April 5, 2013 Edition

The United States said it was taking “all necessary precautions” after North Korea rang fresh alarms in an escalating crisis by moving a medium-range missile to its east coast. Seoul’s defense minister Kim Kwan-Jin said the missile could reach a “considerable distance” but not the US mainland, telling lawmakers it “could be aimed at test-firing or military drills.” White House spokesman Jay Carney said the barrage of threats fitted a “regrettable but familiar” pattern of North Korean behavior. “We’re taking all the necessary precautions,” Carney said. The Pentagon has said it will send missile-interceptor batteries to protect bases on Guam.

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Italian police have arrested a priest accused of defrauding a Vatican-linked hospital in Rome of US$5.1-M, part of which he used to buy an 18-room villa in Tuscany set on 23 hectares of land. Father Franco Decaminada, a friar who took vows of poverty, has been placed under house arrest. He headed the prestigious Immaculate Institute of Dermopathology between 2004 and 2011. The specialist hospital has been placed under administration after it registered losses and Pope Benedict XVI, in one of his last acts as pontiff last month, appointed a cardinal to resolve its economic woes. The tax police said in a statement that Decaminada bought his villa in Tuscany for a million euros — “essentially with the proceeds of his crime.”

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At least 38 people were crushed to death on the outskirts of Mumbai after an unauthorized partly-built apartment block collapsed, highlighting the dangers of India’s illegal housing boom. The seven-story building collapsed on the evening of April 4 evening into a mangled heap of steel and concrete of about 26 feet high that rescuers and local residents struggled to cut through, officials said. Rescue efforts continued, with diggers and steel cutters employed to reach victims who were carried away on makeshift stretchers.

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Following years of rumors that Facebook was building its own phone and/or operating system, the social networking giant announced a new smartphone user interface (UI) for Android called Facebook Home. Facebook shied away from calling it a new UI, instead they described it as a “new category of experiences.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement at a press event on April 5 (Manila time). Zuckerberg said the thinking behind Facbeook Home is to put people first instead of apps. Facebook describes Home as a “new way to turn your Android phone into a new, living, social phone.” The Home UI consists of 3 main parts, cover feed, chat heads, and apps.

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Sen Manuel “Manny” B. Villar Jr. and San Juan Rep Joseph Victor “JV” G. Ejercito own secret offshore corporations in the British Virgin Islands (BVI), a privacy and tax haven where a global elite of wealthy people like to keep their money away from the prying eyes of the authorities. Villar is the beneficial owner of a BVI international business corporation called Awesome Dragon Holdings Limited. It was incorporated in the BVI on July 26, 2007 while he was president of the Senate. Ejercito is a director of a BVI company called Ice Bell Properties Limited formed on July 8, 1999, when his father was still president. In 2001, Ejercito became mayor of San Juan City, and in 2007, a freshman congressman from his father’s political bailiwick.

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Disgraced US cyclist Lance Armstrong has scrapped plans to enter a swim race in Texas following objections from the sport’s global governing body. Armstrong, 41, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France wins and banned for life before later confessing to drug-taking throughout his career, had hoped to compete in a US Masters Swimming event in Austin this weekend. But Armstrong’s participation in the event was swiftly opposed by swimming’s governing body FINA, who said in a statement the cyclist should be barred from competing under anti-doping regulations.

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Film legend Martin Scorsese and President Barack Obama led tributes to US movie critic Roger Ebert, the first cinema pundit to win a Pulitzer Prize who died April 5 (Manila time) from cancer aged 70. Ebert — who just two days ago announced in a blog post that he was taking a break from his main job — succumbed to cancer after a long battle, said his the Chicago Sun-Times. The print, television and online critic, whose “two thumbs up” accolade was a stamp of excellence coveted by filmmakers, won a Pulitzer in 1975 for distinguished criticism, the first and one of only three such honorees.

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A new strain of bird flu has claimed two more lives in China’s business capital of Shanghai, taking the total number of human deaths attributed to the H7N9 virus to 5. Four of the deaths have occurred in the commercial hub, while the other was reported in the neighboring province of Zhejiang on April 3. Chinese authorities are trying to determine how exactly the new variety of bird flu infects people, but say there is no evidence yet of human-to-human transmission. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 14, including six from Shanghai.

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Total foreign investments approved by various Philippine state agencies increased by 12% to P289.1 billion in 2012, boosted by higher inflows in the 4th quarter. Approved investment pledges from foreigners jumped from P258.2 billion in 2011. The 4th quarter 2012 data was the highest since 1996.

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The Supreme Court ruled on April 5 that the party-list system is not only for the marginalized sectors, debunking an argument that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) used in disqualifying 54 party-list groups for the May 13 elections. Voting 10-2-1, the SC said political parties do not have to represent the marginalized sector to participate in the party-list elections. The SC earlier defined the party-list system as one that caters to the marginalized. In the 2001 case Bagong Bayani v. Comelec, then Justice Artemio Panganiban wrote that “the law crafted to address the peculiar disadvantages of Payatas hovel dwellers cannot be appropriated by the mansion owners of Forbes Park.” The new ruling reverses Panganiban.

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