Khamis, 24 April 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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S. Korea parents request autopsies

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

SEOUL: Some parents of the mostly teenage victims of South Korea's ferry disaster are pushing for autopsies that might show their children were alive inside the submerged vessel and only died because the emergency response was so slow.

The confirmed death toll yesterday stood at 171, but 131 were still missing as dive teams searched in near pitch-black conditions for bodies trapped in the ferry's interior.

More than a week after the 6,825 tonne Sewol capsized and sank with 476 people on board, most of them high school students, there is still widespread anger among the victims' families over the pace of the initial rescue effort.

It took divers working in difficult and dangerous conditions more than two days to get into the sunken ferry and two more days to retrieve the first bodies.

Many relatives believed some of the victims may have survived for several days in trapped air pockets, but perished in the cold water after no rescue came.

As a result, some have asked for autopsies to be performed to see if it would be possible to determine the precise cause and time of death.

"We have received a number of enquiries about autopsies," said a member of the forensic team on Jindo island working on identifying the bodies recovered from the disaster site.

"It seems they want some confirmation of the exact cause of death, but it's only a minority that is asking," he said.

An official responsible for legal and medical issues at the emergency situation desk on Jindo said there was nothing to prevent families from having an autopsy carried out.

"To my knowledge, nobody has so far actually brought a body to the National Forensic Service to have this done," the official said.

The belief that some passengers might have survived the initial capsize was very strong in the days immediately after the Sewol sank on April 16, fuelled in part by fake postings on social network sites claiming to be text messages from passengers begging to be rescued.

Relatives have also been distressed by reports that many of the recovered bodies had broken fingers – pointing to frantic efforts to escape the vessel as it listed and sank.

Of the 476 people on board, 325 were students from Danwon High School in Ansan city just south of Seoul.

Kim Hyong-Ki, the spokesman for a representative committee set up by the relatives, confirmed that some parents were pushing for autopsies.

"They want to know for certain how their family members died," Kim said.

"That said, most people oppose it because they can't bear the idea of the bodies being damaged any more.

"My daughter's body is still out there in the sea, but I don't want anyone dissecting it after it is recovered." - AFP

Obama vows to defend Japan

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

TOKYO: US President Barack Obama vowed to defend Japan if China attacks over a tense territorial dispute, but also urged Beijing to help stop North Korea from forging ahead with its "dangerous" nuclear programme.

Obama described as "critically important" China's role in keeping its wayward ally in check after South Korea said heightened activity at the North's main nuclear test site could point to an imminent test – its fourth.

"China's participation in pushing the DPRK (North Korea) in a different direction is critically important," the president told a joint press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"It is the most destabilising, dangerous situation in all of the Asia-Pacific region."

Despite his call for China's help, Obama also underlined US support for Japan, saying that islands at the centre of its bitter territorial dispute with Beijing are covered by a defence treaty that would oblige Washington to act if they were attacked.

"Article five (of the US-Japan security treaty) covers all territories under Japan's administration including (the) Senkaku islands," he said, referring to the East China Sea archipelago which Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

"We do not believe that they should be subject to change unilaterally, and what is a consistent part of the alliance is that the treaty covers all territories administered by Japan."

Obama added that "this is not a new position" and "there's no red line that's been drawn".

"We stand together in calling for disputes in the region, including maritime issues, to be resolved peacefully through dialogue," he said.

Relations between Tokyo and Beijing are at their lowest point for years. Some observers warn they might come to blows over the islands, where ships from both sides lurk to press claims for ownership.

Abe's position on historical issues also annoys the Chinese, who accuse him of playing down Japanese atrocities.

They are particularly upset by visits he and his cabinet ministers have paid to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honours war criminals among other fallen warriors. — AFP

Plane searchers face tough choices

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

SYDNEY: Searchers for the missing Flight MH370 face tough choices on how to proceed after almost seven fruitless weeks, with only a fraction of a deep-sea zone still left to be scanned.

After 11 dives seeking wreckage from the Malaysia Airlines jet, which mysteriously disappeared on March 8, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) has come up empty-handed.

"Bluefin-21 has now completed more than 90% of the focused underwater search area," the Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) managing the search said early yesterday.

"No contacts of interest have been found to date."

Australia is leading the search for the missing Boeing 777, which is believed to have crashed in the southern Indian Ocean after veering dramatically off course from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing route.

JACC refused to speculate on what the next steps would be if Bluefin-21 ended its 3D sonar scanning some 4,500m below the surface without results, but said the search would continue.

"We are currently consulting very closely with our international partners on the best way to effect this for the future," it said.

For now, it will not give up on the 400 sq km search zone, which has offered the best hopes so far of finding the aircraft based on seabed signals consistent with those emitted by black box data recorders.

"At the moment, we are focused on pursuing the best lead we have in relation to the missing Flight MH370," the agency said.

"It is important this lead is pursued to its completion so we can either confirm or discount the focused underwater area as the final resting place of MH370.

"This is clearly of great importance to the families of those on board."

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said that while the search would not be abandoned, it could face a "rethink". Defence Minister David Johnston has suggested a more powerful sonar scanner could be deployed.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has also reportedly suggested that the search zone could be broadened if calculations about the plane's position when it likely ran out of fuel and crashed were revised.

"The area of focus for the search... has already been moved twice, and there's always a possibility that further work will move it again," the bureau's chief commissioner Martin Dolan told CNN.

As the painstaking aerial and surface searches over the vast and remote ocean continued, the discovery on Wednesday of potential debris on a Western Australian beach was ruled out as a lead.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the unidentified material found on the far south coast of Western Australia was not associated with MH370.

The JACC said up to 11 military aircraft and 11 ships would assist in the search yesterday, with most concentrating on a visual search of 49,567 sq km, some 1,584km northwest of Perth.

The visual search has for days been frustrated by weather related to ex-tropical Cyclone Jack, and authorities said it could again be suspended with sea swells expected of three to four metres. — AFP

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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'Gordon's alive!' Fox inks deal for 'Flash Gordon' remake

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:05 AM PDT

Twentieth Century Fox has signed a deal to resurrect forgotten American sci-fi hero Flash Gordon for a new remake that cult fans have been waiting for. 

In many ways an ancestor to the modern-day cast of Marvel and DC superheroes, Flash Gordon first appeared in a 1934 comic strip of the same name drawn by Alex Raymond.

FlashG

Nice duds: The original Flash Gordon drawn by comics artist Alex Raymond.

Without any super powers, the hero – who was originally a polo player and Yale graduate – undertook a mission to save Earth from the invading armies of Ming the Merciless, a bloodthirsty tyrant from the alien planet of Mongo.

Installed as screenwriters for the remake are JD Payne and Patrick McKay, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with producer John Davis about to close the deal with Fox.

Though Payne and McKay may not be widely known, they are regarded as hot property in Hollywood, as the team behind the script for a proposed third film in the rebooted Star Trek series.

Although discussions of remaking Flash Gordon have been going around for the past few years, this is apparently the first one that's actually entered actual development. Whether or not it will actually become a reality is still anyone's guess. 

The hero has seen action many times on the small and big screens, beginning with a trilogy of 'film serials' made between 1936 and 1940 starring Buster Crabbe as the title character. There have also been a few animated versions and a 21-episode Syfy channel TV series that ran through 2007 and 2008.

Early incarnation: Buster Crabbe (left) was the original cinematic Flash Gordon.

But it was the 1980 cinematic version directed by Mike Hodges that captured the public's imagination – and subsequent derision – with its campy dialogue, outlandish costumes and phallic spaceships. It didn't help that the movie downgraded Flash to a football player played by Playgirl-centrefold model Sam J. Jones who was nominated for a Razzie Worst Actor award. 

Cult favourite: Poster for the 1980 film version of Flash Gordon, directed by Mike Hodges.

The 1980 flick was also memorable for Max von Sydow's over-the-top performance as Ming, Timothy Dalton during his pre-James Bond era, and Golden Globe double-winner Chaim Topol as Dr Hans Zarkov. But the star of the film would be the soundtrack composed by British rock band Queen, especially the theme song Flash.

Although it did moderately well during its time, the film found a bigger audience after the 1980s as a cult favourite. Self-professed fan Comedian Seth MacFarlane even featured Sam J. Jones in a cameo in his 2012 hit comedy Ted

The crucial question now is: Who should be the new Flash Gordon? – AFP/RelaxNews

Play it again: Summer movie sequels bring in the big bucks

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Summer movie sequels may seldom be as good as the original but they do bring major profit for Hollywood studios.

Captain America, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Transformers are storming back into movie theatres, returning in sequels to save the world from mass destruction, while at the same time churning out profits for movie studios.

Studios generally don't have to spend as much to raise awareness of sequels months in advance, as they do with other big-budget films, executives say. And when sequels reach the big screen, ticket sales in foreign markets, which can account for up to 80% of a film's box office, often exceed their predecessors.

"When you can say, here's Avatar 2, and you've got six billion people ready to see it, it doesn't take a lot of marketing to get them into the theatre," said chairman and chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment Jim Gianopulos. 

"It's a self-propelling marketing message in a very big world." The first installment of 20th Century Fox's animated Ice Age series took in US$207mil (RM672mil) overseas in 2002. The fourth Ice Age from the studio owned by Twenty-First Century Fox earned US$716mil (RM2.3bil) at international box offices in 2012.

Sequels are hardly a new Hollywood phenomenon. But in recent years, as DVD sales crumbled, movie studios began to cut back on the numbers of films they produced to trim the risks.

Shotgun Chimp: One of Ceaser's people vets an unwanted visitor.

One of Caesar's troops vets an unwanted visitor in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Starting in 2008, they began to churn out more sequels and big-budget event films, turning away from riskier original films like independent dramas and romantic comedies.

This year's sequels include superhero films The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony Corp, Fox's X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes; Transformers: Age Of Extinction from Viacom Inc's Paramount; animated movies Rio 2 from Fox and Dreamworks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon 2; and Sony comedies 22 Jump Street and Think Like A Man Too.

What mostly drives the studio top brass is that audiences keep buying tickets for sequels. In 2013, nine of the top 12 films in the United States and Canada were sequels or prequels, including Marvel's Iron Man 3 and Lions Gate's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Those films generated US$2.6bil (RM8.4bil) in domestic ticket sales, nearly one-quarter of the year's US$10.9bil (RM35.4bil) total, and another US$4.5bil (RM14.6bil) worldwide.

That shift away from riskier films has helped studios increase or stabilise their profits, said Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible.

Operating margins at Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros., the studio behind the Harry Potter franchise and The Dark Knight Batman series, hovered around 7% in 2007 and 2008, Wible said, before rising to about 10% for each of the next five years.

At Walt Disney Co, the focus is on a smaller number of films with the potential to produce sequels, drive toy sales and inspire theme-park rides.

In a typical year, Disney is aiming to release one film each from Pixar, Disney Animation, and Star Wars producer Lucasfilm; two from Marvel, and four to six from its Disney live action division, said chairman of The Walt Disney Studios Alan Horn. "We choose our sequels carefully," Horn said. "If we have a picture that has earned a right to have a sequel, it's because the audiences loved it." Next year's crop of sequels may set even bigger records.

Studios are already planning to release new installments of some of the biggest films of all time, including Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Marvel's The Avengers.

The rash of sequels has prompted even filmmakers to make fun of their world. In the opening number for Muppets Most Wanted, Disney's sequel to its 2011 The Muppets movie, the furry puppets break into a song called We're Doing A Sequel

"That's what we do in Hollywood," the puppets sing, "and everybody knows that the sequel's never quite as good." – Reuters

HK filmmaker Dante Lam's new movie loosely based on past events

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Unbeatable director Dante Lam and actor Nick Cheung are fast becoming an unstoppable team as they unleash their new movie That Demon Within.

Three cops engaged in a gun battle in a subway. Two are found dead while one is seriously injured. This is the story of the rogue cop that rocked Hong Kong in 2006. And it is the springboard for Hong Kong director Dante Lam's latest action thriller That Demon Within.

In a recent phone interview from Hong Kong, Lam shared that his new movie is not a story exactly based on Hong Kong's notorious 'Demon Cop'.

"That Demon Within may be inspired by those events, but the plot for the movie is entirely fiction, save for the infamous gory subway scene. It is one which Hong Kong people will know too well," said Lam, 48.

The thriller stars Daniel Wu and Nick Cheung; the latter recently grabbed headlines after winning the Best Actor trophy at the 2014 Hong Kong Film Awards for Unbeatable – another movie directed by Lam. Cheung's collaboration with Lam has proven to be most fruitful; the 2008 Beast Stalker won him seven acting accolades and propelled him to superstardom.

Lam recalled how he had already gotten both Wu and Cheung on board, but had yet to decide on the final casting. After doing extensive research and consultation with psychology experts, Lam made up his mind.

"After examining our storyline and the psychological condition of our protagonist, it was decided that the character had to be younger, which explains how he could still be so deeply affected by childhood trauma," the director explained.

Since Wu is 39 while Cheung is 46, the former was then cast as the reclusive cop and the latter, the ruthless criminal.

In That Demon Within, Wu plays strait-laced policeman Dave Wong, who unknowingly saves the life of the vicious psychopath Hon Kong, then becomes obsessed with apprehending the ringleader of the Demon King gang of robbers,

Though Cheung may have been accorded less screen time this time around, work was equally daunting. "It was mentally exhausting this time, as I had to create a diabolical persona for this character, sometimes with just a smile, as he doesn't say too much."

And even though Cheung did not have to spend months conditioning his body like he did for Unbeatable, the physical challenges were no less demanding. The perfectionist in him meant he constantly insisted on performing all his own stunts and refused to use body double even in long shots, where his character was wearing a full-face mask.

The multiple-award-winning actor also had to endure hours of makeup for several of his scenes. One of the most extensive sessions required him to endure some five hours of having prosthetic makeup applied on his face for a fiery inferno scene. "But, the removal of prosthetic makeup adhesive is even worse as the process took hours and requires the continuous application of special solvent that made my face stiff and red," he recalled.

After being in front of the camera for 25 years, Cheung made his directorial debut with a horror flick that was filmed in Malaysia last year. The movie which tells of spooky events encountered by a Cantonese opera troupe during the Hungry Ghost Festival is due to hit cinemas later this year.

> That Demon Within opens in cinemas nationwide today.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: World Updates

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Empty spaces mark Korean school tribute for missing ferry victims

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:02 PM PDT

ANSAN, South Korea/SEOUL (Reuters) - A floral tribute to the children who drowned in a sinking South Korean ferry features photographs of the victims in their school uniforms, while lines of empty spaces wait to be filled with photos once those still missing are confirmed dead.

The pictures, flowers and spaces are banked up the entire wall of a gymnasium near Danwon High School in Ansan, on the outskirts of Seoul.

"There are too many pictures, way more than I thought," said crying university student Jung Sun-a, 24. "And they are too young in these pictures. I really hope they can fulfil their dream in the next life. And I hope the missing kids will also come back to their parents as soon as possible."

One wailing old woman shouted out for her granddaughter, Lee Bomi.

"Bomi is still in darkness. She hasn't come home yet. What are we going to do? I came here to ask you. She is still in dark waters. What am I supposed to do?"

The Sewol ferry, weighing almost 7,000 tons, sank on a routine trip from the port of Incheon, near Seoul, to the southern holiday island of Jeju. Investigations are focused on human error and mechanical failure.

More than 300 people, most of them students and teachers from Danwon High School have died or are missing and presumed dead after the April 16 disaster.

The confirmed death toll on Friday was 181.

School classes resumed on Thursday in sombre mood. In the classrooms of the missing, friends posted messages on desks, blackboards and windows, in the days after disaster struck, asking for the safe return of their friends.

One note was stuck to the window of an empty classroom in the days when hopes for finding the passengers alive were fading fast. It was addressed to a girl called Si-yeon.

"Si-yeon, It's me, your oppa (male friend). I miss you a lot. I am so worried. Please come out of that ferry. We ought to go and eat your favourite things, sweet potatoes, cheese and tangerines," it read.

"It must be really cold in there. I am so sorry that I cannot do anything for you. It makes me feel so frustrated - there is nothing else I can do but pray for you. I don't even want to imagine how scared you must be. I hope you are alive. I won't give up, I will wait for you. I want to tell you that I love you."

A professor who led a psychological counselling at the school said the children now distrusted adults who fought amongst themselves, did little to rescue the passengers and told them to stay put.

"That is an obstacle in our treatment," he told local radio. "Without dealing with the mistrust, it is hard to approach them to help cure them. Yet such distrust cannot be dealt with words only. Once betrayed, how do you expect them to believe us again?"

CREW MEMBERS ARRESTED

Captain Lee Joon-seok, 69, and other crew members who abandoned ship after telling the children to stay put in their cabins have been arrested on negligence charges. Lee was also charged with undertaking an "excessive change of course without slowing down".

One crew member said after a brief appearance in court on Thursday she and six colleagues had been "under command" to abandon ship. Another was asked if there was any discussion about trying to save the children.

"At that moment, we were on the third floor and except for the third floor situation, we weren't aware of anything else," the crew member said.

Prosecutors have raided the home of Yoo Byung-un, the head of a family that owns the Chonghaejin Marine Co. Ltd, the company that operated the Sewol. They seized another ferry run by the company and found that life rafts and escape chutes were not working properly.

"I'm not saying it automatically means Sewol's safety equipment was faulty, but it helps to deduce the state of maintenance," one investigator told Reuters.

Prosecutors said on Friday they had told Yoo's younger son, who is staying in New York, and daughter to return by Tuesday for investigation.

Along with his elder brother, Yoo Hyuk-kee, Yoo is the biggest shareholder of a holding company that owns Chonghaejin Marine and its other affiliates.

Prosecutors said they had found some data have been deleted from computers they confiscated in the raids and some computers had been replaced.

The Sewol, 146 metres (479 ft) long and 22 metres wide, was more than three times overloaded, according to official recommendations, with cargo poorly stowed and inadequate ballast.

Moon Ki-han, an executive at Uryeon (Union Transport Co.), the firm that supervised cargo loading, told Reuters there were 105 containers onboard, some of which toppled into the sea as the ship listed.

Forty-five were loaded on to the front deck and 60 into the lower decks, Moon said. In total, the ship was carrying 3,600 metric tons of cargo including containers, vehicles and other goods, he said.

A member of parliament this week said the Korean Register of Shipping recommended a load of 987 tons for the Sewol.

(Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Mokpo and Kim Miyoung and Cho Meeyoung in Seoul; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

U.S. and Japan have TPP market access breakthrough-official

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:00 PM PDT

SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States and Japan have achieved a breakthrough on market access in bilateral talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, although no final agreement has been reached, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

"There are still details to be worked out. There is still much work to be done .... We believe we do have a breakthrough in our bilateral negotiations," a senior U.S. official accompanying President Barack Obama to South Korea.

Obama arrived in Osan, south of Seoul, on Friday after an official visit to Japan.

(Editing by Nick Macfie)

Exclusive - Obama may call EU leaders in Russia sanctions push: sources

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 08:50 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to speak to several European leaders on Friday to try to nudge the EU toward fresh sanctions against Russia over Ukraine, sources familiar with the matter said.

Disagreements among European Union nations on whether to impose new economic sanctions on Russia have held up punitive steps by the United States, said the sources on condition of anonymity, but Washington could also act on its own.

U.S. officials have grown increasingly impatient with what they describe as Russia's failure to live up to its commitments in an April 17 agreement reached in Geneva to try to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine.

The United States is also frustrated at the reluctance of some European nations, notably Germany and Italy, to impose a new round of economic sanctions on Russia but it would much prefer to act in concert with the EU rather than on its own.

The sources said Obama was expected to speak in a conference call on Friday with British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to discuss the issue.

Comment from the White House was not immediately available.

Obama is in Asia on a four-nation trip. Speaking in Tokyo on Thursday, he blamed Russia for failing to carry out the Geneva deal and said he was ready to impose new sanctions.

A GRAVE AND EXPENSIVE MISTAKE

In a sign of growing U.S. concern about Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry issued what amounted to a warning to Russia not to invade. Russia has some 40,000 troops on its border with Ukraine, some of which staged military exercises on Thursday.

"Following today's threatening movement of Russian troops right up to Ukraine's border, let me be clear: If Russia continues in this direction, it will not just be a grave mistake, it will be an expensive mistake," he said in a hastily arranged appearance at the State Department.

The United States accuses Russia of backing separatists in eastern Ukraine as part of a deliberate attempt to destabilize the region, undermine elections planned for next month, and gain greater influence over Kiev.

Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine last month after President Vladimir Putin overturned decades of post-Cold War diplomacy by announcing the right to use military force in neighbouring countries.

Under the accord struck by Russia, Ukraine, the United States and European Union in Geneva last week, illegal armed groups are supposed to disarm and go home, including rebels occupying about a dozen buildings in the largely Russian-speaking east.

The rebels have shown no sign of retreating.

"As President Obama reiterated earlier today, we are ready to act," Kerry said on Thursday.

When he announced the Geneva agreement a week ago, the U.S. secretary of state had said that if Russia did not take steps "over the course of these next days" there would be additional sanctions as a consequence.

Several sources said that the United States did not, however, wish to act on its own.

Washington's basic reasoning is that the practical effect on Russia's economy and markets, as well as the symbolic import of further sanctions, will be greater if the United States is seen to be acting in concert with the European Union.

The United States has so far imposed three rounds of sanctions in connection with the unrest in Ukraine - two aimed at Russian targets and a third focused on Crimean individuals and a Crimean gas company.

The European Union is highly dependent on Russian gas deliveries, and the crisis over Ukraine has fanned concerns about future supply. Russia is also an important market for many EU exporters, notably in Germany.

On March 21, the EU imposed sanctions on 12 Russians and Ukrainians because of Moscow's takeover of Crimea, bringing the number of people targeted by EU asset freezes and travel bans to 33.

On April 14, the EU agreed to expand the list of people subject to such penalties but the bloc has yet to agree on the names or to actually impose the sanctions.

(Editing by Paul Tait)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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Hic! 'Modern Family' star Ty Burrell opens a beer hall

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:30 AM PDT

The actor, who plays Phil Dunphy in the sitcom, is also the owner of the iconic Bar-X in Utah, which he and his wife restored.

Ty Burrell, best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the award-winning TV show Modern Family, has teamed up with celebrity chef Viet Pham to open Beer Bar, Burrell's second bar in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States.

Beer Bar has opened next door to Bar-X, a speakeasy the actor restored with his wife and other members of the family. The historic bar opened in 1933, the year Prohibition was repealed, and serves artisanal cocktail recipes from the same era.

According to Food & Wine magazine, the idea for Beer Bar was born after Burrell dined at Pham's restaurant Forage in Salt Lake City and became enamored with his cooking. Turns out Pham was also a fan of Burrell's Bar-X, paving the way for their future collaboration.

Punters at Beer Bar, meanwhile, will be able to wash down artisanal sausages and bratwursts, breads and Belgian-style fries with 150 different craft beers.

Burrell is the latest celebrity to parlay his fame into the beer business. The Hanson brothers released their Mmmhops brand out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, while folk band Mumford & Sons also helped an independent brewery in Sussex, England create a craft beer that was sold at a two-day music festival last summer. — AFP Relaxnews

Witch-ful thinking: 'American Horror Story' offers a new variety of scares

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

The new season of American Horror Story is set in a coven full of powerful witches.

American Horror Story: Coven, the third season of the FX anthology series, differs in many ways from Season Two, trading a harrowing asylum for a witches' coven; 1960s Massachusetts for present-day New Orleans; and deep, deep darkness for scary with a dash of comedy, co-creator Ryan Murphy says.

"This is my favourite season that we've done so far," he says. "It's very odd and peculiar and very pop culture-y ... particularly after last year, which was so dark and grim and hard. I loved it, but this year was designed to be a little bit scary, but more fun. I heard a lot last year, 'Oh, we love it, but it's hard to sit through.' So, I wanted this year to be not so hard to sit through, a little bit more light in tone."

Coven features a mix of veterans of earlier Horror seasons in different roles including Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Frances Conroy – and newcomers such as Kathy Bates and Angela Bassett.

Lange, in her third Horror turn, trades in her nun's garb from Asylum for a more glamorous look as Fiona, "the world's biggest liberal" and a Supreme, the most powerful witch of her generation. Fiona comes back to New Orleans to protect the younger witches in an academy run by her daughter, Cordelia (Asylum's Sarah Paulson), with whom she has a hostile relationship.

"I think (Jessica) particularly loved that she got to wear St Laurent heels and make-up after last year. It was something completely different for her," Murphy says. "And she hasn't in her career, because she's such a great dramatic actress, had a lot of occasion to do comedic stuff."

The youthful coven members, played by Horror alumnae Taissa Farmiga and Jamie Brewer and first-timers Gabourey Sidibe and Emma Roberts, have ties to the Salem witches and possess a range of powers, including telekinesis, mind-reading and an undesired ability to kill via sex.

The identity of the next Supreme is a big, season-long mystery, Murphy says, but Fiona won't go quietly.

"She's not giving up that throne, no way."

Bates and Bassett play historical figures, Madame LaLaurie and Marie Laveau, respectively, whom Murphy learned about while researching New Orleans' rich past.

LaLaurie was a sadistic 19th-century slave-owner who tortured her human possessions, while Laveau was a voodoo practitioner. Each has a role in the present; Laveau runs a hair salon.

Fiona, who cannot use her powers to stop ageing, seeks out LaLaurie to learn why she has eternal life and then learns of her past atrocities, Murphy says. So LaLaurie is forced to become a personal slave to Sidibe's Queenie as payback.

"Through that relationship, (LaLaurie) has an entire season of guilt and remorse, finally learning about the gravity of what she did," Murphy says. "It is also a meditation on race relations in this country. There's a very strong arc about the Salem witches and the voodoo witches and, 'Can't we all get along to fight our common enemies?' So, it really is an allegory for any minority group in our country."

Bates had a grand time with the role, despite Murphy's early warning.

"I said, 'I don't know if you'd ever want to play a character that's eight times worse than your character in Misery,'" he says. "And I just spent the weekend with her, and she says that this part is her favourite part that she's ever played ... She loves the costume, she loves the arc, she loves the comedy."

Another change for Coven is the location shooting in New Orleans (the first two seasons were filmed primarily in Los Angeles studios). Murphy wanted the historical connection to Salem, but didn't want to film there, and Lange pushed to shoot in New Orleans.

"It made sense to me that the true witches were smart enough to escape and had fled," he says. "So, once she said that, I started to (do) research ... and then you come across Madame LaLaurie, Marie Laveau and the Axeman serial killer (Danny Huston), and all these great horror legends of that city. And it just felt like a natural to me ... There's something about that city that's quite magical and quite creepy and scary." – USA Today/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

American Horror Story: Coven premieres tonight at 11pm on FX HD (Astro Ch 726).

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

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'Gordon's alive!' Fox inks deal for 'Flash Gordon' remake

Posted: 25 Apr 2014 01:05 AM PDT

Twentieth Century Fox has signed a deal to resurrect forgotten American sci-fi hero Flash Gordon for a new remake that cult fans have been waiting for. 

In many ways an ancestor to the modern-day cast of Marvel and DC superheroes, Flash Gordon first appeared in a 1934 comic strip of the same name drawn by Alex Raymond.

FlashG

Nice duds: The original Flash Gordon drawn by comics artist Alex Raymond.

Without any super powers, the hero – who was originally a polo player and Yale graduate – undertook a mission to save Earth from the invading armies of Ming the Merciless, a bloodthirsty tyrant from the alien planet of Mongo.

Installed as screenwriters for the remake are JD Payne and Patrick McKay, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with producer John Davis about to close the deal with Fox.

Though Payne and McKay may not be widely known, they are regarded as hot property in Hollywood, as the team behind the script for a proposed third film in the rebooted Star Trek series.

Although discussions of remaking Flash Gordon have been going around for the past few years, this is apparently the first one that's actually entered actual development. Whether or not it will actually become a reality is still anyone's guess. 

The hero has seen action many times on the small and big screens, beginning with a trilogy of 'film serials' made between 1936 and 1940 starring Buster Crabbe as the title character. There have also been a few animated versions and a 21-episode Syfy channel TV series that ran through 2007 and 2008.

Early incarnation: Buster Crabbe (left) was the original cinematic Flash Gordon.

But it was the 1980 cinematic version directed by Mike Hodges that captured the public's imagination – and subsequent derision – with its campy dialogue, outlandish costumes and phallic spaceships. It didn't help that the movie downgraded Flash to a football player played by Playgirl-centrefold model Sam J. Jones who was nominated for a Razzie Worst Actor award. 

Cult favourite: Poster for the 1980 film version of Flash Gordon, directed by Mike Hodges.

The 1980 flick was also memorable for Max von Sydow's over-the-top performance as Ming, Timothy Dalton during his pre-James Bond era, and Golden Globe double-winner Chaim Topol as Dr Hans Zarkov. But the star of the film would be the soundtrack composed by British rock band Queen, especially the theme song Flash.

Although it did moderately well during its time, the film found a bigger audience after the 1980s as a cult favourite. Self-professed fan Comedian Seth MacFarlane even featured Sam J. Jones in a cameo in his 2012 hit comedy Ted

The crucial question now is: Who should be the new Flash Gordon? – AFP/RelaxNews

Play it again: Summer movie sequels bring in the big bucks

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Summer movie sequels may seldom be as good as the original but they do bring major profit for Hollywood studios.

Captain America, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Transformers are storming back into movie theatres, returning in sequels to save the world from mass destruction, while at the same time churning out profits for movie studios.

Studios generally don't have to spend as much to raise awareness of sequels months in advance, as they do with other big-budget films, executives say. And when sequels reach the big screen, ticket sales in foreign markets, which can account for up to 80% of a film's box office, often exceed their predecessors.

"When you can say, here's Avatar 2, and you've got six billion people ready to see it, it doesn't take a lot of marketing to get them into the theatre," said chairman and chief executive of Fox Filmed Entertainment Jim Gianopulos. 

"It's a self-propelling marketing message in a very big world." The first installment of 20th Century Fox's animated Ice Age series took in US$207mil (RM672mil) overseas in 2002. The fourth Ice Age from the studio owned by Twenty-First Century Fox earned US$716mil (RM2.3bil) at international box offices in 2012.

Sequels are hardly a new Hollywood phenomenon. But in recent years, as DVD sales crumbled, movie studios began to cut back on the numbers of films they produced to trim the risks.

Shotgun Chimp: One of Ceaser's people vets an unwanted visitor.

One of Caesar's troops vets an unwanted visitor in Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes.

Starting in 2008, they began to churn out more sequels and big-budget event films, turning away from riskier original films like independent dramas and romantic comedies.

This year's sequels include superhero films The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony Corp, Fox's X-Men: Days Of Future Past and Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes; Transformers: Age Of Extinction from Viacom Inc's Paramount; animated movies Rio 2 from Fox and Dreamworks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon 2; and Sony comedies 22 Jump Street and Think Like A Man Too.

What mostly drives the studio top brass is that audiences keep buying tickets for sequels. In 2013, nine of the top 12 films in the United States and Canada were sequels or prequels, including Marvel's Iron Man 3 and Lions Gate's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Those films generated US$2.6bil (RM8.4bil) in domestic ticket sales, nearly one-quarter of the year's US$10.9bil (RM35.4bil) total, and another US$4.5bil (RM14.6bil) worldwide.

That shift away from riskier films has helped studios increase or stabilise their profits, said Janney Montgomery Scott analyst Tony Wible.

Operating margins at Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros., the studio behind the Harry Potter franchise and The Dark Knight Batman series, hovered around 7% in 2007 and 2008, Wible said, before rising to about 10% for each of the next five years.

At Walt Disney Co, the focus is on a smaller number of films with the potential to produce sequels, drive toy sales and inspire theme-park rides.

In a typical year, Disney is aiming to release one film each from Pixar, Disney Animation, and Star Wars producer Lucasfilm; two from Marvel, and four to six from its Disney live action division, said chairman of The Walt Disney Studios Alan Horn. "We choose our sequels carefully," Horn said. "If we have a picture that has earned a right to have a sequel, it's because the audiences loved it." Next year's crop of sequels may set even bigger records.

Studios are already planning to release new installments of some of the biggest films of all time, including Star Wars, Jurassic Park and Marvel's The Avengers.

The rash of sequels has prompted even filmmakers to make fun of their world. In the opening number for Muppets Most Wanted, Disney's sequel to its 2011 The Muppets movie, the furry puppets break into a song called We're Doing A Sequel

"That's what we do in Hollywood," the puppets sing, "and everybody knows that the sequel's never quite as good." – Reuters

HK filmmaker Dante Lam's new movie loosely based on past events

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Unbeatable director Dante Lam and actor Nick Cheung are fast becoming an unstoppable team as they unleash their new movie That Demon Within.

Three cops engaged in a gun battle in a subway. Two are found dead while one is seriously injured. This is the story of the rogue cop that rocked Hong Kong in 2006. And it is the springboard for Hong Kong director Dante Lam's latest action thriller That Demon Within.

In a recent phone interview from Hong Kong, Lam shared that his new movie is not a story exactly based on Hong Kong's notorious 'Demon Cop'.

"That Demon Within may be inspired by those events, but the plot for the movie is entirely fiction, save for the infamous gory subway scene. It is one which Hong Kong people will know too well," said Lam, 48.

The thriller stars Daniel Wu and Nick Cheung; the latter recently grabbed headlines after winning the Best Actor trophy at the 2014 Hong Kong Film Awards for Unbeatable – another movie directed by Lam. Cheung's collaboration with Lam has proven to be most fruitful; the 2008 Beast Stalker won him seven acting accolades and propelled him to superstardom.

Lam recalled how he had already gotten both Wu and Cheung on board, but had yet to decide on the final casting. After doing extensive research and consultation with psychology experts, Lam made up his mind.

"After examining our storyline and the psychological condition of our protagonist, it was decided that the character had to be younger, which explains how he could still be so deeply affected by childhood trauma," the director explained.

Since Wu is 39 while Cheung is 46, the former was then cast as the reclusive cop and the latter, the ruthless criminal.

In That Demon Within, Wu plays strait-laced policeman Dave Wong, who unknowingly saves the life of the vicious psychopath Hon Kong, then becomes obsessed with apprehending the ringleader of the Demon King gang of robbers,

Though Cheung may have been accorded less screen time this time around, work was equally daunting. "It was mentally exhausting this time, as I had to create a diabolical persona for this character, sometimes with just a smile, as he doesn't say too much."

And even though Cheung did not have to spend months conditioning his body like he did for Unbeatable, the physical challenges were no less demanding. The perfectionist in him meant he constantly insisted on performing all his own stunts and refused to use body double even in long shots, where his character was wearing a full-face mask.

The multiple-award-winning actor also had to endure hours of makeup for several of his scenes. One of the most extensive sessions required him to endure some five hours of having prosthetic makeup applied on his face for a fiery inferno scene. "But, the removal of prosthetic makeup adhesive is even worse as the process took hours and requires the continuous application of special solvent that made my face stiff and red," he recalled.

After being in front of the camera for 25 years, Cheung made his directorial debut with a horror flick that was filmed in Malaysia last year. The movie which tells of spooky events encountered by a Cantonese opera troupe during the Hungry Ghost Festival is due to hit cinemas later this year.

> That Demon Within opens in cinemas nationwide today.

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Japan minister says no accord with US on TPP

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:14 PM PDT

TOKYO: Japan's economy minister said Friday that Tokyo had not reached a basic accord with Washington over a Pacific-wide trade deal despite intense talks after a bilateral summit.

There had been hopes that Tokyo and Washington might break an impasse in the stalled talks during US President Barack Obama's visit to Tokyo.

Speaking hours before Obama's departure, however, Japanese economy minister Akira Amari said what had been achieved was "not a basic accord although there was progress".

"In talks between the two leaders and ministers, we have confirmed the path to solve important pending issues between Japan and the United States," Amari told reporters.

Japan and the United States would "cooperate to help accelerate talks with other countries participating" in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to bring it to an early conclusion, he said.

Obama and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe failed to reach an agreement on the TPP in summit talks on Thursday but told their delegates to continue negotiations.

Obama urged Japan to take "bold steps" to seal the TPP, a vast agreement that would cover about 40% of the global economy and a key plank in the president's bid for a renewed US focus on Asia.

The ambitious 12-nation deal has stalled as Tokyo and Washington lock horns over key details, including Japanese tariffs on agricultural imports and US access to its ally's major auto market.

Obama arrived in Tokyo late Wednesday on the first leg of his Asian tour which will also bring him to South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. He will leave for Seoul later Friday. – AFP

Robert Kuok's POSH opens at S$1.13 on SGX debut

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 06:33 PM PDT

SINGAPORE:  PACC Offshore Services Holdings Ltd shares opened at S$1.13 as they started trading on the Singapore Exchange on Friday, down 1.7% from the initial offering price of S$1.15. 

The listing of the oilfield service company, part of Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok's business conglomerate, comes as Singapore's IPO market has struggled to attract big-ticket listings in recent years. - Reuters

Plantations help blue chips eke out mild rebound

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 06:28 PM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's blue chips managed to stage a mild rebound early Friday, underpinned by gains in plantations, shrugging off the previous day's losses.

At 9.05am, the FBM KLCI was up 2.65 points to 1,867.93. Turnover was 92.62 million shares valued at RM46mil. There were 160 gainers, 78 losers and 164 counters unchanged.

BIMB Securities Research expects the market to consolidate with immediate support at 1,860.

On the external front, Bloomberg reported Japanese stocks fell, driving a second day of declines for Asia's regional index, as the yen held near a one-week high amid escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

At Bursa Malaysia, United Plantations rose 26 sen to RM25.76 and KL Kepong added 18 sen to RM24.08.

Among consumer stocks, Dutch Lady added 60 sen to RM47 while BAT gained 20 sen to RM61.80.

Southern Acids rose 46 sen to RM5.45, extending its gains for the second day.

Press Metal counters were among the top gainers, PMetal shares gained 19 sen to RM3.66, PMetal-WC 18 sen to RM1.90 and PMetal-LA 17 sen to RM3.52.

MMHE fell 12 sen to RM3.92 and Petronas Dagangan 10 sen to RM30.12 while Gamuda shed seven sen to RM4.55.

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HK filmmaker Dante Lam's new movie loosely based on past events

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Unbeatable director Dante Lam and actor Nick Cheung are fast becoming an unstoppable team as they unleash their new movie That Demon Within.

Three cops engaged in a gun battle in a subway. Two are found dead while one is seriously injured. This is the story of the rogue cop that rocked Hong Kong in 2006. And it is the springboard for Hong Kong director Dante Lam's latest action thriller That Demon Within.

In a recent phone interview from Hong Kong, Lam shared that his new movie is not a story exactly based on Hong Kong's notorious 'Demon Cop'.

"That Demon Within may be inspired by those events, but the plot for the movie is entirely fiction, save for the infamous gory subway scene. It is one which Hong Kong people will know too well," said Lam, 48.

The thriller stars Daniel Wu and Nick Cheung; the latter recently grabbed headlines after winning the Best Actor trophy at the 2014 Hong Kong Film Awards for Unbeatable – another movie directed by Lam. Cheung's collaboration with Lam has proven to be most fruitful; the 2008 Beast Stalker won him seven acting accolades and propelled him to superstardom.

Lam recalled how he had already gotten both Wu and Cheung on board, but had yet to decide on the final casting. After doing extensive research and consultation with psychology experts, Lam made up his mind.

"After examining our storyline and the psychological condition of our protagonist, it was decided that the character had to be younger, which explains how he could still be so deeply affected by childhood trauma," the director explained.

Since Wu is 39 while Cheung is 46, the former was then cast as the reclusive cop and the latter, the ruthless criminal.

In That Demon Within, Wu plays strait-laced policeman Dave Wong, who unknowingly saves the life of the vicious psychopath Hon Kong, then becomes obsessed with apprehending the ringleader of the Demon King gang of robbers,

Though Cheung may have been accorded less screen time this time around, work was equally daunting. "It was mentally exhausting this time, as I had to create a diabolical persona for this character, sometimes with just a smile, as he doesn't say too much."

And even though Cheung did not have to spend months conditioning his body like he did for Unbeatable, the physical challenges were no less demanding. The perfectionist in him meant he constantly insisted on performing all his own stunts and refused to use body double even in long shots, where his character was wearing a full-face mask.

The multiple-award-winning actor also had to endure hours of makeup for several of his scenes. One of the most extensive sessions required him to endure some five hours of having prosthetic makeup applied on his face for a fiery inferno scene. "But, the removal of prosthetic makeup adhesive is even worse as the process took hours and requires the continuous application of special solvent that made my face stiff and red," he recalled.

After being in front of the camera for 25 years, Cheung made his directorial debut with a horror flick that was filmed in Malaysia last year. The movie which tells of spooky events encountered by a Cantonese opera troupe during the Hungry Ghost Festival is due to hit cinemas later this year.

> That Demon Within opens in cinemas nationwide today.

X marks the spot: 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past' cast ready to take over the globe

Posted: 23 Apr 2014 01:00 AM PDT

A-list stars will give the ultimate 'X-Men X-perience' as they bring the movie to fans around the world next month.

Fancy seeing Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence in a city near you? Well, that dream may just come true next month! These X-Men: Days Of Future Past stars will be joined by other cast mates such as Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Nicholas Hoult, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage and more in a worldwide tour promoting the summer movie.

The actors will bring the film to audiences around the world through global premieres, live chats, and special video clips and photos.

The "X-Men X-Perience" kicks off with the entire cast gathered at the global premiere in New York on May 10, who will then go their separate ways around the world and appear in different countries that same week.

Stay tuned for more information about how you can keep an eye on the X-Men heroes as they bring one of this summer's most anticipated movie to the world.

Audiences at home and in attendance will be able to watch and participate in the red carpet arrival live streams featured exclusively on selected online portals, ask the cast questions through various live chats all week, see behind-the-scenes photos and videos from the red carpet events, watch exclusive clips, view photos and video highlights from each premiere, and much more.

Now, if you want to be part of the experience, just send your questions to the cast using #XMenLive on the social media sites.

Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. 

Peter Dinklage as Bolivar Trask.

Prequel alert: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in New Zealand

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 09:35 PM PDT

Reports say that Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh will be reprising her role in the new film, tentatively titled The Green Destiny.

A prequel to the Oscar-winning Chinese martial arts epic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon will be shot in New Zealand this year, Film Auckland said.

The original movie, released in 2000, broke new ground in introducing Western audiences to Chinese cinema and Film Auckland's deputy chairman Alex Lee said securing the follow-up was a major coup for New Zealand.

"Over the last 18 months it's been very quiet and it's nice we're finally getting traction," he told Radio New Zealand. "It's a production that will require a vast number of resources, facilities, technicians and crew."

New Zealand is no stranger to big-budget movie shoots, providing stunning backdrops for both the The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

But Lee said subsidy changes allowing major productions to claim back up to 25% of their budget as rebates were a decisive factor in Auckland winning the Crouching Tiger prequel.

"It's quite clear that until the decision to increase the incentives for international films to come to New Zealand we were just not competitive," he said.

Crouching Tiger made US$213.5mil (RM683.2mil) globally, according to industry website Box Office Mojo, including US$128mil (RM409.6mil) in the United States – unprecedented at the time for a foreign language movie.

It also won four Oscars in 2001, including best foreign film, and launched the Hollywood career of director Ang Lee, who went on to win two best director Academy Awards for Brokeback Mountain and Life Of Pi.

Film industry bible Variety reported that Malaysia's Michelle Yeoh will reprise her role as a warrior in the prequel, to be titled The Green Destiny. It said Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's The Weinstein Company is co-producing the film with New Zealand's Iron Knight Productions.

Yuen Woo-ping, who co-ordinated the eye-popping action scenes in the original, will reportedly direct, using a script which has been approved by officials in Beijing. The green light from Beijing is important because it ensures access to the rapidly growing Chinese market, where box office takings soared 36% to an estimated US$1.8bil (RM5.76bil) over the first six months of 2013. The Chinese market is expected to overtake the US market by 2020, prompting keen interest from Hollywood. — AFP Relaxnews

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Hijacking of oil tanker Naniwa Maru I second in a month

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 08:21 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: Heavily-armed pirates hijacked a Thailand-owned tanker off the eastern coast of Malaysia, injuring the captain and stealing diesel fuel from its cargo on April 17, the International Maritime Bureau said on Thursday.

The attack occurred when 16 pirates in a speedboat boarded the ship under the cover of darkness, said head of the IMB's Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Centre Noel Choong.

The attack came before the hijacking of Naniwa Maru 1 on Tuesday, when around 12 heavily-armed pirates boarded a Singapore-managed tanker in the Strait of Malacca, kidnapping three Indonesian crew and stealing some of the diesel fuel from the cargo.

On the April 17 incident, Choong said the tanker was hijacked off Aur Island, in the eastern coast of Malaysia.

"The heavily-armed pirates hit the captain with a sword and destroyed communication equipment," he told AFP.

Choong did not have any more details on the condition of the captain who oversaw 14 crew members on the tanker en route from Singapore to Cambodia.

"The pirates siphoned part of the tanker's diesel cargo into a tanker ship and stole crew members' valuables before escaping," he said, adding that the IMB was only informed of the incident on Thursday due to the ship's damaged communications system.

Choong said the IMB was concerned about the rise in attacks off Malaysia this year.

The Strait of Malacca is a key maritime highway linking Europe and the Middle East to Asia, and has long been a hunting ground for pirates.

Attacks in the strait had dropped in recent years following stepped-up patrols and cooperation between neighbouring countries to secure waterways.

There were no pirate attacks in Malaysian waters last year and Tuesday's attack in the Strait of Malacca was the first since 2010, according to IMB data.

Related articles:

Malacca Straits piracy down due to sea-air patrols

Police: Pirates may be hiding in nearby foreign waters


CIMB-Asean ePaper draws attention at media industry meeting

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:05 AM PDT

HONG KONG: The CIMB-Asean ePaper involving the partnership of The Star, The Nation, The Jakarta Post and Philippine Daily Inquirer drew attention at a media industry meeting.

Delegates at the two-day Publish Asia 2014 Conference and Expo organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) here were keen to learn more about the strategic alliance that the four Asia News Network members had developed.

The topic of smart media collaboration was discussed at the Newsroom and CEO Summit, where media chieftains wanted to know how the e-paper tie-up could bring revenue and increased circulation at the same time.

Press Reader chief content officer and general counsel Nicolay Malyarov said the CIMB-Asean ePaper gave birth to a strong partnership beyond editorial collaborations.

"Members can capitalise on expertise and media positions to generate revenue for all.

"The power of multi-title aggregation and bundling options is key to adding value," he said in his presentation which focused on the success of the CIMB-Asean ePaper.

The historic arrangement, which was available from April 1, offers readers access to in-depth news from a local perspective of the four nations – Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines – through a single e-paper subscription.

Malyarov said the partnership increased sponsorship and advertising reach and revenue.

He said the key was to find the right sponsor.

He added that another area was getting the right pricing that reflected value of the content and what users were willing to pay in all markets.

He said the CIMB-Asean ePaper reached almost 450 million people out of the 600 million living in the region.

The 80,000 subscribers of The Star bundle now enjoy e-copies of the additional three regional publications for free.

Dr Mahathir: Obama does not even want to meet me, not only Anwar

Posted: 24 Apr 2014 06:45 AM PDT

PUTRAJAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it was up to United States president Barack Obama if he wants to meet Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

"It is his (Obama) right, up to him who he wants to see, he does not even want to see me, a former prime minister," Dr Mahathir told reporters.

He was commenting on PKR's regret that Obama, on a three-day official visit to Malaysia from Saturday, would not be meeting Anwar.

Dr Mahathir said the government did not have the power to prevent Obama from meeting anyone, including Anwar.

"If they are dissatisfied, they can go and ask Obama himself, whether we (the government) are barring Anwar from meeting him," he said.

The visit of the US president will be Obama's first official visit to Malaysia after President Lyndon Johnson's visit in 1966.

Other than Malaysia, Obama will also visit Japan and South Korea before ending his visit to Asia, in the Philippines. - Bernama.

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