December 26, 2013 Edition

President Benigno Aquino III obtained a full-year rating of “very good” at +55, higher than 2011 and 2012’s similar “very good” rating of +53. His highest rating record ever since he assumed the presidency in 2010 was +62, during his first year in office. Initially, government’s slow response and petty bickering during Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) were expected to pull down his ratings. The latest nationwide survey of Social Weather Stations conducted from December 11-16 showed a net satisfaction rating of +49 for the 4th quarter of 2013.

Read the full story on Rappler.

President Benigno Aquino III described as “excellent” the performance of Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda. He saw no need to accept Petilla’s resignation. The energy secretary earlier said he would quit after failing to deliver on a promise to restore power to Yolanda-hit areas by Christmas Day. In a statement, the Palace said the President was pleased with Petilla’s performance, considering that he was able to restore power in about 40 days from his original target of 6 months. In addition, within that same period, he was able to restore power in 317 of 320 affected towns, leaving only 0.93% uncompleted.

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If Manila Electric Company (Meralco) fails to settle its obligations to its power suppliers, and suppliers, in turn, stop supplying power, massive brownouts could occur, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla warned. The Supreme Court stopped Meralco from implementing its rate increase, which it sought, after the shutdown of the Malampaya gas field and outages of power plants required it to look for alternative but more expensive sources. “Nobody took into consideration the effects of the suspension of the rate hike collection on Meralco,” Petilla pointed out. He was supposed to meet with Meralco officials and its suppliers to iron out a compromise agreement on delayed payments.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The United Nations on Wednesday, December 25, said aid agencies will need US$166 million over the next 3 months to help South Sudan, which has bore the brunt of violence between two warring ethnic groups. Thousands have been killed since December 15 after President Salva Kiir accused his former vice president Riek Machar of trying to overthrow him in a coup – a charge that Machar denied. Machar countered by accusing the President of purging his rivals. The Nuers of Machar have been fighting the Dinkas which are supportive of Kiir. The violence has displaced at least 90,000 people in the past 10 days.

Read the full story on Rappler.

An air offensive on Aleppo rebels launched by the Syrian regime has killed over 400, reports on Wednesday, December 25, said. The air force has been targeting rebel areas using TNT-packed barrels since December 15 and has killed 117 children as of December 24, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The United States, the Arab League and the European Union have condemned the aerial assault by President Bashar al-Assad’d regime. The military operations were defended by government as necessary to “save Aleppo” from rebels it regards as “terrorists.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Nearly half of his Cabinet was reshuffled by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a graft scandal forced the resignation of ministers and threatened his hold on power. Investigations into the alleged corruption focuses on bribes involving construction projects and the illegal smuggling of gold into Iran. Erdogan said the corruption scandal was part of a conspiracy plotted by “international powers” and insisted that his party, the Justice and Development party, has a clean record.

Read the full story on Rappler.

More information is available from Al Jazeera.

The Muslim Brotherhood, the group that supported the presidential candidacy of Mohammed Morsi, has been declared a terrorist group by the Egyptian government. This came after a suicide bombing attack on police headquarters which killed 16 and wounded over a hundred. The Brotherhood has denied responsibility for the attack. A leader of the group who is in exile in London, said the decision of the military-backed interim government was “illegitimate” and that protests would continue.

Read the full story on Rappler.

More details are on the BBC.

The Washington Post listed its 10 most memorable leadership moments of 2013 despite what appeared to be harder than determining the year’s worst. Among the 10 were Pope Francis who said “who am I to judge” when asked about gay clergymen; Malala Yousafzai – the Pakistani teenager shot in the head by the Taliban – who has been campaigning for girls’ education; and Edward Snowden who, the Post said, “forced us to ask questions about the NSA” or the US National Security Agency. There is little doubt, the Post said, that Snowden has led the way in emboldening others to become whistle-blowers, too.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Photo from shutterstock

Spanning 40 meters under a river, a tunnel with concrete walls and interior lighting was discovered by Chinese authorities to stretch from the mainland to Hong Kong. Believed to be built by smugglers, the tunnel starts under a garage near Shenzhen and ends into reed-beds in Hong Kong. Gangs may have intended to use the incomplete tunnel to smuggle mobile phones and other electrical goods to Hong Kong. It was discovered after a woman complained about drilling noises which she thought were caused by a renovation project. A man was arrested and the tunnel destroyed on Tuesday, December 24.

Read the full story on the BBC.

Creating the ultimate personal assistant is Google’s goal. Google engineering director Scott Huffman said Google intends to take search to another level that will make “all your tasks as you go through the day simpler and quicker.” Interaction with Google will take the form of a back-and-forth conversation. But the ultimate personal assistant should be proactive, like Google Now, which delivers useful and relevant information by sleuthing through your Gmail inbox. Huffman said the Google team still needs to navigate “lots of tricky questions” which include determining whether notifications from third-party services are worth paying any attention to.

Read the full story on Techcrunch.