Wednesday, November 23, 2005 (Philippines)

A 16-year-old sex worker, Angel, fixes her make-up in a hotel in Cotabato City. An estimated 600,000 women and children are prostituted in the Philippines and many of them are driven by poverty to the world's oldest trade. (Sunnex photo/Al Jacinto) "We (city residents) are free of any danger of the bird flu virus." This was the assurance of Miriam Lopez-Vito, regional veterinary quarantine officer under the Department of Agriculture (DA). She said two accredited groups from the Philippine Animal Health Center (PAHC) were here last week to personally conduct probe on the possible existence of the bird flu virus on the migratory birds and domesticated fowls in Zamboanga City and in the Zamboanga Peninsula. [full story]