Selasa, 20 Ogos 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

0 ulasan 11:35 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Endangered Giant Ibis found in Cambodia nesting grounds
Changi's new jewel set to soar
Number of Chinese drug abusers on the rise

Endangered Giant Ibis found in Cambodia nesting grounds

Posted:

PHNOM PENH: Jubilant conservationists expressed hope for the survival of the critically-endangered Giant Ibis after a nest of the bird species was discovered in a previously unknown habitat in northeastern Cambodia.

Habitat loss and poaching has pushed the Giant Ibis to the edge of extinction, with around only 345 of the reclusive creatures – distinctive for their bald heads and long beaks – left anywhere in the world, 90% of them in Cambodia.

A farmer in Cambodia's Stung Treng province discovered the nesting site a few kilometres inland in the biodiverse Mekong Flooded Forest area last month, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement.

An inspection team from the WWF later saw an adult bird sitting on the nest with two eggs.

"The discovery of the Giant Ibis nest on the Mekong is extremely significant because it provides hope for the species' survival," said Sok Ko, Forestry Administration official and Bird Nest Project officer with WWF. — AFP

Changi's new jewel set to soar

Posted:

Changi Airport's newest "Jewel" will be designed by the man behind Singapore's other architectural gem, the iconic Marina Bay Sands.

World-renowned Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, 75, will lead a team to design a "stunning glass and steel facade that presents an impressive view of the complex – from both Airport Boulevard and the sky", said Changi Airport.

The multi-storey complex, which features a waterfall as high as five storeys within a lush indoor garden, will also be a hub connecting the airport's three main terminals by foot. Currently, the only way to get from Terminal 1 to T2 and T3 is by skytrain.

To be built by 2018 where T1's open-air carpark is now located, the project – currently codenamed "Jewel" – marks Changi's first build-and-manage partnership with a private firm.

The airport is in talks with CapitaMalls Asia to set up a joint-venture entity which will construct and run the new complex.

Changi Airport Group (CAG) will own a majority share, its spokesman Ivan Tan said, but did not divulge numbers. The cost for Jewel has not been finalised.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who spoke of the project during Sunday's National Day Rally, called it "something special".

But Jewel is not just about lush gardens, dining and shopping. It signifies yet another step by Changi Airport to cement its position as the region's preferred airport hub amid tough competition from rivals such as Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi.

Jewel, said CAG chief executive officer Lee Seow Hiang, is a product "that will swing travellers to choose Changi Airport, and Singapore". He added: "We must take deliberate steps to enhance Changi's attractiveness."

As part of the Jewel project, T1's arrival hall, baggage claim areas and taxi bays will be expanded, and handling capacity raised from 21 to 24 million passengers a year.

Changi can currently handle up to 66 million passengers a year, but this will increase to 85 million when the new Terminal 4 and T1 expansion are completed by 2018.

A fifth terminal will also be ready by the middle of the next decade, while Singapore is planning a third and fourth runway.

Other airports are also expanding.

Hong Kong wants a third runway and is boosting terminal capacity to handle about 100 million passengers a year by 2030.

South Korea's Incheon Airport, too, is transforming itself into an "airport city", with recreational facilities such as a fashion complex, an amusement park and a concert hall that can seat 50,000.

Project Jewel will help keep Changi exciting, say observers.

UOB Kay Hian aviation expert K. Ajith said of the potential tie-up with CapitaMalls: "Since the complex is likely to have sizeable retail space, it makes sense for Changi to partner a firm that has good experience managing malls."

By splitting the cost, he added, the airport can also reserve funds for future infrastructure projects. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Number of Chinese drug abusers on the rise

Posted:

The rising number of Chinese drug abusers and Ice were among the points of concern when the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) released its mid-year drug situation report.

The overall number of Chinese drug abusers surged by 19% in the first six months of this year, from 522 in the same period last year, to 621.

The number of new Chinese drug abusers arrested also rose by 24%, from 151 to 187.

Statistics also showed that the total number of abusers arrested for Ice has gone up – from 519 in the first six months of last year, to 564 in the same period this year.

Ice, Singapore's second-most abused drug after heroin, is a well-known party drug said to be popular with youngsters.

Heroin and methamphetamine are the two most popular drugs of choice among Chinese abusers, at a combined 86%. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

0 ulasan 9:35 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

'Adventure Time' and others win first 2013 Emmys

Posted:

Awards in juried categories include another one for HBO Documentary Films' Sheila Nevins, the biggest winner in Emmy history.

Disney animation, The Simpsons, the Grammy Awards, Portlandia and the documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God have won the first Emmy Awards of 2013, the Television Academy announced recently.

Those programmes, and several others, were given Emmys in three juried categories. The Emmys do not have standard nominations in those categories but instead convene special peer-group screening committees to view eligible achievements and decide if each one is deserving of an Emmy.

More than one award in each category is possible, but only programmes or individuals winning unanimous approval are given Emmys.

The awards will be given out on Sept 15 during the Creative Arts Emmy Awards ceremony at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

Among the winners is HBO Documentary Films chief Sheila Nevins, who won her 24th Emmy for serving as executive producer on Alex Gibney's Mea Maxima Culpa to break her own award as the biggest Emmy winner of all time. — Reuters

The awards:
Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation
1. Adventure Time/ Cartoon Network/ Andy Ristaino (character design)
2. Disney Mickey Mouse Croissant de Triomphe/ Disney.com/ Jenny Gase-Baker (background paint)
3. Disney Mickey Mouse Croissant de Triomphe/ Disney.com/ Joseph Holt (art direction)
4. Disney TRON: Uprising (The Stranger)/ Disney XD/ Alberto Mielgo (art direction)
5. Dragons: Riders Of Berk (We Are Family, Part 2)/ Cartoon Network/ Andy Bialk (character design)
6. The Simpsons (Treehouse Of Horror XXIII)/ Fox/ Paul Wee (character animation)

Outstanding Costumes For A Variety Programme Or A Special
1. The 55th Annual Grammy Awards/ CBS/ Marina Toybina (costume designer) and Courtney Webster (assistant costume designer)
2. The Men Who Built America (Bloody Battles)/ History/ Sarah Beers (costume designer), Rachael Leah Greene (costume supervisor) and Lisa Faibish (costume supervisor)
3. Portlandia (Blackout)/ IFC/ Amanda Needham (costume designer) and Monika Schmidt (costume supervisor)

Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking
1. Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God/ HBO/ Alex Gibney, Todd Wider and Jedd Wider (producers) and Sheila Nevins (executive producer)

A pivotal season

Posted:

Actor Noah Wyle reveals a bit of what's in store for the third season of his sci-fi show, Falling Skies.

When asked what he loves best about working on the science-fiction television series Falling Skies, Noah Wyle replied that it has everything to do with his son.

"I love how much my son loves it. I love that he is very popular in his class because all the other boys love Falling Skies. And that he thinks his father is cool," says the 42-year-old actor, who plays lead character Tom Mason on the show.

He adds that his son, 10-year-old Owen, enjoys coming on the set with him, and playing with his prop machine gun and the alien models.

"To me, that's what makes it all worthwhile," Wyle says. "I'm very grateful for the chance to work, and I'm very engaged by it, but personally, as it takes me away from my family, it's really nice that I'm doing something that they can enjoy as well." (Falling Skies films on location in Canada; Wyle's home is in Los Angeles, California.)

Wyle was speaking to South-East Asian journalists over a conference phone call from his newly-renovated ranch house, where he and his family were in the middle of unpacking after moving in two days prior to the interview.

"Everybody's just got a huge grin on their face because we've been waiting to move into this house for a long time. So, the family's great, and I'm having a really nice hiatus. It's going to be hard to pull me back to Canada, but I'm ready," he says.

Wyle is currently on a break before the start of filming the fourth season of Falling Skies.

He shares that Season Three was really a turning point for the series, which revolves around a band of survivors led by Mason, a former history professor, and retired US Army Captain Dan Weaver (played by Will Patton), who are fighting back against an alien invasion that has wiped out 90% of Earth's population, enslaving children by attaching harnesses to their spinal cord.

"I think Season Three was really a watershed year for us. If we had not built on the momentum of Season Two, (or) even if we had built a season equivalent to the second one, I don't think we would have gotten picked up for a fourth," says Wyle.

The finale of Season Two left plenty of revelations and developments to be further explored in the following season, chief of which is the discovery that the group's medic and Mason's girlfriend Dr Anne Glass (Moon Bloodgood), is pregnant with his child.

Wyle reveals that this news has a big impact on Season Three. Firstly, the baby and Anne play a huge part of the season's story arc. The second reason is that Bloodgood was actually pregnant.

"As a result, she had to finish all of her filming by October, (which was) very, very early in the shooting schedule, so that she could fly home and have her actual baby. So, it was something we had to work around both logistically and creatively.

"But the baby storyline is one of the major driving forces of Season Three's narrative," he says.

In addition, Mason's eldest son, 16-year-old Hal (Drew Roy), was infected with an alien parasite by his ex-girlfriend Karen (Jessy Schram), who is now working for the aliens after being harnessed.

Wyle, who is also a producer on the show, shares that Hal has a bigger role in Season Three, compared to previously when younger brother Ben (Connor Jessup) had a larger share of the story.

"(Being infected) does change him quite a bit. It's a major plot point for the first half of the season because there's a security breach, somebody's leaking information to the enemy, and he is the most obvious choice because he has been implanted," Wyle says, adding that Roy really stepped up to the challenge and made it work.

Meanwhile, Mason also undergoes some important changes. In the first episode, we discover that he has been given a role of greater responsibility among the survivors.

Wyle says that at first, Mason feels more like an actor playing the role he is given, rather than actually believing in his ability to truly carry out his responsibilities.

"That is the arc that goes on throughout the season, but by the end of Season Three, he really can take on the role. Whatever he is lacking in the beginning, he gets in the end through experience."

Falling Skies Season Three premieres tonight at 10pm, on AXN (Astro Ch 701 / HD Ch 721).

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

0 ulasan 9:17 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

LiLo comes clean

Posted:

Lindsay Lohan says she's an addict, aims "to shut up and listen".

Weeks after finishing her sixth trip to rehab, actress Lindsay Lohan said in an interview that she was an addict and realises she needs "to shut up and listen" because her approach to dealing with personal problems had not worked.

"I'm my own worst enemy, and I know that and I admit it," Lohan, 27, told Oprah Winfrey in an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). She said she only realised she had a problem "over a period of time" rather than at any one moment.

Asked whether she was an addict, Lohan replied "Yeah", adding that her drug of choice was alcohol, which she said had been a "gateway to other things". Lohan, who shot to fame as a child star in The Parent Trap before huge success in hit films such as Mean Girls, has seen her image tarnished by a string of arrests, court appearances, bouts in rehab and a stint in prison, not to mention nearly continuous media coverage of the scandals.

She recently sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center, then finished treatment at another facility. Lohan told Winfrey she had often felt shame, and "tons of guilt" over her frequent relapses with substance abuse, public quarrels with her parents and scrapes with the law. When Winfrey asked what was different about this latest time in rehab, Lohan said that she no longer takes adderal, which she took for ADD (attention deficit disorder), saying being on the drug was "all I know" but that she was now calmer without it.

Lohan said she now only takes vitamins. And she said her attitude had evolved. "I just need to shut up and listen. In this case (in rehab) I wasn't fighting at all," she said, adding that it was clear that her idea of what works hasn't in the past. Lohan spoke of a life steeped in chaos, starting with her home life, although she differed with a common perception that her parents had exploited her talents for financial gain.

"Nobody's perfect," she said of her parents, themselves tabloid fodder, adding "I love my family".

"I don't think anything was intentionally done ... they're just parents," Lohan said when Winfrey asked about the possibility of her parents having exploited her. "I don't blame anyone for my mistakes," she added.

"I did that, and I'm not proud of it." But Lohan said she felt many of her demons have endured due to "all the chaos around me, that I was so comfortable with." Since completing a court-ordered 90-day stint in rehab on July 31, the actress has enlisted a "sober coach" to help her stay clean and guest-hosted comedienne Chelsea Handler's talk show Chelsea Lately on US cable network E!.

Her latest film, The Canyons, was excoriated by critics, but many praised her performance. Lohan, who will also be the subject of a reality series on OWN next year, is required to attend weekly therapy sessions over the next 15 months to comply with a court order for a reckless driving charge. — Reuters

New 'Agent Carter' clip

Posted:

Agent Peggy Carter is back.

Marvel Studios has released a new clip from its "One-Shot" film Agent Carter, which sees Hayley Atwell reprising her role as the character, Peggy Carter.

Agent Carter is set one year after the events in Captain America: The First Avenger: Peggy has just been tranferred to a new agency and her boss (Bradley Whitford) is not all that nice. In the snippet Peggy seems to have found ... something and someone.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

0 ulasan 7:10 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Business

India, the taper and capital control
Can Smartphone Visionary Engineer HTC's Second Coming?
British bonuses little changed

India, the taper and capital control

Posted:

NEW DELHI: India's imposition of capital controls shows how the prospect of a rollback of US monetary policy is already starting a global war for capital.

India has rolled out a series of capital controls to help support the partially convertible rupee, which has been hammered 13% lower so far this year and stands at an all-time low against the dollar.

Besides limits on the amounts Indian individuals and business can shift out of the country, India on Monday banned the duty-free import of flat-screen televisions by airline passengers, a move that has the feel of clutching at straws.

Financial markets have been unimpressed by the moves, which started earlier this year, accelerating a shift in the wrong direction as investors weigh the possibility of further capital controls, perhaps even the capturing of foreign money.

Indian shares fell 1.6% on Monday, the rupee hit a record low of 62.82 per dollar and 10-year government bond yields rose to 9.23%.

To be sure, much of India's problems are of its own making. The country suffers from slow growth, by emerging market standards, high inflation and crucially, a high current account deficit.

Add to that a sclerotic and uncertain legal and political system and development-slowing corruption, and it is easy to understand why India is among the hardest-hit in the emerging-markets selloff.

Although India has large reserves of foreign currency – more than US$270bil – it also must sell or refinance bonds of about US$250 billion over the next year, leaving it highly vulnerable to strong outflows of capital.

While India's problems may have been manufactured at home, the recognition of them was touched off by events abroad, namely the prospect of the Federal Reserve beginning to taper its purchases of bonds.

As US economic data improves and the chances of a taper rise, the global repercussions have been strong. We've also seen benchmark US interest rates, which help to set the cost of capital globally, rise dramatically, with yields on the U.S. 10-year bond rise sharply since early May, to 2.9%.

That rise makes it harder, and more expensive, for emerging markets in need of cash to finance themselves, and can tend to touch off the sort of vicious cycle – where doubt begets currency weakness, which begets equity falls - that we are seeing in India.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

We have been here before. The Latin American debt crisis of the 1980s and the Asian crisis in the late 1990s both happened in the wake of US credit-tightening cycles kicking off, and both ended badly.

Indeed, India had its own crisis in 1991, when having expended its own foreign reserves, it was forced to seek a US$2.2bil loan from the International Monetary Fund, complete with a humiliating airlift of gold to Britain and Switzerland to serve as collateral.

Lessons learned then, and during the Asian crisis later in the decade, are part of the reason the country built up its reserves of foreign currency. India is, of course, stronger, more globally integrated and more politically influential than it was in the 1990s, but other conditions have changed as well.

Significantly, the IMF orthodoxy, which used to go for hell-for-leather austerity when faced with a country in need of cash, has become more pragmatic, perhaps because so many of its powerful member states have undergone their own ordeal by austerity.

While the IMF opposed Malaysia's move to impose capital controls in 1998, it actually supported the tactic in Iceland during the last crisis.

As India can see, both Iceland and Malaysia imposed capital controls, both thumbed their noses at global markets and both lived to tell the tale.

India is not alone. Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia have also seen their currencies come under pressure. All this is happening when the taper is at best a rumour, though one whose existence is supported by hints from central bankers and some positive US economic data.

India's problems, in a bizarre and short-term way, would be most easily solved by a bout of bad data out of the US, taking the taper off of the agenda.

That is not something India can count on, and the fact that it realises this can be seen in the evident alarm with which it is reacting to events. Perhaps the worst of all worlds for India and other emerging markets would be any hint that the Fed will taper not because of a recovery but despite one not appearing.

That would deal a blow to all markets, but an especially damaging one to emerging nations – Reuters

Can Smartphone Visionary Engineer HTC's Second Coming?

Posted:

SINGAPORE/TAIPEI: Now in his tenth year as CEO of HTC Corp, Peter Chou is lauded as the architect of the Taiwanese firm's award-winning smartphones. But as the company's fortunes have dived, some insiders say he's now an obstacle to any revival.

Rocked by internal feuding and executive exits, and positioned at the high-end of a smartphone market that is close to saturation, HTC has seen its market share slump to below 5 percent from around a quarter five years ago; its stock price is at 8-year lows, and it has warned it could make a first operating loss this quarter.

Reuters interviewed a dozen former and current HTC executives who said Chou's abrasive management style and weak strategic vision play their part in the company's decline, which has coincided with the success of Apple Inc's <AAPL.O> iPhone and Samsung Electronics' <005930.KS> Galaxy phones.

Chou has said publicly he has no intention to stand down, and executives - none of whom wanted to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue - said HTC has no clear internal successor. "Part of the weakness is there is no obvious successor, and that's not been good for morale," one said.

Chou declined to be interviewed for this article, but in response to Reuters queries, the company said: "HTC's board and broad employee base remain committed to Peter Chou's leadership. The (flagship) HTC One product family - which has been met with accolades by media and consumers alike - was a result of Peter's vision and leadership, and speaks for itself."

GRAPHIC: HTC by numbers http://r.reuters.com/jyf89t

VIDEO: HTC's mid-market phobia http://r.reuters.com/dak99t

OBSESSIVE EYE

Born in Myanmar but educated as an electrical engineer in Taiwan, Chou joined HTC from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) in 1997. Colleagues describe him as a perfectionist with an obsessive eye for materials and hardware design. Staff would deliver trays of prototype phones for him to inspect and pore over, spinning them to check for balance and running his fingers across the bevelled edges and joints. Phones would pile up on his desk, sometimes spilling onto the floor.

That attention to detail and Chou's willingness to make decisions on the fly helped build a culture within HTC of moving quickly to address market demands.

At an offsite meeting two years ago, for example, the HTC team realised it needed another device for its portfolio. Chou quickly drew some sketches on a whiteboard, recalled one of those present, and soon had the outlines of a device, its price point, and a launch date - just three months away. Most manufacturers would need up to 18 months for a similar project, yet the Sensation XL appeared on schedule, and to rave reviews.

"Having the ability to just tear up a plan and say, OK, this is the new thing and we're going to get it done fast. That's Peter," said another former senior foreign executive.

This shoot-from-the-hip approach served HTC well when the market was growing fast. Shortening the time to market meant HTC could alter plans at the last minute to take advantage of new or cheaper parts. But, as the market has matured, making it harder for handset makers to differentiate their products, the approach has left HTC vulnerable. Locking in the supply of more advanced components and materials to make products stand out requires more foresight and planning than HTC currently allows, former executives say.

"The weak point is they don't really have a long term strategy," said one. "It used to be a strength, and now is becoming a weak point as they don't have a clear direction going forward."

HTC's second-quarter net profit was well below forecasts even after resolving component shortages that hit its HTC One phone, [ID:nL3N0F91WF] and the company has said current quarter revenue could fall by as much as 30 percent from the previous quarter. [ID:nL4N0G01ZX] HTC shares trade at around a tenth of their 2011 peak.

MANAGEMENT STYLE

Just three years ago, HTC was shipping 25 million smartphones a year and Chou led a huge expansion, bringing in foreign executives from Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola and Microsoft <MSFT.O> as he sought to take on Apple by doubling HTC's shipments.

HTC was named Device Manufacturer of the Year at the world Mobile Congress in February 2011 and its market value topped that of rivals Research In Motion, now BlackBerry Ltd <BB.TO>, and Nokia <NOK1V.HE>. Chou ordered champagne to celebrate.

But as Apple and Samsung reigned supreme, HTC's annual shipments never reached that 50 million level, and by the end of last year HTC had dropped to 10th among global smartphone makers.

The HTC One, and earlier so-called 'hero' handsets from HTC, have won wide praise. The problem has been selling them.

Executives say HTC's failure to hit sales targets was at least partly down to Chou's management style. After hiring a slew of foreign executives, he fell short on promises to senior staff to foster a more open culture and cede sufficient authority. He openly berated managers and overrode their decisions, often with little discussion.

Such an atmosphere, executives said, damaged morale and left managers uncertain of their roles. Chou kept his sales, product, marketing and design executives separate and, in some cases, created parallel teams doing the same thing. He didn't hold meetings of executives of the different departments to iron out problems even as HTC's performance wilted. "There's a culture in HTC not to discuss numbers at senior management meetings," said one former executive. "Those discussions tend to become hard or ugly, but if you don't solve it, it becomes bigger."

OLD GUARD

Chou's difficulty in developing a durable global brand of handsets and building an ecosystem of apps and services around it raise questions about how HTC can recover under his leadership at a time when high-end smartphone sales growth is slowing.

"With intensifying competition from other top-tier players and the entrance of lower-tier players, we think a long-term margin downtrend is inevitable," SinoPac wrote in a recent note.

Many of the foreign hires have now quit, and HTC's old guard has re-established charge, running nearly all operations except design from Taipei. That, say those both inside and outside the company, is a mixed blessing.

While leadership tensions may have eased, some warn that concentrating global marketing in Taiwanwill create a one-size-fits-all, local approach that won't help HTC grow globally. "What works in Taiwan is different from other markets," said one of the former executives. Chief Marketing Officer Benjamin Hodefended the move, saying in a recent interview with Reuters that it made sense to centralise key functions, but that HTC was "not forgetting that we know we're an international brand."

Even his fiercest critics agree Chou remains the heart of the company and say it's hard to imagine HTC coming up with great devices without him.

As it seeks to turn around its fortunes, HTC has launched cheaper phones in China, and brought out a smaller, cheaper version of its flagship phone, the One Mini. [ID:nWNBB029OF] It is trying to revive its U.S. business by working more closely with operators and forming a new operations team.

HTC has also signed up "Iron Man" star Robert Downey Jr, whose own turnaround story - from jail and drug rehabilitation over a decade ago - is an "inspiration", says Ho. As part of HTC's around $1 billion annual marketing spend, the first advertisements featuring Downey appeared last week.- Reuters

British bonuses little changed

Posted:

london: Bonuses for UK banking and insurance industry employees was little changed at £13.3bil (US$20.9bil) in the year through March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The average bonus in financial services declined £100 to £11,900 from a year earlier, the ONS said in a statement yesterday. It compared with an average £1,700 bonus paid to private-sector employees, it said. The payout to the finance and insurance sector is more than a third of discretionary £36.9bil payments made in Britain, the ONS said. – Bloomberg

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

0 ulasan 3:34 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Nation

64 foreigners detained during Immigration raids in Malacca
Man killed during drinking session with four friends
Sydney to be the first to receive fresh chilled durians from Malaysia

64 foreigners detained during Immigration raids in Malacca

Posted:

MALACCA: A total of 64 foreign citizens, including seven Vietnamese women, were detained during raids conducted by the Immigration Department at nine locations in Melaka Tengah.

State Immigration director Kamalludin Ismail said that the Vietnamese women, aged between 25 and 30, were detained at a car workshop which had been renovated into an entertainment centre in Malim here at 9pm on Sunday.

He said that the women were believed to be working as guest relations officers and were entertaining their guests when the raid, which ended at 6am yesterday, was conducted at the premises.

The workshop was believed to have been operating as an entertainment centre since three months ago, he told a media conference here.

Meanwhile, a Cambodian couple had attempted to flee by leaving behind their four-year-old daughter in order to avoid arrest, when Immigration officers raided a house in Taman Bukit Rambai at midnight.

"The woman has overstayed in the country and her husband has been detained for harbouring her," he added.

He said that two Indonesian women, both in their 30s and pregnant, were also detained during the raid.

They did not have valid travel documents.

Kamalludin said that all the foreigners were then sent to the Immigration Detention Depot in Machap Umboo for further action. — Bernama

Man killed during drinking session with four friends

Posted:

KUALA SELANGOR: A 33-year-old man died of severe head injuries and deep stab wounds to his abdomen after a drinking session with four friends turned ugly.

S. Thangharajan was having drinks with the men in front of a house in Taman Sri Indah, Bestari Jaya, near here, at about 1.30am yesterday when the incident happened.

It was believed that the men had a misunderstanding with the victim, resulting in the group attacking him with golf clubs.

One of them then stabbed the victim with a sharp object. The suspects fled the scene after that.

Kuala Selangor police chief Supt Mohd Taib Ahmad said that the victim was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

"The police, however, arrested all four suspects within hours of the incident," he said, adding that police were still investigating the motive of the murder.

Sydney to be the first to receive fresh chilled durians from Malaysia

Posted:

SEPANG: Sydney will be the first foreign market to receive Malaysian durians in fresh chilled form through a new packaging technology.

Developed by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi), the modified atmosphere packaging is able to seal in the freshness of the durian flesh for up to three weeks.

Previously, Malaysian durians were exported either in frozen form or as whole fruits.

"The new packaging technology is more hygienic and is able to contain the freshness of the fruits' taste, aroma, colour and texture.

"Frozen durians, which can be kept for up to six months or even a year, does not taste as good because the tissues and enzymes of the fruits are dead.

"They are not the same as fresh chilled durians," Mardi senior principal research officer Latifah Mohd Noor said at the launch of the MASKargo cold chain product here yesterday.

The launch was held in conjunction with Mardi's trial durian shipment to the Australian city, which involves some two tonnes of the fruit being exported to Sydney in phases.

The first batch of durian flesh weighing some 650kg was transported yesterday and will be sold in four supermarkets.

MASKargo chief executive officer Mohd Yunus Idris said the durians were expected to reach Sydney's supermarkets as fresh as when the fruits were first picked from the orchard.

Mohd Yunus also announced the company's partnership with Envirotainer in transporting the temperature-sensitive shipments.

Latifah said the trial shipments were aimed at testing consumer demand for the fruit and to allow Mardi to evaluate the effectiveness of its new packaging technology.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

0 ulasan 3:34 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

New 'Agent Carter' clip

Posted:

Agent Peggy Carter is back.

Marvel Studios has released a new clip from its "One-Shot" film Agent Carter, which sees Hayley Atwell reprising her role as the character, Peggy Carter.

Harlin's mystery tour

Posted:

The Finnish director, maker of Die Hard 2, on a quarter-century of making movies and what lies ahead.

AS I'm ushered into Renny Harlin's office in Venice, Los Angeles, three blocks from where Orson Welles filmed the opening sequence of Touch Of Evil, his assistant informs me: "Oh, you'll have fun with Renny. He's been doing his homework on you."

My mind fills with horrifying possibilities, recalling how Don Simpson would have a journalist's credit rating, divorce papers, and even criminal record to hand for an interview. But Finland's most successful director simply appears before me with a grin and says: "Hello, John, I very much enjoyed your –" and he quotes something I wrote a month back. "I laughed all day!" he adds.

Harlin, a lean, ginger-haired man of medium height with a wind-burned, tough-guy sort of face, is currently in post-production on two projects. Having readied The Dyatlov Pass Incident for release this month, the 54-year-old is now about to edit his big-budget project Hercules 3D (starring Twilight's Kellan Lutz), due in 2014. "Hercules is an origins story. It starts with the young Hercules – how he becomes a man and comes to terms with being a demigod. I'm involved enough to be one of the writers."

The Dyatlov Pass Incident, meanwhile, is about an eerie happening in the Urals in 1959, when nine experienced Russian skiers died of inexplicable causes. They got lost in a blizzard and were found dead days later: some naked or barefoot, others with crushed skulls or broken bones, one with his tongue cut out – though not a single body showed signs of trauma or struggle. The movie deploys found footage, or recreations thereof, in the style of The Blair Witch Project.

Thomas Jane comes face-to-jaws with a biologically enhanced shark in Deep Blue Sea, one of Harlin's 'bounce-back' movies after the disastrous Cutthroat Island.

Pearly whites: Thomas Jane comes face-to-jaws with a biologically enhanced shark in Deep Blue Sea, one of Harlin's 'bounce-back' movies after the disastrous Cutthroat Island.

"It's such a weird story, one of those unsolved mysteries of our time, but it's not like some 'Flying saucers spotted over the mountains' story. There are crime-scene photographs, reports, maps, drawings – if you go on the web, you can pretty much track down every available piece of information. In Soviet times, obviously, it was hard to find anything out.

"Even when things happened in Russia, like plane crashes, you'd hear stories of people waiting for their relatives at the airport, and they just never showed up. No plane, no bodies. And Chernobyl – they could hardly bear to admit it. But even after all that, scientists have tried, very intelligently and seriously, to establish or guess what actually happened to these skiers. But there are only guesses, no theory that makes sense."

Hercules has the biggest budget Harlin's been handed since 1995's disastrous Cutthroat Island. Ranked one of the biggest box-office flops of all time, the film was said to have stopped his career dead. But it didn't (and anyway, thanks to the perilous economic state of his backers, the romcom action film opened without advertising). Harlin's next two movies were his best: The Long Kiss Goodnight, starring Geena Davis as a schoolteacher waking up to the fact she was once a skilled assassin; and Deep Blue Sea, his hit about brain-boosted sharks.

Harlin has made a movie every 18 months or two years ever since – oddities such as Exorcist: The Beginning, straight-to-DVD thrillers like Cleaner, and on-the-quiet mini-hits like The Covenant. Intriguingly, his later-period work echoes much of his early-career output, when he slalomed from exploitation flicks such as A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, to the Andrew Dice Clay action comedy The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane, before landing the second Die Hard movie in 1990. Just give the man a movie, it seems, and he'll make it one way or another, large, middling or small.

I apologise for my scant knowledge of Harlin's homeland, but am able to mention Aki Kaurismaki, Finland's dourest, driest and most deadpan screenwriter and director. "Aki! Yes, we know each other well. We were pretty much of the same generation of film students. One morning my doorbell rings at 5am and there's Aki. 'We're shooting and our car broke down,' he says. 'We need yours.' I have this 1963 Volvo. 'That's perfect!' he says. 'We'll bring it back later.' For the scene, the car has to brake really hard about 20 times. My brakes were shot by the end of the day. Aki killed my poor old Volvo! That's Aki."

Kaurismaki, with his minimalist black comedies, was able to function in the restrictive Finnish government film-financing infrastructure of the late 1970s. Harlin not so much.

"Because everything was government-financed, it all had to be socially conscious with serious issues: unemployment, divorce, alcoholism – really heavy. And Finnish people just weren't going to see Finnish movies. Aki could break into that – his sensibility could just about be fitted into the system, but I had to break away. I needed foreign financing."

The title of Harlin's first movie hinted at the rebirth to come: 1988's Born American was about three Finns who cross into what was then still Soviet Russia and suffer various tribulations of the blood-soaked variety. It was instantly banned in Finland for "anti-Soviet sentiment", allegedly at the behest of the Soviet ambassador to Finland.

"It was the first film banned for political reasons in Finland since the 1930s, and it was news everywhere. I remember the LA Times headline: 'Born in Finland. Banned in Finland.' It was a shock. We thought, 'Wait, isn't Finland an independent country – or is it still a part of Russia?' They made an enormous mistake, but we used it to our advantage in publicity."

And so he had his Hollywood calling-card. Within five years of arriving, he was directing Bruce Willis in Die Hard 2 and Sylvester Stallone in Cliffhanger, making money hand over fist for his studios.

In the years since, he worked on a biopic about Baron Carl Mannerheim, Finland's most revered 20th-century leader, a contradictory, hedonistic enigma, and perhaps Finland's Churchill, who spent decades in the pre-revolutionary Imperial Russian army before leading Finnish forces against the Soviets in 1919-21, and then again in the second world war, before routing remaining Nazis in Lapland.

"I worked on it for more than 10 years," says Harlin. "We even started it twice – once in Lithuania, once in Hungary. We had over 1,000 costumes made, all props and sets designed and built, all casting done, award-winning makeup designers for the lifelong ageing."

Despite all this, the film never came to fruition, something that clearly still saddens him. "My parents were both in the war," he says wistfully. "Every Finnish home had Mannerheim's picture on the wall."

He displaced some of his energy into 2011's 5 Days Of August, filmed in Georgia, about the five-day Russian incursion into South Ossetia in 2007. This, for Harlin, was another small and vulnerable place like Finland, hedged in by huge neighbouring empires. "I felt like this Georgia situation offered me a ventilation, a pressure valve from the Mannerheim experience. And I poured all those emotions into it instead."

He regrets now not being more familiar with all sides of the conflict, but he wouldn't trade anything for the days he got to boss the Georgian army around. "It was incredible commanding 80 tanks, with thousands of troops surging across the landscape, and all those planes and helicopters. I felt like Sam Peckinpah making Cross Of Iron."

I wonder which he prefers: shooting or editing. "I love editing, but I'm happiest on the set with the crew, the cast, the extras, being the commander. Not in a pretentious, Napoleonic way, but because I was always like that since I was a kid – in the sandbox going, 'OK, you guys go there, you guys do that.' And it's a role I love still." – Guardian News & Media

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: Central

0 ulasan 1:35 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Metro: Central

Cabbie who donated liver gets award

Posted:

CABBIE Tong Ming Ming, 34, touched a chord in Singaporeans from all walks of life when The Sunday Times reported last week that he donated a part of his liver to a stranger on the brink of death.

More than 60 readers commended him online and in e-mail to The Sunday Times. The story garnered more than 400 "likes" on The Straits Times' Facebook page.

Two organisations are honouring him, BBC World wants to interview him, students want to meet him for a project and a dermatologist has offered help with his scar, free of charge.

But, perhaps most important of all, two adult children of liver failure patients who are considering donating a part of their liver, reached out to him for reassurance.

One of them, primary school teacher Lee Siew Kiang, 35, will undergo surgery tomorrow to donate a part of her liver to her father who has liver cancer.

Lee said she was aware of the risks of the operation and that her fate might not be the same as Tong's. "But he is a real inspiration. If he can do this for a stranger, I can do it for my dad," she said.

Tong gave his gift of life to civil servant Toh Lai Keng, 43, in March in a nine-hour operation at the National University Hospital. Both men are doing well.

The Government subsidised half the cost of the operation – as it does for all transplant cases involving Singapore citizens.

Toh will pay Tong's bills even in future for expenses related to the surgery.

Tong is the first living donor here to give a part of his liver to someone with whom he has no blood or emotional ties.

The Rotary Club of Singapore informed Tong yesterday that it is giving him a Good Samaritan award, which includes a S$1,000 (RM2,578) cash prize and a certificate.

Meanwhile, Allswell Trading, which represents energy drink Red Bull in Singapore, has made Tong a nominee in an ongoing campaign to identify and honour "Real Singapore Heroes", said the company's director Lam Pin Woon.

The bachelor at the centre of all this attention, meanwhile, lets on that he received more than 100 Facebook friend requests after the article. And although a tad "embarrassed" with the spotlight, he is glad his story helped spread awareness of living-donor transplants.

"Donors must evaluate the risks for themselves," he said. "But if my story can help save even a single life, I will be more than happy." — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

0 ulasan 1:16 PTG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

Beauty of unconventional techniques

Posted:

Photographer Julia Margaret Cameron celebrated at museum show in New York.

With a camera meant to amuse her in her solitude and some famous friends, Julia Margaret Cameron managed to forge a body of work focused on Victorian portraiture that is still celebrated a century and a half later.

"She was one of the greatest portraitists in photography, and one of the great portraitists in any medium," said Malcolm Daniel, curator of a new exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York which features 35 pristine 19th-century photographs.

Cameron, who was British and died in 1879, was "eccentric in manner, spiritual in sensibility and unconventional in technique", Daniel told Reuters before the opening of the show earlier this week, which runs through Jan 5.

"She was not really interested in the documentation of how people looked. It was about finding the inner spirit and soul of a person," said Daniel, senior curator at the Met's Department of Photographs. As such, he added, the pioneering photographer's work has seen "waves of popularity and dismissal" for generations, with Cameron's soft focus, long-exposure works deemed variously "treacly, or celebrated as an artist".

For her part, Cameron dismissed documentary portraiture as "map-making and skeletal rendering of feature and form".

Cameron received a camera as a Christmas gift in 1863 from her daughter with the idea that "it might amuse you, mother, to try to photograph during your solitude". With no training in art, she eschewed professional models, instead shooting friends, family, neighbours and household staff. Her friends were not just ordinary folk – among them were the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, a neighbour on the Isle of Wight, and the Victorian scientist and mathematician John Herschel, each of whom is represented by several portraits from 1865-66.

Cameron's oeuvre comprised three bodies of work: Portraits of great men, such as the philosopher Thomas Carlyle, women such as nieces or maids who often posed as literary or historical figures like Sappho, and staged, costumed tableaux featuring Shakespearean, Biblical or Arthurian themes.

For the tableaux, Cameron, who shot in natural light, often looked no further than her own home, with her husband posing as King Lear or Merlin the magician. The latter was for a project request by Tennyson himself, who needed illustrations for a new edition of his tome, Idylls Of The Kings.

Another frequent subject was Alice Liddell – the muse of Alice In Wonderland author Lewis Carroll, who posed for Cameron a dozen times in 1872 alone, including for the portrait "Pomona" which is among those in the exhibit.

More than 1,200 images survive by Cameron, who largely stepped away from photography after moving back to Ceylon in 1875. They all have one thing in common: Cameron never appears in any of them, never once having shot a self-portrait. — Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

0 ulasan 11:35 PG Dicatat oleh blog2

Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

Bee sting therapy causing a buzz in China

Posted:

Would you intentionally let a bee sting you for health reasons?

PATIENTS in China are swarming to acupuncture clinics to be given bee stings to treat or ward off life-threatening illness, practitioners say.

More than 27,000 people have undergone the painful technique – each session can involve dozens of punctures – at Wang Menglin's clinic in Beijing, says the bee acupuncturist who makes his living from believers in the concept.

But except for trying to prevent allergic reactions to the stings themselves, there is no orthodox medical evidence that bee venom is effective against illness, and rationalist websites in the West describe so-called "apitherapy" as "quackery".

"We hold the bee, put it on a point on the body, hold its head, and pinch it until the sting needle emerges," Wang said at his facility on the outskirts of the capital.

The bee – Wang said he uses an imported Italian variety – dies when it stings.

"We've treated patients with dozens of diseases, from arthritis to cancer, all with positive results," said Wang.

Bee stings can be used to treat "most common diseases of the lower limbs", he added, and claimed they also work as a preventative measure. But sciencebasedmedicine.org, a US-based website, says that such claims of panaceas and cure-alls are "always a red flag for quackery".

"There is no scientific evidence to support its use," it says of "apitherapy", or treatment with bee products.

One of Wang's patients said doctors told him he had lung and brain cancer and gave him little over a year to live, but he now believes he has almost doubled his life expectancy and credits bee stings for the change. "From last year up until now, I think I'm getting much stronger," the patient told AFP.

But on its website, the American Cancer Society makes clear: "There have been no clinical studies in humans showing that bee venom or other honeybee products are effective in preventing or treating cancer. Relying on this type of treatment alone and avoiding or delaying conventional medical care for cancer may have serious health consequences."

In the West bee stings have also been used by sufferers of multiple sclerosis (MS), an often disabling disease that attacks the central nervous system.

But the National Multiple Sclerosis Society of the US says on its website: "In spite of long-standing claims about the possible benefits of bee venom for people with MS, a 24-week randomised study showed no reduction in disease activity, disability, or fatigue, and no improvement in quality of life."

The use of bee acupuncture comes at a time when colonies of the insect around the world are mysteriously collapsing. Environmentalists warn that dwindling numbers of bees, which help pollinate crops, could have a serious effect on agricultural production.

Bee venom is one of the many traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatments derived from animals and plants – some of which are blamed for endangering particular wildlife species.

TCM is a major part of China's healthcare system and a booming industry that continues to receive significant investment and support from the central government.

Many people in China cannot afford to buy the latest orthodox pharmaceuticals as national health insurance is limited.

Older people – who are more likely to fall ill – also favour traditional remedies because of deep-rooted cultural beliefs in the power of natural, rather than modern, ingredients. – AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: South & East

0 ulasan 11:17 PG Dicatat oleh blog2