Jaime C. Laya, the Central Bank governor under the Marcos regime, has been ordered to testify on February 12 in an ill-gotten wealth case against the the late dictator’s family, as the government tries to locate more than 100 expensive paintings bought by then First Lady Imelda Marcos, who is now Ilocos Norte congresswoman. The Presidential Commission on Good Government said Laya can provide key information that could provide additional leads on Marcos assets that have been ordered forfeited in a civil case filed nearly 3 decades ago.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The Commission on Elections admitted more problems in the automated election system as it has less than 3 months to prepare for the May 9 elections. Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said it feels like being a patient who underwent an operation – and found other ailments while in the operating room. One of the new major problems afflicts the vote-counting machines, which reject 1-2% of ballot papers. If the vote-counting machines rejected 2% of the actual ballots on election day, that would mean 1.14 million ballots going to waste. The Comelec plans to print 57 million ballots for the May polls.

Read about the other problems in the voting system on Rappler.

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The Office of the Ombudsman said it would investigate nearly 600 local government officials in 13 regions in the Philippines for allegedly allowing open dump sites in their areas, in violation of the law. The chief graft buster cited 60 complaints filed by Romeo Hidalgo of environmental watchdog Ecowaste Coalition, who alleged that their field investigations point to the officials’ violation of Republic Act Number 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act and its implementing rules and regulations. The Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has identified and submitted the list of 350 LGUs “with recurring and blatant violations of open dump sites” to the Ombudsman.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Replacing 15,000 lead pipes is the only way that residents of Flint, Michigan, can feel safe again in the wake of a tainted water scandal, Mayor Karen Weaver told reporters. “That’s the only way the community is going to have confidence in what’s going on.” Officials are accused of ignoring months of foul-smelling and discolored water, even as residents complained it was making them sick and tests showed elevated lead levels. Residents of the predominantly poor and black city of 100,000 have been using bottled water ever since October, when a paediatrician exposed the lead pipe poisoning. Weaver said crews could begin pulling out pipes within a month if she is able to secure the $55 million needed to replace 550 miles (885 kilometers) of aging, corroded lead pipes with new copper pipes. The work could be completed in about a year.

Read the full story on Rappler World.

North Korea’s army chief of staff has been executed, South Korean media reported, in what would amount to the latest in a series of purges and executions of top officials by leader Kim Jong-Un. Ri Yong-Gil, Chief of the Korean People’s Army General Staff was executed earlier this month for forming a political faction and for corruption. The report came at a time of highly elevated tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North’s recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. South Korea has decided to suspend all operations at a jointly run Kaesong industrial park in North Korea, saying Pyongyang had been using it to fund its nuclear weapons programs.  Japan also announced fresh sanctions against North Korea for its latest rocket launch, including a total ban on shipping from the country and barring Pyongyang’s nationals from entering. 

Read the full story on Rappler.

Air accidents marked February 10, as two military planes crashed separately in Indonesia and Myanmar. An Indonesian military aircraft crashed into a house in a densely populated area of East Java during a test flight. The Super Tucano turboprop came down shortly after taking off from Abdul Rachman Saleh air force base in Malang. The pilot as well as two civilians, a woman and a man, were killed in the accident, he said. The plane’s engineer is in critical condition. In Myanmar, all 5 crew died when an air force plane crashed in the capital Naypyidaw, bursting into flames soon after takeoff and smashing into a nearby field.

Read about the Indonesia accident in full on Rappler World.

The full story on the Myanmar plane crash is also on Rappler World.

The United Arab Emirates named women to the newly created posts of state ministers for happiness and tolerance, and a 22-year-old female for youth affairs. Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum revealed his latest cabinet line-up of 29 ministers in a series of tweets. “Happiness is not just a wish in our country. There will be plans, projects, programs, and indices. It will be part of the job of all ministries,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the ruler of Dubai. The cabinet has 8 new ministers, including 5 new women, with an average age of 38, WAM state news agency said.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Tokyo-based Global Conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation announced plans to invest P4.3 billion ($90.63 million) in order to start the production of both the hatchback and sedan versions of its sub-compact model Mirage in the Philippines starting early 2017. Mitsubishi Corporation Chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko said that the move is part of efforts to participate in the government’s new P27 billion ($600 million) CARS Program. Both sedan and hatchback variants of the Mirage will be built at the firm’s recently refurbished Santa Rosa, Laguna, plant.

Read the full story in Rappler Business.

NASA said it was unlikely that a meteorite was responsible for killing a man at a college campus in India last week, as local scientists continued to examine the mysterious object recovered from the scene. Authorities in southern Tamil Nadu state had claimed that a meteorite fatally struck a bus driver and injured 3 others on Saturday. After reviewing photographic evidence, the US space agency said that they did not believe the object was a meteorite. “While more details are forthcoming from local scientists, this is unlikely something from space,” Dwayne Brown, a NASA spokesman, said in a statement.” To form a crater the size of what has been posted online would have required a meteorite of at least several kilograms,” he said.

Read the full story on Rappler Science.

A lot of things are happening on July 31, Harry Potter’s birthday. Scholastic announced on Twitter that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2 will hit bookstores on that date. The book is based on the play written by JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, and which is scheduled to premiere in London also on July 31.

Read a few more details about the book on Rappler Life and Style.