November 23, 2014 Edition

Five years is too long to resolve a crime of this magnitude. This, according to members of the international media and relatives of victims who visited the memorial site of the worst election-related violence in the country on Friday, November 21 – two days before the 5th anniversary of the Ampatuan massacre. There is frustration on the part of families who are begging for justice and closure.

Read more on Rappler.

MACAU – Manny Pacquiao scored six official knockdowns on Chris Algieri en route to a one-sided victory on Sunday, November 23 at The Venetian in Macau, China. The scores were 119-103 on two cards and 120-102 on the third as Pacquiao wins his third straight fight since sustaining back-to-back losses in 2012 against Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.

Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 knockouts) showed little respect for the previously unbeaten Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs), barging through the mobile New Yorker’s light jabs to land his own southpaw left cross and right hooks. 

Pacquiao, 35, of General Santos City, Philippines scored the first knockdown of the first in round two as Algieri backed up from a combination and his legs gave way. Replays showed that Algieri had slipped on a wet spot. Further knockdowns were more conclusive, as Pacquiao’s left crosses caught up to the constant moving of Algieri, dropping him twice in the sixth.

Algieri, who rose to prominence earlier this year with an upset win over Ruslan Provodnikov, showed his championship heart, coming back from that beating to start the seventh aggressively. But Pacquiao, hungry for his first knockout win since 2009, continued to bury Algieri in a hole, knocking him down two more times in a violent ninth stanza and once more in the tenth before surviving to hear the final bell.

The victory closes out a 2014 campaign for Pacquiao that saw him defeat two unbeaten fighters in succession after he turned the tables on Bradley in April to avenge an earlier points loss. – Rappler.com

A global study prepared by an Australia-based international organization ranked the Philippines as first among Asian countries in terms of government response to modern servitude, including human trafficking, forced labor, and slavery. The 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI), the first of its kind, measures the vulnerability of countries to forms of slavery in countries, their prevalence, and the government response. The Philippines is among 4 countries “taking strong efforts to respond to modern slavery with relatively limited resources,” the report said. In terms of government response, the country is first in Asia, 3rd in the Asia Pacific, and 29th globally, out of 167 countries. However, the report estimated over 260,000 Filipinos were enslaved as of 2014.

Read the full report on Rappler.

Why would a visitor to North Korea, one of the world’s most notorious dictatorships, want to seek asylum there? In the case of 25-year-old Matthew Miller, one of 3 Americans recently released by the secretive state, he said it was just to learn more about the country and its people. But his plan – which involved damaging his visa, using false information, and a notebook full of notes and images – became more complex than he imagined, and he ended up being sentenced to a labor camp.

What exactly went through the mind of Matthew Miller? Read more in an exclusive report by NK News, published on The Guardian.

Scientists in Britain removed and studied a rare tapeworm that lived in a man’s brain for 4 years, researchers said on Friday, November 21. The tapeworm causes sparganosis, an inflammation of body tissues that can cause seizures, memory loss and headaches when it occurs in the brain. It was the first time the tapeworm, Spirometra erinaceieuropaei, was reported in Britain. Only 300 cases have been reported since 1953.

Read more on Rappler.

The Vatican has relayed to Philippines that Pope Francis prefers that the Catholic church and government here keep the expenditures minimal for his visit in January. Instead, the Pope wants more resources to be spent on helping the victims of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and the earthquake in Bohol in 2013, according to an article on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) news site. “The call of the Vatican that this visit not be costly is important because the desire of the Holy Father is that donations be given instead to the victims of calamities. That is the primary purpose of his visit,” said papal visit media relations sub-committee chair Fr Anton Pascual.

Read the full story on Rappler. Check here the Pope’s itinerary in Manila and Leyte in January.

A major review of United Nations peacekeeping will prioritize an issue that the Philippines repeatedly highlights: the safety of troops during kidnapping and siege incidents. In an exclusive interview with Rappler, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said that blue helmets’ security will be a key focus of the high-level independent review of peace operations, the first in 15 years.

Read more on Rappler.

Are we running out of chocolate? Recent reports point out to the increasingly dwindling supply of this major food, as cacao farmers harvest less than what the world eats. What’s to blame? A lot of factors, including climate change, the time it takes for cocoa to bear fruit, and, of course, the number of consumers of this delicious treat. Now, scientists and farmers are looking for ways to increase cacao harvests – and it involves some advanced tech.

Read more in The Atlantic.

Cocoa powder and dark chocolate image from Shutterstock

How does Benedict Cumberbatch deal with being famous – and in particular, being the favorite subject of online memes? The British actor, known for his roles in TV’s Sherlock and Star Trek’s latest incarnation of Khan, has this ability to make anything he does go viral on the web, thanks to his legion of fans, of which the term “Cumberbitch,” among other names, has been coined. “I flirt with it. I have fun with it,” Cumberbatch says about this curious online (and increasingly offline) phenomenon surrounding his star status.

Read New York magazine’s profile of ‘The Internet’s Boyfriend,’ where he talks about his career, the moment he knew he’ll be famous, and his reaction to fans’ reaction on his engagement.

We’ve all heard of companies offering lots of free food and other great perks, such as foosball tables and sleeping pods. But is it worth it? Does it make workers more productive and happier? Some companies say its a way to encourage not just productivity, but also interactions among employees, to make them more creative. Some, meanwhile, say office perks could also have some downsides, like losing out on life outside work. Some say the best way to give perks and incentives is not to make them routine.

So what’s the best way to have office perks? Read more on the BBC.