January 2, 2013 Edition

A week before The U.S. Congress finally approved a deal between the White House and the reluctant Republicans to raise taxes on the rich and delay spending cuts for two months.

It averts the feared “fiscal cliff” that threatened to unleash economic calamity. It’s a crucial measure as a new Congress is set to be sworn in soon.

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Andres Bautista, the government man tasked to chase the embezzled wealth of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, says it’s time to wind down a near-30 year hunt. Government has to spend a lot to recover them, he says, and at this point it has become a law of diminishing returns. Bautista’s proposal got mixed reactions. The Palace says the President is yet to look into the proposal.

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New Year celebrations in Ivory Coast turned into a tragedy. At least 60 people – many of them children – were crushed to death and dozens more were injured in a stampede Tuesday after a fireworks show in Abidjan.  The New Year fireworks was meant to be a continuing celebration of the country’s renewal under President Alassane Ouattara after the violent post-election year crisis from 2010 to 2011. The governmetn has declared a 3-day national mourning.

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It was a safer New Year in the Philippines, which recorded less number of injuries from firecrackers this year and less number of fire incidents  this year.  The health department recorded 413 injuries or down from the 498 cases last year. Fire incidents in Metro Manila was also lower, from 21 incidents last year to 12 this year. Aquino government intensified it campaign against prohibited firecracke

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Taking a cue from the world markets cheering the US’s move to avert a fiscal cliff, local stocks welcomed 2013 with a bang. The Philippines Stocks Exchange index reached a new all-time high on the first trading day of the year, rising 48.26 points or 0.8% to 5,860.99 from its December 28 close of 5,812.73.

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The growth of the Singapore economy in the fourth quarter of 2012 allowed it to escape technical recession. The services industry got a boost, according to government data shown on Wednesday, January 2. The prospects for 2013 remain gloomy, however.

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After they raped her, they tried to run over her. More information surfaced about last month’s gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student in a bus in New Delhi. Her story brought a simmering anger about widespread sex crime in India to the boil. Murder charges have been added on top of the rape charges earlier filed. Indian lawyers have refused to defend the rapists. It means the government will have give them lawyers.

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Critics of the newly signed Reproductive Health law made good their promise to continue the fight. James Imbong, the son of the Catholic Church’s counsel, filed before the Supreme Court on Tuesday a petition for certiorari to stop the implementation of the law. The Catholic Church opposed the measure for funding the distribution of free contraceptives.

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Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez remain in delicate condition 2 weeks after undergoing cancer surgery. Vice President Nicolas Maduro said there have seen only slight improvement in his health.

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Residents of areas severely damaged by Typhoon Pablo celebrate the New Year with solemn gatherings instead of fireworks and parties. Many of them trooped to the local church – even though the ceiling is gone – to pray for a better 2013.

Read more on Rappler.