Panic on Hong Kong subway as fire injures 9

Panic struck evening rush hour commuters on Hong Kong's subway system Friday after a fire broke out in a passenger cabin, injuring nine people and prompting the evacuation of a major station.

Videos circulating online showed chaos on the platform at Tsim Sha Tsui station, with parts of the cabin on fire and one passenger lying on the platform with his clothes ablaze as bystanders tried to help him.

"Passengers were asked to evacuate from the Tsim Sha Tsui station," a police spokeswoman told AFP.

Other images from official broadcaster RTHK showed people packed in a smoke-filled train cabin, and described the situation as "chaotic".

The report said the fire had been extinguished by staff.

The incident is a rare occurrence in Asia's finance hub, where the transportation network is known for its safety and efficiency.

Mass Transit Railway (MTR), the company which operates the city's subway, announced in its stations that "staff are handling the situation" and that trains were skipping Tsim Sha Tsui station, which services a popular retail district.

The MTR said the fire had caused disruptions on one of its lines and called on commuters to consider switching to other forms of transport.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

At least one person shot at West Texas school: report

AUSTIN, Texas - At least one person was shot on Thursday at a high school in the West Texas town of Alpine, which was on lockdown because of reports of an active shooter, TV station KWES reported.

Alpine High School has been evacuated and other schools are also on lockdown, the report said. It said the shooter was on the loose. Other media reports said there may be a second suspect who is also on the loose.

The Brewster County Sheriff's Office confirmed there were reports of a shooter at one of the Alpine schools.

Students reported hearing about two or three shots, KWES reported.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why this book is irking Manhattan's super-rich

NEW YORK - It's a mommy memoir causing a rumpus in New York: how pill-popping, wine-quaffing, uber-rich mothers on Manhattan's Upper East Side get year-end bonuses from their husbands and hire tutors for toddlers.

"Primates of Park Avenue" is the latest in a long line of books devoted to the unimaginable wealth of the one percent in a city where some estimate that more than 20 percent of children live in homes without enough to eat.

Author Wednesday Martin seeks to distinguish the book from the jungle of other literature about extravagant excesses by mixing anecdote with anthropology.

The blonde mother of two with a husband in finance peppers her eyebrow-raising assertions with observations made by the English primatologist Jane Goodall in her study of chimpanzees in Tanzania.

She equates her quest to acquire an ultra-exclusive Hermes "Birkin" handbag -- which can sell for $150,000 or more -- to a chimp seeking to show strength in the wild.

Martin details gender segregation at dinner parties, where men and women sit at separate tables, and portrays women as "Manhattan geishas" who sculpt their bodies and beauty to the extreme.

Thin and anxious, mommies self-medicate with wine -- served at playdates, even as early as 11 am -- and prescription drugs.

She feigns horror in discovering her son has the wrong birthday in a culture of "redshirting" -- timing pregnancies so children are born in the autumn, so they are the oldest, and presumably the most intellectually developed, in their age group.

Reviews of the book -- presented as an "anthropological memoir" -- have been decidedly mixed.

"An amusing, perceptive and, at times, thrillingly evil takedown of upper-class culture," wrote The New York Times.

"Sexist and harsh," said Elle magazine.

The New York Post fact fact-checked the book and alleged that it was "full of lies," among others that Martin had lived on the Upper East Side for three years with one child, not six years with two children.

Neither was she pregnant and confined to bed rest, dressed in pearls and a jacket when being interviewed for a condo, as the book said.

Author 'has not lied'

Martin and publishers Simon and Schuster have stood by the book, but say future copies will come with an author's note to explain that some names, characteristics and chronologies had been changed.

Cary Goldstein, executive director of publicity at Simon and Schuster, said that such notes were "totally customary" for memoirs.

"The author has not lied. There isn't a movement or backlash against Wednesday Martin," Goldstein told AFP.

The brouhaha has certainly been good for sales. Released on June 2, it is already number one on Amazon's list of best-selling memoirs.

"The book is doing very well," Goldstein said. The publishers are in the sixth printing run, with 63,000 copies produced.

An essay written by Martin introducing the book is the third most emailed article on The New York Times website in the last 30 days.

"Many people are fascinated and some people may have been appalled by the lifestyles of the very wealthy. People live vicariously or they live in judgment," Goldstein said.

What is clear is that the slim tome about New York's wealthiest zip code has sparked fury, bafflement and confusion from ladies who have flocked to the papers saying she's got it all wrong.

"I think it's an effort to dehumanize these people -- it seems to be a divisive book designed to humiliate a group of people," People magazine quoted an anonymous uptown mom as complaining.

In particular, wealthy women scoff at her much-hyped, passing remark that glam stay-at-home moms get a percentage of their husband's year-end bonus for looking good and taking care of the kids.

"I don't know anybody, and I mean anybody, who has something like that written in their pre-nup. And I know a lot of people," Vanity Fair quoted Upper East Sider Allison Aston as saying.

"It might be happening in extreme cases, but it's certainly not the norm."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Sony works to restore PlayStation after attack

BOSTON -- Sony Corp worked for a third day on Saturday to restore services to its PlayStation network as the FBI said it was looking into the disruption, which began on Christmas Day.

"We are aware of the reports and are investigating the Sony PlayStation matter," Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jenny Shearer said via email. She did not elaborate.

Meanwhile, Sony said on Saturday that the attack had prevented some people who received consoles for Christmas from using their new machines on the PlayStation network, which lets gamers compete with people around the world via the Internet.

"If you received a PlayStation console over the holidays and have been unable to log onto the network, know that this problem is temporary and is not caused by your game console," Sony executive Catherine Jensen said on the company's U.S. PlayStation blog.

Some customers posted complaints about the outage on the blog. "Three days without PSN. That's absurd," said one of them.

"We understand your frustration," Jensen responded early Saturday afternoon. "Our engineers are working to restore service as quickly as possible!"

Later in the day she said the company had restored access for some users and would keep bringing more back online. Sony declined to say how many of PSN's 56 millions users had been affected by the attack.

The blog said the problems were the result of "high levels of traffic designed to disrupt connectivity and online game play," which is widely known as a distributed denial-of-service attack.

It was Sony's second recent high-profile encounter with hackers after an unprecedented attack on its Hollywood studio, which the U.S. government attributed to North Korea and linked to the release of the low-brow comedy "The Interview."

A hacker activist group known as Lizard Squad said it was responsible for the PSN outage as well as delays on Microsoft's Corp's Xbox network; Microsoft quickly fixed the problem.

The group has claimed responsibility for previous attacks, including ones on PSN in early December and August.

The August attack coincided with a bomb scare in which Lizard Squad tweeted to American Airlines that it heard explosives were on board a Dallas-to-San Diego flight carrying an executive with Sony Online Entertainment.

Sony has been the victim of some of the most notorious cyberattacks in history. Besides the breach at its Hollywood studio, hackers stole data belonging to 77 million PlayStation Network users in 2011.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Several Britons missing after Philippines typhoon

Several British nationals are missing following the typhoon that has killed thousands in the Philippines, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday.

"The foreign secretary confirmed that a number of British nationals remained unaccounted for," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

A ministry spokesman declined to specify how many Britons were missing.

In a phone call to his Philippine counterpart Albert del Rosario, Hague offered his condolences in the wake of the devastating Super Typhoon Haiyan of November 8 and asked for "every possible assistance" to be given to Britons caught up in the disaster, the ministry said.

Britain's Channel Four News had on Friday reported that British pharmacist Colin Bembridge, 61, had gone missing with his Filipino partner Maybelle and their three-year-old daughter while visiting relatives near the now-devastated city of Tacloban.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Saturday announced that Britain was providing a further £30 million ($48 million, 36 million euros) to help the relief effort, in addition to the £23 million already pledged.

A British warship, HMS Daring, is due to arrive at the Philippines' Cebu island on Sunday after making its way from Singapore.

Helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious -- the largest ship in the British navy -- was also due to be deployed along with a Royal Air Force C-17 transport aircraft.

Authorities in the Philippines have put the official death toll at 3,633, with 1,179 people missing and nearly 12,500 injured.

The UN has put the number of dead at 4,460 and said Saturday that 2.5 million people still "urgently" required food assistance.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Who says you can only retire at 65?

MANILA, Philippines - Retiring at an early age is perhaps every working man’s dream.

Under Philippine laws, the compulsory retirement age is 65, but some companies have set the clock to age 60. Instead of waiting until you are 65, or 60 depending on the company you work for, why not shave several years off and retire at the age of 55 or 50?

At this time, you still have the strength and the wits to give your wildest dreams a chase. If you wait until 65, you might already have incurred a couple of health conditions that may hinder you from fully enjoying the fruits of your labor.

Exactly how much money will you need to put away?

There are a number of retirement calculators online to help you arrive at your magic number. But if you want to keep things simple, you may just do the following: Multiply 80 percent of your pre-retirement income to the number of years you expect to live after 50. This is the common advise found in most personal finance books, and a good rule of thumb to get you started.

Now that you’ve got your magic number, you will need to do some serious planning matched by strong willpower to get to your goal of retiring by 50. Here are some ideas that may help you along:

Save now! Saving up for retirement is one of the easiest things to put off because it seems so far away. But given your “Retire by 50” deadline, you’ll be more motivated to get a move on. Besides, saving now means you will enjoy the full benefits of compounding interest.

Follow your money trail. There are two ways for you to save: you either cut back on your expenses or pump up your earnings.

The first, though seemingly simple, requires a strong sense of discipline and some good old fashioned common sense thinking. Think twice, for example, about incurring recurring expenses. If you become a member of a fitness club, you are not only enrolling yourself in a bunch of Zumba or yoga classes, you are also buying into a whole new lifestyle. You’ll need to dress a certain way, get a health juice after your workout, and pay for parking. That’s quite an investment so think hard before you commit.

Earning more, on the other hand, requires creativity, ingenuity, and a whole lot of hard work. Apart from doing weekend work using your skills and talent, consider introducing a product or service that addresses a personal concern. This is exactly how the mompreneur phenomenon came about.

Women started making products that answered their own concerns because traditional manufacturers weren’t making them such as clothes for breastfeeding mothers, and special detergent for baby clothes. A lot of fortunes have been made this way.

Invest time to make more money. If you want to make your money work hard for you, you have got to know the ins and outs of investment. Read books on personal finance. Scour the internet for credible and helpful sites. You might find the language hard to understand at first, but in time, you will be able to have a good grasp of the industry.

Check out and sign up for money workshops — and make sure you get your money’s worth by asking the resource speakers all your burning questions. It may also be a good idea to seek the services of a financial advisor who can give more critical insights.

Analyze different retirement plans. There are several financial products available in the market that can be tailored as a retirement plan, with a menu of benefits thrown in including life insurance and hospitalization coverage.

In 2008, the Personal Equity and Retirement Account (PERA) was signed into law. A voluntary retirement account, PERA contributions are invested in “eligible/qualified” investment instruments including shares of stock in mutual funds, annuity contracts, insurance pension products, shares of stock or other securities listed and traded in the local stock exchange, exchange-traded bond, and government securities.

PERA contributors enjoy tax exemption privileges from the earnings of all PERA investments. However, PERA only accepts a maximum contribution of P100,000 (for Filipinos living in the country) and P200,000 (for overseas Filipinos). Go over the details of these plans with a critical eye before deciding which one is right for you.

An investment portfolio with a good mix of stocks, bonds, and other assets is ideal. Real estate, especially those that generate rental income, is another option worth looking into as time is on your side.

If you prefer the stock market, make sure you stay in the game. Don’t be tempted to pull out when you take a hit. Be patient, be discriminating, and you’ll reap the rewards soon enough. Be on your toes always. Analyze the risks and growth rates of your investment portfolio on a regular basis.

When you’re younger, you might go for higher risk investments with a better rate of return. After all, you would still have time to recover should the market play tricks on you. As the years wear on, however, you would have to take on a more conservative tack. You wouldn’t want to risk your money as your retirement date nears.

Put together, these strategies would help you achieve your goal of retiring at 50. Even if you don’t reach your magic number by your deadline, don’t get frustrated. Saving for retirement never hurt anybody—and you’ll still be ahead of everybody else!

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com