THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: Third hearing on the President Park impeachment case

The third hearing of the impeachment case of South Korean president Park Geun-hye is underway. The justices of the Constitutional Court have told the president's lawyers that the document they submitted on her whereabouts and activities on the day of the ferry disaster in April 2014 isn't enough.

The court said they need more evidence and also requested her lawyers submit phone records between President Park and security officers that briefed her or received her orders on the day of the ferry sinking.

Meanwhile, Choi Soon-sil, along with President Park's aides An Chong-bum and Jeong Ho-seong, all informed the Constitutional Court that they will not attend the hearing, saying they have to prepare for their criminal trials.

Source: Arirang News

Let's Do The News! (January 10, 2017)

- A denial of service attack has kept the website of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines offline since Monday night. "We do not know by whom but this we can say – whoever are responsible for this attack are enemies of press freedom and of free expression," the group said in a statement on its Facebook page. The mainstream media by some supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte for being biased against him and his administration and this is not the first time that journalists and journalists' groups have been hit online.

- According to Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, Vice President Leni Robredo is not involved in an e-mail group allegedly planning to oust President Rodrigo Duterte. Over the weekend, archives of supposed e-mails in a Global Filipino Diaspora Council Yahoo! Group between group members and supposed members of the Office of the Vice President circulated on social media. The supposed emails have been dubbed "LeniLeaks". Robredo denies everything, of course.

- The image of the Black Nazarene was returned to the minor basilica known as Quiapo Church, around 0345 hours local time after a 22-hour procession around Manila. The procession known locally as "traslacion" of the image pulled on a carriage left the Quirino Grandstand at 0520 hours on Monday, the start of the annual crowded Roman Catholic celebration.

- People in Nigeria have marched the 1,000th day since Boko Haram Islamic extremists abducted hundreds of schoolgirls. In April 2014, the extremist group took over 200 girls from their school in the western African nation, threatening to traffic them as slaves.

- A US Navy destroyer has fired warning shots at Iranian military boats at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Officials at the US Defense Department say that 4 boats from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps approached the USS Mahan at high speed on Sunday. Pentagon officials say that the Iranian ships ignored US radio warnings and came within about 800m of the US ship.

- Two aging nuclear reactors near New York City will be shut down by the next four years. The state of New York and Entergy, the operator of the reactors have agreed to take the two operating reactors at Indian Point nuclear power plant offline. The reactors were first licensed for operation in the mid-70's. The two reactors combined can produce over 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

- Russia condemned the recent US intel report which concludes that President Vladimir Putin ordered cyber-attacks to help Donald Trump win the US presidential election. Last week, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Putin ordered cyber-attacks against computers used by Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's team.

- The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported arrested an executive of Volkswagen on charges of conspiracy to defraud US regulators by altering emissions data. Reports told of the arrest of Oliver Schmidt, who headed the automaker's regulatory compliance in the US from 2014 to March 2015.

- In addition to US President-elect Donald Trump drawn flak by Meryl Streep's Golden Globe awards speech (and countered it via one of his infamous tweets), the mixed martial arts community got offended from her speech as well. Bellator MMA president Scott Coker wrote her an open letter inviting her to attend a fight to prove that MMA is art, as Streep opposed aside from American football as said from her speech.

- A new Biohazard/Resident Evil stage play will be running at Tokyo's Zepp Blue Theater Roppongi from the 10th to the 26th of February, and in Kobe's Shin Kobe Oriental Theater from the 4th to the 5th of March. Ryusei Yokohama, Yuki Fukumoto, Reo Shimura, and many others will star in the original stage play based from the hit survival horror franchise.

TTFN!!!

Forza Horizon 3: Saint's Row

Cue the Legendary Tribe Music because it's time for another barn find rumor! And this month's barn find rumor is located somewhere beyond Yarra Valley. Some say that the barn find in question was famous for being a car of choice of a certain smart aleck detective and played by a certain someone who landed in this role before he became the agent we all know and love.

Without further ado, let's get this treasure-hunting started!

And now, the moment of truth...



Let's see...Hmmm...A car famed for being the choice of a certain detective from a classic TV show. No way! It's a Volvo 1800! This is the car of choice for Simon Templar, the smart alecky detective and the star of The Saint. It's the TV show Roger Moore starred in before he became 007 number three. Just imagine, living like The Saint is like you're on the move, stopping criminals with his brand of honesty and wise-cracking ideas, something you'd expect from binge-watching some detective shows.

Seen here is the 1800E and this Volvo comes with a B20E engine with fuel injection producing 130HP of power, resulting to a 0-100kph time of 9.5 seconds and a top speed of 190kph. Not as quick by modern standards but it is still a good car to drive. Picturing myself as The Saint driving this Volvo while gunning down against members of a drug cartel in their Jeeps, Broncos, and Scouts in a middle of a wilderness is something they should have done in the first place. In fact, I did trying to live the fantasy of The Saint giving chase to the notorious drug syndicate operating in Australia, just to give you a hint on its star power that Roger Moore propelled it in the TV show. Let's cue The Saint theme song and let's get cracking.



And they said The Saint got them red-handed. Case closed but not for me because there are still more barn finds waiting to be discovered within a couple of months so the case is still on for The Saint.

Let's Do The News! (January 9, 2017)

- President Rodrigo Duterte highlighted the fight against injustice, corruption, and abuse of power in his message for this year's Traslacion of the Black Nazarene. Duterte said Filipinos keep their faith as they strive to fight the ills of society. Duterte describe as "phenomenal" the expression of faith of the millions of Black Nazarene devotees, which comes in the form of gratitude, petition, and sacrifice.

- Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said he could not blame Malacañang for the decision to probe reports on an alleged plot by supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo to oust President Duterte which have surfaced online and called "LeniLeaks."

- Bong Go, President Duterte's longtime aide denied that the chief executive visited a cancer hospital in China while he was out of public eye during the first few days of the year. Go said the president never left the country during his private time.

- US President-elect Donald Trump was unamused over Meryl Streep's Golden Globe speech. Trump never seen Ms. Streep's remarks or other parts of the Globes ceremony, but added that he was "not surprised" that he had been drawn flak by the "liberal movie people."

- Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed way at the age of 82. Media reports that he died on Sunday at a Tehran hospital after suffering a heart attack. The Iranian government has announced three days of national mourning.

- 20 people have died in Europe as freezing temperatures grip the continent. Snowstorms have hit many parts of Europe for the past several days.

- British scientists warned that a huge iceberg is on the risk of breaking away from Antarctica. Members of Project MIDAS at the University of Swansea in Wales have been monitoring a rift across the Larsen C ice shelf. This extends west on the Antarctic Peninsula. The say the rift suddenly grew longer last month and is now more than 80km. There are 20km left before the shelf breaks apart.

- The popular Battle Girl High School app game will spawn a TV anime coming this Summer 2017.

- British car company Ginetta will join the 2018 FIA World Endurance Championship with their new chassis.

TTFN!!!

Forza Horizon 3: Long-awaited Bimmer

While the cars of Forza Horizon 3 are freely roaming around in the roads of the Land Down Under, a car made with the futuristic necessities come shining through as it rolls by. This could only mean one thing; at long last, after two or three years of waiting to get this car featured in the Forza franchise after its launch, the long-awaited Bimmer, the BMW i8, has arrived, ringing the new year with a flashpoint of the future.

Yes, the BMW i8 has arrived, thanks to Forza Horizon 3's Rockstar Energy Drink Car Pack, available now, and with this car pack, our dream of driving BMW's flagship plug-in hybrid electric sportscar that is the spearheader of the BMW i range in the game has came true and we have plenty of reasons to drive "the ultimate driving machine" for the next generation. More like the next 100 years if you ask the Bimmer fanatics.

So, what's it all about the BMW i8? As the sensation of the year 2014, BMW's all new plug-in hybrid electric sportscar, the i8, ushers the new era of sporty driving with ecological conscience in mind. Drawing inspirations from the Vision EfficientDynamics Concept in 2009 and the i8 Concept in 2011, this concept-turned-reality PHEV is another reason why BMW is getting their eco-car game face on and it combines the fun-to-drive characteristics of a luxury sportscar with the ecology and efficiency of most hybrids and electric cars. With the 1.5L petrol and the hybrid synchronous motor working together, it develops a total output of 362PS of power, resulting to a 0-100kph time of 4.4 seconds and 2.1L/100km of fuel economy. Apart from that, the i8's bodywork is comprised of space-age materials, making it stiffer and lighter. All and all, the i8 is a PHEV that is here today, ready for tomorrow and with such unique packaging, no one can go wrong with it.

I feel like I'm one in a million people who demanded to have this car in the franchise since its 2014 launch as a 2015 model year and while it sounds too little, too late for us, it's better late than never to have BMW's flagship plug-in hybrid electric sportscar in the game. Because this is the one everyone's waited for so long, the BMW i8 is surely become their next favorite Bimmer to drive in the Land Down Under for days, even months, while experimenting its astonishing capabilities this PHEV can do. Yes, we do have the berks of the future in the range such as the P1, LaFerrari, the Tesla Model S, and even the latest NSX I drove a while back, but this i8 is all about being a step into tomorrow's world and while its eco-car credentials swoon weird-beard environmentalists and armpit hair enthusiasts alike, its performance is nothing to be called a dull ride to the playground. In fact, there's some work to be done with this...long-awaited Bimmer.

See what I did? Looks like the i8 got the "extra service" it deserved and speaking of which, who else to love but THE IDOLM@STER's Yayoi Takatsuki? I mean, come on. Is anyone still have love with the series for over a decade?! Still, the reason why I came this up is because while this basically an expensive car with a six-figure price tag, it is considered to be ten times less expensive than the "holy trinity" of hypercars. Sadly, the so-called "holy trinity" of the supercar realm are already sold out, hence this is the only hybrid sportscar you can afford. Still, that pricing kinda rings a bell when you compare it against another hybrid sportscar, the new Honda NSX. I love that car, anyway, but if you had to choose between the NSX and i8? Which would you like?

Sadly, this isn't the time to answer questions because it's time for the i8's no talk, just do it to the max straight approach! Hey! Where did I heard that before? Still, time to get the cameras rolling!

The BMW i8 is the car that was meant to be a future-ready innovation in the time when cars with big thirsty V8 engines are heading to the list of endangered species, just like what happened to the V10 engines, which sadly there are two remaining on the list such as the Lamborghini Huracan and the Audi R8. Like animals, car innovations don't live for a few years and the numbers will keep on declining for the next generation until one of them are declared extinct. Things change and and this is the very reality we're facing right now so we have to adapt through every situation as the world turns for better or for worse, like what the i8 is doing as it can adapt to the ever-changing world with its future-ready innovation that sets the template for BMW's centennial history. Anyway, that's all I can said it and I think that's enough for that.

Happy that you got to drive the i8? If so, you'll be glad that you had it since the car was launched in 2014.

Winners of the 2017 Golden Globe Awards

This year's Golden Globe Awards is an award ceremony heard round the world not just on tackling today's world affairs but to honor the best of cinematic and televisual greatness as judged by the panel of experts. So, in case you missed the recent awards ceremony, check out the list of this year's winners. You'll be surprised which one scored the most...

Best picture, drama: “Moonlight”

Best picture, comedy or musical: “La La Land”

Actress, drama: Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”

Actor, drama: Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”

Actress, comedy or musical: Emma Stone, “La La Land”

Actor, comedy or musical: Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”

Supporting actress: Viola Davis, “Fences”

Supporting actor: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, “Nocturnal Animals”

Director: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”

Screenplay: Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”

Animated film: “Zootopia”

Foreign language film: “Elle” (France)

Original score: Justin Hurwitz, “La La Land”

Original song: “City of Stars,” “La La Land”

Best series, drama: “The Crown,” Netflix

Best series, comedy or musical: “Atlanta,” FX

Best television movie or mini-series: “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” FX

Actress, mini-series or television movie: Sarah Paulson, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

Actor, mini-series or television movie: Tom Hiddleston, “The Night Manager”

Actress, drama: Claire Foy, “The Crown”

Actor, drama: Billy Bob Thornton, “Goliath”

Actress, comedy or musical: Tracee Ellis Ross, “black-ish”

Actor, comedy or musical: Donald Glover, “Atlanta”

Supporting actress: Olivia Colman, “The Night Manager”

Supporting actor: Hugh Laurie, “The Night Manager”

La La Land

It seems that the musical film "La La Land" is the big winner of this year's Golden Globe awards because it scored seven awards than any other films in this year's awards ceremony, making it an impressive record for a movie that starred award-winning stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone about love, difficulties, and success in the eyes of a jazz pianist and an aspiring actress. Come to think of it, La La Land has became the talk of the town ever since it shown in theaters since last month, and due to its popularity, it became the clear winner of this year's Golden Globe awards.

FH3 Blizzard Mountain: Snow Flower

As everyone remembered, this is the Lotus Exige S. With the added power from its supercharged V6 engine combined with the legendary Lotus dynamics that focused solely on weight loss, it is one of the most extreme Lotuses ever made to cater the most demanding drivers on the road and on the track. However, in a cold climate like Blizzard Mountain, there's no freaking way that this car can race here...or can I?

Because almost all of the cars offered in Forza Horizon 3 can be fitted with studless tires because without it, it would be difficult to drive it here, especially when you got an offroader in your collection. For a rear-wheel drive like the Lotus Exige, it's virtually impossible to drive it through ice so it's ideal to rig it with studless snow tires. Although, even with snow tires, it's still not going to make it through the icy conditions of Blizzard Mountain, or perhaps can you?

To find out, I am giving the Lotus Exige S the "extra service" it deserves. Aside from giving it some snow tires and some performance upgrades for competitive purposes, it's got some familiar looking design that was updated for today. The last time I made a design for the Exige S back in Europe, that Takane Shijou look gave it a more alluring flair and now, I've updated the design to meet Platinum Stars standards. Nothing says I took that looks from the pages of Ridge Racer's Fatalita "Takane SP" special machine.

Anyway, after long hours of extra service, the Exige is ready to take on a scene where different cars are racing through a village during a snowstorm at the dead of night. Severe snowstorm at nightfall? That is very scary and so are the cars getting ready for filming but the show must go on as planned and judging by the challenges set here, looks like I might run into some fierce resistance from the opponents. So, let's get this show started.

Man, that Audi TT S at the end of the race is a real thorn to me during the final lap, and despite my victory at the end of the race packed with extreme icy conditions, it's clear that even with snow tires, rear-wheel drives are almost impossible to survive, although this would pack some added challenge to the drivers who demand more. Like they said, a true champion always adapt to the battlefield, seeing the harsher conditions as a challenge, and taking a rear-wheel drive Lotus on the winter wonderland is a tough act to follow.