Jumaat, 2 Mei 2014

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


S. Korea activists launch leaflets, cash into North

Posted: 02 May 2014 10:04 PM PDT

SEOUL: South Korean activists on Saturday launched around 200,000 anti-North leaflets across the border, a move that will anger Pyongyang which insists Seoul should forcibly prevent such events.

Around 30 campaigners led by a former North Korean defector Park Sang-Hak sent bundles of the leaflets, attached to large helium balloons, from the border city of Paju in a bid to urge the North to end human rights abuses.

"Down with Kim Jong-Un's hereditary dictatorship," read a slogan scribbled on one of the balloons, which the activists hoped would be blown by winds into the North over the heavily-militarised border.

The leaflets were sent in packages that also contained 2,000 United States one dollar bills, 400 DVDs detailing human rights abuses in the North and 300 booklets boasting of the South's economic achievements.

"We launched the leaflets in order to inform North Koreans that (the) international community is doing its best to help bring them liberty and rights," Park told journalists.

A group of nine leftist activists staged a rally nearby, protesting that the leaflet launch would only raise cross-border tensions instead of improving rights conditions in the North.

On Thursday during a UN review in Geneva of the isolated Asian country's rights record, diplomats urged North Korea to immediately halt a litany of abuses and crimes against humanity.

But North Korea - backed by its main ally, China - hit back at the criticism, saying a recent report by UN investigators was designed to "defame" the country.

At rare high-level talks in February, the two Koreas reached an accord which included a commitment by both sides to stop trading verbal insults.

But the agreement quickly degenerated, with both sides accusing one another of continuing to slander their respective leaders. -AFP

No answers, only hope as MH370 China father heads home

Posted: 02 May 2014 09:51 PM PDT

BEIJING: Almost two months after he dashed to Beijing following the disappearance of his son's flight, Yan Jiacheng finally left a hotel he shared with other desperate Chinese relatives, still clinging to the hope that he could be alive.

"I don't want to leave of course, but I have no choice," Yan told AFP as relatives drove him 800 kilometres (500 miles) home after Malaysia Airlines said it would no longer provide accommodation in Beijing.

Softly spoken and non-confrontational, Yan was one of the quiet ones at the Lido hotel in the Chinese capital.

The hotel became a powder keg of conflict between highly emotional relatives seeking answers about their missing loved ones, and airline officials and Malaysian government representatives stymied by the way flight MH370 vanished.

Yan's younger son Yan Ling, 30, was one of the 153 Chinese passengers on the flight - making up two-thirds of those on board.

The last time the pair had spent time together was when Yan Ling returned to the family home for Chinese New Year in late January.

The annual pilgrimage is replicated in tens of millions of homes across the country, where high-achieving offspring often find work in the booming cities after university, rather than in their backwater hometowns. 

'Nothing but despair'

During regular family briefings at the hotel, the 60-year-old would sit near the back of the hall, sipping a cup of iced water provided by airline support staff and lifting his head only during the occasions when tempers frayed.

Sometimes he would find solitude away from the insults and allegations, sitting outside in the car park with his thoughts and a cigarette, while relatives burst out of the door behind him sobbing into their handkerchiefs.

In the early days after the plane's disappearance, the signs of sleepless nights were etched on his face, with bags under his eyes and his thin hair ruffled.

Now Yan is more outwardly composed, but inside he remains crippled.

He has "felt nothing but despair", he says, since his life was turned upside down by a phone call from his son's girlfriend on the morning of March 8, 56 days ago.

"She said two sentences. She told me 'The plane is missing. Yan is missing'. Then she said nothing more, as she burst out crying," said Yan, from Yancheng in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

His son's boss telephoned him to say that the aircraft was missing and he should travel to the capital.

"I dropped everything and made the journey here."

There were no flights available to Beijing from nearby airports, so he had no choice but to buy a standing ticket on a train which took "a day and night".

Even at normal times the crowded journey would be gruelling. In the circumstances it was mental torture.

"The plane has gone. The plane has gone. I knew it was something terrible," he said, recalling the thoughts that raced through his mind.

Yan described his missing son as "introverted", but his tone brightened as he proudly exclaimed: "His boss says he is an excellent worker. A really good engineer."

Yan Ling works for a medical equipment company in Beijing's Haidian district and had travelled to Malaysia on a work-sponsored "short-study trip" with a colleague, his father said.

The family are close, said Yan, who was joined in Beijing by his elder son while his wife, who has health problems, stayed in Yancheng. 

'I will always hope'

A vast multi-national search has failed to find any sign of wreckage, and some Chinese relatives have embraced improbable conspiracy theories of hijackings and hostage-takings.

At times the reality of the most likely outcome hits Yan.

"The passengers have probably already died," he said. "I think so, but I don't dare to tell my family that."

Even so, as his voice broke with emotion, Yan refused to accept that he may have spent his last Chinese New Year with his son.

He still clings to the thought of Yan Ling one day walking through the door of the family home once again.

"That would be great. I would be so happy. I hope this day will come, and I will always keep that hope." -AFP

Chinese mourn young firemen who fell from highrise

Posted: 02 May 2014 09:41 PM PDT

BEIJING: Two young Chinese firefighters who fell to their deaths during a blaze in a highrise building are being hailed as heroes of their generation on social media.

Qian Lingyun and Liu Jie died Thursday while responding to the fire in an apartment on the 13th floor of the building in Shanghai, China's commercial capital, according to the city's fire department.

As firefighters were breaking down the apartment door, a sudden blast occurred and hot air and smoke blew out into the floor's elevator area where Qian and Liu were, the department said.

The force blew them through an open window from where they plunged to a terrace above the building's entrance.

A dramatic photo of the two men in freefall from the building was published on the front page of the Beijing News daily on Friday.

The fire department did not give the men's exact ages, but said that Qian was born in 1991, while Liu was born in 1994.

"You are heroes," said a message posted Saturday on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblog similar to Twitter.

"Heaven needs the brave like you," said another, which included two images of burning candles to signify remembrance.

Some questioned whether the deaths could have been prevented.

"It looks more like a safety accident," said one post.

"(Didn't they) think about the blast before breaking the door?"

Qian's last post on his weibo account suggested the difficulty of his work as a firefighter.

"It's not been easy this year, still more than a half year to go!", he wrote. "I'm holding on!"

As of Saturday morning there were 92,340 comments left on his final post by social media users.

"An ordinary person has shown us an extraordinary heart," wrote one.

"Good-bye our hero, rest in peace."

"You explained to the world that the generation born after 1990 is courageous - not a crumbling generation," said one post, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper on Saturday.

"Thank you, my heroes." -AFP

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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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Low Bee Yin: Introducing the flavours of Malaysia to the world

Posted: 02 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

From a little food blog to record family recipes, Rasa Malaysia is now on a global platform introducing Malaysian food to Americans and the world.

THE biggest independent Asian recipes site on the Internet, Rasa Malaysia was ranked ninth in the world by The Daily Meal in its list of Top 25 Food Blogs 2013. And soon, fans of Rasa Malaysia will get to watch its founder, Low Bee Yinn in action as she recently teamed up with Life Inspired to shoot a series of television shorties, Flavours Under 30.

The eight vignettes will air on Ch 728, starting this month, with each vignette featuring one of her recipes that is hassle-free and will take less than 30 minutes to prepare.

At Rasa Malaysia, Low actively updates her site with at least three articles per week. The site offers some 700 recipes, and has garnered some two million followers on social media channels.

As she is based in the United States, Rasa Malaysia is catered to Americans. To suit their taste buds, she sometimes reduces the spiciness of the dishes.

According to Low, Malaysian food is not very popular in the US, but that doesn't mean that it's hard for her to get all the ingredients needed. Almost everything she needs to prepare Malaysian dishes is available in nearby grocery shops, except for torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), which is the soul for many nyonya dishes. Low said she would not substitute bunga kantan and prefers to skip that ingredient entirely.

With Rasa Malaysia, she keeps to her tagline of "easy Asian recipe", with recipe reliability an important emphasis for her.

"I summarise recipes that sound complicated and make it easier for others," she said. "For every recipe, I test it in my kitchen and only when it is yummy, will I share it online."

Bearing in mind most people have hectic schedules, especially on weekdays, she prepares easy, but delicious and nutritious recipes. During weekends, when people have more time to cook, complicated recipes for a family dinner may be posted online.

Considering that Rasa Malaysia receives a high volume of page views and unique visitors per month, she strongly feels that Facebook and the site are important platforms to share her daily food ideas.

When asked whether it is necessary to constantly post recipes online, she replied: "Not really, as I have a constant stream of traffic regardless. However, I want to keep sharing new recipes with my fans and readers whenever I can."

At the time of her first post back in 2006, Low, who was the director of International Development of MySpace, had no intention of transforming her passion into a full-time job.

An easy fish dish for Flavours Under 30 by Rasa Malaysia's Low Bee Yinn. GLENN GUAN/The Star

An easy fish dish for the show.

Rasa Malaysia started out exclusively as a Malaysian recipe blog. But after a couple of years into it, she expanded it to cover Asian recipes – thanks to the rave reviews that she got from her friends.

"I started the blog to document my family's recipes so I never expected myself to be so famous nor to be introducing Malaysian food to the world. But now I'm educating the world about Malaysian food," said Low, who has a cookbook, Easy Chinese Recipes that is one of the best selling Chinese cookbooks on Amazon.

"I think Malaysian food is one of the most underrated cuisines in the world. We have an amazing array of dishes with complex flavour structures. The world should be aware of what we have to offer," Low said.

With years of experience under her belt and having been exposed to different kinds of food and cooking styles, figuring out a recipe to a dish comes naturally to Low. So it's not surprising that Low can produce a dish similar to the one she tasted.

Low Bee Yinn has taken her Rasa Malaysia website to unimagined heights. GLENN GUAN/The Star

Low has taken her Rasa Malaysia website to unimagined heights.

"You can easily crack the recipe code after trying out different types of food. Cooking is an art you can modify. It is up to you to put in the amount of salt, sugar and spices," Low said.

Low also shares that cooking is not as difficult as what many think – you will get the hang of it once you understand the fundamentals of cooking. To her, it is not impossible for everyone to cook, as it is not something that you can't achieve.

When situations do not go as planned, she holds on to the mantra "anything is possible, the right time will eventually come". Her loyal fans have been the biggest motivation for her.

In the near future, Low hopes to expand her empire. "I would like to have an e-book, perhaps to offer video contents. I also hope to do more videos for TV," she said.

After growing up and spending most of her life in Penang, Low suggests everyone to try out the local street food, instead of an upscale restaurant. While speaking, she couldn't help but reminisce about those tough times when her late parents were there for her.

"I love Hokkien Mee and Asam Laksa! These are my favourites! When my friends are in town, I always ask them to try out the street food and watch it being fried right in front of them."

To find out more about Low and her unique recipes, watch Flavours Under 30 on Life Inspired Astro B.yond Channel 728 starting this month. Low's recipes can be obtained from rasamalaysia.com

'The Mindy Project' loses its optimistic receptionist

Posted: 01 May 2014 09:10 PM PDT

Show regular Zoe Jarman is leaving the series but may return as guest star.

Fox's The Mindy Project is downsizing for its third season. Regular Zoe Jarman will be leaving the series, a show representative told TheWrap.

Jarman has played the reserved and optimistic receptionist for the OB/GYN office, Betsy Putch, since the series' debut in September 2012.

The show rep released the following statement: "The character of Betsy Putch, played by Zoe Jarman, is still alive and well in the world of The Mindy Project. However, Zoe will not be returning as a series regular. She has been asked to guest star, so it's possible that fans will see her next season."

There was no further explanation on the reason Jarman has been downgraded to a possible guest star.

Fox gave The Mindy Project an early renewal in March, along with two other shows: the Andy Samberg cop comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Kevin Bacon thriller The Following. The Mindy Project has been averaging 3.8 million total viewers in its current second season. — Reuters

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The Star Online: World Updates

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Obama, Merkel vow broader Russian sanctions if Ukraine election derailed

Posted: 02 May 2014 04:35 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Russia on Friday it will face additional sanctions against key sectors of its economy if Moscow disrupts Ukraine's plan to hold elections on May 25.

The two leaders linked the threat to the election when they addressed a joint news conference in the White House Rose Garden after Oval Office talks dominated by the situation in Ukraine.

Obama and Merkel said they were united in vowing to move to the tougher sanctions but made clear there were still negotiations to determine how to structure the sanctions should they be necessary.

The election is to choose a successor to President Viktor Yanukovitch, the pro-Russian leader who resigned in the face of unrelenting protests and whose ouster has provoked the worst East-West crisis since the Cold War.

In recent weeks pro-Russian separatists have stirred turmoil in eastern Ukraine in what the West sees as an attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to invite Russian intervention, much as occurred in Moscow's seizure of Crimea in March.

U.S. officials said a next round of sanctions could affect vital parts of the Russian economy such as energy, defence, financial services and engineering.

"If, in fact, we see the disruptions and the destabilisation continuing so severely that it impedes elections on May 25th, we will not have a choice but to move forward with additional, more severe sanctions," Obama said.

"The next step is going to be a broader-based sectoral sanctions regime," he said.

The United States and European allies have been carefully watching the movements of 40,000 Russian troops massed on Ukraine's eastern border and the takeover of buildings in cities in eastern Ukraine by armed pro-Russian militants.

They have warned that an outright invasion would trigger broad, damaging economic sanctions.

ENERGY AND BANKING NEXT?

Obama and Merkel said they were determined the elections would go off peacefully and as scheduled so Ukraine could begin rebuilding its economy.

    "The 25th of May is not all that far away," said Merkel. "Should it not be possible to stabilise the situation further, further sanctions will be unavoidable."

The United States and the European Union have already imposed several rounds of sanctions on specific Russians, including some on members of Putin's inner circle, and several companies.

Moscow thus far has largely shrugged off the penalties, although Obama said they were a factor in a decline in the Russian stock market and value of the ruble. The aim was not to punish Russia but to change its behaviour, Obama said.

Energy and banking sectors are two of the most likely areas to be targeted if sanctions are widened. Europeans are concerned that going after Russia's energy market could hurt European economies that are dependent on its natural gas.

After her White House visit, Merkel said in remarks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that European policymakers would want to ensure a mix of sanctions that would spread the burden across member states.

"We have to make sure that the impact is spread fairly," she said.

Obama and Merkel were vague on how far the new round of sanctions might go if they were imposed.

"The idea that you're going to turn off the tap on all Russian oil or natural gas exports, I think, is unrealistic," said Obama. "But there are a range of approaches that can be taken not only in the energy sector but in the arms sector, the finance sector, in terms of lines of credit for trade - all (sectors) that have a significant impact on Russia."

Merkel said it could take time to wean Europeans off Russian natural gas. It was important to "look ahead in the medium term to what we can do in order to promote an energy union in the European Union," particularly assessing dependencies in the next 10 to 15 years, she said.

Obama's Republican opponents made clear they feel he needs to be more forceful with Russia.

"I am deeply concerned that the administration continues to be so tepid and hesitant in using impactful sanctions even though they are fully aware of the aggressive destabilisation Russia is causing in Ukraine," said Republican Senator Bob Corker.

Obama called on Russia to persuade pro-Russian military groups in Ukraine to stand down and said it was disgraceful that the militias were holding international observers.

He said the Russian assertion of a spontaneous uprising by pro-Russian activists in eastern Ukraine was belied by the use on Friday of surface-to-air missiles that brought down two of Ukraine's military helicopters.

"It is obvious to the world that these Russian-backed groups are not peaceful protesters," Obama said. "They are heavily armed militants."

(Editing by Prudence Crowther and Lisa Shumaker)

First U.S. case of deadly MERS virus confirmed - CDC

Posted: 02 May 2014 04:30 PM PDT

(Reuters) - A healthcare worker who had travelled to Saudi Arabia was confirmed as the first U.S. case of Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS), an often fatal illness, raising new concerns about the rapid spread of such diseases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

The male patient travelled via a British Airways flight on April 24 from Riyadh to London, where he changed flights at Heathrow airport to fly to the United States. He landed in Chicago and took a bus to an undisclosed city in Indiana.

On April 27, he experienced respiratory symptoms, including fever, cough and shortness of breath. According to the Indiana State Department of Health, the man visited the emergency department at Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana, on April 28 and was admitted that same day.

Because of his travel history, Indiana health officials tested him for MERS, and sent the samples to the CDC, which confirmed the presence of the virus on Friday.

The virus is similar to the one that caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which emerged in China in 2002-2003 and killed some 800 people. It was first detected in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said on a conference call the first U.S. case of MERS was "of great concern because of its virulence," proving fatal in about a third of infections.

She said the case represents "a very low risk to the broader general public," but MERS has been shown to spread to healthcare workers and there are no known treatments for the virus.

Schuchat said the patient was now in stable condition and there are no other suspected cases of MERS at the current time.

The CDC declined to identify the patient by name or say where he was being treated. It also declined to say on which airlines or bus line the patient travelled. Schuchat said the CDC was working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to contact individuals who may have been exposed to the patient during his travels.

In Britain, public health officials said they were contacting any passengers who had been sitting near the patient.

Greg Cunningham, a spokesman for the Chicago Department of Aviation, said that the department "has been advised that there is no reason to suspect any risk at O'Hare," Chicago's main international airport. "There has only been one incident confirmed to have MERS, and he is hospitalized in Indiana," he said.

Officials at Community Hospital in Munster confirmed that the man was in good condition, and said the hospital is "maintaining appropriate isolation protocols for the protection of health care staff."

The hospital, located in northwest Indiana about 30 miles (48 km) from Chicago, said it has been working with the CDC and the state health department, and will be tracking the health of the patient's family members and exposed health care workers daily during the next two weeks to check for MERS symptoms.

"This patient was not out in the local community and, therefore, any public exposure was minimal," the hospital said in the statement.

The hospital stressed that transmission of MERS requires close contact, and said the patient's activities in the United States have been very limited, reducing the risk of widespread transmission of the virus.

WORKING SURVEILLANCE

Although the vast majority of MERS cases have been in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East, the discovery of sporadic cases in Britain, Greece, France, Italy, Malaysia and elsewhere have raised concerns about the potential global spread of the disease by infected airline passengers.

With the addition of the U.S. patient, 262 people in 12 countries have been confirmed to have MERS infections and have been reported to the World Health Organisation. Of those, 93 have died, Schuchat said. Infectious disease specialists in the United States said that the fact the newest patient was identified quickly showed that disease surveillance was working.

"It was only a matter of time before the United States had a case," said virologist Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University in New York. "Most of us thought it was not a question of if, but when. Am I more concerned as a result of this case? No."

"One case does not represent a reason for panic," agreed Dr. Wayne Marasco, an infectious disease specialist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

"But the very fact that we have a virus with documented person-to-person transmission at a fairly efficient rate and a high mortality rate suggests we have a potentially serious pathogen. There are no therapies out there that I'm aware of, but I don't think we have a very big risk in the United States."

Marasco suggests that immigration agents should nevertheless be on heightened alert for passengers arriving in the United States after trips to the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia.

"They should ask, where did you travel? Have you had contact with animals, with anyone who was sick, and do you have a fever or cough?" he said.

Marasco does not believe that thermal scanners such as those China and other countries deployed during the 2003 SARS epidemic would make much of a difference. That's because the incubation period for MERS is two to 14 days, "so an asymptomatic traveller could make it through a thermal scanner," Marasco said.

MYSTERY OF TRANSMISSION

The greatest reason for concern is that so little is known about this coronavirus. It has been found in bats and camels, and many experts say camels are the most likely animal reservoir from which humans become infected. [ID:nL6N0JV2DI]

In part, that ignorance is a result of the lack of cooperation between Middle Eastern countries, where MERS has been spreading, and scientists elsewhere. "One of the biggest problems is that we haven't had any access to samples from Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Qatar despite my efforts," Marasco said

Now that the United States has a case of MERS, there might be political pressure for that to change, suggested Lipkin, who pointed out that during the SARS epidemic, China was similarly reluctant to cooperate with western scientists.

"Now the U.S. is going to be more interested. I think it will have an impact on the number of scientists here who will be encouraged to work on MERS and congressmen will stand up and rail about the importance of this," Lipkin said.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago and Sharon Begley in New York; Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London and Susan Guyett in Indianapolis; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Tom Brown and Lisa Shumaker)

New EU force in Central African Republic sets stability as top priority

Posted: 02 May 2014 03:55 PM PDT

BANGUI (Reuters) - The top priority of a new European Union peacekeeping force in Central African Republic is to restore stability in the capital, the force commander, French Major-General Philippe Ponties, told a news conference on Friday.

Thousands of people have been killed in intercommunal violence in the former French colony in recent months and close to a million have been displaced from their homes.

"The objective that we are looking for, and which I think we share with most of the international community, is to make it so each citizen of Central African Republic, whatever their communal background, can see a positive future," Ponties said.

"There will be 850 soldiers (by June) who will be deployed to contribute to the security of the airport in Bangui and the establishment of a stable and secure environment in the third and fifth districts of the capital," he said.

Mostly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the land-locked country last year, saying they had been excluded by southern tribes from its oil, gold and diamond wealth. But their 10 months in power, marked by murder, looting and extortion, sparked a sectarian backlash in which Christian militias are driving Muslims from the south.

The news conference was held in the VIP lounge of Bangui's main airport. EU peacekeepers took charge of security at the airport on Wednesday in their first major operation to try to end the bloodshed.

Their presence has not stopped violence in the city, including the killing of a Muslim man on Wednesday whose body was decapitated and mutilated.

Thousands of civilians have taken refuge beside the airport and almost all the capital's Muslims have fled the city.

The EU launched its force at the start of April after weeks of delays caused by shortages of soldiers and equipment.

Only about 150 EU troops have arrived so far but the strength of the force is expected to continue building until it reaches its target of 800 to 1,000 soldiers in June, the EU said.

Countries including France, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Portugal and Spain have pledged soldiers or logistics. The United Nations has approved a 12,000-strong peacekeeping mission that will take over from an African force in the country from mid-September.

Persistent violence has raised costs for a parallel political transition period to 713 billion CFA francs (889 million pounds) from an initial estimate of 490 billion CFA francs, Prime Minister Andre Nzapayeke said on Friday.

Interim President Catherine Samba-Panza in January named Nzapayeke, a former official of the African Development Bank, as prime minister, in a move towards restoring order.

(Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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Songs from animated films are on the right track

Posted: 01 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Movie soundtracks from animated films are booming.

Considered deeply uncool at one point, music from animated movies is back – and singing along is now not only OK for kids, it's something adults record themselves doing on their phones and share on YouTube.

The boom in popular songs from animated movies comes after a long fallow period when the form yielded few hits in the music world, despite box-office juggernauts like the Toy Story, Shrek and Ice Age franchises.

Though all incorporated music in their films, it was rarely the kind that had come to define the genre at Disney Animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was making music-driven hits like The Lion King, Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid.

"You had this shift ... where there were very successful animated movies but their soundtracks weren't," said president of Disney Music Group, Ken Bunt. "Their scores were important, but they weren't musicals and the music in them wasn't something that gets played on radio or that you're singing in your car."

A sign of the shift: For the first time in 20 years, a soundtrack from an animated film has been No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 11 weeks.

Two weeks ago, Disney's fairy tale Frozen displaced 1994's The Lion King to become the top-selling animated movie soundtrack of all time. It's not the only music from an animated film that's hot right now: Happy, Pharrell Williams' ubiquitous mood booster from Despicable Me 2, has been No. 1 on the single charts for eight weeks and appears everywhere from Fiat commercials to kids' choir homages.

Earlier this year, The Lego Movie popularised a catchy electronic parody song called Everything Is Awesome, and Rio 2 is receiving lots of praise from critics for the quality of its eclectic, Brazil-influenced soundtrack.

In some cases, as with Frozen, the music helped drive the box office, as audiences started learning songs from the radio before they saw the film; in others, as in Despicable Me 2, the song's hit status came well after the film's box-office release and evolved into a story of its own. Regardless, the cloud on animated musicals has clearly lifted.

"There hadn't been a musical in such a long time," said chief creative officer of DreamWorks Animation, Bill Damaschke, which has a Bollywood-style musical composed by A.R. Rahman and an Australia-set project from Tim Minchin, the composer of the Tony Award-winning show Matilda The Musical, in development.

"A really great one came out (Frozen) and it hit a nerve. Everybody's asking, 'What are fresh, original ways to use music in animated movies?'"

One of the key features of the Frozen and Happy phenomena has been social media. According to Bunt, fans have uploaded more than half a million versions of the Frozen empowerment ballad Let It Go to YouTube. Oprah Winfrey recently brought Williams to tears by showing him a collection of fan-made Happy videos from around the world.

"It's sort of like a community singalong in the virtual town square," said Tom Sito, a professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts who was an animator and storyboard artist at Disney Animation in the 1990s. "And it keeps the material fresh in people's minds."

Rihanna is in the midst of writing a concept album for an animated movie titled Home. She will also lend her voice to a character in the movie. - EPA

Rihanna is in the midst of writing a concept album for an animated movie titled Home. She will also lend
her voice to a character in the movie. — EPA

In addition to the Rahman and Minchin musicals it has in development, this year DreamWorks will release How To Train Your Dragon 2 with two songs by Jonsi, the frontman from the Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros, and Home, an alien invasion movie with a character voiced by pop singer Rihanna, who is writing a concept album for the film.

"For us, music is a big focus right now," Damaschke said. "I'd expect to see more and more of it." — Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

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The Star Online: Business

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Rush to list stocks stirs memories of tech bubble

Posted: 02 May 2014 04:23 PM PDT

LONDON: Firms are queuing up to list on equity indexes, sucking cash from existing listed stocks and fuelling worries that these high flotation volumes could be signalling an impending market fall.

So far this year, the value of initial public offerings (IPOs) worldwide has soared close to levels last seen in the dying days of the tech bubble of 2000, supported by central bank policies that have pumped out cheap money and underpinned market gains over the past five years.

While high levels of IPOs can be healthy, feeding firms capital to expand their businesses, valuation ratios on a number of stocks entering the market have risen to levels that can signal the market is due for a sharp correction.

Investors have been dumping shares in recently-floated firms especially in the tech sector as concerns mount about valuations, reviving memories of the dotcom crash.

These IPOs are also soaking up cash. Despite huge inflows into equities since the start of the year, the MSCI All-Country World index, which tracks shares in 45 countries, is trading only slightly higher over the period.

"The new paper which is coming to market is diluting the technical support from fund flows... It does leave us vulnerable," Ian Richards, global head of equities at Exane BNP Paribas, said.

"We know that there's still a big IPO pipeline ... Some of those deals will try to be squeezed through, then potentially that's a suppressant for markets."

Global-listed IPO volume, at $65.8 billion via 331 deals so far in 2014, represent the highest year-to-date value since 2010 and are just shy of a 2000 peak, data from Dealogic shows.

Meanwhile, equity funds globally have taken in more than $84 billion this year, according to EPFR Global data.

"Many times, what fund managers will do is that they will make sales in the secondary market to subscribe to those (initial public) offerings," Ashish Misra, head of investment policy at Lloyds Bank Private Banking, said.

PORK IPO PULLED

While the IPO stream remains robust, many of the companies listing have poor quality earnings. The proportion of U.S. companies coming to the market that are unprofitable is now at 74 percent, its highest since 1999, analysts at Redburn said.

Concerns about overstretched valuations have meant scant demand for new firms that might once have drawn huge interest. Chinese pork producer WH Group, for example, pulled its Hong Kong IPO after failing to get the valuation it wanted while some recently floated web-based firms are trading below their issue prices.

These include King Digital Entertainment, parent company of mobile game "Candy Crush Saga", white goods retailer AO World, and online takeaway service Just Eat - which achieved a heady valuation of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.5 billion), over 100 times its earnings of 14.1 million pounds.

"It's become very dangerous," George Godber, manager of the CF Miton UK Value Opportunities Fund, said.

"Once you start creating losses in the system, then you force people to sell down other positions... (And) nobody in the teeth of a bear market will pay record multiples for something that 'sounds like a good idea'."

Markit data shows that short sellers - who sell borrowed shares, hoping to buy them back more cheaply and pocket the difference - have been targeting stocks which floated in 2013.

In the three months after listing, the nine most borrowed stocks fell by more than 30 percent, it said.

"As IPOs do well, you then get into a frenzy," Miton's Godber said. "The banks are there to make money from transactions, not from the success of them ... and the quality (of companies floating) hugely deteriorates."

($1 = 0.5922 British Pounds)- Reuters

AstraZeneca rejects Pfizer's raised bid of 63bil pounds

Posted: 02 May 2014 04:20 PM PDT

LONDON: U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc PFE.N increased its offer for AstraZeneca Plc AZN.L to 63 billion pounds on Friday, but the British company promptly rejected the proposal, which would create the world's biggest pharmaceuticals company.

AstraZeneca's board said the offer undervalued the company "substantially" and was not an adequate basis on which to engage with its suitor.

Industry analysts and investors said that raised the possibility that Pfizer would now take the takeover plan, which would boost its pipeline of cancer drugs and create significant tax and cost savings, direct to AstraZeneca shareholders.

The U.S. group would much prefer an agreed deal, since hostile takeovers typically take longer, require a higher final price and carry more risks because the bidder cannot access the target's books to assess its business.

One AstraZeneca investor said Pfizer management had made clear in meetings this week that it wanted a friendly deal but it was determined to the see the transaction completed and a hostile bid was a potential "tool".

While Pfizer has given assurances to the British government on retaining drug research in Britain, a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said AstraZeneca's fate would be determined by shareholders, not the state.

Friday's 50 pounds ($84.47) a share indicative offer followed AstraZeneca's decision to rebuff an earlier proposal that valued it at 58.8 billion pounds, or 46.61 pounds per share.

Some investors and analysts had expected that the sweetened offer would be enough to bring AstraZeneca's board to the negotiating table, even if it was not accepted, and the swift rejection suggests Pfizer may now go over the board's head.

"I think it's making it increasingly likely that Pfizer is going to come back with a hostile bid," said Mick Cooper, analyst at Edison Investment Research.

Leading investors have met with Pfizer Chief Executive Ian Read this week in London and some feel that an offer of 50 pounds or above is certainly worth discussing.

"Given where the shares have come from, this doesn't look unreasonable," one of AstraZeneca's 10 largest shareholders said of the latest Pfizer offer.

AstraZeneca shares were trading at around 30 pounds a year ago, but confidence in the company's cancer drug pipeline has built up strongly since then.

"We expect Pfizer ultimately to have to sweeten its offer based on discussions we have had with investors, many citing a price within the 52-55 pounds range and some above this, and our analysis of the EPS accretion for Pfizer," said Mark Clark, an analyst at Deutsche Bank.

Investors had previously said they were looking for at least 50 pounds a share and also wanted more cash in the mix. The new offer would have given them 32 percent cash and 68 percent shares, little different from the 30-70 split offered originally.

Many analysts are convinced Pfizer will raise its offer again, not least because it wants to get the deal done before any possible change in U.S. tax rules that might prevent it moving its tax base to Britain.

Pfizer's latest proposal would have seen shareholders receiving, for each AstraZeneca share, 1.845 shares in the combined company and 15.98 pounds in cash.

Commenting on the offer, AstraZeneca Chairman Leif Johansson said: "Pfizer's proposal would dramatically dilute AstraZeneca shareholders' exposure to our unique pipeline and would create risks around its delivery."

He also highlighted the fact that the small cash component would leave investors exposed to the risks faced by Pfizer in executing an ambitious mega-merger.

POLITICAL STORM

Shares in the British group slipped back 0.2 percent to 48.07 pounds by 1435 BST. The stock had already gained ground in late trading on Thursday on speculation that Pfizer would come back with an improved offer, including a larger cash element, and there was some disappointment that the cash component had not increased more.

Pfizer shares fell 0.5 percent in early New York trading.

The takeover plan, which would be the largest acquisition of a British company by a foreign business, has stirred political controversy in Britain.

In an attempt to smooth relations with the government, Pfizer CEO Read wrote to Cameron, promising to complete a substantial new research centre planned by AstraZeneca in Cambridge and retain a manufacturing plant in Macclesfield.

The Cambridge site, in particular, is viewed as important to the development of the so-called "golden triangle" of Britain's life sciences industry, spanning Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Read also said that 20 percent of the enlarged group's research and development workforce would be in Britain, which a Pfizer spokesman said would represent a "very substantial" increase in its research efforts in the country.

"We make these commitments for a minimum of five years, recognising our ability, consistent with our fiduciary duties, to adjust these obligations should circumstances significantly change," Read added in a letter to Cameron.

Science minister David Willetts said Pfizer had moved a long way in its commitments to British science and research, but the opposition Labour party was scathing about the potential deal.

"Pfizer has a very poor record on previous acquisitions. Do we really want a jewel in the crown of British industry, our second biggest pharmaceutical firm, to basically be seen as an instrument of tax planning?" said business spokesman Chuka Umunna.

Pfizer's reputation is under a cloud in Britain following a decision three years ago to shut most of its research work at a large R&D centre in Sandwich, southern England, where Viagra was invented, with the loss of nearly 2,000 jobs.

Any eventual deal will be studied by antitrust regulators around the world, including those in China, where scrutiny could be especially intense since Pfizer and AstraZeneca rank No. 1 and No. 2 among multinational suppliers in the country's prescription drug market.- Reuters

US job growth jumps, but shrinking labor force a blemish

Posted: 02 May 2014 04:17 PM PDT

WASHINGTON: U.S. employers hired workers at the fastest clip in more than two years in April, pointing to a rebound in economic growth after a dreadful winter and keeping the Federal Reserve on track to end bond purchases this year.

The brightening outlook was, however, tempered somewhat by a sharp increase in the number of people dropping out of the labor force, which pushed the unemployment rate to a 5-1/2-year low of 6.3 percent. Wage growth also was stagnant.

Nonfarm payrolls surged 288,000 last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. That was largest gain since January 2012 and beat economists' expectations for only a 210,000 rise.

"It lends significant legitimacy to the positive tone in the wide array of post-February economic reports, which have all been consistently pointing to a significant pick-up in economic growth momentum this quarter," said Millan Mulraine, deputy chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

March and February's data was revised to show 36,000 more jobs than previously reported.

U.S. stocks briefly rallied on the report, which was later eclipsed by rising tensions in Ukraine. Stocks ended lower, while safe-haven bids pushed the yield in the 30-year U.S. government bond to its lowest level in more than 10 months.

The dollar was flat against a basket of currencies.

About 806,000 people dropped out of the labor force in April, unwinding the previous months' gains. That helped to push down the unemployment rate 0.4 percentage point to its lowest level since in September 2008.

The labor force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or unemployed but looking for a job, also fell four-tenths of a percentage point to 62.8 percent last month, slipping back to a 36-year low touched in December.

Overall, however, the data suggested the economy was gathering strength and led investors to pull forward their bets on when the Fed will start to raise interest rates.

The strong payrolls growth added to upbeat data such as consumer spending and industrial production in suggesting that sputtering growth in the first quarter was an aberration, weighed down by an unusually cold and disruptive winter.

The Fed on Wednesday shrugged off the dismal first-quarter performance. The U.S. central bank, which announced further reductions to the amount of money it is pumping into the economy through monthly bond purchases, said indications were that "growth in economic activity has picked up recently."

"It also matches well with the Fed's expectations for the labor market, excluding the sharp unemployment rate drop, and likely means more $10 billion dollar reductions in monthly asset purchases at future meetings," said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West in San Francisco.

LABOR MARKET IMPROVING

Economists expect second-quarter gross domestic product to top a 3 percent pace. Last month's drop in the labor force could have been driven by some of the 1.35 million people who lost their longer-term unemployment benefits at the end of last year.

Since they are no longer receiving unemployment benefits they have little incentive to continue looking for work as required by law. Part of the decline in participation in the labor market also reflects changing demographics, as well as people going on disability while waiting to reach retirement.

"Baby boomers are retiring and the various government benefits including disability are contributing to the drop in the participation rate," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, California.

Still there is little doubt the labor market is strengthening. A broad measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have stopped looking and those working only part time but who want more work, fell to a 20-year low of 12.3 percent in April. It was at 12.7 percent in March.

In addition, the number of people who have been unemployed for more than six months saw its biggest decline since October 2011 and the average duration of unemployment fell to 35.1 weeks from 35.6 weeks in March.

The short-term jobless rate hit a new cycle-low of 4.1 percent. Employment gains in April were broad-based, with the private sector adding 273,000 jobs and government payrolls rising 15,000. Manufacturing employment increased 12,000 after rising 7,000 in March.

Construction payrolls gained 32,000 after increasing 17,000 in March. The hiring trend could slow in the months ahead as residential construction loses some steam.

Despite the strong gains, average hourly earnings were flat in April, pointing to lack of wage pressure and still ample slack in the economy.

"There is just no sign of any broad-based wage pressure," said Josh Feinman, chief global economist at Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management in New York. "There is still slack in the labor market and with labor costs still dead in the water, the Fed is probably not going to have to rush (to raise rates)."

The length of the workweek held steady at 34.5 hours last month after bouncing back in March from its winter-depressed levels.- Reuters

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Jamil Khir: New committee to study Hudud implementation soon

Posted: 02 May 2014 07:45 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR: A central technical committee will be set up soon to study the implementation of Hudud Law in Kelantan, according to Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom.

The Minister in the Prime Minister's Department said the committee would involve the Federal Government, the Kelantan government and PAS.

Apart from studying every aspect of the implementation of the law, the committee would also explain the matter to all levels, including political parties, he told reporters after meeting with Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah here Friday.

Jamil Khir said the committee was aimed at ensuring that the implementation of the law would run smoothly, while taking into consideration the well-being and justice for Muslims, as well as articles under the Federal Constitution.

He said the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) would function as the secretariat for the committee, while the members would not comprise politicians.

Meanwhile, Mohd Amar said the Kelantan government positively viewed the setting up of the central committee, saying that it had also set up its own state-level committee for the same purpose.

"PAS has explained its aspirations and proposals on the implementation of the law to DAP and PKR. So far, we (the state government) are satisfied with its explanation," he added. - Bernama

Karpal Singh: A formidable lawyer, says ex-judge at memorial service

Posted: 02 May 2014 06:38 AM PDT

PETALING JAYA: A memorial service was held for the late Karpal Singh at the La Salle Hall here on Friday attended largely by ex-students of La Salle PJ and St Xavier's Institution, Penang.

Former Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mahadev Shankar remembered the ex-Bukit Gelugor MP as a very formidable lawyer.

"I'm very lucky that throughout my career, he was never on the other side. He would've wiped the floor with me," he said.

He added that Karpal had a great ability to speak with conviction in the courtroom.

"When thousands of people converge on the mortal remains of someone, it says something about who that man was," he said, calling Karpal's death a loss to both Malaysia and the world.

Ex-Penang deputy chief minister Datuk D Goh Cheng Teik, Karpal's junior in St Xavier's over 40 years ago, said the school's multi-racial background helped Karpal to see Malaysians past their race.

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, who was also present, had a few kind words.

"Karpal was ready to come forward and lead this battle. Ever since I first met him, we've been fighting this battle (for democracy) shoulder-to-shoulder," he said.

Adding that Karpal was a brilliant lawyer who won over a thousand cases, Lim said his friend did not limit himself to high-profile cases, such as the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trials but also those of the common man.

"We mourn Karpal, but we also celebrate him," Lim concluded.

Ending the service was Karpal's son and Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo, who remembered his father as a man who never lost his edge.

"When he got into his first accident, people thought it was over. It was a terrible moment for him, but Mr Karpal wouldn't give up," he said.

Gobind also remembered his father as a man who would search through countless paperwork to find a legal loophole - anything that would win him a case.

This, he added, helped the Opposition to debate matters in Parliament.

"Even towards the end, even in a wheelchair, you knew if you had him behind you, you could rely on him," he said.

MH370: Families of Chinese passengers leave hotels in Beijing after MAS’ deadline

Posted: 02 May 2014 05:54 AM PDT

BEJING: Families of Chinese passengers aboard the ill-fated Flight MH370 left Lido Hotel here on Friday evening following Malaysia Airlines' decision to close all its family assistance centres.

A notice has been put up to inform the families that MAS would stop providing food and accommodation from 6pm on Friday (May 2) at all three hotels in Beijing, namely Lido, Rosedale Hotel and Chunhuiyuan Hotel, where lodging have been provided since March 8.

The next-of-kin could be seen bidding each other farewell at the hotel lobby at about 6pm, before leaving in small groups.

The doors of the ballroom, where daily briefings were held for the families, were locked after the deadline.

A new notice has been put up to inform the families that MAS would make an advanced compensation payment of US$50,000 (RM163,325) after they return home to help them cope financially. 

"Details will be announced via our official communication platform within two weeks," the statement read. A MAS official said the airline would be in close touch with families. 

"They are able to contact us through our family support centre and three 24-hour hotlines," he said. The centre at Shunyi district in Beijing would be open from May 4 onwards.

It would be in-charge of communication with MAS' headquarters and the Malaysian and Chinese governments, besides co-ordinating the dissemination of latest updates to the family members.

"We are also going to keep them updated via SMS messages which will be in Mandarin," a MAS official said.

According to the families committee on its official Weibo account, the families were "helpless over this sudden and irresponsible announcement."

"Many of us are suddenly left with nowhere to go. Where should the old people and the next-of-kin from outstation go? Where is the plane? Where are our family members?" it said.

However, the post disappeared a few hours later. 

A new post lamenting the lack of response to the families' request for an effective "liaison mechanism" to address their technical queries was published instead.

CNN reported that the relatives "wailed and yelled" when the announcement to close down the assistance centre was made in a briefing on Thursday.

It said a video of MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya making a seven-minute English statement was played for the next-of-kin.

The families began to break down when the message was translated into Mandarin, according to Sarah Bajc, the American partner of a passenger Philip Wood, who was in Beijing.

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Songs from animated films are on the right track

Posted: 01 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Movie soundtracks from animated films are booming.

Considered deeply uncool at one point, music from animated movies is back – and singing along is now not only OK for kids, it's something adults record themselves doing on their phones and share on YouTube.

The boom in popular songs from animated movies comes after a long fallow period when the form yielded few hits in the music world, despite box-office juggernauts like the Toy Story, Shrek and Ice Age franchises.

Though all incorporated music in their films, it was rarely the kind that had come to define the genre at Disney Animation in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when it was making music-driven hits like The Lion King, Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid.

"You had this shift ... where there were very successful animated movies but their soundtracks weren't," said president of Disney Music Group, Ken Bunt. "Their scores were important, but they weren't musicals and the music in them wasn't something that gets played on radio or that you're singing in your car."

A sign of the shift: For the first time in 20 years, a soundtrack from an animated film has been No. 1 on the Billboard charts for 11 weeks.

Two weeks ago, Disney's fairy tale Frozen displaced 1994's The Lion King to become the top-selling animated movie soundtrack of all time. It's not the only music from an animated film that's hot right now: Happy, Pharrell Williams' ubiquitous mood booster from Despicable Me 2, has been No. 1 on the single charts for eight weeks and appears everywhere from Fiat commercials to kids' choir homages.

Earlier this year, The Lego Movie popularised a catchy electronic parody song called Everything Is Awesome, and Rio 2 is receiving lots of praise from critics for the quality of its eclectic, Brazil-influenced soundtrack.

In some cases, as with Frozen, the music helped drive the box office, as audiences started learning songs from the radio before they saw the film; in others, as in Despicable Me 2, the song's hit status came well after the film's box-office release and evolved into a story of its own. Regardless, the cloud on animated musicals has clearly lifted.

"There hadn't been a musical in such a long time," said chief creative officer of DreamWorks Animation, Bill Damaschke, which has a Bollywood-style musical composed by A.R. Rahman and an Australia-set project from Tim Minchin, the composer of the Tony Award-winning show Matilda The Musical, in development.

"A really great one came out (Frozen) and it hit a nerve. Everybody's asking, 'What are fresh, original ways to use music in animated movies?'"

One of the key features of the Frozen and Happy phenomena has been social media. According to Bunt, fans have uploaded more than half a million versions of the Frozen empowerment ballad Let It Go to YouTube. Oprah Winfrey recently brought Williams to tears by showing him a collection of fan-made Happy videos from around the world.

"It's sort of like a community singalong in the virtual town square," said Tom Sito, a professor at USC's School of Cinematic Arts who was an animator and storyboard artist at Disney Animation in the 1990s. "And it keeps the material fresh in people's minds."

Rihanna is in the midst of writing a concept album for an animated movie titled Home. She will also lend her voice to a character in the movie. - EPA

Rihanna is in the midst of writing a concept album for an animated movie titled Home. She will also lend
her voice to a character in the movie. — EPA

In addition to the Rahman and Minchin musicals it has in development, this year DreamWorks will release How To Train Your Dragon 2 with two songs by Jonsi, the frontman from the Icelandic rock band Sigur Ros, and Home, an alien invasion movie with a character voiced by pop singer Rihanna, who is writing a concept album for the film.

"For us, music is a big focus right now," Damaschke said. "I'd expect to see more and more of it." — Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

Emma Stone embraces her spunky character Gwen Stacy

Posted: 30 Apr 2014 07:00 PM PDT

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 heroine Emma Stone on the element of surprise.

If there was one thing actress Emma Stone absolutely detests, it would be weight training. The affable actress was nursing a sore throat when she spoke to Star2 in Singapore recently. "I don't have a lot of physical strength so the idea of lifting weights makes me want to strangle somebody. It just makes me so crazy," said Stone, 25.

To prepare for her role as Gwen Stacy in the first installment of The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), Stone went through a gruelling weight training routine. She explained her loathing for it: "I didn't respond well to it because I absolutely hate having to do for the sake of it."

However, her green eyes lit up when she talked about her routine for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. "That's what is great about this new movie – I got to do dance training which was really cool. It was a blast to be able to elongate your body and swing in amazing ways."

Stone returns in the movie as Gwen Stacy, a high school valedictorian who gets caught up in Spider-Man's world as his love interest. When Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) is not busy chasing Russian mobsters through New York or fighting off Oscorp's latest mutation, he is by Gwen's side as Peter Parker.

However, being Spider-Man will eventually take a toll on the couple's relationship.

"Gwen has an understanding that Peter needs to be Spider-Man and he needs to be a hero. While Mary Jane Watson is in love with Spider-Man first and Peter after that, Gwen falls in love with Peter first."

The brainy beauty is also far from being just another damsel in distress. In the previous installment, Spider-Man defeated his opponent with Gwen's help. For The Amazing Spider-Man 2, don't expect Gwen to stand by as just another face in the crowd.

"Yes, I'm very excited about that. She definitely finds a way to infiltrate in what he is doing, to help," she said with a laugh.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 also stars Jamie Foxx as Max Dillon/Electro and Paul Giamatti as Rhino. Stone relished the opportunity to work with some of the most critically-acclaimed actors in Hollywood.

Pure heroine: Emma Stone says her character Gwen Stacy falls in love with Peter Parker as himself, instead of Spider-Man.

"It's a dream to be able to work with people who are also teaching you. You have to rise meet to the occasion to grow and learn. I always thought that getting to all this movies is like a masterclass. You can't get this experience in drama school or scene study class. It's a whole other experience."

Stone also said co-star Garfield is "an amazing Spider-Man". "He's so prepared and he knows so much about the character. It's embedded in him to do what Spider-Man can do. So it's really cool."

Though most would associate Mary Jane as Spider-Man's heroine, Gwen is one of the most important characters in the comic book universe. Her fate in the comic books had an incredible impact on Spider-Man's life. She talked about why she wants the film to honour the comic book storyline, particularly issue #121.

"I think it's incredibly important. It's hugely impactful in Peter's life and what happens with him as a hero. It's a devastating and really iconic moment in comic book history. I want to do that for the lovers of the Spider-Man comics."

She added: "Before I auditioned for Gwen, I googled her and it was pretty much the first thing you see. I was just like 'oh God, that's crazy!'. I can only imagine what it was like for people reading the story when issue #121 first came out. It must have been the most shocking thing."

Still, Stone hopes audience will be able to watch the movie and experience the same feeling of shock that comic readers had back when the original story debuted in 1973.

"I'm very protective of people understanding that it's not necessarily what is going to occur in the movie. I want the element of surprise to remain intact."

Related story and videos:

Along comes Spider-Man ... his girl and the director

Watch: Jamie Foxx explains how Electro got his voice 

Watch: Andrew Garfield and Marc Webb team up for The Amazing Spider-Man 2

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Kuah Jenhan: Good boy gone bad

Posted: 30 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Comedian Kuah Jenhan sizzled with a sinister edge as he unleashed his dark and kinky side.

FUNNYMAN Kuah Jenhan, 27, has had it with being rejected by girls. For too long, he's been a nice guy, completely clueless about the opposite gender. But all that's about to change. He's metamorphosising into a bad boy, ready to drive the ladies wild! But don't you dare compare him to a caterpillar turning into a butterfly!

"I'm something more badass! I'm a larva," said Kuah during his latest show series, Good Bad Nasty, held at Damansara Performing Arts Centre in Petaling Jaya, Selangor last weekend. "They don't have this whole cocoon phase. Turn into a pupa, and then bam! I'm a mosquito! So whenever I go near girls, they become gatal!"

Featuring rib-tickling jokes, sagely love advice, and 152 pairs of female underwear, Kuah's latest show, which we caught on Sunday, was a highly enjoyable romp through the weird and wonderful world of dating.

The comedian, whose previous very successful shows include Tall, Dark And Comedian, Planet Of The Apeks and M.A.C.C. (Malaysian Association of Chinese Comedians), delivered another winning comedy performance in Good Bad Nasty.

Kuah's show was probably the only comedy show in the country to open with children's theatre, starting with a singer, Jacinth (Charmaine Koh, 10) singing I Dreamed A Dream from the musical Les Miserables. This segued into a small skit about Jacinth catching the eye of Mini-Jenhan (Marcus Chan, eight) who tries to court her, only to be thwarted by the charismatic but repetitive Bad Boy (Bailey Martin, 13).

The child actors were adorable, almost stealing Kuah's spotlight with their innocence and earnestness. I couldn't help but wonder, however, how Kuah got away with making them recite some very cheeky lines, such as, "That's premarital hand-holding!"

This was followed by a voiceover by, of all people, theatre veteran Mano Maniam, arguing with Kuah about how illogical it was to tell the women in the audience to both hold on to their underwear AND applaud at the same time. While hilarious, it did go on a little longer than necessary.

And then it was time for Kuah, who appeared to loud rock music while perched on a motorcycle. Once he reached centre stage, a shower of panties rained down on him from a hanging basket in the ceiling. The man certainly knows how to make an entrance.

"I'm tired of a being a nice guy! I've changed! I'm a bad boy now!" the comedian proclaimed to applause.

Loud laughter broke out once the house lights came on, revealing Kuah was wearing two suits stitched together, Two-Face from Batman style. This was to appeal to both nice guy and bad boy fans. In true half-and-half fashion, he even sported half a moustache!

"If I was a pirate, I could be Captain Jack Separuh," said Kuah to laughter and groans in the crowd. "If I was knighted by the Queen? Sir Tengah!"

Thankfully, not all the show was half-baked puns. Kuah regaled the audience with tales of his previous dating experiences, from being in a school play with a beautiful girl he had to kiss on the cheek, to his failed opportunity with an Uzbeki lingerie model who invited him to her place on his birthday.

"Women want a man who can close. But some men don't even know there is a door!" said Kuah.

The problem with jokes about dating and rejection is that they have the potential to become misogynistic, with bitter references to "friendzoning", and so forth. Kuah, fortunately, veered away from this dangerous territory, poking just as much fun at men as he did women.

Indeed, for a show with "Nasty" as part of the title, it was very good-natured, with much humour being Kuah poking fun at himself.

One story featured a pretty girl coming to talk to him at a mamak stall, and asking him what his star sign was.

"I said 'Scorpio'. And she said, 'oh, I heard Scorpios are very good in bed!' And you know what I said? I said 'I better get home to bed, I have to get up early for a show tomorrow!'" said Kuah, shaking his head.

The highlight of Good Bad Nasty, however, was Kuah's display of actual text and social network messages received from girls after he'd adopted his bad boy persona. The audience went wild as Kuah, completely deadpan, explained all the hidden innuendoes in the otherwise innocent correspondences. Only Kuah could turn an innocuous "ha ha ha ha" into an ecstatic outpouring of passion!

While some of his jokes were a bit crude, most of Kuah's humour worked, and I certainly enjoyed his show. Nice guys may finish last, but this comedian, being part bad boy, clearly finished strong.

As Kuah said at his show's conclusion, you can't change the past, or predict the future, all you can do is brave another day. And his show certainly brightened my day!

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