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SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017 Adelle Chua, Editor

Opinion

Joyce Pangco Pañares, Issue Editor

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

EDITORIAL

POP GOES THE WORLD JENNY ORTUOSTE

SHORT STORY COLLECTION FICTIONARY LAUNCHES TWICE

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IT WAS with tender sweetness and happiness that my book Fictionary was launched twice in three weeks, with the help and support of friends and family.

The book is published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, under the directorship of UST literature professor Dr. John Jack Wigley, ably supported by his deputy Prof. Ailil Alvarez.

Last April 25 at the Tanghalang Teresita Quirino on the UST campus, USTPH held a grand launch of titles it published in 2016. Fictionary was among them. On May 4, I held a solo book launch at Conspiracy Garden Café in Quezon City. More on those events in a while; first let me tell you about the book.

Fictionary is a collection of 16 short stories written over the years. I wrote “The Cups” in 1988 while in college and entered it in a competition sponsored

by Clover Typewriters some years later, where it earned third or fourth place.

The rest of the stories were written when I started writing fiction again in 2011.

Three of the stories have placed in the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards— “How I Spent My US Vacation” (2011), “Wolves I Have Known” (2012), and “Marry Me” (2013). Eight of the sixteen stories have been published elsewhere (Philippines Graphic magazine, Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol. 9), and the other eight were written new for this collection.

This is a grab-bag of stories, ranging from the humorous to the gothic, and in that sense may be seen as an erratic or eccentric compilation. University of the Philippines professor emerita Dr. Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo had it right when she said in the foreword to the book: “There is an unevenness about the book—some stories are clearly better than others. But this is not unexpected in first collections.”

But Dr. Hidalgo goes on to say, “What never disappoints is the language.

Sometimes it is gritty…At other times it is lyrical…And as a tool to capture emotion, it is spot on…”

Any writer will deem their work a success if it touches, moves, disturbs the reader. As a reader said after reading “The Cups”: “I dreamt about it that night, with my family and I replacing the characters in the book. As we neared the ending, I saw everything happening in slow motion, cinematic way.”That was most gratifying to know.

The grand launch held by UST-PH featured 28 titles. Among the books were one by playwright Rody Vera, two by historian Dr. Jose Victor Torres (The Camino Real to Freedom and To The People Sitting in Darkness and Other Footnotes of Our Past), three by cultural studies expert Dr. Roland Tolentino (compilations of essays on indie cinema, new media, and youth popular culture), and one by Ailil Alvarez (Slivers of the Sky). All the books are available at the UST Bookstore on campus and at commercial bookstores.

Due to insistent public demand (by my younger daughter), I held a solo launch which was well-attended by friends, family, and members of the public (all three of them—Michelle Ramos, Raynand Dizon, and his friend Joanna).

I was very happy to see multi-awarded writer and Philippine Star columnist Krip Yuson; UST-PH’s Dr. Wigley, Ms. Alvarez, and their bookseller Paul; Manila Standard’s opinion editor

CRUSADERS

T’S ALWAYS good to have some kind of advocacy, to live by and for principles that govern our vision of how the world should be.

Having a cause reminds us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves.

The advocacy could take on any form: Fighting corruption, eliminating illegal drugs, preserving the environment, empowering women, protecting children, providing jobs or shelter to the poor.

There are many such advocates in our midst. Society is all the richer because of them. Great feats have ben achieved because of their passion, hard work and temerity.

Advocates, however, enjoy precarious status in their public and private lives. Because they push relentlessly for that which they believe is right, their entire lives—their history, relationships, economic interests—are placed under scrutiny.

They must then make sure they have no secrets that will cast

doubt on their credibility. If even a tiny conflict of interest is discovered, for instance, or if some pronouncements are misunderstood, the cause being fought for is diminished.

In some instances, advocates may not be the best persons to hold official positions in their areas of interest. Advocacy presupposes a definite, unequivocal stand. It is charged with emotion—and rightly so.

A government post, on the other hand, requires openness to other points of view and willingness to look at where other parties are coming from. It entails the implementation of established regulations—a task that needs objective leadership and a stable hand.

Perhaps we run into much dissatisfaction because we confuse the demands of one from that of the other.

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ALL THE SINGLE MOTHERS LONG STORY SHORT ADELLE CHUA

I AM a single mother and I am proud of it.

I got pregnant at 17, was married at 18. When I got my AB I was 21 and had two children. At 26, I was a mother of four: a girl, a boy, and then another girl, then another boy.

“Starting young” was an understatement.

At 31, after years of turbulence, I left my husband and took the two older children with me. On that first night we only had one lightbulb, no refrigerator, no bed. We slept on

the floor.

All this happened ten years ago but the details are vivid.

On that monster of a day, I took a break for a few hours by editing op-ed columns and writing an editorial.

Only after a lawsuit was I

able to gain custody of the two younger children. At that time, the children were 13, 11, seven and five.

The primary struggle was money. There were exam days the kids were sent home because they were behind

in tuition payments. Ordering fastfood was a luxury reserved for special occasions. I once had to slice a birthday cake so thin because it was small and there were so many well-wishers who came by. Six months Turn to B2

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SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017 mst.daydesk@gmail.com

HOW FAR CAN THE RCEP SHIP SAIL?

By Maura Ada Décosterd PAINTED against the backdrop of a platinum-standard Trans Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership appeared, at least for those commentators outside the inner circle of the Asean 10 member-states and their six dialogue partners, to be more market accessoriented, less WTO-plus-inclined and covertly China-driven. Some of these assumptions are true, some are false, and some require qualification.

Now, with the all-but-demise of the TPP, more attention has been directed to this Asean-led initiative that promises to grow into a pan-regional role that few would have ascribed to in its ‘versus-the-TPP’ days. A promise alone, however, is not sufficient, and concerted efforts must be made by negotiators and stake-holders alike to drive a trade-creating and substantively significant deal.

The RCEP is ‘the only viable game in town’—that is to say, the one regional integration pact formally left standing, albeit far from completion. While the legacy of the TPP is rich, the likelihood that it ever enters into force as it was meant to, is slim.

There remain, however, hopeful supporters who dare believe in a potentially Australian or Japanese-led TPP-11, fitted with revised enactment rules and rebalanced provisions compensating for the loss of US market access. For the former, the example of the failed International Trade Organization that organically morphed into the World Trade Organization we know today, all without US-Congressional approval, is a guiding light in the sea of the President of the United States-induced global trade panic.

Whatever its fate without the US buy-in, the TPP has already impacted individual economies’ regulatory regimes and prompted changes in global economic governance to an extent that must move the RCEP to emulate its ‘platinum-standardness’ to the greatest extent practicable.

The RCEP as it stands involves complex dynamics between the 10 Asean member states and the Asean Economic Community that binds them, the six dialogue partners and their Asean+1 Free Trade Agreements, and the dialogue partners in their trade relationship with the world. This makes for a rather rich set of interactions based on an equally complex set of interests.

Tariff reductions, rules of origin, trade in services, and investment are issue-areas that present some degree of difficulty to negotiators as would be expected of an agreement that aims to include China and India on the one hand, and Japan, Australia and New Zealand on the other, all while evolving on the margins of the AEC. Agreement on the RCEP should practically result in new FTAs for the Dialogue Partners, deeper levels of tariff liberalization, wider coverage of trade in services, an overall increase in WTO-plus content, and the streamlining and improvement of rules of origin.

So far, for lack of faster alternatives, some suggest that agreement should be had on the less-sensitive, low-hanging type of concessions, to be further complemented with built-in agenda type of clauses. But for RCEP to be truly modern, argue others, labor, the environment, electronic commerce, state-owned enterprises and the like, should be firmly covered before the deal is sealed. The breadth, depth and solidity of the RCEP matter inasmuch as lately, it has caught the attention of fora such as the Asia Pacific Economic Community that aim to construct their own pan-regional initiatives on the architectural foundations of the RCEP. And for that to happen, the agreement itself must be rendered appealing for partners such as Russia, Canada or Peru.

Little incremental pressure on the negotiating 16 states flows from Apec’s own vision for the RCEP, instead, the brunt of compulsion emerges from the magnitude of the occasion presented by Asean’s 50th anniversary.

Whether they succeed by the end of 2017 is anyone’s bet and everyone’s wish.

Décosterd serves as a Senior Trade Law and Policy Officer at the Economic Research Institute for Asean and East Asia.

THE EU MUST CHANGE AFTER THE FRENCH ELECTION

By Leonid Bershidsky THOUGH Emmanuel Macron looks poised to win the French presidential election on a passionately pro-European agenda, he still feels compelled to criticize European Union “dysfunction” and call for “in-depth” reform of the bloc to prevent Marine Le Pen from making a comeback and breaking it up. That’s in line with what European voters throughout the bloc are thinking. The EU is already changing to accommodate them, but it’s moving too slowly and it’s bad at selling the change to the public. It needs to do a better job for Macron’s expected victory not to go to waste.

The results of a March poll of 28,000 Europeans, done by the Kantar Public research group, show that pro-EU sentiment is back at the 2007 level after a dip following the global financial crisis.

Some 57 percent of respondents said their countries’ membership in the EU is “a good thing.” Just 14 percent believe it’s a bad thing. Positive sentiment is up 4 percentage points since last year.

Most of this effect can probably be written off as a reaction to Brexit, which has shown many in the remaining EU countries where they don’t want to go.

Significantly, about half of Europeans still think the EU is going in the wrong direction (4 percentage points less than last September, but still a plurality; only 25 percent say the union is on the right track).

That attitude informs Macron’s comments and serves as a constant irritant for European Commission President

Jean-Claude Juncker. In his speech at the EU’s State of the Union conference in Florence on Friday, he referred to “this valley of tears in which we are all criticized and torn to shreds.”

The EU is often accused of directing a fire hose of regulations at European citizens and companies. Le Pen’s National Front has said 80 percent of France’s laws are imposed by Brussels; the real proportion is closer to a third (though the EU’s own estimate is 20 percent). What’s clear is that a large share of national law flows from Brussels.

The Juncker Commission has been trying to reduce the flow. In 2013, the year before Juncker was elected, the EU produced 2,209 legal acts, roughly in line with a decade’s annual production rate. In 2016, that number was down to 2,049. That’s still a lot of regulations; the French parliament passed 108 laws and 4,109 amendments in the year-long legislative session of 20152016. Though the Juncker commission is proud of its “better regulation” initiative, it has only resulted in the repeal of 32 “outdated” laws so far and a slight unclogging of the regulatory pipeline.

Another major criticism of the EU is that it’s unable to protect its borders.

In part thanks to joint European efforts, both in deal-making with Libya and Turkey and in patrolling the Mediterranean, this criticism has died down somewhat. After an enormous peak in 2015 and 2016, migrant arrivals by sea are below the 2014 level. But the EU is not in a position to sell this success to the public: Voters with a low tolerance for immigrants in general haven’t

internalized the migrant population increase from a year and two years ago.

It’s pointless to tell these voters that the crisis is over until the people who came in that wave have had a chance to integrate better than they’ve been able to do in this short time. Meanwhile, the squalid conditions of camps in Greece and Turkey suggest refugees are paying a high price for the EU’s arrangements.

Yet another criticism reflected in the Kantor survey is that many Europeans don’t feel their voice counts in the EU. Even though about 60 percent of respondents knew that the directly elected (and increasingly assertive) European Parliament votes for the European Commission president, only 43 percent said they believed their voice meant anything in Brussels, and 53 percent believed it didn’t. The balance is gradually shifting in favor of the EU, but Europeans still believe democracy works better in their home countries (63 percent say their voice counts there).

Again, the EU in its current shape cannot do much about that perception. There are about 55,000 EU civil servants for the bloc’s 500 million population, a far smaller proportion than members have. But given the EU’s limited functions and smaller responsibility even that is quite an army to feed and explain.

Juncker, who recently published a white paper on the future of the European Union, expects national leaders to tell him what to do next. But who will take up that baton?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

doesn’t want to dictate general EU policies: Anti-German sentiment is already strong in the south and east of the continent. Emmanuel Macron will be hemmed in by a fractious French parliament that may render him incapable of action. Juncker has already served half of his term as president, and he’s proved a mediocre salesman for the reforms he’s undertaken. It will fall to his successor to propose a plan that would enable the bloc to intervene more in areas where voters want it to do so. According to the Kantar poll, these areas include, above all, unemployment, tax fraud, terrorism and migration issues. The French commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, recently wrote a column proposing the creation of a euro-area finance ministry and budget by 2021—an arrangement that would enable the EU to acquire a more visible role in fixing social problems.

But any such moves would need to be accompanied by major, not incremental, reductions in unnecessary regulatory activity and probably serious staff cuts in areas where voters don’t see a big EU role. The EU is getting a boost from Brexit, which has helped pro-European politicians from The Netherlands to Bulgaria win elections. These centrist victories—and especially Macron’s because of France’s importance to the bloc—will, in turn, amplify pro-European sentiment.

Things will look rosy for some months. But the EU, too, needs to act to build on this support. Centrists may find it harder to win next time if they don’t get meaningful help from Brussels. Bloomberg

A LOVE LETTER TO CASSINI

By Pecier Decierdo Dear Cassini, I AM writing because I am a huge fan of yours, and though you are just a chunk of metal containing some fancy science equipment, I would like you to know your work is appreciated here on Earth. And not just by scientists, by the way. Here, on the pale blue planet you left behind, millions of miles from where you are right now, people from all walks of life marvel at the amazing pictures you’ve taken of Saturn and its moons. The inspiration those pictures will bring to generations of young people who dream of understanding and exploring the universe is invaluable.

I am also writing this because you are scheduled to crash into Saturn soon. That fact saddens me a bit, which is strange, because again, you’re just bits of metal and instruments. You are not going to feel any pain as you plunge into the roiling clouds of the great ringed planet. Still, I feel a bit of sadness over the end of you stint as Saturn’s planetary paparazzo.

But what a run it was, eh? So instead of mourning your impending crash, let me celebrate the scientific feat that you represent. (And in so doing celebrate all the scientists and engineers here on Earth who, through their curiosity, ingenuity, and desire to explore the cosmos, sent you into the depths of space to be our eyes and ears in the Saturn system.)

So let me do a rundown of your “greatest hits.”

First, your journey. Oh, what a journey that was! And quite roundabout, too. After your launch from Earth in 1997, you did not yet

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Along with the custody case I also brought a support suit before the court. At that time, I had this newspaper job whose rewards were mostly psychic. There was rent and school and food and medical issues to worry about. I took back rides on tricycles, brought baon of boiled corn to the office and sold—haggled over the price of—old appliances to junk shops.

I like to think we carried it well. Case in point: My son attended his grade school ball with a long-sleeved shirt I got for P50 at an ukay-ukay shop in Quiapo. He was named Prince of the Night, anyway.

But boy, I had to contend with talk. That’s what you get for getting hitched so early. People speculated

have enough speed to reach your very distant target. To reach the speed you need, you had to get a gravitational push from the planets, like a kid getting pushes from a grownup.

You got a push from Venus in 1998, and then again in 1999. Then you went past Earth again, where you got another shove that pushed you past the Asteroid Belt and into Jupiter. But because your destination is very far away, you needed one last push to get there. And you got your last push from the meanest, baddest pusher of them all—Jupiter.

Finally in 2004, after 7 roundabout years, you reach your destination.

And you didn’t disappoint.

Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2 all took glorious pictures of Saturn, its rings, and its moons.

We learned so much from those pictures. Generations of curious minds were sustained by looking at textbooks with pictures those probes took.

But those missions were flybys— they flew close to Saturn and then went their merry way to the edge of the Solar System where they are now.

They just zoomed past Saturn’s realm.

You, on the other hand, came and stayed. You did this by entering into an orbit around Saturn. You let yourself be captured by the gravity of the second most massive planet in the Solar System, and you let this gravity swing you round and around Saturn.

And round and around you swung, taking picture after stunning picture of Saturn’s surface clouds, its rings, and its varied moons for more than a decade. You even discovered several new moons!

You showed us how the closest

on the reason for my leaving. There was stigma: who leaves a secure, conventional family structure? Who risks the material and psychological well-being of four impressionable young children? What selfishness!

What nerve! The other camp’s friends called me Gabriela behind my back, and warned their wives against fraternizing with me. BI. As the years passed the struggles evolved. Expenses mounted, growing pains grew. There was less worry about schoolwork and more about the company the children were keeping. I felt I had to know their friends and make sure they don’t fall into bad company.

It was also a good time for the kids to start exploring career paths.

I felt that if they found what they were meant to do for the rest of their lives, they would never be poor. They would always have reason to get up in the morning.

How we got from there to where we are now seems like a dream. The kids are now almost no longer children: they are 23, 21, near-17 and near-15.

We’ve left our two-room apartment in Valenzuela and moved to a better-lit,

of these moons zipped along some of the gaps in the rings of Saturn, creating ripples in the rings as they go.

Speaking of moon, you even landed your passenger, Huygens, on the surface of the biggest moon Titan. Thanks to your teamwork with Huygens, we now know that Titan is a world with thick clouds, a dense atmosphere, and lakes of liquid methane. Someday, we might come back to Titan to look for signs of life.

Speaking of life, those pictures of the moon Enceladus you sent got us so intrigued with the possibility of finding alien life there. Why won’t we be excited, when you showed us Enceladus had geysers spewing water!

But as if all those weren’t enough, you gave us another treat—a picture of the Earth from your vantage point.

That pale blue picture of our world from so far away serves as a reminder of how small we are in the cosmic scale of things.

So now you are running out of power. But we did not want you to die a cold, boring death as a space junk orbiting Saturn. We also didn’t want to risk the possibility that you would crash into Titan or Encaladus. We are not so sure if you are completely germ-free, and we didn’t want to contaminate those worlds.

So instead, the scientists who have worked with you have decided to say goodbye to you in a blaze of glory.

Cassini, on behalf of everyone on Earth who was and is being inspired by you, so long—and thanks for all the pics!

Pecier Decierdo is resident physicist and astronomer of The Mind Museum.

airier home in Quezon City.

Our home seems to attract as many visitors as our old place used to do.

Furniture-wise, I aim for a minimalist look although it’s not always possible. I juggle multiple jobs which when combined provide me with an income that is at least a little more than psychic.

At this stage, the kids seem to know the direction they will take.

Best part is, apart from the usual family wrinkles—mostly to do with who does which chores when and how often—we’re pretty tight-knit. We bond over Netflix and music and food.

I look forward to the next phases in our lives, all while savoring the present moment and treasuring the lessons from the past.

“Na-ano?” I have a range of expletives in my mind but I know better than utter them. *** What I described above is my story, but I know countless other stories, more compelling, more inspiring, that deserve telling.

Even if I were under a different set of circumstances, I would still accord single mothers awe and respect. Con-

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Adelle Chua and sports editor Riera Mallari; Market Monitor’s Alvin Dacanay; 35-time Palanca Award winner Ed Maranan; and writer Geraldine Maayo.

Also there were a large number of high school classmates from the Pasay City Adventist Academy; friends Mars Hagedorn, Reggie Reginaldo, Jowell Tan, Gerry Rojas, Gary Alcasid; cousins Chichi and Doc de Leon; and Adelle’s daughter Sophie and her friend. Palanca Award-winning writer Yvette Tan dropped by to say hello and get a copy of my book.

Writer Ime Morales gave the blessing. Readings from my work were performed by my elder daughter, writer Alex Alcasid; voice actor JM Torres; student Mark Martinez; Adelle, Mars, and Reggie. Music was provided by the fabulous Ian Lofamia Blues Band, courtesy of lawyer and theater impresario Allan Magturo, who also recommended the venue.

Thanks to all who attended and participated. Some came from work and endured two hours of traffic to get there (thanks, Riera!).

Everyone exerted time and energy, for which I am grateful. It was marvelous to feel the friendship and the love.

My next book is a non-fiction work about Philippine horseracing culture and communication, and two compilations of my essays are also being prepared for publication.

My thanks as well to you, the readers of my columns. Please continue to support Philippine journalism and literature.

Dr. Ortuoste is a Californiabased writer. Follow her on Facebook: Jenny Ortuoste, Twitter: @ jennyortuoste, Instagram: @jensdecember, @artuoste

vention dictates that children be raised by two people, complementing and helping each other in building a home and ensuring their nourishment in all aspects. It’s a daunting task, raising kids, and I am sure few women set out to embrace this alone.

But life happens. We realize we made bad or hasty choices, stumble into a surprise about our partners and ourselves, or simply watch love die. This is not to say we bolt at the first opportunity. Becoming single again is a last resort, especially when there are children in the picture. But sometimes you just have to take a stand, whatever the consequences. Often, the challenges can threaten to make you give up or question your decision. But when you look at the face of your children you would know: You cannot fail.

So going back to the mindless ones who joke about the lot of single mothers—and those who laugh at these crass attempts at humor—you really should be ashamed of yourselves. You don’t know half the story, and likely don’t have a tenth of the guts. adellechua@gmail.com

World LOOTING RAVAGES VENEZUELA; DEATH TOLL REACHES 36 VALENCIA, Venezuela—A young man died Friday after he was injured in violence as looting broke out in impoverished Venezuelan cities, an official said, bringing the toll from unrest in more than a month of anti-government protests to at least 36.

Hecder Lugo Perez, 22, died after he was hit in the head by a projectile in the northwestern city of Valencia, sources at the Valles de San Diego medical clinic said. City Mayor Enzo Scarano confirmed his death.

Mass protests erupted on April 1 by demonstrators demanding elections to remove President Nicolas Maduro. They blame him for an economic crisis that has caused shortages of food, medicine and other basics.

Anger boiled over Friday in the western municipality of Rosario de Perija, where young protesters burned, pulled down and then smashed a statue of former president Hugo Chavez, Maduro’s late predecessor and mentor, according to video posted on social media showing the incident in a public square.

Looting broke out this week in cities such as Valencia, which looked like a disaster zone with bars on shop windows bent and windows broken.

“There was a crowd of them. They broke through the walls and took everything. They destroyed everything” before police came and fired tear gas to disperse the looters, said Nuvia Torrealba, 42, who worked in a bakery. “My bosses have lost their home and we are out of a job. It was horrible.” AFP

CLERIC PUSHES FOR TALKS ON WOMEN’S INHERITANCE RABAT, Morocco—A former radical preacher is the unlikely instigator of a debate on a topic long seen as off-limits in Muslim-majority Morocco: women’s inheritance rights.

The country’s Islamic family laws allocate female heirs half the amount men receive on the death of a relative.

Abdelwahab Rafiki, a former hardline cleric who served time in jail following jihadist bombings in Casablanca, says it is time that changed.

“I invite... religious scholars, sociologists and human rights actors to open a dialogue, primarily in order to uphold justice,” he said.

Rafiki, also known as Abou Hafs, was one of around 100 male writers, journalists and artists who published a book in April called “Men Defend Equality in Inheritance.”

He also appeared on a prime-time television show on the popular 2M channel, arguing that the social roles of men and women had changed since the early days of Islam, meaning it was time for a debate on inheritance rules.

Since his TV appearance, he said, “I have been threatened with death and excommunicated, but I also received many messages of support.”

The 43-year-old was once regarded as a leader of the Salafist-jihadist movement in Morocco.

He was among 8,000 people arrested after jihadist bombings in Casablanca in 2003 killed 45 people. AFP

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MACRON BLASTS HACKING ATTACK

ARIS—French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s team blasted a “massive and coordinated hacking attack” against his campaign after a flood of internal documents were released online barely 24 hours before the election.

The centrist candidate’s furious staff said the release late Friday of thousands of emails, accounting documents and other files was an attempt at “democratic destabilization, like that seen during the last presidential campaign in the United States.”

The documents spread on social media just before midnight on Friday – when 39-year-old Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen officially wrapped up campaigning for Sunday’s decisive run-off vote – with his aides calling the leak “unprecedented in a French electoral campaign.”

Hillary Clinton has alleged Russian hacking of her campaign’s emails was partly to blame for her

defeat in last year’s US presidential election to Donald Trump.

The leak, posted by someone calling themselves EMLEAKS, came as an 11th-hour twist in what has proved to be one of the most drama-packed elections in French history.

Macron’s team said the files were stolen weeks ago when several officials from his En Marche party had their personal and work emails hacked – one of “an intense and repeated” series of cyber-attacks against Macron since the launch of the campaign.

“Clearly, the documents arising from the hacking are all lawful and show the normal functioning of a presidential campaign,” aides said

in a statement.

But they warned that whoever was behind the leak had mixed fake documents with real ones “in order to sow doubt and disinformation.”

The WikiLeaks website posted a link on Twitter to the trove of documents, saying it was not responsible for the leak but that it was “examining” parts of the cache, amounting to around nine gigabytes of data in total.

Last month cybersecurity research group Trend Micro said Russian hackers called Pawn Storm had targeted Macron’s campaign, using “phishing” techniques to try to steal personal data.

Senior Le Pen aide Florian Philippot suggested on Twitter that the leak might contain information that the media had deliberately suppressed.

France’s presidential election commission advised media not to publish details of the documents, warning that publication could lead to criminal charges and that some of the documents were probably fake. The commission is due to meet later Saturday to discuss the

hack.

The upset came at the end of a frantic final day of campaigning and as fresh security concerns emerged following the arrest of a suspected extremist.

Polls released earlier Friday had showed Macron gaining momentum, forecasting victory for the pro-European, pro-business former banker with around 62 percent to 38 percent for Le Pen. He and Le Pen – who is hoping to ride a global wave of anti-establishment anger to the Elysee Palace – have offered starkly different visions for France during a campaign that has been closely watched in Europe and around the world.

Le Pen has tried to portray Macron as being soft on security and Islamic fundamentalism, playing to the concerns of many of her supporters after a string of terror attacks in France that have killed more than 230 people since 2015.

She has said she wants to copy Britain’s example and hold a referendum on France’s EU membership, sending alarm bells ringing in capitals across the bloc. AFP

FRIGID ZONE. A picture shows ice on a beach of the Jokulsarlon lagoon in the Austurland region in Iceland. AFP

CASSINI PROBE FINDS VAST VOID BETWEEN SATURN’S RINGS

JAPANESE NUN ARRESTED IN SEX ABUSE SCANDAL BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—A Japanese nun has been arrested in Argentina’s city of Mendoza and charged in dozens of cases of sex alleged abuse involving deaf school children, officials said over the weekend.

The nun, Kosaka Kumiko, 42, had been on the run for more than a month before surrendering to authorities.

“I am innocent,” she told judicial officials, who ordered her detained at a local women’s prison while the alleged crimes are investigated.

She is suspected of complicity with two priests, Nicola Corradi and Horacio Corbacho, who were arrested in Argentina late last year on charges of child sex abuse at the Provolo school for deaf and hearing-impaired children.

Three school employees, Jorge Bordon, Jose Luis Ojeda and Armando Gomez, were also arrested and remain in custody.

Investigators are looking into more than 30 testimonies against the priests and teaching staff. AFP

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PAPAL AUDIENCE. Pope Francis exchanges gifts with Doris Leuthard, President of Switzerland, during a private audience on May 6 in Vatican. AFP

WASHINGTON, United States—The unmanned Cassini spacecraft, after completing two passes in the vast unexplored area between Saturn’s rings has discovered not much else there, researchers at NASA said.

Scientists have been surprised to find that not all that much – not even space dust – lies between Saturn’s iconic rings.

“The region between the rings and Saturn is ‘the big empty,’ apparently,” said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, after the probe’s first pass.

The rings themselves are made of fastmoving particles of ice and space debris.

The 22-foot-tall (6.7 meter) Cassini spacecraft launched in 1997 and began orbiting Saturn in 2004.

Cassini made a first pass to explore what lies between the rings in late April and a second one on May 2, at a speed of about 77,000 miles per hour relative to the planet.

The gap between the rings and the top of Saturn’s atmosphere is about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers).

Cassini is expected to make a total of 22 dives between the rings and the planet before making a death plunge into the gas giant in September.

Cassini is a 20-year-old joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. AFP

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SUNDAY, MAY 7, 2017 Cesar Barrioquinto, Editor

World

/ Joyce Pangco-Pañares, Issue Editor

mst.daydesk@gmail.com

CHINA SENDS 20 TO PRISON FOR DEADLY LANDSLIDE

ACTIVE. Mount Sinabung volcano spews thick volcanic ash as seen from Tiga Kicat village in Karo, North Sumatra province, early on Saturday.

Sinabung roared back to life in 2010 for the first time in 400 years. After another period of inactivity, it erupted once more in 2013, and has remained highly active since. AFP

2ND TRUMP NOMINEE FOR ARMY CHIEF OUT

W

ASHINGTON—US President Donald Trump on Friday lost another nominee he had put forward to be his Army secretary, after lawmakers said the pick was unfit because of his past stances against transsexuals, Muslims and Latinos.

Mark Green, Republican senator for Tennessee, said in a statement to NBC News he was withdrawing due to “false and misleading attacks against me.”

“My life of public service and my Christian beliefs have been mischaracterized and attacked by a few on the other side of the aisle for political gain,” he charged.

Green was Trump’s second choice for the post of Army secretary after his first, Vincent Viola, a billionaire, withdrew in February, saying he couldn’t overcome conflict-of-interest objections because of certain financial interests.

Chuck Schumer, head of the Democrats in the US Senate, said Green “should not have been nominated in the first place.”

He cited Green’s record of supporting a law “to make it easier for businesses to discriminate against the LGBTQ community,” for opposing gay marriage, and for believing “being transgender is a ‘disease’.”

Green also “supports constricting access to legal contraception and makes deeply troubling comments about Muslims,” and was thus “the wrong choice to lead America’s Army,” Schumer said in a statement.

Trump, while putting former or current generals in key posts in his administration, has had a hard time in filling politically appointed positions at the Pentagon.

The posts of secretaries of the Navy and the Air Force remain vacant. A number of other senior offices are not yet officially set to be filled.

The Defense Department says several factors are slowing the process down, including notably an extreme political polarization in Congress between unbending Democrats and Republicans.

Strict financial ethics rules are also problematic for candidates.

And then there are internal party conflicts, for instance Trump’s refusal to put forward any Republican who derided him or his ultimately successful run at the White House.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson discussed the conflict in Syria with Russian For-

eign Minister Lavrov on Friday, the State Department said.

Their conversation took place a day after Russia, Iran and Turkey signed a deal setting up four “deescalation zones” in Syria during talks in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.

The United States did not take part.

“The Secretary of State spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov today about the efforts to de-escalate the ongoing conflict in Syria,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Experts are skeptical about Thursday’s Kremlin-brokered deal because neither the Syrian government nor the rebels were direct signatories and the opposition offered only a lukewarm reaction.

Washington gave the deal an extremely cautious welcome, citing concerns about Iran’s role as a guarantor even as it expressed hope the agreement could set the stage for a later settlement. AFP

MURDER RAP FOR TEXAS COP IN BLACK TEEN’S KILLING

SORROW. A displaced Iraqi woman and children from the al-Haramat neighborhood, north of Mosul, react after leaving their homes as Iraqi forces advance towards the area during the ongoing offensive to retake Mosul from Islamic State fighters on Friday. Iraqi forces thrust into west Mosul from the north, opening a new front in the more than six-month-old offensive to dislodge the Islamic State group from the country’s second city. AFP

WASHINGTON—A Texas police officer who fired into a carful of teens, allegedly killing a 15-year-old African American boy, turned himself in on Friday after being charged with murder, authorities said.

Roy Oliver, 37, who is white, was one of two police officers responding to a call about underaged drinking at a party in the Dallas suburb of Balch Springs the night of April 29, The Dallas Morning News reported.

Jordan Edwards and four others were leaving the party in their car after hearing gunfire.

Oliver fired a rifle into the car, hitting the teen in the head, media reports said.

Oliver, who has reportedly been fired from the Balch Springs Police Department, turned himself in and was booked on a murder charge at the Parker County jail in Weatherford, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Dallas, according to county records.

He was released after posting

a $300,000 bond, the records showed.

Police originally said Oliver opened fire because the car was backing up aggressively toward him, but the department changed its account after viewing body-cam footage, saying the car was driving away when Edwards was shot.

Evidence suggested the police officer “intended to cause serious bodily injury and commit an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death,” the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement announcing the arrest warrant.

The shooting is the latest killing of an African-American by a white police officer in a string of similar cases that have fueled outrage across the United States and given rise to the Black Lives Matter movement.

According to a Washington Post tally, Edwards was the youngest of the 339 people shot and killed by US police so far this year. AFP

BEIJING—Chinese courts have sentenced 19 government officials and one business leader to prison for up to 20 years for their roles in a landslide which killed more than 70 people.

The disaster occurred in Shenzhen, a southern boom town bordering Hong Kong, at the end of 2015 when soil illegally piled some 160 meters (500 feet) high at an old quarry site turned to mud during heavy rains.

Three local courts passed sentences at the end of April for 45 people who had been charged in connection with the landslide, China’s official news agency Xinhua reported late Friday.

Long Renfu, the boss of Shenzhen Yixianglong, which was responsible for managing the site, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a fine of 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) for negligence and corruption. AFP

TRAIL OF DAMAGE AS CYCLONE DONNA SKIRTS VANUATU WELLINGTON, New Zealand—The South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu began assessing the damage Saturday after being pounded by destructive winds from Cyclone Donna which brought down houses and buildings.

The storm was upgraded late in the day to a category four severe tropical cyclone by the Vanuatu Meteorological Service which warned “damaging gale to destructive storm force winds” would continue to hit Torba province.

The eye of the cyclone veered away from Vanuatu before making landfall, but Disaster Management Office director Shadrack Welegtabit said winds in excess of 200 kilometers per hour (125 mph) wreaked havoc in outlying islands.

“The cyclone has passed through and we have now started our response, doing an assessment of the damage and what people need,” he told AFP. “It did not make landfall but the gale force winds affected some islands. There was damage to houses and buildings but we haven’t had any reports of injuries.” AFP

GAS TANKER LEAK SENDS 200 INDIAN KIDS TO HOSPITAL NEW DELHI, India—Nearly 200 school students were hospitalized Saturday after complaining of irritation in their eyes and throat following a gas leak in New Delhi, police said.

Classes were underway when gas leaked from a container parked at a depot close to the school and filled with chemical meant for industrial use, police said.

“Around 200 children were admitted to four hospitals for treatment. No one is serious. The situation is normal now,” police deputy commissioner Romil Baaniya told reporters.

Police will initiate legal action against the handlers for negligence, Baaniya added.

Images showed scores of disaster response personnel closely inspecting the premises of the government-run girls’ school.

Gas leaks are not uncommon in India, with most caused by a failure to comply with safety standards.

In 2014 a poisonous gas leak at one of India’s largest steel plants in central Chhattisgarh state killed six people.

A toxic gas leak in Bhopal city in 1984 killed at least 25,000 people and remains to this day the world’s worst industrial disaster. AFP