The Philippine Online Chronicles

Judge blocks parts of Arizona’s controversial new law

Hours before it was to take effect, a judge in Arizona blocked parts of a controversial new law. Federal judge Susan Bolton issued an injunction against a particular part of Arizona’s new immigration bill that gives authorities the right to question individuals who may look like illegal immigrants. This part of the bill has alarmed many people in the state of Arizona, saying that it could give rise to racial profiling and abuses on the part of the authorities.

The state has had a long problem of dealing with illegal immigrants who cross the border from Mexico. It is no secret that there are many undocumented aliens in Arizona and the new bill would have a profound impact on the lives of many people – mostly Latinos living in the state. As a result, some have chosen to self-deport and just move to another state that wouldn’t have the same stringent requirements as Arizona.

The move of Judge Susan Bolton can now turn the already controversial issue into a very high profile Supreme Court showdown between stalwarts on both sides of the issue. Former Republican standard bearer John McCain went against the ruling and called it “wasteful” since what would essentially happen is the spending of taxpayers’ money on a case that is filed against the State of Arizona.

The author of the bill, Senator Russell Pearce, claimed that he had seen this possibility from the very beginning and actually wrote the law in such a way that it would be discussed in the highest chambers of the judicial system.

The conflict is seen as a battle between the ideals of a single state – in this case Arizona – against the nation’s overarching policy. Given the federal nature of the United States government, states are expected to have some leeway in crafting some laws – that’s why certain states have same-sex marriage and some states do not have it. Pearce predicts that the bill will stand in the Supreme Court and the justices would rule with a 5-4 split.

152 die in Pakistan plane crash

A commercial airliner crashed just outside of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad Wednesday morning, killing all passengers and crew members on board. Rescuers arrived at the crash site amidst heavy rains and tried their best to recover the bodies of the victims from the wreckage. As of press time, it is not clear what caused the tragic event.

Government officials from Pakistan earlier said that there were a handful of survivors at the crash site. The same of officials would later withdraw their statements and say that there were no survivors. Crews were also reported to have found the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder after scouring the densely hilly area where the plane crashed. Analysis of the contents of these recorders would shed light into what caused the plane to crash. The government would also later take back this announcement and say that the search for the recorders are still on.

The carrier that crashed was an Airbus 321 owned by Airblue, which carried a total of 146 passengers and six crew members. The flight was headed to Islamabad from the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Airblue has had a relatively uneventful flight history prior to this crash. US Embassy officials have reported that there were two American citizens on board the ill-fated plane.

According to Airblue, at the helm was commercial pilot Captain Pervez Iqbal Chaudary, one of the airline’s top pilots with 35 years of experience and over 25,000 hours of flying time. A TV report said the plane was already at 2600 feet before it made a slight ascent to 3000 feet. The plane then shortly crashed after this ascent. People in the area claimed that it was raining heavily and that the plane shattered into pieces as soon as it crashed.

Catalonia bans bullfighting

Most people may think that bullfighting is synonymous to everything Spanish, but in a shocking twist, the region of Catalonia – a region that has strong feelings for independence and an identity separate from the rest of Spain’s – passed a resolution to outlaw the practice of bullfighting on the basis on animal cruelty. The vote was somewhat close as 68 people were in favour and 55 voted against the proposed legislation. Nine members of the board abstained from voting.

Analysts who have been covering the proceedings considered the effect of Catalan nationalism on the decision. It is also election season in Catalonia soon and this was also seen as a major factor in how politicians chose to vote regarding the issue.

Catalonia is one of seven autonomous regions in Spain. It is found in the northeastern corner of the Iberian Peninsula, near the border with France and Andorra. People in the area speak Catalan aside from the usual Spanish. The main city in this area is the 1992 Summer Olympics host city Barcelona.

The ruling has drawn praise from various groups who championed animal rights in the region. In bull fighting, bulls are let into a bull ring to face a matador who would almost surely get to kill the beast. At the same time, there are also people who have been born and raised into the sport and those who believe that bullfighting is an intrinsic element of Catalonian and Spanish culture.

The number of bullfights in Spain has shrunk by almost a third in recent years due to the failing economy and the decreased support of local governments. In Spain, most bullfighting events are funded by the local governments to allow their citizens to have something to watch and be entertained by. As it stands now, Catalonia has only had about a dozen fights per year and the Monumental bullring in Barcelona is one of the few remaining places in the region that holds the fights.

The ban will take effect in January 2012. There are some quarters that say that stopping bullfighting at this stage would seriously cost the Catalonian government a lot of money. In exchange for shutting down their operations, the government would have to pay a lot of money in damages to the bullfighting investors who currently carry long-term licenses to be in the sport. Critics however have considered this argument to be moot considering the already low amount of bullfighting events in Catalonia.

World’s oldest Twitter user dies

Centenarian Ivy Bean gained fame last year when she was interviewed by CNN. Bean was believed to be the oldest Twitter user alive and despite her advancing age, she clearly was raring to get the Twitter bug. She lived in the northern English city of Bradford and had nearly 57,000 followers on the social networking site.

Bean managed to update her account regularly and was always corresponding with the people who were reacting to her very warm and gleeful tweets. She gushed over pop singer Peter Andre and her followers were able to blow the issue up to a certain level that a meeting between her and Peter Andre was actually set up. She even used a photo with Peter Andre as her profile photo for quite some time.

Two weeks ago however, Bean was admitted to a hospital following signs of jaundice. The manager of the care home that she was in took over her account, and shared that Peter Andre would call Bean daily and even sent her flowers the first day she got sick.

Bean returned to the care home a few days ago, but she did not recover from her illness. Care home manager Pat Wright shared on her wall that “she died peacefully.” The cause of death was not revealed.

Ivy Bean was 104.