MANILA - Filipina singer Rachel Ann Go continues to make a niche in theater, this time bagging the rights to play Gigi in Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of Miss Saigon in Broadway.
Go will be repricing her role as Gigi in the said musical, which will start its run on March 23, 2017. She first played “Gigi” at the musical’s production at the West End wherein she received many accolades from different musical awards.
Go will be joining Broadway giants’ Jonjon Briones, who will be playing the Engineer and Eva Noblezada as Kim.
Prior to this, Go’s management announced that she will be pulling out of her supposed concert with KZ Tandingan, Yeng Constantino, Kyla and Angeline Quinto, slated this coming November.
In an announcement by Cornerstone Entertainment Inc. talent management, Go will not be able to join the said concert because of a big project that “she can’t and won’t refuse.”
The return of Miss Saigon in Broadway will run until January of 2018 before they embark on a North American tour.
FILE PHOTO (Glock 30) | By Rita Salonga via RH News
MANILA - Some multi-national companies expert in making military weapons and hardwares are willing to invest in our country.
According to Carl Erik Leek, SAAB Group Executive Vice-President in the Asia Pacific, a Swedish Aerospace and Defense Company, their office will open this coming November.
In line with this, the Swedish government will also open its Embassy here in Manila to support the growing bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.
Leek said that they aim to sell the JAS 39 Gripen Fighter Aircraft to the Philippine Airforce under the Flight Plan 2028 program.
“SAAB can fulfill the PAF requirement for an affordable fighter aircraft. We think we are a strong contender. The PAF offer will be a whole system including ground infrastructure, an integrated command-and-control system, sensors, and datalinks,” said Leek.
Aside from the SAAB company, the RAFAEL Advance Defense Systems and Thales Company target to extend their business in air and naval defense requirement in the Philippines.
“About one and a half million glock pistols in 2016. We are going to increase that next year. And certainly so if we can provide more to the Armed Forces of the Philippines. All our pistols are mass produce and we make as many as we can sell. We continuously expanding our production in Australia-Slovakia and the US,” added Desolteff.
Meanwhile, Desolteff said that they are still working on acquiring the contract from the Duterte administration regarding mass production of glock 30.
“Not yet but we are working on actual orders. We don’t have a contract so far yet, but that’s in the work.”(with Florante Rosales)
MANILA - The Philippines and Vietnam unite in going through a peaceful and diplomatic process in solving the tension at the South China Sea.
In a joint statement, President Rodrigo Duterte and Vietnam President Tran Dai Qang are standing firm in their commitment in pushing for peace, security, stability and freedom of navigation in the region.
In line with this, the two heads of states called for a peaceful resolution on the dispute at the South China Sea, and respect the legal and diplomatic process.
The two countries also insist on following and respecting international law, which includes the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Philippines and Vietnam are both claimants of the South China Sea, but they agree on pushing for a maritime and oceanic cooperation.
Meanwhile, President Digong is set to visit China on October 19-21.
According to reliable business and diplomatic sources, the visit aims to strengthen the relation between the two countries, especially in commerce and trade.
The President will be bringing with him some entrepreneurs for his mission to patch the relationship of the two nations amid the on-going tension at the South China Sea.
Aside from China, the President also announced his intention to visit Russia.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during a news conference upon his arrival from a state visit in Vietnam at the International Airport in Davao city, Philippines September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Lean Daval Jr
MANILA – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appeared to liken himself to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on Friday and said he would “be happy” to exterminate three million drug users and peddlers in the country.
In a rambling speech on his arrival in Davao City after a visit to Vietnam,Duterte told reporters that he had been “portrayed to be some cousin of Hitler” by critics.
Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said: “There are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I’d be happy to slaughter them.
“If Germany had Hitler, the Philippines would have…,” he said, pausing and pointing to himself.
“You know my victims. I would like (them) to be all criminals to finish the problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition.”
Duterte was voted to power in a May election on the back of a vow to end drugs and corruption in the country of 100 million people. He took office on June 30 and over 3,100 people have been killed since then, mostly drug users and peddlers, in police operations and in vigilante killings. (Reporting by Karen Lema and Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
U.S. President Barack Obama boards Air Force One as he departs Joint Base Andrews in Washington on his way to Israel to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres in Jerusalem September 29, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque | By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM – U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders gathered in Israel on Friday for the funeral of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli prime minister and president whose pursuit of an elusive peace with the Palestinians won international embrace.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also planned to attend the burial, which will be held in the “Great Leaders of the Nation” section of Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery.
Abbas’s rare visit to the city, a short drive through Israeli military checkpoints from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, seemed unlikely to yield anything more than handshakes with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama.
Peres, who died on Wednesday aged 93, jointly won a Nobel Prize for his peace efforts with the Palestinians in the 1990s.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been frozen since 2014 and Netanyahu and Abbas, deeply divided over Jewish settlement on land Palestinians seek for a state and other issues, have not held face-to-face talks since 2010.
Obama and Netanyahu were to deliver eulogies at the cemetery, which overlooks the Jerusalem forest and a verdant valley, in what could be an opportunity for the president to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to revive peacemaking.
U.S. officials have held open the possibility of Obama making another formal effort to get peace negotiations back on the agenda before he leaves office in January, possibly via a U.N. Security Council resolution.
With time short between the end of the funeral and the start of the Jewish sabbath at sundown, no plans were announced for any diplomacy on Friday. Obama and Netanyahu, who have had a testy relationship, last held talks on Sept. 21 in New York, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
Peres will be buried in a Jewish religious ceremony, in a plot between two former prime ministers, Yitzhak Rabin and Yitzhak Shamir. Rabin was assassinated by an ultranationalist Israeli in 1995 over the interim peace deals that he and Peres reached with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
“A light has gone out,” Obama said in a statement after Peres died in a hospital near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, two weeks after suffering a stroke.
Outside Israel’s parliament on Thursday, an estimated 50,000 Israelis filed past Peres’s flag-draped coffin as it lay in state.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, arriving in Israel a day before the burial, visited the plaza in front of parliament to stand, head bowed, in front of Peres’s casket.
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, were not on the roster of participants issued by Israel’s Foreign Ministry. But the Egyptian foreign minister was scheduled to attend and King Abdullah of Jordan sent a telegram of condolences.
Obama was leading a delegation of 33 U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives.
Britain’s Prince Charles, French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former British leaders David Cameron and Tony Blair were also among a long list of foreign dignitaries attending the funeral.
Israel laid on heavy security, deploying some 8,000 police and intermittently closed the main highway between Tel Aviv’s airport and Jerusalem for Obama’s motorcade. (Editing by Luke Baker and Michael Perry)
MANILA - Actress and television host Melai Cantiveros surprised everyone as she proudly announced her 10-week-pregnacy to her second child with husband Jason Francisco.
Melai happily shared that baby Mela will soon be a big sister.
But what surprised viewers is the unexpected appearance of Jason at Melai’s morning show.
Aside from pregnancy announcement, Melai is happier that their family is whole again.
It can be remembered that the couple had a misunderstanding a month ago but surely they had patched things up.
According to the couple, they decided to give their marriage a second chance for the sake of their love to their daughter.
A Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 7 new smartphone is displayed at its store in Seoul, South Korea, September 2, 2016. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo | By Sijia Jiang via Reuters
HONG KONG – Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has slammed South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co <005930.KS> for what it said was “discrimination” against China consumers in its handling of a global recall of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to replace batteries.
In a commentary piece posted on its website on Thursday evening, CCTV said Samsung’s behavior in China after the Sept. 2 recall of 2.5 million phones was “full of arrogance”.
CCTV said a video apology Samsung issued to U.S. consumers, along with various replacement options and compensation, was in stark contrast to its treatment of those in China, where the company issued a brief statement saying most phones didn’t need to be replaced. “Samsung’s discriminatory policy has caused discontent from Chinese consumers,” it said.
Samsung China didn’t immediately responded to requests for comment on the CCTV criticism.
The CCTV criticism may provide an unwelcome distraction for Samsung as seeks to bolster its position in the world’s largest smartphone market. Once the number 1 mobile phone vendor in China, Samsung dropped out of top 5 in 2015, hit by the strong growth of domestic brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo.
A number of big-name global consumer brands have fallen foul of the influential broadcaster’s blasts in recent years, prompting firms from German automaker Volkswagen AG <VOWG_p.de> to Samsung rival Apple Inc <AAPL.O> to undertake strenuous efforts to bolster their image.
Earlier in September, after a meeting with China’s quality safety watchdog, Samsung China issued a brief statement saying 1,858 Note 7 devices sold in the country as part of a test scheme before the official launch would be recalled.
Most Note 7s on sale in China have batteries from a different supplier and are not part of its global recall of 2.5 million phones announced on September 2, Samsung said.
But after anecdotal reports of a handful of Note 7s catching fire in the mainland, Samsung China issued a statement on Thursday apologizing to Chinese consumers for a “lack of sufficient explanation” on what it said were safe Note 7 phones in China. (Reporting by Sijia Jiang; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. —John 4:14
Visitors to Colorado often become dehydrated without realizing it. The dry climate and intense sun, especially in the mountains, can rapidly deplete the body’s fluids. That’s why many tourist maps and signs urge people to drink plenty of water.
In the Bible, water is often used as a symbol of Jesus as the Living Water who satisfies our deepest needs. So it’s quite fitting that one of Jesus’ most memorable conversations took place at a well (John 4:1-42). It began with Jesus asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water (v.7). It quickly progressed to a discussion of something more when Jesus said to her: “Whoever drinks of this [physical] water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (vv.13-14).
As a result of this conversation, the woman and many people in the village where she lived came to believe that Jesus was “the Christ, the Savior of the world” (v.42).
We can’t live without water. Nor can we truly live now or eternally without the living water we receive from knowing Jesus Christ as our Savior. We can drink of His life-giving water today.
MANILA - The second largest frigate bought by the Philippines from Indonesia was presented to the media on Thursday.
The said frigate was given a new name of BRP Davao Del Sur (LD602), which was headed by Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Maria Lumen Isleta.
The new ship was named after Davao Del Sur, which serves as a sanctuary of the natural wonders including the highest peak in the country, Mt. Apo, the Philippine Orchid Vanda Sanderiana and the endangered Philippine Eagle.
The new ship is expected to be delivered to the Philippines by 2017 and will serve as a floating command and control in conducting humanitarian assistance and disaster response, and as a military sealift and transport vessel.
The two frigates bought by the Philippines worth Php4 Billion from the Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Act Trust Fund.
Present during the launch were Defense Usec. Ricaro David and Raymundo Elefante, AFP Vice-Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gregorio Miranda, Navy Vice-Commander Rear Admiral Rafael Mariano.
Also at the launch were Rear Admiral Bayani Gaerlan-Commander of the Philippine Fleet, Commodore Virme Torralba-Commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command and Capt. Adelius Bordado, incoming Commander of the Sealift Amphibious Force.
(with Florante Rosales)
Onlookers view a New Jersey Transit train that derailed and crashed through the station in Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S. in this picture courtesy of Chris Lantero taken September 29, 2016. Courtesy of Chris Lantero via REUTERS
NEW YORK – A New Jersey Transit train derailed and crashed through the station in Hoboken, New Jersey during the morning rush hour on Thursday and ABC News reported that more than 100 people were injured and multiple passengers were trapped.
Dramatic pictures posted by commuters showed a train carriage that appeared to have smashed right through the station concourse, collapsing a section of the roof, scattering debris and wreckage and causing devastation.
Hoboken lies on the west bank of the Hudson River across from New York City. Its station, one of the busiest in the metropolitan area, is used by many commuters traveling into Manhattan from New Jersey and further afield.
ABC News said on its website that New Jersey’s emergency management system was reporting more than 100 people were injured, and that New Jersey Transit was reporting multiple passengers were trapped.
Linda Albelli, 62, said she was sitting in her seat in one of the rear cars when the train approached the station.
“I noticed, ‘he’s not slowing up, we’re going too fast,’ and with that there was this tremendous crash,” she said.
Injured passengers sat on benches in the train station while they waited for first responders, Albelli said. She did not know how many had been injured.
“There was just so much, a lot of people in need of attention,” she said.
Officials from the local police, fire department and New Jersey Transit could not immediately be reached for comment.
An MSNBC reporter on the scene said Jersey City Medical Center was prepared to take casualties.
NJ Transit said in a post on Twitter that rail service in and out of Hoboken station was suspended due to a train accident.
PATH trains said on Twitter that due to a NJ Transit train derailment at Hoboken station, all of its services were also suspended.
“Unbelievable scene in Hoboken right now,” wrote one Twitter user, Chris Lantero (@Chris_Lantero). “Train crashed and went straight through the platform into the station.”
(Reporting by Laila Kearney, David Ingram and Amy Tennery; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Frances Kerry)
File Photo of Former Sen. Miriam Defensor - Santiago
By Rita Salonga
MANILA - The Senate was filled with grief with news of former Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s passing away early Thursday morning.
For Senator Panfilo Lacson, though their relationship was rocky during the 15th and 16th Congress, the former Rehabilitation Czar has nothing but respect and admiration to the Philippines’ “Iron lady.”
Senate President Protempore Franklin Drilon meanwhile said that he was sadden with the death of the former Senator. Drilon referred to Senator Miriam as one of his close friends and a brilliant Senator.
Drilon and Santiago were classmates at the University of the Philippines and was his editor in the Philippine Collegian.
Former Senator Juan Ponce-Enrile offered prayers for the eternal repose of Santiago, who has been his constant critic in the Senate.
Senator Bongbong Marcos said that Santiago was his mentors in the Senate.
The former Senator died in her sleep at the age of 71. She has been battling with stage 4 Lung Cancer since 2014, but was still able to run for the Presidency in this year’s national elections.
Lt Col. Ferdinand Marcelino(Photo by Raymund Dadpaas via RH News)
MANILA - Marine Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino revealed that former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Chief Arturo Cacdac is also allegedly involved in illegal drugs.
According to Marcelino, former Dir. Gen. Art Cacdac and his men personally brought in the illegal drugs inside the shabu laboratory where they made it looked like he was a cohort of the Chinese national who was caught in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
Marcelino was previously acquitted by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court after no evidence was presented regarding his alleged involvement in the confiscated Php320 Million worth of shabu.
Marcelino added that he wonders why there was no charges filed against Cacdac when a companion of his personal aide was arrested with seven kilos of shabu in Nueva Ecija.
Officials from the Governor of Svalbard’s office inspect a polar bear shot in April 2016 by a group of Finnish tourists as a last resort for their protection near Verlegenhuken, Norway, April 16, 2016. Governor of Svalbard Office/Handout via REUTERS | By Gwladys Fouche
ON BOARD THE POLARSYSSEL – More polar bears are being shot dead on Norway’s remote Arctic islands, where dangerous encounters with humans are getting more frequent as visitors increase and global warming melts the sea ice on which the creatures roam.
Halfway between the northern tip of Europe and the North Pole, the Svalbard archipelago of snow-capped mountains and glaciers is home to 2,654 people and 975 polar bears, according to a 2015 tally by the Norwegian Polar Institute.
“Four polar bears have been shot so far this year,” Vidar Arnesen, a chief police inspector for the governor of Svalbard, told Reuters. “In a normal year, one or two would be shot.”
“There are more contacts between humans and the animals,” he said aboard the Polarsyssel, the governor’s ship, used for inspections and rescue operations.
Polar bears are a protected species and shooting them is allowed only for self-defence and as a last resort. Outside Svalbard’s main settlements, people are obliged by law to carry the means to scare the animals away or defend themselves, with authorities recommending they take a gun.
A chain of incidents this year has highlighted the dangers.
In April, police stunned a three-year-old male sighted in the main town on Spitsbergen island, Longyearbyen, and flew him out by helicopter to a more isolated spot. The same month, a group of four Finnish tourists shot a polar bear in self-defence.
They were not fined, as police said they followed proper procedure – to group together and make noise to try and frighten away the animal from at least 200 metres, and only to fire if there is a risk of death or injury to humans.
POLICE INVESTIGATION
In June, a trapper preparing for the winter trapping season was fined 20,000 crowns ($2,468) when he shot a female polar bear in violation of the rules.
He mistakenly loaded his rifle with live ammunition instead of rubber bullets when trying to scare her away. Her cub was later euthanised as it would have not survived alone.
Police are currently investigating an incident last month in which a two-year-old female was shot dead near a camp of Russian scientists on a research trip.
Marco Lambertini, director-general of World Wildlife Fund International, told Reuters the shrinking area of sea ice available to the polar bears was contributing to the problem.
“The authorities on Svalbard should regularly review their guidelines to reduce the number of dangerous interactions between humans and polar bears,” he said.
At the same time, Svalbard is experiencing a tourism boom: visitor nights on the archipelago hit 18,000 in the month of July, up 14 percent year-on-year.
The University Centre in Svalbard now hosts around 800 students a year, a doubling in five years, which increases the number of research expeditions.
“The possibilities of a hungry bear encountering a human being are increasing,” said Lambertini. TAKING PRECAUTIONS
Around the Arctic, there are an estimated 26,000 polar bears, according to a “Red List” of threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which also highlights the threat to the species from retreating sea ice.
Polar bears rarely kill people: the most recent victim was a British teenager who died while camping on the ice in 2011. In 2015, a Czech tourist visiting for a solar eclipse suffered slight injuries when a polar bear ripped open his tent. The animal was shot dead.
For locals, living with polar bears involves routine precautions. At the Ny-Aalesund research station, the northernmost civilian settlement in the world at 79 degrees north, the 70-odd scientists and support staff leave the front door of every house unlocked so that people can seek refuge if needed.
“Once I was on a rubber boat and about 20-25 metres away, on the beach, there was a polar bear. We drove the animal away by revving the engines,” said Max Schwanitz, 54, a German who supervises scientific research diving.
Residents at Ny-Aalesund have sighted six or seven polar bears this summer, the last time some six weeks ago. The animal swam out of the sea and walked within a few dozen metres of the settlement before disappearing.
“The first time I saw one, it was in the middle of town. I was amazed at how huge it was,” said Aasne Dolve Meyer, 41, who works for a company supporting the research institutes. “After that I always made sure I checked my surroundings before leaving the house.”
($1 = 8.1025 Norwegian crowns) (Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
dubbed as Iron Lady of Asia File Photo\Gamiaw|Ram Lopez
MANILA, Philippines - Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who ran for Presidency in the May 9 elections despite battling Stage 4 lung cancer, died Thursday morning today, September 29, 2016 past 8:00 A.M. while confined at St. Lukes Medical Center in Taguig City.
Her husband Narciso "Jun" Santiago confirmed Santiago had died in her sleep and is set to issue a statement within the day.
"She died peacefully in her sleep this morning," Santiago said.
Her official Twitter account posted a message midmorning that former Sen. Santiago died at 8:52 a.m.
Her remains will be brought to Immaculate Concepcion Cathedral in Cubao.
Earlier this month, she was brought to St. Luke's for cancer treatment. She stayed there until her death Thursday, Atty. Santiago confirmed.
It was in 2014 when the former lawmaker said that she had stage 4 lung cancer.
Born in Iloilo City on June 15, 1945, the former senator ran for president in the May 2016 elections but lost to Rodrigo Duterte. She also sought the presidency in 1992 (won by Fidel Ramos) and 1998 (won by Joseph Estrada).
Santiago has been dubbed as the "Iron Lady of Asia" for her no-nonsense drive against graft and corruption when she served all the three branches of the government—Judicial, Executive, and Legislative.
"In a nation where many public officials are charged with, or suspected, of plunder, her honesty shines like a light in the darkness," her Senate biography read.
Santiago, whose fiery, colorful language - especially against corruption - had endeared her to millions of young voters despite her age (71), had the distinction of serving in three branches of government: a judge during the martial law years, she was appointed to Executive positions after the EDSA revolt, and then began her career as Senator in 1995.
Santiago ran for the presidency in May, but lost. It was her third time to run for the highest post in the land.
Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. —1 Corinthians 11:1
A radio ad for watches suggests that listeners buy a watch with a bright color band and then wear it with clothes of other colors. When people notice your watch because of its contrasting color, the ad says, “They’ll see that you have ‘color courage.’ And they’ll want to be like you.” Something in us enjoys having others follow our example.
If you do a quick reading of 1 Corinthians 4, you might think the apostle Paul sounds a bit boastful when he says to follow his example of self-sacrifice (v.16). But a closer look at Paul’s words shows why he wrote so confidently. He could ask people to imitate him because he imitated Christ (11:1), the greatest Servant of all.
The persecution he endured and the position he held in the church (4:10-17) all happened because Paul followed Jesus. When he mentioned that even if the Corinthians had 10,000 teachers he would still be their father in the faith (v.15), he was acknowledging that Jesus is the only reason people could trust his teaching.
If we want people to imitate us, we must first imitate our Lord. If we have any reason for people to follow our example—if we have any courage to point others to the Savior—it is because of Him, not us.
Joyfully following Jesus the Lord And trusting His lead every day Makes us examples that others can see To follow when trials come their way. —Sper
MANILA - The remains of convicted drug lord Tony Co have been brought to morgue of the Eastern Funeral Homes in Alaband, Muntinlupa City from the Medical Center of Muntilupa.
Co died during a riot inside the New Bilibid Prisons early Wednesday morning.
Based on the statement of acting Bureau of Corrections head Rolando Asuncion, Co was stabbed by fellow inmate, former Maj. Clarence Dongail after the former was caught in a shabu session with Vicente Sy and Peter Co in building 14 of the Maximum Security Compound.
Another high-profile inmate, Jaybee Sebastian who responded from the said fight, was also injured. The four inmates were then brought to the Medical Center of Muntinlupa.
Co’s body was claimed by his family and brought it to the Eastern Funeral homes.
Meanwhile, Sebastian’s lawyer, Eduardo Areva said that his client needs an operation because they will need to insert a tube in his body for air flow.
In line with this, Areva is asking the Bureau of Corrections if they can transfer Sebastian to the Asian Hospital for the said operation.
In an exclusive interview of Daisy Sy via RH News, wife of Vicente, her husband only sustained minor injuries.
In this photo taken Sept. 22, 2016, President Barack Obama speaks in the East Room of the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The move sets Obama up for a possible first veto override by Congress. Both chambers passed the bill by voice vote. The House sent Obama the bill just before the 15th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File |
By Darlene Superville
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Wednesday (Manila time) announced career diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis as his choice to become the first US ambassador to Cuba in more than a half-century, a move that sets up a possible fight with congressional critics of Obama's overtures to the communist island nation.
DeLaurentis currently is the top diplomat at the US Embassy in Havana.
Senate confirmation is required but will be tough for the White House to win before Obama's term ends in January. Senators who argue that Cuba doesn't deserve diplomatic outreach from the US have vowed to block any ambassador nomination, citing lack of progress on democracy and human rights on the island. Among them are Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., both with roots in Cuba.
Obama said Wednesday that DeLaurentis' leadership was "vital" throughout the normalization process.
Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro surprised the world in December 2014 by announcing that the one-time foes had agreed, after secret negotiations, to restore diplomatic relations, including reopening embassies in each other's countries. The US and Cuba severed diplomatic ties in 1961 amid the Cold War.
Obama called the naming of an ambassador a "common-sense" step toward more productive relations between the US and Cuba, and said DeLaurentis is the best person for the job.
"Having an ambassador will make it easier to advocate for our interests, and will deepen our understanding even when we know that we will continue to have differences with the Cuban government," he said in a statement that called attention to DeLaurentis' extensive experience in Cuba and Latin America. "We only hurt ourselves by not being represented by an ambassador."
Cuba's top diplomat in Washington, Jose R. Cabanas, was given the rank of ambassador last year.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the State Department and foreign operations, argued for DeLaurentis' confirmation.
"The Cuban people have their ambassador in Washington. The American people need their ambassador in Havana," Leahy said in a statement.
Since diplomatic relations were re-established on July 20, 2015, DeLaurentis has led a series of negotiations with Cuba on topics ranging from human rights to the billions of dollars in US claims against Cuba for properties that were confiscated during the country's revolution in 1959.
Even if ultimately unsuccessful, the nomination of a US ambassador could provide a boost to the Obama administration's final months of negotiations with Cuba, a country highly attuned to the degree of respect it feels it is receiving from the US.
Earlier this year, Obama visited Cuba with his wife and daughters. During the brief visit, the first by a sitting US president in nearly seven decades, Obama met with Castro and attended a baseball game between the Cuban national team and the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball. He also addressed the Cuban people.
__
Associated Press writer Michael Weissenstein in Havana, Cuba, contributed to this report.
This Sept. 25, 2016 photo made available by SpaceX shows a test firing of the company's Raptor engine in McGregor, Texas. On Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced his company's plan for travel to the planet Mars. The engine is being tested for use in the new spacecraft. SpaceX via AP
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — On a personal quest to settle Mars, SpaceX founder Elon Musk envisions 1,000 passenger ships flying en masse to the red planet well within the next century, "Battlestar Galactica" style.
Musk outlined his zealous plan Tuesday to establish a self-sustaining city on Mars, complete with iron foundries and even pizzerias. He wants to make humans a multiplanetary species, and says the best way to do that is to colonize the red planet.
"I think Earth will be a good place for a long time, but the probable lifespan of human civilization will be much greater if we're a multiplanetary species," he said.
Musk, who also runs electric car maker Tesla Motors, received a wildly warm reception at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Many in the crowd were avid space buffs.
For now, the aerospace company he founded in 2002 is focusing on satellite deliveries, as well as space station cargo runs for NASA and a future crew capsule for U.S. astronauts. Its Falcon rocket, though, is grounded for the second time in a year because of devastating accidents.
During his address, Musk did not mention the Sept. 1 launch pad explosion that destroyed a Falcon rocket and its satellite.
Instead, he noted that SpaceX already has begun work on the Mars Colonial fleet, recently test-firing a powerful new rocket engine named Raptor. The system ultimately could take people to the moons of Jupiter and beyond, he said.
Musk said it would be a "super-exciting" adventure to Mars but also dangerous, at least for the first few trips. His goal is to get the price down so anyone could afford to go, with a ticket costing no more than a house on Earth. He's shooting for 1 million Martians.
Would he go, someone asked? Perhaps ultimately, but it would depend on whether he had a good succession plan in place. As for being the first Martian, the risk of fatalities will be high — "there's just no way around it" — and he wants to see his five young sons grow up.
"It would be basically, are you prepared to die? If that's OK, then you're a candidate for going," he told the audience.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016. In a receptive audience full of space buffs, Musk said he envisions 1,000 passenger ships flying en masse to Mars, 'Battlestar Galactica' style. He calls it the Mars Colonial fleet, and he says it could become reality within a century. Musk's goal is to establish a full-fledged city on Mars and thereby make humans a multi-planetary species. AP/Refugio Ruiz
In April, Musk announced plans to send an unmanned Dragon capsule to land on Mars as early as 2018. NASA is offering technical support, but no money. The space agency has its own program to get astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, using its own hardware.
Musk invited industry to join the Mars effort, which will represent a $10 billion investment. SpaceX currently is spending a few tens of millions of dollars on the enterprise, and the amount will soon grow, he said.
Musk described in detail his plans to launch a monster-size rocket — larger than even NASA's Saturn V moon rocket — from the same launch pad at Kennedy Space Center from which the Apollo astronauts departed for the lunar surface in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The first-stage boosters would return to land vertically — just like his Falcon rocket boosters do now. Reusability, in fact, is essential to any plan for getting humans to Mars, as is refilling fuel tanks in Earth orbit and creating rocket fuel at Mars for return trips, he said.
The rocket would hoist a spaceship big enough to carry 100 to 200 people to Mars, a trip lasting several months, quicker with nuclear propulsion. Musk promised no one would be stuck there; spaceships would return regularly, and "you get a free return trip if you want."
"Ultimately what I'm trying to achieve here is to make Mars seem possible, make it seem as though it's something that we can do in our lifetimes," he said.
Opposition Senator Leila De Lima gestures during a news conference she called at the Philippine Senate, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016, in Pasay city south of Manila, Philippines. De Lima, who led an investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte's bloody anti-drug campaign, was ousted Monday from the justice committee in a vote that human rights advocates said could derail accountability in the crackdown. AP/Bullit Marquez
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima claimed that the reported riot at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) on Wednesday morning was a tactic of the administration to persuade prisoners to testify against her.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II confirmed that one inmate, Tony Co, was killed in the incident while three other inmates, Jaybee Sebastian, Peter Co and Vicente See were injured.
"The official version of the DOJ said this was a riot. Of course, we do not know yet at this point," De Lima said in a televised press conference.
"I'm not discounting the fact that this is another way of the government persuading the Bilibid 19 to testify against me and that this incident should serve as a lesson to those who refuse to cooperate with the government and do Aguirre's and Malacañang's bidding," the senator said.
De Lima stressed that the prisoners at Building 14 of the NBP were isolated from the general prison population as a result of a raid in December 2015.
The so-called "Bilibid 19" were cut off from the drug trade and luxurious living quarters inside the prison.
The former Justice secretary added that the Bilibid 19 were also the ones who filed cases against her before the Office of the Ombudsman due to their alleged persecution after being isolated at Building 14.
"I am not discounting the possibility that this so called riot is Malacañang's way of sending messages to prisoners who refuse to implicate me in the Bilibid drug trade as part of Aguirre's and Malacanang's teleserye drama projecting me as the Bilibid drug queen. If this is the truth, I plead to Malacanang to stop this tragic, desperate and despicable actions," De Lima said.
De Lima said that the government's tactic of threatening prisoners with violence and murder who refuse to testify against her "is the height of mafia tactics and gangster-style operation that makes this government worse than a narco state."
"It makes this government an assassin state, a state that promotes murder and summary execution as policy and as weapon against its perceived enemies," De Lima said.
In this July 2016 composite photo, Bilibid inmates Jaybee Sebastian and Peter Co faced Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa. PNP PIO/Released
MANILA, Philippines — One high-profile inmate on Wednesday morning passed away in a stabbing incident inside Building 14 of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), Muntinlupa City.
According to radio reports, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II confirmed the death of one inmate, Tony Co, while three other inmates, Jaybee Sebastian, Peter Co and Vicente Sy were hurt from the riot. They were rushed to the Medical Center ng Muntinlupa. Reports said Sebastian was stable.
Meanwhile, there were varying reports on drug lord Peter's condition with some saying he is 50/50 while others claim he is stable.
Initial reports from Aguirre said the riot started around 7:40 a.m. when Peter, Tony and Sy were caught using shabu. They were then reprimanded by Clarence Dungail, a former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief inspector.
“Sinaway ni Major Dungail at sinabing ‘wag nyo gawin yan lahat tayo mapapasama,” the Justice secretary said, adding that the three inmates felt bad and complained to Sebastian resulting in the riot.
In a radio interview, Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer-in-charge, retired Chief Superintendent Rolando Asuncion, confirmed the stabbing incident in Building 14. He said there were seven to eight inmates involved in the riot. He added that Dungail was also hurt but refused to be brought to the hospital.
Asuncion said BuCor's initial investigation revealed that an inmate named Edgar Cinco witnessed Tony and the others taking drugs. He then told Dungail about it. Dungail went to the area where the pot session was happening, however, Tony charged towards Dungail and the riot started.
The BuCor official clarified that Dungail is considered as one of the inmate leaders while Sebastian and Peter are commandos. He said Sebastian obtained chest wounds.
favor
Due to the incident, Asuncion said the inmates involved in the riot would be transferred to other colonies. He said riots are usual occurrences inside the penitentiary.
“I still believe na hindi pa rin nakakalusot ang droga diyan at hindi pa rin compromised ang SAF (Special Action Force),” he added. The SAF was placed inside the NBP by the Duterte administration to handle security inside the prison.
Aguirre said Sebastian is still a key witness to the alleged NBP drug trade despite his earlier statement that the latter no longer needs to testify. Sebastian was invited to the House Committee on Justice probe into the proliferation of drugs inside the NBP.
“Hindi maganda para sa gobyerno na mamatay si Jaybee Sebastian dahil siya ay inaasahan na mag-spill ng beans tungkol kay De Lima,” Aguirre said.
Sebastian is allegedly a favored inmate who is in cahoots with former Justice secretary and now Sen. Leila De Lima.
On the other hand, Peter was mentioned by Duterte as one of the drug lords who continued to direct illegal drug operations from behind bars. Duterte said Peter is a drug triad member operating in Luzon and Metro Manila.
Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., who the president named for involvement in the narcotics trade, tagged Peter as his son Kerwin Espinosa Jr.’s source of drugs. — Rosette Adel via PhilStar
Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” —Exodus 3:11
Years ago, world-famous evangelist Billy Graham was scheduled to speak at Cambridge University in England, but he did not feel qualified to address the sophisticated thinkers. He had no advanced degrees and he had never attended seminary. Billy confided in a close friend: “I do not know that I have ever felt more inadequate and totally unprepared for a mission.” He prayed for God’s help, and God used him to share the simple truth of the gospel and the cross of Christ.
Moses also felt inadequate when God recruited him for the task of telling Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Moses asked, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Ex. 3:11). Although Moses may have questioned his effectiveness because he was “slow of speech” (4:10), God said, “I will certainly be with you” (3:12). Knowing he would have to share God’s rescue plan and tell the Israelites who sent him, Moses asked God, “What shall I say to them?” God replied, “I AM has sent me to you” (vv.13-14). His name, “I AM,” revealed His eternal, self-existent, and all-sufficient character.
Even when we question our ability to do what God has asked us to do, He can be trusted. Our shortcomings are less important than God’s sufficiency. When we ask, “Who am I?” we can remember that God said, “I AM.”
Dear Lord, help me to remember that You are with me, even when I’m unsure of my own abilities. Give me the faith to believe that You can help me to do anything You ask me to do.
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You need not be afraid of where you’re going when you know God’s going with you.
