Khamis, 22 Ogos 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

23-year-old sentenced to life imprisonment for fatal stabbing
Workers cash in on weak currency
'Celebrate achievers, not envy them'

23-year-old sentenced to life imprisonment for fatal stabbing

Posted:

A full-time national serviceman who knifed four women in 2010, killing a mother of two, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Soh Wee Kian, 23, stood expressionless in the dock as he heard his sentence yesterday.

Prosecutors had asked for a life term for Soh, who loitered around housing estates with a knife in his pocket, trailing women with long hair and in short skirts.

As he followed them, he fantasised about stabbing them in the back, kissing them and touching their breasts.

Soh's defence lawyers did not oppose the prosecution's request for a life sentence. They asked the court not to impose caning.

On Tuesday, Soh pleaded guilty to culpable homicide for the fatal stabbing of 32-year-old Hoe Hong Lin in Woodlands.

He also pleaded guilty to causing grievous hurt with a weapon for stabbing How Poh Ling, 28, in Sembawang.

Two charges for slashing two other women were taken into consideration. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Workers cash in on weak currency

Posted:

Workers from India and Indonesia are scrambling to change money as their currencies languish at multi-year lows.

Others are rushing to send funds home after the rupee and rupiah declined sharply over the past week.

Remittance shops and money changers in areas such as Serangoon Road said that they had been serving up to double the usual number of customers from both countries since Monday.

One Singdollar now buys 8,520 rupiah, up from 8,111 last week, and 50.3 rupees, up from about 48 a week ago.

The workers are paid in Singapore dollars and can now exchange their money for more of their own currencies.

Those interviewed yesterday said they wanted to cash in on the favourable exchange rates by sending as much money home as possible.

They go to the remittance companies with Singapore dollars, convert them into rupees or rupiah, and send them to their families.

Other workers said that they are exchanging their Singapore dollars for their countries' currencies, to use when they go home.

Some are so anxious to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate that they have been asking for time off work so that they can send money home.

Indian construction worker P. Sundar, 41, remitted S$200 (RM515) yesterday at Western Union's Owen Road outlet. "The exchange rate may not be as good if I wait longer," he said.

Indonesian maid Purwati, who goes by one name, even asked her employer for two months' pay in advance. The 36-year-old then sent the S$1,000 (RM2,570) to her family in Java.

Her employer, 61-year-old housewife Serene Eng, said: "I do not mind giving my maid an advance salary. The exchange rate is so good, it will be a pity if she does not make use of it."

Sahakrin Dinika, a customer service officer at Western Union in Owen Road, said about 300 Indian workers had been coming in every day since Monday, double the usual 150.

Humayun Kabeer, who owns a currency exchange shop at Paya Lebar's City Plaza, expects another surge in customers on Sunday when domestic workers get a day off. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

'Celebrate achievers, not envy them'

Posted:

Singapore should continue to celebrate those who have done well and given back to society, not envy them, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

"We must maintain a social climate which encourages excellence and success, instead of envying them and wanting to pull them down," he said on Tuesday night as he presented awards from Malay daily newspaper Berita Harian to celebrate the achievements of two individuals in the community.

One was cardiologist Abdul Razakjr Omar, 43, who became the first Malay heart specialist in Singapore at 35. He received the annual Berita Harian Achiever of the Year Award.

The other was undergraduate Adil Hakeem Mohamad Rafee, 20, who made history last year as the first Malay in 44 years to be awarded the President's Scholarship. He was given the inaugural Berita Harian Inspiring Young Achiever Award for young Malays aged 30 and below.

And coming days after a National Day Rally speech where he announced that the government will do more to shield Singaporeans from harsh market forces, Lee stressed that the ethos of Singapore society must be preserved.

This means "to identify and develop talent, to celebrate those who have done well and contributed back to society", he said.

It also encourages others to emulate these people and "go forth and do great deeds", he added at the gala dinner at a hotel.

He said winners of the Berita Harian Achiever of the Year, now in its 15th year, were role models.

"They inspire others, especially the younger ones, to do their best, for themselves and for the community. And it is critical to do so, as our youth are our future," he said.

He stressed the societal responsibility to develop the potential of young people, especially through education and by keeping society open and mobile.

They should also be encouraged to give back to society and the country, he said, such as through the volunteer youth corps that he first spoke of in his National Day Rally address.

He returned to the theme of that speech, in which he said Singapore is at a turning point and needs to forge a new way forward in order to thrive. In this new way, individuals do their best, while the government and the community do more to support individuals, and together build a better Singapore for future generations.

"And indeed this is how the Malay/Muslim community has progressed over the years," Lee said to the 300 dinner guests. "You are a good example of the 'gotong-royong' spirit that we like to see in Singapore."

Lee also praised Berita Harian for being not just a newspaper, but an important platform to engage and strengthen the Malay/Muslim community.

It continues to hold its own by renewing itself, in the face of changing language and social habits, as well as competition from social media, he said.

These include more interesting and uplifting news content, many stories of the community and individuals doing well, and new platforms to boost readership, including a new digital edition of the newspaper in the works.

Berita Harian editor Saat Abdul Rahman said in a speech that it will revamp its news website cyBerita and launch new platforms on Twitter, Facebook and mobile apps.

Adil Hakeem, who left for the United States on Saturday to pursue a liberal arts course at Yale University, was represented by his parents Mohamad Rafee Salleh and Zulinah Mooksan, both 52.

Dr Abdul Razakjr, who grew up in a rental flat, now mentors secondary students for the health profession.

He attributes his success to the sacrifices and hard work modelled by his parents: "My mother believed that if you have hands and legs, you do not need to ask help from others." — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Palestinian group says no casualties in Israeli strike -TV
Number of children who have fled Syria reaches a million, says U.N.
U.N's Ban pushes Syria to allow for chemical attack probe

Palestinian group says no casualties in Israeli strike -TV

Posted:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A Palestinian militant group in Lebanon said one of its bases south of Beirut was hit by an Israeli rocket on Friday, but said it caused no injuries or significant damage, Lebanon's Al-Manar Television reported.

The station quoted a spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command as saying the group's base in Na'ameh was attacked. The spokesman said the PFLP-GC was surprised it was targeted because the earlier rocket fire was claimed by a separate al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim group.

(Reporting by Laila Bassam; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Bill Trott)

Number of children who have fled Syria reaches a million, says U.N.

Posted:

GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of Syrian children forced to flee their devastated homeland will on Friday reach a million, half of all the refugees driven abroad by the conflict, the United Nations said.

Another two million Syrian minors are uprooted within their country and are often attacked or recruited as fighters in violation of humanitarian law, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

"The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures. Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatized, depressed and in need of a reason for hope," Antonio Guterres, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said in a statement.

Nearly two million Syrians have fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and North Africa, the UNHCR says. They include 40,000 Syrian Kurds who flooded into Iraqi Kurdistan in the past week.

The United Nations demanded Syria give its chemical weapons experts immediate access on Thursday to rebel-held Damascus suburbs where poison gas appears to have killed hundreds, including many children, a few miles from the U.N. team's hotel.

UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake said Syrian youth were bearing the brunt of the war, which has taken the lives of some 7,000 children among the estimated 100,000 victims. The one millionth child refugee was not just another number, he said.

"We must all share the shame, because while we work to alleviate the suffering of those affected by this crisis, the global community has failed in its responsibility to this child. We should stop and ask ourselves how, in all conscience, we can continue to fail the children of Syria," he said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; editing by Andrew Roche)

U.N's Ban pushes Syria to allow for chemical attack probe

Posted:

BEIRUT/SEOUL (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday renewed his push for Syria to allow U.N. inspectors immediate access to investigate allegations that the government carried out a deadly chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

"I can think of no good reason why any party, either government or opposition forces - would decline this opportunity to get to the truth of the matter," the U.N. chief told a diplomatic forum in Seoul.

Syria's government has offered no public response to U.N. calls for its team to inspect the site of the attack, which opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said killed from 500 to well over 1,000 people.

They said more bodies were being found in the wake of Wednesday's mysterious pre-dawn killer fumes, which the Syrian government insists were not it's doing.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama said it was "appalled" by the death reports.

A U.S. official familiar with initial intelligence assessments said the attack appeared to be the work of the Assad government. It was "the regime acting as a regime", the official said. But the Obama administration made clear that any response would await confirmation of a chemical attack and its origin.

Images, including some by freelance photographers supplied to Reuters, showed scores of bodies laid out on floors with no visible signs of injury. Some had foam at the nose and mouth.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said world powers must respond with force if allegations that Syria's government was responsible for the deadliest chemical attack on civilians in a quarter-century prove true. But Fabius stressed there was no question of sending in troops on the ground.

Talk of a forceful foreign response remains unlikely to be translated into rapid, concerted action given division between the West and Russia at Wednesday's U.N. Security Council meeting, and caution from Washington on Thursday.

Moscow has said rebels may have released gas to discredit Assad and urged him to agree to a U.N. inspection. On Wednesday, Russian objections to Western pressure on Syria saw the Security Council merely call in vague terms for "clarity" - a position increasingly frustrated Syrian rebels described as "shameful".

The State Department said senior U.S. and Russian diplomats would meet in The Hague next Wednesday to discuss ending Syria's civil war, in what would be the first such meeting since allegations of the chemical attack.

A senior State Department official said chemical weapons would also be discussed at the meeting. The meeting had previously been announced, but no date had been released.

Ban said he would send a top U.N. disarmament official, Angela Kane, to lobby the Syrian government in person and expected a swift, positive answer.

Obama has directed U.S. intelligence agencies to urgently help establish what caused the deaths, a State Department spokeswoman said while acknowledging it may be difficult given that the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Syria.

"At this time, right now, we are unable to conclusively determine CW (chemical weapons) use," the State Department's Jen Psaki told reporters. "We are doing everything possible in our power to nail down the facts," she added.

Another U.S. official said intelligence agencies were not given a deadline and would take the time needed to "reach a conclusion with confidence."

Former weapons investigators say every hour matters.

"The longer it takes, the easier it is for anybody who has used it to try to cover up," said Demetrius Perricos, who headed the U.N. team of weapons inspectors in Iraq in the 2000s.

'PEOPLE ARE GROWING DESPERATE'

Syria is one of just a handful of countries that are not parties to the international treaty that bans chemical weapons, and Western nations believe it has caches of undeclared mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agents.

Syrian officials have called allegations against their forces "illogical and fabricated". They point to the timing of the attack, days after U.N. inspectors arrived after months of argument, and to previous assurances that, if they possessed chemical weapons, they would never use them against Syrians.

After months of negotiating with Assad's government to let inspectors into Syria, a U.N. team arrived in Damascus four days ago. Their task is to check on the presence, but not the sources, of chemical weapons that are alleged to have been released in three specific, small incidents several months ago.

Many rebels and activists in the opposition area say they have lost interest in promises of U.N. investigations or in help from abroad: "We are 7 km away, just a five-minute car ride from where they are staying," said activist Bara Abdelrahman.

"We're being exterminated with poison gas while they drink their coffee and sit inside their hotels."

Qassem Saadeddine, a commander and spokesman for the rebels' Supreme Military Council, said the group was still deliberating on how or if it should respond: "People are growing desperate as they watch another round of political statements and U.N. meetings without any hope of action," he told Reuters.

Syria's revolt against four decades of Assad family rule has turned into a brutal civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people in 2-1/2 years and divided the Middle East along largely sectarian lines.

Among world powers, the conflict has revived Cold War-era East-West tensions and on the ground the struggle has limped to a poisonous stalemate.

Assad's Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam and has the backing of Iran and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Western powers back the opposition but have been reluctant to fully commit to an Arab Sunni-backed revolt increasingly overtaken by Islamists linked to al Qaeda. Yet they have said the large-scale use of widely banned chemical weapons would be a game changer.

Syria's southern neighbour Israel, still technically at war with Damascus, said it believed Syrian forces had used chemical weapons and accused the world of turning a blind eye: "The world condemns, the world investigates, the world pays lip service," Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

In Paris, Fabius said that if the Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways", but he did not elaborate.

Immediate international action is likely to be limited.

European officials speaking on condition of anonymity said that options ranging from air strikes, creating a no-fly zone, or providing heavy weapons to some rebels were all still on the table - but that there was little prospect of concrete measures without U.S. backing, which still seemed unlikely.

"The American reaction following yesterday's attack was cautious," said one official. "And without U.S. firepower, there's little we can do."

(Additional reporting by Thomas Grove in MOSCOW, Dominic Evans in BEIRUT, Jeffrey Heller in JERUSALEM, Anthony Deutsch in AMSTERDAM, Niklas Pollard in STOCKHOLM, Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols in NEW YORK, Matt Spetalnick and Lesley Wroughton in WASHINGTON; Editing by Peter Cooney and Miral Fahmy)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

'Fifty Shades Of Grey' may have found its star
Spend less, earn more
A face for movies

'Fifty Shades Of Grey' may have found its star

Posted:

Producers are eyeing actress Dakota Johnson to star in the highly-anticipated movie.

The Fifty Shades Of Grey rumours are flying fast and furiously on the Universal lot as the film – set to fog up theatres less than a year from now – prepares to finally tie down its all-important cast.

The latest actress to emerge as a serious contender for the coveted role of Anastasia Steele is Dakota Johnson, the daughter of Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith. Johnson started out as an IMG model before transitioning to acting and launching a movie career, including a memorable scene with Justin Timberlake in The Social Network.

At this point, nothing is firm – Johnson is just one of the up-and-coming starlets currently being considered to play Steele, according to individuals familiar with the project. At the very least, interest in Johnson indicates the type of actress the filmmakers are considering for Anastasia: She's 23 years old, and though she isn't quite a movie star (yet), she has acting credibility and a rising feature career.

Representatives for Johnson and Universal had no comment.

Sam Taylor-Johnson (Nowhere Boy) is directing from a script by Kelly Marcel (Saving Mr Banks), who adapted the erotic literary sensation by E.L. James. Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti are producing Fifty Shades Of Grey, which is set up at Universal Pictures and Focus Features.

By all accounts, the part of Anastasia Steele is a potential star-maker, which means there's limited upside for an established star; and the chosen actress will have to be comfortable with on-screen nudity and kinky sex. Johnson may not be a household name, but as a former model, she's already comfortable flaunting her body for the camera.

While Fifty Shades has not been offered to anyone officially, several rising actresses are believed to have taken themselves out of the running, including Shailene Woodley and Alicia Vikander. Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid Love) – like Johnson, a young model with a budding acting career – was also considered at one point.

Dakota Johnson

In the Twilight-inspired book, James describes Anastasia as an average 22-year-old girl with delicate features such as long, dark brown hair (Johnson is usually blonde, but has gone brunette before), pale skin, big blue eyes, full lips and an upturned nose (the one feature Johnson lacks). Slender and petite, she's described as pretty – but not too pretty.

Johnson got Hollywood's attention with her scene-stealing turn as a college girl who sleeps with Timberlake's character in The Social Network – which was also produced by De Luca and Brunetti. The last time an actress with a bit part in The Social Network was rumoured for a high-profile literary adaptation, Rooney Mara won the role of Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

After supporting roles in 21 Jump Street, The Five-Year Engagement and Beastly, Johnson landed her own Fox TV show, Ben And Kate. She also recently appeared in the series finale of The Office and next stars alongside Aaron Paul in DreamWorks' action movie Need For Speed. Johnson will soon begin filming Michael Almereyda's Cymbeline.

As for the role of Christian Grey, the movie website Twitch reported earlier that producers are looking to cast Pacific Rim star Charlie Hunnam as the kinky billionaire. Hunnam would fit the project's Anglo bent, as Taylor-Johnson, James, Marcel and Universal co-chair Donna Langley all hail from overseas. That said, an individual familiar with the project tells TheWrap that a decision regarding Christian's casting won't be made until after the filmmakers know who will play Anastasia.

Back when Taylor-Johnson won the director's chair in June, TheWrap reported that Felicity Jones was being considered to play Steele, though there doesn't appear to have been any movement on that front. But the clock is running out on Fifty Shades Of Grey, and Universal needs to get the cameras rolling before Halloween to make their date. — Reuters

Spend less, earn more

Posted:

Despite its low budget, The Purge makes a killing at the box office.

SET in the near future, The Purge is a tale of society that has managed to eliminate crime 364 days per year by allowing the public one night of prosecution-free blood lust. Ethan Hawke stars as a suburban father whose security systems are designed to protect his family and neighbours from the government-sanctioned lawlessness, where everything – up to and including murder – is encouraged.

When his young son decides to shelter a homeless man being chased by some locals, his pursuers lay siege to the home, quickly proving the fortifications somewhat less than reliable. The family must hold off the intruders until dawn, when the mayhem moratorium is reinstated.

The Purge is the first collaboration between Universal and producer Jason Blum, who also was a producer on Paranormal Activity, Insidious and Sinister. Under a three-year deal announced in 2011, Blum has wide creative leeway to deliver genre movies costing US$4mil (RM13.1mil) or less. The dystopian thriller cost a little more than US$3mil (RM9.8mil).

Shot in 20 quick days in Los Angeles (with a couple of extra days for reshoots) last year, The Purge was made for a fraction of the typical Hollywood budget, largely because almost everybody was paid the minimum amount allowed by Hollywood's unions. In return for working on the cheap, they will get a bigger payday if the film performs well. "Everybody above the line basically works for free," said Blum, referring to the actors and top filmmaking talent. "And when you work for free, you get total creative control."

Universal had some input in casting and created the film's marketing materials, but Blum and director James DeMonaco weren't subjected to endless script notes and executives didn't scrutinise the film's daily footage, the way most studio productions are supervised. In a way, Blum said, that loose oversight creates a more collegial atmosphere because you're not afraid of the studio, or of losing control of the production.

When The Purge was completed, Blum screened it for test audiences before he showed it to the studio. The previews suggested that Hawke's character wasn't quite likable enough, so DeMonaco cut a few lines of dialogue about how some victims of violence deserved their fate. He also decided he needed to add back a scene he'd scrapped for budget reasons showing Hawke more forcefully defending his family.

Universal executives liked the finished film so much they decided to schedule The Purge opposite Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's comedy The Internship, a 20th Century Fox film that cost about US$58mil (RM190.1mil). (In its opening weekend in the US in June, The Purge debuted at No. 1 with US$36.4mil [RM119.3mil]. The higher-profile Internship started with only US$18.1mil [RM59.3mil]. As of Aug 4, The Purge had earned US$64.4mil [RM211mil] in the US box office gross)

Donna Langley, Universal's co-chairman, said the deal with Blum was launched because the studio wanted to get back in the genre business, and at a low cost. While the studio was behind classic horror titles such as Frankenstein and Dracula, its more contemporary efforts within the realm were mostly unsuccessful, including flops with The Wolfman in 2010 and The Thing in 2011.

"We were looking for someone with a strong expertise in the thriller and horror genre," Langley said. She added the studio is so attentive to maintaining its franchises (Fast & Furious 6), comedies (Ted 2 is in development), animated movies (Despicable Me) and new big-budget endeavors (at year's end, 47 Ronin) that the studio doesn't have the "bandwidth" to focus on low-budget fright flicks.

Some of Blum's most recent films have recorded huge returns on investment. Made for about US$15,000 (RM49,000), the first Paranormal Activity in 2009 grossed more than US$193mil (RM632.5mil) worldwide; 2011's Insidious, produced for about US$1.5mil (RM4.9mil), grossed US$97mil (RM317.9mil) globally; and last year's Sinister, budgeted at US$3mil (RM9.8mil), grossed more than US$77mil (RM252.3mil). Sequels to all three films are in the works.

Part of Blum's pitch to Universal is that because the movies are so cheap, the studio isn't obligated to release them theatrically – they can go straight to DVD or VOD if executives wish. That can save millions in marketing expenses if the studio isn't convinced the film will do well at the box office. Because Universal has guaranteed video and television distribution deals around the world, the studio can basically break even if the movie never makes it to the multiplex.

"Some of my movies work, and some of them don't," Blum said. "I want to be able to say to the studio, 'We missed, let's go to VOD.'" – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

The Purge opens in cinemas natiowide today.

A face for movies

Posted:

Lily Collins makes a huge career leap with The Mortal Instruments.

The lovely Lily Collins is getting her share of crazy. "We were doing a mall tour of different cities," said the 24-year-old star of The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, which is released today in Malaysia. "And we were meeting all these fans, which is great, because they're the people who are responsible for where we are."

Uh-huh. Yeah. And?

"One girl fainted when she saw Jamie," Collins said of co-star Jamie Campbell Bower. Another showed Collins her runes – mystical marks, etched or tattooed onto the skin, and corresponding to those borne by the characters in the Cassandra Clare novels on which the movies are being based.

Better yet: "One named their baby after Jace," Collins said of the character played by Bower, who – like Collins' character, Clary Fray, is a Shadowhunter, dedicated to hunting down demons.

"It's crazy," the actress said, in the way one does when stating the obvious. "Maybe I wouldn't name my baby after Jace, but people are passionate about these stories. And the first one's not even out yet and they're acting this way."

The first one – City Of Bones – is just the beginning of what everyone involved hopes will be a series to rival (or surpass) the Harry Potter, Twilight and Percy Jackson franchises. The author, Clare, has just finished the sixth in her kitchen-sink fantasy series, and while the first movie adaptation is new in theatres, Collins and company will start shooting the second title, City Of Ashes. The other books in the series are MI: City Of Glass, City Of Fallen Angels, City Of Lost Souls and City Of Heavenly Fire).

"We are signed up for three," Collins said of her principal co-stars. "But, when you take into account that Cassandra is now publishing the sixth one, it could go longer. When you take on a series like this, you can never assume it's going to grow to that many, but you hope you'll get the opportunity to do a character for as long as people want you to do it."

The daughter of rocker Phil Collins, the actress was born in Surrey, England, but after her parents' divorce, she moved with her mum to Los Angeles, where she was educated, majoring in broadcast journalism at University of Southern California. Having begun acting on British TV at age two, Collins has more recently been seen in the fantastical Mirror Mirror, where she played Snow White to Julia Roberts' evil Queen; Priest, in which Paul Bettany hunted vampires; and the less phantasmagorical Stuck In Love (formerly Writers) with Greg Kinnear and Jennifer Connelly, and The English Teacher, with Julianne Moore and Nathan Lane.

"The new Audrey Hepburn!" declared one British website, after Collins did a retro-Hollywood photo spread for the London Tatler magazine. She does have a face for movies, though she doesn't want them full of shadows and ghouls. Not all the time.

"Since I finished filming the first one," she said of Mortal Instruments, "I did a film in Dublin called Love, Rosie, which is really the opposite kind of movie, I play a mum, 10 years older, British. Since day one, from The Blind Side to Priest, Mirror Mirror to The English Teacher, I've made a conscious effort to switch it off and have people seeing me do different characters. Because the last thing I want is to get pigeonholed."

It's a comfortable trap. "But I think when you look at Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart," she said, referring to the stars of Hunger Games and the Twilight movies, "they've been able to do a franchise and still do other things, and have an identity aside from those movies."

Mortal Instruments could offer a warm embrace, or a stranglehold. According to Publisher's Weekly, Clare has 12 million books in print domestically (US), 24 million internationally, and her sales have jumped 150% since last year, presumably on the strength of the movie hype. Curiously enough, when the author was getting started, publishers wanted her to change her central character, Clary, from female to male. They had other reservations, too, in those pre-Twilight days (City Of Bones was published in 2007; the initial Twilight movie was released in 2008).

"They said, 'Who's going to be interested in werewolves and vampires?'," Collins laughed. "I know, right? But Cassandra was very passionate and confident that having a young female heroine was important."

What's also important – and could be a key in whether Mortal Instruments takes off the way other demon-populated movie series have – is that the core story works in or out of the supernatural.

"It's so great to portray a young woman who's not afraid to be vulnerable and confused," said Collins. "A young woman who is going through an identity crisis about life and love, and searching for her mother (Lena Headley) and her own voice ... At the same time, the vampires make it alluring – because people love the unknown. It's sexy. They're from an otherworldly place, a fantasy world."

But director Harald Zwart, she said, wanted a movie that would work in a world of Shadowhunters and demons, or in New York City – the same place, in the case of Mortal Instruments.

"He wanted the characters to have the same emotional outcome regardless if they were fantasy characters or real," said Collins. "And it was important for him that we play them that way." — Newsday/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones opens in cinemas nationwide today.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

'Fifty Shades Of Grey' may have found its star
Spend less, earn more
A face for movies

'Fifty Shades Of Grey' may have found its star

Posted:

Producers are eyeing actress Dakota Johnson to star in the highly-anticipated movie.

Representatives for Johnson and Universal had no comment.

Dakota Johnson

Spend less, earn more

Posted:

Despite its low budget, The Purge makes a killing at the box office.

"Some of my movies work, and some of them don't," Blum said. "I want to be able to say to the studio, 'We missed, let's go to VOD.'" – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

The Purge opens in cinemas natiowide today.

A face for movies

Posted:

Lily Collins makes a huge career leap with The Mortal Instruments.

Uh-huh. Yeah. And?

Better yet: "One named their baby after Jace," Collins said of the character played by Bower, who – like Collins' character, Clary Fray, is a Shadowhunter, dedicated to hunting down demons.

What's also important – and could be a key in whether Mortal Instruments takes off the way other demon-populated movie series have – is that the core story works in or out of the supernatural.

But director Harald Zwart, she said, wanted a movie that would work in a world of Shadowhunters and demons, or in New York City – the same place, in the case of Mortal Instruments.

The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones opens in cinemas nationwide today.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

Malaysia's KLCI snaps losing streak, Maybank up
Malaysia-Based Titan Restores Full Runs At Crackers
U.S. Tobacco Trade Proposal Draws Fire From Both Sides

Malaysia's KLCI snaps losing streak, Maybank up

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips snapped their recent losing streak to notch small gains early Friday, lifted by Maybank, following the positive manufacturing data in Europe and China.

At 9.10am, the FBM KLCI rose 5.51 points to 1,725.88. Turnover was 128.74 million shares valued at RM83.14mil. There were 214 gainers, 55 losers and 115 counters unchanged.

BIMB Securities Research expects stocks on Bursa Malaysia to trend higher after the positive external economic data which would boost investors' sentiment.

"Expect to see immediate resistance at 1,730-1,739 while support would be at 1,710-1,700," it said.

Petronas Gas rose 40 sen to RM20.48 with 200 shares done while Petronas Dagangan added 22 sen to RM27.40.

Maybank gained eight sen to RM9.95. Among the smaller cap stocks, Deleum rose 16 sen to RM3.46, Wing Tai 14 sen to RM2.60 and Time dotCom 10 sen higher at RM3.81.

The decliners were Carlsberg, down 28 sen to RM14.52 with 12,800 shares on profit taking while MAHB lost 18 sen to RM6.30 and Public Bank foreign 10 sen to RM16.82.

Malaysia-Based Titan Restores Full Runs At Crackers

Posted:

SINGAPORE: Malaysia-based Lotte Chemical Titan has fully restored operations at its 720,000 tonnes per year (tpy) naphtha cracking complex in Pasir Gudang following an outage in early August, traders said on Thursday.

The petrochemical maker had restarted its 440,000 tpy cracker around mid-August while the smaller 280,000 tpy unit resumed operations earlier this week.

Titan is owned by South Korea's top ethylene maker Lotte Chemical, which operates two crackers totalling 2 million tpy.

Japanese JX Nippon Oil's 404,000 tpy cracker located at Kawasaki however remained shut following an outage around Aug. 18. Traders said they do no expect the Japanese unit to resume operations anytime before end August.

The naphtha feedstock market has been under pressure recently as North Asian buyers now have the option of purchasing cheaper alternative liquefied petroleum feedstock to replace a small portion of the light fuel.- Reuters

U.S. Tobacco Trade Proposal Draws Fire From Both Sides

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WASHINGTON: A U.S. trade proposal aimed at eliminating foreign tariffs on U.S. tobacco products while preserving the right of governments to adopt anti-smoking regulations is drawing fire from opposing sides - public health and business groups.

The American Cancer Society and allied organizations said the plan would give tobacco companies a new tool to challenge government anti-smoking measures, while business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau Federation said it would weaken a tenet of international trade law that many U.S. exporters rely on to sell goods abroad.

U.S. trade negotiators will offer the proposal in talks beginning on Friday in Brunei on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free trade agreement between the United States, Japan, Canada, Mexico,Chile, Peru, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Brunei.

Washington hopes to wrap up the proposed pact by the end of the year. The Brunei meeting is the 19th round in a negotiation that has already lasted more than three years.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, in a statement, defended the tobacco proposal, which he said reflected input from a "wide range of American stakeholders," including members of Congress, health advocates and farmers.

The proposal preserves "the ability of the United States and other TPP countries to regulate tobacco and to apply appropriate public health measures" while maintaining the U.S. objective of negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement that does not exclude any agricultural product, Froman said.

The plan also reflects the U.S. government view that tobacco "is a unique product - it is highly addictive, always harmful to human health, and the single most preventable cause of death in the world," said Bill Corr, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

A U.S. trade official, speaking on condition he not be identified, said crafting the proposal had been hard because of conflicting pressures on the health and trade policy side.

The resulting compromise goes further than previous trade agreements in protecting tobacco regulations, while still targeting foreign tobacco tariffs for elimination, he said.

Some TPP countries, such as Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore, already have individual trade deals with the United States that phased out their tobacco tariffs.

But anti-smoking groups wanted the Obama administration to completely exclude tobacco from the TPP pact, which would have allowed countries like Vietnam and Malaysia that still have tariffs on U.S. tobacco products to keep them.

Excluding tobacco from the pact also would have prevented tobacco companies from using the TPP to challenge anti-smoking regulations, said John Stewart, director of anti-smoking operations at Corporate Accountability International, a Boston-based corporate watchdog organization.

Instead, the United States wants to include a provision in the TPP pact making clear that a "general exception" giving governments the right to take necessary action to protect human life or health specifically applies to tobacco health measures.

In another nod to health advocates, Washington is also proposing to require government-to-government talks between health authorities before any member of the TPP pact can challenge another member's tobacco regulations.

Anti-smoking groups including the American Lung Association, American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids criticized the proposal as too weak.

"The end result is that the Obama Administration's strong commitment to reducing tobacco use in theUnited States will remain vulnerable to international trade challenges, and other trading partners will remain vulnerable to such challenges as well," they said in a joint statement.

The groups said they are wary of the TPP agreement because the tobacco industry has used other trade and investment pacts to challenge anti-smoking measures in the United States, Australia, Uruguay,Ireland, Norway and Turkey.

On the other side, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its allies said they were worried by the precedent set by specifically identifying tobacco regulations as an area where governments can take necessary measure to protect public health.

That could encourage other governments "to propose additional product-specific references," which could be used to block a variety of U.S. exports on health grounds, the groups including the Emergency Committee for American Trade said in a letter urging Froman to abandon the proposal.

They argued the standard general exception used in trade agreements dating back to 1947 should be enough to address any concerns about protecting tobacco regulations.- Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

Spend less, earn more

Posted:

Despite its low budget, The Purge makes a killing at the box office.

"Some of my movies work, and some of them don't," Blum said. "I want to be able to say to the studio, 'We missed, let's go to VOD.'" – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

The Purge opens in cinemas natiowide today.

Kosinski in the Zone?

Posted:

Leonardo DiCaprio is set to produce a movie, with Joseph Kosinski in mind as director.

NOW that Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) has declined the position of director, Joseph Kosinski could take the reins on an ambitious remake of The Twilight Zone, produced by Leonardo DiCaprio for Warner Bros.

The project that has been on DiCaprio's mind since 2007, a remake of the classic series, could become a reality. The legendary 1960s TV series, which has been updated for TV several times (one show in 1985 and another in 2002, hosted by Forest Whitaker), came to the big screen in a 1983 feature, co-directed by Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller and John Landis.

DiCaprio appears to be in negotiations for Kosinski to direct a new adaptation of the show, created by Rod Serling in 1959.

Reeves, who was initially courted to direct, had to step down to focus instead on next year's Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes, the much-anticipated sequel to the 2011 hit Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes.

According to the last available pitch for the new Twilight Zone adaptation, which dates from over one year ago, the film will open on an astronaut who, upon returning from his mission, realises that almost a century has gone by on Earth since his departure. It remains to be seen whether the new director and producer plan to stick to this plot.

Kosinski rose to fame in 2010 with TRON: Legacy, a sequel to the cult 1982 Disney film TRON. His next film was Oblivion, starring Tom Cruise, which was released earlier this year. – AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Khamis, 22 Ogos 2013