July 5, 2013 Edition

Nina Landicho

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

  1. Egypt’s chief justice is new president, Morsi aides arrested

    TRANSITION ROADMAP. Egypt's chief justice Adly Mansour delivers a speech during his swearing-in ceremony as the country's interim president in the Supreme Constitutional Court. AFP/Khaled Desouki
    As fighter jets flew and fireworks burst over celebrations in Cairo, Egyptian military police rounded up members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. The brotherhood, banned under former president Hosni Mubarak, catapulted to power after the uprising in 2011. New York Times calls the change of power in Egypt a military coup wrapped in a popular revolt, bringing to the fore the division between the Muslim Brotherhood and the security apparatus built Mubarak. The interim president, the chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional Court, Adli Mansour, says he looks forward to parliamentary and presidential elections that would express the “true will of the people.” It is still unclear what political structure will emerge from the power-grab. In an interview with the New York Times, Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize-winning diplomat who represents the liberal opposition calls it a chance to fix the transition to democracy that had gone off track. Morsi’s government crumbled Wednesday after a 48-hour ultimatum from the army in the face of massive demonstrations against his leadership. What did Morsi’s government do wrong? New York Times quotes Nathan Brown on the New Republican website: “They alienated potential allies, ignored rising discontent, (and) focused more on consolidating their rule.” Morsi’s opponents say he failed the 2011 revolution by concentrating power in the hands of his Brotherhood.

    Read the full story here, here, and here 

  2. At least 91 women raped in Tahrir Square – HRW


    Human Rights Watch says there is an “epidemic” of violence against women in Egypt with mobs assaulting and raping at least 91 women during the demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo. The Egyptian group Operation Anti-Sexual Harassment/Assault and the women’s rights group Nazra for Feminist Studies confirm 51 of these attacks. The website also posted a video of the women who have been attacked sexually. A 30-year-old victim featured in the video said 15 men attacked her and ripped her clothes. The number of her attackers increased to 100 in the process. “At the height of the attack,” she recalled, “I looked up and saw 30 individuals on a fence. All of them had smiling faces, and they were recording me with their cellphones.” HRW Middle East’s Joe Stork says the “horrific levels of sexual violence” are “holding women back from participating fully in the public life.” He says “Impunity for sexual violence against women in the public sphere in Egypt is the norm.” Stork said Egyptian women rarely report the attacks because “they have no reason to believe that there will be a serious investigation.”

    Read the full story on Rappler and Human Rights Watch

  3. Doctors advised unplugging Mandela life support, family feud goes public

    ‘VEGETATIVE STATE.’ Court documents dated June 26 said Nelson Mandela was in a “permanent vegetative state.” File AFP photo/Rodger Bosch
    Doctors treating South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela advised his family to turn off his life support machine. The doctors’ opinions, part of court documents submitted to a court by his relatives, say Mandela is in a “permanent vegetative state and is assisted in breathing by a life support machine.” There have been contradictory accounts of Mandela’s condition. The government says Mandela remains “critical but stable” but does not provide more details. The “Certificate of Urgency” document was filed by Mandela family members seeking a court order against Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela. Mandla, chief of the AbaThembu clan, is accused of stealing the bones of Mandela’s 3 dead children and reburying them at Mvezo to ensure Nelson Mandela would eventually be buried there. The family feud intensifies after Mandla also accuses half-brother Mbuso of impregnating Mandla’s wife and said Nelson Mandela’s oldest daughter, Makaziwe, was sowing “divisions and destruction” in the family.

    Read the full story on Rappler, BBC, and LA Times

  4. Brother speaks about Bansil sisters’ kidnapping in southern PH

    THE BANSIL SISTERS. Linda and Nadjoua Bansil. Photo courtesy of Niño Tan.
    The brother of the 2 women filmmakers abducted in Sulu waits for his sisters to come home. On June 22, Nadjoua and Linda Bansil were kidnapped by the Abu Sayyaf group, while the two were on their way back to Jolo after filming a documentary on the coffee farmers of Sulu. Their brother, Mohammed Bansil, prays often. His world stopped, he says, at 7 in the evening of Saturday. A 35-year-old father of 3 and a spinner for music events, he says all he can do now is wait. “Like my heart stopped beating. Like my life stopped moving. You know, like your life is on pause. I have to stop working. My kids, I don’t get to talk to them anymore. I can’t sleep. I sleep 3 hours, I get a text message and I jump. My mind is flying all the time. My mind is with my sisters, my heart is with them. At any moment anything can happen.”

    Read the full story on Rappler

  5. Unresolved killings rise in Zamboanga City

    UNRESOLVED KILLINGS. According to reports, the number of unresolved killings in Zamboanga City continue to rise. Graphic by Jessica Lazaro
    An anti-corruption group says unresolved killings and violence are becoming more rampant in Zamboanga City. The Zamboanga Today Online says at least 180 deaths and critically wounded have been recorded from January 2012 to January 2013.

    This means one person is killed every two days in Zamboanga City. From January to June 2013, the number of killings rise to 250. Police attribute the killings mainly to family feuds and grudges, but most cases remain unresolved. The most recent incident was the killing of 22-year-old Ateneo de Zamboanga alumnus Justin Raphael Wee, who was shot in the head by a lone gunman on June 22. His death sparks an anti-violence campaign in the city, with about 200 university students holding a prayer rally for Wee and the other victims of violence. Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco issued marching orders to the police to go after the killers.

    Read the full story on Rappler

  6. PH cops warned not to sell new guns

    NEW GUNS. President Benigno Aquino III turns over new Glock 17 firearms to the Philippine National Police. Malacañang Photo Bureau
    The Ombudsman orders the filing of graft charges against two ex-governors of Ilocos Sur for alleged misuse of more than P26 million of the province’s share in the tobacco excise tax 12 years ago. The Ombudsman says Chavit Singson and Deogracias Victor Savellano violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The chair of the Save Ilocos Sur Alliance Foundation, who filed the complaint with the Ombudsman, alleges a total of P26,060,500 was released as financial assistance to Multi-Line Food Processing International Inc (MFPII) during the terms of the two governors. This was taken from the province’s share in the proceeds from the national government’s tobacco excise tax collection. MFPII, a private entity, was not qualified to receive assistance from the tobacco fund. But the Ombudsman says Singson and Savellano entered into several memoranda of agreement with the company and released funds without inspecting the projects. A Newsbreak special report shows the provincial government under the two ex-governors either misused, misappropriated, or failed to account for at least P1.3 billion of its tobacco fund from 1999 to 2005.

    Read the full story on Rappler.

  7. Ombudsman charges 2 former governors with graft

    EMPTY-HANDED. The tobacco fund is intended to help improve the lives of tobacco farmers. They remain poor despite billions of pesos received by Ilocos Sur. Photo by Aries Rufo
    The Ombudsman orders the filing of graft charges against two ex-governors of Ilocos Sur for alleged misuse of more than P26 million of the province’s share in the tobacco excise tax 12 years ago. The Ombudsman says Chavit Singson and Deogracias Victor Savellano violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. The chair of the Save Ilocos Sur Alliance Foundation, who filed the complaint with the Ombudsman, alleges a total of P26,060,500 was released as financial assistance to Multi-Line Food Processing International Inc (MFPII) during the terms of the two governors. This was taken from the province’s share in the proceeds from the national government’s tobacco excise tax collection. MFPII, a private entity, was not qualified to receive assistance from the tobacco fund. But the Ombudsman says Singson and Savellano entered into several memoranda of agreement with the company and released funds without inspecting the projects. A Newsbreak special report shows the provincial government under the two ex-governors either misused, misappropriated, or failed to account for at least P1.3 billion of its tobacco fund from 1999 to 2005.

    Read the full story on Rappler.

  8. Asia trails on innovation

    Graphic by Raffy De Guzman

    A recent study shows Asia lags behind when it comes to innovation, with Asian economies averaging weaker institutions, human capital and research than North America and Europe. The Global Innovation Index 2013 shows Southeast Asia trailing behind Europe and North America in a report on 142 economies.  No Asian country made it to the top 5 most innovative economies in the world. The study looked at 84 measures like university performance, infrastructure, institutions and venture capital.

    Hong Kong was the highest ranked Asian economy in the study at 7th, followed by Singapore at 8th, down from 3rd in 2012. The world’s top 25 most innovative economies did not change at all in the last year, although they have switched rankings among themselves. Switzerland once again emerges the world leader in innovation largely due to its  knowledge-based economy and high GDP per capital. Rounding up the top 5 are Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.

    Read the full story on Wall Street Journal

  9. Japanese researchers create tiny human livers from stem cells

    Graphic by Raffy De Guzman

    Japanese researchers use human stem cells to create tiny rudimentary livers that can make human liver proteins.The liver buds, as they are called, didn’t turn into complete livers, but medical experts say the method holds much promise in a field that has seen many failed attempts. In a study published in the journal Nature, a team of Japanese scientists turned human liver cells from stem cells and began to try making replacement livers. The cells, which they grew in petri dishes along with blood vessel cells, spontaneously assembled into three-dimensional liver buds. When scientists transplanted the cells into mice, the little organs grew and metabolized drugs as human livers do. Scientists though caution the findings are still basic research and studies on humans are years away. Ever since researchers discovered how to get human stem cells, there have been experiments to use these cells for replacement tissues and organs. These efforts did not succeed.

    Read the full story on New York Times.

  10. US State Dept spent $630,000 to buy FB ‘likes’

    Graphic by Raffy De Guzman
    A report from the Inspector General shows the US State Department spent $630,000 to earn more “likes” on its Facebook pages, in an effort to reach its target audience.

    Between 2011 and March 2013, the department’s Bureau of the International Information Programs tried to boost the popularity of its various social media accounts by advertising and page improvements. The results though weren’t so good, prompting a report from the Inspector General in May. The report reads, “Many in the bureau criticize the advertising campaigns as ‘buying fans’ who may have once clicked on an ad or ‘liked’ a photo but have no real interest in the topic and have never engaged further.” Although the spending resulted in an increase in Facebook likes from 100,000 to 2 million, the Inspector General says the bureau’s target audience is older, more influential people — not the kind who spend hours liking government Facebook pages.

    Read the full story on Foreign Policy

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