October 24, 2014 Edition

The Islamic State has become the world’s wealthiest terror group, earning tens of millions of dollars a month from illegal oil sales and ransoms, according to the United States’ undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. The group, also known as ISIL, has seized a large swath of territory in Iraq and Syria. Its “primary funding tactics…include the sale of stolen oil, the ransoming of kidnap victims, theft and extortion from the people it currently dominates, and, to a lesser extent, donations from supporters outside of Syria and Iraq,” said David Cohen. Thus, he said, “there is no secret weapon to empty ISIL’s coffers overnight. This will be a sustained fight, and we are in the early stages.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Craig Spencer, a doctor who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, tests positive for the virus. New York has its first case of Ebola after Craig Spencer, a doctor who worked with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, tested positive for the deadly virus. He returned to the city on October 14, and was rushed to the Bellevue Hospital after exhibiting symptoms. The city’s health department has deployed disease detectives to “actively trace all of the patient’s contacts to identify anyone who may be at potential risk.” Ironically, 3 days before Spencer arrived in the city, New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport rolled out new screening measures aimed at halting the disease after the state of Texas had its Ebola cases.

Read the story on Rappler.

Two young Canadian men who launched deadly attacks in their own homeland were extremists tempted by war in Syria, but police have found no evidence of a wider plot, officials said. On Wednesday, Zehaf-Bibeau, a petty criminal from Montreal, shot dead an unarmed soldier at the Ottawa war memorial before storming the corridors of parliament. The attack followed a similar one on Monday, when 25-year-old Martin Couture-Rouleau ran over two soldiers in a Quebec parking lot, killing one of them, before being shot dead by police. Both assailants had sought to travel to Syria where they might join Islamist extremists waging war abroad, officials have said.

Read the full story on Rappler. A Filipino law student at the University of Ottawa University, a short walk away from the Canadian Parliament, shared with Rappler his experience of Wednesday’s lockdown.

European Union leaders have agreed on a landmark climate change deal that commit their countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030, according to EU head Herman Van Rompuy. The accord, reached after difficult talks lasting nearly 8 hours, also includes putting in place by that year 27% targets for the amount of renewable energy and for energy efficiency gains.

Read the story on Rappler.

The Philippines is reviewing “ambiguous” provisions in its Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States in the light of debate over which country should have custody of the American soldier who is accused of killing a Filipino in Olongapo City. “There are provisions where the Philippine and US sides have differing interpretations, that’s why we have to have implementing guidelines,” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said. The justice secretary herself has interpretations of the custody provision that differ with those of the Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and the US Embassy. De Lima clarified that moving to clarify implementing guidelines doesn’t necessarily mean openness to amending the 1999 treaty.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Domestic workers in oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) endure sexual violence, isolation and forced confinement, unpaid wages, long working hours with limited food, and regular beating in the hands of their employers. The “seemingly entrenched pattern” of abuses is detailed in recently released 79-page report by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). Many who were interviewed said their employers treated them like “animals” who were “bought” at a price. Abused Filipino domestic helpers who were able to return home recount how Philippine embassy officials failed or refused to help them in UAE. One former victim is back in the Philippines to help other distressed OFWs.

Read the full report on Rappler.

Six more former congressmen will face preliminary investigation by the Philippine Ombudsman over the misuse and illegal diversion of their discretionary Priority Development Assistance Fund. They are to be investigated along with the alleged mastermind of the pork barrel scam, Janet Lim Napoles, and former Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, whose office became the conduit of funds. Initial findings show that various projects funded by the 6 lawmakers’ pork barrel were unliquidated and did not reach their intended beneficiaries in the rural provinces across the country.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The Philippine Supreme Court has upheld the administration of St Theresa’s College in Cebu City, which was brought to court for allegedly violating the privacy of its students who uploaded on Facebook photos of themselves clad in bikinis. After the school did not allow the students to go on stage during graduation in 2012, the parents went to court to compel the school to return soft copies of the photos as well as declare they didn’t violate the teenagers’ privacy rights. The High Court, however, said the parents failed to prove that the photos were visible only to the 5 girls and not to their wider network of Facebook friends or the public. It also said the school “cannot be faulted for being steadfast in its duty of teaching its students to be responsible in their dealings and activities in cyberspace…[and] enforced the disciplinary actions specified in the Student Handbook.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

A Fortuner that has partnered with Uber, a ride-sharing service, fell a sting operation conducted by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Manila, and was fined P200,000, and may be impounded for 3 months. The regulator said the car did not have a franchise to operate as public vehicle, and announced that it would go after other ride-sharing services. Netizens were furious, slamming the LTFRB for picking on cars that serve commuters well instead of going after abusive taxis that hold franchises.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Amy Tan – author of best-selling novels The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, and the newly launched The Valley of Amazement – was recently in Manila to meet fans and the media. Known for her stories of daughters and their relationship with their mothers as well of the Asian-American experience of being between two worlds, and of uncovering secrets pasts left behind in the old country, she shared with Rappler how the people in her real life populate her fiction.

Read and watch the full Rappler interview.