Singapore tells foreign firms not to back gay rights rally

SINGAPORE - Singapore has warned Google, Facebook and Goldman Sachs not to interfere in the conservative city-state's internal affairs after they and other multinational corporate giants sponsored a gay rights rally at the weekend.

The government "will take steps to make it clear that foreign entities should not fund, support or influence such events held at the Speakers' Corner", the interior ministry said in statement, referring to Singapore's only legal protest area.

The warning against foreign involvement with the annual Pink Dot rally comes as Singapore's government is taking an increasingly conservative stance against gay rights.

The ministry said it had released the statement on Sunday in response to media queries about whether foreign companies can legally provide sponsorship for the event, which was held this year on June 4 and also sponsored by Twitter, BP and major banks Barclays and J.P. Morgan.

"The Government's general position has always been that foreign entities should not interfere in our domestic issues, especially political issues or controversial social issues with political overtones," said the statement.

"These are political, social or moral choices for Singaporeans to decide for ourselves. LGBT issues are one such example," it added.

In a separate statement released on Thursday, the ministry said that no action will be taken against foreign companies that sponsored the event this year.

Pink Dot's organizers defended their choice of sponsors, saying they had done all they could to comply with Singapore's laws.

"Our Corporate Sponsors that have supported us over the years are all registered and incorporated in Singapore," Pink Dot said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

A Google spokesman said the company had supported the event since 2011, but declined to elaborate further. Other major companies who sponsored the event could not be reached for comment.

Started in 2009, the rally has grown despite a backlash from social and religious conservatives in the multi-racial nation of 5.5 million.

More than 28,000 attended last year's event but organizers said they did not keep track of attendance this year.

Gay rights movements in the wealthy city-state have grown steadily in recent years, helped by changing social norms among the younger generation and a large influx of tourists and expatriates.

However, in 2014 Singapore's top court upheld a law that criminalizes sex between men, and children's books with gay themes were moved to the adults section in public libraries.

In an interview with journalists last year, Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the country was not ready to legalize same-sex marriage, but added that the local gay community is not harassed or discriminated against.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Royals beat Mets, take first title in 30 years

NEW YORK -- Sparked by the most amazing rally yet in a comeback-filled playoff run, the Kansas City Royals captured their first World Series title in 30 years Sunday by defeating the New York Mets 7-2 in 12 innings.

The Royals took Major League Baseball's best-of-seven championship final four games to one after scoring twice in the ninth inning to equalize and breaking open the contest with five runs in the final inning.

Lorenzo Cain scored the Royals' first run in the crucial ninth inning and smacked a three-run double in the 12th that sealed New York's fate, ending the Mets' dream of their first World Series title since 1986.



 Instead, the Royals captured their first crown since 1985 with their record eighth come-from-behind playoff victory, including all four of their World Series triumphs. Seven of them were multi-run rallies to win.

Inspired by a seven-game loss to San Francisco in last year's World Series, the Royals became the first team since the 1989 Oakland A's to win the World Series a year after losing it. They are the first team since the 1961 Yankees to lose in a seventh game and win the title the next year.

Deadlocked 2-2 after nine innings, the game went into the 12th with the title poised on a knife's edge.

Kansas City's Salvador Perez singled down the right-field line off Mets reliever Addison Reed to open the 12th. Pinch-runner Jerrod Dyson replaced Perez and promptly stole second base, taking third when Eric Gordon grounded out to first.

Pinch-hitter Christian Colon then smacked a single to left field to score Dyson and give Kansas City their first lead at 3-2.

Brazilian Paulo Orlando then reached on a fielder's choice that advanced Colon on an error by Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy.

Alcides Escobar then stretched his playoff hit streak to 15 games with a run-scoring double to left and Ben Zobrist was intentionally walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Cain's double to left center field to clear the bases and produce the final margin.

New York's Curtis Granderson hit a leadoff home run in the first inning and scored again after walking in the fourth to give the Mets a 2-0 advantage.

Mets starting pitcher Matt Harvey, a 26-year-old right-hander, baffled the Royals for eight shutout innings, striking out nine while scattering four hits and two walks as only one runner got past first base.

- Comeback kings -

But in the ninth inning, the Royals added to their legend as comeback kings as Cain opened the ninth with a walk and stole second base, allowing him to race home on Eric Hosmer's double to left field and cut the Mets' lead to 2-1.

That prompted Mets manager Terry Collins to remove Harvey in favor of Dominican closing relief ace Jeurys Familia, who promptly surrendered a ground out to first by Mike Moustakas that advanced Hosmer to third base.

Perez then grounded out but Hosmer raced home and scored the tying run as an errant desperation throw home by Lucas Duda was way off target.

Kansas City right-handed pitcher Edinson Volquez, making his first appearance since attending his father Daniel's funeral in their native Dominican Republic, threw well over six innings.

Volquez, who drew his father's initials in the dirt on the back of the pitcher's mound, allowed two runs on two hits and walked five while striking out five.

Volquez was not told of his father's death Tuesday until after he threw six innings in Kansas City's 5-4 victory in the series opener. He was told after he left the game and flew the next day to his homeland, rejoining the team Saturday.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Royals outlast Mets in World Series thriller

KANSAS CITY -- Unflinching despite on-field setbacks and off-field heartbreak, the Kansas City Royals outlasted the New York Mets, 5-4, in 14 innings Tuesday to win game one of the 111th World Series.

Eric Hosmer drove in Alcides Escobar with a sacrifice fly to give the Royals an emotional victory in a thriller that matched the longest game by innings in the history of Major League Baseball's best-of-seven final.

"To grind through that game and win it in the 14th inning was big," Royals manager Ned Yost said. "Two things you don't want in game one of the World Series -- one is to go 14 innings and the other is to lose."

The intense match-up lasted five hours and nine minutes, the longest World Series opener by time or innings, and featured Escobar leading off with the first inside the park World Series home run in 86 years.


 But much of the joy was stolen from the achievement as players learned of the death of Royals starting pitcher Edinson Volquez's father just hours earlier -- the third Royals player parent to die in the past three months.

"I found out right before we won. In the locker room, during the celebration, we all talked about it," Royals slugger Alex Gordon said. "That's tough. But we're a family and we rallied around him and picked him up and hopefully everything is OK."

Volquez's 63-year-old father Daniel died of heart disease before the game in their native Dominican Republic. Volquez's wife asked that her husband not be told until he was out of the game, according to a Royals spokesman, and Volquez departed before the game ended.

The Royals lost pitcher Chris Young's father Charles to cancer last month and third baseman Mike Moustakas' mother Connie died of cancer in August.

Hosmer redeems error

Juan Lagares gave New York a 4-3 lead in the eighth, scoring from second base on a fielding error by first baseman Hosmer.

But the drama stretched to extra innings when Gordon blasted a one-out homer over the centerfield wall in the ninth inning, the latest tying homer in a Series game since 2001. It came off Mets closing relief ace Jeurys Familia, his first blown save opportunity since July 30.

"He doesn't give up home runs so we were all shocked by it. We liked where we were at," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "We've got to put them away. We've got to do a better job. In the same situation, he'll be back out there."

Kansas City's Paulo Orlando, the first Brazilian player in World Series history, reached third with the bases loaded in the 12th but could not score and missed a chance to be the hero again in the 13th, grounding out to end the inning with a runner in scoring position.

The tension finally ended when Escobar reached first on a throwing error by Mets third baseman David Wright, took third on Ben Zobrist's single and scored the winning run on Hosmer's fly out to right field.

"Obviously I wanted to redeem myself for what happened earlier," Hosmer said. "I can't thank my teammates enough for picking me up and giving me another opportunity."

Young, the Royals' scheduled game four starter, hurled three shutout innings of relief but his status for Saturday is now uncertain.

Kansas City hosts game two Wednesday in the best-of-seven final before it shifts to New York. The Royals won their only World Series in 1985. The Mets last captured the crown in 1986.

Escobar's rare feat

The game matched the innings record set by legend Babe Ruth's complete-game victory for Boston over Brooklyn in game two of the 1916 World Series and matched in the Chicago White Sox's 7-5 triumph at Houston in game three in 2005.

Venezuela's Escobar smashed the first pitch by Mets starter Matt Harvey, a 95-mph fastball, for an inside the park home run, only the 12th in World Series history.

It was the first World Series inside the park homer since George "Mule" Haas hit one for the Philadelphia A's in game four of the 1929 World Series and the first inside the park leadoff homer since Boston's Patsy Dougherty in game two of the first World Series in 1903.

"Certainly to start the game like that on the first pitch was a little bit stunning," Collins said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com