Sabtu, 18 Jun 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports


Sagan takes his second stage in Swiss tour

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 08:42 AM PDT

Sagan celebrates after winning the eighth stage of Tour de Suisse today. — Reuters pic

SCHAFFHOUSE, June 18 — Slovakia's Peter Sagan took his second stage win of the 2011 Tour of Switzerland today, while Italy's Damiano Cunego remained in the overall lead.

Second behind Sagan in the sprint of around 30 riders that decided the 167-km eighth stage from Tubach was Australia's Matt Goss, with Britain's Ben Swift third.

The leading group of some 30 riders, including race leader Cunego, sheered off the front of the pack on a third-category climb with around 25 kms to go.

The race finishes tomorrow with a 32.5-km individual time trial in Schaffhouse. — Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Donald and Karlsson cut it fine at Congressional US Open

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 08:05 AM PDT

BETHESDA, June 18 — British world number one Luke Donald and a mightily relieved Robert Karlsson of Sweden made the US Open cut with no margin to spare today as five former champions failed to advance.

Twenty-one players were still on the course when play was halted in fading light Friday and by the time they finished on an overcast Saturday morning at Congressional, the cut fell at four-over-par 146 with 72 players qualifying for weekend play.

Englishman Donald (picture) made it right on the number after shooting scores of 74 and 72, as did Karlsson who rebounded from an opening 79 with a six-birdie 67.

However, former winners Ernie Els (1994 and 1997), Jim Furyk (2003), Michael Campbell (2005), Geoff Ogilvy (2006) and Angel Cabrera (2007) all missed out.

"I struggled on the back nine both days and that comes down to not hitting enough fairways and not hitting enough greens," Donald told reporters. "I hit 50 per cent of fairways this week and you are always going to struggle on a course like this.

"I've got to find something on the weekend and shoot a couple of good rounds and see what happens. Rory (McIlroy) is well ahead but you keep fighting and see what you can do."

Donald trailed fellow Briton McIlroy by a distant 15 shots, the 22-year-old Northern Irishman having brought Congressional to its knees with scintillating scores of 65 and 66 for a US Open record total of 11-under 131.

Karlsson, who was beaten by American Harrison Frazar in a playoff for last week's St. Jude Classic, progressed to the third round after recording three birdies in his last seven holes.

"I just really wanted to go out and take it like a practice round because you can't ever practise playing these kinds of golf courses," the 1.95 m Swede said.

"When I holed a good par putt on 11, I was six-over then and going to seven-over with seven holes to play would not have been much help. That was a good par save."

United States Ryder Cup players Hunter Mahan and Rickie Fowler, 2009 British Open champion Stewart Cink and Britons Ian Poulter and Justin Rose were also among those who failed to advance. — Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.
Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz


Katy Perry tops Facebook chart thanks to ‘Last Friday Night’

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 07:50 AM PDT

A video screenshot of Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). Katy Perry's latest single 'Last Friday Night' has propelled the artist up the Facebook charts. – Photo ©2011 YouTube, LLC

LOS ANGELES, June 18 – Pop star Katy Perry has amassed over a million new Facebook fans over the past week, more than any other Facebook page, according to Famecount.

This massive increase in fans is most likely due to the release of her new single "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)," the video of which has attracted over 15 million views since June 12.

The video for Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)" is available to watch via Perry's Facebook page, but fans must first "like" the page before playing the video – something which undoubtedly contributed to the artist's 1,233,503 new Facebook fans over the seven days prior to June 17.

According to data from social network monitoring site Famecount the increase of fans of Katy Perry's Facebook page was more than any other Facebook page over the past seven days.

In total, Californian born Katy Perry now has 29,319,125 Facebook fans and is currently the eighth most popular musician on Facebook.

However, in terms of total fans, Katy Perry still has a long way to go before catching up with the three biggest Facebook musical stars – Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Eminem.

Rihanna and Lady Gaga currently both have over 38 million fans with Gaga slightly ahead, while Eminem has over 40 million fans and is currently the most "liked" person, living or dead, on the social networking site. – AFP

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Prague to host world premiere of Vivaldi’s lost opera

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 02:22 AM PDT

As the festival venue, organisers have chosen the Ledebour Garden at the foot of the Prague Castle. – shutterstock.com

PRAGUE, June 18 – A Prague festival will host the world premiere of Antonio Vivaldi's opera L'Unione della Pace, e di Marte, following its reconstruction by a Czech expert 284 years after its only performance.

"It's a specific genre of Baroque opera, shorter, which is called 'la serenata' and which was composed for a specific occasion at that time," conductor, composer and harpsichord player Ondrej Macek said.

Vivaldi (1678-1741) composed the serenata L'Union della Pace, e di Marte (Union of Peace with Mars) for the birth of French King Louis XV's first children, twin sisters Louise Elisabeth and Anne Henriette.

"Ordered by the French ambassador to Venice, the work was performed only once, in mid-September 1727, in the open air, in a garden adjacent to the church of Madonna dell'Orto in Venice," said Macek.

The complete libretto, containing notes on the birth of the twins in August 1727, and on the political situation of that time, has been preserved in the National Braidense Library in Milan.

But the score disappeared altogether, and had to be reconstructed on the basis of tunes from Vivaldi's other operas.

"When I was reading the libretto for the first time, I could already see that many songs look familiar to me," said Macek, who in 2008 discovered and then reconstructed a major part of Vivaldi's lost opera Argippo which had premiered in Prague in 1730.

"As the composer did not have too much time to create this serenata for that sole performance, he logically used themes from his other operas," he added.

"At that time, it was a usual and legitimate method of composition, especially in Italy," said the 39-year-old expert on Baroque music.

The international ensemble Hof-Musici, led by Macek himself, will perform L'Unione della Pace, e di Marte several times within the Prague Baroque Festival starting on June 17. The premiere is scheduled for July 4.

As the festival venue, organisers have chosen the Ledebour Garden at the foot of the Prague Castle – a picturesque example of gardening architecture of the early 18th century. – AFP

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.
Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Features

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Features


Smithsonian to display remnants of Sept 11 attacks

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 07:07 AM PDT

Objects collected after the attacks will be displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. — Reuters file pic

NEW YORK, June 18 — When a hijacked aircraft smashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Lisa Lefler left behind her briefcase as she fled to safety from her office on the 103rd floor.

Fifty-six minutes later, 175 of Lefler's colleagues, as well as that briefcase, were entombed in the wreckage.

Lefler's briefcase, along with more than 50 objects collected after the attacks that claimed 3,000 lives, will be displayed September 3 to 11 at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, museum officials announced on Thursday.

"Ten years later, we will share some of those objects in a personal setting, providing an opportunity for visitors to speak with museum staff and to have a place to remember and reflect on what it means to be an American today," Brent D. Glass, the director of the museum, said in a statement.

Visitors to the collection, amassed by the museum in 2002 after Congress designated it the official repository, will see airplane fragments, a wall map from the Pentagon, a mangled fire truck door, as well as photographs and documents.

The objects were collected from the three attack crash sites — the Pentagon, the World Trade Center and a field in western Pennsylvania. They will be preserved permanently at the museum so future generations can "comprehend the horrific events, their roots and their long-term consequences," according to information from the museum.

The collection, "September 11: Remembrance and Reflection," will also feature video footage and presentations by the directors of various September 11 memorials. The museum's September 11 collection may be viewed here. — Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Some Saudi women challenge drive ban

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 02:18 AM PDT

Some Saudi women have posted accounts and pictures of themselves behind the wheel. — Reuters pic

JEDDAH, June 18 — Some Saudi women appeared to have answered a call over social media to challenge a ban on driving, posting accounts and pictures of themselves behind the wheel in the conservative Arab kingdom.

Groups, such as "Women2Drive" and "Women's Right to Drive in KSA," had called for a day of defiance, drawing more than 15,000 supporters on various Facebook groups.

"I drove with my husband, and a policeman stopped me and gave me a ticket, which stated that I was driving without a license," Maha al-Gahtani, a resident of Riyadh, posted on Twitter along with a picture of a traffic ticket with her name.

"I was disappointed that I didn't see any other women drivers," she said. "I did it to get my rights."

Besides a ban on driving, women in Saudi Arabia must have written approval from a male guardian — a father, husband, brother or son — to leave the country, work or even undergo certain medical operations.

Saudi Arabia is ruled by an absolute monarchy which applies an austere version of Sunni Islam. Religious police patrol the streets to ensure public segregation between men and women.

Saudi women are banned from driving. — Reuters pic

Two women, Shaima Osama and Manal Alsharif, were recently arrested for defying the driving ban, inspired by challenges to authority across the Arab world.

"I drove around my neighbourhood with dad for 20 minutes," Dima Ikhwan posted on her Twitter page yesterday.

One woman in Riyadh posted a video on YouTube showing herself driving soon after midnight, face veiled as she drove to a local supermarket undetected by police.

Reuters could not verify the women's accounts and it was not possible to verify how many women had defied the ban.

Alsharif's arrest last month after she posted a video on YouTube of herself driving appeared to have deterred other women. Released after 10 days in detention, Alsharif distanced herself from the campaign, saying the issue of women driving was best left to the authorities to handle.

"When Alsharif's arrest happened many of the women were intimidated because they do not want to be arrested," said Mariam Alawi, a Jeddah resident with a driving license from the United States who chose not participate in the campaign.

"I think the campaign to defy the driving ban will hinder the process of legalising women driving in Saudi Arabia because it will just provoke the authorities," Alawi said.

Activist Wajiha al-Huweider argued, however, that the movement would gain steam as more women defy the ban.

"It is not a one-day thing or a demonstration, it is the first day of a movement that will continue until we see a new law to allow women to drive," Huweider said. "Maybe we will see more women in the coming days." — Reuters

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.
Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Bahasa


Bersih: Komen Rais kaitkan serangan siber tak masuk akal, kata Ambiga

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 01:53 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 Jun – Pengerusi Bersih 2.0 Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan menyangkal dakwaan Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim sambil menafikan sebarang kaitan penganjuran Himpunan Bersih 2.0 dengan siri serangan siber ke atas laman web kerajaan dan swasta sejak Selasa lalu.

"Ia sangat tidak berasas, tidak munasabah dan tidak masuk akal bagi seorang anggota Kabinet membuat dakwaan ini, yang seharusnya lebih menyedari daripada membuat dakwaan liar seperti itu," kata Ambiga (gambar) kepada The Malaysian Insider.

Justeru kata beliau, komen Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi dan Kebudayaan itu bukan sahaja tidak adil kepada Bersih 2.0 tetapi juga ke atas rakyat Malaysia yang mempunyai hak berperlembagaan untuk berhimpun secara aman.

 "Saya sangat terkejut dengan (kenyataan) meracau beberapa anggota pentadbiran terhadap Bersih 2.0 dan usaha-usaha mereka memperlekehkan Bersih dan saya melihat komen Rais Yatim ini salah satu daripadanya.

"Saya melihat yang ini satu serangan ke atas orang ramai dan adalah sesuatu yang memalukan bagi mereka memilih (cara) ini daripada mendengar (suara) rakyat," kata bekas presiden Majlis Peguam ini.

Semalam, Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi dan Kebudayaan Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim percaya serangan penggodam ke atas laman-laman web sejak Selasa lalu ada kaitan dengan Himpunan Bersih 2.0 di Kuala Lumpur, Sabah dan Sarawak 9 Julai ini, serta dilihat sebagai satu perbuatan tidak patriotik kepada negara.

Kata Rais, beliau juga percaya tindakan itu bermotifkan politik dan bertujuan cuba melakukan sabotaj ke atas kerajaan.

Sebanyak 198 laman web rasmi kerajaan telah digodam dengan 90 peratus penggodamnya dari dalam negara, kata Rais.

Dalam satu kenyataan awal hari ini, Dewan Pemuda PAS pusat mencabar pentadbiran Najib membuktikan "fitnah" anggota Kabinetnya, yang semalam mendakwa serangan siber ke atas laman web kerajaan dan agensinya baru-baru ini, ada kaitan dengan Himpunan Bersih 2.0.

Menegaskan pendirian mereka, Ketua Penerangan Pemuda PAS pusat Riduan Mohd Nor berkata, pihaknya kesal dengan sikap tidak bertanggungjawab Rais, didakwa menyalahgunakan kuasa beliau sebagai anggota jemaah menteri dengan menyebarkan fitnah berasaskan andaian semata-mata.

Dalam pendiriannya hari ini, Ambiga juga mengecam reaksi melampau pihak-pihak tertentu terhadap Himpunan Bersih 2.0 dan menasihatkan Putrajaya agar memikirkan semula pendekatan mereka terhadap masyarakat madani.

Tambah beliau, pentadbiran Najib seharusnya belajar daripada kerajaan Singapura yang melahirkan pendirian sanggup mendengar suara rakyat selepas pilihan raya umum baru-baru ini.

"Apa yang Bersih mahukan ialah standard tinggi pilihan raya. Kami mahukan pilihan raya bersih. Sekarang, adakah sesuatu sangat melampau untuk meminta perkara itu?" kata Ambiga.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

Putrajaya tak gentar ancaman penggodam

Posted: 18 Jun 2011 01:21 AM PDT

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 Jun – Pentadbiran Najib tidak gentar dengan ancaman kumpulan penggodam yang menyerang 198 laman web tempatan termasuk portal rasmi kerajaan sejak lima hari lalu, kata Menteri Penerangan, Komunikasi dan Kebudayaan Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim berkata Malaysia sebagai negara berdemokrasi mempunyai undang-undang untuk menghukum mereka yang melakukan perbuatan itu.

Dipetik Bernama Online, Rais memberi jaminan siasatan serangan oleh kumpulan penggodam yang bergelar 'Anonymous' itu akan diketahui dalam masa terdekat selepas pihak yang berkaitan mengenal pasti mereka yang terbabit dalam kejadian itu.

"Dalam perkiraan kita, mereka tidak menang dan kita tidak perlu takut kepada gertak dari dalaman mahupun luar tanah air," katanya di Rawang dekat sini hari ini.

Menurutnya, serangan penggodam itu tidak merebak dengan meluas kerana hanya sebahagian laman web rasmi kerajaan mahupun swasta mengalami kerosakan dan tidak mengakibatkan kelumpuhan terhadap keseluruhan sistem laman web yang digodam.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.
Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

0 ulasan
Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info
Sumber Asal Berita :-

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion


McLeish’s murky managerial manoeuvrings

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 04:25 PM PDT

JUNE 18 — The story dominating English football's off-season this week has been Alex McLeish's unexpected managerial move from Birmingham City to cross-city rivals Aston Villa, and it's a saga that none of the protagonists come out of particularly well.

Despite being the victims, Birmingham have managed to portray themselves in a less than flattering light by reacting in a rather petulant manner.

Openly disclosing the terms of McLeish's contract and directly accusing Villa of "tapping up" the Scotsman was unnecessary, and probably served to diminish the weight of public sympathy that initially went in their direction.

Even so, there has to be a likelihood that Villa have acted improperly. Clubs are not allowed to make contact with players or managers under contract elsewhere, and there's something more than suspicious about the fact that McLeish was correctly linked with the Villa vacancy immediately after his sudden and unexpected resignation from Birmingham.

Villa are widely regarded as one of the most professional, scrupulous clubs in the country — they earned lavish praise from Wigan chairman Dave Whelan for their conduct during their unsuccessful courting of Latics manager Roberto Martinez — but on this occasion it's difficult to escape the conclusion that Villa discretely approached McLeish (i.e. "tapped him up") while he was still under employment at St Andrews.

So neither club has covered themselves in glory, and McLeish's decision to defect from Birmingham for their most bitter local rivals, less than a month after he was given a vote of confidence despite leading his team to relegation, is symptomatic of the lack of loyalty that currently characterises professional sport.

That doesn't mean we should judge him too harshly — virtually every manager or player would have done exactly the same thing in the same situation — but the haste with which McLeish jumped ship illustrates the self-serving, greedy, unsentimental nature of contemporary sport.

Not just sport, in fact — the same can be said of contemporary society in general. Any employee in any profession would have little hesitation in accepting a better paid job with a more prestigious and successful rival organisation; such career promiscuity is in fact expected, to the extent that clauses prohibiting key staff from joining rivals are now commonplace.

It would be nice to think that, having taken Birmingham down, McLeish's desire to return immediately to the English Premier League would be outweighed by a moral obligation to put things right at Birmingham.

But that would be an unrealistic expectation in an age where self-promotion, avarice and naked ambition are constantly promoted as healthy personal virtues. (At least, that's the dominant mentality in the western world; perhaps things are different in Asia?).

In the current ethical environment, McLeish's decision to accept Villa's advances is a straightforward one: he has been given an opportunity to further his career by returning to the Premier League, taking charge of a prestigious club, and no doubt enjoying the additional benefit of a sizeable pay rise, and all without any upheaval to his personal life (joining another club in the same city obviously means he won't have to move house, for example).

Never mind the fact that, as manager, he has to bear a large amount of responsibility for Birmingham's relegation at the end of last season, and that he was perhaps fortunate to avoid the sack at the culmination of that unsuccessful campaign. He has been offered a good job, so he was always going to take it without looking back — that's just the modern way.

From Villa's perspective, it is a strange appointment. Owner Randy Lerner and his trusted CEO Paul Faulkner must have been impressed with what they saw when they observed McLeish at close quarters during his three-and-a-half year stint across the city, but going to such lengths to recruit a manager who has just been relegated is an unusual move.

It's not as though there were no other suitable candidates: Mark Hughes, Steve McClaren, Dave Jones, Alan Curbishley, Chris Hughton and Sam Allardyce are among the managers who were unattached at the end of the season and fitted Villa's criteria of managerial experience in the Premier League. They would also have been far easier to hire, in logistical terms, than poaching McLeish from their neighbours.

But these are hard times at Villa Park. Lerner is reluctant to pump more money into an organisation that is already costing him a fortune every year, and the new manager will probably be forced to sell players and show an increasing reliance on the club's impressive youth development system.

Lerner and Faulkner may well have concluded that the job needs a tough, thick-skinned personality with low budgetary expectations, who is happy to work with young players and is already battle hardened in the lower reaches of the Premier League. If that's the case, McLeish could well be the right man for the job, but he'll have to start well to win over Villa's disenchanted supporters.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.

The special position of Sabah and Sarawak

Posted: 17 Jun 2011 04:21 PM PDT

JUNE 18 — I must admit I used to be a typical "orang Semenanjung." I questioned why the people of Sabah and Sarawak insisted on doing things differently, and for having far more extensive powers than the states in Peninsular Malaysia.

This was before I ever set foot in those two states. Like many Peninsular Malaysians who have travelled across the world, those parts of my country remained a mystery to me. I first visited Sarawak for a party programme in October 2009 and Sabah in June 2010. Since then I have had the privilege of revisiting both states quite a number of times.

The "special powers" of Sabah and Sarawak are derived from the Malaysia Agreement that was signed in July 1963 by the British, Malayan, Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore governments that paved the way for the birth of the Federation of Malaysia. The Federal Parliament then duly made amendments to the Malayan Constitution to incorporate provisions from this treaty.

There were many clauses to the Agreement, but they included:

–  The control of entry and residence for non-Sabahans and non-Sarawakians

–  The protection of the legal profession in the state, whereby only lawyers who were residents of Sabah and Sarawak or fulfilled the residential requirements of the two states could practise law in Sabah and Sarawak

–  The continuance of the native courts system alongside the syariah courts in Sabah and Sarawak

–  Sabah and Sarawak would have other sources of revenue from the federal government, and they could charge their own sales tax

–  The chief ministers of Sabah and Sarawak were to be consulted on the appointment of the chief judge of the High Court of Sabah and Sarawak

Shad Saleem Faruqi describes the position of Sabah and Sarawak as similar to that of Quebec in Canada, Kashmir in India and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, in that they are accorded certain privileges not available to other states or regions in those country.

Thus, when Peninsular Malaysians wonder about why Sabah and Sarawak are different, we need to remember that these powers are just as important as the special position given to the Bumiputeras, Islam, Bahasa Malaysia and the Rulers. These "idiosyncrasies" are enshrined in the Constitution because of the historical consensus that gave birth to it.

Thus, as I pointed out in the Kaamatan events I attended in Penampang and Tuaran recently, as a Malaysian I have a duty to defend the special position of Sabah and Sarawak. It should not be the responsibility of East Malaysians alone, but that of all citizens who want to uphold the spirit of our Constitution.

It is the lack of respect (or even utter ignorance) for this principle that is a source of dissatisfaction for many Sabahans and Sarawakians. This is combined with the sad fact that the two states are far behind in developmental terms with enormous pockets of poverty despite their wealth of natural resources. Basic amenities that the rakyat in the peninsula take for granted such as water or electricity, are luxuries for many East Malaysians.

People in the Klang Valley complain about jammed highways and slow Internet connections. Some in Sabah and Sarawak, however, – even in the suburbs of the main cities and towns – have to make do with rainwater and generators, and their areas often lack decent roads and sanitation.

One feels that it would be wise for Peninsular Malaysians to discard the attitude that Putrajaya or peninsula knows best. There are many things that we can learn from our fellow citizens across the South China Sea — the fact that they are a far more diverse, multi-ethnic and multi-religious society living largely at peace with themselves is surely something that we can emulate back in the peninsula.

The biggest tragedy is that Sabah and Sarawak, which Barisan Nasional deems its "fixed deposits", continues to languish under its control. Indeed, if it was not because of the stranglehold that the ruling oligarchy exercises over the two Borneo states, BN would have lost the 2008 general election.

But things are changing in East Malaysia. The presence established by Pakatan Rakyat since the 2006 Sarawak state elections has grown into the further inroads at the 2008 and 2011 editions. Sabahans and Sarawakians have in those elections shown a desire for change.

Peninsular Malaysians who are eager for reform need to make Sabah and Sarawak our partners, not merely to get to Putrajaya but most importantly to make sure that this country lives up to the promises and ideals of its founding.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price.
Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com
 

Malaysia Insider Online

Copyright 2010 All Rights Reserved