Isnin, 23 September 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Suu Kyi suggests amending Constitution on armed forces
25 dead as typhoon hits China
Disputed election win sparks opposition snub and protest

Suu Kyi suggests amending Constitution on armed forces

Posted:

SOLDIERS should not be in government, Myanmar's democracy icon and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said.

Instead, Myanmar should change its Constitution to have a professional army, as in Britain, which is "well looked after by a civilian government and loved by its people".

"It's not that I want the leopard to change its spots.

"I just want the leopard to stay very beautiful and dignified in the jungle," she said of the military, half in jest.

She was answering a question on whether, given the military's tendency to claim power by force, a leopard can change its spots, during a lecture at Singapore Management University yesterday.

She recalled how her father, General Aung San – who led then Burma to independence from British colonial rule – set an example when he resigned from the military to join politics in 1945.

After decades of military rule, Myanmar under President Thein Sein, a retired general, has undergone political reforms that give it a semi-civilian government in which the military is given 25% of seats in Parliament.

On the subject of leadership, she gave an example of how a leader can, through respect, win over the electorate.

Suu Kyi is in Singapore on a five-day visit.

Today, she will call on several Singapore leaders, including President Tony Tan Keng Yam and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

25 dead as typhoon hits China

Posted:

HONG KONG: Typhoon Usagi killed at least 25 people after crashing ashore in southern China, throwing the region's transport systems into chaos and leaving tens of thousands of airline passengers stranded in Hong Kong.

Schools and businesses were shut yesterday as activity in the normally teeming financial hub slowed to a crawl after Usagi – the world's most powerful storm this year – battered a long swathe of coastline with torrential rain and winds of up to 165kph during the night.

The deaths were reported by Chinese state media after Usagi made landfall near Shanwei city in Guangdong province northeast of Hong Kong on Sunday evening, prompting the highest-level alert from the National Meteorological Center.

The reports by Xinhua news agency did not say how the 25 were killed but said all the deaths were in Guangdong after the typhoon brought down trees and damaged roads. Dozens more were injured in accidents, it added.

Bullet trains from Guangzhou city to Beijing were suspended and Xinhua said winds were strong enough near Shanwei to blow cars off the road. More than 47,000 fishing boats were in harbour and schools were closed in 14 coastal cities.

Usagi had previously killed two people in the Philippines and unleashed landslides and power outages across southern Taiwan at the weekend as it ploughed through the Luzon Strait with ferocious winds and heavy downpours.

Monsoon rains worsened by Usagi caused flooding yesterday at the Philippine capital Manila and nearby provinces.

As the typhoon bore down on Hong Kong, operators shut down one of the world's busiest sea ports and nearly 450 flights were either cancelled or delayed on Sunday as Cathay Pacific and other airlines imposed preemptive suspensions.

Hong Kong's Observatory said it was the strongest typhoon to brush the city since 1979. Tens of thousands of people had their travel plans upended with ferries and trains also disrupted, while Cathay resumed flights only from yesterday noon.

Many passengers were forced to stay overnight at the airport, sleeping on the floor or spending the night playing card games. Many milled around the departure hall hoping to rebook their flights.

But handwritten signs warned them that there was little chance of getting standby seats on flights out yesterday and to check back later.

"We've waited for so long... and we still can't leave. Who would not be unhappy?" said 26-year-old Iris Ouyang from Beijing. — AFP

Disputed election win sparks opposition snub and protest

Posted:

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's long-ruling party pushed ahead with the formation of a government despite an opposition boycott of parliament and mass protests over its disputed election win.

Anti-riot police were deployed near the National Assembly following weeks of political turmoil that has at times descended into violence in one of the biggest challenges to Hun Sen's nearly three decades in power.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) refused to take its seats yesterday for the opening session of the lower house, warning that the kingdom was sliding towards "dictatorship".

Despite the boycott, King Norodom Sihamoni asked Hun Sen to form a new government, which must be approved by a majority of the newly elected lawmakers in a vote expected to take place today.

The CNRP, which is demanding an independent investigation into the contested July elections, decried what it described as a "one-party parliament".

"It totally contradicts the principle of democracy, freedom and multi-party pluralism and is bringing Cambodia toward dictatorship again," it warned.

Hun Sen said he would "serve the nation and the people for greater prosperity and progress" in a letter to thank the king for his support.

According to official results of the July polls, the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) won 68 seats against 55 for the CNRP.

The opposition has rejected the tally, alleging widespread vote irregularities.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters joined three days of demonstrations in the capital earlier this month that saw one protester shot dead and several wounded as security forces clashed with a stone-throwing crowd.

Rights groups accused the security forces of firing live ammunition – an allegation denied by the authorities.

Activists also accused dozens of police and thugs in civilian clothing of launching a violent crackdown on a peaceful vigil at a pagoda in the capital late on Sunday using electric batons and slingshots.

Nine demonstrators as well as several foreign and local journalists were injured, witnesses said.

"They treated us like animals," prominent land rights activist Tep Vanny told AFP.

The police action came after military police on Friday expelled a pro-opposition Cambodian prince – the king's cousin – from the same pagoda, where he was holding a hunger strike demanding "justice for voters".

Hun Sen, who suffered his worst poll result in 15 years in July, last week agreed to find a peaceful solution to the dispute in talks with his main rival Sam Rainsy.

However, he has ruled out an independent probe. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

Early Oscar buzz for Oprah Winfrey
Feel the temperature rising in 'Inferno'
Liam Hemsworth already has a new girl

Early Oscar buzz for Oprah Winfrey

Posted:

The talk show host earns critical praise in Lee Daniels' The Butler.

OPRAH. Oscar. Oscar. Oprah.

Yes, it might be a bit early to riff on David Letterman's ill-fated, Uma-Oprah 1995 Academy Awards monologue bit.

Then again, with Oprah Winfrey's movie Lee Daniels' The Butler sitting atop the box office with a 10-day take of US$52mil (RM166.4mil), and Winfrey herself earning solid critical praise for her first acting turn since 1998's Beloved, the conversation has already started, like it or not.

And, given the brand name in question, that debate will be spirited, intense and, to some extent, managed by Winfrey herself, as she has the built-in advantage of owning her own television channel and magazine.

"She's an overpowering presence in our culture. You can't pretend otherwise," film critic Leonard Maltin says. "But that's what makes her work in The Butler impressive. She succeeds in making you forget that she's Oprah Winfrey so you can accept and embrace the character she's playing."

That character, Gloria Gaines, is the conflicted, proud wife of Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a White House butler who serves seven presidents. Gloria grows discontented by the long hours required by her husband's job. "You and the White House can kiss my ...," she tells Cecil at one point. "I don't care what goes on in that White House. I care what goes on in this house."

Though Gloria isn't the title character, director Daniels affords her plenty of screen time – even when she isn't speaking. Often in group scenes where she has little to say, Daniels keeps the shot tight on Winfrey, affording her the opportunity to reveal the inner life of her complicated character.

"Those eyes are mesmerising," Daniels says, while admitting, at the same time, that not everyone seeing the rough cut of the movie shared his enthusiasm for those long close-ups of Winfrey.

"You know what it is? She's got Bette Davis eyes. They were hypnotic, and I was seduced."

Will Oscar voters be similarly beguiled? Academy members can be star-struck too, particularly when the talent in question comes from outside the usual circle of filmmaking friends and acquaintances.

Musicians have been the most-rewarded interlopers over the years, with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Phil Collins and Melissa Etheridge winning Oscars for original song over the last two decades.

And though he didn't technically win an Academy Award, Al Gore received a thunderous ovation when he took the stage after the documentary about his campaign to educate the public on climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, won the Oscar.

Oprah Winfrey stars opposite Forest Whitaker (right) in The Butler.

Winfrey stars opposite Forest Whitaker in Lee Daniels' The Butler.

On the acting side, Jennifer Hudson jumped from American Idol to Oscar-winner for her supporting turn in the 2006 movie musical Dreamgirls. Omnipresent music star Justin Timberlake received a for-your-consideration campaign for playing Napster founder Sean Parker in David Fincher's 2010 drama The Social Network, though he fell short of receiving a nomination.

Winfrey has been to the dance before, earning a supporting actress nomination for her high-spirited turn in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple in 1986. She further established her acting credentials, playing a former slave in Jonathan Demme's 1998 film adaptation of Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. The movie – and Winfrey – received generally positive reviews but was a commercial disaster, earning just US$22.8mil (RM??) at the box office.

Since then, Winfrey's influence has continued to grow with multiple platforms – the Oprah Winfrey Network; O, The Oprah Magazine; Oprah Radio on XM; the Oprah.com website – which she has used to promote The Butler and, in theory, could continue to use to campaign for the movie and herself through the awards season.

As with any powerful figure whose name has become part of the pop culture vernacular (Oprahfication, anyone?), Winfrey has her detractors too.

All things equal in a contest like the Oscars where voters' personal tastes and biases enter the equation, envy sometimes plays a part. Several academy members last year privately said they wouldn't vote for Spielberg or his movie Lincoln because, in the words of one balloter, "he already has enough recognition for three lifetimes."

Daniels says he doesn't really understand that kind of thinking, but does remember initial skepticism among some members of the movie's cast and crew about Winfrey's acting ability.

"I think some of the actors came to the set with eyebrows raised," he says. "I didn't care. I knew where we were going and I knew she could deliver. And they found out too once they got in the room with her."

Should Winfrey end up nominated, the second happiest group would probably be ABC network executives, knowing Winfrey generally draws a crowd and would likely boost the show's ratings.

Some 72% of The Butler's opening weekend ticket-buyers said Winfrey increased the likelihood that they'd see the movie.

"She's the most powerful woman on the planet," Daniels says. "I don't want people thinking I'm an Oprah psycho-fan, even though I happen to be one. Sometimes, I'm still amazed she's in the movie." – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Lee Daniels' The Butler opens in cinemas nationwide on Sept 26. Pick up a copy of Star2 on Sunday for our cover story on Oprah Winfrey.

Feel the temperature rising in 'Inferno'

Posted:

HONG Kong actors Sean Lau Ching Wan and Louis Koo will be turning up the heat when they come to town to promote their latest fire-fighting action movie Inferno.

The duo will be in Malaysia on Sunday, along with Malaysian-born Lee Sinje (The Eye) and Crystal Lee (Unbeatable), as well as director Oxide Pang.

Fans will get a chance to meet the stars and director in person at 7.30pm at the Upper Atrium, Level UG of Paradigm Mall, Petaling Jaya.

Fans will also get the chance to walk away with movie merchandise and prizes.

The stars and director will also be at GSC Paradigm Mall later for the movie's gala premiere.

In conjunction with the event, GSC Movies is collaborating with Fire Fighter and Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia Negeri Selangor to organise a three-day Inferno movie and fire safety exhibition at the same venue from Sept 27 to 29.

Movie props and gallery, as well as fire rescue equipments will be on display, and shoppers can also participate in games, booth activities and fire safety demonstrations at the event.

Inferno is scheduled for nationwide release on Oct 3. For more information, visit www.gscmovies.com.my and www.facebook.com/gscmovies.

Liam Hemsworth already has a new girl

Posted:

The actor was photographed kissing a Mexican actress and model in Los Angeles.

LIAM Hemsworth has moved on ... just one day after his "shocking split" from singer-actress and twerk princess Miley Cyrus.

The Australian actor was photographed kissing Mexican actress/singer Eiza Gonzalez in a parking lot at her apartment complex in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. Apparently, he dropped off some luggage for her...

The picture shows the two of them – him, dressed in workout clothes and a baseball cap; her, dressed in a sports bra and short – locking lips, with his arms around her waist. (You can check out the picture in the Us Weekly website.)

According to reports, Hemsworth and Gonzalez, both 23 years old, had met just three days earlier in Las Vegas. The Paranoia actor had gone to the Sin City without his then-fiancee, Cyrus, to watch a fight between boxing stars Floyd Mayweather Jr and Canelo Alvarez.

Apparently, Hemsworth's solo trip to Las Vegas was the reason why Cyrus, 20, "unfollowed" him on Twitter – he later unfollowed her, too.

Rumours are also rife that Cyrus has been sending Hemsworth text messages pleading for him to get back together with her.

Actress/singer Eiza Gonzalez is a big star in Mexico.

Who's that girl?
Eiza Gonzalez Reyna is the daughter of former model Glenda Reyna. She started acting at a young age, landing the lead role in the Mexican telenovela Lola ... Erase Una Vez (Lola ... Once Upon A Time) when she as only 16.

Although she has mostly been involved in telenovelas in her home country, Gonzalez has also done some voice-over work for the Spanish version of movies like The Croods and Horton Hears A Who. Last year, she landed a starring role in a new telenovela called Amor En Custodia, which has become quite popular in Mexico and the United States.

Apart from that, Gonzalez is also an established singer, having released two Spanish albums.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Heavy burst of gunfire heard from Kenyan mall attacked by Islamists
Mexico storms death toll rises to 123, crop lands damaged
Kenya says all hostages freed in al Shabaab mall siege

Heavy burst of gunfire heard from Kenyan mall attacked by Islamists

Posted:

NAIROBI (Reuters) - A heavy burst of gunfire was heard from the Kenyan shopping mall in Nairobi where at least 62 people were killed in an attack by the Somali al Shabaab group, suggesting that the complex had not yet been secured, a Reuters witness said on Tuesday.

Kenya's Interior Ministry had said early on Tuesday that its forces were "in control" of the mall and had freed all hostages.

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Philip Barbara)

Mexico storms death toll rises to 123, crop lands damaged

Posted:

ACAPULCO (Reuters) - The death toll from a pair of storms that flooded much of Mexico rose to 123 on Monday, and large tracts of farmland were declared lost as the country cleans up some of the worst storm damage in decades.

Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, Mexico's interior minister, gave the new estimate of casualties from last week's Tropical Storm Ingrid and Hurricane Manuel at a news conference in the heavily damaged Pacific resort city of Acapulco.

He added that some 59,000 people had been evacuated from their homes as recovery efforts continued across the country.

The agriculture ministry declared 613,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of planted land "completely lost" as a result of the storms, or about 3 percent of the country's total farmland.

It was unclear which crops were most affected, but a top official with Mexico's sugar chamber said earlier on Monday that the upcoming sugar harvest will be largely unscathed by the flooding.

In southern Guerrero state, the most severely hit, dozens of people were still missing and feared dead after a mudslide caused by torrential rains buried 40 homes in La Pintada.

Five corpses were dug up from the village on Monday.

President Pena Nieto said over the weekend there was little hope anyone had survived the village mudslide.

On Sunday, the president said Mexico's Congress will revise its proposed 2014 budget to allow for more disaster spending beyond the roughly 12 billion pesos ($938.91 million) available in emergency funding.

The government is expected to provide a preliminary report of the country's damaged infrastructure on Tuesday.

Mudslides and flooding buried homes and wrecked highways and bridges in all but five of the country's 31 states, according to government officials. ($1 = 12.7808 Mexican pesos)

Kenya says all hostages freed in al Shabaab mall siege

Posted:

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya said its security forces had taken control of the Nairobi shopping mall where Islamist fighters killed at least 62 people, and that police were doing a final sweep of shops early Tuesday after the last of the hostages had been rescued.

There was an eerie silence outside the mall after a day in which gunfire and explosions were heard in the Westgate mall. A trickle of survivors escaped the building throughout the day on Monday, but the fate of people listed as missing was unclear.

Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which began at lunchtime on Saturday. Kenyan officials say there were 10 to 15 attackers.

President Barack Obama offered U.S. support, saying he believed Kenya - the scene of one of al Qaeda's first major attacks, in 1998, and a neighbour of chaotic Somalia - would continue to be a regional pillar of stability.

Kenyan security forces believed the end was in sight for the siege at the upmarket shopping mall in the capital, saying its forces were "in control" as the ordeal entered its fourth day.

A government official said there was no resistance from the attackers late on Monday night after a barrage of gunfire and blasts throughout the day, but that the security forces were cautious in case some attackers were hiding in the building.

"Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor looking for anyone left behind. We believe all hostages have been released," the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter.

The siege has followed a pattern of bursts of gunfire and activity followed by long lulls.

Patronised by well-to-do Kenyans and expatriates, Westgate mall epitomised the African consumer bonanza that is drawing foreign investment - from West and East - to one of the world's fastest growing regions.

Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people when it bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. When fighters from its Somali ideological counterpart stormed the mall on Saturday, they hit a high-profile symbol of Kenya's economic power.

Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, said the United States stood with Kenyans against "this terrible outrage".

"We will provide them with whatever law enforcement support that is necessary. And we are confident that Kenya will continue to be a pillar of stability in eastern Africa," he said in New York.

Kenya has sent troops to Somalia as part of an African Union force trying to stabilise the country, which was long without a functioning government, and push back al Shabaab.

It has also suffered internal instability. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who lost a nephew in the weekend bloodbath, faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in coordinating violence after disputed elections in 2007. He denies the charges.

Kenyatta has dismissed a demand that he pull Kenyan forces out of Somalia, saying he would not relent in a "war on terror".

British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he believed six Britons had died in the attack. Other known foreign victims are from China, Ghana, France, the Netherlands and Canada. Kenyan officials said the total death toll was at least 62.

FOREIGN FIGHTERS

Kenya believes there are also foreigners among the attackers, with military chief Julius Karangi saying they came from all over the world. "We are fighting global terrorism here," he said, without giving their nationalities.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said in a U.S. television interview that "two or three Americans" and a British woman were among the attackers.

She told the "PBS Newshour" show that the Americans were "young men, about between maybe 18 and 19" years old. "Of Somali origin or Arab origin, but that lived in the U.S., in Minnesota and one other place," Mohamed said.

U.S. authorities are urgently looking into information given by the Kenyan government that residents of Western countries, including the United States, may have been among the attackers, U.S. security sources said.

White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said he had no direct information that Americans had participated in the attack, but expressed U.S. worries.

"We do monitor very carefully and have for some time been concerned about efforts by al Shabaab to recruit Americans or U.S. persons to come to Somalia," Rhodes told reporters travelling with Obama to the United Nations in New York.

Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said the militants had set fire to mattresses in a supermarket on the mall's lower floors and his ministry later said the blaze was under control. Two attackers were killed on Monday, taking the total of dead militants so far to three, he told a news conference.

Speculation rose about the identity of the attackers. Ole Lenku said they were all men but that some had dressed as women.

Despite his comments, one intelligence officer and two soldiers told Reuters that one of the dead militants was a white woman. This is likely to fuel speculation that she is the wanted widow of one of the suicide bombers who together killed more than 50 people on London's transport system in 2005.

Called the "white widow" by the British press, Samantha Lewthwaite is wanted in connection with an alleged plot to attack hotels and restaurants in Kenya. Asked if the dead woman was Lewthwaite, the intelligence officer said: "We don't know."

A spokesman for al Shabaab warned they would kill hostages if Kenyan troops tried to storm their positions. "The mujahideen will kill the hostages if the enemies use force," Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said in an online audio statement.

From Mali to Algeria, Nigeria to Kenya, violent Islamist groups - tapping into local poverty, conflict, inequality or exclusion but espousing a similar anti-Western, anti-Christian creed - are striking at state authority and international interests, both economic and political.

John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said he believed insurgents such as those who rebelled in Mali last year, the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamist sect and the Nairobi mall raiders were also partly motivated by anger with what he called "pervasive malgovernance" in Africa.

"This is undoubtedly anti-Western and anti-Christian but it also taps into a lot of deep popular anger against the political economy in which they find themselves, in which a very small group of people are basically raking off the wealth," he said.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

Early Oscar buzz for Oprah Winfrey
Feel the temperature rising in 'Inferno'
Liam Hemsworth already has a new girl