GRAPEVINE, TEXAS—They were supposed to be fierce rivals, but Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey appeared more like friends when they met at the final press conference of The Event at the cavernous $1.2-billion Cowboys Stadium here Wednesday.

The Kris and Noynoy show is off and running as the presidential race tightened two months before the May elections.

The good news is, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed old hands to the new Cabinet and sub-Cabinet vacancies. With less than four months left in her term, this is the approach that best guarantees continuity in policy and best prepares the agencies of the executive branch for a transition. The bad news is, some of the old hands do not strike us as transitional figures at all.

More poll machines have passed laboratory tests and are ready for use in the upcoming elections in May, the automation partner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said on Thursday.

Following a 4-percent drop in tourism in 2009 and a loss in earnings of 6 percent, the United Nations World Tourism Organization foresees a growth of 3 to 4 percent in international tourism this year, possibly higher in emerging regions like Asia.

AT THE KAYA KOREAN RESTAURANT, A lecture-demonstration by Dr. Kim Jae Woo from Korea on natural facelift gathered nearly a full room 30 minutes before the start.

The country’s budget deficit reached P37.1 billion in January—slightly lower than the P38.1 billion posted in the same month of 2009.

AFTER MAKING MOVIES FOR 11 YEARS, Erik Matti has finally done a film he can call his own. He titled it “The Arrival.”