Isnin, 15 Julai 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Posted:

A Singapore policeman once portrayed as a model officer was charged with the gruesome double murder of a businessman and his son in a case that has shocked the city-state.

Senior Staff Sergeant Iskandar Rahmat, 34, could face hanging if convicted of murdering car workshop owner Tan Boon Sin, 67, and his son Tan Chee Heong, 42, last Wednesday.

The older man was fatally slashed in his home while his son's body was found a kilometre away after being dragged under one of their cars, leaving a trail of blood on a busy road as other motorists watched in horror.

Iskandar appeared dressed in a black T-shirt and jeans with his hands shackled behind his back, as prosecutors read the murder charges in court.

His right hand had a deep gash closed with stitches between the thumb and forefinger.

No plea was taken and he was taken away in a police car within minutes of his appearance.

Prosecutors said investigations were continuing. Iskandar will reappear in court next Monday.

Iskandar, once portrayed as a model officer on the Singapore Police Force website, abandoned the older victim's car and fled to Malaysia by scooter. He was arrested within two days in neighbouring Johor state and repatriated on Saturday.

Singapore media said the suspect, a married 14-year veteran of the force, was bankrupt and under an official investigation for failing to report his personal financial problems to his superiors. He was banned from carrying firearms at the time of the killings.

There was no immediate indication of a motive for the murders. But a police spokesman confirmed reports that Iskandar had attended to a theft complaint filed by the elder Tan in November last year, after which the sergeant was reassigned to another position.

In a weekend statement, Police Commissioner Ng Joo Hee said: "Our police force and every police officer is tarred by the actions of this single officer." — AFP

YouTube lessons for referee to rig games

Posted:

A Lebanese football referee jailed for accepting sex in exchange for agreeing to rig matches testified that a Singaporean businessman used YouTube to show him how to fix a game.

Ali Sabbagh, speaking on the first day of the trial of Eric Ding Si Yang, said the businessman sent him "20 to 30" YouTube links to "teach me how to make wrong decisions".

"The videos had too many decisions where the decision made by the referee is not the right decision," he said.

Ding is accused of providing Ali, 34, and two other Lebanese officials with women who gave them free sexual services ahead of a match in Singapore in April in which they were supposed to officiate.

Ali and the other two officials were all pulled out and placed under investigation before the match. He was found guilty in June and sentenced to six months in jail over the scandal.

Assistant referees Ali Eid and Abdallah Taleb were also convicted and have since been released and deported.

Ali said that in a series of e-mail exchanges late last year, Ding told him that the best way to rig a match was to award penalties.

Ali quoted Ding as saying that "nobody will stop you, nobody will do anything... When the corner comes, just blow and say pushing and pulling... If there is anything in the penalty area, you can blow your whistle".

He said Ding, currently out on bail, gave him assurances that he would not be asked to rig matches that would affect his career within the Asian Football Confederation.

State prosecutors said in an opening statement that they filed three charges against Ding for "corruptly giving gratification to three football officials as an inducement to fix football matches that they would officiate in the future".

Ding faces a maximum prison term of five years and fines of up to S$100,000 (RM252,000) for each count of corruption.

The case is a colourful addition to Singapore's long history of match-fixing scandals, including allegations that syndicates organised the rigging of hundreds of games worldwide. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Spain apologises to Bolivia for presidential plane delay
U.S. case against Zimmerman would require proof of racial malice
Asiana to sue TV station after gaffe over pilot name

Spain apologises to Bolivia for presidential plane delay

Posted:

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Spain apologised on Monday for its part in the events that led Bolivian President Evo Morales' plane to be delayed earlier this month during an international search for U.S. fugitive Edward Snowden.

Bolivia has accused Spain, France, Portugal and Italy of closing their skies to Morales' plane, which was searched at the airport in Vienna on July 3, after being told it was carrying the former U.S. spy agency contractor from Moscow to Bolivia.

"We recognize publicly that perhaps the procedures used in the Vienna airport by our representative were not the most effective," Spain's ambassador to Bolivia, Angel Vázquez, told journalists after dropping the letter off at Bolivia's Foreign Ministry.

"We regret this fact ... the procedure was not appropriate and bothered the president (Morales), putting him in a difficult situation," Vázquez said.

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said last week that the country was ready to apologise to Bolivia for inconveniencing Morales, but denied it had closed its airspace to his flight.

Spain is keen to maintain historical ties to South America, a growing export market, and has renewed efforts to nurture relationships with Latin America after expropriations last year by Bolivia and Argentina hit Spanish companies.

The unusual treatment of the Bolivian leader touched a sensitive nerve in Latin America, which has a history of U.S.-backed coups, and Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia offered Snowden asylum.

U.S. President Barack Obama has said any country that gives Snowden shelter would face serious repercussions. Snowden has been holed up at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport since June 23, when he landed in Russia from Hong Kong.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he wanted Snowden to leave, but also signalled that the American was moving towards meeting Russia's asylum conditions.

(Reporting by Daniel Ramos; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Paul Simao)

U.S. case against Zimmerman would require proof of racial malice

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For all the complex issues raised by the death of Trayvon Martin, whether the U.S. Justice Department turns it into a civil rights case may depend on the relatively simple question of whether George Zimmerman was motivated by racism when he pulled the trigger.

Unless federal prosecutors can present new evidence that suggests racial malice motivated Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, to shoot Martin, an unarmed black teenager, they are unlikely to pursue charges, lawyers with expertise in civil rights said on Monday.

A jury in Sanford, Florida, on Saturday found Zimmerman, a 29-year-old neighbourhood watch volunteer, not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2012 shooting death of Martin. Defence lawyers argued Zimmerman shot 17-year-old Martin in self-defence.

State and federal courts generally have the same threshold for a criminal conviction: a finding of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt by a unanimous jury, or by a judge if a defendant waives a jury trial.

By finding Zimmerman not guilty of second-degree murder, the Seminole County jury rejected the charge that Zimmerman acted with ill will, spite or hatred.

Attorney General Eric Holder said on Monday his Justice Department had yet to decide whether to file federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman.

Like the videotaped police beating of Rodney King in 1991 or the 2006 fatal shooting of Sean Bell by New York police, the Martin case is a window into the federal government's authority to enforce civil rights.

Preachers led by Al Sharpton planned a news conference at Justice Department headquarters in Washington for Tuesday to add pressure to prosecute Zimmerman. They believe he racially profiled Martin before pursuing him with a 9mm pistol.

HATE CRIMES LAW

The law federal prosecutors would most likely use against Zimmerman was passed in 2009 to target hate crimes.

It requires that prosecutors prove that someone caused bodily injury "because of the actual or perceived race" of the victim, a bar that while straightforward can be hard to clear.

"The difficult part is always showing the perpetrator's state of mind, and the statute requires that there was racial motivation, that the defendant was thinking in racial terms," said William Yeomans, a former Justice Department civil rights lawyer.

The government typically uses evidence such as an attacker's contemporaneous racial epithets, or a pattern of planning to target a specific race, said Samuel Bagenstos, who served in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division during President Barack Obama's first term.

"If you look at the standard patterns of these cases, there are often statements made by the defendant expressly referring to the race of the victim during the attack," he said.

"That is a cut above the evidence that we've seen so far" against Zimmerman, he added.

In an emergency call before the encounter with Martin, Zimmerman told a police dispatcher that Martin "looks black" but only after the dispatcher asked for Martin's race.

One of the jurors in Zimmerman's state trial told CNN on Monday that she did not think Zimmerman racially profiled Martin. "All of us thought race did not play a role," said the juror, granted anonymity by the television news network.

Further, there is no video of the encounter as there was of King's beating at the hands of four Los Angeles police officers.

After a jury acquitted the officers of state charges in the King case, the Justice Department relied heavily on the video when it tried the officers on federal charges that they deprived King of his civil rights. Prosecutors analyzed the baton blows to King and zeroed in on those that came after the video showed King had been subdued.

The second jury convicted two of the officers, helping to calm a poisonous U.S. racial climate that included riots.

RACIAL ANIMUS

Wayne Budd, who as a Justice Department official oversaw the prosecution of the Los Angeles police officers, said he believed it would be difficult for the government to prove racial animus by Zimmerman with the evidence that has become public so far.

"They're going to have their hands full. It's not going to be easy," Budd said.

Terree Bowers, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles during the police officers' second trial there in 1993, said prosecutors were able to refine their case the second time around. He said he was not sure the Justice Department could do the same thing against Zimmerman.

"I don't know what else is out there for the government to develop if they decide to proceed," he said.

Holder, the chief U.S. law enforcement official and an Obama appointee, in April 2012 referred to the difficulty of proving racial motivation.

"We have a very ... high bar that we have to meet in order to bring federal charges in this case so we are continuing in that regard," Holder said while addressing Martin's death at a news conference.

A Justice Department statement on Sunday alluded again to the challenges prosecutors face, referring to the "limited" civil rights laws.

One advantage for prosecutors is a change in the hate-crimes law in 2009 that eliminated a requirement that they show a connection between the crime and a federally protected activity, like voting.

A Justice Department spokeswoman on Monday declined to say whether prosecutors had convened a federal grand jury to hear evidence about Zimmerman, a step that would indicate increased activity on the part of prosecutors.

Asiana to sue TV station after gaffe over pilot name

Posted:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Asiana Airlines said Monday it will sue a TV station that incorrectly reported racially offensive names of four pilots onboard the flight that crash-landed on July 6 at San Francisco International Airport.

An anchorwoman at KTVU, a Cox affiliate based in Oakland, California, fell victim on Friday to an apparent prank and reported four bogus pilot names, including "Sum Ting Wong" and "Wi Tu Low," during the noon newscast. Within hours, the broadcast footage had gone viral on the Internet, drawing widespread criticism and ridicule.

"We decided to sue KTVU because Asiana Airlines thinks their news defames our pilots and our company's reputation," said Kiwon Suh, an Asiana spokesman. The company also said the fake names "disparaged Asians in general."

During an extended on-air apology late Friday, KTVU said its staff should have caught the prank but neglected to "read the names out loud, phonetically sounding them out." But in a bizarre twist, the station also blamed the National Transportation Safety Board, which had confirmed the names for the station prior to the broadcast.

The NTSB apologized late Friday and acknowledged that a summer intern who was answering phones as a volunteer at the agency confirmed the fake names "in good faith" for KTVU. Kelly Nantel, an NTSB spokeswoman, said the intern did not make up the names but acted "outside the scope of his authority" by confirming information for reporters.

As of late Monday, the intern was no longer working at the agency, according to a CNN report.

So far, neither KTVU nor the NTSB have explained where the names originated. KTVU declined to comment, citing the potential lawsuit.

On Monday, Suh, the Asiana spokesman, played down earlier reports that the company had threatened legal action against the federal agency as well. "We will never sue the NTSB," Suh said.

KTVU's gaffe came five days after Asiana disclosed the names of the pilot and co-pilot on Flight 214 as Lee Kang-kook and Lee Jeong-min, respectively.

The crash of the Boeing 777 plane resulted in the deaths of three teenage girls in a group of students from eastern China who were visiting the United States for a summer camp. Over 180 passengers and crew members were injured.

The Washington-based NTSB investigators said they were preparing to finish work in San Francisco after eight days on the scene. Although the agency warned it could take months to determine the cause of the crash, information released by investigators so far suggests pilot error contributed to the accident.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Bahasa-speaking Korean export

Posted:

South Korean actor Kim Jin Sung tackles relationship problems – in Bahasa Malaysia – in 'Autumn Di Hatiku'.

AT first glance, Kim Jin Sung is everything you would expect a South Korean heartthrob to be.

He's gloriously tall (1.86m), mysteriously handsome, effortlessly fashionable and has a complexion so fair and flawless even my Hazeline Snow-using aunt would envy. But many would be surprised to discover that the 27-year-old actor speaks Bahasa Malaysia quite fluently.

"Bahasa Malaysia Dan Indonesia: Terjemahan Dan Intonasi," he said proudly of the course he took in Hankuk University Of Foreign Studies in Seoul, South Korea while working part time as a model and actor. Kim, who spoke mostly in Bahasa Malaysia during this interview, said he decided to take the course because he fell in love with the unique language.

After completing the year-long course, Kim's Malaysian lecturer encouraged him to pursue an acting career here.

His first project is the 28-episode Autumn Di Hatiku, a five-minute web series aired on Tonton. Not to be mistaken as a remake of the 2000 South Korean drama Autumn In My Heart, Autumn Di Hatiku is an original series by the local video portal. It tells the story of the K-pop-obsessed Nina (Hanez Suraya) and her hilarious adventures in trying to land a hunky South Korean businessman, Park Au Tum (nicknamed "Autumn"), played by Kim.

Autumn, a young CEO who plans to expand his business in Malaysia, catches Nina's attention one day when he stops by the bakery she works in. Smitten, Nina begs her co-worker Zidick (Aiman Hakim) who lived in South Korea during his teenage years, to teach her everything she needs to know about the Korean culture in order to impress Autumn. But little does she know that Zidick is harbouring feelings for her.

The romantic comedy, helmed by well-known short film directors MJ Woo and Edmund Yeo, was shot at the end of May for over a period of 10 days.

"I watched a lot of Bahasa Malaysia dramas like Teduhan Kasih and Epilog Cinta Kirana to get a feel of things. After that, I memorised the script and practised in front of the mirror regularly," said Kim, describing his preparations for the show.

He also felt pressured to perform well as this was his first time acting in a lead role, having only starred in TV commercials and a non-speaking role in the 2009 South Korean hit Iris prior to this.

As his character is the subject of Nina's affection, many may wonder what Kim's thoughts are on Malaysian ladies – take note, female fans!

Kim expressed his fondness for Malaysian girls, stating they are "kind and friendly" and wouldn't rule out going on a date with them if the opportunity arises.

Kim also talked about Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, saying he didn't realise the magnitude of the trend before coming to Malaysia.

"I'm proud of my country and my culture. I'm glad so many people here embrace it," he said, adding that catchy K-pop songs play a part in drawing people to the culture.

In light of the plastic surgery "craze" in South Korea (brought about by reality series Let Me In where participants are given the chance to go under the knife for free), the actor also spoke candidly about his stand against it.

"I've never done it and I don't think I ever will because it makes everyone look the same after the operation," he shared.

Although Kim's commitment with Autumn Di Hatiku will end in September, he said that he will continue to stay in Malaysia if he receives more acting offers. Asked if he feels his career may be limited here – as he would probably be cast as "the Korean guy" in most local productions – Kim said: "I know people will start to get bored if I keep doing the same thing. But I will improve my Bahasa Malaysia and English so I can play more varied roles."

Catch Autumn Di Hatiku from Monday to Saturday at noon on tonton.com.my/autumndihatiku.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

No Leighton Meester in 'Veronica Mars'

Posted:

'Veronica Mars' movie replaces Leighton Meester with Andrea Estella.

Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas has been doing a really great job bringing the cult series' original players back for the movie. But, a scheduling conflict is KO-ing Leighton Meester from reprising the role of Carrie Bishop.

Thomas announced last weekend that indie pop band Twin Sisters singer Andrea Estella has been cast in the part of "the gossip queen of the 09ers" who falsely accused Neptune High teacher Mr Rooks (Adam Scott) of having an affair with her to protect her best friend on Season 1 of the series.

"Sadly, Leighton was doing a different movie during the same time frame on the wrong coast. In the end, she was unavailable," Thomas said. "One of the reasons I wanted Leighton, beyond her talent/beauty/history in the show, was that we needed a performer who could sing in this important role. Once it became evident that we couldn't make Leighton's schedule work, I decided to cast someone from a band I already wanted in the movie."

Other than singing, Thomas didn't elaborate on Bishop's storyline in the movie. He did say that there will be Twin Sisters songs on the soundtrack. "This is the first movie I've ever appeared in," Estella said in a statement. "I had never seen Veronica Mars before all of this. I've been increasingly interested in finding new TV shows to plow through. I watched the Veronica Mars pilot and was totally into it! It's the exact kind of show I would get obsessed with, so it's been a bit of dream to be in a movie, especially being a messed up rock princess. How could I say no? I think the VM fans are going to be very happy!"

Estella's addition follows an announcement earlier that Gaby Hoffman (Field Of Dreams, Sleepless In Seattle, Uncle Buck) had been cast in the entirely new role of Ruby Jetson – again no specifics on the role were released.

The two women join returning castmembers Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Ryan Hansen, Jason Dohring, Max Greenfield, Tina Majorino, Krysten Ritter, Chris Lowell, Percy Daggs III and Francis Capra for the movie, which is currently in production.

Veronica Mars set multiple records for Kickstarter when the campaign launched in March, becoming the fastest project to reach US$1mil (RM3mil), doing so in a little more than four hours. It reached its US$2mil (RM6mil) goal the same day. – Reuters

Joyce Cheng stars in Malaysian film

Posted:

MALAYSIA is a very special place to me because my mum and dad met here in this beautiful country, where the people are nice and the food is great," shared Joyce Cheng Yan Yee during a press conference recently in Kuala Lumpur for local Chinese New Year flick Huat Ah! Huat Ah! Huat.

The 26-year-old Canadian-born Hong Kong-based artiste, daughter of Hong Kong stars Adam Cheng and the late Lydia Shum, was revealed as the made-in-Malaysia film's lead actress.

Cast as a fishmonger named Xiao Ping in the US$1mil (RM3.2mil) comedy, the cheery actress is prepared to portray a full-figured character in the movie.

"I have not stopped eating ever since I got off the plane. The food is wonderful, but I am not skinny to begin with, so need I actually eat that much?" she jested.

"She enjoys spicy food as much as we Malaysians do. In fact, she can even eat super spicy small chillies without batting an eyelid," chorused the film's director Tan Boon Huat and lead actor Aniu (Tan Kheng Seong), who plays her love interest Ah Huat, an autistic man with an extraordinary sense of smell and a unique ability to brew the perfect cup of coffee.

Child actors Leong Sawyer, five, and Bosvin Chen Chung Kai, eight, were also unveiled during the press conference.

Huat Ah! Huat Ah! Huat revolves around a young man named Ah Huat, who strives for success, armed with his motto that "honesty is the best policy".

As the main character in the movie, Ah Huat reflects the typical Malaysian Chinese guy who treats everyone with kindness and sincerity.

The movie is jointly produced by Golden Screen Cinemas, Clover Films, and Very Good Movie, with The Star's 988 as the official radio station.

The movie commenced filming last week in Kuala Lumpur and will continue in other locations like Serendah, Selangor and Rasah, Negri Sembilan.

Filming is due to be completed before Hari Raya.

Huat Ah! Huat Ah! Huat will be released during Chinese New Year next year. – Seto Kit Yan

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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