Pinoy boy wins International Children's Peace Prize

Carlos "Kesz" Valdez with Archbishop Desmond Tutu after receiving his award. Photo courtesy of Charlie Curilan for ABS-CBNNews.com

NETHERLANDS – A 13-year-old Pinoy had the privilege to be the center of attention at the same venue where Queen Beatrix delivered her annual speech to the Parliament.

Befitting a royalty, Carlos Valdez or “Kesz”, went up the stage as the winner of the very prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize at the Ridderzaal or Knight’s Hall in The Hague.

The Hall of Knights is one of several buildings in the Binnenhof, the seat of the Dutch parliament.

Valdez received the award on Wednesday from 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu at a ceremony attended by dignitaries.

"Kesz received this award for his efforts to improve the rights of street children in the Philippines, where more than 246,000 street children are subjected to abuse, violence and child labor," the award organizers said in a statement.  "Many of them also struggle to cope with major health issues. Kesz was in the same situation. He was severely abused and forced to scavenge at the dumpsite at the age of two. Three years later, he sustained burns on his arm and back, which forced him to run away and look for help. He has transformed his own experiences into a drive to help other street children and inspire them to change their own lives."

"For his seventh birthday, Kesz didn’t want any presents for himself. Instead, he wanted to give something to other street children: Gifts of Hope. That same year, Kesz started his own organization, Championing Community Children, aimed at giving street children hope and showing them that they can take their future into their own hands,"  the award organizing body said.

"Every week, he and his friends go to underprivileged communities to teach children about hygiene, food and children’s rights. He even takes things a step further, by teaching children how to teach each other. He has so far helped more than 10,000 children in his local area," it added.

Tutu, who presented the award, said Kesz is a deserving and inspiring example of "a new voice for the voiceless."

The International Children’s Peace Prize is presented annually to an exceptional child, whose courageous or otherwise remarkable acts and thoughts have made a difference in countering problems, which affect children around the world, the organizing body said.

The prize is an initiative of the Dutch organisation KidsRights and was launched during 2005 Nobel Peace Laureates’ Summit by Mikhail Gorbachev.

Each year, the International Children’s Peace Prize Laureate is selected from nominations from all over the world. An Expert Committee assesses the candidates and then selects the winner.

The prize money of €100,000 that is attached to the Children's Peace Prize is spent by KidsRights on projects that are closely connected to the winners' area of work.

FIBA Asia Cup: Gilas survives Chinese-Taipei, advances to semis versus Iran

The Smart Gilas National Team survived a fourth quarter scare from the Chinese-Taipei team, to emerge with a 75-68 win, Thursday, to advance to the semifinal round of the FIBA Asia Cup, held in Japan.

With Taipei's scoring trickling to a halt, with just four points in the first five minutes of the fourth period, a triple by Gary David had the Philippines up 71-57, 3:51 left in the game.

Taipei saved their best for last though, unleashing a 9-0 run that had their deficit down to 71-66 after a Shih-Chieh Chien basket with 1:52 left. However, Gilas responded by tightening up their defense, forcing a missed triple and two turnovers on Taipei's next possessions. On the offensive end, LA Tenorio, who sparked Gilas' fourth quarter scoring barrage, and Jeff Chan connected to keep their advantage intact as the Philippines held on until the final buzzer.

The Philippines now advances to the semifinal round where they'll play Iran, winners of a 79-37 blowout against Uzbekistan, on Friday.

Marcus Douthit finished with a monster performance of 19 points, 18 boards, two steals and four blocks. Gary David went 4-of-9 from beyond the arc on route to 14 points, and Ranidel De Ocampo chimed in 10 markers and eight rebounds.

Taipei got 21 points from Douglas Creighton, but the entire team shot just 37 percent from the field. At one point they were 10-of-20 from downtown, but they proceeded to miss their last four triples of the game.

A slow start for both sides saw the score stick at 4-all, three and a half minutes left in the first period. A dunk by Gabe Norwood and a score by Marcus Douthit began to create separation for Gilas, but Chih-Chieh Lin knotted things anew at 10 apiece, and then off a turnover by Jared Dillinger, Tsung-Hsien Chang hit a triple with five seconds to go, giving Chinese Taipei the slight lead after ten minutes, 13-10.

A 9-2 run for Gilas starting with 4:46 left in the first half had the Philippines on the cusp of the first double-digit lead in the game, 33-25, after Larry Fonacier charities at the 2:32 mark.

Norwood would miss two freebies of his own though, keeping the door open for Taipei. Lin and Shih-Chieh Chen made the most of that small opening, nailing baskets to make it a six-point game. With Dillinger unable to score off a timeout, Chinese-Taipei found themselves down 38-32 at the break, sticking close to the Gilas squad.

The third period saw Taipei go right for the throat of Gilas, as hot shooting by Douglas Creighton gave his side the lead late, off a triple, 1:17 left in the quarter, 53-52. Attempts to answer back by Jared Dillinger and Gary David missed their mark. An attempt by Hsueh-Lin Lee to add to Taipei's advantage fell short too, leading to a frantic finish that saw Douthit's miss put back in by De Ocampo with two ticks left, 54-53. - AMD, GMA News


The scores:

Philippines 75 - Douthit 19, David 14, De Ocampo 10, Fonacier 9, Tenorio 9, Dillinger 5, Chan 5, Norwood 4, Thoss 0

Chinese Taipei 68 - Creighton 21, Lin 12, S. Chen 11, Tien 7, Wu 6, Mao 4, Chang 3, Lee 3, Tseng 1, Lu 0

Quarter scoring: 10-13, 38-32, 54-53, 75-68

How do Pinoys around the world celebrate Christmas?

How do Filipinos around the world celebrate Christmas?
 
With just over 90 days to go before Christmas, "24 Oras" news anchor Mel Tiangco on Tuesday said Filipino YouScoopers have shared images of how they celebrate one of the world's most celebrated holidays.
 
Christmas is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, considered by Christians as the Son of God and the redeemer of the human race.



YouScooper Hazel Montemayor, a Filipina based in Oman, said she hasn’t forgotten the essence of a "Filipino Christmas."
 
Even though she is residing in a Muslim country, Montemayor puts up a large Christmas tree in their house and adorns it with Christmas lights and decorations.
 
The centerpiece of their Christmas decorations is the Belen or a Nativity scene that features Jesus Christ, the Blessed Mother Mary, and Jesus' foster father Joseph.
 
Meanwhile, YouScooper Jenifer Ann Lapuz sent an image of a Christmas tree she built from the stuffed toys of her four-year-old daughter.
 
The result was a tower of huggable bears, mice, and animals decorated with different lights.
 
YouScoopers may share their pictures or videos that capture the spirit of a Filipino Christmas by going to YouScoop.tv.  - Andrei Medina, VVP, GMA News

How long do you have to work to buy an iPhone?

MANILA, Philippines - How long do people in Manila have to work before they can buy either an iPhone or a Big Mac?

A rather long time, according to a new study released by Swiss bank UBS.

The good news? Manila is the 4th cheapest city to live in among 72 cities globally, UBS' latest edition of the "Prices and Earnings" study said.

With New York City prices as standard (100), the cost of living in Manila only measured to 41.5, according to the study.

The bank's annual survey showed that prices for a standardized basket of 122 goods and services is most expensive in Oslo, Norway and cheapest in Delhi, India.

While the cost of living is low in Manila, the Philippine capital city also has the 3rd lowest wage levels worldwide and the 2nd-lowest domestic purchasing power.

"The highest gross wages are earned by workers in Zurich, Geneva and Copenhagen," the study said. "Salaries go farthest in Zurich, where the net hourly wage buys the most goods and services from our standardized basket in international comparison."

"Workers in Zurich can buy an iPhone after 22 hours of work; in Manila, by contrast, it takes around 20 times longer," it added.

People in Manila also need to work for an average of 73 minutes before they can buy a Big Mac, compared to just 9 minutes in Tokyo and 10 minutes in Hong Kong.

The shortest working hours and highest number of days of paid vacation are enjoyed by workers in Western Europe, specifically in the cities  of Paris, Lyon, and Copenhagen.

In comparison, people work the most in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America, at over 2,000 hours per year, according to UBS.

"Nowhere is the discrepancy between prices and wages within an individual region larger than in Asia. For example, food costs five times as much in Tokyo than it does in Mumbai, while wages in Tokyo are twelve times higher than in Delhi," the study said.

"There is no Asian city at the top of the domestic purchasing power rankings when measured in terms of net hourly wages," it added.

Prices of goods and services are lowest and wages -- compared with the global average -- are highest in North America.

"Even though prices in the US are higher than the global average, prices for electronic and household goods are very attractive in North American cities, with Miami and Los Angeles boasting the best deals in international comparison," the study said. 

World Peace wants L.A. to break Bulls' record

Source: http://www.csnchicago.com

Metta World Peace thinks the new-look Los Angeles Lakers can be good in 2012-13.

How good does he want them to be? Better than the 1995-1996 Bulls team that went 72-10 on its way to an NBA Championship.

The oft-outspoken forward said the Lakers, who added Steve Nash and Dwight Howard this off-season, want to go 73-9 or better in the regular season.

“We definitely want to beat the Bulls record and go 73-9, that's definitely something that I want to do," World Peace said in a radio interview. "Whoever is out there at the beginning of the season then we gotta get it. It's as simple as that. We just have to go get it."

It's not the first time World Peace has spoken out about how good the Lakers can be this year. Two days ago, he said nobody was getting past the Lakers this year on their way to a title.

With a core group of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Nash and Howard, who is recovering from back surgery and will miss the beginning of the season, it's impossible not to think of the Lakers as contenders in the Western Conference.

But the last time a team made reference to overtaking records set by Jordan and the Bulls' dynasty of the 90s was LeBron James two seasons ago, with his famous "Not one...not two...not three..." speech at the Heat's preseason celebration.

That Heat team won 58 games and the Eastern Conference Finals, but lost to the Dallas Mavericks in six games in the NBA Finals.

Antioxidants tied to older men's sperm quality: study

Middle-aged and older men who get enough antioxidants in their diets, through eating foods such as broccoli and tomatoes, may have better-quality sperm than men who don't get as much of the nutrients, according to a US study.

Researchers found that among men aged 45 or older, those who got the most vitamins C and E, folate and zinc tended to have fewer DNA-strand breaks in their sperm, according to a report in the journal Fertility & Sterility.

Strand breaks are a measure of the genetic quality of sperm, which is known to decline as a man ages, though the findings do not prove that antioxidants themselves directly improve sperm quality or boost the chance of a healthy pregnancy.

"People who eat well are probably doing a bunch of other healthy things too," said senior researcher Andrew Wyrobek, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

But it wasn't overall nutrition that was linked to older men's sperm quality but the antioxidants specifically, he added in an interview.

This doesn't mean that men should start taking supplements for the sake of their sperm. The men in the study with the best quality sperm just got the recommended amounts, through food or pills.

The study included 80 healthy, non-smoking men between the ages of 22 and 80. They filled out a questionnaire on diet and supplement use, and gave sperm samples.

Among men ages 45 and up, those who got the most vitamin C had 20% less DNA damage than those who took in less of the vitamin. Men in that high-intake group typically got about 700 milligrams of vitamin C a day. The recommended amount for men is 90 mg, but an intake as high as 2,000 mg is considered safe.

The findings were similar with vitamin E, zinc and folate, though the differences in sperm DNA damage were smaller. Again, older men in the high-intake groups typically got more of each nutrient than is recommended, but were still well within the safe ranges.

The recommended daily intake for vitamin E is 15 mg and no more than 1,000 mg, while for zinc it's 11 mg and no more than 40. For folate, it's 400 mg and no more than 1,000 mg.

There was no link between antioxidant intake and sperm quality in younger men.

Wyrobek speculated that in younger men, the body may be under less "oxidative stress," or it may be more efficient at neutralizing that stress.

All of the men in the study were free of fertility problems, and Wyrobek said the findings should not be taken to suggest that downing antioxidants could cure infertility.

Still, Wyrobek said the findings support what's recommended for overall health: getting a nutritious, oxidant-rich diet.

Foods rich in vitamin C include citrus fruits, red and green peppers and tomatoes. Vitamin E is found in certain vegetable oils, nuts such as almost and green vegetables like spinach and broccoli, while zinc sources include seafood, red meat, beans, nuts and dairy.

Why sex, shopping can be good for you

Get out the party poppers guys and girls – we have news. You know how it can sometimes feel like an uphill struggle to stay healthy and keep fit; well we’ve found out that doing our favorite activities is actually good for us. So if you’re ready to stop feeling guilty and start feeling good, read this list and discover why your favourite things are actually doing wonders for you and your health.

1. Shopping

Spending your cash and ogling the latest designs is a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but surely you should be working out at the gym or doing 100 squats instead? Well, although shopping isn’t the most strenuous of activities, it is in fact good for you. Shopping, according to a study published in the Journal of Psychology and Marketing, gives us much-needed mood boosts and was described as being ‘overwhelmingly beneficial’ for our frame of mind by researchers.

2. Facebook stalking

Hours can turn into minutes when you are Facebook stalking and the thrill we feel when we finally get access onto an ex’s profile is surely proof that some good can come from the internet. However, ex’s aside, it turns out that there are lots of benefits to searching the web. The Internet helps us to improve our decision-making and complex reasoning skills and it could also be preventing some of the effects that ageing has on the brain.

3. Hanging out with friends

If you’re considering ditching your friends to finally get the car cleaned or you’re going to tackle that mountain of paperwork, don’t. Hanging out with your friends may not seem like a very productive activity, but your pals brings you a whole host of benefits; from giving you better brain health to stopping you from catching so many colds. In fact, a study by Brigham Young University found that having a good social network boosts your survival chances by 50%.

4. Chocolate

Although stuffing your face every night with a creamy bowl of melted chocolate won’t do you or your energy levels much good, eating chocolate a few times a week has got some surprising benefits. A study in the US found that those who ate a little a few times a week were, on the whole, slimmer that those participants who ate chocolate every now and again. Plus a Swedish study found that those men who eat a chocolate bar a week could reduce their risk of stroke by a whopping 17%.

5. Sex

For some of us, sex is definitely a favorite pastime and if you love doing the deed you’ll be pleased to find out that sex has lots and lots of health benefits. To begin with, an orgasm can help our skin look more youthful because it produces hormones that increase collagen production, which in turn helps to improve skin’s elasticity and softness. Sex also helps us get enough plenty of sleep because the hormones we release during sex -- oxytocin and prolactin -- help us to feel drowsy and relaxed.

6. Night out

On the morning-after-the-night-before, when you wake up on your friend’s bedroom floor with a magazine as a pillow, a night out does not always sound like something that is good for you. However, although heavy drinking isn’t in any way good for us, there are a few benefits from the other aspects of a night out. When you’re throwing out your best moves on the dance floor remember that dancing can reduce mental tension. Plus, if you’re a beer drinker, researchers have found that moderate consumption of beer can help to reduce risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and dementia.

7. Watching the game

Watching your team play basketball can seem like a completely health-free event, but if you’re a man, watching basketball can massively help your mental health. A study undertaken by the Mental Health Foundation found that men who find it difficult to share and talk about their feelings are able to open up more during matches. The study also found that 76% of the men who took part in the study would not be embarrassed to hug their friend during a game.

8. Sunbathing

Before your strip off and douse yourself in oil, too much sun is still bad for you. Not only can it give you skin cancer, too much sun can make your skin age prematurely and give you actinic keratoses, which are growths of scaly skin found on your body. However, a little sun has been found to alleviate tiredness, boost our libidos and can even ease depression. Plus, the sun’s UVB rays also aid the production of vitamin D, which helps to keep our bones healthy.

9. Movies

If you thought that the only movies that are good for us are those educational foreign films or black and white documentaries, you’d be wrong. Although these movies may be good for our minds, it turns out that comedies are good for our hearts. When we watch a movie that makes us laugh our blood vessels expand, which helps improve our blood flow. The lead researcher, Dr Michael Miller, said that watching a comedy was as good for your heart as doing "a bout of aerobic exercise."

10. Reading

Curling up with a good book and a cup of tea is bliss, but who knew that reading your favorite book can actually improve your brain health? Researchers at the University of Sussex found that reading for only six minutes can reduce your stress levels by more than two thirds; imagine how much stress could be reduced if you read the entire Harry Potter series. The study also found that reading was more effective at reducing stress than walking or listening to music.