THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: US, China in talks to implement NoKor sanctions

The head of the US Treasury stressed that both the US and Chinese government are discussing measures to effectively implement sanctions against North Korea. According to the US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, the US is working hard to ensure that the new UNSC sanctions against North Korea are implement. To conclude, the US has been holding talks with CHina and right now, Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam Szubin is in China in such discussions.

Like South Korea, the United States downplayed North Korea's claimed that the country has successfully simulated the ballistic missile's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says Washington highly doubts North Korea has the ability to develop such a ballistic missile, but added the US is fully prepared to deal with any provocation launched by the regime. Cook states that the US is collaborating with South Korea and Japan to counter threats from North Korea.

Source: Arirang News

Six Nations 2016: Round 4

In the fourth round of the 2016 RBS Six Nations tournament, the long-time feud between England Rugby and the Welsh Rugby Union became one of the most exciting feats in this season and in the end of this recent feud of the two rugby teams, England takes it at the score of 25-21, all thanks to outstanding performances by Owen Farrell, Anthony Watson, and Maro Itoje. With such win, England's aim for a first Grand Slam in 13 years is drawing near.

Under cover of the fight,  The IRFU stirred a massive win against the FIR Italia at the massive score of 58-15, while Scotland edged out the FFR at the score of 29-18.

Highlights:

The final round of the 2016 RBS Six Nations starts with Wales v Italy on the 19th of March at 1430 hours local time while Ireland faces off against Scotland at the same day at 1700 hours local time, and on the next day, England takes on France at 2100 hours.

Who will win the title of this season's RBS 6 Nations? Watch for it!

FIA Formula E 2015-2016: Mexico City

There's a big major twist occurred at the end of the Mexico City ePrix of the 2015-2016 FIA Formula E championship. Even though Lucas di Grassi from Abt Schaeffler Audi Sport is named as the winner, his car used for the first half of the race turned out to be underweight and he was thereby excluded. As a result, Jerome D'Ambrosio is named 1st after his qualifying pole-position. Even though D'Ambrosio set the fastest lap, it was revoked after he was found to have cut the chicane.

This mean, di Grassi lost his lead by Sebastien Buemi. After five rounds passed, Buemi's now 2nd place overall with 98 points while Di Grassi's 22 points behind and Sam Bird's 3rd overall with 60 points.

Highlights:

The next race is set at Long Beach, California, on the 2nd of April, 2016.

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: NoKor conducted missile test

The North Korean newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, reported that the country has successfully simulated the ballistic missile's re-entry into the earth's atmosphere. According to the paper, the simulation was designed to evaluate the heat stability of a warhead, and that it was able to achieve all of the technical targets. Pictures of the paper show fire blowing against what appears to be a missile warhead, as well as an apparently discolored warhead after the test.

South Korean Defense Ministry debunked North Korea's report of successful missile test, calling the North's claim one-sided. South Korean military officials believe Pyongyang doesn't have the capability to bring missiles back into the atmosphere but it is unclear if the experiment would constitute an additional nuclear test. But such move would clearly violate UNSC resolutions.

The South Korean government says the global community will not tolerate any further provocations from the North. Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Jun-hyuk told reporters that NoKor raised its threat level by declaring that it will continue its provocations as they will face retaliation from the international community that would lead to its self-destruction.

Source: NHK World

Let's Do The News! (March 15, 2016)

- The People Power Monument, the symbol of every Filipino's freedom against the Marcos regime, has been vandalized with pro-Marcos graffiti. A pic posted by an instagram user went viral, showing that the lower part of the monument adorned with orange and yellow tiles was covered in scrawls exalting the family name of the late Ferdinand Marcos, the former president whose 20-year regime ended by the People Power. The late dictator's son, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., is running for vice president in the May 2016 elections.

- During his visit to the Philippines, former US Vice President and environmental activist Al Gore  warned that at least 13.6 million Filipinos will be affected by global warming which triggered continuous rise in sea levels. He also urged Filipinos to demand government action on climate change to continue what he called a "moral struggle" amid the Philippines' continued support for coal-powered plants.

- The Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee is set to probe onto the alleged money laundering activities involving 81 million US Dollars coursed through the Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). The Senate panel summoned the top RCBC officials to explain about the alleged money laundering transaction.

- Turkey has launched simultaneous airstrikes against the Kurdish militant camps in Iraq following last night's car bomb attack in the Turkish capital Ankara that killed 37 people. Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said that an investigation found the PKK held responsible for the bombing. Davutoglu added that Turkish fighter jets bombed targets of the PKK in northern Iraq, serving as a retaliation for the car bomb attack.

- The Burmese parliament has elected the nation's first civilian leader in over five decades. Htin Kyaw of the National League for Democracy, gained the most votes in Tuesday's joint session of parliament's two house. Htin Kyaw is a former bureaucrat who has graduated from a certain British university. He is Burma's first democratically elected president since the military seized power in the 1962 coup. He's also a close ally to Aung San Suu Kyi. Aung San Suu Kyi was banned by the constitution from becoming president because her children are foreign nationals but she is widely expected to wield power through Htin Kyaw.

- The Malaysia Insider, a top Malaysian internet media site, will be shutting down following its reports covering a political funding scandal involving Prime Minister Najib Razak. The government had been blocking access within the country to the internet site, citing a violation of the law on Internet use.

- A UN human rights investigator says the North Korean leadership should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. During a meeting with the Human Rights Council in Geneva, North Korea's leadership is pouring a large amount of resources into developing weapons of mass destruction, while its people are suffering from food insecurity, and added that the global community should take steps to hold NoKor leader Kim Jong Un and other top-ranking officials responsible for the crimes.

- Actress Claudine Barretto visited the grave of her former boyfriend and the late matinee idol Rico Yan, who would have been 41 years old yesterday.  Rico Yan died on the 29th of March, 2002, (during Holy Week) due to acute hemorrhagic pancreatitis.

- In case you missed the recent Eat Bulaga Kalyeserye, Cookie is still here, messing around with the lolas in search for answers regarding the particular "Divina" who owns the mansion. The bothersome continues until pics of Yaya Dub showed up on Lola Nidora's phone, raising suspicion from Cookie into thinking that woman in the pic really is Divina. More answers will be revealed next time so watch out.

- Pagani confirmed that the Roadster version of their Huayra hypercar will be revealed at the Monterey Car Week.

- If you have 11,000 Yen on your checking account, why not book one with the brand new DreamTech figure from Wave? This figured is modeled after THE IDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls' Miku Maekawa, in her school uniform, and comes with different expressions and accessories.

Miku Maekawa
(School Uniform ver.)

TTFN!!!

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: NoKor plans to conduct warhead tests soon

North Korea announced that they will conduct tests for nuclear warheads ballistic missiles "soon", continuing their provocation following their nuclear test last January.

According to the Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered a test for estimating the heat stability of rocket warhead tip, designed and manufactured with domestic efforts and technology.

It also states that a nuclear warhead explosion test and test-firing different kinds with ballistic missiles equipped with those warheads will be conducted in a short time to further enhance the nuclear attack capability.

Source: Arirang News

Let's Do The News! (March 14, 2016)

- The issue of the citizenship of Senator Grace Poe and how it affects her eligibility to run for the May 2016 elections is still on the air despite the Supreme Court's ruling last week to allow her to run for presidency. According to Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, in his 55-page dissenting opinion, there was a ruling on Poe's qualification as a natural-born citizen due to SC's voting on the issue of citizenship was 7-5-3, meaning there is no majority of this Court that holds the petitioner a natural-born Filipino citizen.

- A student of the Philippines Los Banos on Monday cleared himself from criticisms and maintained that he has no intention to disrespect Davao Mayor and presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte following the video report on the Q&A portion of the university's academic forum went viral and earned negative reactions from netizens. Stephen Villena, the student, participated in the academic forum about governance, transparency, and social transformation with Duterte as guest, said that Duterte's supporters are angry at him for supposedly being disrespectful and no way of questioning the mayor.

- So far, there have been no confirmed cases of the Zika virus in the Philippines, according to the Department of Health after 827 patients tested for the mosquito-borne virus turned out to be negative. According to the press briefing, Health Secretary Janette Garin disclosed that patients referred to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine who were suspected of having dengue or chikungunya were also tested for Zika and returned negative. The DOH listed Zika as a Category I disease, meaning cases of suspected infection must be reported within a day.

- The personnel from the Japanese Self Defense Forces and Coast Guard will be sent to Indonesia at the end of March to further boost the country's naval capabilities. Indonesian diplomatic sources say the officers will provide Indonesia's navy with technical instructions on how to create charts that record seabed topography and other information. Last year, the two ministers agreed that they will deepen defense collaboration through measures such as boosting SDF support to help improve Indonesian military capabilities.

- The Syrian opposition group says they will continue to insist the removal of President Bashar al-Assad in the peace talks to resume in Geneva on Monday. Negotiations to find the solution to the ongoing Syrian civil war have been stalled for over a month.

- As of right now, about 34 people were reportedly killed in a explosion in the Turkish capital city Ankara. No one was claimed responsibility for the blast but Interior Minister Efkan Ala believes that it was a car bombing. He said evidence has been found and the name of the terrorist group behind the attack will be released when the investigation is complete.

- Recently, Maine "Yaya Dub" Mendoza defeated Kathryn Bernardo, James Reid, and Enrique Gil as the Favorite Pinoy Personality at the 2016 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. La Salle Green Archers' Jeron Teng was named Favorite Asian Sports Star as well.

- In case you missed the recent Eat Bulaga Kalyeserye, a new warning has approached the lolas as the arrival of Cookie caused a new tension to the lolas. Cookie told about what's going on with the mansion the lolas used to live and Cookie wants to know who now owns the mansion. Some say, it could be a child or grandchild but when Lola Nidora's phone rings, Divina is said. Could Yaya Dub be the one who owned the mansion? Tune in next time and find out.

- When two online worlds collide; two RPG app games; Sword Art Online: Code Register, and the .hack//-inspired New World: Vol. 1, are running a collaboration campaign packed with crossover outfits, accessories, bonuses, and other extras.

- Love Live! character designer Yuhei Murota revealed on his Twitter account that he had gotten married last month. No one knows the woman who married him but he explained that he chose that day to tell everyone because it was his new wife's birthday.

TTFN!!!