Air walk Al Thorton (foreground, right) and Asi Taulava (left) of NLEX stand guard against Robert Dozier of Alaska  during a PBA Commissioner’s Cup game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in
Quezon City on Friday. PHOTO BY CZEASAR DANCEL

THE San Miguel Beermen out-played Talk ‘N Text, 104-98, to take the No.1 spot at the end of the elimination round of the 2016 Philippine Basketball

Association (PBA) Commis-sioner’s Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday.
The frontcourt duo of June Mar Fajardo and Tyler Wilkerson led the Beermen with 18 and 36 points, respectively.
The Tropang Texters notched an early lead, 20-19, going into the second period.

TNT sustained its onslaught before the midgame intermission, edging San Miguel, 25-24.
But San Miguel turned the tables in the third quarter overtaking TNT by as much as four points, 64-68, off a jumper by Wilkerson at the 2:25 minute mark.

Before the start of the fourth period, the Tropang Texters regained the upper hand 72-68, via back-to-back baskets by David Simon.

With less than two minutes left, the Beermen initiated a rally to take the lead, 98-94, behind the triple of Alex Cabagnot with 1:16 left in regulation.

TNT fought valiantly but failed to stop the Beermen from sealing their victory in the final seconds of the match.

In the other game, Calvin Abueva powered the Alaska Aces over the NLEX Road Warriors, 104-98. With the victory, Alaska has improved its record to seven wins and four losses.
Abueva notched a total of 23 points and eight rebounds off a 64 percent shooting performance in the field.

Alaska exploited the gaps in NLEX’s defense early in the match with explosive attacks resulting in a 20-point advantage, 34-14.

The Road Warriors started to intensify their attacks in the second canto but were still unable to grab the lead until the halftime break. They managed to trim the gap, 76-74, with just a quarter left to play.

Alaska emerged triumphant in the final minutes of regulation dropping the Road Warriors to the seventh spot with five wins and six losses.

Returning import Rob Dozier recorded a double-double performance of 14 points and 13 rebounds while big man Sonny Thoss contributed 19 markers and eight boards.

Point guard RJ Jazul also had an impressive performance, tallying a total of 18 points, eight rebounds and three assists with a three-out-of-four shooting output from beyond the arc.

The high-scoring Al Thornton posted a huge output of 37 points and 10 rebounds while Sean Anthony contributed 24 points.

“I thought we looked like a team offensively at the start of the game. We moved the ball really well,” Alaska head coach Alex Compton said in the postmatch interview.

“I don’t feel like you’re safe when Al Thornton’s in the gym. [Luckily] we made stops in the end,” he ended.

ROME: He came (to Rome), he saw (the inside of the Vatican but not Pope Francis) and he conquered (the few dozen students and expats who turned out to see him).

In the process, Bernie Sanders got very nearly trampled by a Roman media scrum.

And with Pope Francis opting not to spend any time in the company of the Vermont senator, aides must have been wondering if the 8,500-mile roundtrip and two days out of the race to be the Democrat presidential candidate were worth it.

Sanders did have a few relaxed moments in the spring sunshine on Friday, strolling through the Vatican’s Perugino gate to greet a group of around 30 American expatriates and students brandishing “Go Bernie” and “Feel the Bern” placards.

The relaxed meet and greet lasted only seconds however before a swarm of international media engulfed the democratic socialist.

Flustered, flushed and looking all of his 74 years, Sanders stumbled at one point and briefly looked as if he might fall to the Roman cobblestones.

“Can we get everyone back behind the barriers,” one of the security team frantically shouted, before adding, more forlornly, “Could someone say that in Italian.”

Having recovered his balance, Sanders shoved forward and regained his focus. “Are there any American reporters here?” he asked.

The rolling maul of cameras, microphones and sweaty hacks never made it back behind the barricades, so Bernie opted to deliver his explanation of what he was doing here from the middle of it.

He said he had come to Rome out of respect for Francis’s positions on the global economy and the environment — “historic and incredible” positions the pontiff happens to share with a certain Brooklyn native.

“What the pope is saying is that we cannot continue to go forward when so few have so much and when greed is such a destructive force, not only in the United States of course but around this world,” Sanders said.

And he said Francis’s intervention in the climate change debate had been a game changer.

“So when I received this invitation, and I know it’s taking me away from the campaign trail for a day, it was so moving to me that it was simply something I could not refuse to attend.”

Sanders had flown to Rome at the invitation of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, a kind of Vatican think-tank on social, economic and environmental issues, for a Friday conference.

Some political commentators have suggested he was looking for a boost to his ratings among US Catholics with a trip that could be spun as an indication of Vatican endorsement.

Although the papal spokesman had made it clear earlier in the week there was no prospect of a personal audience with Francis, the pontiff would normally have turned out to greet all of the attendees at such a high-profile seminar.

On this occasion however he sent a letter of apology, citing his need to prepare for Saturday’s trip to Lesbos.

Sanders was unlikely to get a warm greeting from two other attendees of the Vatican-hosted meeting — Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa and Bolivian President Evo Morales — both known for being hostile to US interference in Latin America.

The 79-year-old pontiff will have an early start with a 7am flight to catch to the Greek island at the centre of Europe’s migrant crisis.

Sanders may or may not have been disappointed with the papal no-show but American expatriates Linda Lauretta and Chelsie Nieman were delighted to have seen him in the flesh.

“We have been here since 9.30am this morning. We weren’t sure where he was going to be but luckily one of the Swiss guards took pity on us and told us to come here,” said Lauretta, an English teacher from New York state.

“I think a lot of Americans living outside of the US back Bernie because they have experienced different types of society and they can see them working.”

Nieman, a graphic designer from Atlanta, added: “I’ve just been really impressed with everything that he stands for.” AFP

AFP/CC

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Suspected Abu Sayyaf gunmen hijacked a tugboat off the southern Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi near the Sabah border and abducted four Indonesian crewmen as well as shot and wounded another before escaping on a speedboat, a military intelligence report said.

Abu Sayyaf jihadists released a photo, dated April 8, of four Malaysian hostages they seized from Semporna, Sabah, on April 2. They are believed being held by Abu Sayyaf commanders Hatid Hajan Sawajaan and Alhabsi Misaya in southern Philippines.

It added that five other sailors, including the wounded crewmember of tugboat Henry, sailed to the Malaysian border where they were rescued by Malaysian authorities.

The latest abduction was the third carried out by the Abu Sayyaf since last month.

The wounded sailor, whose identity was not immediately known, was rushed to the Semporna district of Tawau town, in Sabah, and the rest of the crewmen filed their police report in Lahad Datu town.

The tugboat was heading to Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan in Indonesia from the Philippines when gunmen intercepted them late Friday, the military intelligence report said.

On March 26, Abu Sayyaf gunmen also snatched 10 Indonesian crewmembers of the tugboat Brahma 12 off Languyan town in Tawi-Tawi – one of five provinces in the volatile Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) – while heading to Sabah.

The Abu Sayyaf also kidnapped four Malaysian crewmen of another tugboat, MasFive 6, at sea in Semporma on April 2. The jihadist group also released a photo, dated April 8, of the Malaysian hostages Wong Teck Kang, 31; Wong Hung Sing, 34; Wong Teck Chii, 29; and Johnny Lau Jung Hien, 21 – all from Sarawak.

The latest abduction came despite Sabah’s closing of its cross-border trade with Tawi-Tawi, just several hours by boat from the Malaysian state, following the spate of daring kidnappings by the Abu Sayyaf inside its territory. AL JACINTO

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ROME: Pope Francis left Rome on Saturday bound for the Greek island of Lesbos, on the frontline of Europe’s migrant crisis.

Francis, 79, took off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 7:20 a.m. (05h20 GMT) for the island, where hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers and other migrants have arrived in recent months.

In a move bound to turn the spotlight on Europe’s controversial deal with Turkey to end the unprecedented refugee crisis, the Pontiff will visit a processing center which has been slammed as prison-like by rights groups.

His five-hour stay will also include lunch with a handful of asylum-seekers in one of the adapted containers used to accommodate them. AFP

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KUALA LUMPUR: Gunmen have abducted four Indonesian sailors and shot and wounded one crew member on the high seas off the east coast of Malaysia’s Sabah state, waters where Abu Sayyaf militants are known to operate, a senior police official said Saturday.

If the Philippines-based Abu Sayyaf is confirmed to be behind the kidnapping off Borneo, it would be their third such hostage-taking in as many weeks and comes amid a surge in such attacks.

This undated handout picture released on April 16 by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency shows a member of Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Force rescuing an Indonesian sailor after being shot during a kidnapping at the east coast of Malaysia’s Sabah state in Lahad Datu. AFP PHOTO / MALAYSIAN MARITIME ENFORCEMENT AGENCY

“The incident happened late Friday in international waters. Four Indonesian seamen were abducted by the kidnappers. One man was shot and is being treated at a hospital,” Sabah police chief Abdul Rashid Harun told Agence France-Presse.

The tugboat carrying coal was sailing from Cebu in the Philippines back to Tarakan in Indonesian Borneo when the kidnappings occurred. Six other seamen, including the wounded man, managed to escape.

In a bid to curb kidnappings, Malaysia has imposed a temporary ban on the trade route between Sabah and the southern Philippines.

“The government has suspended barter trade between the two regions until a comprehensive plan is formulated to ensure the safety and security of Sabah state. It is a temporary ban,” marine police chief Abdul Rahim Abdullah told AFP.

“We have deployed marine police boats along with ships from the maritime enforcement agency and the navy to enforce the ban,” he added.

Concern over attacks

Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau’s (IMB) Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre, said the shipping community had expressed concern over the rise in attacks.

“Everyone is concerned as the attacks could hurt trade. Operating costs will go up if they were to use a longer but safer route,” he said.

“IMB fears such attacks will continue to escalate. How can seamen defend themselves against militants armed with high-powered guns and fast boats?” he added.

On April 1, four Malaysian sailors were kidnapped from a ship near Sabah’s Ligitan island. It is still unconfirmed who was responsible.

Several days earlier 10 Indonesian sailors were kidnapped in waters off the southern Philippines, with initial information indicating they may have been taken by an Abu Sayyaf faction to Sulu, a remote southern island that is a hideout of the militant outfit.

Someone claiming to be from Abu Sayyaf called the vessel’s owners to demand a ransom for the sailors’ release.

Many Western and other embassies routinely issue warnings against travelling to most of the Philippines’ Muslim-populated southern regions, which lie just northeast of Sabah, because of the risk of being abducted by the group.

In the past Abu Sayyaf has mainly targeted tourists as they can demand high ransoms for foreigners.

Two Canadians and a Norwegian were kidnapped from yachts at a marina in September, with the militants setting an April deadline for a ransom to be paid.

The militants in a video demanded one billion pesos ($21 million) for each of the three foreigners.

Since the April 8 ransom deadline passed there has been no word on the hostages’ fate.

Last year, Malaysian Bernard Then was kidnapped from a seaside restaurant in Sabah, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the Abu Sayyaf’s Jolo stronghold. He was later killed by the group. AFP

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KUMAMOTO, Japan: The toll from a second powerful quake in southern Japan jumped to 18 on Saturday, officials said, adding to nine killed earlier.

“Sixteen more people were killed after the second powerful quake,” said Mariko Kuramitsu, an official from Kumamoto prefecture. Separately, a university announced the death of two of its students. AFP

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TEHRAN: The European Union’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini arrived in Tehran on Saturday on her first visit since a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers came into force as tensions surface over its implementation.

Mogherini, who was the lead negotiator for the six powers who struck the deal, was accompanied by other top EU officials. She was to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Her one-day trip comes after Iran raised concerns about banking sanctions, with officials saying the West, particularly the United States, is still creating hurdles to its access to the global financial system.

On Friday, the governor of Iran’s Central Bank said the international community was not sticking to its promises.

“The impact that we were expecting to get is not what we see, at least on a tangible basis,” Valiollah Seif told a forum at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington.

The six powers led by the United States agreed in July last year to lift sanctions that had locked down much of the Iran’s economy for years in exchange for limits on Tehran’s nuclear program.

The move allowed Iran to resume a higher level of oil exports when the deal was implemented in January, as well as opening up more trade opportunities.

But with the US still maintaining some sanctions on the country, Iran’s access to global finance remains limited.

Seif, in the US capital for the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, pointed to a reluctance by European banks to engage with Iran for fear of falling foul of US sanctions.

“They have been asked not to work with Iranian banks, and they’re afraid,” he said.

“It’s because of the heavy penalties that have been imposed upon them,” he said, referring to huge fines imposed in the past.

Ahead of her trip to Tehran, Mogherini said banking, investment and trade were on the agenda of her talks, as well as the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, where the West has been looking for Iran’s cooperation with peace efforts. AFP

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By Daisuke Kikuchi

MASHIKI, Kumamoto Prefecture: The toll from the high-intensity earthquake in Kumamoto stood at nine dead and over 1,000 injured Friday as rescue crews scrambled to search the debris for survivors.

The shallow, magnitude-6.5 quake toppled houses and buckled roads in and around the prefectural capital on Thursday night in what was Kyushu’s first level 7 temblor on the seven-tier Japanese seismic intensity scale.

“It was just like the Great Hanshin Earthquake or the Great East Japan Earthquake. I never thought I would experience that here,” mother-of-one Akiko Hakata told The Japan Times. “I hunched over my son to protect him.”

Most of the victims were in the town of Mashiki, on the capital’s eastern fringe. But heavy damage was incurred elsewhere, including at historic Kumamoto Castle.

The quake struck at 9:26 p.m. at a depth of just 11 kilometers under Mashiki, the Meteorological Agency said, prompting tens of thousands of residents from there and elsewhere to take refuge at public shelters for the night.

“Last night, most people stayed outdoors, or stayed inside their cars. It was so cold and frightening,” Hakata said.

Officials are fielding hundreds of calls about damage and trapped people, but multiple aftershocks are disrupting rescue operations.

At a collapsed house in Mashiki, however, an 8-month-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble 6.5 hours after the quake. The effort saw more than 50 policemen and firefighters extract Asami Nishimura from her home after the second floor collapsed while her daughter, Miku, was asleep downstairs.

The evacuation centers were packed with dazed people.

Emergency food at one center in Mashiki on Friday morning ran out immediately, but supplies recommenced later in the day.

At another, Tomiko Takahashi, 94, recounted being awakened by a loud noise from the quake. When the door refused to budge, she got out by squeezing through a crack in the walls, which had partially collapsed.

“I can’t sleep because of fear from the aftershocks. I have never experienced something so frightening,” she said.

Hakata and her husband were looking for food and a place to charge their phones in Mashiki but said they plan to evacuate to Kumamoto by car because they heard the city still has running water and electricity.

Ayumi Ishikawa, 34, said she and her family fled their home without many belongings.

“I’m sure we have to be ready for a prolonged evacuation, but I don’t have a sense of reality about this,” Ishikawa said.

Mashiki tourism official Shinji Takahashi said 20 to 30 percent of the buildings in town collapsed.

“There are 34,000 people living here, so we are preparing four or five elementary schools and libraries to be used as a shelter tonight, and probably for a while,” Takahashi said.

Although volunteers have stepped forward to help coordinate the work, he said more manpower is needed.

“We are short of staff. If we go on like this, we will be going three or four days without sleep,” added.

The Self-Defense Forces have been deployed, and the National Police Agency said it has dispatched 1,084 officers from 19 prefectures to help.

The injured are being treated around town hall, where food and water are being distributed.

At a hastily set up medical center, a 16-year-old girl who was diagnosed with a depressed skull fracture said she could not remember what happened.

Power was cut in many areas, and gas leaks prompted Saibu Gas Co. to turn off supplies to some homes in the capital. Tens of thousands of households were without running water.

The full extent of the damage became clear on Friday.

At least 20 buildings collapsed, but many more sustained cracks or other structural damage that may render them uninhabitable. There were also seven fires.

Kumamoto Castle, a designated important national treasure and arguably the prefecture’s No. 1 tourist attraction, sustained heavy damage.

Part of the castle’s main wall collapsed and tiles fell from its roof. Massive stone embankments crumbled in at least six locations, and numerous cracks emerged in the walls, according to the castle’s management office.

The damage in Mashiki may take a long time to repair. The roads were ripped apart, and smashed kawara tiles and shattered walls lay everywhere.

Walking down the street is hazardous, given the many cracks in the asphalt and falling debris from buildings, and all the stores are shut.

In the meantime, aftershocks continue to jolt the neighborhood.

The epicenter was only 120 kilometers from Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai power station in Kagoshima, Japan’s only active nuclear plant.

According to the Kumamoto police, four men and five women were killed: Toshiaki Ito, 61; Fujito Aramaki, 84; Masataka Murakami, 61; Tatsuya Sakamoto, 29; Sueko Fukumoto, 54; Yoko Miyamori, 55; Tomoko Tomita, 89; Hanae Murakami, 94 and Yumiko Matsumoto, 68.

Kyushu Electric said there were no abnormalities in the plant, adding that it is looking into any possible damage.

Shikoku Electric Power Co. said its idled Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture sustained no damage.

JR Kyushu suspended the Kyushu Shinkansen Line after the quake, while power on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line, which connects Honshu to Kyushu, was lost between Hakata and Kokura stations. Operations later resumed at around 9:40 p.m.

The Meteorological Agency said it was the first level 7 quake since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and the first on such a scale to hit Kyushu.

Remarkably, the heaviest damage was confined to Mashiki, with areas around Kumamoto experiencing strong jolts between 3 and lower 5 on the Japanese scale.

Among the numerous aftershocks, however, was one with a preliminary magnitude 6.4 and an intensity of upper 6 that hit the area shortly after midnight, and was preceded by one with a magnitude of 5.7 shortly after 10 p.m. TNS

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US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited Friday afternoon the Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Princesa, capital of the Philippine island-province of Palawan, before flying to an American warship that is on patrol in the disputed West Philippine Sea.

Antonio Bautista is one of the five previously agreed military bases in the Philippines where American troops may temporarily hold station under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) between Manila and Washington. However, Carter had announced after his April 13 arrival in Manila that this number of bases would increase.

Senior military officials of the Western Command briefed Carter and his Philippine counterpart, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, who accompanied the American visitor, before leaving for the USS John Stennis, according to a military official.

Carter arrived at the air base on board a C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft while the Philippine defense and military officials arrived on board a C295 military transport plane.

The military source said the American and Filipino officials left Antonio Bautista on board a V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft that transported them to the USS John Stennis.

A statement from the Philippines’ Department of National Defense said the party, which flew over the vicinity of Recto Bank, landed on the Nimitz class aircraft carrier, where they witnessed the flight deck operations.

“They also were briefed on the Carrier’s history and taken on a tour around the ship,” the statement added. “Both Secretaries addressed the men and women of the Carrier Battle Group.”

It stressed that Carter thanked the American troops and sailors for their active participation in the US-PH Balikatan (Shoulder-to-Shoulder) exercises, and impressed upon them the significance of their presence in the region.

The statement also said that Carter viewed China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea as “causing anxiety and raising tensions” in the region.

It quoted Carter as saying, “In response, countries in the Asia Pacific that are long standing allies and new partners are reaching out to the US to uphold the rules and principles that would allow the region to thrive, and we are answering that call, we are standing with these countries. We are standing up for those rules and principles.”

Gazmin expressed his gratitude to the sailors for taking part in the Balikatan exercises, highlighting the strength of the Philippine-US Alliance. “This is a clear exemplification of ‘honor, courage, commitment,’ the core values of the US Navy,” the statement quoted Gazmin.

He added, “We are as ever reliant on the strong bond of sympathy and mutual ideals shared by our two peoples, close friends and allies, to fight side-by-side against the threats of external aggression as we did in the past.”

The 10-day war games between the Philippines and the US ended Friday, with Carter saying that five American A-10 Thunderbolt ground-attack jets, three H-60G Pavehawk helicopters and one MC-130H Combat Talon special forces infiltration aircraft will remain behind at the Clark Air Base along with 200 crewmembers. A US military facility between 1903 and 1992, Clark Air Base is more than 64 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of Manila. ANTHONY VARGAS

AV/BF

SHANGHAI: World champion Lewis Hamilton will start the Chinese Grand Prix from the back of the grid after suffering mechanical trouble in Saturday’s qualifying.

The Briton, who watched Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg win the season’s first two races, reported a problem with his power unit before qualifying was halted just three minutes in after Pascal Wehrlein’s Manor crashed into a wall.

Hamilton, who has won a record four times in Shanghai including the last two years, had already been hit with a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after a gearbox change.

His hopes of preventing fierce rival Rosberg extending his championship lead from 17 points now look forlorn.

“I’m sure the guys are as gutted as I am,” Hamilton told Sky News. “We’ve got to try and figure out the issue and make sure it never happens again.

“You can overtake here,” he added. “The tires won’t last as well. I’ll give it everything I’ve got.” AFP

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LONDON: Tens of thousands of people marched through London on Saturday in protest against government spending cuts, with some activists demanding Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation over his family’s offshore finances.

Demonstrators converged on Trafalgar Square calling for more investment in the health service, housing, education and public sector pay, while some held up banners saying “Ditch Dodgy Dave” and “Cameron Must Go – Tories Out!”

The protest, which also included demands to protect Britain’s troubled steel industry, was planned long before Cameron’s admission last week that he once held shares in his late father’s offshore investment fund.

But The People’s Assembly, which helped organize the trade union-backed march, said the revelations sparked by the so-called Panama Papers “prove that this is a government for the privileged few.”

Cameron took the unprecedented step of releasing a summary of his tax returns for the past six years, but a new poll published late Saturday found 52 percent of voters believe he has not been “honest and open” about his finances.

A further 44 percent said his handling of his financial affairs was “morally repugnant”, according to the ComRes survey for the Independent and the Sunday Mirror newspaper.

“For somebody in that position, you have a duty of care to the people of the country to be very open, very transparent,” demonstrator Sarah Henney told Agence France-Presse “Just because something is legal doesn’t always make it right.”

Opposition Labor finance spokesman John McDonnell was among a number of political figures who addressed the protesters, and he called for an end to the spending cuts introduced after the global financial crisis.

He later told the Press Association news agency: “I think Cameron should go, but I think he should take his party with him. “His government is now bankrupt in terms of political ideas, and bankrupt in terms of what they have done with the economy as well.”

Cameron, who was re-elected last year with a parliamentary majority, said he sold his shares in his late father’s offshore investment fund before taking office, and denied the fund had been established to avoid tax.

But the row put the premier under pressure at a difficult time, as he seeks to manage an increasingly bitter fight within his Conservative party over the upcoming referendum on EU membership.

Some 128 of the 330 Conservative lawmakers in parliament and several of Cameron’s own ministers are campaigning against him in favor of leaving the European Union ahead of the June 23 vote.

Veteran Tory MP Ken Clarke warned Saturday that if Cameron loses the referendum, he will be forced out of office. AFP

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BEIRUT: French President Francois Hollande on Saturday pledged financial and military support for Lebanon and urged its paralyzed political class to elect a president, at the start of a regional tour.

Deep political divisions have left Lebanon without a president since May 2014, and parliament has extended its own mandate twice since 2009.

Beginning a four-day Middle East tour, Hollande met Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

He announced 100 million euros ($113 million) in assistance in the next three years for Lebanon, which is hosting more than one million Syrian refugees, as well as “immediate aid to strengthen Lebanon’s military capacity.”

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia suspended a grant to finance $3 billion worth of French weaponry for Lebanon’s security forces.

The Lebanese army and police receive weapons and training from the United States, Britain and other Western countries.

On the political front, Hollande said it was time for Lebanese leaders to overcome their differences.

“This is a crucial moment, because you need to resolve this crisis and give Lebanon a president,” Hollande said after meeting Berri in downtown Beirut.

“I believe in you and I know that you will succeed,” he added.

Hollande told a news conference that he recognized “the particularly difficult circumstances” facing Lebanon because of the conflict in neighboring Syria.

The large refugee community means that Lebanon – whose own population is just over four million – has the highest refugee-to-resident population in the world.

“In addition to… facing terrorist threats, Lebanon has hosted and continues to host a very high number of refugees,” Hollande said.

Berri said it was necessary “to find a political solution to lift the burden” created by the refugee population on the country.

On Sunday, the French leader will travel to a refugee camp for Syrians in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley to speak to families who will be resettled in France.

France hosts more than 10,000 refugees.

Hollande said France “will mobilize the international community”, with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault working on an international donors’ meeting.

The French president’s entourage said Ayrault would visit Lebanon on May 27 as part of this effort.

It is Hollande’s second visit to Lebanon since 2012. He will travel on to Egypt on Sunday afternoon and then Jordan after his two-day visit to Lebanon.

In Cairo, he is expected to discuss with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi both the political crisis in Egypt’s western neighbor Libya and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

His visit to Jordan on Tuesday will take him to the Prince Hassan air base, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Amman.

French aircraft taking part in the US-led coalition battling the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria are stationed at the base. AFP

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KUWAIT CITY: The oil workers union Saturday turned down an appeal from Kuwait’s acting oil minister to call off a total strike in protest at alleged pay cuts and to accept negotiations.

Anas al-Saleh, in a statement cited by the official KUNA news agency, urged workers to “give priority to the public interest and resort to reason and wisdom by sitting at the negotiations table.”

The union, however, immediately rejected the minister’s call as offering nothing new and said the strike will go ahead from Sunday morning.

“The strike will go ahead as planned,” union chief Saif al-Qahtani told Agence France-Presse, holding oil companies and the minister responsible for the strike and the potential losses from it.

The minister assured the workers there will be no reduction to their salaries and other benefits.

State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp on Thursday reviewed “maximum” contingency plans in the face of the total strike threatened by oil workers.

Hit by the sharp drop in crude prices on world markets, Kuwait is introducing a new payroll scheme for all public employees and wants to include the country’s 20,000 oil workers, which would mean an automatic cut in wages and incentives.

KPC said the workers union had boycotted negotiations called for Thursday by the social affairs and labor ministry.

KPC had offered to “suspend” all spending cuts if the union agreed to join a committee to negotiate a settlement.

The union is also protesting plans to privatize parts of the oil sector.

Kuwait, OPEC’s fourth largest producer, currently pumps three million barrels per day.

A prolonged strike could slash production just as major crude producers meet in Doha on Sunday to discuss ways to deal with a huge output glut. AFP

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SANTIAGO: Three million people in the Chilean capital were without drinking water on Saturday after heavy rain caused landslides that fouled the rivers supplying the city, officials said.

The national emergency response agency declared a red alert in Santiago, a city of more than seven million people.

“Unfortunately the weather system over the metropolitan region brought rain that caused increased sediment in the Maipo River, which means a water cut for the population affecting about three million people,” Santiago Mayor Claudio Orrego told a news conference.

Production was down to 35 percent of normal levels, said Eugenio Rodriguez, corporate manager of the Aguas Andinas water company.

Heavy rains in the Andean foothills since Friday triggered landslides into the Maipo and Mapocho rivers.

Municipal authorities activated an emergency plan that includes tapping into 45 backup water sources and mobilizing more than 60 water trucks.

Images shared on social media showed bare shelves at supermarkets, where thousands flocked to stock up on bottled water.

In the O’Higgins region 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Santiago, the swollen Tinguiririca River left one person missing and about 100 homes damaged.

Four municipalities in the region were also on red alert.

Rain was expected to continue throughout the weekend. AFP

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MONTE CARLO: Rafael Nadal returned to the final of the Monte Carlo Masters for the first time in three years, the eight-time champion struggling to close out a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Andy Murray on Saturday.

Waiting for him in his 100th ATP final is Gael Monfils, who hammered French compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 6-3, with the loser drawing jeers as he left the court in after 69 minutes.

Monfils, making his second consecutive Monte Carlo semi-final start, never allowed Tsonga a chance in their match, breaking six times.

Nadal will be playing his tenth final here and holds a solid 11-2 record over Monfils. He has not won a Masters title since Madrid, 2014.

“It’s a very important week for me, being in a final here again in Monte Carlo, winning against very tough opponents,” the winner said. “That’s a lot of great confidence, good news for me. Let’s see if tomorrow I can play at the same level.”

Spain’s fifth-seeded king of clay showed hints of the form which took him to multiple seasons of total dominance on the surface as he overcame second seed Murray in a battle lasting for more than two and a half hours.

“I don’t want to talk every day about if I am back or I am not back. I’m in the final of Monte Carlo. That’s a great news.

“Every year is different. Every feeling is different. I don’t want to compare myself or trying to analyse if I am the same like before or not.

“I want to be today better than yesterday and tomorrow better than today, and after tomorrow better than tomorrow. That’s it. That’s my work today, and that’s my motivation. I don’t want to think about the past.”

It was not all one-way traffic for Nadal, who spent 10 minutes in the final game between his first match points and his fifth in fighting off a late Murray charge.

The 28-year-old Murray saved four match points and had two break chances of his own before Nadal finally drilled over a winner which the Scot could not quite handle.

Murray, who got into a verbal row with the chair umpire during frustrating moments, said: “Towards the end, it’s obviously frustrating when the match is getting away from you. In the third, I didn’t get off to the best start. I had a few opportunities in that last game to try to make it a bit more interesting, but couldn’t quite get the break.”

He added, “I do feel like I played a pretty good level match today for the most part. Obviously there was a few dips. Also Rafa is allowed to play well sometimes, too. So you have to give your opponent credit. He’s one of the best, if not the best ever, on this surface. When he plays well, you can’t always decide the outcome. He played some good stuff today and deserved to win.”

Murray was unable to maintain his winning momentum after lifting the opening set against the Spaniard who has spent the last 18 months recovering mental confidence after a deep slump.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion has not won a title of any kind since last summer in Hamburg.

Nadal improved to 17-6 over Murray, defeating him seven of the eight times they have met on clay.

Murray will need to step up his pace on clay after winning his first two trophies on the surface last spring in Munich and Madrid back-to-back.

The Scot won the opening set in 49 minutes with a single break, but could not carry on after being broken at the start of the second set.

The second seed got the break back a game later but then lost serve for a second time in the seventh game as Nadal made a winning return off a Murray overhead.

The Spaniard claimed the set after more than an hour as the total match time ticked over to two hours.

Murray’s game went into collapse in the third set as he trailed 5-1 before his futile late rally. AFP

AFP/BF

QUITO: At least 41 people were killed when a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Ecuador, destroying buildings and sending terrified residents dashing from their homes, authorities said late Saturday.

“Oh, my God, it was the biggest and strongest earthquake I have felt in my whole life. It lasted a long time, and I was feeling dizzy,” said Maria Torres, 60, in the capital Quito, where people fled their homes during Saturday evening’s quake. “I couldn’t walk… I wanted to run out into the street, but I couldn’t.”

Vice President Jorge Glas said the death toll will likely rise further in what he called the “worst seismic movement we have faced in decades.”

“Sadly the information we currently have is that 41 citizens have lost their lives in this emergency… This death toll will unfortunately rise in the coming hours,” Glas said in televised comments.

He said that a state of emergency was declared in the six worst-hit provinces. Police, the military and emergency services “are in a state of maximum alert to protect the lives of citizens.”

In the Pacific port city of Guayaquil, home to more than two million people, a bridge had collapsed, crushing a car beneath it, and residents were picking through the wreckage of houses left in heaps of rubble and timber, an Agence France-Presse photographer reported.

Ecuador’s Geophysical Office reported “considerable” structural damage “in the area near the epicenter as well as points as far away as Guayaquil.”

Earthquake zone

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow quake struck off the northwest shore of Ecuador with a magnitude of 7.8. Glas gave a slightly lower measurement of magnitude 7.6.

Ecuador lies near a shifting boundary between tectonic plates and has suffered seven earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or higher in the region of Tuesday’s quake since 1900, the USGS said. One in March 1987 killed about 1,000 people, it said.

The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a warning for the nearby Pacific coastline but later said that the threat had largely passed.

President Rafael Correa, on a visit to the Vatican, sent a message of support on Twitter. “Authorities are already out evaluating damage and taking action” as needed,” he said.

‘Severe damage’

The quake struck at 2358 GMT about 170 kilometers from Quito and just 27 kilometers from the town of Muisne, according to the US Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes worldwide.

Various smaller quakes jolted the same area.

The strong movement was felt in Quito, knocking out electricity in places. Authorities did not immediately report injuries there though media showed pictures of damaged shops.

Cristina Duran, 45, grabbed her three pets and stood under a large doorway to avoid shards of glass falling from shattered windows.

“I was frightened. And I just kept asking for it to be over,” she told AFP.

Authorities closed the airport in the western city of Manta, saying the control tower suffered “severe damage.”

Shock and panic

At the Guayaquil airport passengers awaiting flights dashed out of terminals when they felt the shaking.

“Lights fell down from the ceiling. People were running around in shock,” said Luis Quimis, 30, who was waiting to catch a flight to Quito.

In northern Quito, people ran out of their homes frightened, as power lines swayed back and forth and cables danced.

Quakes also rattled northern Peru and southern Colombia, according to authorities in those countries, although no casualties were reported. Peruvian officials however urged coastal residents to stay away from the beach.

The quake came as rescuers in Japan were racing against the weather and the threat of more landslides to reach people still trapped by two big earthquakes that hit that country’s south.

At least 41 people are known to have died in that double disaster, with at least six still missing — feared buried in shattered houses or under torrents of mud. AFP

AFP/BF

YANGON: Myanmar President Htin Kyaw signed a pardon for 83 prisoners on the country’s New Year day, his office said in a statement Sunday, though it was not immediately clear if the amnesty included political prisoners.

Htin Kyaw was tapped earlier this year to become the country’s first civilian leader in decades by Aung San Suu Kyi, the veteran democracy activist who still controls the administration but is barred from the presidency by a junta-era charter.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD), which is packed full of former political prisoners jailed for their activism under military rule, ended nearly half a century of army domination when they took power in a historic transition in March.

“The 83 prisoners will be freed by amnesty… on the first day of Myanmar’s New Year,” read the president’s statement, which was posted on Facebook Sunday morning.

The pardon was intended to “make people feel happy and peaceful, and [promote] national reconciliation during the New Year”, it added.

Suu Kyi, who spent some 15 years under house arrest, pledged in a statement earlier this month to make releasing prisoners of conscience a priority of her administration.

Since the NLD took power, authorities have dropped charges against nearly 200 political activists, according to police, including dozens of students who spent more than a year in jail over an education protest.

In a New Year day speech broadcast on television, Htin Kyaw stressed his government’s determination to release political prisoners, who were routinely jailed under the military leaders that strangled free expression in Myanmar for decades.

“We are trying to set the political prisoners, political activists and the students who face trials concerned with politics free,” the President said in his first lengthy public address since taking office.

Htin Kyaw was little known outside his home country before taking office, but is a longtime friend and close aide of Suu Kyi.

Despite being blocked from the presidency, she wields formal power over the government through her newly-fashioned role as state counselor, which the NLD created for Suu Kyi through their hefty majority in parliament.

She has also taken on several cabinet posts, including foreign minister.

The jailing of dissidents was one of many repressive policies by the former junta that garnered global support for Suu Kyi’s democracy struggle.

Watchdog groups in Myanmar say there are still hundreds of activists facing trial or being held in the country’s notorious prisons, many of them arrested under the quasi-civilian government that stepped down last month after five years of transitioning the country from junta rule.

Myanmar’s new-year holiday, a Buddhist celebration known as Thingyan, falls in mid April and sees most offices close while people line the streets to douse each other with water to wash off the past year’s sins. AFP

AFP/BF

Tonight will see the premiere of Dominic Ochoa’s first lead role for TV via ABS-CBN’s new fantasy-drama series My Super D.

Now 41-years-old, it took a total of 20 years before Ochoa landed his very own teleserye, but he is nevertheless upbeat about the prime project.

“I’m very blessed and thankful sa trabahong binigay nila na hindi lang basta trabaho,” expressed the very professional and patient talent a press conference at ABS-CBN’s Dolphy Theater.

Acknowledged as an actor who was always ready for any role given to him throughout his career, Ochoa said, “Puwede tayong maging kontrabida, bida, o extra. Nagpapasalamat pa rin tayo sa Diyos dahil siya naman ang nagbibigay ng mga ito. Everyone’s saying to me, ‘We’re happy na ito na yung big break mo.’ But never pumasok sa utak ko na itong My Super D, ako ang bida dito. Para lang itong isang role na ibinigay sa akin—it’s not about the things that are given to you. It’s your responsibility so gagampanan ko siya ng hundred to hundred-fifty percent na makakayanan ko.”

He is all the more thrilled that My Super D is a show that will impart an important lesson on TV. “That anyone who is armed with the power of love can be a superhero,” he elaborated.

Ochoa will play Dodong, a security guard who is an avid fan of deceased superhero character Super D (Richard Yap), who was fond of helping others. His son Dennis (Marco Antonio Masa), meanwhile, grows up in a simple yet contented family and admires his father for his dedication to help people who are in need.

However, with Dodong caring so much for others’ welfare, he tends to forget his duties as a father and often disappoints his wife Nicole (Bianca Manalo). After Dodong lands in jail for being allegedly involved in a construction accident, Nicole makes the hard decision of leaving Dodong and raising Dennis on her own.

After being freed from jail, Dodong works as a stunt double for Tony (Marvin Agustin), an actor in a children’s show and his long-time rival for Nicole’s love. There, Dodong also meets Pablo Mateo (Nonie Buencamino), the show’s writer and one of Super D’s closest friends. When he sees Dodong, the writer realizes that he could be the rightful man who can take Super D’s place as mankind’s defender against evil forces.

Also part of the cast are Sylvia Sanchez, Ronaldo Valdez, Jason Francisco, Jayson Gainza,Atoy Co, Mytle Sarrosa, Jef Gaitan, Louie Domingo, Bong Regala, Ryan Rems, and Marina Benipayo, with the special participation of Richard Yap, Lara Quigaman, and Ronnie Lazaro. It is under the direction of Frasco Mortiz and Lino Cayetano and written by Shugo Praico.

My Super D begins this evening before TV Patrol.

TMA

Ma’ Rosa is the entry internationally acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Brillante Ma. Mendoza is bringing to the main competition of the 69th Cannes International Film Festival to be held on May 11 to 22 at the Palais de Festival in French Riviera.

However, before it was sent to the selection committee of the prestigious world film festival, the official entry’s title has evolved from one working one title after another like “Palit-Buhay” to “Palit-Ulo,” which were roughly translated to “In Exchange for Life” and “In Exchange for a Head,” respectively, or simply, “Ex-Deal.”

Brillante, also known in the biz as Dante Mendoza, had to rethink of a more appealing and easy recall title especially among foreign audiences, according to his publicist Rene Durian, hence, Ma’ Rosa.

“We had to brainstorm on the final title of the film although it was Dante who had the final say,” informed Durian on the phone.

Ma’ Rosa has been grinding since 2015 and has just been canned early this year, but Mendoza had enough field days to pull off a satisfyingly competitive film meant for the global market.

The film is about the subculture of drug menace or drug fiesta in the slums popularly called “shabu tiangge” where methamphetamine as a prohibited drug is openly sold to users in the neighborhood or from the outsiders as timely as today’s headlines.

In an interview with Brillante during the filming, he said that “Palit-Ulo” (when it was still a tentative title) is on a “real time” structure whose story happens in just one day. “Real time” is one facet of “found story” where it is rendered in one solid time and space like a 24-hour journey in the life of a person.

Ma’ Rosa whose “real time”—in one solid time and space like a 24-hour journey in the life of a person—is embedded in the “found story” concept, an original novel idea where the subject isn’t in a vacuum. It has a connection to all situations, actors and reactors (read: characters) in the story.

“Found story” was theorized and employed by screenwriter and director Armando “Bing” Lao, one of Mendoza’s mentors.

“Ma’ Rosa is a combination of ‘Tirador’ and ‘Kinatay (The Execution of P)’,” quipped Durian referring to the past films of Dante, the former on petty thieves among youngsters in the city and the latter on the murder by a drug syndicate of a Manila prostitute who failed to deliver the goods, which gave Mendoza the elusive 2009 Palm d’Or Best Director.

When Dante speaks and shows the dark side of Philippine society onscreen he is dubbed as a purveyor of poverty porn, an apparently condescending attribution, but he has his thoughts on the issue. “It’s not exploiting the situation. It’s not poverty porn. It’s exoticizing the people,” he explained.

“Ma’ Rosa, which stars Jaclyn Jose, Andi Eigenmann, Felix Roco, Jomari Angels, Mercedes Cabral, Kristofer King, Julio Diaz and a host of other Mendoza coterie of actors, including workshop students from the director’s acting lab, is another objectification of the subject on drug issues. Brillante admitted that ironically, he sees the squalid drug problem in the slums in the camaraderie and filial unity and joy among family members and residents.

“As a filmmaker I am detached from what happens to the characters. They have their own life to live. I just let them live. I don’t judge them in my film,” he said.

Jose plays a mom and a shabu peddler as well which her family condones, as its members are also parts of the trade.

According to Dante, Jose is very impressive in the film and is a shoo-in for an acting award.

“As usual, Jaclyn Jose is very good. No small roles for this big actress,” Mendoza noted.

Even Durian confided that a French film distributor is impressed by the actress and that she has an edge in the Palm d’Or.

“The Mendoza team is preparing for the 2016 Cannes. We don’t have the play date yet of the film but Dante can suggest his preference,” said Durian.

This is the fourth time Brillante is competing in the main section of Cannes since Serbis in 2008 and Kinatay in 2009; and in Un Certain Regard for Taklub in 2015 when it won the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

Mendoza is competing with equally renowned world filmmakers as Spain’s Pedro Almodovar (Julieta), South Korea’s Park Chan-Wook (Agassi The Handmaiden), USA’s Sean Penn (The Last Face), Jeff Nichols (Loving), Jim Jarmusch (Paterson) and many more illustrious world directors.

Former ‘Straits Times’ journalist spotlights the Pinoy immigrant in first feature film

In 2006, a young Singaporean by the name of Ken Kwek was invited to a televised debate with the late strongman Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. At the time, the nation’s founding father—known the world over for successfully transforming Singapore to a First World country by curtailing civil liberties—was almost 89 years old, yet eager to discern the sentiments of the youth.

Kwek, who was then working as a political reporter for The Singapore Straits Times, delivered what he believed was his generation’s definitive message to the revered statesman: “Less control of press freedom, and less censorship; [for] otherwise, we will always be ruled by fear.”

“He wasn’t too pleased about it,” the British-educated Singaporean laughed as he recalled his once-in-a-lifetime dialogue with the historical leader during this interview with The Manila Times. “The lesson I learned having done that—even as I bow down to Mr. Lee for having done so much for Singapore—is that no one is absolutely right about anything and that surely, you can argue with a wise man.”

Kwek, who is first and foremost a filmmaker, also realized back then that there was no way he could pursue his passion in his homeland, since the Singapore government basically banned documentaries he had done after university in Cambridge.

“That’s why I turned to journalism,” he continued, “which also taught me a lot about the reality of different people in my country.”

By 2014, Kwek, who had gone into writing social satirical stage plays, finally decided to venture into his first feature film. Interestingly so, he chose to focus on the life of a Filipino immigrant in Singapore, the role of which he gave to Epy Quizon.

“I met Epy when I was out here for a play in 2012, which starred Lea Salonga and my friend [Singaporean superstar] Adrian Pang. It was [Atlantis Production’s] God of carnage. I also met Michael de Mesa and so many other artists here, but Epy and I really became friends.”

As the saying goes that everything happens for a reason, Kwek realized one day back in Singapore that the lead character of Onassis Hernandez—a Filipino businessman in Singapore—was perfect for Quizon.

“So I called him and said, hey, I’ve got something for you,” the director continued.

Handed to Quizon shortly was a script of a movie entitled Unlucky Plaza, a pun on the name of the mall—Lucky Plaza—where overseas Filipino workers in Singapore would gather on the weekends.

In the film, Quizon plays a single father who runs a promising lechon eatery in the budget mall. When a food scandal in the area happened his business is not spared. Left by his Singaporean wife, he becomes so hard up he can no longer pay rent, much more provide for his young son’s requests.

When he is further victimized by a financial scam, Onassis is forced toward a desperate move, and takes a group of people hostage in a designer bungalow and publicizes his demands on YouTube.

His captives include a financial guru (Adrian Pang); and his unhappy wife Michelle (Judee Tan) who has something going on with a pastor named Wen (Shane Mardjuki).

Onassis refers to them as “the real bad guys,” pointing the blame on them for his crime that captures the attention of authorities and international media, setting off anti-Filipino riots all over the city.

“It’s a black comedy and action film all rolled into one, and Epy was the only actor I knew who could deliver the incredible range of emotions the role needed—from a comic burbler to someone who is angry, and finally a scary hostage taker.”

In writing the movie, Kwek wanted to highlight several points: First, to show that many Filipinos around the world are not concentrated in domestic employment, and are in fact successful businessmen and professionals. Secondly, that even as Filipinos or other races who migrate to richer countries strive so hard to let go of who they are in the quest for financial success, their culture will always stay within their core.

And lastly, that there is a need for different people and different nationalities to learn to come to terms with each other as the world continues to get smaller because of globalization.

“It was my way of responding to the anti-Filipino sentiment in Singapore that coincidentally erupted just as I was putting this film together,” Kwek continued. “But then again, this tension between cultures is as old as the Greeks, so much so that in saying that, I don’t consider this film to be Singaporean or Filipino—it just happens to be showing two different cultures clashing, when the reality is that we all need each other to move forward.”

Kwek likened his message to his multi-cultural production team and cast for Unlucky Plaza. “We needed everyone—regardless of nationality—to put the film together.”

The result based—on its premiere as the opening film of the Toronto Film Festival in December 2014—is powerful.

“They had to add more screens because the movie was sold out,” Kwek modestly stated the fact.

The same happened when the movie opened for the Singapore International Film Festival, after which the reviews that ensued read:

“It is accessible but has something to say. It’s entertaining but has depth as well. This film really packs a punch…” [The Hollywood Reporter]

“Convincing characters, genuine scenarios… you can chalk up Unlucky Plaza as an indisputable win,” [Esquire Magazine].

“A great movie… [the kind] stays with you for a long time…” [M Magazine Singapore]

“It grabs your attention from its teaser of an opening and doesn’t let go until its strange, satisfying finish…” [Toronto International Film Festival]

Unlucky Plaza was also shown at the Warsaw Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Prix; and at the Kolkata International Film Festival where it received a nomination for the NETPAC Award.

All that said, Quizon agrees a hundred percent with his genius of a friend that the film, while delivering entertainment, shows how a good thing can come out of different people working together.

“Even in moviemaking, this can be the start of bridging the Asian film industry into one,” said the Filipino actor. “I for one will definitely ask Ken to direct a movie here very soon.”

Unlucky Plaza opens across the country on April 20, under the distribution of Viva Films.