February 23, 2015 Edition

Trainer Freddie Roach said Manny Pacquiao’s killer instinct is gone. “He feels [if] it’s enough to beat the person, you don’t have to kill them or knock them out.” Pacquiao, one of the most feared knockout punchers, hasn’t finished an opponent in six years. Roach said that he felt Pacquiao was on the verge of putting Chris Algieri away in his last fight but he pulled back. Could Pacquiao’s passive in-ring temperament be a detriment in a fight with Mayweather? Roach replied, “If he hurts him, it could get in the way, yes.” He added, “[Floyd has] changed. My guy’s changed,” Roach said earlier this week, “They’ve both gotten older and that’s something we can’t get away from. I think the fight would’ve been much more exciting three years ago….”

Floyd Mayweather Sr., is predicting a big win for his son, “So my thing would be is to tell Floyd, hit him with the straight right hand and left hook, and then go back to the body.” Had added, “It’s going to be a good right hand and a left hook that’s going to put him down,” said Mayweather Sr.” Mayweather himself said “He may not be the same fighter, but this is a guy that I cannot overlook.”

Roach on Pacquiao. Read more here and here.

The Mayweathers on Pacquiao. Read more here and here.

Betting lines in Las Vegas placed Floyd Mayweather Jr. as a 2 or 3-to-1 favorite. Analysts said top reasons were Pacquiao’s 2012 knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez, coupled with Mayweather’s technical brilliance in winning titles in 5 divisions. Pacquiao said he relishes the role. “I’d been in this kind of situation many times in my previous fights,” Pacquiao said. “It doesn’t scare me. I love being the underdog. It even motivates me to train hard and go for the crown.”

It took 6 years for the fight to happen. Representative from both sides of negotiations credited the involvement of CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves, for bridging the gap between their parties. Mayweather claimed he was the one who put Pacquiao’s back against the wall, despite Pacquiao’s constant dares of “sign the contract.” The American boxer said, “It was very, very difficult. We forced them to fight. We gave them no choice.”

Read the full story on Rappler here and here.

Pacquiao training in pictures

Ticket prices are expected to go beyond $4,000 in the upcoming fight of the century between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather. Forbes.com says the fight is expected to be the most lucrative and highest-grossing of all time. The most expensive boxing match to ever take place was between Mayweather and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in Las Vegas in September, 2013, with an average price of $2,887.69 for a secondary ticket. Complicating matters, MGM Grand Hotel is already sold out on the day before and of the fight.

Read the full story on Rappler here and here.

The government vows to apply the “full force of the law” against President Benigno Aquino III’s critics who push for an “unconstitutional and illegal power grab.” Justice Secretary Leila de Lima singled out the National Transformation Council (NTC), a group composed of allies of former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The group, which rallied on Sunday, includes Aquino’s uncle Peping Cojuangco, wife Tingting, and Norberto Gonzales, a former defense secretary and national security adviser under the Arroyo administration. In a statement, De Lima slammed the NTC for urging “the installation of a civilian-military junta.” She also criticized the NTC for proposing or conspiring “to commit the crime of coup d’etat,” when it asked for the military’s support. Reports of a coup plot surfaced as Aquino faces the worst crisis of his presidency: a bloodbath in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, that killed 44 members of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force.

Read the full story on Rappler here and here.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) denied allegations that the government paid for the returned weapons seized from elite cops slain in the January 25 clash with rebel forces in Mamasapano town. In a statement OPAPP Executive Director Luisito Montalbo expressed disappointment over the allegations made by Fr Eliseo Mercado, which he called “unsubstantiated and unverified.” Mercado had alleged that the government, through OPAPP, purchased the arms from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and made it appear that the rebel group had voluntarily returned the SAF weapons to the government.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Vicente “Tito” Sotto III,  the senator pilloried for including online libel in the anti-cybercrime law, renewed his push for a bill that will protect broadcast and online journalists. Sotto reiterated the need to pass a bill he authored that extends beyond print publications. The bills seeks protection for journalists from being compelled to reveal the identity of a source of a news or investigative report. Sotto’s Senate Bill No. 95 amends Republic Act 53, the 1946 press freedom law known as the Sotto law named after the senator’s grandfather. Sotto said that the 1946 law must be amended to reflect technological developments. In 2013, Sotto was heavily criticized for his stance supporting online libel. The comedian-turned-politician also drew netizens’ ire for plagiarizing online sources for his speeches attacking the Reproductive Health law in 2012.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Britain debated how to stop teenage girls joining the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) after three ran away from home. School friends Kadiza Sultana, 17, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase left their east London homes on February 17, and flew to Istanbul, raising concerns they would travel on to Syria to join ISIS jihadists. Police spoke to all three in December over the disappearance of a friend who went to Syria but Scotland Yard insisted nothing indicated they would follow suit. Counter-terrorism experts estimate that around 50 women have travelled from the UK to Syria to join the ISIS group, while tales of “jihadi brides” have become a staple of Britain’s tabloid press.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) jihadist group released a new video on Sunday showing 21 captives – 16 peshmerga fighters, two Iraqi army officers and three Iraqi policemen. The captives, in orange jumpsuits with their heads lowered, are led to cages in a square surrounded by concrete walls and masked ISIS fighters carrying pistols. The date and location is not specified in the video, but Kurdish sources said it was filmed a week earlier in ISIS-held town Hawija in Iraq. The video shows the captives kneeling before masked men holding automatic weapons or pistols.

Read the full story on Rappler.

HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver hid millions of pounds in a Swiss account through a company registered in Panama. In a The Guardian report, leaked files show Gulliver was listed as the beneficial owner of an account in the name of Worcester Equities Inc., containing a balance of $7.6 million in 2007. The leaked files from 2005-07 show how HSBC was complicit in tax evasion and avoidance, doling out blocks of cash in various currencies to clients, and provided banking services to criminals, drug smugglers, and friends and families of dictators.

Read the full story on The Guardian.

Will Meryll Streep win an award? Will John Travolta top his Adele Dazeem moment from last year? Which moment will break the internet this year? The 87th Academy Awards – better known as the Oscars – have films such as the most-nominated “Birdman” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and critically-acclaimed jazz drama “Whiplash” vying for the Best Picture.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Oscars in photos.