April 17, 2012 Edition

Monday was a night of politics as alliances are cemented and announced: Manny Pacquiao joins Vice President Jejomar Binay’s political party and former President Joseph Estrada introducers Binay as “our next president.”  Mar Roxas denies he will run for president in 2016, prompting seeming disbelief from Binay.  A survey announces Binay as the top political endorser followed by President Aquino and third by Estrada.  Let the games begin!

Read and watch Erap and Binay, Pacquiao’s oath-taking and Binay on Mar all on Rappler.

Although the Philippines said it would deal with last week’s standoff with China diplomatically, the controversy over disputed islands in the south China Sea will not be resolved any time soon.  It’s a struggle for power politically and economically.  The Philippines filed another protest Monday against China following complaints by Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del Rosario over the weekend that China was sending in more ships.  Both sides tried to ease tensions over the week but as diplomats and analysts point out: don’t expect this to end anytime soon.

Read more about the Philippines protest, its strategic impact and future outlook from Asean’s former secretary general all on Rappler.

An 11 day bilateral military exercise, the 28th Balikatan, kicked off Monday against the backdrop of China’s encroachment on alleged Philippine territory.  At least 4,500 American troops are training with 2,300 Filipino soldiers against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict with China.  While symbolically a show of force, both the Philippines and the US say the exercises – which include a portion in Palawan near the disputed areas – were scheduled earlier to prepare their soldiers and are not aimed at China.

Read more on Rappler  

Asian shares dropped Monday, but overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rebounded from its biggest weekly slide of the year to rise 71.82 points to 12921.41. Standard Poor’s 500-stock index fell 0.69 points, or less than 0.1%, to 1369.57. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 22.93 points, or 0.8%, to 2988.40.  In the Philippines Monday, the Philippine Stock Exchange breaches the 5,100 mark and the country’s largest dollar earners, Filipino overseas workers, increased the money they sent home by nearly 6%.  On Tuesday, stocks reach new all-time high.

Read more about the OFW remittances here and about the stocks new all-time high here.  

Health expert and Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim won the World Bank’s top spot Monday, allowing the US to maintain the control it’s had on the World Bank since World War II.  Born in Korea, Kim was supported by the US and the Philippines as well as other countries like Japan and Canada.  He beat a favorite among developing nations, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister, in what observers say was a hotly-contested race.  Kim’s nomination was a suprise: his areas of expertise hint at emerging problems ahead.

Read more on Rappler. 

It must be hard to keep world peace and maintain the balance of power.  After the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, which remained sharply divided on Cuba, Hillary let loose and partied.  Pictures of her dancing and having a beer were taken by an AFP-Getty photographer rounding out a week that started with cool Hillary meeting the makers of blog site Texts from Hillary and submitting her own meme.

Read more about the summit on the New York Times and see Hillary party on the Washington Post

It’s described as “the worst scandal in the history of the Secret Service” – one that threatened to overshadow President Barack Obama’s trip to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia.  The charge: that members of the elite presidential security group brought prostitutes back to the rooms in the same hotel where the US president was staying (it happened before he arrived).  The activities allegedly became public because one of the prostitutes challenged what she was paid.  On Sunday, Mr. Obama said there would be a “thorough” and “rigorous” investigation, and that if the charges were true, he would be “angry.”  On Monday, 11 agents were suspended.  

Read more on Rappler.

The growing power of online journalism was recognized by this year’s Pulitzer Awards.  For the first time ever, two internet journalism sites received the prestigious awards: the Huffington Post and Politico.  It’s a sign of the changing times.  Online journalism were first allowed to enter work in the Pulitzers 3 years ago.  The award-giving body gave the national reporting prize to David Wood of the Huffington Post “for his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges” faced by American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The award for editorial cartooning went to Politico’s Matt Wuerker.

Read more on Rappler.

Technology and the Internet is shifting everything about our world – from business models to brain research.  Tapping the power of social networks is giving researchers wider reach and giving new meaning to the phrase “the wisdom of crowds.”  Scientists announced the largest collaborative study of the brain done so far, using imaging technology from mroe than 100 centers around the world and fusing that with genomics.  “What’s really new here is this movement toward crowdsourcing brain research,” said UCLA neurology professor Paul Thompson.  “This is an example of social networking in science, and it gives us a power we have not had.”

Read more on the New York Times.

If you haven’t heard of Twitmusic, check it out!  It’s a social music service using Twitter that was started in the Philippines, allowing artists and their fans to share music quickly and virally.  MC Hammer is actively using Twitmusic as well as Bryan Adams, Bow Wow, Jon Secada, Jason Mraz and more than 4,000 other artists.  Adams released his latest single exclusively on Twitmusic.

Read more about Twitmusic and how the Philippines “may be the next web powerhouse” from Asia on Techcrunch