January 5, 2015 Edition

In an interview with comedian Vice Ganda, President Benigno Aquino III recalled his long-time friendships with two public officials embroiled in controversies, Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima and Vice President Jejomar Binay. Purisima was part of his security detail as the son of President Corazon Aquino. The President also took pains to portray Purisima as a good cop.

The highlight was the admission he had a girlfriend up until “several months ago,” and adds he’s currently single. He also said he would prefer a younger girlfriend so that he would have a shot at having children. Among trivia unearthed in the interview: Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was his teacher, a bullet is still lodged in his neck and he’s cool with his thinning hair.

Aquino on Purisima

10 Aquino trivia

On relationship status

A video circulating on Facebook shows a group of men taking turns in firing their guns to the sky on New Year’s Eve. At least 6 shots were fired. Facebook user Drew Lutchina originally uploaded the video on his page but the account was deactivated after the post went viral. A concerned citizen sent a copy of the original video, as well as screen grabs of Lutchina’s timeline, to Rappler. Other posts of the user on Thursday, January 1, show his friends holding a water dipper filled with bullets. According to screen grabs of his Facebook account, the person who posted the video lives in the town of Narvacan in Ilocos Sur, a province north of Manila.

Read the full story on Rappler.

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes downplayed an incident that saw one of its planes turning back before takeoff in Indonesia. The incident comes a week after one of its jets crashed into the Java Sea with 162 on board. An airline official said flight 7633 was taxiing in preparation for takeoff when a power unit used to start the plane shut down. Local media in Indonesia and Malaysia reported the plane’s engine had cut out after emitting a loud bang that terrified passengers. Fernandes lashed out at the initial media reports, calling the headlines “sensational” and “silly.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

The latest in a string of high-profile sex attacks in India, five men are arrested for repeatedly gang-raping and extorting money from a young Japanese tourist held hostage for nearly a month. The 22-year-old tourist’s ordeal began in Kolkata, where she was befriended by three local men. One of the men persuaded her to withdraw around $1,200 dollars in cash before travelling with her to the holy shrine of Bodh Gaya in the neighboring state of Bihar. There she was handed over to two brothers who locked her in a secluded underground room and repeatedly raped her for nearly a month.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Britain’s Buckingham Palace denies Prince Andrew’s involvement in a sex slavery ring. This comes after a woman accused the prince of having sex with her as an underage “sex slave” of Wall Street financier Jeffrey Epstein. The woman, identified only as “Jane Doe #3” in court papers, claimed she was Epstein’s sex slave from 1999 through 2002. In 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a single Florida state charge of soliciting prostitution. He remains a registered sex offender. Andrew is the second son of Queen Elizabeth II and fifth in line to the British throne.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Egypt disputed a claim by British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney that she had been warned she risked arrest if a report on the Cairo judiciary is released. Clooney, a rights lawyer who married Hollywood star George Clooney last year, told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that the warning had stopped her going ahead with a Cairo launch for the February 2014 report for the International Bar Association. But interior ministry spokesman Hani Abdel Latif questioned the source of the alleged warning. The report warned about the wide powers that ministers had over judges and highlighted a record of selective prosecutions, flaws that Clooney said later contributed to the convictions of 3 Al Jazeera journalists. She said the flaws gave her little confidence in the retrial ordered by Egypt’s top court. Clooney is now on the defense team for Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Pop diva Madonna hit back at criticism of images posted on her Facebook page showing Photoshopped images of icons Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King that resemble artwork on the singers upcoming album. Commenters shot back ”Lower and lower on the scale of bad taste.” Another said: ”Going too far. Your bondage mask works for you since you sell sex but take it off the men of integrity.”

Madonna remained defiant. In a retort full of misspellings, she said the images were submitted by fans and denied she was comparing herself to Mandela, King or the other personalities on her page which included John Lennon, Joan of Arc and Britain’s late Princess Diana. “I’m sorry, I’m not comparing myself to anyone…I’m admiring and acknowledging there Rebel Hearts…This is neither a crime or an insult or racist!”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Rock band U2’s frontman Bono told his fans in a blog his recovery from an accident has been slow and he’s worried he may never play guitar again. Bono underwent hours of multiple surgeries in November after a bicycle accident in New York City. The singer broke his arm in six spots, and he fractured his eye socket and shoulder blade. He  revealed that he ”blanked out on impact and have no memory of how I ended up in New York Presbyterian with my humerus bone sticking through my leather jacket. Very punk rock as injuries go.”

He said, “As a result I have cancelled every public appearance and decided this missive is all the communication I can manage for the first half of 2015, beyond muttering and singing to myself of course.”

Read the full story on CNN.

The Vatican junked the previous plan to use Latin in Pope Francis’ Masses in the Philippines, and decided that the Pope will say these Masses in English, says Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president, Archbishop Socrates Villegas. Villegas said the Pope will use English in his Masses at the Daniel Z Romualdez Airport in Tacloban City on January 17, and at the Rizal Park in Manila on January 18 because “the Pope wants to reach as many and be understood by many more.” Latin is the Catholic Church’s official liturgical language.

Read the full story on Rappler.

What can we learn from Pope Francis as we go back to work? Rappler compiled 5 quotes from his biography, El Jesuita (The Jesuit) by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin. A laborer before becoming a priest, he said “work anoints a person with dignity. Dignity is not conferred by one’s ancestry, family life, or education.” He added, “Work opens a door to realism.” Other work-related nuggets of wisdom include insights on the culture of work, leisure and parents’ playtime with children.

Read the full story on Rappler.