September 5, 2013 Edition

US President Barack Obama cleared the first hurdle Wednesday, September 4, in his race to win domestic congressional backing for strikes to punish Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons. Bashar al-Assad’s defiant regime vowed to retaliate against any US action, but the White House won the support of a key Senate panel for its plan for a limited military response. The US Congress could vote as early as next week to authorize action, but the threat has done nothing to calm the chaos on the ground, and refugees continue to flee Syria. The UN refugee agency and four states which have taken in hundreds of thousands issued a plea for the international community to end the “cycle of horror.” Senate leaders said the full chamber will vote next week on the motion, and Obama is expected to carry the day — his Democratic supporters hold a majority in the Senate. In the House of Representatives, however, where Obama’s Republican opponents hold a majority, a tougher vote is expected. It will begin its consideration next week. Both parties are divided, with isolationists and libertarians joining anti-war liberals in opposing intervention and neoconservative hawks urging Obama to go further.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Read the UN’s plea to end the ‘cycle of horror’ on Rappler.

Rappler profiles Janet Lim-Napoles, piecing together a timeline of her activities as well as recounting some of the activities that have placed her in the eye of a national whirlwind of attention.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The United States and the Philippines will step up cooperation in fighting the growing narcotics trade in the region, as the US’ top anti-drug envoy visits the country. Latin American cartels are trafficking growing amounts of cocaine and methamphetamines to increasingly wealthy East Asian countries, US Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs William Brownfield said Wednesday, September 4. He said the US was stepping up cooperation with the Philippines, which was both a market and transit point for drugs and sat “at the opening to East Asia for a trafficking organization in Latin America”. Philippine anti-narcotics chief Arturo Cacdac said investigators were looking into the “Mexican” links of a Chinese gang arrested while allegedly manufacturing methamphetamine hydrochloride in one of the Philippines’ poshest housing enclaves in January last year.The 1,800-member Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency has seized about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of illegal drugs this year, he added.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The head of the world’s biggest religious order, in a rare and stinging statement, condemned the United States’ planned attack on Syria as an “abuse of power” that he found “extremely upsetting.” Fr Adolfo Nicolas, superior general of the Society of Jesus, popularly known as the Jesuits, also said the US should stop acting like the world’s “big boy.” “I have to confess that I cannot understand who gave the United States or France the right to act against a country in a way that will certainly increase the suffering of the citizens of that country, who, by the way, have already suffered beyond measure,” Nicolas said in an interview published by the Jesuits on Wednesday, September 4. Nicolas leads the 18,000 members of the Society of Jesus, which runs prominent schools such as Georgetown University in the United States and the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines. Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, also belongs to the influential group. By issuing these statements, Nicolas joined the growing clamor against the planned attack in Syria.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Ariel Castro, sentenced to life in prison for holding three young women captive and raping them for a decade, has been found dead in his prison cell, news reports said. CBS television and other US news outlets reported that the former Cleveland, Ohio school bus driver, who was sentenced to life in prison last month, was found dead in his cell late Tuesday, September 3. The 53-year-old Castro was found hanging in his cell and officials tried but failed to resuscitate him, according to a statement from the Ohio Department of Corrections, according to TV station KTLA of Los Angeles.

Read the full story on Rappler.

A tsunami generated by a massive earthquake off Alaska could cause major damage to California’s economy and force 750,000 people to evacuate, a report published Wednesday, September 4, warned. Experts from the US Geological Survey (USGS) based their damage assessment on the scenario of a 9.1 magnitude quake off Alaska’s Pacific Coast, which it said was “hypothetical but plausible.” California has long braced for the Big One, a monster 8.5 plus magnitude earthquake expected to occur on one of the seismological weak spots under the US state itself, notably the San Andreas fault east of Los Angeles. But a tsunami generated from a quake further away has been taken more seriously, notably since the March 11, 2011 9.0-magnitude temblor off Japan that killed some 19,000 people and triggering a nuclear calamity.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Former Bb Pilipinas-Universe Jewel Lobaton, wife of Sen Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, wants out. After 13 years of marriage, Lobaton is seeking an annulment of their marriage, citing Pimentel’s alleged abusive nature. Her lawyer Salvador Panelo told TV station ABS-CBN, “We have cited several instances that show that there have been abuses from Day One of the wedding up to the day of the separation, and continuing up to the present.” When Pimentel was seeking re-election in the 2013 mid-term elections, Lobaton denied she was a battered wife. They wed in 2000 after Pimentel topped the Bar and she was crowned beauty queen.

Read the full story on Rappler.

More sleep means increased production of cells that produce myelin, an insulating material that protects the brain’s circuitry. Scientists from the University of Wisconsin who studied mice found that as the mice slept, the production rate of immature oligodendrocytes, the cells that make myelin, doubled. In contrast, when the mice were forced to stay awake, the genes involved in cell death and stress responses were turned on. Deep sleep, the researchers of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke said, appears necessary for nervous systems to work properly. Deep sleep coincides with the release of growth hormones in both children and young adults.

Read the full story on the BBC.

Image from Shutterstock

Samsung launched a smartwatch that can do several things including voice calls, alerts and running applications. Calling it a fashion icon, Samsung unveiled the watch at the Ilfa consumer tech show in Berlin on Wednesday, September 4. The watch will go on sale starting September 25, the BBC said, but consumer interest might be difficult to gauge. “Galaxy Gear is the first attempt but I expect that there will need to be several more iterations before it is something that will appeal to anyone other than an affluent geek,” Ben Wood of telecoms consultancy CCS Insight said. The Gear watch links up with Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Read the full story on the BBC.

The liveblog on the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launch is on Rappler.

George Benson, jazz guitarist and singer, along with pop-jazz singer Patti Austin, arrived in Manila for their concert at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Thursday, September 5. A Grammy awardee, Benson became a pop-jazz superstar in the 70s, with the hits, “Breezin,” “On Broadway,’” and “Give Me the Night,” to name a few. He will be joined by Austin, who has popularized songs like “Say You Love Me” and “How Do You Keep the Music Playing?” Austin continues to be a popular music attraction to local audiences. Many of her albums are considered classics in jazz and popular music.

Read the full story on Rappler.