December 30, 2014 Edition

The United States deployed a destroyer to help look for a missing AirAsia jetliner, US officials said Monday, December 29, amid fears the aircraft crashed into the sea. The USS Sampson was expected to arrive Tuesday in the search zone for Flight QZ8501, which disappeared on Sunday over the Java Sea with 162 people on board. “The US Navy is working closely with the government of Indonesia to identify additional surface or airborne capabilities that best assist their search efforts,” the Navy’s 7th Fleet said in a statement.

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Six people were killed, one is missing, and thousands fled their homes as a tropical storm battered parts of Visayas and Mindanao with strong winds and heavy rain, according to reports as of Tuesday, December 30. The storm, locally named “Seniang” and with winds of up to 80 kilometers per hour, traversed parts of Mindanao and Visayas and was spotted nearing Cebu on Tuesday morning by state weather bureau PAGASA In Visayas, 3 were reported dead due to a landslide in Tanauan town, Leyte by local government authorities. The landslide had been induced by incessant rain that had been pouring over Leyte since Monday. Three people were also reported dead in the region of Mindanao while one man was reported missing.

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The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in west Africa has risen to 7,842 out of 20,081 cases recorded, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday, December 29. The previous toll released on December 26 was 7,693 deaths and 19,695 cases. Almost all the deaths and cases have been recorded in 3 west African countries worst-hit by the outbreak: Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Those apart, 6 have died in Mali, one in the United States and 8 in Nigeria, which was declared Ebola-free in October.

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The death toll after a ferry caught fire in rough seas in the Adriatic rose to 10 on Monday, December 29 with dozens of passengers still unaccounted for. It was unclear whether the missing passengers had drowned or otherwise died unnoticed or whether the ill-fated Norman Atlantic’s manifest lists were inaccurate. Pending resolution of the issue, the Italian navy was continuing to search for bodies around the stricken ferry, which remained in waters close to Albania hours after nightfall. With the 10 confirmed dead, that left 41 people unaccounted for in comparison to the list of passengers and crew released by the ferry’s Greek operator on Sunday.

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An estimated 11.4 million families in the Philippines consider themselves poor, according to the results of the Fourth Quarter 2014 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey. The figure corresponds to 52% of families in the Philippines. The results of the latest SWS survey showed record-high levels of poverty thresholds in various regions. This corresponds to the minimum monthly budget a household needs to not consider itself as poor. While the self-rated poverty rate for the last quarter of 2014 improved by 3 points from 55% in September, the average rate of families who consider themselves as poor for the entire 2014 increased from previous years.

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A healthcare worker recently back from Sierra Leone was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday, December 29, by doctors in Scotland’s largest city, the first diagnosis of the deadly virus in Britain during the current outbreak. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the patient was a female health worker who had been working on the “front-line” with Ebola patients, and was currently in a stable condition in hospital. Save the Children later confirmed she was a National Health Service employee working for the charity.

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Greece is set for a snap election next month that could bring a radical anti-austerity party to power, after lawmakers failed for a 3rd time on Monday, December 29, to elect a new president. The vote, which Prime Minister Antonis Samaras proposed for January 25, is likely to further rattle the economy and financial markets after Greece’s dire finances nearly destroyed the eurozone in 2012.

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Shifting to a single currency series in the country, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced Monday, December 29, that the demonetization process on the old banknotes or the New Design Series (NDS) will start Thursday, January 1, 2015. The replacement process is in line with the provisions of the Section 57 of the Republic Act No. 7653, or the New Central Bank Act that authorizes the BSP to replace banknotes that are in circulation for more than 5 years. Demonetizing NDS will result in the circulation of a single currency series in the country – the New Generation Currency (NGC) series. Issued on December 16, 2010, the NGC banknotes are using new and enhanced security features to help thwart counterfeiting.

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China has blocked the last remaining way to access Google’s popular e-mail service, experts said on Monday, December 29, as authorities work to establish “Internet sovereignty” by controlling what enters the country via the web. Gmail, the world’s biggest e-mail service, has been largely inaccessible from within China since the run-up to the 25th anniversary in June of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators. The United States, while careful not to accuse Beijing directly, said it was aware of reports that Gmail had been blocked and that it was “concerned by efforts in China to undermine freedom of expression.”

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The Interview, the movie that became the talk of the town after it sparked an international incident, had social media users glued to Twitter Monday, December 29, as the stars and the director live-tweeted the movie. The film centers around a fictional plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. In the movie, the task from the CIA falls to two TV journalists played by Seth Rogen and James Franco, after James’ character is granted an interview with Kim Jong-Un. James and Seth were joined by Seth’s co-director Evan Goldberg during the live-tweet.

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