iPhone news leak was false

The Australian version of Gizmodo was rebuked by Optus for an alleged leaked info on its pricing details of  iPhone. Gizmodo reported that a tipster reported that Optus will be offering the popular smart phone on post paid contracts.

Optus and Vodafone will be offering iPhone in Australia next month. Optus has started receiving reservations for the phone though those who reserved are not obliged to buy the phone when it comes out on July 11. Both companies have yet to release pricing details on the pre-paid iPhone.

In the Philippines, Globe will be offering iPhone on post paid plans but there are plans to offer pre-paid plans on iPhone according to a report by Yuga.

Pirates of the Southern Archipelago

Pirates attacked a Philippine Livestock transport ship for about two hours in Indonesian waters, Perthnow.com reported. The ship came from General Santos City and was bound for Broome in Western Australia. None of the 22 Filipino crew were reported hurt. The ship was able to evade four speed boat carrying the pirates and had to return to its port of origin for repairs. The ship was to pick-up a shipment of cattle.

The Philippine Navy said that this was the first time that a pirate attack was reported in the area.

Of government trust and realities

This year, Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Chief-of-Staff Hermogenes Esperon retired from army service but he wasn’t giving up on his government pension, he was ready for another post in the government and was very much ready to fill any job as a ‘civilian public servant.’ While it was expected that most of the retired AFP chief end up in another government post, the Philippine Daily Inquirer editorial team summed up the fishy motive behind the latest move. It was also here that the editorial team suggested that there is more to the quick punishment and reward of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV‘s former colleagues, who were sentenced and in record time were ordered released based on the President’s pardon.

Optus to have iPhone

A Philippine Mobile Network announced that it is one of the first mobile phone service providers in Asia to bring the most anticipated phone of the decade, the iPhone. According to a report on Inquirer.net, Globe Philippines will exclusively offer iPhone in the country while Optus will carry the smart phone in Australia and Bharti in India. Both Optus and Bharti have yet to confirm the agreement which was said to have been finalized yesterday.

UPDATE: Optus confirmed that it will be bringing iPhone to Australia.

Australian Media Allege Press Freedom Attack

Western Australian Police from the Major Fraud Squad raided The Sunday Times last week in a complaint against the paper allegedly by the Department of Premier and Cabinet. A report from Perthnow.com quoted department statements as saying that “it had ‘referred allegations of the unauthorised disclosure of a confidential document to the police and the Corruption and Crime Commission’ relating to a political exclusive about taxpayers’ money being used to fund the Labor Party’s re-election campaign.”

Brain snap

An Australian Football League player recently made headlines after landing a heavy left hook on an opponent few days ago. Here’s the a news video grab about that:

Olympics Torch Down Under (UPDATED)

The Olympics Torch is set to arrive in Canberra this Thursday. The torch is set to arrive in Australia on 23 April and will appear for about five hours the following day. The Australian Olympic Committee said in its website that “the route will include major cultural icons of Canberra including Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial, the Civic Centre and will be rowed across Lake Burley Griffin.”

The route, however, might change at the last minute if protests similar to the London, Paris and India leg will be repeated. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, however, declared that Chinese security officials would not be allowed to exercise any authority in securing the torch unless in cases of terrorist attack.

Activists found the best way of sending China their message to improve its recognition of human rights and call for its withdrawal from Tibet through the disruption of the Olympics Torch Relay.

UPDATE (24 April): There’s some confusion during the torch relay in Canberra today as despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s declaration that the Chinese security escorts the Chinese ‘blue guards’ tried to interfere with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in securing the torch. This made the AFP scuffling not only with Pro-Tibetan protesters but also with the Chinese escorts.

Some Australians did not welcome the action of the Chinese security escorts as Beijing Organizers insisted that the blue guards had a security role to play. Excerpt from news.com.au report are as follows:

But the blue tracksuited guards were seen by Australian relay organisers as a deliberate act of provocation by the Chinese, who have been told for months that they would not be allowed to have a security role.

From 20-20 to Top 20

A man has been charged over the weekend as a result of a police drama last Friday. The man threatened staff at the Australian Government Solicitor’s Office after an unfavorable court proceeding result. Police believed that he will return with a gun and the vicinity of the building was locked down for hours with hundreds evacuated. No gun was found.

In another news, a tragic accident literally arrived at the doorstep of a mother and her baby sending the baby flying meters away. The baby died on the spot and the man was apprehended by witnesses after trying to flee the scene. The mother received treatment for minor injuries.

Body to develop, preserve RP’s other languages

Last year, Inquirer.net reported that the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) was rethinking its purpose and was aiming to preserve RP’s other languages. This is a welcome news since we are slowly losing our identity as our culture is slowly swallowed by the different colonizers that came to ‘teach’ us the proper way. The alibata is almost extinct while there are some dialect that are slowly becoming a dialect only spoken among the senior generation. So, the move by the KWF is welcome news. Personally, I believe if we know our language well, then we have a chance for development and better understanding of other languages. Filipino is based on the Tagalog dialect, strictly speaking if we follow a pure Filipino language not everybody will be able to understand it. My Filipino teacher back in High School pointed out that in Tagalog, month and moon are spelled the same–buwan, so, how do you differentiate month from the moon? In Filipino, (if my memory serves me right), month is buwan and moon is bulan. Some of my Bicolano readers might say–ei that rings a bell. Well indeed it does because the Filipino language, ideally, is a mixture of all the dialect of the Philippines.

When the cat is away the mouse will play

As the saying goes and so what also legislators at the Australian Parliament did today as reported by news.com.au. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spent his Friday on an official visit to an indigenous community in New South Wales that the opposition went on “berserk” to “protest against his ‘rostered day off’.”