Selasa, 17 September 2013

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews


Laurie Holden in 'Dumb And Dumber To'

Posted:

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Walking Dead alum will be joining original stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in the sequel.

Colin Firth is the voice of Paddington Bear

Posted:

The Oscar-winning actor has been chosen to play the voice of the lovable bear in a new movie.

British actor Colin Firth will provide the voice for Paddington Bear in a new movie about the marmalade-loving children's character, he revealed last weekend.

Firth, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Britain's stuttering king George VI in The King's Speech, told the Daily Mail newspaper the Peruvian bear would be computer-generated, with the rest of the characters played by real actors including Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters and Nicole Kidman.

"Paddington will be computer-generated, and I will speak his lines with, I suspect, a slight Peruvian flavour," Firth, 53, told the Mail.

"Every other character in the film will be real live human beings.

"But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I'm going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington."

Bonneville plays Mr Brown, Paddington's "adoptive father", in the movie spearheaded by David Heyman, the producer of the Harry Potter movies.

Paddington Bear

The lovable Paddington Bear is almost never without his coat.

One of the best-loved characters of classic English children's literature, Paddington is known for his duffle-coat, battered suitcase and love of marmalade sandwiches.

He is unfailingly polite, but has a knack for getting into trouble.

He first appeared in 1958 in Michael Bond's book A Bear Called Paddington, in which the Brown family find him sitting in London's Paddington train station, having made his way there from "darkest Peru".

The family adopt the bear – who carries a sign reading "Please Look After This Bear" – and he goes on to have 20 books' worth of adventures.

Heyman had announced last year that he was teaming up with France-based film studio Studiocanal to update Paddington's adventures for the big screen.

Filming starts this month and it is due in cinemas in November 2014.

Paul King, director of the British TV comedy series The Mighty Boosh, is to direct the film, according to the film trade magazine Screen Daily.

The Hollywood Reporter said Kidman would play "an evil taxidermist out for revenge".

The stories have previously been adapted in cartoon form and using puppets. — AFP Relaxnews

12 Years A Slave wins at Toronto film fest

Posted:

Steve McQueen's drama about slavery may well be an early Oscar contender.

12 Years A Slave, the true story of a free black man sold into slavery in 1840s Louisiana in the United States, won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last weekend.

The film, by Shame director Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, took home the BlackBerry People's Choice award for best film at the 38th edition of the festival in Toronto, Canada.

Based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, the film has won widespread acclaim from critics and audiences in both Toronto and at the Telluride Film Festival, and has been touted as a top early contender for Oscars.

The Toronto award, which has in the past gone to Oscar best picture winners such as The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, and last year went to multiple award winner Silver Linings Playbook, will likely only increase the buzz around the film.

"It was just one of those stories that I felt needed to be told," McQueen, who like Ejiofor hails from Britain, told Reuters last week.

"The reason I got into the idea of the free man is that you could identify with him. ... When he is captured and put into slavery, you go on this journey with him," he said.

Cumberbatch

Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) and Benedict Cumberbatch in a scene from 12 Years A Slave.

The runner-up for the prize, which is selected by festival audiences, was Stephen Frears' Philomena, which stars Judi Dench as an Irish woman searching for the son she was forced by nuns to give up in the 1950s.

The People's Choice award for top documentary went to Jehane Noujaim's The Square, which follows activists in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the wake of the 2011 overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The film, which also won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in January as a work in progress, follows a handful of activists over the course of two years as what initially appears to be a clear road to democracy in Egypt instead turns into a battle of competing forces looking to take control.

"This is a film about people who relentlessly are fighting for their rights, even when there seems to be absolutely no hope and no light at the end of the tunnel," Noujaim told an audience of filmmakers, reporters and critics at the awards presentation.

The People's Choice award for top film in the Midnight Madness programme – which tends to focus on horror or extremely offbeat films – went to Sion Sono's Why Don't You Play In Hell?.

The best Canadian feature award went to Asphalt Watches, directed by Shayne Ehman and Seth Scrivers.

Started in 1976, the Toronto festival now ranks with Cannes and Sundance as one of the world's top movie gatherings. The festival often serves as a launching point for films and performances that go on to win Academy Awards, as well as international films seeking distribution deals.

Even before its People's Choice win, 12 Years A Slave was garnering Oscar buzz, with critics praising both McQueen and Ejiofor, but also Michael Fassbender's turn as a brutal slave owner.

Other films that have impressed critics during the 11-day festival include Alfonso Cuaron's astronaut thriller Gravity, the star-laden August: Osage County, and Dallas Buyers Club, for which Matthew McConaughey dropped 14kg to play an AIDS-afflicted homophobic Texas rodeo cowboy. — Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: World Updates


Colorado evacuations continue as flood crest moves downstream

Posted:

DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado officials coping with devastation from last week's torrential downpours struggled on Tuesday to reach the last pockets of known survivors left stranded by flash floods that killed least eight people in the foothills of the Rockies.

Meanwhile, emergency officials pressed on with evacuations of prairie towns downstream from the initial disaster as the crest of the flood-engorged South Platte River rolled eastward toward Nebraska, inundating farmland along the way.

At least 1,700 homes were destroyed - most of those in hard-hit Larimer County - and an estimated 16,300 dwellings were damaged throughout the flood zone, according to preliminary property loss totals on Tuesday.

Even as evacuees continued to crowd into emergency shelters, more than 6,400 Colorado flood survivors have already applied for federal disaster assistance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported.

In what National Weather Service meteorologists called the most sustained and intense rainstorm to hit the normally semi-arid region in four decades, a tropical-like low-pressure system drenched a 130-mile (210-km) stretch of the eastern slopes of the Colorado Rockies with unrelenting showers for a week, starting last Monday night.

Within three days, torrents of runoff were gushing down rain-saturated mountainsides through canyons that funnelled floodwaters straight into populated areas below. Foothill towns clustered at the base of Colorado's so-called Front Range in Larimer and Boulder counties northwest of Denver bore the brunt of the deluge.

The overall flood zone has since grown to encompass 17 Colorado counties, including the state's biggest urban centres, across a region about the size of Delaware.

Efforts to reach thousands of residents cut off in communities isolated by washed-out roads and bridges were initially hampered as heavy showers persisted with little pause for seven days, grounding rescue aircraft.

Except for a brief respite from the rains last Friday, when helicopters were able to fly, most of the early evacuees were ferried to safety by National Guard troops in military vehicles.

HUDDLED ON A MOUNTAINSIDE

Airborne rescues resumed in earnest again on Monday, and by Tuesday nearly 12,000 flood victims had been evacuated to shelters across the region, said Micki Trost, spokeswoman for the state Office of Emergency Management.

"One family spent two and a half days huddled on a mountainside out of their home and were completely traumatized," said Mark Orphan, pastor of the Timberline Church in Fort Collins, which is serving as an emergency shelter.

More than 1,000 evacuees had passed through the church in the week since the floods hit. Many appeared "elated" when they arrived, but others seemed dazed by their ordeals, he said.

Nearly 600 more known survivors - some bedridden, elderly or in extremely hard-to-reach locations - were still awaiting rescue on Tuesday in Larimer County alone. County sheriff's spokesman John Schulz said it might be a few days more before all of them were reached.

He said some people were refusing to leave their homes. Rescue operations in Boulder County, meanwhile, were winding down, emergency management officials said.

However, about 300 residents from the two counties combined were still listed as unaccounted for, meaning friends or loved ones have reported receiving no word from them since the floods struck.

That number has declined sharply from a few days earlier, and officials said they hoped most would turn out to be merely cut off in areas without telephone or internet service.

As of Tuesday, the death toll stood at eight, including two women reported missing and presumed dead after their homes were swept away in Larimer County. But state officials revised their tally late in the day to remove them from the confirmed count of fatalities because their bodies had not been recovered.

The flooding has since progressed downstream and spread out onto the prairie east of the Front Range, swamping farms, ranches and oil and gas well sites as the rain-swollen South Platte River spilled its banks.

From an airplane flying over the region, vast swaths of the landscape lay hidden beneath chocolate-brown water.

In one area, a small herd of black Angus cattle could be seen milling about a muddy patch of pasture surrounded by floodwaters. Above the water-logged town of Evans, a mobile home park was largely submerged, with trailers strewn about in all directions.

Emergency management officials ordered the evacuation early on Tuesday of the tiny riverside town of Crook in northeastern Colorado, where firefighters went door to door asking residents to leave.

The flood crest was expected to reach the larger town of Julesburg on the Nebraska border later on Tuesday. Officials there were urging ranchers to move livestock herds to higher ground.

In addition to some 1,500 homes destroyed and 4,500 damaged in Larimer County, 200 businesses have been lost and 500 damaged, officials there said. Boulder County officials said rescue teams there had counted 262 homes destroyed and 290 damaged.

Last week's downpour dumped up to 21 inches (53 cm) of rain in parts of Boulder city, nearly double the area's average annual rainfall. The last multi-day rainfall to spawn widespread flooding in Colorado's Front Range occurred in 1969. But a single-night deluge from a 1976 thunderstorm triggered a flash flood that killed more than 140 people in Big Thompson Canyon.

Obama says he wants to test Iran president's interest in dialogue

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that Iran's new President Hassan Rouhani appears to want to open a dialogue with the United States and that he is willing to test whether this is the case.

Obama's comment in an interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo was the latest indication the president would like to jump from the crisis over Syria's chemical weapons to a new search for a diplomatic deal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon.

Last weekend, Obama revealed he and Rouhani had exchanged letters about the U.S.-Iran standoff. Both leaders will be at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week, although White House officials say they are no current plans for them to meet.

"There is an opportunity here for diplomacy," Obama told Telemundo. "And I hope the Iranians take advantage of it."

Obama ran for president in 2008 in part by vowing to open a dialogue with Iran.

But there has been no breakthrough and sanctions by Washington and the United Nations to weaken Iran's economy have gradually been increased to try to pressure Tehran to give up a nuclear program that it denies is aimed at building a weapon.

"There are indication that Rouhani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue with the West and with the United States, in a way that we haven't seen in the past. And so we should test it," Obama said.

Since the surprise election in June of Rouhani, a centrist cleric, officials from both countries have made increasing hints that they are open to direct talks to seek an end to the decade-long nuclear dispute.

(The story was corrected to say Telemundo instead of Univision in the 4th para)

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Philip Barbara)

U.S. lawmakers question Navy Yard shooting suspect's security clearance

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are calling for a review into how the suspected shooter in Monday's rampage at the Washington Navy Yard received and maintained a security clearance, despite a history of violent episodes.

Aaron Alexis, 34, received a security clearance more than five years ago and it helped him obtain his most recent job as a technology contractor at the Navy Yard, where he allegedly killed 12 people before being shot dead by police.

Lawmakers say this most recent incident shows serious flaws in the federal government's process for issuing security clearances and vetting contractors - an issue laid bare earlier this year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden who disclosed details about top-secret U.S. spying programs.

Democratic Senators Claire McCaskill and Jon Tester plan to send a letter to the Office of Personnel Management's inspector general, demanding answers about how Alexis' background check was conducted for his security clearance.

The OPM is the agency primarily responsible for overseeing federal background checks.

"I want to know who conducted his (Alexis') background investigation, if that investigation was done by contractors, and if it was subject to the same systemic problems we've seen with other background checks in the recent past," McCaskill said in a statement to Reuters on Tuesday.

"While guilt ultimately lies with the perpetrator of this terrible crime, those who lost loved ones and were injured in yesterday's shooting deserve to know the answers to these questions," she said.

One of the points they want reviewed, according to a copy of the letter seen by Reuters, was "how Mr. Alexis' background investigations addressed his pattern of misconduct, including his reported arrests on charges relating to firearms in 2004 and 2010" and a prior disorderly conduct charge.

The associate director of federal investigative services at OPM, Mert Miller, said in a statement, "In general, background security clearance investigations include information about an individual's criminal history, including criminal records, and that information would be passed on to the adjudicating agency."

Scrutiny of the security clearance process is just one security area that officials are reviewing in the aftermath of Monday's mass shooting.

U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel is seeking a review of physical security and access at all Defense Department installations worldwide, and the White House said it will review standards for federal government contractors.

MISSING RED FLAGS

Alexis' initial background check was conducted as part of his service in the U.S. Navy Reserve from May 2007 to January 2011.

The OPM conducted a National Agency Check that was completed in August 2007 on Alexis and he was determined eligible to handle "secret" material in March 2008, a U.S. defense official said.

Other officials said that type of check includes a routine review of government databases, an FBI fingerprint check and sometimes checks with local police. The defense official said Alexis' vetting including local police checks and a credit check.

Sometimes the person applying for the security clearance is also interviewed by investigators, but the review is far less complex than the type of full-scale background investigation that is conducted on applicants for "top secret" clearance.

That check for his security clearance was conducted after Alexis was arrested in Seattle in 2004 for shooting a construction worker's car tires in an anger-fuelled "blackout," according to the Seattle Police Department.

The "secret" clearance that he was granted lasts 10 years and was in effect during two other incidents.

In 2008, Alexis was cited for disorderly conduct in Georgia when he was kicked out of a club for damaging furnishings and cursing. Alexis was then arrested in 2010 in Texas for discharging a firearm in a case that was dropped after investigators determined his gun accidentally fired while it was being cleaned.

In 2011 Alexis received an honourable discharge from the Navy Reserve, even though the Navy had been pursuing a general discharge against him on a series of eight to 10 misconduct charges, ranging from traffic offenses to disorderly conduct, a military official said.

Private pre-employment background checks also apparently failed to properly flag Alexis as a security risk. The Experts Inc, an information technology company that hired Alexis to work on a project helping service the Navy Marine Corps intranet, said it had also enlisted a service to perform two background checks on him over the last year.

The checks revealed no issues other than one minor traffic violation, the company said.

'A MAJOR PROBLEM'

"Somebody didn't do their job, or the system we have is not working," Representative Dutch Ruppersberger, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.

He expressed concern that an individual like Alexis who had possible anger issues and might have had a criminal record was able to receive a security clearance. "It's a major problem."

Tester said Monday's rampage should give momentum to bipartisan legislation he has sponsored that was aimed at improving security clearances after the Snowden incident.

The legislation would give the OPM inspector general more flexibility with funding for audits and other oversight activities and require OPM to fire or suspend investigators and contractors who falsify background reports.

"This isn't going to stop if we don't start taking some proactive policy measures," Tester told Reuters. "It looks as if the background checks are less thorough; it looks like corners are being cut with Snowden and now Alexis."

The legislation was approved by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in July but the timing for full Senate consideration is unclear.

Republican sponsors of the legislation, Senators Rob Portman and Ron Johnson, could not be reached for comment.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz


Laurie Holden in 'Dumb And Dumber To'

Posted:

The Walking Dead alum will be joining original stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in the sequel.

Laurie Holden, who played Andrea on AMC's hit series The Walking Dead, is set to join Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb And Dumber To, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are directing the follow-up to 1994's Dumb And Dumber, which grossed US$247mil (RM790mil) worldwide. The sequel – 2003's Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd was a prequel that was not written by the Farrelly brothers – finds Harry Dunne (Daniels) in need of a kidney transplant, forcing him and Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) to hit the road to find his possible illegitimate daughter (Rachel Melvin) who may be a donor.

Holden will play the girl's stepmum, who married a wealthy doctor (Steve Tom) to inherit his fortune. Kathleen Turner co-stars as the girl's biological mother who was conceived after a sexual encounter with one of the two male leads.

Red Granite is producing and financing the movie, which will be distributed in the US by Universal Pictures.

The Farrelly brothers wrote the script with Bennett Yellin and Mike Cerrone, with an earlier draft written by Sean Anders and John Morris. Production starts this month with a tentative release date of summer 2014, which marks the 20th anniversary of the first Dumb And Dumber.

Holden has worked with Carrey before on Frank Darabont's The Majestic. — Reuters

Colin Firth is the voice of Paddington Bear

Posted:

The Oscar-winning actor has been chosen to play the voice of the lovable bear in a new movie.

British actor Colin Firth will provide the voice for Paddington Bear in a new movie about the marmalade-loving children's character, he revealed last weekend.

Firth, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Britain's stuttering king George VI in The King's Speech, told the Daily Mail newspaper the Peruvian bear would be computer-generated, with the rest of the characters played by real actors including Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters and Nicole Kidman.

"Paddington will be computer-generated, and I will speak his lines with, I suspect, a slight Peruvian flavour," Firth, 53, told the Mail.

"Every other character in the film will be real live human beings.

"But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I'm going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington."

Bonneville plays Mr Brown, Paddington's "adoptive father", in the movie spearheaded by David Heyman, the producer of the Harry Potter movies.

Paddington Bear

The lovable Paddington Bear is almost never without his coat.

One of the best-loved characters of classic English children's literature, Paddington is known for his duffle-coat, battered suitcase and love of marmalade sandwiches.

He is unfailingly polite, but has a knack for getting into trouble.

He first appeared in 1958 in Michael Bond's book A Bear Called Paddington, in which the Brown family find him sitting in London's Paddington train station, having made his way there from "darkest Peru".

The family adopt the bear – who carries a sign reading "Please Look After This Bear" – and he goes on to have 20 books' worth of adventures.

Heyman had announced last year that he was teaming up with France-based film studio Studiocanal to update Paddington's adventures for the big screen.

Filming starts this month and it is due in cinemas in November 2014.

Paul King, director of the British TV comedy series The Mighty Boosh, is to direct the film, according to the film trade magazine Screen Daily.

The Hollywood Reporter said Kidman would play "an evil taxidermist out for revenge".

The stories have previously been adapted in cartoon form and using puppets. — AFP Relaxnews

12 Years A Slave wins at Toronto film fest

Posted:

Steve McQueen's drama about slavery may well be an early Oscar contender.

12 Years A Slave, the true story of a free black man sold into slavery in 1840s Louisiana in the United States, won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last weekend.

The film, by Shame director Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, took home the BlackBerry People's Choice award for best film at the 38th edition of the festival in Toronto, Canada.

Based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, the film has won widespread acclaim from critics and audiences in both Toronto and at the Telluride Film Festival, and has been touted as a top early contender for Oscars.

The Toronto award, which has in the past gone to Oscar best picture winners such as The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, and last year went to multiple award winner Silver Linings Playbook, will likely only increase the buzz around the film.

"It was just one of those stories that I felt needed to be told," McQueen, who like Ejiofor hails from Britain, told Reuters last week.

"The reason I got into the idea of the free man is that you could identify with him. ... When he is captured and put into slavery, you go on this journey with him," he said.

Cumberbatch

Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) and Benedict Cumberbatch in a scene from 12 Years A Slave.

The runner-up for the prize, which is selected by festival audiences, was Stephen Frears' Philomena, which stars Judi Dench as an Irish woman searching for the son she was forced by nuns to give up in the 1950s.

The People's Choice award for top documentary went to Jehane Noujaim's The Square, which follows activists in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the wake of the 2011 overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The film, which also won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in January as a work in progress, follows a handful of activists over the course of two years as what initially appears to be a clear road to democracy in Egypt instead turns into a battle of competing forces looking to take control.

"This is a film about people who relentlessly are fighting for their rights, even when there seems to be absolutely no hope and no light at the end of the tunnel," Noujaim told an audience of filmmakers, reporters and critics at the awards presentation.

The People's Choice award for top film in the Midnight Madness programme – which tends to focus on horror or extremely offbeat films – went to Sion Sono's Why Don't You Play In Hell?.

The best Canadian feature award went to Asphalt Watches, directed by Shayne Ehman and Seth Scrivers.

Started in 1976, the Toronto festival now ranks with Cannes and Sundance as one of the world's top movie gatherings. The festival often serves as a launching point for films and performances that go on to win Academy Awards, as well as international films seeking distribution deals.

Even before its People's Choice win, 12 Years A Slave was garnering Oscar buzz, with critics praising both McQueen and Ejiofor, but also Michael Fassbender's turn as a brutal slave owner.

Other films that have impressed critics during the 11-day festival include Alfonso Cuaron's astronaut thriller Gravity, the star-laden August: Osage County, and Dallas Buyers Club, for which Matthew McConaughey dropped 14kg to play an AIDS-afflicted homophobic Texas rodeo cowboy. — Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Nation


More than a million have something nice to say about Malaysia

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Malaysians proved that they loved their country and have nice things to say about it when more than a million people gave their views on the just-concluded #SaySomethingNice campaign (#SSNC).

Anas Zubedy, managing director and founder of Zubedy (M) Sdn Bhd, which ran the 17-day campaign that started on Merdeka Day, said it was a resounding success despite its short span.

Participants were encouraged to write "something nice" on posters that Zubedy and other participating groups had handed out.

The nationwide campaign to drive home the message of kindness, peace and a sense of camaraderie among Malaysians ended at the Tropicana City Mall here as the nation celebrated the 50th Malaysia Day yesterday.

Present at the event were Tropicana Corporation Bhd executive director Andrew Ashvin, Mydin Group managing director Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin and Sunway shopping malls senior manager (marketing) Loo Hoey Theen.

"We can't pay or reward people to participate, yet we've found when you do good, people come forward to help you," said Anas.

"People have been e-mailing back photos of what they drew or wrote on these posters and we will be putting them on our Facebook page," he said, adding that over 15,000 posters were given out at schools and malls.

Anas said he planned to continue the programme with a goal to make it an annual event.

"We (at Zubedy) are just co-ordinators of the programme," said Anas.

"Anyone can take part and even monitise it, within reason. I would like to see it adopted further than what we at Zubedy can do."

Tropicana City Mall had opened a booth for the #SSNC programme and sold commemorative Touch N Go cards during the campaign period.

Chin Peng’s ashes should be allowed home, says Kit Siang

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Chin Peng's ashes should be allowed back to Malaysia, said DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang.

"If his last wishes are for his ashes to be brought back home, it should be allowed," said Lim, who described Chin Peng's passing as the end of an era.

"Whether one agrees or not with his struggle, his place in history is assured," tweeted Lim.

However, Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin said Chin Peng's remains should never be brought back to the country.

"Chin Peng was no freedom fighter," he said.

Khairy said Chin Peng waged war against the British only to subject Malaya to communist tyranny.

"It was nothing more than changing one form of colonialism to another," he said.

Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali also said Chin Peng's ashes should not be allowed home.

"Chin Peng was not only the head of the violent communist movement, but also a criminal. Chin Peng must be erased from history.

"There are some black moments in the country's history that should be taken as lessons, but not the history of terrorists and criminals who did harm to the country," he said.

Chor: New villages doing well for last two decades

Posted:

ALOR SETAR: Most of the 450 new villages in the country have basic infrastructure and are within the mainstream development, says Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung.

The MCA vice-president attributed this to the Housing and Local Government Ministry which channelled direct funding to these villages and put in place development plans for them.

As one of its former ministers, Chor said the villages had seen rapid development in the last two decades.

Nevertheless, he hoped that any change in the pattern of funding would help ensure continuous development for the villages.

Apart from the 450 set up during the Emergency in the late 1940s, Chor said another 157 traditional fishing villages had joined the list in 2009.

"However, these (fishing) villages are not as developed as the rest and they need extra attention," he said after launching a cyclethon by the LM Bikers in conjunction with Malaysia Day here yesterday.

A Chinese daily had reported last week that the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Ministry might cease direct funding to the 607 villages.

It is learnt that the funds would be channelled via the local councils.

However, its minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan had reportedly informed Labis MP Datuk Chua Tee Yong that a decision on the channel of funding had yet to be made.

Chua, also an MCA central committee member, said the party wanted a say in the outcome of the matter.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies


Laurie Holden in 'Dumb And Dumber To'

Posted:

The Walking Dead alum will be joining original stars Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in the sequel.

Laurie Holden, who played Andrea on AMC's hit series The Walking Dead, is set to join Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in Dumb And Dumber To, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are directing the follow-up to 1994's Dumb And Dumber, which grossed US$247mil (RM790mil) worldwide. The sequel – 2003's Dumb And Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd was a prequel that was not written by the Farrelly brothers – finds Harry Dunne (Daniels) in need of a kidney transplant, forcing him and Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) to hit the road to find his possible illegitimate daughter (Rachel Melvin) who may be a donor.

Holden will play the girl's stepmum, who married a wealthy doctor (Steve Tom) to inherit his fortune. Kathleen Turner co-stars as the girl's biological mother who was conceived after a sexual encounter with one of the two male leads.

Red Granite is producing and financing the movie, which will be distributed in the US by Universal Pictures.

The Farrelly brothers wrote the script with Bennett Yellin and Mike Cerrone, with an earlier draft written by Sean Anders and John Morris. Production starts this month with a tentative release date of summer 2014, which marks the 20th anniversary of the first Dumb And Dumber.

Holden has worked with Carrey before on Frank Darabont's The Majestic. — Reuters

Colin Firth is the voice of Paddington Bear

Posted:

The Oscar-winning actor has been chosen to play the voice of the lovable bear in a new movie.

British actor Colin Firth will provide the voice for Paddington Bear in a new movie about the marmalade-loving children's character, he revealed last weekend.

Firth, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Britain's stuttering king George VI in The King's Speech, told the Daily Mail newspaper the Peruvian bear would be computer-generated, with the rest of the characters played by real actors including Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Jim Broadbent, Julie Walters and Nicole Kidman.

"Paddington will be computer-generated, and I will speak his lines with, I suspect, a slight Peruvian flavour," Firth, 53, told the Mail.

"Every other character in the film will be real live human beings.

"But the idea is that Paddington will have something of me in his DNA because I'm going to do some sessions wearing one of those helmets with cameras to capture my face muscles, and all that data will somehow be incorporated into Paddington."

Bonneville plays Mr Brown, Paddington's "adoptive father", in the movie spearheaded by David Heyman, the producer of the Harry Potter movies.

Paddington Bear

The lovable Paddington Bear is almost never without his coat.

One of the best-loved characters of classic English children's literature, Paddington is known for his duffle-coat, battered suitcase and love of marmalade sandwiches.

He is unfailingly polite, but has a knack for getting into trouble.

He first appeared in 1958 in Michael Bond's book A Bear Called Paddington, in which the Brown family find him sitting in London's Paddington train station, having made his way there from "darkest Peru".

The family adopt the bear – who carries a sign reading "Please Look After This Bear" – and he goes on to have 20 books' worth of adventures.

Heyman had announced last year that he was teaming up with France-based film studio Studiocanal to update Paddington's adventures for the big screen.

Filming starts this month and it is due in cinemas in November 2014.

Paul King, director of the British TV comedy series The Mighty Boosh, is to direct the film, according to the film trade magazine Screen Daily.

The Hollywood Reporter said Kidman would play "an evil taxidermist out for revenge".

The stories have previously been adapted in cartoon form and using puppets. — AFP Relaxnews

12 Years A Slave wins at Toronto film fest

Posted:

Steve McQueen's drama about slavery may well be an early Oscar contender.

12 Years A Slave, the true story of a free black man sold into slavery in 1840s Louisiana in the United States, won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival last weekend.

The film, by Shame director Steve McQueen and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, took home the BlackBerry People's Choice award for best film at the 38th edition of the festival in Toronto, Canada.

Based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, the film has won widespread acclaim from critics and audiences in both Toronto and at the Telluride Film Festival, and has been touted as a top early contender for Oscars.

The Toronto award, which has in the past gone to Oscar best picture winners such as The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, and last year went to multiple award winner Silver Linings Playbook, will likely only increase the buzz around the film.

"It was just one of those stories that I felt needed to be told," McQueen, who like Ejiofor hails from Britain, told Reuters last week.

"The reason I got into the idea of the free man is that you could identify with him. ... When he is captured and put into slavery, you go on this journey with him," he said.

Cumberbatch

Chiwetel Ejiofor (right) and Benedict Cumberbatch in a scene from 12 Years A Slave.

The runner-up for the prize, which is selected by festival audiences, was Stephen Frears' Philomena, which stars Judi Dench as an Irish woman searching for the son she was forced by nuns to give up in the 1950s.

The People's Choice award for top documentary went to Jehane Noujaim's The Square, which follows activists in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the wake of the 2011 overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The film, which also won an award at the Sundance Film Festival in January as a work in progress, follows a handful of activists over the course of two years as what initially appears to be a clear road to democracy in Egypt instead turns into a battle of competing forces looking to take control.

"This is a film about people who relentlessly are fighting for their rights, even when there seems to be absolutely no hope and no light at the end of the tunnel," Noujaim told an audience of filmmakers, reporters and critics at the awards presentation.

The People's Choice award for top film in the Midnight Madness programme – which tends to focus on horror or extremely offbeat films – went to Sion Sono's Why Don't You Play In Hell?.

The best Canadian feature award went to Asphalt Watches, directed by Shayne Ehman and Seth Scrivers.

Started in 1976, the Toronto festival now ranks with Cannes and Sundance as one of the world's top movie gatherings. The festival often serves as a launching point for films and performances that go on to win Academy Awards, as well as international films seeking distribution deals.

Even before its People's Choice win, 12 Years A Slave was garnering Oscar buzz, with critics praising both McQueen and Ejiofor, but also Michael Fassbender's turn as a brutal slave owner.

Other films that have impressed critics during the 11-day festival include Alfonso Cuaron's astronaut thriller Gravity, the star-laden August: Osage County, and Dallas Buyers Club, for which Matthew McConaughey dropped 14kg to play an AIDS-afflicted homophobic Texas rodeo cowboy. — Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: Central

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Metro: Central


Indonesian volcano spews towering column of smoke

Posted:

KARO, Indonesia (AFP) - A volcano in western Indonesia erupted Tuesday for the second time this week, hurling a three-kilometre column of red-hot smoke and ash into the sky and forcing thousands more people to flee their homes.

A vast, black cloud hung over Mount Sinabung, on Sumatra island, after it erupted at around midday with a sound like thunder that could be heard for miles around, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

White volcanic ash rained down on surrounding villages, blanketing streets, houses and trees, and prompting people to don masks and put up umbrellas to protect themselves, the reporter said.

Around 3,000 more people fled their homes after the new eruption in the Karo district of North Sumatra province, Robert Peranginangin, local government spokesman, told AFP.

The total number of those who have fled since the volcano first erupted on Sunday was now at 9,420, he added.

He said that those displaced were not only from a three-kilometre (1.9-mile) "danger" zone that authorities had implemented following the weekend eruption.

"They are also people living outside the area as they panicked and decided to move to shelters," he said, adding that 14 evacuation shelters had now been set up nearby.

Hendra Gunawan, a volcanologist at a local monitoring post, told AFP that the volcano hurled ashed three kilometres into the air.|

Transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said authorities had warned airlines to take care when flying in the area.

The 2,400-metre high volcano was dormant for nearly 100 years before erupting in August and September 2010, forcing about 12,000 people to flee.

Indonesia has dozens of active volcanoes and straddles major tectonic fault lines known as the "Ring of Fire" between the Pacific and Indian oceans.

Last month five people were killed and hundreds evacuated when a volcano on a tiny island in East Nusa Tenggara province erupted.

The country's most active volcano, Mount Merapi in central Java, killed more than 350 people in a series of violent eruptions in 2010.

Resorts World Sentosa hires 36 dolphin trainers

Posted:

RESORTS World Sentosa's Marine Life Park has employed 36 trainers for its 24 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins ahead of the imminent opening of its Dolphin Island attraction.

This level of animal care appears to exceed that at several other dolphin attractions around the world.

Hong Kong's Ocean Park at one point had 40 trainers caring for 40 marine mammals, including 18 dolphins. In 2009, the Dubai Dolphinarium had two trainers for its four dolphins.

Currently, each of the dolphins in Resorts World Sentosa has a primary trainer of its own, with the others assist.

Speaking to reporters last Friday, the park's chief veterinarian Alfonso Lopez said that trainers, with their intimate knowledge of the dolphins, provide a crucial "first line of defence" in detecting anything amiss in their moods or health.

"The bond between dolphins and trainers is very important.

It is the key to preventing and managing problems."

Each morning, the dolphins are given full-body visual checks by the trainers, who are taught to look out for signs of problems in their behaviour or body language.

For instance, a dolphin with gastric flu might curl its pectoral fins closer to its body.

Trainers who sense that something is wrong will inform the park's four full-time vets.

Experts say that the stress while in captivity can make dolphins more susceptible to disease.

Some of these diseases, such as bacterial infections, cannot be detected with the naked eye. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion


Behind the scenes of Hairspray The Broadway Musical

Posted:

Find out just how much work is put into setting up the popular musical in Malaysia.

HAIRSPRAY The Broadway Musical is set in 1960s Baltimore where young Tracy Turnblad dreams of becoming a cast member on popular dance programme The Corny Collins Show.

However, Tracy is told by producer Velma Von Tussle that she does not have the "right size" for TV. Later, Tracy proves she has all the right moves to be on the show and becomes an overnight sensation.

Before the curtains rise for Hairspray The Broadway Musical tonight, get to know the miracle workers behind the scenes.

All that hair

They don't call it Hairspray The Broadway Musical for nothing! Head of hair and makeup Jenny Maiquez said there are 54 wigs used in the show and each female cast member will go through at least four of them. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes for cast members to get fitted with their custom-made wigs.

The tallest wig belongs to Velma Von Tussle's (The Legend Of) Miss Baltimore Crabs look.

Maiquez said the cast members do their own makeup and she'll be around to supervise them.

"One thing I have to do is remind most of the girls that the musical is not set in 2013. So keep the look retro!"

Chrissy Maddison said there are more than 100 costumes for all the 26 actors of Hairspray The Broadway Musical.

Chrissy Maddison said there are more than 100 costumes for all the 26 actors .

Costumes galore

What do you do when you have more than 100 costumes for a musical with 26 actors? You go to Chrissy Maddison of course!

The costume supervisor for Hairspray explained: "Most of the costumes were brought in from the original US production. We spent at least six weeks doing the fittings and alterations. It's a lot of hard work, after all, we have 26 actors."

It is estimated that the cost of all the costumes comes up to US$125,000 (RM411,250)!

One of the dresses worn by Damian Williams, who plays Tracy's mum, Edna, weighs close to 8kg. And the actor has to wear padding underneath the dress. Now, that's a drag.

They are not just paragraphs of gibberish you know. Just because you can't see them from your seats, doesn't mean the team took the easy way out. These are actual articles from the 1960s!

Reprints of actual 1960s newspaper articles

Blinding lights

It takes a village to raise a child, they say. Same goes in staging a Broadway musical. Production manager Gary Beestone and his team spent two days getting the set and 140 light units up before technical rehearsals began on Sunday.

"For Hairspray, we have 18 scenes and close to 400 light changes!" said Beestone.

Old is gold

Company manager Nick Bromley proudly claimed that some of the props are actual vintage items. "This television set is from the 1960s and one of the saxophones we used is actually from the 1940s." Bromley shared that even the newspapers – though reprints – were meticulously researched to feature actual articles from the 1960s.

Hairspray The Broadway Musical premieres tonight at the Plenary Hall, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre and will run until Sept 22. It is presented by Yvents! with Star Publications (M) Bhd as the media partner.

HSBC Cards is the official credit card. HSBC credit card holders enjoy exclusive discounts on tickets.

Tickets, priced at RM190, RM290, RM390, RM490 and RM590 (excluding a RM3 ticketing fee), are available from TicketsPeople.

For details, call 03-2287 2727 or visit ticketspeople.com.

Related stories:

Hairspray The Broadway Musical cast arrives

Positvely uplifting playing Tracy Turnblad

Tracy Turnblad through the years

Percussion poetry

Posted:

Lafaz Gema is an unusual performance that will combine literature and drumming.

THE steady rhythm and beat of drums is physical poetry, so it only makes sense that Hands Percussion is merging it with the written word in its upcoming Lafaz Gema.

Hands artistic director Bernard Goh explains that Lafaz Gema will feature six pieces based on a mix of local and foreign poems and be performed by the percussion group's second team, Hands 2.

Goh says this is the first time he's experimenting with more concept-driven choreographies for the second team, which consists mostly of trainee and volunteer members.

"Last time, training was just about hitting drums, using strength till they break a sweat, now their brains too will sweat from all this thinking up of concepts," says Goh gleefully.

"I want to challenge them and myself to deliver this message with a minimalistic approach, where my drummers don't move about much. They can jump around drumming for an hour, but standing still? Ah, then die," he jokes.

The director admits that having the poems read in full during the performance would be too predictable, instead he plans to have it read in parts combined with projecting some lines onto stage. For this, Hands 2 will be collaborating with Penangite videographer Okui (she goes by just the one name), who had recently worked with Lee Swee Keong on the dance performance Green Snake And The Monk.

"Like Okui, I know very quickly what I want, when I see the image I want to create. But if I don't understand the poem, it's more challenging," says Goh.

Artistic director Bernard Goh wants to stretch his team with the unusual performance.

Artistic director Bernard Goh wants to stretch his team with the unusual performance.

To help the ensemble better grasp the poems that inspired their performances, Goh had them do poetry reading classes with a Chinese literature teacher.

"I don't want them to just follow my direction, I want them to read, feel and hafal (memorise) the poem," says Goh.

Of the six poems, four are in Mandarin, one in Spanish and one in Malay. While Goh had the first five translated, he decided to keep Bangkit in its original the Malay-language version.

He shares that Bangkit was the result of a three-way collaboration between him, Taiwan-based choreographer Kathyn Tan and Malaysian poet Uji Amat.

"Unlike the others, which are existing poems, I started Bangkit with Kathyn's choreography, then asked Uji to write her piece when Kathyn was halfway done," reveals Goh. He added that the piece, which is performed by the female members of Hands 2 would be their most challenging as the girls were not trained in dance, yet had to do the movement piece while having their drum tied to them!

The second piece is based on Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's Body Of A Woman.

"Just the title already is erotic. Neruda wrote it when he was in love with his first girlfriend, it captures the lust and the emptiness one feels at the same time," explains Goh.

With that in mind, he avoided using drums, as it would be too cliched being so associated with pounding hearts and love affairs. Instead, the boys of Hands 2 would be performing with clay urns as their partners.

While most are new pieces, the performance from Hand's recent Rhapsodrum has been reworked with the poem Sama Ada Kami Cinta Kepada Malaysia by Fu Chengde. The poem touches on the sentiment of how minority races are constantly questioned about their nationalistic spirit despite being citizens of the country for generations.

"It's a bit of an angrier piece," admits Goh, adding "but it's the boys' favourite because they get to drum like mad."

Another loud arrangement is Where The River Duo Meets, which uses kompang, gamelan, and Chinese drums.

"The poem is written about the Gombak and Klang rivers, how one is murky and the other pristine. Both complain about each other when they merge," says Goh, adding that it was written in 1975 by Yeu Chuan and inspired by the view at Masjid Jamek where the two rivers meet.

"As much as we complain about each other, we all end up at sea. It doesn't matter who is keruh (turbid) and who is jernih (clear), we all end up in a bigger space together," says Goh, tying the concept neatly to the mixed instruments used.

Not all the poems are so socially charged, though; one of the softer pieces is based on Taiwan poet Yu Guangzhong's Throughout My Life. It pays tribute to Hands 2 full time member, Jack Wan's father, who recently passed away.

"The challenge was that there are so many poems for mothers but not for fathers," muses Goh. Roughly translated from the original name, it reads "I cried only twice in my life, when I was born and first met you, and the last time I saw you, when you died".

Lafaz Gema by Hands 2 will be performed at Pentas 1, KL Performing Arts Centre (off Jalan poh, Kuala Lumpur), from Sept 20-22; showtimes are 8.30pm with additional matinees at 3pm on Sept 21 and 22. Tickets are priced at RM48, RM68, RM88 and RM108. Check www.ilassotickets.com or call 03-4047 9000 to book.

A royal night out for the arts

Posted:

The Royal Arts Gala returns for the second time with the theme, "The Arts, The Soul Of A Nation". 

WHAT price the soul of a nation? If the arts truly represent a country's soul, how much would you pay to help keep Malaysia's soul alive?

That's a question that will be put to the nation – and especially the nation's private sector – when the Royal Arts Gala returns for the second time, this time themed "The Arts, The Soul Of A Nation".

The inaugural gala in November last year raised RM718,000; the event was held at a hotel and featured a show as well as a silent auction of unique and luxury donated items.

As with last year's gala, the 2013 event, slated for Nov 23, will also see the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tuanku Hajah Haminah lending their royal presence to this worthy cause.

And this year, the organisers are taking it a notch higher by placing the evening of fine food and entertainment in the fountain courtyard of the old Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur – the former home of Malaysia's Kings and Queens seems a very apt location indeed for this royal event!

What's more, attendees will be taken on a private tour of the palace, which has been turned into a museum.

That will be followed by dinner and a 45-minute musical directed by Adlin Aman Ramlie, who played the sultan in Puteri Gunung Ledang the movie; he also worked on P. Ramlee The Musical, Uda Dan Dara and Akademi Fantasia among others. Working with him on the show is award-winning composer Onn San, whose works include The Secret Life Of Nora and Everworld.

Hopefully, all this will attract the attention of not only individuals but also corporations willing to come to the aid of the our ailing arts industry.

Considering how the arts are so deeply woven into the rich tapestry that makes up this country, it's almost silly not to support them.

Certainly, the event's organiser, My Performing Arts Agency (MyPAA), will be hoping for an even better showing than last year come Nov 23.

MyPAA was founded early last year by arts enthusiast Izan Satrina to act as a bridge between artists and sponsors.

The agency worked with the National Culture and Arts Department and the Tourism and Culture Ministry on last year's Royal Arts Gala to raise funds for deserving art practitioners, chosen by a panel from public nominations.

Recently, MyPAA proudly awarded the RM718,000 raised to the 31 chosen recipients; they included Hands Percussion, Rumah Anak Teater, Shakespeare Demystified, Temple of Fine Arts and Pentas Project Theatre Production.

The recipients were divided into four categories: promotion of Malaysian artists or works overseas, the facilitation of international co-productions and collaborations involving Malaysian and overseas talent, the development of technical and managerial skills among Malaysian performing arts managers and administrators, and research and documentation projects in the performing arts.

The award ceremony was followed by the announcement of the 2013 Royal Arts Gala, after which Izan shared: "I would like to be honest and say that we can't promise you the world right now but we can certainly promise you that it's going to get better. The fact that 31 recipients are here today to receive the funds we raised from the gala, I think it's a really good start."

She added that on top helping to build sustainability within the performing arts sector, the gala is also a way of raising the profile of the performing arts to the private sector.

"And there is something many of them don't know, and that is, any support for the initiative is tax exempt!" said Izan.

The second Royal Arts Gala will see the introduction of the Royal Medallion award. This will be conferred on two individuals: an arts practitioner for his or her achievements in the craft, and a corporate figure for his or her contributions towards the development of the arts.

Here's where you can have your say, as the public can nominate anyone deserving of these prestigious medals. Your nomination should be based on the individual's contributions to Malaysian arts from July 2012 to August 2013. Go to mypaa.com.my for further details.

While the man in the street can certainly do his bit to support the arts – go watch more performances! – it is the private sector that has deep enough pockets to make a crucial difference.

And to that sector, Datuk Norliza Rofli, National Culture and Arts Department director-general, has a message (albeit one that was conveyed with a laugh): "If the Agong is involved in this, why can't you be?"

The Royal Arts Gala 2013 will be held on Nov 23 at the former Istana Negara, Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur. Tables are priced at RM15,000 (the Gamelan table), RM25,000 (Odissi), RM35,000 (Wayang Kulit), and RM50,000 (Mak Yong) per table. Seats are limited to a total of 250.

For further details, go to mypaa.com.my. For reservations, call 03-6207 9566 or e-mail rag@mypaa.com.my.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health


Help your kids ace their tests with a salmon dinner

Posted:

If your kids' grades are flagging, add foods like salmon and walnuts to the table that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, essential building blocks for a healthy brain.

WANT to help your kids improve their performance at school? Serve them a dinner of grilled tuna or salmon teriyaki, suggests a new study out of Oxford University.

After taking blood samples from nearly 500 children between the ages of seven and nine, scientists found that levels of omega-3 fatty acids "significantly predicted" their ability to concentrate, and learn.

Published in the journal PLOS One and presented at a conference in London last week, the study found that higher levels of omega-3, particularly the long-chain form of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), were associated with better reading and memory and fewer behavioral problems among the children examined.

Omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to play an important role in the brain's structure and cognitive function, in addition to heart health and the immune system. Dietary sources of omega-3 include fatty fish such as sardines, mackerel, salmon and tuna as well as flaxseed oil and walnuts.

Blood samples of the 493 schoolchildren showed, meanwhile, that British children fall below the minimum recommended intake of the brain boosting nutrient: on average, the total levels of omega-3 fatty acids (both DHA and its cousin eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA), averaged 2.45%. The minimum level of omega-3 fatty acids recommended to maintain heart health is 4% in adults.

Scientists also found that nine out of 10 children in the sample ate fish less than twice a week, and nearly one in 10 never ate fish at all, according to dietary information obtained from the parents.

Recommended weekly intake is a minimum of two fish portions a week.

"This study suggests that many, if not most UK children, probably aren't getting enough of the long-chain omega-3 we all need for a healthy brain, heart and immune system," said study co-author Alex Richardson.

"That gives serious cause for concern because we found that lower blood DHA was linked with poorer behaviour and learning in these children."

Another study published last year in the print issue of Neurology likewise found that a diet lacking in omega-3 fatty acids may be linked to shrinking brains in older people, causing the brain to age faster and weakening important cognitive functions such as visual memory, problem solving, multi-tasking and abstract thinking. – AFP Relaxnews

Every minute counts when it comes to exercise

Posted:

A new US study finds that even one minute of high-intensity exercise can benefit your health.

NOW you have no excuses: a new US study finds that even one minute of high-intensity exercise – such as walking briskly or taking the stairs – can benefit your health.

Researchers at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City analysed data on more than 4,500 adults in a study on how exercise contributes to good health.

Head researcher Catherine Zick and her team found that minute-long bursts of high-intensity exercise were associated with lower body mass index and other benefits similar to those resulting from 10-minute bouts of moderate exercise, such as walking normally.

Findings appear online in the American Journal of Health Promotion.

This May, a new study published in the journal PLOS One also found that overweight, inactive men can get fitter and healthier with just four minutes of vigorous high-intensity training three times per week. – AFP Relaxnews

Losing weight could help prevent migraines

Posted:

A new study adds more bulk to research linking obesity to migraines.

IF you suffer from migraines and are carrying extra pounds, a new study provides more motivation to lose weight.

According to new research conducted out of John Hopkins University School of Medicine, obese people are 81% more likely to suffer from episodic migraines compared to people of normal weight.

In the study published last week in the online edition of Neurology, researchers surveyed 3,862 people who provided information on their height, weight and frequency of migraines. The average age of the participants was 47.

Overall results showed that 1,044 respondents were obese and 188 people said they suffer from occasional or episodic migraines, defined as 14 or fewer headaches a month.

"These results suggest that doctors should promote healthy lifestyle choices for diet and exercise in people with episodic migraine," said study author B. Lee Peterlin.

"More research is needed to evaluate whether weight loss programmes can be helpful in overweight and obese people with episodic migraine."

The latest study builds on previous research published in 2011 which found that exercise can be just as effective at preventing migraines as medication.

After putting a group of migraine patients under an exercise regime that involved 40-minute sessions three times a week, a team of Swedish researchers found that the number of migraines fell for both participants who exercised, and those who were put on a drug plan.

The 2011 study was published in the journal Cephalalgia. – AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my
 

The Star Online

Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved