October 10, 2013 Edition

Secretary of State John Kerry rescheduled his visit to the Philippines because of a tropical storm expected to hit land on Saturday, October 12. Kerry told reporters on the sidelines of the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Brunei that because of the “judgment of our pilots” and the approaching typhoon, they have decided to postpone the planned trip. He added, however, that he is “absolutely committed to returning in a month or so.” Storm signals have been raised over 6 areas in the country.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The daughter of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Napoles, is being accused of tax evasion by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). On Thursday, October 10, the BIR filed tax evasion charges against Jeane Napoles for her alleged failure to pay P32 million in taxes. The tax assessment is based on the confirmed ownership of a property in Los Angeles, California and a farm lot in Bayambang, Pangasinan. The LA property is worth P54.73 million, while the Pangasinan property is worth P1.49 million. Even her parents have outstanding tax liabilities, the BIR said. Janet’s liability stands at P44.68 million, while Jaime’s liability is estimated at P16.43 million.

Read the full story on Rappler.

An armed group kidnapped Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan from his residence, the Corinthia hotel in Tripoli hotel at dawn on Thursday, October 10. He has been brought to an unknown location by a group of men believed to be former rebels. Just 5 days earlier, US commandos seized senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Anas al-Libi. He was indicted for the twin bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998. Two groups of former rebels — the chamber of revolutionaries and the brigade for the fight against crime — are being suspected of being behind the Prime Minister’s kidnapping.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Following a crackdown against protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood, the US has temporarily suspended deliveries of major military hardware and cash assistance to Egypt. The US State Department said it will await the conduct of “credible progress” towards free and fair elections. Last August, a crackdown by authorities on the supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi left hundreds of people dead. In a statement, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said the suspension of assistance would remain “pending credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically-elected civilian government through fair and free elections.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

More details are on the BBC.

US President Barack Obama nominated an “exceptionally qualified” Janet Yellen, an economist, to head the Federal Reserve to sustain efforts on cutting American joblessness. Her appointment would put a woman for the first time as head of the world’s most powerful central bank. She replaces outgoing chairman Ben Bernanke who leaves his post end of January 2014. In accepting Obama’s nomination, Yellen said, “More needs to be done to strengthen the recovery, particularly for those hardest hit by the Great Recession.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

A gaseous exoplanet formed 12 million years ago was found by astronomers on Wednesday, October 9. Dubbed PSO J318.5-22, the planet was found floating alone in space outside the solar system. 80 light years from Earth, it has a mass 6 times that of Jupiter and is without a host star. The newborn lonely planet was spotted by researchers using the Pan-STARRS 1wide-field survey telescope on the Haleakala volcano of Maui island in Hawaii. Research team leader Michael Liu of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said, “I had often wondered if such solitary objects exist, and now we know they do.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

It’s called the Obstacle Avoidance system. It warns the driver about a possible collision then takes charge if the driver fails to react. The system being tested at a research facility in Germany scans up to 200 meters ahead, using 3 radars, ultrasonic sensors and a camera all installed in the car. The equipment has been fitted on one of Ford’s Focus-branded vehicles and has been described by one analyst as a stage enroute to “driverless cars.” Other car manufacturers involved in the project include BMW, Fiat, Daimier, Volvo and Volkswagen. More tests are needed and Ford has yet to announce the launch of its Obstacle Avoidance system.

Read the full story on the BBC.

Four planets — Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus — may be hosting sparkling diamonds, too. Researchers told a conference of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences that these planets have the perfect temperature and pressure conditions to host carbon in the form of diamonds. The interiors of the 4 planets have very hot, pressurized gas. The cores of Jupiter and Saturn would melt diamond, while the centers of Uranus and Neptune are cold enough to keep it solid. Researchers Mona Delitsky and Kevin Baines said the diamonds would probably be a little more dense but would be “the same translucent gem that we’re all familiar with.” No spacecraft however has actually detected diamonds.

Read the full story on CNN.

Planets image from Shutterstock

Residents living near an airport are at higher risk of stroke, heart and circulatory disease. A team of researchers who published their findings in the British Medical Journal said that while the exact role of noise exposure “is not well established,” it is plausible it might be contributing to “raising blood pressure or by disturbing people’s sleep.” Prof Stephen Stansfeld from the Queen Mary University of London said the results of the study “imply that the siting of airports and consequent exposure to aircraft noise may have direct effects on the health of the surrounding population.” As such, planners should take this into account when either expanding or planning new airports in heavily populated areas, Stansfeld said.

Read the full story on the BBC.

Plane over houses image from Shutterstock

The Galaxy Round is the world’s first curved display smartphone introduced by Samsung. In the company’s official blog, the Galaxy Round is shown sitting on a table and turned off but lights up when it is tilted to the side. Another distinct feature is its stitched leather design on the back cover, similar to the Galaxy Note 3. The new smartphone has a 5.7-inch display, a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor, 32 GB of internal storage, 3 GB of RAM, and a microSD card with up to 64GB of storage. It also has both a rear and front-facing camera. The Galaxy Round will be available in Korea starting this Thursday, October 10.

Read the full story on Rappler.

A related story is on CNN.