July 25, 2014 Edition

An Air Algerie plane bound for Algiers from Burkina Faso was confirmed to have crashed 70 kilometres from Gao, Mali. The New York Times reported that 116 on board, including the crew, were feared dead. The situation in northern Mali has remained unstable since after it was seized by jihadist groups for several months in 2012. The Bamako government and armed groups recently launched tough talks aimed at securing an elusive peace deal.

See here the nationalities of those on board the ill-fated Air Algerie.

While more than 100 current and former senators and congressmen were identified by state auditors to have misused their discretionary Priority Development Assistance Fund from 2007 to 2009, less than 10 of them have been charged for plunder – even fewer, 3, have been arrested. Rappler reviews the list of lawmakers whose P6.16 billion worth of pork barrel were channeled to bogus NGOs and estimates how much is 40-50% of their misused funds, based on the rates for commissions that whistleblowers say these officials got. Based on the figures, 4 lawmakers may have received at least P50 million each, the threshold for plunder, although one of them died last year. They are former senator Edgardo Angara, former Surigao del Sur representative Prospero Pichay Jr, former Malabon-Navotas Representative Alvin Sandoval, and the late former Sarangani Representative Erwin Chiongbian.

Read the full story here.

The House of Representatives accepted the third valid impeachment complaint against President Benigno Aquino III, filed by former party-list representatives lawmakers and other militant group leaders who belong to the same progressive bloc that filed the first two complaints. This latest complaint accused him of culpable violation of the Constitution for entering an agreement with the United States allowing American troops access to military facilities which allegedly skirted the requirement for a Senate approval and violated the ban on foreign military presence in the Philippines.

Read the full story here.

The impeachment complaint over the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement was filed at the lower chamber while the Senate was grilling the budget secretary and other Aquino Cabinet officials over the controversial spending program, which was implemented by bypassing Congress and violating the budget law. Read the story here.

Two days after imposing a ban on commercial flights into and out the Ben Gurion Airport, the American aviation agency allowed planes to travel to Israel again. The decision came after Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up talks in Jerusalem and Ramallah as parts of US efforts to achieve regional support for a ceasefire. There was no immediate word on whether European airlines would follow suit. Read the report here.

Meanwhile, a photograph taken from space by a German astronaut and posted by the US space agency of how supposed Israel’s rockets toward Gaza had lit the sky is being disputed. The “saddest photo” of war which had gone viral is actually Israel’s city light at night, far from Gaza, according to The Times of Israel, which quoted a Utah Valley University professor. NASA has yet to issue a comment.

Authorities in Norway are increasing the presence of police in stations and airports, recalling civil servants from their holidays, and stepping up airline security, after receiving intelligence reports on “non-specific” but “credible” threat posed by jihadists returning from war-torn Syria. The eventual target, nor the identity of the militants, nor their location are known, but they ‘may be planning a terrorist attack in Norway,” Oslo’s intelligence chief said. Between 40 and 50 individuals with links to Norway had fought or were fighting in Syria.

Read the report here.

A passenger train in southern India rammed into a school bus that was driving across an unmanned level crossing, killing 20 people, mostly young children. The accident was the latest on India’s railways, whose vast and rundown network carries tens of millions of people daily. In 2012 a government report said almost 15,000 people were killed every year on the network, describing the deaths as an annual “massacre” due mainly to poor safety standards.

Read the full story here.

Newly elected Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is “crowdsourcing” possible members of his Cabinet by posting on Facebook a list of candidates for 34 ministerial seats and asking citizens for their choices. While Jokowi’s team said the “selection of ministers [remains] the prerogative of the president,” Jokowi said there’s no harm asking for citizens’ “inputs.”

Read the full story by Rappler Jakarta.

The Philippine Bureau of Customs arrested a woman named Herminia Castillo in Pampanga province after she was found to have misrepresented the bureau as part of an online scam. The modus operandi involved the likes of Castillo posing as foreigners befriending Filipinos online and saying they would send them gift packages. The scammers will then send the potential victims an email purportedly from the customs, saying the package, which has valuables in it, would only be released once tens of thousands of pesos are deposited in a designated bank account.

Read the full story here.

It’s survival instinct, researchers in the United States learned, that dogs guard against other things they perceive as dogs getting the attention of their masters. Scientists asked the owners of 36 to play with 3 separate objects – a toy dog, a toy jack-o-lantern pail, and a pop-up children’s book that played a song – in front of their dog. Some dogs reacted more to the toy dog than the other two objects. They snapped, pushed their owners, pushed against the object, and tried to get in between the owner and the toy dog.

Read more of this study conducted by researchers at the University of California in San Diego.

On July 28, President Benigno Aquino III will deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address, and is expected – just like any chief executives – to paint a rosy picture of the government, the economy, and important issues. The situation may be different on the ground, so Rappler’s citizen engagement arm launched a campaign asking readers to take photos of ordinary people in their communities and getting their pulse on what to them is the real state of the nation. See the best of the first batch of submissions here. You can still send photos and text to move.ph@rappler.com and use the hashtag #SttoryOfTheNation.