May 25, 2012 Edition

Facebook Camera, a new application for the iPhone and iPod Touch, will make it easier for users to take photos and share them with people in their social network. Previously, Facebook had purchased Instagram, the social photo app. While Instagram has 40 million users, Facebook has 900 million. Facebook Camera will include tools for cropping and straightening photos, and offer 15 filters that are stylistic in nature. Dirk Stoop, Facebook product manager for photos, said the app launches fast and “scrolls like butter.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Other details are available in The New York Times.

John Malkovich is the latest addition to Apple’s list of celebrities who use Siri on the 4S. Apparently intended to increase brand awareness, the ads seem to be targeted at the post-gen-X business person who can afford a 4S and who may have been once a Blackberry fan. The attraction of Siri to these types is that she can be a little assistant who will never talk back, never ask for a pay hike and even never request that you stop cursing. The commercial shows Malkovich seated on an easy chair where he muses on fine meats and the meaning of life, and talks casually to his digital assistant, Siri.

Read the full story on Techcrunch.com.

Was there, or is there life on Mars? New research has found that the basic building blocks of life are present on Mars. The study also discovered that “reduced carbon” present in meteorites came from volcanic activity on Mars, and was not the result of contamination on planet earth. Reduced carbon is one that is chemically bonded to hydrogen or itself. This means that “Mars has been undertaking organic chemistry for most of its history.” Without carbon, research team leader Dr Andrew Steele explained, “the building blocks of life cannot exist…So it is reduced carbon that, with hydrogen, with oxygen, with nitrogen make up the organic molecules of life.” The research findings allows scientists to move forward in their probe of life beyond earth.

Read the full story on BBC News.

The United States will cut aid to Pakistan by US$1 million for each year of imprisonment of a Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden. Dr Shakil Afridi was tried for treason under a tribal justice system for running a fake hepatitis B vaccination program that he used to gather intelligence for the CIA. The program was intended to obtain blood samples from one of the children living in the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden was believed to be hiding. He was killed by US forces in May 2011. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Afridi’s jail term was “unjust and unwarranted.”

Read the full story on BBC News.

When Chief Justice Renato Corona abruptly left the Senate session hall on Tuesday, May 22, he appeared well. A guard, assigned to the fire exit where the Chief Justice headed, said that Corona appeared to weaken only after he found out he would not be allowed to leave and that the exit door was closed. This was upon the instructions of presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile who barred the exit of anyone from the Senate premises. Journalist Marites Vitug says the video and photos of Corona show no pain or discomfort on his part as he was stopped by Senate security guards, contrary to what defense lawyers claimed. His counsels said the diabetic Corona was already feeling unwell toward the latter part of his 3-hour testimony, forcing him to abruptly leave, even without being properly discharged by the Enrile.

Read the full piece on Rappler.

By October 2012, shoes containing human bones of victims of the 2011 tsunami in Japan are likely to begin washing up on the US West Coast. Curt Ebbesmeyer, a retired oceanographer and expert on marine currents, drift patterns and beachcombing, said the main mass of debris should start arriving by the last quarter of the year and for the next several years. About 3,000 people are still missing from the tsunami that wiped out entire villages. Debris swept across the Pacific could wash ashore from northern California all the way to Alaska.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile accepted the waiver that Chief Justice Renato Corona submitted to the impeachment court Friday, May 25, but told him they can no longer act on it. The impeachment court, he said, is not a producer of evidence but a hearer of facts. As such, it will evaluate the evidence and make a decision on Corona’s case. Emerging from a brief caucus after Corona submitted his unconditional waiver, Enrile said, “We take note of this waiver but we cannot subpoena any other person mentioned here given the fact that we are not supposed to produce evidence for the defense nor the prosecution.” The prosecution has rested its case, while the defense has likewise closed its presentation. The trial will resume Monday at 2 pm, after which the court will render a decision.

Read the complete story on Rappler.

Read the background story on Corona’s submission of his unconditional waiver on Rappler.

Chief Justice Renato Corona sought the resignation of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, after alleging she allowed herself to be used by Malacañang. Corona branded as an outright lie her testimony that he had US$12-M in dollar accounts. He countered that he only had $2.4-M and only P80-M in peso deposits. In his 2010 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, Corona declared P4.5-M in cash and investments. Morales for her part charged Corona with being a “certified liar.” She said she would not resign and let people judge who is telling the truth. She also said that having worked with him for 9 years, Corona should know that she could not be used by anyone.

Read the full story on Rappler. 

Chief Justice Renato Corona has P183.2 million in peso and dollar accounts. During Friday’s testimony, he said he has US$2.4-M in dollar amounts and an additional P80-M in peso deposits. He however did not declare these in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).  The amounts he admitted to owning are higher than what he declared in his 2010 SALN, the latest available public document. His 2011 SALN filed in April 2012, has not been released to the public. Corona said he did not declare the money he admitted owning owing to the confidentiality of foreign currency deposits and what he termed as “co-mingled funds” or funds jointly shared with others – in his case, his wife and his children.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The increasing number of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the country has reached levels never before seen in the past. From 2007 to 2011, there has been a 587% increase in such cases, Dr Genesis Samonte, chief of the HIV Surveillance Unit of the National Epidemiology Center, said Thursday, May 24. “This is simply unacceptable. The DOH (Department of Health) has not seen an epidemic rise this quickly,” she added. If in 2000, there was one new case of HIV every 3 days, now there is a new case every 2 hours. Legislators are calling for an amendment of RA 8504 or the Philippine AIDS Prevention and Control Act to better address this rapidly worsening crisis.

Read the full story on Rappler.