June 19, 2013 Edition

War and other crises drove one person from their home every 4.1 seconds in 2012, the United Nations’ (UN) refugee agency said Wednesday, June 19, pushing the number of people forcibly displaced to a two-decade high of 45.2 million. The UNCHR reports that 1.1 million people fled across international borders in 2012, while 6.5 million were displaced within their homelands. “War is the main reason for this very high number of refugees and people internally displaced. Fifty-five percent of them correspond to the well-known situations of Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria,” said UN high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres. Overall, Afghanistan remained the world’s top producer of refugees, a position it has held for 32 years. Worldwide, one refugee in four is Afghan. While last year saw 2.1 million internally-displaced people and 526,000 refugees return home, as well as the resettlement of 88,6000 in rich nations, fresh crises drove the global total higher.

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Tropical storm Emong (international codename Leepi) has intensified overnight Wednesday, June 19, but is still moving away from the country, state weather bureau PAGASA said. Emong was spotted 400 km east of Basco, Batanes as of 10 am Wednesday, carrying maximum sustained winds of 75 km/h near the center and gusts of up to 90 km/h. It is predicted to move north at 19 km/h and exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) byThursday morning. Despite being far from any land mass, Emong continues to enhance the Southwest Monsoon, bringing rain to parts of Luzon and Visayas. The entire Luzon is expected to have cloudy skies with moderate to heavy rains and thunderstorms, and residents are warned to watch out for possible flash floods and landslides.

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Google has filed a petition with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to get permission to disclose aggregated numbers on the data requests it receives. It also wants to report which requests are made by law enforcement agencies or were done as a national security request, such as through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In a statement, Google said it has “long pushed for transparency so users can better understand the extent to which governments request their data.” This move comes after the company, along with several silicon valley tech companies, denied it has voluntarily given the U.S. government direct access to its servers where private data is stored. If the court rules in Google’s favor, the aggregated numbers would be disclosed as part of future transparency reports it makes available to users.

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The government is not yet revising its 2013 growth target of 6% to 7% despite the stellar first quarter growth of 7.8% and an expected better performance in the second quarter. Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said the government is waiting for inputs from other economic and social clusters before making adjustments in the country’s growth outlook. He added that the President is waiting for each cluster to finish their roadmaps for job creation — the priority of the administration. Several groups, including multilateral agencies, however, are keeping their Philippine outlook for 2013 at around 6%. Analysts are expecting a stellar or higher growth rate in the second quarter due to increased election spending.

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The Miami Heat came alive late in overtime to edge the San Antonio Spurs, 103-100, in a scintillating 2013 NBA Finals Game 6 battle on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in Manila), June 18, at the American Airlines Arena.
With no team budging till the last possession, the Heat went to LeBron James and Ray Allen to salvage their season and force a winner-take-all Game 7.

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June 19 marks the 152nd birth anniversary of the country’s national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. For many people, it’s another regular day. But for historians and fans of the martyr, it’s a day that the country should commemorate in a big way. “I believe it is more appropriate to observe Rizal Day on his birth anniversary than on the day he died,” said Gabriel Cad, the curator of the Rizal Park in Dapitan City. Rizal was exiled in Dapitan by the Spanish authorities. There he set-up an eye practice and taught local children how to read and write. Cad lamented how today’s youth don’t really appreciate the sacrifices made by Rizal and his generation of heroes. “There was a time I saw young students putting sunglasses and Bob Marley cap on Rizal’s monument [at the Rizal Park] and took turns in taking photos while the others were putting their hands on Rizal’s shoulders,” Cad recalled.

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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, June 18, claimed victory over anti-government protesters after a heavy crackdown, as police raided homes and arrested dozens of demonstrators in a bid to stamp out nearly three weeks of unrest. Overnight, riot police in the capital Ankara briefly fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters in Taksim square who hurled back stones and hid behind makeshift barricades, but there were no other reports of confrontations. As the protests appeared to lose their intensity, Erdogan said he had overcome the crisis, seen as the biggest challenge yet to his Islamist-rooted government’s decade-long rule. “Our democracy has been tested again and came out victoriously,” the premier told members of his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) to roaring applause.

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The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has set the registration for barangay and Sangguniang Kabtaan (SK) elections for July 22 to 31, 2013 in preparation for the local elections on October 28. The Comelec expects up to 740,000 voters to register during the period. Persons aged 15 to 18 can register for the SK elections while those aged 18 and above can register for the barangay polls. Comelec chair Sixtro Brillantes Jr earlier proposed moving the barangay elections to October 2014 or January 2015 to allow the Comelec to better prepare for the 2016 national elections. But President Benigno Aquino was not agreeable to the proposal.

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G8 leaders on Tuesday, June 18, strongly endorsed calls for a peace conference to be held in Geneva on the Syria conflict “as soon as possible.” At the end of a summit in Northern Ireland, the leaders also called for an agreement on a Syrian transitional government “formed by mutual consent”, and said the military and security services “must be preserved and restored” in a future set-up. The world powers called on the Syrian regime and the opposition to “commit to destroying and expelling from Syria all organizations and individuals affiliated to Al-Qaeda, and any other non-state actors linked to terrorism.” Earlier, Russian president Vladimir Putin met with British prime minister David Cameron to talk about Syria. Both leaders said that while they agree on the need for a peaceful resolution to the conflict, they disagreed on how to deal with president Assad.

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Archeologists have uncovered hidden details of the vast urban structure in the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. Using airborne laser scanning, called Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR), they have been able to penetrate the dense tropical vegetation that now over runs the complex. The study has revealed new canals, temples, and still unidentified manmade features. This confirms theories that Angkor Wat was at the center of a large metropolitan area that house many thousands of people. LIDAR technology is being used to uncover many new details in archeological sites worldwide. It is also used in geo-hazard mapping.

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