The New Nation - Internet Edition

Most dangerous place to work as journalist

MANILA: Two gunmen riding motorcycles shot dead a radio journalist in the southern Philippines on Monday, the fifth reporter to be killed this year in the country. Ferdie Lintuan was driving in Davao City along with two other radio reporters when the men drove up beside the vehicle and fired at him around 9:50 a.m. (0150 GMT) on Christmas Eve. "I pretended to be dead. I was at the front passenger seat. The car window beside me was also hit," Lucio Ceniza, a passenger in the car, told local media. The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world to work as a journalist. Since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was swept into power in 2001, 54 reporters have been killed.

Xmas speech

BBC Online: The Queen will mark the 50th anniversary of her first televised Christmas message by urging people to care for the vulnerable in society. The broadcast will feature archive footage from the 1957 speech in which she talks about "the speed at which things are changing all around us". George V began the tradition of a Christmas speech on the radio in 1932. In 1957, the Queen took the tradition a stage further by delivering the broadcast on television for the first time. In that live broadcast from her desk at Sandringham, she said she hoped the new medium would make her message more personal and direct. This year's speech, produced by the BBC and available in high-definition for the first time, will be aired on TV and radio as usual at 1500 GMT on Christmas Day. The Queen has also launched her own channel on video-sharing website YouTube, which will feature the message.