October 13, 2014 Edition

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima blasted the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay for “overreacting” to her statements about her plan to investigate corruption allegations against the second highest official of the land. She had earlier said that based on the information disclosed at the Senate hearings, her department will ‘most likely’ investigate the vice president. She said, ”They are trying to intimidate us. That is definitely not acceptable.”  Binay’s longtime aide, former Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, led the charge in a series of exposés against Binay before the Senate, the latest of which points to a 350-hectare farm in Rosario, Batangas. Mercado claims a garden owned by Mrs. Binay found in the property was meant to replicate the British royalty’s Kew Gardens. Binay categorically denies Mercado’s claim. But the most recent survey indicates that the allegations have caused a decline in his trust and approval ratings.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The Commission on Audit (COA) says the office of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala is to blame for the misuse of P759.1 million worth of lawmakers’ funds. The amount, channeled to the Department of Agriculture (DA) went to fake non-governmental organizations that mostly belong to the Godofredo Roque network of NGOs. The report noted that the DA used satellite agencies, including the National Agri-Business Corporation (Nabcor), Technology and Livelihood Resource Center (TLRC), the Philippine Carabao Center, and the National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NAFC), as conduits instead of implementing the projects itself as required by law.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Top US health officials blamed a breach of protocol for the new Ebola patient – the second person infected outside Africa and the second diagnosed in the United States. On Saturday, a female caregiver at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas tested positive for Ebola. Officials said the woman had “extensive contact” with Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died in the US on Wednesday. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention earlier said it was clear that a breach in protocol resulted in the new case. The agency launched a probe and a search for more health care workers who may have been exposed to the virus, as New York’s JFK Airport started health screenings for travelers from epidemic-hit West Africa.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Dozens of Hong Kong police start removing barricades around protest sites early Monday. The police, who were dressed in high visibility jackets but not wearing riot gear, removed at least one barricade from the main protest site in Admiralty, in Hong Kong’s busy Central district. Police were also gathering at a secondary site in Mongkok. Protesters have been staging more than two weeks of rallies to force Beijing to grant full democracy to Hong Kong, but the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying on Sunday said the protesters had “almost zero chance” of changing Beijing’s stance and securing free elections. Leung added that if the government had to clear the protests sites, police would use a “minimum amount of force.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

HK leader on Occupy Central.

Kidnappings, beheadings, a hatred of journalists: the areas controlled by the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria have become “black holes” of news where even war-hardened reporters dare not venture. Speaking on the sidelines of the annual Bayeux-Calvados awards for war correspondents in France, journalists said reporting on areas overrun by jihadists had become near-impossible. 3 of 7 prizes went to coverage of the conflict in Syria. They say, “It’s a war without witnesses.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim faces the threat of jail again on a controversial sodomy charge, but vows to continue the fight against what he calls the government’s smear campaign. Malaysia’s highest court will hear Anwar’s appeal against a much-criticized sodomy conviction and 5-year jail sentence late October. Opinion in Malaysia seems split on whether the government will risk a domestic and international backlash by throwing Anwar in prison again. The opposition leader, once a rising star in the ruling United Malays National Organization, was ousted in a power struggle in 1998 and jailed for 6 years on earlier charges of sodomy – later overturned – and corruption.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II makes American actress Angelina Jolie an honorary dame for her work in fighting sexual violence. Jolie’s honorary damehood, presented to people “who render extraordinary or important non-military service in a foreign country,” was announced in the Queen’s June birthday honors. The actress, star of Hollywood films such as “Tomb Raider” and “Maleficent,” campaigned to raise awareness of sexual violence in conflict zones during a four-day global conference in London with former British foreign minister William Hague.

Read the full story on Rappler.

A few days after Floyd Mayweather Sr. said that a fight between his son and 8-time boxing champion Manny Pacquiao will eventually happen, the unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr was quick to shoot down the report. Floyd debunked the statement and threatened to fire his dad, who’s also his trainer, if he continues to make similar remarks. Mayweather Jr said, “My father is totally wrong.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

U2 faced a backlash for releasing its album, Songs of Innocence, free to the world’s half-billion iTunes customers, with some accusing U2 of turning music into spam. So many people found it presumptuous that the entire world would want U2’s album that Apple offered special advice on its website on how to delete it. Few predict that U2 has created a new model, with lesser-known bands unlikely to survive by giving away their music. Owner of the independent store Criminal Records in Atlanta Eric Levin said, “I don’t think it was very good marketing… It was very heavy-handed and inappropriate.” The iTunes giveaway is not expected to affect sales of the physical album. Levin says collectors were distinct from casual digital listeners. Some 26 million people downloaded Songs of Innocence in its entirety. U2’s frontman Bono pointed out that more people had already listened to “Songs of Innocence” than had bought the band’s top-selling album, 1987’s “The Joshua Tree.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Being “forgotten” on Google will be a long-shot. Google said it had received 144,954 “right to be forgotten’ requests so far involving 497,695 URLs. Of that total, it has removed only 42%, keeping 58% in its results. The tech giant and leading search engine said it looked at whether the results yield outdated or inaccurate information and whether or not there’s public interest involved. For example, Google granted a link removal request by a rape victim in Germany. But in Switzerland, it denied the request of a professional who asked Google to remove more than 10 links on his arrest and conviction for financial crimes. Individuals whose requests are denied by Google can ask that local data protection authorities review the decision.

Read the full story on CNN.

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