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It’s official: Poverty worsened from 2003 to 2006, and the Arroyo administration will almost definitely not achieve its poverty reduction target under its medium-term development plan.

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• Poverty worsens between 2003 and 2006

In a press conference Wednesay, government officials disclosed that poverty incidence increased by 2.5%, from 24.4% in 2003 to 26.9% in 2006.

In 2003, 24 out of 100 families in the Philippines were poor; in 2006, 27 out of 100 families were poor.

The actual number of poor Filipinos increased from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006, or a 3.8 million increase in the number of poor people. National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Augusto Santos said he informed President Arroyo about this data Tuesday night through a text message. He also sent her a memorandum on the 2006 Official Poverty Statistics Wednesday morning. Asked what was Arroyo’s response, Santos said: “I have not obtained a response from the President.” Given the bleak poverty figures, the government will not likely meet its target to reduce poverty incidence from 28% in 2004 to between 17-19% in 2010.

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Abu Dhabi: Residents will soon be able to pay taxi fares through credit cards, Trans AD, the Centre for Regulation of Transport by Hire cars in the capital, announced on Monday.

This is one of the features of the Tracking and Dispatch system which has been implemented in a sample of cars, said Khalid Saleh Al Rashedi, General Manager of Trans AD at a press briefing in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

“Apart from the credit card facility, we are planning to introduce prepaid smart cards which is being studied,” he said.

The Tracking and Dispatch system has been tested on about 70 new taxis in the capital now and it will be fully implemented by the end of June 2008. “We are trying hard to complete the implementation in four phases even before the stipulated time.” It will help the people to avoid waiting for taxis. They can just call up the call centre which can track the taxis available nearby and dispatch them to the passengers.”

The officials said taxis can be booked in advance or planned future trips. The nearest available taxi to the customer’s location will be automatically dispatched using the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite system. The system will inform the customer of the taxi number and the estimated time for arrival through the state-of -the-art Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS).

Taxis are fitted with an advanced mobile data terminal that displays fare details and progress from pick up point to destination on a map. Customers can monitor the progress and make sure that the taxi is taking an appropriate route from pick up point to drop -off point.

Ai mei rang ren shou jin wei qu
Zhao bu dao xiang ai de zheng ju
He shi gai qian jin he shi gai fang qi
Lian yong bao dou mei you yong qi

Ambiguous let people feel wronged
Could not find the evidence of loving each other
When should go forward, when should give up
Even do not have courage to hug

Ai mei rang ren bian de tan xin
Zhi dao deng dai shi qu yi yi
Wu nai wo he ni xie bu chu jie ju
Fang yi han de mei li

Ambiguous make people become greedy
Until waiting lost its means
Pity that me and you could not write out an ending
To put the regretful beauty

Zhi neng pei ni dao zhe li
Bi jing you xie shi bu ke yi
Chao guo le you qing hai bu dao ai qing
Yuan fang jiu yao xia yu de feng jing

Only can accompany you till here
Afterall there are some disallow matters
Surpassing friendship still not reaching the love stage
The scenery in the distant location is going to rain

Dao di gai bu gai ku qi
Xiang tao duo shi wo hai xiang ni
Wo hen bu fu qi
Ye kai shi huai yu
Yan qian de ren shi bu shi tong yi ge zhen shi de ni

Should or should not cry
Thinking too much I still think of you
I feel very inconvincing
and starting to doubt
Is the person in front of me the same real you