THE House of Representatives will have an all-member caucus on Wednesday afternoon, a day after Speaker Gloria Arroyo stopped committee level deliberations on Charter Change because she prefers that it be done by the House and Senate in a constituent assembly (Con-Ass).

“The all-member caucus will be held at 2 p.m. today. The agenda will be the [proposed 2019]budget,” a veteran staff told The Manila Times.

“Calls are being made to lawmakers’ offices at the moment,” said the source who requested anonymity.

The House appropriations panel, chaired by Rep. Karlo Nograles of Davao City, has been deliberating the proposed P3.7 trillion budget for 2019, but the Duterte administration is also actively pushing for Charter Change to install a federal government.

Under the proposed federal government, the country will be divided into at least 18 federal regions each having the authority to manage their resources and craft their laws, including taxation.

The federal states will retain from 80 percent to 85 percent of their locally generated income while the remaining 15 percent to 20 percent will be subsidized by the national government through the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA).

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First quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth has been trimmed to 6.6 percent, from the 6.8 percent announced in May, ahead of today’s release of second quarter results.

In a statement, the Philippine Statistics Authority said the “major contributors to the downward revision were other services, manufacturing and agriculture and forestry.”

It did not provide details.

Gross national income and net primary income from the rest of the world were also revised to 6.3 percent and 5 percent from 6.4 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.

Observers expect the PSA to announce a growth slowdown from 6.8 percent for the April-March period, with a Manila Times poll generating an average forecast of 6.6 percent, given the impact of higher-than-expected inflation and a widening trade deficit, among others.

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PHILIPPINE agriculture growth was basically flat in the second quarter despite livestock and poultry production gains, the government reported on Wednesday.

The April-June expansion of 0.07 percent was significantly lower than the 6.22-percent growth recorded in the same period last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

The result — notably lower than the “at least 2 percent” forecast by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol — brought the sector’s year-to-date growth to just 0.58.

This means that agriculture, which comprises about a tenth of gross domestic product, would have contributed little to second quarter economic growth, results for which are scheduled to be announced Thursday.

The crops sub-sector, which comprised the bulk of agriculture output at 49.65 percent of the total, fell by 2.08 percent — a reversal from the 11.73-percent growth seen a year earlier — as palay and corn production contracted by 1.44 percent and 3.42 percent, respectively.

Livestock, with a 16.67-percent share of total farm output, expanded by 1.88 percent with the hog sub-sector in particular notching a turnaround with 2.81-percent growth. Dairy production also rose by 7.12 percent, the PSA noted.

The poultry sub-sector, which accounted for 16.83 percent of total agriculture output, grew by 5.14 percent with all components except duck production posting gains.

Production in fisheries continued to struggle, declining by 0.05 percent due to fish kill incidents, pollution, predation and typhoons. Seaweed was a bright spot with output rising to 8.58 percent from 1.85 percent a year earlier.

Piñol told reporters in May that the lifting of a closed fishing season would lead to a fisheries rebound following a 4.61-percent contraction in the first quarter, subsequently driving overall agriculture growth to 2 percent or better.

Farmgate prices, meanwhile, increased by 5.48 percent in April to June, with uptrends recorded across all sub-sectors except poultry, which fell by 0.25 percent.

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THE Philippines will experience continuing rains as Tropical Storm “Karding” and a low pressure area (LPA) enhance the southwest monsoon in the country, the state-run weather bureau said on Thursday.

In its 4 a.m. advisory, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Karding was estimated at 1265 kilometers east of Basco, Batanes, with maximum sustained winds of 65 kilometers per hour (kph) and gustiness of up to 80 kph. It is moving north-northeast at 15 kph.

Karding, along with an LPA spotted 730 kms north of Luzon but still outside the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), will induce the southwest monsoon, causing scattered, widespread, moderate to heavy rains over the western sections of Northern and Central Luzon, and parts of Visayas and making sea travel risky.

Pagasa said it was not expecting the tropical storm to make landfall in any part of the country, and would be out by Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Residents are advised to take precautionary measures against possible flooding and landslides, especially those living near river channels, low-lying areas, and in mountainous areas. MIA MACATIAG, ALEC NALDO

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LOS ANGELES: A man arrested in a raid on a squalid compound in New Mexico was training children living there to carry out school shootings, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, was arrested along with four other people on Friday at the desert compound in Amalia, New Mexico, and has been charged with 11 counts of child abuse.

Eleven children aged one to 15 were found living on the compound in filthy conditions, prosecutors said, with no clean water or electricity. Authorities also found little in the way of food.

Wahhaj is also under investigation for the death of a 12th child — possibly his son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj — whose body was discovered on the property.

Prosecutors quoted the foster parent of one of the children as claiming that Wahhaj “had trained the child in the use of an assault rifle in preparation for future school shootings.”

As a result, he faces another investigation for teaching “the use, application or making of any firearm, destructive device or technique capable of causing injury or death” with the intention that the knowledge be used unlawfully — which is classed as a felony.

“The Defendant … is under investigation … based upon the training of children with weapons in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit school shootings,” prosecutors said Wednesday in a court filing requesting that Wahhaj be held in custody.

“Trip hazards, woods with nails sticking up, broken glass, bottles, and open trenches littered the property,” it added.

“Trash scattered around the property, no clean water, no electricity, no indoor plumbing and the children were clothed in rags.”

Prosecutors also said loaded firearms were found at the compound.

“(Wahhaj) poses a great danger to the children found on the property as well as a threat to the community as a whole due to the presence of firearms and his intent to use these firearms in a violent and illegal manner,” the filing said.

Three women believed to be the mothers of the 11 children found at the compound were also arrested in Friday’s raid along with another man, Lucas Morten, and charged with child abuse.

Wahhaj is wanted in the state of Georgia for the alleged abduction of his four-year-old son. Authorities are investigating whether the remains found at the New Mexico compound are those of missing Abdul.

In the first operation, when the 11 children were discovered, Abdul was not found.

But officers returned to the site after questioning the suspects last week, which led them to believe that the boy was still there.

“We discovered the remains yesterday on Abdul’s fourth birthday,” Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said Tuesday, appearing to fight back tears.

The boy’s mother had told police her child, who she said suffered from seizures along with developmental and cognitive delays, went to the park with his father Wahhaj last December and never returned.

She also told authorities Wahhaj wanted to exorcize his son because he considered that his disability was due to a demon. AFP

AFP/CC

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OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday refused to apologize for calling out Saudi Arabia on its human rights record, after Riyadh said it was considering further punitive measures against Ottawa over its criticisms of the kingdom.

Tensions have been high between the two countries since Monday, when Riyadh expelled Canada’s ambassador, recalled its own envoy and froze all new trade and investments.

Riyadh also said it will relocate thousands of Saudi students studying in Canada to other countries, while state airline Saudia announced it was suspending flights to Toronto.

The kingdom was angry at Ottawa for openly denouncing a crackdown on rights activists in Saudi Arabia.

But on Wednesday, Trudeau stood firm.

“Canada will always speak strongly and clearly in private and in public on questions of human rights,” he said.

“We do not wish to have poor relations with Saudi Arabia,” he added, saying Ottawa recognizes that Riyadh “has made progress when it comes to human rights.”

Trudeau noted that his foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, had “a long conversation” on Tuesday with her counterpart Adel al-Jubeir to try to resolve the dispute.

“Diplomatic talks continue,” he said.

On Wednesday, Saudi state media said the kingdom has nevertheless also stopped all medical treatment programs in Canada and was working on transferring all Saudi patients there to other countries.

Further straining ties, the Saudi central bank has instructed its overseas asset managers to dispose of their Canadian equities, bonds and cash holdings “no matter the cost,” the Financial Times reported.

But in an apparent effort to safeguard its economic interests, Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said the dispute will not affect state oil giant Aramco’s clients in Canada.

Saudi oil supplies are independent of political considerations, Falih was quoted as saying by state media.

‘Matter of national security’

Last week, Canada sparked fury in Riyadh by calling for the “immediate release” of rights campaigners, including award-winning women’s rights activist Samar Badawi, the sister of jailed blogger Raif Badawi.

That arrest came after more than a dozen women’s rights campaigners were detained and accused of undermining national security and collaborating with enemies of the state.

When asked about the jailed activists, Jubeir on Wednesday reiterated the government’s stance that they had been in contact with foreign entities, but did not specify the charges against them.

“The matter is not about human rights, it is a matter of national security,” Jubeir told reporters.

“Saudi Arabia does not interfere in the affairs of Canada in any way. Therefore, Canada must correct its actions towards the kingdom.”

Jubeir ruled out mediation as a way to put an end to the row.

“There is nothing to mediate,” he said.

“Canada made a big mistake… and a mistake should be corrected.”

Jubeir added that Saudi Arabia was “considering additional measures” against Canada, without elaborating.

Experts have said the Saudi move illustrates how the oil-rich kingdom is increasingly seeking to use its economic and diplomatic muscle to quell foreign criticism under its young de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

In Canada, there was disappointment that major Western powers including the United States — a key ally of Saudi Arabia — have not publicly come out in support of Canada, though it is not the first country to be targeted for speaking up.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador from Stockholm over criticism by the Swedish foreign minister of Riyadh’s human rights record.

Earlier this year, Bloomberg News reported that Saudi Arabia was scaling back its dealings with some German companies amid a diplomatic spat with Berlin.

The move came after Germany’s foreign minister last November remarked that Lebanon was a “pawn” of Saudi Arabia after the surprise resignation of its Prime Minister Saad Hariri while in Riyadh. AFP

AFP/CC

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PARIS: Men trying to become a father the old-fashioned way are better off wearing loose underwear, according to a study published Thursday.

Compared to men who favour snug-fitting briefs, devotees of boxer shorts had a significantly higher count and concentration of sperm, researchers reported in the journal Human Reproduction.

The sperm were also more lively, and levels of a reproductive hormone were more favourable to generating offspring.

Researchers led by Lidia Minguez-Alarcon of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston examined 656 men of normal weight, aged 18 to 56, whose partners were seeking infertility treatment at a clinic.

Earlier research had come to the same conclusion, but with a smaller sample size. Corroborating data on the hormone, known as FSH, was also new.

Successful sperm production requires an environment three to four degrees Celsius (5.6 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) below body temperature.

This explains the design of the free-hanging male scrotum, which is, in effect, a cooling system that places the sperm-making testes outside the main body cavity.

Anything that prevents this cooling is likely to impair both sperm output and quality.

If in doubt…

While the age-old locker-room debate among men — boxers vs. briefs — is more aesthetic than medical, the question has long been raised: do tight-fitting shorts overheat the family jewels?

The answer, it seems, is “a little bit, but it may not matter”.

“The study provides reasonably strong supporting evidence that wearing tighter underwear might cause mild, but significant, impaired sperm production in men,” noted Richard Sharpe, an honorary professor from the University of Edinburgh’s MRC Centre for Reproductive Health who was not involved in the research.

Ashely Grossman, professor of endocrinology at Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, agreed, saying the results were robust enough to merit a small lifestyle change when in doubt.

“It is a simple measure to wear boxer shorts when there is uncertainty regarding fertility,” he commented.

At the same time, experts noted a number of gaps in the new study that left room for uncertainty, and highlighted the need for follow up research.

While each participant provided a sperm and blood sample, sartorial habits were self-reported.

The study was also not a clinical trial — the gold standard in health research — but a search for statistically significant correlations, which can only point to possible causes.

Also, the study did not measure actual pregnancy outcomes, so it was unclear whether the differences in sperm count and quality uncovered actually made a bottom-line difference in the desired outcome. AFP

AFP/CC

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MATARAM: The devastating earthquake on the Indonesian island of Lombok was “exceptionally destructive” and wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions, relief agencies warned as the death toll jumped to more than 160 on Thursday.

Relief efforts have yet to reach parts of the island four days after the quake hit, Indonesian authorities said, as hopes fade of finding further survivors among the wreckage.

“There are still some evacuees that have not yet been touched by aid, especially in North Lombok and West Lombok,” national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho tweeted Thursday.

A total of 164 people were now confirmed dead in the quake, Nugroho told AFP, with a further 1,400 seriously injured and more than 150,000 displaced.

Local authorities, international relief groups and the central government have begun organising aid, but shattered roads have slowed efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake.

“We are still waiting for assessments from some of the more remote areas in the north of the island, but it is already clear that Sunday’s earthquake was exceptionally destructive,” Christopher Rassi, the head of a Red Cross assessment team on Lombok, said in a statement.

“I visited villages yesterday that were completely collapsed.”

Tens of thousands of homes, businesses and mosques were levelled by the quake, which struck on Sunday as evening prayers were being said across the Muslim-majority island.

There are fears that two collapsed mosques in north Lombok had been filled with worshippers.

Rescuers have found three bodies and also managed to pull one man alive from the twisted wreckage of one mosque in Lading Lading village, while at least one body has been spotted under the rubble in Pemenang.

Authorities are gathering information from family members with missing relatives to determine how many more people may have been in the buildings when they collapsed, national search and rescue agency spokesman Yusuf Latif told Agence France-Presse.

Waiting for aid

Across much of the island, a popular tourist destination, once-bustling villages have been turned into virtual ghost towns.

Many frightened villagers are staying under tents or tarpaulins dotted along roads or in parched rice fields, and makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.

Evacuees in some encampments say they are running out of food, while others are suffering psychological trauma after the powerful quake, which struck just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.

There is a dire need for medical staff and “long-term aid”, especially food and medicine in the worst-hit areas, government officials said.

Some evacuees have complained of being ignored or experiencing long delays for supplies to arrive at shelters.

“There has been no help at all here,” said 36-year-old Multazam, staying with hundreds of others under tarpaulins on a dry paddy field outside West Pemenang village.

“We have no clean water, so if we want to go to the toilet we use a small river nearby,” he said, adding they needed food, bedding and medicine.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it had set up 10 mobile clinics in the north of the island.

A field hospital has also been established near an evacuation centre catering to more than 500 people in the village of Tanjung.

Kurniawan Eko Wibowo, a doctor at the field hospital, said most patients had broken bones and head injuries.

“We lack the infrastructure to perform operations because (they) need to be performed in a sterile place,” Wibowo told Agence France-Presse.

Aid groups say children are particularly vulnerable, with many sleeping in open fields and suffering illnesses from lack of warm clothing and blankets. AFP

AFP/CC

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MELBOURNE: A rare set of teeth from a giant prehistoric mega-shark twice the size of the great white have been found on an Australian beach by a keen-eyed amateur enthusiast, scientists said Thursday.

Philip Mullaly was strolling along an area known as a fossil hotspot at Jan Juc, on the country’s famous Great Ocean Road some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Melbourne, when he made the find.

“I was walking along the beach looking for fossils, turned and saw this shining glint in a boulder and saw a quarter of the tooth exposed,” he said.

“I was immediately excited, it was just perfect and I knew it was an important find that needed to be shared with people.”

He told Museums Victoria, and Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate palaeontology, confirmed the seven centimetre-long (2.7 inch) teeth were from an extinct species of predator known as the great jagged narrow-toothed shark (Carcharocles angustidens).

The shark, which stalked Australia’s oceans around 25 million years ago, feasting on small whales and penguins, could grow more than nine metres long, almost twice the length of today’s great white shark.

“These teeth are of international significance, as they represent one of just three associated groupings of Carcharocles angustidens teeth in the world, and the very first set to ever be discovered in Australia,” Fitzgerald said.

He explained that almost all fossils of sharks worldwide were just single teeth, and it was extremely rare to find multiple associated teeth from the same shark.

This is because sharks, who have the ability to regrow teeth, lose up to a tooth a day and cartilage, the material a shark skeleton is made of, does not readily fossilise.

Fitzgerald suspected they came from one individual shark and there might be more entombed in the rock.

So he led a team of palaeontologists, volunteers, and Mullaly on two expeditions earlier this year to excavate the site, collecting more than 40 teeth in total.

Most came from the mega-shark, but several smaller teeth were also found from the sixgill shark (Hexanchus), which still exists today.

Museums Victoria palaeontologist Tim Ziegler said the sixgill teeth were from several different individuals and would have become dislodged as they scavenged on the carcass of the Carcharocles angustidens after it died.

“The stench of blood and decaying flesh would have drawn scavengers from far around,” he said.

“Sixgill sharks still exist off the Victorian coast today, where they live off the remains of whales and other animals. This find suggests they have performed that lifestyle here for tens of millions of years.” AFP

AFP/CC

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THE economy as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a slower pace of 6 percent in the second quarter of 2018 as the impact of the closure of Boracay Island and many open-pit mining operations began to be felt,  the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Thursday.

NEDA said the closure of the famed resort and the policy against open pit mining affected GDP growth in the second quarter.

NEDA director general Ernesto Pernia described the latest growth number as “positive but slower” because it pales in comparison to last year’s growth figures. GDP grew 6.6 percent in the first quarter and 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017.

The NEDA chief said the recent growth figure “puts the Philippines as one of the best performing economics in Asia behind Vietnam (6.8 percent) and China (6.7 percent).” ED VELASCO

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MATARAM, Indonesia: A strong aftershock struck Indonesia’s Lombok Thursday, causing panic among evacuees already traumatized by a devastating earthquake that killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier.

The 5.9-magnitude quake struck at a shallow depth in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said, even as relief agencies raced to find survivors among the wreckage from Sunday’s quake.

It was the strongest of some 355 aftershocks that have rattled the island since Sunday, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

Evacuees at a shelter in northern Lombok’s Tanjung district ran out onto the road crying and screaming, an Agence France-Presse reporter at the scene said.

Motorcycles parked on the street toppled over and the walls of some nearby buildings collapsed.

A woman wearing a motorbike helmet was seen crying with her two daughters in her arms.

“We were stuck in the traffic while delivering aid, suddenly it felt like our car was hit from behind, it was so strong,” witness Sri Laksmi told Agence France-Presse.

“People in the street began to panic and got out of their cars, they ran in different directions in the middle of the traffic.”

The aftershock comes just four days after a devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck Lombok, which relief agencies said had wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions in the north and west.

A total of 164 people were now confirmed dead in the quake, Nugroho told Agence France-Presse, with a further 1,400 seriously injured and more than 150,000 displaced.

State-run news agency Antara reported overnight 347 had been killed by the quake, but Nugroho said the tally was incomplete and unverified.

However, he said Thursday the “death toll has jumped significantly”, without providing further details.

‘Exceptionally destructive

Local authorities, international relief groups and the central government have begun organizing aid, but shattered roads have slowed efforts to reach survivors in the mountainous north of Lombok, which bore the brunt of the quake.

Aid begun trickling into some of the most isolated regions, officials said midday Thursday, but many people displaced by the quake still lack basic supplies.

In some parts of northern Lombok, survivors can be seen standing on the road with cardboard boxes asking for donations and food.

An Indonesian soldier (R) and an official (C) try to calm people shortly after an aftershock hits the area in Tanjung on Lombok island on August 9, 2018. – A strong aftershock struck Indonesia’s Lombok on August 9, causing panic among evacuees sheltering after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier. (Photo by ADEK BERRY / AFP)

“We are still waiting for assessments from some of the more remote areas in the north of the island, but it is already clear that Sunday’s earthquake was exceptionally destructive,” Christopher Rassi, the head of a Red Cross assessment team on Lombok, said in a statement.

“I visited villages yesterday that were completely collapsed.”

Tens of thousands of homes, businesses and mosques were levelled by the quake, which struck on Sunday as evening prayers were being said across the Muslim-majority island.

There are fears that two collapsed mosques in north Lombok had been filled with worshippers.

Rescuers have found three bodies and also managed to pull one man alive from the twisted wreckage of one mosque in Lading Lading village, while at least one body has been spotted under the rubble in Pemenang.

Authorities are gathering information from family members with missing relatives to determine how many more people may have been in the buildings when they collapsed, national search and rescue agency spokesman Yusuf Latif told Agence France-Presse.

Waiting for aid

Across much of the island, a popular tourist destination, once-bustling villages have been turned into virtual ghost towns.

Many frightened villagers are staying under tents or tarpaulins dotted along roads or in parched rice fields, and makeshift medical facilities have been set up to treat the injured.

Evacuees in some encampments say they are running out of food, while others are suffering psychological trauma after the powerful quake, which struck just one week after another tremor surged through the island and killed 17.

There is a dire need for medical staff and “long-term aid,” especially food and medicine in the worst-hit areas, government officials said.

Some evacuees have complained of being ignored or experiencing long delays for supplies to arrive at shelters.

“There has been no help at all here,” said 36-year-old Multazam, staying with hundreds of others under tarpaulins on a dry paddy field outside West Pemenang village.

“We have no clean water, so if we want to go to the toilet we use a small river nearby,” he said, adding they needed food, bedding and medicine.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it had set up 10 mobile clinics in the north of the island.

A field hospital has also been established near an evacuation center catering to more than 500 people in the village of Tanjung.

Kurniawan Eko Wibowo, a doctor at the field hospital, said most patients had broken bones and head injuries.

“We lack the infrastructure to perform operations because (they) need to be performed in a sterile place,” Wibowo told Agence France-Presse.

Aid groups say children are particularly vulnerable, with many sleeping in open fields and suffering illnesses from lack of warm clothing and blankets. AFP

AFP/CC

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WELLINGTON: New Zealand became the latest country Friday to outlaw single-use plastic shopping bags, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying they will be phased out over the next year as a “meaningful step” towards reducing pollution.

New Zealand uses “hundreds of millions” of single-use plastic bags each year, many of which end up harming marine life, Ardern said.

“We need to be far smarter in the way we manage waste and this is a good start,” she said.

“We’re phasing-out single-use plastic bags so we can better look after our environment and safeguard New Zealand’s clean, green reputation.”

Ardern said her coalition government, which includes the Green Party, was facing up to environmental challenges and “just like climate change, we’re taking meaningful steps to reduce plastics pollution so we don’t pass this problem to future generations.”

Single-use plastic bags are among the most common items found in coastal litter in New Zealand and the environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the decision to outlaw them.

“This could be a major leap forward in turning the tide on ocean plastic pollution and an important first step in protecting marine life such as sea turtles and whales, from the growing plastic waste epidemic,” Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Emily Hunter said.

A United Nations report in June said up to five trillion grocery bags are used globally each year, which is nearly 10 million plastic bags per minute.

“If tied together, all these plastic bags could be wrapped around the world seven times every hour” and like most plastic garbage barely any is recycled, said Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment.

The UN said more than 60 countries had introduced bans and levies on single-use plastic items like bags.

But better waste management, financial incentives to change consumers’ buying habits and research into alternative materials were needed to make any real change, it added. AFP

AFP/CC

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PARIS: Salt consumption exceeds national and World Health Organization guidelines in most countries, but only the highest-sodium diets, such as in China, are linked to clear health risks, researchers said on Friday.

Only individuals with a daily salt intake of at least 12.5 grams — about two-and-a-half teaspoons — were associated with increased blood pressure and a greater risk of stroke, they reported in The Lancet, a medical journal.

WHO recommends capping salt consumption at five grams per day, but this target is not known to have been achieved at a national level anywhere in the world, the survey of more than 90,000 people spread across 300 distinct communities in 18 countries found.

“We should be far more concerned about targeting communities and countries with high average sodium intake — above five grammes (equivalent to 12.5 grams of salt), such as China — and bringing them down to the moderate range” of 7.5 to 12.5 grams of salt, said lead author Andre Mente, a professor in the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University in Canada.

One gram of sodium equals 2.5 grams of salt.

Four-fifths of the groups examined in China had average daily salt intake of 12.5 grams, whereas in other countries 84 percent ingested between 7.5 and 12.5 grams.

“Our study adds to growing evidence that, at moderate intake, sodium may have a beneficial role in cardiovascular heath, but a potentially more harmful role when intake is very high or very low,” he said in a statement.

The Human body needs essential nutrients such as sodium and many vitamins, but the ideal amount remains subject to debate.

The study, which stopped short of calling for WHO recommendations to be relaxed, examined urine and blood samples, along with health records, for 95,767 women and men monitored over an eight-year period.

Nearly 3,700 of the participants died during that time and 3,543 had “major cardiovascular events.”

Experts not involved in the study were sharply critical of its methodology, and said its findings should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.

The technique for collecting urine samples in notoriously unreliable, they noted. And the fact that it was an observational study — as opposed to clinical trials — means that no firm conclusions can be drawn as to cause-and-effect.

Most controversial was the suggestion that low sodium intake may, in fact, provoke heart disease.

“There are no known mechanisms that could explain this observation,” commented Tom Sanders, professor emeritus of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London.

“Sodium is an essential nutrient but the requirement is very low at about 0.5 grams (1.25 grams of salt) per day.”

Ageing populations, he added, should still be advised to restrict the addition of salt to food. AFP

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NEW YORK: The Slovenian-born parents of US First Lady Melania Trump became US citizens at a naturalization ceremony in New York on Thursday (Friday in Manila), their immigration lawyer Michael Wildes confirmed to Agence France-Presse.

President Donald Trump’s in-laws, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, took the oath of citizenship, Wildes said.

He did not specify how long it had taken the Knavs to complete the citizenship process, nor whether the 48-year-old First Lady had sponsored their permanent residency.

Trump has taken a hardline on immigration policy, criticizing so-called chain migration that allows naturalized US citizens to sponsor close relatives for permanent residency.

Melania

US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump. AFP PHOTO

The Republican president argues that the system steals jobs from Americans and threatens national security, calling for a merit-based system that preferences more educated, English-speaking professionals.

Viktor Knavs, a car salesman in Slovenia, and Amalija, who worked in a textile factory, are over 70 years old, retired and pass much of the year in the United States, where they regularly spend time with their daughter and grandson Barron. AFP

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THE Department of Foreign Affairs on Friday appealed to some 400,000 undocumented Filipinos in Malayasia to avail of its voluntary deportation program, which would end this August.

Philippine Ambassador to Kuala Lumpur Charles Jose, in a statement, also assured Filipinos who have not availed of legal immigration status assistance from the embassy on their return home through the voluntary deportation program offered by the Malaysian government.

“We appeal to our undocumented kababayan in Malaysia to take this opportunity to be able to return to their loved ones in the Philippines without jail time or fines,” Jose said in statement.

The Ambassador said the repatriation program allows undocumented migrants to leave Malaysia without having to serve jail time or settle compounded penalties.

Those who want to avail of the program only need to pay a fixed discounted penalty of 300 Malaysian ringgit regardless of length of overstay and a 100 ringgit exit fee.

The embassy, according to Jose, has assisted about 50,000 Filipinos from January 2016 to June 2018, by way of issuance of travel documents and the payment of exit fees and one-way airfare to the Philippines.

He said the repatriation program coincided with the end of the Malaysian government’s rehiring program on June 30 that allowed qualified undocumented foreign workers to apply for valid working permits and regularize their status under Malaysian law.

Jose said only 8,000 Filipinos—or two percent of the estimated number of undocumented Filipinos in Malaysia—applied for the rehiring program.

Filipinos who wish to avail of the program but have no valid passports are advised to proceed to the Embassy for interview and processing of their travel documents. JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA

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DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana joined the growing number of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Cabinet secretaries who expressed reservations about the Philippines shift to a federal form of government, saying that the country was “not ready.”

“We are not yet ready because we need maybe more education to the people for them to understand what [federalism]is for,” Lorenzana told reporters in a press briefing late Thursday.

He is the fourth Cabinet member to speak up against federalism following Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3^rd, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.

Dominguez, in a Senate finance committee hearing on Wednesday, said the shift to a federal government could lead to a fiscal nightmare.

Pernia said that financing a federal form of government may raise the fiscal deficit to six percent.

Lorenzana’s statement also came after Malacañang spokesman Harry Roque Jr. claimed that 100 percent of the Cabinet, including him, agree with the shift. DEMPSEY REYES

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THE Philippine Navy will hold its first ever official port visit to Russia, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

However, no date has been set but a military source said Lorenzana would fly to Russia next week to discuss with his counterpart the trip to Vladivostok City located near the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

Lorenzana said the Philippine Navy’s visit was in return for the two port visits of the Russian Navy to Manila.

The Philippine Navy’s trip to Vladivostok would take from five to seven days. DEMPSEY REYES

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PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte named Court of Appeals (CA) Justice Jose Reyes, Jr. to the Supreme Court, according to the Chief Executive’s top aide.

Reyes will be replacing Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, Jr., who retired on August 8, Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go said in a message to reporters.

Go said Reyes would take his oath on Monday, August 13.

Reyes was the senior member of the sixth division of the CA. RALPH VILLANUEVA, WITH A REPORT FROM ARIC JOHN SY CUA

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THE Sandiganbayan upheld the graft charges filed against Rep. Antonio Floirendo, Jr. of Davao del Norte in connection with a 2003 lease agreement entered into by family-owned Tagum Agricultural Development Co. (Tadeco) with the Bureau of Corrections even after he became a member of the House of Representatives.

In a six-page resolution, the anti-graft court said there was no need to look into matters “beyond the four corners of the information of the case.”

“This Court finds that the facts charged in the information sufficiently allege the essential elements of the second mode of violation of the Anti Graft and Corruption Practices Act,” the Resolution read.

“The other arguments of the accused are matters of defense, which are better threshed out during the trial on the merits. Wherefore, the motion to quash of the accused is hereby denied for lack of merit,” the Resolution said.

Floirendo was the biggest donor of then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential campaign in 2016, pouring in P75 million.

Floirendo was also said to be instrumental in catapulting former president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo as Speaker last July 23, booting out the incumbent Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte who filed graft charges against Floirendo over the Tadeco deal. LLANESCA PANTI

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ABOUT 30,000 jobs in construction are up for grabs in the upcoming Job Caravan on August 12, 2018  at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced on Friday.

Organized by the Build, Build, Build core committee, the “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” Caravan would be open to applicants seeking employment in the construction industry.

“Numerous occupation prospects await Filipino job hunters who will the join the caravan,” the DTI said.

“Top construction companies will hire for vacancies in labor, masonry, and carpentry among others,” it said.

The trade department said those in engineering and architecture were also invited to apply. ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES

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