Powerful aftershocks rocked Nepal on Sunday, April 26, triggering fresh panic among survivors of the worst disaster to hit the impoverished Himalayan nation in more than 80 years. As rescuers continued to dig through the rubble in a race to save victims of Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake, a 6.7-magnitude aftershock jolted residents on Sunday, forcing many to camp out in the streets and open areas due to fear of further collapse of buildings. The death toll is pegged at more than 2,500 so far. The quake has left thousands injured, homeless and without access to clean water and electricity. Hospitals were reportedly overwhelmed with medics treating patients in hastily erected tents. Almost 1 million children are reportedly in urgent need of aid as humanitarian organizations and other countries scrambled to come to Nepal’s assistance. The quake also triggered avalanches on Mount Everest that killed 19 climbers so far and has left many trapped at the Everest Base camp.

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Indonesia on Sunday, April 26, signalled it was determined to push ahead with the execution of 8 foreign drug convicts, despite a growing wave of global condemnation led by United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon. Responding to the UN statement, the Indonesian foreign ministry noted that there was no similar statement made when two Indonesians were executed in Saudi Arabia recently. On Saturday, April 25, Indonesian authorities gave formal notice to the 8 death row convicts – from Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and the Philippines – that they would be executed by firing squad. The group have been moved to the high-security prison island of Nusakambangan, where Indonesia puts condemned prisoners to death. The 8 includes 30-year-old Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipina, who maintains that she was framed and duped into unknowingly acting as a drug mule. Veloso is expected to be executed on Tuesday, April 28.

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Read Mary Jane Veloso’s letters to Filipino youth, women.

Read Mary Jane’s story in her own words.

Read her message to her family.

White House officials admitted that Russian hackers may have gotten access to some of President Obama’s email correspondence in last year’s breach of the White House’s unclassified computer system. The hackers do not appear to have penetrated closely guarded servers such as the one that controls the messages from Mr. Obama’s BlackBerry, which he or an aide carries constantly. But they were able to access the email archives of people inside the White House, and perhaps some outside, with whom the President regularly communicated. From those accounts, officials briefed on the investigation said, they may have reached emails that Obama had sent and received. White House officials maintained that no classified networks had been compromised, and that the hackers had collected no classified information.

Read more on the New York Times.

In a bid to address power supply imbalance in the Luzon grid, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) passed a resolution requiring power generation companies (gencos) to report power outages in “real-time.” The new resolution requires gencos to notify the ERC at least 10 days before a planned outage.’ Gencos are also required to provide real-time accurate information on the operations of their generation facilities. In the event of an unplanned outage or sudden shutdown, gencos are required to send the ERC an SMS detailing the type of unplanned outage, name of generation facility, total outage, date and time of occurrence, reason for outage and surname of person reporting. The SMS is expected to be supported later with a follow-up report sent through e-mail or fax within 48 hours of the unplanned outage. The same SMS procedure of reporting to the ERC will be followed within 3 hours from the resumption of operations of the generating facility.

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The province of Iloilo aims to replace the thousands of trees, some of them century-old, that were uprooted by Yolanda, the strongest typhoon globally in recent history. To help the province achieve this goal, the Archdiocese of Jaro in Iloilo, the Iloilo provincial government, and the local office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) signed an agreement on April 23 to require the faithful to plant trees before they can avail themselves of Catholic rites, such as baptism, wedding, and burial. The agreement institutionalizes a practice that some local priests started which required couples about to marry to plant trees before their wedding. The faithful who will participate in the project will be given designated areas in each municipality, where they will grow the “Tree Park of Life.”

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Contracts of workers in broadcasting giant GMA-7’s regional stations have been terminated as part of the network’s streamlining efforts, according to various reports, starting Saturday, April 25. Cebu Daily News said the layoffs are in GMA-7 stations in Cebu, Bacolod, Davao, Naga, Cagayan de Oro, and Ilocos, while Inquirer Visayas said confirmed terminations were only in Cebu, Iloilo and Bacolod. MindaNews reported that GMA-7 closed its offices in Cagayan de Oro City, Bacolod City, Naga City and Ilocos. Inquirer Visayas, however, said that GMA Network Inc Vice President for Corporate Communi=cation Angela Javier Cruz clarified that these stations are not closing down. In a statement sent to Rappler, GMA-7 said the layoffs are part of ‘strategic streamlining of programs and manpower in its provincial stations to ensure business competitiveness.’ Severance packages were offered by GMA to all affected personnel, according to the statement.

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With only days to go before the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Manny Pacquiao fight, it is difficult to turn on a news program and not hear mention of this match. If you haven’t followed boxing in a long time, or the sport is just now piquing your curiosity, you may be wondering, why this fight is such a big deal. Don’t be ashamed. Read this explainer to brush up on everything you need to know about the Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Manny Pacquiao fight and the sport of boxing. The match will take place on Saturday, May 2 (May 3 in the Philippines) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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A Google Inc. executive who was in Nepal to climb Mount Everest was among those killed in the massive earthquake that hit the Himalayan country on Saturday. Dan Fredinburg suffered a “major head injury” when he was caught in an avalanche following the earthquake, his sister Megan wrote in a post on Mr. Fredinburg’s Instagram account. The head of Google’s privacy unit, Lawrence You, confirmed the death in a blog post. Mr. You wrote that three other Google employees hiking Mt. Everest with Mr. Fredinburg were also uninjured. Following the incident, Fredinburg’s former girlfriend, One Tree Hill and Chicago PD star Sophia Bush, posted a photo of herself and Fredinburg at the 2013 Do Something Awards in Hollywood with a lengthy caption that described Fredinburg as “one of my favourite human beings on Earth.”

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The Mayor of Pililla town in Rizal province drew the flak from netizens after a concerned citizen posted an open letter with the copy of what is allegedly a copy of a senior citizen’s ID with his photo inserted. In a post which went viral on Facebook, Jasper Dela Cruz, who called himself an “ordinary concerned citizen,” took offense over the placement of Pililla Mayor Leandro Masikip’s picture on the lower left side of the card — with the mayor’s photo even bigger than the picture of the ID owner. Dela Cruz insisted that an ID should “should bear information of the individual who carries it.” Masikip has been under a 90-day suspension since February after the Office of the Ombudsman charged him with falsification of a municipal council resolution.

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Love is sweeter the second time around for actors JM de Guzman and Jessy Mendiola. The two admitted during an interview on Gandang Gabi Vice, Sunday, April 26 that they are indeed in a relationship again. According to to the two, they got back together April 1. Prior to their breakup, they were together for two years.

Read more on Rappler.