Divers recover body of top Philippine politician

The number of new cases of heart failure in Ontario decreased 33 percent from 1997 to 2007 possibly due to preventive efforts, Canadian researchers say. Jack Tu of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto and University of Toronto, and colleagues examined heart failure data in Ontario from 1997 to 2007, in a large group representative of the population involving 419,551 incident cases of heart failure -- 216,190 requiring admission to hospital and the remaining 203,361 managed as outpatients at the time of initial diagnosis. The study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found patients age 65 and older represented 80 percent of the total number of cases. Patients who were admitted to hospital were older and had more health issues, such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, compared with those not requiring admission. "We saw a 32.7 percent decline in the incidence of heart failure cases in Ontario between 1997 and 2007, which translates to a 3 percent average annual decline; this is similar to the rates of decline previously observed in overall cardiovascular disease mortality and incidence of ischemic heart disease events in Canada," Tu said in a statement. The authors suggest the decline in heart failure rates may be due to preventive efforts to better control smoking, blood pressure and cholesterol, which can lower the rates of ischemic heart disease, a leading cause of heart failure.Divers were still trying to recover the bodies of the Filipino pilot, Jessup Bahinting, and his Nepalese co-pilot, Kshitiz Chand from the sunken fuselage. The dramatic search and rescue operations had gripped the Catholic nation, with hundreds joining prayers vigils and longtime friend President Benigno Aquino travelling initially to the crash site in an effort to help. "He is a very big loss to the cabinet and to the entire nation," an emotional presidential spokeswoman Abigail Valte told reporters at a church in Manila where a special mass for Robredo was held. Valte said Robredo, 54, was well liked by everyone and was very friendly even to the lowest employees in government. Jose Fabian Cadiz, a vice mayor of a suburban Manila district and a close friend of Robredo, said residents in his home town of Naga in the far east of the Philippines were in mourning."He was a very good man, and an even greater public servant. He will be very missed," Cadiz told AFP by phone from Robredo's home where he was comforting the fallen politician's wife and three daughters, aged 12, 18 and 24. Robredo was flying to Naga from the central Philippines, where he was on an official trip, when the plane developed engine trouble, fell short of the runway and plunged into the sea. The fourth person on the airplane, Robredo's aide, survived the crash with non-life threatening injuries after hauling himself out of the plane as it was about to sink. Fishermen picked him up from the water. Robredo was one of Aquino's most trusted ministers. As interior secretary, he was in control of the country's 143,000-strong national police force, which has long been dogged by accusations of corruption and abuse.Robredo was overseeing efforts to fight corruption in the force, part of a much-publicised anti-graft programme Aquino has overseen across all sectors of society since coming to power in 2010. A former town mayor, Robredo became a rising star in local politics when in 2000 he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for good governance for transforming Naga from an impoverished backwater into a bustling commercial centre. The well-respected awards recognise high-achieving and honourable people annually across Asia. Robredo, who had still been mayor of Naga up until the 2010 elections, was one of the first people Aquino chose to be a part of his reformist cabinet. "He walked a very straight path to governance with President Aquino, and his life and death should serve as an inspiration to everyone," vice mayor Cadiz said.