Rabu, 5 Februari 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Mystery giant jellyfish washes up in Australia

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 06:43 PM PST

SYDNEY: Scientists were Thursday working to classify a new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on an Australian beach, describing it as a "whopper" that took their breath away.

The 1.5-metre (4 foot 11 inch) specimen was found by a family in the southern state of Tasmania, who contacted a local marine biologist. 

Lisa Gershwin, a scientist with the government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), said the type of jellyfish had been seen in the past, but never one so big and not one that became beached.

"We know about this specimen but it hasn't been classified yet, it hasn't been named," she told AFP, adding that there had been a massive jellyfish bloom in Tasmanian waters over the past month.

She said the new species was related to the lion's mane jellyfish, the largest known species of the marine animal in the world.

"It is so big it took our breath away," added Gershwin, who has been working with jellyfish for 20 years.

"It's a whopper of an animal but it's not life-threatening, although it does sting."

CSIRO scientists now have enough pictures and samples to begin a proper analysis to classify and name the creature. Despite this, much remains unknown, including how it eats and breeds, and its habitat.

"It's so big but we know nothing about it," said Gershwin. "It highlights again how much we still have to learn about the ocean."

The jellyfish was found by the Lim family on a beach south of the Tasmanian capital Hobart with mother Josie saying "it blew our minds away".

"It's not really jellyfish territory here and all we could do was stand back and admire it," she told AFP. -AFP

The agony and ecstasy of Hong Kong's extreme runners

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:27 PM PST

HONG KONG:  Hong Kong is known for its long working hours and rat-race lifestyle, but on the rugged trails of the surrounding hills extreme runners are driven by a different ambition - the ultimate 'ultra' experience.

Defined as any distance beyond the 42.2-kilometre (26.2 mile) marathon, ultra races are becoming increasingly popular around the world - and with its 300-kilometre network of trails criss-crossing rocky terrain, exposed peaks, bays and reservoirs all close to the city, Hong Kong is increasingly being seen as the ideal venue.

With three new 100-kilometre races launched in the territory in the past three years and also a 100-mile race, trail runners are pushing themselves to go further than ever.

That's in spite of the common risk of serious falls, sprained ankles, repeated stress injuries, cuts, grazes, blisters and lost toenails.

"People are seeking something else to set them apart," said Jeanette Wang, health editor of the South China Morning Post and a competitive trail runner.

"When you say you've done a marathon, you're not the life of the party any more. In Hong Kong in the last two years, things have got so crazy that even 100 kilometres isn't unique."

Two decades ago ultras were run by an intrepid few, with the United States and Europe the main centres. But the lure of spectacular routes and a special camaraderie - for many the challenge is simply to cross the line - has seen popularity go global.

According to the International Association of Ultrarunners there are now more than 1,000 races around the world.

The Vibram Hong Kong 100 became the first stop on the inaugural Ultra-Trail World Tour in January this year, linking "emblematic" races on every continent - with Hong Kong and Japan's Mount Fuji the two Asian events.

"The opportunity to run these trails so close to a huge population of people is very different from many trail runs in the world," said prominent New Zealand ultra runner Vajin Armstrong of the Hong Kong course.

"Asia is such a growth region for trail running at the moment...it's really important that athletes come here and get a sense of what it has to offer."

Smiling through the pain

Hong Kong's longest-standing ultra dates back almost 30 years to the days of British rule, when an annual 100km training exercise led by Gurkha soldiers opened up to the public.

That "Trailwalker" event, now sponsored by Oxfam, attracts more than 10,000 participants and Nepalese teams still often dominate, taking first and second in 2013.

The city's ultra races attract everyone from committed athletes, to competitive "weekend warriors" and novices who just want to finish.

While elite runners might cover 100 kilometres in 10 hours, those further down the pack will be toiling for much longer, often through the night.

"Ultra running is not pretty," said Hong Kong-based runner and writer Rachel Jacqueline, 30, who has completed two solo 100-kilometre races in the city and two team 100km events.

"Your face is like sandpaper from the salt. Any two body parts in close proximity will chafe. There's tiredness, inflammation, hunger, muscle pain."

She runs up to 20 hours a week in peak training and admits it is hard to socialise and hold down a job too - she took a year to prepare for her first solo 100km race.

"Experiencing pain and discomfort and knowing you are strong enough to overcome it and persevere is incredibly empowering," she said.

"If you can tackle all that and come out with a smile on your face, you can do anything in life."

Though ultras are physically and mentally tough, many runners find them the perfect antidote to modern life in a highly-strung city.

"I don't like road races - I like getting out into the mountains because it's beautiful," banker Wilson Leung, 45, said after finishing the popular 50-kilometre Green Power Hike.

"In the hills I can forget my problems."

He spent seven years working up to ultra distances after taking up running in his late 30s and says it suits his age group.

"People lose their speed but not necessarily their endurance, so they start running longer as they get older. Experience is important, knowing how to protect your body and building up slowly."

Clouds on the horizon?

But there are fears of a blot on the landscape for future trail races in Hong Kong as pollution worsens in the territory.

Murky smog frequently blankets the skyline and a new government index has recorded high or very high levels of pollution almost every day since it was implemented late last year.

"The air quality is better in remote places, but Hong Kong is too small to get away from it completely," says Keith Noyes, race director of The North Face 100 Hong Kong and organiser of the long-standing King of the Hills mountain marathon series.

"It's only going to take one incredibly polluted event with a big international crowd to get a bad reputation."

For now though, while runners might stay indoors on the smoggiest days, the lure of the hills remains.

"The demand for the more challenging trail races in Hong Kong is phenomenal," says Noyes.

The Vibram Hong Kong 100 saw 1,650 racers, compared to 250 in its first 2011 edition, with 500 enthusiastic volunteers en route.

"Runners are beginning to realise it's much more fun to be on the trails than the roads," says race director Steve Brammar, who founded the event with his wife Janet Ng.

"They are also realising that a marathon distance isn't the limit of human endurance - it's almost just the start." -AFP

Insurance against bullying in South Korea

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 06:49 PM PST

SEOUL: One of South Korea's largest insurance companies is to begin offering a policy for victims of school bullies, as part of a government campaign to stamp out the problem.

The policy from Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance will likely debut in March, a company spokesman said Thursday.

"The priority isn't really on making money with this product, but more on providing a public service that helps build up social security networks," he told AFP.

As well as bullying, other policies will be introduced offering protection to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and food adulteration - or what President Park Geun-Hye has collectively condemned as the "four social evils" afflicting the country.

According to the state regulatory Financial Services Commission (FSC), the bullying policy will help cover costs for physical injuries as well as counselling fees for those traumatised by school violence.

Monthly premiums would be a maximum of 20,000 won ($18), but the FSC said it would raise joint funds with municipalities to pay premiums for those unable to afford them.

According to a survey conducted by the Education Ministry last year, more than 77,000 school students of all ages said they had been bullied, with nearly 10 percent of those saying they had considered suicide.

Nearly 140 South Korean school students killed themselves in 2012, mostly as the result of family problems, exam stress and bullying. -AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

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'The Killing Fields': It changed all our lives

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

Thirty years on, those involved in making The Killing Fields look back at its legacy.

THE Killing Fields premiered 30 years ago as more than the first major film to explore the atrocities of Pol Pot's reign of terror in Cambodia in the 1970s.

The film "changed my life", said actor Sam Waterston, who earned an Oscar nomination playing New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg, one of the few American journalists left in Phnom Penh when the city fell to Khmer Rouge guerillas in 1975. Added Waterston: "I think it changed the lives of every single person involved in making it."

That would include Haing S Ngor, who won the Academy Award for supporting actor portraying Dith Pran, Schanberg's translator and journalistic partner, as well as director Roland Joffe, who remains involved with Cambodian charities.

Warner Home Video offers reminders of the film's storied creation and lasting legacy with the recently released 30th anniversary Blu-ray edition of The Killing Fields, which earned seven Oscar nominations, including wins for Ngor, Jim Clark for editing, and Chris Menges for his documentary-style cinematography.

British producer David Puttnam, who had won the Best Picture Oscar for 1981's Chariots Of Fire, explained that The Killing Fields was the movie "I had been waiting to do."

As a teenager, he had been gobsmacked by Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 semi-documentary-style war film The Battle Of Algiers. The film, Puttnam said, "changed my attitude towards cinema. It was the first film I saw that allowed me to believe that cinema could be something more. You didn't know you if you were watching a movie or not."

He felt the story of Schanberg and Dith would have the same effect on audiences. Though Schanberg and other journalists were allowed to leave Phnom Penh, Dith was among the hundreds of thousands of Cambodians forced to leave the cities and work in the labour camps of the communist Khmer Rouge.

Puttnam first read about them in a small piece in Time magazine. "It was the photograph of the two men hugging in the refugee camp, and it said an American journalist is reunited with his interpreter," the producer recalled.

The article and Pulitzer Prize-winner Schanberg's subsequent New York Times Magazine piece, The Death And Life Of Dith Pran, piqued the interest of several filmmakers.

"I went with the British group," said Schanberg, now 80, who still works as a freelance journalist. "These people who were making it were really good people. They weren't doing it to make a buck. They didn't make a lot of bucks. I never found a way to thank them for what they did."

Bruce Robinson's script for The Killing Fields attracted attention from top-line directors, but Puttnam eventually chose Joffe, who until then had directed mostly theatre and TV movies. Puttnam gave Robinson's dense script to Joffe.

"Three days later, I got this long, three-page letter detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the script," Puttnam said. "It was absolutely brilliant."

Joffe, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work, realised The Killing Fields wasn't just a war drama but a love story between Schanberg and Dith.

"If you make it a story about friendship and how that exists among men, you will make something indelible," Joffe recalled in a recent interview.

Though they felt pressure to cast a Hollywood star as Schanberg, Puttnam and Joffe went with Waterston, who they felt not only resembled Schanberg but also captured the spirit and passion of the journalist.

Waterston, who remained friendly with Dith until his death in 2008, remembered that Dith had hoped – before the cast was decided – that Schanberg might be played by an actor like Kirk Douglas.

"When I first met him, he said something about the fact that Sydney had a very big heart, and then he hit me really hard in the chest," Waterston said. "It was literally like he was trying to put Sydney's heart into me."

But the real casting gamble turned out to be Ngor, a doctor in Cambodia who suffered the same horrors as Dith under the Khmer Rouge, eventually escaping to Thailand and arriving in the United States in 1980.

Ngor had never acted before. Casting director Pat Golden spotted him at a Cambodian wedding in Long Beach.

"I talked to Pat Golden and said I think we should do an improvisation with Haing," Joffe said. "He didn't want to do it at first, but I kind of lulled him into doing something – mainly getting him to describe a few things, and he basically began to act them out. I realised this man was a born actor."

But Ngor didn't want to be in the movie.

"I had to do a lot of arm twisting to get him to be in it," Joffe said. "I said, 'You have to play this part. You have to do it for your country. It will be difficult, but I'll be there.' "

Emotions ran high for the Cambodian refugees who worked on the film. Ngor broke into tears during the scene in which a young girl playing a soldier for the Khmer Rouge pulls out a tomato plant Dith had been growing.

"He suddenly stopped in the middle of the scene," Joffe said. Ngor couldn't do it anymore. The cold expression on the young girl's face hit too close to home. In the moment, Ngor thought she really was a Khmer Rouge soldier. But Joffe eased his fears and eventually he completed the scene.

Rounding out the cast were John Malkovich as photojournalist Al Rockoff and Julian Sands as British journalist Jon Swain. Sands said the director sent the actors to Thailand a month before shooting started to get immersed in the place and the truth of the story.

"I remember the profound impact of visiting the Khmer refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and talking to survivors about their experiences with Haing Ngor as translator," said Sands from Puerto Rico, where he is filming the NBC pirate series Crossbones with Malkovich.

Eleven years after winning his Oscar, Ngor was shot to death outside his apartment near Dodger Stadium. Waterston recalled that beyond his co-star's "tremendous spine", one could also see an "unbelievable gentleness of spirit".

After completing the film, Waterston and Joffe became involved with Cambodian charities. Joffe still visits the country often and with friends started the Cambodian Trust, which makes artificial limbs and operates a school for prosthetics. Waterston, who followed his long stint on NBC's Law & Order with HBO's The Newsroom, has lent his support to an American advocacy organisation Refugees International. Puttnam frequently visits Cambodia as the prime ministerial trade envoy to that country as well as Vietnam and Laos.

Before The Killing Fields, Schanberg said, Cambodians "never knew during their time under the Khmer Rouge whether anybody in the outside world knew about what was happening to them. The truth was, that was pretty true. The movie changed that." – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Bullets Over Petaling Street: A scary and exciting shoot

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

Chen Han Wei's take on his character in the movie.

THE whole cast of Bullets Over Petaling Street gets to go crazy with their characters. "Everyone except me," groused Chen Han Wei.

"Mine is the most normal character you will find in the movie. I play a very ordinary, goody two-shoes sort of guy next door," Chen, 44, offered about his role as mild-mannered restaurateur Xie Da Xiang, who operates Foo Tai Restaurant in the film.

"He is also a very romantic fellow, who still carries a torch for his childhood sweetheart (played by Debbie Goh)," added Chen, for whom the most memorable scene was the one he dubbed "locks of love" which was filmed on a flight of stairs with Goh.

Collaborating with Goh for the first time, Chen was impressed by her command of the script and her grasp of the character.

"Debbie is very clear about what she wants out of each scene and knows exactly what is required of her, and delivers her best at every shoot, so working with her was a breeze.

"Other cast members like William San and KK Wong were also fun to work with. I especially like that they are all straight-talking folks," said the multiple-award-winning actor (Singapore's Star Awards, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2010).

"Making movies in Malaysia is such an enjoyable experience. Most notable were the exceptional teamwork and strong camaraderie between cast and crew," said Chen, who looks forward to more projects here and hopes that some weird and quirky roles will come his way.

Bullets also marked many firsts for Chen. Apart from being his Malaysian film debut, the action comedy also features Chen speaking in a mix of Mandarin, Cantonese and even Bahasa Malaysia for the first time.

Born and raised in Johor Baru, Chen has been plying his trade since age 18 in Singapore, where all Chinese productions are in Mandarin, with an occasional smattering of Hokkien in movies.

Fortunately, the personable chap has his Malaysian upbringing to thank for his easy familiarity with several Chinese dialects.

"Unlike Singaporean productions which are only in Mandarin, Malaysians like to use various dialects and languages. Luckily my mother is Cantonese, so I learnt how to speak the dialect," he mused, alternating effortlessly between Mandarin and Cantonese in a recent phone interview from Singapore.

Chen also spoke of how filming on location in Petaling Street was a special experience for him. "Running around trying to film our scenes in Petaling Street was no easy matter as there were always lots of people everywhere.

"Plus it was scary and exciting at the same time, as there was always the possibility of us bumping into real-life triad bosses!"

The lanky thespian recalled how he had to complete his scenes in 10 days, then rush back to Singapore to film Yes We Can!, a Lunar New Year TV series which is currently airing on Singapore's MediaCorp Channel 8 and Malaysia's Astro Shuang Xing (Ch 324).

Chen, who made his film debut last year in the Gilbert Chan-helmed Singaporean horror flick Ghost Child, already has some 80 television drama credits to his name. Upcoming projects include two more TV series, a year-end blockbuster, and some coaching clinics for newbies. 

Related story:

Debbie Goh: Lethal in heels

Matthew McConaughey to enter Gus Van Sant's dark forest

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:05 PM PST

The American star has won the lead role in Sea of Trees, a story of survival within Japanese surroundings.

A HOT contender in the Oscar race for 2014's Best Actor award with Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey is to star opposite Ken Watanabe in Gus Van Sant's feature, which is set in Japan.

Sea of Trees will focus on the mystery surrounding Aokigahara, a dense woodland area that is famous for its unusually quiet nature, for its rocky caves, and as a traditional destination for those wishing to take their own lives.

The story, written by Chris Sparling of Buried and ATM, chronicles the journey of an American who sets off into Aokigahara, located at the base of Mount Fuji, with the intention of making it his last expedition.

But he meets another traveller on the way and together they resolve to escape the forest's dangerous, labyrinthine envinroment.

Gus Van Sant is to begin filming Sea of Trees in the next few weeks. – AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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'The Killing Fields': It changed all our lives

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

Thirty years on, those involved in making The Killing Fields look back at its legacy.

THE Killing Fields premiered 30 years ago as more than the first major film to explore the atrocities of Pol Pot's reign of terror in Cambodia in the 1970s.

The film "changed my life", said actor Sam Waterston, who earned an Oscar nomination playing New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg, one of the few American journalists left in Phnom Penh when the city fell to Khmer Rouge guerillas in 1975. Added Waterston: "I think it changed the lives of every single person involved in making it."

That would include Haing S Ngor, who won the Academy Award for supporting actor portraying Dith Pran, Schanberg's translator and journalistic partner, as well as director Roland Joffe, who remains involved with Cambodian charities.

Warner Home Video offers reminders of the film's storied creation and lasting legacy with the recently released 30th anniversary Blu-ray edition of The Killing Fields, which earned seven Oscar nominations, including wins for Ngor, Jim Clark for editing, and Chris Menges for his documentary-style cinematography.

British producer David Puttnam, who had won the Best Picture Oscar for 1981's Chariots Of Fire, explained that The Killing Fields was the movie "I had been waiting to do."

As a teenager, he had been gobsmacked by Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 semi-documentary-style war film The Battle Of Algiers. The film, Puttnam said, "changed my attitude towards cinema. It was the first film I saw that allowed me to believe that cinema could be something more. You didn't know you if you were watching a movie or not."

He felt the story of Schanberg and Dith would have the same effect on audiences. Though Schanberg and other journalists were allowed to leave Phnom Penh, Dith was among the hundreds of thousands of Cambodians forced to leave the cities and work in the labour camps of the communist Khmer Rouge.

Puttnam first read about them in a small piece in Time magazine. "It was the photograph of the two men hugging in the refugee camp, and it said an American journalist is reunited with his interpreter," the producer recalled.

The article and Pulitzer Prize-winner Schanberg's subsequent New York Times Magazine piece, The Death And Life Of Dith Pran, piqued the interest of several filmmakers.

"I went with the British group," said Schanberg, now 80, who still works as a freelance journalist. "These people who were making it were really good people. They weren't doing it to make a buck. They didn't make a lot of bucks. I never found a way to thank them for what they did."

Bruce Robinson's script for The Killing Fields attracted attention from top-line directors, but Puttnam eventually chose Joffe, who until then had directed mostly theatre and TV movies. Puttnam gave Robinson's dense script to Joffe.

"Three days later, I got this long, three-page letter detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the script," Puttnam said. "It was absolutely brilliant."

Joffe, who earned an Oscar nomination for his work, realised The Killing Fields wasn't just a war drama but a love story between Schanberg and Dith.

"If you make it a story about friendship and how that exists among men, you will make something indelible," Joffe recalled in a recent interview.

Though they felt pressure to cast a Hollywood star as Schanberg, Puttnam and Joffe went with Waterston, who they felt not only resembled Schanberg but also captured the spirit and passion of the journalist.

Waterston, who remained friendly with Dith until his death in 2008, remembered that Dith had hoped – before the cast was decided – that Schanberg might be played by an actor like Kirk Douglas.

"When I first met him, he said something about the fact that Sydney had a very big heart, and then he hit me really hard in the chest," Waterston said. "It was literally like he was trying to put Sydney's heart into me."

But the real casting gamble turned out to be Ngor, a doctor in Cambodia who suffered the same horrors as Dith under the Khmer Rouge, eventually escaping to Thailand and arriving in the United States in 1980.

Ngor had never acted before. Casting director Pat Golden spotted him at a Cambodian wedding in Long Beach.

"I talked to Pat Golden and said I think we should do an improvisation with Haing," Joffe said. "He didn't want to do it at first, but I kind of lulled him into doing something – mainly getting him to describe a few things, and he basically began to act them out. I realised this man was a born actor."

But Ngor didn't want to be in the movie.

"I had to do a lot of arm twisting to get him to be in it," Joffe said. "I said, 'You have to play this part. You have to do it for your country. It will be difficult, but I'll be there.' "

Emotions ran high for the Cambodian refugees who worked on the film. Ngor broke into tears during the scene in which a young girl playing a soldier for the Khmer Rouge pulls out a tomato plant Dith had been growing.

"He suddenly stopped in the middle of the scene," Joffe said. Ngor couldn't do it anymore. The cold expression on the young girl's face hit too close to home. In the moment, Ngor thought she really was a Khmer Rouge soldier. But Joffe eased his fears and eventually he completed the scene.

Rounding out the cast were John Malkovich as photojournalist Al Rockoff and Julian Sands as British journalist Jon Swain. Sands said the director sent the actors to Thailand a month before shooting started to get immersed in the place and the truth of the story.

"I remember the profound impact of visiting the Khmer refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodian border and talking to survivors about their experiences with Haing Ngor as translator," said Sands from Puerto Rico, where he is filming the NBC pirate series Crossbones with Malkovich.

Eleven years after winning his Oscar, Ngor was shot to death outside his apartment near Dodger Stadium. Waterston recalled that beyond his co-star's "tremendous spine", one could also see an "unbelievable gentleness of spirit".

After completing the film, Waterston and Joffe became involved with Cambodian charities. Joffe still visits the country often and with friends started the Cambodian Trust, which makes artificial limbs and operates a school for prosthetics. Waterston, who followed his long stint on NBC's Law & Order with HBO's The Newsroom, has lent his support to an American advocacy organisation Refugees International. Puttnam frequently visits Cambodia as the prime ministerial trade envoy to that country as well as Vietnam and Laos.

Before The Killing Fields, Schanberg said, Cambodians "never knew during their time under the Khmer Rouge whether anybody in the outside world knew about what was happening to them. The truth was, that was pretty true. The movie changed that." – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Bullets Over Petaling Street: A scary and exciting shoot

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

Chen Han Wei's take on his character in the movie.

THE whole cast of Bullets Over Petaling Street gets to go crazy with their characters. "Everyone except me," groused Chen Han Wei.

"Mine is the most normal character you will find in the movie. I play a very ordinary, goody two-shoes sort of guy next door," Chen, 44, offered about his role as mild-mannered restaurateur Xie Da Xiang, who operates Foo Tai Restaurant in the film.

"He is also a very romantic fellow, who still carries a torch for his childhood sweetheart (played by Debbie Goh)," added Chen, for whom the most memorable scene was the one he dubbed "locks of love" which was filmed on a flight of stairs with Goh.

Collaborating with Goh for the first time, Chen was impressed by her command of the script and her grasp of the character.

"Debbie is very clear about what she wants out of each scene and knows exactly what is required of her, and delivers her best at every shoot, so working with her was a breeze.

"Other cast members like William San and KK Wong were also fun to work with. I especially like that they are all straight-talking folks," said the multiple-award-winning actor (Singapore's Star Awards, 2001, 2005, 2009 and 2010).

"Making movies in Malaysia is such an enjoyable experience. Most notable were the exceptional teamwork and strong camaraderie between cast and crew," said Chen, who looks forward to more projects here and hopes that some weird and quirky roles will come his way.

Bullets also marked many firsts for Chen. Apart from being his Malaysian film debut, the action comedy also features Chen speaking in a mix of Mandarin, Cantonese and even Bahasa Malaysia for the first time.

Born and raised in Johor Baru, Chen has been plying his trade since age 18 in Singapore, where all Chinese productions are in Mandarin, with an occasional smattering of Hokkien in movies.

Fortunately, the personable chap has his Malaysian upbringing to thank for his easy familiarity with several Chinese dialects.

"Unlike Singaporean productions which are only in Mandarin, Malaysians like to use various dialects and languages. Luckily my mother is Cantonese, so I learnt how to speak the dialect," he mused, alternating effortlessly between Mandarin and Cantonese in a recent phone interview from Singapore.

Chen also spoke of how filming on location in Petaling Street was a special experience for him. "Running around trying to film our scenes in Petaling Street was no easy matter as there were always lots of people everywhere.

"Plus it was scary and exciting at the same time, as there was always the possibility of us bumping into real-life triad bosses!"

The lanky thespian recalled how he had to complete his scenes in 10 days, then rush back to Singapore to film Yes We Can!, a Lunar New Year TV series which is currently airing on Singapore's MediaCorp Channel 8 and Malaysia's Astro Shuang Xing (Ch 324).

Chen, who made his film debut last year in the Gilbert Chan-helmed Singaporean horror flick Ghost Child, already has some 80 television drama credits to his name. Upcoming projects include two more TV series, a year-end blockbuster, and some coaching clinics for newbies. 

Related story:

Debbie Goh: Lethal in heels

Matthew McConaughey to enter Gus Van Sant's dark forest

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:05 PM PST

The American star has won the lead role in Sea of Trees, a story of survival within Japanese surroundings.

A HOT contender in the Oscar race for 2014's Best Actor award with Dallas Buyers Club, Matthew McConaughey is to star opposite Ken Watanabe in Gus Van Sant's feature, which is set in Japan.

Sea of Trees will focus on the mystery surrounding Aokigahara, a dense woodland area that is famous for its unusually quiet nature, for its rocky caves, and as a traditional destination for those wishing to take their own lives.

The story, written by Chris Sparling of Buried and ATM, chronicles the journey of an American who sets off into Aokigahara, located at the base of Mount Fuji, with the intention of making it his last expedition.

But he meets another traveller on the way and together they resolve to escape the forest's dangerous, labyrinthine envinroment.

Gus Van Sant is to begin filming Sea of Trees in the next few weeks. – AFP Relaxnews

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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Iraq illegally detains thousands of women, tortures many - Human Rights Watch

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 09:15 PM PST

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities are detaining thousands of women illegally and subjecting many to torture and ill-treatment, including the threat of sexual abuse, Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Thursday.

Many women were detained for months or even years without charge before seeing a judge, HRW said, and security forces often questioned them about their male relatives' activities rather than crimes in which they themselves were implicated.

In custody, women described being kicked, slapped, hung upside-down and beaten on the soles of their feet, given electric shocks, threatened with sexual assault by security forces during interrogation, and even raped in front of their relatives and children.

"The abuses of women we documented are in many ways at the heart of the current crisis in Iraq," said HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director Joe Stork in a statement accompanying the report, titled: "'No One Is Safe': Abuses of Women in Iraq's Criminal Justice System."

"These abuses have caused a deep-seated anger and lack of trust between Iraq's diverse communities and security forces, and all Iraqis are paying the price."

A spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry said the testimonies in the HRW report were "over-exaggerated", but acknowledged that "we have some limited illegal behaviours which were practised by security forces against women prisoners", which it said had been identified by the ministry's own teams.

These teams had referred their reports to the relevant authorities, "asking them to bring those who are responsible for mistreating female detainees to justice", the spokesman said.

"Iraq is still working to put an end to prison abuse and, with more time, understanding of law and patience, such illegal practices will become a history," he said.

The 105-page report is based on interviews with imprisoned Sunni and Shi'ite women and girls, although Sunnis make up the vast majority of the more than 4,200 women detained in Interior and Defence Ministry facilities, HRW said.

The release of women detainees was a main demand of Sunnis who began demonstrating late in 2012 against the Shi'ite-led government, which they accuse of marginalising their community.

Security forces cleared one of two Sunni protest camps in Anbar province in December 2013. In the ensuing backlash, militants seized the city of Falluja and parts of Ramadi.

Since then, more than 1,000 people have been killed across Iraq, according to Iraq Body Count, and the army is preparing for a possible ground assault to retake Falluja.

One woman who entered her meeting with HRW at a death row facility in Baghdad on crutches said she had been permanently disabled by abuse, displaying injuries consistent with the mistreatment she alleged.

Seven months later, she was executed despite lower court rulings that dismissed charges against her following a medical report that supported her accusations of torture.

HRW described Iraq's judiciary as weak and plagued by corruption, with convictions frequently based on coerced confessions, and trial proceedings that fall far short of international standards.

If women are released unharmed, they are frequently stigmatised by their family or community, who perceive them to have been dishonoured, HRW said.

"Both men and women suffer from the severe flaws of the criminal justice system. But women suffer a double burden due to their second-class status in Iraqi society," HRW said.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Thai polling chiefs try to work out how to fix disrupted election

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 09:05 PM PST

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai election officials met on Thursday to try to shore up a disputed weekend ballot that was disrupted by anti-government protesters who blockaded the streets of the capital, stopping some people from voting or candidates from registering.

Sunday's poll has been challenged by the main opposition Democrat Party, which boycotted voting, and the Election Commission is already investigating possible campaigning irregularities in a long-running political conflict that shows no sign of ending.

The election would likely return caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to power if it is not annulled but, whatever the result, it will not change the dysfunctional status quo after eight years of polarisation and turmoil.

Consumer confidence, which reflects views on the economy, job opportunities and future income, hit a 26-month low in January, data released on Thursday showed.

"Today's meeting will cover just about every issue to do with the election including the election itself and advance voting that faced disruptions on January 26," commission secretary-general Puchong Nutrawong told reporters.

"We'll also discuss what to do about constituencies where candidates were unable to register," he said.

Some 28 electoral districts in the south, a stronghold of the Democrat Party, failed to register candidates after protesters blockaded candidate-registration centres in December.

It was unclear how the commission would ensure that registration could take place in those districts but it has the authority to call in troops to guard voting booths.

Anti-government protests are still blocking parts of Bangkok in the latest round of an eight-year dispute that broadly pits Bangkok's middle class, southern Thais and the royalist establishment against the mostly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and her brother, ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Ten people have been killed in sporadic bursts of violence, although the capital has been calm since the vote and the number of protesters has dwindled.

The demonstrators say Yingluck is Thaksin's puppet and the costly giveaways that won his parties every election since 2001 are tantamount to vote-buying using taxpayers' money.

They say Thaksin's new political order is tainted by graft and cronyism and want an appointed "people's council" to replace Yingluck and overhaul a political system hijacked by her brother, who lives in exile to avoid a jail term for graft.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban faces charges of murder related to violence in 2010 when, as deputy prime minister, he sent in troops to crush protests by "red shirt" supporters of Thaksin. More than 90 people were killed.

Suthep is to appear in court on Thursday in that case, but he failed to turn up last time around and was due to address supporters later on Thursday, making an appearance unlikely.

Protesters succeeded in disrupting voting in a fifth of constituencies in the election. The incomplete poll means Yingluck could head a caretaker administration for months, unable to make policy decisions, until vacant seats are filled.

(Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Paul Tait)

El Salvador top court orders probe of civil war massacre

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:50 PM PST

SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - El Salvador's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the country's top prosecutor to investigate the alleged massacre of dozens of civilians in 1981 by army troops during the nation's bloody civil war.

The court ruled General Prosecutor Luis Martinez had to reopen a previous investigation that had fizzled out without any charges being filed. The court demanded prosecutors charge any guilty parties and release publicly the results of its probe.

The ruling is an unprecedented move by the court to order the probe into a particular case relating to the country's 1980-1992 civil war.

The Supreme Court said that the prosecutor's office dragged its feet in the original investigation and the justices ruled that the prosecutor had violated the rights of a group of citizens who had been filing legal complaints about the massacre since 2006.

Military troops allegedly killed about 45 people, including women and children, in the community of San Francisco Angulo.

"The court orders the General Prosecutor to carry out a serious, far-reaching, diligent and conclusive investigation, within a reasonable time," the court said in a statement.

The ruling comes after Sunday's presidential election where a former Marxist guerrilla leader fell just shy of an outright victory and who has a strong chance of winning a March run-off vote.

Some 75,000 people died in El Salvador's civil war, when the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, or FMLN, fought a string of right-wing governments that received military backing from the United States.

Central American nations have struggled to move past the deep divisions left by conflicts between leftist rebels and U.S.-backed military forces. The landmark conviction of former Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt on genocide charges was thrown out by a court last year.

A truth commission investigated some of the worst massacres of El Salvador's war, but the country's Congress passed an amnesty law in 1993 that has impeded the prosecution of alleged war crimes.

The Supreme Court is currently studying a challenge to overturn the amnesty law.

(Writing by Michael O'Boyle; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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Judy Davis exits '24' follow-up

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 05:40 PM PST

The Australian actress has backed out of playing Jack Bauer's enemy in the mini-series 24: Live Another Day.

JUDY Davis (Barton Fink, To Rome with Love) was slated to play a terrorist's widow confronted by Kiefer Sutherland's character in this follow-up to 24, the series. According to Deadline.com, the mini-series' producers are expected to find a replacement quickly without impacting production, which began in London at the end of January.

24: Live another Day will mark the return of the counter-terrorist agent Jack Bauer, four years after the last season of 24. Kiefer Sutherland will reprise the role in 12 new episodes that will cover a single day. The action will take place in London, which has been hit by a serious terrorist attack. The first two episodes are scheduled to air on Fox on May 5.

The network is already promoting this much-anticipated new mini-series, having aired a teaser during the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb 2.

Watch the video below. – AFP Relaxnews

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M'sian banks seen benefiting from relocation of S'pore SMEs

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

PONTIAN: The relocation of Singapore-based small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to Johor will create and offer good growth prospects and opportunities for the local banking industry.

RHB Bank Bhd southern regional director Ahmad Zaini Sofian said Johor was the logical choice for the SMEs to move their operations due to the state's close proximity to the republic.

He said Iskandar Malaysia would benefit the most from the relocation of the SMEs as the country's first economic growth corridor was progressing and developing well.

"The Federal and Johor governments and relevant agencies are also encouraging SMEs from Singapore to move their operations to Iskandar Malaysia,'' said Ahmad Zaini.

He said this to reporters at the opening of RHB Bank Bhd branch at Pusat Perdagangan Pontian by managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli yesterday. Ahmad Zaini said the higher cost of doing business in Singapore and space constraints would prompt more SMEs in the republic to relocate their operations elsewhere including to Malaysia.

"The property sector is another key driver that will boost growth in Iskandar Malaysia and create opportunities for the local banking sector,'' added Ahmad Zaini.

He said Iskandar Malaysia remained attractive to foreign property buyers especially Singaporeans as the prices of private residential properties were much lower than those in the republic.

Meanwhile, director branch management Yeoh Beng Hooi said the bank hoped to maintain 14% in loan growth this year similar to what it had achieved in 2013.

He said last year's figure was much higher than the 10% for the local banking industry adding it would be a challenging year for banks in the country due to the global economic uncertainties.

"Our main drivers this year will be mortgages, personal loans, current and saving accounts as well as insurance protection,'' said Yeoh.

World Bank in US$1bil plan to map Africa's natural resources

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 07:00 PM PST

WASHINGTON: The World Bank plans to launch in July a $1-billion plan to map Africa's natural resources with the aim of delineating more clearly the continent's uncovered mineral wealth.

The project, dubbed the Billion Dollar Map, "will unlock the true worth of Africa's mineral endowment," Tom Butler, mining specialist at the Bank's private finance arm, the International Finance Corp., said Wednesday.

Speaking in Cape Town, South Africa, Butler said most of Africa's subsoil resources have not been surveyed.

Doing so, in a public way, would be useful to policy makers, investors and the public, helping to boost development, he said, according to prepared remarks.

"There is yet an enormous amount of wealth left to discover," he said.

"Coupled with in-country training and institutional support, and the work of exploration companies, this initiative will unlock the true worth of Africa's mineral endowment."

The World Bank , which calls accessible data on resources a "public good", said it has already invested over $200 million in developing geological data for Africa over the past 10 years.

Currently, it is supporting a comprehensive airborne geological survey of the entire country of Malawi. - Reuters

S Korean insurance scheme for victims of bullying in schools

Posted: 05 Feb 2014 06:52 PM PST

SEOUL: One of South Korea's largest insurance companies is to begin offering a policy for victims of school bullies, as part of a government campaign to stamp out the problem.

The policy from Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance will likely debut in March, a company spokesman said Thursday.

"The priority isn't really on making money with this product, but more on providing a public service that helps build up social security networks," he told AFP.

As well as bullying, other policies will be introduced offering protection to victims of sexual assault, domestic violence and food adulteration - or what President Park Geun-Hye has collectively condemned as the "four social evils" afflicting the country.

According to the state regulatory Financial Services Commission (FSC), the bullying policy will help cover costs for physical injuries as well as counselling fees for those traumatised by school violence.

Monthly premiums would be a maximum of 20,000 won ($18), but the FSC said it would raise joint funds with municipalities to pay premiums for those unable to afford them.

According to a survey conducted by the Education Ministry last year, more than 77,000 school students of all ages said they had been bullied, with nearly 10 percent of those saying they had considered suicide.

Nearly 140 South Korean school students killed themselves in 2012, mostly as the result of family problems, exam stress and bullying.
- AFP

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BN yet to decide which component party will contest in Kajang

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

KAJANG: Barisan Nasional has yet to decide on its candidate or which component party will contest the upcoming Kajang by-election.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said although Kajang was a seat previously contested by MCA, it was up to the Prime Minister to decide who would contest this time.

"There are many views, but we can't decide until it has been discussed by the MCA president and other component parties.

"We will decide what will be best. Then, we leave it to the Barisan chairman," he told a press conference here yesterday.

He said the potential candidate would be one with good standing and could come from any of Barisan's component parties.

Muhyiddin laughed at a suggestion that national badminton champion Datuk Lee Chong Wei might be a potential candidate and added that Barisan had specific criteria on who could be its election candidate.

The Kajang state assembly seat fell vacant when PKR assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh resigned on Jan 27, paving the way for Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be fielded there.

Related story:
PAS Youth: Keep Khalid as MB

Fire razes supermarket in historical building

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The town's oldest supermarket in Jalan Pasar was razed in a pre-dawn fire. The 5am blaze, however, was put out before it could damage the wet market, located on the ground floor of the two-storey building.

More than 125 fire fighters from five stations in Bukit Mertajam, Perda, Prai and volunteers from 13 voluntary fire brigades controlled the blaze from spreading.

Penang Fire and Rescue Depart­ment operations superintend­ent M. Vijayan said firemen arrived at the scene within minutes of rec­eiving the distress call.

"We took 20 minutes to control it from spreading but only managed to put it out completely at about 7,30am because of the lack of access into the building," he said, adding that there was only one entrance to the supermarket.

The cause of the fire is being determined.

Penang MCA liaison committee deputy chairman and Bukit Mertaj­am MCA division chief Tan Teik Cheng hoped that the Seberang Prai Municipal Council could find a suitable location to relocate the traders of the market soon.

"It is a historical building and a symbol of Bukit Mertajam for decades," he said, adding that the building should be restored to its former glory.

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim said he had discussed about a temporary market site with the traders and the council.

MCA holds ‘back-to-work’ ceremony at headquarters

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 08:00 AM PST

PETALING JAYA: MCA held a kai gong or "back-to-work" ceremony at its headquarters Wisma MCA after the long Chinese New Year holiday.

Party president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, staff and members from the party headquarters and Koperasi Jayadiri Malaysia Berhad (Kojadi) witnessed the ceremony yesterday, which fell on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year.

The ceremony began with a lion dance performance followed by a dragon dance. The lion dance performers then exchanged mandarin oranges and vegetables with Liow, a gesture to usher in an auspicious year of abundance and good health.

Liow also treated the staff to a kai gong lunch that included the traditional yee sang.

A statement from MCA said the kai gong ceremony fostered better camaraderie between the party leadership and headquarters staff.

Other members of the MCA central committee members who attended the ceremony were secretary-general Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan, vice-president Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and MCA Youth chief Chong Sin Woon.

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Play this game and help cure cancer

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 06:40 PM PST

'Play To Cure' from Cancer Research UK.

"PLAY To Cure: Genes In Space" may look like a space flight simulator – and technically speaking it is – but the maps that players use for navigating their spacecraft are actually cleverly disguised pieces of genetic data.

Developed by Cancer Research UK in collaboration with programmers from Amazon, Google, Facebook and games studio Omnisoft, the free app is available to download for iOS and Android devices.

The aim of the game is pretty simple: to plot a course through what look like asteroid fields in order to collect something called "element alpha".

However, the fields are actually data gathered from 2,000 patients with breast cancer – data which, if thoroughly analysed, could lead to better testing procedures and treatments in the future.

Speaking at the game's launch event on Feb 4 in London, Professor Carlos Caldas, senior group leader at the charity's Cambridge Institute at the University of Cambridge, said: "We did molecular analysis that generated massive amounts of data. Just to give you an idea: from each of those 2,000 patients the molecular analysis came up with more than two million data points."

And that's where gamers come in. This data could be analysed by computers, which would take a very long time and would not be as accurate as human analysis as people are much better at spotting patterns and fragments of patterns and spotting subtle differences.

At the same event, Hannah Keartland, citizen science lead for Cancer Research UK, explained that the only way to speed up research is to increase the number of human eyes looking at data and that Cancer Research UK believes the key to that is the growing popularity of crowd sourcing: "Every single person can have an impact in terms of accelerating cures for cancer. We want anyone, anywhere and any age to download and play this game. If every single person with a smartphone downloads this game and plays it for two minutes it could have a mind-blowing impact on accelerating research," she said.

The game is completely free to play. There are no hidden in-app purchases or other charges. Course information generated by playing will be collected and analysed. – AFP Relaxnews

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Indonesia to decide on Australian trafficker parole in days

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 11:45 PM PST

JAKARTA, Feb 05, 2014 (AFP) - High-profile Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby will learn within days whether she will be granted parole from an Indonesian jail following a lengthy bid to win early release, a minister said Wednesday.

Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin said the 36-year-old's application was among a large batch he would decide on by Friday although he stressed she would not get "special treatment".

Corby, whose case has attracted huge publicity in Australia, was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2005 after being caught trying to smuggle 4.1 kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana into the resort island of Bali.

She lodged her bid for early release from jail in Bali months ago but the process has moved along slowly due to bureaucratic wrangling and the complexities of the Indonesian legal system.

However a justice ministry parole board in Jakarta heard her application in private last week.

Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin is interviewed by journalists in Jakarta on February 5, 2014. High-profile Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby will learn within days whether she will be granted parole from an Indonesian jail following a lengthy bid to win early release, a minister said on February 5. - AFP

Indonesian Justice Minister Amir Syamsuddin is interviewed by journalists in Jakarta on February 5, 2014. High-profile Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby will learn within days whether she will be granted parole from an Indonesian jail following a lengthy bid to win early release, a minister said on February 5. - AFP

Syamsuddin said the board's assessment was among 1,700 parole applications he would examine this week.

"I promise, God willing, that I will process all 1,700 within the next three days," he told reporters in Jakarta.

He did not indicate what his decision might be on the Australia's case, although he said: "Corby will not get special treatment.

"As long as she fulfils all the requirements and has the recommendation from the parole board... she will get her rights."

He has previously said that he does not oppose granting Corby early release, however the key factor in her case is whether she receives a recommendation from the parole board.

Authorities on Bali have already recommended her early release but the process slowed down in recent months.

However hopes rose when a French drug smuggler was granted parole last month. Michael Blanc is one of the few foreigners to have been freed on parole in recent years.

Corby has always maintained her innocence. Her original 20-year sentence was reduced significantly after she received several remissions for good behaviour and a cut of five years from the president.

If granted parole, Corby would still be bound to live on Bali and obliged to report regularly to authorities.

She would live with her sister and would not be allowed to return to Australia until 2017.

Chinese scientists sound warning over new bird flu

Posted: 04 Feb 2014 07:03 PM PST

PARIS: Chinese scientists sounded the alarm Wednesday after a new bird flu virus, H10N8, killed an elderly woman in December and infected another individual last month.

The fifth novel influenza strain to emerge in 17 years, the virus has a worrying genetic profile and should be closely monitored, they reported in The Lancet medical journal.

It appears to be able to infect tissue deep in the lung and may have features allowing it to spread efficiently among humans, they said.

"The pandemic potential of this novel virus should not be underestimated," said the team headed by Yuelong Shu from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Beijing.

The warning stems from analysis of a virus sample taken from a 73-year-old woman who died in Nanchang, in southeastern Jiangxi province, on December 6 after being diagnosed with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure.

The Chinese authorities announced her death from H10N8 on December 18.

The Lancet study disclosed that a second case of H10N8 was recorded in Nanchang, on January 26. It did not give further details.

They are the first known human cases of H10N8, a virus that has been found only twice before in China - once in a water sample from a lake in Hunan in 2007, and the second time in live poultry in Guangdong province in 2012.

But this particular strain is different from the ones found in those two samples, the study said.

Genetic profile of virus

The big contributors to its genome are reshuffled genes from the H9N2 virus, the authors said.

This is a bird virus that erupted in Hong Kong in 1999 and has also contributed to the dangerous H5N1 and H7N9 flu viruses, the probe said.

Avian flu viruses pass from infected birds to humans in close proximity but typically do not transmit easily between humans.

The worry for health watchdogs is their potential to acquire an ability to jump easily from person to person.

H7N9, which emerged last year, has led to 159 human infections in China, including 71 deaths, according to a combined toll of official figures and an AFP tally of reports by local authorities.

H5N1, which first occurred among humans in Hong Kong in 1997, has caused 648 infections with 384 deaths since 2003, according to figures cited in The Lancet study.

The genome of H10N8, it said, pointed to a mutation in its so-called PB2 protein that, previous research has found, suggests an ability to adapt to mammals.

The virus also has a mutation in its haemagglutinin protein - a spike on the virus surface that enables it to latch onto other cells - that suggests it can infect deep in the lung, like H5N1, rather than the upper respiratory tract, the trachea.

Lab tests on the sample showed it could be attacked by Tamiflu, the frontline anti-viral drug.

Many questions remain, including how the woman was infected.

She had bought a live chicken at a poultry market several days before falling sick.

But she may have become infected beforehand, the scientists said. She did not handle the bird and no virus traces were found in poultry at the market.

In addition, the woman may have been an easy target for the virus because of poor health - she had coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and a muscle-weakening disease called myasthenia gravis.

Tests on people who had been in close contact with her concluded that no one else had been infected.

The second case of H10N8 "is of great concern", said co-author Mingbin Liu of the Nanchang branch of China's CDC.

"It reveals that the H10N8 virus has continued to circulate and may cause more human infections in the future." -AFP

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