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Jumaat, 8 November 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

NTU don makes objects vanish with 'invisibility cloak'

Posted:

IT might seem like a magic show performed by legendary illusionist Harry Houdini but a Singapore-based scientist and his team have managed to create an "invisibility cloak" that can make objects and even small animals such as cats disappear.

Believed to be the first of its kind, the research in this area by a team led by Dr Zhang Baile, a Singaporean permanent resident, was published two weeks ago in Nature Communications, one of the top science journals.

Using carefully angled blocks of glass to form a wall around an empty core, light is bent around an object – or living creature – placed in the centre. The object then appears to be "invisible", allowing the viewer to see only what's behind the glass "cloak".

While the research is still at an early stage, the light-bending technology behind the glass "cloak" may have useful applications in security and defence, such as in developing military surveillance equipment.

"It is not quite like Harry Potter's cloak of invisibility because this is not an actual cloak that you can wrap around you yet – it's a glass structure but you can 'see through' an object placed in the centre in a natural environment," said Dr Zhang, assistant physics professor at the Nanyang Technological University.

The 32-year-old Dr Zhang collaborated with six other scientists, including members of Zhejiang University in China and Marvell Technology Group Boston, over the last three years to come up with the innovation, which was showcased for the first time in Singapore yesterday.

With the capability to function in open air, it is a significant improvement over his previous prototype, made of a colourless crystalline mineral called calcite, which can only make an object "invisible" in a liquid called laser oil.

Even then, Dr Zhang's earlier work had already put him on the list of the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35 compiled by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Technology Review magazine in August last year.

While he is pleased with the progress so far, Dr Zhang admitted that the research is "still far away from actual applications".

The "cloak" as it is now still suffers from several limitations: It can make things invisible only when viewed from up to six specific directions, although the team is working to make it omni-directional. It is also a bulky construct that is difficult to move around.

"It's progress but it's not particularly revolutionary, it's not true invisibility if it only works from six directions," said Professor John Pendry, the chair in theoretical solid state physics at the Imperial College of London whose work in cloaking objects in electromagnetic fields is the basis of Dr Zhang's initial research.

"Cloaks are very useful things for... stealth or security, so when they get it omni-directional, I shall be impressed." — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Official websites hacked

Posted:

The websites of Singapore's president and prime minister have been hacked after it vowed to crack down on activist group Anonymous, which is demanding greater Internet freedom in the city-state, officials confirmed.

A "subpage" of the website of the Istana, the official residence of President Tony Tan, was "compromised" early yesterday, telecommunication officials said without giving details.

The hacking happened about an hour after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's website displayed mocking messages and pictures from Anonymous, which is demanding the scrapping of rules requiring Singapore news websites to obtain annual licenses.

The rules, which came into effect in June, have sparked anger among some bloggers and activists who say they are designed to muzzle free expression.

While the defaced section of www.istana.gov.sg had been taken offline by early afternoon, screengrabs widely circulated on social media showed the image of a stern-looking elderly woman raising a middle finger.

Its authenticity could not be independently verified.

It was accompanied by the words "JIAK LIAO BEE!", a mildly offensive term in Hokkien, referring to people who get paid for doing nothing.

Unlike the hacking of the prime minister's website, there was no indication of the involvement of Anonymous in the attack on the Istana page.

"Both the PMO (prime minister's office) and Istana main websites are still working, and we will restore the compromised pages as soon as possible.

"The matter is under investigation," the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) said in a statement.

The defaced section of Lee's official website www.pmo.gov.sg showed a message with a pejorative in online youth slang.

"It's great to be Singaporean today," read a headline next to Anonymous' trademark Guy Fawkes mask, a symbol of anti-establishment defiance worldwide.

The double attacks came after Lee on Wednesday told local journalists that his government would "spare no effort" in going after Anonymous members who had threatened to wage a cyber war against the government.

Singapore strictly regulates the traditional media, but insists the new licensing rules do not impinge on Internet freedom. — AFP

Bank director fined for assaulting taxi driver

Posted:

A BANKING director was fined S$4,000 (RM10,244) and ordered to pay S$1,000 (RM2,561) compensation for assaulting a taxi driver two years ago.

Briton Mason Robert Alford, 41, admitted to punching Tan Chin Huat, 58, in the face along the East Coast Park expressway on Dec 14, 2011.

The court heard that Tan picked up Alford, the regional head of the Asia-Pacific region for credit analysis, near Lau Pa Sat hawker centre at about 1am that day.

Alford, who was reeking of alcohol, told the driver to go to Eastwood condominium in Bedok.

Along the ECP, Alford suddenly began to shout, kicked and shook the cabbie's seat several times. Alford then pressed down on the victim's shoulder forcefully.

He also threw several punches in the victim's direction and one landed on his left cheek.

Tan eventually managed to drive to the nearest police station.

Alford's lawyers asked for a mandatory treatment order which the court said was totally inappropriate.

A psychiatric report from the Institute of Mental Health said it was likely that Alford was experiencing a relapse of his recurrent depressive disorder at the time.

Alford could have been jailed for up to two years and/or fined up to S$5,000 (RM12,798). — 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

One twisted mother

Posted:

Julianne Moore put her maternal instincts into overdrive to get into character while filming Carrie.

ACTORS often get pigeonholed into certain film and TV genres. Not Julianne Moore.

On TV, she's gone from portraying the real Sarah Palin in the political drama Game Changer to the fictional Nancy Donovan on 30 Rock. Her film roles include a porn star (Boogie Nights), FBI agent (Hannibal), dinosaur hunter (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and computer voice (Eagle Eye). Her career is full of a broad range of characters.

You can see the breadth of her work currently, as she plays an easygoing, sexually liberated college student in Don Jon and a merciless mother who thinks sex is the root of all evil in Carrie.

The roles have one thing in common.

"Anytime you do something, you think 'Maybe I'll suck and everyone will hate it'," Moore says during an interview for Carrie.

She does everything she can to make sure the work doesn't, uh, "suck". She does research, which in the case of Carrie meant going back to the original Stephen King novel. She also tries to find the elements that will make the audience react to the character.

In Carrie that meant playing the mother as a woman who does evil things, but in some strange way is basing all her actions on a deep love for her daughter.

Although the bloody prom scene is the most recognisable image from the film versions of the Stephen King novel, the key to both the book and movies – including the new remake – is the twisted mother / daughter relationship. It's a mixture of love, hate, fear, respect, disrespect, disappointment and atonement.

Moore found playing the motherly role a lot easier because of co-star Chloe Grace Moretz.

"She's so professional and was always so prepared," Moore says. "I think the thing I love the most about her is that she's a mama's girl. And, she'll tell you that. She loves her mother. She loves her brothers ... that made it easy for me to get close to her.

"I wanted her, more than anything else, to feel super safe with me. I wanted her to feel if she had a question, she could come to me. If she had any kind of need or desire, she should come to me."

Moore's convinced the bond they formed helped them through the physical and emotional demands of the movie.

As for the maternal part of the performance, all Moore had to do was think of her own two children.

Those instincts went into overdrive in the opening scene where Moore's character believes she's dying of cancer but is actually giving birth. In the scenes, where a real infant was used, Moore found herself more concerned about the welfare of the baby than the film production. Once she was confident the child was safe and secure, she would switch to her actor side. – The Fresno Bee / McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Related story:
Slash and burn

The rise of the horror remakes

Posted:

The trend of remaking or 're-imagining' classic horror movies is not slowing down.

CARRIE is the latest attempt to remake a classic horror movie and the trend shows no signs of slowing.

There are plans to remake everything from the classic Rosemary's Baby to the campy Little Shop Of Horrors.

Remaking horror films has been going on for years, which means when you decide to pick up a DVD to watch for Halloween you'll need to be careful. In many cases, the original and remake don't have the same quality.

Here's a look at 13 horror films and their remakes to help you make a DVD pick that's more of a treat than trick.

House Of Wax

1953: Vincent Price turned this 3-D film into a horror film classic.

2005: Paris Hilton made this remake very plastic.

The Fly

1958: Audiences screamed at the sight of a man's head on a fly's body.

1986: Audiences groaned at seeing Jeff Goldblum's body parts fall off.

The Blob

1958: Showed us a huge blob of goo could be quite scary.

1988: Showed us a film could be a huge glob of goofiness.

House On Haunted Hill

1959: Vincent Price produced rushes of adrenaline with the scares in a creepy mansion.

1999: Geoffrey Rush caused ticket buyers to fear they wouldn't get their money back at the box office.

Psycho

1960: Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece made us afraid of showers.

1998: Director Gus Van Sant's step-by-step remake made us feel like we needed a shower.

Night Of The Living Dead

1968: George A. Romero's tale of zombies attacking a farmhouse defined the walking dead genre.

1990: Tom Savini's tale of zombies was dead on arrival.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

1974: Director Tobe Hooper created a classic horror character with the chainsaw-welding Leatherface.

2013: Director John Luessenhop created another reason to hate 3D.

The Shining

1980: Jack Nicholson gave this creepy tale of a haunted hotel a chilling edge.

1997: Steven Weber gave the TV tale of a haunted hotel a dull edge.

Friday The 13th

1980: Betsy Palmer film that created blueprint for genre about teens being systematically killed.

2009: Danielle Panabaker film that created blueprint for how to kill the genre about teens being systematically killed.

My Bloody Valentine

1981: Love means having to say "I'm sorry I didn't see that killer behind you."

2009: Love means having to say "I'm sorry but this film is better because the violence reaches an absurd level."

The Evil Dead

1981: Director Sam Raimi's tale of teens being killed in the woods gets a million scares from a few bucks.

2013: Director Fede Alvarez's tale of teens being killed in the woods gets a few scares from millions of bucks.

The House On Sorority Row

1983: College girls end up pledging De Cappa Tation.

2009: College girls end up pledging the original is better.

Fright Night

1985: Roddy McDowall makes this tale of a neighbourhood vampire campy fun.

2011: Colin Farrell makes this tale of a neighbourhood vampire scary fun.

– The Fresno Bee / McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Related story:
One twisted mother

Loki's bad boy appeal

Posted:

It is hard not to be moved by Tom Hiddleston who plays the baddie Loki in Thor: The Dark World as he scores the best quips and steals some of the scenes.

Tom Hiddleston is an unlikely pin-up.

His visage is pale as porcelain. Laugh lines cloak his too-young 32-year-old eyes. His ears are oddly unbalanced organic forms triangulating into a smooth chin on the quirkier side of slender.

His lips are too thin and his screen hair as the villain Loki in Thor: The Dark World - that back-combed, forehead-exposing cascade of Brylcreemed dark waves - has maximum badass effect on film.

Luckily for him, not all of the hair is real.

"This one was an extension… I had a lot of help," the British actor says, speaking in an one-on-one interview in London. "The only time it was my own hair was in the first Thor film, when it was grown out and dyed."

So how did this young antagonist turn the tables on the blond-haired, blue-eyed hunk of an Australian leading man Chris Hemsworth in not one but three movies, including Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012)?

As the latest instalment of Norse mythology-inspired adventure The Dark World, Hiddleston smiles benignly at having scored the best quips and scene-stealing moments as the not-your-usual-baddie.

"There's a vulnerability to Loki's deviousness, he's a cocktail of different things," Hiddleston explains.

"We go through two hours of hair and make-up. After I come out of the other side, the mask of Loki - the black hair, the costume - changes my features so severely I think my own playfulness is distorted.

"If I'm just playing mischievous, I look more wicked because of the shape I'm in. But also, he is the god of mischief. If you look up the dictionary, it says: an inclination to be playful, to tease. Or it says: destruction or damage, and it sums him up in lots of ways."

(From left) Hiddleston with co-stars Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth at the Berlin premiere of Thor: The Dark World.

(From left) Hiddleston with co-stars Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth at the Berlin premiere of Thor: The Dark World.

Up close and clean-cropped, you realise that Hiddleston, like Hemsworth, is actually also tall (1.87m), blond-haired and blue-eyed. He wears a white tailored shirt with rolled-up sleeves under a grey waistcoat cut ridiculously close to a lean frame.

"I certainly had to stay fit to play the part because of Loki's particularly prickly martial arrogance, and he can hold his own in a combat situation," he says.

"It's different from Thor but it's lethal. I do a lot of running and circuit training and suspension training. In a way, it's not that different from anything else I do. 

"Acting is such a physical endeavour in any capacity. It's so rare that you do something that doesn't demand a physical commitment and your body has to be able to have the stamina to bounce back again the next day."

Around the world, women wait for him at airports bearing placards of "Loki's Army", embracing his antihero's cult value over Australian co-star Hemsworth's good-guy appeal.

But Hiddleston, who had starred in the acclaimed British series Wallander before his 2011 Hollywood break with Thor, will have you know that the two actors are the best of buddies, having undergone the initiation ritual of forging lead roles together as relatively untested actors in the same major Hollywood deal.

Hiddleston as bad boy Loki in the movie.

"We had the same enthusiasm and fears over this huge thing we were about to embark on," he says in a group interview with Hemsworth.

"One of our first conversations started with the films we loved. We're from opposite ends of the planet but we obviously loved the same things."

Hemsworth reveals what these are: "Gladiator, Braveheart, The Goonies… Princess Bride."

Hiddleston agrees: "Yeah, Princess Bride. Superman. All that cool stuff."

It is Hemsworth who reveals more of Hiddleston, as you try to scratch below the perfect, polished sheen of the supervillain who is really an elusively polite and charming public schoolboy with an undisputed pedigree: Eton College, double first in Classics from Cambridge, training at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

The second of three children born to a scientist father and arts administrator mother, he speaks French but will not show it off in your face.

He knows his Shakespeare by heart, only subtly hinting at it in reference to Othello's Iago and King Lear's Edmund sharing the same psychological space as Loki. The bachelor gives away little of himself while at the same time sending out suave vibes of magnanimity and confidence.

You have to do your homework to find out that he spends his free time hanging out with fellow posh actor Benedict Cumberbatch in Hampstead's trendier cafes, vetting scripts and talking clever things while keeping an eye out for paparazzi and parking inspectors.

Or he would be gracing the best seats around Centre Court with mysterious blondes during the Wimbledon tennis season.

The man himself will regale you with all sorts of knowledge and ideas about other people and other things, all the while reinforcing his words with a trademark unflinching and quizzical stare.

"All acting is an act of imagination. You are simply conjuring up imaginary circumstances in your mind and responding truthfully to them," he begins, reeling off a string of effortless, lovely words.

"In films involving a lot of green screen work, you are staring into an expansive nothing, having to imagine what's to be a spaceship or an explosion or a particular vista.

"That's no different from being on stage. But of course, the difference is that on stage, you get to do the whole thing night after night of a run. On film, it's much more of a jigsaw puzzle - your moments of truthful imagination are broken up piece by piece. In your mind, you have to have the sense of the whole in order to keep yourself on the straight and narrow."

So this is why fans are all a-flutter when he turns on his thespian English charm: Indeed, talk has it that it was his sheer persuasiveness which convinced studio heads to rework a storyline in the latest Thor movie, resulting in a radical change in his character's intentions.

"I wanted to find something new to do. We all did. We'd seen Thor and Loki against each other in two films," he says. "Wouldn't it be amazing if, for some reason, they had to get together? Because that would be a dynamic, it would be interesting and complex and fun and offer lots of opportunities for both drama and comedy.

"When you're coming back to do a sequel, you have to keep it fresh for yourself and your audience. Nobody wants to see the same team again."

Hiddleston is a busy working actor the past couple of years. Woody Allen watchers will recognise his striking features as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Midnight In Paris (2011), while Spielberg appreciators would have seen him as Captain Nicholls in War Horse (2011).

His turn as a vampire in cult indie director Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), opposite Tilda Swinton, has opened to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival.

He says: "The vampire thing for Jim is a way of getting into questions of acceptance of love, because if you have two characters who live forever, what does love mean?

"It is a conceit, a conduit into an exploration on immortality and this question of if you had forever to live, how would you spend your time, how would you read, play music, how would you engage with the world?"

What is his personal answer to those questions?

True to form, he quotes somebody else — beautifully — again: "Tilda's character, Eve, says something quite magical: Life is about appreciating nature, nurturing kindness and friendship.

"And plenty of dancing." – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

  • Thor: The Dark World is currently playing in cinemas nationwide.
Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

One twisted mother

Posted:

Julianne Moore put her maternal instincts into overdrive to get into character while filming Carrie.

ACTORS often get pigeonholed into certain film and TV genres. Not Julianne Moore.

On TV, she's gone from portraying the real Sarah Palin in the political drama Game Changer to the fictional Nancy Donovan on 30 Rock. Her film roles include a porn star (Boogie Nights), FBI agent (Hannibal), dinosaur hunter (The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and computer voice (Eagle Eye). Her career is full of a broad range of characters.

You can see the breadth of her work currently, as she plays an easygoing, sexually liberated college student in Don Jon and a merciless mother who thinks sex is the root of all evil in Carrie.

The roles have one thing in common.

"Anytime you do something, you think 'Maybe I'll suck and everyone will hate it'," Moore says during an interview for Carrie.

She does everything she can to make sure the work doesn't, uh, "suck". She does research, which in the case of Carrie meant going back to the original Stephen King novel. She also tries to find the elements that will make the audience react to the character.

In Carrie that meant playing the mother as a woman who does evil things, but in some strange way is basing all her actions on a deep love for her daughter.

Although the bloody prom scene is the most recognisable image from the film versions of the Stephen King novel, the key to both the book and movies – including the new remake – is the twisted mother / daughter relationship. It's a mixture of love, hate, fear, respect, disrespect, disappointment and atonement.

Moore found playing the motherly role a lot easier because of co-star Chloe Grace Moretz.

"She's so professional and was always so prepared," Moore says. "I think the thing I love the most about her is that she's a mama's girl. And, she'll tell you that. She loves her mother. She loves her brothers ... that made it easy for me to get close to her.

"I wanted her, more than anything else, to feel super safe with me. I wanted her to feel if she had a question, she could come to me. If she had any kind of need or desire, she should come to me."

Moore's convinced the bond they formed helped them through the physical and emotional demands of the movie.

As for the maternal part of the performance, all Moore had to do was think of her own two children.

Those instincts went into overdrive in the opening scene where Moore's character believes she's dying of cancer but is actually giving birth. In the scenes, where a real infant was used, Moore found herself more concerned about the welfare of the baby than the film production. Once she was confident the child was safe and secure, she would switch to her actor side. – The Fresno Bee / McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Related story:
Slash and burn

The rise of the horror remakes

Posted:

The trend of remaking or 're-imagining' classic horror movies is not slowing down.

CARRIE is the latest attempt to remake a classic horror movie and the trend shows no signs of slowing.

There are plans to remake everything from the classic Rosemary's Baby to the campy Little Shop Of Horrors.

Remaking horror films has been going on for years, which means when you decide to pick up a DVD to watch for Halloween you'll need to be careful. In many cases, the original and remake don't have the same quality.

Here's a look at 13 horror films and their remakes to help you make a DVD pick that's more of a treat than trick.

House Of Wax

1953: Vincent Price turned this 3-D film into a horror film classic.

2005: Paris Hilton made this remake very plastic.

The Fly

1958: Audiences screamed at the sight of a man's head on a fly's body.

1986: Audiences groaned at seeing Jeff Goldblum's body parts fall off.

The Blob

1958: Showed us a huge blob of goo could be quite scary.

1988: Showed us a film could be a huge glob of goofiness.

House On Haunted Hill

1959: Vincent Price produced rushes of adrenaline with the scares in a creepy mansion.

1999: Geoffrey Rush caused ticket buyers to fear they wouldn't get their money back at the box office.

Psycho

1960: Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece made us afraid of showers.

1998: Director Gus Van Sant's step-by-step remake made us feel like we needed a shower.

Night Of The Living Dead

1968: George A. Romero's tale of zombies attacking a farmhouse defined the walking dead genre.

1990: Tom Savini's tale of zombies was dead on arrival.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

1974: Director Tobe Hooper created a classic horror character with the chainsaw-welding Leatherface.

2013: Director John Luessenhop created another reason to hate 3D.

The Shining

1980: Jack Nicholson gave this creepy tale of a haunted hotel a chilling edge.

1997: Steven Weber gave the TV tale of a haunted hotel a dull edge.

Friday The 13th

1980: Betsy Palmer film that created blueprint for genre about teens being systematically killed.

2009: Danielle Panabaker film that created blueprint for how to kill the genre about teens being systematically killed.

My Bloody Valentine

1981: Love means having to say "I'm sorry I didn't see that killer behind you."

2009: Love means having to say "I'm sorry but this film is better because the violence reaches an absurd level."

The Evil Dead

1981: Director Sam Raimi's tale of teens being killed in the woods gets a million scares from a few bucks.

2013: Director Fede Alvarez's tale of teens being killed in the woods gets a few scares from millions of bucks.

The House On Sorority Row

1983: College girls end up pledging De Cappa Tation.

2009: College girls end up pledging the original is better.

Fright Night

1985: Roddy McDowall makes this tale of a neighbourhood vampire campy fun.

2011: Colin Farrell makes this tale of a neighbourhood vampire scary fun.

– The Fresno Bee / McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Related story:
One twisted mother

Loki's bad boy appeal

Posted:

It is hard not to be moved by Tom Hiddleston who plays the baddie Loki in Thor: The Dark World as he scores the best quips and steals some of the scenes.

Tom Hiddleston is an unlikely pin-up.

His visage is pale as porcelain. Laugh lines cloak his too-young 32-year-old eyes. His ears are oddly unbalanced organic forms triangulating into a smooth chin on the quirkier side of slender.

His lips are too thin and his screen hair as the villain Loki in Thor: The Dark World - that back-combed, forehead-exposing cascade of Brylcreemed dark waves - has maximum badass effect on film.

Luckily for him, not all of the hair is real.

"This one was an extension… I had a lot of help," the British actor says, speaking in an one-on-one interview in London. "The only time it was my own hair was in the first Thor film, when it was grown out and dyed."

So how did this young antagonist turn the tables on the blond-haired, blue-eyed hunk of an Australian leading man Chris Hemsworth in not one but three movies, including Thor (2011) and The Avengers (2012)?

As the latest instalment of Norse mythology-inspired adventure The Dark World, Hiddleston smiles benignly at having scored the best quips and scene-stealing moments as the not-your-usual-baddie.

"There's a vulnerability to Loki's deviousness, he's a cocktail of different things," Hiddleston explains.

"We go through two hours of hair and make-up. After I come out of the other side, the mask of Loki - the black hair, the costume - changes my features so severely I think my own playfulness is distorted.

"If I'm just playing mischievous, I look more wicked because of the shape I'm in. But also, he is the god of mischief. If you look up the dictionary, it says: an inclination to be playful, to tease. Or it says: destruction or damage, and it sums him up in lots of ways."

(From left) Hiddleston with co-stars Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth at the Berlin premiere of Thor: The Dark World.

(From left) Hiddleston with co-stars Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth at the Berlin premiere of Thor: The Dark World.

Up close and clean-cropped, you realise that Hiddleston, like Hemsworth, is actually also tall (1.87m), blond-haired and blue-eyed. He wears a white tailored shirt with rolled-up sleeves under a grey waistcoat cut ridiculously close to a lean frame.

"I certainly had to stay fit to play the part because of Loki's particularly prickly martial arrogance, and he can hold his own in a combat situation," he says.

"It's different from Thor but it's lethal. I do a lot of running and circuit training and suspension training. In a way, it's not that different from anything else I do. 

"Acting is such a physical endeavour in any capacity. It's so rare that you do something that doesn't demand a physical commitment and your body has to be able to have the stamina to bounce back again the next day."

Around the world, women wait for him at airports bearing placards of "Loki's Army", embracing his antihero's cult value over Australian co-star Hemsworth's good-guy appeal.

But Hiddleston, who had starred in the acclaimed British series Wallander before his 2011 Hollywood break with Thor, will have you know that the two actors are the best of buddies, having undergone the initiation ritual of forging lead roles together as relatively untested actors in the same major Hollywood deal.

Hiddleston as bad boy Loki in the movie.

"We had the same enthusiasm and fears over this huge thing we were about to embark on," he says in a group interview with Hemsworth.

"One of our first conversations started with the films we loved. We're from opposite ends of the planet but we obviously loved the same things."

Hemsworth reveals what these are: "Gladiator, Braveheart, The Goonies… Princess Bride."

Hiddleston agrees: "Yeah, Princess Bride. Superman. All that cool stuff."

It is Hemsworth who reveals more of Hiddleston, as you try to scratch below the perfect, polished sheen of the supervillain who is really an elusively polite and charming public schoolboy with an undisputed pedigree: Eton College, double first in Classics from Cambridge, training at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

The second of three children born to a scientist father and arts administrator mother, he speaks French but will not show it off in your face.

He knows his Shakespeare by heart, only subtly hinting at it in reference to Othello's Iago and King Lear's Edmund sharing the same psychological space as Loki. The bachelor gives away little of himself while at the same time sending out suave vibes of magnanimity and confidence.

You have to do your homework to find out that he spends his free time hanging out with fellow posh actor Benedict Cumberbatch in Hampstead's trendier cafes, vetting scripts and talking clever things while keeping an eye out for paparazzi and parking inspectors.

Or he would be gracing the best seats around Centre Court with mysterious blondes during the Wimbledon tennis season.

The man himself will regale you with all sorts of knowledge and ideas about other people and other things, all the while reinforcing his words with a trademark unflinching and quizzical stare.

"All acting is an act of imagination. You are simply conjuring up imaginary circumstances in your mind and responding truthfully to them," he begins, reeling off a string of effortless, lovely words.

"In films involving a lot of green screen work, you are staring into an expansive nothing, having to imagine what's to be a spaceship or an explosion or a particular vista.

"That's no different from being on stage. But of course, the difference is that on stage, you get to do the whole thing night after night of a run. On film, it's much more of a jigsaw puzzle - your moments of truthful imagination are broken up piece by piece. In your mind, you have to have the sense of the whole in order to keep yourself on the straight and narrow."

So this is why fans are all a-flutter when he turns on his thespian English charm: Indeed, talk has it that it was his sheer persuasiveness which convinced studio heads to rework a storyline in the latest Thor movie, resulting in a radical change in his character's intentions.

"I wanted to find something new to do. We all did. We'd seen Thor and Loki against each other in two films," he says. "Wouldn't it be amazing if, for some reason, they had to get together? Because that would be a dynamic, it would be interesting and complex and fun and offer lots of opportunities for both drama and comedy.

"When you're coming back to do a sequel, you have to keep it fresh for yourself and your audience. Nobody wants to see the same team again."

Hiddleston is a busy working actor the past couple of years. Woody Allen watchers will recognise his striking features as F. Scott Fitzgerald in Midnight In Paris (2011), while Spielberg appreciators would have seen him as Captain Nicholls in War Horse (2011).

His turn as a vampire in cult indie director Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), opposite Tilda Swinton, has opened to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival.

He says: "The vampire thing for Jim is a way of getting into questions of acceptance of love, because if you have two characters who live forever, what does love mean?

"It is a conceit, a conduit into an exploration on immortality and this question of if you had forever to live, how would you spend your time, how would you read, play music, how would you engage with the world?"

What is his personal answer to those questions?

True to form, he quotes somebody else — beautifully — again: "Tilda's character, Eve, says something quite magical: Life is about appreciating nature, nurturing kindness and friendship.

"And plenty of dancing." – The Straits Times, Singapore/Asia News Network

  • Thor: The Dark World is currently playing in cinemas nationwide.
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The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates

Typhoon Haiyan kills at least 100, flattens Philippine city

Posted:

MANILA (Reuters) - Typhoon Haiyan, possibly the strongest storm ever to hit land, has devastated the central Philippine city of Tacloban, killing at least 100 people and destroying most houses in a surge of flood water and high winds, officials said on Saturday.

The toll of death and damage is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers and soldiers reach areas cut off by the massive storm, now barrelling out of the Philippines towards Vietnam.

The category 5 storm weakened after hitting six spots in the Philippines and has been downgraded to category 4, though forecasters said it could strengthen again over the South China Sea on its course to hit Vietnam on Sunday.

The Philippines has yet to resume communications with officials in Tacloban, a city of about 220,000 that suffered the worst of the typhoon, but a senior official estimated at least 100 dead.

"Bodies are lying on the street," said Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, citing a 5 a.m. message from a station manager who only makes contact every four hours to conserve battery power.

The national disaster agency has yet to confirm the toll.

Before communications were cut on Friday, city officials had reported heavy flooding. Mobile phone networks, power lines and trees were toppled and most roads were cut off.

"Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing, but with partial damage," said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency, adding that severed communication links made it hard to fix casualties.

About a million people took shelter in 37 provinces after President Benigno Aquino appealed to those in the typhoon's path to leave vulnerable areas.

Meteorologists said the impact may not have been as strong as feared because the storm was moving so quickly, reducing the risk of flooding and landslides from torrential rain, the biggest causes of typhoon casualties in the Philippines.

Ferry services and airports in the central Philippines remained closed, hampering aid deliveries to Tacloban, although the military said two C-130 transport planes managed to land at its airport on Saturday.

Andrews said the airport terminal was destroyed by the typhoon, which also blew off the roof of the airport tower in Roxas City in Capiz province to the west.

At least two more people had been killed on the tourist destination of Cebu island, radio reports said.

The typhoon was hovering 440 km west of San Jose, in southwestern Occidental Mindoro province, packing winds of a maximum 175 kph, with gusts of up to 210 kph.

The storm lashed the islands of Leyte and Samar with 275-kph wind gusts and 5-6 metre (15-19 ft) waves on Friday before scouring the northern tip of Cebu province.

It weakened slightly as it moved west-northwest near the tourist island of Boracay, later hitting Mindoro island.

Haiyan was the second Category 5 typhoon to hit the Philippines this year after Typhoon Usagi in September. An average of 20 typhoons strike every year, and Haiyan was the 24th in 2013.

Last year, Typhoon Bopha flattened three towns in southern Mindanao, killing 1,100 people and causing damage of more than $1 billion.

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato and Karen Lema; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Clarence Fernandez)

China's leaders open key meeting to set reform agenda

Posted:

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese leaders began a four-day secret meeting on Saturday to set a reform agenda for the next decade as they try to steer the giant economy towards more sustainable growth after three decades of breakneck expansion.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang must unleash new growth drivers as the world's second-largest economy loses steam, burdened by industrial overcapacity, piles of debt and soaring house prices.

The meeting will show just how committed the new leadership is to reform after formally taking power in March.

Economic reforms will dominate the meeting of the 205-member Central Committee of China's ruling Communist Party. Little if any news will be released during the secret gathering, although traditionally official news agency Xinhua releases a long dispatch on the last day.

State television's English-language news channel said the meeting had begun. It gave no other details.

Beijing has tightened security in the run-up to the meeting, and authorities have been more jittery than usual after a vehicle ploughed into a crowd last week on the northern end of Tiananmen Square, an event the government blamed on Islamist extremists.

While some social and political issues could be tackled, such as corruption and pollution, Western-style political reform is certainly not on the agenda.

Yu Zhengsheng, the fourth-ranked member in the elite Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party, said last month the meeting would deliver "unprecedented" economic and societal reforms.

Analysts have cautioned against high expectations as stability remains the watchword for the leadership, even amid media reports top policymakers could take bold steps to deal with entrenched vested interests, such as state monopolies.

The government has pledged to allow market forces to play a bigger role in setting the price of capital, energy and land, and to cut red-tape.

That suggests the biggest changes may be fresh measures to free up interest rates and fiscal changes to allow local governments to manage their debt better and move away from reliance on land sales for revenues.

The meeting may also decide to loosen the household registration system, which blocks migrant workers and their families from access to education and social welfare beyond their home villages.

The system is seen as an impediment to attracting more people to urban areas, a trend the government seeks to encourage to boost consumption.

The leaders may also push land reforms to allow farmers to sell land when they leave their villages. Currently, they cannot sell land freely and many do not leave their farms for fear local governments could grab them for development.

Historically, third plenums in China have served as a springboard for key economic reforms. New leaderships usually spend the first few months in office getting familiar with issues, building consensus before unveiling policy initiatives.

Former leader Deng Xiaoping launched historic reforms to open the economy to the outside world at a third plenum in 1978.

That was followed by a third plenum in 1993 that endorsed the "socialist" market economy, paving the way for sweeping reforms spearheaded by then Premier Zhu Rongji, which led to China's entry into the World Trade Organization.

But the third plenum, in 2003, under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao - predecessors of Xi and Li - failed to yield key reforms. In 2008, they unveiled a 4 trillion yuan ($656 billion) stimulus package, which fuelled a property frenzy and saddled local governments with debt of more than 10 trillion yuan that the economy is still trying to absorb today.

(Editing by Neil Fullick and Clarence Fernandez)

Obama says U.S. needs to update policies on Cuba

Posted:

MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday that it may be time for the United States to revise its policies toward Cuba, against which it has had an embargo for more than half a century.

"We have to be creative and we have to be thoughtful and we have to continue to update our policies," he said at a fundraising event in the Miami area.

"Keep in mind that when Castro came to power I was just born, so the notion that the same policies that we put in place in 1961 would somehow still be as effective as they are today in the age of the Internet, Google and world travel doesn't make sense," he added, referring to Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban revolution.

Incremental changes in U.S. Cuba policy have allowed greater communication with people on the island and the transfer of remittances, Obama said.

"But I think we all understand that ultimately, freedom in Cuba will come because extraordinary activists and the incredible courage of folks like we see here today," he told a small audience at the home of Jorge Mas, a telecommunications equipment executive. "But the United States can help."

A younger generation of U.S. politicians and Americans of Cuban ancestry are likely more open to finding "new mechanisms" to bring about change on the island, he said.

The U.S. embargo against Cuba is controversial internationally and the United Nations in October voted for the 22nd time to condemn it. Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said the fact that the embargo has been in place for more than half a century is "barbaric."

Obama said before taking office that he wanted to recast long-hostile U.S.-Cuba relations, but his efforts have been a disappointment to the Cuban government, which hoped he would do more to dismantle the embargo.

U.S. diplomats have said that while the United States welcomes some of the recent changes in Cuba, the country still has one of the most restrictive economic systems in the world.

Even so, the two countries have made small advances toward one another. Diplomats sat down in September to discuss re-establishing direct mail between the United States and Cuba, which has been suspended since 1963.

Obama restarted the talks, along with discussions of immigration issues, in 2009. However the negotiations broke off after Cuba arrested U.S. contractor Alan Gross, who was sentenced in 2011 to 15 years for his role in setting up an underground Internet network.
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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

'American Horror Story' gets a Season 4

Posted:

The TV horror series' popularity keeps on rising.

Ryan Murphy's creepy anthology series American Horror Story has been granted a fourth run. FX made the announcement Wednesday, saying that the 13-episode fourth season will debut in 2014.

John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions, called series co-creator Murphy "a master television producer" in announcing the renewal.

"Time and time again he reinvents the form," Landgraf said. "What he, co-creator Brad Falchuk and their producers Dante Di Loreto, Tim Minear, Jennifer Salt, James Wong, Brad Buecker, Jessica Sharzer, Douglas Petrie, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, Alexis Martin Woodall and the entire production team and cast responsible for the American Horror Story franchise have done is nothing short of extraordinary.

"Every year, they create a riveting and brilliant new miniseries. AHS: Coven is the best yet, and I have no doubt that the next instalment will be even better."

As is typical of the series, FX was mum on details about the untitled fourth season. At a gathering with reporters earlier this year, Murphy said that he may reveal the concept for the next season in the finale of the current season. The current third season of American Horror Story, which set a series record with its premiere episode, has been the best-rated instalment of the series so far.

With an average 7.74 million total viewers, American Horror Story: Coven is up 77% over the first season, American Horror Story: Murder House, and the second season, American Horror Story: Asylum, by 83%.

The series has also been a creative success, racking up 34 Emmy nominations throughout its run so far. — Reuters

NCIS gets a new cast member

Posted:

Actress Emily Wickersham is now a series regular in the hit programme.

I Am Number Four actress Emily Wickersham has been cast as a series regular on the CBS drama NCIS, starting with the Nov 19 episode that will air in the United States.

Wickersham, whose TV credits nclude The Sopranos, The Bridge and Gossip Girl, plays NSA analyst Eleanor "Ellie" Bishop, who's described by CBS as "a mysterious mixture of analytic brilliance, fierce determination and idealism who specialises in international threat assessment and global preparation."

Bishop will be introduced when it is discovered the Secretary of the Navy was bugged during a confidential briefing, a security breach Bishop described in exact detail two years ago in a threat analysis report.

Working side-by-side with Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and the team, Bishop cross-examines the case file to help determine who is behind the crime. — Reuters

New animation on WWE stars as kids

Posted:

WWE and Film Roman team up to make web series about young wrestling stars.

WWE Studios has partnered with Film Roman, The Simpsons animation studio, to co-finance and co-produce Camp WWE, a new animated web series imagining the WWE's biggest stars as kids, the companies announced Monday.

Mike Benson, a writer and co-executive producer for Entourage and The Bernie Mac Show, will write the series, which will consist of 13 three-minute episodes.

"With a combination of their unique personalities, distinctive characteristics and huge built-in loyal fan base, WWE Superstars make for ideal animation subjects in Camp WWE," Dana Booton, general manager for Film Roman, said in a statement.

"We are very pleased to be working with WWE Studios and hope that it will begin a mutually beneficial, long-term business relationship."

The show will envision WWE stars as a lot of rebellious kids who fight and claw their way through school. Their parents send them off to camp to reform their behaviour, a camp run by a strict counsellor named Mr McMahon – the name, of course, of WWE CEO Vince McMahon.

Bradley Buchanan negotiated the deal for WWE Studios while Marc Barson and Yvette Thomassian negotiated the deal for Film Roman. "Film Roman has been involved with some of the most well-known and humorous animated series," Michael Luisi, president WWE Studios, said in a statement.

"They are the perfect partners for WWE Studios to capture our Superstars in a truly unique and fun way." — Reuters
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The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business

E&O sets up sales gallery in Singapore

Posted:

EASTERN and Oriental Bhd (E&O) has established a new sales gallery in Singapore at One Raffles Link.

Deputy managing director Eric Chan says the 4,118 sq ft sales gallery is an important platform in the international arena.

Its neighbours include iconic landmarks, multinational companies, foreign banks and upscale commercial buildings.

"Once we identified the right location and size, we then envisioned a space that catered to discerning clients. (We want to ensure) our clients could immediately relate and be inspired by E&O values the moment they step into our gallery," Chan told StarBiz. Brandishing the line "Expect nothing ordinary", the showroom welcomes its guests with its signature marble columns, known as Palissandro Blue, a natural stone sourced from Italy.

He says the gallery is a significant investment and the developer took almost two years to identify the location.

"The opening of the E&O Property Gallery is vital in our efforts to extend our reach overseas. Singapore is a gateway to the rest of Asia, which enables us to reach a wider regional and global audience," he says, adding that the Lion City has a growing number of affluent and high net worth individuals. "Singapore has naturally been a key anchor market in our foreign buyer segment. This is understandable given the proximity of our two countries, cultural ties and the pull of Malaysia's relatively more affordable properties."

He says international homeowners are exploring new frontiers and have become more open in investing in properties overseas. They will be looking for a trustworthy brand.

"Based on our clientele profile of more than 20 nationalities, there is a growing recognition of our brand and acceptance outside Malaysia," he says.

E&O's international home buyers represents about a third of its total buyers for its St Mary Residences project in Kuala Lumpur. They come from Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China and Britain. Singaporeans made up 36% and 34% for the overall foreign buyers for St Mary Residences and Quayside, Penang respectively.

Its ties with international establishments has also helped open doors to an international audience.

He did not rule out the possibility of partnering with some of its existing partners again but noted that Avira Wellness City – a joint venture between Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd and E&O – for instance, will last the developer for five to seven years. He will be launching Avira next month.

"We have invested a lot of time and effort with (Japanese developer) Mitsui Fudosan and we hope this will continue after The Mews," he says.

It has proposed to acquire a 135 acres, part of the larger 5,000-acre City of Elmina, from major shareholder Sime Darby Bhd in September. This will be its second wellness-themed project.

"People are getting affluent at a younger age. They are taking preventive measures such as maintaining a more balanced lifestyle in order to prolong their quality active days. So why not translate this trend into a living environment?" he asks.

The process will take time as the master developer has to take into consideration land and infrastructure costs.

As for Avira, E&O will be working with Destination Spa Management which manages spas, health resorts and wellness centres to come up with Avira's concept.

"It's not (just) about retirement homes. It's about empowering you, to take wellness to your hands," he says.

The Kancils nets more entries

Posted:

THE 2013 Kancil Awards, which took place in Kuala Lumpur last night, attracted 20% more entries this year at 1,512.

According to 4As creative council chairman Sa'ad Hussein, it shows that "people recognise Kancil as the main (advertising) awards show in the country."

"Our job here is to encourage creativity in Malaysia and invite more international judges to boost our standards," he tells reporters.

"The most important thing about the Kancil Awards is sharing the great works that the people in the industry have done, and the sharing and collaboration will actually help to improve Malaysia's standards of creativity," he adds.

The category that received the highest number of entries this year was the Outdoor category, followed by the Print Craft category.

The Kancil Awards, organised by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Malaysia (4As), added four new categories this year to 15.

The four categories were Film Craft, Mobile, Entertainment & Branded Content, and Vernacular.

"The four new categories may have been the reason for the increase in the number of entries for this year," says Sa'ad.

To keep up with the latest trends, he says the Mobile category is added to this year's competition due to an increase in ideas that are tailored for smart phones.

"We have to encourage mobile-based work, it is the new touchpoint of communication," he adds.

Meanwhile, on the judging criteria, Sa'ad, who is also chief creative officer of TBWA Group. says they remain unchanged and that the entries are assessed on three judging criteria – the idea (it must be original and inspiring), execution and relevance.

"At the end of the day, there must be a story in every little piece of communication. Whether it is for TV, radio or print, the story has to come through," says Edward Ong, executive creative director of Rapp Malaysia and also the Kancil Awards deputy chairman.

Saying that advertising is no different than fishing, Kancil Awards 2013 judges believe that advertising now is about going out there and looking for people. "They are not looking for you anymore," says Ong.

"In fishing, you have to understand how deep the water is, what kind of fish you want to catch, and then decide what kind of bait you want to put on the hook.

"What we are doing is trying is to hook the fish. The technique that we use in advertising is the kind of bait that we put onto the hook, and then hopefully the type of fish that we are looking for will take a bite," Ong said.

The Kancil Awards is the most prestigious creative award show in the local advertising industry.

Among the international judges this year were Yang Yeo from JWT Shanghai, China; Kentaro Kimura from Hakuhodo Kettle, Japan; Thomas H Kim from Cheil, Korea; Scott McClelland from BBH Singapore; Jaime Merlee from DM9, Philippines; Pann Lim from Kinetic Singapore; Johnathan Yuen from Whererootsare, Singapore; Dani Comar from Geometry Asia, Singapore; Noor Aishikin from DDB, Singapore.

TBWA Kuala Lumpur was the biggest winner at the Kancils last night, netting the "Agency of The Year" accolade with six silver and 14 bronze. BBDO "caught" the Golden Kancil for its campaign for KFC.

Shanghai tightens housing rules

Posted:

BEIJING: Shanghai will raise the minimum down payment for second-home purchases to 70% from 60% in a bid to calm surging home prices, according to the city's housing bureau, following similar moves by other big cities in China.

Home prices in large Chinese cities have set records, despite a four-year long government campaign to cool the property market, raising concerns over a potential price bubble and even social unrest as housing becomes increasingly unaffordable for many people.

Shanghai is the third city to implement a minimum down payment for second-home buyers of as high as 70%, and its move comes after Shenzhen and Beijing tightened measures in recent months.

"We will continue to improve the systems of the property market and affordable housing to effectively curb excessively fast property price rises," the bureau said in a statement on its website. www.shfg.gov.cn. More cities are expected to follow suit.

"Guangzhou should be the next to move," said Liu Yuan, a head of research at property consultancy Centaline.

In Shanghai, where houses are among the most expensive in China, home prices rose 17% in September from a year ago. Guangzhou's prices jumped 20% and Beijing prices rose 16% in the month, both record growth rates.

China property shares extended losses yesterday after the announcement. Poly Real Estate ended down 1.1% in Shanghai, while Country Garden sank 3% and China Resources Land was down 1.6% in Hong Kong.

Property shares have been roiled by uncertainty ahead of the Communist Party's Third Plenum from today to Monday, which will see some of China's top leaders gather behind closed doors to set the economic agenda for the next decade. Investors are waiting to see if any controls on the market will be announced after the meeting.

Also under the new Shanghai rules, migrant families in the city without residence permits must have paid their monthly social security fees or income tax for two years before they are qualified to buy a first home in the city. Previously they only needed to pay the fees for one year.

The housing bureau would increase the land supply for residential homes and study ways to lower the threshold for affordable housing applicants next year to allow more people to be covered by public housing, it added. – Reuters
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The Star Online: Nation

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The Star Online: Nation

Ipoh-born makes it big as top scientist in renowned firm

Posted:

PETALING JAYA: Passionate about science as a boy, Ipoh-born Dr Joseph Chang (pic) never dreamt that he would one day become the top scientist at an international direct-selling company.

Leaving home at 17 to study overseas, Dr Chang, now 61, is the chief scientific officer at Nu Skin Enter­prises Inc, a leading distributor of anti-aging products and supplements.

Prior to that, he co-founded a nutritional supplement company called Pharmanex, with its range of products sold in 38,000 stores in the United States before it was bought over by Nu Skin.

"My journey is one pleasant accident after another," he said.

"I was planning on returning to Malaysia after doing my doctorate in pharmacology at the University of London.

"But opportunities presented themselves to me," said Dr Chang, who was a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University in the United States before being offered a job to do research and development for a drug company.

After successfully developing drugs to aid arthritis and organ rejection, he went on to form Pharmanex in 1995, and sold it to Nu Skin three years later.

Nu Skin currently operates in 53 markets across the United States, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Even though he is now an American, Dr Chang, a father of two, said he would visit Malaysia every year and missed the delicious durian and his hometown's signature hor fun.

"You can take a guy out of Ipoh but you can't take Ipoh out of a guy," he quipped.

Dr Chang, who lives in Utah, said it was important to be creative in one's efforts to achieve goals.

"Malaysian parents are interesting to me.

"They are averse to risk and insist that their children take up 'safe' professions like medicine, law and engineering.

"Malaysian parents cannot accept failure well," he noted.

"To them, it is not seen as a temporary speed bump.

"But that is part of the challenge that comes from the unknown," Dr Chang said.

"What matters is that you can recover from the failure."

Sect founder’s widow pleads guilty

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: The widow of the late Ashaari Muhammad, founder of the outlawed Al-Arqam movement, used her position in a company here to revive teachings that go against Islamic laws, a syariah court here charged.

Hatijah Aam, 59, a director of Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd, was accused of using her position to revive the Al-Arqam teachings which go against a fatwa gazetted on Aug 11, 1994 and Dec 21, 2006.

She pleaded guilty to the charge, under Section 12(c) of the Selangor Syariah Criminal Enactment 1995 at the Lower Syariah Court in Gombak, near here, yesterday.

Syarie judge Kamarulzaman Ali instructed Hatijah, to be bound over on a good behaviour bond for one year in one surety.

He earlier fined her RM1,000 for publishing a book entitled 45 Tahun 1968-2013 Perjuangan Abuya Sheikh Umam Ashaari Muhammad At-Tamimi, that went against the hukum syarak (Islamic law) this year by the company.

The offensive content against Islam was detected on pages 54 and 159 of the book, the court ruled.

Hatijah was charged under Section 16(1)(a) of the Selangor Syariah Criminal Enactment 1995 for this offence.

Judge Kamarulzaman meted out the sentences after Hatijah pleaded guilty to committing the offences at the company's office in Jalan Desa 9/6, Bandar Country Homes, Rawang, between Jan 1, 2008 and 2013.

Also in the same court, the judge instructed 17 others – aged 18 to 58 – to be bound over on a good behaviour bond for one year in one surety each for being involved in Rufaqa' Cor­poration Sdn Bhd, which also has elements similar to the Al-Arqam teachings and ideology.

They pleaded guilty to the charge, under Section 12 (c) of the same syariah enactment.

Judge Kamarulzaman warned Hatijah and the 17 others not to get involved in any activities connected to the banned Al-Arqam or any teachings that go against fatwa rulings and ordered them to undergo a 500-hour dakwah course.

Muhammad Rafizan Ahmad Supian and Aiman Ruslan were the Syarie prosecutors while Hatijah and her followers were unrepresented.

Summing up, judge Kamarulzaman said he hoped that they would not repeat the offences, adding that the guilty plea had saved the court's time.

"The guilty plea should be accompanied by contrition and regret. Remorse is just like an icing on the cake and thus, we should take things moderately," he said.

Ashaari, who died in 2010, was also known as Abuya to his followers.

The movement was declared deviant and banned by the Government in 1994 and displaced members allegedly went on to form Global Ikhwan, which is involved in several businesses.

MTUC welcomes move on maids

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: The MTUC has welcomed the Government's decision to recruit Cambodian domestic workers, thus ending Phnom Penh two-year moratorium on the recruitment.

MTUC secretary-general Abdul Halim Mansor said the new practice would remove the involvement of agents and middlemen and effectively eliminate the huge recruitment fee, which is about RM8,000 to RM12,000.

"This new procedure will give a big relief to families who need dom­estic workers," he said, here, yesterday. — Bernama
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