April 27, 2012 Edition

One was not only a dud, the rest are fakes. This was the assessment of  analysts who scrutinized photos of 6 new North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles displayed during a military show of force recently. The missiles, called KN-08s, were shown at the end of a parade that capped weeks of celebrations marking the 100^th anniversary of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founding father. “There is no doubt that these missiles were mock-ups,” Markus Schiller and Robert Schmucker, of Germany’s Schmucker Technologie, wrote in a paper posted recently on the website Armscontrolwonk.com that listed those discrepancies. “It remains unknown if they were designed this way to confuse foreign analysts, or if the designers simply did some sloppy work.” The revelation casts doubt on the country’s claims of military power.

Read the complete story in the Washington Post.

Details on what led the analysts to conclude that the missiles were nothing more than props can be read on ABCNews.

Osama bin Laden’s family was deported from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia on Friday, April 27, according to a spokesman of the interior ministry, nearly a year after the 9/11 mastermind was killed in a US raid. The family was believed to number 12 — 3 widows, 8 children and 1 grandchild. The family’s departure will remove a physical reminder of how badly Washington and Islamabad’s relationship was damaged by the revelation that the world’s most wanted man was living so close to Pakistan’s elite military academy. A court sentenced the widows and 2 of bin Laden’s older daughters to 45 days’ detention on charges of illegal entry and residency in Pakistan and ordered their deportation.

Read the rest of the story on Rappler.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owned the News of the World, shamefully lied. This was the allegation of Tom Crone, former legal manager of the closed-down paper, who refuted Murdoch’s claims that he was responsible for covering up phone hacking activities by the paper’s journalists. Crone issued a statement on Thursday, April 26, which also denied that he prevented journalists from telling executives that phone hacking was common practice at the paper. Murdoch’s false allegations, according to Crone, “greatly demeans him.” A long-serving legal executive at News International, Crone left after the closure of News of the World in July 2011.

Read the details in The Guardian. 

“Apple will decline in the post Steve Jobs era,” wrote George Colony, CEO of top research firm Forrester Research in his new blog post. The company which produced phenomenons like the iPhone and iPad will coast for 2-4 years on its current momentum, Colony said, but will need a charismatic leader like Steve Jobs, who died in October. The death of Jobs left a void because his successor, Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to Colony, doesn’t possess Jobs’ star power. Without “a new charismatic leader it will move from being a great company to being a good company, with a commensurate step down in revenue growth and product innovation,” Colony wrote. Shifting to a more bureaucratic leader like Cook won’t work for Apple, Colony said. Forrester is a global technology research company which he founded in 1983 and is considered a leader in analyzing the technology industry.

Read the complete story on CNN.

Commoner Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, has fulfilled her objectives she set for her first year as member of Britain’s monarchy. A year after her marriage to Prince William, St James Palace now regards Kate’s induction as complete. According to CNN, the Duchess has successfully graduated as a “fully fledged member” of the monarchy. She has settled into her new life, dispelling fears that she would struggle with the pressures of being thrust into the public eye. Besides her husband William, her other mentor has been her father-in-law, Prince Charles. “They spend a lot of time together. They go on visits to the opera and art galleries. They share passions that neither of the princes share. They get on very well.”

Read the CNN exclusive here, preparatory to a documentary about her that will air on May 4.

Power distributor Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) recorded profits for the first quarter of 2012 rose 58.2% from the year before. Meralco chair Manuel Pangilinan earlier said the company was targeting P15-B in income this year, slightly higher than its core net income of P14.5-B in 2011. The rosy 1^stquarter picture was aided in large part by the summer heat and higher electricity sales. For the first quarter, Meralco’s overall average retail rate was P9.35 per kilowatt-hour, 7% higher than its rate in 2011. Meralco senior executive VP and COO Oscar Reyes said the company’s net income as of end-March totaled P3.373 billion, against last year’s P2.132 billion. Revenues also went up 16% to P65.626 billion, of which 99% or P65.1 billion came from electricity sales.

Read the complete story on Rappler. 

Ever wondered what the view was from outer space? Or whether it was at all possible to tweet from outer space? Answer is yes. ESA astronaut André Kuipers, who is currently above earth and is expected to land on July 1, 2012, tweeted a photo of San Francisco Bay. He has also tweeted photos of Johannesburg at night and of the Canyons in the southwestern part of the US. Kuipers who has the Twitter handle @astro_andre has over 225,000 followers.

View his breath-taking photo in the Huffington Post. 

Even as the Chinese army has vowed to protect their interests in the disputed Scarborough Shoal, Chinese defense minister Liang Guanglie declared, “We believe the confrontation can be solved through diplomacy.” Liang however said China will undertake military action “in accordance with China’s overall diplomacy (needs).” Defense Ministry spokesperson Geng Yansheng was also quoted in the state-run China Daily as saying, “China’s military forces will collaborate closely with related governing bodies, including fishery administration and maritime law enforcement, to jointly ensure the country’s maritime rights and interests.” When asked if warships will be deployed to the area, Geng replied that the Chinese armed forces “have persisted in implementing their mission under the unified deployment of the nation.”

Read the complete story on Rappler.

If all you want is something to read in bed, you may wish to consider a LED-based “GlowLight” tablet. This is Barnes & Noble’s latest addition to its Nook Simple Touch e-reader. The 6.5 x 5-inch monochromatic device is 5% lighter than an earlier model introduced in 2011. It is also somewhat lighter than Amazon’s Kindle. The tablet, which is a Wi-Fi only reader, costs $139 (roughly P6,000) and already includes a power adapter. The Nook Simple Touch is set for night reading without need for any externals. It is also a touch-screen device unlike the Kindle 2.

Read the complete story on CNN. 

And then there were 5. Singing sensation Jessica Sanchez still remains in American Idol. After singing rock song, “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen, the 16-year-old Sanchez scored better with the Luther Vandross ballad, “Dance With My Father.” She struggled with the rock song, prompting rock legend and American Idol judge Steve Tyler to say rock wasn’t her forte. But Sanchez recovered quickly with her second song, drawing praise from the judges. New Jersey contender Elise Testone was eliminated from the popular singing competition leaving Skylar Laine, Joshua Ledet, Phillip Phillips, and Hollie Cavanagh – besides Sanchez – still in the running.

Read the full story on Rappler.