Philippines' Aquino set for landslide presidential win: poll

Philippines' Aquino set for landslide presidential win: poll
The son of late Philippine democracy heroine Corazon Aquino appears headed for a landslide victory in next month's presidential election, according to a survey released Thursday.
Thirty-nine percent of the respondents said they would vote for Benigno Aquino, two percentage points higher than the previous survey in early April, independent pollster Pulse Asia Inc. said.
"With almost four in 10 Filipino registered voters supporting his presidential bid, Senator Aquino remains the leading presidential contender in the May 2010 elections," Pulse Asia said.
Tied at second place were millionaire property developer Manuel Villar and ex-president Joseph Estrada with support of 20 percent each.
Villar, who had been regarded as Aquino's chief rival, saw his support fall five percentage points, while Estrada gained two points.
Villar's campaign spokesman, Gilbert Remulla, alleged Pulse Asia surveys have always been skewed against his candidate.
But he conceded that bad press in the past few weeks had caused some of Villar's supporters to waver.
"Our voters have shifted to the undecided and we are doing all that we can to win them back," Remulla told AFP.
"We believe there is enough time in the remaining days of the campaign for this."
Estrada enjoyed the most emphatic win in Philippine electoral history in 1998 when he secured 39 percent of the vote. But his presidency ended abruptly in 2001 amid allegations of corruption and mass street rallies.
The latest survey by Pulse Asia, whose polling is widely quoted in the Philippine media, interviewed 1,800 registered voters from April 23 to 25. It said the poll was its final one before the election.
Aquino tapped into a massive outpouring of sympathy over his mother's death late last year as a springboard for his campaign, despite questions over his meagre record as a legislator.
Corazon Aquino led the "people power" revolution that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, then served as the nation's president for six years.
Fifty million voters are set to go to the polls on May 10 to choose a replacement for President Gloria Arroyo, who is required by constitutional term limits to step down on June 30.
Support for Arroyo's chosen successor and representative of the ruling coalition, ex-defence secretary Gilberto Teodoro, remained at just seven percent, according to Pulse Asia.

River

A river is a natural watercourse,[9] usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water. Small rivers may also be termed by several other names, including stream, creek and brook. In the United States a river is generally classified as a watercourse more than 60 feet (18 metres) wide. The water in a river is usually in a channel, made up of a stream bed between banks. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Flood plains may be very wide in relation to the size of the river channel. Rivers are a part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a river is generally collected from precipitation through surface runoff, groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of water stored in glaciers) and snowpacks.

Ocean

An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. Though generally recognized as several 'separate' oceans, these waters comprise one global, interconnected body of salt water often referred to as the World Ocean or global ocean.[6][7] This concept of a global ocean as a continuous body of water with relatively free interchange among its parts is of fundamental importance to oceanography.[8] The major oceanic divisions are defined in part by the continents, various archipelagos, and other criteria: these divisions are (in descending order of size) the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic Ocean.

The natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof.[citation needed]
The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components:
Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive human intervention, including all vegetation, animals, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries.
Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from human activity.
The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans. A geographical area is regarded as a natural environment (with an indefinite article), if the human impact on it is kept under a certain limited level (similar to section 1 above).

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