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Jumaat, 4 Oktober 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

Husband jailed for beating wife to death

Posted:

UNAWARE that her husband had lost his job, Tang Shifang slapped him for spending his time playing computer games.

This angered him and the fight that followed left her with multiple injuries including collapsed lungs and a ruptured kidney. Tang eventually died from her injuries.

Her husband Lee Show Fui, 33, was yesterday sentenced to five years in jail, after pleading guilty to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Justice Woo Bih Li considered Tang's provocation, and an offer the schizophrenic man made to call an ambulance when he realised his wife was badly injured.

The couple have a history of violent quarrels and are both trained in martial arts. Their fight on Aug 31, 2011, began with Lee oversleeping. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Two more jailed for sex with minor

Posted:

TWO more men were jailed 10 weeks each for engaging in commercial sex with a 17-year-old Chinese national who was forced by her pimp to work as a prostitute.

This brings the total number of men sentenced so far to 15. Ng Keng Siong, 56, a project manager, admitted paying S$80 (RM205) for the sexual services of the minor at Budget One Hotel in Geylang on May 20. He had another charge committed the next day taken into consideration.

In the same court, assistant manager Ong Boon Hock, 61, admitted paying S$60 (RM153) for the teen's services at a lodging house in Lorong 21 Geylang between May 19 and 23. He, too, had a second similar charge considered.

According to both men, they had asked the minor for her age. She told them she was 19 and 20 respectively. But neither of them took any steps to verify this. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network

Ex-assistant pastor jailed for sex abuse

Posted:

A FORMER assistant pastor was sentenced to 16 months' jail for making a 15-year-old girl from his church perform oral sex on him twice.

Both cannot be identified because of a gag order to protect the identification of the victim but the court heard that in one of those incidents, the offence was committed on church grounds and the other at a park in 2011.

The 46-year-old man, who is married with three children of his own, also faced a third charge of committing an obscene act that was considered during his sentencing.

The accused was in charge of the church's youth group, and had organised programmes and activities for its younger members.

He and the victim were apparently in a relationship after having expressed their love for each other.

The pair had started chatting via text messaging. Their conversations became progressively more intimate and sexual in nature, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Yiwen, adding that the accused would talk to the victim about sex and intimated that he wanted to have sex with her.

Some time between end-September and early October of 2011, he made her perform oral sex on him at a secluded part of a park. The second time she did it was in October when she went to help him with some chores in church.

It was only after she left for a school trip in Beijing later that month that she realised that what the accused had done was wrong. She then sent a text message to her mother who then flew to Beijing with her husband to escort her back.

A police report was later filed on Nov 22 that year. — The Straits Times/Asia News Network
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

Foul-mouthed Ted to return in 2015

Posted:

The anything-but-cuddly teddy bear will be back in cinemas in 2015.

SETH MacFarlane's first feature film, Ted, is getting a sequel, slated for release on June 26, 2015, in the United States.

The second Ted film will also be helmed by the Family Guy creator, who hosted the 2013 Oscars ceremony and is known for his off-beat and sometimes controversial humour.

MacFarlane will also write the screenplay for the sequel, alongside Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, the same screenwriters who assisted him on the first Ted film.

Finally, MacFarlane will once again provide the voice of Ted, the politically incorrect talking teddy bear that kept Mark Wahlberg's character from growing up in the first film, much to the annoyance of his girlfriend, played by Mila Kunis.

Ted was released in June 2012 and brought in a total of US$550mil (about RM1.65bil) worldwide. – AFP Relaxnews

Movies coming soon

Posted:

Escape Plan – A film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it's not called The Expendables. Ray Breslin (Stallone) is a structural security expert who designs prisons and tests how "escape-proof" they are. He gets into one prison to check its security system, only to find someone has framed him and made sure he never gets out.

Sadako 2 3D – Two years ago, there was a suicide clip that made anyone who watched it commit suicide as well. Now the footage might be back as a string of mysterious deaths has occurred. Then a little girl comes into the picture as well. Starring Satomi Isihara, Miori Takimoto and Yusuke Yamamoto.

Olivia Wilde is hot stuff

Posted:

Olivia Wilde is on a roll, starring in three big movies in 2013 alone.

OLIVIA Wilde has a small, but important, role in the auto racing movie Rush, but those cars can't rocket half as fast as the actress' career.

Wilde, who got her start on TV around a decade ago (Skins, The O.C.), segued into small, offbeat movies, then showed her acting chops on the misanthropic TV medical drama, House.

Wilde is having a great year – at home (she's engaged to actor Jason Sudeikis) and on the screen, with three big movies, kicking off with Rush.

"I didn't know anything about Formula One," Wilde said, a few weeks ago at the Toronto International Film Festival. "I didn't know anything about James Hunt or Niki Lauda. (Director Ron Howard) had me in for for a meeting and I just thought the story was sensational.

"I love stories about athletes. I'm obsessed with the '30 for 30' series and this sounded like a Bird and Magic story – these rivals who drive each other to greatness. I knew Ron would tell it well ... And I also love the 70s. So, all of these factors came together and I wanted in."

Wilde plays the playboy Hunt's wife, Suzy, who leaves him for another famous playboy, Richard Burton.

"When I learned about that, it was such an interesting twist, because it proved she wasn't this long-suffering victim.

"She left first, which I liked. She was like, 'I gave you a chance, but you're making it impossible.' And she had a very happy relationship with Burton ... He left Elizabeth Taylor for this woman."

It wouldn't have been a stretch for Burton to leave Taylor for Wilde, who's not only beautiful, but smart, funny, likes sports, curses like a longshoreman and has a social conscience to boot.

"I've known Olivia since she wasn't famous," said her Third Person co-star Maria Bello, "and she has always been as brilliant, as kind and an activist more than any young woman I've ever met."

The aforementioned Paul Haggis ensemble drama Third Person will be next in theatres for Wilde, followed by Spike Jonze's hard-to-pigeonhole Her.

"They're all sensational," she said. "I feel pretty damn lucky. Third Person is a really beautiful film. Everyone was really pushing themselves to make Paul's script come to life. I wanted to be a part of it, but I thought, 'Can I play someone in this much pain?' ... It was one of those jobs where every day at work could wring you dry. But it was worth it.

"I sound like I'm being so dramatic but Her is so (expletive) good. It's a story about humanity and loneliness, and Joaquin (Phoneix) is so great in it – it's such a nuanced performance – the camera is essentially on him talking to himself the entire film because he's talking to a voice you never see, played by Scarlett Johansson.

"So he's in love with this voice but he tries to be in love with real people. He tries to be a normal person and I am part of an attempt to do just that."

A lot of Wilde's good fortune as an actress can be traced back to her role as a brilliant, bisexual doctor with Huntington's disease on House.

"I really have the writers to thank for anything that came out of that show for me, because they really allowed me to show so many sides of that character, and it was a showcase for me that allowed so many different, interesting filmmakers to hire me afterward."

"It's funny," she added, "because recently I had this film Drinking Buddies which came out, and I produced, and I'm really proud of it, and it's been doing really well and a lot of the press said that before Drinking Buddies I was only in Tron and Cowboys & Aliens. People forget House. People who watch TV don't. But movie people think I started in Tron." – Philadelphia Daily News/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Hundreds of Sudanese protest, but numbers down after crackdown

Posted:

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Several hundred Sudanese protested in Khartoum on Friday to demand the resignation of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, but crowds were much smaller than last week, when protests provoked a bloody security crackdown.

Amnesty International said on Wednesday that 210 protesters were killed in clashes with security forces last week, quoting figures from a Sudanese doctors' union. This was well above the 34 reported dead by the government, which has denied shooting any protesters it calls "vandals".

Authorities have said they arrested 700 people in what was the worst unrest in central Sudan in years, triggered by cuts in subsidies on cooking oil and fuel that doubled pump prices overnight.

In Khartoum's Bahri district some 500 people took to the streets on Friday, shouting "freedom, freedom", a Reuters witness said.

About 100 people also gathered in the Burri district of the capital, where a week ago a member of prominent family was shot dead, a witness said.

In Port Sudan on the Red Sea, Sudan's biggest port, about 50 people staged a sit-in in front of the security headquarters calling for the release of political prisoners.

The protests were much smaller than those last week ago, when thousands took to the streets.

The government cut subsidies to ease a financial crunch aggravated by the secession of oil-producing South Sudan in 2011. The South's departure deprived Khartoum of three-quarters of the crude output it relied on for state revenues and foreign currency needed to import food.

Bashir has held power since staging a bloodless coup in 1989, in spite of rebellions, U.S. trade sanctions, an economic crisis, an attempted coup last year and an indictment from the International Criminal Court on charges of masterminding war crimes in the western region of Darfur.

(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

Guinea's opposition demands annulment of legislative vote

Posted:

CONAKRY (Reuters) - Guinea's opposition coalition demanded the annulment of last week's parliamentary election on Friday, citing what it said were widespread irregularities in the voting process and threatening to call for protests.

The opposition's decision raised fears of a return to the political violence in which at least 50 people were killed in the months preceding the polls. The climate of instability has deterred mining investment in the world's largest bauxite exporter.

"The opposition demands the annulment of this election because of the scale of fraud witnessed," said a statement read by opposition spokesman Aboubacar Sylla during a news conference.

Sylla said the opposition reserved the right to use all legal means of protest, including public demonstrations across the West African country.

The opposition, which has accused the government of trying to rig voting lists, had warned it would not tolerate any attempt to steal the ballot.

A spokesman for President Alpha Conde's ruling RPG party called the decision "incomprehensible."

"The transparency of this vote was assured by the presence of international observers," Moustapha Naite said.

A European Union observer mission said on Monday that the weekend election was marred by serious organisation problems, including a failure to tackle problems with the voter lists, and called for the national electoral commission, CENI, to publish results bureau by bureau to ensure transparency.

CENI began gradually releasing election results on Wednesday with Conde's RPG party taking an early lead in several districts. The opposition rejected the results and pulled its delegates out of the national electoral commission on Thursday.

However, results published late on Friday after the opposition's announcement showed its UFDG and UFR parties won in the communes of Dixinn and Matam, two of the five voting areas which make up the capital, Conakry.

Bus plunges down hillside outside Mexico City, killing 14

Posted:

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - At least 14 people died on Friday when a bus hurtled down a hillside on the outskirts of Mexico City, ejecting six victims through the windows and leaving 25 injured, police said.

Before it careened off the highway, the bus was en route to the city of Toluca in the hills of the State of Mexico, which surrounds much of the capital.

"There wasn't a collision with another vehicle, but instead the bus veered off the asphalt and plunged down the mountainside about 100 or 120 meters," Miguel Angel Contreras, the attorney general of the State of Mexico, told reporters.

The cause of the accident remained unclear, he said.

Local television footage of the accident's aftermath accident showed the bus upside down, wreckage strewn amid broken tree branches as emergency workers stretchered off survivors.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Leslie GEvirtz)
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

Foul-mouthed Ted to return in 2015

Posted:

The anything-but-cuddly teddy bear will be back in cinemas in 2015.

SETH MacFarlane's first feature film, Ted, is getting a sequel, slated for release on June 26, 2015, in the United States.

The second Ted film will also be helmed by the Family Guy creator, who hosted the 2013 Oscars ceremony and is known for his off-beat and sometimes controversial humour.

MacFarlane will also write the screenplay for the sequel, alongside Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, the same screenwriters who assisted him on the first Ted film.

Finally, MacFarlane will once again provide the voice of Ted, the politically incorrect talking teddy bear that kept Mark Wahlberg's character from growing up in the first film, much to the annoyance of his girlfriend, played by Mila Kunis.

Ted was released in June 2012 and brought in a total of US$550mil (about RM1.65bil) worldwide. – AFP Relaxnews

Movies coming soon

Posted:

Escape Plan – A film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it's not called The Expendables. Ray Breslin (Stallone) is a structural security expert who designs prisons and tests how "escape-proof" they are. He gets into one prison to check its security system, only to find someone has framed him and made sure he never gets out.

Sadako 2 3D – Two years ago, there was a suicide clip that made anyone who watched it commit suicide as well. Now the footage might be back as a string of mysterious deaths has occurred. Then a little girl comes into the picture as well. Starring Satomi Isihara, Miori Takimoto and Yusuke Yamamoto.

Olivia Wilde is hot stuff

Posted:

Olivia Wilde is on a roll, starring in three big movies in 2013 alone.

OLIVIA Wilde has a small, but important, role in the auto racing movie Rush, but those cars can't rocket half as fast as the actress' career.

Wilde, who got her start on TV around a decade ago (Skins, The O.C.), segued into small, offbeat movies, then showed her acting chops on the misanthropic TV medical drama, House.

Wilde is having a great year – at home (she's engaged to actor Jason Sudeikis) and on the screen, with three big movies, kicking off with Rush.

"I didn't know anything about Formula One," Wilde said, a few weeks ago at the Toronto International Film Festival. "I didn't know anything about James Hunt or Niki Lauda. (Director Ron Howard) had me in for for a meeting and I just thought the story was sensational.

"I love stories about athletes. I'm obsessed with the '30 for 30' series and this sounded like a Bird and Magic story – these rivals who drive each other to greatness. I knew Ron would tell it well ... And I also love the 70s. So, all of these factors came together and I wanted in."

Wilde plays the playboy Hunt's wife, Suzy, who leaves him for another famous playboy, Richard Burton.

"When I learned about that, it was such an interesting twist, because it proved she wasn't this long-suffering victim.

"She left first, which I liked. She was like, 'I gave you a chance, but you're making it impossible.' And she had a very happy relationship with Burton ... He left Elizabeth Taylor for this woman."

It wouldn't have been a stretch for Burton to leave Taylor for Wilde, who's not only beautiful, but smart, funny, likes sports, curses like a longshoreman and has a social conscience to boot.

"I've known Olivia since she wasn't famous," said her Third Person co-star Maria Bello, "and she has always been as brilliant, as kind and an activist more than any young woman I've ever met."

The aforementioned Paul Haggis ensemble drama Third Person will be next in theatres for Wilde, followed by Spike Jonze's hard-to-pigeonhole Her.

"They're all sensational," she said. "I feel pretty damn lucky. Third Person is a really beautiful film. Everyone was really pushing themselves to make Paul's script come to life. I wanted to be a part of it, but I thought, 'Can I play someone in this much pain?' ... It was one of those jobs where every day at work could wring you dry. But it was worth it.

"I sound like I'm being so dramatic but Her is so (expletive) good. It's a story about humanity and loneliness, and Joaquin (Phoneix) is so great in it – it's such a nuanced performance – the camera is essentially on him talking to himself the entire film because he's talking to a voice you never see, played by Scarlett Johansson.

"So he's in love with this voice but he tries to be in love with real people. He tries to be a normal person and I am part of an attempt to do just that."

A lot of Wilde's good fortune as an actress can be traced back to her role as a brilliant, bisexual doctor with Huntington's disease on House.

"I really have the writers to thank for anything that came out of that show for me, because they really allowed me to show so many sides of that character, and it was a showcase for me that allowed so many different, interesting filmmakers to hire me afterward."

"It's funny," she added, "because recently I had this film Drinking Buddies which came out, and I produced, and I'm really proud of it, and it's been doing really well and a lot of the press said that before Drinking Buddies I was only in Tron and Cowboys & Aliens. People forget House. People who watch TV don't. But movie people think I started in Tron." – Philadelphia Daily News/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Anil Kapoor is Jack Bauer in Bollywood remake of '24'

Posted:

Adaptation to retain backbone of original but with an Indian twist.

AMERICAN action hero Jack Bauer is set for an Indian makeover later this week as the hit series 24 undergoes its first foreign adaptation featuring one of Bollywood's biggest stars.

Stepping into the shoes of Los Angeles-based anti-terrorism fighter Bauer – played by Kiefer Sutherland in the original – is Slumdog Millionaire star Anil Kapoor as Indian agent Jai Singh Rathod.

Ahead of the television premiere tonight, Kapoor said the writers of the show had retained the backbone of the original – in which each season covered 24 hours in the life of Bauer – but with a definite Indian twist.

"The flesh and blood is Indian. In India we are definitely much more melodramatic and conservative," Kapoor, who also produces the series, said while ruling out any of the lavish song-and-dance routines for which Bollywood is famous.

Kapoor wanted to bring the 12-year-old series to India after taking up a role in the US season eight, in which he played the president of the fictional Islamic Republic of Kamistan.

He leveraged his contacts and understanding of the US show to obtain the rights for the Hindi remake – put together with just five per cent of the US budget, yet making it one of the most expensive shows on Indian television.

Bigger than the challenge of getting the rights to the film was the task of finding a willing Indian TV channel partner, he said in an interview from the set in Mumbai.

"They were excited but no one was ready to give money for fiction. They want to invest in reality shows and stars but not content. So we have done the best we can to get the same scale and aesthetics," he said.

Eventually, entertainment channel Colors stepped up and now one season is set to appear at a prime Friday night viewing time across India on cable networks.

Despite the cost restrictions, Kapoor said he and director Abhinay Deo had tried to follow a similar blueprint and crew size to the US production, which needed almost 350 people to put each show together.

"The size of the crew, budgets, scale, performances, workshops, cranes, trucks, equipment meant it was almost as big as doing a movie," Kapoor said.

He remained tight-lipped on plot developments, but said the American presidential candidate in the original version of season one would be replaced by a younger Indian prime minister-in-waiting, played by Neil Bhoopalam.

"After so many years as an actor and producer, while I was working on 24 and reading the scripts, I felt it was relevant for India now. And with the quality of shows on Indian TV today I felt the timing could not be better," he said.

Bollywood stars Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher, Richa Chadha and Rahul Khanna will appear alongside Kapoor, along with Indian theatre and TV actors such as Tisca Chopra, who plays Kapoor's wife, and Mandira Bedi as his colleague in the anti-terrorism unit.

Kapoor says his character is different from Sutherland's interpretation.

"Kiefer and I are two different people from two different value systems, cultures and worlds who look and feel completely differently about issues and situations," he explained.

The award-winning actor, who has been working in Bollywood for four decades, admits that Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, in which he played wily quiz show host Prem Kumar, was a game-changer.

"It changed the lives of everyone connected with it," he said, adding that it gave him the chance to work on international projects, meet Hollywood stars such as Sutherland and Tom Cruise, and to attend foreign awards shows.

"We took a lot from that film. It gave us exposure, education and opened our minds," said Kapoor, who has since become one of India's most recognisable actors abroad.

The 53-year-old also had a cameo in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which he says he "had fun" doing.

"In India, you get stereotyped as an actor. But in the West, any role – small or big – does not slot you. You grace a film, you respect it. You can do two or four scenes in a Hollywood movie and make an impact," he said.

"But here if you do a small part it is either termed 'a guest appearance' or might just get deleted in the final edit."

Bollywood has in the past been accused of routinely ripping off plotlines from Hollywood, but a crackdown on copyright infringement has made Indian filmmakers and corporates more careful of taking a legal route.

Kapoor believes Bollywood is becoming more professional, although he suggests that the popularity of commercial Hindi movies at home has hindered their move towards international success.

"Our self sufficiency is one reason why we have been unable to create world-class films," he said. – AFP Relaxnews

<i>The Simpsons</i> to kill off a character in new season

Posted:

Executive producer Al Jean also announces a The Simpsons-Futurama crossover episode in 2014.

The Simpsons may be going strong in its 25th season, but a major character from the long-running animated series will soon meet his or her maker.

In a conference call with reporters last week, executive producer Al Jean revealed plans to kill off a character in the season ahead.

"We're actually working on a script where a character will pass away," Jean said. "I'll give a clue that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won't say who it is."

Simpsons fanatics will know that this hint doesn't exactly narrow things down: Nearly every member of the core ensemble of voice-over performers has won an Emmy, including Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Barney, Krusty), Julie Kavner (Marge, Patty, Selma), Hank Azaria (Apu and practically everyone else on the show), Nancy Cartwright (Bart) and Yeardley Smith (Lisa).

Even a few guest stars have picked up Emmys for Simpsons appearances, including Anne Hathaway for voicing Princess Penelope and Kelsey Grammer for Sideshow Bob.

In other words, pretty much anyone could go. Death has come to Springfield in the past, most recently with the untimely passing of Maude Flanders, wife of the Simpsons' preternaturally cheerful next-door neighbour Ned, who bit the dust after falling off a grandstand at the racetrack.

The 25th season of The Simpsons premiered Sunday night in the United States with a Homeland spoof guest starring Kristen Wiig.

In the press call, Jean also teased some other highlights in the season ahead, including a Futurama crossover episode set to air sometime in May and a wedding, officiated by Stan Lee, for Comic Book Guy. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

Hershey plans Malaysia plant

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Hershey Co, North America's biggest chocolate maker, will invest RM816mil in a new state-of-the-art confectionary plant in Johor to meet growing demand for its products in the region.

It will be Hershey's single largest investment in Asia in 18 years of its presence in the region.

Hershey senior vice-president and chief supply-chain officer Terence O'Day said that consumers across Asia were discovering a range of Hershey confectionary products, and that China, in particular, was growing faster than any other market.

"Our new plant would feature the latest confectionary manufacturing technology and complement production at our existing joint-venture plant in China," he said after the joint announcement with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida) yesterday.

O'Day said the plant would be sited in the Iskandar-Senai free tade zone. It would measure 700,000 sq ft with expansion capacity to meet future needs.

He anticipates the plant to employ more than 400 locals in various capacities, including management roles, when it is completed in 2015.

The plant is expected to generate annual sales of between US$200mil (RM636mil) and US$300mil (RM954mil) within the first three years of operations.

Mida chief executive officer Datuk Noharuddin Nordin said it was an honour that Hershey had selected Malaysia as the site for its manufacturing plant.

Malaysia was chosen for its well-educated potential workforce, stable political environment, a strong supply-chain infrastructure and globally recognised halal food manufacturing certification.

Noharuddin noted that this was testament to the continued attractiveness of Malaysia to multinationals that were planning substantial commitments in the region.

"This project would bring years of economic benefits to Malaysia in the form of jobs and business for local suppliers," he said.

This is because Hershey, as pointed out by O'Day, planned to source as much raw material as possible for its plant locally.

The plant is a strategic geographical choice that provides Hershey with easy distribution access to more than 25 markets accross Asia.

It will produce four of five global brands, namely, Hershey's Kisses, Ice Breakers, Reese's and Hershey's Milk Chocolate bars.

Southeast Asia stocks: Most indexes weak

Posted:

BANGKOK: Philippine stocks were nearly flat, while Indonesian shares snapped three days of gains on Friday as investors trimmed positions in emerging markets amid rising risk aversion associated with the U.S. government shutdown. 
    After a choppy trade, Philippine index ended a tad
higher at 6,390.48, up 0.04 percent on the day and a 0.2 percent
rise for the week. Moody's sovereign rating upgrade and Asian
Development Bank's growth forecast increase lifted market
sentiment early in the week.
    Selling hit recent large cap gainers such as Ayala Corp
, while shares in BDO Unibank rose 1.5 percent
on the back of recent Moody's upgrade. 
    Jakarta's Composite Index was among underperformers,
down 0.7 percent on the day and sliding 0.8 percent on the week,
the second worst after Singapore's 2.3 percent weekly
loss.
    Jakarta exchange saw weak trading volume that was around
two-thirds of a full-day average over the past 30 sessions as
investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of the release of
foreign exchange reserve data due later in the day.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS
 Change on day
 Market             Current     Prev Close    Pct Move
 TR SE Asia Index*   409.20        409.74       -0.13
 Singapore          3138.08       3144.79       -0.21
 Kuala Lumpur       1776.56       1771.37       +0.29
 Bangkok            1427.72       1429.18       -0.10
 Jakarta            4389.35       4418.64       -0.66
 Manila             6390.48       6387.65       +0.04
 Ho Chi Minh         497.50        492.30       +1.06
 
 Change on year
 Market             Current     End prev yr    Pct Move
 TR SE Asia Index*   409.20        424.10       -3.51
 Singapore          3138.08       3167.08       -0.92
 Kuala Lumpur       1776.56       1688.95       +5.19
 Bangkok            1427.72       1391.93       +2.57
 Jakarta            4389.35       4316.69       +1.68
 Manila             6390.48       5812.73       +9.94
 Ho Chi Minh         497.50        413.73      +20.25
 
* The Thomson Reuters South East Asia Index               is a
highly representative indicator of stocks listed in Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
    
 Stock Market Volume (shares)
 Market          Current Volume    Average Volume 30 days
 Singapore         163,119,400          272,313,503      
 Kuala Lumpur       91,512,600          158,495,040      
 
 Bangkok             6,750,899            8,871,194      
 Jakarta         2,708,647,500        4,247,460,833    
 Manila                 55,547               96,363    
 Ho Chi Minh            59,716               51,579- Reuters

Islamic Development Bank to expand sukuk programme to US$10bil

Posted:

The Saudi Arabia-based Islamic Development Bank (IDB) plans to increase its Islamic bond programme to $10 billion from $6.5 billion, to keep pace with demand for investment-grade paper from the international institution.

An expanded programme would help the AAA-rated bank meet its goal of issuing one sukuk publicly every year and cater to a growing number of investor requests for private placements.

The Jeddah-based lender plans to make the increase official in November subject to clearance from regulators in Britain, where its multi-currency programme is listed, said Hasan Demirhan, director at the IDB's treasury department.

"So far, public issuances have been once in a year but private issuances have been frequently based on the resource requirements of the bank," said Demirhan.

The programme has been expanded twice since it was set up in 2005; close to $7 billion has been issued via 15 sukuk, out of which $6.3 billion is currently outstanding, according to Reuters calculations based on IDB data.

Last year was the busiest for the programme with $1.9 billion issued via five sukuk, four of which were private placements worth a combined $1.1 billion.

This year, the IDB issued a $1 billion, five-year sukuk in June and a five-year, $700 million private placement in March.

The bank, which operates to promote economic development in Muslim countries and communities, has 56 member countries and Saudi Arabia as its largest shareholder with 23.6 percent.

It plans to issue another benchmark-sized sukuk next year, Demirhan said; benchmark-size transactions are at least $500 million.

FLEXIBILITY

In May, the IDB more than tripled its authorised capital to $150 billion; it provides financing, loans and technical assistance for development schemes which follow Islamic principles, such as bans on interest payments and pure monetary speculation.

An expanded sukuk programme would help the IDB increase its profile among global investors and secure similar pricing levels to other development banks such as the World Bank and European Investment Bank, which can borrow at slightly lower rates because they are more frequent issuers.

The IDB's June sukuk set price guidance at a spread of 30 basis points over midswaps; a year earlier it priced a sukuk at 40 bps over midswaps. The EIB priced a five-year, 500 million Canadian dollar bond last month at 20 bps over midswaps.

The expanded programme would also help the IDB offer a wider range of maturities to investors in its private placements. Its public sukuk have used five-year tenors, but private placements have also carried other maturities, Demirhan said.

"Private issuance of the sukuk is tailored to the need of the investors and ranged between three to 10 years."

IDB sukuk are highly sought after by Islamic banks since the lender is designated a zero risk-weighted institution by the Basel Committee, the international banking supervisory body; this means its paper can be used to manage capital adequacy on bank balance sheets.

The IDB also has a 1 billion ringgit ($313 million) sukuk programme in Malaysia, where it has issued an aggregate 700 million ringgit in three tranches since 2008- Reuters
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The Star Online: Nation

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The Star Online: Nation

One-stop centres for ex-servicemen

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BUTTERWORTH: The Defence Ministry has launched the 1Malaysia Veteran Access Point (1MVAP) to honour Armed Forces veterans for their contributions to the country.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, who launched the initiative, said 1MVAP one-stop centres would be available at all the 31 army camps nationwide.

"These one-stop centres will provide references, enquiry services and registration for Armed Forces veterans. Bulletins from the Royal Armed Forces Veteran Welfare Department, will also be provided," he said.

He said that the veterans would also be given career guidance to help improve their socio-economic status.

"This would help retired veterans to lead a better life," he said.

Hishammuddin also presented special Pingat Jasa Malaysia (Malaysian Service Medal) recognition awards to 50 veterans who served the country during the Emergency and battled the Communists between 1969 and 1989.

On the Umno elections, he said it was too early to tell who would be able to win the three vice-presidency seats in the party.

"What is in the hearts of the 155,000 delegates, only Allah knows," he said when responding to former Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam, who had said that his chances of winning a vice-president's post was "very bright".

The incumbents for the posts are Hishammuddin, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal while the other challengers are Datuk Paduka Mukhriz Mahathir and Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad.

MCA now backs proposed PCA amendments

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KUALA LUMPUR: MCA, which initially objected to the proposed amendments to the Prevention of Crime Act, has changed its stand to support the new law following the Government's assurances that the new laws will be enforced in a transparent manner.

The MCA central committee made the decision on Wednesday night to allow its MPs to vote for the Bill in view of the pressing need to combat serious crime.

The party had objected to laws that would allow detention without trial.

However, with new safeguards and judicial supervision in place, the MCA decided at its CC meeting to acc­ept the Government's proposal in good faith, the party said in a statement here yesterday.

"The MCA is satisfied with the amendments made to the Bill, where detention order is no longer decided by the minister or the executive branch of the government.

"Further, a new Section 19A (2) has introduced judicial oversight over the detention order decision of the Crime Prevention Board.

"The board's decision is now subject to review by the High Court," the CC said, adding that MCA was also satisfied that detention orders could be questioned in Parliament.

"(However,) MCA will keep a close watch on the implementation of the PCA," added the CC.

Property firm loses bid to quash order to pay damages

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KUALA LUMPUR: A property developer failed in its bid to quash an order requiring it to pay RM80,000 in damages to seven house buyers for defect marble flooring and paintwork in their Danau Villa semi-detached houses here.

High Court (Appellate and Special Powers) judge Justice Zaleha Yusof dismissed a judicial review application by Faber Union Sdn Bhd and ordered it to pay an additional RM2,000 in costs to Saadiah Manap, S. Kumar, T. Vithyavathi, Lim Tien Kim, Leh Geok Meng, Mohd Azmal Khan S A Ahamed Maideen and Mubina Ravinder Abdullah.

In its application filed on Jan 30, the developer named the Tribunal for Housebuyers Claims and seven house buyers as respondents.

Tribunal president Gurdev Singh had on Dec 31 last year held that the house buyers had proven their case over issues of marble and paintwork in their four semi-detached houses.

He awarded a sum of RM20,000 in damages, costs of RM500 to each claimant and ordered the developer to pay the amount by Jan 30.

The developer paid the amount.

The developer wanted to quash the decision of the tribunal on grounds that there was a breach of natural justice in respect of their claims.

Lawyer K. Jayaratnam, who acted for five house buyers with counsel Paari Perumal, said Justice Zaleha ruled that the tribunal did not breach the provision of the Housing Develop­ment (Control and Licensing) Act 1966 over sittings of the tribunal.
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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

The Man With The Compound Eyes

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WHAT do you expect when you pick up a novel – very probably your first – from Taiwan? A spiky assertion of independence, perhaps, or wistful, Japanese-inspired fables?

The literary landscape of mainland China has begun to take shape for Western readers, but that of Taiwan remains a blank, despite the island's sophisticated and long-established publishing industry. The English translation of Wu Ming-Yi's intriguing fourth work of fiction simultaneously plunges the reader into the melting pot of contemporary Taiwanese fiction and refuses any attempt to define it.

It is easy to see why Wu's English-language publishers compare his latest novel to the work of Haruki Murakami and David Mitchell (of Cloud Atlas fame). His writing occupies the space between hard-edged realism and extravagantly detailed fantasy, hovering over the precipice of wild imagination before retreating to minutiae about Taiwanese fauna or whale-hunting. Semi-magical events occur throughout the novel: people and animals behave in mysterious ways without quite knowing why they are doing so; and, in a Murakami-esque touch, there's even a prominent cat. But beyond these superficial similarities lies an earnest, politically conscious novel, anchored in ecological concerns and Taiwanese identity.

The plot is nominally based around two characters: Atile'i, a 15-year-old boy who lives on an untouched island in the South Pacific, and Alice Shih, an academic and writer who is considering suicide after years of being haunted by the death of her husband and mysterious disappearance of her son.

Atile'i's world – the imaginary island of Wayo Wayo – is established with extraordinary detail, complete with folk legends and sayings, and the customs and traditions of the islanders recounted in long passages. This is underpinned with a seriousness that is mirrored later in the novel, when the focus shifts to the lives of Taiwanese aboriginal people. One of these customs demands that Atile'i, like every second son, is sent to sea, never to return. But Atile'i is swept up by the currents and caught in a gigantic trash vortex about to crash on to the eastern coast of Taiwan. The vortex hurls him ashore and brings him into contact with Alice and her small group of friends.

But the novel, like the trash vortex that threatens to devastate the island, rapidly accumulates plotlines of various shapes and complexity. It draws in other voices and characters, so Alice and Atile'i's narratives become part of a huge, amorphous story. The flora and fauna of Taiwan play a prominent role. Birdsong, butterflies and bears are lovingly described, as are the mountains that were the beloved domain of Alice's deceased husband; and there is a constant awareness of the Taiwanese terroir (land). Nature comes to life in various guises, influencing the other characters and insinuating itself into every twist of the plot.

Entwined with this idea of the prominence and fragility of nature are the ancient, marginalised but still-proud aboriginal Taiwanese people, represented by Hafay and Dahu. Telling their own stories, they bring true emotional heft to the book. Many of the novel's most moving moments come not from Alice's predicament, but from Hafay's struggle to exert her own independence amid the difficulties of modern life. She handles her job as a seedy masseuse with dignity and humour before saving enough money to start her own modest cafe.

Beyond the book's ecological and scientific attributes, you can see a deft novelist's hand at work: the Wayo Wayoan traditions include wry touches such as "feeling the wind with the testicles"; and the human encounters – notably Hafay's relationships with her clients and Alice's marriage – are closely observed with a wistful melancholy. There may be walking trees, miraculous butterflies and deer that morph into goats, but this is a novel anchored in the gritty mess of what it means to remember and to exist as an individual. – Guardian News & Media

London-based Malaysian author Tash Aw had his latest novel, Five Star Billionaire, longlisted for this year's Man Booker Prize.

The Leader Phrase Book

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HOW many times have you wanted to smack yourself in hindsight for not saying what you really meant?

Unlike actors who have the advantage of a script to help them always articulate the perfect bon mot, regular people who live unscripted lives – that's us – don't have the luxury of a scriptwriter to prompt us. So it's inevitable that we all live through "I should have said that" moments.

From maintaining the peace with your partner to bringing up a delicate issue with a client or defending yourself when you're criticised, we all need the right response to get our point across and pull off a conciliatory outcome – and that's where this book of really useful phrases will be of service.

According to the author "there isn't a book like this out there" and his objective was to "share these talking points so that you can develop a trustworthy, convincing leadership presence in any situation that life throws at you" and offer powerful phrases to motivate, inspire and to put one in command.

Probable phrases are highlighted in different situations and for easy referencing, situations are listed under chapters such as at work, conflicts and anger, diplomacy, negotiation, and problem solving among others.

In each situation, the book focuses on a specific need. Say the situation is at work and you need the right words for that tricky task of asking for a raise or saying no to your boss, or the situation is involves conflict and anger and you need to diffuse a tense situation or respond to an offensive statement.

The author not only lists the "right thing" to say. To illustrate the bridge-burning effects of certain phrases, he includes phrases that will make you appear passive, blunt, arrogant or aggressive.

So if you're not exactly the most tactful person on the planet or you simply have a fascination for burning bridges, this will – hopefully – help you see how certain words can come across.

While the author has attempted to offer most situations where you'll find the need to reach for his book, the downer is how the book appears. The choice of font just comes off as unsophisticated as if someone had typed it in word processing document and just printed the pages to compile into a book; and the rudimentary page design lends the book a lifeless textbook feel – the overall look could have been more polished.

On the other hand, who would have thought an unassuming business-like phrase book could get you turning the pages for a chuckle! Although, certain phrases won't seem as amusing when you're on the receiving end.

So the next time someone hits you with an offensive statement, try a friendly response with "I'm not going to argue with you, but I'm still a bit surprised you said that" instead of a confrontational retort like "You should be working as a diplomat with skills like those (sarcasm)".

Equally, when someone swears at you, a subtle way responding is "I'm not feeling comfortable with you right now" instead of aggressively saying "Keep speaking like that and you'll be talking to yourself!"

Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns

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SHE'S back ... and more devilish than ever," teases a blurb on the back cover.

The "she" in question refers to Miranda Priestly, the all-powerful fashion magazine editor first introduced in Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada. It was widely believed that Vogue's real-life editor Anna Wintour was the inspiration for the character.

Priestly was also memorably brought to life by Meryl Streep in the 2006 hit movie of the same name; one of the rare times a film adaptation marked a drastic improvement over a book. (Anne Hathaway co-starred as Andrea "Andy" Sachs, a college graduate who lands a job as co-assistant to the fearsome Priestly.)

In this sequel, Weisberger brings back the same characters that populated her original. However, for a novel entitled Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, you get just a disappointing handful of scenes featuring the "devil", and, erm, she's not even wearing Prada.

While Streep (who snagged an Oscar nod for this role) managed to humanise Priestly by giving her shades of vulnerability, Weisberger inexplicably – and disappointingly – reduces Priestly to a caricature here. (Yes, she still wears fabulous clothes and calls Andy "Ahn-dre-ah", but she comes across as a one-dimensional, almost cartoonish figure.)

Instead, almost three-quarters of the book focuses on Andy's bland domestic drama and her endless complaints about how life has been so unfair to her.

Let's put it this way: if this were made into a movie, Streep would be reduced to a cameo role, which would be a major faux pas. (Do we actually want to be subjected to two hours of Hathaway's character and her endless whining? No, thank you.)

Anyhoo, here's the plot: almost a decade has passed since Andy quit the job "a million girls would die for" working for Priestly at Runway magazine – a dream that turned out to be a nightmare.

Since then, life has been good to Andy. Together with Emily, her former nemesis and co-assistant, they have joined forces to start The Plunge. It's a high-end bridal magazine that's become required reading for the young and stylish.

Now, Andy writes and travels to her heart's content while Emily – always the scene stealer – plans parties and secures advertising like a seasoned pro.

Even better, Andy has met the love of her life. Max Harrison, scion of a storied media family, is confident, successful and drop-dead gorgeous. Their wedding will be splashed across all the society pages as their friends and family gather to toast the glowing couple.

Naturally, Andy is on top of the world ... but she can't shake the past, and keeps having nightmares about Priestly. (As you can tell, Andy has become quite the drama queen.) When she discovers a secret letter with crushing implications, her wedding-day jitters turns to cold dread.

Andy realises that nothing – not her husband, nor her beloved career – is as it seems. Worst of all, her efforts to build a bright new life would lead her directly into the path of the devil herself.

Besides an unappealing protagonist in Andy, there is a "twist" involving Emily's betrayal of Andy's trust, which I didn't like. Maybe I am biased, as I am a fan of Emily Blunt who played Emily to such delightful effect in the movie version.

Throughout the novel, Weisberger has a flair for describing her characters' outfits; not surprising, as this is a book set in the fashion world. And as they say, the devil's in the details.

For instance, Priestly's ensemble for a dinner: "The vermilion maxi dress fit perfectly and was made of the finest silk with beautiful stitching, but it flowed around her ankles on a soft elegant wave. Her arms were bare ... and a knockout pair of diamond chandelier earrings reflected the light in tiny, bright bursts. A handful of Hermes bangles jangled on her left arm, of course, but her only other accessory was a buttery soft leather strip that wrapped two, maybe three times around her trim waist, overlapping itself in a way that felt artful and casual at the same time."
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The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

Foul-mouthed Ted to return in 2015

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The anything-but-cuddly teddy bear will be back in cinemas in 2015.

SETH MacFarlane's first feature film, Ted, is getting a sequel, slated for release on June 26, 2015, in the United States.

The second Ted film will also be helmed by the Family Guy creator, who hosted the 2013 Oscars ceremony and is known for his off-beat and sometimes controversial humour.

MacFarlane will also write the screenplay for the sequel, alongside Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild, the same screenwriters who assisted him on the first Ted film.

Finally, MacFarlane will once again provide the voice of Ted, the politically incorrect talking teddy bear that kept Mark Wahlberg's character from growing up in the first film, much to the annoyance of his girlfriend, played by Mila Kunis.

Ted was released in June 2012 and brought in a total of US$550mil (about RM1.65bil) worldwide. – AFP Relaxnews

Movies coming soon

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Escape Plan – A film starring Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it's not called The Expendables. Ray Breslin (Stallone) is a structural security expert who designs prisons and tests how "escape-proof" they are. He gets into one prison to check its security system, only to find someone has framed him and made sure he never gets out.

Sadako 2 3D – Two years ago, there was a suicide clip that made anyone who watched it commit suicide as well. Now the footage might be back as a string of mysterious deaths has occurred. Then a little girl comes into the picture as well. Starring Satomi Isihara, Miori Takimoto and Yusuke Yamamoto.

Olivia Wilde is hot stuff

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Olivia Wilde is on a roll, starring in three big movies in 2013 alone.

OLIVIA Wilde has a small, but important, role in the auto racing movie Rush, but those cars can't rocket half as fast as the actress' career.

Wilde, who got her start on TV around a decade ago (Skins, The O.C.), segued into small, offbeat movies, then showed her acting chops on the misanthropic TV medical drama, House.

Wilde is having a great year – at home (she's engaged to actor Jason Sudeikis) and on the screen, with three big movies, kicking off with Rush.

"I didn't know anything about Formula One," Wilde said, a few weeks ago at the Toronto International Film Festival. "I didn't know anything about James Hunt or Niki Lauda. (Director Ron Howard) had me in for for a meeting and I just thought the story was sensational.

"I love stories about athletes. I'm obsessed with the '30 for 30' series and this sounded like a Bird and Magic story – these rivals who drive each other to greatness. I knew Ron would tell it well ... And I also love the 70s. So, all of these factors came together and I wanted in."

Wilde plays the playboy Hunt's wife, Suzy, who leaves him for another famous playboy, Richard Burton.

"When I learned about that, it was such an interesting twist, because it proved she wasn't this long-suffering victim.

"She left first, which I liked. She was like, 'I gave you a chance, but you're making it impossible.' And she had a very happy relationship with Burton ... He left Elizabeth Taylor for this woman."

It wouldn't have been a stretch for Burton to leave Taylor for Wilde, who's not only beautiful, but smart, funny, likes sports, curses like a longshoreman and has a social conscience to boot.

"I've known Olivia since she wasn't famous," said her Third Person co-star Maria Bello, "and she has always been as brilliant, as kind and an activist more than any young woman I've ever met."

The aforementioned Paul Haggis ensemble drama Third Person will be next in theatres for Wilde, followed by Spike Jonze's hard-to-pigeonhole Her.

"They're all sensational," she said. "I feel pretty damn lucky. Third Person is a really beautiful film. Everyone was really pushing themselves to make Paul's script come to life. I wanted to be a part of it, but I thought, 'Can I play someone in this much pain?' ... It was one of those jobs where every day at work could wring you dry. But it was worth it.

"I sound like I'm being so dramatic but Her is so (expletive) good. It's a story about humanity and loneliness, and Joaquin (Phoneix) is so great in it – it's such a nuanced performance – the camera is essentially on him talking to himself the entire film because he's talking to a voice you never see, played by Scarlett Johansson.

"So he's in love with this voice but he tries to be in love with real people. He tries to be a normal person and I am part of an attempt to do just that."

A lot of Wilde's good fortune as an actress can be traced back to her role as a brilliant, bisexual doctor with Huntington's disease on House.

"I really have the writers to thank for anything that came out of that show for me, because they really allowed me to show so many sides of that character, and it was a showcase for me that allowed so many different, interesting filmmakers to hire me afterward."

"It's funny," she added, "because recently I had this film Drinking Buddies which came out, and I produced, and I'm really proud of it, and it's been doing really well and a lot of the press said that before Drinking Buddies I was only in Tron and Cowboys & Aliens. People forget House. People who watch TV don't. But movie people think I started in Tron." – Philadelphia Daily News/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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