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Manila, Philippines (AHN) – Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has signed a law ending excessive, unreasonable and unnecessary salaries and bonuses for officials and employees of government-owned corporations and banks.

The Government-Owned and Controlled Corporation (GOCC) Governance Act of 2011 signed Monday also limits the terms of GOCC officials to one year and creates a governance commission for GOCCs that will change the compensation and remuneration system for such institutions.

The law further provides that GOCCs maintain a website indicating its audited financial statements, budget and compensation package.

The law covers 140 state-run corporations. Excluded from coverage are the central bank, state universities and colleges, cooperatives, local water districts and research institutions.

The law was conceived in response to excesses of GOCC officials. For example, board members of the Government Service and Insurance System, which manages the pension fund for state workers, were paid $138,776 or 6 million pesos annually and they only attend two board meetings a month.

At the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, executives and employees receive up to 25 months’ bonus.

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Hayward, CA, United States (AHN) – The search for a nursing student who went missing last week in California continued on Tuesday.

Michelle Le, 26, was at Kaiser Medical Center in Hayward on Friday when she went out to the parking garage and did not return. She left the hospital during a break in class, at about 7 p.m.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Le was planning a trip to Reno during the Memorial weekend. Her abandoned car was found a few blocks from the hospital.

Police told KGO television that there are no signs of foul play.

Le is enrolled in her final year at Samuel Merritt University in San Mateo. Her disappearance remains a missing persons case.

The university said it was “deeply concerned” about Le and that it was in regular contact with police and the student’s family. “We continue to hope for the best in this difficult situation,” it added.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arizona law that fines firms in the state which hires illegal migrants. The law revokes the business licenses of such companies.

The justices, on a 5 to 3 vote, rejected the argument that Arizona’s law impinges on Washington’s power to control immigration.

In dismissing the arguments raised by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, civil rights groups, labor unions and the Obama administration, the court said states were given that option.

Although the 1986 federal Immigration Reform and Control Act general prevents states from imposing sanctions on employers to control immigration, Arizona used a clause in that act to punish companies that knowingly and intentionally hired undocumented employees.

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr. voted in favor of Arizona. Justices Ruth Baden Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, while Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case because she worked on the law when she was solicitor general of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Roberts pointed out that seven states recently enacted a similar law to the Legal Arizona Workers Act, which required employers to check the status of new workers through a federal database.

The court’s ruling paves the way for other states to play a greater role in addressing immigration problems.

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MN, United States (AHN) – Students who struggle with mathematics may be suffering from a neurocognitive disorder similar to people struggling with dyslexia.

University of Minnesota researchers say the condition is called dyscalculia. The disorder, they say, inhibits the acquisition of basic numerical and arithmetic concepts.

Dyscalculia affects about the same amount of people as dyslexia, but hasn’t received the same amount of attention or research funding, according to the researchers.

The researchers detail in their paper, “Dyscalculia, From Brain to Education,” how scientists worldwide have used magnetic resonance imaging to map the neural network that supports arithmetic. In people with dyscalculia, they have found abnormalities in the network.

The researchers are working on evidence-based interventions for the disorder.

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Honolulu, HI, United States (AHN) – A shooting at a Hawaii middle school on Monday ended with one student injured.

According to KITV, a 14-year-old was showing a gun to his friends at Highlands Intermediate School when one student brushed the weapon away with his hand, causing the gun to go off.

The bullet went through a student’s jacket, ricocheted off a wall and grazed another student’s hand and leg. Only one student was injured, and the teen who brought the weapon was taken into police custody.

The gun, a .45 caliber Glock semi-automatic pistol, was registered to a man who had lost it in December but did not report it stolen or missing until Monday, KHON reported.

Classes at Highlands Intermediate School, located in Pearl City, continued as normal after the accident, prompting concerns from some parents about how school officials handled the emergency.

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Athens, Greece (AHN) – The Greek government is preparing tougher belt-tightening measures as it attempts to meet the terms of the country’s $110 billion (EUR 78 billion) bailout.

Prime Minister George Papandreou rejected debt restructuring ahead of a Monday cabinet meeting to tackle austerity measures, which includes tax hikes and sale of government assets.

Papandreou’s policy is in line with the European Central Bank stand that did not favor a debt restructuring for Greece. However, the drastic wage cut proposal may lead to more civil unrest among public employees. A study published on Sunday found that 80 percent of Greeks are not willing to make any more sacrifices for the country to enjoy further European Union and International Monetary Fund support for the bailout.

Experts opined that Greece is so mired in a debt spiral that more austerity measures would cause further recession and drastic drops in tax revenues. They warned that these economic consequences are self-reinforcing and very difficult to recover from.

While the prime minister is ready to fast track a $70.4 billion (EUR 50 billion) privatization program to raise more money to pay off the country’s mountain of debt, Papandreou said the government will keep its holdings in water and electricity utilities.

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Beijing, China (AHN) – Tight new controls on rare earth minerals were announced by China’s State Council on Thursday, which issued a national guideline for the industry.

World-wide high demand for rare earth minerals, which are essential in high tech manufacturing of electronics, has caused rapid development of mining for the minerals, which has exposed numerous problems.

Electronics that contain rare earths include everything from consumer electronics to hybrid car batteries and even weapons guidance systems.

Controls include export quotas for rare earth minerals. The new controls mark the first time rare earths have been designated a national strategic reserve in China.

Rare earth minerals are comprised of 17 chemical elements in the periodic table.

The commerce ministry began an immediate export quota on all iron alloys that contain more than 10 percent of rare earths.

In addition, China announced it would begin building a strategic reserve stockpile of rare earths.

The move was not unexpected.

But it is bound to increase anxiety over the availability of supplies to industries that depend on rare earths as well as anxiety over prices. China holds one-third of the world’s reserves of rare earths and provides more than 90 percent of global production.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Initial jobless claims declined by 29,000 to 409,000 for the week ending May 14 compared to the previous week’s tally of 438,000 claims.

That is still above the 400,000 mark. Analysts say first time unemployment compensation insurcance claims must drop below 400,000 and stay below that mark to signal the economy has turned around.

However, the less volatile four-week moving average was up by 1,250 from the previous figure, increasing to 439,000 claims.

The number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 30, the most recent week such data is available fell below the 8 million mark to 7,936,548, a decrease of 47,124 from the previous week.

Here is a look at which states had the largest increase in new claims for the week ending May 7.

• Alabama (+5,767)
• California (+4,015)
• Michigan (+3,122)
• Mississippi (+1,666)

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – British households have lost about $750 (GBP 500) in the past 12 months, according to a study by the Institute for Fiscal Studies released on Friday. It is considered the largest drop in household income since 1981, and is equal to what households made in 2004.

The think tank said that average take-home income actually went up despite the recent recession because of low inflation and higher social benefits, but the long-term effects of the recession and the threat of a higher consumer price index negated the income hike.

The institute blamed the decline on rising inflation and lower wage increases.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King earlier warned that British households may suffer from a substantial reduction in their spending power and advised families to anticipate a two-digit increase in energy bills, which would push the inflation rate to 5 percent by the end of 2011.

The study was based on data from 2009-10 when Britain was still under a Labour-led government. At that time, average income was still going up faster than inflation, but the think tank said the trend appears to have reversed beginning last year. During this period, earnings dropped by 3.8 percent in real terms for the first 11 months.

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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – British Airways and the Unite union have hammered out a deal to end a long-standing that now only awaits ratification by the ballot vote of nearly 10,000 cabin crew members.

Ratification looks likely because 2,000 cabin crew members of the British Airlines Stewards and Stewardesses Association approved the deal at a mass meeting. That means a strike planned for next week will not take place. There have been 22 days of strikes against the airline during the nearly two years of disputes over pay and benefits.

The agreement calls for a 4 percent hike in pay this year and a 3.5 percent increase next year.

In addition, travel perks that were cut will be restored.

Both the union and the airline made concessions to reach agreement.

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