Strong typhoon pounds southern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - The strongest typhoon to hit the Philippines this year was pounding southern provinces Tuesday, cutting power, suspending travel and flooding areas already vulnerable to landslides.

More than 41,000 residents have moved out of their homes in high-risk coastal villages and along rivers, including in southern provinces that were devastated by a deadly storm a year ago.

Civil defence chief Benito Ramos said officials were checking for casualties or damage from a landslide on a mountainside village in Compostela Valley province. They were also working to verify unconfirmed casualty reports from Southern Leyte and Davao Oriental provinces. Power has been cut off in several municipalities in southern Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Davao Oriental provinces while parts of Agusan del Sur province are flooded, he added.

On Monday, President Benigno Aquino III made a national TV appeal for people in Typhoon Bopha's path to move to safety and take storm warnings seriously.

"This typhoon is not a joke," Aquino said after meeting top officials in charge of disaster-response.

"But we can minimize the damage and loss of lives if we help each other," he added.

Government forecaster Jori Loiz said Bopha, the strongest typhoon to hit the country this year has weakened since it made landfall in Davao Oriental province early Tuesday. It now packs 160 kilometres (99 miles) per hour and gusts of up to 195 kph (121 mph).

The typhoon's movement has slowed to 20 kph (12 mph) and veered northwest, Loiz said. Its eye was last estimated at 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of Bukidnon's Malaybalay city.

From the south, it is forecast to cross to Negros island in central Philippines and the northern portion of western Palawan island before blowing out into the South China Sea.

Bopha, which has a 600-kilometre- (373-mile-) wide rain band, was expected to be out of Philippine territory by Friday.

At least 80 domestic flights have been cancelled.

Aquino said army troops deployed search and rescue boats in advance. Authorities ordered small boats and ferries not to venture out along the country's eastern seaboard, warning of rough seas and torrential rain and wind that could whip up four-meter (13-foot) waves.

In the mountainous Compostela Valley, authorities halted mining operations and ordered villagers to evacuate to prevent a repeat of deadly losses from landslides and the collapse of mine tunnels seen in recent storms.

Residents in a riverside village that was wiped out by the storm last December in southern Cagayan de Oro city moved to a government hall, carrying TV sets, bundles of clothes and a pig.

Nearly 8,000 villagers were moved to four government shelters in Hinatuan, the coastal town that was directly in Bopha's path until the typhoon began to veer slightly, officials said.

Bopha, a Cambodian word for flower or a girl, is the 16th weather disturbance to hit the Philippines this year, less than the 20 typhoons and storms that normally lash the archipelago annually. Forecasters say at least one more storm may hit the country before Christmas.

___

Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/strong-typhoon-pounds-southern-philippines-where-41k-residents-054627398.html

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How-To: Creating an HR disaster plan | Star Business Club

Small business owners tend to be too busy to focus on the human resources side of their operations.

?I?ve always said that in small business HR is underestimated, overlooked and inconsistent,? says Glenn Nishimura, an HR consultant and owner of Nishimura Consulting.

A lack of HR planning could spell disaster if one of your key employees falls ill or one day decides to up and leave. But putting together a simple HR management strategy for your business can ensure you?re prepared to handle whatever potential staffing crises come your way.

?You can save yourself an awful lot of money up front by being a bit proactive,? says Frances Mote, owner of Niagara Street Consulting, a Toronto HR consulting firm.

Ounce of prevention

A bit of communication can go a long way toward heading off an HR crisis. Pay attention to the atmosphere around the office and check in frequently with your employees.

?You have to have regular conversations with your staff to find out how are they feeling,? says Nishimura. ?Are they happy? How are things going; can they give you feedback to make the company and their jobs more successful??

He says many small business owners don?t have these regular conversations, and find themselves ?blindsided when someone hands in their resignation on a Friday afternoon.?

Take precautions

It might not be a dissatisfied employee resigning. A valuable staffer could fall ill, get a better job offer elsewhere, or even need to be fired suddenly. If he?s the only person who can handle his job, you?re in trouble.

To avoid this, Mote recommends setting up a shared document and collaboration system, such as Task Force or Yammer.

?If someone leaves the company or is incapacitated, you?re not having to find their username and password and dig through their hard drive to find files,? Mote says.

Also have your employees document their processes and workflow.

?Find out what they do at tax time, where they keep important files and information, even where they store keys and phone numbers,? she says.

Identify key players

Identify key players and roles in your organization, such as top sales people or members of staff in charge of finance, then ensure there?s a backup in the office ? someone or a team of people who can take over the role if need be.

?If it?s sales, it could be team selling, or you could double up on sales people, or the owner could go out with the key salesperson,? says Tiffany Goodlet, a managing director with HR consulting firm Verity International.

Build a succession plan around those key roles, whether it?s top finance and sales people or the owners of a business themselves.

But also keep a retention plan in place for those key players.

?Do risk assessment,? says Goodlet. ?What are the chances they?re going to take off? Do you need to be speaking to them about what?s important as far as their career goes??

Damage control

In the event a key employee does take off, it?s helpful to know where you can go to find a temporary replacement.

?Ask other businesses for recruiters they use,? Mote suggests.

And consider your other staff as potential successors.

?You could move an employee up into the role and then source a backfill for them,? she says.

As business owner, you should also reach out to existing customers to reassure them that, despite the departure of a key employee, things are business as usual; then see that new relationships are established with any replacements.

Replace with care

Do your due diligence on replacement employees. The last thing you want is to do everything again two months down the road because of a careless hire.

?The cost of replacing someone in Canada is something like 100-150 per cent of the base salary,? notes Nishimura. That doesn?t include the cost of lost productivity.

So, before you go searching, be sure you have a clear sense of what the person is supposed to do for your company, how you want it done, and how you can effectively communicate these expectations. And have some kind of training/orientation program for new hires to ensure they?re aware of company policies, procedures, culture and values.

Plan ahead

Once your staffing crisis has passed, developing a long-term ?people plan? should be a top priority, says Nishimura.

Determine your company?s goals for the next five to 10 years ? how much do you want to grow? ? then develop an HR plan to reach them.

?You want to look at your existing workforce and decide where you want to go,? Mote says. ?It doesn?t matter whether you?re five or 500 people, you need to know what your recruitment and retention strategy is, and how you?re going to manage performance and development of key people going forward.?

Source: http://www.starbusinessclub.ca/people/how-to-creating-an-hr-disaster-plan/

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Serial killer found dead in Alaska jail cell, officials say

A man accused of murdering an Alaska woman and at least seven other people has taken his own life, according to police. KTUU's Rhonda McBride reports.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A confessed serial killer awaiting trial for the kidnapping death of an Anchorage teenager was found dead in his jail cell Sunday in an apparent suicide, law enforcement officials said.

Israel Keyes had admitted to abducting and killing 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who disappeared in February from an espresso stand in Anchorage, officials said at a news conference Sunday.

Keyes also admitted to killing a Vermont couple, Bill and Lorraine Currier, in June 2011, and up to five more people whom he did not name, prosecutors said.

Keyes revealed his past crimes in dozens of hours of interviews conducted after he was arrested for Koenig's death, officials said.

"He did tell us that he had killed other people and that there were bodies of up to four other people in Washington state, as well as a body disposed of in New York state," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Feldis said after the press conference.

There may be even more murder victims, Feldis said.

Keyes also admitted to two bank robberies, one of them committed in Texas after Koenig's murder, Feldis said.

FBI officials said they considered Keyes to be a serial killer, NBC station KTUU reported.

"We've developed information that he was responsible for multiple additional victims. To our knowledge there are no other victims here in Alaska. They're all in the Lower 48," FBI Special Agent Mary Rook told the station.

"We do know he traveled extensively and he didn't always stay where he landed. He would land in one airport, rent a car and drive hundreds of miles,? she added.

AP

Alaska barista Samantha Koenig, 18, was abducted after she closed up a coffee stand in Anchorage.

Father of abducted barista, 18, pleads for her return

The FBI told the station that it had spoken with its behavioral analysts in Quantico, Virginia, to get insight into Keyes? personality.

"He was very, very sensitive to his reputation," Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew said, according to KTUU.? "As odd as that sounds, we had to keep things extremely quiet in order to keep him talking with us."

Details about the cause of Keyes' death were not released, but a spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers said he was alone in his cell and that foul play was not suspected.

Texas arrest in case of abducted 18-year-old Alaska barista

Sunday's news conference was the first public release of many details about a case that has transfixed Anchorage residents.

Koenig's disappearance from the coffee stand in February triggered a city-wide search and a reward fund. Keyes was arrested in Texas after using a debit card linked to Koenig.

Investigators found Koenig's body in early April in an iced-over lake north of Anchorage. Officials said Sunday that Keyes' initial confession led them to that location, and that he had admitted using a chainsaw to cut a hole in the ice to dump her body in the lake.

Body in icy lake is missing Alaska barista, police say

Koenig's body is the only one of Keyes' victims that has been found, officials said Sunday.

Although Keyes told investigators that he placed the Curriers' bodies in an abandoned Vermont house, that house was demolished and searchers were unable to find the victims' remains at the site, officials said.

Law enforcement officials described Keyes as methodical and a frequent traveler, able to conceal his actions and dispose of his victims' bodies without easy discovery.

Keyes, 34, was a self-employed carpenter and Army veteran who had been stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state. He moved to Anchorage in 2007. He also had a house and property in Constable, New York.

He had been scheduled for trial in March on federal charges, and faced a possible death penalty.

The investigation into Keyes' crimes - some of which date back 14 years - will continue, a process that could take years, officials said.

"Mr. Keyes never showed no remorse for his actions," Feldis told KTUU.

Michelle Tasker, a spokeswoman for the Koenig family, told KTUU Sunday that news of Keyes' apparent suicide was not the outcome they wanted.

"We would've obviously liked for him to have gone in front of a jury of his peers and answer for what he's been accused of doing," said Tasker. "He did an injustice again to Samantha."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/03/15635956-serial-killer-found-dead-in-alaska-jail-cell-officials-say?lite

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Arnold Schwarzenegger sports dorky haircut

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

His life may be untidy at times, Arnold Schwarzenegger has always tended to keep his hair fairly neat. So when he was spotted strolling around southern California with a "Dumb and Dumber" style haircut, fans took notice.

Splash News

Arnold Schwarzenegger shows off an apparent "bowl" haircut in Los Angeles.

The former California governor will be seen on the big screen again come January when he plays a disgraced sheriff in "The Last Stand." But it's believed that the bowl haircut is related to his role in "Ten," an upcoming action thriller in which he plays the leader of a DEA task force.

In late October, Schwarzenegger tweeted a picture of himself in full costume from that set, in a look that included neck and knuckle tattoos still visible in the later photograph. For the "Ten" role, however, he sported much more of a neat, militaristic hairdo.

twitpic/@Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger tweeted this photo from the set of his movie "Ten." The fake tattoos seen clearly here are still somewhat visible in the more recent photo.

Schwarzenegger's keeping his movie slate jammed full. He's also said that he'll be starring in prison-break film "The Tomb" with Sylvester Stallone, in another action film called "The Unknown Soldier," and in "Triplets," the sequel to 1988's "Twins."

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/12/04/15671534-arnold-schwarzenegger-sports-dorky-haircut-fake-tattoos?lite

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Friend: Chiefs LB, slain girlfriend 'seemed fine'

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2012 file photo, Kansas City Chiefs inside linebacker Jovan Belcher (59) gestures at the line of scrimmage during an NFL football game against the San Diego Chargers in Kansas City, Mo. Police say Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend early Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo., then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 30, 2012 file photo, Kansas City Chiefs inside linebacker Jovan Belcher (59) gestures at the line of scrimmage during an NFL football game against the San Diego Chargers in Kansas City, Mo. Police say Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend early Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo., then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File)

Kansas City Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli, left, and coach Romeo Crennel watch warmups before an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)

A police car leaves the training facility for the Kansas City Chiefs NFL football team on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo. A 25-year-old Chiefs player fatally shot his girlfriend early Saturday, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of two team officials, police said. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

FILE - In this Dec. 19, 2010, file photo, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher (59) walks off the field during the third quarter of an NFL football game against the St. Louis Rams in St. Louis. Police say Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend early Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo., then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

A police officer walks to an Independence, Mo., house house where police say Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend before driving to the NFL football team's training facility and shooting himself, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher and his girlfriend briefly lived apart before he killed her and then committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager, a friend of the woman said Sunday.

But Brianne York, 21, said that Belcher and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kasandra M. Perkins, had gotten back together by Thanksgiving.

When she learned Saturday that Belcher had fatally shot Perkins at the couples' home, York said, she thought someone must have been mistaken.

Afterward, Belcher drove about five miles to Arrowhead Stadium, where he thanked general manager Scott Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel for all they'd done for him. Belcher then fatally shot himself in the practice facility's parking lot, police said.

Belcher and Perkins have a 3-month-old daughter.

"They just don't seem like they're that kind of people," said York, who met Perkins while taking prerequisite classes at the Blue River campus of the Metropolitan Community College. The women bonded during their pregnancies. York's baby, a boy, was born about three months before Perkins' daughter.

York recalled that her friend was "really happy about being a mom."

"It doesn't seem that that would be the end of their story," York said. "It just seems like if things didn't work out, they would have gone their separate ways. I would never have thought that this would be how it ended."

York said the couple had argued about "normal couple stuff" and sometime after Halloween Perkins had gone to visit her family in Texas. Perkins also briefly stayed with her cousin, who is married to Chiefs player Jamaal Charles. Belcher and Perkins met through Charles, York said.

A message left for Charles and his wife through an assistant was not immediately returned.

York said the root of the argument was that Belcher, "sometimes he would just be down in his man cave or whatever," and Perkins wanted to spend more time together as a family.

Initially, York said Perkins told her that "they weren't sure if they were going to be able to work things out and stay together." But York said, "They ended up wanting to try to work it out, and the next time I went over and visited she told me everything was good and things were better so I thought everything was fine."

Kansas City police spokesman Darin Snapp reiterated Sunday that the couple had argued recently but he could provide no additional details.

At the couple's former home, people could be seen coming and going Sunday. "Can you all respect grieving?" said a man who answered the door at the couple's home. A short time later, at the same time the Chiefs were playing the Carolina Panthers, two men loaded bags into a car, and two women drove away.

Attempts to reach various members of Perkins' family in Austin, Texas, were unsuccessful.

Neighbors in the newly built Kansas City subdivision where the couple had lived since April were stunned by Saturday's violent events.

Kristen VanMeter, 31, lives near the couple and said also she had taken community-college courses with Perkins. VanMeter said the couple threw "a lot of parties" but said she heard nothing unusual the morning of the killing.

"It's a surprise," she said. "There had to of been something that triggered it."

Belcher's mother, who was staying with the couple, called 911 after her son shot Perkins. Snapp said 911 tapes aren't public records in Missouri.

Shawn Martin, vice president of the neighborhood homeowners association, said she wasn't aware of any problems that preceded the shooting.

She described the parties at the home Belcher and Perkins shared as "nothing more than any other young couple" would have.

After having the baby, Perkins was taking the fall semester off school. York said Perkins planned to return in January and wanted to become a teacher.

Police said Belcher's mother was living with the couple, but York said she just made frequent visits, sometimes lasting a couple weeks at a time. She doesn't know who will care for the baby now.

"Jovan is pretty laid back and calm and collected," York said. "And they just seemed really happy around each other, and I just don't understand where things went wrong."

York said the only other stress Perkins mentioned was whether Belcher would stay with the Chiefs.

"She was a really good person to be around and a lot of fun," York said. "She was somebody you could call when you were down and she would talk you through it. She would lift you back up and make you feel happy again if you were sad or upset."

Associated Press

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Toddler's death prompts review of 2 other deaths

MANASSAS, Va. (AP) ? A toddler's death during a visit with his father last month in Virginia is prompting police to also more closely investigate the suicide of the man's mother and the shooting death of a onetime girlfriend in the past decade.

Fifteen-month-old Prince McLeod Rams died during a three-hour, unsupervised visit with his father, Joaquin S. Rams of Manassas, police said. Manassas Police spokesman Lowell Nevill said that led police to further probe the 2008 suicide of Joaquin Rams' mother and the 2003 shooting death of his ex-girlfriend Shawn K. Mason.

The boy's mother, Hera McLeod, said the system failed to protect the boy after she fought vehemently to prevent the unsupervised visits, which were ordered by a judge in Maryland. Authorities have not yet determined how the boy died, and Rams has not yet been charged with a crime. But McLeod said the unusual confluence of deaths is not easily explained.

"Either he's the most unlucky bastard on this planet, or he's a killer," said McLeod, who fled the relationship with her one-time fiance about two weeks after Prince was born.

Joaquin Rams did not answer calls to his cellphone. His attorney also did not return calls seeking comment.

Hera McLeod said she has been given only a little information about her son's injuries. But she said the hospital called child protective services because of suspicious injuries, including dried blood in his nose and a bruise on his forehead.

During a custody hearing for Prince Rams in March, investigators testified Joaquin Rams is a suspect in the killing of Mason, 22, who was shot in the head in her Manassas condo in 2003.

In 2008, Rams' mother, Alma Collins, was found dead. Prince William County Police at the time ruled the death a suicide. While Manassas police say all the investigations remain a high priority, Prince William County police spokesman Jonathan Perok said investigators have so far not found anything to indicate Collins' death was not a suicide.

But her son Joseph Velez ? Joaquin Rams' half brother ? said it makes no sense that his mother would have killed herself and said he has been interviewed by police investigating whether his mother's death was a homicide.

"My mother in her life never had a history of depression," Velez said.

He described his half brother as "a monster," describing how even at age 3, his younger brother attacked him on the head with a hammer he had hidden behind his back as he feigned a request for a kiss. Like Hera McLeod, Velez expressed frustration at police who failed to make a case in the slaying of Shawn Mason.

And Alma Collins' sister, Elva Caraballo of Tarpon Springs, Fla., said she tried to tell Prince William County police of her suspicions about Collins' death, but detectives wouldn't return her phone calls.

The most recent death occurred Oct. 21, when Hera McLeod turned over her young son to Joaquin Rams. Hera McLeod won custody of the boy in Montgomery County, Md., court. But the judge granted Rams visitation ? first supervised, and then unsupervised.

McLeod, an intelligence analyst who once was a contestant on the CBS reality competition "The Amazing Race," said she does not understand why the judge ignored her concerns for her son's safety, accompanied by evidence of Joaquin Rams' lack of fitness as a father: his involvement in running an online pornography business; the testimony from the Manassas detective that Rams is a suspect in his ex-girlfriend's killing; and a sexual encounter between Rams, 40, and a woman who said Rams raped her when she was 19. Rams said it was consensual.

The Associated Press does not identify people who claim to be victims of sexual assault.

In making his custody and visitation rulings, the judge said the suspicions about the deaths of Collins and Mason were no concern to him, describing it as "smoke that's been blown that I can see through."

Hera McLeod said she wants to expose what went wrong and led to her son's death.

"I knew how bad this could get. ... If the laws are not designed to protect children, then they need to be changed," she wrote about the custody ruling on a blog she maintains. "In my son's case, it appears as though death was the only threshold for denial of visitation."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/toddlers-death-prompts-review-2-other-deaths-170138383.html

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Say What? Mike Tyson Caught Brad Pitt In Bed With Wife Robin Givens (VIDEO)

Say What? Mike Tyson Caught Brad Pitt In Bed With Wife Robin Givens (VIDEO)

Mike Tyson has opened up about the day he walked in to find Brad Pitt having sex with his then-wife Robin Givens. The former world heavyweight boxing champion was infuriated when he discovered Pitt in bed with Givens, shortly after his marriage had ended. In his interview on “In Depth With Graham Bensinger”, he revealed, ...

Say What? Mike Tyson Caught Brad Pitt In Bed With Wife Robin Givens (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/12/say-what-mike-tyson-caught-brad-pitt-in-bed-with-wife-robin-givens-video/

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