Current Events

1. Even the American Dialect Society knows how risky home mortgages are these days. The group of wordsmiths chose "subprime" as 2007's Word of the Year at its annual convention Friday.
"'Subprime' has been around with bankers for awhile, but now everyone is talking about 'subprime,"' said Wayne Glowka, a spokesman for the group and a dean at Reinhardt College in Waleska, Georgia. "It's affecting all kinds of people in all kinds of places."
About 80 members of the organization spent two days debating the merits of runners-up "Facebook," "green," "Googleganger" and "waterboarding" before voting for an adjective that means "a risky or less than ideal loan, mortgage or investment."
The prefix "sub" translates roughly to "below the standard," while "prime" means something close to "the best."
So, according to Glowka, the word really means "far below the best."
"People were saying that students were referring to their tests, 'I'm going to subprime this; I'm going to mess it up,"' he said.
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, comprises linguists, grammarians, historians and scholars, among others. The society began choosing words of the year in 1990 for fun, not in an official capacity to induct words into the English language.
In 2006, the organization chose "plutoed," which means "to be demoted or devalued

2. Eduardo Pardo "Fr. Honti" Hontiveros (20 December 1923 – 15 January 2008) was a Filipino Jesuit composer and musician, best-known as an innovative creator of Philippine liturgical music.
He was born in Molo, Iloilo City, one of eight siblings, to Jose Hontiveros and Vicenta Pardo. He studied at the Capiz Elementary School and transferred at the Ateneo de Manila High School, graduating in 1939. He entered the San Jose Seminary from 1939 to 1945, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1945; he made his first vows as a novice in 1947. He studied theology in the United States in 1951, and was ordained by Cardinal Francis Spellman in 1954.
With the Vatican II mandate of localization of the Holy Mass, Fr. Honti began to write liturgical hymns in the 1960's, where the mission of his first hymn was to provide a song that local people could easily learn and sing at worship, for the Jesuit-administered parish at Barangka in Marikina. This brought about the tradition of religious music in the country which would later come to be known simply as "Jesuit Music".[1]
His works include "Papuri sa Diyos", "Magnificat (Ang Puso Ko'y Nagpupuri)", "Maria, Bukang-Liwayway" (lit. "Mary, Star of the Morning"), "Pananagutan" (lit. "Responsibility"), among many others. His works have been published and sung in many parishes in the Philippines and in other countries as well; his "Papuri sa Diyos" has been sung at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.[2]. His publisher is the Ateneo de Manila University-based Jesuit Music Ministry.
Fr. Hontiveros suffered a stroke in 1991, affecting his mobility and his ability to communicate. On January 4, 2008, he was found sprawled and unconscious along the corridors of the Loyola House of Studies in Ateneo and it was later determined that he suffered another stroke[3]. He was pronounced dead on January 15, 2008. His funeral on January 19, 2008, was attended by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who presented a posthumous award for his contributions.[4]

3.
Police to exhume Marianeth’s body for autopsy amid doubts of foul play



Walter I. Balane / MindaNews
Tuesday, 13 November 2007 07:36
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DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 Nov) – Two days after her emotional burial, authorities will finally be able to exhume Marianeth's body for autopsy, a police official said. Talomo police chief Supt. Mattheo Baccay told MindaNews that both parents of 12-year-old suicide victim Marianeth Amper agreed to submit her body for autopsy.Baccay said they have to do the procedure to settle doubts of foul play against the reported suicide."We need to find out in finality whether it was suicide or foul play," he told MindaNews via telephone.Marianeth, who was reported to have hanged herself to death in the afternoon of Nov. 2, left a diary for the month of October written in Filipino and an unsent and undated letter to GMA TV's Wish Ko Lang (How I wish) reality show. The manuscripts documented her family's poverty, difficulties in schooling among other things.Baccay said they are preparing to exhume her body late Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning after Isabelo and Magdalena Amper and their other children agreed to the autopsy amid rumors the family is hiding the truth about the sixth grader's decision to allegedly commit suicide.He said they were not able to conduct an autopsy before Marianeth was buried on Nov. 10 because the family did not give consent.Baccay said police were puzzled why the family reported the suicide only on Nov. 6, four days after the girl allegedly hanged herself in a room while she was left alone in the Ampers' hillside residence in Maa district.He said the family agreed only Monday when they were called to appear at the Talomo police station for questioning.Baccay said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte insisted on conducting the autopsy to erase doubts over her death, which drew attention to her family's situation and poverty in the country. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered a probe amid reports she died of hunger and poverty, a situation one of her cabinet members considered as an isolated case but has instead triggered protest and ridicule.Pyschology professor Gail Ilagan, also a columnist of MindaNews, called the girl's alleged suicide as "out of the ordinary", that she was into a depression and that her poverty could just be among the mitigating factors of her depression.Ilagan noted Marianeth’ entry into puberty and the upcoming Christmas season as other factors in her depression."What worsened it is that she seemed to have nobody to confide her feelings to," she told MindaNews on Saturday.Marianeth reportedly kept her feelings to herself and sought refuge in her writings.The Department of Education could attest to the problem based on the findings of their three-day investigation on Marianeth's death.Marianeth appeared to have a serious problem at home, which she refused to detail to her classmates since classes begun in June.She told her classmates she wanted to commit suicide, said Jenielito S. Atillo, DepEd Southeastern Mindanao spokesperson, quoting results of three rounds of investigation by DepEd.Attilo told MindaNews they are not buying the story that the 12-year-old sixth grader at the Maa Central Elementary School ended her life on No. 2 because of her family's poverty.He clarified, however, that DepEd is not the proper authority to test the truth of her "alleged suicide."He said students told DepEd investigators on Nov. 9 that Marianeth had shown unpredictable behavior."She would suddenly cry while in the middle of a game and would withdraw to the rest room if her classmates would insist on what's troubling her,” Attilo said, citing investigation results.Marianeth reportedly asked classmates not to tell teachers about her behavior.Atillo belied that Marianeth's teachers required her to pay at least P100 for a school project, which was the claim of Isabelo Amper, her father during interviews with the media."The only project required of them was the Talaarawan (diary) for the Filipino subject,” he said in the telephone interview Monday."The teacher did not even require them to submit it using a new notebook. They were asked to recycle," he added.Marianeth complied with the diary assignment, which has become a depiction of her situation while still alive, but was not able to submit it. She died on all Souls Day on Nov. 2, Friday. The deadline was Nov. 5, Monday.

4. Russia Is Awarded 2014 Olympics (July 4): The International Olympic Committee announces that Sochi, Russia, a Black Sea resort, will host the Winter Games in 2014. It will be the first time Russia or the former Soviet Union hosts the Winter Games. The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXII Olympic Winter Games, is an international winter multiple sports event that will be celebrated from February 7 to February 23, 2014. The host city, Sochi, Russia, was elected on July 4, 2007, during the 119th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Guatemala City, Guatemala.[1] This will be Russia's first time hosting the Winter Olympics (the Soviet Union had previously hosted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow). As well, this will become the first Winter Olympics ever held in the subtropics.

5. Yeltsin, Boris Nikolayevich (burēs' nyikulī'uvich yelt'sin) [key], 1931–2007, Soviet and Russian politician, president of Russia (1991–99). Born in Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk) and educated at the Urals Polytechnic Institute, Yeltsin began his career as a construction worker (1953–68). He joined the Communist party in 1961, becoming first secretary of the Sverdlovsk region in 1976 and a member of the central committee in 1981. In 1985 he was chosen by Mikhail Gorbachev as Moscow party boss, and in 1986 he was inducted into the party's ruling Politburo. In Oct., 1987, however, he was ousted from his Moscow post after clashing with conservatives and criticizing Gorbachev's reforms as inadequate. Attracting a large following as a populist advocate of radical reform, Yeltsin won (1989) election to the USSR's Supreme Soviet (parliament) as an opposition member. As president of an independent Russia, Yeltsin moved to end state control of the economy and privatize most enterprises. However, economic difficulties and political opposition, particularly from the Supreme Soviet, slowed his program and forced compromises. In Sept., 1993, Yeltsin suspended parliament and called for new elections. When parliament's supporters resorted to arms, they were crushed by the army. Although Yeltsin won approval of his proposed constitution, which guaranteed private property, a free press, and human rights, in the Dec., 1993, voting, many of his opponents won seats in the new legislature.

Cause of death: Heart Failure