Iberico ham is world’s costliest ham

The world’s most expensive ham has gone on sale at the food hall in Selfridges in London’s Oxford Street. The cost – a sensational £1,800!

The leg of Iberico ham, which weighs seven kilos (15 pounds) comes complete with, its own DNA certificate as a proof of authenticity.

According to pig farmer and ham expert Manuel Maldonado, the whole process starts with a selection of 50 pigs that were allowed to roam over fields in Extramadura in western Spain feeding on a diet of acorns and roots that help give the ham its distinctive flavour.

It takes three years for the ham to be sold and not before it has been salted and cured carefully and properly. It is then packed in hand-made wooden box covered in an apron made by a Spanish tailor and sold.

“Connoisseurs will appreciate the melt-in-the-mouth texture of this truly amazing Spanish ham,” said Selfridges’ fresh food buyer Andrew Cavanna.

“The leg may seem to have a large price tag but when you think about the amount of care taken from breeding right through to the curing, it is actually amazing value.

“Every single gram will be savored as one of life’s incredible gourmet luxuries.”

Why create an oil supply shortage when there should not be any?

Or why make the Filipino people suffer unnecessarily?

These questions are being asked after it has been reported that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has earlier threatened to seize $923 million future imports of Shell covering the period February to May 2010 allegedly as payment for unpaid back taxes incurred by the oil company.

Shell, however, is questioning the BOC’s tax assessment contending that the imports, in the form of Catalytic Cracked Gasoline (CCG) and Light Catalytic Cracked Gasoline (LCCG) are simply raw materials for the production of unleaded gasoline.

This being the case, that both imported products will still go through a refinery yet, it will be unjust for BOC to impose the excise tax on an intermediate product when it should be only levied on finished products for consumption and sale in the domestic market.

Shell legal counsel and former ombudsman Simeon Marcelo said the BOC’s demand constitutes double taxation since Shell already paid billions in taxes for finished products withdrawn from its refinery.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has warned, saying, that “if indeed BOC confiscates the imports of Shell, there will definitely be some disruptions.”

Since the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) share opinion that Shell did not incur tax deficiencies it is hoped that government will look into this and resolve the issue as early as possible so people will be freed from unnecessary anxiety.

Police stops first ever Mr. Gay China pageant

Police shut down what would have been China’s first gay pageant an hour before it was set to begin, telling the organizers they did not have the necessary permit to conduct this kind of event.

Benjamin Zhang, the founder of Gayographic, Beijing’s only gay PR and event-management company and the organizer of the pageant, said he hoped the pageant would raise awareness of homosexuals in a country where gays are frequently discriminated against and ostracized. Eight men were competing for the title and a spot in the Worldwide Mr. Gay pageant, to be held next month in Oslo, Norway.

“I didn’t expect there would be this huge media blitz,” he told ABC. “Originally I didn’t want unnecessary trouble and so I mainly reached out to Western media, but now more and more Chinese media are also asking about the event. This is making a huge impact in the public perception of the gay community and I hope that it will be positive.”

The police action simply highlights the enduring sensitivity surrounding homosexuality and the struggle by gays to find mainstream acceptance.

NASA finds cocaine in shuttle Discovery hangar

NASA has launched an extensive investigation to determine how a small amount of cocaine ended up in a hangar for the shuttle Discovery at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The cocaine was discovered when a shuttle worker spotted it outside a bathroom and reported it to NASA security.

An on-site test of the bag stated it was cocaine, and subsequent follow-up tests confirmed it was the illegal drug.

“This is a rare and isolated incident, and I’m disappointed that it happened, but it should not detract from the outstanding work that is being done by a dedicated team on a daily basis,” said Bob Cabana, a former astronaut and director of the Kennedy Space Center, in a statement.

Discovery is slated to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in March to deliver supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station.

“We have processes that will ensure the integrity of the shuttle,” said Cabana. “There is no reason whatsoever to believe this incident will have any impact on Discovery’s upcoming launch.”

FBI shows ‘new’ Bin Laden images

Osama Bin Laden may look significantly different today than he did just a few years ago without his turban and with a small neat beard instead of the long beard.

The FBI has released recently two versions of how the world’s most wanted terrorist may look like today: one in his traditional style and another in a new “Western look” he may have adopted with no beard.

The digitally-enhanced images show an aged Bin Laden with grey hair and wrinkles.

“It is our hope that these digitally enhanced images will help someone recognise these terrorist suspects and then contact the Rewards for Justice program with information that leads to their apprehension,” said senior US State Department official Robert Eckert.

There is a $25 million bounty on bin Laden’s head for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya.

Bin Laden is now 52.

Government should help OFWs in distress instantly

It bothers me no end every time I read about oversea Filipino workers (OFW) who are in distress, yet help is being held hostage by our own government.

Recently an organization of migrant workers in the Middle East said that on a daily basis, they receive an average of three to five cases of distressed OFWs from various countries in the region.

What is appalling is that Filipino labor and welfare officers in the Middle East appear to be sleeping on the numerous cases of distress OFWs.

“Complaints from distressed OFWs and their plea for assistance just fall on deaf ears of Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) officials in the Eastern region despite numerous calls and emails for their appropriate action,” the group said.

I get distressed myself when I read about lowly Filipinos continuously leaving and trying their luck in foreign lands, uncertain about their fate, yet trusting in God that their sacrifice will pay off someday when they could have their own lot where they could build their own house and have all their children go to school.

But, there is totally nothing that I can do. I am just one of the over 90 million Filipinos belonging to a government that has shown nothing but ineptitude all these times in making these nation move forward, in lifting the people from the morass of poverty and deprivation, in providing jobs to the citizenry and in making sure that we, as a nation and people, are respected.

Yet, it mortifies me to think that instead of government using its tools and resources to strengthen the financial and economic condition of this country, the task now is left in the hands of the OFWs to ensure that the economy of this nation won’t collapse.

I am obviously referring to the remittances by our OFW workers.

Their remittances are what made them the country’s modern day heroes.

I am embarrassed at how government is taking for granted the OFW’s patriotic fervor.

I am confounded at the way government is despicably repaying the OFW’s heroism.

Unless and until government can offer the millions of striving, common “tao” working abroad a decent job here, government should assist the distressed OFWs the instant the receive the complaint and treat them with the dignity they deserve.

Shortest and tallest men in the world met

The world’s tallest man, Bao Xishun has shook hands with He Pingping who claims to be Earth’s shortest.

The two men actually hail from the same region of Inner Mongolia.

While Mr. Xishun, 56, towers above everyone at an astonishing 7’9” tall, 19-year-old Mr. Pingping stands at a mere 2’4” high.

Pingping is now seeking to be registered as the world’s shortest man by the Guinness Book of Recrods.

The two met during the celebration of a traditional Mongolian wedding in the tomb of Kublai Khan, where according to the coordinator of the meeting, it was He’s much sought after ambition to meet Bao.

To appoint or not to appoint a Chief Justice

The issue of whether or not there is a need for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to appoint a replacement for Chief Justice Renato Puno from now until and after the latter retires on May 17, 2010 is putting everybody in quandary.

But, if there has been already a precedent, where a retiring chief justice has been smoothly and orderly replace by an associate justice through a process of succession according to the constitution, then what is the big fuss about?

I am not a lawyer and it is people like me who should be in dilemma, but among the proposals, arguments and statements made by officials concern, I find the opinion of former Senate President Franklin Drilon very logical and easily comprehensible.

In a statement issued in San Fernando City, La Union, Mr. Drilon asserted that Pres. Arroyo does not have to make a “midnight appointment” for the replacement of Chief Justice Reynato Puno because there is a process of succession in case of vacancy in office of the chief justice.

“Under Section 12 of the Judiciary Act, in case of vacancy in the office of the chief justice, the most senior associate justice will act as chief justice,” Drilon said.

“There is absolutely no basis for the fear that (Malacañang) is trying to raise in public that it is dangerous in case there is vacancy in the office of the chief justice.”

In forewarning Pres. Arroyo about her dubious plot to appoint a new chief justice, Mr. Drilon further said, that the Constitution bans the sitting president from appointing a chief justice two months before her term ends on June 30.

“She cannot appoint starting May 1, 2010 and she cannot appoint after May 17, when Puno retires, because that is prohibited under the Constitution,” he said.

How much more simple does one need for the explanation to be?

This being the case, if there is a need for appointment it should be to replace the most senior justice who has gone up, following the process of succession, as mandated by the constitution.

Let us not complicate matters. Let us not allow politics to interfere.

The laws of the land were not made to be vague.

Let us interpret each one as it should be, not counting that a precedent has been already established.

Dog leads owner to save man’s life

William Lepsch, an elderly man from Pine City, Minnesota, regained consciousness after a neighbor’s dog run towards where he was lying prostrate on the driveway of his home and started licking his face.

Brett Grinde said he took Effie, a 15- year-old female German shorthaired dog, out for their usual walk on Monday evening, but a few minutes after, he noticed the dog starting pulling on the leash, wanting to go in a different direction.

Grinde let Effie off the leash and she ran to a driveway 40 yards away, stopping at the body of his neighbor, William Lepsch, 94, who apparently had fallen while retrieving his mail.

Grinde called 911, then started CPR.  Lepsch initially regained consciousness and was taken to North Memorial Medical Center.

Iraq’s oil reserve could challenge top oil producers

Iraq looks set to shake up the Middle East’s oil hierarchy after the Iraqi Oil Ministry ended its second bidding round last week, awarding seven oilfields in a tender which could eventually increase the war-torn country’s capacity to 11 million barrels per day.

The auction, which centered on oilfields ready for development, saw Russian and Chinese oil firms secure lucrative contracts at the expense of companies from the United States who were largely absent from the tender for deals to tap Iraqi oil reserves, the world’s third-largest.

After suffering from decades of mismanagement, sanctions and war, it is forecasted that Iraq, by the decade’s end, could rival top producers Russia and fellow OPEC member Saudi Arabia.

“They have the oil in the ground,” said James Placke, a senior associate at Cambridge Energy Research Associates who specializes in the Middle East. “It’s getting it out that’s always been the problem.”

Iraq has the third largest proven oil reserve behind Saudi Arabia and Canada, and analysts believe there could be much more, once the country’s western desert is surveyed.