

About 15 vehicles were involved in three separate collisions, said California Highway Patrol Officer Henry Ross. He said the cause of the crashes were under investigation, but that poor visibility and high winds "didn't help matters at all."

The accident happened just west of Edwards Air Force Base and at the northern edge of Los Angeles County. It was about 40 miles northeast from the site of a fiery truck pileup Friday night in a tunnel on the Interstate 5 freeway that killed three people and injured 10.

Tuesday's crash left big rigs and passenger cars scattered and bent on the pavement and dirt center divider.

Rios, 24, and Pontes, 46, were traveling from Los Angeles to Las Vegas as part of a two-week vacation from their hometown of Fortaleza, Brazil. They were in the van with an American tour guide when the sand swirled up and blinded the driver, who barreled into a blue delivery van, Rios said.

"I couldn't see anything; it was too much and too quick," Rios said. "I was coming in and I saw the sand and we slowed down but the truck in front of us had stalled and we couldn't stop."

The pair eventually made it to Antelope Valley Hospital more than three hours after the accident, where a Portuguese translator helped them locate their family. Pontes also had a sore shoulder and a gash on his knee.

Police were investigating whether two other fatal collisions, which happened 20 miles north and two hours before the pileup, were also caused by strong winds.

The weather service issued a dust storm warning for the Antelope Valley Tuesday afternoon, cautioning that blowing dust in the region could reduce visibility to near zero.

"It's not unheard of for the area to experience a dust storm, but it's not an everyday type of thing," said meteorologist Jaime Meier in the weather service's Oxnard office.

by cnn

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Police Clash With Monks in Myanmar

Written on 10:46 PM by yahoo

A government announcement said security forces fired at demonstrators who failed to disperse, killing one man. Foreign news agencies and exile groups reported a higher death toll, ranging from two to seven people.

Despite threats and warnings by the authorities and despite the beginnings of a violent response, tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooded the streets, witnesses reported. Monks were in the lead, “like religious storm troopers,” as one foreign diplomat described the scene.

In response to today’s violence, the United Nations Security Council called a special meeting for 3 p.m. today to discuss the crisis.

Though the crowds were large and energetic, they were smaller than on previous days, apparently in part because of the deployment of armed soldiers to prevent monks from leaving some of the main temples.

But it appeared that an attempt by the military to halt the protests through warnings, troop deployments and initial bursts of violence had not succeeded. Analysts said that the next steps in the crackdown might be yet more aggressive and widespread.

The foreign diplomat described “an amazing scene” today as a column of 8,000 to 10,000 people flooded past his embassy following a group of about 800 monks.

They were trailed by four truckloads of military men, watching but not taking action. The diplomat, in keeping with embassy policy, spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to news reports and telephone interviews from Myanmar, which is sealed off to foreign reporters, the day began with a confrontation at the giant, gold-spired Shwedagon Pagoda, which has been one focus of the demonstrations.

In the first reported violence in nine days of demonstrations by monks in the country’s main city, Yangon, police officers with riot shields dispersed up to 100 monks who were trying to enter the temple, firing tear gas and warning shots and knocking some monks to the ground. As many as 200 monks were reported to have been arrested at the pagoda.

Several hundred monks then walked through the city downtown to the Sule Pagoda, another focus of the demonstrations, where truckloads of soldiers had been seen arriving Tuesday. Another violent confrontation was reported here, with more shots fired and a number of arrests.

On a broad avenue near the temple, hundreds of people sat facing a row of soldiers, calling out to them: “The people’s armed forces, our armed forces!" and, "The armed forces should not kill their own people!”

Tens of thousands of people were reported to be demonstrating in the streets of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

The demonstrations have grown from several hundred people protesting a fuel price rise in mid-August to as many as 100,000 Sunday, led by tens of thousands of monks in the largest and most sustained antigovernment protests since 1988.

That earlier peaceful uprising was crushed by the military, which shot into crowds, killing an estimated 3,000 people. It was during the turmoil a decade ago that the current military junta took power in Myanmar, and it has maintained its grip by arresting dissidents, quashing political opposition and using force and intimidation to control the population.

Now, emboldened by the presence of the monks, huge crowds have joined the demonstrations in protests that reflect years of discontent over economic hardship and political repression.

At first, the government held back as the protests grew. It issued its first warning Monday night, when the religious affairs minister said the government was prepared to take action against the protesting monks.

On Tuesday night, the government announced a dawn-to-dusk curfew, banned gatherings of more than five people and placed the cities of Yangon and Mandalay under what amounts to martial law. Troops began taking up positions at strategic locations around Yangon and tried to seal off five of the largest and most active monasteries.

As the protests grew, public figures began to come forward, and on Tuesday the government arrested the first of them, a popular comedian, Zarganar, who had urged people to join the demonstrations. He had irritated the government in the past with his veiled political gibes.

The crackdown today came in the face of warnings and pleas from around the world to refrain from the kind of violence that has made the country’s ruling generals international pariahs.

A spokesman for President Bush, who was in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, today denounced the crackdown and urged restraint. A day before, Mr. Bush had announced a largely symbolic tightening of American sanctions against Myanmar’s government, and White House officials had hoped that the announcement of the sanctions, which would affect the military government’s leaders directly, would intensify pressure on the government not to use violence.

“The United States is very troubled by the action of the junta against the Burmese people,” the spokesman, Gordon D. Johndroe, said, referring to the country’s former name. “We call on them to show restraint and to move to a peaceful transition to democracy.”

The European Union has also threatened to tighten its own sanctions if violence was used. Today, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the first step after any meeting of the United Nations Security Council should be to send a United Nations envoy to Myanmar.

The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu, the former South African archbishop and anti-apartheid campaigner, have spoken out in support of their fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, who has been held under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

The junta was also hearing the message directly from diplomats based in Yangon. The British ambassador, Mark Canning, said he met with a government official Tuesday to urge restraint.

“You need to look very carefully at the underlying political and economic hardships,” he said he told the official. “The government must also understand what this is about — not fuel prices, but decades of dissatisfaction.”

by;nytimes

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First curfew ends in tense Burma

Written on 9:09 PM by yahoo

Monks have called for political prisoners to be freed

The first night of a dusk-to-dawn curfew has passed in Burma's two largest cities, Rangoon and Mandalay.

Burma's military rulers are now waiting to see if defiant protesters attempt to continue a series of escalating anti-government demonstrations.

A ban is in force on groups of more than five people, and armed troops have been deployed on the streets.

Overnight, authorities arrested two prominent democracy campaigners who had been supporting the protests.

U Win Naing, 70-year-old a veteran democracy activist has been detained, his wife told the BBC, along with a popular Burmese film comedian, Zaganar.

At the weekend Zaganar and other local celebrities arranged a special meal for the protesting monks as a way of showing their support.

Vow to continue

Reports early on Wednesday said truckloads of soldiers and riot police arrived at a number of major monasteries in Rangoon where recent protests have taken place.

The restriction on gathering in public, and the night-time curfew, will stay in place for 60 days, officials say.

LATEST PROTESTS 1. Shwedagon Pagoda. Tens of thousands of protesters, led by monks, gathered for the march 2.Sule Pagoda. Students joined the protest, passing by city hall Burma government view

BBC South Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says the feared military response to what has become a mass uprising against Burma's rulers has drawn closer, with the deployment of armed troops at some of the focal points for the recent protests.

State TV has repeated warnings to Burma's people not to join the demonstrations, and to the Buddhist monks not to meddle in politics.

But monks led tens of thousands of people through Rangoon and other towns on Tuesday for an eight day of protests, calling for democracy and an end to military repression.

Joining them were workers, actors and politicians from the opposition National League for Democracy party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.

Some chanted "we want dialogue" while others simply shouted "democracy, democracy".

People were also carrying flags, including some bearing the image of a fighting peacock used by students during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, witnesses say.

Students were also openly marching, whereas during earlier demonstrations they had simply formed a chain and clapped.

The young monks leading this movement have vowed to keep up their protests, but our correspondent says that now looks certain to put them on a collision course with the army.

Restraint urged

The junta, which repressed the 1988 protests by killing some 3,000 people, finally broke its silence over the mounting protests late on Monday, saying it was ready to "take action".

PROTESTS MOUNT 15 Aug: Junta doubles fuel prices, sparking protests 5 Sept: Troops injure several monks at a protest in Pakokku 17 Sept: The junta's failure to apologise for the injuries draws fresh protests by monks 18-21 Sept: Daily marches by monks in Burmese cities gradually gather in size 22 Sept: 1,000 monks march to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon 23 Sept: Up to 20,000 march in Rangoon 24 Sept: New Rangoon march draws at least 50,000 and 24 other towns join in

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Burma's military to show restraint in the face of the rising tide of protests.

President Bush announced a tightening of existing US economic sanctions against the military regime there.

The US has already imposed an arms ban on Burma, a ban on all exports, a ban on new investment and a ban on financial services.

Earlier, close ally China called for stability and the EU also urged the junta to show restraint and launch a process of real political reform.

The protests were triggered by the government's decision to double the price of fuel last month, hitting people hard in the impoverished nation.

by:bbcworld

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