Isnin, 26 Mei 2014

The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates


India's new finance minister an effective foil for Modi

Posted: 26 May 2014 10:45 PM PDT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hardened by a term in prison as a student leader and polished over a career as a successful and urbane courtroom lawyer, Arun Jaitley, India's new finance minister, could prove an effective foil for Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 61-year-old has also been given the important portfolio of defence, making him the most powerful member of Modi's cabinet. Yet, he lost his parliamentary seat in the general election, one of the few blots on an otherwise stunning victory for the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that has swept to power with its first-ever parliamentary majority.

Finance is arguably the most crucial portfolio in Modi's new government as it seeks to drag India out of its economic torpor and create enough jobs for the 10 million young people who join the workforce each year. Jaitley was long the front-runner to run the ministry, but the additional charge of the powerful defence portfolio came as a surprise.

"We have to restore back the pace of growth, contain inflation and obviously concentrate on fiscal consolidation," Jaitley told reporters on Monday, signalling on his first day in the job a determination not to allow India to drift.

On the election campaign trail he told Reuters that it would be important to send an early signal that major infrastructure projects tied up in red tape would finally move ahead with "five big clearances, some big-ticket clearances".

Personally close to the intensely private Modi, and commerce minister in the last BJP government more than a decade ago, party sources said Jaitley's place at the high table was never really in doubt, despite the humiliation of losing his seat.

His polish, Western-style education and strong command of English makes him an effective foil to the rough-hewn Modi in articulating the government's position to foreign investors, captains of industry and India's own central bank governor.

A patrician figure who would not be out of place in London's High Court, Jaitley is the son of a successful lawyer. He was educated in an elite New Delhi school and at the prestigious Delhi University, where he was a students union leader in the youth wing of the BJP.

Modi is the son of a tea seller who can captivate a crowd, but avoids speaking English in public.

Jaitley has told Reuters he was formed politically by the experience of being jailed for 19 months in a crackdown by then-prime minister Indira Gandhi of the Congress party. The BJP trounced Congress in the 2014 election.

"It hardened my political convictions, it increased my commitment, it made me rub shoulders with the top national leaders," Jaitley said.

DAMNED WITH FAINT PRAISE

Although he lost his own electoral race, Jaitley's satisfaction in the BJP's overwhelming victory over the Congress's main contender, Rahul Gandhi - Indira's grandson - will have been no less than Modi's.

Rather than gloat, though, Jaitley has damned his vanquished opponents with faint praise. Outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - for a decade his opposite number in parliament's upper house - was leaving office with "dignity and grace", he wrote recently in his widely read blog.

"Only if he had stood up at the right time ... would (he) have been regarded with still greater honour," Jaitley added, accusing Singh of failing to prevent corruption and arbitrary tax rulings that stifled investment and growth.

Born into a family that migrated to India from Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947, Jaitley headed the Delhi University student union and the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the BJP.

He has represented multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. in court. Since 2002, he has emerged as a leading party strategist, scripting several of its victories in state elections.

As minister in charge of trade in the last BJP government, he led India in talks at the World Trade Organization, blocking attempts by developed countries to gain greater access to emerging markets without reducing agricultural subsidies.

ON THE SKIDS

He takes charge of an economy, Asia's third largest, that is battling its longest slowdown since the 1980s. Growth has almost halved to under 5 percent in the past two years - too slow to create enough jobs for aspirational young Indians.

Inflation is meanwhile running dangerously close to 10 percent, way above the central bank's comfort zone.

"I don't want to use any harsh language," the bespectacled Jaitley told a recent news conference in his booming baritone voice, putting his predecessor as finance minister, P. Chidambaram, in the dock.

"But the finance minister inherited 8.5 percent growth, and he is going to leave behind a 4.6 percent growth rate."

Yet, in a heated campaign, Jaitley has been careful to avoid joining the public attacks on the widely respected governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, that have been launched by some of his more populist party colleagues.

Like Jaitley, Rajan spent much of his school and university days in India's capital, although he is a decade younger than the minister. Rajan went on to the University of Chicago and was later chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

"We don't take a stand on individuals," Jaitley said. "I can only assure you that ... we will be a responsible government taking responsible decisions."

One of Jaitley's first tasks will be to deliver a revised budget that deals with the fiscal fallout of India's slowdown and addresses a deficit that Chidambaram capped by putting off spending.

The ringing endorsement, not only of voters for Modi's pro-growth agenda but also of investors who have piled into Indian stocks, bonds and the rupee, should buy Jaitley time to put the country's public finances in order.

"There is going to be some kind of fiscal slippage in the short term, but it would be positive for the medium term if Jaitley is appointed finance minister," said Himanshu Malik, a strategist at HSBC in Hong Kong.

Arvind Panagariya, an economics professor at New York's Columbia University, who is tipped to get an advisory role in the government, has said the 2014-15 fiscal deficit could be revised up to 4.5 percent of gross domestic product from the 4.1 percent envisaged by Chidambaram.

Backsliding on the deficit is a blinking orange light for sovereign ratings agencies, with Fitch saying that India's debt and deficits were higher than other countries that share its BBB, or investment grade, rating.

But reviving stalled investment and economic growth are the bigger priorities. "The most salient of these issues from a sovereign credit perspective is the need to re-boost the sustainable growth rate," Fitch commented. "This will require an re-acceleration of the investment cycle."

(Additional reporting by Shyamantha Asokan and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by John Chalmers and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Vietnam, China trade accusations after Vietnamese fishing boat sinks

Posted: 26 May 2014 10:15 PM PDT

HANOI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Vietnam and China traded accusations on Tuesday over the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat not far from where China has placed an oil rig in the disputed South China Sea, as tensions fester between the two countries over the giant drilling platform.

Hanoi said some 40 Chinese fishing boats had surrounded the Vietnamese craft before one of them rammed it and it sank. Vietnamese fishing boats operating nearby rescued the 10 fishermen on board, the government and the coastguard said. China's official Xinhua news agency, citing a government source, said the vessel capsized after "harassing and colliding with" a Chinese fishing boat.

Scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships, including coastguard vessels, have continued to square off around the rig despite a series of collisions earlier this month after the platform was towed to the site.

Each side have blamed the other over those incidents. Until Monday, no ship had sunk.

The incident took place around 17 nautical miles from the rig, which is drilling between the Paracel islands occupied by China and the Vietnamese coast. China calls them the Xisha islands.

"A Vietnamese boat from the central city of Da Nang was deliberately encircled by 40 fishing vessels from China before it was attacked by a Chinese ship," the head of Vietnam's coastguard, Nguyen Quang Dam, told Reuters by telephone.

Xinhua said: "Crew aboard the boat were saved after their ship jostled a fishing boat from Dongfang City in southern China's Hainan province and overturned in the waters near China's Xisha Islands." Vietnam has said the Haiyang Shiyou 981 rig is in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf. China says it is operating within its waters. The rig is 240 km (150 miles) off Vietnam's coast and 330 km (206 miles) from the southern coast of China's Hainan island. The $1 billion deepwater rig is owned by state-run China National Offshore Oil Company Group, parent of flagship unit CNOOC Ltd.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last week said his government was considering taking legal action against China following the deployment of the rig.

That drew an angry response from China.

Earlier this month, mobs angered over the rig attacked mostly Taiwanese factories in Vietnam. Many of the rioters mistook Taiwanese companies to be owned by mainland Chinese. At least four workers were killed. China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea, displaying its reach on official maps with a so-called nine-dash line that stretches deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the potentially energy-rich waters.

(Reporting by Nguyen Phuong Linh in HANOI and Michael Martina and Hui Li in BEIJING; Writing by Dean Yates; Editing by Ron Popeski)

American doctor shot dead in Pakistan in suspected sectarian attack

Posted: 26 May 2014 10:15 PM PDT

ISLAMABAD, May 26 (Reuters) - An American volunteer cardiologist was shot dead in Pakistan on Monday, a member of his minority Ahmadi community said, in the latest attack on a group that says it is Muslim but whose religion is rejected by the state.

Mehdi Ali Qamar had taken his wife, young son and a cousin to a graveyard in Punjab province at dawn to pray when he was shot, said Salim ud Din, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community.

"He came here just one or two days ago to work at our heart hospital, to serve humanity and for his country," Din said. "Two persons came on motorbikes. They shot 11 bullets in him."

Qamar was born in Pakistan but moved abroad in 1996. He had returned to do voluntary work at a state-of-the-art heart hospital built by the Ahmadi community in the eastern town of Rabwah.

Qamar, 50, moved to Columbus, Ohio, in the United States, where he founded an Ahmadi centre and raised funds for medical charities in Pakistan, Din said.

He is survived by a wife and three young sons, Din said.

The U.S. embassy said it was providing consular assistance but declined to give further details.

"We express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," the embassy spokeswoman said.

The Ahmadis believe there was a Prophet after Mohammed. Pakistani law says they are not Muslims, although Ahmadis insist that they are.

Ahmadis have often been jailed or lynched for blasphemy for things such as offering Islamic prayers or reading the Koran.

Qamar's killing follows the fatal shooting of a 61-year-old Ahmadi man last week. A teenage gunman killed Khalil Ahmad in police custody after the grandfather was arrested on blasphemy charges for objecting to stickers denouncing his religion.

Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan and cases against both religious minorities and Muslims are rising.

Some mullahs promise that killing Ahmadis earns a place in heaven and give out leaflets listing their home addresses. Few attacks are ever solved, even when the victims can identify their attackers.

Seven Ahmadis were killed and 16 survived attempted assassinations last year, according to an annual report produced by the Ahmadi community in Pakistan.

Others were driven from their homes or had businesses seized.

(The story is corrected to change doctor's age to 50 from 51.)

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Additional reporting by Mubasher Bukhari; Editing by Nick Macfie and Alison Williams)

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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'Frozen' becomes fifth highest-grossing film in box office history

Posted: 26 May 2014 07:15 PM PDT

Thanks to the Japanese, the animated movie is still popular after six months.

Since its release in November 2013, Disney's seasonal animated feature Frozen has brought in over US$1.2bil in theatres worldwide, placing it ahead of Iron Man 3 in the ranking of the most lucrative blockbusters at the global box office.

Thanks to its popularity with Japanese moviegoers, Frozen is still putting money in Disney's coffers six months after its premiere. As of Sunday, May 25, the movie had earned a cumulative total of US$1,219,179,972 in theatres. This impressive result makes Frozen the fifth highest grossing feature in the history of the box office.

The story of Anna and her sister Elsa overtook Iron Man 3, which grossed US$1.215bil during its run in theatres. At the top of the podium are Avatar (US$2.7bil), Titanic (US$1.8bil), The Avengers (US$1.5bil) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (US$1.3bil).

Frozen has also become Disney's highest-grossing feature – another title taken from Iron Man 3 – and the only animated feature among the top 10 highest-grossing films at the worldwide box office. However, Frozen is not the only animated movie to break the symbolic US$1bil barrier at the box office: Toy Story 3, in 12th place overall, grossed US$1.063bil in theatres. – AFP Relaxnews

Julianne Moore, Timothy Spall win at Cannes

Posted: 24 May 2014 08:45 PM PDT

She plays ageing Hollywood actress; he is painter JMW Turner.

Julianne Moore won the best actress prize at the 67th Cannes Film Festival on May 24 for her role as a shallow starlet in Canadian director David Cronenberg's biting Hollywood satire Maps To The Stars.

In the film, the 53-year-old redhead plays an ageing actress feeling increasingly sidelined by an industry obsessed with youth.

When the young son of a rival for new film role is killed in a freak drowning accident, Moore does a dance of joy that remained one of the enduring shocks of this year's festival.

"Vive Los Angeles, Vive David Cronenberg, vive Julie Moore et vive la France," the film's screenwriter, Bruce Wagner, said as he picked up the trophy for Moore, who was not in Cannes.

Moore has played everything from a porn star to an FBI agent over a two-decade big screen career that has already brought four Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes and a Primetime Emmy to her name.

Her best-known films include 1998's The Big Lebowski, Crazy Stupid Love (2011) as well as The Hours and Far From Heaven, both from 2002.

Timothy Spall poses during the Award Winners photocall after he won the Best Performance by an Actor award for his role in the movie Mr Turner at the 67th annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 24, 2014. – Photo EPA

The best actor award was won by British actor Timothy Spall for his role in a lush historical portrait of painter JMW Turner, by director Mike Leigh.

Mr. Turner stars the 57-year-old Spall, credited with blazing a trail for modern art of the time, in a grunting, snorting, spitting, womanising, warts-and-all performance that critics hailed as riveting.

"I am trying to hold back my tears," an emotional Spall told the audience after receiving the prize, lauding his decades of collaboration with Leigh.

One of Britain's best-regarded character actors, and better known abroad for a recurring role in the Harry Potter movies, Spall is credited with a gift for invoking empathy with otherwise unlovable protagonists.

For his role as Turner, Spall practised painting for two years before starting to film with Leigh and said his extensive research revealed the British artist to be "a man of mystery".

Best director

Bennett Miller scooped up the best director award at Cannes for Foxcatcher, a film based on the real-life murder of an Olympic wrestler by multi-millionaire John du Pont.

The 47-year-old's third feature film had critics raving and viewers were left particularly stunned by Steve Carell, whose performance as the deranged, sinister du Pont marked a complete turnaround from his previous funny man roles.

The film also stars Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo as Mark and Dave Schultz, two wrestling-champion brothers.

Miller has only made three feature films, but already he is a regular at international award ceremonies.

He directed his childhood friend Philip Seymour Hoffman to Oscar glory with Capote, his 2005 biopic of author and playwright Truman Capote.

Some of the winners of the 67th Cannes Film Festival. – AFP

Main prize-winners at Cannes Film Festival

Palme d'Or: Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Best Director: Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher

Best Actress: Julianne Moore in Maps to the Stars by David Cronenberg

Best Actor: Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner by Mike Leigh

Best Screenplay: Andrei Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin for Leviathan.

Grand Prix (runner-up to Palme d'Or): The Wonders, by Alice Rohrwacher

Jury Prize: Mommy by Xavier Dolan and Goodbye to Language by Jean-Luc Godard. – AFP Relaxnews


Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Nation

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A better future for Teluk Intan folk in voters' hands, says Liow

Posted: 26 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

TELUK INTAN: The development here and the future of its people are in the hands of the 60,000 voters in the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election this Saturday, MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said.

He urged the voters to support Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong, who could bring development to them.

"Barisan is a stable and dynamic government which has put in place many development projects nationwide and also in Teluk Intan.

"And a good and experienced MP like Datuk Mah will ensure the people can benefit from the projects.

"The projects will be able to create more business and job opportunities for the people and keep the constituency vibrant," he said, citing the latest RM5bil West Coast Expressway project as an example.

Last Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the 233km-long expressway here.

The expressway connects Changkat Jering in Perak to Banting in Selangor.

"The Barisan government has a good track record in ensuring stability and bringing development to multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysians," Liow said after visiting Batu 12 new village and an orphanage – the Jaz Home – here yesterday.

The Chinese constitute over 41% of the 60,000 voters while Malays and Indians make up 38% and 19% respectively.

Gerakan president Mah, 53, is in a straight fight with DAP's 26-year-old Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud after Teluk Intan MP Seah Leong Peng died of cancer on May 1.

Liow urged the Chinese voters to give their full support to Mah.

In another development, Liow, who is accompanying Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on his official visit to China starting today, said the 40 years of bilateral relations continued to be strong.

"The good relations have brought more trading activities between the two nations and will also help more Malaysians to venture into China," Liow said.

Related story:

I am still the underdog for now, says Mah

Hadi: Only DAP defended PAS when Kelantan govt fell in 1978

Posted: 26 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

TELUK INTAN: PAS is working together with DAP as a token of gratitude for standing by their side when the Kelantan government fell in 1978.

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang said it was DAP who defended PAS when the Kelantan government fell to Barisan Nasional then, causing chaos within the state.

He said Barisan, that was working with PAS then, did nothing to help them.

"Only DAP defended us that time and we are grateful to them.

"We have the responsibility to help them back," he said in his speech during a high tea session with DAP's Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud at Taman Cicely here yesterday.

"Even with our differences over alcohol, pork, hudud and halal matters, we have something in common, which is to stand up against corruption, injustice and to fight for fairness for all," he said.

Abdul Hadi also said that the Barisan coali­tion had ruled for over 50 years, but yet there were still a lot of poor people in the country.

He also called on the people to vote wisely and to look at the candidate's capabilities rather than their race.

"If we are smart, we don't talk about race.

"We talk about how the candidate can re­­present the voice of the people at Parliament when they become an MP," he said.

Abdul Hadi also praised Dyana Sofya for her bravery to stand and speak up against her detractors.

"She is brave, she will support the right and oppose the wrong.

"She has courage to stand under DAP, not even I dared to do so," he quipped.

Abdul Hadi also urged the people not to be baited by "candies" offered by Barisan to fish for votes.

"Be a smart fish that eats the bait but not get hooked."

Momentous China visit awaits Najib

Posted: 26 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

PUTRAJAYA: A visit full of significant occasions befitting the 40th anniversary of Malaysia-China ties awaits Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when he starts his six-day official trip to China tomorrow.

For one, the Chinese government is willing to oblige a Malaysian request that the celebration marking the occasion be held on May 31, a public holiday in China, which happens to be the day Kuala Lumpur-Beijing ties were formalised in 1974.

The close relationship between the two nations would be further emphasised when Chinese President Xi Jinping sets aside normal protocol by hosting a private dinner for Najib.

"Usually Chinese presidents don't give a private dinner. Usually they just attend the bilateral meeting (with a visiting dignitary) and dinner is given by the prime minister.

"But this time around, he is not only receiving me but also accords a private dinner. That is very, very significant," Najib told senior editors here yesterday ahead of the visit.

Najib is scheduled to meet Xi on Friday in Beijing, after which they will attend the private dinner.

The decision by Najib's father, Malaysia's second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein to esta­blish ties with Communist China in 1974 was seen as a bold move at that time, with Malaysia being the first South-East Asian country to do so.

Sharing his experience, Najib said former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, during his visits to Malaysia, would insist that Najib's mother Tun Rahah Mohammad Noah attended some of the events lined up for him.

"This is very unusual because leaders (of other governments) would take relations more as a go­vernment-to-government level but China has taken it as a family kind of relationship," he said of the Malaysia-China relations.

Observers said Najib had further nurtured the strong bonds esta­blished by his late father with China across a wide spectrum of activities, from trade and investment to education, agriculture, defence and people-to-people ties.

A Malaysian government official said Najib would likely push the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing trade agenda, eyeing the volume to be more than US$100bil (RM321bil) recorded last year.

A government official hinted that the trade volume with China could hit US$160bil (RM514bil) annually as underlined in the five-year economic and trade cooperation programme between the two countries.

Malaysia, he said, wanted to attract a portion of the projected outbound Chinese investment of US$500bil (RM1.6 trillion) over the next five years.

The Malaysian ambassador to China Datuk Iskandar Sarudin told the media on Monday that the close-knit ties between the two countries are demonstrated by the annual Malaysia-Xi'an Halal Food Festival Week, THO XIN YI reports.

"This is the third time we are ha­­ving this event at the historic Muslim Street.

"As far as I am concerned, Malaysia is the only country given the permission to host the food festival at one of the most visited places in this city," he said, adding that Najib would officiate at the festival during his visit here.

On the 40th anniversary of bila­teral ties, Iskandar said that five government-to-government agreements on the areas of defence, science and technology and trade would be signed during Najib's visit.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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DreamWorks celebrates 20th anniversary

Posted: 25 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Animated movie hit maker looking to the future with changing formats and lucrative new markets.

DreamWorks Animation, one of the biggest successes of recent Hollywood history, is celebrating its 20th birthday with eyes firmly on the future, both in terms of changing formats and lucrative new markets like China.

Jeffrey Katzenberg's studio, a Croisette regular which chose Cannes to premiere the first two movies about lovable ogre Shrek, presented the spectacular How To Train Your Dragon 2 out of competition at the Palais des Festivals a fortnight ago.

It also took the opportunity to fete its 20 years of animated hits.

Born in 1994 with the creation of DreamWorks SKG – founded by Steven Spielberg, Katzenberg and David Geffen – DreamWorks Animation separated from its parent company in 2004 to become an autonomous studio focused exclusively on animated films.

In two decades it has produced 28 features including the blockbuster Shrek and Madagascar franchises as well as one-offs like 1998's Prince Of Egypt and Chicken Run (2000), which have in all made over US$11bil at the global box office.

The studio also landed the first animated feature film Oscar in 2002 with the first Shrek movie, and repeated the trick in 2006 with Wallace And Gromit.

But the studio, like its competitors, is not immune to missteps – like last year's Turbo, which failed to take off as expected at the box office.

And that is why Katzenberg, a former Disney executive, stresses the need for his company to keep diversifying, notably by investing in animated TV series and the Internet.

"Movies are not a growth business," he told a recent conference in Beverly Hills, adding that in 10 years' time films will only spend about three weeks in cinemas, before transferring to other formats.

The other major challenge for Katzenberg is the Chinese market, which all the major Hollywood studios are trying to conquer.

In 2012, DreamWorks Animation created Oriental DreamWorks, a studio based in Shanghai, with the aim of releasing films from 2016 with "Chinese DNA".

In an interview with AFP, Katzenberg said at the time that "what is unique (about China) is that in five to seven years they will be the number one market in the whole world.

"They are going actually to have a marketplace that, if you could succeed at creating a great family brand, the value of that would be tremendous," he added. – AFP

Palm Dog prize: Movie star dog has its day at Cannes

Posted: 23 May 2014 06:15 PM PDT

Feher Isten's Body wins outstanding performance by a pooch at film festival.

A gentle Labrador mix named Body won the "Palm Dog" award on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival on Friday (May 23), a pat on the head from canine-lovers and film critics for the outstanding movie performance by a pooch.

Body starred in Feher Isten (White God) by Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo, which features more than 250 dogs.

The lead character is "Hagen" – a role shared by Body and a second hound named Luc – who is abandoned by his family and picked up by a man who trains him to be fighting dog.

At the film's festival premiere earlier in the festival, Body attended a photocall, walked the red carpet and was invited onstage – wearing a bowtie.

The Palm Dog award is a play on the Palme d'Or, the Cannes festival's top prize.

"What an honour, what a historical hound!" said Palm Dog organiser Toby Rose, who called the film a cross between "Inglorious Barksterds" and "Ben Fur". It had been a golden year for dogs on film, Rose said.

"This Cannes has seen a raging outbreak of dog-risma," Rose said, citing Jean-Luc Godard's real-life dog, Roxy Mieville, who stars in his film Adieu au Langage (Goodbye to Language) and Yves Saint Laurent's French Bulldog Moujik in Saint Laurent by director Bertrand Bonello.

The supporting role of Moujik takes a tragic turn as the dog consumes the party drugs intended for his master and dies.

In another canine cameo, a fuzzy English sheepdog appears in David Cronenberg's critique of Hollywood, Maps to the Stars and is accidentally shot by a teenage movie star.

"It was the biggest and best range of dog performances I think I've ever known," Rose told Reuters TV.

But in terms of the number of canines on screen at any one time, Feher Isten takes the biscuit.

In its opening scene, a pack of 250 barking dogs, none of them created by computer simulation, chase after the protagonist, barking and snarling.

Most of the dogs used in the film were rescued in real life from an animal shelter, then adopted by cast members and friends after the shoot.

Although Body was not on hand to accept the award, director Mundruczo accepted the stuffed bone prize on his behalf, saying it was an "uplifting" experience working with his canine stars.

"They live in Los Angeles," he said of Body and Luc, promising to send the bone to their trainer. – Reuters

'KL Gangster' franchise hits the mark again

Posted: 23 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Syafiq Yusof proves his mettle once more as the KL Gangster franchise spreads its wings to Stephen Chow-like comic heights.

IN 2012 the whole country was abuzz with the release of SAM, the debut film from director Syafiq Yusof, who was all of 18 at the time and was officially named Malaysia's youngest feature film director in the Malaysia Book Of Records.

SAM did not exactly set the box office alight but it made many people sit up and take notice of Syafiq's natural directing talents.

The son of Datuk Yusof Haslam and younger brother of Syamsul Yusof, who set box-office records with their films Sembilu II and KL Gangster respectively, Syafiq did not stop at just writing and directing the film.

He also handled the editing, sound design and even some of the CGI and visual effects himself.

From a debut that saw him venture into the difficult psychological thriller genre, observers thought he would follow it up with something just as adventurous. Imagine the surprise, then, when his second film turned out to be a spinoff from his brother's successful KL Gangster franchise – the action spoof Abang Long Fadil.

Starring comedian Zizan Razak, continuing his role as the comic sidekick Fadil from the KL Gangster movies, the movie takes place after the events of KL Gangster 2 (which was technically a prequel to KL Gangster) and tells the story of Fadil's life after his best friend Malik (Aaron Aziz) is sent to prison.

Director Syafiq Yusof (with camera) setting up a shot for the movie.

Director Syafiq Yusof (with camera) setting up a shot for the movie.

 

Wanting to quit the gang, he is told to conquer the unconquerable Kampung Berani and deliver it to lead gangster Shark (Syamsul Yusof) before he will be allowed to leave. Fans of Stephen Chow's comic masterpiece Kung Fu Hustle will, of course, see a kind of resemblance between the kung fu masters of that movie's Pigsty Alley and the silat warriors of Kampung Berani. A quick look at Abang Long Fadil's brilliantly hilarious opening scene will confirm Syafiq's debt to Chow's brand of Looney Tunes-inspired comic lunacy.

Syafiq confirms that he did watch many Stephen Chow films for reference, but he also watched movies with Indian superstar Rajnikanth to get just the right mix of over-the-top action and comedy.

"It's a privilege and also a big responsibility to be trusted with a franchise as big and successful as my brother Syamsul's KL Gangster, especially when I'm taking it into a totally different genre altogether. So I hope I did Syamsul proud with this film," Syafiq said after the premiere of the film earlier this week.

To this, Syamsul replied: "Every filmmaker has his own style of shooting and cutting, so of course I had a different Abang Long Fadil playing in my head when I first thought of how the film would turn out. But I love what Syafiq has come out with, especially how he turned it into something really comic."

Even his dad was beaming with pride at the final result.

The journey was quite a tough one, though. Costing RM3.2 million and taking 53 days to shoot – a long time compared to the average Malaysian film's 20- to 30-day shoot – the film also boasts plenty of CGI and visual effects to boost its many neatly choreographed fight scenes to even greater heights of humour.

With a keen interest in visual effects ever since his days of making short films, Syafiq has now taken it a step further by forming his own visual effects company, Viper Studios, which handles all the CGI in the film.

Effects aside, the big question is still whether or not the film is entertaining and funny. Syafiq is savvy enough to recognise this fact by explicitly stating that unlike SAM, this movie was not made to challenge the audience with anything heavy.

His intention was to entertain the audience with something light and funny. Judging from the film's many inspired scenes of comic mayhem and the copious amounts of laughter heard throughout the premiere screening, it is indeed "mission accomplished" for the young filmmaker.

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New way to beat the haze

Posted: 26 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

PEOPLE here will have a new, relatively inexpensive way to protect themselves at home if haze returns, as feared in the next few months.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have come up with a new indoor filtration system that can dramatically reduce levels of small toxic particles called PM2.5.

High concentrations of the particles can cause eye and lung irritation in the short term, and could lead to lung and bladder cancer if inhaled over long periods.

The system – which consists of a filter and cover fitted over a fan – can also reduce volatile organic compounds associated with the smell of haze.

The Faculty of Engineering researchers said the system has been tested in homes, offices and hotels.

They even tested it in severe haze conditions, taking it to a classroom in Pekanbaru in Riau, Indonesia in February.

The classroom's PM2.5 level was nine times above the World Health Organisation (WHO) safe limit.

The system reduced the PM2.5 level by about 60% after 90 minutes, and would have lowered it to a safe level in about two hours and fifteen minutes, they said.

Typically, the system can reduce PM2.5 concentrations in a room by up to 85% within 30 to 60 minutes, said the researchers.

"Our goal is to provide everyone in Singapore with affordable protection against PM2.5 exposure at a fraction of the price of a regular air-purifier," said Associate Professor Jeff Obbard, of the university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said this year's haze could be even worse than last year's pollution.

This is partly due to the El Nino weather phenomenon – linked to droughts in South-East Asia – that is expected to hit in the second half of the year.

Different versions of the system will be sold online from tomorrow, with delivery from the middle of next month.

Prices start from S$150 (RM383) for a fan, filter and cover package.

Face masks will be sold eventually, and there are plans to sell the products at convenience stores.

Customers can retrofit their own fans for S$50 (RM127), but the filter and cover sets will be available only for fans with 18-inch frames, for a start.

Disposable replacement filters will cost S$30 (RM76) or less each.

During a haze crisis, the filters may have to be changed about once a week. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Filipinos drop independence celebration plan after abuse

Posted: 26 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Organisers of a Philippine independence celebration have dropped plans to hold it in a busy Singapore shopping district, police said, after an abusive campaign by online commentators opposed to the venue.

The Philippines marks its 116th year of independence on June 12 and a group of Filipino residents in the city-state had initially planned a commemoration event on June 8 for compatriots and Singaporeans at a shopping complex along the busy Orchard Road shopping belt.

Police said organisers, the Pilipino Independence Day Council 2014 (PIDC), had withdrawn their application to hold the event at the Ngee Ann City shopping complex.

"This follows police's advice that there are public order and safety concerns with the venue proposed by PIDC," police said.

It said the organisers had been advised to hold the event at alternative locations, including a free speech park and a convention centre.

Organisers did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they would go ahead with the event at a different location. — AFP

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The Star Online: Lifestyle: Bookshelf

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A World Without Princes (The School For Good And Evil #2)

Posted: 24 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Fairy tales continue to be turned upside down and inside out in this superb follow-up to last year's bestselling young adult fiction novel.

WHAT comes after you reach your happily ever after?

This is the question that kicks off Soman Chainani's sequel to his bestselling young adult (YA) novel, The School For Good And Evil (SGE). The first book brilliantly overturned fairytale tropes by setting its story in a school where children are divided into Evers and Nevers, where they train to become fairytale heroes and villains respectively, each pre-destined for a happy ending (or spectacular defeat). Best friends Agatha and Sophie, however, find their own happy ending at the close of SGE, one that no one saw coming, thanks to a crucial decision that Agatha makes.

A World Without Princes (WWP) throws us back into the thrilling world of the first book, but with one crucial difference: instead of good warring against evil, the fight is now between females and males! It turns out that when Agatha chose best friend Sophie over potential true love Tedros, she shook the very foundations of the fairytale world – because once princesses and witches everywhere realised there was no need to have a prince to be happy, they gave up battling each other and became friends instead.

What's more, they've booted the men out so they can make their own choices free of pesky male influences. The men do not take kindly to this, of course, and have now made females their sworn enemies.

The best thing about SGE was Chainani's ability to marry satire and laugh-out-loud humour with intense drama and thought-provoking subtexts, not to mention the clever ways in which he subverted familiar fairytale elements.

WWP manages to top that high standard thanks to its darker setting overall. Sophie and Agatha, are more more adult and much more conflicted not just about themselves, but their friendship. And Tedros is no longer the noble, desirable prince of old, but rather, a bitter, brokenhearted young man. And into this mix is thrown a new villain who has no qualms fanning the flames of the gender war to exploit the tensions.

As he did in SGE, Chainani enjoys venturing into the grey areas of life. Where SGE was about blurring the lines between good and evil, WWP questions pre-conceived notions about boys and girls, and their relationships with each other.

This is most apparent in Sophie. While SGE was focused more or less equally on both girls, WWP is very much about Sophie and her struggle to be worthy of Agatha's friendship by conquering her own demons. As spoilt and selfish as Sophie can be, there is something heartbreaking about how hard she tries and how often she is misunderstood.

The story cleverly weaves this in with Agatha's own dilemma of having to choose between friendship and love, and unlike most YA novels, Chainani refuses to provide a neat solution, preferring instead to keep things more complicatedly real.

His writing is rich and frenetic, with a multitude of fascinating characters and the plot whirling from one event to another. Yet the reader is never left behind, and the real emotions underlying the fantastical events keep us connected, all the way to the shocking end.

With a third book slated to complete the SGE trilogy, WWP is an excellent follow-up to Chainani's debut, doing what all good second books in a trilogy should do: being a great read on its own and yet also leaving the reader hungering for more.

Related story:

Here's an interview The Star recently did with author Soman ChainaniTeller of tales.

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Yoon Pooi Kong: Man of taste

Posted: 24 May 2014 09:00 AM PDT

Dr Yoon Pooi Kong is an unsung collector in the world of local art.

THERE is nothing that smells better than a treasured art collection. Just ask scientist Dr Yoon Pooi Kong. He can boast an art collection – mostly from the 1960s to the 1980s – that has such a musky reverence.

As Dr Yoon regaled us about how he came to build his collection in the talk, A Scientist's Funny Walk In The World Of Art, at the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday, it was evident that Dr Yoon is a quiet squirrel type. The talk was followed by a mini exhibition – a sampling – of the works in his collection.

"I collect paintings, not 'names'," he mentioned during his talk which was well-attended by art enthusiasts and students.

Dr Yoon, who is also the chairman of MIA's board of directors, revealed that he collected what he liked and could afford. For someone ingrained in the cold hard facts and scientific truths, Dr Yoon finds himself lulled into the dalliance of lines, dots, drips and quirkiness. And gorgeous colours.

He has been a scientist and researcher for more than 30 years, but art collecting has been a major part of his life.

When he started his collection, Dr Yoon recalled steering away from the big "names". Yet, by "happy coincidences" through the years, he managed to own some of the big names in local art.

The politics of art prices these days is something that amuses him. Back then he chose to build his collection wisely by getting to the heart of the art community.

Ibrahim Hussein's 'Pohon Dan Mentari', 1982, acrylic on paper.

Ibrahim Hussein's Pohon Dan Mentari, 1982, acrylic on paper.

 

It's strange that Dr Yoon was not even a blip on the radar of collectors during those golden days of art collecting.

Most people would be more familiar with pioneering collectors here like Tan Sri P.G. Lim, Zain Azahari, Datuk Kington Loo, Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, Tan Sri Kamarul Ariffin – to name a few. Yet, Dr Yoon has a collection that truly stands out.

He has works by Chen Wen Hsi, Chung Chen Sun, Li Chi Mao, Ding Yang Yong (dubbed the Oriental Matisse), Yong Mun Sen, David Kwo Da-Wei, Datuk Ibrahim Hussein, Laxman Pai and even two small surrealist-bent drawings (19.5cm x 17cm) by Zulkifli Dahalan.

Dr Yoon was with the Rubber Research Institute Malaysia for 36 years. He retired in 1993. The 76-year-old is also a consultant to the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organisation (United Nations) and European Union. He has been on the MIA board of directors since 1978 and is its current chairman.

What is perhaps most noteworthy about Dr Yoon's collection in the early decades is the provenance.

As works from back then are difficult to authenticate now (because of the lack of records), Dr Yoon's direct acquisition from reputable dealers and galleries, and from the artists, some of whom have become firm friends, gave these works credence.

But he also has a good eye, probably aided by a scientific intellect. He has some of the best Chung Chen Sun and Chen Wen Hsi pieces in a private collection. They include one "restored and revitalised" work from Chung Chen Sun and a multi-coloured Cubistic rendition of ducks by Chen Wen Hsi, apart from an auspicious scroll of nine gibbons (133cm x 60cm).

By picking unusual works from the artists (rather than what they were famous for), Dr Yoon must have struck a chord with them.

Probably feeling that Dr Yoon's collection was incomplete, Singapore's pioneer artist Chen Wen Hsi presented him an inimitable work of his gibbons.

Chen Wen Hsi's 'Nine Gibbons', undated. Ink on rice paper. This piece is one of Dr Yoon Pooi Kong's prized pieces in his art collection.

Chen Wen Hsi's Nine Gibbons, undated. Ink on rice paper. This piece is one of Dr Yoon Pooi Kong's prized pieces in his art collection.

 

Dr Yoon remembers visiting Chen Wen Hsi at his Singapore shoplot at the Tanglin Shopping Centre regularly after being introduced by Chung Chen Sun. Chen Wen Hsi was the most technically accomplished of the Singaporean pioneers. He was known for his avant garde Chinese ink and brush paintings and the seminal Nanyang Style.

Elsewhere, David Kwo Da-Wei, a Beijing-born artist, who had spent his retirement years in Singapore, is also another major name in Dr Yoon's collection.

Dr Yoon obtained Kwo's black cat Kim during the artist's second visit to Kuala Lumpur in 1984 (his first being 1981).

Kwo, trained by the great Chinese master Qi Bai-shi, was a Singapore permanent resident when he died in the United States. Ten days before Kwo died in August 2003, he wrote to the Singapore Lee Kong Chian Art Museum, informing it that he was donating 105 of his works to the museum.

Dr Yoon also owns a special collaboration between Li Chi Mao and Chung Chen Sun. In this piece, Li Chi Mao shows himself as a mendicant figure with a brush in hand but without shoes (stolen outside the house) while Chung Chen Sun delights with his block figure types.

Some of the prices of the art work he obtained in the early years, as revealed by Dr Yoon, would seem totally unbelievable these days.

Dr Yoon acquired Chung Chen Sun's early Mother & Child (1964/1978, 101cm x 37cm) for only RM7, at the "fire sale" auction of the last collection of Australian-born, local art pioneer Frank Sullivan on May 20, 1978. It was a piece without a signature and part of the calligraphy was torn off. Dr Yoon won the bid after persuading Chung Chen Sun to back off at the auction. He had the work seamlessly restored, complete with the artist's seal. However, Dr Yoon's first Chung Chen Sun's work was The Proud Beggar (1975).

His Ibrahim Hussein art work was a small (39cm x 55cm) 1982 piece while the two drawings by Zulkifli Dahalan were finished just before the artist's untimely death.

Dr Yoon has shown a distinct bias for Chinese brush paintings, with the finest selections from both sides of the causeway – Chung Chen Sun, Chen Wen Hsi, Le Chek Wen (1934-88, a classmate of Chung at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Art and a highly innovative artist), Chong Buck Tee and Singaporean Foo Chee San.

He also had coveted art pieces by Tew Nai Tong (1938-2013), who lectured at the MIA between 1969 to 1980, and a batik each by the great Seah Kim Joo and Phoon Poh Wai, both now Singaporeans. He was fortunate to acquire works from Kuo Ju-Ping (1908-62) and the Lingnan masters Gao Jian-Fu (1879-1951) and Ou Hao Nien – all bought for a snip from art sales here.

Other notable highlights from his collection include pieces by the Belgian Robert Delange, Paris-born Madeleine Enright, Greece-born Australian Alkis Astras and anthropologist-artist Max Liu Qi Wei.

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The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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Synth-pop duo La Roux to drop new album in July

Posted: 26 May 2014 02:30 AM PDT

The British group is set to release Trouble In Paradise.

Five years after presenting its massively successful self-titled album, La Roux is returning this summer with Trouble In Paradise. The British synthpop project founded by Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid took the music scene by storm in 2009 with the hit singles In For The Kill and Bulletproof.

Let Me Down Gently, the first single from Trouble In Paradise, is now available online. La Roux has a number of concerts lined up this summer, including several dates in the US and Canada in June.

The British band's debut album, simply titled La Roux, went triple platinum in Britain. Hailed by the English press as one of the best artists of 2009, La Roux won the Grammy Award for the best electronic/dance album of the year.

Tracklisting:

1. Uptight Downtown

2. Kiss And Not Tell

3. Cruel Sexuality

4. Paradise Is You

5. Sexotheque

6. Tropical Chancer

7. Silent Partner

8. Let Me Down Gently

9. The Feeling — AFP Relaxnews

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The Star Online: Metro: South & East

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Thai king appoints army chief as junta head

Posted: 25 May 2014 10:04 PM PDT

BANGKOK: Thailand's king has formally appointed the army chief as head of the nation's new military junta following a recent coup in the strife-torn nation.

"To restore peace and order in the country and for sake of unity, the king appointed General Prayut Chan-O-Cha as head of the National Council of Peace and Order to run the country," according to a royal command seen by AFP on Monday.

It said Prayut had warned the palace that violence in Bangkok and other parts of the country was likely to spread and may "jeopardise national security".

Prayut, who assumed extensive powers over the Southeast Asian nation since seizing power last week, was endorsed as regime leader at a ceremony in Bangkok on Monday.

"I gave my oath that I will perform my duty with honesty," the commander-in-chief told reporters afterwards.

"We hope that the problems will be solved soon so we can return to the right democratic system," he added.

The monarchy headed by the revered but ailing King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 86, commands great respect among many Thais.

His blessing has traditionally been a key step in legitimising the recurring military takeovers that have taken place in Thailand, which has now seen 19 actual or attempted coups since 1932.

The king, who is yet to make a public statement on the coup, was not believed to have been present for the closed-door ceremony. -AFP

Australian senator brings 'bomb' to parliament

Posted: 25 May 2014 09:29 PM PDT

SYDNEY: A long-standing Australian senator on Monday brought what he said could be a pipe bomb to the national parliament to demonstrate his view that new security regulations are unsafe.

Senator Bill Heffernan, a member of the ruling conservative Liberal Party, held up the pipe and what appeared to be some sticks of dynamite during a committee hearing in Canberra.

"Clearly you can do what you bloody well like," said Heffernan, an outspoken former farmer who became a member of the national parliament in 1996.

Heffernan said until now most people working in parliament felt safe, but that new rules being trialled put this at risk by allowing some people with passes, including politicians, and their belongings to no longer be scanned on entry.

"I don't think it any longer is (safe) and to demonstrate that, this morning I brought in what could be, I brought this through security - a pipe bomb," he said placing the pipe on his desk, before pulling what were reportedly fake sticks of dynamite from a plastic shopping bag.

Heffernan said when he was a child, people used a combination of ammonium nitrate, distillate and gelignite and a detonator to fell trees.

"You would blow a tree the size of this building out of the ground," he said.

"At the present time there is nothing to stop anyone from bringing in those ingredients in here over a period of time through security."

Australian Federal Police commissioner Tony Negus, who was appearing before the committee, agreed.

"Under the current arrangements, that is a risk," he said.

Negus later revealed that Heffernan had shown him the objects before the hearing and he was satisfied they were inert, adding that this was why security officers had not responded when they were produced.

The security changes introduced this month mean that those with photographic ID cards issued by the government are not screened with metal detectors or X-rays at private entry points, reports said.

Department of Parliamentary Services secretary Carol Mills told the Canberra Times that parliament still had higher security screening than state parliaments and most government offices in the nation's capital. -AFP

Tiananmen protest leader haunted by ghosts, 25 years on

Posted: 25 May 2014 09:25 PM PDT

TAIPEI: A quarter of a century after Communist authorities crushed the Tiananmen Square demonstrators and their hopes of reform, protest leader Wuer Kaixi still lies awake at night, haunted by the dead and their unrealised dreams.

Students rallying for democracy and freedom had filled the symbolic heart of Chinese power with euphoria, drawing in workers and intellectuals and inspiring protests around the country.

But after seven weeks in the square their aspirations were abruptly shattered by an overnight military crackdown that ended on June 4, 1989, leaving hundreds of people dead - by some estimates, more than 1,000 - and a ruling party hell-bent on preventing any future such challenges to its power.

"During the time it did seem quite promising that the Chinese authorities may yield, may actually answer to our call for Chinese political reform," said Wuer, then a charismatic 21-year-old activist, who became number two on the government's most-wanted list of student leaders.

"I think at the beginning (of the killings) everybody was in a state of shock. So was I," he told AFP at a university in Taiwan, his adopted home.

The movement, fuelled by frustration from years of economic upheaval, gathered pace in mid-April as public mourning for the reform-minded former party chief Hu Yaobang morphed into calls for political change and curbs on corruption.

Students began to pour into Tiananmen Square. Thousands later went on hunger strike and eventually erected a Goddess of Democracy resembling New York's Statue of Liberty facing the portrait of Mao Zedong hanging on the wall of the Forbidden City.

During a meeting between student leaders and politicians broadcast live on state television, Wuer publicly interrupted the hardline then-premier Li Peng, becoming an overnight celebrity.

"We apply pressure and we are hoping for the regime to make a positive choice," he said.

"The choice for them was also clear, they could dialogue and by doing so they would certainly be able to maintain a leading position in the Chinese further political development," he said.

"But instead they decided to take another choice - military crackdown."

'Bullets flying'

The protests came under the global spotlight as foreign reporters flocked to Beijing to cover a May 15 visit by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev - a historic event that was quickly overtaken by domestic turmoil.

China's Communist leaders were split over how to respond, with moderates led by party general secretary Zhao Ziyang eventually losing.

Zhao last appeared in public on May 19, pleading tearfully on the square for the students to go home before being ousted and confined under house arrest until his death in 2005.

Hardliners, among them China's supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, took charge, branded the protest a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" and declared martial law.

For two weeks they were unable to take control of the square, until the People's Liberation Army moved in to clear it on the night of June 3-4 while soldiers flanked by tanks opened fire elsewhere. Fighting broke out with students who defended themselves with sticks and makeshift weapons.

"The bullets flying above your head, that is something you would never have learned in any movies or in any of the literature, until it actually happens in your life," Wuer said.

Authorities hunted down protest leaders, imprisoning many even as sympathisers in Hong Kong mobilised to smuggle students out and Western governments offered asylum.

"Wherever I go the people of China supported and helped us, helped me to escape. I managed to go all the way to the border, to the south," Wuer said, and supporters in Hong Kong helped him escape.

For years China remained an international pariah hamstrung by sanctions.

But as it has built its economy into the world's second largest, most other countries have embraced it, with many softening their criticism of rights abuses to avoid upsetting their giant trade partner.

The crackdown remains a strict taboo inside China, erased from textbooks, the media and Internet, leaving younger generations largely unaware of the nature of the momentous event.

'I cannot make peace'

In the beginning of his exile Wuer experienced sadness and misery, he said, "but then of course it's a situation that we have to endure".

The dynamic and eloquent activist went on to enjoy a career in finance and a role as a political commentator in Taiwan.

Yet the legacy of Tiananmen still haunts him - failing to see political change in his homeland, surviving when fellow protestors did not, living in exile from his country and family.

He has tried unsuccessfully to return to the mainland to visit his ageing parents, both Uighur intellectuals.

"It's a sad fact, sad fact for this person, for my family, but it's also a very sad fact for China," he said.

He is kept awake by the fact that many of his fellow students and protestors died that night, he told AFP.

"I cannot make peace with the fact that I am in exile, I cannot make peace with the fact that I am being bullied by one of the biggest, most powerful totalitarian regimes," he said.

"I cannot make peace with the fact that I am a survivor of a massacre, I cannot make peace with that guilt, with that sense of mission." -AFP

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