Jumaat, 27 September 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


India's 'hugging saint' celebrates 60th birthday -- with hugs

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Amritapuri (India) (AFP) - India's "hugging saint", who has hugged more than 32 million people around the world, celebrated her 60th birthday on Friday in the company of disciples from around the globe.

The celebrations for the charismatic spiritual leader, known as Amma or "mother" to her millions of devotees, have stretched over three days at her ashram complex in Amritapuri, on a stretch of coastline in southern India's Kerala state.

The guru, formal name Mata Amritanandamayi, hugs people in her globe-trotting crusade to spread "selfless love and compassion", according to her website.

As part of the birthday celebrations she dispensed her trademark hugs, was serenaded by songs of "Happy Birthday" and announced a series of charitable initiatives.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh praised Amma in a message, saying that "her life is dedicated to society".

"Coming here and seeing all of the people makes me realise how many people need Amma. She is not just hugging people, she is changing lives," tweeted Eliza Shackelford, an American who was at the celebrations.

Ten years ago, Amma, marking her 50th birthday, hugged thousands of people non-stop for 24 hours, according to media reports.

Disciples at the ashram on Friday washed Amma's feet in a sign of love and devotion.

The ceremonies also included a marathon prayer for world peace.

Amma travels the world, regularly going to the United States, Britain and other destinations, hugging people.

The plump, smiling guru, says she is connected to an "eternal energy source" which means that she is never tired.

She grew up in a Kerala fishing community, the eldest daughter of a low-caste family. According to her official biography, she started hugging people when just a child "to comfort them in their sorrow".

While born to a Hindu family, she embraces all faiths and calls herself a "servant of god".

She launched her ashram several decades ago and it receives millions of dollars a year in donations. She operates a large charitable organisation which provides health care, education and disaster relief. - AFP

Fast-ageing population a cause for concern

Posted:

SINGAPOREANS are living longer and not having enough babies to replace themselves, meaning the swiftly ageing population has fewer working citizens supporting the growing pool of elderly.

These worrying trends, which emerged from the latest population figures released yesterday, can exert significant pressure on Singapore's economy, society and governance in future, said experts. They added that those working may have to toil longer and pay more taxes, and the Government will need to invest more in elder-friendly facilities.

These will be in demand by a growing number of Singaporeans, with those aged 65 and above forming 11.7% of the citizen population this year, up from 7.8% in 2002.

This year's Population in Brief report also showed that the old-age support ratio – which is the number of citizens in the working age band of 20 to 64 needed to support one older citizen – is decreasing rapidly.

It has fallen from 8.4 in 2000 to 5.5 today. But a better picture emerges when permanent residents are included, with the ratio at 6.4 this year, down from 8.7 in 2002.

According to World Bank data, Singapore has the highest proportion of older residents and the fastest ageing population in South-east Asia.

It is greying much faster than other developed nations such as Australia, the United States and most European countries, though the rate is on a par with Hong Kong's and slower than Japan's and South Korea's.

Economists and demographers say this will mean greater demand for health care and elder-care services, and elder-friendly infrastructure such as barrier-free accessibility features in transport and housing.

DBS economist Irvin Seah said that with the Government inevitably spending more, it will mean a "heavier financial burden on the working population, which in turn may mean higher taxes".

But Selena Ling of OCBC said that the state may continue with its redistributive tax model, where the rich pay more through wealth and asset taxes.

"Singapore has been financially prudent, we can afford to draw down on our reserves as well," the economist added.

An ageing population will also require a slight "re-orientation" of the economy, she said.

This would involve a greater focus on developing medical services and attracting more workers to the sector, as well as increasing productivity and the use of technology in jobs so that people can continue to work as they age.

Still, some population statistics gave cause for cheer. More Singaporeans are getting married, with 23,192 marriages involving at least one citizen last year, up from 22,712 the year before.

Singapore residents are also continuing to have more babies.

After hitting an all-time low of 1.15 in 2010, the total fertility rate (TFR) was 1.2 in 2011, and 1.29 in last year's Dragon Year – though it is still below the replacement rate of 2.1.

This upward trend was seen across all three major races, with the biggest increase among the Chinese. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Indonesia delays search after asylum-seeker boat sinks

Posted:

Jakarta (AFP) - Strong waves prevented Indonesian rescuers from continuing the search for survivors Saturday morning in a boat sinking that left at least 22 Australia-bound asylum-seekers, mostly children, dead and scores missing.

Some 120 asylum-seekers from Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen were believed to be on the boat that broke into pieces and sank off Indonesia on Friday in rough seas, with 28 plucked to safety and around 70 still unaccounted for, police said.

"The waves are just too high for our speed boats to go out yet. They're four to six metres (13 to 20 feet). We hope conditions improve soon," Warsono, a police official in Cianjur district on Java, told AFP, adding no helicopter had been deployed.

The sinking was the first deadly asylum boat accident since Tony Abbott became Australia's prime minister earlier this month and days ahead of his first state visit to Indonesia, where his tough boatpeople deterrence policies are likely to be the focus of talks.

The 22 bodies were found floating in an estuary, swept ashore by large waves, and were mostly children who could not swim, Warsono said.

One Lebanese man escaped from the sinking boat by swimming to an island -- but he believes his eight children and pregnant wife were killed, an official in Lebanon said.

Hussein Khodr called people in his home village of Kabiit "and told them that the boat sank at dawn, when waves destabilised the vessel", said Ahmad Darwish, local government head in the northern Lebanese village.

Survivors said they were trying to get to Australia's Christmas Island, closer to Java than mainland Australia, and are the latest to cross the treacherous stretch of water that has claimed hundreds of asylum-seekers' lives in recent years.

Abbott vowed to "stop the boats" during his election campaign as the country seeks to combat an influx of asylum-seekers by sea, a highly divisive political issue in Australia.

He plans a two-day visit on Monday to Indonesia, where senior officials have been rankled by his boatpeople policies, which include towing boats back from Australia's waters to Indonesia's. - AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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Malaysian women directors headed for Busan film fest

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Malaysia women directors to showcase their work at Busan International Film Festival.

EARLIER this year Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories was launched to celebrate International Women's Day in March.

Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories is a film project by WOMEN:girls, an initiative established three years ago that provides a platform for women to speak up and have their stories told.

The project brings together 15 women directors who tell their stories in a series of short films.

With Datin Sofia Jane, Nanu Baharudin, Sharifah Amani, Elaine Daly, Fauziah Nawi, Mislina Mustaffa, Vanidah Imran, Aida Fitri, Carmen Soo, Junaidah M Nor, Shamaine Othman, Dira Abu Zahar, Susan Lankester, Melissa Saila and Ida Nerina on the helm as the directors, Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories is now going international.

It will be shown at the upcoming 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) 2013 in South Korea from Oct 3 to 12.

The anthology feature film, which runs approximately 70 minutes, comprises six short films that were selected to represent original works by (mostly) first time Malaysian women filmmakers, and will be showcased at BIFF in the segment A Window On Asian Cinema.

A Window On Asian Cinema features brand new and/or representative films by talented Asian filmmakers with their diverse points of view and style.

The titles of the six Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories shorties include Jerat Suami (directed by Dira Abu Zahar), 1-800-BABY (Sofia Jane), Pantang (Vanidah Imran), Odah ( Junaidah M. Nor), Berat Sebelah (Melissa Saila) and She (Ida Nerina).

In a press statement, executive producer of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories as well as president and the brains behind WOMEN:girls Low Ngai Yuen, emphasised on the need for women's voice in the country.

"Let's increase women's share of voice and let women's dreams, pains, joys, aspirations and how they make the choices be heard and known.

"This will reduce, if not stop, the stereotyping of women over the mainstream media," Low said.

"As a producer, it's awesome to have the opportunity to share a part of our little project of love with the world," added Lee Su May, executive producer of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories and founding partner of Garang Pictures.

The journey of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories began when 800 people gathered to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8 with a private screening of 15 short films directed by 15 non-traditional female directors in Kuala Lumpur.

Creative director of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories, and the founder of Big EyEs Entertainment Ida Nerina, said: "I am so elated and extremely excited that our hard work has paid off.

"Out of 15 short films, which we produced, six wonderful Malaysian stories will finally be watched by thousands of film enthusiasts at this prestigious festival."

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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Boardwalk Empire renewed for a fifth season

Posted:

The popular HBO drama, which won five Emmys last week, lives on.

Boardwalk Empire has been picked up for a fifth season by HBO, the network said. The series, which premiered its Season Four on Sept 8 in the United States, racked up five Emmy awards at this year's ceremony, including outstanding supporting actor in a drama series for Bobby Cannavale.

The Season Four premiere of the series, which stars Steve Buscemi as bootlegging kingpin Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, drew a slightly lower audience compared to the previous season's premiere. However, this season's premiere aired opposite AMC's Breaking Bad, which has boosted its viewership considerably since returning for its final eight episodes in August.

HBO programming president Michael Lombardo hailed the series as being "in a class by itself", praising Boardwalk Empire creator Terence Winter and his team when announcing the renewal.

"Thanks to Terry Winter, Martin Scorsese, Tim Van Patten, Howard Korder and their stellar team, Boardwalk Empire remains in a class by itself," Lombardo said.

"I look forward to another electrifying season of this impeccably crafted series." — Reuters

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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Malaysian women directors headed for Busan film fest

Posted:

Malaysia women directors to showcase their work at Busan International Film Festival.

EARLIER this year Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories was launched to celebrate International Women's Day in March.

Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories is a film project by WOMEN:girls, an initiative established three years ago that provides a platform for women to speak up and have their stories told.

The project brings together 15 women directors who tell their stories in a series of short films.

With Datin Sofia Jane, Nanu Baharudin, Sharifah Amani, Elaine Daly, Fauziah Nawi, Mislina Mustaffa, Vanidah Imran, Aida Fitri, Carmen Soo, Junaidah M Nor, Shamaine Othman, Dira Abu Zahar, Susan Lankester, Melissa Saila and Ida Nerina on the helm as the directors, Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories is now going international.

It will be shown at the upcoming 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) 2013 in South Korea from Oct 3 to 12.

The anthology feature film, which runs approximately 70 minutes, comprises six short films that were selected to represent original works by (mostly) first time Malaysian women filmmakers, and will be showcased at BIFF in the segment A Window On Asian Cinema.

A Window On Asian Cinema features brand new and/or representative films by talented Asian filmmakers with their diverse points of view and style.

The titles of the six Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories shorties include Jerat Suami (directed by Dira Abu Zahar), 1-800-BABY (Sofia Jane), Pantang (Vanidah Imran), Odah ( Junaidah M. Nor), Berat Sebelah (Melissa Saila) and She (Ida Nerina).

In a press statement, executive producer of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories as well as president and the brains behind WOMEN:girls Low Ngai Yuen, emphasised on the need for women's voice in the country.

"Let's increase women's share of voice and let women's dreams, pains, joys, aspirations and how they make the choices be heard and known.

"This will reduce, if not stop, the stereotyping of women over the mainstream media," Low said.

"As a producer, it's awesome to have the opportunity to share a part of our little project of love with the world," added Lee Su May, executive producer of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories and founding partner of Garang Pictures.

The journey of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories began when 800 people gathered to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8 with a private screening of 15 short films directed by 15 non-traditional female directors in Kuala Lumpur.

Creative director of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories, and the founder of Big EyEs Entertainment Ida Nerina, said: "I am so elated and extremely excited that our hard work has paid off.

"Out of 15 short films, which we produced, six wonderful Malaysian stories will finally be watched by thousands of film enthusiasts at this prestigious festival."

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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Refugee boat sinks on way to Australia, 21 dead - Indonesian police

Posted:

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A boat carrying migrants to Australia sank off the Indonesian coast on Friday, killing at least 21 people, Indonesian police said, a sign that Australia's tough new immigration rules may not be enough to deter would-be asylum seekers.

The latest disaster to strike refugees using Indonesia's southern coast to try to reach Australia will cast a shadow over a visit to Jakarta on Monday by Australia's new conservative prime minister Tony Abbott, whose tough stance on immigration was at the heart of his election campaign.

About 400 boats carrying asylum seekers have arrived in Australia over the past 12 months and about 45,000 asylum seekers have arrived since late 2007, when the former Labour government relaxed border policies, eventually tightening them again in the face of a voter backlash.

"All the passengers were from the Middle East. There were people from Lebanon and Yemen. The boat was going to Australia. Their next destination was Christmas Island," Dedy Kusuma Bakti, police chief in Cianjur, West Java, told Reuters by telephone on Saturday.

Bakti said 28 survivors had been rescued. Some Indonesian media reported as many as 79 people might have drowned in the incident, although there was no official confirmation of a toll that high.

Situated in the Indian Ocean not far from Indonesia, the Australian territory of Christmas Island is a frequent destination for refugee boats from Indonesia and a favoured route for people-smugglers.

Indonesian media reported that the motor boat sank off the south coast of Java near the town of Tegalbulued, about 190 km (120 miles) south of Jakarta.

The steady flow of refugee boats is a hot political issue in Australia, polarising voters and stoking tension with neighbours like Indonesia and Sri Lanka over hardline border security policies that have been criticised by the United Nations.

In July, Canberra announced tough new measures to stem a sharp increase in the number of refugee boats heading for Australia from Indonesia. The new government has also stopped providing regular information on asylum boats turned away and emergencies at sea.

The new plans have been condemned by human rights groups, with Amnesty International accusing Australia of shirking its moral obligations to help the world's most vulnerable people.

Abbott has made Indonesia his first overseas destination since winning a general election on September 7.

He will meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to seek support for his plan to have Australia's navy turn migrants away and stop people traffickers operating from Indonesian ports.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and other lawmakers have criticised Abbott's offer to pay Indonesian villagers for intelligence on people-smuggling gangs, and ridiculed the proposal to buy fishing boats often used to smuggle migrants, preferring to treat the issue as a regional problem.

(Reporting by Rieka Rahadiana and Kanupriya Kapoor,; Writing by Jonathan Thatcher and Fergus Jensen; Editing by Paul Tait)

Italian PM to call confidence vote as government nears collapse

Posted:

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta will call a confidence vote in parliament after a showdown with centre-right partners in his fragile coalition scuppered a vital package of budget measures on Friday and took his government to the brink of collapse.

Letta flew back from a visit to New York with coalition unity already in tatters after a threat by centre-right lawmakers to walk out over former premier Silvio Berlusconi's battle against a conviction for tax fraud.

"Efficient government action is obviously incompatible with the mass resignation of a parliamentary group which should support the government," Letta said in a statement after a cabinet meeting on Friday.

"Either there is a new start and the interests of the country and its citizens are put first or this experience is at an end," he said.

Regional Affairs Minister Graziano Delrio said Letta, who met President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday, would go before parliament in the next few days to seek backing to continue.

After two days of mounting tension and with financial markets on edge, Letta met ministers in a last-ditch bid to secure approval for additional budget measures needed to bring Italy's deficit within European Union limits.

The meeting was also intended to satisfy a key demand of the centre-right and avert the sales tax from rising to 22 percent, from 21 percent. The tax increase was passed by the previous government of Mario Monti and rates are due to rise on Tuesday.

However with the meeting still in progress, officials made clear that no deal could be reached.

Failure to agree on some 3 billion euros ($4.06 billion) of budget measures, demanded by both Letta's centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PDL), underlined the breakdown between the two traditional rivals that were forced together by last February's deadlocked election.

Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni, who has staked his credibility on meeting the EU budget limits and faced constant sniping from the PDL over recent months, was furious at the breakdown, officials said.

PDL lawmakers said proposals to avert the rise in sales tax would have been funded by an increase in fuel duties that would have punished consumers and simply replaced one tax by another.

"We can't accept the blame for this," PDL secretary Angelino Alfano, who is also deputy prime minister, told the cabinet, according to one official. "We can't stay in the government if taxes are going up and there are no cuts to spending," he said.

MEETING WITH PRESIDENT

Letta's left-right coalition has flirted with collapse ever since Italy's top court convicted former premier Berlusconi of tax fraud last month and sentenced him to four years in prison, commuted to a year of house arrest or community service.

On Wednesday, PDL lawmakers said they would resign en masse if a Senate committee meeting on October 4 votes to begin proceedings to expel their leader from parliament, under legislation that bars convicted criminals.

On returning to Italy on Friday after courting foreign investors in New York, Letta met President Napolitano who, if the government fell, would have to either call new elections or try to oversee the creation of a new coalition.

A spokesman for the president's office said the head of state, who has repeatedly said he does not want a return to the polls, had given Letta his full support to seek the backing of cabinet and parliament.

Opinion polls suggest the two main blocs in parliament have roughly equal support among voters and under Italy's widely criticised electoral system, any new election would probably produce another stalemate.

If Letta, who has a commanding majority in the lower house, can secure the backing of a few dozen Senators among PDL rebels or opposition parties including the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, he could form a new coalition.

With Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, struggling with a two-year long recession, a 2 trillion euro public debt and youth unemployment of around 40 percent, the wrangling has prevented meaningful reforms.

The political convulsions have increasingly worried investors, although with the European Central Bank guaranteeing stability in the markets, there has been none of the panic seen during previous crises.

At an auction of 10-year bonds on Friday, Italy's borrowing costs rose to their highest level in three months, while the premium investors demand to hold Italian debt rather than AAA-rated German paper widened to 267 basis points from under 250 at the start of the week.

($1 = 0.7385 euros)

(Additional reporting by Francesca Landini, Catherine Hornby, Antonella Cinelli, Roberto Landucci and Gavin Jones; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Lisa Shumaker)

Obama to House Republicans: Don't burn down the house over fiscal fight

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama warned congressional Republicans on Friday they were on the brink of triggering a government shutdown and a historic debt default and urged them not to "burn down the house" to try to extract budget concessions from him.

Obama made an appearance in the White House briefing room to push for Congress to end its infighting as twin deadlines loom: The federal government will run out of cash on Tuesday unless Congress approves a spending bill to keep it open, and will default on its debts if the U.S. borrowing limit is not extended by October 17 at the latest.

Republicans are using both deadlines to try to extract concessions from Obama and his Democrats, including a delay in the healthcare law that informally bears his name, "Obamacare."

"Our message to Congress is this: Do not shut down the government. Do not shut down the economy. Pass a budget on time. Pay our bills on time. Refocus on the everyday concerns of the American people," Obama said.

His appearance was in line with a strategy to deal with the threat of a government shutdown and default at a distance, denouncing lawmakers he feels are responsible and avoiding getting caught in a crossfire between conservative and centrist Republicans.

Republicans have spent much of the past week attacking each other, leaving House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner without a unified following.

Obama made clear he did not intend to get involved in negotiations with congressional leaders. In similar recent budget battles, he engaged in exasperating talks with Boehner, the top Republican in Congress.

In this case, he has resolutely refused, rejecting any attempt by the conservative wing of the Republican-led House to negotiate over funding his signature healthcare law or other spending measures they would like to cut.

"There will be areas where we can work together. There will be areas where we disagree. But do not threaten to burn the house down simply because you haven't gotten 100 percent of your way. That's not how our democracy is supposed to work."

He and the White House have engaged in increasingly strong rhetoric as the week has progressed. White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer raised eyebrows on Thursday by telling CNN the White House would not negotiate "with people with a bomb strapped to their chest."

'NO TIME TO NEGOTIATE'

Obama accused Republicans of "political grandstanding," a reaction to conservative Republicans like Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, whose 21-hour Senate floor speech earlier this week was mostly an attack on the healthcare law but also included a reading from Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" children's book.

"I don't know how I can be more clear about this. Nobody gets to threaten the full faith and credit of the United States just to extract political concessions. No one gets to hurt our economy and millions of innocent people just because there are a couple of laws that you do not like," Obama said.

White House officials say Obama is open to negotiating with Congress about spending priorities. But a senior official added, "Obviously between now and October 1, there is no time to negotiate."

As a result, Obama backed a Senate vote for a short-term spending measure to keep the government running in order to buy some time.

He urged the House to follow the Senate's lead, but a spokesman for Boehner made clear that would not happen.

"The House will take action that reflects the fundamental fact that Americans don't want a government shutdown and they don't want the train wreck that is Obamacare. Grandstanding from the president, who refuses to even be a part of the process, won't bring Congress any closer to a resolution," said Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck.

Obama and Boehner have not spoken since the president issued a stern warning to the speaker in a phone call last Friday that he would not negotiate over the debt limit.

Obama's no-negotiations strategy carries some risks. He could shoulder some of the political fallout for a shutdown or a debt default in spite of his efforts to lay the blame at the Republicans' feet.

The president's job approval rating has sagged in recent weeks, under the weight of his battle with Republicans and his zig-zag policy on Syria, first threatening military action over the use of chemical weapons before seeking a diplomatic solution.

A CBS News poll this week said Obama's approval rating had dropped to 43 percent, the lowest since March 2012, against 49 percent who disapproved.

Analysts say the approach that Obama is taking to the latest budget battles is about the only one available to him.

"It is practically speaking the only thing he can do," said Norm Ornstein, a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "Let's face it, what they're asking for now is a huge laundry list of things unrelated to the debt."

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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Malaysian women directors headed for Busan film fest

Posted:

Malaysia women directors to showcase their work at Busan International Film Festival.

EARLIER this year Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories was launched to celebrate International Women's Day in March.

Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories is a film project by WOMEN:girls, an initiative established three years ago that provides a platform for women to speak up and have their stories told.

The project brings together 15 women directors who tell their stories in a series of short films.

With Datin Sofia Jane, Nanu Baharudin, Sharifah Amani, Elaine Daly, Fauziah Nawi, Mislina Mustaffa, Vanidah Imran, Aida Fitri, Carmen Soo, Junaidah M Nor, Shamaine Othman, Dira Abu Zahar, Susan Lankester, Melissa Saila and Ida Nerina on the helm as the directors, Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories is now going international.

It will be shown at the upcoming 18th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) 2013 in South Korea from Oct 3 to 12.

The anthology feature film, which runs approximately 70 minutes, comprises six short films that were selected to represent original works by (mostly) first time Malaysian women filmmakers, and will be showcased at BIFF in the segment A Window On Asian Cinema.

A Window On Asian Cinema features brand new and/or representative films by talented Asian filmmakers with their diverse points of view and style.

The titles of the six Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories shorties include Jerat Suami (directed by Dira Abu Zahar), 1-800-BABY (Sofia Jane), Pantang (Vanidah Imran), Odah ( Junaidah M. Nor), Berat Sebelah (Melissa Saila) and She (Ida Nerina).

In a press statement, executive producer of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories as well as president and the brains behind WOMEN:girls Low Ngai Yuen, emphasised on the need for women's voice in the country.

"Let's increase women's share of voice and let women's dreams, pains, joys, aspirations and how they make the choices be heard and known.

"This will reduce, if not stop, the stereotyping of women over the mainstream media," Low said.

"As a producer, it's awesome to have the opportunity to share a part of our little project of love with the world," added Lee Su May, executive producer of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories and founding partner of Garang Pictures.

The journey of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories began when 800 people gathered to celebrate International Women's Day on March 8 with a private screening of 15 short films directed by 15 non-traditional female directors in Kuala Lumpur.

Creative director of Ikal Mayang: Telling Women Stories, and the founder of Big EyEs Entertainment Ida Nerina, said: "I am so elated and extremely excited that our hard work has paid off.

"Out of 15 short films, which we produced, six wonderful Malaysian stories will finally be watched by thousands of film enthusiasts at this prestigious festival."

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

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Syariah judge and adviser found alone in bungalow, court told

Posted:

GEORGE TOWN: A Syariah High Court judge and a financial adviser were found to be alone in a double-storey bungalow during a khalwat raid, a Syariah High Court here heard.

Penang Islamic Religious Affairs Department investigating officer Ifzan Fadzli, 28, testified that six enforcement officers found Adam Tumiran, 45, and Nurul Izani Isa, 36, inside the house.

"The officers identified themselves and searched the whole house. Only the couple was home.

"The man was dressed in three-quarter pants while the woman was wearing a baju kelawar (a kaftan-like dress)," he said when questioned by Chief Syariah prosecutor Mohd Zulkhairi Aziz yesterday.

Ifzan said Adam and Nurul Izani were taken to the police station right after they were detained.

Adam, from Johor, and Nurul Izani, who works in Kuala Lumpur, have been charged with committing khalwat (close proximity) at a government quarters in Jalan Masjid Negeri, here, at 2.05am on Dec 5, 2010.

On May 17 last year, the couple was acquitted and discharged after a ruling stating that their marriage certificate tendered in court was valid.

However on April 30, the Syariah Court of Appeal allowed an application for a retrial on technical grounds.

Adam and Nurul Izani were also represented by Ahmad Munawir Abdul Aziz.

Syariah judge Zaim Md Yudin fixed Monday for the hearing to continue.

Most Selangor MCA divisions want Chua to stay

Posted:

KLANG: More than two-thirds of MCA divisions in Selangor have urged party president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek to defend his position in the December elections.

Fifteen of the 22 divisions issued a strongly worded joint statement claiming that deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai was unsuitable to be president as he placed his personal interests first.

They labelled Liow as "weak and timid".

The 15 divisions are Klang, Kapar, Kuala Langat, Sepang, Kota Raja, Sungai Besar, Pandan, Hulu Selangor, Gombak, Subang, Tanjung Karang, Hulu Langat, Puchong, Sabak Bernam and Ampang.

In the statement read out by Selangor MCA deputy chairman and Klang MCA chief Datuk Teh Kim Poo, they claimed that the recently concluded division elections showed that most grassroots members still supported Dr Chua.

"We hope the president, in view of the party's interests and the hopes of most party members, will continue to seek re-election as the MCA president and lead the party in the elections in December," he said.

Teh said the current political climate called for an experienced and strong leader to helm MCA.

"The responsibility for the severe loss in the general election should not fall on the president alone."

"Liow, as chairman of the general election preparation committee, should also share the responsibility as in the past three years, he had never visited any MCA operation centre other than his own. He had the least concern for the party."

After the general election, Teh said Liow, who is also special task force chairman, had failed to stop his supporters from damaging and tarnishing the reputation of other MCA leaders.

"Although some of these opportunists have been sacked by the disciplinary board, Liow still continues to defend these offenders."

"This goes to show that he is unable to differentiate between black and white. He prioritises his personal interest because he ignores the existence of discipline within the party," he said.

Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur attract mainland Chinese tourists

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur ranked the 18th and 20th most popular destinations for mainland Chinese travellers, according to data from TripAdvisor's daodao.com.

Based on the number of visitors recorded in July and August on the website, both destinations saw year-on-year growth of 550% and 190%, respectively.

In a statement, TripAdvisor said Kota Kinabalu was among three other Asian destinations – Kyoto (Japan), Jeju Island (South Korea) and Hanoi (Vietnam) – which had triple-digit growth.

The number one destination for Chinese travellers was Hong Kong, followed by Phuket, Taiwan, Bangkok, Paris, Dubai, Macau, Seoul, Singapore and Bali.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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NonNonBa

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The godfather of ghostly manga weaves a spellbinding tale in this memoir in graphic novel form.

THERE'S a fine line separating fantasy from reality in the world inhabited by young Shigeru and his friends in this chunky graphic novel. So fine, in fact, that it disappears without warning and with great regularity.

That's when the two realms of fact and fancy come together seamlessly and magically, with no attempt to explain away the sudden merging of the two, which just goes to make this semi-autobiographical tale all the more beguiling.

You either gleefully participate in the escapades unfolding over NonNonBa's 400-plus pages, or you should go look for something else to occupy your reading hours instead.

If you can accept that Shigeru lives in a land where someone can be recovering from food poisoning one minute and then talking to Azuki-Hakari the red-bean-throwing demon the next, or attacking enemy "strongholds" with the local kids' "army" in the day and chasing fairy lights at night, you will find a wealth of entertainment in these tales.

Writer-artist Mizuki is known as one of Japan's foremost creators of supernatural manga stories, most notably the sub-genre concerned with yokai – a kind of catch-all term for anything monstrous, ghostly or demonic.

His most famous work is perhaps Hakaba no Kitaro (Kitaro Of The Graveyard) or better known as GeGeGe no Kitaro as the anime adaptation was called (and also the 2007 movie), about a ghost boy with one eye who protects unsuspecting humans from naughty yokai.

NonNonBa is Mizuki's memoir of his childhood, set in his little hometown of Sakaiminato, and the title character is a kindly old woman who is a "prayer hand" – someone whose job it is to pray for the sick to get better.

After her husband dies, she comes to live with Shigeru and his family, much to the lad's delight – because NonNonBa is a fountain of information about his favourite subject, the spirits and goblins of the netherworld.

The episodic tale, originally published in 1977 and only just translated into English and published by Drawn & Quarterly last year, is filled with yokai encounters and childhood adventures. It's a more innocent, pre-war time of boy generals, rival "armies" and largely carefree days.

There's death, young love, spectral visitations, shady neighbours – in fact, so much is crammed into its pages that I found myself frequently having to flip back to earlier chapters to refresh my memory about earlier events the characters are talking about.

Besides Shigeru and NonNonBa, we meet the lad's somewhat eccentric father and proper (as in "prim and") mother, his unimaginative brothers, pretty but sad-eyed cousin Chigusa, and wide-eyed little Miwa, the child (or so everyone thinks) of the abovementioned shady neighbours.

Mizuki renders his human characters in as exaggerated and cartoonish a fashion as his yokai – one of the rival kids seems to have one of those 'toon doggy-bones in place of a chin – while keeping the environments realistic and appropriate to the mood (serene, agitated, urgent, etc).

When Shigeru's father tries his hand at scripwriting, for example, the establishing panel shows him seated at his work desk with an idyllic garden in the background; then, a panel of the man with his mostly blank, elongated face (it's almost as long as his torso!) conveys the hopefulness of the situation – and it is followed by a drawing of a finely-detailed wicker wastepaper basket that tells the observer a lot about his progress thus far. (And these three panels speak volumes without a single expository caption.)

NonNonBa herself lives in perpetual poverty, yet is never short of a comforting word or a nugget of information ... and certainly not kindness, to the point of putting her own safety on the line when (human) transgressors threaten the people she loves.

And Shigeru himself is a sympathetic central figure, so typically ... Japanese in the way he resolutely goes on with his life through all kinds of experiences, ranging from the joyful to the intriguing, from mildly disappointing moments to crushing heartbreak.

It's a testament to Mizuki's storytelling skill that the so-called "slice of life" aspects of this tale are no less fascinating than the many supernatural entities that go bump, Psssh, Klatter, or Waargh in the night.

In fact, as bewitching as the scenes featuring these unnatural beings can get, it's the human tales that are the most memorable. It's the people who bring joy and suffering in seemingly equal amounts to one another, not half-glimpsed shadow creatures (which on almost all occasions can be explained away as the product of hyperactive imaginations ... I say again, almost).

After all, with Shigeru's family dependent solely upon the meagre earnings from his father's cinema, it's not yokai but nasty thieves who steal their only projector.

Nor is it Azuki-Hakari who sells little children into slavery, but an unsavoury man who has just moved to town.

Yes, you'll find Shigeru's more mundane-seeming exploits to be as captivating as his more out-of-this-world experiences, and certainly more poignant – well, except for the trippy sequence where he attempts to accompany Chigusa to the "Hundred Thousandth World".

The factual and the fantastic. One exists, undeniably so; one is there to complement the other, occasionally enriching it and at other times serving as a bizarre reflection – both realms wonderfully woven into a fascinating shared existence by this veteran storyteller.

I'm almost tempted to go out and look for Mizuki's other works, but get the feeling that I've already come in at the top level.

Doctor Sleep

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This follow-up to The Shining is a brilliantly told tale with characters you really wish were friends of yours. Except for the Empty Devils, of course.

THE Shining was one of Stephen King's scariest books, and the idea of a sequel 35 years later seems absurd, its standaloneness sacrosanct in the eyes of fans.

After all, when the inevitable sequel to a beloved work arrives, the result typically has all the sour taste of a betrayal.

Fear not. Doctor Sleep is a sequel that succeeds on its own merits, a beacon on any shelf filled with King's post-Desperation output.

The end of The Shining was pretty much it as far as the Overlook Hotel, its ghosts, victims and near victims were concerned. Psychic child Danny Torrance made it out with his mother Wendy and Shining-gifted cook Dick Hallorann. (That's one reason why I spit on the movie adaptation; Hallorann was way too rich a creation to die as a cheap plot gimmick.) Alcoholic, homicidal patriarch Jack Torrance didn't make it. And the freakin' hotel blew up.

What kind of a sequel can you write to that?

A terrific one, it turns out – a page-turner I finished over two days while keeping my mum company after her recent surgery. I say this not as a cheap attempt at sympathy, just to say that the situation of one supporting character in the book hit me right in the gut, given where I was emotionally at the time.

Doctor Sleep is not a continuation of The Shining so much as a continuation of Danny's life, though the events of the earlier book are not ... Overlooked. Something happens early on in Doctor Sleep that will creep the crap out of you like the whole "Room 217" episode did in the original.

These opening pages are like visiting old friends and finding that they haven't changed one bit in the intervening years ... and neither have the ghosts that haunt them. (The book saves one more post-Overlook ghostly encounter for much later, and you might need to reach for a tissue then.)

Doctor Sleep soon leaves these leftover nightmares behind and shows Danny growing up into a troubled young man, an alcoholic like his pa – and grandpa before him – and for a time it looks as though the chap is going to continue the family tradition of an inherently bad nature ("mean jeans", as a typical King interjection might go).

He does some lowdown things, one particularly rotten deed haunting him for years, influencing his decisions but also causing indecision at critical points.

Still, there's always redemption where you care to look for it, and Dan gets an opportunity to put his life back in order. At around this time, he makes psychic contact with another strongly Shining individual, a little girl named Abra Stone.

He is dragged into a series of dangerous but also life-affirming situations, because it turns out there are other creatures as vile as the Overlook ghosts after Abra.

The villains of Doctor Sleep are people, or at least they look like us; the author frequently reminds us that they stopped being people a long time ago. The "True Knot" are a parasitic lot who feed off the Shining of gifted individuals, using prolonged torture to extract their "steam".

The younger the victim and the more agonising the torture, the more potent the steam, apparently. So, yeah, you know who these monstrous "Empty Devils" have set their sights on.

As the hunters close in on their quarry, the book becomes a parallel tale of Dan's struggles to pull himself back together and Abra's determination to sort out the devourers.

I liked how Abra's courage makes her not just a strong but inspiring figure in the unlikeliest of packages. As she stands up to the True Knot, patterning her "battle self" in one psychic struggle after Game Of Thrones' Daenerys Tagaryen (to show that King is up on the pop culture icons of the day too), you get the feeling that these bozos really had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

Metaphorically, the whole True Knot aspect of the book seems to be a cautionary tale of a cruel, soulless and indolent society being undone by its own complacency and greed. These villains, however, are also the weakest portion of the novel, sometimes appearing downright unthreatening – like they were there just to give Dan and Abra something to rally against and strengthen their characters in the reader's estimation.

King's storytelling has evolved to the point that he is able to effortlessly juggle numerous plot threads and characters and give all of them significance, making it relatively easy for the reader to keep track of things because they matter.

Many characters, Dan most of all, are broken or fractured souls, and that makes them that much more real. Even the True Knot has a kind of sympathetic appeal, not to our darker natures but because King makes them seem so ... regular.

The author says he is a different man now from the one who wrote The Shining and that is a big plus for Doctor Sleep. Its story is compellingly told and emotionally affecting in a way that early King (The Shining was only his third published novel), as good as his scares and plotting got, was not.

For all the creepiness, scares and page-turning excitement of Doctor Sleep, it's the strong emotional resonance of its characters and situations that struck me the most.

Whether you're keeping vigil with a loved one, or piecing your life back together after hitting a low point, or looking out for the folks who matter in your life, there's a thread in here that will connect with you.

The book ends on a painful yet gentle note, a powerful one that really cements King's status as a master storyteller. As he says in the dedication about Warren Zevon, who always used to insist that King sang lead on Werewolves Of London when they played gigs together, this is the author howling like he means it.

Anyone Who Had A Heart: My Life And Music

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YOU know all the songs. Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head; Walk On By; Do You Know The Way To San Jose? They occupy the same brain space as nursery rhymes and Beatles tracks: you don't remember not knowing them. You could hum Raindrops ... to a stranger on a train, anywhere in the world, and they'd sing right along with you.

If only Burt Bacharach's life could be told exclusively through his compositions. It would be a soft-focus tale of tender heartache and innocent romance. But the songs were just Bacharach's trade, the lucrative business that won him Oscars, Grammys, the US Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and a devoted generation of damp-eyed fans, including spouses of world leaders Cherie Blair and Laura Bush (the pair once serenaded him backstage in Dallas: "I thought that was wonderful").

The problem with Bacharach's life is the common one: the work edged out everything else, including wives, children and his longtime songwriting partner, Hal David. While the songs are lovelorn and honeyed, the reality is sometimes cruel, often painful. To be fair to Bacharach and his ghostwriter, Robert Greenfield, they haven't tried to skirt the truth.

Spliced with Bacharach's stark recollections of bitter divorces and unseemly professional wrangling are the memories of those he met and married along the way. It means you get lines like this one, from his third wife, singer Carole Bayer Sager: "What I now realise is that nothing changes with Burt when he changes wives. The only thing that changes is the wife, but his routine remains the same." And this from his second, actress Angie Dickinson, after Burt had given her a list of 26 things that had to change in their marriage: "I don't remember Burt giving me an actual written list.... If he had ... I would have stuck pins in it and held it up to say, 'See what a p**** I married?'"

Bacharach was obsessed: a lifelong insomniac kept awake by the music he heard in his head, a conductor who would make singers such as Dionne Warwick and Cilla Black do 30 takes of the same song before choosing the second. His ambition made him famous as a performer and a composer, but it also created an insatiable hunger – for bigger prizes, for winning (at horses as well as music), for sex. Bacharach was a prodigious shagger.

He's wonderfully blunt about his appetite. Bacharach recalls as a child reading Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises. "I really identified with the hero, Jake Barnes, who couldn't perform sexually because he was impotent. That was definitely not a problem for me." Indeed, no. Bacharach was constantly starting "little affairs" and remembers tender details like the secondary school girl with "colossal tits" or the time when he was on tour in Russia with Marlene Dietrich and he would wander the streets looking for girls who didn't have gold teeth. "By our third week ... even the cows were starting to look good to me."

Of his long-suffering wives, Angie had the toughest ride. Their daughter, Nikki, was born more than three months early, weighing less than 1kg. As Bacharach has it: "If a child was born as prematurely as she was back then, there was no way she was going to come out with a full deck." Aged four, Nikki started collecting mounds of detritus – old batteries, dog poo, broken glass; at eight, Angie would buy Nikki pet mice and she'd kill them by throwing them against the wall. Soon enough, Bacharach left (sometime around that 26-point list).

He remained involved in Nikki's life, and as her problems worsened, decided that the intensity of her relationship with Angie wasn't healthy and had his daughter committed to a clinic in Minnesota for 10 years. "Ten years!" writes Angie. "With no change because she didn't have the mechanism.... That poor darling. She was so heroic and still loved the sonofabitch because Burt can charm everybody."

Nikki's story is the corrective to all the sugar-coated, American West Coast glamour. Beneath the fanboy interjections from Mike Myers, Elvis Costello and Noel Gallagher ("If I could write a song half as good as ... Anyone Who Had A Heart, I'd die a happy man") lies a layer of darkness. In her early 30s, Nikki – far too late diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome – started reading books about suicide. She spoke of killing herself but despite her threats, Bacharach never thought she'd do it. "But then suddenly she did." She left her father a note, which he's never read.

Bacharach ends the chapter about his daughter's death by quoting a song he wrote for her: "Nikki, it's you/ Nikki, where can you be?/ It's you, no one but you, for me/ I've been so lonely since you went away/ I won't spend a happy day/ Till you're back in my arms."

And so another episode in this glittering, damaged life is translated into song, into emotion so meaninglessly simple that anyone can feel it. – Guardian News & Media

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: Central

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Officials: Dozens feared trapped in Mumbai building collapse

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MUMBAI: A five-storey residential building collapsed in Mumbai at daybreak on Friday in the latest accident in India's financial capital, with dozens feared trapped inside.

Crowds formed around the rubble of the completely flattened block, owned by the city's civic administrative body the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, in the east of the city.

"My son is inside. I'm waiting for them to get him out," distraught 62-year-old retiree Mithi Solakani told AFP at the scene.

Local people estimated between 40-60 people lived in the destroyed building, but BMC official Manisha Mahiskar and police said they believed some 20-24 were still trapped in the debris.

Seven people had been pulled out alive, Mahiskar said.

Five other apartment blocks have collapsed in or close to Mumbai in recent months, including one in April that killed 74 people.

They have highlighted poor quality construction and violations of the building code, caused by massive demand for housing and endemic corruption.-AFP

World’s most expensive necklace to go on display

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THE world's most expensive necklace – worth a whopping US$55mil (RM177mil) and em­­bedded with 1,044 carats of diamonds – will be making its first Asian stop in Singapore.

Aptly named the L'Incomparable and created by international jeweller Mouawad, the necklace earned a Guinness World Record in January for being "the most valuable". It will be displayed from Oct 11 to 15 at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza as part of a global tour targeted at potential buyers.

Studded with 91 diamonds, the necklace's crown jewel is a deep brownish yellow centrepiece that is said to be "the world's largest internally flawless diamond" weighing 407.48 carats and is set in 18K rose gold.

The display is part of the upcoming 11th Singapore JewelFest from Oct 11 to Oct 20, which will showcase a combined US$250mil (RM805mil) in jewellery – double that of last year's edition.

L'Incomparable was brought in to celebrate Mouawad's opening of its second boutique in Singa­pore later this year, and in recognition of the city-state's reputation as a top shopping destination, said JewelFest festival director Angela Loh-Bem. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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Officials: Dozens feared trapped in Mumbai building collapse

Posted:

MUMBAI: A five-storey residential building collapsed in Mumbai at daybreak on Friday in the latest accident in India's financial capital, with dozens feared trapped inside.

Crowds formed around the rubble of the completely flattened block, owned by the city's civic administrative body the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, in the east of the city.

"My son is inside. I'm waiting for them to get him out," distraught 62-year-old retiree Mithi Solakani told AFP at the scene.

Local people estimated between 40-60 people lived in the destroyed building, but BMC official Manisha Mahiskar and police said they believed some 20-24 were still trapped in the debris.

Seven people had been pulled out alive, Mahiskar said.

Five other apartment blocks have collapsed in or close to Mumbai in recent months, including one in April that killed 74 people.

They have highlighted poor quality construction and violations of the building code, caused by massive demand for housing and endemic corruption.-AFP

World’s most expensive necklace to go on display

Posted:

THE world's most expensive necklace – worth a whopping US$55mil (RM177mil) and em­­bedded with 1,044 carats of diamonds – will be making its first Asian stop in Singapore.

Aptly named the L'Incomparable and created by international jeweller Mouawad, the necklace earned a Guinness World Record in January for being "the most valuable". It will be displayed from Oct 11 to 15 at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza as part of a global tour targeted at potential buyers.

Studded with 91 diamonds, the necklace's crown jewel is a deep brownish yellow centrepiece that is said to be "the world's largest internally flawless diamond" weighing 407.48 carats and is set in 18K rose gold.

The display is part of the upcoming 11th Singapore JewelFest from Oct 11 to Oct 20, which will showcase a combined US$250mil (RM805mil) in jewellery – double that of last year's edition.

L'Incomparable was brought in to celebrate Mouawad's opening of its second boutique in Singa­pore later this year, and in recognition of the city-state's reputation as a top shopping destination, said JewelFest festival director Angela Loh-Bem. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Taiwan's navy launches surface-to-air missile

Posted:

ABOARD THE ROCS SU AO (Taiwan) (AFP) - Taiwan's navy launched its premier surface-to-air missile from the deck of a warship Thursday, its first test of the weapon in six years, destroying a drone simulating a Chinese air attack.

The US-made Standard II missile, fired from the Kidd-class Makung destroyer, soared into the skies over the ocean dozens of miles east off Hualien, eastern Taiwan, hitting the drone, according to the navy.

Artillery were also used in the drill, codenamed "Sea Standard", that simulated a Chinese strike on the Taiwanese fleet.

"Standard II is very stable. There is no need to fire the costly weaponry every year to verify its reliability," Admiral Wen Chen-kuo told AFP from the nearby Su Ao destroyer, citing its success six years ago in a similar naval manouevre.

Each Standard II missile costs around $3 million. With a range of over 130 kilometres (81 miles), it provides warships with a more comprehensive and longer-range air defence capability.

Currently, only four 10,000-tonne Kidd-class destroyers, the biggest warships of Taiwanese navy, are armed with the regional air defence weaponry.

Due to bad weather, Taiwan's military had to call off some of the exercises.

Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Tensions between them have eased markedly since 2008, after Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power. He was re-elected in January 2012.

China has repeatedly threatened to invade Taiwan should the island declare independence, prompting Taiwan to keep modernising its forces and conduct regular military drills. -  AFP

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