Sabtu, 12 Oktober 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Killer cyclone wreaks havoc along Indian coast (Updated)

Posted:

BHUBANESWAR, India, Oct 13, 2013 (AFP) - Cyclone Phailin ripped through India's east coast leaving a trail of destruction on Sunday and up to seven people dead after one of the biggest evacuations in India's history to minimise casualties.

As emergency teams began assessing the damage from the country's worst cyclone in 14 years, a massive relief effort came into full swing to distribute food, clear roads and help the injured.

The worst affected area around the town of Gopalpur, where the eye of Phailin packing winds of 200 kilometres an hour (125 miles per hour) came ashore, remained cut off with emergency services rushing to reach there.

Elsewhere, roofs were blown off, trees fell across roads and debris was strewn over the streets of state capital Bhubaneswar where the winds had died down and heavy overnight rainfall had ceased.

"Our teams have fanned out on the ground, they are running searches, trying to check if there have been any casualties, check the extent of the damage," Sandeep Rai Rathore, inspector general of the army's National Disaster Response Force told AFP.

Orissa state relief commissioner Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra told AFP that three people had been confirmed dead, while other estimates put the toll at seven.

"We almost cleared out the danger zone. In the end, we cleared more than 8.61 lakh (861,000) people. It might be India's biggest evacuation ever," Mohapatra added to AFP.

With another 100,000 people in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state evacuated on Saturday, the total figure is likely to be more than a million. 

Local member of parliament for Orissa Jay Panda told local television that seven people had been killed.

"Casualties figures will change as information comes in from remote parts there are quite a few places which are cut off from communications," he told NDTV television.

The number of dead appeared to be "significantly lower than what it could have been" because of the mobilisation of emergency efforts before the storm stuck, he said.

No let-up

The Indian weather office said that cyclone Phailin had weakened significantly after it moved inland, but warned it still posed a danger, particularly from flooding.

"The cyclone appears to be weakening. As of 5:30 am, we recorded wind speeds of about 130-140 kilometres per hour," senior scientist from the Indian Meteorological Department M. Mohapatra told AFP in New Delhi.

Initial reports suggested Phailin had been less destructive than a more powerful storm in 1999 which hit the same coastal area - a region populated by fishermen and small-scale farmers who live in flimsy huts with thatched roofs or shanties.

A government report on the 1999 disaster put the death toll at 8,243, and said 445,000 livestock perished.
Authorities have said they are better prepared this time. The Orissa government had set itself a "zero casualty target" in the state of close to 40 million people.

"No one was prepared for the storm in 1999 but this time the government declared an emergency," said telecoms worker Rajiv Baral as he bought emergency supplies from the shopkeeper Singh in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

"Because of that we've been getting ready for it for two to three days."

Some of the deadliest storms in history have formed in the Bay of Bengal, including one in 1970 that killed hundreds of thousands of people in modern-day Bangladesh.

Grand funeral for a hero second only to Ho Chi Minh

Posted:

HANOI: Vietnam's top leaders gathered to pay their last respects to independence hero General Vo Nguyen Giap, who died last week at 102, as his state funeral began in Hanoi.

The commemorations come as the one-party state tries to capture Giap's legacy as a symbol of its own legitimacy, hailing him as a communist hero while downplaying the general's later reputation as a persistent government critic.

Soldiers in white uniforms stood to attention as officials, including Vietnam's prime minister and president, bade farewell to Giap who was second only to late president Ho Chi Minh in the affections of the communist nation.

"He had an outstanding talent in military leadership," wrote Communist Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong in a book of condolences, according to state media.

Lauded as a military genius for the guerrilla tactics that defeated both the French and American armies, the general is being honoured with two days of national mourning.

A photograph of Giap and a gilt frame containing military medals was placed above his coffin, which was draped in the national flag.

Giap, a former history teacher turned military commander, led his troops to victory over France in 1954 at Dien Bien Phu – the battle that ended French involvement in Indochina – and played a key role in Vietnam's defeat of the United States in 1975.

Despite being politically sidelined after the country's reunification in 1975, Giap remained enormously popular – even with people born after the war.

"I am deeply honoured to attend the funeral," said Colonel Bui Xuan Tuyen.

"General Giap is a symbol of the pride and triumph of the Vietnamese People's Army," the 46-year-old added.

More than 100,000 people queued for hours to visit Giap's house this week to pay their final respects after news of his death broke.

Concerts have been cancelled, national parks closed, and normal state television broadcasts suspended in favour of patriotic music and documentaries for the mourning period. — AFP

Typhoon Nari pounds Philippines

Posted:

MANILA: Typhoon Nari pounded the northern Philippines killing 13 people, ripping roofs off thousands of buildings, and leaving more than two million without power.

Nari tore into the country's northeast coast around midnight on Friday, toppling trees and pylons as it cut a westward swathe through the farming regions of the main island of Luzon, officials said.

"While there were relatively few casualties, a lot of areas are still flooded," said Eduardo del Rosario, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Coun-cil.

Witnesses in the coastal town of Baler, near where Nari made landfall, said many large trees had been felled and clean-up crews with chainsaws were clearing roads.

Military and police rescuers trucked residents out of flooded villages as the weather improved after the typhoon's 120kph winds swept out to the South China Sea yesterday morning.

Government clerk Glenn Diwa, 34, said she and her husband spent a sleepless night as the typhoon roared through the town of Capas, 90km north of here, shortly before midnight.

"The wind was very strong and there was a whistling sound. After a while we heard torn roofing sheets clattering across the yard," she said.

As Nari dumped rain inland, a wall of mud fell on a police barracks near the town of Magalang, killing an officer awaiting deployment to rescue typhoon victims, the disaster council's spokesman Rey Balido told a news conference.

Elsewhere in central Luzon, an elderly woman and four minors were crushed to death when trees crashed onto two houses and a vehicle, while the wall of a school collapsed and crushed an old man to death.

Two children and an elderly person drowned in a flooded village, while the body of a fisherman who had gone to sleep in his boat on shore the previous night was recovered at sea, Balido added.

Another man was electrocuted by a loose power line while yet another died of a heart attack in an incident that disaster officials also blamed on Nari.

Three other fishermen who put to sea before the typhoon have also failed to return, Balido said.

He said nearly 6,000 people moved into government-run shelters amid warnings their communities could be hit by flooding and landslides from the typhoon.

ABS-CBN television aired footage of earth-coloured floodwaters climbing above river defences and swamping farmland in San Miguel, where three of the victims had drowned.

Soldiers, police, and local government workers used military trucks to rescue residents in flooded communities in San Miguel and Minalin towns, the regional civil defence office there said.

"The wind picked up very quickly,

very dramatically. We had the wind coming right off the ocean for four hours," said one witness on the east coast.

Even as the weather improved, floodwaters continued to rise in low-lying areas as rain from the nearby Sierra Madre mountains swept downstream through swollen rivers.

In the town of San Ildefonso, 60km from here, police pulled a woman on a motorbike and a farmer to safety after they were nearly swept away while separately crossing a street that had turned into a raging river.

Farmer Frankie Gracia, 30, said he had been forced to butcher one of his pigs after it fell ill from exposure to the rain, and he had wanted to take some of the pork to his relatives across the street.

"I needed to reach the other side soon, otherwise the meat would spoil," he said.

Balido said 8,414 houses were damaged, while the central Luzon civil defence office said the typhoon blacked out 37 towns and cities, populated by 2.1 million people.

Road and utility crews were out clearing roads and restoring power, but it could take up to two days before electricity is restored and major highways are reopened to traffic, Nigel Lontoc, a disaster official for the region, said by telephone.

The Philippines is hit by some 20 typhoons each year.

Nari is expected to draw close to Vietnam's northeast coast by Tuesday, the Hong Kong Observatory said. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews


It's a lift-off for Sandra Bullock

Posted:

Sandra Bullock panicked when she found out she had to ride in a Vomit Comet in Alfonso Cuaron's space saga Gravity.

ONCE you see Gravity, Sandra Bullock seems the logical choice to play a NASA medical engineer stranded in space and running out of oxygen after her shuttle is destroyed.

But how did director Alfonso Cuaron, who also co-wrote the film with son Jonas, know that Bullock was the right actress for the role?

Sure, she won an Oscar for The Blind Side, but does that qualify her to carry an entire movie set in space? It couldn't have been The Heat, the comedy hit she starred in earlier this year with Melissa McCarthy. And we're guessing that Miss Congeniality and While You Were Sleeping probably didn't seal the deal.

"The short answer is connectivity," explained Cuaron, who was nominated for an Oscar for his 2006 film Children Of Men.

"There are great actors whose magic is lost when filtered through the camera lens. Cameras adore certain people, and Sandra is one of them. That's why she is a movie star. And after auditioning many unknowns, we decided that we needed a movie star because we had to have someone who the audience could invest in for such a long time. They needed to connect to her character.

"But finding the right movie star was the key.Movie stars don't usually like to leave their comfort zone. Why mess with success? And Sandra is fantastic doing dialogue and this is a role with very little dialogue. But she wanted to get out of her comfort zone. She wanted to go to those deep, dark corners that most movie stars run away from. She was up for anything, even the Vomit Comet."

The Vomit Comet is a special plane that simulates zero gravity in 20-second bursts by plunging toward Earth. Bullock, 49, will not only describe her fear of the Vomit Comet, but will tell us how she felt when she learned that Cuaron didn't reveal to her that he had decided that the Vomit Comet limited filming too much, and that he would film everything on enormous movie sets in London.

Had you crossed space movies off your bucket list?

There was never a space movie on my bucket list. I've never had a bucket list. And I've been thinking a lot lately about that. Why don't I have a bucket list?

And the answer is?

I realised that, in a beautiful way, anything that I've ever wished for, I've gotten. So I never needed a list.

When you won the Oscar, did you think it might open some new doors for you?

No. There were so many other things going through my head the night I won the Oscar than how it would impact my career (laughs).

That's right. You were secretly adopting your son Louis the week of the Oscar ceremony. By the way, who says that Sandra Bullock can't keep a secret?

Hey, everybody who knows me knows that I will go to my grave with a secret. If you tell me not to tell anyone, I don't tell anyone. But yes, my head was elsewhere.

How excited were you when you were approached to be in your first space movie?

I didn't think like that. I thought about being approached to be in an Alfonso Cuaron movie. He is the archetype for me. He is an artist. He is the one I based everything on. I make people watch his movies. I have such an emotional connection to all his movies – how he did it, how he pushed the boundaries, where he broke the rules.

You must have jumped at the chance to work with him.

Not really. He came at a time when I did not want to work. I had nothing to offer. I had nothing to give.

You've been through this before when you burned out on your career and stopped working for a while.

Yes, I've shut down before. But you have to listen to your body. You have to honour it, but this business doesn't want you to honour it.

What changed your mind?

I met the person. I was just so moved and so connected to his journey of how this movie came about, not from a technical standpoint but from an emotional and storytelling standpoint. I love this man. I have very similar views, and I felt trusting of this human being. By the time he left, my curiosity was piqued.

Are you ever fearful on a movie project?

Every time you start a movie, you have it. I say yes, and then I panic and try to pull out. Every single time.

Really?

Really. I think it's going to be a bomb, and I want somebody to get me out of it. And guess what, half the time, it is a big bomb, and half the time, it's not.

Isn't it amazing that Sandra Bullock has survived in Hollywood with that attitude?

It is amazing. Like the cockroaches, I just won't die.

I wasn't comparing you to a cockroach.

Well, I was, and I'm comfortable with that.

Once you got over your fear and accepted the role, what happened next?

He told me the entire movie was going to be shot in the Vomit Comet. I told him I am deathly afraid of flying. I took it as another sign that I shouldn't do the film. It was not in my comfort zone.

How did you overcome that?

I decided that the universe was taking me someplace I needed to go. Once George (Clooney, her co-star) stepped on board, I was almost in tears. I thought, "Thank God, I know him. I know that he doesn't know what this is all about, either, but that he admires Alfonso." We were both novices in Alfonso's world, but I was so grateful that at least there was something familiar around.

You must have been elated when Alfonso informed you that he had changed his mind, and would not be using the Vomit Comet?

He didn't tell me. They purposely led me to believe it was still happening. It wasn't until a few days before we flew to London that George told me.

Why didn't they tell you? I would think that it would have allayed some of your fears?

The producer told me later that they decided not to tell me because they felt that I would be so excited about not filming on the Vomit Comet that I would gladly do anything they asked of me. And they were right.

I know you have a tendency to look at the dark side of things, but wouldn't you have to admit that with The Heat and Gravity, your career is in a pretty good place right now?

Let's just say it's a good work week.

You understand, though, that you are seen as a valuable property in Hollywood right now?

Maybe this week I am. Next week, when I make a choice that doesn't do so well, then I'm not anymore. You can't ever think of yourself as valuable property. If you do, you're destined to have a nice little crash and burn. I expect great failures, and I expect great heights. You can't control it, so you have to be grateful for what you have, and then just live your life. – The Orange County Register/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates


U.S. fiscal negotiations sputter as deadline nears

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional negotiations to end a U.S. fiscal crisis gripping Washington and spooking financial markets hung by a thread on Saturday after bipartisan talks broke down in the House of Representatives and shifted to Senate leaders.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, held an initial session with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. But uncertainty remained about their ability to reach an agreement quickly to end a partial government shutdown and increase the nation's borrowing authority.

Thursday is the deadline for raising the debt ceiling, necessary to avoid a possible government default. The Senate was set to meet on Sunday, but the U.S. House of Representatives was not, so Congress will be cutting it close.

"Economists say it won't be long before financial markets react negatively to this continued uncertainty," Reid said on the Senate floor.

"The life savings of ordinary Americans are at risk."

Among the unresolved issues is the duration of the debt ceiling increase. House Republicans were pushing a boost that would last only six weeks, producing another potential showdown in the middle of the holiday season. Democrats want to push the next debt ceiling deadline at least well into the new year.

Also at issue were government spending levels and Republican concerns about President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, popularly known as Obamacare. Republican demands for defunding Obamacare led to the shutdown on October 1.

Reid and other Senate Democratic leaders went to the White House to confer with Obama in the afternoon, but said nothing to reporters as they left after an hour and 15 minutes.

At the meeting, Obama and Senate Democratic leaders agreed that talks should continue between Reid and McConnell, a senior party aide said.

"But Democrats' position remained the same: Democrats are willing to negotiate on anything Republicans want to discuss as soon as we reopen the government and pay our bills," the aide added.

Lawmakers are also scrambling to put hundreds of thousands of federal employees back to work after their failure to fund the government resulted in the partial shutdown.

Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said the goal was to reach a bipartisan deal in the Senate before financial markets reopen on Monday.

But the road to a deal appeared difficult, as Reid dismissed Republican Senator Susan Collins' plan to extend the U.S. debt limit until January 31 and fund the government for six more months.

That plan had given some moderate lawmakers hopes for a quick compromise, but Democrats said it was saddled with too many objectionable add-ons.

Collins expressed disappointment, but said she remained hopeful "that a bipartisan solution to reopen the government and prevent a default is within our reach."

The "preliminary" Reid-McConnell negotiations - at 9 a.m. on Saturday in Reid's office - were launched one day after Obama rejected a proposal by House Republicans for a short-term increase in the debt limit to November 22.

Democrats warned that such a small increase in borrowing authority would simply lead to another round of bitter confrontations in Congress and could choke off consumer confidence just as the Christmas buying season was starting.

The flurry of action in the Senate came as House Speaker John Boehner informed his fellow Republicans in a private meeting that the White House had rejected its proposals and there likely would be no more ideas delivered to Obama now that attention was shifting to Senate negotiations.

'GOOD MEETING'

Although McConnell initiated talks with Reid, the Republican has maintained a relatively low profile as he faces a tough re-election campaign back home in Kentucky.

"We had a good meeting" was all McConnell would say to questions shouted by reporters in a Senate hallway.

While some senators were hopeful now that Reid and McConnell were negotiating, no clear path to a deal was evident.

"Senator Reid and Senator McConnell are talking to each other for the first time and that's good," Republican Senator Roy Blunt said.

Even if senators craft a proposal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, at least some Republican support will be needed to pass it in the House. That support is far from guaranteed, especially if the Senate deal does not include any new attacks on the healthcare law.

As Senate leaders tried to craft a deal, many House members headed to their home districts, having been informed there would be no votes before Monday evening.

With every passing day, according to opinion polls, Americans' patience has worn thin with Republican tactics that led to the government shutdown, enhancing prospects of a deal.

"Markets rose on hope for a deal, so markets are likely to fall as reality check alters sentiment," said David Kotok, co-founder and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors. Kotok said he believed there would be no deal before Thursday, adding, "This fight is a long way from over."

Companies and trade associations have been stepping up their efforts on Capitol Hill as the debt ceiling deadline approaches.

"I was optimistic yesterday morning," David French, the chief lobbyist for the National Retail Federation, told Reuters on Saturday. "I'm a little less optimistic today and so are folks I've talked to" on Capitol Hill.

Retailers are particularly concerned about going into a holiday season with debt ceiling jitters hanging over the economy.

Beyond that, French said: "They're concerned about Washington. They're concerned about the level of dysfunction. Our members do not like lurching from crisis to crisis without hope of a resolution."

Scott DeFife, top lobbyist for the National Restaurant Association, said his industry was "extraordinarily concerned with the debt limit."

For his members, he said: "Consumer confidence is critical. Any financial issue like this can really put a damper on activity."

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Diane Bartz and David Gaffen; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Fred Barbash and Peter Cooney)

Schaeuble sees new German government by mid-November

Posted:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Talks to form a German government are on track and the new administration should be in place by mid-November, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday.

An inconclusive general election result three weeks ago has left Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives looking for a coalition partner in the form of either the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) or the left-leaning Greens.

Schaeuble said he expected it to become clear in the coming week who would be the conservatives' favoured coalition partner and hoped talks could be wound up quickly.

"I believe it will go more quickly than you think. I believe we will have a new government by about the middle of November," he said at a news conference on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund meetings.

Germany's European partners are watching the coalition manoeuvring in Berlin closely, concerned that delays could push back EU-wide decisions on important crisis-fighting measures like the ambitious banking union project.

Andrea Nahles, general secretary of the SPD, has said it could take until January to form a new government. A 'grand coalition' with the SPD is seen as more likely than an alliance with the Greens.

Schaeuble, who has signalled a desire to stay in his post in the new government, said on Friday Germany was committed to finding a way forward on banking union before the end of the year.

(Reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Dispute on immunity for U.S. troops blocks Afghan-US security pact

Posted:

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Afghan President Hamid Karzai ended two days of talks on a bilateral security pact on Saturday without a deal because they could not agree on the issue of legal immunity for U.S. troops.

The pact would determine, among other things, how many U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan after 2014 when most foreign combat troops are due to exit.

U.S. officials had previously said they wanted the pact finalised by the end of October. Kerry's visit was seen as a last-ditch effort to push the deal through before the deadline.

The United States is insisting it cannot agree to a deal unless it is granted the right to try U.S. citizens who break the law in Afghanistan at home in the United States.

Karzai said that was beyond the scope of his government to decide on the issue, calling it a question of "jurisdiction", and that it would have to be put to the country's Loya Jirga, an assembly of elders, leaders and other influential people.

"We need to say that if the issue of jurisdiction cannot be resolved, then unfortunately there cannot be a bilateral security agreement," Kerry said at a news conference, stressing an agreement was otherwise essentially in place.

Karzai said the talks had focused on protecting Afghan sovereignty and that major differences had been resolved, including a U.S. request to to run independent counter-terrorism missions on Afghan territory.

Such operations carried out by the U.S. have long infuriated the Afghan president, who had been demanding the U.S. agree to share intelligence instead.

Karzai said the U.S. snatching of a senior Pakistani Taliban commander was an example of the kind of action that Afghanistan wanted to avoid.

"This is an issue that we have raised in earnest with the United States in the past few days as we have all previous occasions of such arrests in which the Afghan laws were disregarded," Karzai said, referring to the capture of commander Latif Mehsud.

"Therefore our discussion today in particular has been focused on making sure that through the bilateral security agreement such violations are not repeated."

Kerry attributed the complaint to a misunderstanding.

"We followed the normal procedures that the United States follows ... we did what we are supposed to do," he said.

"ZERO OPTION"

The Afghan government rejected an initial U.S. proposal on immunity at the start of the year and it has been a sticking point ever since. The failure to reach a deal could prompt the U.S. to pull all its troops out after 2014, in an outcome known as the "zero option".

It was considered almost unthinkable a few months ago, but U.S. officials have since raised the possibility, with an implicit warning that Afghan security forces are not ready to fight the Taliban-led insurgency without their help.

The collapse of similar talks between the United States and Iraq in 2011 - partly over the issue of immunity - led to the United States completely ending its forces' mission there rather than maintaining a significant presence.

U.S. officials had said earlier that Kerry did not intend to close a deal on the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) during the visit, but Washington is concerned that as Afghan election campaigning intensifies it will be harder to broker a deal.

Karzai's brothers this week began their campaign to take power and plan to offer the outgoing president, constitutionally barred from running again, a position in their government.

The April election is seen as the most crucial since the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, which brought Karzai to power.

International aid donors, who provide Afghanistan with the bulk of its income, hope a transfer of power will enable the country to move beyond years of damaging allegations of corruption and maladministration.

In an interview this month, Karzai blamed corruption on irresponsible spending by donors and said coalition troops had brought nothing but suffering because security was still poor.

Security has been deteriorating, increasing worry about the country's prospects after Western forces leave. On Saturday, a car bomb killed four people in the eastern city of Jalalabad.

Efforts to draw the Taliban into negotiations have come to nothing. The militants say they will fight on until all foreign forces leave and they dismiss Karzai as a U.S. "puppet".

The Afghan president said the question of whether Afghanistan would be able to try U.S. citizens for crimes committed on its territory could not be decided by his government.

"The issue of jurisdiction is one such issue that is beyond the authority of the Afghan government and it is only and entirely up to the Afghan people to decide upon through two mechanisms," said Karzai, referring to the country's traditional assembly and its parliament.

Kerry said U.S. troops operated under the same standards wherever they were deployed.

"Wherever our forces are found, they operate under the same standard," he said. "We are not singling out Afghanistan."

(Writing by Jessica Donati; Editing by Andrew Roche)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio


'Glee' says goodbye to Finn in tribute to Cory Monteith

Posted:

The episode did not use the actor's death to send a message about drug abuse though it did end with a public service announcement.

TELEVISION musical comedy series Glee bid farewell on Thursday to Finn Hudson, the hunky, kind-hearted jock played by the late Cory Monteith, offering up songs, remembrances and plenty of tears while sidestepping the question of how his character died.

Fans had waited to see how the Fox television show would address the loss of one of its founding cast members following Monteith's death in July from an accidental overdose of heroin and alcohol at age 31.

In an episode called The Quarterback, the writers of a show that often delves into serious topics chose not to use Monteith's death to send a message about drug abuse, and did not provide a cause of death for his character.

The show began the story three weeks after Finn's funeral with his stepbrother Kurt (Chris Colfer) preparing to attend a memorial service at McKinley High, the school where the series is set. "Everyone wants to talk about how he died, too, but who cares?" Kurt said. "One moment in his whole life. I care more about how he lived."

Remembering Finn, the hunky, kind-hearted quarterback of McKinley High.

Remembering Finn, the hunky, kind-hearted quarterback of McKinley High.

Finn was a central character on the show, a high-school football star turned choir member who defended the school's misfits and played an integral part in advancing the series' theme of tolerance.

Glee star Lea Michele, who was dating Monteith in an off-screen romance at the time of his death, appeared near the end of the hour-long episode, singing the Bob Dylan song, Make You Feel My Love, while tears streamed down her face. Her character, Rachel Berry, had dated Finn on the show.

Glee premiered in 2009 and instantly became a hit and a pop culture phenomenon, with motivational storylines, upbeat musical numbers and a diverse young cast playing popular and oddball school students who come together in a musical choir group. The show has won Golden Globes, Emmys and Peabody awards.

Monteith had talked publicly about his struggles with substance abuse and was in rehab as recently as April. He was found dead in a Vancouver hotel room in July. Canadian authorities said he died from an accidental overdose of heroin and alcohol.

Glee cast members appeared in a public service announcement that aired at the end of Thursday's episode. "Our friend Cory didn't look or act like an addict. He was happy, successful and seemingly had it all," actress Jane Lynch said, before a phone number appeared to connect viewers with treatment options for addiction. – Reuters

Wit, wackiness and a whole lot of fun in local cartoon

Posted:

NC is not your ordinary sushi chef. He's also a skilled, crime-fighting Ninja who keeps Enigma City safe from villains. Together with his sidekick, Oliver, the duo is the cause of terror in the dark underworld of criminals.

No, this is not another gritty drama on HBO nor is it the latest comic series by DC Comics.

It is Ninja Cat Ichi! Ni! San!, the latest animated series by Avant Garde Studios, a Malaysian animation and multimedia company.

The series follows the crazy adventures of Ninja Cat and Oliver, a kiwi bird, as they rid their city of crime, often with hilarious and unexpected outcomes.

Voicing Ninja Cat is Malaysian actor Gavin Yap and the series also features the voices of Brian Zimmerman and Amelia Henderson."Who would have thought that a simple story inspired by my own pet cat could be turned into a fun animated series. I hope the audience will have as much fun watching it as we had making it," said creative director and co-founder of Avant Garde Studios Keeta Brenna.

A co-production between Avant Garde and South Korean animation studio Cyberchicken Animation Studio, Ninja Cat costs RM5mil to make, with financial assistance from the Multimedia Development Corporation.

The first season of Ninja Cat, which is targeted at children aged 7 to 11 years old, has 26 episodes. Another 26 episodes are already in the pipeline. 

*Ninja Cat Ichi! Ni! San! airs every Saturday at 6pm on TV9 (Astro Ch 119 / Hypp TV Ch 109).

Improv comedy game show from Steve Carell

Posted:

Slide Show inspired by French show.

STEVE Carell is bringing improv comedy game show to Fox. According to Deadline.com, Fox has ordered eight episodes of Slide Show, an unscripted comedy in which celebrities and comedians compete in unusual sketch, song and dance challenges.

Carell's inspiration for Slide Show comes from Vendredi, tout est permis, a show created by French comedian Arthur Essebag in 2011. Under the international title Anything Goes, the show has already been adapted for Australian, Portuguese and Danish TV and will soon also make its way to Spain, the Netherlands, and China.

The former The Office star will produce the US series, which will remain close to the original. – AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz


It's a lift-off for Sandra Bullock

Posted:

Sandra Bullock panicked when she found out she had to ride in a Vomit Comet in Alfonso Cuaron's space saga Gravity.

ONCE you see Gravity, Sandra Bullock seems the logical choice to play a NASA medical engineer stranded in space and running out of oxygen after her shuttle is destroyed.

But how did director Alfonso Cuaron, who also co-wrote the film with son Jonas, know that Bullock was the right actress for the role?

Sure, she won an Oscar for The Blind Side, but does that qualify her to carry an entire movie set in space? It couldn't have been The Heat, the comedy hit she starred in earlier this year with Melissa McCarthy. And we're guessing that Miss Congeniality and While You Were Sleeping probably didn't seal the deal.

"The short answer is connectivity," explained Cuaron, who was nominated for an Oscar for his 2006 film Children Of Men.

"There are great actors whose magic is lost when filtered through the camera lens. Cameras adore certain people, and Sandra is one of them. That's why she is a movie star. And after auditioning many unknowns, we decided that we needed a movie star because we had to have someone who the audience could invest in for such a long time. They needed to connect to her character.

"But finding the right movie star was the key.Movie stars don't usually like to leave their comfort zone. Why mess with success? And Sandra is fantastic doing dialogue and this is a role with very little dialogue. But she wanted to get out of her comfort zone. She wanted to go to those deep, dark corners that most movie stars run away from. She was up for anything, even the Vomit Comet."

The Vomit Comet is a special plane that simulates zero gravity in 20-second bursts by plunging toward Earth. Bullock, 49, will not only describe her fear of the Vomit Comet, but will tell us how she felt when she learned that Cuaron didn't reveal to her that he had decided that the Vomit Comet limited filming too much, and that he would film everything on enormous movie sets in London.

Had you crossed space movies off your bucket list?

There was never a space movie on my bucket list. I've never had a bucket list. And I've been thinking a lot lately about that. Why don't I have a bucket list?

And the answer is?

I realised that, in a beautiful way, anything that I've ever wished for, I've gotten. So I never needed a list.

When you won the Oscar, did you think it might open some new doors for you?

No. There were so many other things going through my head the night I won the Oscar than how it would impact my career (laughs).

That's right. You were secretly adopting your son Louis the week of the Oscar ceremony. By the way, who says that Sandra Bullock can't keep a secret?

Hey, everybody who knows me knows that I will go to my grave with a secret. If you tell me not to tell anyone, I don't tell anyone. But yes, my head was elsewhere.

How excited were you when you were approached to be in your first space movie?

I didn't think like that. I thought about being approached to be in an Alfonso Cuaron movie. He is the archetype for me. He is an artist. He is the one I based everything on. I make people watch his movies. I have such an emotional connection to all his movies – how he did it, how he pushed the boundaries, where he broke the rules.

You must have jumped at the chance to work with him.

Not really. He came at a time when I did not want to work. I had nothing to offer. I had nothing to give.

You've been through this before when you burned out on your career and stopped working for a while.

Yes, I've shut down before. But you have to listen to your body. You have to honour it, but this business doesn't want you to honour it.

What changed your mind?

I met the person. I was just so moved and so connected to his journey of how this movie came about, not from a technical standpoint but from an emotional and storytelling standpoint. I love this man. I have very similar views, and I felt trusting of this human being. By the time he left, my curiosity was piqued.

Are you ever fearful on a movie project?

Every time you start a movie, you have it. I say yes, and then I panic and try to pull out. Every single time.

Really?

Really. I think it's going to be a bomb, and I want somebody to get me out of it. And guess what, half the time, it is a big bomb, and half the time, it's not.

Isn't it amazing that Sandra Bullock has survived in Hollywood with that attitude?

It is amazing. Like the cockroaches, I just won't die.

I wasn't comparing you to a cockroach.

Well, I was, and I'm comfortable with that.

Once you got over your fear and accepted the role, what happened next?

He told me the entire movie was going to be shot in the Vomit Comet. I told him I am deathly afraid of flying. I took it as another sign that I shouldn't do the film. It was not in my comfort zone.

How did you overcome that?

I decided that the universe was taking me someplace I needed to go. Once George (Clooney, her co-star) stepped on board, I was almost in tears. I thought, "Thank God, I know him. I know that he doesn't know what this is all about, either, but that he admires Alfonso." We were both novices in Alfonso's world, but I was so grateful that at least there was something familiar around.

You must have been elated when Alfonso informed you that he had changed his mind, and would not be using the Vomit Comet?

He didn't tell me. They purposely led me to believe it was still happening. It wasn't until a few days before we flew to London that George told me.

Why didn't they tell you? I would think that it would have allayed some of your fears?

The producer told me later that they decided not to tell me because they felt that I would be so excited about not filming on the Vomit Comet that I would gladly do anything they asked of me. And they were right.

I know you have a tendency to look at the dark side of things, but wouldn't you have to admit that with The Heat and Gravity, your career is in a pretty good place right now?

Let's just say it's a good work week.

You understand, though, that you are seen as a valuable property in Hollywood right now?

Maybe this week I am. Next week, when I make a choice that doesn't do so well, then I'm not anymore. You can't ever think of yourself as valuable property. If you do, you're destined to have a nice little crash and burn. I expect great failures, and I expect great heights. You can't control it, so you have to be grateful for what you have, and then just live your life. – The Orange County Register/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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The Star’s ex-photographer dies of nose cancer at 55

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: A former photographer of The Star, Chua Kok Hwa (pic), passed away yesterday due to nasopharynx cancer (nose cancer).

He was 55.

Chua is survived by his wife, Yee Lee Wah, 51, and two children, Chua Jie Si, 21, and Chua Jie Jun, 18.
Yee said Chua was first diagnosed with the cancer in 2009. 

Chua joined The Star's photo desk on Nov 15, 1994.

He had previously been attached to Chinese dailies Tong Bao, which was later closed down, and Guang Ming before joining The Star.

He retired in November last year from his position as an assistant chief photographer after 18 years of service in the company.

The Star photo desk head Ng Kok Leong said Chua had been a hardworking and cheerful person.

"We worked closely on many occasions and he was very dedicated to his job," he said.

The wake wil be held at 11, Jalan SL 11/5, Bandar Sungai Long, Kajang.

The funeral is at 2pm tomorrow.

'Storm warning' a day before crash

Posted:

KOTA KINABALU: A day before the fatal MASWings crash in Kudat on Thursday, co-pilot Marc Joel Bansh had posted on his Facebook page an image of a Twin Otter with a backdrop of dark clouds and a caption: "There's a storm coming."

His friends are now sharing the picture, with notes of "Rest in peace, he seemed to have known it was coming."

Marc, 22, suffered multiple fractures and head injuries and died upon admission at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital here.

Passenger Tan Ah Chai, 69, also died at the hospital after being airlifted there after the crash.

Marc's Facebook page is filled with condolences to his family with friends recalling the type of person he was in their own pages.

(2nd right) Marc and his friends posing for the camera in happier times.

Marc Joel Bansh

His tragic death shocked his friends, who described him as a happy-go-lucky person.

"I will miss him. He was really a fun guy," said Sean Krishna, who meets Marc on weekends in Miri, Sarawak, where the MASwings Twin Otter headquarters is.

Sean, a Sabahan studying in Miri, said Marc made friends easily wherever he went and was a likeable and popular person.

Marc's distraught parents were seen outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital mortuary early yesterday and avoided the media.

Family friends said they requested privacy and were arranging their son's funeral for Monday.

Marc is the second of four children in a family of pilots.

His father, Heral Bansh, is a helicopter pilot with Sabah Air and his brother is a MAS Boeing 737 co-pilot.

Marc joined MASWings after graduating from the Asia Pacific FlightTraining School in Kota Baru, Kelantan, about a year ago.

In Kudat, housewife Junaini Bladi said she could only watch in horror as branches and leaves slapped against her window on the Twin Otter aircraft moments before it crashed into a house.

The plane had veered off the runway as it tried to land and ended up about 200m from the airstrip at Kampung SenSen in northern Sabah.

Junaini said that was the twin-engined aircraft suddenly pulled to the right just before the wheels touched the ground, and then the plane ploughed through a concrete fence and hit the side of the house.

Junaini, 53, who was seated on the right side of the aircraft, said as the plane hit the ground, she was flung about in her seat.

She said the aircraft then come to a stop and she and other passengers scrambled out the emergency door.

Another passenger, Erwanshah Enin, 23, said he hurt his left foot when kicking open the emergency door located just behind the co-pilot's seat.

"After I got the door open, I exited and pulled out two women and a child," he said. "I was so worried about the possibility of a fire or explosion because there was a strong stench of aviation fuel and the left engine was still running. The engine didn't stop until nearly an hour after the crash."

Related story:

DCA begins probe on Flight MH3002s last minutes

Shot dead - four who preyed on VIPs

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Four robbers, believed to be the ones who recently robbed the house of Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, have been shot dead by police in a shootout.

The robbers, believed to be Indonesians, are part of a gang called Gang Ah Fatt, have been actively robbing VIP houses since 2008.

The gang had, at 3.30am yesterday, robbed the house of a VIP in Bukit Antarabangsa and were hiding out in an apartment unit belonging to one of the suspect's family in Hiliran Ampang Public Housing Project (PPR) on Jalan Ampang Putra.

They had later met up with their middleman in the apartment.

Unknown to them, a team of policemen were getting ready to move in.

Police quietly apprehended the middleman, a local, when he exited.

They then stormed into the apartment, said City police chief Senior Deputy Comm Datuk Mohmad Salleh. The robbers were caught by surprise and fired upon the policemen when they rushed in.

"My men had to return fire and all four robbers were killed in the fire fight," he said when met at the scene yesterday.

Police recovered a pistol and several stolen items from the gang's recent robbery of an apartment unit.

SDC Mohmad said that police are still hunting for two more members of the gang who are said to be armed and dangerous.

"The group had three pistols which they robbed from their victims but we only found one.

"So we believe that the remaining two robbers have the other two pistols," he said.

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Half a million evacuated as cyclone lashes India

Posted:

BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) - India evacuated half a million people as massive Cyclone Phailin closed in on the impoverished east coast Saturday, with winds already uprooting trees and tearing into flimsy homes.

The storm packed gusts of up to 240 kilometres per hour (150 miles per hour) as it churned over the Bay of Bengal, making it potentially the most powerful cyclone to hit the area since 1999, when more than 8,000 died, the Indian weather office said.

"The very severe cyclonic storm Phailin is moving menacingly towards the coast," special relief commissioner for the state of Orissa, Pradipta Mohapatra told AFP.

Authorities said they expected a three-metre (10-foot) storm surge when the eye of the cyclone strikes after nightfall, with torrential rain also threatening floods in low-lying areas.

"I've got faint memories of the 1999 super cyclone," nervous 23-year-old student engineer Apurva Abhijeeta told AFP from the coastal town of Puri, 70 kilometres from state capital Bhubaneswar.

"I dread this Phailin. It's as if the world is coming to an end."

Heavy waves pounded the coast as terrified locals made their way to solid buildings, cramming into packed rickshaws and buses as they travelled. Relief efforts were under way, with free food being served in shelters.

Food stockpiling began earlier in the week as Phailin gathered strength dramatically, with many shops stripped bare before they closed on Saturday afternoon.

In Visakhapatnam, further south on the coast of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, fishermen frantically sought to secure their boats while others admired the rough surf.

Large boats could be seen anchored out at sea, while the biggest port in the affected area, in Paradip, has shut down.

An AFP correspondent on the last flight to arrive in Bhubaneswar before the airport shut described how the plane aborted the first attempted landing in shearing winds and pounding rain.

'On a war footing'

Officials put the number of people who have been evacuated from the coastal areas of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh at around half a million.

"Approximately half a million people have been evacuated so far, including 1 lakh (100,000) in Andhra Pradesh," National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) spokeswoman Tripti Parule told AFP.

Officials in the neighbouring state of West Bengal said hotels along the coast had been told to evacuate while Krishna Ram Pisda, the relief commissioner in Chhattisgarh state, said authorities would empty some of their dams into rivers to avert possible flooding.

Parule said the storm was expected to make landfall at about 8:00 pm (1430 GMT).

The agency's vice-chairman Marri Shashidhar Reddy told a news conference it was one of the biggest evacuations in India's history, and had been aided by improved early warning systems.

"We will be on a war footing," he said in New Delhi.

Authorities were still rushing to get people out of the storm's path, even those who were reluctant to move.

In the seaside town of Gopalpur, which is expected to be one of the worst affected areas, women and children were the first to pack into shelters, schools and public buildings, where they lay on mats.

The Indian Red Cross Society also had disaster response teams ready while the air force, fresh from helping evacuate thousands from floods in the Himalayas in June, flew in food and medical supplies to Bhubaneswar.

Sandeep Rai Rathore, inspector general of the army's National Disaster Response Force, said 1,200 of the unit's troops had been sent to Orissa and a further 500 to Andhra Pradesh.

While the storm is still technically one notch below the most powerful category of "super cyclone", the India Meteorological Department sounded its highest "red alert" on Saturday morning.

Some foreign forecasters believe Phailin, which means "Sapphire" in Thai, is more intense than Indian experts are predicting.

The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said gusts could reach as high as 315 kilometres an hour.

12 dead, millions without power as typhoon hits Philippines

Posted:

MANILA (AFP) - Typhoon Nari pummelled the northern Philippines early Saturday, ripping roofs off buildings, killing 12 people and leaving more than two million without power.

Nari slammed into the country's east coast around midnight (1600 GMT Friday), toppling trees and pylons as it cut a westward swathe through the farming regions of the main island of Luzon, officials said.

"While there were relatively few casualties, a lot of areas are still flooded," Eduardo del Rosario, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told a news conference.

Witnesses in the coastal town of Baler, near where Nari made landfall, said many large trees had been felled and clean-up crews with chainsaws were clearing the roads.

Government clerk Glenn Diwa, 34, said she and her husband spent a sleepless as the typhoon roared through the town of Capas, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Manila.

"It started close to midnight and lasted three hours. The wind was very strong and there was a whistling sound. After a while we heard torn roofing sheets clattering across the yard," she told AFP.

As Nari moved inland, dumping rain, a wall of mud fell on a police barracks near the town of Magalang, killing an officer awaiting deployment to rescue typhoon victims, the civil defence office in the region said.

Elsewhere in central Luzon, an old woman and four minors were crushed to death when trees crashed onto two houses and a vehicle, while the wall of a school collapsed and crushed an old man to death.

Another man was electrocuted by a loose power line while yet another died of a heart attack in an incident that disaster officials also blamed on Nari.
Two children and an elderly person drowned in the province of Bulacan, which suffered widespread flooding, provincial governor Wilhelmino Alvarado told ABS-CBN television in an interview.

The network aired footage of earth-coloured floodwaters climbing above river defences and swamping farmland.

Soldiers, police, and local government workers used military trucks to rescue residents in flooded communities across the towns of San Miguel and Minalin, the regional civil defence office there said.

"The wind picked up very quickly, very dramatically. We had the wind coming right off the ocean for four hours," said one witness on the east coast.

Even as Nari blew out to the South China Sea Saturday, with peak winds of 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour according to the state weather service, the danger had not passed.

A farmer and a woman on separate motorbikes were nearly swept away and had to be pulled back to safety by policemen when they tried to cross a street that had turned into a raging river.

Farmer Frankie Gracia, 30 said he had been forced to butcher one of his pigs after it fell ill from exposure to the rain and wanted to cross the streaming floodwaters to take some of the pork to his relatives.

"I needed to reach the other side soon, otherwise the meat would spoil," he said.

The typhoon blacked out 37 towns and cities across the region.
Road and utility crews were out clearing roads and restoring power, but it could take up to two days before electricity is restored and major highways are reopened to traffic, Nigel Lontoc, a disaster official for the region, told AFP by telephone.

A total of 2.1 million people live in the areas now without electricity.

Four people were listed as missing, including a fisherman on the country's east coast who had been sleeping in his boat that was swept out to sea.

Three other fishermen who put to sea elsewhere before the typhoon have also failed to return, officials said.

About 3,000 people moved into government-run shelters amid warnings their communities could be hit by flooding and landslides, Lontoc said.
The typhoon spared the capital Manila, where the state weather service had warned on Friday about possible widespread flooding.

Projections from the Hong Kong Observatory had the storm gathering pace over the coming days as it heads towards the northeast coast of Vietnam.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 major storms or typhoons each year that occur mainly between June and October.

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Half a million evacuated as cyclone lashes India

Posted:

BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) - India evacuated half a million people as massive Cyclone Phailin closed in on the impoverished east coast Saturday, with winds already uprooting trees and tearing into flimsy homes.

The storm packed gusts of up to 240 kilometres per hour (150 miles per hour) as it churned over the Bay of Bengal, making it potentially the most powerful cyclone to hit the area since 1999, when more than 8,000 died, the Indian weather office said.

"The very severe cyclonic storm Phailin is moving menacingly towards the coast," special relief commissioner for the state of Orissa, Pradipta Mohapatra told AFP.

Authorities said they expected a three-metre (10-foot) storm surge when the eye of the cyclone strikes after nightfall, with torrential rain also threatening floods in low-lying areas.

"I've got faint memories of the 1999 super cyclone," nervous 23-year-old student engineer Apurva Abhijeeta told AFP from the coastal town of Puri, 70 kilometres from state capital Bhubaneswar.

"I dread this Phailin. It's as if the world is coming to an end."

Heavy waves pounded the coast as terrified locals made their way to solid buildings, cramming into packed rickshaws and buses as they travelled. Relief efforts were under way, with free food being served in shelters.

Food stockpiling began earlier in the week as Phailin gathered strength dramatically, with many shops stripped bare before they closed on Saturday afternoon.

In Visakhapatnam, further south on the coast of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, fishermen frantically sought to secure their boats while others admired the rough surf.

Large boats could be seen anchored out at sea, while the biggest port in the affected area, in Paradip, has shut down.

An AFP correspondent on the last flight to arrive in Bhubaneswar before the airport shut described how the plane aborted the first attempted landing in shearing winds and pounding rain.

'On a war footing'

Officials put the number of people who have been evacuated from the coastal areas of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh at around half a million.

"Approximately half a million people have been evacuated so far, including 1 lakh (100,000) in Andhra Pradesh," National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) spokeswoman Tripti Parule told AFP.

Officials in the neighbouring state of West Bengal said hotels along the coast had been told to evacuate while Krishna Ram Pisda, the relief commissioner in Chhattisgarh state, said authorities would empty some of their dams into rivers to avert possible flooding.

Parule said the storm was expected to make landfall at about 8:00 pm (1430 GMT).

The agency's vice-chairman Marri Shashidhar Reddy told a news conference it was one of the biggest evacuations in India's history, and had been aided by improved early warning systems.

"We will be on a war footing," he said in New Delhi.

Authorities were still rushing to get people out of the storm's path, even those who were reluctant to move.

In the seaside town of Gopalpur, which is expected to be one of the worst affected areas, women and children were the first to pack into shelters, schools and public buildings, where they lay on mats.

The Indian Red Cross Society also had disaster response teams ready while the air force, fresh from helping evacuate thousands from floods in the Himalayas in June, flew in food and medical supplies to Bhubaneswar.

Sandeep Rai Rathore, inspector general of the army's National Disaster Response Force, said 1,200 of the unit's troops had been sent to Orissa and a further 500 to Andhra Pradesh.

While the storm is still technically one notch below the most powerful category of "super cyclone", the India Meteorological Department sounded its highest "red alert" on Saturday morning.

Some foreign forecasters believe Phailin, which means "Sapphire" in Thai, is more intense than Indian experts are predicting.

The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said gusts could reach as high as 315 kilometres an hour.

12 dead, millions without power as typhoon hits Philippines

Posted:

MANILA (AFP) - Typhoon Nari pummelled the northern Philippines early Saturday, ripping roofs off buildings, killing 12 people and leaving more than two million without power.

Nari slammed into the country's east coast around midnight (1600 GMT Friday), toppling trees and pylons as it cut a westward swathe through the farming regions of the main island of Luzon, officials said.

"While there were relatively few casualties, a lot of areas are still flooded," Eduardo del Rosario, head of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told a news conference.

Witnesses in the coastal town of Baler, near where Nari made landfall, said many large trees had been felled and clean-up crews with chainsaws were clearing the roads.

Government clerk Glenn Diwa, 34, said she and her husband spent a sleepless as the typhoon roared through the town of Capas, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Manila.

"It started close to midnight and lasted three hours. The wind was very strong and there was a whistling sound. After a while we heard torn roofing sheets clattering across the yard," she told AFP.

As Nari moved inland, dumping rain, a wall of mud fell on a police barracks near the town of Magalang, killing an officer awaiting deployment to rescue typhoon victims, the civil defence office in the region said.

Elsewhere in central Luzon, an old woman and four minors were crushed to death when trees crashed onto two houses and a vehicle, while the wall of a school collapsed and crushed an old man to death.

Another man was electrocuted by a loose power line while yet another died of a heart attack in an incident that disaster officials also blamed on Nari.
Two children and an elderly person drowned in the province of Bulacan, which suffered widespread flooding, provincial governor Wilhelmino Alvarado told ABS-CBN television in an interview.

The network aired footage of earth-coloured floodwaters climbing above river defences and swamping farmland.

Soldiers, police, and local government workers used military trucks to rescue residents in flooded communities across the towns of San Miguel and Minalin, the regional civil defence office there said.

"The wind picked up very quickly, very dramatically. We had the wind coming right off the ocean for four hours," said one witness on the east coast.

Even as Nari blew out to the South China Sea Saturday, with peak winds of 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour according to the state weather service, the danger had not passed.

A farmer and a woman on separate motorbikes were nearly swept away and had to be pulled back to safety by policemen when they tried to cross a street that had turned into a raging river.

Farmer Frankie Gracia, 30 said he had been forced to butcher one of his pigs after it fell ill from exposure to the rain and wanted to cross the streaming floodwaters to take some of the pork to his relatives.

"I needed to reach the other side soon, otherwise the meat would spoil," he said.

The typhoon blacked out 37 towns and cities across the region.
Road and utility crews were out clearing roads and restoring power, but it could take up to two days before electricity is restored and major highways are reopened to traffic, Nigel Lontoc, a disaster official for the region, told AFP by telephone.

A total of 2.1 million people live in the areas now without electricity.

Four people were listed as missing, including a fisherman on the country's east coast who had been sleeping in his boat that was swept out to sea.

Three other fishermen who put to sea elsewhere before the typhoon have also failed to return, officials said.

About 3,000 people moved into government-run shelters amid warnings their communities could be hit by flooding and landslides, Lontoc said.
The typhoon spared the capital Manila, where the state weather service had warned on Friday about possible widespread flooding.

Projections from the Hong Kong Observatory had the storm gathering pace over the coming days as it heads towards the northeast coast of Vietnam.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 major storms or typhoons each year that occur mainly between June and October.

Malala wants to be PM to 'save' Pakistan

Posted:

NEW YORK CITY: Teenage rights activist Malala Yousafzai told an audience in New York that she would like to become prime minister of Pakistan to "save" the country.

In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour at a sold-out public event, she also said winning the Nobel Peace Prize would be a "great honour".

Asked about her conflicting dreams of becoming a doctor or a politician, and whether she would like to become premier, Malala said she wanted to help her homeland.

"I want to become a prime minister of Pakistan," she told Amanpour to cheers from the audience.

"I think it's really good because through politics I can save my whole country," she added.

"I can spend much of the budget on education and I can also concentrate on foreign affairs."

Malala was shot in the head by the Pakistani Taliban on Oct 9, 2012, for speaking out against them, demanding that girls have the right to go to school.

She was flown to Britain for specialist care and made a remarkable recovery, going on to become a global ambassador for children's rights.

The 16-year-old has written an autobiography, addressed the United Nations and set up the Malala Fund.

On Thursday, she won the prestigious Sakharov human rights prize from the European parliament and was tipped as a firm favourite for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"If I got the Nobel Peace Prize I think it would be such a great honour and more than I deserve," she said.

"The Nobel Peace Prize would help me to begin this campaign for girls' education."

The real prize, she said, would be to see every child, black or white, Christian or Muslim, boy or girl, go to school and "for that I will struggle and work hard".

She paid tribute to previous Nobel laureates, including scientist Abdus Salam who in 1979 won the prize for physics – Pakistan's only Nobel to date. — AFP

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