Sicily is asking for help with the shocking number of asylum seekers crowding its shores – Muslim clerics rationalize the breaking of Islamic law and allowing people to eat dogs and cats – And a fighting bull gets loose with fatal results.

The death toll from that powerful magnitude 7.2 earthquake in the Philippines has topped 100.  Tuesday morning’s quake in the region surrounding the Cebu Strait was followed by aftershocks, at least two of which were magnitude 5.0 or greater.  Several buildings were damaged or destroyed, including one of the Philippines most venerated churches, Loboc Church in Bohol, built by the Spanish in the 17th century. 

The Italian Island of Sicily has declared a state of emergency due to rising numbers of migrants coming by boats from the Mediterranean Sea.  Literally hundreds of asylum seekers were intercepted or rescued in the past 24 hours, including: a yacht crowded with Syrian that ran out of fuel; a dinghy packed with 90-North Africans; and 290 migrants rescued from near Lampedusa, where hundreds more drowned last week.  32,000 asylum seekers have overwhelmed Italy’s humanitarian infrastructure so far this year.

Islamic clerics in Syria are allowing Muslims to eat dogs, cats, and donkeys, normally forbidden in Islam.  They issued the special religious exemption to combat spreading hunger and malnutrition caused by the 2-1/2 year old civil war - that’s how bad things have gotten.  Aid groups are circulating video of severe malnutrition among Syria’s children, the worst cases in rebel-held areas.

A Somali pirate kingpin is in custody, lured in by his own ego.  Authorities pretended to be Hollywood movie producers making a film on the life of Mohamed Abdi Hassan, known by his nickname “Big Mouth”.  They hired Big Mouth to be a technical advisor, and he flew to Belgium to take the job.  Busted!  Big Mouth is wanted for the 2009 hijacking of the Belgian dredger ship Pompei.  The crew was held hostage for 10 weeks, and wasn’t released until the ship's owner paid a large ransom.

Nearly a thousand people have died in the custody of Nigerian authorities, according to Amnesty International.  Most of them were members of Boko Haram, the extreme Islamist group trying to take over the north of the country and institute a particularly cruel interpretation of Sharia law.  Overcrowded jails are rife with suffocation and starvation, and others died of beatings and shootings.  Nigeria denies the report.

Clothing companies are cheating Haiti’s garment workers out of as much as a third of their already-meager wages.  The US-based Worker Rights Consortium says the practice is “both widespread and severe” in Haiti's apparel industry, where workers earn the equivalent of A$7 per day on good days.  Companies allegedly cheat the workers out of wages and overtime by setting unrealistic quotas, by paying under the legal minimum wage, and by not paying overtime for work started or completed before or after regular work hours.

Venezuela is expected to release an American chartered oil research ship very soon.  The ship was intercepted last week by Venezuela's navy while operating in disputed waters off the coast of Guyana.  The Anadarko Petroleum Company of Texas says Venezuela treated the boat’s international 36-man crew “in a respectful manner”.

A bicyclist is dead and his wife is injured after being gored by an escaped bull.  This happened in the Carmague region of southern France.  They man and woman were cycling past a farm where the bulls were fighting; one got out, saw the couple in the road and attacked.  The husband was gored 20 times, the wife’s life is not in danger.  Carmague is one of the last areas of France that has bullfighting, and the bulls were being bred for the ring.