July 18, 2014 Edition

Three Filipinos were among the passengers of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 that US and Ukraine officials said was shot down by a surface-to-air missile and crashed in strife-torn eastern Ukraine July 17. The passengers include 154 Dutch nationals, 27 Australians, 43 from Malaysia, 12 Indonesians, 9 British, 4 German, 4 from Belgium and one Canadian. Around 41 passengers remained unidentified. There were 15 crew members on board the plane. Social media posts by pro-Russian insurgents – most of them hastily removed – suggest the rebels thought they had shot down a Ukrainian army plane before realizing in horror that it was in fact a packed Malaysian airliner.

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The White House warned that evidence from the Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine must not be moved from the country until a “thorough and transparent” investigation has taken place. This raised the possibility that US officials are concerned pro-Russian forces could try to tamper with the evidence of the wrecked aircraft to cover up who is to blame. The United Nations also called for a full-blown probe into the incident. US officials say they are convinced that the jet, traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was hit by a surface-to-air missile. Confirmation of separatist fighters killing the 298 passengers and crew would further complicate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to paint their uprising as a fight for self-determination.

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Still struggling to provide answers to the disappearance of flight MH370 in March 2014, Malaysia’s leaders and citizens expressed shock over yet another air tragedy that hit the country’s flagship carrier Malaysian Airlines. A somber Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, dressed in black, said the world was “united in grief” over the disaster. “This is a tragic day, in what has already been a tragic year, for Malaysia.” Tearful relatives began gathering at Kuala Lumpur’s international airport in the early hours of Friday morning, many beside themselves with grief as they endured an agonizing wait. There were 23 Malaysians on board that flight.

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Tropical Storm Henry (international codename Matmo) located east of northern Mindanao entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility Friday, July 18. The eye of the tropical storm was estimated at 890 km east of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, with maximum sustained winds of 65 km per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 80 km per hour. Henry is expected to be at 800 km east of Guiuan, Eastern Samar by Saturday morning, July 19, at 860 km east of Casiguran, Aurora by Sunday morning, July 20, and at 600 km East of Basco, Batanes by Monday morning, July 21. The country is just recovering from Typhoon Glenda, which hit the Bicol region July 16.

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The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan on July 18 ordered the 90-day suspension of detained Senator Jinggoy Estrada as senator of the Philippines. The Estrada camp said it will ask the court to reconsider. Prosecutors said it is mandatory for the anti-graft court to immediately issue a suspension order upon determining the validity of a charge sheet against a public official. Congress has not always heeded court orders on suspensions, however.

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Senator Grace Poe will be chosen by more people as president in 2016 over Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II – if she is endorsed by President Benigno Aquino III, a Pulse Asia survey said. Nationwide, 70% will select her compared to 51% who will choose Roxas. But even with a presidential endorsement, 24% said they would not vote for Poe compared to a bigger percentage of 42% who said they would not vote for Roxas. About 3% of those surveyed said an endorsement from Aquino would have no effect on their choice of Poe, while 4% said it would have no effect on their choice of Roxas, a trusted ally of the President and the likely standard bearer of the ruling Liberal Party in 2016.

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Based on initial data, Typhoon Glenda (Rammasun) caused P2.324 billion (US$53.3 million*) in damage to crops and fisheries, with Bicol and Quezon most affected. Rice suffered the most damage among crops at P512.7 million ($11.8 million). This is equivalent to 80,781 metric tons of palay. But of the total 43,536 hectares damaged, more than half or 23,437 hectares, may recover. Based on the initial findings, it doesn’t look like the damage will significantly affect the country’s food supply.

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella released a memo to employees Thursday, July 17, announcing 18,000 job cuts over the next year. According to Nadella’s memo, 12,500 of the job cuts will come from Nokia’s Devices and Services division, making up both professional and factory worker positions. The first 13,000 positions to be reduced will be informed of their status over the next 6 months, with the company adding that it will offer severance packages and job transition help in many locations.

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Physicists in the United States on Wednesday, July 16, reported they had compressed diamond to a density greater than that of lead, a technical feat that yields insights into the secrets of giant planets. A tiny synthetic sample of it was bombarded with 176 laser beams, creating pressure waves that progressively squeezed the sample to nearly four times its normal density, the scientists reported in the journal Nature. The exploit – equivalent to simulating pressures at the core of Saturn – should help astrophysicists finetune estimates of the process that make stars and giant planets, formed by strong gravitational pressures that crushed their atoms together.

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Oscar-winning director Ron Howard will make a new authorized documentary about the Beatles’ touring years, with the backing of the Fab Four’s music label Apple Corps, they said Wednesday. The two surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are giving their “full cooperation” to the movie, as are John Lennon and George Harrison’s widows, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, the filmmakers said. The movie will recount the band members’ early days in Liverpool’s Cavern Club, through their time honing their musical skills in Germany and their arrival in the United States and including their last public concert in San Francisco in 1966.

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