Newly appointed Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Andres Bautista said the poll body is considering buying 100,000 new vote-counting machines for the 2016 national and local elections. Bautista added on Tuesday, May 6, that Comelec will pursue automated elections. Comelec is also looking at alternative option to upgrade the existing 81,000 PCOS machines and supplement these with an additional 20,000 machines. On April 21, the Supreme Court nullified a contract for the repair of the PCOS machines bought by Comelec from Smartmatic for P1.8 billion ($40.36 million) because there was no public bidding. Bautista stated that both options being considered would still need to undergo public bidding.

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Two Nevada men filed a class-action lawsuit against Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday, May 5, demanding compensation for violating the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The complainants allege that the Pacquiao camp fraudulent concealed a shoulder injury before the fight to Floyd Mayweather, dubbed the “Fight of the Century”. Mayweather won the fight on the judges’ scoring. After the fight, Pacquiao and Top Rank revealed the 36-year-old had been injured in training camp three weeks prior to the fight. Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s adviser, said on Wednesday it was his fault the shoulder injury wasn’t disclosed.

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Despite talks of an impending retirement, Floyd Mayweather Jr says he is leaving the door open to a rematch with Manny Pacquiao. But it’ll take a while to happen. The Filipino boxer is set to have surgery on a torn right rotator cuff that he sustained in a sparring session less than a month before the fight. Mayweather said after his unanimous decision win over Pacquiao this past Saturday that he would retire in September after his six-fight deal with Showtime elapsed; but he also said he wasn’t perfect and that he contradicts himself at times.

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French President Francois Hollande called on world leaders on Tuesday, May 5, to abolish the death penalty. Hollande, speaking in Saudi Arabia at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit said that France wants the death penalty banned but not because one of its citizens “could be a victim of an execution”. Hollande was referring to Frenchman Serge Atlaoui who is on death row in Indonesia. Just hours before Hollande’s arrival on Monday, Saudi Arabia beheaded five foreigners for murder and robbery. London-based Amnesty International ranked Saudi Arabia among the world’s top three executioners of 2014.

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Around 7.9 million Filipino families consider themselves poor in terms of food, the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed. The figures is a 5-percentage point decrease from last December’s figure of 9.1 million families. The self-rated food poverty prevalence in “balance Luzon” went down to a record-low of 28% in March 2015, nine points less than that of December 2014. The figure for Metro Manila also decreased, from 24% to 20%. The survey also reports that the median food poverty threshold, or the lowest monthly food budget needed by poor families, is P9,000 for Metro Manila, P6,000 for the rest of Luzon, P4,750 for Visayas and P5,000 for Mindanao. This amount, however, would still not be enough to provide nutritious meals for the average Filipino family, which usually consists of 5 members.

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The Islamic State (ISIS), a radical Islamist group fighting to gain control of territory in the middle east, claimed responsibility on Tuesday, May 5, for the attack by two gunmen in a Texas art exhibit of cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed. ISIS claims it is the first attack on US soil and warned that there were more attacks to come. The two gunmen, Elton Simpson, 31, and Nadir Soofi, 34, were killed in the attack. The two shared an apartment in Phoenix, Arizona. Simpson was being investigated by the FBI over alleged plans to travel to Somalia to wage holy war. Islam prohibits the drawing or graphic representation of the Prophet Mohammed and find any such attempt offensive. The art exhibit was billed as a “free speech event”.

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The Department of Education (DepEd) said the agency will ensure at least one program for arts and design and one program for sports in every province as part of the K to 12 program. Education Secretary Armin Luistro told reporters on Tuesday, May 5 that this is the first time the agency is devoting resources to upgrade the skills of athletes, artists and designers. Luistro, who delivered the K to 12 midterm report before the Senate committee on education, arts and culture, said at least 1.2 million students will enter senior high school at Grade 11 in 2016. Some 5,899 DepEd schools will offer senior high school.

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A popular trekking village in Nepal has been wiped out from a massive landslide caused by an earthquake. BBC video of the village of Langtang, near the border with Tibet, showed scenes of utter devastation, with houses completely smashed and bodies laid out on tarpaulins. Officials have found 52 bodies, including 7 foreigners, but estimate more than 150 Nepalis and 100 tourists could be buried under the rock and ice. Langtang is home to around 400 people. American Corey Ascolani, who was hiking in Langtang, said boulders the size of mini-vans slammed into the village. Together with other tourists and locals, they spent 5 days surviving with what they had before being rescued.

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When Timothy Roy Condino took his jet ski for a ride with his friends in the waters near Anilao, the last thing he thought about was getting stuck at sea. But when his jetski broke down in the middle of the water, he told his friends to go ahead and bring a spare one back. There began his trouble. Condino thought he could swim to a nearby shore and jumped into the water. Rough waves brought him further from shore and further away from his jetski. Trapped, Condino floated in the water for 25 hours before being rescued by a passing ship. The crew of the ship caught it all on camera. Condino thanked the sailors and God for his second chance at life.

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Leaders of armed groups in strife-ravaged Central African Republic agreed Tuesday, May 5, to release thousands of child soldiers and to end underage recruitment, UNICEF said. The United Nations children’s agency described the news as a “major step forward” in the country, where it estimates 6,000 to 10,000 children are held by various armed factions. More than two years of conflict in the landlocked and deeply poor nation has led to “one of the world’s worst – and least visible – humanitarian crises,” according to the UNICEF statement. The agreement to release them was signed this week during a reconciliation forum in the capital Bangui, backed by UNICEF and its partners with the aim of restoring peace to the country.

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