Selasa, 12 November 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Govt to relook taxi fare structure

Posted:

THE Government will relook the taxi fare structure to make it simpler and easier to compare across cab operators, said Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo.

Admitting that today's taxi fare structure is "complex and confusing for commuters", Teo said yesterday that the Land Transport Authority will work with the Public Transport Council and cab companies to look into retooling the fare structure.

This will take into account "the impact on taxi drivers, ultimately to have a taxi fare structure that best serves commuters' interests", Teo told Parliament.

Responding to Liang Eng Hwa (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC), Teo said taxi fares were deregulated in Sept 1998 to allow cab operators to set their own fares to be "more responsive to market conditions".

On whether fare structures now ensure enough taxis ply the roads, Teo said the different surcharges have been imposed to better match taxi supply with demand by giving incentives to cabbies to serve locations and time periods where the demand is high.

Taxi companies are required to publicise fare revisions at least one week in advance in the media and on their websites. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Charged with hacking

Posted:

Alleged hacker James Raj Arokia-samy will be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric evaluation, the court ruled.

This means the 35-year-old, who is charged with hacking the Ang Mo Kio Town Council website on Oct 28, will not be allowed access to any third parties except for medical personnel until the evaluation is complete.

District Judge Kessler Soh allowed the application despite protestations from Raj, who told the court that he had suffered a concussion and assaulted when arrested on Nov 4. The alleged hacker also claimed to have been denied contact with his mother and deprived of medical attention for long periods. He insisted that he had been taken out of context when he said in court yesterday morning that he suffered from Attention Deficit Hyper-activity Disorder (ADHD).

His lawyer M. Ravi said the man's demeanour in court showed he did not suffer from any mental condition and therefore should not be remanded.

But Deputy Public Prosecutor Tang Shangjun said Raj was merely "changing his tune", and argued that no prejudice would be caused by remanding him at IMH. The next mention for the case has been fixed for Nov 26. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Online scam alert after woman almost falls prey

Posted:

Police have issued a public alert after a woman almost fell prey to an online scam over the weekend.

The woman met the suspect through a social networking website in September and they communicated through that site as well as on instant messaging platforms. They even exchanged compromising photographs of each other, said the police in a press statement on Monday night.

Earlier this month, the suspect, a Caucasian male, told the woman that he would be coming to Singapore and wanted to meet her. But he requested money from her before the trip, saying it was for "clearance and administrative fees". The money was to be transferred to his overseas bank account.

The woman, sensing that something was amiss, made a police report instead. Members of the public are advised to be aware of such scams, said the police.

For instance, be wary of messages from strangers who want to be friends and do not transfer money overseas to anyone claiming to be in trouble over the Internet. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio


Travel Channel greenlights new Adam Richman series

Posted:

Four other shows also get okay.

ADAM Richman and the Travel Channel are breaking bread together again. Man v. Food host Richman will host another series for the network, as part of a quintet of greenlit series that Travel Channel announced on Nov 11.

Richman's show, which bears the working title Eat Secrets, will feature Richman uncovering "the most unique, surprising and delicious hidden food treasures in every town", according to Travel Channel.

"He searches for the dishes you would never find anywhere else on the planet, at the places you would never expect," Travel Channel said of the 13-episode series.

"Whether it's an off-the-menu item only locals know, or an amazing eatery inside a bowling alley, Adam's the go-to-guy for America's most mouth-watering meals."

Also on the slate of Travel Channel's upcoming offerings: Resort Recon, in which hospitality consultant Shane Green exposes unrecognised problems that various resorts have, using multiple camera feeds to expose poor customer service, dysfunctional employee-owner relationships other issues.

Travel Channel has also added three new series under its "Secrets & Legends" banner: Castle Secrets & Legends, which will bring viewers to "stunning castles, amazing manor houses and magnificent mansions"; Hotel Secrets & Legends" and National Park Secrets & Legends. – Reuters

Get set for the greatest show on Earth

Posted:

GET your 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil fix with Stadium Astro. The upcoming tournament will take place from June 12 to July 13 next year and Astro, the official broadcaster for Malaysia, will have full coverage of all 64 matches live in high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD).

Astro Sports Pack customers will get to enjoy the World Cup on 10 dedicated channels.

For the first time, viewers can also catch all the action on mobile devices through Astro On-The-Go. This feature is exclusive to Astro Sports Pack customers. Selected matches will also be available with Bahasa Malaysia commentary on Astro Arena (Astro Ch 801/SD or Ch 831/HD). From April 1, non-Sports Pack subscribers and NJOI customers may purchase a special pass that allows them to view all 64 matches live.

Stadium Astro also has a number of other sporting events lined up for viewing next year such as the Thomas Cup, UEFA Champions League, 17th Asian Games and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. For more information, log on to www.astro.com.my.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews


Jackie Chan alive and kicking

Posted:

Action hero Jackie Chan debunks rumours of his demise ... again!

JACKIE Chan is not dead. And he's not retiring.

"There are so many different rumours, I am getting used to it," the 59-year-old actor-director says of online reports of his demise. "Don't worry, before I die, I'll let you know."

Chan may be looking to slow down on the action, but after more than 50 years and 100-plus movies, he seems unstoppable.

His 2012 film, CZ12 aka Chinese Zodiac (which was released in the US late last month), still features him leaping from buildings, fighting in the air and rolling down a mountain in a full-body rollerskate suit.

The movie, about a quest to recover pillaged relics, is one of China's highest-grossing home-grown films ever, despite mixed reviews. Up next: another Police Story instalment and the action-comedy Skiptrace.

What was the most difficult part about the stunts in Chinese Zodiac?

The age. I'm not like I used to be – young – anymore. But I still do my own things. It used to be Jackie Chan action is like Hollywood action. But now the whole Hollywood action ... they combine with special effects, computer graphics. We cannot do that because the audience, they don't like to see Jackie Chan flying around like a Superman, like a Batman. They want Jackie Chan to do the real thing. That's the most difficult part.

How long do you think you can keep doing stunts like this?

I don't know. When I was 40, I said: "Another five years, I'm going to retire." Then at 45: "Another five years, I'm going to retire." Then at 50 I said, "Another five years, I retire." I'll do it until I cannot do it (anymore).

Would you ever consider being in a superhero movie like Iron Man or Avengers?

I want to. Please, all the directors, James Cameron: hire me. ... I love to do this kind of movie. Blue background with all the wire, flying around, that's more easy. But all the directors, they think about me: OK, Rush Hour 4 and Shanghai Noon. You have to do your own stunts, Jackie. (I'd) rather do a drama, comedy drama, a love story, sing a song on the beach, running around, slow motion, with a girl, kissing. But nobody buys a ticket to see Jackie Chan in a theatre kissing. No.

You're one of the few actors in the Chinese film industry who's been successful in Hollywood. Why is it so hard to go between the two?

I think I chose the right way. My movies, even without dialogue you understand what's going on – lots of action, but no violence and no dirty jokes, no F-word. My movie is not only for the Hong Kong market or Chinese market (but) for the whole world. All those years, Jackie Chan is like a bank. I collect fans, and when they come to the Jackie Chan bank, they never go away.

Are you going to do Rush Hour 4?

I don't know! Yesterday, I met with Chris Tucker. We sat down: "Jackie, let's do something. Rush Hour 4." Will we do something? Yeah, if we find a good script.

You've already made more than 100 films. What's your favourite?

Maybe with Rush Hour, many people liked watching it, I made a lot of money, but it isn't the kind of movie I like to make. The movie I want to make, I still haven't found.

In the US, they always (say) action movie, action movie. When I'm filming in China, I can make Rob-B-Hood and I can make Shinjuku Incident. Drama, very dark. I'm tired of doing action thing, so this is why I choose Karate Kid and Tuxedo. I try to let the audience know I'm not only an action star, I'm an actor. Because action star, the life is very short.

You mentioned one time you want to be the Asian Robert De Niro.

Look at Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman, they can do all kinds of things. That's what I want to do. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Game on for Harrison Ford

Posted:

More than 30 years after Star Wars, Harrison Ford has returned to inter-stellar space battles in big-budget sci-fi spectacular Ender's Game.

But the 71-year-old insists it's the human relations rather than hi-tech wizardry that drew him to the project, developed from a novel by Orson Scott Card and directed by South African X-Men director Gavin Hood.

"It doesn't matter to me whether I go back into outer space or not," he told reporters in Beverly Hills.

"The job is the same and I don't have any sort of genre preferences.

"I'm just looking for a good story, a good character, whether Earth-bound or not."

In a film which will resonate with Star Wars fans recalling the young Luke Skywalker and the crusty Han Solo, Ford plays Colonel Graff, training a group of children and teenagers how to protect the Earth from an alien invasion.

The best bet to save the world is Ender, played by Britain's Asa Butterfield, who starred in Martin Scorsese's 2011 drama Hugo.

Timid, but with an exceptional gift for military strategy and tactics, he becomes the hero of a film in which inter-galactic battles are played out in space and in a simulated game world.

It is almost Ford's first sci-fi film since the last Star Wars movie, apart from a role in 2011's Cowboys And Aliens.

And science fiction has changed quite a bit since director George Lucas released the initial trilogy of the cult movie franchise in 1977 – as Ford explained as he presented his latest movie.

"When we were making Star Wars, they were putting together space ships out of plastic model kits of cars, boats and trains, and gluing them all together, and then putting them on a stick and flying them past the camera.

"And it worked. It was fine. Add a little music and you believed that big spaceship coming over your head," he said.

Dismisses the label "icon"

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) can achieve incredible effects, but the veteran Hollywood actor warns they should not be abused.

"Often in those cases I feel you lose touch with the human characters and what it is that they would feel and how they might feel, and that's still the most important part.

Into his seventh decade, the actor is in fact busier than ever, with three other films released this year: 42, Paranoia and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

But the legendary Indiana Jones actor, while one of the most famous actors in the world, dismisses the label of "icon".

"An icon means nothing to me. I don't understand what it means to anybody, actually. It seems like a word of convenience.

"It seems to attend to the huge success of certain kinds of movies that I did, but ... I don't know what an icon does, except stand in a corner quietly accepting everyone's attention," he joked. — AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates


Al Qaeda in Yemen vows revenge for Shi'ite rebel attack on Salafis

Posted:

RIYADH (Reuters) - Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has pledged revenge against Shi'ite Houthi rebels in northern Yemen for their assault on a Salafi school in Dammaj, Site Monitoring Service reported late on Tuesday, citing a statement from the group.

Fighting between Houthis and Salafis in the traditional Dammaj school, in the heart of Shi'ite territory, caused more than 100 deaths over the past two weeks and threatens to cause more sectarian tensions in Yemen.

The impoverished Arabian Peninsula state faces a host of political troubles, including the Houthi rebellion, an al Qaeda uprising, splits in the military and a southern separatist movement.

Western countries fear further turmoil could create more space to operate for AQAP, already seen as one of the most dangerous al Qaeda branches after it plotted attacks on international airliners, in a country that sits alongside big oil shipping routes.

AQAP's warning it would seek revenge was contained in the transcript of a video recording by Harith bin Ghazi al-Nadhari, a religious official in the militant group, and posted by Yemeni journalist Abdul Razza al-Jamal on his Facebook page, Site reported.

"We declare our total solidarity with our Sunni brothers in the centre in Dammaj, and in other Sunni areas that the Houthi group had attacked," said Harithi's statement.

"Your crimes against the Sunni people will not pass without punishment or disciplinary action," it added.

The statement also attempted to place the fighting in northern Yemen in the context of a wider Middle East sectarian struggle, comparing it to the war in Syria where Sunni rebels are fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, who belongs to the Alawi sect, a Shi'ite offshoot.

"It is a siege no different than that imposed upon Gaza or Homs or the Damascus countryside," Harithi said.

Salafis in Dar al-Hadith, the Dammaj school, have previously distanced themselves from al Qaeda and criticised Osama bin Laden, but the seminary has also educated Muslims who later became prominent militants.

The Houthi rebel movement emerged in the early 2000s, claiming it would fight against what it saw as the marginalisation of Shi'ites of the Zaydi sect, which prevails in the Yemeni highlands. One of its grievances was the incroachment of Salafi doctrine in Zaydi areas.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall)

Philippine president says typhoon death toll overstated

Posted:

TACLOBAN, Philippines (Reuters) - Philippine President Benigno Aquino said local officials had overstated the death toll from Typhoon Haiyan, saying it was closer to 2,000 or 2,500 than the 10,000 previously estimated, comments that drew scepticism from some aid workers.

The government has been overwhelmed by the typhoon, which flattened Tacloban, coastal capital of Leyte province where several local officials have said they feared 10,000 people died, many drowning in a tsunami-like surge of seawater.

Rescue workers have yet to reach scores of other towns and villages in the path of one of the strongest storms on record, five days after it smashed into the central Philippines.

Aquino, who has been on the defensive over his handling of the disaster, said the government was still gathering information from various storm-struck areas and the death toll may rise. "Ten thousand, I think, is too much," Aquino told CNN in an interview. "There was emotional drama involved with that particular estimate.

"We're hoping to be able to contact something like 29 municipalities left wherein we still have to establish their numbers, especially for the missing, but so far 2,000, about 2,500, is the number we are working on as far as deaths are concerned," he said.

A presidential spokesman said Aquino referred to estimated deaths. Official confirmed deaths stood at 1,774 on Tuesday, with only 84 missing, a figure aid workers consider widely inaccurate.

Some aid workers also expressed scepticism at Aquino's dramatically lower death toll.

"Probably it will be higher because numbers are just coming in. Many of the areas we cannot access," Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, told Reuters.

The preliminary number of missing, according to the Red Cross, is 22,000. Pang cautioned that figure could include people who have since been located. "They report their relatives missing but they don't alert us when they are found," she said.

UNPRECEDENTED DISASTER FOR THE PHILIPPINES

More the 670,000 people have been displaced by the storm and many have no access to food, water or medicine, the United Nations said.

With international aid efforts picking up, relief supplies have begun pouring into Tacloban along roads flanked with corpses and canyons of debris.

Natasha Reyes, emergency coordinator in the Philippines at Médecins Sans Frontières, described the devastation as unprecedented for the disaster-prone archipelago.

"There are hundreds of other towns and villages stretched over thousands of kilometres that were in the path of the typhoon and with which all communication has been cut," Reyes said.

U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos, who is in the Philippines, called the scale of destruction "shocking".

Aquino has declared a state of national calamity and deployed hundreds of soldiers to control looting in Tacloban, a once-vibrant port city of 220,000 that is now a wasteland.

The local government was wiped out by the storm, said Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas. Officials were dead, missing or too overcome with grief to work. Of the city's 293 police officers, only 20 had shown up for duty, he said.

Medical workers are treating the injured at evacuation centres for lacerations and other wounds. But many complain of a lack of food and poor hygiene.

One woman sat on a bench in a hospital in the city, her decomposing 5-month-old baby in her arms, wrapped in a black jacket. The infant was sick before the typhoon. After the storm, she sought medicine in the hospital. There was none. Her baby, she said, convulsed and died.

"It feels like I'm going crazy since I keep thinking how we can solve our problems. We want to go back home, but we can't even if my baby's starting to smell. We just want to go back," she said on ABS-CBN television.

FOREIGN MEDICAL TEAMS ARRIVE

U.N. officials said getting food, medicine and clean water to the disaster zone were the priorities, along with sanitation and shelter.

The World Health Organisation said teams from Belgium, Japan, Israel and Norway had arrived in the Philippines to set up field hospitals. It said other countries were expected to provide medical teams.

More than 250 U.S. forces were on the ground too, and a senior Marine official told Pentagon reporters he expected that number to grow every day.

"Our priority for supplying aid is potable water, food, shelter, hygiene products, and medical supplies," said Pentagon spokesman George Little.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington will arrive later this week, carrying about 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft. It has been joined by four other U.S. Navy ships.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the development lender was considering boosting its conditional cash transfer program for the Philippines.

Rescuers have reached some remote parts of the coast that were previously cut off, such as Guiuan, a city of 40,000 people that suffered massive destruction from high winds but was spared the storm surge that washed over Tacloban. Local officials say 85 people were killed in Guiuan, with 24 missing.

The typhoon also levelled Basey, a seaside town in Samar province about 10 km (6 miles) across a bay from Tacloban. Local officials say 80 people were killed in Basey.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the economic damage in the coconut- and rice-growing region would likely shave 1 percentage point off of economic growth in 2014.

The overall financial cost of the destruction was harder to assess. Initial estimates varied widely, with a report from German-based CEDIM Forensic Disaster Analysis putting the total at $8 billion to $19 billion.

(Additional reporting by Rosemarie Francisco in Manila, and Phil Stewart and Susan Heavey in Washington. Writing by Dean Yates. Editing by Jason Szep)

Hawaii legislature gives final nod to legalizing gay marriage

Posted:

HONOLULU (Reuters) - The Hawaii Senate gave final legislative approval on Tuesday to a bill extending marriage rights to same-sex couples in a state popular as a wedding and honeymoon destination and regarded as a pioneer in advancing the cause of gay matrimony.

The measure cleared the Democratic-controlled state Senate on a 19-4 vote to cheers and applause from hundreds of supporters in flowered garland leis who filled the visitor galleries and the Capitol rotunda.

Hundreds more danced for joy on the sidewalks in front of the Capitol building.

Governor Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat who called a special session to consider the bill, is expected to sign it into law on Wednesday, an aide to the governor said. That would make Hawaii the 15th U.S. state to legalize gay marriage.

The measure, set to take effect on December 2, rolls back a 1994 statute defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

President Barack Obama, who was born in Hawaii, hailed passage of the bill in a statement.

"Whenever freedom and equality are affirmed, our country becomes stronger," said Obama, the first U.S. president to support gay marriage. "By giving loving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry if they choose, Hawaii exemplifies the values we hold dear as a nation."

Amended in the state House of Representatives last week to strengthen exemptions for clergy and religious groups, the measure easily cleared the Senate with the body's lone Republican joining three Democrats in opposing it. Two other Democrats were absent.

The path to legal gay marriage in Hawaii has been long and bumpy. The state's Supreme Court ruled two decades ago that barring same-sex nuptials was discriminatory in a landmark opinion that propelled the gay rights movement nationwide.

That ruling also sparked a backlash that has until now kept marriage limited to heterosexual couples in Hawaii.

The reversal by Hawaii lawmakers comes at a time of increasing momentum for gay marriage in the courts, at the ballot box and in statehouses across the United States.

The trend has gained steam since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that married same-sex couples are eligible for federal benefits, striking down a key part of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act. In a separate ruling the same day, the high court paved the way for lifting a ban on gay marriage in California.

The justices stopped short in both 5-4 decisions of declaring a nationwide right to same-sex marriage. Proponents and opponents of gay marriage have vowed to continue their battle state by state.

SPEAKING OF FAITH

A state court judge last week refused a request from opponents for a temporary restraining order to block action on the legislation but said he would examine the constitutionality of the bill once it was enacted.

Allowing gays to marry has been vehemently opposed in Hawaii by religious conservatives, as elsewhere in the country.

"You can try to force people to do something they don't believe in, but you can't make it so," Republican state Senator Sam Slom said before the vote.

Supporters say the Hawaii bill was crafted to address concerns that legalizing same-sex marriage would infringe on religious freedoms. The bill explicitly exempts clergy from having to perform gay weddings if doing so would conflict with their religious beliefs.

It also grants immunity from administrative, civil and legal liability to religious organizations and officials for refusing to provide goods and services, or their facilities or grounds, for same-sex weddings and related events.

"This is about government recognizing two individuals - government, not churches," said Democratic state Senator Will Espero during the debate.

In 2003, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to permit gay marriage. A year ago, only six states and the District of Columbia recognized gay marriage. That number has since more than doubled, due in most cases to litigation over the issue.

Three states - Maine, Maryland and Washington - became the first to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples by popular vote with passage of ballot initiatives last November.

Last month, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie dropped his legal opposition to gay marriage, making his state the 14th to legalize same-sex weddings.

Illinois lawmakers gave final approval to a same-sex marriage bill on November 5, and Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign that measure into law this month.

The debate has long divided Hawaii. In 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled it was discriminatory to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples.

But the legislature voted the following year to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples, passing a law at odds with the courts. And in 1998, Hawaii voters took the courts out of the equation by approving a constitutional amendment giving the legislature power to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

Abercrombie, who served more than two decades in the U.S. Congress before running for governor in 2010, signed a same-sex civil unions bill into law two years ago. His predecessor, Republican Linda Lingle, vetoed a civil unions bill in 2010.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christopher Wilson)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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Jackie Chan alive and kicking

Posted:

Action hero Jackie Chan debunks rumours of his demise ... again!

JACKIE Chan is not dead. And he's not retiring.

"There are so many different rumours, I am getting used to it," the 59-year-old actor-director says of online reports of his demise. "Don't worry, before I die, I'll let you know."

Chan may be looking to slow down on the action, but after more than 50 years and 100-plus movies, he seems unstoppable.

His 2012 film, CZ12 aka Chinese Zodiac (which was released in the US late last month), still features him leaping from buildings, fighting in the air and rolling down a mountain in a full-body rollerskate suit.

The movie, about a quest to recover pillaged relics, is one of China's highest-grossing home-grown films ever, despite mixed reviews. Up next: another Police Story instalment and the action-comedy Skiptrace.

What was the most difficult part about the stunts in Chinese Zodiac?

The age. I'm not like I used to be – young – anymore. But I still do my own things. It used to be Jackie Chan action is like Hollywood action. But now the whole Hollywood action ... they combine with special effects, computer graphics. We cannot do that because the audience, they don't like to see Jackie Chan flying around like a Superman, like a Batman. They want Jackie Chan to do the real thing. That's the most difficult part.

How long do you think you can keep doing stunts like this?

I don't know. When I was 40, I said: "Another five years, I'm going to retire." Then at 45: "Another five years, I'm going to retire." Then at 50 I said, "Another five years, I retire." I'll do it until I cannot do it (anymore).

Would you ever consider being in a superhero movie like Iron Man or Avengers?

I want to. Please, all the directors, James Cameron: hire me. ... I love to do this kind of movie. Blue background with all the wire, flying around, that's more easy. But all the directors, they think about me: OK, Rush Hour 4 and Shanghai Noon. You have to do your own stunts, Jackie. (I'd) rather do a drama, comedy drama, a love story, sing a song on the beach, running around, slow motion, with a girl, kissing. But nobody buys a ticket to see Jackie Chan in a theatre kissing. No.

You're one of the few actors in the Chinese film industry who's been successful in Hollywood. Why is it so hard to go between the two?

I think I chose the right way. My movies, even without dialogue you understand what's going on – lots of action, but no violence and no dirty jokes, no F-word. My movie is not only for the Hong Kong market or Chinese market (but) for the whole world. All those years, Jackie Chan is like a bank. I collect fans, and when they come to the Jackie Chan bank, they never go away.

Are you going to do Rush Hour 4?

I don't know! Yesterday, I met with Chris Tucker. We sat down: "Jackie, let's do something. Rush Hour 4." Will we do something? Yeah, if we find a good script.

You've already made more than 100 films. What's your favourite?

Maybe with Rush Hour, many people liked watching it, I made a lot of money, but it isn't the kind of movie I like to make. The movie I want to make, I still haven't found.

In the US, they always (say) action movie, action movie. When I'm filming in China, I can make Rob-B-Hood and I can make Shinjuku Incident. Drama, very dark. I'm tired of doing action thing, so this is why I choose Karate Kid and Tuxedo. I try to let the audience know I'm not only an action star, I'm an actor. Because action star, the life is very short.

You mentioned one time you want to be the Asian Robert De Niro.

Look at Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman, they can do all kinds of things. That's what I want to do. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Game on for Harrison Ford

Posted:

More than 30 years after Star Wars, Harrison Ford has returned to inter-stellar space battles in big-budget sci-fi spectacular Ender's Game.

But the 71-year-old insists it's the human relations rather than hi-tech wizardry that drew him to the project, developed from a novel by Orson Scott Card and directed by South African X-Men director Gavin Hood.

"It doesn't matter to me whether I go back into outer space or not," he told reporters in Beverly Hills.

"The job is the same and I don't have any sort of genre preferences.

"I'm just looking for a good story, a good character, whether Earth-bound or not."

In a film which will resonate with Star Wars fans recalling the young Luke Skywalker and the crusty Han Solo, Ford plays Colonel Graff, training a group of children and teenagers how to protect the Earth from an alien invasion.

The best bet to save the world is Ender, played by Britain's Asa Butterfield, who starred in Martin Scorsese's 2011 drama Hugo.

Timid, but with an exceptional gift for military strategy and tactics, he becomes the hero of a film in which inter-galactic battles are played out in space and in a simulated game world.

It is almost Ford's first sci-fi film since the last Star Wars movie, apart from a role in 2011's Cowboys And Aliens.

And science fiction has changed quite a bit since director George Lucas released the initial trilogy of the cult movie franchise in 1977 – as Ford explained as he presented his latest movie.

"When we were making Star Wars, they were putting together space ships out of plastic model kits of cars, boats and trains, and gluing them all together, and then putting them on a stick and flying them past the camera.

"And it worked. It was fine. Add a little music and you believed that big spaceship coming over your head," he said.

Dismisses the label "icon"

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) can achieve incredible effects, but the veteran Hollywood actor warns they should not be abused.

"Often in those cases I feel you lose touch with the human characters and what it is that they would feel and how they might feel, and that's still the most important part.

Into his seventh decade, the actor is in fact busier than ever, with three other films released this year: 42, Paranoia and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

But the legendary Indiana Jones actor, while one of the most famous actors in the world, dismisses the label of "icon".

"An icon means nothing to me. I don't understand what it means to anybody, actually. It seems like a word of convenience.

"It seems to attend to the huge success of certain kinds of movies that I did, but ... I don't know what an icon does, except stand in a corner quietly accepting everyone's attention," he joked. — AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Business

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The Star Online: Business


China addresses social welfare reform & urbanisation drive

Posted:

BEIJING: Among the issues China's top leaders tackled this week as they hammered out their policy roadmap, some may determine whether children attending the likes of the Pengying school in Beijing fulfil their dreams.

Thanks to China's system of internal passports, or hukou, parents in search of better jobs in the capital, or other urban areas, leave behind the public services they are entitled to as residents of their home villages – pension, healthcare insurance and free public schooling.

This means if they want to educate their children, they have to find an unlicensed school, such as Pengying, which charges an annual fee of 1,400 yuan (US$228), most of a month's earnings for some migrant families.

At the school, desks are rusty, smoggy air seeps in through broken windows and the acrid smell of broken plumbing fills the hallways. Students learn the basics despite such conditions, but importantly may not sit for the official exams required to attend local universities.

"There is no choice," said Mrs Wang, the mother of another of Pengying's students who declined to provide her given name. She brought her eight-year-old to Beijing from southwest Sichuan province, more than 1,000km away, and started a catering business.

"There is no future either if you stay at home," she said.

Easing the hukou system would undoubtedly make life easier for the more than 200 million people who have moved into China's cities from smaller towns and villages and the roughly 110 million more people China expects to move from the countryside into cities in the next seven years.

Beijing wants this mass migration to be the backbone of an urbanisation drive to combat rapidly rising factory wages and to help wean the economy from a dependence on manufactured exports by promoting urban consumer consumption.

At the Communist Party's Central Committee's third plenary session, which ended on Tuesday, the country's leaders pointed to reforms that analysts have said could set in motion changes in how social services are paid for, ultimately leading to a nationwide social safety net seen as critical.

A report from the official Xinhua news agency on the closed-door meeting said the leaders promised a "more fair and sustainable social security system" and deeper reform of medical and health systems.

It also agreed to "step up efforts to improve social welfare and deepen institutional reforms to realise social justice for all."

BENEFITS

The ideas are broad, so it is not clear exactly what China's leaders may have in mind. That will only emerge in coming months or possibly years.

But analysts say unifying China's patchwork of social services would let citizens seek opportunities wherever they might find them and produce broader benefits for the economy.

Portable healthcare, pensions and education could revive China's weakening productivity gains and reduce the propensity of China's citizens to save for a rainy day rather than spend.

It could also quell growing discontent over widening income inequality and a disparity of opportunity, a source of great anxiety for a leadership that prizes social stability over almost all else.

"If the central government pays for this, you can build up a national standard, so people can move," said Peng Wensheng, chief economist at China International Capital in Beijing. "Mobility means a better use of skills, a more efficient use of skills."

Shifting the financial burden of such social services to the national government would eliminate a mismatch between tax income and spending, whereby local governments collect just over half of national tax revenue but bear 80% of public spending costs.

Doing that, economists say, would remove much of the rationale among local governments for a massive borrowing binge that has pushed local government debt to Detroit-like levels.

Credit Suisse estimates local government debt could exceed 16 trillion yuan (US$2.6tril), or as the IMF estimates, equivalent to roughly 30% of China's economic output.

"Fiscal reform is bureaucratic," said Vincent Chan, head of equity research at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. "That's easier to bargain."

Costs for provincial governments have risen dramatically as China's one-child policy accelerated the costs of an ageing society. Rapid urbanisation meant costs for pensions, healthcare and other social services jumped, as healthy wage-earners fled to more affluent provinces and the population of new citizens declined.

As a result, most provincial governments saw demands on their spending surge. Beijing's solution has been to transfer a lump sum to help cover the costs, a massive annual transaction.

For anything else, like investing in key infrastructure or projects designed to boost growth and business tax revenue, local governments go around the law to either sell land or borrow.

It is no secret the government aims to change this: Premier Li Keqiang stressed the need to tackle social safety nets and urbanisation after taking office in March and the next month spoke on the dangers of local government debt.

Although the central committee's pronouncements on fiscal reform were equally vague on Tuesday, they appeared to edge towards greater balance between the provinces and Beijing, talking of establishing a modern fiscal system that lets "both the central and local governments play active roles."

EQUALS

Reforms in the 1990s ended free healthcare, although the government has managed to push medical insurance to 95% of the population in the past several years.

Still, spending on healthcare has fallen only slightly, according to the World Bank, to 8.2% of household income from 8.7%. And roughly 99% of the insured cost of medical care is borne by local governments, according to Credit Suisse.

Creating a national healthcare insurance system could turn China into one of the world's largest pharmaceutical buyers, economists say, helping drive costs down and increasing the quality of care.

Province-level pensions are also chronically underfunded, as they have been collecting from workers (about 8% of their wages) and their employers (20% of employee wages) only since 1997.

Worse, workers can only draw from the employer-funded part of their pensions if they work for 15 years in a single province. That not only discourages people from moving to take up better jobs elsewhere, it encourages workers to save on their own and worsens the pressure on public funding.

"It limits the overall incentive to participate in pension systems," said Helen Qiao, an economist at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong.

Compared to those issues, funding China's nine years of compulsory primary-school education seems an easy task.

Education is the single largest government expense in China, according to Credit Suisse, larger even than outlays on defense. Yet local governments shoulder roughly 95% of that cost.

But those costs hide the expense to migrants who have to pay for their children to attend unlicensed schools like Pengying.

Many cities have committed to finding spaces in schools for migrant children, but the problem remains so widespread that the Rural Education Action Program, a group of researchers from Stanford University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Northwest Socioeconomic Development Research Center, determined there were 230 migrant schools in Beijing alone educating roughly 70% of migrant children.

The number of children being schooled outside the education system has sparked calls for the government to let them take university entrance exams outside their home base.

"It's OK if they don't give us money, but they can at least treat us as equals," said Pengying's headmistress, who would only provide her surname, Zhao. "These children are all children of China. Why should they be treated differently?" – Reuters. 

Indonesia rupiah hits lowest in over 4-1/2 years despite rate hike

Posted:

SINGAPORE: The Indonesian rupiah on Wednesday hit its weakest in more than four-and-a-half years as foreign banks sold the currency despite the central bank's surprise rate hike.
The rupiah fell as much as 0.7 percent to 11,670 per dollar, its weakest since March 2009.
Local importers also bought the dollar for payments, putting more pressure on rupiah, traders said. 

On Tuesday, Bank Indonesia raised its benchmark reference rate to 7.50 percent in an unexpected move to help shrink a worryingly large deficit in the current account. - Reuters

Jury picked in retrial between Apple and Samsung

Posted:

SAN JOSECalifornia: A jury was selected on Tuesday for a retrial between Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake between the two mobile giants.

Opening statements are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, and the trial is expected to last about a week.

Apple and Samsung are engaged in global litigation over each other's patents. Last year a jury awarded Apple about $1 billion, after Apple had successfully convinced a jury that Samsung copied variousiPhone features - like using one's fingers to pinch and zoom on the screen - along with design touches like the phone's flat, black glass screen.

In March, however, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ordered a retrial on about $400 million in damages, ruling that the previous jury had made some errors in its calculations. Samsung manufactures phones that use the Android operating system, which is developed by Google Inc.

In a San JoseCalifornia federal court on Tuesday, dozens of potential jurors were quizzed by Koh and attorneys for both sides. By the end of the day, six women and two men were selected to hear the evidence.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, 11-1846.- Reuters

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Diabetes fight needs more self-control

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PETALING JAYA: One of the most difficult aspects of combating diabetes is getting Malaysians to stop their unhealthy lifestyle, said Diabetes Malaysia secretary-general Datuk Rahimah Ahmad.

"The public thinks that diabetes is not a serious disease and the difficult part is to encourage them to change their lifestyle. It is not easy because they think it is not a serious disease as complications do not show until some time later.

"We sometimes use ourselves as motivators, as an example that if you control your sugar level, you do not get complications sooner," she said.

Rahimah, who is a diabetic herself, said there is no cure for diabetes, so what one could only do is to manage the glucose level to prevent from complications such as heart disease, blindness and leg amputation.

She said that among the challenges are to change Malaysians' eating habits and for them to have a more active lifestyle.

Diabetes Malaysia is one of the non-governmental organisations involved in, among others, to help Malaysians cope with diabetes and help them lead a healthy and productive lifestyle.

It organises talks and seminars besides reaching out through its Facebook page, website and newsletter.

There will be a charity walk on Sunday at 7am in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa to raise funds for diabetic children under Diabetes Malaysia by Columbia Asia.

  • In conjunction with World Diabetes Day on Thursday, The Star and The Star Online urge Malaysians to pledge to reduce their daily sugar intake for a week. The Star Online will run the Reduce Sugar Pledge campaign until Nov 21 to raise awareness about the impact uncontrolled blood sugar levels can have on the large population of Malaysian pre-diabetics and diabetics. Take part in our interactive discussions on The Star Online's official Twitter (@thestaronline) and Facebook pages (The Star Online) with #ReduceSugar. You can e-mail your pledge to online@thestar.com.my.
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Film about dangers of pro American football

Posted:

British filmmaker Ridley Scott is set to tackle the feature.

After completing his biblical film on the life of Moses, British director Ridley Scott plans to focus on the physical and psychological damage experienced by professional American football players in his next film, Deadline.com reports.

In particular, Scott's next film will look into brain damage and other long-term effects experienced by players of American football. The idea for the film came to the director, an avid fan of contact sports, following several controversial revelations that have shaken the world of American football in recent years.

It recently came to light that several former professional players experienced chronic encephalopathy caused by the repeated concussions they suffered throughout their careers on the field. Scott has already obtained a wealth of information on the subject, which has sparked the attention of both doctors and sports professionals.

The director specifically examined the cases of pro players Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, both driven to suicide in the past two years by traumatic chronic encephalopathy. For several other players, multiple concussions experienced over the years have led to dementia or memory loss.

Before focusing on this controversial subject, Scott will complete Exodus, his Moses biopic slated for release in 2014, headlined by Christian Bale.

Currently in theatres in the US is the director's most recent film, The Counselor, a thriller with a particularly prestigious cast (Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem). — AFP Relaxnews

Mini movie reviews

Posted:

The hammer of Thor strikes hard and fast in the great sequel, but it's Loki who steals the show. Frequently.

Thor: The Dark World

FORGET about the relatively bland villain, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), or the fairly useless Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), this sequel is the Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) show.

Hemsworth has settled quite comfortably into his titular role, while Hiddleston shines as the vengeful Loki.

With the once-in-five-millennia cosmic alignment of the Nine Realms occurring, a dark force called the Aether and ancient Asgardian foes the Dark Elves are awakened.

Director Alan Taylor deftly balances story and character development with action, to give us a well-paced movie that allows most of its characters to shine.

I also appreciated the visual design of the film, especially in Asgard.

While the movie isn't perfect, it is certainly bound to be a crowd-pleaser. Go watch it, and don't forget to stay right until the END of the credits for a big reveal. — Tan Shiow Chin (****)

Tom Yum Goong 2

It had to happen. Someone actually dared to string up a batch of action footage and pass it off as a movie. But I have to say this: the action is jaw-dropping and Thai action maestro Tony Jaa is really kick-ass.

I've never seen anybody fight so much in a movie. Not even Donnie Yen or Jet Li or Jackie Chan (so Jaa gets one star, and so does the action). In fact, none of the characters in the movie needs much of a reason to fight. It feels just like a videogame, where each new scenario is yet another reason to clash.

If hard-hitting action is your thing, then Tom Yum Goong 2 will definitely give you your money's worth. — Seto Kit Yan (**)

Baby Blues

Here's another compelling premise involving haunted dolls that sadly doesn't quite deliver.

It's inspired by folklore where a haunted doll, desiring affection, attaches itself to a young family with a new baby. Baby Blues sees a series of calamities befalling twins who move into a beautiful but spooky old house.

Unfortunately, Jimmy the doll is no Chucky; the scenes where the creepy doll is supposed to deliver the scares made people snigger instead.

The worst part comes when a doctor dismisses everything as a hallucination brought on by "baby blues", and apparently fathers get it too, not just mothers.

Even stolen kisses between Hong Kong heartthrob Raymond Lam and siren Kate Tsui can't save this lacklustre scarer. — SKY (**)

Raymond Lam in Hong Kong 3D horror flick Baby Blues helmed by Leong Po-Chih

Raymond Lam in Hong Kong 3D horror flick Baby Blues helmed by Leong Po-Chih.

Aarambam

Building on his recent successes playing anti-heroes in films like Mankatha and Billa, Ajith Kumar is captivating here as the mysterious AK, who is seemingly mixed up in a series of bombings and murders in Mumbai.

The story begins with him kidnapping hacker extraordinaire Arjun (Arya), holding him hostage and forcing him to break into various organisations. As Arjun tries to escape AK's clutches, he slowly discovers that things are not what they seem to be.

Their chemistry makes the movie great fun to watch, with Ajith bringing the cool quotient and Arya providing the laughs. Slick action scenes in various international locations add to the enjoyment.

Admittedly, the plot is nothing new, and some parts tend to drag. But thanks to its leading man's charisma, Aarambam ends up being a fun, if not terribly memorable, ride. — Sharmilla Ganesan (***)

Ajith Kumar in Aarambam.

Ajith Kumar in Aarambam.

Escape Plan

Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is an expert at finding the weaknesses in maximum-security prisons, and escaping from them.

One day, the CIA hires him to test the ultimate facility, created to contain the world's most dangerous criminals who have been detained without trial.

But when he gets there, he discovers that he has been set up and is a prisoner for real.

Determined to escape, he teams up with another inmate, Emil Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), to form an escape plan.

Stallone and Schwarzenegger are doing what they do best, and the story and acting overall are actually more nuanced than one would expect from this type of movie.

While it is entertaining enough, what elevates it from a two-star movie to three for me are a few standout moments, mostly involving Schwarzenegger.

Watch out in particular for his "crazed German" act and gun-blazing scene near the end. — TSC (***)

Escape Plan stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Jim Caviezel

Escape Plan stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Jim Caviezel.

Rigor Mortis

Spectacular. One word says it all. Rigor Mortis has been packing movie theatres and heralded by film critics as the birth of a new generation of Hong Kong cinema. The reason: stylish sequences of Taoist exorcism and superb performances by Mr Vampire movie veterans easily propel this ghoulish horror/slasher populated by ghosts, vampires, zombies into Hong Kong's horror hall of fame.

Writer/director Juno Mak may not have left much of a mark as a pop star, but his atmospheric directorial debut shows that he is a filmmaker to look out for.

If there is one horror movie you have to see this year, then this is it. I just wish I had watched it in 3D. (Warning: Don't let your kid watch this, or he'll never go to the bathroom alone again.) — SKY (****)

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World mobilises relief to Philippines

Posted:

MANILA: The United States, Australia and the United Nations mobilised emergency aid to the Philippines as the scale of the devastation unleashed by Super Typhoon Haiyan emerged.

The Pentagon sent Marines and equipment to assist with the relief effort following the typhoon, which may have killed more than 10,000 people in what is feared to be the country's worst natural disaster.

Even Vietnam, despite coping itself with a mass evacuation programme as a weakened Haiyan swung onto its territory, provided emergency aid worth US$100,000 (RM319,800) and said it "stands by the Philippine people in this difficult situation".

On the ground, the relief operation was centred on the city of Tacloban on Leyte island, three days after one of the biggest storms in recorded history demolished entire communities across the central Philippines and left countless bodies as well as gnawing desperation in its wake.

Delivering on a promise of quick help from President Barack Obama, about 90 US Marines and sailors based in Japan flew into Tacloban aboard two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, after receiving a bird's eye view of the immense scale of destruction across Leyte.

They brought communication and logistical equipment to support the Philippine armed forces in their relief operation.

"We are gonna move stuff as they direct, as the Philippine government and the armed forces (ask)," Brigadier General Paul Kennedy, the head of the Okinawa-based 3rd Marine Expedition Brigade, said in Tacloban.

The Australian government pledged A$10mil (RM29.9mil), with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop describing the unfolding tragedy as "absolutely devastating" and on a "massive scale".

The sum includes A$4mil (RM11.9mil) towards a UN global appeal and A$3mil (RM8.9mil) for Australian non-government organisations. The aid will include tarpaulins, sleeping mats, mosquito nets, water containers and health and hygiene kits.

A team of Australian medics will leave tomorrow via a C17 military transport plane from Darwin to join disaster experts already on the ground, the government said.

United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon promised UN humanitarian agencies would "respond rapidly to help people in need". — AFP

Two minor earthquakes hit India's New Delhi

Posted:

NEW DELHI:  Two minor earthquakes awoke residents of the Indian capital of New Delhi early Tuesday, shaking buildings but with no immediate reports of damage.

India's Meteorological Department (IMD) said first a 3.1-magnitude tremor struck at 12.41 am local time (1911 GMT) at a depth of 10 kilometres, placing its epicentre in the capital city of nearly 10 million people.

Almost exactly an hour later, a second, marginally larger 3.3-magnitude quake also struck, the IMD said on its website.

An AFP reporter in Delhi said the tremor shook buildings audibly, and that there were at least two minor aftershocks. - AFP

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