June 12, 2013 Edition

In a symbolic gesture to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio, President Noynoy Aquino leads the country’s 115th Independence Day at Liwasang Bonifacio, a shrine for the hero closely identified with the masses. This is the first time Independence Day rites are not held at the the Kawit, Cavite balcony where Philippine independence was proclaimed by Emilio Aguinaldo.

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Planned high-level talks between North and South Korea — the first for 6 years — were called off at the last minute Tuesday, June 11, because of a dispute over the status of their respective chief delegates. A North Korean delegation had been scheduled to cross the heavily militarized border on Wednesday and drive down to Seoul for the two-day talks in the Grand Hilton Hotel. The meeting was seen as an opportunity to improve relations amidst military tensions and threats of nuclear war. But Pyongyang objected to South Korea’s nomination of a vice-minister to head the team from Seoul.  According to a South Korean official, the North had complained that naming a vice-minister made a “mockery” of the talks’ importance and contravened what had been agreed at a preparatory meeting on Sunday.

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Even with a booming local economy, the number of jobless Filipinos rose in April from a year ago. In figures released on June 11, the National Statistics Office (NSO) and the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the country’s unemployment rate rose to 7.5% or equivalent to 3.08 million Filipinos in April from 6.9% in the same month of 2012. The number of unemployed increased mainly in the agriculture sector with 624,000 workers losing their jobs. This is due, they said, to the extreme weather conditions that battered the country in 2012. The underemployed, or those seeking more jobs or additional work hours, numbered 7.25 million, equivalent to 19.2% of the labor force, down from 7.31 million or 19.3% in April 2012. The labor force expanded to 40.91 million from 40.64 million last year.

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Nelson Mandela is showing no sign of improvement as he battles a lung infection in a Pretoria clinic where he was admitted four days ago, the South African government said Tuesday, June 11. President Jacob Zuma said in a statement that the anti-apartheid icon remains in “serious but stable” condition while being treated in intensive care. Amid growing fears about the 94-year-old’s condition, family members were seen entering the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria to be at his bedside. Security was tightened around the private specialist facility where a dozen armed police stood guard outside and incoming vehicles and pedestrians were searched amid a heavy media presence. Tuesday marked 49 years to the day since Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1964 for conspiring to overthrow the apartheid government. Mandela’s latest health scare has been met with a growing acceptance among South Africans that their hero, who became the first black leader of the country after historic all-race elections in 1994, may be nearing the end of his life.

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Bolstered by support from President Barack Obama, a landmark immigration bill passed a pair of crucial test votes Tuesday, June 11, in the US Senate, kicking off weeks of debate on the comprehensive reform. After months of initial wrangling and more than 100 new amendments offered to the underlying legislation, the Senate — in an act of broad bipartisanship — voted 84-15 to move to debate passage of what would be the most important immigration reform in nearly 30 years. Republican Jeff Flake, also an author of the bill, told AFP the votes marked “a good start (but) we have a long way to go,” citing potential roadblocks over border security issues and acknowledging what may be an uphill climb to pass similar legislation in the House of Representatives. The top Democrat in the Senate, Harry Reid, has said he hopes to pass the bill by early July. The legislation provides a 13-year pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million people living illegally in the United States, tightens border security, and aims to collect back taxes from undocumented workers.

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Pope Francis admitted the existence of a “gay lobby” inside the Vatican’s secretive administration, the Roman Curia, allegedly exposed during a leaks scandal, according to a Latin American Catholic website. In February Italian media claimed that a secret report by cardinals investigating the leaks included allegations of corruption and blackmail attempts against gay Vatican clergymen, and on the other hand, favoritism based on gay relationships. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP: “It was a private meeting, I have no comment to make.” The Argentine pope has made reforming the Roman Curia a priority of his papacy, but said it would be “difficult”.

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As many as 10.5 million children worldwide work as domestic servants, in what can be hazardous and even slave-like conditions, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Wednesday, June 12. The UN labor agency said almost three quarters of such youngsters are girls, and that 6.5 million child servants are between five and 14 years old. The problem is global though sub-Saharan Africa remains a leading concern, notably countries such as Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Mali, according to the ILO. The ILO said such youngsters usually work in the homes of a third party or employer, carrying out tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, gardening, collecting water, looking after other children and caring for the elderly.

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Google on Tuesday, June 11, announced the acquisition of Waze, a popular crowd-sourced map app designed in Israel. The US Internet search giant did not reveal the price of the acquisition, but Israeli media over the weekend estimated the deal was worth more than $1 billion. “To help you outsmart traffic, today we’re excited to announce we’ve closed the acquisition of Waze,” said Brian McClendon, vice president of Google’s Geo products, which includes Google Maps, Earth and Street View. In its blog, Google promised the best of both worlds with the marriage of Waze’s crowd-sourced information and Google Maps. Waze, which claims more than 40 million users, describes itself as an app bringing together “the world’s largest community of drivers who work together to fight traffic, and save time and gas money on their daily commute.” Waze’s development team will remain in Israel and operate separately. Apple and Facebook were also reportedly in talks to acquire the start-up, but negotiations fell through because Waze wants to keep its staff local.

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Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield announced Monday, June 10, his retirement after a five-month mission to space that captivated the world with his Twitter microblog. “It has been an incredible adventure,” Hadfield, 53, said of his 35 years of service as a Cold War fighter pilot and astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency. Describing his recent mission to the International Space Station as “a kind of pinnacle of my entire career… since I was a little dreaming kid of nine years old thinking of flying in space,” he said it was “time now for me to do something else.” From space, Hadfield captured the public imagination with regular updates on Twitter that gave an unprecedented insight into daily life in space and access to spectacular images taken from the ISS. Tweeting under the name @Cmdr_Hadfield, the astronaut posted spectacular pictures of the Earth and also insights on the mundane aspects of things like eating and washing in space. He is also known for making a music video remake of David Bowie’s seminal classic “Space Oddity.” He will retire on July 3.

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Internet search giant Google again joined the Philippines in celebrating the country’s Independence Day with an animated Doodle, depicting the historic declaration back in 1898. The Doodle, which was put up on the search engine’s front page Wednesday, June 12, shows an animated version of the scene from June 12, 1898, when the Declaration of Philippine Independence was made in Kawit, Cavite. This is the 3rd time Google released a Doodle in honor of Philippine Independence. The first one was during the country’s 111th Independence Day in 2009, with the Google logo sporting colors of the Philippine flag.

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