PHIVOLCS calms fears of Taal eruption after photos posted on FB

Source: www.yahoo.com.ph

Chief government volcanologist Renato Solidum assured the public that Taal Volcano was not erupting after tourists in Tagaytay reported seeing a fire inside one of the craters. Solidum said that there was no seismic activity monitored that would indicate an impending explosion.

One traveler posted pictures of a glowing Taal crater on GMANews.TV's Facebook fan page.

Contacted by GMANews.TV by phone late Saturday night, Director Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said lava flows will always be accompanied by seismic activity in the volcano’s vicinity, and so far the agency has not monitored any.

Photos were posted on GMANews.TV’s Facebook fan page on Saturday evening, indicating lava-like activity in the Binintiang Malaki crater of Taal island, which is not Taal Volcano’s main crater.

Lava flow-like activity glows on a part of the Taal volcanic island, taken on the evening of April 3, 2010, as posted by Carlo Miguel Saavedra on the GMANews.TV Facebook page. PHIVOLCS Director Renato Solidum says the agency has not monitored any seismic activity in the area, which will always accompany any lava flow.

At around 7 p.m. Saturday, Virgie Luvidece posted an inquiry asking, “Wala ba kayong update tungkol sa Taal volcano... sumasabog ito parang fountain.. maraming tourista ang kumukuha ng picture nito ngayon."

Carlo Miguel Saavedra also posted a picture showing a sizable fire in or near one of the craters, saying that it was around 6:30 p.m. when the volcano “started to show some magma flow over the side."

Solidum surmised that the glowing spots in the pictures might merely be local residents engaged in kaingin, or slash-and-burn clearing of slopes prior to planting, although he hastened to add that he has not seen the pictures yet.

A check with the PHIVOLCS website showed no recent activity report for Taal volcano.—JV/HS, GMANews.TV

San Miguel mulls bullet train project

MANILA, Philippines - San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has set its sights on what could probably be its most ambitious and expensive project to date as it spearheads the Philippines’ bid to become the first country in Southeast Asia to build and operate a bullet train.

SMC president and CEO Ramon Ang told The STAR that they have commissioned a group that includes international companies with experience in bullet trains to study the possibility of building a bullet train railway that will run from the north to the south end of Luzon.

As planned, the bullet train railway will run the Laoag-Manila-Bicol route. As for the right-of-way acquisitions, Ang said this will be up to the government.

He revealed that they hope to submit their unsolicited proposal to government by the end of the year.

SMC’s top executive expressed optimism about the possibilities that this venture will present to the country’s tourism industry. “We want to help tourism. If nobody dared, we will,” he said in an interview. A high-speed train service is also expected to help boost not only tourism but also the economy in general.

Travel from Manila to Laoag takes around 12 hours by land. The Philippine National Railways (PNR) has a train service that runs the Manila-Bicol route – the Bicol Express which carries as much as 20,000 passengers daily – although it has not been operational for three years due to heavy damage wrought by typhoons. There are plans to resume operations before President Arroyo’s term ends.

Both the Manila to Laoag and Manila to Bicol lines are also currently accessible by air and there are public buses that ply the two routes.

Running speeds of as fast as 300 kilometers per hour, a bullet train can cut travel time to the far ends of Luzon from Manila significantly. Fares are also expected to be cheaper than plane fares but higher than bus fares.

With SMC’s plan, the Philippines will be pitted against Vietnam in the bid to build Southeast Asia’s first bullet train.

The Vietnam project is estimated to cost $56 million and may choose either the group of Sumitomo Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd, or Itochu Corp. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd, all Japanese companies, for the project. The two groups currently run lines in Japan similar to what would be built in Vietnam.

Vietnam is said to be favoring Japanese technology for the 1,555-kilometer Hanoi-to-Ho Chi Minh City line as Vietnam “is geographically similar to Japan with not enough land and too many people, and a long coastal line,” Nguyen Huu Bang, chair and CEO of Vietnam Railways Corp., was quoted as saying.

The Nomura Research Institute has helped with initial studies for the project, and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will fund a feasibility study that will start in June, Vietnam Railways said.

Work on the Vietnam bullet train line is due to start in 2012, with services beginning on the first section by 2020. The high-speed train will probably be financed by a mix of overseas development aid, state funding and public-private partnerships.

A ticket for the full Hanoi-to-HCM City high-speed rail journey may cost about 75 percent of the average current plane fare, Bang said.

China is also working on building high-speed trains to support its surging economy. The country in December opened a high-speed rail link of more than 1,000 kilometers between the cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan.

Back in 2004, South Korea became the second Asian nation after Japan to build a high-speed train service between major cities.

The Tokaido Shinkansen, connecting Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka was inaugurated in 1964 as the first shinkansen (high speed train or bullet train line) and the world’s first high speed train service. At that time the trains already ran at about 200 km/h. Nowadays they reach speeds of 300 km/h.

Software developers want stronger IP Law

MANILA, Philippines - An umbrella group of software developers said the next president should support measures that would strengthen the Intellectual Property Law, noting that piracy is causing revenue and job losses in the industry.

Bienvenido Marquez III, consultant of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), said the current law on intellectual property needs to be updated since it does not cover recent technological developments like the Internet.

“Right now, we have to update our copyright law because of the onset of the digital age. It is very easy to download. The current law (was enacted) in 1998. We do not have an updated law that would cover Internet downloading,” Marquez told The STAR in an interview.

“Hopefully, the next president will certify such bill as urgent in the next Congress if and when such bill is introduced,” he added.

Marquez said losses arising from software piracy alone reached $202 million in 2008, from $147 million in 2007.
“Many (workers in the industry) were laid off. It is a direct effect of the continued high piracy rate,” he said.

The BSA consultant said a bill that addresses copyright infringement in the Internet had been filed in previous Congresses but was bypassed.

“We should impose stiffer penalties against violators… For it to be real deterrent, the penalties should be increased,” Marquez added.

Under the law, copyright violators may be slapped with a jail term that lasts from one to three years and a fine ranging from P50,000 to P150,000 for the first offense; imprisonment of three years and one day to six years and a fine ranging from P150,000 to P500,000 for the second offense; and jail term of six years and one day to nine years and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1.5 million for subsequent offenses.

Despite such penalties, the software piracy rate in the Philippines has remained high as it stood at 69 percent in 2008 based on a recent study by the International Data Corporation.

New password-stealing virus targets Facebook users

Source: www.reuters.com

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.