May 9, 2013 Edition

Researchers have found that lack of sleep is a significant hidden factor in low achievement levels of students. Sleep experts said the problem is more widespread in affluent countries. They also linked sleep deprivation with the use of mobile phones and computers in bedrooms late at night. From the results of their international education tests, researchers from Boston College found that the US has the highest number of sleep-deprived students, with 80% of 13 and 14-year-olds said to be adversely affected. Other countries with sleep-deprived learners included New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Australia, England, Ireland and France. Countries with students who got enough sleep included Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Japan and Malta. Dr Karrie Fitzpatrick, sleep researcher at Northwestern University in Illinois, said that without sleep, “Your brain is running on empty.”


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Ariel Castro, a 53-year-old former school bus driver, has been charged with 3 counts of rape and 4 counts of kidnapping, CNN reported on Thursday, May 9, Manila time. He is the owner of a home in Cleveland, Ohio where 3 women were rescued after a decade in captivity. The 3 women – Amanda Berry, Michelle Knight, and Gina de Jesus – were freed Monday, May 6, after neighbors heard Berry calling for help. Her 6-year-old daughter was rescued along with the women. Knight had been reported missing in 2002, Berry in 2003, and De Jesus in 2004. Berry was aged 16 when she went missing in 2003, Knight was aged 20 in 2002, and De Jesus was 14 in 2004. When they were rescued, the women were bound with ropes and chains.


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A related story is on BBC 

Are there incidents of violence in your area, or are politicians offering cash or give-aways perhaps to influence voters? Rappler has a reporting tool that will allow anyone to report such incidents in  different parts of the country. Through its #VoteWatch campaign, Rappler encourages ordinary citizens to get involved in the upcoming May 13 elections. Reports will be automatically mapped and validation is encouraged through a thumbs up-thumbs down system on the site. On Tuesday, May 7, two incidents of violence were reported and validated – one in Lucena involving a campaign coordinator who was shot dead, and another shooting incident in Cavite involving the relative of a local candidate. The reporting tool has also elicited vote-buying accounts in Bohol, Caloocan, and San Juan, among others.


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The Court of Appals has lifted a freeze order on the bank accounts of former trade minister Roberto Ongpin, accused of striking anomalous deals with the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). It said that the Anti-Money Laundering Council, through its counsel, the Office of the Solicitor General, “failed to prove its case.” The court resolution was issued on Tuesday, May 7, and said that the prolonged enforcement of the freeze order against Ongpin and former officials of the DBP amounted to “intrusion.” It was in December 2012 that Ongpin’s bank accounts were ordered frozen over alleged preferential loans he obtained from the DBP. Ongpin is the country’s 11th richest man, according to Forbes magazine’s richest list.


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President Benigno Aquino III is making a final plea to voters to include former senator Jun Magsaysay in their list of 12 senators they will vote for on Monday, May 13. In a new political ad that will air on television on Thursday, May 10, the President appeals to voters to include Magsaysay in their ballots. He cites the 74-year-old former senator’s work with the poor and his fight against corruption, and asks voters not to forget his name on election day. Magsaysay, according to surveys, has shown the most potential to break into the winning Top 12. In the May-3 Social Weather Stations survey before elections, Magsaysay was ranked 14-15, making him one of the last 6 candidates fighting for the final 3 slots.


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The Philippines will not be able to fill up its sugar export quota to the United States in the 2012/13 season and changes are coming for the sugar industry when a Southeast Asian regional free trade area is implemented from 2015, a report by the U.S. agriculture attaché said. The attaché report is compiled by agriculture experts of the U.S. embassy and is considered as authoritative by the commodity trade. Among the changes for the Philippine sugar industry is that it will no longer be protected by a tariff wall when the free trade agreement under ASEAN goes into effect in 2015, the report explained. Philippine government tariffs on raw and refined sugar imports are supposed to drop to 5 percent in 2015 from 38 percent in 2010.


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Buzz Aldrin, the American astronaut who was the second man to walk on the Moon, said Wednesday, May 8, that the United States must lead the way toward building a permanent settlement on Mars. Speaking at a conference of space experts in the US capital, the 83-year-old said the United States should apply what it learned decades ago by reaching the moon toward building a new colony on the Red Planet. “The US needs to begin homesteading and settlement of Mars,” Aldrin said at the Humans to Mars conference at George Washington University. “It is within reach.” His call for US leadership in the space race to Mars largely lines up with plans set forth by NASA and President Barack Obama’s administration to send the first people to Mars in the 2030s.


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Syria’s main opposition National Coalition on Wednesday said any political settlement to the country’s two-year-old conflict must start with President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, implicitly rejecting a US-Russian initiative for dialogue with the regime. UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, meanwhile, hailed the agreement between Washington and Moscow to push both sides in the Syrian conflict to end the bloodshed and sit down for talks. The opposition has long insisted that the embattled president cannot stay on, but the regime insists that Assad’s future will be decided in elections, with a presidential vote scheduled for 2014.


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Vowing to “never surrender”, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim called on Malaysians Wednesday, May 8, to join in a nationwide protest tour against elections he said were stolen from the country’s people. Anwar addressed a sea of supporters dressed in mourning black who filled a football stadium and spilled out into surrounding areas, swamping a suburb of the capital Kuala Lumpur in a gathering with a rock-concert atmosphere. “We will go to every corner of this country,” Anwar declared, prompting roars from the crowd. “We will continue to struggle and we will never surrender!” The huge turnout and Anwar’s call for similar rallies across the country upped the ante in a campaign by the opposition to paint the elections as a fraudulent victory for the regime that has ruled Malaysia for 56 years.


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For the first time, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) unveils the code that runs ballot-counting machines on Thursday, May 9, seeking to boost the credibility of the upcoming automated elections. In a press conference at 9 am, Comelec chair Sixto Brillantes Jr presents the source code of the precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines at the poll body’s headquarters in Intramuros, Manila. “Gusto ko nga makita. Pati ako, hindi ko alam kung anong porma no’n eh (I want to see it. Even I do not know what it looks like.),” Brillantes said in an interview Wednesday night, May 8. The long-awaited local review of the PCOS source code – which is described as the “master blueprint” of the ballot-counting machines – begins afterwards.

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Visit #PHvote, Rappler’s coverage of the 2013 Philippine elections. Get to know the candidates through our comprehensive profile pages.