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Chef Choi: A Chinese New Year celebration Posted: 25 Jan 2013 06:03 PM PST Trust the chef... just enough sauce to coat the yee sang and no more. KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 – When eating at Chef Choi, you have to trust that the chef does indeed know better. Take the Yee Sang, the celebratory once-a-year dish that appears only during Chinese New Year (well, actually it begins several weeks before so you will likely have it more than once during this time of the year). The sauce for the Yee Sang here is so good you WILL want more. Dried longan water, mandarin peel and lime juice have been added to the original sauce recipe and what you get is a sublime, piquant sauce. Chef owner Chan Thye Seng serves the Yee Sang with just enough sauce to coat the melange of vegetables and slivers of ocean trout and no more. Think a perfectly tossed salad. But if your tongue still hankers for the sauce, ask for some cut fruit to eat with it. Later. There were, of course, other surprises on the menu that night. Who would have expected scrambled egg with truffle oil, deepfried barbecued pork bun and smoked salmon sushi to be on one platter, in the Special Three Combination? It was the lightest, creamiest scrambled egg I had ever eaten, with a fragrant lift from truffle oil. The deepfried char siu bun was not oily and provided a nice texture contrast to the eggs. I also liked how the smoked salmon sushi left a lingering smoky aftertaste. In a fine Chinese restaurant, double-boiled soups are always something to look forward to. We had the Shark Cartilage Soup with Bamboo Pith. Shark meat is eaten in some western countries, hence the availability of shark cartilage. The salsa... refreshing and yummy, goes perfectly with the roast pig (left). Lap Mei Fan here is made with Basmati rice (right). The cartilage was simmered with pepper and herbs for four hours till the collagen is released giving the soup a mellow flavour. The slightly crunchy bamboo pith and the slices of hairy gourd doubled my enjoyment of it. Next up, was the suckling pig roasted on a spit served with a zucchini, bell pepper, cilantro and tomato salsa and tortilla chips. This kind of roasting leaves the skin extra crispy leaving the skin still succulent. We were wowed by the crackle, the spiced aromas and the juicy meat. Most of us had fallen on the salsa before the suckling pig was brought to the table; it was irresistible with the tortilla chips. The Pau Yue Yat Woh, or braised abalone with exotic seafood in claypot, was such a luxurious treat. Besides whole dried abalones, it had sea cucumber, dried oysters and plump dried scallops, goose webs, Chinese mushrooms, black moss and fish maw, all contributing to a smooth, silky dish. It was served surrounded with broccoli florets. The complex seafood flavours in the sauce were soaked up by the tender goose webs, fish maw and sea cucumber which had still a bite to it. It tasted wonderful. A claypot of these goodies costs RM108 per portion for each person, with a minimum of four persons. One taste and you will understand why. The starter platter of scrambled eggs with truffle oil, fried char siu bun and smoked salmon sushi (left). Dessert of Cherries Jubilee was made table-side (right). The Fried Shrimps with Spinach Shanghai Style seemed almost plain after this, but I still liked it for the bouncy prawns and the crunchy spinach. The braised Wah Wah Choy with dried scallops had the comforting taste of familiarity. Lovely. We moved on to the highly-anticipated Lap Mei Farn. At Chef Choi, Basmati rice is used for this claypot rice flavoured with delicious drippings from aromatic waxed meats, local pork sausages, and goose liver sausages from the famed Yung Kee restaurant  in Hong Kong. This time the excellent pork sausages overshadowed the goose liver ones. Dessert that night was Cherries Jubilee. Black cherries, chosen for their ability to soften quickly when stewed, were used, and we watched the cooking tableside. It began with the melting of butter and the caramelisation of sugar, with lemon zest, kirsch and Grand Marnier added, and the flambéing with cognac at the end.  It was sublime, the soft cherries bursting in the mouth with heady juices, and cooled by the vanilla ice-cream served with it. The Ocean Trout Yee Sang is RM83 for a small portion and RM128 for a large. The suckling pig is RM330. The Chinese New New sets are priced at RM988, RM1388 and RM2688. Chef Choi is located at 159 Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur, Tel: 03-2163 5866, website.

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Berbatov returns to Old Trafford as ‘best player’ Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:53 AM PST Berbatov is relieved to be back among the goals. — AFP pic MANCHESTER, England, Jan 25 — Dimitar Berbatov returns to Old Trafford this weekend having finally been hailed by Alex Ferguson as the club's "best player" although the team in question is Fulham rather than Manchester United. The Bulgarian striker, who left Old Trafford in August after four years where he struggled to hold down a regular starting spot despite the odd moment of brilliance and 48 league goals, faces his old team tomorrow in the FA Cup fourth round. When he left United, Berbatov criticised Ferguson for the way he had been treated towards the end of his time at the club and said he had lost respect for his former manager and that he had not even said goodbye to the Scot. When he takes to the Old Trafford turf again this weekend, he may feel he has a point to prove and Ferguson is well aware of the threat the creative Bulgarian poses. "He is their best player," Ferguson told a news conference today. "I don't think he was a failure here. He was a really good player. At his age it's not easy to be not playing when I have lots of choices. He wanted first-team football ... and it was the right thing to do. I think he's doing well there. "It's a step down from Manchester United to any club in my mind. But it's not a huge drop. The problem for him here was the way we wanted to play and the selections I had. I had Carlos Tevez here also and that affected both of them." Fulham manager Martin Jol is hoping for a big performance from Berbatov, who has scored seven league goals this season, telling British media this week he would "love to see him score a hat-trick over there". United go into the game on the back of some warm-weather training in Qatar, having avoided the snow in Manchester. "We couldn't have picked a better moment (to go away) and hopefully we will get the benefit of that," Ferguson said. The Premier League leaders are still without Jonny Evans and Ashley Young but Ferguson was hopeful he would have a fully fit squad in time for United's Champions League last-16 first leg at Real Madrid on February 13. In the mean time, Ferguson is concentrating on domestic matters and is keen to enjoy better FA Cup success than in recent years, which have included a fourth-round exit last season at the hands of arch rivals Liverpool. United have won the FA Cup a record 11 times but have not lifted it since 2004. "We haven't done as well in the FA Cup for a few years now," Ferguson said. "It's a cup which has fantastic appeal given our record in it. We have benefit of the home draw. We'll take that any time. It's going to be a challenge for us but we would play anyone at the moment." — Reuters

Commission adjourned pending UCI documents Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:49 AM PST LONDON, Jan 25 — Cycling's world governing body has yet to release any documents to an independent commission it set up last year to investigate allegations over the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, a hearing was told today. Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong's confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs in an interview with chat-show host Oprah Winfrey recently. — Reuters pic "It amazes me that we've had no documents whatsoever," Britain's 11-times Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson, one of the three members on the commission, told International Cycling Union counsel Ian Mill. Mill also told the hearing that a date for a commission hearing set provisionally for April 9-26 would need to be rescheduled. Friday's hearing was intended to set up the procedures, fix a timetable and set a date for a hearing. However, it hit immediate stumbling blocks and was adjourned to Jan. 31. Mill said there had been "no desire to suppress or conceal any documents", with 16 files of material available, but cast doubt on the commission's need for them, with the possibility of a broader 'truth and reconciliation' hearing being set up with other bodies. In increasingly testy exchanges between the commission members and the UCI lawyer, it was made clear that the process could take up to two years, if the commission were not suspended entirely. Mill said it was clear in any case that it would not be possible for the proposed April hearing to go ahead and a report would not be ready for June. Responding to concern expressed by the independent commission chair Philip Otton, who had expressed a fear that allegations against the UCI risked being "kicked into the long grass", Mill said: "We're not trying to kill this enquiry, we set you up." "Now you want to knock us down," said Otton, before withdrawing the comment. After a 45 minute break, Otton told the hearing that the UCI had agreed to make documents available to the Commission and the hearing was adjourning "with considerable reluctance". Next week's hearing will decide how to proceed. "On that occasion, we will consider whether or not the Commission will continue on the present timetable," he said. PUBLIC INTEREST Otton said it was "blindingly obvious" that there was immense public interest in determining why and how Armstrong's US Postal Service team was able to engage in systematic doping without detection or sanction. Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles after a USADA report, that included testimony from former teammates, revealed what it called "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen." The UCI, who dope tested Armstrong 218 times without a positive result, set up its independent commission to investigate allegations made against it in the affair. Mill said the UCI was open to a truth and reconciliation process, with the world anti-doping agency WADA and the US anti-doping agency USADA, but subject to changes to the WADA code to allow an amnesty to be offered to those testifying. "The UCI has accepted that a truth and reconciliation process was one they wish to engage with, notwithstanding that it was limited to the problems of doping in the sport of cycling," he said. "WADA has accepted that it's code would require to be changed so as to enable the sort of amnesty to be offered which would be likely to result in important evidence being made available. "We have asked WADA to tell us how and when such a change to the code can be achieved." Mill said the independent commission appeared to envisage such a truth and reconciliation process forming part of their enquiry, but that might not be the case. "That was not what this (independent) enquiry was designed to do," he said, pointing out that the UCI had spent a considerable sum on the commission and funding another longer and broader one was beyond the resources of the UCI alone. "If others, in particular WADA, are being asked for help to fund the process then they have to have the opportunity to discuss and agree with us the process itself and we envisage that," added the lawyer. "It therefore does not follow that this commission will ultimately be involved in that process." — Reuters

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Greek subway workers end strike after arrest threat Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:58 AM PST Passengers wait to board on a train at Syntagma metro station after the end of a nine-day strike in Athens January 25, 2013. — Reuters pic ATHENS, Jan 25 — Striking Greek subway workers trickled back to work today after the government threatened them with arrest, ending a nine-day walkout that paralysed public transport in Athens. The showdown had turned into the latest test for Greece's fragile three-party ruling coalition as it faces down unions to try to implement austerity measures demanded by foreign lenders as the price for bailout funds. Traffic slowly resumed on Athens' subway lines today afternoon after workers protesting wage cuts were served orders to return to work or face jail, the first time the government has invoked such legislation since it took power in June. "The workers who were handed the notice didn't have a choice. We are exploring legal options," said Manthos Tsakos, general secretary of the main subway workers' union. Earlier today, police forced their way through a metal gate at a train depot in Athens to break up an overnight sit-in by 90 transport workers against wage cuts. Scuffles broke out and at least three people were detained before being released. The radical leftist opposition Syriza party, which is leading in some opinion polls, said the police intervention was a "barbaric" attack on workers' rights. Eager to show lenders and Greeks that it is determined to implement promised reforms, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has taken a hard line on the strikers despite facing criticism from one of his own coalition partners. "Under no circumstances can the government allow the country to be derailed and to let the sacrifices of the Greek people go to waste," Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis, who oversees transport issues, said in a televised statement. Other transport unions held strikes in solidarity with subway workers today, leaving Athens without bus, tram, trolleybus or rail services, and causing gridlock across the city. Traffic ground to a halt in the capital, fuelling public anger against the strike which affected more than a million commuters in a city of 5 million people. "HARD TO HAVE SYMPATHY" "This week has been hell. How can they expect people to be on their side when they do this to us? We're all suffering (from austerity) but it's very difficult to have any sympathy for them," said 50-year-old Dionisis Kefalas. Other commuters, worn down by years of frequent strikes and exasperated by the long wait for a taxi to work, agreed. "Ordinary people are being inconvenienced — as if our problems weren't bad enough," said Daphne Kiritsi, 46, an office clerk, who said she had paid 200 euros (RM820) out of her 800-euro monthly salary for taxis this week. Subway employees oppose being included in a unified wage scheme for public sector workers drawn up under an austerity programme that would slash their salaries. Under the emergency law invoked, which is meant to be used in times of war, natural disaster or risks to public health, workers can be arrested and jailed for up to five years. Subway, shipyard and other public sector workers planned to march today to parliament in Syntagma Square, the scene of often violent protests in recent years. The most powerful unions threw their support behind the subway workers. "The workers' struggle will continue until justice is had," said Nikos Kioutsoukis, general secretary of the GSEE private sector union, which has called a 24-hour strike against austerity measures next month. — Reuters

Turkey launches tender to build world’s biggest airport Posted: 25 Jan 2013 07:54 AM PST A seagull, with the Suleymaniye mosque in the background, stands in the snow by the Golden Horn in Istanbul January 9, 2013. — Reuters pic ANKARA, Jan 25 — Turkey launched yesterday a tender to build in Istanbul what aims to be the world's largest airport at an estimated cost of over €7 billion (RM28 billion), an official from the country's airports authority said. "As of today, interested firms can start doing their math on the project and decide if they want to apply on May 3 when the tender closes," he told AFP on condition of anonymity as the project documents became available. The project foresees the construction of a six-runway airport eventually capable of handling 150 million passengers per year, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters on Wednesday. That would far outpace Hartsfield-Jackson airport in the US city of Atlanta, which is currently the world's busiest with over 90 million passengers likely to have been served in 2012. Plans are to have operating by 2016 facilities capable of handling some 100 million passengers per year at an expected cost of over €7 billion. Turkish media reported that a number of local and foreign companies including Turkish TAV Airports, partnered with French airport operator Aeroports de Paris, and Dutch airport operator Schiphol Group were interested in bidding to build and operate the airport for 25 years. The project is part of plans to make Istanbul a global hub initiated by the Islamic-rooted government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It follows Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines reaching capacity at Istanbul's Ataturk International airport, which handled 45 million passengers last year. Istanbul's second airport, Sabiha Gokcen International, registered 15 million passengers in 2012. Turkish authorities say their combined capacity still falls short of meeting increased demand, especially for a hub of traffic between Asia and Europe. — AFP/Relaxnews

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Study: Quit smoking by 40, live long and prosper Posted: 25 Jan 2013 03:52 AM PST Woman smoke outside an office building in New York, January 22, 2013. — Reuters pic TORONTO, Jan 25 — Good news for those trying to snuff out their smoking habit: in a new study, smokers who quit before turning 40 regained all of the years they would have presumably lost if they continued smoking. Smoking cuts at least 10 years off a person's lifespan, at least according to research. But a comprehensive analysis of health and death records in the US suggests that the damage isn't permanent, as long as you quit. "Quitting smoking before age 40, and preferably well before 40, gives back almost all of the decades of lost life from continued smoking," says Dr. Prabhat Jha, head of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael's Hospital and a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. "That's not to say, however, that it is safe to smoke until you are 40 and then stop," Jha adds. "Former smokers still have a greater risk of dying sooner than people who never smoked. But the risk is small compared to the huge risk for those who continue to smoke." The findings were published January 24 in the New England Journal of Medicine. Last October, a study found that women can add nine years to their lives by quitting smoking before the age of 40, although they still face a 20-per cent higher death rate than those who never smoked. That study, a survey of nearly 1.2 million women in Britain, was published in the journal The Lancet. — AFP/Relaxnews

Mediterranean diet may not protect ageing brain, says study Posted: 25 Jan 2013 03:30 AM PST It's been suggested that the "good" fats in the Mediterranean diet might benefit the brain directly. NEW YORK, Jan 25 — Hopes that a Mediterranean diet would be as good for the head as it is for the heart may have been dampened by a French study that found little benefit for ageing brains from the diet rich in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, wine and olive oil. The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked at the participants' dietary patterns in middle age and measured their cognitive performance at around age 65, but found no connection between Mediterranean eating and mental performance. "Our study does not support the hypothesis of a significant neuroprotective effect of a (Mediterranean diet) on cognitive function," wrote study leader Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot at the nutritional epidemiology research center of the French national health research agency INSERM. It's been suggested that the "good" fats in the Mediterranean diet might benefit the brain directly, or that low saturated fats and high fiber in the diet could help stave off cognitive decline indirectly by keeping blood vessels healthy. Previous research has seemed to uphold that premise. One large study in the US Midwest, for example, found that people in their 60s and older who ate a mostly Mediterranean diet were less prone to mental decline as they aged. Another study of residents of Manhattan linked a Mediterranean-style diet to a 40 per cent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers in the French study used data on 3,083 people who were followed from the mid-1990s, when they were at least 45 years old. At the beginning of the study, participants recorded what they ate over one 24-hour period every two months, for a total of six dietary record samples per year. Then, between 2007 and 2009 when the participants were about 65 years old, their memory and other mental abilities were measured. Researchers then separated participants into three categories depending on how closely they adhered to a Mediterranean-style diet, and compared their mental ability test scores. Overall, they found that people who ate a diet closest to the Mediterranean ideal performed about the same as those who ate a non-restricted diet. Nikos Scarmeas, who was not involved with the study but has researched the effects of food on brain health, said it's important to note that the new study had some limitations. For instance, researchers only tested the participants' mental abilities once, making it impossible to track whether they got better or worse over time, added Scarmeas, an associate professor at New York's Columbia University Medical Center. "We don't have the strong evidence to go and tell people,'Listen, if you follow this diet, it will improve cognition,'" he said. — Reuters

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J.J. Abrams to direct new ‘Star Wars’ film, says report Posted: 25 Jan 2013 05:19 AM PST J.J. Abrams to direct new 'Star Wars' film, says report LOS ANGELES, Jan 25 — Sci-fi and action filmmaker J. J. Abrams has been tapped to direct a seventh "Star Wars" movie expected to be released by Disney in 2015, a Hollywood trade publication reported yesterday. After purchasing "Star Wars" creator George Lucas's Lucasfilm for US$4 billion (RM12 billion) in October, Disney announced it was planning a new trilogy in the wildly popular sci-fi saga, which has raked in an estimated US$4.4 billion since 1977. Variety magazine said Disney is close to finalising the deal with the 46-year-old Abrams (picture), the co-creator of the popular television series "Lost," who is currently finishing work on "Star Trek Into Darkness." Abrams, who also writes and produces, directed "Mission: Impossible III" (2006), "Star Trek" (2009) and "Super 8" (2011). Lucas — who created the saga and directed four of the six films to date — will serve as a creative consultant for the three new films, which are expected to come out every two to three years. Lucas's original "Star Wars" movie in 1977, which marked the birth of a new era of blockbuster cinema, launched the career of a young Harrison Ford. It was soon followed by the equally popular "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983). In the late 1990s, Lucas drew mixed reviews when he resurrected the blockbuster series with a prequel trilogy: "The Phantom Menace" (1999), "The Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "The Revenge of the Sith" (2005). The newer trilogy featured Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen. — AFP/Relaxnews

Dark side of porn star’s life revealed in indie film ‘Lovelace’ Posted: 25 Jan 2013 04:38 AM PST Amanda Seyfried, 27, is best known for playing pretty, wide-eyed blondes in movies such as "Mean Girls," "Mamma Mia!" and "Les Miserables." — Reuters pic PARK CITY (Utah), Jan 25 — Porn star Linda Lovelace became a poster girl for the sexual revolution of the 1970s, but it's her story of a life marked by domestic abuse and exploitation that is the focus of a new film. "Lovelace," starring Amanda Seyfried, joined a slate of films exploring the darker side of sex and pornography at the Sundance Film Festival this week. Seyfried, 27, is best known for playing pretty, wide-eyed blondes in movies such as "Mean Girls," "Mamma Mia!" and "Les Miserables." Not this time. "Everybody has a story and (Linda's) story is really fascinating and really dark, and I like that stuff. I wanted to portray somebody who really existed and had that story," Seyfried told Reuters. "I like controversy. I like risks, nudity and sex. That doesn't scare me at all," she added. The film chronicles Lovelace's formative years, her abusive marriage to Chuck Traynor, played by Peter Sarsgaard, and how she was forced into working on the 1972 porn film "Deep Throat," which became one of the highest-grossing films in America.Traynor, portrayed as a sadistic man with a charming facade, has a destructive relationship with Lovelace in which he rapes and abuses her, and at one point sells her to a group of five men. Both Sarsgaard and Seyfried said they felt the film was less about pornography and oral sex and more about the disturbing course of Lovelace's life. After she left the porn industry and Traynor, Lovelace wrote several contradictory accounts of her experiences and became an anti-pornography activist. She died in 2002 of injuries from a car crash, aged 53. Sarsgaard, who is often drawn to playing complex and darker characters, said he was uncomfortable playing Traynor. "I didn't want to portray him. I really didn't ... I felt like the point of view of the story was so strongly against him and his perspective, that I'm the kind of guy who looks to see the person in the corner and tries to figure out what's going on with them," the actor told Reuters. The actor said he wished he could remove some of the grittier, violent scenes from the film. "I have two kids, both girls, and it's getting harder and harder for me to play these roles ... especially the violence to women. I'm really having a problem with it," he said. "Lovelace" is the first of two upcoming films based on the porn star's life. "Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story" is also due out later this year, with Malin Ackerman playing the role of Linda, and Matt Dillon as Chuck. "Lovelace" has been purchased for theatrical distribution by The Weinstein Company. — Reuters

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Who are the 2013 Man Booker International finalists? Posted: 24 Jan 2013 03:41 PM PST LONDON, Jan 25 — Ten authors from nine countries have been named as finalists for the Man Booker International Prize 2013. Read their potted histories here. UR Ananthamurthy (India) Born 1932 in Mysore, India; lives in Bangalore, India Published in 1966, "Samskara" cemented Ananthamurthy's reputation. His latest novel, "Bharatipura," was shortlisted for the 2011 Hindu Literary Prize and the 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Aharon Appelfeld (Israel) Born 1932 in Sadhora, Romania (now Ukraine); lives in Jerusalem, Israel Multi-linguist Appelfeld is known for his Hebrew novels, winning the National Jewish Book Award in 1989 for hist first, "Badenheim 1939," and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for "Blooms of Darkness" in 2012. Lydia Davis (US) Born 1947 in Northampton, Massachusetts, US; lives in New York, US A short story specialist, Whiting Award winner, and MacArthur Fellowship alumnus, Davis is also known for her work as a translator of French literature; her complete work to date is available as "The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis." Intizar Husain (Pakistan) Born 1923 in Uttar Pradesh, India; lives in Lahore, India Written in Urdu, a number of Husain's short story collections and novels have been translated into English, including "The Seventh Door," "A Chronicle of Peacocks" and "Basti." Yan Lianke (China) Born 1958 in Henan Province, China; lives in Beijing, China Lianke is known for controversial and provocative satire, as well as the Mao-baiting "Serve the People" and more recent "Dream of Ding Village," the latter of which appeared on the Man Asian Literary Prize shortlist in 2011. Marie NDiaye (France) Born 1967 in Pithiviers, nr. Paris, France; lives in Berlin, Germany Daughter of a French mother and Senegalese father, NDiaye was a teenage success with "Regarding the Rich Future," while "Rosie Carpe" won the Prix Femina and "Three Strong Women" the prestigious Prix Goncourt. At 45 years of age, she is also the youngest ever Man Booker International nominee. Josip Novakovich (Canada) Born 1956 in Yugoslavia (now Croatia); lives in Montreal, Canada With a Guggenheim Fellowship and Whiting Award (for "Apricots From Chernobyl") to his name, Canadian writer Novakovich is known for reflecting upon Yugoslavia's violent history. He has family roots on both sides of the Atlantic and currently teaches at Montreal's Concordia University. Marilynne Robinson (US) Born 1943 in Sandpoint, Idaho, US; lives in Iowa City, Iowa, US Robinson comes to the 2013 Man International as the prize's established heavyweight, recognized for each of her three published novels: she was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for "Gilead," the Orange Prize for "Home" and multiple awards for the earlier "Housekeeping." Vladimir Sorokin (Russia) Born 1955 in Moscow, Russia; lives in Moscow, Russia Winner of the Russian Booker Prize in 2001 for "Collected Stories," and particularly well-known for "Ice," "Bro," and "23,000," which together comprise The Ice Trilogy. Sorokin's near-future "Days of the Oprichnik" has also been translated into English. Like Yan Lianke, some of Sorokin's work has also been banned in his home country. Peter Stamm (Switzerland) Born 1963 in Switzerland; lives in Winterthur, Switzerland A well-traveled and well-studied ex-accountant, Stamm didn't start his writing career until 1990, but garnered him multiple Swiss and German literary prizes around the turn of the century; works from that period appear in English within "Unformed Landscape" and his collection "In Strange Gardens and Other Stories." He is the first Swiss writer to be nominated for the Man Booker International Prize. — AFP/Relaxnews

Man Booker 2013 aims to surprise with 10 finalists Posted: 24 Jan 2013 03:34 PM PST Aharon Appelfeld is one of the better-known Man Booker International Prize finalists. — AFP pic LONDON, Jan 25 — Framing its announcement yesterday as a list that includes "nothing familiar or expected," the Man Booker International Prize emphasises the ability of literary awards to introduce talented authors to a wider audience. "Perhaps only two of the writers can be said to have a wide international profile, Marilynne Robinson and Aharon Appelfeld," reads the Man International's statement, crediting an expanded judges' panel for a greater breadth of taste and choices that "show a taste for Modernism rather than conventional narrative." "The judges were interested in novelists who pushed the form," noted prize administrator Fiammetta Rocco. The Man Booker International's shake-up comes shortly after the National Book Awards made the most of its own selection process adjustments, acknowledging the annual English-language Man Booker Prize in doing so. Man Booker International Prize 2013 Finalists UR Ananthamurthy (India) Aharon Appelfeld (Israel) Lydia Davis (USA) Intizar Husain (Pakistan) Yan Lianke (China) Marie NDiaye (France) Josip Novakovich (Canada) Marilynne Robinson (USA) Vladimir Sorokin (Russia) Peter Stamm (Switzerland) The winner of this year's Man Booker International — a prize that is awarded every two years — will be announced on May 22, 2013. An award of £60,000 (RM300,000) is bestowed upon the author, with a translation prize of £15,000 then allocated by the winner, if applicable. — AFP/Relaxnews

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Aaron Swartz dan tragedi kepada masa hadapan Posted: 24 Jan 2013 04:09 PM PST 25 JAN — "There's a battle going on right now, a battle to define everything that happens on the Internet in terms of traditional things the law understands." — Aaron Swartz (1986-2013). November 2010, Aaron Swartz sembunyi meletakkan laptopnya di dalam sebuah almari wayar yang tidak berkunci di mana "homeless" meletakkan barangan mereka. Swartz menyembunyikan laptopnya di dalam sebuah kotak dan menyambungkannya secara terus ke dalam talian rangkaian Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Niatnya jelas, memuat turun seberapa banyak yang boleh pelbagai dokumen dari jurnal akademik dikenali sebaga JSTOR yang hanya membenarkan pelanggan berdaftar untuk mengakases. Swartz percaya ia adalah sesuatu yang menyalahi moral untuk membenarkan ilmu yang berada di dalam laman tersebut, selalunya dibiaya oleh "public funding"; diakses hanya sebahagian orang yang mempunyai duit. Ilmu tersebut menurutnya perlu diberi secara percuma kepada awam. Lebih menarik, Swartz mempunyai akses ke dalam laman tersebut dan tidak memerlukan dirinya untuk menceroboh masuk. Skrip beliau yang dikenali sebagai "keepgrabbing.py" membebaskan sehingga 4.8 juta artikel dalam masa yang cukup pantas. Menyambungkan laptop secara terus ke dalam talian adalah usaha terakhir beliau setelah beberapa kali disekat oleh MIT daripada aktiviti "membebaskan fail terhad". Genius Ketika umurnya 13 tahun, Swartz membina "theinfo.org", sebuah laman dengan konsep Wikipedia (sebelum Wikipedia diperkenalkan!) yang mengandungi pelbagai ilmu mengenai dunia di dalamnya. Setahun selepas itu beliau kemudiannya bekerja dengan Tim Berners-Lee, pencipta World Wide Web untuk melancarkan Semantic Web, sebuah pelantar untuk meningkatkan keupayaan perkongsian fail serta mengembangkan RSS 1.0. Juga di bawah inisiatif beliau ialah Creative Common yang memudahkan "copyright licensing". Pada 2008, Swartz membina sebuah program untuk memuat naik sehingga 20 juta dokumen dari Public Access to Court Electronic Records  (PACER) dengan bayaran hanya 10 sen setiap helai untuk diakses. Menggunakan kepakarannya dan rangkaian dengan aktivis lain, beliau akhirnya berjaya menjadikan semua dokumen tersebut diakses secara pecuma kepada awam.   Swartz berhenti dari Stanford University selepas setahun pengajian. Beliau kemudiannya menjadi felo di Edmond J. Safra Centre for Ethics, Harvard University dan bekerja dengan profesor undang-undang dan aktivis terkenal, Lawrence Lessig. Bersama-sama Lessig beliau membangunkan Creative Commons dan Rootstrikes. Aktivis Zaman ini manusia belajar untuk membina generasi sosial yang paling toleran di antara satu sama lain. Sejarah akan menilai sikap kritis kita terhadap teknologi terutamanya Internet yang memainkan peranan penting dalam perkembangan manusia melalui pendedahan perspektif dunia, cerita dan maklumat yang pelbagai. Dengan jumlah penduduk terbesar, Internet juga membuktikan teknologi pada hari ini difahami menurut undang-undang lapuk yang ketinggalan zaman. Manusia rupa-rupanya masih menggunakan undang-undang yang sama 100 tahun lepas terhadap teknologi yang telah mengalami evolusi. Majalah Forbes di dalam laporannya pada 16 Januari membayangkan dunia kehilangan seorang bintang yang paling menyerlah ketika sistem kehakiman secara melulu mendakwa pencerobohan hak cipta intelek lebih besar dosanya daripada melakukan jenayah terhadap masyarakat.  Tarun Wadhwa yang menulis laporan tersebut meneruskan dengan menyifatkan tindakan "powerful acts of civil disobedience" Swartz sangat jarang dapat dilihat pada generasi kini dan memberi "monumental impact" kepada dunia walaupun jangka hayatnya pendek. Usaha Swartz untuk membebaskan maklumat dari laman JSTOR dan PACER telah menjadikannya lagenda di kalangan aktivis Internet. Swartz juga adalah pemimpin awal di Reddit.com, sebuah portal gergasi para aktivis yang kemudiannya membentuk gerakan politik Internet dunia. Reddit.com kemudiannya dijual kepada gergasi Conde Nast pada 2006. Berasa tidak cukup, Swartz menubuhkan Demand Progress yang menjadikan pertentangan di antara pemain industri hiburan dan aktivis Internet "epik" pada 2011-2012 berikutan pengenalan undang-undang anti cetak rompak dalam talian oleh kerajaan US melibatkan pemain besar seperti Time Warner. Perkembangan maklumat pada zaman ini telah memberi definisi baharu kepada sistem sosial melibatkan Internet. Kita menyaksikan pelbagai industri akhirnya terpaksa akur bahawa data-data sedia ada boleh dikongsi ke dalam talian. Dari satu ekstrim kita sebenarnya keliru terhadap halangan artifisial yang memaksa kita mendedahkan sebahagian maklumat hanya kepada orang tertentu sahaja. Sebagai pencipta RSS pada awal umurnya dan pengasas Reddit.com, Swartz mungkin salah seorang dari jutawan pada hari ini seperti Zuckerberg. Tetapi sebagai aktivis, Swartz tidak berminat dengan kemewahan. Untuk dirinya, cukup dengan dunia yang lebih bebas, terbuka dan progresif. Planet3.org di dalam artikel memorial mereka menjelaskan mengapa sikap "open access" sebagaimana yang diperjuangkan Swartz perlu difahami orang ramai: "The general philosophy behind open access is that publicly funded research should be publicly available. But it is much more than an idea of fiscal accountability. Opening access to research is the only way we as a global community will be able to solve the world's biggest problems." Laman ini juga menyentuh mengenai kos langganan yang tidak munasabah: "The insurmountable subscription cost of high-end journals has effectively shut out many researchers worldwide. Having a large proportion of the international research community unable to access research results is like trying to untie a knot with one hand." Tragedi Keluarga Swartz melalui ayahnya, Robert Swartz di dalam laman Idealist Revolution mengingatkan sifat ingin tahu, kreativiti dan kepintaran mencerahkan dunia. Sikap empati, kecintaan terhadap masyarakat serta keengganan beliau untuk menerima ketidakadilan adalah komitmen beliau terhadap keadilan sosial. Kemahirannya sebagai "programmer" dan pembangun teknologi tidak digunakan terhadap dirinya tetapi untuk menjadikan Internet dan dunia sebagai tempat yang lebih adil untuk diduduki. Kes pendakwaan terhadap Swartz telah mendedahkan sisi buruk sistem keadilan dan undang-undang kepada dunia. Paling menyedihkan, Swartz yang mewakili jutaan masyarakat dalam talian untuk hak mempunyai maklumat yang setara ditentang oleh undang-undang yang mewakili syarikat gergasi dan pemain industri yang akan mendapat keuntungan berbilion US Dolar setahun. Untuk aktivis Internet, Swartz bukan sahaja mempamerkan kepercayaan dan integriti individu, tetapi telah membawa dimensi baharu terhadap tenaga aktivisme di kalangan penggiat kempen. Sebagai idealis,kebanyakan tulisannya merujuk kepada sikap tidak puas hati terhadap apa yang berlaku di sekeliling. Dan beliau adalah satu-satunya di antara yang mampu menjana perubahan yang diinginya. 11 Januari yang lalu menandakan detik penting buat dunia dan masa depan khasnya. Aaron Swartz dijumpai mati di dalam apartmentnya di Brooklyn, New York. Jeff Jarvis di dalam "Buzzmachine.com" menyatakan: "And Aaron Swartz has taught me that content must not be the end game for knowledge. Why does knowledge become an article in a journal — or that which fills a book or a publication — except for people to use it? And only when they use it does content become the tool it should be. Not using knowledge is an offence to it. If it cannot fly free beyond the confines of content, knowledge cannot reach its full value through collaboration, correction, inspiration, and use." Tragedi ini akan diingati oleh generasi manusia pada masa hadapan sebagai tragedi di antara sikap ortodoks manusia, undang-undang konservatif terhadap teknologi dan sikap penting diri segolongan kecil manusia yang memegang kunci keadilan. Dunia belajar pada hari ini hak asasi manusia untuk mendapat maklumat perlu diperjuangkan, terutamanya menentang sebahagian kecil golongan kapitalis yang saban hari menindas masyarakat.  * Ini adalah pandangan peribadi penulis.

Digital isn’t the death sentence for Newsweek Posted: 24 Jan 2013 03:53 PM PST JAN 25 — I've been looking high and low for the last printed edition of Newsweek since the end of December 2012 all around the Klang Valley, but have been unlucky. I had basically given up, when lo and behold, I see stacks of it two days ago at a newsstand in Kota Kinabalu where I had been shooting a documentary for the past week. So I bought a couple of copies (who knows, it might become a valuable collector's item in a couple of years) and sat myself down at a coffee shop to go through it. Here's a little bit of backgrounder for those who are not familiar. Newsweek is a news and current affairs magazine that has been around for 79 years, and is a bitter rival of Time. Due to the pressures of technological and market evolution, they have made the decision to cease their print edition and concentrate only on their digital version. This isn't much of a surprise considering that hundreds of newspapers and magazines have been forced to stop operations because of the dwindling circulation and sales in the Internet age. Newsweek itself had an international circulation of four million copies in 2003. By 2010, this number dropped to 1.5 million. That is definitely a huge drop. But Newsweek is an institution. Back in the day, they had their own building which was so prominent in the New York City skyline. They were (still is!) a respected journalistic organisation. I started browsing through the magazine in my teens (but Ride BMX and BMX Plus! were still my favourites in those days!), and became a regular reader as I got older. So naturally, I would have to have its last print edition, and when I finally got my hands on it (after giving up and feeling despair in KL), I felt very excited indeed. The cover was of a hashtag that read '#lastprintissue'. Not bad, I thought. Mocking their own situation and a good play on words and symbols. Then I proceeded to read it cover to cover. And that is when I started getting more and more disappointed after every page that I turned over. The entire issue was like an eulogy. Every article in it by all the writers was reminiscing about the good old days. The mood was so nostalgic, sombre and grey that I was afraid David Ansen was suicidal! I was disappointed and irritated. Newsweek was a part of my early journalism influence and I was expecting so much more from them. The Newsweek team should view their move to being exclusively digital as a rebirth and not a funeral. They were moving on and advancing. Not accepting defeat. And this may be a mistaken perception by many people, the public and media organisations included. They need to get it into their heads that change is positive. Many decades ago, NBC was a radio station. The made a lot of money. Then TV came about and they panicked. So they started a TV station. Then the Internet came about and they panicked. So they started a website. They changed the way they presented their content along with the change in time. They realised that their constant commodity was in news and content. The medium wasn't important. But the ability to adapt and present content in the new medium is important. It really isn't that difficult to do. It just requires a little bit thinking and innovation. Newsweek already has an iPad edition even before stopping its presses. It's pretty okay as far as reading the printed word and looking at still photographs is concerned. I have a subscription, and so do 44,000 other people around the world. Newsweek can most probably count on their existing print subscribers to migrate over to digital (their accounts will be migrated automatically). But now that they are focusing fully on digital, they will need to up the ante and start becoming more multimedia. They will have to be more adept at using different tools to tell stories. Writers will need to take photographs. Still photographers will need to record video, or whatever combination necessary. And editors will need to visualise stories in terms of all these elements. It shouldn't be that difficult for Newsweek since they have The Daily Beast on their side, which is their management's digital news and current affairs arm. After all that has been said and done, I will still be a Newsweek reader. I've always enjoyed their style of journalism and I think I always will. I was just disappointed in the way they perceive their change, and I hope that it doesn't represent their spirit as they enter their new age. Just don't be afraid. At least they have a strong journalistic tradition, unlike that over-hyped, Murdoch-run, doozy that is The Daily. I wonder what that team is doing now? * This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Ahmad Zahid fail saman fitnah terhadap Rafizi Posted: 25 Jan 2013 02:26 AM PST KUALA LUMPUR, 25 Jan — Menteri Pertahanan Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi hari ini memfailkan saman fitnah terhadap Pengarah Strategi Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Mohd Rafizi Ramli (gambar) berhubung satu artikel di dalam laman blog. Ahmad Zahid memfailkan writ saman tersebut menerusi Tetuan Majid Krishna Menon & Lee di Pejabat Pendaftar Mahkamah Tinggi di sini. Mengikut pernyataan tuntutan, Dr Ahmad Zahid mendakwa Mohd Rafizi (defendan) menerbitkan artikel fitnah itu di laman blog miliknya iaitu RafiziRamli dotcom. Ahmad Zahid mendakwa artikel itu adalah tidak benar, palsu dan ditulis dengan niat jahat bagi memberi gambaran negatif berkenaan diri dan pekerjaannya untuk dibaca orang awam. Katanya Rafizi mengetahui kesan langsung penerbitan artikel tersebut yang membolehkan ia diterbit semula oleh pihak media termasuk media di laman Internet. Ahmad Zahid turut mendakwa perkataan yang terkandung dalam artikel tersebut membawa maksud bahawa beliau tidak kompeten untuk menjawat jawatan sebagai Menteri Pertahanan, menyalah guna kuasa, tidak bertanggungjawap, menyalah guna wang rakyat dan pecah amanah. Beliau mendakwa tujuan sebenar Rafizi berbuat demikian adalah untuk melupuskan keyakinan orang awam dan gabungan Barian Nasional terhadapnya terutama dalam pilihan raya umum akan datang. Ahmad Zahid menuntut ganti rugi am dan khas, ganti rugi teladan, penarikan penuh segala kata-kata fitnah serta meminta maaf dalam format yang diberikan Ahmad Zahid dan diiklankan dalam empat surat khabar tempatan, empat bahasa selama dua hari. Beliau juga menuntut perintah supaya defendan mengeluarkan artikel tersebut daripada blog miliknya, perintah larangan daripada mengulangi atau menerbitkan semula termasuk di ceramah, perhimpunan dan kempen pilihan raya. Turut dituntut ialah faedah empat peratus ke atas jumlah ganti rugi, kos dan relif lain. — Bernama

Polis: 75 peratus pasti, mayat adalah Wiliam Yau Posted: 25 Jan 2013 02:21 AM PST SUBANG JAYA, 25 Jan — Polis memberi kepastian hampir 75 peratus bahawa mayat kanak-kanak yang ditemui di Pelabuhan Klang adalah William Yau. Ketua Polis Daerah Subang Jaya Asisten Komisioner (ACP) Yahaya Ramli bekata kepada The Star, ia berikutan keluarga William telah mengenalpasti mayat mangsa berdasarkan parut di hadapan dan belakang kepala serta seluar pendek yang dipakainya. Keputusan post-mortem tidak boleh menentukan punca kematian kerana keadaan mayat yang telah reput. Bagaimanapun, berdasarkan keadaan mayat, kesimpulan boleh dibuat kanak-kanak lelaki itu sudah mati selama seminggu. ACP Yahaya berkata, keluarga mangsa hadir ketika bedah siasat dilakukan ke atas mayat tersebut. Bercakap kepada para pemberita di Balai Polis Subang Jaya di sini, ACP Yahaya menambah, tidak terdapat tanda-tanda kecederaan luaran yang ditemui kecuali tanda-tanda bekas gigitan. "Jadi pihak kami mengandaikan yang kesan gigitan itu adalah gigitan haiwan ketika mayat mangsa terapung di dalam sungai. "Bagaimanapun, pihak polis tidak boleh memberi kepastian seratus peratus sehinggalah keputusan DNA keluar...mungkin Isnin ini," katanya dipetik dari portal The Star. Menurut beliau lagi, teori polis setakat ini adalah mayat mangsa mungkin terapung dan dibawa arus sejauh 30km di Sungai Klang dari Bukit Lanchong (kawasan kampung bersebelahan dengan Putra Heights) sebelum ia tersangkut pada enjin boat berdekatan Jeti Kampung Sungai Sireh di Pelabuhan Klang.

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