Rabu, 18 September 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Japanese sports teacher beats boy in YouTube video

Posted:

TOKYO (AFP) - A video emerged Wednesday showing a volleyball coach repeatedly slapping a schoolboy -- just days after Tokyo was awarded the 2020 Olympics -- in the latest example of brutality to tarnish Japanese sport.

Separately, world judo champion Shohei Ono was slapped with a three-month ban for physically abusing junior members of his university judo squad.

A short clip posted on YouTube and other video-sharing sites showed the teacher at a senior high school in central Japan smacking the student's face at least 13 times in 16 seconds. It was authenticated by the school.

The episode was captured on a mobile phone by another student during a practice game near Gifu city. By Wednesday evening it had garnered some 1.6 million viewings on YouTube.

"Don't joke around, kid! Do you understand? You're stupid," the teacher yells in the video as he repeatedly slaps the student's face.

According to the school, the teacher has admitted the physical abuse of the second-grader, saying: "I wanted to shake him up, but I went about it the wrong way".

Students in Japan are 16 or 17 years old in second grade of high school.

Toshitaka Shiozawa, assistant principal of Hamamatsu Nittai Senior High School, told AFP the 41-year-old teacher had also beaten another student on the same day. He declined to reveal the teacher's name.

Neither student suffered any lasting injuries in the attacks, Shiozawa said, adding the school was considering disciplining the teacher as "we regard the act as corporal punishment".

The school held an emergency meeting with parents of students on the volleyball team Tuesday evening, at which the teacher and the school principal apologised, Shiozawa added.

In May last year, the same teacher also slapped a student's face, causing a nosebleed, but the school did not take any punitive measures "because the student did not complain", he said.

In a separate case in western Japan, nearly 70 junior high school students were left with injuries on their feet after being ordered by their teachers to run barefoot, local media said.

The students were forced to run up to 1.2 kilometres (0.7 miles) over ground heated up by strong sunshine because they were late for an exercise at a sport festival at a junior high school in Kobe, news reports said.

Immediate confirmation of the reports was not available.

Japan banned corporal punishment in schools after World War II, but it remains far from uncommon, particularly in sports education, despite a number of high-profile cases.

In December, a teenager killed himself following repeated physical abuse from his high-school basketball coach in Osaka, western Japan.

Also on Wednesday, the All Japan Judo Federation hit Ono with a three-month suspension which will keep him out of all international and domestic competitions for the remainder of the year.

Ono won the men's 73-kilo title at last month's world championships in Rio.

Japan's judo community was rocked in January when it emerged the coach of the national women's team was found to have beaten athletes, sometimes using a bamboo sword, calling his charges "ugly" and telling them to "die" in the run-up to the London Olympics.

The latest incident came a week after Japan was awarded the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games, and followed an announcement that the government was to create a sports agency to boost elite athletes' performance.

Mieko Ae, professor and sports psychologist at Tokyo Women's College of Physical Education, said many coaches in Japan believe physical abuse can improve students' performance.

"In order to get rid of sports abuse, we have to change this way of thinking and if necessary, we should consider introducing measures on those who break the rules," Ae said.

"Extreme sports bullying is not discipline, it's a crime. It's time to remove all violence from sports."

The video can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlpNLR_IbdQ

Internal panic within City Harvest

Posted:

The Ren Ci scandal sparked an internal panic within the City Harvest Church, with church leaders frantically trying to ensure that their own investments in church-linked companies were aboveboard, a court heard.

This happened in 2008, about a year after the church had invested S$13mil (RM33.5mil) in Xtron Productions, a music production firm that was managing City Harvest co-founder Ho Yeow Sun's singing career at the time.

Several of the six church leaders accused of misusing church funds had in fact reached out to auditor Foong Daw Ching and prepared documents about the church's transactions for him to review.

This was shown through telephone logs and text messages which were produced by the church leaders' defence team yesterday.

The defence also strongly suggested that Foong had in fact read and discussed one particular document with the accused.

This set out the church's relationship to Xtron and other companies, as well as the legal risks that the financial transactions could entail.

Foong, who had earlier insisted that he did not recall seeing this document, admitted: "I would have read it and there must have been some discussion."

Defence lawyers have been trying to prove that Foong gave the accused detailed advice about various allegedly suspect transactions, and that church leaders had followed his advice.

City Harvest founder Kong Hee, who is Ho's husband, and five of his deputies are on trial for alleged misuse of S$50mil (RM128mil) in church funds. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Visa fee system not against Act

Posted:

The Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) said that it had found Visa Worldwide's multilateral interchange fee system (MIF) compliant with the Com­petition Act here.

Interchange fees are fees paid by the banks that process purchases on behalf of store to Visa.

The fees are ultimately borne by retailers, who have to pay the banks that process their purchases a certain percentage.

Retailers have complained that the fees are too high and are not transparent.

CCS' assessment was in res­ponse to Visa Worldwide which wanted to know whether its MIF system would violate the Competition Act.

In particular, the Section 34 prohibition against anti-competitive agreements.

After reviewing the case, CCS said that it had not found any evidence suggesting that "the MIF system had resulted in an appreciable adverse effect on competition in Singapore".

It has thus concluded that it did not infringe upon the Act. — The Straits Times / Asia News Net­work

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz


Aaron Eckhart is an exorcist in new film

Posted:

The horror movie Incarnate, directed by Brad Peyton, will start production next month.

The horror genre continues to prove its allure to serious actors, as Aaron Eckhart is set to star in the exorcism-themed movie Incarnate for Jason Blum's Blumhouse banner, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) is directing from a script by Ronnie Christensen. Production starts next month.

Eckhart will play an unconventional exorcist with the ability to tap into the subconscious of the possessed. The plot: The exorcist meets his match when a nine-year old boy is possessed by a demon from his past.

Blumhouse and IM Global will co-finance the film. Blum (Paranormal Activity) will produce for Blumhouse, which is co-financing the movie with IM Global. Couper Samuelson will executive produce with Michael Seitzman and Trevor Engelson. Blumhouse International will handle foreign sales, and while there is no US distributor in place, Blumhouse has a first-look deal with Universal.

Given the studio's success with Blumhouse's micro-budget home invasion thriller The Purge, Universal is expected to take on the release. Eckhart, who recently starred in the action movies Olympus Has Fallen and Erased, next stars in I, Frankenstein. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Jason Reitman's comedy Thank You For Smoking. — Reuters

Third 'Insidious' film in the works

Posted:

The early success of the second film has sparked interest in producing another one.

Entertainment One, FilmDistrict and Sony will make a third Insidious film, the companies have announced.

News of a third film comes as no surprise after the second film in the franchise, Insidious: Chapter 2, grossed US$40.9mil (RM131mil) at the US box office this past weekend. It boasts the second largest opening weekend of the year for a horror film, US$1mil (RM3.2mil) shy of The Conjuring (which was also directed by James Wan).

"The release of the first Insidious resonated with audiences around the world and quickly became one of the most talked about films in 2011," FilmDistrict CEO Peter Schlesse, eOne president of film production Xavier Marchand and SPWA president Steven Bersch, said in a joint statement.

"This weekend moviegoers enjoyed the terrifying continuation of the first film and we are confident they will be excited to see the third chapter of the Insidious world."

Leigh Whannell, who wrote the first two films, will return to write the third but there is no word on whether Wan, who directed both of them (and co-wrote the first), will return. One assumes they would have announced it if he were involved, and Wan's next project is the seventh Fast And Furious film.

Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions, which produced both films, will produce the next instalment along with Oren Peli. Steven Schneider, Brian Kavanaugh Jones, Peter Schlessel, Lia Buman and Xavier Marchand are all executive producers. — Reuters

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies


Aaron Eckhart is an exorcist in new film

Posted:

The horror movie Incarnate, directed by Brad Peyton, will start production next month.

The horror genre continues to prove its allure to serious actors, as Aaron Eckhart is set to star in the exorcism-themed movie Incarnate for Jason Blum's Blumhouse banner, an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Brad Peyton (Journey 2: The Mysterious Island) is directing from a script by Ronnie Christensen. Production starts next month.

Eckhart will play an unconventional exorcist with the ability to tap into the subconscious of the possessed. The plot: The exorcist meets his match when a nine-year old boy is possessed by a demon from his past.

Blumhouse and IM Global will co-finance the film. Blum (Paranormal Activity) will produce for Blumhouse, which is co-financing the movie with IM Global. Couper Samuelson will executive produce with Michael Seitzman and Trevor Engelson. Blumhouse International will handle foreign sales, and while there is no US distributor in place, Blumhouse has a first-look deal with Universal.

Given the studio's success with Blumhouse's micro-budget home invasion thriller The Purge, Universal is expected to take on the release. Eckhart, who recently starred in the action movies Olympus Has Fallen and Erased, next stars in I, Frankenstein. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Jason Reitman's comedy Thank You For Smoking. — Reuters

Third 'Insidious' film in the works

Posted:

The early success of the second film has sparked interest in producing another one.

Entertainment One, FilmDistrict and Sony will make a third Insidious film, the companies have announced.

News of a third film comes as no surprise after the second film in the franchise, Insidious: Chapter 2, grossed US$40.9mil (RM131mil) at the US box office this past weekend. It boasts the second largest opening weekend of the year for a horror film, US$1mil (RM3.2mil) shy of The Conjuring (which was also directed by James Wan).

"The release of the first Insidious resonated with audiences around the world and quickly became one of the most talked about films in 2011," FilmDistrict CEO Peter Schlesse, eOne president of film production Xavier Marchand and SPWA president Steven Bersch, said in a joint statement.

"This weekend moviegoers enjoyed the terrifying continuation of the first film and we are confident they will be excited to see the third chapter of the Insidious world."

Leigh Whannell, who wrote the first two films, will return to write the third but there is no word on whether Wan, who directed both of them (and co-wrote the first), will return. One assumes they would have announced it if he were involved, and Wan's next project is the seventh Fast And Furious film.

Jason Blum and his Blumhouse Productions, which produced both films, will produce the next instalment along with Oren Peli. Steven Schneider, Brian Kavanaugh Jones, Peter Schlessel, Lia Buman and Xavier Marchand are all executive producers. — Reuters

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Arts & Fashion


John Grisham's 'A Time To Kill' on Broadway

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The best-selling novel – which was made into a film in 1999 – will soon be seen on stage.

Best-selling author John Grisham's first novel, A Time To Kill, has been adapted for the stage and is heading for Broadway next month with an ensemble cast that includes Fred Dalton Thompson of TV's Law And Order and Tom Skerritt, an Emmy-award winner for Picket Fences.

Although many of Grisham's nearly two dozen novels have been turned into popular films, A Time To Kill, is the first to be adapted for the stage. The play will open on Oct 20 in the United States.

"This is a very different novel from all the other John Grisham novels," said Tony award-winning playwright Rupert Holmes, who adapted the legal thriller about racism in the 1980s in rural Mississippi.

"It sprawls and spills over with emotion and some of the characters are so much larger than life that you know they had to have existed because no one would dare invent them that way."

Holmes described the book as Grisham's most human novel and the ultimate courtroom drama, with a tautness that made it suitable for adaption for the stage. "The reason everyone is in that courtroom is because of a murder that occurred in that very same courtroom in front of that very same judge with the same prosecutor in the room," Holmes said in an interview.

Sebastian Arcelus, who appears as Lucas Goodwin in Netflix's original series House Of Cards, plays Jake Brigance, the young, idealistic lawyer defending a black man accused of taking the law into his own hands after his daughter is brutally beaten and raped.

"The story brings up so many amazing issues that are inherently theatrical and for me, personally, they are of great importance," said Arcelus. "The moral questions that are embedded in those issues are very timely and we try to approach them from the standpoint of this story and this context, and all the while putting in the context of the 1980s in the South."

Skerritt, making his Broadway debut in the play with a cast of 14, portrays a disbarred attorney who helps the defense team, and Thompson plays Judge Omar "Ichabod" Noose.

"He's kind of like the lion tamer in a three-ring circus," Thompson said of his role. "He doesn't suffer fools or anyone gladly."

It was a role close to Thompson's heart. The former US senator and one-time Republican presidential hopeful was a small-town Southern lawyer early in his career, long before he turned to acting.

Skerritt, who recently has focused on writing and teaching in Seattle, said conflicts with his film and television work had prevented him from working on Broadway until now.

"I thought this was some sort of gift," he said. "I'm overwhelmed and excited and scared."

Grisham has sold more than 250 million books since A Time To Kill was published in 1988. The novel was made into a film in 1999 starring Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson.

Although Grisham has had some input in the play, director Ethan McSweeny said both he and Holmes had a real sense of freedom to do what was needed to adapt the story. "I am determined to leave little Easter eggs for all aficionados of Grisham. There could be a trivia contest at the end," McSweeny said. — Reuters

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

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City Harvest founder had offered to step down, court told

Posted:

CITY Harvest founder Kong Hee was once so concerned about possibly bringing harm to the church that he offered to step down from its management board, said defence lawyers during an ongoing criminal trial into him and five of his deputies.

Kong expressed his concerns about a year before a series of investments were made, which the State believes were shams meant to funnel church funds illegally to his wife Ho Yeow Sun's career.

He asked auditor Foong Daw Ching in an e-mail in 2006, whether Ho receiving a salary from church-linked firm Xtron Productions would pose a problem. Xtron was managing Ho's music career at the time.

"Sun is paid totally from non-CHC (City Harvest Church) sources ... (but) I'm personally very troubled as I don't wish to bring any potential reproach to the church or its various ministry. If there is simply no way out ... Sun and I are even willing to resign from the management board of CHC, if that would help diffuse the semblance of any conflict of interest on her part," he wrote.

Edwin Tong, defence lawyer for Kong, also tried to show that Foong knew more about the investments than he let on.

Several of the six accused had written e-mails saying Foong had endorsed or given advice about the investments, although Foong insisted that these were inaccurate.

Tong said it was "incredible" that the auditor did not seem to recall reading any of the e-mails he had been sent regarding the transactions, given that the church was a "major" client of the firm.

Foong replied that City Harvest's audit team was led by another person at his firm whom he would have deferred to, and he had his own "heavy" portfolio of clients at the time. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Drug therapy can reverse heart disorder

Posted:

RESEARCHERS from the National Heart Centre Singapore have become the first in the world to successfully and completely reverse the conditions of a potentially fatal heart rhythm disorder that has, to date, no known cure.

Known as long QT syndrome 2, the disorder affects the heart's electrical activity which may cause sudden, uncontrollable, and dangerous heart rhythms in response to exercise or stress.

It is primarily an inherited condition, and though difficult to diagnose, is estimated to be prevalent among about one in 5,000 people in Singapore.

Statistics from studies worldwide have shown that if left untreated, more than half of those who inherit the syndrome die within 10 years from the first display of symptoms, which can include fainting spells and seizures.

By using human skin stem cells transformed into beating heart cells, the researchers were able to test various drug compounds. This led them to discover that a drug known as ALLN – which has yet to be in clinical use – could reverse the effects of the gene mutation producing long QT syndrome 2.

The team is hoping to conduct clinical trials within three years to test the side effects of this drug therapy through international collaboration. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East


City Harvest founder had offered to step down, court told

Posted:

CITY Harvest founder Kong Hee was once so concerned about possibly bringing harm to the church that he offered to step down from its management board, said defence lawyers during an ongoing criminal trial into him and five of his deputies.

Kong expressed his concerns about a year before a series of investments were made, which the State believes were shams meant to funnel church funds illegally to his wife Ho Yeow Sun's career.

He asked auditor Foong Daw Ching in an e-mail in 2006, whether Ho receiving a salary from church-linked firm Xtron Productions would pose a problem. Xtron was managing Ho's music career at the time.

"Sun is paid totally from non-CHC (City Harvest Church) sources ... (but) I'm personally very troubled as I don't wish to bring any potential reproach to the church or its various ministry. If there is simply no way out ... Sun and I are even willing to resign from the management board of CHC, if that would help diffuse the semblance of any conflict of interest on her part," he wrote.

Edwin Tong, defence lawyer for Kong, also tried to show that Foong knew more about the investments than he let on.

Several of the six accused had written e-mails saying Foong had endorsed or given advice about the investments, although Foong insisted that these were inaccurate.

Tong said it was "incredible" that the auditor did not seem to recall reading any of the e-mails he had been sent regarding the transactions, given that the church was a "major" client of the firm.

Foong replied that City Harvest's audit team was led by another person at his firm whom he would have deferred to, and he had his own "heavy" portfolio of clients at the time. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Drug therapy can reverse heart disorder

Posted:

RESEARCHERS from the National Heart Centre Singapore have become the first in the world to successfully and completely reverse the conditions of a potentially fatal heart rhythm disorder that has, to date, no known cure.

Known as long QT syndrome 2, the disorder affects the heart's electrical activity which may cause sudden, uncontrollable, and dangerous heart rhythms in response to exercise or stress.

It is primarily an inherited condition, and though difficult to diagnose, is estimated to be prevalent among about one in 5,000 people in Singapore.

Statistics from studies worldwide have shown that if left untreated, more than half of those who inherit the syndrome die within 10 years from the first display of symptoms, which can include fainting spells and seizures.

By using human skin stem cells transformed into beating heart cells, the researchers were able to test various drug compounds. This led them to discover that a drug known as ALLN – which has yet to be in clinical use – could reverse the effects of the gene mutation producing long QT syndrome 2.

The team is hoping to conduct clinical trials within three years to test the side effects of this drug therapy through international collaboration. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Music


Linkin Park and Steve Aoki's new track

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The rock band collaborates with the electro maestro on new single, A Light That Never Comes.

Linkin Park and Steve Aoki have officially released their collaborative track, A Light That Never Comes, via a brand new free 3D Facebook game called LP Recharged.

The song was first unveiled during Aoki's performance at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan last month, during which Linkin Park's Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda made a surprise appearance.

However, A Light That Never Comes has not been released since.

From today, fans can unlock the song by playing LP Recharge (once unlock it will also be available on Xbox Music for 14 days). The game is a product of the imaginations of Linkin Park and gaming giant Kuuluu Interactive Entertainment AG. It is a free-to-play strategy game featuring band-designed characters and missions; Shinoda himself had a hand in the game's design.

"I think this song and release show where we're at right now," said Shinoda in a press statement. "Making the song with Steve, premiering it through the LP Recharge Facebook game, and debuting it via Microsoft's Xbox Music – I think it's all indicative of our band's commitment to experimentation and pushing boundaries."

A Light That Never Comes is the first single to come from Linkin Park's Recharged, which features new interpretations of songs from the previous album, Living Things. Recharged will be released on Oct 29 (Machine Shop Recordings/Warner Music).

A limited edition version of the album will feature an interactive 3D sculpture on the artwork on Living Things and and other exclusives based.

Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth call it quits

Posted:

The young celebrity couple has decided to end their four-year relationship.

Singer and actress Miley Cyrus and actor Liam Hemsworth have called off their engagement, representatives for both stars said last night, ending months of speculation that the young couple's relationship was on the rocks.

Cyrus, 20, and Australian actor Hemsworth, 23, ended their four-year relationship, but no reason was given for the break-up by their representatives.

Over the weekend, Cyrus stopped following Hemsworth on social networking site Twitter, which fueled break-up reports in the media.

Cyrus first met Hemsworth in 2009 on the set of their film The Last Song, where the two played lovers. The couple announced their engagement in June last year.

Former Disney Channel star Cyrus, who shot to fame as the lead in Hannah Montana, has tried to shed her teen idol image over the years. She captured headlines earlier last month with a provocative and raunchy "twerking" performance at the MTV Video Music Awards ahead of her upcoming album, Bangerz.

About a week later, she released a very risque music video for her single, Wrecking Ball.

Hemsworth has seen his star rise in Hollywood, playing a leading role in dystopian young adult film franchise The Hunger Games and taking on action roles in The Expendables 2 and Paranoia, which is currently showing in cinemas in Malaysia. — Reuters

Related stories:

Miley Cyrus' naked video smashes record

Review of Paranoia

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health


Kids who drink too much energy drinks!

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Medical experts demand energy drink makers stop marketing to children.

NOTHING, it seemed, could get Cody Cifani to cut back on his daily energy drinks. Then last month, the 15-year-old from McKinney, Texas, had two espresso shots, followed by three Monster drinks to pump himself up for his job at a car shop.

Instead of the expected rush, he felt so sick he has avoided them since.

"It was a pounding feeling in my entire head. I was extremely fatigued, and I didn't want to move," he said. "It felt like a really bad crash. I felt really bad the entire day and had stomach pains when I woke up."

While energy drinks may look and taste like sodas, they are packed with significantly higher levels of caffeine.

That may sound benign, but doctors note that caffeine is a stimulant that can, in excess, lead to convulsions, an irregular heartbeat and, in extreme cases, death.

A report from the Drug Abuse Warning Network, a US public health surveillance system that monitors possible drug-related deaths and visits to hospital emergency rooms, noted that there were 20,783 visits related to energy drinks in 2011 alone.

That's why, even as makers of the drinks say their products are safe and are not marketed to children, some health experts are warning parents to be aware.

The US Food and Drug Administration says that sodas, which are classified as beverages, cannot contain more than 71 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounces. (For comparison, a Coca-Cola Classic has 30 to 35 milligrams per 12 ounces, and a 16-ounce McDonald's coffee has 100 milligrams, according to the Mayo Clinic.)

If energy drinks are labeled as dietary food supplements, as some are, the FDA doesn't restrict the caffeine. Monster's Worx Energy contains 200 milligrams of caffeine in two ounces, Coca-Cola's NOS energy 260 milligrams in 16 ounces, and Rockstar energy 240 milligrams in 16 ounces.

That's way more stimulant than Dr Marcie Beth Schneider, an adolescent paediatrician based in Greenwich, Connecticut, believes any child should have.

Dr Schneider testified before the Senate Commerce Committee on July 31 about her concerns.

"We don't think energy drinks should ever be consumed by kids because they cause a whole host of medical side effects," she says in a phone interview. "They raise heart rate and blood pressure, cause rhythm disturbances and anxiety, gastrointestinal upset and sleeplessness, and we don't know what those things do to a developing neurological and cardiovascular system."

Experts generally agree. The US National Collegiate Athletic Association prohibits the drinks for student-athletes. In June, the American Medical Association recommended banning the marketing of energy drinks for those younger than 18.

The 14 energy-drink companies that issued statements at the Senate meeting said that they do not market their product to children and teens. A statement from Janet Weiner, chief operations officer and chief financial officer of Rockstar, questioned the Drug Abuse Warning Network's report, noting that the reported number of 20,000 ER visits was a tiny percentage of the total number of ER visits, and that "most of the ER visits did not require further treatment because they were not serious".

She added, "Coffee and tea, rather than energy drinks, are the most significant sources of caffeine for Americans, including teens and children."

As the drinks' popularity has grown – they are a US$12.5bil (RM41.25bil) business, according to Forbes – there have been attention-grabbing incidents.

As of October, the Federal Drug Administration was investigating five deaths and one non-fatal heart attack by people consuming Monster. Two wrongful-death lawsuits have been filed against Monster since 2012, one from the family of Anais Fournier of Maryland, a 14-year-old who died in 2011 after consuming two 24-ounce drinks in a 24-hour period.

Another, filed in June, is from Paula Morris of California, who blames the death of her son, Alex Morris, 19, on drinking two cans of Monster's energy drink every day for the three years before he died of cardiac arrest.

Monster Beverage Corp responded last year with a statement maintaining that its product is safe and in full compliance with all laws and regulations.

The Associated Press has reported that Monster's lawyer, Daniel Callahan, said the company hired a team of physicians to review medical records. The team found no medical evidence for an autopsy report that said caffeine toxicity was a factor, he said, which he said suggests Anais Fournier died of natural causes brought on by her pre-existing heart conditions. Similarly, it issued a statement to beveragedaily.com that there was nothing in the coroner's report that connects Alex Morris' death with his consumption of Monster drinks.

Schneider says energy-drink companies like to compare the caffeine in their product to that in coffee, but energy drinks have additional ingredients that magnify the effects of the stimulant, such as taurine and guarana.

She says not enough kids are aware of how much stimulant they may be consuming in a day, particularly if they also drink coffee, use medication for attention-deficit disorder or take an over-the-counter drug that helps them pull an all-nighter.

Dr Michelle Fowers, a pediatrician at Baylor Medical Center at Irving-Coppell in Texas, US, thinks education can help kids kick the energy-drink habit.

"The kids see someone they look up to with a can of Red Bull in his hands and that makes it OK," she says. "They think it's not alcohol, it's not hard drugs, it's not so bad. But caffeine is a drug. It can be harmful, and it is addictive. Once kids start taking it, they want more, and they will feel the pain of withdrawal when they stop."

Cody's sister, Stacey Cifani, 25, of McKinney, Texas, had been trying to get him to cut back on energy drinks months before he finally did.

Cifani blames her own daily Monster drinks for leading to her SVT, supraventricular tachycardia, a rapid heart rhythm, which brought her heart rate up to 180 this year.

Luckily, she is a medical assistant for Dr Akram Khan, a cardiologist and medical director for Cardiac Center of Texas in McKinney and director of preventive medicine at Medical City Plano. He noticed the signs and rushed her to Baylor Heart Hospital, where she received life-saving ablation surgery in March.

Khan says he's learned to ask patients who report a rise in palpitations and chest pains about their consumption of energy drinks. He's talked to his 13-year-old about the risks. He says he's been flabbergasted by how ubiquitous the drinks have become, recently even showing up in his physician lounge.

"The kids drink it like water, and it's like a time bomb. It can be fatal if you have an underlying condition, and it can also damage a healthy heart," he says.

Cifani could have been one of the casualties, Khan says.

"I've told her, 'No more energy drinks.'" – The Dallas Morning News/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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The Star eCentral: TV Tracks

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The Star eCentral: TV Tracks


Lots of dead bodies in 'Bones' S9

Posted:

Bones showrunner also promises one wedding in the new season of the 'crimedy'.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

A 'Walking Dead' spinoff?

Posted:

A spinoff of the popular zombie thriller is currently in the works.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

The Killing is axed - again

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The third time was not the charm for The Killing. The moody detective drama, which returned for a third season after being cancelled, has been cancelled again, ending hopes for a fourth season.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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