December 30, 2013 Edition

The Department of Health recorded 198 firecracker-related injuries as of December 29, most of which were caused by the banned firecracker piccolo. The number is higher than the 175 cases recorded in the same period last year. Local government units and hospitals are bracing for more incidents as the New Year celebrations draw near. The Philippine National Police has already ordered security guards to muzzle their guns on New Year’s eve. The Philippines’ celebration of the New Year usually turns bloody, and Malacañang is calling on Filipinos to heed the warning against the use of deadly firecrackers.

Read the full story on Rappler.

At least 16 people had been killed and 34 people injured when a suspected female suicide bomber caused a massive explosion December 29 at a train station in the Russian city of Volgograd. Investigators said the suspect set off the explosive device – at about 12:45 pm local time (3:45 am ET) – before going through a metal detector. The bomber used the equivalent of 10 kilos of TNT, probers added. Coming more than a month before the Winter Olympics in Russia, it is the second bombing in Volgograd.

Read the full story on CNN and Rappler.

Indian families faced an agonizing wait for the bodies of their loved ones after a fire razed through a train carriage and claimed 26 lives. The blaze swept through the packed carriage on December 28 while passengers were sleeping as the train was traveling from the southern city of Bangalore to the city of Nanded. Some 20 charred bodies have so far been identified but only 8 of them have been handed over to relatives. India’s underfunded and accident-prone rail network, one of the world’s largest, is still the main form of long-distance travel in the huge country despite fierce competition from private airlines.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Looking back at the timeline of boxing legend Manny Pacquiao’s tax troubles, he may also have himself to blame. This is in part because he failed to take care of his tax business. Or because he entrusted too much of his financial affairs for too long to few trusted friends. Documents obtained by Rappler show that in all the years that Pacquiao had been fighting in the US until 2010, he never had his finances straightened out. They also suggest that Canadian Michael Koncz, identified as Pacquiao’s financial advisor, may have kept him in the dark.

Read our two-part investigation on Rappler
Pacquiao’s wealth and Michael Koncz
Pacquiao’s money man

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) closed 2013 with a nearly flat performance, but says it’s still bullish for 2014. The country’s main bourse was able to earn only P175 billion in capital for 2013, 20% lower from last year’s record P219 billion. PSE president Hans Sicat said its target capital earnings for next year will remain at P200 billion, with the help of 10 companies that are slated to conduct their initial public offerings (IPOs) next year. These include oil and gas exploration firm Frontier Oil Corporation and Top Frontier Holdings Incorporated, a major shareholder of conglomerate San Miguel Corporation.

Read the full story on Rappler.

It takes government officials and private individuals with a criminal mind to successfully conspire to divert billions of pesos in public funds to personal pockets. It also takes 3 strong-willed women and whistleblowers to expose their misdeeds. Rappler’s interactive special report on the pork barrel scam that erupted in 2013 brings you to how it began, reminds you of the main characters, shows you their wealth, and explains how it works. Will the absence of the pork barrel change Philippine politics? Does this signal the start of the end of pervasive and persistent patronage-driven politics?  

Check our interactive report on Rappler.

Join Maria Ressa and the Rappler team as they take us through a year of creative destruction – a term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter to refer to the idea that in order to create “from within,” we are “incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” It is certainly a year of destruction – from earthquakes and super typhoons to the pork barrel. But it’s also a year of creation: from an empowered people using social media to say no to corruption to government institutions redefining the principles ahead. Technology is changing our lives – creating a more participative democracy.

Watch our yearender on Rappler.

Under pressure from the Catholic Church, the Spanish government has agreed to tighten the abortion law. This prompted tens of thousands of believers to pour into central Madrid December 29 to celebrate an open-air Roman Catholic mass for the Holy Family. As chants of “Hallelujah” rang out on loudspeakers, crowds gathered in the city-center’s Plaza de Colon square, many of them urging the government to go even further and implement an outright abortion ban without exceptions. The conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced on December 20 it would roll back a 2010 law that had allowed women to opt freely for abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Read the full story on Rappler

Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) triggered storm surges as high as 17 feet. Weather agencies had warned residents about this, but many didn’t quite get its meaning. Is strong surge similar to a tsunami? Tsunamis and storm surges differ in very important ways, and conflating them can create serious problems. Some Filipino scientists have agreed on one Filipino term to call storm surge, one that is faithful to its meaning but also protective of our language heritage. So how about “silakbo ng bagyo?”

Read the fully story on Rappler.

Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time Formula One champion, has undergone brain surgery and is in a “critical” condition after striking his head in a ski accident in the French Alps on Sunday, doctors said. Schumacher was “suffering a serious brain trauma with coma on his arrival, which required an immediate neurosurgical operation,” the hospital in the southeastern French city of Grenoble said in a brief statement. He remains in critical condition. Schumacher had been skiing off-piste with his 14-year-old son in the upmarket Meribel resort, where he reportedly has a property, when he fell and hit his head on a rock.

Read the full story on Rappler.