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Hong Kong, China -- Chinese state media launched a fresh volley of articles attacking the "politicization" of Google after media reports suggest the Internet giant may soon officially pull out of China.

A Saturday editorial in China Daily, state media's English-language newspaper, headlined "China Doesn't Need a Politicized Google," began: "Google's actions show that the world's biggest search engine company has abandoned its business principles and instead shows the world a face that is totally politicized."

The sentiment was echoed by Xinhua news agency in a Sunday editorial: "Google, don't politicize yourself."

The editorials continued on Monday morning in a China Daily editorial entitled: "The biggest loser." Beginning with "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," the editorial harkened back to colonial eras in describing Google's threat to quit censoring its China Internet search engine.

"This is the convention for proper behavior for companies conducting business in a foreign country. Compliance with the country's laws and regulations is also standard practice for international businesses," the editorial said. "Despite the colonial era when a foreign company such as the British East India Company could assume an overriding power over a sovereign state, in modern times an individual foreign company never gains the upper hand when it's in trouble with a country's laws."

Should Google leave China?

Google threatened on January 13 to quit obeying China's censorship laws and possibly leave operations in China altogether after a December hacker attack that emanated from China. China has the world's largest Internet users, with nearly 400 million people online -- more than the population of the United States.

The fracas has reverberated from Washington to Beijing, and was prominently mentioned in a policy statement by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on Internet freedom.

Then, as now, the China state media reacted by suggesting Google is acting as a foreign policy arm of the U.S. government.

The China Daily Sunday editorial said: "Google's relations with the U.S. government cannot be deeper. US media has said Google was the fourth-largest supporter of Barack Obama in his election campaign. Four of the company's former executives including Sumit Agarwal, who was the product manager for Google Mobile team and is currently deputy assistant secretary of defense, are now serving the US government."

"In just a matter of a few months, Google has staged a "schizophrenic" farce of "I want to leave China" - "No, I didn't mean it" - "Yes, I do" for web users all around the world," wrote Tang Yuewei in a Friday editorial published in China Daily.

After Google's January 13 announcement, the company did appear to soften its stance, with executives publicly saying they hoped to continue operations in the country. In recent weeks, however, published reports suggest a breakdown in negotiations with Beijing and an increased likelihood the world's largest Internet company would leave the world's largest Internet market.

A report in Friday's China Business News quoted anonymous sources saying the company would likely make an announcement today that it will leave China by April 11. As of Monday morning in China, no announcement has been made.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the editorials or reports of its imminent pull-out.

For decades, health care has sparked controversy in American politics. In the 14 months since President Obama took the oath of office, the issue has been debated passionately and exhaustively. With House passage of a sweeping health care bill, CNN.com asked a variety of political and medical experts to comment.

John P. Avlon, a senior political columnist for The Daily Beast and author of "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America":

First, the big picture -- the passage of health care reform is a huge win for President Obama, a goal that has been unsuccessfully pursued by presidents since Teddy Roosevelt. But while Obama succeeded in gaining the endorsement of the American Medical Association, an influential opponent of previous health care reform efforts, this is unfortunately not a unifying win for the nation.

After a year of heated debate, the American people remain deeply divided on this legislation, and Democrats are looking at a tough re-election fight this fall. Most major pieces of social legislation in American history -- such as Social Security, Medicaid and welfare reform -- have passed with broad bipartisan support. The Democrats' political bet is that rallying the base with a win on liberals' longtime No. 1 issue will outweigh anger from conservatives and distrust of one-party rule from independent voters.

The reality is that even though the vote is over, the fight over health care reform is not. Opponents, including the attorney generals of several states, are expected to file lawsuits asking the courts to declare the bill unconstitutional. The anger of conservative activists has been stirred to fever pitch -- witness the spitting at Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver or slurs directed at Reps. John Lewis and Barney Frank during Capitol Hill protests Saturday -- and it will not go away any time soon. At a time when some people feel like losing an election is living under tyranny, the passage of this health care reform bill has taken on significance far beyond the legislation itself.

Most Americans agree there are problems with the current health care system, but despite this diagnosis we cannot agree on a cure. Sunday's party-line vote is the latest sign of a divided Washington where concepts like common ground and the common good don't seem to drive political debates. This historic win will be followed by even more discord in D.C.

Kevin Pho, a primary care physician in Nashua, New Hampshire, who blogs at KevinMD.com:

With health reform passing the House, a comprehensive overhaul of our health care system draws another step closer.

Coverage will expand to cover nearly 95 percent of legal U.S. residents. With a recent study showing that patients without health insurance have a shorter life span, coupled with the number of uninsured approaching 50 million in 2010, that is perhaps the biggest reason to cheer.

But with a critical shortage of primary care providers, these newly insured patients may have nowhere to turn for medical care. Massachusetts, the only state that offers universal coverage, suffers from some of the worst primary care wait times in the country despite having the highest concentration of doctors nationwide.

Health reform tries to help, mostly by modestly increasing both Medicaid and Medicare payments to primary care clinicians. But it's not nearly enough to convince medical students, already grappling with crippling school debt, who continue to gravitate toward lucrative specialty practice.

And what about the current primary care work force, where, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, more than a quarter of doctors reported being burnt out and 30 percent indicated they would leave the field within five years? Health reform gives few solutions to alleviate the bureaucratic obstacles and time pressures that frustrate doctors and impede their relationship with patients.

Finally, the mere $50 million allotted to medical malpractice reform doesn't help patients hurt by medical mistakes, who are trapped in a dysfunctional system where one in six receives no financial compensation, the average case takes five years to resolve, and 54 cents of every awarded dollar go to pay legal fees. These individuals deserve an improved liability system that more fairly expedites compensation and helps doctors reduce errors and improve patient safety.

Although it's worth celebrating that the United States is close to joining the rest of the industrialized world in providing near-universal health coverage, the health reform conversation must continue -- both to improve the plight of injured patients and to ensure that the millions of newly insured have access to quality primary care.

Ed Rollins, CNN senior political contributor, senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University and White House political director for President Reagan:

The Democrats did it. President Obama and Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi battered and cajoled a majority of Democrat House members to pass one of the most far-reaching and expensive entitlement programs in our history. The speaker said Sunday, "We're doing this for the American people."

It would be far more correct if she said we're doing what we think is best for the American people. According to polls, most Americans don't want this plan. But what we want certainly doesn't matter to Pelosi and those "smart Congress people" in Washington who think they know more than we do.

And telling the whole truth would be a new exercise in selling this program. Never has so much misinformation been spun to the public. We don't have to read the 2,000-page bill to find out the truth.

These are the facts, and they are not debatable. For those who have health insurance, you are in all probability going to pay more and get less. The American public is getting a tax increase -- and not just the rich ($200,000 is defined as rich). The so-called "Cadillac" health insurance plans will be taxed, and there are a variety of other taxes on businesses that will undoubtedly be passed on to consumers.

Doctors and hospitals are going to be paid less for services. Forty-six cents out of every dollar spent on medicine is paid for by you the taxpayers. Just know you're going to pay more.

Small and large businesses are going to have to pay more for their employees' health insurance plans. And every American is mandated to have health insurance whether we want it or not.

The elderly on Medicare will see their benefits changed dramatically. The biggest item being used to pay for the new program is more than $500 billion in cuts to the Medicare program at a time when 72 million baby boomers become eligible for it in the next decade. The second biggest move to pay for this is by raising and expanding the Medicare tax.

It is true some Americans will benefit. By 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill will give 19 million uninsured Americans subsidies averaging $6,000 to help pay premiums and other medical charges. This is in addition to the federal government already picking up the tab for nearly 100 million Americans through Medicare (the elderly) and Medicaid (the poor, disabled and many children).

The smart people in D.C., including the president and the speaker will be long gone (as well as a bunch of Democrats who will lose in November) when the debts come due. But our children and grandchildren will be left with the tab.

Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor, Democratic strategist, vice chair for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee, nationally syndicated columnist and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University:

Sunday night, the House passed a historic bill to reform our nation's health care system. This is a bill with ideas from both major political parties that will provide access to quality, affordable health care and reduce the federal budget deficit.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the bill will reduce the deficit by $138 billion in the first decade and will reduce the deficit by as much as $1.3 trillion in the second decade. In addition, the CBO confirms the bill both reins in wasteful spending to extend the solvency of Medicare for almost 10 years and closes the prescription drug "doughnut" hole for seniors.

If my mother were here today, Mom Jean would be proud. She died at 52. She worked every day but couldn't afford health insurance. Her employer did not offer it. When she became ill, she waited until she couldn't wait any longer, then went to the emergency room. Three days later, she was dead.

Growing up, my mom would tell her nine kids that we could not afford to get sick. She was right. We didn't have money for medicine or doctors' visits, so the only choice was to stay well. It's the same "choice" millions of families face: Stay well or else.

But not anymore. It's a day Mom Jean would love to have seen.

Thanks to Nancy Pelosi and a majority of Congress, millions of moms and dads will have access to quality, affordable health care for themselves and their children. An estimated 32 million people will be able to rest comfortably knowing that they are no longer a flu away from foreclosure because they lack health insurance. All of us can sleep a little better knowing that pre-existing conditions no longer preclude affordable health insurance. These are major victories.

This was a tough vote and an emotional debate. We can't let our exhaustion limit our celebration. We haven't had a major health care reform in nearly 50 years. What Congress accomplished this week is worth celebrating.

Jennifer Klein, a professor at Yale University who specializes in American history and author of "For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America's Public-Private Welfare State":

Since the end of the Civil War, the great strides in deepening and expanding American citizenship have come from federal government action. Like the 14th Amendment establishing a principle of equal protection of the law, the 15th and 19th amendments extending the right to vote, the Social Security Act and federal minimum wage, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, the newly enacted Health Reform Act adds to the rights of American citizenship.

The new bill will not displace private health insurers, hospitals, doctors or other institutions; it will not overhaul a market-based mode of providing actual medical services. Its passage, however, is a pivotal political moment like those landmarks that came before, because the federal government has now taken on the responsibility of establishing a national standard for economic security -- regardless of where you work or what state you live in. Insurers will have to play by national rules.

We can also place this particular reform moment in the tradition of American populism -- that is, the populism that built the People's Party in the 1890s. Mainstream media and pundits have been relentlessly characterizing opposition to health care reform as populism, springing from some deep well of American authenticity. But if we actually take seriously both the discontents and demands of the Populist Party, here's what we'd find: a populism of economic grievances that offered a direct critique of concentrated economic power.

They condemned the monopoly control by railroad companies and oil companies that restricted workers' and farmers' access to and action within the marketplace and corrupted politics. And so they turned to the federal government to counter that power.

Populists and the farmer-labor alliance of the 1890s aimed to create a regulatory state to realize economic security. In the party's Omaha platform of 1892, they put it clearly, "We believe that the power of government -- in other words, of the people -- should be expanded ... as rapidly and as far as the good sense of an intelligent people and the teachings of experience shall justify, to the end that oppression, injustice, and poverty shall eventually cease in the land."

The health care bill is a regulatory bill in this vein; it is not a social insurance bill like Social Security pensions or Medicare. It restrains the previously unchecked prerogative of the insurance corporations (like the railroad companies a century ago) to rig the market in their favor.

Both employers and insurance companies fought the passage of Social Security, lobbied for special exemptions and floated doomsday scenarios. Yet once it passed, business corporations quickly adapted. Indeed, the insurance companies decided Social Security was a tremendous boon to the sale of private insurance.

All of the pivotal liberal reforms have had their imperfections, concessions and constraints. It often took years of struggle to realize their full promise on the ground in daily life. So here we go.

Regina E. Herzlinger, the Nancy R. McPherson professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and author of "Who Killed Health Care?" and a director of a managed care public insurance firm:

The health care legislation laudably expands coverage but its costs, more than $900 billion, will put another nail in the coffin of the U.S. economy and open the door to a U.S. government-controlled health care system that gravely injures the sick along the way.

The problem is the absence of control of costs that already cripple U.S. global competitiveness. As a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. spends roughly 70 percent more on health care than other universal coverage nations, yet we cannot point to commensurate superiority in value.

The bill's cost controls rely primarily on public health insurance marketplaces, labeled exchanges, where private health insurers compete with public insurance. These initiatives don't control costs as much as shift them, to other payers, taxpayers and succeeding generations, through deficits, cutbacks and unfunded liabilities. Ultimately, absent entrepreneurial innovators and competition, they will lead to a single-payer health care system that controls costs by rationing care.

To picture their impact, imagine a government-run automobile dealership that sells cars made by Ford, Kia and other private firms, along with government-manufactured vehicles. Legislators offer voters generous subsidies, but only if they buy cars in the government-market. All the cars are virtually identical, designed by the legislature with dubious high-cost features. Legislators might, for example, cater to lobbyists from companies that make heated seats by requiring them in every car. (Remember that the health care legislation was strongly supported by the hospitals and the American Medical Association, which will surely want something in return.)

Nevertheless, the price of the high-cost government manufactured cars could be artificially reduced by passing some of their costs to future generations through unfunded deficits. Private competitors that cannot resort to deficit financing will thus be driven out of business. Ultimately, high-cost cars and absence of entrepreneurs and competition will skyrocket costs and force government to ration cars.

Although government rationing can squeeze out some inefficiency, it is hardly benign or equitable: The single-payer UK national health system, for example, has the lowest adoption of cancer drugs among the biggest five European economies and correspondingly low cancer survival rates. Many of the UK's affluent buy private insurance to avoid government stringency, such as those in other European government-controlled systems.

Of course, we must reform health care. But the present bill will inevitably increase costs, further weakening our economy. Tragically, although it will expand insurance coverage, it will ultimately result in rationed medical care for its beneficiaries.

Matt Welch, editor in chief of Reason:

The sky won't fall. It almost never does. Some might argue that's part of the problem.

Those on my exceedingly narrow ledge of this debate -- against both "Obamacare" and George W. Bush's huge 2003 Medicare expansion, in favor of individual choice in all human endeavors, and genuinely alarmed at the lousy long-term consequences of Bush/Obama bailout economics -- are indulging in a bit of "RIP USA" rhetoric after this monumentally expensive lurch still further in the direction of Washington centrism.

But the perhaps less satisfying reality is that we will continue muddling along, doubling the wager while decreasing the odds that private sector innovation will keep on producing enough surplus cash to pay for public sector mistakes.

Our new health care system will certainly be much more expensive than shamelessly advertised. Some people happy with their current health plan will wake up one day to see that it no longer exists. But there will be no telegenic apocalypse, no collapse of the public finances. Instead, there will be a daily drip of deterioration, sporadically rupturing into crises and even bankruptcies on the state and local level, followed by more federal bailouts and a steady establishmentarian drumbeat of hiking taxes to cover "structural" budget deficits.

Will citizens keep tolerating a political class that devours ever-greater resources while producing ever-crappier results? As long as government has a guaranteed revenue stream and a captive consumer base, split between two unprincipled parties who collude against would-be competitors, they may not have a choice.

Dr. Manoj Jain, a Memphis, Tennessee-based infectious disease physician, adjunct assistant professor at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and medical director at Tennessee's Quality Improvement Organizations:

Last week, I saw a 55-year-old truck driver who pleaded with me to discharge him from the hospital even though his face and scalp still bore clear signs of an active staph infection. For a decade he has had recurrent staph infections exacerbated by diabetes -- yet could not afford insulin or a doctor because he lacked medical insurance. Now he begs me to let him leave, so that he will not go bankrupt from his medical bills.

I turn to his wife who says, "I am lucky. I have metastatic breast cancer, and I am covered by Medicare."

One of every 10 patients I see do not have health insurance.

I see the uninsured patients, but then make up for my losses by increasing my charges to all my patients. The cycle continues: Insurers increase premiums, choking small businesses that then drop health coverage for their employees, leading more uninsured to come to my practice.

Not providing insurance is not free; the annual health care expenditure for an uninsured adult is $1,800, according to a Kaiser Foundation study in 2004.

And there is a downside to having nearly 50 million uninsured people in America. I look them in the eye, and I know this for a fact. They will die sooner. In my opinion, lack of health insurance is a chronic illness.

The burden of this disease is most apparent among people between the ages of 54 to 65. A 2004 Health Affairs study found that lack of insurance accounts for 13,000 lives lost per year, making lack of insurance the third leading cause of death for this group, after heart disease and cancer. If we do nothing to address this problem, by 2015 lack of insurance will account for 30,000 deaths annually in just this age group.

In all fairness the present health system provides some care for the uninsured. President Bush was technically accurate when he said in July 2007, "People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room."

But the distinction between an acute illness -- the kind that sends you to the emergency room -- and chronic disease is artificial. For example, each year, diabetes, a chronic disease, causes 20,000 Americans to go blind, 45,000 Americans to have kidney failure and 45,000 Americans to lose a limb. Lack of health insurance is the same -- a chronic illness causing recurrent acute illnesses.

I want to lean over and shake my uninsured patients and scream, "Be a Rosa Parks. Demand health care as a right -- just as others before you have marched for civil rights and human rights."

The uninsured have become second-class citizens. Nearly 30 million of them, who are the working poor, are unable to afford health insurance, and there is no one to unite them and voice their concerns.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was not silent about people's right to health care. "Of all the forms of inequality," he said, "injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane." He was speaking, I believe, of both acute care and chronic care.

Vance Harris, a primary care physician in Redding, California:

The votes have been counted but, in reality, there is no clear winner.

What is clear -- our health care system is terminally ill. Bold leadership is needed to redirect precious resources. Unfortunately bold leadership is just as scarce as precious resources.

There will be no new access to health care if we do not have physicians to provide it. We must reverse the trend that sees thousands of physicians leaving primary care. Bold leadership is needed to get the brightest minds back into one of the most challenging and demanding roles. We need motivated empowered physicians with a passion for health and the ability to care for a whole landscape of disease. We must treat decisively when possible, not just shuffle everyone down the road to a specialist.

Give us five more minutes with patients to deal with a second or even a third problem so they don't access the system twice. Give us five minutes of straight talk about the impact of lifestyle on their health. Without this, I default back to putting out fires and I write another prescription.

We need "Health" Reform not just Sickness Access Reform. We are not a healthy nation. Our indulgent lifestyle of overeating and under exercising is rapidly filling the beds needed for treating disease we can't prevent. This is exactly why we have a "Sickness Care" system. However, having the resources to treat sickness is dependent on true health care.

Our battle cry must be health, not health care reform. Seek out physicians who understand the value of health. Unfortunately, we do not have many of those doctors left. Who is going to take care of us when they are all gone?

JINAN, China – With Google expected to decide soon whether to close its Chinese search engine, students at one of the schools cited by some reports for being behind hacking attacks on the Internet giant are decidedly ambivalent.

On the surface, Lanxiang Vocational School in Jinan, capital of eastern Shandong province, would hardly appear to be the kind of place from which sophisticated attacks capable of sparking Google's threat to quit China could emanate.

Barricaded inside the strictly guarded campus, scruffy-looking students train to become everything from chefs to car mechanics. Many say they have never even heard of Google, preferring domestic search engine Baidu.

It therefore came as a surprise to many here when the New York Times reported last month that investigators believed there was evidence suggesting a link between it and the hacking attacks on Google and over 20 other firms.

Beijing has said it opposes hacking, and the school denied the report.

"We had a good laugh about it," said Mr Zhang, a teacher at Lanxiang who declined to give his full name.

"They really put our school on a pedestal," Zhang said, emphasizing that Lanxiang was only a vocational school, not a university. "If the (students) had better prospects they won't be studying here."

Still, some current and former students said they would not be surprised if there was a link to the hacking.

"I think it is very possible. The focus of the IT curriculum is very much centered on that kind of stuff," said Shao, 28, a recent graduate who said he was "nearly driven mad" by eight months in Lanxiang's restrictive environment.

"It's very controlled inside. You have to pay to charge your phone, you have to pay to use the Internet," he said.

The school's information technology program trains students "to gather information," said a teacher who declined to be named.

But hacking in China is also akin to a patriotic hobby with numerous websites offering cheap courses to learn the basics.

Why us?

The hacking attacks and Google's impatience with Beijing's insistence it censor search results triggered the firm's threat to pull out of China, which has come to a head with Beijing saying Google should obey Chinese rules even if it decides to retreat from the country.

The contrast between Lanxiang and Shanghai's prestigious Jiao tong University, which was also named in the Times report as being linked to the hacking attacks, illustrates not just China's economic and social diversity but the type of market Google could be giving up on should it quit the country.

Lanxiang's 20,000 students walk around the campus's five complexes, with gleaming facades but paint-chipped interiors, wearing chef hats or in army camouflage, under the close supervision of their teachers.

Students are only allowed out of the compound on Sundays, all guests have to be registered and tours of the school are strictly guided.

By contrast, at one of Jiaotong's campuses in the old quarter of China's financial capital, future bankers and other professionals stroll around in fashionable clothes on the leafy, open campus.

China has the world's largest online community, with 384 million users at the end of last year. But many of them are more like the students at Lanxiang, struggling to find their niche in the competitive cities of China's heartland.

It is more in places like Jiao tong, which also denied any link to the hacking attacks, where Google stands to lose the most should it pull out of China -- among relatively well-to-do and internationally minded young people.

Even if Google stays, the entire episode of Google's threatening to quit the country and having their university accused will leave an impression on many of the students here.

"There are plenty of students from other universities in China who have the capabilities to carry out the attack," said Wu, a smartly dressed 22-year-old male finance student. "Why us?"

BOSTON – Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook's estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information.

The emails tell recipients that the passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset, urging them to click on an attachment to obtain new login credentials, according to anti-virus software maker McAfee Inc.

If the attachment is opened, it downloads several types of malicious software, including a program that steals passwords, McAfee said on Wednesday.

Hackers have long targeted Facebook users, sending them tainted messages via the social networking company's own internal email system. With this new attack, they are using regular Internet email to spread their malicious software.

A Facebook spokesman said the company could not comment on the specific case, but pointed to a status update the company posted on its web site earlier on Wednesday warning users about the spoofed email and advising users to delete the email and to warn their friends.

McAfee estimates that hackers sent out tens of millions of spam across Europe, the United States and Asia since the campaign began on Tuesday.

Dave Marcus, McAfee's director of malware research and communications, said that he expects the hackers will succeed in infecting millions of computers.

"With Facebook as your lure, you potentially have 400 million people that can click on the attachment. If you get 10 percent success, that's 40 million," he said.

The email's subject line says "Facebook password reset confirmation customer support," according to Marcus.

MANILA, Philippines - A militiaman was killed while 2 others were wounded during an encounter with lawless elements in a village in Sumisip, Basilan Saturday dawn.

Members of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit (Cafgu) were reportedly conducting patrol in Sitio Telling when they were attacked by joint Abu Sayyaf and lawless groups around 5 a.m.

Basilan Provincial Police Office Chief Senior Superintendent Tony Mendoza identified the fatality as one Hadan Asarul. The wounded were identified as Ahmad Kabung and Abdulmunir Asarul.

Mendoza disclosed that the victims were relatives of Sumisip Mayor Haber Asarul. He clarified however that the mayor was not in the area at the time of the incident.

The attack was allegedly perpetrated by Abugao Bayali, commander of an MILF lost command in Sumisip. Bayali was said to be involved in a series of kidnappings in the province.

Meanwhile, the military is still verifying reports that a Cafgu enlisted personnel was also wounded in the firefight.

MANILA, Philippines – The presidential race is down to a 4-cornered fight between Sen. Benigno Aquino III, former President Joseph Estrada, administration bet Gilbert Teodoro, and Sen. Manny Villar, according to a veteran political analyst.

This forecast is based on the electoral track records, composite survey ratings, and the political machineries of these four presidential candidates.

“It’s basically a 4-cornered fight,” said Tony Gatmaitan, president of the Political Economy Applied Research Foundation, in an interview with Newsbreak.

Elaborating on his unpublished presentation for the Philippine Futuristics Society, Gatmaitan said these four candidates can still come up with “winning formulas” in capturing the presidency.

In the case of the Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer, he said Aquino must establish a big lead in the vote-rich corridor of Pangasinan to Quezon. He must also capture major cities, particularly Cebu, Davao, Naga, Bacolod, and Zamboanga.

In addition, his running mate Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas, who is from Capiz, and former Sen. Franklin Drilon, who is from Iloilo, must deliver the Western Visayas region (Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, Negros Occidental) for the Liberal Party ticket.

Contrary to what LP officials claim, Gatmaitan believes that support for Aquino is “soft” since it’s “not based on favors.”

“Middle-class support is soft. You don’t depend on money. That’s why after elections, they (supporters) usually disappear,” he said.

However, he noted that there is strong volunteerism for Noynoy, which he inherited from his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino. Backed by volunteers and the opposition party UNIDO, Mrs. Aquino almost beat President Ferdinand Marcos in the official count of the 1986 snap presidential elections. People power eventually brought her to power after the fraudulent February polls.

Erap has best electoral track record

In the case of Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) bet Estrada, Gatmaitan noted that the former movie actor has won every election he has entered—mayor in 1967, senator in 1987, vice-president in 1992, and president in 1998.

“The arithmetic is simple [for Estrada]: get 70% of provinces who voted for him the last time around in 1998,” he said. “That would be enough to win in 2010.”

Gatmaitan said he’s not surprised with the recent recovery of Estrada in the presidential surveys, where he gained 7 percentage points, apparently at the expense of Villar. (Read: SWS: Aquino, Villar in statistical tie)

“Erap has the best electoral track record [among the candidates]. People seem to be ignoring this,” he said. “Electoral track record gives an idea of the pulling power of the candidate in past contests, and is usually a dependable gauge of future performance.”

He attributed Estrada’s increase of 9 percentage points in Mindanao in the latest Pulse Asia survey to his hawkish approach to solving the separatist threats, a popular stance to take among the Christian majority in the south. (Read: Erap, not C-5, caused Villar’s survey drop)

In contrast, other presidential bets have proposed peace talks and economic development for Muslim Mindanao. Due to Estrada’s stand, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has rejected his presidential bid. (Read: MILF endorses ‘fatwa’ against Estrada)

Unlike the other presidential bets, Estrada has a hard-core and loyal following among the poor in Philippine society who make up the majority of the 50 million voting population.

However, Gatmaitan said Estrada’s new handicap is his age. Being the oldest candidate at 72 years old, “he does not click among the young anymore.” He has not won any mock polls in any college or university.

Teodoro must capture Solid North

In the case of Teodoro, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer, Gatmaitan said that “it’s not too late in the day to stitch together a winning combination,” even if he’s behind Aquino, Villar, and Estrada in the surveys.

He said Teodoro must be the “new champion” of the north, and must work hard toward capturing the support of Ilocanos, including the Ilocano-speaking voters in central Luzon.

“The Ilocanos will vote for one of their own. Teodoro is the only candidate who speaks the dialect [Ilocano] fluently,” he said.

Although Rep. Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. is supporting Villar, Gatmaitan said “Villar is not an Ilocano…and he’s just endorsed by the Marcoses.” Thus, Teodoro can still swing the Ilocos region to his side.

Aside from doing well in central and northern Luzon, Gatmaitan said the dominant ruling party must deliver for Teodoro in Mindanao. In the 2004 presidential elections, he noted that President Arroyo “covered her losses” in Luzon with “spectacular victories in Visayas and Mindanao.”

Among the 4 leading presidential bets, Teodoro is backed the strongest political machinery.
(Read: Sans NPC, NP may not get dominant minority status)

“The party machine vote is the most crucial in real politik," he said.

‘Villar must aim for good 2nd’

As for the NP standard-bearer, Gatmaitan said the winning formula is to “aim for a good 2nd (place) in most of the provinces, instead of always fighting for first place.” Villar must “conserve his energy and resources to more manageable situations.”

In addition to placing 2nd in many areas, Villar must “dominate the smaller provinces where he is strong with organization and smart money.” He said there around 20 of these provinces, such as Camarines Sur, where Villar must dominate.

Villar’s edge is his money, which he has used well in political ads. However, Gatmaitan said this advantage has been contained by the limits to ad spending during the 90-day campaign period, which the candidates presumably are following.

Just as with Aquino, Gatmaitan said support for Villar is also “soft” since his “image is contrived.” This is why Estrada has been apparently been able to win over a significant number of his supporters, especially in Mindanao.

Another weak point is where Villar comes from, Las Piñas, which, Gatmaitan added, is “not a place to rise to national prominence,” given its limited number of voters. To compensate for this weakness, Villar has projected himself as a “Tondo boy” who may become president.

As for the rest of the presidential candidates—Sen. Richard Gordon, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Olongapo City councilor JC de los Reyes, and Nicanor Perlas—they either rate too poorly in surveys, have weak or no political machineries, and their electoral track records are not as established as the four leading bets.

Gatmaitan was campaign manager of then presidential candidate Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco in the 1992 presidential elections. He was also involved in the Cory Aquino for President Movement in 1985-86 and once worked for then Sen. Gerry Roxas.

In the front offices of the trend-spotting network and online magazine TrendHunter.com, there are 15 workers wrangling 135,000 worldwide contributors -- but you'd be hard-pressed to find one filing cabinet.

Trend Hunter is a paperless office.

Founder Jeremy Gutsche tells a story about how an accountant had finally put together all the numbers on a project and offered to send a paper report on his work. When Gutsche asked for an electronic copy instead, the accountant "just started looking at me, laughing."

According to Gutsche, the accountant asked, "These are your most important financial performance records -- don't you think you should have a hard copy?" "I said, 'I really don't know what I would do with it.'"

"Buy a filing cabinet," said the accountant.

The exchange goes to the heart of a cultural divide that may explain why businesses continue to print, copy and fax more than a trillion pages of office paper each year, according to the market research firm InfoTrends.

The dream of the paperless office started way back in 1975, when BusinessWeek magazine predicted "a collection of ... office terminals linked to each other and to electronic filing cabinets."

"It will change our daily life," said one bold technology expert quoted in the article. Said another expert: "By 1990, most record handling will be electronic."

Twenty years after that unmet deadline, a national survey found that businesses have chosen to use paper printouts to archive 62 percent of important documents.

The survey of 882 companies, released in February by the content management association AIIM, indicates that most businesses believe paper documents are needed for legal reasons.

So what happened? Where is this streamlined office of the future, free of clutter and file cabinets, that was promised back in the '70s?

By the mid-1990s, the nation was actually moving in the opposite direction.

More and more workstation computers and printers contributed to a big jump in office paper consumption well into the 2000s, according to industry experts.

Before taking a hit from the recession, the estimated number of office pages printed, copied and faxed annually in the U.S. peaked in 2007 at more than 1.019 trillion, according to InfoTrends, a Massachusetts-based market research and consulting firm.

InfoTrends analyst John Shane blamed the nation's love of office printing and copying on convenience.

Many people can't bring themselves to let go of the convenience of a printed hard copy, said Shane. For some, printed paper may be more portable, and easier to read in a cramped airliner seat than reading on a laptop. Some people may find paper more comfortable and preferable to read during a meeting, instead of reading a document on a tiny smart-phone display.

"Most of what people print now is for temporary read-and-discard purposes and for transactions," said Shane. "People like to read paper. Then they throw it away. Then they may want to read it and throw it away again. That behavior needs to change if we're really going to see a paperless office."

There are plenty of motivating factors that would push managers to adopt the idea of a paperless office. Cost saving is one. Paperless-office advocates say they save the cost of paper, envelopes, postage, couriers, printers, copiers and, of course, filing cabinets.

The idea of helping the environment also might push a change in behavior, Shane said.

That's the motivation behind Gutsche's paperless office, his second such system after creating one for his previous employer, Capital One.

Three major factors will drive the paperless office movement, says Gutsche: ecological, technological and generational.

"The world's getting more obsessed with eco," said Gutsche, in this case the idea of saving paper and conserving trees. "Eventually it's going to get to a point where it's going to seem awkward when you see someone having something printed."

The paper industry argues that recycling paper and managed tree growth make using paper cheaper and easier on the environment than the cost of recycling computer components.

The technology is available to give even home-based businesses the option of going paperless.

Scanners for electronically storing documents are getting smaller and more affordable. "You get back from a conference -- you drop off 15 business cards into a little scanner and it places them all digitally," said Gutsche.

Portable computer tablets, such as Apple's upcoming iPad, are also part of the equipment of a paperless office. "As soon as I switched to a tablet PC, that eliminated the need to be walking around with a pad of paper to meetings," said Gutsche. "I can write things down immediately on the tablet."

When he's giving someone feedback on a document -- whether it's on a PowerPoint Deck or in Microsoft Word -- it's much more tedious to mark it up on a keyboard, Gutsche said. "But if you use a tablet, you're drawing right on it, so there's no real shift from what you're doing."

Next-generation e-readers and tablets have spurred interest in the prospect of a paperless magazine market.

For home offices, popular tech blogger Chris Pirillo recommends using a Web-based billing and payment system such as Freshbooks to eliminate paper created in the invoice process.

Kevin McNeil, CEO of Ontario-based Gore Mutual Insurance, said acceptance of the company's paperless office system in 2002 was "a generational thing."

More than half of his approximately 280 employees are under 35, he said.

Younger people -- especially those young enough to have grown up with home computers -- have adapted very quickly, McNeil said. Older workers took longer, but everybody was on board within six months.

"Everyone saw the benefits of being able to take care of their work faster, but young people don't want to deal with old technology. They paid more attention."

As a result, the workflow has gone from sometimes waiting days to retrieve records that were archived off site, to accessing the same files in two or three seconds -- saving time, creating efficiency and improving customer service, McNeil said.

An initial outlay of hundreds of thousands of dollars was well worth it, he said. "For every dollar that we spent on it, we saved that dollar plus another 85 cents."

Gutsche said the shift to reject all paper has already started, but Shane is more cautious in his predictions.

Although Shane does see offices in the near future reducing their printing and copying, he says, "I wouldn't call it the paperless office -- that's not going to happen for ages. But the less-paper office is coming."

By the way, that filing cabinet TrendHunter.com's accountant suggested? According to Gutsche, "it's still empty."

The city of Fargo, North Dakota, largely completed flood preparations early Thursday as a surging Red River rose nearly 3 feet in 24 hours। The waterway was well beyond its banks along the North Dakota-Minnesota line

"Thanks to our volunteers, we've been able to fill a million sandbags and place 700,000 around our city," Fargo spokeswoman Karena Carlson said early Thursday. "We're just buttoning up a lot of our clay levees and putting a few more sandbags in place and we hope to be protected up to 40 feet."

Several hundred volunteers worked with the National Guard in Fargo to fill those sandbags as the river rose.

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Fargo set a record in 2009 when the Red River hit 40.8 feet. As of 1 a.m. Thursday, the river stood at 32.54 feet, more than 14 feet above the flood stage of 18 feet and past major flood stage.
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"Fortunately, we started filling sandbags March 1st. We thought our crest was going to be the first or second week in April. It turns out our crest is going to be this week," Carlson said. "So we did it in just over two weeks."

Floodwaters are forecast to peak at 38 feet Sunday afternoon.

Last week, warm weather and rain melted snow south of Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota, causing the Red River to swell. Upstream, snow and ice have yet to melt, causing water to accumulate near the two cities.

The National Weather Service describes major flood stage as flooding causing "extensive inundation of structures and roads" and possibly the "significant evacuations of people and the transfer of property to higher elevations."

Across the river in Moorhead, Tom Holmgren spent Wednesday filling sandbags as Minnesota State University gave students time off to help with the effort.

"Most of my friends have put in at least a couple hours," said Holmgren, who said sandbagging has become a source of college pride. "I know there's a big push in just the college community that's like, 'Yeah, we're doing it. We're saving this town.'"

Meanwhile, in the Northeastern United States, utility crews made steady progress restoring electricity after a nor'easter -- a powerful low-pressure system -- blasted the region over the weekend.

About 40,000 customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut remained without power early Thursday, down from a peak of more than 500,000.

"We recognize the hardship our customers face from being without power for days," said Jeff Butler, president of Connecticut Light & Power. "We appreciate everyone's patience as we continue to safely restore power as quickly as possible."

The outages were due mostly to power lines downed by Saturday's hurricane-force winds, which knocked over trees and utility poles. At least seven deaths were attributed to the storm, authorities said.

Los Angeles, California -- Former 1980s teen movie actor and heartthrob Corey Haim died early Wednesday, authorities said.
Haim, 38, was taken to Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, where he was pronounced dead at 2:15 a.m. PT (5:15 a.m. ET), Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter said. The hospital is a mile from Haim's apartment.
Corey Feldman, Haim's longtime friend and frequent co-star, said Haim was "a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul."
Haim was in the apartment he shared with his mother, Judy, early Wednesday when he "became a little dizzy, he kind of went to his knees in the bedroom," Winter said. "His mom assisted him in the bed. He became unresponsive."
His mother called paramedics to the apartment, which is between Hollywood Hills and Burbank, he said.

A 911 call came in just before 1 a.m. PT (4 a.m. ET), said police Sgt. William Mann.
Los Angeles police Sgt. Frank Albarran said earlier that Haim's death appeared to be accidental and may have been due to an overdose.
But "the cause of death at this time is unknown," Mann said later. "He had flulike symptoms before the incident. His mother was giving him various over-the-counter medications."
The deputy coroner said Haim's flulike symptoms had been present for two days.
"We found no illicit drugs; however, we did recover four of his prescription meds at the location," Winter said, adding he does not know what those drugs were.
Haim's agent, Mark Heaslip, also told CNN's sister network HLN, "We do not think this is a drug overdose. Corey was actually going very clean in his life."
An autopsy, including toxicology tests, will be conducted Wednesday, Winter said. It is likely to be weeks before any conclusions are made public.
Haim had struggled with drug abuse in recent years, but Heaslip said he was attempting to make a comeback and had signed several contracts, including one for a reality show.
Haim was not feeling well Tuesday night and was running a low-grade fever, he said. The actor went into his mother's bedroom and asked her to lie down by him, Heaslip said. He told his mother he was having trouble breathing, and his mother told him to roll on his side, he said. He began to feel better, but at midnight he woke his mother by walking around the bedroom and then collapsed.
Asked if news of Haim's death comes as a surprise, Heaslip said, "100 percent." He said the death could have come as a reaction to medication Haim was taking as part of his sobriety program.
The actor was under the care of his doctor, who visited him Tuesday night, as well as an addictionologist, Heaslip said. An addictionologist is a doctor who specializes in treating addictions.
Haim's mother's condition was "horrible," he told HLN. "She's a wreck."
Haim's most famous role was in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys" in which he appeared with Feldman. Haim played the role of a fresh-faced teenager whose brother becomes a vampire.
In later years, the two friends -- who appeared in eight movies together -- both struggled with drug abuse and went their separate ways. They reunited for a reality show, "The Two Coreys," in 2007, but A&E Network canceled the program after slightly more than a year.
In a statement issued through his publicist, Feldman described his sadness when he was awakened Wednesday morning with word of Haim's death:
"My eyes weren't even open all the way when the tears started streaming down my face," Feldman said. "I am so sorry for Corey, his mother, Judy, his family, my family, all of our fans, and of course my son, who I will have to find a way to explain this to when he gets home from school.
"This is a tragic loss of a wonderful, beautiful, tormented soul, who will always be my brother, family, and best friend.
"We must all take this as a lesson in how we treat the people we share this world with while they are still here to make a difference. Please respect our families as we struggle and grieve through this difficult time. I hope the art Corey has left behind will be remembered as the passion of that for which he truly lived," Feldman's statement said.
Did you ever meet Corey Haim? Share your photos, story
In a 2007 interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Haim and Feldman both discussed their battle with drugs. Feldman told King that he had gotten clean, but it took Haim a while longer.
Haim called himself "a chronic relapser for the rest of my life."
"I think I have an addiction to pretty much everything," he said. "I mean, I have to be very careful with myself as far as that goes, which is why I have a support group around me consistently."
He told King that he also had lost more than 150 pounds while getting sober.
"I didn't like looking in the mirror anymore," Haim said. "I couldn't do it ... See, I hit about, my peak, about 302 [pounds]. ... And now I'm back to 150."
In 2008, Feldman told People magazine that he would no longer speak to Haim until his former co-star got sober. In a clip from "The Two Coreys," Feldman and his wife, along with two other former teen stars, called on Haim in an effort to get him to admit he needed help, the magazine said.
The meeting followed an incident in which Haim -- scheduled to film a cameo appearance in a direct-to-DVD sequel to "The Lost Boys" -- appeared on the set "clearly under the influence," People reported.
"I don't feel that he's a safe person to have around my wife and child at the moment, for a multitude of reasons," Feldman told People. Haim told the magazine in the August 2008 article that he was currently sober and said, "I will always love Corey Feldman, but I lost 105 percent respect for him and his wife."
Christopher Ameruoso, a photographer who lives in the Oakwood Apartments complex, said Wednesday that Haim had been his neighbor for at least a year. He said he last saw Haim two days ago getting into a taxi.
"He looked good," he said. "He's putting on a lot of weight."
He said Haim sometimes could be seen wandering around the complex, "looking for companionship, looking for friends."
Haim was born December 23, 1971, in Toronto, Ontario, according to a biography on his Web site. He made his first television appearance in 1982 on the Canadian series "The Edison Twins." His first film role was in the 1984 American movie "First Born."
Haim also won rave reviews for his title role in the 1986 film "Lucas." Film critic Roger Ebert said of him at the time, "If he continues to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor."

New York  -- Forbes magazine released its annual list of the world's richest people Wednesday, and for only the second time since 1995, Microsoft founder Bill Gates' name was not at the top.
This year, the title of "World's Richest" went to Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim, with a net worth of $53.5 billion.
Slim, whose holding company America Movil contains a sprawling collection of telecom assets, is the first non-American to be declared Forbes' richest person since 1994, when Japanese real estate kingpin Yoshiaki Tsutsumi held that honor. (He has since disappeared from the list entirely).
But Slim's financial edge over Gates is, well, slim, at least by billionaire standards -- just $500 million. A $1 increase in Microsoft shares, the compilers of the Forbes list noted at a press conference Wednesday, could send Gates' net worth ahead of Slim's.
Also, were it not for his extensive philanthropy, Gates would have a net worth in the ballpark of $80 billion, Forbes' Matthew Miller estimated.
Gates is the world's second richest person, with a net worth of $53 billion. Warren Buffett came in third this year, with a net worth of $47 billion.
Billionaires' total net worth rose 50 percent to $3.6 trillion. After sharply contracting the previous year, the total number of billionaires also increased from 793 to 1,011, Forbes' list showed. The number is still lower than the record 1,125 billionaires recorded in 2008.
Not only are there more billionaires than last year, but the ones at the top are even richer than last year. The top 10 billionaires have a combined net worth of $342 billion, up from $254 billion in 2009, Forbes said.
In terms of the international scorecard, the United States still boasts more billionaires than any other country -- 403, or nearly 40 percent of all billionaires. New York, similarly, has more billionaires than any city on the globe.
But America's billionaires have not rebounded from the recession as strongly as other countries' billionaires.
"The United States is not doing as well as the rest of the world in coming back," publisher Steve Forbes said.
As U.S. billionaires' dominance of Forbes' list wanes, Asian countries are seeing their ranks of billionaires swell, especially China. Mainland China has the second-most billionaires after the United States, overtaking Russia for the first time. Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and India also saw significant upticks in their billionaire tallies.
Elsewhere, Turkey's billionaire community expanded notably, jumping to 28 members from 13, while Western Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates underperformed by comparison.
As in years past, the Forbes list showed a severe gender imbalance in the world's billionaire population
Eighty-nine of the 1,011 billionaires are women. Fourteen of those female billionaires are self-made, including Oprah Winfrey, whose net worth dipped $300 million to $2.4 billion. Half of the world's self-made female billionaires are from China.
For three years running, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 25, secured the distinction of being the list's youngest billionaire, climbing to the 212th rung with a net worth of $4 billion.
On the opposite end of the age spectrum is Switzerland's 99-year-old Walter Haefner, ranked 287th.
The year's biggest winner was Brazilian minerals magnate Eike Batista, who added $19.5 billion to his net worth in 12 months, enough to catapult him to eighth place on the list, from 64th. Modesty is apparently not one of Batista's many possessions: He has vowed to become the world's richest person.

Aftershocks rattled southern Taiwan in the hours after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake shook the island, but left it relatively unscathed.

Thursday morning's quake was followed by more than 15 aftershocks, the largest reaching 4.8.

Taiwan's interior ministry reported 12 minor injuries -- nine in Kaohsiung county, two in Jia Yi county and one in Tainan county.

The quake struck about 8:20 a.m. (7:20 p.m. Wednesday ET) in a mountainous region about 25 miles northwest of Taitung, on the southeast coast, and 40 miles east of Tainan and Kaohsiung on the southwest coast.

The region includes Taiwan's Maolin National Scenic Area and is still recovering from a direct hit by Typhoon Morakot that killed hundreds in August. The typhoon dumped more than two feet of rain, causing serious mudslides in the south, including one that buried the village of Shiao Lin under 50 feet of mud.

Shuo Hong, an orthopedic surgeon in Taipei, about 155 miles away from the epicenter, felt the earthquake during a meeting at a hospital. "We were debating whether or not to run for shelter, but the hospital is safe," he said "It is built to resist a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

"It was shaking for about 20 to 30 seconds, shaking more than what we expected," Hong said.

Were you there? Did you feel it?

The Taiwan Ministry of Interior and the National Fire Agency said electricity was cut off in parts of Kaohsiung county, Jia Yi city and Jia Yi county. Taiwan's official news agency reported that a fire broke out in Jia Yi city.

Residents in southern Taiwan reported cracks in some buildings and major bridges. Train service was also disrupted in some areas, Taiwanese media reported.

Two small hotels near the epicenter that were contacted by CNN reported no damage, though the buildings shook for a few seconds during the quake.

Albert Yu, communications manager of the humanitarian organization World Vision, told CNN he was about half-way through a 90-minute trip via high-speed train from Taipei to Tainan when the quake struck. Passengers did not feel the quake, he said, but operators stopped the train and announced what had happened before inspecting the tracks for stability.

During the delay, Yu said people were calm, "opening laptops ... and chatting with people around them."

Yu said World Vision "has already been on high alert responding to the quakes in Haiti and Chile, so we're closely monitoring reports in the earthquake in southern Taiwan."

Residents in Taipei, the capital, also felt the shaking.

Earthquakes are far from uncommon on the nearly 14,000-square-mile island -- about the size of the U.S. states of Maryland and Delaware combined -- which sits across the juncture of the Eurasian and Philippine tectonic plates.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same general region in December. The island took a double hit on December 26, 2006, when earthquakes of 7.1 and 6.9 magnitude hit eight minutes apart.

The largest recorded quake to strike Taiwan was an 8.0-magnitude quake in 1920, but the worst earthquake disaster stemmed from a 7.1-magnitude quake in 1935 that killed more than 3,200 people -- followed by a 6.5-magnitude quake that killed more than 2,700 people three months later.

More recently, a 7.6-magnitude earthquake killed more than 2,400 people in 1999.

Madrid, Spain -- Authorities have arrested three Spaniards suspected of infecting 13 million computers with a program that allowed them to steal personal and financial data worldwide, Spain's Civil Guard said Wednesday.

The Civil Guards worked with the FBI and computer security firms in Canada, the United States and Spain to investigate what a Spanish official called the world's biggest network of virus-infected computers.

The suspects "copied personal and financial data of individuals, companies and official institutions in more than 190 countries," the Civil Guards' statement said.

In addition to gaining illegal access to personal and financial information, the virus would have permitted those controlling the system to mount a large cyberattack from the infected computers, a U.S. official said.

Police found computer and personal information from more than 800,000 users in a search of the computers at suspects' homes, the statement said.

The suspects, ages 31, 30 and 25, were arrested last week in Spain's northern Vizcaya province, northwest Coruna province and southeast Murcia province, respectively. Authorities did not immediately release their identities or further details about them.

The computer hacking was first detected in May by the Canadian firm Defence Intelligence, which quickly enlisted the aid of Spain's Panda Security firm and the Georgia Tech Information Security Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the statement said.

The FBI soon determined that a Spanish citizen was involved and alerted the Civil Guards. Authorities concluded that the suspects had bought virus software to use in their alleged scheme.

By December, investigators had identified practically all of the control channels for the pirated computer network and "proceeded in a coordinated way internationally to block the domains that were being used," the statement said.

The domains were mainly in two U.S. and one Spanish service providers.

In a counterattack, the suspects, "probably as an act of revenge," carried out a cyberattack against the Canadian firm investigating them. The attack seriously affected its Internet service provider and left numerous clients without connection, including Canadian universities and government offices, the statement said.

But that counterattack also allowed investigators to determine the rest of the control channels for the alleged scheme, which were finally blocked as well, except for a few small servers that controlled a relatively small number of computers.

Authorities also discovered the identity of the 31-year-old suspect, who used the alias "hamlet1917," and made the arrest in the town of Balmaseda, Vizcaya province. A search of the computers found there led to the other two suspects, the statement said.

The suspects were to appear before Judge Baltasar Garzon at Spain's National Court in Madrid because of the broad implications of the virus-infected computers, the statement said.

Authorities are investigating whether a fourth suspect, possibly a Venezuelan national, might also be involved, police said.

Concepcion, Chile -- More aftershocks rocked parts of Chile early Thursday, five days after a massive earthquake that killed more than 800 people.

A 4.9-magnitude aftershock struck near the already devastated Maule region about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The temblor came hours after a 6.1-magnitude aftershock struck near Valparaiso, raising fears that damaged buildings could topple.

More than 120 aftershocks of 5.0 magnitude or greater have hit Chile since Saturday's 8.8-magnitude earthquake, said geophysicist Don Blakeman of U.S. Geological Survey.

The disaster's death toll had risen to 802 by Wednesday, with nearly 600 of those in Maule, the National Emergency Office said. Nineteen people were missing, said Patricio Rosende, Chile's assistant interior secretary.

Despite fears from the aftershocks, crews are focused on providing aid to the most vulnerable.

Aid was flowing into some hard-hit areas Wednesday, but some residents said they still had not received food or water. Security forces also fanned out to stop looters.

See scenes of devastation

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet urged residents Wednesday to remain calm despite the shortages and lawlessness in Concepcion, Talcahuano and other areas of central and southern Chile. For the second consecutive day, she warned that looting will not be tolerated.

"Nobody can argue that taking a refrigerator is an act of survival," Bachelet told reporters. "That is simply vandalism and delinquency."

About 13,000 soldiers had been sent to Concepcion and other cities to maintain order, she said.

An overnight curfew remained in effect for the third day Wednesday in Concepcion, the scene of the worst looting. Authorities said they would take whatever steps were needed to keep order, and 35 people were arrested for curfew violations.

A military presence and citizen patrols appeared to maintain order in the nation's second-largest city, but many stores showed signs of looting.

Food and water were being distributed in Concepcion. Mayor Jacqueline Van Rysselberghe said 30 trucks of aid were a good start but not nearly enough.

Concepcion is less than 10 miles inland from Talcahuano, but the two towns suffered far different fates. In Concepcion, fatalities and injuries resulted largely from buildings that had collapsed.

In coastal Talcahuano, a tsunami roared into town about an hour after the quake. When the waters receded, large boats were left stranded inland.

Much of the port city looked as if a bomb had exploded there, with buildings reduced to rubble.

In the central city of Talca, an ancient municipality, the earthquake wiped out many older adobe structures, crushing hundreds of residents. Thursday's early aftershock struck about 40 miles north of Talca.

It was unclear what the new quake did to the already battered region.

In the seaside town of Constitucion, survivors tried to hold on to the little that remained. Saturday's earthquake flattened rows of homes, leaving a path of destruction that led to the sea.

Many had left, but Sofia Monsalve Gutierrez and Emilio Gutierrez stayed near the concrete slab that used to be their home. On Wednesday, they were searching for their 4-year-old son.

They had not seen him since he ran from their home and jumped into a boat during the massive earthquake.

"If you know my son, please keep pictures of him. I don't have any pictures left of him. It's very important to me," the mother said.

More than 100 people, many of them dressed in black, are expected to gather around a coffin Thursday to say goodbye to an old friend.

The deceased? Internet Explorer 6.

The aging Web browser, survived by its descendants Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8, is being eulogized at a tongue-in-cheek "funeral" hosted by Aten Design Group, a design firm in Denver, Colorado.

The memorial service will feature a coffin holding a "body" that has an IE6 logo for a head. Attendees are expected to eulogize the Microsoft browser by sharing remembrances, some of which have already been posted on the company's online funeral invitation.

"I feel terrible admitting this, but ... I never really liked him," posted someone who gave his name as Eddie Escher. "He had so many hang-ups, and he looked awful -- especially in his later years. But... he was always there when you needed him. You have to give him that."

Internet Explorer 6 isn't exactly dead yet, and in fact remains widely used. But in recent years, it's been eclipsed by newer, faster browsers that are better equipped to run the Web's latest bells and whistles. Google Docs and Google Sites discontinued support for the browser Monday, and YouTube will follow suit March 13.

"The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively," wrote a senior product manager in a Google blog post. He urged users to upgrade to more modern browsers.

Released in 2001, IE6 was the standard for Web surfing for most users until 2006, when Microsoft launched IE7. The most recent version, Internet Explorer 8, followed in March 2009.

IE8 commanded 22.5 percent of the browser market last month, according to NetMarketShare, an analytics firm. Despite its age, IE6 still held on to 19.8 percent of the market in February -- more than IE7. Overall, Internet Explorer remains by far the most commonly used Web browser, ahead of Firefox, Chrome and Safari.

This is not the first time someone has tried to bury Internet Explorer 6. A handful of Facebook groups are dedicated to killing off the browser, and an "IE must die" movement has circulated on Twitter.

While Microsoft would not comment on Thursday's IE6 funeral, the company has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to its latest version of Internet Explorer and acknowledges that its dated browser is no longer the most efficient way to surf the Web.

"While we recommend Internet Explorer 8 to all customers, we understand we have a number of corporate customers for whom broad deployment of new technologies across their desktops requires more planning," a Microsoft representative wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

Thursday's mock funeral was inspired by Google's decision to phase out IE6 this month, said Jon Clark, business development director for Aten Design Group.

The Web site's funeral invitation reads, "Internet Explorer Six, resident of the interwebs for over 8 years, died the morning of March 1, 2010 in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc."

The funeral and online invitation caught the attention of thousands of people with similar hopes that IE6 will eventually be obsolete, including a group of people in Iceland who are hosting an IE6 funeral of their own.

Clark said he initially expected about 30 to 50 people to attend the Denver funeral. More than 1,000 online comments and 6,000 Twitter tweets later, the company has had to move the event to a larger venue to accommodate interest.

"We certainly didn't expect the exposure we've gotten," Clark said.

So will mourners be shedding tears for IE6 on Thursday night?

"Crocodile tears," Clark said. "It's all in good fun."

But MG Siegler of TechCrunch, the technology news site, believes Thursday's service won't be the last that Web users hear of Internet Explorer 6. As many as hundreds of thousands of sites out there still support IE6 and in some cases were built specifically for it, he said.

"It's going to be a hard sucker to kill," Siegler wrote in a recent post. "But at least a funeral will provide some closure until we find the body."