Ahad, 5 Januari 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Bluefin tuna price nosedives in Tokyo

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

TOKYO: Sushi restaurateur Kiyoshi Kimura has paid 7.36 million yen (RM224,000) for a 230kg bluefin tuna in the year's celebratory first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji market, just 5% of what he paid a year earlier despite signs that the species is in serious decline.

Kimura's record winning bid last year of 154.4 million yen (RM4.7mil) for a 222kg fish drew complaints that prices had soared way out of line, even for an auction that has always drawn high bids. Kimura also set the previous record of 56.4 million yen (RM1.7mil) at the 2012 auction.

The high prices do not necessarily reflect exceptionally high fish quality.

"I'm glad that the congratulatory price for this year's bid went back to being reasonable," said Kimura, whose Kiyomura Co operates the popular Sushi-Zanmai restaurant chain.

Environmentalists say growing worldwide consumption of bluefin tuna is leading to its depletion, and that those in charge of managing fisheries for the species are failing to take responsible action to protect it.

Japanese eat about 80% of all bluefin tuna caught worldwide, though demand is growing as others acquire a taste for the tender, pink and red flesh of the torpedo-shaped speedsters of the sea.

There were 1,729 tuna fish sold in yesterday's first auction for 2014, according to data from the city government, down from 2,419 last year. The 32,000 yen (RM976) per kilo paid for the top fish this year pales in comparison to the 700,000 yen (RM21,350) per kilo last year. — AP

US sends envoy to Sri Lanka to discuss war crimes

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

COLOMBO: A top US envoy will travel to Sri Lanka to discuss allegations of war crimes ahead of a UN review of Colombo's human rights record, officials said.

US Ambassador for Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp will spend five days in Sri Lanka discussing rights and reconciliation following the decades-long separatist war, the US State Department said.

The visit comes as the UN Human Rights Council meets in March to discuss whether Sri Lanka has shown progress towards reining in alleged rights abuses and investigated suspected war crimes.

Sri Lanka has resisted calls to investigate allegations that up to 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed by the security forces during the final push that crushed the rebels.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay has warned Sri Lanka that it faces an international probe into the allegations if it has not shown progress by March. — AFP

Ailing Musharraf will not appear in treason court

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

ISLAMABAD: A lawyer representing Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said the retired general would not make a scheduled appearance at his treason trial because of an ongoing illness.

The 70-year-old was rushed to a military hospital on Thursday after developing what a police official called a "heart problem" while being taken to hear treason charges against him at a special tribunal.

"Everyone is aware of his sickness. The whole world knows that he is in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) and the court also knows that," lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri said.

"We just have to make an oral request in the court that since he is not well, his presence should be dispensed with," Kasuri said. — AFP

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio


Lucky star Bridgit Mendler

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Bridgit Mendler is a multi-hyphenate and she's only just turned 21.

It's Monday morning and Disney star-turned-pop singer Bridgit Mendler appears to be a little under the weather. She is nursing a cup of tea as she explains that having too much salmon so early in the day is probably what is making her feel queasy.

The star of Emmy-nominated sitcom Good Luck Charlie looks great despite her discomfort. Dressed in a chic black fitted top and a cute pair of black and white printed shorts, Mendler has nary a hair out of place.

Mendler was bitten by the acting bug at the age of eight and had been working steadily since she was 11, landing parts in General Hospital, The Clique, Wizards Of Waverly Place and Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. But her world really began to change when she landed the starring role on Good Luck Charlie.

"I was really excited to get the role of Teddy in Good Luck Charlie. It was something that I had dreamed of for so long and it was amazing to actually have that a reality," Mendler reveals.

"I think that I didn't want to let myself get too excited until I found out that the show was actually going to get picked up. Usually what they do is shoot one episode and they call that a pilot and they'll wait a few months before letting you know if it's actually going to turn into a real show and do a whole season of it.

"So I was really excited but at the same time felt the pressure of having to prove that the show was worth going on television. Once it got picked up, then I was freaking out."

The 21-year-old actress admits that she and Teddy "care about the same things – school, family and friends".

"She's probably more organised than I am in real life," she adds with a laugh. "But I think we're both a little bit nerdy and goofy so that's fun."

When this writer points out that she looks very put together, she waves it off easily and says, "Oh, it's all a front."

In Good Luck Charlie, Teddy is the second oldest of the five Duncan children and things can get a little crazy on the family sitcom. Thankfully, her life is not quite like that off-screen.

"I have one younger brother so it doesn't get quite as hectic as having five siblings but I think in any family, there's just so much to do, especially when my parents both work and they take care of us so I think that they definitely have their hands full," she clarifies. "We've had a few rushes to the airport like in the Good Luck Charlie movie where we're about to miss the flight but you know, we make it work."

The Disney comedy is ending its run after four seasons – the series finale is set to air in the United States this month – but production on the show wrapped in July last year.

"Yes, there were tears for a while," Mendler confesses when asked if there were no dry eyes on the last day of shooting. "It's been so great to work with the same people, not only the cast, but also the writers and producers and directors and all of the crew."

But she also personally feels that the show has run its course.

"I think we just enjoy working together so much that we could have done that forever but in terms of the story of the Duncans, it was kind of always intended to go through four years and have Teddy graduate high school and go off to college at the end because that's kind of the end of her video diaries and living with her family.

"So as much as we love each other and it's been an amazing experience, it's kinda nice to know that we've done 100 episodes and we can be proud of that," she discloses.

Mendler could not resist taking with her a few mementos from the set after production completed.

"I got a lot of furniture to furnish my new home," she divulges. "I have some stuff from the Duncan living room and Teddy's room. (The furniture) will be a little reminder all the time."

The young star fully intends to continue acting after this although she launched her singing career in 2012 with debut album, Hello My Name Is… and her radio-friendly singles Hurricane and Ready Or Not charted on the Billboard Hot 100.

In fact, she is recording new music for her sophomore effort presently.

"Music has always been a part of my life so I think you can say that to people as much as you want but until they hear it is really when they learn more about you," she says.

She cites Bob Dylan and Adele as among her musical influences. She has not had the chance to meet either of them but she did attend one of Adele's concerts and loved it.

"Adele did an amazing job," she reports happily. "I actually learned a lot from how she put on her concert because she's not a dancer and she really is just a vocalist/singer and storyteller. So, the experience of being at her concert was just so cool because she really made everybody feel like they were just hanging out in her living room with her.

"She'd tell her stories and interact with the crowd. She made it personal and that made it cool. It was one of the best concerts I'd ever been to."

As if her plate is not full enough with music and acting projects, Mendler has enrolled at the University of Southern California and somehow, finds the time to indulge in another passion of hers – cooking.

"I love to cook so I always say that's my back-up career," the blonde-haired brown-eyed star reveals. "Being a chef, that's my dream number two; some sort of televised chef maybe."

Now that she has legally turned 21, she's going to be taking her culinary flair to the next level: "Here's what I'm going to do. Whenever I'm cooking and I need to have some sort of liqueur in there, like hazelnut liqueur or raspberry liqueur – I could never buy myself because it has alcohol. And so now, I'll be able to do like a one-stop shop and don't need to ask any favours. I can do it all myself."

Good Luck Charlie (Season Three) airs every day at 4.30am on Disney Channel (Astro Ch 615).

Sherlock is back from the dead

Posted: 02 Jan 2014 09:05 PM PST

Benedict Cumberbatch returns to the small screen as the famous detective.

Benedict Cumberbatch made his long-awaited comeback as Sherlock Holmes on Wednesday, but the hit BBC series still left fans scratching their heads over how the super-sleuth managed to cheat death.

The show's creators teased fans by depicting some of the more far-fetched ways Holmes may have survived, in a nod to the speculation that has swept the Internet since he leapt from a rooftop a year ago in an apparent suicide bid.

The BBC series, starring Cumberbatch as a modern-day version of the 19th century British detective, has been broadcast in more than 200 countries since 2010.

When British Prime Minister David Cameron set up a page on China's Twitter-like website Weibo in November, one of the most popular questions he was asked was, "When is the third series of Sherlock due for release?"

There were plenty of surprises for fans in the first episode of the new series, including a cameo appearance by Cumberbatch's own parents.

But some viewers complained that the storyline, centering on a terrorist plot to blow up the British parliament, was difficult to follow.

Fans delighted and disappointed alike flooded the Internet with comments and reactions. The Times newspaper gave the episode four stars, but complained: "You wait two years to find out how Sherlock dunnit, and three solutions come along at once."

The series has helped both Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who plays his loyal sidekick Doctor Watson, to Hollywood stardom. Both actors star in the current movie hit, The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug; Freeman plays Bilbo Baggins the hobbit while Cumberbatch is the voice of the dragon.

Cumberbatch starred last year as the villain in the latest Star Trek film and as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. — AFP Relaxnews

Latest Doctor Who bids farewell

Posted: 31 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST

Looking back at a quirky, cool Doctor Who.

MATT Smith has wrapped up his tenure as the star of Doctor Who after three years playing the time-travelling alien. His time as the ever-regenerating hero was marked by complicated puzzles of time and space, alien quirks such as a fondness for fish fingers and custard, and insisting, despite raised eyebrows from his accomplices, that "bow ties are cool".

"Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me," said executive producer Steven Moffat. "The way he'd turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next. The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently."

To celebrate Smith's run, we look back at some of his most memorable moments as the Doctor.

Making a magical debut in The Eleventh Hour:

When Smith first stepped on board the Tardis, it was with a new creative team, a new leading lady and an audience still mourning 10th Doctor David Tennant's departure.

"We really had to have such a charm offensive in The Eleventh Hour to sell the idea both that you like this guy who's taken David Tennant's place, and that somehow the same man is looking out of those eyes," Moffat said.

The result was an episode that was part fairy tale and part superhero story, introducing Smith's mop-haired Doctor and a little red-headed girl named Amelia Pond, who would grow up to be the Doctor's travelling companion and best friend.

As he dipped fish fingers in custard, Smith's Doctor began to work his own quirky brand of magic, enchanting viewers and Amy Pond alike.

Adding to a pile of good things in Vincent And The Doctor:

In this excellent Season Five episode written by Richard Curtis, the Doctor and Amy befriend Vincent Van Gogh, the eccentric artist whose life was marked by loneliness and mental illness, eventually ending in suicide. He was convinced his art was worthless and would be forgotten when he died.

After dealing with an other-worldly monster, the Doctor and Amy whisk Van Gogh off to the future to visit an exhibition of his work at the Musee d'Orsay, where the docent (a bow-tie-wearing Bill Nighy) tells the Doctor, within Vincent's earshot, "That strange, wild man who roamed the fields of Provence was not only the world's greatest artist, but also one of the greatest men who ever lived."

The moment is a tear-jerker, but after taking the artist home, Amy is heartbroken to discover the time-travelling experience didn't alter Van Gogh's suicide. The Doctor consoles her with a beautiful lesson applicable to those of us without a Tardis.

"Every life is a pile of good things and bad things," he tells her. "The good things don't always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant. And we definitely added to his pile of good things."

Donning his iconic fez in The Big Bang

In the second part of the Hugo Award-winning Season Five finale, the Doctor uses a vortex manipulator and some timey-wimey cleverness to save all of his friends and reboot the dying universe. In the process, he dons a red fez ("I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool."), a device that helps audiences keep track of the complicated time-travel plot. Though the fez falls victim to River Song's gun, it's become an iconic cosplay element for fans of the series, and it exemplifies Smith's ability to make insane goofiness seem, well, cool.

Changing a man's heart in A Christmas Carol

Smith's Doctor became the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future for a miserly man (Michael Gambon) whose heart needed to be warmed in order to save a crashing spaceship. The Doctor zips back in time, visiting the man when he was a boy and filling his past with holiday memories to make him a kinder adult.

The Christmas special is filled with time travel antics, flying sharks and fish and a beautiful song performed by Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins, who plays a woman who is woken from cryogenic sleep – first introduced as "Nobody important".

The Doctor sums up one of the show's recurring themes in his response. "Nobody important? Blimey, that's amazing," he says. "Do you know that in 900 years of time and space, I've never met anybody who wasn't important before."

Meeting the Tardis in The Doctor's Wife

Neil Gaiman's Hugo Award-winning episode places the Doctor face-to-face with his oldest companion – his Tardis. A sinister entity steals the time-and-spaceship's matrix and places it in the body of a woman named Idris. As the Doctor converses with his beloved Tardis (aka "Sexy"), he learns that when he "borrowed" her from Gallifrey hundreds of years prior, she chose him as much as he chose her. "I wanted to see the universe, so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away," she tells him. "And you were the only one mad enough."

Tying the knot in The Wedding Of River Song

This finale unravelled several mysteries that were wound over the course of a suspenseful Season 6, beginning with the Doctor's apparent death and ending with the true identity of River Song. When all seems lost, River tells the Doctor, "I can't let you die without knowing you are loved, by so many and so much, and by no one more than me." The Doctor reveals to River his plan to fake his death at her hands, and they share a universe-saving wedding kiss. Later, he tells an ally that pretending to die is "the only way, then they can all forget me. ... Time to step back into the shadows." His friend asks if River will spend all her days in jail to pay for the apparent murder. "Her days, yes," the Doctor responds. "Her nights ... well, that's between her and me." Hello, sweetie.

Facing his grave in The Name Of The Doctor

The Doctor, companion Clara Oswald and several more of his friends are brought unwillingly to Trenzalore, the site of the Doctor's grave. In an enormous, deteriorating future version of the Tardis, they discover the Doctor's remains – a column of electric light. "Time travel is damage," he explains to his companions. "It's like a tear in the fabric of reality.

That is the scar tissue of my journey through the universe – my path through time and space, from Gallifrey to Trenzalore." In order to save the Doctor after a foe infiltrates that time stream, Clara dives into it, creating copies of herself throughout time and space in order to save the Doctor in all his iterations. The episode was one of many in which the Doctor himself needs saving, and humans prove themselves heroes. — Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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Paul Walker's car doing over 160kmh: coroner

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 05:55 PM PST

Autopsy results confirmed after a month.

THE car carrying late Fast and Furious star Paul Walker was doing over 160kmh when it crashed, nearly cutting the high-powered vehicle in half, coroners said on Jan 3.

The 40-year-old actor's body was charred beyond recognition in the Nov 30 accident, they said in a report describing the burned-out wreckage in graphic detail.

The US$400,000 2005 car was driven by Walker's friend Roger Rodas, who also died in the crash in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, where they had attended a charity event.

Neither man tested positive for alcohol or drugs including marijuana, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine, a coroner's report said, adding that autopsies were conducted on Dec 3, but toxicology results were only confirmed on Jan 3.

"The driver was driving a red Porsche Carrera GT ... at an unsafe speed, approximately 100-plus miles per hour," said the report, citing an investigator's account of the crash.

The report said Walker was found "wearing remnants of a black T-shirt, a pair of black jeans and a pair of gray boxer briefs" and was "lying supine in the passenger seat"

"The decedent was charred and in a pugilistic stance," it said, describing the posture of his body after the crash.

A coroner's spokesman said "pugilistic" described "how the muscles of the body contract due to the heat into a 'boxer-like' appearance."

The report said the driver lost control of the car "for unknown reasons," causing it to spin around and hit a curb, after which the driver's side of the Porsche struck a tree and then a light post.

"The force of those collisions caused the vehicle to spin 180 degrees and continue in an easterly direction. The passenger side of the vehicle then struck another tree and burst into flames," it said.

"The vehicle was totalled with major traffic collision damage all around, and it appeared that the vehicle was almost split in half," the report added, saying: "The majority of the vehicle was also charred."

It said Walker's body "cannot be positively identified visually," adding that "due to the extent of the injuries, the decedent (was) not (a) viable candidate for tissue donation."

Rodas also suffered multiple injuries: his skull was fractured and his brain was exposed, the autopsy report said.

Walker's death stunned fans of the high-octane series The Fast and the Furious, and was a major blow to studio giant Universal Pictures, for whom the franchise is a huge money maker.

Universal announced the studio had shut down production of Fast and Furious 7 following Walker's death.

The first Fast and Furious movie appeared in 2001. The series, with its focus on fast cars, tough guys, sexy starlets and exotic locales, is one of Hollywood's most successful global franchises.

The limited-edition Porsche, which can reach 100 miles per hour in less than seven seconds, has a history of being difficult to control, according to the LA Times which said it lacks a stability management system built into other models.

Late-night talk show host Jay Leno had lost control of the same model of car in 2005, media said.

"I just got a little sideways and then it started spinning," he said, cited by the Hollywood Reporter. "It was kind of like driving on ice," he said. – AFP

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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Paul Walker's car doing over 160kmh: coroner

Posted: 03 Jan 2014 05:55 PM PST

Autopsy results confirmed after a month.

THE car carrying late Fast and Furious star Paul Walker was doing over 160kmh when it crashed, nearly cutting the high-powered vehicle in half, coroners said on Jan 3.

The 40-year-old actor's body was charred beyond recognition in the Nov 30 accident, they said in a report describing the burned-out wreckage in graphic detail.

The US$400,000 2005 car was driven by Walker's friend Roger Rodas, who also died in the crash in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, where they had attended a charity event.

Neither man tested positive for alcohol or drugs including marijuana, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine, a coroner's report said, adding that autopsies were conducted on Dec 3, but toxicology results were only confirmed on Jan 3.

"The driver was driving a red Porsche Carrera GT ... at an unsafe speed, approximately 100-plus miles per hour," said the report, citing an investigator's account of the crash.

The report said Walker was found "wearing remnants of a black T-shirt, a pair of black jeans and a pair of gray boxer briefs" and was "lying supine in the passenger seat"

"The decedent was charred and in a pugilistic stance," it said, describing the posture of his body after the crash.

A coroner's spokesman said "pugilistic" described "how the muscles of the body contract due to the heat into a 'boxer-like' appearance."

The report said the driver lost control of the car "for unknown reasons," causing it to spin around and hit a curb, after which the driver's side of the Porsche struck a tree and then a light post.

"The force of those collisions caused the vehicle to spin 180 degrees and continue in an easterly direction. The passenger side of the vehicle then struck another tree and burst into flames," it said.

"The vehicle was totalled with major traffic collision damage all around, and it appeared that the vehicle was almost split in half," the report added, saying: "The majority of the vehicle was also charred."

It said Walker's body "cannot be positively identified visually," adding that "due to the extent of the injuries, the decedent (was) not (a) viable candidate for tissue donation."

Rodas also suffered multiple injuries: his skull was fractured and his brain was exposed, the autopsy report said.

Walker's death stunned fans of the high-octane series The Fast and the Furious, and was a major blow to studio giant Universal Pictures, for whom the franchise is a huge money maker.

Universal announced the studio had shut down production of Fast and Furious 7 following Walker's death.

The first Fast and Furious movie appeared in 2001. The series, with its focus on fast cars, tough guys, sexy starlets and exotic locales, is one of Hollywood's most successful global franchises.

The limited-edition Porsche, which can reach 100 miles per hour in less than seven seconds, has a history of being difficult to control, according to the LA Times which said it lacks a stability management system built into other models.

Late-night talk show host Jay Leno had lost control of the same model of car in 2005, media said.

"I just got a little sideways and then it started spinning," he said, cited by the Hollywood Reporter. "It was kind of like driving on ice," he said. – AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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Iraqi air force strikes city to try to oust al Qaeda

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 09:21 PM PST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi government forces battling an al Qaeda offensive near the Syrian border launched an air strike on Ramadi city on Sunday killing 25 Islamist militants, according to local officials.

Government officials in western Anbar province met tribal leaders to urge them to help repel al Qaeda-linked militants who have taken over parts of Ramadi and Falluja, strategic Iraqi cities on the Euphrates River.

Al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been steadily tightening its grip in the vast Anbar province in recent months in a bid to create a Sunni Muslim state straddling the frontier with Syria.

But last week's capture of positions in Ramadi and large parts of Falluja was the first time in years that Sunni insurgents had taken ground in the province's major cities and held their positions for days.

Local officials and tribal leaders in Ramadi said that 25 suspected militants were killed in the air force strike, which targeted eastern areas of the city early on Sunday.

In Falluja, ISIL's task has been made easier by disgruntled tribesmen who have joined its fight against the government.

"As a local government we are doing our best to avoid sending the army to Falluja ... now we are negotiating outside the city with the tribes to decide how to enter the city without allowing the army to be involved," said Falih Eisa, a member of Anbar's provincial council.

One option being considered to oust al Qaeda from Falluja would be for army units and tribal fighters to form a "belt" around the city, isolating it and cutting supply routes for militants, military and local officials said.

They would also urge residents to leave the city.

"The siege could take days, we are betting on the time to give people a chance to leave the city, weaken the militants and exhaust them," a senior military officer who declined to be named said.

Tension has been running high across Anbar - which borders Syria and was the heart of Iraq's Sunni insurgency after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion - since Iraqi police broke up a Sunni protest last week, resulting in deadly clashes.

TRIBAL LEADERS HESITANT

In Tehran, the deputy chief of staff of Iran's armed forces for logistics and industrial research, Brigadier-General Mohammad Hejazi, was reported as saying on Sunday that Iran was ready to provide Iraq with "military equipment or consultation" to help the Iraqi army in Anbar if it were asked to do so.

The Tasnim news agency quoted him as adding however that he did not think the Iraqi army would need a deployment of Iranian troops, because they already had sufficient manpower.

Iran is an ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shi'ite Muslim-led government.

Talks between Iraqi government officials and tribes made little headway on Sunday, with some tribal leaders hesitant to negotiate at all and others afraid of opposing al Qaeda, which has carried out numerous bombings and assassinations in Iraq.

"The militants told people in Falluja that they won't harm them and they are there in Falluja to exclusively fight the army, so this is the deal between the leaders in Falluja and the militants," a Sunni official involved in the negotiations in Anbar said.

Further west, across the porous border in Syria, al Qaeda fighters have captured swathes of land in the north and are battling with other Islamist brigades as well as the Syrian army.

The relationship between the fighters in Iraq and Syria is unclear, even though they refer to themselves as coming from the same group. Baghdad has said al Qaeda fighters from Syria are crossing into Iraq and have helped drive violence there to its worst levels in five years.

In Iraq, al Qaeda fighters had been controlling large parts of the desert in western Iraq along the Syrian border but have been driven back by a military campaign in recent days aimed at preventing them taking land.

In Ramadi, where tribesmen and the army have been working together to counter the al Qaeda insurgents, ISIL snipers positioned themselves on rooftops and fought small battles in the city.

ISIL fighters held on to their positions in the outskirts of Falluja and have used police and government vehicles inside the city for patrols, some flying a black flag associated with al Qaeda from the vehicles.

A tribal leader involved in negotiations in Falluja said the number of ISIL fighters in the outskirts of the city was insignificant and that fighting them might make matters worse.

"There is no reason to fight them and threaten the unity of the Sunni people. We believe that those who decide to fight alongside the government are wrong," he said.

(Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by William Maclean, Ralph Boulton and Eric Walsh)

Chinese drug cop implicated in major amphetamine raid -paper

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 09:20 PM PST

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese drug enforcement officer has been linked to government officials arrested after the seizure of nearly three tonnes of the drug crystal methamphetamine in the southern province of Guangdong last month, local media reported.

Thousands of armed police arrested at least 182 people in a dramatic raid on Boshe, a seaside village which has supplied over a third of China's meth nationwide in the past three years, according to the government.

Investigators found that a captain of the drug enforcement squad in surrounding Lufeng city, surnamed Guo, was linked to the former Boshe Communist Party secretary Cai Dongjia, who was arrested in the December 29 raid, the influential Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Sunday.

Guo has been subjected to "shuanggui", a form of detention imposed on party officials suspected of corruption, the paper said without giving further details.

The report said Cai had used his position to obtain information about the police investigation prior to the raid and notified suspects.

More than 20 percent of households in Boshe were involved in drug production and trafficking rings, the Guangdong public security department has said.

In China, methamphetamine is the second most popular drug after heroin.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Sally Huang; Editing by Michael Perry)

Anti-Roma bias, job fears aid far-right in central Europe

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 09:15 PM PST

CIERNY BALOG, Slovakia (Reuters) - The people of this peaceful village at the foot of the Slovak mountains vented their anger by electing as their regional governor a man who calls his Roma compatriots "parasites" and admires a wartime figure who collaborated with the Nazis.

Marian Kotleba's landslide victory in November exposed pent-up frustration over unemployment and neglect by mainstream parties, together with a deep-seated animosity towards the Roma, factors that have built support for extremist politicians in Slovakia and elsewhere in central Europe.

Still, many were shocked when Kotleba - a former high school teacher who looks back fondly on the Slovak state that was allied with the Nazis during World War Two - came from nowhere to win 77 percent of the vote in Balog, 260 km (160 miles) northeast of Bratislava, the capital.

Overall, in the central Slovak region of Banska Bystrica, he won 55 percent, enough to become regional governor and a further sign that some European voters frustrated with the economic crisis were willing to take chances with extremists.

Nationalist sentiment is increasingly directed against Slovakia's Roma, a minority of 400,000 in the country of 5.4 million who live on the fringes of society, suffering from poverty, poor education and limited job prospects. In some settlements they have no access to running water.

With European Union expansion opening borders, deprived regions have seen waves of departures, including some of Europe's 10 million Roma, to countries such as Canada and Britain, where immigration has again become a hot issue.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has imposed new regulations on migrants amid fears of an influx of poor people from Romania and Bulgaria, for whom restrictions on free movement within the EU expired at the end of December.

Kotleba, who did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this article, ran on a platform that derided "Gypsy parasites". Some Roma, whose forebears arrived in central Europe from India in the Middle Ages, see Gypsy as a derogatory term.

Kotleba once ran a party that was disbanded for racial hatred. The 36-year-old has organised marches in military-style uniforms and praised Jozef Tiso, the wartime leader of Nazi-allied Slovakia.

His party's newsletters talk about "desperate villages and towns suffering from crime and terror from Gypsy extremists".

"We voted for him out of desperation," said Martina Strorcova, a pub owner in Cierny Balog.

She says local people on low incomes often accuse Roma of drawing welfare benefits while not being willing to work.

"It is bad to see how some of us toil and others take social support," Strorcova said.

The pub in the village centre only has two customers at lunchtime, and Strorcova says business is tough. People who work at the local iron works bring home just 430 euros ($590) a month.

The Slovak minimum wage is 337 euros a month, less than 2 euros an hour, against the equivalent of 7.50 euros in Britain.

Cierny Balog's 5,000 inhabitants include about 700 out of work during the winter, said social worker Lubomira Pancikova.

"The problem is unemployment, not only among the Roma but overall. Young people run away, men and women in their most productive years," Pancikova said.

The official jobless rate in the region is 18.1 percent, although in some areas it tops 30 percent. It is the second worst in the country and far above the national average of 13.7 percent.

Kotleba promises to create jobs through public works schemes, setting up public companies and farms.

"He wants to give normal people, and the Roma, a pick-axe in

their hands and make them work," said Ivana Galusova, who voted for Kotleba.

In fact, Kotleba may not be able to do much. He will be isolated in a regional assembly dominated by Smer, the leftist party of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

TENSION AROUND EASTERN EUROPE

In some places, tension has been high between the Roma and the rest of the population.

The European Commissioner for education, Androulla Vassiliou, called on authorities in Kosice in August to tear down a wall separating a Roma neighbourhood from the rest of the eastern Slovak city - a means of segregation used by local authorities in several places in eastern Europe.

In Hungary, a court jailed four neo-Nazis for killing members of Roma families in a spree of racist violence in 2008 and 2009. The gang killed six Roma in carefully planned attacks.

Around the region, anti-Roma sentiment has helped the far-right to win votes. In Hungary, the Jobbik party has vilified the Roma, in addition to employing anti-Semitic language.

In Romania, mayor Catalin Chereches of the northern town of Baia Mare scored more than 86 percent in local elections in 2012 after relocating Roma families - and building a concrete wall around their neighbourhood.

Some members of Bulgaria's nationalist Attack party, which has seats in parliament, wear swastikas on their shirts and make Nazi salutes at rallies.

Czech riot police had to intervene repeatedly this year to halt marches by hundreds of people on Roma neighbourhoods, in places where communities have swollen due to a government housing subsidy programme.

In Balog, where several hundred Roma live in impoverished settlements around the village, there are no open clashes.

But Jozef Bartos, a 20-year-old Roma, fears Kotleba's victory might lead to trouble.

"We do not have problems here ... but we have to be ready to protect ourselves, be prepared if someone comes at us," said Bartos, who shares a two-room shack with no running water or sewerage with his wife, 18-month-old baby and parents.

He said he can make 17 euros a day, but only finds work in a few days a month.

UNEVEN SUCCESS

Slovakia is a post-communist success story, having joined the euro in 2009 and going through the global economic crisis almost unscathed. Gross domestic product per head is at 76 percent of the EU average, up from 54 percent a decade ago.

But economic development, based mainly on car exports, has been uneven. Mountain ranges separate the richer west, connected to Austria and the Czech Republic, from the poorer centre and east, traditionally home to most Slovak Roma.

"Companies focused on heavy industry and arms manufacture there collapsed and there has been no substitution," said sociologist Lubomir Faltan of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Successive governments on right and left have done little to address social and ethnic problems, he said, and the economic crisis has made things worse.

"The Roma community has a double disadvantage. They do not have any qualifications, they can be used only for manual work, if they are willing to work," he said. "There are villages where unemployment is 80 percent, and Roma populations with almost 100 percent unemployment."

Communities with high unemployment, Roma or majority Slovak, are prone to crime - mostly petty theft, Faltan said. The long-term unemployed often become resigned and settle for handouts and casual work.

The government has been running inclusion programmes, some with the help of EU money.

"This is a warning sign. People and politicians in this country must realise that it is no longer possible to hide away from the Roma problem," Peter Pollak, the Slovak government representative for the Roma community, told local media.

The government is responding to public resentment over welfare abuse with legislation that will deduct any court fines from handouts and also link the payments to participation in public works programmes.

A plan drafted last year also calls for tying welfare payments to children's school attendance, and for expanding pre-school education.

Prime Minister Fico, whose incumbent candidate Vladimir Manka lost the election to Kotleba, however blamed the media and the centre-right parties for Kotleba's victory.

"I do not feel responsibility for the result," he told a news conference. "For you, anything that is against Smer is good."

The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), a Hungarian-based non-governmental advocacy group, said the Roma in Slovakia are discriminated against in all aspects of life.

"They are likely to be forcibly evicted from their homes, face segregated or low quality education and find it much harder to get work," said ERRC's Marek Szilvasi.

But Kotleba's victory merely reflected what a lot of the political class had been thinking in Slovakia, he said.

(Additional reporting by Radu Marinas and Krisztina Than; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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How to save money by plugging leaking financial pockets

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

RECENTLY, I was billed for work done in my house. A quick check revealed a summation error which meant I was billed less than stated.

The mistake was highlighted to the vendor who was very grateful. But I also thought about how many other under-billed invoices she had issued over the years but weren't highlighted to her.

Surely, she must have had a financial leakage in her business due to the mistakes.

In our personal financial lives, we too have "holes in our pockets" which can drain money out of us without us being aware.

Check your pockets and see if you need to have them quickly'patched up'.

* Are you overpaying foryour products and services?

Check if you are overpaying for the products and services that you don't need. Cancel subscriptions to unread magazines that usually end up with the old newspaperman or reduce pay TV channels to only the ones you watch.

Check the bills you pay at restaurants, supermarkets, etc. You cannot assume the totals are right. If you are buying something at a promotional price, take a picture of the promotional materialin case you are charged a higher price at the check-out counter.

* Are underbilling your clients and customers?

Don't be like my vendor who didn't check the grand total. You maynot be as fortunate to have a customer who would highlight an amount lesser than what is actually billed.

Are you also too compassionate in charging a professional fee for your services or too relaxed with credit terms?

* Are you paying unnecessary penalty charges, surcharges and interests?

Late and penalty charges can be small but still they are financial holes which leak money away.

Take action to avoid such charges in future or ask for waivers if you can.

How about surcharges such as booking fees and registration charges?

Can you reduce them bydoing it online orgoing on group discounts?

Avoid paying interests that drain you out. A good guide is to look at your own investment portfolio - are you being charged higher interests than what your current portfolio can return you?

Just like a leaking pipe, we waste hard-earned money when a financial leakage isn't fixed. Do a check on your financial pockets now. Do they have holes?

EU won't seek law to separate banking activities

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 06:41 PM PST

LONDON: The European Union is set to drop financial reforms that would force big banks to ringfence their retail departments from riskier investment operations, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

A draft European Commission paper, seen by the business paper, would no longer make banks automatically split operations and would give national supervisors more leeway in applying the reforms.

But the draft proposal, drawn up by EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, does add a "narrowly defined" ban on 30 big banks using their own money for trading, so-called proprietary trading.

The paper - due to be published in late January or February - will complete EU reforms to make banks safer and easier to wind down following the 2008 crisis.

The proposals follow up on the Liikanen Report into separating banks' riskier activities from the utility-like operations of retail banking. - AFP

Internet-connected toothbrush makes debut

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 06:36 PM PST

LAS VEGAS: Brush smarter. That's the message from the makers of what is billed as the world's first Internet-connected toothbrush.

Unveiled Sunday at a preview event for the Consumer Electronics Show, the device from French-based startup Kolibree aims "to reinvent oral care," according to co-founder Loic Cessot.

"The technology in the industry has not evolved for years," Cessot told AFP.

"The idea is not to brush stronger, but smarter."

The Kolibree toothbrush includes a sensor which detects how much tartar is being removed in a brushing. It also records brushing activity so users can maintain a consistent cleaning each time.

The device conveys the information wirelessly to a smartphone app - a particularly useful aid for parents who want to monitor the teeth cleaning efforts of small children, according to Cessot.

"When you use a normal toothbrush you never really know what you've cleaned. It might be 30 percent. The only person who really knows is the dentist."

But the app can tell users if they have missed hard-to-clean areas or are not getting a thorough brushing.

The app, which is open for developers to add on other programs, aims to increase motivation and make the experience more fun, said Cessot.

The self-funded startup created by Cessot and former Microsoft and Google executive Thomas Serval plans to release the toothbrush worldwide in the third quarter, getting a boost from a crowdsourcing effort.

Orders will be available initially through Kickstarter from $99 to $200, depending on the model and will include a free mobile app. - AFP

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Drawings

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

Drawings
Author: Sylvia Plath
Publisher: Harper, 64 pages

THE most striking thing about the 44 images reproduced in Sylvia Plath's Drawings may be how unpopulated they are.

Produced during the two years the American poet spent on a Fulbright fellowship at Cambridge in Britain – the same period in which she met and married (secretly, at first) English poet Ted Hughes – this material evokes a world bound almost entirely by objects: boats, shoes, rooftops, all of it detailed, shadowed, but at the same time more than a little bit removed.

That's not entirely unexpected. Plath, who gassed herself to death on Feb 11, 1963, at the age of 30, was a poet of nuance, gesture; "Dead hands, dead stringencies," she wrote in Ariel.

Such a line might be a fitting epigraph for Drawings, with its silent churches and solitary flowers, its boats left empty by the shore. Among the most evocative images here is that of a citronnade stand in the Tuilleries of Paris – one of the few drawings to include people, although they are abstracted, rendered at a distance, more geometric shapes than human beings.

Plath took her drawings seriously; four of them, which she called "the best sketches in pen-and-ink I've ever done", were published, with a brief prose recollection called Sketchbook Of A Spanish Summer, in theChristian Science Monitor in 1956.

Even more, her daughter Frieda Hughes suggests in a brief introduction, drawing was part of her process, a way to settle down.

"In his poem Drawing," Hughes writes of her father, "he describes how the very act calmed my mother, and how she became focused and still."

In another poem, Hughes presents Plath re-creating "the Paris roofs, a traffic bollard, a bottle, and him too".

Those drawings – or ones very much like them – appear in Drawings, including a brooding portrait of Hughes in pen and ink. It's the only piece in the book to record a face, albeit in profile, evoking Plath's husband in a telling posture of disconnection, with even the most glancing contact more than either of them can bear.

Such an image stands in contrast to Plath's own words about the relationship, which are recorded in a sampling of letters, one to Hughes and a couple to her mother. In October 1956, she enthuses, "I write and think and study perfectly when with him; apart, I'm split and only can work properly in brief, stoic spells ..."

Plath and Hughes, of course, would come apart spectacularly, and she would commit suicide, after writing the astonishing poems of Ariel. This was still years off when she produced these drawings, but in their distance, in their isolation, we see a glimmer, perhaps, of that empty, farther shore. — Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

A History Of The World In 12 Maps

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

This beautiful book shows how a map is so much more than a mere depiction of the lands on this planet.

A History Of The World In 12 Maps
Author: Jerry Brotton
Publisher: Viking, 544 pages

BY means of exploring 12 extraordinarily influential maps – and touching on dozens that are mentioned in passing – Jerry Brotton, a professor at London University, has delivered a veritable treasure trove of a book.

One of the most arresting maps mentioned here was released in December 1972 by NASA. This was the first time the fully illuminated face of the Earth had been captured photographically. Set against the ocean blue, the outlines of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and other regions could be clearly made out. Here, finally presented to the global village, was a cosmic image of our world, and its exquisitely hued geography.

The word "awesome" is horribly overused today, but the word applies to this picture. However, for centuries, visions of our mapped world have held the power to awe.

As the offspring of both art and science, world maps have both informed us and projected interpretations of the perceived world. Today, more than any time in history, they principally encompass data and spatial relationships. But over the centuries, they have also told us much about wealth, power, empire, discovery and religion. Indeed, historical maps reveal more about their creators than the lands they literally put on the map.

Though limited in number to a mere dozen, Brotton has chosen well. The breath and variation here is impressive, spanning Ptolemy's Geography, penned in ancient Greek on a papyrus scroll around 150CE, to today's Google Earth, and including some illuminating Islamic and East Asian works.

The closest map to this part of the world is the Kangnido World map of 1402, drawn up in Korea, which reveals the entire Old World, and with the Korean peninsula depicted as being twice the size of Korea's then-foe Japan, contrary to the fact being almost the opposite.

Despite their differences, these maps share thought-provoking commonalities, mainly for the way they reveal the priorities of their author-cartographers. Indeed, if there is one message that Brotton's richly detailed work repeatedly conveys, it is that mapmakers inevitably belie their own centre of gravity. One example of this is that, historically, scholars and cartographers in the "middle Kingdom" of China took for granted that the "Far West" was "the zone of cultureless savagery".

This centre of gravity is not always geographical. In some cases it's theological. The Hereford Mappa Mundiworld that emerged from mediaeval England is a map of faith as well as a geographical artifact: the Christian world as viewed from the middle of Edward I's kingdom, 728 years ago. Based on the topography of the Bible and with Jerusalem at its centre, it's a map that makes sense to believers but defies most known cartographic principles. England lies on the western periphery of this map, but time and a growing empire would change this view of the world seen through the eyes of British mapmakers.

By the 19th century, world maps often placed Britain centrally. One such map featured in the book shows a view of the globe with Britain and the North Atlantic at the core of the world, to better portray the empire's burgeoning sea power. Half of South America is left off this map altogether, literally off the imperial map.

Many of the maps of the age of Western Empires, notably those of the Spanish and Portuguese colonisers, did more to highlight dominance, ambition and wishful thinking than to strive for accuracy. An example of this is a map drawn up in 1525 for the king of Spain, purporting to show the spices-rich Moluccas (part of present-day Indonesia) falling into his domain. The point of this map wasn't to portray the world as it was, it was to portray it as Carlos I wished it to be.

European nations also used cartography during the 18th and 19th centuries to carve up Africa, hence the preponderance of bizarrely straight lines on a political map of the continent.

A later empire builder, Adolf Hitler, used maps to propagandise the need for "Living Space" in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and also project bogus threats against the Fatherland, such as a 1934 Nazi map of Czechoslovakia, from which attack-bomber aircraft are seen radiating.

On the other hand, the greatest contribution any German has made to cartography is arguably Arno Peters and his 1974 World Map Projection, which shows each nation of the world in its actual and proportionate size relative to others. This map was eagerly adopted by various modern aid organisations to demonstrate the truth that the developing world is much larger than the West has always perceived.

From where did this perception came from? Many mind-sets and sources but few more influential than Mercator's 1569 projection. Gerardus Mercator, who hailed from Flanders, sought a solution to depicting a spherical earth two-dimensionally, and his end-product is considered the most influential world map since the dawn of time.

But his world map has inherent distortions – Europe is twice its true area – while Greenland appears roughly the same size as Africa. This map has long had an appeal to the West, though, even after Peters' clever refutation.

It's the human condition; mapmakers work in environments of subjective knowledge. Their craft has for so long been shaped by politics and paymasters, imperialists, storytellers, artistic trends, assumptions and all kinds of temporal influences. And all of these conflict with the almost pure sciences of cartography and geography.

A representation of the earth's geography that is both accurate and "neutral" is therefore almost impossible to create. Or as the author says: "A map always manages the reality it tries to show". It is this truism that enables Brotton to trace the contours of history and the ways of the mind's eye with such relish and passion for the way we see our world – and have seen it – along the time-space continuum.

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Fish prices up due to bad weather

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

ALOR SETAR: The supply of fish, especially ikan kembung, has dwindled in the past few weeks because fishermen have been forced to stay ashore due to strong winds and rough seas.

Fishmonger R. Mahadevan, 38, said the wholesale price of ikan kembung had increased from between RM3 and RM6 per kilo to between RM7 and RM9 per kilo.

"I have no choice but to sell them at the retail price of RM12 per kilo.

"The weather is preventing small fishing boats from going out," he said at the Market Besar PJ II in Jitra yesterday.

Mahadevan, who has been selling fish for the past 10 years, said dozens of fishmongers had been forced to close their stalls due to the shortage.

Fishmonger R. Mahadevan,38,  of Taman Chempaka, Jitra, Kedah placed  the RM6 / per kilogramme old price tag  and  the new price tag of  RM12 / per kilogramme  of ikna kembung near his ikan kembung during an interview with him at Market Besar PJ II in Jitra, Kedah yesterday.(Captioned by writer and photographer G.C.TAN / THE STAR -3rd January 2014) 

Mahadevan comparing the old price of fish per kilo with the current price at the market in Jitra, Kedah.

"Previously, I could easily get 300kg of ikan kembung daily at the wholesale market here.

"Now, I only manage to get about 150kg at a wholesale price of RM7 per kilo.

"Fish from Kuala Perlis and Kuala Kedah are also selling at RM12 per kilo," he said, adding that the price hike could continue until after Chinese New Year.

Another fishmonger Saiful Rizal Nordin, 25, said he could usually get 300kg of ikan kembung from his wholesaler in Kuala Kedah.

"I will be there as early as 4am to bid for the fishes but on Friday, I only managed to get 90kg.

 

From left are Suhaimi and Saiful.

"Previously, the price of small ikan kembung was between RM3 and RM4 per kilo but now, it has increased to RM7. The big ones now cost RM9 per kilo.

"A few weeks ago, I could buy two barrels of fish for RM1,000. Now, I can only buy a barrel," he said, adding that a barrel contains some 120kg of fish.

"A barrel of small ikan kembung used to cost about RM480. Now, it's selling at RM840."

Fishmonger Suhaimi Kamaruddin, 50, said he was not sure of the reason behind the price hike.

"On a normal day, I could sell the fish at RM9 or RM10 per kilo.

"However, this morning I had to sell the fish at RM12 per kilo," he said.

Search goes on for boy who fell in drain

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

PETALING JAYA: The search for an 11-year-old boy feared drowned in Cheras continues as the district Fire and Rescue station beefs up efforts to track him down.

District station chief Safiq Noor said there were new leads as to where the boy, Salman Mokhtar, could be found.

"We have received a report from a witness who saw him in a river in the nearby town of Sungai Chua in Kajang," he said.

Safiq said based on this information, the district station had set up a control centre at Universiti Kebang­saan Malaysia and would concentrate its efforts in Sungai Langat.

However, he said it could only continue its search today as river currents were particularly strong the night before.

It is learnt that additional manpower would be recruited from nearby fire and rescue departments to assist in the rescue mission.

Salman was reportedly crossing a small drain along Jalan Suasana 2/7 in Bandar Tun Hussein Onn at 4.30pm on Friday when he slipped and fell into it.

Rescuers from the Kajang fire station were the first to respond following an emergency call at 4.45pm.

He was presumed to have been washed away and rescuers have been combing the drainage system to find him.

68-year-old held for raping teen girl

Posted: 04 Jan 2014 08:00 AM PST

KUALA LUMPUR: She had been living in a silent hell for four years due to being repeatedly raped by the very man who was supposed to raise and protect her.

Hours after she was raped again by her stepgrandfather on Friday morning, an alert relative noticed that something was disturbing the girl. After some coaxing, the teen revealed everything.

The teenager was later accompanied by the relative to the Kajang police station where the 15-year-old lodged a report.

The 68-year-old suspect was arrested the same day at his house in Sungai Chua and is being remanded for seven days by the police.

Kajang OCPD ACP Abdul Rashid Abdul Wahab explained that the girl and her two brothers (aged seven and 11) were orphans.

"The girl's father passed away when she was just four and her mother remarried, after which they moved in with the man's family.

"Then the girl's mother passed away two years ago due to an illness, so the girl and her brothers were left in the care of their stepgrandparents," he said.

ACP Abdul Rashid said the suspect would wait until he was alone at home with the teenager.

"He would lock himself and the girl inside her room and would rape her. The girl never said anything to her family, friends or teachers because he was the one taking care of her and she had nowhere else to go," he said, adding that the victim and her stepgrandmother sold keropok nearby for a living.

He said police would be recording statements from the victim's brothers, stepmother and stepgrandmother.

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Polling stations firebombed in deadly Bangladesh vote

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 02:08 AM PST

Police said at least 13 people had been killed and more than 200 polling stations were set on fire or trashed by mobs in a bid by the opposition to wreck the one-sided contest.

Two of those killed were beaten to death while guarding polling stations in northern districts which bore the brunt of the violence.

"We've seen thousands of protestors attack polling booths and our personnel at a number of locations with Molotov cocktails and petrol bombs," Syed Abu Sayem, police chief of the northern Bogra district, told AFP.

"The situation is extremely volatile," he added after describing how thousands of ballot papers had been ceremoniously set on fire.

Most of the other victims were opposition activists who were shot by police, while a driver died of his injuries from a Molotov cocktail attack on his truck.

"We were forced to open fire after thousands of them attacked us with guns and small bombs," said Mokbul Hossain, police chief in the northern Parbatipur town.

"It was a coordinated attack. They managed to seize some ballot papers and they tried to steal our weapons."

In the capital, police confirmed at least two petrol bomb attacks on Dhaka polling stations.

Tens of thousands of troops were deployed across the country after around 150 people had been killed in the build-up, but they failed to stem the bloodshed.

The ruling Awami League has accused the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of orchestrating the violence and has kept its leader under de facto house arrest.

With the opposition trying to enforce a general strike as part of a strategy to wreck the polls, officials acknowledged the turnout was significantly lower than usual.

"The turnout was low, partly due to the boycott by many parties," said election commission chief Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad, without immediately giving a figure.

Polls closed at 4:00 pm (1000 GMT) after eight hours of voting and final results are expected in the early hours of Monday morning.

AFP correspondents said there were no queues to vote, while local television reported that only a single person voted in the first three hours at one station.

The outcome of the contest is not in doubt as voting is taking place in only 147 of the 300 parliamentary constituencies. Awami League candidates or allies have a clear run in the remaining 153.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government says it had to hold the vote after parliament's five-year term expired.
"Yes, the festive mood is missing but this election is essential to ensure constitutional continuity," deputy law minister Quamrul Islam told AFP.

'Laughable vote'

The BNP, whose leader Khaleda Zia has been confined to her home for a week, said the vote was a joke.

"The country has rejected these farcical elections which were meaningless, laughable and universally unacceptable," deputy leader Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.

Those who did vote showed little enthusiasm.

"I don't really want to vote as I don't think it's a proper election with only the ruling party candidates participating," Anwar Hossain said outside a polling station in Dhaka's Azimpur neighbourhood.

"But I am scared about what might happen if I don't as the candidates might think I am anti-Awami League."

Shopkeeper Niyamat Ullah said it was a pointless exercise.

"I am not going to vote," he told AFP. "What kind of election is it when there's only a handful of voters at the polling centre and the two candidates are from the same party?"

Analysts warn the election will likely stoke violence after the bloodiest year of unrest since Bangladesh broke free from Pakistan in 1971.

The former East Pakistan is the world's eighth most populous nation but also one of the poorest in Asia, and more turmoil will undermine efforts to improve the lot of its population of 154 million - a third of whom live below the poverty line.

Zia says any polls overseen by her arch enemy Hasina will not be fair, calling instead for them to be organised by a neutral caretaker government.

A local rights group says more than 500 people have been killed since January 2013, including victims of clashes that erupted after the conviction of Islamists for crimes dating back to the 1971 war.

The main Islamist party was banned by judges from taking part in the election, and its leaders are either in detention or in hiding.

Alarmed by the violence, the United States, European Union and Commonwealth all declined to send observers.
Bangladesh has been plagued by instability since independence, with nearly 20 coups since 1975.

Sailor survives shark, four others missing from Taiwan boat

Posted: 05 Jan 2014 02:05 AM PST

TAIPEI (AFP) - An Indonesian sailor has been rescued despite suffering a shark attack but four other crewmen are missing after their Taiwanese fishing boat apparently caught fire in the East China Sea, officials said Sunday.

Taiwan's coastguard said they were informed by their Japanese counterparts Saturday noon that the 26-tonne "Cheng Tsai Li" was drifting 35 nautical miles (65 km) northeast of Miyako-jima, an island in Japan's Okinawa prefecture.

An Indonesian sailor aboard the fishing vessel was rescued by another Taiwanese fishing boat, the Taiwan coastguard said.

"He was injured, suffering from shark bites," coastguard spokesman Hsieh Ching-chin told AFP. No details of the attack or the man's injuries were available.

Two coastguard vessels from Taiwan and two from Japan were mobilised to search for the four missing crewmen - the Taiwanese skipper, a Taiwanese sailor and two Indonesian sailors.

"As of now, we have had no luck. We're racing against time as the weather is cold," Hsieh said.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear but it seemed that the Cheng Tsai Li had been hit by a fire, he said.

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