March 15, 2013 Edition

At least 116,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,800 coalition troops died in Iraq between the outbreak of war in 2003 and the US withdrawal in 2011, researchers estimated on March 15. Its involvement in Iraq has so far cost the United States $810 billion and could eventually reach $3 trillion. The paper appears in a package of investigations into the health consequences of the Iraq War, published by The Lancet to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the conflict. In 2006, estimates by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, also published in The Lancet, said 655,000 people had died in the first 40 months of the war. That figure was widely contested.

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US federal authorities charged a Reuters social media editor March 15 with conspiring with the hacktivist group Anonymous to break into and alter an online Los Angeles Times article. Matthew Keys, 26, was indicted in California on 3 counts of felonies related to hacking before his current Reuters post. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. According to the federal grand jury indictment in Sacramento, Keys provided Anonymous members with login credentials to a computer server belonging to Tribune Co., which owns the Times, in December 2010 and told them to “go fuck some shit up.” A hacker then used the credentials provided by Keys to log into the Tribune server, and ultimately made changes to the online version of a Los Angeles Times news story.

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New data unveiled on Thursday, March 14, strengthens the belief that a subatomic particle discovered in 2012 is the elusive Higgs boson, European physicists said. Analysis of two characteristics, teased from experiments at the world’s biggest particle smasher, aligns with theories that the discovery is a Higgs, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said. While further analysis is necessary, to confirm whether this is the Higgs boson postulated in the Standard Model of particle physics, or is some other type. Finding the Higgs would fill a massive gap in the Standard Model, which describes the forces, particles and interactions that comprise the Universe.

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The world’s second largest fashion retailer, Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), is looking for partners in Asia to help them produce sustainable cotton they can use for their garments. Through the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a partnership between the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and major brands like H&M and Ikea, H&M Global Sustainability Manager Fredrik Rosenholm says they were able to reach cotton farmers and teach them to farm cotton, a water-wasting crop, with less pesticides and water. “Asia is very important to us. A lot of the production of the raw material, the cotton, is in Asia. A lot of the production facilities are in Asia. A lot of the future consumers are in Asia,” Rosenholm said.

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Samsung unveiled its latest flagship smartphone the Samsung Galaxy S4 during its launch event at the Radio City Music Hall, New York on March 14. Sporting a customized version of Android 4.2.2 Jellybean, the Galaxy S4 will use a 5-inch, 441ppi, 1080p Super AMOLED display and take advantage of either a 1.6GHz 8-core Exynos processor or a 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon processor depending on the region. No word has been given regarding what version will be made available in the Philippines in the future. The S4 uses a 13 megapixel main camera that can shoot 1080p video, as well as a 2 megapixel front camera.With 2GB of RAM, 16, 32 or 64 GB configurations that are upgradable via microSD cards up to 64GB, and 6-band LTE support, this is an impressive high-end phone.

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Daniel “Danny” L. Zialcita, the director and sometimes story and screenplay writer and producer of over 50 films, passed away last Sunday, March 10, at the age of 73. Zialcita was a prolific filmmaker, having helmed a long succession of motion pictures since 1965’s “Lady Killer,” his debut at about age 26. He went on to make provocative dramas, often with sentence-like titles such as 1970’s “Ina Ko, Patawarin Mo Ako, Ako’y Nagugutom.” He also dabbled in sexy flicks, such as “Gutom” and “Hidhid” in the early ’70s. Zialcita is survived by his wife, former actress Leonor Vergara, and their 3 children, which include daughter Beth and son Michael.

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The Malaysia-brokered talks between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will push through end of March despite the ongoing tension in Sabah. MILF peace panel chair Mohager Iqbal said the hostilities in Sabah would not derail the peace negotiations, because the Sabah standoff and the peace negotiations were unrelated. The MILF has kept a distance from the Sabah controversy, refusing to comment about it. Malaysia stands as the third-party facilitator to the peace negotiations with the talks being done in Kuala Lumpur.

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He may be seen as less conservative than most, but newly-elected Pope Francis is definitely no liberal. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when many Latin American priests like the assassinated San Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero were pushing for radical change to fight poverty, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio — then known only as father Jorge — was discreetly supporting the military regime of his namesake General Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina, accounts from the time say. The Catholic Church in general, and the Order of Jesus in particular, legitimized military rule and “advised” the generals on how to dispose of its political enemies without attracting the attention of the Vatican, Argentinian and foreign historians recall. Bergoglio has never apologized for his actions or the role of the Church during Argentina’s “Dirty War” against its own citizens, they add.

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Despite gains it has made on the economic front, the Philippines remained at 114th globally for the 5th straight year in the Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on March 15. The HDI is a key indicator of citizens’ state of health, education, and income, among others. In the 2013 Human Development Report titled “The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World,” the UNDP said the Philippines’ HDI score has been improving in the past 30 years. But its score — 0.654 — is still slightly below the East Asia and the Pacific regional average of 0.683.

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The Department of Justice on March 15 will file charges against 38 alleged supporters of the Sultanate of Sulu who planned to go to Sabah amid a bloody standoff. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the DOJ will sue them for violating the election gun ban and Article 118 of the Revised Penal Code, which prohibits inciting to war or giving motives for reprisals. The charges will be filed before the Bongao, Tawi-Tawi Regional Trial Court. Sulu Sultanate spokesman Abraham Idjirani confirmed 22 of the 38 arrested in Tawi-Tawi belong to their Royal Security Force.

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