Ahad, 11 Ogos 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

0 ulasan 11:05 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

A love story that ends in tragedy
Woman drug courier nabbed
Dengue outbreak easing but chikungunya cases going up

A love story that ends in tragedy

Posted:

THEIR love story is a perfect example of how love has no boundaries. He learnt Korean for her and she was willing to convert to Islam for him.

Singaporean Amron Ayoub, 23, was convinced that he was destined to spend the rest of his life with his 24-year-old girlfriend Jamie Song Jisoo.

Nothing could keep them apart. Not even death.

The couple were killed in a road accident in the early hours of National Day last Friday.

Their close friend Zaid Zainuddin said: "The news was hard to accept since I just spoke to Amron on the phone the day before.

"He was his usual self, sounding very happy. He told me that Jamie's family was here and that he had bought a life-size 'Minion' (cartoon character). We joked a lot and I was looking forward to meeting him this Hari Raya."

The meeting never happened.

On that fateful morning, Amron was taking Jamie, her parents and older brother to the airport where they were to catch a flight to Hong Kong for a holiday.

They were travelling in Amron's family car – a Toyota Wish – on the Central Expressway when a tyre burst and Amron had to stop the car to fix it.

He pulled up at a Chevron area near the Yio Chu Kang exit and all of them got out of the vehicle.

Amron, Jamie and her parents were apparently standing behind the car when a multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) hit them, killing Jamie and her parents instantly. Amron suffered multiple injuries and died in hospital.

Jamie's older brother Jihwan, 30, was unhurt as he had been standing by the side of the road. The 34-year-old driver of the MPV was arrested for dangerous driving.

On Saturday, Jihwan, a professional golfer based in China, was accompanied by his younger brother and a Chinese friend at the mortuary.

The Song brothers appeared composed and asked to be left alone to grieve. Amron's family declined to comment when met at their home.

Although Amron's body had been buried last Friday, his family members turned up at the mortuary to meet the Song brothers. The group of about eight people left at noon without claiming the bodies of Jamie and her parents.

Zaid, who visited Amron's family, said his mother was very distraught.

Amron, who had three sisters, was the second child in the family. Like many young men, he had big dreams. He was training to be a pilot in Malaysia, said Zaid, who met him when they were students at Singapore Polytechnic.

Zaid said it was perhaps "destiny" that Amron and his girlfriend died on the same day.

"Although they didn't live together, they were inseparable," he recalled. "Whenever I saw Amron, I would see Jamie. Amron always told me that he was the happiest man in the world after he met Jamie.

"Amron told me that he liked Jamie very much and they had been talking and planning their future together.

"Amron said that he had asked Jamie if she would convert to Islam and she had indicated that she was willing to do so for him. She had also picked up Malay and could speak a little with Amron."

The couple met at a club three years ago.

"At that time, he was recovering from a bad break-up," said Zaid. "It took them a while to be finally together."

He said the couple were remembered fondly for the surprise parties they loved to throw for each other.

"At Jamie's 23rd birthday party last year, Amron recited a long message to her in Korean, which none of us could understand. She was so touched that she broke into tears and replied to him in Korean. It was a very special moment for them." — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Woman drug courier nabbed

Posted:

A VIETNAMESE woman was found with more than 4kg of a substance suspected to be the drug "Ice" when she landed at Changi Airport.

Officers from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority and the Central Narcotics Bureau found two slabs of the crystallised substance wrapped in aluminium foil in the 47-year-old's luggage.

They estimate the haul to be worth around S$630,000 (RM1.57mil). If convicted, the woman may face the death penalty.

Preliminary investigations suggest that the drug was intended to be re-exported and not for the Singapore market, said an ICA spokesman.

The ICA reiterated that border security was "critical" to Singapore, and stated that it would continue checks at all checkpoints to prevent smuggling.

"The same methods of concealment used by contraband smugglers may be used by terrorists to smuggle arms and explosives to carry out attacks in Singapore," said the spokesman. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Dengue outbreak easing but chikungunya cases going up

Posted:

THE dengue fever epidemic appears to be on the decline, but the spread of another mosquito-borne disease is still going strong.

Close to 500 people have been infected with chikungunya this year – compared with a total of 60 cases in the three years between 2010 and last year.

In the week ended Aug 3, 21 people were infected – 16 in the Bukit Timah area, one in Jalan Papan in the Jurong area and one in Woodlands Industrial Park, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health.

Although it is not known where the other three people were bitten, none of them had been overseas recently.

More than 85% of this year's cases have occurred in the Bukit Timah and Sungei Kadut/Kranji areas.

Chikungunya was not found in Singapore until 2008, when the first local transmission occurred in Little India. There was a major outbreak that year, with 690 people infected.

The National Environment Agency was able to eradicate the virus and chikungunya is considered non-endemic in Singapore.

Immediate action is taken whenever an imported case is discovered, so the virus does not take root. But it might not remain so, if the current epidemic continues unabated.

Like dengue, chikungunya is spread by the Aedes mosquito, and not from person to person. The two diseases have common symptoms such as fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, rash and joint pain.

Fatality rates are higher with dengue whereas chikungunya is usually debilitating.

The current chikungunya epidemic started in early April and peaked last month, with 45 new cases in one week. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

0 ulasan 9:40 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

Top South Korean stars get married

Posted:

South Korean actor Lee Byung-Hun tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Lee Min-Jung.

TOP South Korean movie star Lee Byung-Hun, one of the best known faces of the "Korean Wave" of popular culture, married actress Lee Min-Jung on Saturday.

The 43-year-old actor, who starred in last year's blockbuster costume drama Masquerade, told reporters the wedding was "a dream come true" shortly before tying the knot with longtime girlfriend Min-Jung.

"There was thunder and lightning this morning. There is an old saying that thunder and lightning are a good sign for newlyweds. We will do our best to live a long, happy life", the bride said.

Byung-Hun is well known as the star of a number of popular television dramas, including the spy series Iris, as well as for his films.

His role as a swashbuckling gambler in the pan-Asian hit series All In has earned him a particularly devoted following in Japan.

As well as Masquerade, which swept last year's national film awards in South Korea, Byung-Hun starred in the 2000 hit Joint Security Area and this year he reprised his role as the villainous ninja Storm Shadow in the Hollywood action blockbuster G.I. Joe: Retaliation.

He also features in the currently showing Hollywood action comedy Red 2 starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Min-Jung became a household name for her supporting role in the mega-hit high school TV drama series Boys Over Flowers. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

0 ulasan 9:31 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: World Updates

Argentine midterm primary delivers political slap to leader Fernandez
Cambodia's CPP won most provinces in July election - official results
Cambodia's CPP won most provinces in July election - official results

Argentine midterm primary delivers political slap to leader Fernandez

Posted:

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A possible re-election bid by Argentine President Cristina Fernandez seemed less likely on Sunday after Buenos Aires province rejected her candidate in the midterm congressional primary, nominating instead a pro-business, small-town mayor.

The win by Sergio Massa - from the affluent suburb of Tigre, known for its picturesque canals - makes him a national figure and may set the stage for him to run for president in 2015.

Argentine bonds were expected to rise after Massa easily won his primary against a candidate hand-picked by left-wing nationalist Fernandez. Nationwide, her coalition clinched only 25 percent of the vote. Wall Street analysts had said anything less than 40 percent would boost Argentine asset prices.

Re-elected in 2011 on promises of increasing government's role in economy, Fernandez says she is not thinking about a possible third term. But talk persists that her supporters want the constitution amended to let her to run again.

Candidates for October legislative elections were chosen in Sunday's primary vote.

"If October replicates this primary result, forget about re-election," said Ignacio Labaqui, an analyst for emerging markets consultancy Medley Global Advisors.

With no competition among candidates on the lists offered by most parties in the primary, and with voters allowed to split the ticket among their choices for the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, the primary served as a mega-opinion poll on Fernandez's interventionist economic policies.

With 42 percent of the vote counted, Massa led Fernandez's candidate, Martin Insaurralde, by 6 percentage points.

Buenos Aires, where 40 percent of the country's electorate lives, is a must-win province.

Double-digit inflation, an over-valued currency, protectionist trade policies, tightening foreign exchange controls and Fernandez's decision to nationalize Argentina's private pension system and top oil company YPF have upset consumers, investors and trade partners.

Argentine bondholders and investors interested in the country's vast agricultural and shale oil resources watched the primary for signs that voters may be ready for a business-friendly leader, such as Massa, in 2015.

"The people of Buenos Aires have chosen a political force that will fight insecurity, fight inflation and fight high taxes," Massa said in his victory speech.

'MARKET POSITIVE'

"Massa's victory is definitely market positive," said Alberto Bernal, head of emerging markets at Bulltick Capital Markets.

Partial vote counts in Cordoba, Santa Fe and Mendoza provinces showed Fernandez's political allies lagging the opposition as well.

Argentine bonds have outperformed the market so far this year, partly based on expectations that Fernandez will lose political clout as 2015 approaches.

Buenos Aires provincial government bonds due in 2020/21 have returned 13 percent so far this year while emerging market bonds in general are down about 10 percent, Bernal said.

"My sense is that tomorrow we'll see another pop in prices," he added. "Her chances of staying in office past 2015 are very low right now."

For Fernandez to run again she would have to increase her control of Congress in October, when half the seats in the lower chamber will be up for grabs, along with a third of the Senate.

Her allies would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to get debate started on a constitutional change to permit a third term.

"She doesn't have that now and she won't have it after October," Labaqui said.

The president sponsored a list of primary candidates under her FPV (Frente Para la Victoria) coalition, a branch of the country's dominant Peronist party. She went on television late on Sunday vowing to campaign hard in the 2-1/2 months left before the congressional midterm vote.

"We are going to deepen the transformation (of the country)," she said. "We are going to keep working."

On the sidelines was Buenos Aires' popular governor, Daniel Scioli. He is officially allied with Fernandez but could step up to represent the FPV and run for president if her candidates do badly this year.

Scioli is seen as more of a centrist than Fernandez and would be embraced by business leaders.

Argentina's economy is expected to grow by about 5 percent this year despite looming fiscal troubles.

The country has steady money inflows from soy, corn and wheat exports. However, public spending has outpaced revenue as the October 27 vote approaches. Going into the primary, central bank reserves are at $37 billion (24 billion pounds) versus $45 billion a year ago.

(Additional reporting by Guido Nejamkis and Alejandro Lifschitz; Editing by Kieran Murray, Eric Walsh and Stacey Joyce)

Cambodia's CPP won most provinces in July election - official results

Posted:

PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The long-ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen won a majority of votes in 19 out of Cambodia's 24 provinces in a disputed July 28 election, official results announced by the country's election body showed on Monday.

The results appeared to support the CPP's claim that it won a parliamentary majority, despite opposition allegations of widespread cheating. The opposition has rejected preliminary results and called for an international inquiry.

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Paul Tait)

Cambodia's CPP won most provinces in July election - official results

Posted:

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Stuart Grudgings; Editing by Paul Tait)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

0 ulasan 9:11 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

Top South Korean stars get married

Posted:

"There was thunder and lightning this morning. There is an old saying that thunder and lightning are a good sign for newlyweds. We will do our best to live a long, happy life", the bride said.

Byung-Hun is well known as the star of a number of popular television dramas, including the spy series Iris, as well as for his films.

His role as a swashbuckling gambler in the pan-Asian hit series All In has earned him a particularly devoted following in Japan.

He also features in the currently showing Hollywood action comedy Red 2 starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Min-Jung became a household name for her supporting role in the mega-hit high school TV drama series Boys Over Flowers. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

0 ulasan 7:08 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Business

Look into your past life to plan your future financial life
Major shift seen in SME landscape
External environment poses key challenge to Malaysia's growth

Look into your past life to plan your future financial life

Posted:

Imagine if you had a time machine that allows you to travel back in time and travel back again to the future, what financial decisions would you change for the better? Surely, there would be useful lessons from the past.

One observation from the past would obviously be how cheap everything used to be and how we have taken them for granted. How we wished we had kept pace with inflation because each ringgit would have been stretched sufficiently to afford the inflated prices.

How you wished you had started on that saving plan because you didn't know it would come in handy for your retrenchment. And why on earth did we waste money on things we never needed, clothes we never wore or food that was bad for our health?

If only you knew you weren't going to be as healthy now as you were in your younger days, you would have been better covered medically. You would also have set up an income replacement plan then due to a serious illness that forced you out of work prematurely. You now realise that the ringgit values in the sales illustrations were future values which have lost its purchasing power over the years. Money certainly has a time value.

Coming back from the past, the corporate world has changed and economies have evolved. It should have made sense to have diversified your investments and kept your portfolios consciously invested.

The frequent switching in and out of your funds and the panicky reactions to periodic news and events weren't rewarding at all.

Instead, rebalancing your portfolios annually and avoiding the herd mentality would have been wiser. Perhaps you would have allocated a smaller portion of your funds to speculating and a lot more to investing.

We all know we don't have such a time machine but seriously when you look back into your own financial lives, there are many financial lessons to be learnt. Take stock of these lessons daily. Now that you are back to the future, list them in your smartphone as resolutions to change. After all, it is only through mistakes that we become better at everything in life.

Major shift seen in SME landscape

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) will need to reinvent the way they do business in light of the sector's liberalisation, said SME Corp chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim.

"We are likely to see a major shift in the landscape, as the Government gradually liberalises the sector by 2015 in line with the obligations under the Asean Free Trade Agreement," she told StarBiz.

Forty-five segments of the various services sub-sectors have been fully liberalised: 27 in 2009 and a further 18 in 2012.

The highest concentration of SMEs is in the services sector (580,985 or 90%), and close to 80% of them are micro enterprises. The share of the micro enterprises in the overall SME landscape is 77%.

According to Hafsah, this shows that at present many of the services sub-sectors are fragmented and dominated by small firms, but with huge potential in the future.

They refer to business services, including professional services, logistics (transportation and storage), tourism-related services as well as retail.

"Building domestic capacity prevents the hollowing out of existing players from competitive pressures, and facilitates the shift towards a services-based economy, as the services sector is expected to be the main growth driver of the economy, with its share to gross domestic product (GDP) projected to rise from 54% to 65% by 2020," she said.

She added that the SME master plan (2012-2020) was crafted to create competitive SMEs to increase their contribution from 32% to 41% to GDP by 2020.

To achieve this, Hafsah said, SMEs in certain fragmented sub-sectors might need to consolidate to strengthen their position to benefit from economies of scale, greater efficiency and product differentiation.

"Rationalisation or consolidation is usually market-driven, and business associations can identify segments that were ready for consolidation.

"They could set up their own research unit to assist their members in their respective fields and areas of business," she elaborated.

Malaysian Investment Development Authority deputy chief executive officer 1 Datuk Azman Mahmud said that one of the strategic thrusts in the third industrial master plan was encouraging mergers and acquisitions, consolidations and strategic partnerships among industries.

"Malaysian companies should outsource some of their low-end operations to other countries. In certain industries, such as the electronics sector, some companies have relocated or expanded their labour-intensive operations in China, while maintaining their high value-added activities in Malaysia," he said.

Under the domestic investment incentive package announced last year, the Government has introduced an incentive package to encourage mergers among small service providers in professional services.

The merged entity would pay a flat corporate tax rate of 20% for five years and stamp duty exemptions on legal documents related to the merger.

"During the consolidation period, there may be some disruption in activity and additional cost, and the incentive would be helpful to cushion the impact," Hafsah said.

External environment poses key challenge to Malaysia's growth

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Despite strong economic growth in recent times, the external environment remains a key challenge to Malaysia to maintain a positive growth in near-term.

Weak commodity prices, anemic global demand for electrical and electronic products and waning strength of emerging economies such as China and India will pose a challenge to an open economy including Malaysia.

Malaysian Rating Corp Bhd Chief Economist Nor Zahidi Alias said global economic uncertainties and jitters that surrounded the 13th general election were major factors that dragged Malaysia's economy in the first half of the year. "At the same time, weak commodity prices dented the export sector and affected the headline growth," he told Bernama.

Nor Zahidi said the situation was also being amplified by weaknesses in some emerging economies, including China, which is expected to experience a slower-than-expected growth of between 7% and 7.5% this year.

Nomura, in its latest global market research that focused on China, remarked that one percentage point drop in China's gross domestic product would lower global growth outside the world's second biggest economy with the hardest hit economies being in Asia.

The biggest casualty would be Hong Kong, with growth falling by one percentage point or more, it said.

The impact is also large on commodity-producing countries including Malaysia, Australia and those in Latin America despite being located much further away from China.

China is the world's largest consumer of commodities including natural rubber and copper.

Standard Chartered Bank Regional head of research Edward Lee said there were many factors to affect long-term sustainable growth such as a stable macroeconomic environment. "Malaysia has been very successful in maintaining high and sustained growth. Naturally, the battle does not stop here," he said.

However, inflationary pressure may start to kick in next year especially if the electricity tariff was adjusted and petroleum subsidy was further reduced, Nor Zahidi said.

Lee said global food and oil prices have picked up recently and turned positive on a year-on-year basis.

"This may add to inflation although any impetus currently is expected to be moderate. We expect a full year inflation at about 2.1%," he said.

Nor Zahidi said the price pressure would also come from the goods and services tax (GST) if it was implemented next year. "We view the impact of GST, if introduced next year, will be a one-off event, but its implication on consumer spending cannot be underestimated," he said.

Lee expects further fiscal consolidation to take place in near-term for the Government to sustain its long-term fiscal position and to address rising household debts.

"Lending conditions may gradually tighten in some areas. For example, Bank Negara has already introduced new micro prudential rules to address the high household debt," he said.

The downward pressure on ringgit would also become a concern especially if outflows continue to increase following the US Federal Reserve's intention to cutback bond purchases, said Nor Zahidi. "The concern may deepen if Malaysia's current account surplus continue to shrink," he said.

On the domestic side, the situation was less worrying as some imbalances such as high household debts may induce policymakers to implement measures that will moderate the pace of private consumption, Nor Zahidi added.

Malaysia's current account surplus has narrowed to RM8.7bil in the first quarter 2013 from as high as RM40bil in the third quarter of 2008. Malaysia's current account surplus has narrowed significantly over the last two years, reaching a 10-year low of 3.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) in Q1 2013 from over 10% of GDP in 2011.

The narrowing has been driven by a combination of weak exports, strong domestic demand and low commodity prices. – Bernama

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

0 ulasan 3:29 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Nation

Worker finds gruesome remains in bungalow
Kurup: Govt’s power sharing policy needs all parties to work together
Petrol station operators use apps to stay safe

Worker finds gruesome remains in bungalow

Posted:

MALACCA: A Myanmar worker, who was trying to trace the source of an unbearable stench in Bukit Lintang in Ayer Molek near here, stumbled upon the gruesome remains of a man and a woman in an abandoned bungalow.

The heads of the highly decomposed bodies were found hanged about a metre apart on a wooden beam while most of the separated body parts were found on the floor of the house yesterday.

The couple are believed to be foreigners in their 20s. No documents were found on their clothes.

Police believe that they had brought along the beam, nylon ropes and two plastic chairs and apparently taken their own lives inside the house which had been left unoccupied for several years.

State deputy CID chief Supt P.R. Gunarajan said the bungalow was overgrown with bushes.

"We believe they died about a month ago. A post mortem will be conducted to gather more details," he said, adding that the case was classified as sudden death.

In an unrelated incident, a 49-year-old man who died of a burst stomach ulcer at the Sungai Udang Prison Complex on Friday was found to have a small packet of a drug with the street name of "rocket fuel" inside his stomach.

Melaka Tengah deputy OCPD Supt Muhammad Koey Abdullah said the suspect had been arrested for a drug-related offence on July 30.

A post mortem conducted yesterday found the substance inside the man's stomach.

"It was about the size of a thumb and it was not ruptured," he said, adding that police could not determine when he swallowed it.

Kurup: Govt’s power sharing policy needs all parties to work together

Posted:

KUANTAN: The effective power sharing policy by the Government and its moderate approach in administering the country should be supported by all, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Joseph Kurup.

He said that the effort to forge stronger ties amongst the multi-racial community was not an easy task and required the cooperation and commitment from all levels of society in both the urban and rural areas.

"Problems of unity are not only faced by a multi-racial community like Malaysia.

Countries with a single race are also burdened by this.

"What more a country which is made up of multiple races, surely it will raise all manners of issues and problems," he said.

A transcript of his speech was read by the National Unity and Integration Department deputy director-general (operations) L. Gandesan.

Gandesan had represented Kurup in opening the national meeting of the Young Buddhist Association of Malaysia here yesterday.

Kurup added that the practice of mutual respect and acceptance of religious and racial diversity as well as the rejection of exploitation for political interests were the foundation of unity among Malaysians and a fracture would only invite destruction.

"On this basis, we have to defend the country's sovereignty so the national transformation agenda towards a high income nation status can be achieved," Kurup said.

He said the people had to be thankful that even though Islam was the religion of the Federation, the freedom for non-Muslims to practise their own faiths was still guaranteed under the Federal Constitution.

Petrol station operators use apps to stay safe

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Petrol station operators have turned to social media to stay connected on safety issues and to update each other on any incidents of crime involving their stations.

Petroleum Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM) president Datuk Hashim Othman said in most areas, petrol station operators had started WhatsApp group chats. The association has 3,500 members nationwide.

"The modus operandi of robbers is to hit outlets that are near each other because the amount they can get from one petrol station is usually not much," he said.

"By having a messaging app, we can warn each other in real time so that all the stations in the area are alerted as soon as a crime takes place," he said.

"We even have police officers in our chat groups."

Hashim noted that robbers used to only have parang and knives.

"But they are now armed with guns and are getting more violent," he said.

Despite the rise in violent crimes, he said, petrol stations that operated round-the-clock would continue to do so.

"If station operators want to close early, they must apply to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism for approval," he pointed out.

"Otherwise, they risk having their licences revoked because petrol is an essential item."

He called on petrol station operators to be extra vigilant and to take precautionary measures "above and beyond the usual", especially during the festive season.

"But if you are being robbed, don't put up a fight because it's not worth risking your life," he advised.

He urged petrol station workers to be more observant of their surroundings because robbers would usually check out a place before striking.

"And the public should not wear eye-catching jewellery or carry too much cash, especially if they are going to a petrol station at night," he said.

"Also, always have your smartphone with you to snap a picture if you see anyone behaving suspiciously, or if you witness a crime being committed.

"Such pictures can help the police nab the criminals.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

0 ulasan 3:29 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

Top South Korean stars get married

Posted:

"There was thunder and lightning this morning. There is an old saying that thunder and lightning are a good sign for newlyweds. We will do our best to live a long, happy life", the bride said.

Byung-Hun is well known as the star of a number of popular television dramas, including the spy series Iris, as well as for his films.

His role as a swashbuckling gambler in the pan-Asian hit series All In has earned him a particularly devoted following in Japan.

He also features in the currently showing Hollywood action comedy Red 2 starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Min-Jung became a household name for her supporting role in the mega-hit high school TV drama series Boys Over Flowers. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

0 ulasan 3:04 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

Americanah

Posted:

Yes, this is a serious book but it is also a brilliantly entertaining and well-written one that is difficult to put down unfinished.

THERE are so many things about Americanah to enjoy, appreciate and admire that it is tricky to know where to start. On the enjoyment level there is the pleasure of a bitter-sweet love story charted with sensitivity and conviction, not a schmaltzy Hollywood-style girlie pic kind of a love story but one in which both characters are grounded in daily life with all its pleasures and travails.

More aesthetically, it would be a blunted reading that did not intuitively appreciate that Adichie writes beautifully – elegantly and poetically when needed and more brutally when not.

And finally, my admiration knows few limits for the fierce intelligence with which the author explores and exposes the issue of race in America with such devastating effectiveness without once losing sight of the fact that a novel is the creation of a fictional world and not simply a platform from which to preach or spout one's "pc" credentials.

To take the love story first, Ifemelu is a young Nigerian woman in America who, when the book opens, is having her hair braided in preparation for her return to her home country. As she sits in the salon, wiling away the hours this cosmetic process takes, she reflects on the events of her life so far, including her relationship with Obinze.

School friends and then lovers, they are separated when Ifemelu goes to America and Obinze is unable to follow her. Settled in America, Ifemelu has a number of more or less meaningful relationships but none have the capacity "to make her feel like herself" and the memory of Obinze stubbornly refuses to go away. To say that they are soulmates sounds trite but it is true. One way or another, this is a relationship that needs fulfilment or closure and resolution.

If Ifemelu and Obinze are the clear drivers of the book, there are a host of minor characters that flesh it out, for this is in every sense a big book of almost epic scale. To take but one, Obinze's mother is a university professor, a thoughtful and compassionate woman. In one beautifully written scene that occurs quite early in her son's relationship with Ifemelu she leaves them alone in the house watching a DVD and returns to find them watching the same scene as when she left.

Correctly assuming that this means that they have taken advantage of her absence to disappear into Obinze's bedroom together, she takes Ifemelu to one side and, after establishing that they have "done nothing serious together", advises her to wait: "You can love without making love. It is a beautiful way of showing your feelings but it brings responsibility, great responsibility, and there is no rush. I will advise you to wait until you are at least in university, wait until you own yourself a little more."

Ifemelu, in response, "felt the absence of shame. Perhaps it was Obinze's mother's tone, the evenness of it, the normalness ..."

For both characters their experiences in foreign countries accelerate the process of "owning themselves a little more". Obinze goes to Britain where he does a series of dead end jobs, a number of which he does illegally without a National Insurance number. Eventually, despite trying every trick in the book to stay and paying heavily in the process, he is deported back to Nigeria.

His distressing attempts to find work are echoed by those of Ifemelu in America. Despite being eminently qualified and doing well at interviews, she becomes more and more desperate and humiliated as she is turned down time after time. The reason? She has run headlong into the issue of race and being black in America.

Adichie is very good at American dinner parties and uses their social platform to instigate discussions of race and to expose the shallowness of even the most apparently liberal attitudes. At one of them, a black author talks about the publication of her new book and reacts against the advice offered by her: "My editor reads the manuscript and says, 'I understand that race is important here but we have to make sure the book transcends race, so that it's not just about race'. And I'm thinking, "But why do I have to transcend race? You know, like race is a brew best served mild, tempered with other liquids, otherwise white folk can't swallow it."

Americanah is a book about race but it is not preachy and it presents a far more intelligent, compassionate and complex picture of what being black in a white culture actually means than anything else I have read so far.

A device that Adichie uses very successfully is to make Ifemelu the writer of a blog called Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known As Negroes) By A Non-American Black. These "observations" are sometimes light-hearted in tone but are also bitterly effective, none more so than one devastating piece entitled What Academics Mean By White Privilege, or Yes It Sucks To Be Poor And White But Try Being Poor And Non-White.

Americanah is that rare thing, a book that actually changes your world view. If that sounds rather heavy, it really isn't. Yes it is serious, but this is also a brilliantly entertaining and well-written book with characters and a storyline to keep you reading well past your bedtime.

It is a very fine achievement by an extremely gifted writer and I shall count myself lucky to read anything better this year.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: Central

0 ulasan 1:04 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Metro: Central

Adoption taboo in Pakistan

Posted:

In Pakistani society, where tribe, caste, creed and family belonging are of paramount importance, many, if not most, pause at the idea of loving a child that is not one's own progeny.

ISLAMABAD: The babies had apparently been found on a trash heap. The ensuing saga of the television show on which she was given away is well known.

It made news not only in Pakistan but everywhere; CNN did a story and the BBC filmed a segment. The story of the giving away of baby girls, like a car or television or microwave oven, was something everyone could balk at, something that transcended culture and geography.

The show's host, Amir Liaquat, defended his actions; the future "parents" had been vetted, he insisted, and the point of the show was to impress upon viewers that an abandoned baby was a treasure, and not trash.

Underlying the outrage and sensationalism of the whole episode is the complicated issue of adoption itself. Under Pakistani law, guardianship is governed by the Guardians and Wards Act of 1890, a piece of legislation passed 124 years ago.

The stipulations of this 19th-century act set out clear guidelines through which the guardianship of a child can be obtained; local magistrates and court officials can conduct background checks on would-be parents. On completion of these requirements, legal guardianship of a child can be completed.

That is the law on the books, but Pakistan is a messy country and its complications dictate that things rarely proceed along the lines laid down by the law. Among the knots is that the law mandates guardianship, instead of adoption (guardianship of children ends when they attain majority).

In legal terms, this is not a problem; a guardian can enjoy all the same rights as a parent, and the child under their care is, like any biological child, their legal ward.

The law keeps "guardianship" separate from "parenting" and depending on the people assuming legal responsibility, it can be the same thing as parenting, or completely different. The law doesn't say which, and so society and the family can dictate the details of the nature of the relationship.

As stigmatisation goes, religion is added to the mix. Fundamentalist and literal interpretations of Islamic law, such as those dictating that nursing a child is crucial to ensuring a chaste parental relationship, are used as additional curbs and discouragements.

As in the case of all taboos, opposing arguments such as the Holy Quran's repeated exhortations on the value of guardianship are easily forgotten.

The result is that in Pakistan guardianship has the reputation of an option for the hapless, the biologically flawed who must take on the abandoned progeny of others to make up for their own failure to procreate.

Even while these parents will love the child like their own, society at large continues to view them with pity.

In other cases, guardianship is the avenue of the magnanimous who will take on an impoverished child from a shelter or servant. This child is then raised with their own as an expression of their piety and benevolence. The child may be educated with their children, may even participate in family rituals, but no effort is made to disguise its status as different.

The lifelong burden of gratitude is the child's to bear; after all, it could have been a baby on a trash heap were it not for the benevolence of the better endowed.

Undoubtedly, there are many other iterations of the arrangement, some better or worse than the above. In focusing the discussion on these social norms, I hope to place emphasis not on the legal conundrums or the many examples of loving guardians who treat their children just as they would a biological child or even the practices of welfare institutions, but rather on social acceptance and treatment of adoption in Pakistani society.

At fault, at least in part, is the cultural obsession with genetic transmission that demotes adoption to something less or something wanting, but never as something chosen. What follows from this constricted social perception is a pervasive lack of sincerity regarding adoption which consequently deigns that an adopted child must be eternally grateful to be loved in a way that a biological child would never be expected to be.

In a Pakistan clinging to the idea that biological belonging is the ultimate in ensuring love and loyalty, adoption and its children always seem to fall short in mediaeval measures of bloodlines used by society to evaluate them.

Crude as it was, Amir Liaquat's television programme took a jab at this underlying prejudice. In placing a baby along with the bits and bobs of middle-class respectability that so many Pakistanis aspire to, it tried to raise the value of an adopted child to something more than a stand-in for the biological baby that could not be.

> The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

For Mugabe and Britain, ties that bind

Posted:

The conflicted yet intimate flavour of Mugabe's relationship with Britain is marked by 'the peculiar intensity of a family quarrel'.

WHEN armed white settlers thrust into southern Africa in 1890 to raise the British flag over a land they named Rhodesia, they were lured by promises of gold beneath the ground and land aplenty above it.

More than 120 years later, the contest for the continent's resources in the land now called Zimbabwe seems undiminished, though China, not Britain, leads the scramble.

And, as the July 31 elections in Zimbabwe showed, a parallel battle is still being waged, at least in President Robert G. Mugabe's preoccupation – some might say obsession – with the decades of colonial and quasi-colonial rule that ended with independence in 1980.

Throughout his tenure, Mugabe has prevailed, securing his seventh consecutive term in office a week ago.

Neither his years – he is 89 – nor his political foes, nor sanctions imposed by his Western adversaries in London, Washington and elsewhere have been able to end the increasingly personalised and autocratic rule he has secured through a blend of guile, an iron fist and what his critics call a lust for power.

"Robert Mugabe has survived for so long because he is more clever and more ruthless than any other politician in Zimbabwe," the former US ambassador in Harare, Christopher W. Dell, said in a confidential 2007 cable made public by the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy group.

From another perspective, the outcome of Zimbabwe's election – labelled as flawed by London and Washington – showed the constraints on post-imperial power and, more broadly, the limits of the West's ability to bend defiant regimes from North Korea to Syria to its will.

But Mugabe's survival has again conjured the conflicted and intimate flavour of his relationship with Britain, profoundly hostile and yet marked by what the late Heidi Holland, a biographer, called "the peculiar intensity of a family quarrel".

The Zimbabwean leader, for instance, is said to admire Britain's royal family, and is wont to use the regal "we" in speaking of himself. He upholds British traditions, like afternoon tea, but accuses Britain of harbouring neo-colonial ambitions.

"I've thought about retirement, but not when the British are saying, 'We want regime change'," he said before the vote. "I won't be changed by the British."

The ties that bind European powers to their former African possessions are often a tangle of resentment, self interest, guilt, dependence and emulation, shaded by the dictates of realpolitik.

France, for instance, has long practised a muscular neo-colonialism, underpinned by the deployment of its troops, most recently on a relatively large scale to repulse an Islamist advance in Mali.

Even though it has sent forces to Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq, however, Britain has never been prepared to risk a similar military campaign in southern Africa.

Yet, by imputing continued colonial aspirations to Britain, Mugabe has been able to harness Africa's deep-rooted resentment of foreign dominance, casting his political survival as part of the elemental contest between slave and master, rather than as one more skirmish in the war of democracy versus tyranny portrayed by his enemies.

"More than many other African leaders," wrote the filmmaker Roy Agyemang, who made an award-winning documentary about the Zimbabwean leader last year, "Mugabe draws cheers across the continent."

The origins of Britain's fraught relationship with Mugabe long predate the Lancaster House conference that Britain convened in London in 1979 to broker a settlement after seven years of guerrilla warfare, during which Mugabe led the biggest of two rival insurgent forces.

Citing the Maoist adage that political power flows from the barrel of a gun, he showed little interest in ending the war. Britain, for its part, acknowledged that Mugabe and his armed followers could not be ignored, but it sought to blunt his claim on exclusive power through constitutional provisions that some in London hoped would sideline him.

The British miscalculated.

In the elections in 1980, Mugabe won outright victory. When the Union Jack flag the settlers had lofted in 1890 was finally lowered, it was Mugabe who officiated at the handover of power from Prince Charles.

In those early years, the seeds of bitterness between London and Harare, sown under white rule, spread their dark blooms.

Even as British advisers trained the bulk of a new national army, elements of the separate, North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade started a murderous spree against Mugabe's ethnic foes in the western Matabeleland region, killing thousands. Britain looked on, powerless.

"There is a limit to what this country can do to impose its will," Britain's former foreign secretary, Geoffrey Howe, said later, "and to some extent a greater limit in an ex-colony with an extremely sensitive government."

But there was also a phenomenon that Holland called Britain's "unresolved colonial feelings" of condescension and hostility toward Mugabe, contributing to "post-colonial toxicity on both sides".

Promises of land reform enshrined at Lancaster House went unredeemed. Indeed, Mugabe initially seemed to seek an accommodation with the country's 4,500 white farmers while Britain did little to redress the huge imbalances in land ownership before the explosion of farm expropriations ordered by the Zimbabwean leader starting in 2000.

After the elections, Britain greeted Mugabe's victory with what Foreign Secretary William Hague called "grave concern" over the conduct and credibility of the vote.

But his remarks served to highlight the ambivalence of British perceptions blending revulsion at Mugabe's tyranny with frustrated impotence toward the corruption, economic decline and brutality that have been the hallmark of his tenure.

"There may be little that Britain can do," wrote the columnist Stephen Glover in the conservative Daily Mail, "but William Hague should at least speak like a decent human being appalled by the activities of a man who was put into power by a British government and has caused so much suffering to a once bountiful country." – ©2013 The International Herald Tribune

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: South & East

0 ulasan 11:17 PG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Metro: South & East

Adoption taboo in Pakistan
For Mugabe and Britain, ties that bind
Facebook: Heaven and hell for expressionists