Daily News Highlights – November 3, 2015

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte vows to lawyer for victims and appeals directly to President Benigno Aquino III to step-in. The appeal was in response to a plea from a Netherlands based Filipino about to come home but was afraid of falling victim to a bullet-planting scam in the Philippines’ international airport. The Aviation Security Group says 30 cases of people apprehended for bullets in their luggage were recorded from January to early November. A spokesman for the police unit AvSecGroup insisted it’s “impossible” for the policemen to be involved saying they are not involved in the screening of passengers and luggage. At least 40 personnel from the Office for Transportation Security (OTS) are under investigation for various complaints. Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the President gave “further instructions” to the DOTC “to refine the efforts underway.”

He added there are many assumptions reported in the media that have to be verified first.

Read more on Duterte’s appeal.

Read more on airport police denying involvement.

Read more on 40 security staff under probe

Read more on Palace view.

Leaders of local sect Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) including its executive minister Eduardo Manalo are being summoned before the Court of Appeals Tuesday as recipients of writs of amparo and habeas corpus from the High Court. The writs follow a petition filed by Anthony Menorca and Jungko Otsuka, brother and sister-in-law of expelled INC minister Lowell Menorca, after Menorca’s alleged illegal detention by Iglesia leaders. The big question is whether the INC’s top leader will heed the summons. Some Iglesia brethren were enraged by the Supreme Court order, perceiving it to be interference by the state in the affairs of the influential church.

Read more on the trip to Japan and its implications.

More than 3 million families are estimated to be hungry in the 3rd quarter of 2015. In a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, 15.7% of respondents had experienced involuntary hunger from July until September. The latest hunger rating is considered the highest mark for 2015 and is 3 points higher than the 2nd quarter’s 12.7% or 2.8 million families. The SWS survey found out that hunger was more prevalent in Mindanao with 21.7% or 1.1 million families from June survey’s 14.3%.

Read more on the SWS hunger survey.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hit “extreme elements” in Myanmar sowing hatred and bigotry towards religious minorities. The country is days away from a landmark election expected to be the fairest election after decades of brutal military rule. The vote takes place against a rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment, led by a small but increasingly influential movement of hardline Buddhist nationalist monks. Ban expressed “deep concern” about “the continuous hate speeches” and called on voters to reject politicians who espoused discriminatory policies when they went to the ballot box.

Read more on UN head on upcoming Myanmar elections.

US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he knew of no “direct evidence” that terrorism was to blame for the plane crash of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt. Clapper said it was “unlikely” that the Islamic State group had the capacity to carry out such an attack, but added “I wouldn’t rule it out.” Metrojet airline said the Airbus 321 came down due to “external” factors, and that “no technical failures” could account for its apparent break-up in mid-air. Both Cairo and Moscow downplayed a claim by Egypt’s Islamic State branch that it brought down the aircraft, killing 224 people on board.

Read more on US security official on Metrojet crash.

Chipotle Mexican Grill shut 43 restaurants in Oregon and Washington states following an outbreak of E.coli linked to at least 22 cases. The burrito chain said the outbreak had been traced to 6 restaurants, but that it had taken action on other Chipotle outlets in the two western states out of “an abundance of caution.” Chipotle has 1,850 restaurants in the US. Shares fell 2.9 percent to $621.95 in Monday morning trade. Regulators said they found 19 cases of infection in Washington state and 3 in Oregon over the weekend. Health authorities said a third of the infected people were hospitalized but no one died.

Read more on E.coli outbreak.

Chess grandmaster Wesley So won the strongest tournament of his career by defeating Anish Giri of the Netherlands in Bilbao, Spain on Monday. So narrowly escaped defeat during his first playoff versus Giri and ended the second with a tie. So’s victory also means he returned as world number 10, according to computations at Live Chess Ratings, while Giri dove to number 7. After quitting school and leaving the Philippines to play for the United States, So’s rising reputation and world rank of 7th took a big hit at the Sinquefield Cup where he finished last, but bounced back at Bilbao. So’s next tournament is next month in Qatar, a Swiss System tournament where world champion Magnus Carlsen is playing.

Read more on Wesley So’s rebound.

Filipina figure ice skater Verniece Enciso wins 4 gold medals, two silvers, and the Best Performance Award in the Skate Bandung 2015 held at the Gardenice Rink in Bandung, Indonesia. The victory comes weeks after 6 Filipina figure skaters from the Philippine Figure Skating Team claimed gold medals at the 2015 Asian Junior Figure Skating Challenge in Hong Kong, winning over representatives from China, Indonesia, and Thailand among others.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Star Trek will return to TV with a brand-new series in 2017, American broadcast network CBS said Monday. The series will air exclusively in the United States from January 2017 but will be available behind the paywall on CBS’s subscription channel. The original Star Trek told the story of the flight crew aboard the USS Enterprise spaceship, which ventured around the galaxy exploring new worlds in death-defying adventures. CBS said the new series will “introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations.” The original franchise snowballed into a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s and 80s, turning its stars into household names – the late Leonard Nimoy, who played the half-human, half-Vulcan “Mr Spock” and William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk.

Read more on the new Star Trek series on CBS.

The Twitter account of actress Maine Mendoza, who plays the popular Yaya Dub character in a segment on TV show Eat Bulaga, was hacked early Tuesday morning. Hackers claiming to be from Anonymous Philippines posted a series of tweets on Mendoza’s account promoting an anti-corruption protest dubbed the Million Mask March. Anonymous Philippines, a loose hacking group, had carried out cyber attacks in the country, pushing for freedom of expression and other Internet issues. In 2012, the group hacked the websites of various government agencies to protest the Cybercrime Prevention Act. It also recently defaced the website of the National Telecommunications Commission to protest slow and unreliable Internet in the Philippines.

Read more on ‘Yaya Dub’ Twitter hack.