December 6, 2013 Edition

Nelson Mandela, the revered icon of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and one of the towering political figures of the 20th century, died at the age of 95. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was elected South Africa’s first black president after spending nearly three decades in prison and leading negotiations with the white minority rulers.  He had been receiving treatment for a lung infection at his Johannesburg home since September, after three months in critical state in the hospital. He died following complications from the lung infection, with his family by his side. An emotional South African president Jacob Zuma announced live on television, “Our nation has lost its greatest son… What made Nelson Mandela great is precisely what made him human.” Once considered a terrorist by the United States and Britain for his support of violence against the apartheid regime, he was an unimpeachable moral icon at the time of his death.

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World leaders, activists, writers, sports personalities and business leaders joined the outpouring of tribute for South Africa’s revered Nelson Mandela. Leaders cited the dignity the late liberation leader displayed during his long imprisonment by South Africa’s former racist regime and then later, when he led his country to majority rule. US President Barack Obama said, “He no longer belongs to us; he belongs to the ages… We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Mandela a “giant for justice,” while Mexico’s Enrique Pena Nieto said, “Humanity has lost a tireless fighter for peace, freedom and equality.” British Prime Minister David Cameron, who in 2006 apologized for what he called “mistakes” of his Conservative Party in response to apartheid in Britain’s former colony, called Mandela “a legend in life and now in death – a true global hero.” Mandela’s fellow Nobel laureates also paid tribute to the late icon. The Egyptian former head of the IAEA nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei said, “Let freedom reign. Humanity has lost its greatest son.”

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A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into Yemen’s defence ministry, allowing gunmen to launch an assault on the complex. Al Jazeera quoted Yemen’s Higher Security Committee as saying 52 doctors and nurses were killed in Thursday’s attack while around 162 people were injured. 7 Filipinos were among those killed. Agence France-Presse said security forces had regained control of the building after being occupied by gunmen. State television aired gory footage of torn up bodies, charred vehicles and immense destruction within the hospital. The attacks were blamed on Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded the most dangerous branch of the terrorist network. The brazen attack on the complex follows a spate of hit-and-run strikes on military personnel and officials, as Yemen goes through a difficult political transition. President Ali Abdullah Saleh was ousted in February 2012 after a year of deadly protests against his 33-year rule.

Read the full story on Aljazeera and Rappler.

The national budget is under public scrutiny following the controversy over the pork barrel scam. A Commission on Audit (COA) report shows at least P6.156 billion was allegedly siphoned by lawmakers through fake NGOs in the scam. The discretionary funds, the alleged source of corruption, have been in place for decades in different shapes and forms. Last month, the Supreme Court struck down the pork barrel as unconstitutional. Asked if the pork barrel is a source of corruption, budget undersecretary Richard Moya concedes the fund has also helped real beneficiaries. But COA chair Grace Pulido-Tan, citing the expenses incurred by politicians during elections, says it’s “a no-brainer” to figure out where the money used to fund campaigns come from. She adds, “It’s been going around for so long, it’s just that nobody would dare bring it out officially and with sufficient documentary evidence.” Tan also says institutional corruption doesn’t stem only from the pork barrel, which constitutes less than 1% in the national budget. She adds there are many items in the budget where several mechanisms take place.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Senator Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III wants to strike out the scathing privilege speeches of Senator Miriam Santiago and Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile from Senate records. Calling Santiago’s speech “way out of line,” Osmeña said it is about time a member of the Senate puts a stop to the exchange of insults between the two on the Senate floor. “That is totally unparliamentary, and that should not be accepted as part of the records of the Senate.“ Osmeña spoke a day after Santiago delivered a fiery privilege speech against Enrile, calling him a “psychopathic hypersexualized serial womanizer,” “the icon of shameless lying,” “incorrigible liar,” “the prince of darkness,” “gambling and smuggling king,” and “the drama king of corrupt politics.” Santiago spoke in response to Enrile’s privilege speech last week where he called her an “inane, obsessive hater” and “the grandmama of all falsehood fabricators” for naming him the mastermind of the pork barrel scam. Osmeña also took to task Senate President Franklin Drilon for tolerating the catfight.

Read the full story on Rappler.

A documentary produced by Rappler chronicles Manny Pacquaio’s journey to one of the most important bouts of his life. Pacquiao, who has been named Fighter of the Decade, was coming off two consecutive losses. Pacquiao was fighting for redemption, while Rios saw a chance to catapult himself to instant stardom. Rappler’s sports reporter Natashya Gutierrez goes beyond the usual boxing reportage to portray the man behind the gloves, “A man with a soft heart, who beats people up for a living.”

Follow Manny Pacquiao story on the following links:

Pacquiao’s road to redemption: The comeback

Pacquiao’s road to redemption: Relentless preparations

Pacquiao’s road to redemption: The victory

The cast and crew of the “Fast and Furious” franchise honored one of their lead stars, Paul Walker, in a video tribute posted Wednesday, December 4. Walker, 40 died in a car accident in California, November 30, with his friend Roger Rodas after a red 2005 Porsche Carrera GT they were riding slammed into a tree and caught fire. The video is a montage of clips from the “Fast & Furious” film franchise, some dating back to the first installment in 2001. It was set to the song “Coming Home” by Diddy featuring Skylar Grey. The caption thanked the public for their support and urged them to donate to Walker’s charity Reach Out Worldwide (ROWW) in place of sending flowers and gifts. Before the crash, Walker had been at a ROWW charity event for the benefit of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) victims in the Philippines.

Read the full story on Rappler.

A Biblically-named restaurant in China is losing money on its gamble on a risky business model: customers can pay whatever they want –or nothing at all. The “Five Loaves and Two Fish” restaurant, known for its seafood and local Fujianese cuisine specialties, has been in operation in Fuzhou since August. Diners are expected to wash their own dishes after eating and then put whatever money they want to pay into a box. But the restaurant’s investors say as many as one fifth of patrons opt to pay nothing. The restaurant has lost 250,000 yuan ($41,000) since it opened. The owner, Liu Pengfei, said in an October television interview that “what we care about most is not money, but trust.”

Read the full story on Rappler.

Twitter names Marjorie Scardino its first female director, ending criticisms the social network lacked women in its top executive positions. Scardino, now the eighth member of Twitter’s board, will join the audit committee. The 66-year-old is a law-school graduate and a former New York Times reporter. In 1997, she was appointed CEO of media and education conglomerate Pearson. Her appointment comes after Twitter was criticized because of a lack of women in top jobs. A report on board diversity released this week shows nearly 40% of the tech companies in the S&P Composite 1500 index do not have women on their boards.

Read the full story on WSJ.

Critics are divided over Amazon CEO Jeff Bezo’s unveiling of a plan to use drones to deliver packages in the future. The Guardian’s James Ball called it “hot air and baloney” and “an old PR tactic.”  He says the technology to make the drones operational in any sense is not yet in place. He asked, “How does it then find the package’s intended recipient? How is the transfer of the package enacted? What stops someone else stealing the package along the way? And what happens when next door’s kid decides to shoot the drone with his BB rifle?” Wall Street Journal’s Farhad Manjoo, on the other hand applauded Bezos for proposing new, friendlier uses for drones, saying unmanned aerial vehicles don’t deserve the bad rep after being identified with military surveillance. Manjoo said, first, the plan got everyone talking about Amazon, second, it gave investors a taste of the scope of Amazon’s investment plans and three, cemented Bezos’s image as the biggest thinker in tech, even if the idea is “implausible.”

Read the full story on Guardian and WSJ.