Sabtu, 6 Julai 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Obsessed over good looks

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Poll finds wealthy Filipino women are probably the most meticulous about cleanliness and maintaining their looks compared to their counterparts in Southeast Asia.

Rich Filipino women are probably the most meticulous about cleanliness and maintaining their looks in Southeast Asia, using approximately nine different brands of personal care products, the highest in the region.

This was one of the key findings of the 2013 edition of the High Heeled Warriors research on urban women by NBCUniversal International Television, the world's largest entertainment company that operates cable television channels such as Universal Channel and Diva Universal.

According to the study, the wealthy Filipino women score highly when it comes to the purchase of personal care products such as shampoo, soap, conditioner, deodorant, toothpaste, lotion, cologne and mouthwash, compared with their counterparts in the other markets covered by the survey – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

In response to the question on the number of personal care product brands they used in the past three months, Filipino women said they used nine of the 23 brands included in the survey, 50% more than the average in the other markets of six brands.

The study covered 3,000 female participants aged 20 to 44 from the five countries and the findings were based on their motivations, aspirations, attitudes and usage of consumer products.

The respondents watched pay television and came from urban centres.

In the Philippines, 600 respondents were included and 66% of them reside in Metro Manila. Their average monthly household income was US$3,400 (RM10,800).

The study also found that a third of Filipino women indicated that they were "passionistas", defined in the research as women who wanted to live in the moment and have no regrets. They were motivated by their career, opportunities to see the world and living it up. They wanted to be independent and to pursue their passions.

The 32% level in the Philippines was the highest among the five markets. The average level of passionistas in the five markets was 26%, according to Henry Robles, NBCUniversal research director for audience research and analysis.

The next biggest group of women in the Philippines was defined as "social siders". They are those who believe that life is great, are described as sociable, optimistic and content with their lives. They want to play hard and work hard.

An indication of Filipino women being a social sider was the high network of friends on social networking site Facebook.

While women in Southeast Asia have an average of 389 Facebook friends, Filipino women have an average of 523 friends on Facebook.

Having a high number of passionistas and social siders in the Philippines helped explain the extensive use of personal care products.

"Filipino women use more personal care products because many live an active life, hence they need to use these products," Robles said.

The study also showed that Filipino women have a burning desire to be financially independent. They do not want to rely on their family or spouse for support, with 87% of the women saying that they want to have their own money, way above the average in the region of just 74%.

When it came to luxury spending, the study found that 63% of the women owned at least one luxury product and had spent at least 55,000 pesos (RM4,000) on luxury goods.

Robles said that in the Philippines, 41% of women had observed that there were more men choosing to become stay-at-home fathers, higher than the 32% for the region.

The study also said women liked to plan for their future but had expressed dissatisfaction over the way their needs were being serviced by financial companies that have traditionally focused on men.

Women have become the most important market in the world, controlling an estimated US$20 trillion (RM63.8 trillion) of combined consumer spending worldwide, said Christine Fellowes, managing director, Asia Pacific of Universal Networks International.

Quoting an executive from Coca-Cola, Fellowes said that it was not a question of women coming up in the world, but rather a question of how high they will go.

The Japanisation of the film world

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TAIPEH: Recently two Hollywood titans, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, publicly bemoaned the movie industry's growing reliance on big-budget, special effects-heavy blockbusters. Blockbusters will be bad for the industry because "the experience will trump the story or the ability to compel people through a narrative. It's going to be more of a ride, a theme park", Spielberg said.

Blockbusters are sucking the air out of other conventionally popular genres such as romantic comedies and dramas.

Many have criticised the reign of testosterone-filled CGI feasts based on comic book characters, theme park rides, toys and fast cars.

But the fact that Spielberg and Lucas are complaining raised eyebrows because the two practically created the genre of modern blockbusters.

The original Star Wars trilogy set the standard for modern sci-fi fantasies made real with the help of special effects, as well as for the business model of turning film series into bankable brands. While big spectacle movies have long existed, Spielberg is widely seen as the trailblazer of the current summer blockbusters as a trend and genre of its own with his landmark 1975 film Jaws.

The computer-generated dinosaurs in his 1993 movie Jurassic Park, on the other hand, heralded the era of CGI movies.

Hollywood's current reliance on CGI-laden blockbusters is in part a response to the rise of piracy and the changes to social structure in the past two decades. An increasing number of moviegoers are more willing to pay for blockbusters for the full benefit of big theatre screens and sound effects, while watching dramas and comedies on smaller screens (which, with piracy, can mean not paying for them).

The growth of families with single unmarried children means the family crowds that moviemakers traditionally counted on are declining in number, making single or "single-taste" movie watchers (a group of friends with similar tastes) the target audience.

Add the fact that women are more inclined to accompany a friend to "boy movies" than men are to "chick flicks", and man-child-oriented blockbusters become the safest bet for the industry.

In fact, what we are seeing is not as much the rise of blockbusters but the Japanisation of blockbusters. The US movie industry has long been producing grand spectacles, including classics such as The Ten Commandments and Ben-Hur.

What makes today's blockbusters different is not the concentration of special effects but the dilution of intelligence in storytelling.

Some Taiwanese movie viewers have noticed the similarity between the recently released Superman movie and the Japanese manga Dragon Ball Z – especially the Earth-damaging fight sequences.

The iconic comic book superhero has lost the innocence seen in the portrayal by Christopher Reeve and has transformed from a crime-fighting American hero into an alien fighting for Earth in an interstellar war.

The director of another upcoming blockbuster about giant alien monsters, Guillermo del Toro, said publicly that his film pays homage to Japanese monster films and shows.

Hollywood has taken a page from a time-honoured formula in Japanese manga and anime aimed at men in which spectacle is king and the plot is mostly a never-ending arms race.

The Japanisation of blockbusters reflects not only a business-dominated mindset but, more profoundly, a social phenomenon.

The developed world is increasingly populated by man-children raised in an individualist culture that makes them feel "special."

Even comforting superheros, like Superman, no longer appeal to them. This new generation of adults and teens fantasise more about being anime heroes that can single-handedly destroy a world.

In this light, these blockbusters are appealing not just because they are spectacular but because they confirm what many have felt. They reflect not only a dangerous business model for Hollywood but also a dangerous prospect for the real world where "I" is king.

Egypt risks the fire of radicalism

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Renewed violence by those who feel short-changed by democracy and secularism is a real prospect if Morsi is humiliated.

FULL disclosure: I am not a fan of the Muslim Brotherhood. I oppose their politicisation of my religion. I take comfort in the fact that millions of Egyptian Muslims are protesting against the ideology and policies of a government led by a Muslim Brotherhood president. Islamism is being roundly rejected by ordinary Arab Muslims. That's the good news. But there is bad news, too.

My Egyptian friends may not wish to admit this, but their country is home to a modern experiment. It was Egypt in 1928 that gave birth to the Muslim Brotherhood. It was successive Egyptian military rulers who arrested, tortured, killed and exiled thousands of members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was in the prisons of Egypt that contemporary jihadism was born as Sayyid Qutb was hanged in 1966 for criticising Egyptian society and its government.

Out of that violent history, the Brotherhood reformed and came to accept the ballot box, abandoned the use of bullets to assassinate politicians. They may not be Jeffersonian democrats, but they now believe in consensual government. For all their faults, they contested and won the presidency in June 2012. Mohamed Morsi has been an experiment to see if Islamism can exist within a secular framework. This is bigger than Egypt: What happens here will affect the direction of Islamist groups everywhere.

Granted, Morsi has not been as successful as hoped. His presidency has seen the rise of Salafist radicalism, attacks on religious minorities, power grabs in the absence of parliamentary scrutiny, fuel shortages, breakdown in law and order, flight of capital and investment, sharp declines in tourism and ongoing mass protests. He is surrounded by arrogant advisers who see governing Egypt as their entitlement, their reward for having been imprisoned by Hosni Mubarak.

The anger of the millions of protesters is understandable. But emotions are not a strategy for government. Now that Morsi has been toppled, who will replace him?

There is no credible alternative political leader. The opposition has not done the hard work of mobilising, uniting and producing leadership. Returning to military rule may seem like an attractive option to many secularists who prefer dictatorship to an Islamist democracy, but they forget that Egypt is undergoing an experiment in reconciling political Islam with modern government.

The Muslim Brotherhood's campaign of mass counter-demonstrations to save Morsi's presidency has focused on the slogan "supporting legitimacy". And Morsi himself has stressed that there is "no alternative to legitimacy". The message is that Morsi was a legitimately elected president and to overthrow him without elections was illegitimate. Not only is this politically dangerous, it is religious dynamite.

Various Salafist clerics have vowed to support Morsi's government. On one level, this is promising: hard-line religious players supporting a secular presidency. But if their man falls, they will see his successor as "illegitimate" and will resort to violence and be in open warfare with Morsi's military (or interim civilian) successors. Morsi himself has vowed to die to preserve this "legitimacy". We cannot take this lightly.

Renewed violence by Islamists who feel short-changed by democracy and secularism is a real prospect if Morsi is humiliated. He is now a symbol of regional Islamism at the ballot box, not just the president of an Arab republic.

Arab secularists ignore this greater narrative at their peril. Egypt's military, judiciary, media and civil society leadership had repeatedly blocked Morsi's attempts to re-elect a lower house of Parliament or invitations for dialogue to resolve a year-long political impasse. The disorganised, leaderless opposition is united around one issue: Morsi must step down.

President Mubarak used to say that if he were removed from power, then the Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood would succeed him. He was right. Today, the Brotherhood is warning us that if their man falls from power, then the Salafists would be the replacement. This is not a theory I would want to test.

Egypt's political class needs to grow up, and offer us more than the just the largest ever crowds at the latest protests for and against Morsi.

Meanwhile, the United States has been right not to call for Morsi to resign. At stake is nothing less than bringing Islamism into the modern world – and ridding it of its anti-Americanism.

When I met with Brotherhood leaders earlier this year, they repeatedly asked for greater US strategic assistance to help govern Egypt and saw America as an ally. It is important that the United States seize this historic chance to tame the tiger of Islamist anti-Americanism.

There is evidence that the Brotherhood's attitudes have shifted: Politics appear to have trumped ideology. Morsi has not only upheld the Camp David peace accords with Israel, under his tutelage Egypt's intelligence services helped broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel last December. His government went further and closed the tunnels Hamas had used to smuggle weapons to Gaza.

When anti-American riots broke out last September over the film Innocence of Muslims, the Brotherhood cancelled protests at President Obama's request. The British and American ambassadors in Cairo enjoy the confidence of the Brotherhood's leadership: a historical first. These are building blocks for American soft power. Islamism in power has helped dilute anti-Western ideology.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is the mother ship of the region's Islamist organisations. Where it leads, others can follow. If the Brotherhood's tenure in office is abruptly ended due to pressure from a secular military, opposition, media and judiciary, then the more extremist Islamists in the Arab world will say: "We told you so. Democracy does not work. The only way to create an Islamist state is through armed struggle."

That conclusion is dangerous for Arab secularists, harmful to Western interests in the Middle East, and destroys the progress made in moderating Islamist ideology. Egypt is at the epicentre of a global battle of the soul of Muslim societies. Bringing down Morsi will have consequences far beyond Egypt. The stakes are high. — © 2013 The International Herald Tribune

> Ed Husain is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews


A century of film

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Bollywood has always been one of the most thriving – and colourful – film industries in the world.

India's movie industry toasted its 100th birthday last week with the release of two films celebrating its humble origins in the silent era and the influence of glamorous modern-day Bollywood.

Bombay Talkies comprises four short stories inspired by India's love of cinema, created by some of the country's leading filmmakers.

"You usually celebrate birthdays and that's what we are doing today. Indian cinema turns 100 and we are acknowledging that," said Zoya Akhtar, who directed the film along with Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee.

The acclaimed cast includes Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rani Mukherjee, with a cameo from acting legend Amitabh Bachchan.

The film's theme song features Bollywood A-listers such as Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor.

The movie will have a special gala screening at the Cannes Film Festival, which kicked off on Wednesday, where India is to be honoured as the "guest country" in its landmark year.

"The four short stories are about passion for cinema and ingredients like drama, music, dance and entertainment. All of these ingredients are a huge part of our films and culture," said co-producer Ashi Dua.

Its release comes 100 years to the day since the opening in Bombay (now Mumbai) of Raja Harishchandra, the first all-Indian silent feature film, based on the tale of a virtuous king from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

It marked the birth of one of the world's most vibrant film industries, which produced almost 1,500 movies last year in various languages and corners of the country, with Hindi-language Bollywood leading the way.

While Bombay Talkies explores life in the present, the second film that was shown was the award-winning Celluloid Man, which pays tribute to the founder of the National Film Archive of India, P.K. Nair.

The documentary, so far only shown at festivals, showcases Nair's lifetime dedication to preserving films that date back to the silent era, and it is peppered with clips from historic black-and-white productions.

Thanks to the efforts of 80-year-old Nair, nine silent films out of 1,700 made in India have been preserved, although no records remain of many others.

"Almost 70% of the films made before 1950 are lost, including some real gems like the first 'talkie'," Nair told AFP, referring to the first Indian film with sound, 1931's Alam Ara (The Light Of The World).

He said digital technology would help to preserve the cinematic gems that still exist for future generations.

"There are currently about 12,000 films awaiting digitisation."

The annual National Film Awards was also held last week in New Delhi, following a six-day festival showcasing the colourful history of Indian cinema.

In the awards, the best Hindi feature went to Paan Singh Tomar which stars Irrfan Khan (who tied for the best actor award with Vikram Gokhale in Anumati). The film revolves around the life of Indian soldier and athlete Paan Singh Tomar who became a notorious bandit. Meanwhile, Usha Jadhav won best actress for her role in the Marathi film Dhag, whose director Shivaji Lotan Patil won the best director award. The ceremony also celebrated works from various regional film hubs, in languages including Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu and Bengali. – AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates


Two killed, many injured as S. Korean airliner crashes, burns in San Francisco

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 with 307 people on board crashed and burst into flames as it landed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday after a flight from Seoul, killing two people and sending more than 180 to local hospitals.

Witnesses said the tail of the plane appeared to hit the approach area of the runway, which juts out into San Francisco Bay, as it came in for landing. The tail came off and the aircraft left a trail of debris before coming to rest beside the runway.

Pictures taken by survivors immediately after the crash showed passengers emerging from the wrecked plane and hurrying away. Thick smoke then billowed from the wreckage, and TV footage later showed the fuselage of the aircraft gutted and blackened by fire.

There was no immediate indication of the cause of the accident, and federal officials were travelling from Washington to investigate. One survivor said the pilot seemed to be trying to gain height just before crash.

Asiana Airlines said the flight, which had originated in Shanghai, had carried 291 passengers and 16 crew members. Most were Chinese, Korean and U.S. nationals.

Dale Carnes, assistant deputy chief of the San Francisco Fire Department Chief, said two people were killed in the crash, and 49 were transported immediately to area hospitals with serious injuries. Another 132 people were later taken to hospitals with moderate and minor injuries.

Five people were in critical condition at San Francisco General Hospital, according to spokeswoman Rachael Kagan. She said a total of 52 people were treated for burns, fractures and internal injuries.

Three people were in critical condition at Stanford Hospital.

The crash was the first-ever fatal accident involving the Boeing 777, a popular long-range jet that has been in service since 1995. It was the first fatal commercial airline accident in the United States since a regional plane operated by Colgan Air crashed in New York in 2009.

San Francisco International Airport, a major West Coast hub and gateway to Asia, was shut down for several hours after the crash and flights were diverted to Los Angeles, Seattle, Oakland and San Jose. By late afternoon two runways had reopened even as scores of safety workers scoured the airfield for debris.

'TOO LOW AND TOO FAST'

Survivor Benjamin Levy told a local NBC station by phone that he believed the plane had been coming in too low.

"I know the airport pretty well, so I realized the guy was a bit too low, too fast, and somehow he was not going to hit the runway on time, so he was too low ... he put some gas and tried to go up again," he said.

"But it was too late, so we hit the runway pretty bad, and then we started going up in the air again, and then landed again, pretty hard," Levy said.

He said he opened an emergency door and ushered people out. "We got pretty much everyone in the back section of the plane out," he said. "When we got out there was some smoke. There was no fire then, the fire came afterward."

Photos and TV images showed that emergency chutes had been deployed from at least two of the aircraft's exits.

Ying Kong of the Bay Area city of Albany, who was waiting at the airport for her brother-in-law, Fawen Yan, 47, from Richmond, California, said he telephoned her after surviving the crash to say it had been "really smoky and scary."

"He feels it difficult to breathe, but he's okay," she said. She added: "He said a lot of people had to run."

Asiana Airlines said the passengers included 141 Chinese, 77 South Koreans, 61 U.S. citizens and one Japanese citizen. It did not give the nationality of the others.

At an evening media briefing, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said: "It is incredible and very lucky that we have so many survivors."

INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY

The Asiana flight departed from Seoul at 5:04 p.m. Korean time and touched down in San Francisco at 11:28 a.m PDT, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks flights. The flight lasted 10 hours and 24 minutes, it said.

Deborah Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said the agency was sending a team of investigators to San Francisco and that it is too early to determine the cause of the crash.

"We will be looking at everything," she told reporters at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington. "Everything is on the table. We have to gather the facts before we reach any conclusions."

The FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said her agency was also sending investigators.

Boeing expressed concern for those on board the flight and added that it will provide technical assistance to the NTSB as it investigates the accident.

A San Francisco airport spokesman said that a component of the facility's instrument landing system that tracks an incoming airplane's glide path has been out of service in recent weeks and was not operational on Saturday.

Pilots and air safety experts said the glide path technology was far from essential for a safe landing in good weather. But Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a retired pilot and safety consultant who gained fame for landing a plane safely in the Hudson River in 2009, said investigators would certainly be looking into the issue.

"The pilots would have had to rely solely on visual cues to fly the proper glide path to the runway, and not have had available to them the electronic information that they typically have even in good weather at most major airports," he told the local CBS News affiliate.

A British Airways 777-200ER crash-landed a few yards short of a runway at London's Heathrow Airport in 2008. All on board survived. Investigators blamed the crash on fuel blockages caused by ice particles formed during the long flight from Beijing - a finding that led to changes in the design of the Rolls-Royce engines used on some 777s.

The Asiana 777-200ER that crashed in San Francisco on Saturday was powered by engines from Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies.

(Reporting by Alistain Barr, Sarah McBride, Ronnia Cohen, Poornima Gupta, Laila Kearney, Dan Levine, Gerry Shih, Jonathan Weber and Peter Henderson in San Francisco. Jackie Frank and Toni Clarke in Washington, Kevin Gray in Miami and Alex Dobuzinskis in San Francisco; Editing by David Storey and Philip Barbara)

Oil-laden freight train explodes in Canadian town, people killed

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LAC-MEGANTIC, Quebec (Reuters) - A fast-moving, driverless train hauling tankers of crude oil derailed and exploded into a sky-high fireball in the middle of a small Canadian town early on Saturday, destroying dozens of buildings and killing several people.

The disaster took place soon after 1 a.m. (0500 GMT) when the runaway freight train with 72 cars and five locomotives hurtled into Lac-Megantic, a lakeside town of about 6,000 in the province of Quebec, and left the tracks.

Police spokesman Guy Lapointe said one person had died, and that toll would rise, but he declined to comment on media reports that anywhere between 40 and 80 people were missing.

"We have already confirmed one death and we expect there will be others," he told a news conference. "We also expect that the number of people reported missing will be greater than the final death toll."

Crude oil shipments by rail have become increasingly popular in North America as pipelines fill to capacity and more and more oil is produced in western regions like Alberta and North Dakota. But accidents on this scale are rare.

Four of the cars - which each carried 30,000 gallons of North Dakotan crude oil - caught fire and blew up in a fireball that mushroomed many hundreds of feet into the air.

It destroyed dozens of buildings, many of them totally flattened, included stores, a library and the popular Musi-Cafe music bar, eyewitnesses said. The town centre was crowded with weekend partygoers at the time.

Lapointe said it was hard to calculate the number of possible victims because the area was still too dangerous for police to examine properly. Some people had been reported missing more than once, and some were nowhere near the town.

The blast ruptured a water main, creating a shortage of drinking water, forcing the town to bring in special tankers.

The centre of town remained blocked off, but from the air, it was clear that many buildings had been reduced to little more than piles of bricks and wood. Residents' photos showed the burnt out hulks of cars next to smashed houses.

After the blast, burning crude spilled into the storm sewers and rose up through street manholes, setting buildings on fire, the head of the rail company that ran the train told Reuters.

Edward Burkhardt, chairman of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, said an engineer had parked the train some distance from the town a few hours before the disaster.

"He claims he set the brakes on all five of the engines. He also claims he set the brakes on a sufficient number of cars on the train," he told Reuters in an interview.

Officials said they had few reports of injured victims, suggesting that people caught up in the blast either died on the spot or managed to escape. One woman told Radio-Canada that she had been unable to contact around 15 of her friends.

Stunned town residents cried in the streets as the impact of the blast sank in. Some hugged each other for comfort.

The rail tracks pass next to the Musi-Cafe, which is popular with young people. Eyewitness Yvon Rosa said he had just left when he saw the train speeding into the middle of the town.

"I have never seen a train travelling that quickly into the centre of Lac-Megantic," he told Radio-Canada, saying he watched as the train careened around a bend. "I saw the wagons come off the tracks ... everything exploded. In just one minute the centre of the town was covered in fire."

Residents said they had heard five or six large blasts. More than 21 hours after the derailment, one car was still burning and fire-fighters, some of them from the United States, were still spraying cold water from the lake on five unexploded tanker cars they said posed a particular danger.

CENTER OF TOWN 'ALMOST DESTROYED'

Police imposed a 1/2-mile (1-km) security zone around the blast and evacuated a total of about 2,000 people from their homes.

"When you see the centre of your town almost destroyed, you'll understand that we're asking ourselves how we are going to get through this event," a tearful Town Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche told a televised news briefing earlier in the day.

The Canadian Transportation Safety Board, which probes all accidents, said it was looking for the train's "black box" data recorder.

Lac-Megantic is part of Quebec's Eastern Townships region, an area popular with tourists that borders both Maine and Vermont. Quebec is a predominantly French-speaking province in the eastern half of Canada.

Montreal, Maine & Atlantic owns some 510 miles (820 km) of track in Maine and Vermont in the United States and in Quebec and New Brunswick in Canada.

The debate over shipping oil by rail is becoming increasingly topical as U.S. President Barack Obama decides whether to approve TransCanada Corp's proposed Keystone XL pipeline from the oil sands of Alberta to the Texas coast.

Backers of Keystone XL - a project that environmentalists strongly oppose - say transporting oil by pipeline is safer than using rail cars.

There have been a number of high-profile derailments of trains carrying petroleum products in Canada recently, including one in Calgary, Alberta, last week when a flood-damaged bridge sagged toward the still-swollen Bow River. The derailed rail cars were removed without spilling their cargo.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren in Ottawa, P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago and Scott Haggett in Calgary; Editing by Eric Beech and Jackie Frank)

Aircraft in U.S. crash has solid safety record

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SINGAPORE/PARIS (Reuters) - The crash of a South Korean airliner in San Francisco on Saturday with more than 300 people on board dampens the safety record of one of the world's safest aircraft.

Initial reports said two people were killed and more than 70 injured when the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 crashed on landing at San Francisco International Airport.

If confirmed, it would be the first fatal accident involving a Boeing 777, a family of twin-engined long-haul aircraft which has been in service for the past 18 years. With more than five million flights, according to Boeing, it remains one of the industry's solid workhorses.

It also would be the third fatal accident involving one of Asia's fastest growing full-service airlines, which first began operations in 1988 as a rival to South Korea's flag carrier Korean Air Lines.

There was no immediate clue on the possible cause of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending a team to start examining the wreckage.

The aircraft that crashed on Saturday was seven years old, having left the Boeing factory in 2006.

It is a 777-200ER, a version of Boeing's "mini-jumbo" 777 family capable of transporting 301 passengers in standard cabin layouts up to 14,300 km (8,880 miles).

In January 2008, all passengers and crew survived when a similar British Airways 777-200ER crash landed yards short of the runway at London's Heathrow Airport.

A two-year investigation blamed the crash on a fuel blockage caused by the release of ice which had built up during the long flight from Beijing. The discovery led to changes in the design of the British Rolls-Royce engines used on some 777s.

The British Airways pilot was credited with having avoided a much worse accident.

The Asiana 777-200ER that crashed on Saturday was powered by engines from Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of United Technologies.

Pratt & Whitney said it was "cooperating fully with investigating authorities".

PREMIUM ROUTE

Boeing has received a total of 422 orders for the 777-200ER of which just one remains to be delivered, to Asiana itself, according to the Boeing website.

The catalogue price of the airplane is $259 million.

South Korea developed a spotty safety reputation after a series of major, and sometimes fatal, incidents in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s that mostly involved Korean Air aircraft.

Asiana's only previous fatal crash involving a passenger aircraft was in July 1993, when a Boeing 737-500 landed several kilometres short of the runway in South Korea's Mokpo airport in poor weather. In that crash, 68 people lost their lives.

In July 2011, an Asiana Boeing 747-400 cargo aircraft crashed in the sea off Korea's Jeju Island and this was later determined to have been caused by a fire in the cargo hold. Both pilots were killed.

In the 1990s, Korean Air and the South Korean government embarked on a series of efforts to improve safety standards.

This resulted in a sharp decline in incidents involving Korean airlines in the 2000s and the country has become an example to countries like Indonesia which are trying to improve their safety standards.

Owned partly by South Korea's Kumho Asiana Group, Asiana Airlines has grown rapidly to get a significant share of the domestic and international market out of Seoul's Incheon airport, one of Asia's largest air hubs.

A key plank of the Asiana strategy has been to become a larger player in the highly lucrative traffic between South Korea and the United States, and to become a hub carrier that carries passengers between other parts of Asia and the United States via Seoul.

Asiana's long-haul fleet of 12 Boeing 777-200ER and two Boeing 747-400s are used primarily on services to the United States and Europe.

Asiana, which became a member of the Star Alliance in 2003, has ordered six Airbus A380 superjumbos and 30 Airbus A350 aircraft, including around 22 of the longer-range -900 and -1000 variants.

It will begin to receive these aircraft from 2014 and use them on services to the United States and Europe.

(Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio


Friendly myth busted

Posted:

All of that bickering viewers witness between hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage on hit TV series Mythbusters is real.

Outside of work, they can hardly stand each other, says Hyneman. In fact, the two have such a difficult time getting along personally that they have "never once" eaten dinner together alone in the 20 years they have known each other.

In a recent telephone interview with Asian media, Hyneman adds matter-of-factly: "In general, we don't like spending time with each other because we are just such different people. We don't spend any time together when we don't have to."

On Mythbusters, a 10-year-old popular science entertainment show show, Hyneman, 56, is typically seen as more reserved and calm, while Savage, 45, is the more energetic and spontaneous one.

The main reason they have lasted so long as collaborators without killing each other, the older man says, is the fact that their personality differences make for a better, more creative show.

"Because we're such different people, we are able to provide things in the way that the show looks and works as well as in terms of problem solving. The difference in our characters is a powerful tool because we're always seeing things from two different points of view," says Hyneman, an American.

That is relevant given that Mythbusters is a series where the hosts and experts scientifically test the validity of myths and other curious questions.

While Hyneman and Savage lack affection for each other, they have mutual respect.

Hyneman says: "If you're working with somebody that you don't like, you know that can be very unpleasant. But if you have a great respect for them, it can be a great asset.

"And we have a tremendous amount of respect and appreciation for each other, which means that any conflicts that you see us have on the show is actually very short-lived."

Since the show started in 2003, it has moved on from simply debunking myths to also examining the validity of movie scenes, news stories and Internet videos, among other things.

One thing that Hyneman has learnt from working on the show is that even the least scientific-sounding experiments can be astounding.

During a test they casually conducted to see if elephants are indeed afraid of mice, as people commonly believe, the Mythbusters team was completely "shocked" about the results.

Hyneman recalls: "We were at a game reserve where we knew elephants would cross a certain path. So we hollowed out a ball of elephant dung, which is quite large, and put one very unhappy mouse in there, tied a piece of monofilament to the dung and put it on the path.

"When the elephant came by, we yanked the string, and the mouse was exposed, and we thought the elephant wouldn't even notice it and were just hoping that it wouldn't step on the poor mouse. But what happened was practically like a cartoon, where the elephant came screeching to a stop and seemed almost to tiptoe around the mouse. Our jaws dropped."

The team then tried again with another ball of dung without a mouse "in case the elephant was just startled by animated dung", but the animal ignored it.

"It's not science if it's not repeatable, so we did the same thing with the dung with another mouse and another elephant, and the exact same thing happened. So even a small story like that without any explosives or chemicals or anything, turned out to be one of our favourite, most surprising kind of things we've ever done."

Another thing he has learnt: The show, currently in its 11th season of production, will never be short of myths to bust.

"We're amazed by the amount of new material that comes in, and in fact, we often get a lot of material from the public, so that means there's a lot of things we can look at."

Having said that, not everything is a go with the Mythbusters team, as he differentiates between a "good myth" and a "bad myth".

"A bad myth is something we can't actually physically test. So, we don't do supernatural myths, things to do with ghosts or gods or anything that is not testable.

"Conversely, good myths are things we can physically test but also things that we find may provide unexpected results, results that are funny or technically challenging, because we like to stretch ourselves as far as we can and learn new things."

He adds with a chuckle: "One thing we're fond of saying is that we'll run out of myths only when people stop believing stupid things." – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

Wolf whistle

Posted:

GOOD looking, super hot, sexy and ripped bodies to die for ... now what's the problem with werewolves again? Oh, they have claws and jaw strength that could rip anything into pieces, but seriously, if werewolves really are as insanely hot as they're portrayed on screen, there should be no harm in letting them, you know, bite a little.

So, which werewolves get us howling with pleasure?

Alcide Herveaux

Where does one even begin to describe the hotness that is Alcide Herveaux (Joe Manganiello) from True Blood?

In the series, Alcide owns a surveying company, although he spends most of his time running after evil vampires, protecting his wolf-pack and saving the often ungracious Sookie Stackhouse (the female protagonist in True Blood) from trouble.

Scott McCall

Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) is a 16-year-old werewolf in Teen Wolf so it wouldn't be right to ogle at him ... too much. Scott is sensitive, caring, romantic and has the most precious set of eyes ever. They are beautiful, except when they go bright red when he turns into a werewolf, of course. That's when they're just plain scary.

Jacob Black

How could this list be complete without mentioning the werewolf from the Twilight saga? Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner, pic below) is one hairy beast that nobody should pick a bone with. Though he doesn't have too many facial expressions, he makes up for this by appearing shirtless on screen most of the time.

Jacob is protective of the ones he loves and would do anything to keep them safe which explains why Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) didn't die throughout the series although many haters had hoped she would at least catch pneumonia from her cold demeanour. The best thing about Jacob is that he could kick Edward Cullen's (Robert Pattinson) sparkly butt to the moon and back – that's good right?

Taylor Lautner plays Jacob Black in the 'Twilight' films.  

Tyler Lockwood

Now, those who watch The Vampire Diaries would know that Tyler Lockwood (Michael Trevino) used to be a bad-tempered boy with few friends. Later in the series, he became a bad-tempered boy who transforms into a werewolf once a month. He's agile, fast and plays football like all the other handsome jerks, I mean jocks, portrayed in TV series. Tyler has had his fair share of stupid mistakes (making out with his best friend's mother? Eww ...) but he eventually becomes a caring person/beast. 

Related story:
The new alpha

The new alpha

Posted:

FORGET the hard as rock bodies or sharp as nail claws. If the werewolves from Teen Wolf were to go up against the Twilight saga wolf pack, they would win simply because they have something that the other doesn't.

No, not the sour-faced Bella Swan who brings bad luck every where she goes.

"We have opposable thumbs and they don't, so we would win," said Tyler Hoechlin who plays the moody werewolf Derek Hale in the hit television series Teen Wolf.

Speaking to a group of reporters via tele-conference recently, 25-year-old Hoechlin revealed that it was his co-star Tyler Posey (who plays Scott McCall on the show) who came up with the answer for the often-asked question.

Hoechlin believes that it is only natural that people compare the werewolves from both shows – despite Teen Wolf being a television series (although it is loosely based on the 1985 film of the same name).

"When we started the show, Twilight was at its peak and people were quick to cash in on the vampire/werewolf craze. That's why it (the show) got a 'bad' name," said Hoechlin, admitting that some people do not take their show seriously, simply because it seems that they were riding on the genre's coat-tails while it was the fad.

Well, the general buzz over werewolves could have helped promote the show initially, but Hoechlin believes that it's the series' story arc that has sustained its popularity.

"Teen Wolf is very well-written and it is not the fact that we have werewolves (in the show) that makes it famous. It could be any creature. People enjoy watching good shows and good films. If you could create a TV show that captures the audience's attention, then you already have a winner right there," he said.

Hoechlin plays an alpha wolf on the show, taking care of the younger werewolves facing extermination from a certain family of hunters who lost two loved ones to the creatures of the night.

The producers of Teen Wolf, which until recently followed a 12-episodes per season format, announced that the third and latest season has 24 episodes, bringing new and exciting challenges for Hoechlin and the rest of the cast members.

Extremely tight-lipped about the storyline, Hoechlin joked (or did he?) that he would lose his job if he ever gave away the top-secret storyline.

In this season, viewers will be introduced to more new characters. Hoechlin, however, was quick to shoot down any rumours about possible animosity or clique-mentality, now that there are new actors on the set.

"In season one, we were all new characters and everyone got along very well. Every time they add a new character to the show, there's an anxiousness, but we have been lucky enough to have nothing but the nicest people working with us."

Despite playing one of the main characters on a hit televison series, Hoechlin is not one to rest on his laurels. In fact, he is already thinking about his next move – to be a director.

"There are plenty of challenges to take on as an actor, and we should always want to branch out. I definitely have aspirations to do that (directing)," he said.

But he is not in a rush to pursue this avenue. Hoechlin is willing to wait until the right project comes along. Well, until Hoechlin decides to get behind the camera, guess the fans simply have to be satisfied with seeing him in front of it ... with less clothes on, hopefully. What? Well, he does play a werewolf.

Related story:

Wolf whistle

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A century of film

Posted:

Bollywood has always been one of the most thriving – and colourful – film industries in the world.

India's movie industry toasted its 100th birthday last week with the release of two films celebrating its humble origins in the silent era and the influence of glamorous modern-day Bollywood.

Bombay Talkies comprises four short stories inspired by India's love of cinema, created by some of the country's leading filmmakers.

"You usually celebrate birthdays and that's what we are doing today. Indian cinema turns 100 and we are acknowledging that," said Zoya Akhtar, who directed the film along with Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee.

The acclaimed cast includes Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rani Mukherjee, with a cameo from acting legend Amitabh Bachchan.

The film's theme song features Bollywood A-listers such as Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor.

The movie will have a special gala screening at the Cannes Film Festival, which kicked off on Wednesday, where India is to be honoured as the "guest country" in its landmark year.

"The four short stories are about passion for cinema and ingredients like drama, music, dance and entertainment. All of these ingredients are a huge part of our films and culture," said co-producer Ashi Dua.

Its release comes 100 years to the day since the opening in Bombay (now Mumbai) of Raja Harishchandra, the first all-Indian silent feature film, based on the tale of a virtuous king from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

It marked the birth of one of the world's most vibrant film industries, which produced almost 1,500 movies last year in various languages and corners of the country, with Hindi-language Bollywood leading the way.

While Bombay Talkies explores life in the present, the second film that was shown was the award-winning Celluloid Man, which pays tribute to the founder of the National Film Archive of India, P.K. Nair.

The documentary, so far only shown at festivals, showcases Nair's lifetime dedication to preserving films that date back to the silent era, and it is peppered with clips from historic black-and-white productions.

Thanks to the efforts of 80-year-old Nair, nine silent films out of 1,700 made in India have been preserved, although no records remain of many others.

"Almost 70% of the films made before 1950 are lost, including some real gems like the first 'talkie'," Nair told AFP, referring to the first Indian film with sound, 1931's Alam Ara (The Light Of The World).

He said digital technology would help to preserve the cinematic gems that still exist for future generations.

"There are currently about 12,000 films awaiting digitisation."

The annual National Film Awards was also held last week in New Delhi, following a six-day festival showcasing the colourful history of Indian cinema.

In the awards, the best Hindi feature went to Paan Singh Tomar which stars Irrfan Khan (who tied for the best actor award with Vikram Gokhale in Anumati). The film revolves around the life of Indian soldier and athlete Paan Singh Tomar who became a notorious bandit. Meanwhile, Usha Jadhav won best actress for her role in the Marathi film Dhag, whose director Shivaji Lotan Patil won the best director award. The ceremony also celebrated works from various regional film hubs, in languages including Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu and Bengali. – AFP

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Westports listing on track

Posted:

Port operator aims to pay 75% of profit as dividend

THE much-anticipated listing of heavywweight port operator, Westports Holdings Bhd is finally on track with its bankers having been appointed and its draft prospectus issued.

As expected, the cash-flow generating concessionairre will be a yield play as Westports said it targets a dividend payout ratio of not less than 75% of its net profit.

Westports recorded a net profit of RM359.3mil on the back of RM1.5bil revenue last year.

Westports IPO will only entail an offer for sale that will see existing shareholders hive off 813.2 million shares sold, representing 23.8% of the company stake. Of this, Tan Sri G Gnanalingam and family will be disposing a total of 450 million shares or 13.2% of Westports.

710.9 million are being offered to institutional investors while 102.3 million shares will be the retail portion.

As the IPO does not include any fund raising for the company, Westports says the listing is mainly to enhance its profile to market its services and establish liquidity for its shares.

"It is also to provide an opportunity for the investing community including eligible employees, directors and persons who have contributed to the success to the group to participate in the continuing growth of Westports," it says in the draft prospectus.

However, industry sources said that that one of the parties pushing for the listing of Westports is Khazanah Nasional Bhd that holds 8.5% in the company.

"With a listing, Khazanah gets a market valuation of its private company portfolio," says one banker.

As of Dec 31, 2012, Westports had unused funds of almost RM2.3bil, comprising of RM304.9mil of cash and cash equivalents, a revolving credit facility of RM90mil and senior medium-term notes programmes RM1.9bil.

Westports has a total borrowings of RM695mil that translates into gearing ratio of 0.25 times as of end of last year.

The largest upcoming IPO so far is AirAsia X Bhd, the low-cost, long-haul affiliate of the AirAsia group, slated to listed in July 10, that may raise up to RM1.3bil from its IPO based on the initial retail price of RM1.45 a share.

For Westports' listing, Maybank Investment Bank is the principal adviser while Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse are both joint global coordinators. RHB Bank, HSBC and Bank of America Meryll Lynch are all joint book runners.

Bankers anticipated Westports IPO to garner a fair share of interest, due to it being an infrastructure asset with a concession.

According to an analyst, the attraction of Westport is its good track record as well as prospects for further growth.

"Westports may match or possibly do better than its counterpart, NCB Holdings Bhd's in terms of its dividend trend," he says.

NCB also enjoys EBITDA margins of more than 30%. It isn't clear what Westports' margins are but analysts reckon it could be as attractive as NCB's.

NCB is the parent company of Northport (M) Bhd which is the other major cargo terminal in Port Klang.

Maybank Investment Bank (IB) in a March report on NCB noted that Westports outshines Northport in throughput growth.

"In our view, Westport is a more aggressive port player than Northport, with a robust five-year container throughput compound annual growth rate of 10% compared Northport's 2%.

"We think Westport's stronger growth is due to its focus on the fast-growing transhipment rather than indigenous trade," the report said.

Additionally, Maybank IB said in that report that Westports' ample landbank is suitable for big shipping lines who want to build a goods consolidation hub in Asean and that Westports' container throughput market share at Port Klang had increased over the years to 69% in 2012 from 45% in 2002.

On growth prospects, the draft prospectus says that Westports will continue to capitalise on growing container traffic plying through the Straits of Malacca.

"Our handling capacity is to increase to 11 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) by 2015 from the current 9.5 million TEUs.

"We believe this increase in handling capacity will further enhance our competitive edge against other regional ports and we will be able to benefit from the fast growing demand for container handling services in the region," it says.

Click on image for larger view

Westports is one of two main container ports in Port Klang alongside Northport.

Port Klang is the world's 12th busiest port and it is one of the main ports along the Straits of Malacca, which links Asia with the Middle East and Europe that sees 40% of global trade passing through the waterway annually.

On the growth of Westports, its container terminal 6 (CT6) is already completed and boosts the port's total capacity to nine million TEUs.

Westports handled 6.9 million TEUs last year, up from 6.4 million TEUs in 2011.

It targeted to record 7.5 million TEUs this year and the port's expansion plans actually spanned up to CT9 that should be ready next year.

In February 2012, it was reported that Westports planned to invest RM3.18bil for expansion.

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The Star Online: Nation

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Penang ramp collapse: Investigations complete, contractor negligence to blame, says Dr Johari Basri

Posted:

KUCHING: Investigations into the collapse of the second Penang Bridge ramp, which caused one death, has indicated "shortcomings" by the contractor, said Occupational Health and Safety director general Datuk Dr Johari Basri.

"We have concluded investigations. We have identified some of the shortcomings due to negligence by the contractor," Basri told a press conference here.

Although Basri was circumspect when pressed for details, he did say the shortcomings involved both "procedural and technical" aspects.

"Right now we are preparing the charges. Once that is completed, we'll have to discuss it with the public prosecutor to get consent," he said.

"We have an appointment next week. For now, all I can say is we have identified negligence.

"We have engaged technical experts and are waiting for their final assessment," he said.

On June 6, former policeman Tajudin Zainal Abidin, 45, was killed when one of the ramps connected to the Second Penang Bridge collapsed and crushed his car.

A stop-work order was issued immediately following the collapse.

Following the incident, the Works Ministry has also put together an 11-member technical group to increase safety.

The Second Penang Bridge is estimated to cost RM3bil with a total length of 24 km. Construction began on November 2008.

Cops: Man who allegedly killed family arrested, tried to commit suicide thrice

Posted:

SIBU: Police have arrested a 43-year-old suspect who allegedly killed three of his own family members and subsequently tried to commit suicide three times on Friday..

With the arrest, the police consider the case solved, said District Police Chief ACP Shafie Ismail.

The suspect, surnamed Tiang, a contractor, was arrested about 7.30pm beside a petrol station at KM5 in Bintulu Friday night.

He was escorted to Sibu Central police station Saturday afternoon by a team of officers led by CID head DSP David Ajek and senior investigating officer ASP Yeoh Chun Shyan.

Tiang was believed to have killed his wife Ling Yung Ming, 40, daughter Christine Tiang Soon Ai, 14, and son Victor Tiang Soon Heng, 2, at their house at Pulau Li Hua.

The eldest son, Vincent, escaped by jumping down to the ground from the roof of the car porch, climbed over a wooden fence and ran across the street to seek help from a neighbour.

The suspect later escaped in his black Toyota Hilux and drove to Bintulu, some three hours from here.

The suspect was produced in court after his arrival from Bintulu where Magistrate Atiqah Abdul Karim allowed the police's application for a seven-day remand until July 12.

ACP Shafie also said police would gather all the evidence and discuss with the deputy public prosecutor on the charges against the suspect.

He said he would most probably be charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder and also Section 304 for attempted murder.

Meanwhile, police sources said the suspect had admitted to killing the wife and his two children because he owed some people - including loan sharks - some RM3.5mil.

He had also mortgaged his double-story semi-detached house and had used the Toyota Hilux to pay off some debts. It was understood that the car would be handed over to the new owner soon.

The suspect had also told police that he planned the murder with his wife several days before the incident without the knowledge of the children.

He also claimed that he had written a will but police had not found it yet.

He took his family out for a hearty dinner at a popular restaurant near Medan Mall at Wong King Huo Road the night before the incident.

Upon their return, he asked his family to sleep in the master bedroom.

The suspect then gave his wife and daughter two sleeping pills each while his two-year-old son was given one. The son who survived did not take the pill.

It was believed that at about 6am the day after, he gassed his family with cooking gas from a tank. Police believe that he also used a pillow to suffocate his wife.

The suspect told police he then attempted to commit suicide by hanging himself with a belt, but his attempt failed after.

After he arrived in Bintulu, he made two more attempts to commit suicide.

His first attempt was with a bottle of weed killer, but he could not bring himself to swallow as it was very unpleasant.

He then purchased some hose with the intention to funnel his car's exhaust pipe gases into the cabin, but he was arrested before he could make the attempt.

Both the weed killer and the pipe were still in his car when he was arrested.

Police said a relative of Tiang's wife (Ling Yung Ming) spotted the Toyota Hilux near the petrol station in Bintulu and attempted to call her.

When the call went unanswered, the relative called Ling 's brother who happened to be with ASP Yeoh at the time.

The brother immediately informed ASP Yeoh who immediately alerted his Bintulu counterpart.

The police team from here also rushed to Bintulu and arrested Tiang.

Abused boy will suffer permanent leg injury, says paediatrician

Posted:

KUALA TERENGGANU: The seven-year-old boy, believed to have been badly abused by his mother and stepfather, will suffer leg permanent injury, said Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital paediatrician Dr Nor Zubaidah Kadir.

Nevertheless, she said the development of boy would continue to be monitored.

"We, together with the plastic surgeons involved in the boy's leg operation on June 25, are still monitoring his development because the wound was quite deep and big.

"He will have a permanent injury and it will take quite a long time to fully recover," she told reporters here, adding that the two siblings of the boy were also being treated for abuse at the hospital and were in stable condition.

Meanwhile, the boy's maternal grandmother said she never thought her daughter would agree with her new husband to commit such abuse to her own children.

"Since she remarried eight months ago, I only saw her three times before they went missing and I was informed about this abuse case," she told reporters at the hospital.

She said what disappointed her most was the money left by the children's late father, amounting to RM100,000, was gone.

"They (mother and stepfather) took the children's money and abused them without mercy," she said.

The children's paternal grandmother, however, said she was planning to bring her grandchildren to live with her in Kota Tinggi, Johor.

"I really want to take them all, but their maternal grandmother wants to have one of them with her, so maybe I will just have two of them with me," she said. - Bernama
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A century of film

Posted:

Bollywood has always been one of the most thriving – and colourful – film industries in the world.

India's movie industry toasted its 100th birthday last week with the release of two films celebrating its humble origins in the silent era and the influence of glamorous modern-day Bollywood.

Bombay Talkies comprises four short stories inspired by India's love of cinema, created by some of the country's leading filmmakers.

"You usually celebrate birthdays and that's what we are doing today. Indian cinema turns 100 and we are acknowledging that," said Zoya Akhtar, who directed the film along with Karan Johar, Anurag Kashyap and Dibakar Banerjee.

The acclaimed cast includes Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Rani Mukherjee, with a cameo from acting legend Amitabh Bachchan.

The film's theme song features Bollywood A-listers such as Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor.

The movie will have a special gala screening at the Cannes Film Festival, which kicked off on Wednesday, where India is to be honoured as the "guest country" in its landmark year.

"The four short stories are about passion for cinema and ingredients like drama, music, dance and entertainment. All of these ingredients are a huge part of our films and culture," said co-producer Ashi Dua.

Its release comes 100 years to the day since the opening in Bombay (now Mumbai) of Raja Harishchandra, the first all-Indian silent feature film, based on the tale of a virtuous king from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

It marked the birth of one of the world's most vibrant film industries, which produced almost 1,500 movies last year in various languages and corners of the country, with Hindi-language Bollywood leading the way.

While Bombay Talkies explores life in the present, the second film that was shown was the award-winning Celluloid Man, which pays tribute to the founder of the National Film Archive of India, P.K. Nair.

The documentary, so far only shown at festivals, showcases Nair's lifetime dedication to preserving films that date back to the silent era, and it is peppered with clips from historic black-and-white productions.

Thanks to the efforts of 80-year-old Nair, nine silent films out of 1,700 made in India have been preserved, although no records remain of many others.

"Almost 70% of the films made before 1950 are lost, including some real gems like the first 'talkie'," Nair told AFP, referring to the first Indian film with sound, 1931's Alam Ara (The Light Of The World).

He said digital technology would help to preserve the cinematic gems that still exist for future generations.

"There are currently about 12,000 films awaiting digitisation."

The annual National Film Awards was also held last week in New Delhi, following a six-day festival showcasing the colourful history of Indian cinema.

In the awards, the best Hindi feature went to Paan Singh Tomar which stars Irrfan Khan (who tied for the best actor award with Vikram Gokhale in Anumati). The film revolves around the life of Indian soldier and athlete Paan Singh Tomar who became a notorious bandit. Meanwhile, Usha Jadhav won best actress for her role in the Marathi film Dhag, whose director Shivaji Lotan Patil won the best director award. The ceremony also celebrated works from various regional film hubs, in languages including Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu and Bengali. – AFP

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