BUENOS AIRES: Argentina captain Lionel Messi said Thursday (Friday in Manila) that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will "surely" be the last of his career. "It's my last World Cup, surely. "There is anxiety, nerves about the World Cup," he said. Argentina get their bid for a third World Cup title, and first since 1986, underway on November 22 against Saudi Arabia in Lusail, before further Group C matches against Mexico and Poland. Qatar will likely provide the last chance for Messi and his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo, 37, to finally lift the World Cup.

(AFP)US and Philippine marines stormed a beach near a disputed rocky outcrop in the South China Sea on Friday as part of joint military drills involving more than 3,500 troops. Duterte had threatened to cancel drills and axe a key military deal with the United States as he pivoted towards China. China's recent war games around Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory, rang alarm bells among nations surrounding the South China Sea. During aerial surveillance over Scarborough Shoal on Thursday, the Philippine Coast Guard spotted six Chinese vessels, including four coast guard and two militia boats, in and around the small ring of reefs. "We are doing the patrol operations to establish a presence at the area and also for the sake of our fishermen," said coast guard spokesperson Armand Balilo.

Some of the 2022 TOWNS Awardees present at the welcome luncheon held at the Dusit Thani Manila — Keisha Alena Mayuga, Ana Patricia Non, Dr. Erika Fille Legara, Dr. Aletta Yniguez, Anna Rosario Oposa, Georgina Romero, Dr. Pia Bagamasbad, and Dr. Ani Rosa Almario. Eleven exceptional awardees were announced as The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service culminating a year-long search conducted by the TOWNS Foundation, Inc. Over 70 nominations were submitted from all over the Philippines and the awardees were chosen from 21 finalists selected after a rigorous pre-selection process. The 2022 TOWNS Search panel of judges was headed by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and included Rogelio Singson (President, Management Association of the Philippines); Dr. Eugenio Jose Ramos (President and CEO of Medical City); Fortunato de la Pena (Former Department of Science and Technology Secretary); Senen Bacani (Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture); lawyer Lilia de Lima (Former Director General of PEZA and TOWNS Search Chair), Dr. Esperanza Cabral (Former Secretary of Health and TOWNS Search Co-chair) and broadcaster Ces Orena Drilon (TOWNS President). TOWNS Awards are given only every three years. The 2022 Awards Night will be held on October 25.

Hong Kong has already relaxed restrictions for inbound travelers to 0+3 - no hotel quarantine and three days of close monitoring - but even this is clearly not far enough to get business leaders and tourists to come to the SAR. If international travel had been normalized here, Hong Kong would have been in a stronger position to win over other countries during post-pandemic crusade. It is interesting to see that the treasury secretary cited part one of the Dialogue between Mengzi and King Hui of Liang. Hong Kong is the world's biggest offshore clearance center for renminbi and the Philippines can do well on renminbi business via Hong Kong. The treasury secretary is viewed as a high flyer in the government.

LAUSANNE: The decision to award the 2029 Asian Winter Games to Saudi Arabia may have been greeted with amazement but it follows a double logic. "It is awful for our sport," Olympic downhill silver medallist Johan Clarey told French radio. In 2021, Dubai hosted qualifying slaloms for the Beijing Winter Olympics in the refrigerated dome of a huge shopping mall with the temperature 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) outside. Saudi investors have bought English football club Newcastle and are financing the breakaway LIV golf tour. Yet the objective of Asian Games is "above all economic," Raphael Le Magoariec, a specialist in the geopolitics of the sport of the Gulf countries at the University of Tours, said.

French author Annie Ernaux, known for her deceptively simple novels drawing on personal experience of class and gender, won the Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, the jury announced. Interviewed on Swedish television immediately after the announcement, Ernaux called it a "very great honour" and "a great responsibility". The Nobel Prize comes with a medal and a prize sum of 10 million Swedish kronor (about $911,400). Ernaux, whose name has circulated in Nobel speculation for several years, is the 17th woman to win the prestigious prize, out of 119 literature laureates since the first Nobel was awarded in 1901. The Nobel season continues on Friday with the highly anticipated Peace Prize, the only Nobel announced in Oslo.

A MATH wizard from Bangalore, India, by the name of Shakantula Devi made it to the Guinness Book of Records in 1980 when she mentally multiplied two 13-digit numbers in 28 seconds. The grammar of numbers and time is not a science — too many national and cultural variations militate against a universal numbers-writing style — but we certainly can minimize unsightly crimes of prose innumeracy by agreeing on a basic numbers stylebook. Second, when numbers are used to list a series of items within a sentence, all such numbers should be written as figures (or digits) even for numbers below 11: "This explains in detail reasons 1 to 5 of the 14 reasons why I won't live in your city." But most everybody on the planet is agreed that exact dates should be written in numbers, like "March 31, 1521." We use numbers all the time in our lives, so it pays to always do our numbers right.

The Counter Terrorism Response Unit launched a raid on a ferry in Central this afternoon, searching for a suspected armed person, but no suspect was found. Police received a report at around 4pm that a male passenger on a ferry from Cheung Chau Island to Central was wielding weapons, after which they deployed multiple units to inspect the boat. Officers armed with guns and bullet-proof vests rushed to Central Pier 5, where the ferry was reported to have moored and locked down the scene to launch their search operation. After about 25 minutes of searching, no suspicious person was found, and the passengers were allowed to get off the ferry. Marine police, at the same time, blocked the waters off the coast but failed to find any suspect.

Corteza led all scorers with 17 points and four rebounds, Oczon finished with 14 points built on four triples along with eight rebounds, and Ladis Lepalam had 10 points and five rebounds. The Cardinals were able to crawl back from an 11-point deficit and kept the match within striking distance at 53-51. Adrian Nocum paced the Cardinals with 15 points and seven rebounds while Warren Bonifacio posted 14 points and 11 rebounds. Gamboa also had 11 points and seven rebounds for Mapua. The Scores:CSB 73 — Corteza 17, Oczon 14, Lepalam 10, Gozum 8, Sangco 8, Nayve 6, Carlos 4, Cullar 3, Pasturan 3, Marcos 0, Flores 0.

At least nine people were injured after a dump truck rear-ended a double-decker KMB bus near the Lam Tei Interchange in Tuen Mun. At around 1.12pm on Wednesday, the dump truck crashed into a KMB no. The front of the tipper was damaged, and its windshield shattered, while the tail of the KMB bus was severely deformed, with mechanical parts scattered all over the road. It is understood that the truck driver and eight passengers on the bus were injured due to the impact of the collision.

BSP seeks to stave off speculative attacks on pesoA motorist pays for its tank refueling in a gas station along Nangka J.P. Rizal in Marikina on Monday, June 20, 2022. This does not help the Philippine Peso; it does not help the Philippines,” the BSP said. The central bank noted that these facilities allow for an organized settlement of dollar obligations. “BSP recognizes the importance of legitimate transactions for commerce as this will spur economic growth,” he said in a Viber message. “What they are hoping to minimize and mitigate are speculative moves and outsized fear-mongering which tends to drive undue pressure and panic on the spot market,” Mapa added.

Educational experts warned against long-period physical restraint treatment of children with severe intellectual disabilities, as a special needs school embroiled in an abuse scandal denied the mistreatment. Authorities recently received complaints about suspected child abuse at Hong Chi Pinehill No 2 School in Tai Po. Teachers were reported to tie children's hands and suffocate them by covering their faces with towels. Yesterday, the special school stated on its official website to deny the abuse - after announcing to launch an investigation on Sunday - referring to parents contacting them to clarify the teachers' misconduct toward children as being "not true." It also noted that the parent agreed to the style of treatment after consulting doctors about it.

Passport powerJapan became the latest country to open its doors after roughly two and half years of closed borders. The complexities of visa applications underscore the importance of having a powerful passport. The index is created by the Henley Passport Index or the Henley and Partners Global Passport Index. Peaceful countries with less violence and organized crime consistently rank higher on passport power. While it would be wonderful to have more passport power, this won’t change until we make significant changes to improve the predictors of passport power.

DoE to allow 100% foreign ownership of RE projectsThe Department of Energy (DoE) [link] is working to make amendments to the renewable energy law to allow 100% foregn ownership of renewable energy companies, after a Department of Justice (DoJ) opinion stated that renewable energy (from solar, wind, tide, hydro) is not within the definition of the term “natural resources”, and that power sources that rely on “kinetic energy” are not thought to be contemplated to exist within the meaning of the phrase “all forces of potential energy”. The DoJ said that the constitutional prohibition against foreign ownership only covers things that are “susceptible to appropriation”, and energy sources that use the natural elements fail the DoJ’s test for things that can be appropriated (taken). If this change is made, the number of potential buyers for permitted projects goes global in scale. No longer will companies like Solar Philippines [SPNEC 1.11 4.31%] be constrained to selling permitted projects to the “usual suspects”, like ACEN [ACEN 5.52 1.43%] or Aboitiz Power [AP 30.30 1.62%]. Their projects could now be bundled and sold to foreign interests.

"Joey" Concepcion 3rd, Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Business Advisory Council chairman for the Philippines, said cooperation in helping MSMEs has been growing in the region, including the active sharing of teaching modules for MSMEs among Asean member countries through programs like the Asean Mentorship for Entrepreneurs Network, and activities that promote global competitiveness such as the Asean Business Awards. He noted that these efforts help in making the region's MSMEs a more prominent segment of the world economy. Beyond that, MSMEs play an important part in our goal for inclusive growth because they are present in both cities and provinces," Concepcion said. The competition is organized by the Asean Business Advisory Council and aims to recognize outstanding and successful Asean enterprises contributing to the region's economic growth and prosperity. The award recognizes outstanding performance among the eight Asean Economic Community Priority Integration Sectors, including tourism, logistics, real estate, textiles, health care, handicraft Fintech, and agri-based products.