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(CNN) -- What's the first thing that goes through your mind when someone says the word "data"?

For many of us, the first image is line graphs, pie charts and spreadsheets with columns and rows full of numbers that leave you bleary-eyed and a bit dazed.

But what if someone were to say data can also mean what you post on Facebook and Twitter, the ratings you gave a restaurant, the photos you uploaded to Flickr or even, perhaps, what you feel.

A bit of a reach? Not anymore.

An emerging set of tools is making it easier than ever to track and compile all sorts of "data" and display it in a way that's relatively easy to understand.

You can now point your mobile phone at a street and instantly get ratings for restaurants. Or type in your address and find reports of crimes that may have occurred in your neighborhood. It's even possible to track emotions on a national and global scale.

"Specialists from scientists to accountants have been dealing with data for decades," said Martin Wattenberg, a researcher at IBM's Center for Social Software. "What's new is that there's a whole lot more data of relevance to consumers.

"At the same time, people are generating a whole lot of data themselves."

There are several reasons why we're seeing more data visualization in popular culture and why it's becoming simpler and more innovative, experts say.

Computers and software have gotten cheaper during the past few decades, and the technology needed to build applications is now in the hands of more people.

Meanwhile, more data are becoming digital, making it easier to parse and catalog. "You have stuff available on government sites that would have only been available on paper a decade ago," Wattenberg said.

Finally, through the advent of social media applications like Facebook and Twitter, coupled with the rise of increasingly sophisticated mobile phones, a cultural shift is seemingly under way.

"People are sort of happily defining their own social networks for other people to see, and that has led people to become interested in exploring data in ways they weren't interested before," Wattenberg said.

Bruce Mau, a designer and author of several books on the subject, called the confluence of the technical and cultural changes nothing short of a "social revolution."

"We're putting tools into the hands of millions of people," he said. "More importantly, we're connecting those people."

From Darwin to health care legislation

Ben Fry's resume is a bit intimidating. He received his doctoral degree from the MIT Media Laboratory and has worked on developing visualization tools for genetic data. His Web site contains phrases like "bifurcation tool" and "microarray data."

But the work he and his peers are doing holds the possibility of clarifying difficult data. Take, for example, his project regarding Charles Darwin and the six editions of his famous book, "On the Origin of Species."

Through a visualization of carefully transcribed text from the different editions, he traced how Darwin's theory and ideas developed during his lifetime. The visualization challenges the notion that "scientific ideas ... are fixed notions," Fry wrote.

For example, Fry writes, "The phrase 'survival of the fittest' -- usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin -- instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn't appear until the fifth edition of the text."

The visualization project wouldn't have been possible if the text weren't digital. That progression -- of historic text becoming digital via projects like Google's scanning of books and people creating digital text every day -- is creating new possibilities.

"As we get away from the number stuff, it brings us closer to something that's a little more human," Fry said.

Consider the current debate about health care reform legislation, said Fernanda Viegas, also a researcher at IBM's Center for Social Software. She and Martin Wattenberg created Many Eyes, a social media Web site that focuses on data visualization.

The U.S. House has a bill. The Senate has several bills floating around. Many lawmakers have plenty of ideas on what kind of policies will work and what won't, and there are a range of numbers and statistics associated with each.

The challenge for media and designers is to "visualize those hundreds of pages of legislation, the kinds of changes people want to make, the different amendments and the different drafts," so that people can more easily understand the debate, Viegas said.

Referring to the launch of Web sites like data.gov and recovery.gov that are making heaps of data about the federal government available to anyone who wants to use it, Mau said data visualization could also help make government more transparent.

Read about the U.S. government's online "app store"

Such projects are taking root. The Dutch company Layar recently launched a smartphone application that tracks money from the nearly $800 billion Recovery Act that President Obama signed this year. It combines views of the real world with contract data provided by recovery.gov.

You, your neighborhood, your city

Meanwhile, Adrian Holovaty, a pioneer in combining data with maps, is much more occupied these days with neighborhoods, city blocks and ZIP codes.

His latest project, EveryBlock.com, provides a torrent of information culled from public databases, media sites and social media like Flickr for more than a dozen cities. It was recently acquired by MSNBC.com.

"The idea came about when I was living in Chicago and being in a very dense, thriving neighborhood and coming to the realization that there was no way of finding out everything that was happening," he said.

"That's what we set out to do: create an activity stream for your neighborhood."

Users go to the site, click on a city and filter the available information by typing in an address, ZIP code or neighborhood.

Read more about how the future of online news may be "hyperlocal"

Depending on the data currently available for the area, users get everything from restaurant ratings and business reviews to crime data, real estate listings and Flickr photos of nearby residents.

Such local data is becoming increasingly available on mobile phones as well. Yelp's Monocle feature for the iPhone 3GS shows business ratings by simply having the user hold up their phone to the street.

Citysense, developed by Sense Networks, goes one step further. Currently available only in San Francisco, California, the mobile phone application captures signals transmitted by cell phones and and builds a "heat map" showing densities of people. The company has partnerships with several carriers, and the information is aggregated via GPS signals and cell phone tower transmissions.

Tony Jebara, Sense Networks' chief scientist, said the company wants to make the application more sophisticated by segmenting the heat map along social lines. For example, in the future, college students will be able to search a city for fellow students.

Read more about how phone apps are seeking to "augment reality"

Nathan Yau, a graduate student at the University of California-Los Angeles, has an even more specific focus: the individual. He founded a Web site, Your Flowing Data, that helps people chart their lives using Twitter.

Using a Twitter account, you send a message to Flowing Data, and over time, you can visualize your choices, habits and behaviors. Essentially, Yau said, the project uses data as a personal narrative. "You're using visualization to show important parts of your life," he said.

Wattenberg says the new data visualization tools can help draw connections from the private narratives to the way the world behaves. "Personal data can be aggregated to form a global self-portrait," he said.

For instance, Facebook unveiled a "gross national happiness" index for the United States using users' status updates. Using two years worth of data, Facebook rated "positive" and "negative" words among American users' updates to come up with the measure.

The index said some of the happiest days for Americans during that period were holidays like Thanksgiving and July Fourth. Two of the unhappiest were the days Heath Ledger and Michael Jackson died.

"There's a nice of scaling that happens when you can zoom up from the personal level up to the level of looking at the globe as a single thing," Wattenberg said. "It's very powerful."

(CNET) -- Verizon Wireless customers will soon be able to get their hands on the much anticipated Google Android phone called the Droid.

The companies officially unveiled the device at an event here. Like most smartphones of its class, the phone will cost $199 with a two-year contract. And it will be available to consumers starting November 6.

Customers can pre-register for the device now. John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said at the event that the device could be pre-ordered, but Verizon's public relations team said he mispoke, and users can simply put their name on a list to get more information about the device.

The device offers voice-activated search that allows users to speak a query and the Google-powered search engine will deliver Web results or results from the device such as contacts, music, and photos. The voice search also works with the new turn-by-turn directions for Google Maps. It allows users to view geographic information, such as My Maps, Wikipedia entries, and transit lines on the map.

Stratton said he had used the navigation service just yesterday on a trip to Arkansas. He said he simply spoke "gas station" into the phone and it quickly found nearby gas stations. When he clicked on one of them, it activated the turn-by-turn directions and he was given spoken directions right from the phone.

While the new Droid is loaded with lots of cool Android apps and has access to the more than 10,000 applications available in the Android Market, it does not have many of Verizon's branded services.

For example, Verizon's VCast music service is missing in this version. But Stratton said that will be added eventually. And the phone does not have Verizon's VZ Navigator, since it comes bundled with the Google Android navigation.

The good news is that some of the services, such as navigation that Verizon charges for on devices running VZNavigator, will be free to users of the Droid.

In terms of the specifications, they are exactly what had been expected thanks to multiple leaks about the product. It has Android 2.0, a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It has a Webkit HTML 5 browser, and it's powered by a 550MHz processor and a 1,400mAh lithium ion battery offering 6.4 hours of continuous talk time and up to 11 days of standby time.

And as expected, the device is about 4.6 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 6 ounces. And it has a 3.7-inch, 16:9 touch screen with 480x854-pixel resolution. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro-USB port, and comes with a 16GB micro-SD card.

iPhone contender It's clear that the Droid is targeted at people looking for an alternative to the iPhone. And Verizon is planning the biggest media campaign it has ever launched for the device.

But Stratton said the company is not going to specifically target the iPhone in its marketing. As a sort of pre-Droid ad campaign, Verizon spoofed iPhone advertising.

"We had some fun here with the iPhone stuff," he said. "The teaser was to wake up the market. And I've got to give Apple credit. They revolutionized the industry as a new player and that's extraordinary. But we have to show that the iPhone is not untouchable."

Instead, Stratton said that Verizon will focus its advertising more on what the Droid can do rather than what other devices can't do.

Current Analysis analyst Avi Greengart said he is impressed with the new device, and he expects it to shake up the market.

Specifically, he said it's important that the device matches the iPhone in terms of onboard storage. And even though it doesn't come with Verizon's VCast music service, it does work with Amazon's music and media service. And users can also manually sync their unprotected iTunes music or other MP3 music to the device.

But at least for now, there is no automatic media synchronization. Stratton said that is coming, but right now the iPhone trumps the Droid in terms of ease of use in getting music and media on the device.

But the other key aspect of the device and services offered is the fact that the navigation service is bundled into the device and data service for free.

Sprint Nextel has bundled its navigation service into its data services for a while, but so far it hasn't become a competitive advantage. And phone maker Nokia has spent billions acquiring companies and developing its mapping services, and it doesn't offer its navigation service for free. But the Android 2.0 operating system could change that.

Motorola and Verizon are also offering an accessory that mounts the phone in the car. When the phone is in this mount, it recognizes it is in the car and it provides a car-friendly user interface.

"This is going to be disruptive to other smartphones and personal navigation devices," Greengart said.

But the big question is whether or not consumers will flock to the Droid. Several new smartphones are launching right before the holiday season, including additional new Android devices and Research In Motion's new BlackBerry Storm 2, which is also exclusively on Verizon's network.

(CNET) -- For the past few years, holiday cheer has been in short supply for electronics retail chains.

Just two years ago, around this same time, we saw the bankruptcy and closure of CompUSA. Last year it was Circuit City spiraling toward extinction right before the crucial holiday shopping period.

Though both brands have been since revived, mainly as online discount destinations, their time as serious competitors with physical stores is over. Looking back, it's clear their demise was brought about by a languishing consumer economy, but also by the unrelenting competition from uber-discounters like Wal-Mart and the convenience of Amazon.com.

Wal-Mart competition

Wal-Mart, a giant among brick-and-mortar and online retailers, has been able to repeatedly deal crushing blows to rivals with its hard-to-beat pricing, particularly at what's seen as a crucial time of year for retailers, between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Though the overall economy is in nowhere near the terrible shape it was a year ago, will Wal-Mart be able to drive even more brick-and-mortar electronics retailers into the ground?

The traditional start of the holiday shopping season is the day after Thanksgiving, known as "Black Friday," when retailers attempt to get into the black on their yearly balance sheets.

With fewer brick and mortar retailers that deal solely in electronics this year, Wal-Mart has already begun another sustained attack on pricing this holiday.

Though Walmart.com has about half the number of unique visitors to its site than Amazon during any given month, according to Compete.com, the company hopes its name will continue to attract people pinching pennies while looking for gifts this year.

"Everyone expected that consumers would be going to Wal-Mart in stores or Walmart.com because people migrate to value when the economy gets difficult," Raul Vasquez, CEO of Walmart.com, says.

"We've had a higher percentage of people buy products than even a year ago. We do feel very good about the holiday."

With an average of 10 million to 15 million visitors per week to its site during the holiday shopping period, and 10 million on Thanksgiving Day alone, according to internal counts, Walmart.com is taking advantage early.

The online destination for the world's largest retailer is specifically ratcheting up the pressure on its electronics competitors, even weeks before Black Friday.

For the last few weeks, for example, it's begun offering 97-cent shipping fees on all gadgets except iPods, as well as discounted bundles of what are expected to be the most popular gift items this year: things like the Nintendo Wii --anticipated to be one of the top sellers by retail trend analyst site Retrevo -- plus games and two controllers, digital cameras and cases, as well as Netbooks and USB drives.

But Wal-Mart's chief competitors are following suit. Best Buy, Wal-Mart's only real remaining national brick-and-mortar rival in consumer electronics, did better than Circuit City, but still barely survived the bleak holiday period a year ago.

Amidst what former CEO Brad Anderson called "the most challenging consumer environment our company has ever faced," Best Buy saw its earnings drop 77 percent and was forced to offer thousands of buyouts.

Though things are looking slightly better this time around, Best Buy is having to slash prices early, too. Starting two Sundays ago, the retailer began offering some deeply discounted flat-screen TV prices. And beginning the day after Thanksgiving, the regular Black Friday bonanza should proceed as usual.

Though Black Friday sales can be counted on to pad the quarterly profits, just how much will be an important indicator of the health of brick-and-mortar electronics retail.

Early starts

To take full advantage of consumers' seeming powerlessness to resist great deals, most retailers have looked beyond Black Friday -- the day itself -- to get people in the door or poking around on their Web sites.

"Black Friday is one of our top sales days," said Walmart.com's Vasquez. "Thanksgiving is a big day, the day after, and then usually one of the Mondays in December ... It's a bit of a cage match between those."

Amazon.com, in great financial shape going into this holiday, also looks at the entire month-long period as a potential for big sales.

"The whole week (of Thanksgiving), starting Monday is a really big week," said Amazon spokesman Craig Berman. That's when Amazon started rolling out its most attractive holiday pricing on electronics.

Every day this week there will be timed sales, with new items discounted between 10 percent and 60 percent. From hard drives, watches, digital picture frames to notebook PCs, limited numbers of items will be discounted for four-hour periods, or until the stock is gone.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, often called "Cyber Monday," is traditionally a day when e-tailers chop prices and make a big holiday discount push, but Amazon has found it also does well even as Christmas approaches.

Thanks to procrastinating gift givers, even on days without a focus on lowered prices, Amazon fares well. "Historically, our busiest days happens in mid-December, close to one week out from the free SuperSaver Shipping deadline," said Berman.

Smartphone shopping

Ultimately, they're all angling for even the slightest edge to get consumers online or in stores, no matter what day it is. One of the ways they're doing that is by embracing a new trend popular with many consumers. This year, almost all major electronics retailers have a mobile applications that enables shopping or doing price comparisons directly from a smartphone.

Amazon has apps for both the iPhone and BlackBerry that are mini versions of the site, allowing shopping, price comparison, order tracking, and more. Best Buy, Target, eBay, and others (see here for a full list) have gotten on the iPhone app bandwagon too with similar mobile sites, though it's not yet clear if they're boosting business.

Wal-Mart has an iPhone app too, specifically for gadget shoppers. It lets users take a photo of a wall at home, input how far away the couch is, and the app will recommend what size TV to buy and the manufacturers that sell it.

Walmart.com says it is already seeing results. Without divulging specific numbers, TV sales growth this year has been "in the very high double digits," according to Vasquez. "It's outpacing our site growth."

If that dreamy blind date seems too good to be true, or the guy at the bar with a martini and a pencil-thin moustache looks a little sketchy, the truth about them -- or at least some of it -- could be found on your phone.

Designers at a pair of companies say their new applications for smartphones can tell you in real time whether someone is married or divorced, has a criminal record, has filed for bankruptcy or has any number of potential red flags in their past.

Using Google to search for information on a prospective romantic partner is standard practice for many single people in the digital age. But these new apps, combined with the growth of smartphones and wireless networks, now allow for quick background checks on the go, potentially before a date is even over.

The lighthearted iPhone apps Stud or Dud? and Are They Really Single? -- from online information broker PeopleFinders -- have far-reaching potential for convenient snooping, and not just on potential dates. Their makers say that in today's society it's increasingly important to check out people's backstories.

"There are more and more strangers in people's lives," said Bryce Lane, president of the PeopleFinders Network. "There's this digital awakening where people are in online communities -- they're meeting people they don't have information on.

"We think that's a problem. Yes, there are a lot of opportunities to meet great new people, but a lot of people are misrepresenting who they are."

Meanwhile, another data company, Intelius, is offering a similar app called DateCheck for the Android and BlackBerry, with other platforms in the works.

Marketed with the slogan, "Look up before you hook up," the application has such features as a Sleaze Detector, which checks for criminal offenses, and $$$, which uses property ownership records to gauge someone's financial assets.

DateCheck offers some less-serious information, too. Its Interests feature trolls for information on educational background, social networking activities and professional history while Compatibility compares the subject's horoscope and astrological sign with the user's.

With Stud or Dud? the user punches in as much information as they have on their subject. Results can range from past addresses, real estate ownership and business and professional licenses to bankruptcies, evictions, criminal records and what the company calls "possible relationships."

Are They Really Single? scans marriage and divorce records.

Accurate searches also require a date of birth, which may be tricky to extract tactfully from someone on a first or second date.

Lane said all information comes from public records that are available to anyone. But PeopleFinders, which has been collecting data for more than 20 years from sources all over the United States, pulls it all together into one database.

"We're hoping they're fun apps and they're helping you learn about the people that you come into contact with," Lane said. "They're easy to use and we're pretty hopeful that they're going to be popular."

Both PeopleFinders apps will only return results on people 18 or older.

Advocates of online privacy say they see some problems.

Paul Stephens, a director at consumer group Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, said the main danger lies in thinking you've dug up dirt on someone when you've actually found someone else.

"If you only have limited information about the individual, it's going to be culling from various sources that may or may not [find] the person you're trying to investigate," said Stephens. "You need to take the information with a grain of salt."

While the iPhone apps are aimed at dating, the information is bound to be used in other ways, he said.

"In the case of a person not dating somebody, it's not that big a deal," said Stephens. "But we've had cases where somebody might not get a job because of an inaccuracy [from online information brokers], so it does become a big deal."

He said his group, based in San Diego, California, would like to see more organizations regulated by the same federal laws that monitor fair and accurate credit reporting.

Lane, whose PeopleFinders Web site offers detailed background checks on people for a fee, said he's providing a public service by making legally available information more accessible.

"We feel very strongly that it's educational, it's informative, it's actually helping the public," he said. "It's what you don't know about people that could potentially hurt you."

He said the applications clearly show when results include multiple people and tell users that the more detail they provide, the more likely they will get an exact match.

Lane said anyone who asks can be removed from the company's database, but he suggested that most of those who do have something to hide.

"Criminals ... of course they don't want this information out there," he said.

In a column on technology Web site Gizmodo, editor Rosa Golijan described the PeopleFinders apps as fun and joked that it was depressing to find out how many of her ex-boyfriends were "duds."

She also noted at least one apparent glitch, when Are They Really Single? told her that a former high school sweetheart might be married to his grandmother. (In fairness, the app did say it was unlikely.)

Golijan dismissed privacy concerns, saying most of the info on the apps could be found "from a few clever Google searches."

"I don't think there's reason to panic about privacy due to this app," she said. "The same information and searches have been available for a long time."

Washington -- Two people without invitations crashed President Obama's first White House state dinner, the U.S. Secret Service said Wednesday.

The Secret Service confirmed a Washington Post report that the couple who crashed Tuesday night's dinner were Tareq and Michaele Salahi. The Post described the couple as polo-playing socialites from northern Virginia.

A Secret Service checkpoint "did not follow proper procedures" to determine if the two were on the guest list for the dinner, said Edwin M. Donovan, a Secret Service special agent, in a statement.

Playing down any security threat, Donovan's statement said: "It is important to note that these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of security, as did all guests attending the dinner."

The incident represents a security breach for the White House at the Obama administration's biggest social event to date. More than 300 guests, including Cabinet members, diplomats and Hollywood celebrities, attended the dinner in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"The Secret Service has tasked our Office of Professional Responsibility with conducting a comprehensive review of the incident," Donovan's statement said.

Video footage of the dinner showed the couple walking past journalists into the event. On Wednesday, Michaele Salahi's Facebook page included photos of the couple at the dinner, including two pictures with Vice President Joe Biden and another with Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, who was identified on the page as "Ron" Emanuel.

The couple's names did not appear on the guest list distributed Tuesday by the White House.

In an e-mail to CNN, Mahogany Jones, who identified herself as a publicist for the Salahis, said the couple had "full clearance to attend the state dinner."

Fran Townsend, a homeland security adviser to former President George W. Bush, said the incident likely involved a breakdown at the "perimeter" security for the event, which is the first checkpoint that guests encounter.

Lying to the Secret Service could bring a felony charge, Townsend said.

MUMBAI - India marked the first anniversary Thursday of last year's militant attacks on Mumbai with a show of security and ceremonies to honour the 166 victims killed in the deadly rampage by 10 Islamist gunmen.

The day of remembrance came as India continued to push Pakistan, where the gunmen are believed to have trained, to crack down on extremist groups, amid lingering concerns about lax homeland security.

Police paraded through Mumbai and abseiled down tall buildings, showing off new hardware, including armour-plated vehicles and amphibious vehicles bought as part of a 1.3-billion-rupee (27-million-dollar) upgrade package.

Prayers and vigils are also planned at several attack sites where the victims, including 25 foreigners, were killed in strikes that have been compared to those on September 11, 2001 in the United States.

Faith leaders and diplomats from some of the countries that lost nationals on Wednesday lit candles at a synagogue, with calls for unity to fight and defeat extremism around the world.

The two luxury hotels attacked, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and the Trident-Oberoi, both took out full-page newspaper advertisements, paying tribute to those who died and thanking guests, staff and the security services.

"We offer our heartfelt gratitude," the Taj advert ran. "Today we take a step forward. Tomorrow we'll take many more."

The heavily-armed gunmen arrived in Mumbai undetected by boat before hitting their targets, which also included a popular tourist restaurant, Jewish centre and the main railway station.

The bloody, 60-hour siege, which was beamed live across the world on television, shocked the country, sparked a public backlash against Pakistan and led to an international investigation.

Seven suspects were indicted in a Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Wednesday in connection with the attacks. They all denied the charges.

Two men detained by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Chicago are also being probed by Indian authorities for their links to the atrocities, blamed by India on the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Two Pakistanis were also arrested last week in Italy on suspicion of having sent money to people implicated in the attacks and are being held in custody.

The only gunman captured by Indian security sources, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, confessed to his role in the killings during a high-profile trial in Mumbai, which could result in him receiving the death penalty.

The first anniversary comes after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the United States this week in which he called for the world to pressure Pakistan to rein in extremists.

New Delhi accuses Islamabad of harbouring the LeT, which is suspected of training, equipping and funding the gunmen, with the support of elements from the Pakistani military and intelligence.

The attacks ended peace talks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours and rivals, with India vowing not to return to the table until all those responsible were brought to justice.

Singh, who welcomed the indictment against the LeT suspects, has called on the world to "use all its influence to curb the power of terrorist groups" in Pakistan, which has seen a rise in Taliban-linked violence in recent months.

Pakistan admitted under international pressure earlier this year that the gunmen left for Mumbai from the southern port city of Karachi.

Security has been improved in Mumbai in the last year after criticisms that the police lacked men, equipment and training to respond effectively.

Luxury hotels have introduced airport-style checks on bags and visitors and there is a visible, armed police presence at key locations, while private security firms have seen an upsurge in business for corporate clients.

Elite commandos are now stationed in Mumbai and local police have set up their own rapid reaction units.

But experts and a number of Indian newspaper editorials say more needs to be done to prevent another attack, with coastal security a priority.

MANILA - Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. arrived in Manila Thursday night and will be detained at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) pending the resolution of multiple murder complaint he faces in connection with the massacre of at least 57 people in Maguindanao last Monday.

Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera and Presidential Adviser on Mindanao Affairs Jesus Dureza brought Ampatuan Jr. from General Santos City on board a private plane, and they arrived at the Villamor Air Base past 7 p.m..

Devanadera said inquest proceedings were held in General Santos City where Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu and Ampatuan Jr., represented by lawyers, participated.

"Natapos po ang inquest na ginawa namin doon sa GenSan. Dumating ang mga Mangudadatus at saka kanilang witnesses. Pareho silang may abogado. And the parties agreed that Mayor Unsay [Ampatuan Jr.] will be detained at the National Bureau of Investigation," said Devanadera in short press briefing held at the tarmac of the military air base.

State prosecutors would be evaluating whether formal charges will be filed against the suspect. Devanadera said they can hold Ampatuan Jr. for 36 hours.

Ampatuan Jr. was seen without handcuffs, but held on both sides by two men, apparently NBI agents.

"He is properly restrained," said Devanadera.

Meanwhile, upon arrival at the NBI main office, Ampatuan Jr. was no longer presented to media. He was immediately taken to the NBI jail.

Ampatuan Jr. was first brought by helicopter to General Santos City from Maguindanao’s capital town Shariff Aguak after he was turned over by his brother, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Zaldy Uy Ampatuan, to Dureza.

A witness has told Al Jazeera Manila bureau that Ampatuan Jr. ordered the killing of relatives of Vice Mayor Mangudadatu who were going to file a certificate of candidacy for governor of Maguindanao on his behalf. At least 27 journalists and 2 lawyers who joined the group were also summarily executed.

Ampatuan Jr., who was going to be his rival for governor, claims he is innocent.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The main suspect in Monday's massacre of 57 persons in Maguindanao province faces multiple murder raps after a judicial investigation was conducted on Thursday, but insisted he was innocent.

"The taking in, inquest, and the subsequent filing of charges against Datu Unsay Ampatuan is just the beginning. The government will be relentless in bringing to justice all responsible for the gruesome Maguindanao massacre. President Arroyo wants all the culprits punished without fear or favor," the Palace said in a statement after the suspect, Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., was brought to General Santos City for judicial investigation.

Ampatuan Jr. turned himself in to Presidential Adviser Jesus Dureza at the Maguindanao provincial capitol after security forces took over the building before dawn Thursday morning.

A waiting helicopter brought the mayor to General Santos City where he was received by Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera. Prosecutors, led by Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, conducted inquest proceedings in General Santos City, radio dzMM reported.

In a brief interview, Ampatuan insisted he did not orchestrate the horrifying killings in his home province of Maguindanao, where his family has been a dominant political force for decades.

"There is no truth to that," he told reporters at Awang Airport in General Santos.

Philippine government officials had been negotiating since Tuesday with Ampatuan's family for him to submit to questioning.

The massacre occurred after about 100 Ampatuan gunmen allegedly abducted a convoy of aides and relatives of a rival politician, Esmael Mangudadatu, plus a group of journalists.

The victims were snatched as they were traveling in a six-vehicle convoy to nominate Mangudadatu as the opposition candidate for provincial governor in next year's national elections. They were shot a short time later and dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name.

Fifty-seven bodies have been recovered so far.

Other suspects in the massacre named

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ronaldo Puno on Thursday revealed that the entire Ampatuan clan will undergo investigation for their alleged role in the murders of 57 people, including journalists and supporters of a rival political clan in Ampatuan, Maguindanao last Monday.

In a press conference, Puno said that aside from Ampatuan Jr., the DOJ has listed four other people as suspects in the crime, including Maguindanao police provincial director Senior Superintendent Abusana Maguid, Shariff Aguak police Chief Inspector Sukarno Dikay, a certain SPO2 Bakal, and an Inspector Diobingan.

He said the four were implicated in the murders based on the statements of alleged survivors of the massacre.

Puno said Dureza had given an ultimatum to the Ampatuan clan to surrender Ampatuan Jr. for questioning about the massacre or face the full force of the law.

Puno said law enforcers secured the provincial capitol of Maguindanao and the municipal halls of Shariff Aguak and Ampatuan and were disarming a total of 347 militiamen in the province to prevent further bloodshed.

No appeasement, negotiation

"There has never been any appeasement. There has never been any negotiation. The families of the suspect have been told what our position is on the matter. As an example, if Datu Unsay Ampatuan would not have boarded the helicopter to bring him to General Santos City and then to Manila today, the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police were prepared to take action and exert all physical force to make sure that the suspect would be brought to the inquest," he told reporters.

Puno said the Department of Justice (DOJ) will also investigate other members of the Ampatuan clan for possible complicity in the murders. "We have to address this crime very, very forcefully...That is not the end of the investigation until we find and bring to justice all of those who in one way or the other involved in the conduct in this heinous crime," he said.

At the start of the press conference, the DILG chief said the national government had to remain mum about some of the details of the government's investigation until after they were conducted. He said this included getting sworn depositions of four survivors of the massacre who were under the care of the Mangudadatus.

He said the National Police Commission has passed a resolution withdrawing the deputization of all local government units in Maguindanao. This means that the governor and municipal mayors in Maguindanao will no longer have direct supervision of police forces in their jurisdiction, he said.

"The general direction is to remove all policemen in Maguindanao and transfer them elsewhere," he said.

Philippine National Police chief Jesus Verzosa said he would ask the national government to be allowed to replace the entire police force of Maguindanao.

The military said most of the Ampatuan family's militiamen alleged to have carried out the massacre were still on the run.

"Most of the armed group that perpetrated this crime have run away towards the mountainous area of Maguindanao," military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner told ABS-CBN. "That is where we are conducting our pursuit operations."

The ruling Lakas Kampi CMD coalition late on Wednesday expelled both Ampatuans from the party.

Ampatuan Jr's brother, Zaldy, governor of an autonomous region on Mindanao that includes Maguindanao, was also expelled.

MAGUINDANAO- A man who says he was a witness to Monday's massacre in the southern Philippines has told Al Jazeera how he was ordered to kill members of a rival political clan - including women and children - and to make sure no evidence was left behind.

The witness, who identified himself only as "Boy", said he was among more than 100 armed men who held up a convoy of political campaigners and journalists before taking them to a remote mountainous area where they were then killed.

Speaking to Al Jazeera's correspondent Marga Ortigas, "Boy" said the orders had come directly from Andal Ampatuan Jr., a local mayor and a member of a politically powerful local with close ties to the Philippines president.

"Datu Andal himself said, he said to us: anyone from the Mangudadatu clan - women or children - should be killed... We don't ask why, we just followed orders."

At least 57 people died in the massacre, believed to be the worst ever politically-related killings in the Philippines.

"Boy", who is now in hiding fearing his life is in danger, said all of the women in the group had been raped before being killed.

Their bodies were then dumped in mass graves that had already been dug out in advance using an excavator.

He said that Ampatuan Jr had also ordered that the reporters accompanying the convoy should also be killed to cover-up what had happened.

Warning

"That too was ordered by Datu Andal… because they didn't want any evidence left behind," he said.

"Boy" said the whole process had lasted little more than an hour before the gunmen had to abruptly abandon the scene following a warning that members of the military were nearby.

"We didn't get to finish, which is why the excavator was left there," he said.

"Someone called and said soldiers were on their way. I feel they have connections among the soldiers."

Speaking with his face covered to his identity, "Boy" said he was supposed to have been an active participant in the massacre but did not actually kill any of the victims.

He said he would have been shot if he had tried to intervene.

"I was just standing there," he said "I was all alone… I could only leave it up to my conscience."

LONDON - Residents in flood-hit northwest England began returning to their homes Monday but police warned it could take years to recover from the devastation left by the heaviest rainfall on record.

Eighteen schools were closed as local authorities struggled to restore basic services across the county of Cumbria, where many areas were cut off at the weekend after swollen rivers brought down bridges and turned roads into canals.

All Cumbria's 1,800 bridges had to be checked after several collapsed, one of them on Friday, taking with it a police officer whose body was later recovered and 16 remained closed on Monday.

About 60 people were still sheltering in temporary accommodation, but owners of many of the 900 homes and business affected in the worst-hit town of Cockermouth, on the edge of the Lake District, were being allowed back.

Brian Trengove, who part-owns an Indian restaurant in the market town, refused to be rescued from the property when the floods hit Thursday, staying in the flat upstairs and surviving on a "very large pot of curry."

He told the BBC he expected a huge clean-up, saying all food and drink would have to be thrown away, "all the furniture is ruined, I imagine the walls will need replastering, the whole place will need to be rewired."

Residents were warned to expect further heavy rain overnight of up to 50 to 100 millimeters (1.9 to 3.9 inches) and possibly more flooding.

"Our teams are monitoring the situation closely and we may issue further flood watches and flood warnings. People should stay vigilant and be prepared to take action if necessary," the Environment Agency's David Jordan said.

Police chief Craig Mackey meanwhile warned the "highly unusual" levels of damage caused to infrastructure across the region may take years to repair.

"What will distinguish this from many other floodings across the country is the length of time the recovery phase will take. We will be working with our communities for weeks, months, and in some cases years to come," Mackay said.

"It is clear that this was an unprecedented event in terms of the flooding, the level of flooding."

The insurance bill for the floods in Cumbria and southern Scotland was estimated at between 50 million to 100 million pounds (55-110 million euros, $82-$165 million) by the Association of British Insurers.

Treacherous conditions were also seen across other parts of Britain, including in Wales, where the search continued for a 21-year-old woman feared swept away by a swollen river on Saturday evening.

Ireland has also seen some of its worst floods in decades, and Prime Minister Brian Cowen was due to visit some of the worst-hit areas in the south, Midlands and west of the country.

About 18,000 homes and businesses in Cork, Ireland's second largest city, are expected to be without a water supply all week after one of the main pumping stations was engulfed by flood water.

Many schools in the city remained closed, the university has cancelled all lectures and the local council was driven out of their offices by flooding.

GENEVA - Almost 60 million people have been infected by HIV and 25 million people killed by causes related to the virus since the epidemic started, according to new data published by UNAIDS on Tuesday.

While prevention programmes have helped to cut infection rates by 17 percent over the past eight years, the total number of people living with HIV continued to rise in 2008.

By the end of 2008, a total of 33.4 million people or 20 percent more people were living with the epidemic compared to in 2000.

"The continuing rise in the population of people living with HIV reflects the combined effects of continued high rates of new HIV infections and the beneficial impact of antiretroviral therapy," said UNAIDS in its annual report.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected region, as it is home to 67 percent -- 22.4 million -- of those currently living with the human immunodeficiency virus.

In South and South-east Asia, 3.8 million people are now living with the infection, added UNAIDS.

The comparative figure for Eastern Europe and Central Asia is 1.5 million.

UNAIDS observed that in these regions, the epidemic was "experiencing significant transitions."

While Asia's epidemic was once concentrated among risk groups such as sex worker, drug users and homosexuals, it is now "steadily expanding into low-risk populations to the sexual partners of those most at risk."

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the epidemic was once characterized mainly by transmission through drug users, but it is now increasingly moving into "significant sexual transmission."

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has huddled with his war cabinet for what officials said could be the final time before he decides whether to dispatch tens of thousands more US troops to Afghanistan.

Top officials at the two-hour meeting on Monday night, the ninth gathering of Obama's national security team to review Afghan strategy since August, included Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The meeting began just before 8:15 pm (0115 GMT Tuesday) and lasted around two hours.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters that a decision on troops could be announced as early as next week.

"It's not going to happen this week," he said. "Obviously the first possible time would be some time next week."

National Public Radio, citing unnamed sources, said that the president plans to make the announcement in an address to the nation on December 1.

An administration official said Monday could "possibly" be the last time Obama will consult his team before making an announcement, though he cautioned "that's not something we can say definitively."

Attending the war meeting via videoconference were two men very much at odds over the decision: General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, and Karl Eikenberry, US ambassador in Kabul.

McChrystal has asked for around 40,000 more US troops, cautioning that the intensifying Taliban insurgency could win out if he does not get the reinforcements within a year.

Currently, there are 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

In diplomatic cables leaked earlier this month, Eikenberry -- a retired army general who commanded US forces in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007 -- warned against sending more troops until Afghan President Hamid Karzai gets a grip on the rampant corruption in his administration.

While Karzai has earned the opprobrium of the international community since a fraud-tainted election in August highlighted the massive levels of official graft in Afghanistan, his inauguration speech Thursday generally won praise.

He pledged to clean up corruption, eradicate drug production and trafficking, work towards ending a Taliban-led insurgency, and see that Afghan security forces can take over from international forces in five years.

Clinton, attending the inauguration, sought to turn the page and hailed the speech as a "new starting point" for the war-torn country.

But some of America's allies in the war, now in its ninth year, are no longer willing to wait for the tide to turn: Canada and the Netherlands have announced plans to pull their troops out in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Gates in a speech in Canada Friday said US forces could provide a "sustainable" replacement in the south for the departing Dutch and Canadian troops.

But he called on other allies to step forward, saying the Afghan effort will "require more commitment, more sacrifice, and more patience from the community of free nations."

Those tensions now look set to dominate a December 3-4 meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

But Obama also faces opposition to the dispatch of more troops from members of his own Democratic Party who question the wisdom of deploying additional soldiers.

Polls show the American public is becoming increasingly disillusioned with the war, and some fear a deepening military commitment could dominate his presidency, as Vietnam did Lyndon Johnson's in the 1960s.

Some Democrats have called for a "war tax" to offset the cost of any troop build up, amid widespread concerns about the size of the US federal deficit.

But the military strongly favors a so-called surge, and Obama risks being denounced by Republican critics as weak on national security if he refuses McChrystal's request.

More than 800 US soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan and the number of casualties is rising. October was the deadliest month for US forces there since 2001 and another four US fatalities were reported Monday.

Do you feel hospitalization costs are out of whack? Here are three areas you can control:

Your health insurance
You must absolutely be insured. Richard Ferrer, CEO of Makati Medical Center, says, “The best way really to save on hospital bills is to get insurance, either from PhilHealth or from private medical insurance firms.”

Savings Tip #1: Use your PhilHealth benefits. At the very least, make sure your employer remits your PhilHealth contributions regularly. If you are self-employed, be a voluntary member. This is one government service that you won’t regret paying for (and at just P100 a month, it’s definitely affordable).

PhilHealth lowers your hospital bills by covering a portion of your room and board (P200 to P400 per day, depending on the hospital category), drugs and medicines (from P1,500 to as much as P16,000, depending on the hospital and the type of illness), lab fees (P350 to P14,000), professional fees (maximum of P600 to P2,500), charges for the operating room (P385 to P3,490), and the surgeon’s and anesthesiologist’s fee (maximum of P16,000 and P5,000, respectively). One other important benefit: if you are giving birth, you shave off around P15,000 for the operation.

Savings Tip #2: Get private insurance. Dr. Oscar Torio, who runs private clinic Sta. Lucia Polyclinic and is affiliated with a number of provincial hospitals, says, “Secure medical insurance, that is, an HMO. Big and some small private companies provide this benefit to their employees.”

Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are becoming the popular alternative. One of your company benefits will more likely include participation in a group plan. It’s one of those benefits that you may take for granted but can actually save you a lot of money. Dr. Oscar says, “This is the business of HMOs to offer big savings—eventually that is—to the insured individual in case he or she in the future would ever need hospitalization for a reasonable monthly fee deducted from their monthly salary, a large percentage of the hospital fee is then shouldered by these HMOs.

If you’re not a member of an HMO, however, join one. The primary advantage is that there are no cash outlays, unlike traditional health insurance plans, which require you to pay first and then claim for reimbursement (although newer plans now offer no cash outlays for select hospitals). There is also greater emphasis on preventive care, hence the annual trips for free physical exams and full coverage for out-patient benefits like doctor’s consultations and lab fees, which are not fully reimbursable under a traditional plan.

It is also a little cheaper than a traditional health plan. Insular Life’s plan with a private suite for the 31-35 age group, for instance, has an annual premium of P15,930 versus P23,464 for Blue Cross’s standard plan with a suite. But limits for HMOs are much lower: P150,000 for this specific plan of Insular Life as against P3,000,000 for Blue Cross. Other HMOs limit coverage between P100,000 to P200,000.

Savings Tip #3: Consider getting a traditional health insurance plan. Of course, premiums can be more expensive. Select Access, an insurance plan with maximum coverage of P1.5 million from Blue Cross with no cash outlay for select hospitals, for instance, costs P27,479 if you’re in the 21-40 age bracket. But it pays more. Room and board and miscellaneous hospital expenses, which include drugs and lab fees, are covered as charged, for example. The limit is P180,000 for the surgeon’s fee and P60,000 for the anesthesiologist’s.

If you are relatively young and healthy, you can get by with an HMO, but as you grow older and your health risks increase, getting a traditional health insurance plan makes a lot more sense. Besides, the premiums you pay now may pay off huge when you need medical care the most. Richard explains, “It is better to amortize payments through an insurance company than to pay everything during emergencies.”

Savings Tip #4: Stay within your network. The other advantage for a traditional health insurance plan is you typically have more flexibility in choosing your own doctor and hospital, unlike with an HMO that forces you to avail of service providers within your HMO’s network. This means that if you are an HMO member, make sure everyone who will be treating you (surgeons, anesthesiologists, radiologists, pathologists) participates in your HMO. You also have to know which hospitals are accredited by your HMO. Otherwise, you’ll pay out-of-pocket for out-of-network providers.

However, if it’s an emergency, your HMO may probably reimburse you. So carefully check your plans exceptions and exclusions.

Your hospital
Even if you have a health plan that fully covers room and board, you still want to make sure you are within your maximum coverage. Membership in a plan is not a license to spend on health care benefits on a whim.

Savings Tip #5: Choose a more reasonably priced hospital. Your choice of hospital of course should not be based on how affordable the room rates are but do make that one of the key factors for your decision. Don’t always equate fancy rooms with the quality of care. If another hospital provides the same quality for a more reasonable price, then go for it. Ask for room rates and choose one that fits your budget. You can also opt for a training hospital. “You could choose to be admitted to a government hospital that is primarily a training hospital which offers a substantially lower hospitalization rate,” says Dr. Oscar.

Once you do pick the hospital, there are various room options to choose from. Private rooms, of course, provide the most ideal comfort and privacy, but even private rooms vary in rates. Choose a smaller-sized room with the same amenities and save hundreds if not a few thousands of pesos. A standard 14-sq.m.-private room at The Medical City, with a TV, telephone, fridge, and bench bed costs P2,100. Upgrade to a bigger 24-sq.m.-room with a sofa bed and you’ll pay P3,300 per night. Throw in the works (sofa bed, dresser, waiting sofa, lounge, coffee table, dining table, TV and DVD player, fridge, phone, microwave oven, and Internet access) for the Presidential Suite and pay P15,000 a night.

Savings Tip #6: Switch rooms. You will be charged for the operating room and other hospital department services based on your room rate on the night before your operation. So if you are staying at an expensive suite, expect to pay more. So check in at a lower-priced room the night before your operation and just move to a better and more expensive room right after.

Savings Tip #7: Time your stay. If you want to avoid an extra, unnecessary stay (and save one day off your room and board), get your schedule right. Your doctor will tell you when your surgery will take place. Talk to your doctor about your preference. Ask to be scheduled first or at the earliest time possible to so you can get out of the hospital quicker. Alternately, ask to be scheduled in the evening so you just have to check in the morning of your operation, not the night before.

Savings Tip #8: Check your bill for errors. Hospital staff can make mistakes, including errors in your bill. Before you automatically pay your bill, make sure you thoroughly review the details of your itemized bill. You might be charged for services you did not receive. You can consider doing a log of all tests, medications, and treatments during your stay, or ask a companion to do it for you.

Savings Tip #9: Bring in your own medicines. Expect to pay more for medications that you can buy at cheaper prices outside. You can bring in and use your own medicines. “Hospitals routinely allow patients to purchase medicines outside their premises. The considerable savings more than offset the burden of having to go outside and buy them,” says Dr. Oscar.

But make sure you inform the hospital staff, who should administer the drugs themselves. Richard explains, “For in-house patients, we do the dispensing because if not, we will not be able to guarantee the safety. It will open us to risk.”

As for bringing in lab tests done outside the hospital, Dr. Oscar says it can be cheaper “because bigger hospitals have bigger overhead costs to maintain than small clinics, thus the higher expenses for the same medical procedures.” If your own doctor recommends an outside clinic that may be less costly, then that is fine. But be selective in doing so as there is a possibility the hospital might not recognize the results. And certainly don’t do it without your doctor’s go signal. “It’s not simply a matter of cost because then the question is the reliability of the results. And if there is a difference, it will be very small. It will be better to go to the hospital for the tests,” says Richard.

Your doctor
We often hold doctors with such high esteem—and rightly so—but we risk accepting everything they say, and charge, without question.

Savings Tip #10: Negotiate with your doctor. “By all means haggle,” says Richard. Professional fees aren’t set in stone. In fact, while they may have standard fees, doctors do adjust fees as they deem fit. Health plans have limited coverage so it pays to negotiate. And if you’re not insured at all, then negotiating becomes very critical.
Dr. Oscar explains, “Here in my locality, some patients undergoing elective surgery are forthright enough to ask the surgeon for professional fee discounts citing shortage of cash. Though some doctors tolerate this practice, some also tell patients that they don’t encourage it.” Certainly there’s no harm in trying.

MANILA - Corruption and lack of transparency in the Philippine government's procurement process has led to unnecessary increases in public spending on information technology, IT market research firm Springboard Research revealed Thursday.

Springboard Research vice-president Michael Barnes said the lack of transparency discourages major IT vendors from bidding for government projects, which could lead to higher IT spending for government.

"The key challenge in the Philippine market is the lack of transparency and visibility. Lack of transparency enables corruption. That means not fully leveraging the spending because it is not going where it is supposed to go. That's stating it in the most euphemistic way possible. It's corruption, which happens in most growth markets not just the Philippines," Barnes said in a press briefing in Manila.

He also noted that for some foreign-funded projects, only IT vendors from the lending nation would be considered. "What happens is there is an issue of market access. If a foreign government or NGO is funding the project, the project bids may skew towards the companies or technology providers from that country. That is an area where transparency needs to improve so that access will improve," he said.

Barnes said implementing policies that encourage transparency in the government procurement process would mean fiercer competition among providers and more savings for government.

"The benefit of having more IT suppliers getting access to the Philippine market means improved efficiency in terms of the actual transactions. Better competition leads to lower prices. If the vendors don't have to pad their prices for these inefficiencies, that means that they get the same margins but charge less," he said.

Gerry Lim, Hewlett Packard public sector sales director for Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), said clearer rules on government procurement would help IT vendors know which projects to focus on and prioritize. "We would be more efficient. We don't need to bid for a project that takes five years to bid...[if] you can bid for it in six months. It costs less for us compared to a project that takes three years to bid," he said.

Research conducted by Springboard on public sector IT opportunities in the Philippines said IT vendors who want to deal with the Philippine government face three major challenges, which are:

- continuing complexity and ambiguity in the procurement process;
- poor record in implementing scheduled projects; and,
- difficulty in winning large foreign-funded or NGO-funded projects

It also identified at least two Philippine government IT projects that were tainted by allegations of corruption. These are the $330 million broadband network contract between the Philippines and China's ZTE Corp, and the $28.8 million poll automation contract between the Commission on Elections and Mega Pacific Consortium.

The $330 million National Broadband Network project between the Philippine government and China's ZTE Corp. was financed through an Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan from the Chinese government. The project was initially awarded to ZTE Corp., which is China's largest listed telecommunications vendor. President Arroyo later scrapped the contract amid allegations that Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo received kickbacks from ZTE.

On the other hand, the 2004 poll automation contract was nullified by the Supreme Court due to irregularities discovered in the bidding process. The Office of the Ombudsman, however, overturned the recommendations of its field investigators and cleared Abalos, the Comelec commissioners and Mega Pacific of criminal charges for lack of probable cause.

Public IT spending to hit $580-M

Research conducted by Springboard on public sector IT opportunities in the Philippines showed that the government spent about $349.2 million on IT initiatives in 2007, which is 21 percent of the estimated $1.6 billion Philippine IT market size for that year. More than half (52%) of the Philippine government's IT spending was on hardware, 27 percent was for IT services, and 21 percent was for software.

The study said IT spending by the Philippine government is estimated to have reached $390 million in 2008 and is further expected to reach $580 million by 2011. It said government IT spending is heavily centralized at the national government level, with local governments controlling only an estimated 7 percent of spending.

Barnes said the Philippine government spent most of its IT budget in the past years on the education sector, followed by defense, healthcare, utilities, taxation, social services and transportation.

He also noted that the Philippines has a history of decentralized IT spending, usually initiated by government agencies and local government units.

"There's a history of agency-led IT initiatives that tend to be isolated or even not well-coordinated across agencies. Part of that is actually geographic. The Philippines is an archipelago with a lot of islands, so this disjointed IT spending is not cultural but geographical," he said.

He added, however, that there has been some improvement in centralizing IT initiatives and procurement in government.

Lim said some technology trends "actually need more centralization" so that the Philippines could spend less on IT.

"Because of the economies of scale, the government can actually leverage its size and share its infrastructure. One advantage of government is that it can centralize acquisition and then standardize the platforms, environment and strategies [among agencies]," he said.

Poh Chuan Tan, HP-APJ director of the Public Sector division, said discussions among Philippine government officials showed "a greater drive towards improved efficiency."

"What we are doing is taking our experience from other countries to the Philippines, how we manage our infrastructure, how we deal with green IT initiatives, we share these with government. HP is in a good position to do that," he said.

Foreign IT investments in RP to increase

Barnes said the Philippines is in a unique position to benefit from increased IT spending in the region due to the economic downturn in the United States. He added that the emergence of technology trends such as cloud computing allows local IT talent to service other markets.

"The beauty of cloud computing is that it effectively lowers the barriers to entering other geographic markets. There are loads of IT talent and software development talent here and one of the challenges in a growth market constrained by limited resources is how to actually sell or deliver those solutions. How do you get them out and expose them to the market where the demand is there?" he said.

Barnes said there is increasing recognition that government should deliver IT-related investments in key areas such as broadband access. "Broadband, in particular, is an area where investments will continue and will have to continue. It's a fundamental infrastructure layer that's needed not just in Metro Manila but in rural areas. Without that access to broadband, which should be consistent, reliable and affordable, the benefits of e-government or healthcare information or cloud computing will not be available," he said.

MANILA - Symantec Corp. on Tuesday assured companies that computing on the cloud is both safe and reliable amid concerns raised by Microsoft Corp. on customers' data privacy.

In an interview, Symantec Philippines systems engineering manager Richard Velasco said Symantec leverages on Software as a Service (SaaS) expertise to provide companies with solutions that match business objectives to deliver maximum benefits. He said the company invests approximately 15 percent of annual revenue into research and development to ensure the quality of its products and services.

"Our cloud strategy allows companies to work with Symantec in implementing any cloud storage deployment model which suits their specific requirements," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

Velasco said Symantec's Online Backup Services offer reliable data protection via multiple, expertly managed, secure, and reliable SAS-70 type II certified data centers. To help ensure data is kept confidential, he said all data is encrypted with a 256 bit AES encryption algorithm using an encryption key that is protected by a customer specified private passphrase.

"Only the customer and an optional third party escrow service have access to the passphrase," he said.

Microsoft recently released a "white paper" this month that said shifting to software being hosted online as services in the Internet "cloud" brings enormous economic potential as well as serious questions about protecting data. It said companies should know where their data is sitting in the cloud and be guaranteed that they dictate who accesses it and when.

"We want to take the initiative in regard to our position on privacy in the cloud," Microsoft senior director of privacy strategy Brendon Lynch told AFP.

The cloud computing trend gained momentum during the economic crisis, letting businesses save money by essentially renting applications hosted online instead of buying, installing and maintaining software on company machines.

Microsoft has responded to the trend with "client plus cloud" offerings that combine traditional packaged software with features hosted as services online.

"The next generation of cloud computing has enormous potential to create new jobs and economic growth," Lynch said. "Cloud computing is a very significant change; it provides unprecedented scalability and flexibility."

Consumers and businesses need to be assured that their online data is guarded by "robust" privacy policies and infrastructures safe from intruders, according to Microsoft.

Cloud computing typically requires companies hosting services to have data centers in various countries and time zones, raising challenges of dealing with varying regimes, police agencies, and laws, Lynch said.

Velasco said Symantec's latest Cloud Storage solution, Symantec FileStore, has set the new industry benchmark* in performance scalability for cloud storage solutions, far exceeding the previous #1 published result by NetApp.

He said he expects more applications and services to be delivered via the cloud, especially as the hybrid environment matures.

"In fact, we recommend that potential users move IT services to a cloud computing model in a phased, planned approach while carefully considering their deployment model, along with potential challenges," he said.

Symantec’s cloud storage strategy is three-fold:
- Deliver Symantec hosted services for securing and managing information for consumers and enterprises.
- Provide Symantec infrastructure software and professional services to enterprises and service providers building massively scalable and highly automated cloud computing environments.
- Optimize Symantec software and hosted services to enable customers to derive maximum value from their architecture through innovative hybrid deployment models.

"Symantec will continue to bring together an ecosystem of products, services, and partners that will help businesses secure and manage their information. We’ve been integrating new and acquired technologies into the Symantec portfolio to make our solutions stronger and more innovative. We are committed to continue doing this in 2010," Velasco said.

NEW YORK - Rupert Murdoch has spent months complaining that Google is ruining the newspaper business, and now he wants to do something about it.

But, his proposal is a gamble, and one that could hurt News Corp instead of helping it.

Murdoch is considering removing News Corp's news from Google's Web search results, and is talking to Microsoft Corp about listing the stories with its Bing search engine instead. Microsoft would pay for the privilege, sources have told Reuters, but it was not clear how much.

If Murdoch pulled this off, he will likely be followed by other newspaper publishers looking for ways to make money when all the old ones are waning in the digital age.

Newspaper owners resent Google because the Internet company makes money from the advertisements that it displays next to news search results.

News Corp's proposal is a way to get a cut of the action. Risks include destroying ad revenue most news websites depend on if traffic goes down because Google users can't find the stories. It's also not clear how regulators would feel about such a move.

"You're immediately cutting off audience," said Jeff Jarvis, media blogger and author of the book "What Would Google Do?"

Google brings as much as 14 percent of incoming traffic to News Corp's U.S. news websites, including the New York Post and Fox News, Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay estimated.

If News Corp blocked access to Google, he wrote in a note to investors, it would hurt only News Corp.

Many people find their news on Google, which has 65 percent of the U.S. search market according to comScore. Newspaper publishers whose websites depend on advertising sales want lots of visitors, and need Google to supply them.

Google provides news organizations about 100,000 clicks a minute, said company spokesman Gabriel Stricker. "Each of those visits offers a business opportunity for the publishers to show ads, win loyal readers and sell subscriptions," he said.

Making Microsoft's Bing search engine the only way to look for news would slice away visitors and lower the amount of money news websites could charge advertisers.

There is little chance people will abandon Google, which has become such a giant that its name is also a verb.

"Consumers do not expect search engines to be exclusive," Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk wrote. "If they can't find something through search, it may as well not exist."

Web suicide?

Microsoft declined to comment, but in theory would like partnering with News Corp to increase Bing's share of the lucrative search advertising market at Google's expense. Microsoft had a 10 percent share of the U.S. search market in September, according to comScore.

Some shareholders worry Microsoft might pay more money to News Corp and publishers than the privilege is worth.

"I don't want Microsoft to throw a lot of money toward News Corp, and I don't know why News Corp would do this to themselves," said Kim Caughey, senior analyst at investment fund Fort Pitt Capital Group, which holds Microsoft shares.

There could also well be U.S. government scrutiny over an exclusive deal between News Corp and Microsoft, or any sort of joint action by news publishers, at the expense of other Internet companies or consumers.

News Corp declined to comment, and sources close to the discussions emphasized talks so far are ideas, nothing more. Nine of the largest U.S. newspaper publishers also refused to comment.

Other U.S. publishers, if they joined in, would feel more pain because they are far smaller than News Corp and depend on ad sales more than anything else, analysts said.

"It's nothing short of suicidal," Jarvis said.

Risking suicide might not seem so crazy to publishers. Many people say they face creeping death as readers drop print subscriptions and ad revenue falls.

As many deal with looming piles of debt, they must consider some radical moves after laying off thousands of workers.

"They cannot survive at the scale they are accustomed to online unless they can find a new economic model," said Tom Rosenstiel, head of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

"If it works, Google might say, 'wait a second, it's very important for us to maintain our market share of search'," he said. "Google has an interest in the news industry surviving."

Cartel

Betting on that is risky.

"The only way such a strategy would hurt Google in our view is if all of the major newspapers and the major news sources including the AP and Reuters were to agree to a watertight cartel," Lindsay wrote in his Bernstein note.

Jarvis agreed. "It would be a mosquito bite on the elephant's butt," he said.

Also, consumers could complain about media companies choking off access to news, something that would spark ire from Congress to the White House, analysts said.

It could carry the whiff of collusion among news outlets to fix prices, something publishers fear being accused of.

"None of this sounds to me to be pro-competitive or efficient," said David Balto of the Center for American Progress, a former Federal Trade Commission policy director.

One possible outcome of News Corp threatening to drop Google could be detente: a common way for publishers to get paid for news that search engines from Google to Yahoo make available to readers, said Outsell analyst Ken Doctor.

"I don't think the endgame for anybody here is to expect that Google's going to get turned off... although you never know," he said.

MANILA – After being named the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year, Efren Peñaflorida is expected to gain more accolades for his “Kariton Klassroom,” a pushcart education program which gives Filipino youth an alternative to gang membership.

Upon his return from the United States, Peñaflorida will be conferred the Order of Lakandula by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde announced in a statement.

The Order of Lakandula is one of the highest honors given by the Republic of the Philippines. It is conferred on those who dedicate themselves to the welfare of society, perform meritorious political and civic service, and lead lives worthy of emulation.

“President Arroyo joins the entire nation in congratulating Efren Peñaflorida for having been named CNN Hero of the Year… Efren has indeed proven that any individual can help make a difference in the world. He has also shown the world the best in the Filipino,” said Remonde.

“Let each one of us unleash the hero within us by helping the next person as Efren said,” he added.

Peñaflorida and his group, the Dynamic Teen Company, won the Bayaning Pilipino award for their heroic work in bringing education to poor children in Cavite.

The group later began the “Kariton Klassroom,” a mobile classroom that brings around all their teaching materials to the different areas they service. Since 1997, more than 10,000 volunteers are helping educate more than 1,500 kids in depressed areas in Cavite.

Hero within

Peñaflorida received the CNN Hero of the Year citation at the “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute” held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood Saturday night (Sunday in Manila).

He bested nine other contenders from different countries after getting the highest number of online votes. More than 2.75 million votes were cast for 7 weeks, the CNN website noted. More than 9,000 nominations were sent in by viewers.

Peñaflorida received $100,000 to continue his work with Dynamic Teen Company, according to CNN. He earlier got $25,000 for being included in the top 10 CNN Heroes.

In his acceptance speech delivered before 3,000 people, Peñaflorida encouraged the crowd to unleash the “hero in you.”

"Our planet is filled with heroes, young and old, rich and poor, man, woman of different colors, shapes and sizes. We are one great tapestry," Peñaflorida noted. "Each person has a hidden hero within, you just have to look inside you and search it in your heart, and be the hero to the next one in need.”

MANILA - The massacre of at least 46 people in the southern Philippines has exposed a brutal culture of guns, greed and money that for decades has poisoned the nation's political system, experts said Tuesday.

The murders in the province of Maguindanao on Monday are feared to be only the first of many killings likely ahead of next year's national elections, when posts from village chiefs to president will be up for grabs.

"This explosion of violence arises whenever there is an election," said Samira Gutoc, one of the leaders of the Young Moro Professionals, a group helping the government in peace talks with armed Muslim groups in the south.

Indeed, dozens of people are killed each election season in this impoverished and often lawless Southeast Asian nation.

Local political warlords have for generations competed for political power and the accompanying business riches that government posts offer.

These clans are widely known to control private armies, which carry out assassinations and counter-attacks against rivals.

The proliferation of over 1.1 million unlicenced firearms, most of them in the hands of rebel groups or paramilitaries, contributes to the general lawlessness in many remote areas, according to police.

In one high-profile murder in the run-up to congressional elections in 2007, a hired assassin gunned down a member of parliament from a northern province on the steps of a Manila church as the politician attended a wedding.

All in all, 121 people were killed in that polling season, according to national police statistics, slightly lower than the 148 who died in the 2004 national elections.

But while the problem plagues the entire country, experts say the situation is particularly volatile in Maguindanao and other parts of the far southern island of Mindanao, where a Muslim insurgency has raged for decades.

"Politics in Mindanao is about ownership of power. Public office is perceived as a personal, clannish thing -- a birthright, and they would spill blood for it," Gutoc said.

She said she expected more violence in the fallout from Monday's massacre, with relatives of those killed likely to carry out vendetta killings, called "rido" in the local dialect.

"Retaliation is a natural course of events," she said.

At least 46 people were murdered as they accompanied the wife of local official Esmael Mangudadatu to file his candidacy for governor of Maguindanao, as he bid to end the decades-old control of a rival Muslim clan.

The military said 100 heavily armed men under the control of his rival, Andal Ampatuan, seized the group and later shot them.

Forty-six bodies have so far been found, police said.

The military said the Ampatuans were the prime suspects in the massacre.

Abhoud Syed Linga, executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro Studies and an expert on clan fighting, said the revenge culture complicates the Muslim insurgency, which has claimed more than 150,000 lives since the 1970s.

"Some rido are sustained for generations," Linga said. "The retaliation and counter-retaliation involve the whole family or clan."

The vendetta killings, he said, are the "consequence of the absence of justice" for a perceived wrong.

"Among Muslims the value of justice is strong, to the extent that it becomes a duty for family members to work for justice and reject oppression," he said.

Amnesty International said the killings underlined the danger facing civilians across the entire country in the lead-up to next year's elections.

"The government must prohibit and disband private armies and paramilitary forces immediately," said Amnesty's deputy director in Asia, Donna Guest.

MANILA - The death toll from the savage political massacre in Maguindanao rose to 46 on Tuesday, as President Arroyo placed the area under an indefinite state of emergency.

Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesman Chief Superintendent Leonardo Espina told reporters in Manila that 24 bodies had been recovered on Tuesday, on top of 22 that had been found on Monday.

Regional police commander Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna described a grisly search operation along an unpaved road in the isolated rural village of Saniag, saying 17 bodies had been pulled from just one grave.

"They were piled on top of each other. It looked as if they were buried hurriedly," he told reporters from the scene.

The scale of Monday's massacre, as well as the targeting of apparently unrelated people, has shocked and deeply angered the country.

Fourteen of the victims were women and some of them were journalists with no apparent links to the clan war, the police and military said when the death toll stood at 22.

PNP chief Jesus Verzosa, who flew to the south to supervise the investigation, said he feared the death toll could rise with several other members of the kidnapped party of more than 40 people still missing.

"We still have to check one other suspected mass grave," he added.

Journalists on the scene said a mechanical digger was emblazoned with the name of the Maguindanao provincial governor, Andal Ampatuan, whose bodyguards had been blamed by the military as being behind the massacre.

Map showing Cotabato City and the provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, which were placed under a state of emergency by President Arroyo on November 24, 2009.

'Indefinite' state of emergency

Police on Mindanao island pulled bullet-ridden bodies from shallow graves in this remote farming area after gunmen allegedly employed by a local political chief abducted then shot dead a group of rival politicians and journalists.

As thousands of troops fanned out across the ultra-tense Maguindanao province, President Gloria Arroyo declared a state of emergency for the area that would allow curfews and road checkpoints to be imposed.

"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," Arroyo said on national television.

"No effort will be spared to bring justice to the victims and hold the perpetrators accountable to the full limit of the law," she said at the start of a special cabinet meeting to discuss ways to control the violence.

The Maguindanao provincial police chief was sacked.

Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno said investigations would be completed within a couple of days and arrests made.

"There are no sacred cows," he told television. "It is going to be a direct investigation of the crimes committed. We have some information about specific names, not just those who ordered this thing, but also those who committed it."

President Arroyo also placed the provinces of Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City under emergency rule on Tuesday.

"There is an urgent need to prevent and suppress the occurrence of several other incidents of lawless violence," Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told reporters.

The said areas will be under an indefinite state of emergency, which gives the military and police wide powers of arrest and detention.

Crisis management committee

Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on Mindanao affairs, told the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) that Mrs. Arroyo has instructed him to act as head of a crisis management committee that would oversee military and police operations in the three areas.

Dureza assured that there would be no warrantless arrests as he clarified that a state of emergency declaration "does not suspend any existing laws."

He said the military and the police have been ordered to disarm all residents in the three areas who are holding unlicensed firearms, including members of private armies affiliated with political clans.

"Holding of firearms without authority should be addressed through normal law enforcement. It (the massacre) has put this issue up front. The government has to do what is necessary," he said.

Dureza said he is setting up base at the Philippine Army's 601st Infantry Brigade headquaters in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat.

Clan war

Military officials said the dead included Genalyn Tiamzon-Mangudadatu, who was on the way to file the nomination of Esmael, her husband, to contest the governorship of Maguindanao against Datu Andal Ampatuan, the head of a powerful local family.

Ampatuan has been elected governor of Maguindanao three times previously, always unopposed, although he resigned from the post earlier this year, apparently to circumvent term limits on elected officials.

One of his sons is the governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, an area which covers six provinces, and the family is politically allied to Arroyo.

None of the Ampatuans made any coment to local or foreign media.

Esmael Mangudadatu, Genalyn's husband, told radio that four people who escaped the massacre in Maguindanao province were under his care. "They will come out at the right time, they are safe with us," he said.

The election process for the May 2010 national polls began last week with the filing of candidacies for more than 17,800 national and local positions.

Elections in the Philippines are usually marred by violence, especially in the south, where security forces are battling communist rebels, Islamic radicals and clan rivalries.

The southern Philippines is riven by clan rivalries, including one between the Mangudadatus and the Ampatuans. Many politicians and elected officials in the region maintain well-equipped private armies.

Torkham, Afghanistan -- Sabar Mina is cloaked in a light green shawl tinged with dirt. She is holding an empty flour sack that she plans on filling with firewood.

Her eyes are soft and kind, but they bear the signs of exhaustion. There's a reason for that. Instead of going to school, the eight-year-old walks an hour to work.

All day long Sabar takes items back and forth between two of the most dangerous countries in the world, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Normally she smuggles flour from the Pakistan side where she is from. Pakistan has a ban on exporting food items to Afghanistan because of a spike in food prices, so flour is a hot commodity right now.

Once over the border Sabar gathers and carries firewood to take back from Afghanistan. Her job is hard and sometimes dangerous.

"When we bring the flour the Pakistani police stop us and they hit us, beat us," she said.

But that is nothing compared to one of the other dangers of the job. Sabar was working the border with her younger sister when a suicide bomber blew himself up killing several people. It was the second terror attack in three months on this border.

"When the bomb exploded I was on the Afghanistan side with my sister." She said: "We were crying and then we ran away to the Pakistan side."

But it hasn't stopped her or her sister from working. There are hundreds of children just like them. One charitable organization there estimates 300 children per day work the border at Torkham.

Some like Sabar carry whatever their small frames can carry, often hoisting it on their heads or backs.

Those with wheelbarrows push piles of scrap metal, square cans of oil or luggage. Women, children and the elderly can hitch a ride as long as the small driver has the strength to push them and as long as they are paying customers.

"If someone gives [it to] us, we will bring it for him," Hazrat Ali said. He is small, but tough. He works like a man all day long but he is just a boy of nine-years-old.

Sometimes he gets frustrated when he can't carry everything. "I need more power to do this. I am not strong enough," Ali said in a forceful tone fit for a man.

Tens of thousands of adults three times his size walk across the border everyday but businessmen rely on children like Ali because the border police generally let the youngsters come and go without much hassle and because they are cheap labor.

Most of the children tell us they are paid about 20 cents per trip, sometimes less.

UNICEF helps support organizations set up to help these kids at the border. The aid workers know they cannot just demand all the children stop working and go to school.

Some of the children live with their families in caves. Every single penny they make makes a difference in the family budget. So aid workers make deals with families, community elders and religious leaders to allow the children to drop into education centers for part of the day, and they also get immunizations that will help keep them healthy.

There is also a loan program. Families can take a loan with no interest to start a business. If the family takes the loan they must agree to take their child out of work and put him or her into school full time.

So far, the group says more than 300 children have been placed in state schools. But it has not been an easy task.

The aid workers did not want to be identified or have their organization identified because of a death threat from the local Taliban. The Taliban accused the group of going against Islamic law. But a deal has been struck in which the Taliban is informed of what the organization is up to.

Meantime, children as young as five continue their trek back and forth through the checkpoints unable to attend classes because their parents just can't afford to let them.

As they work we ask the children what they would do if they didn't have to do this for their family's sake.

Sabar thinks for a moment. "I want to have an easy job. A job where nobody hits us or hurts us."

Hazrat Ali has other aspirations. "I want to be an engineer or a teacher," he said.

But when asked how he would do it since he can't go to school, he replied quickly in a matter-of-fact tone, "I will grow up doing this job. I would like to go to school. I am helpless. I have to do this work."