Selasa, 19 Februari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

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The Malaysian Insider :: Sports

Classy Bayern in charge after 3-1 win at Arsenal

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 03:09 PM PST

Bayern Munich's Toni Kroos scores a goal past Arsenal's goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny during their Champions League match at the Emirates Stadium in London February 19, 2013. – Reuters pic

LONDON, Feb 20 – Bayern Munich seized control of their Champions League last 16 tie against Arsenal as goals from Toni Kroos, Thomas Mueller and Mario Mandzukic earned the German giants an emphatic 3-1 first leg win at the Emirates yesterday.

A clinical early strike from Kroos opened the scoring and when Mueller made it 2-0 midway through the first half the visiting fans were already in party mood.

Lukas Podolski scored against his old club as Arsenal battled back after the break but Mandzukic bundled in a third Bayern goal in the 77th to seal their first ever win in London.

The runaway Bundesliga leaders, trying to make amends for a heartbreaking shootout loss to Chelsea in last year's final, toyed with Arsenal for 45 minutes and, though given a real scrap after that, are overwhelming favourites to reach the last eight.

Arsene Wenger's side began positively with Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott advancing deep into Bayern territory but it took the visitors seven minutes to stop the Gunners in their tracks.

Mueller, a constant menace down the right flank, was allowed time to cross and his scuffed delivery wrong-footed Arsenal's defence and fell perfectly for Kroos to swivel and thump a first-time shot into the turf and past keeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Oozing confidence after an 18-match unbeaten sequence dating back to October, Bayern sensed Arsenal's confidence was fragile and went about hammering home their superiority.

It was no surprise when the Germans doubled their advantage after 21 minutes when Daniel Van Buyten's glancing header from a corner was blocked on the line by Szczesny but the ball popped up for Mueller to flick it into the unguarded net.

ARSENAL FRUSTRATION

Bayern looked capable of putting the tie to bed before halftime and almost did so moments before the break when Mandzukic rose majestically to meet Philipp Lahm's cross but placed his powerful header agonisingly wide.

Arsenal's frustration resulted in first-half bookings for Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen and Mikel Arteta while Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger was yellow-carded for kicking the ball away and will be ruled out of the return leg in Bavaria.

Schweinsteiger's moment of ill-discipline looked irrelevant with his side so dominant but the hosts responded after the interval to try to make the second leg more than a formality.

Ten minutes into the second half, a corner from Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere found former Bayern forward Lukas Podolski unmarked and he gratefully nodded past keeper Manuel Neuer.

It was the first goal conceded by Bayern this year and rattled the visitors as the home crowd sensed that maybe all was not lost amid memories of Arsenal's 2-2 draw with Barcelona in 2010 when they also trailed 2-0.

Arsenal substitute Olivier Giroud nearly equalised with his first touch after joining the fray with 20 minutes left but his sweetly-struck shot from Walcott's cross went straight at Neuer.

The revival was cut short after 77 minutes when Bayern counter-attacked in devastating fashion and Lahm's skidding cross spun up and in off bayern's Croatia striker Mandzukic.

Arsenal huffed and puffed looking for another reply but Bayern were better in every department and Arsenal were booed at the final whistle, just like on Saturday in their FA Cup defeat by Blackburn Rovers, as their season threatened to unravel. – Reuters

Bradford long for happy ending to fairytale Cup run

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:53 PM PST

BRADFORD, Feb 20 – An excited youngster stocked up on flags for his Wembley trip and the players spoke of fairytales as Bradford City prepared for the last chapter in a giant-killing run that has lifted the gloom around the club.

A fourth-tier team featuring a former supermarket shelf-stacker, a cancer survivor and players released by top clubs are hoping to beat a Premier League outfit for the fourth time this season when Bradford take on Swansea City in Sunday's League Cup final.

"It's going to be the biggest game we've played in our lives," right back Stephen Darby told Reuters yesterday.

"Over the last few years the football club hasn't had a lot to shout about but it's going to be a massive day for everyone, it's great for Bradford City and the people of Bradford."

The Bantams are the first fourth-tier side to reach a major English cup final for 51 years and will be making only their second Wembley appearance - the previous one being the 1996 third-tier playoff final.

After several miserable seasons since relegation from the Premier League in 2001, including two spells in administration, the feat of a fourth-tier team beating Arsenal, Wigan Athletic and Aston Villa en route to Wembley is the stuff of dreams.

The club, whose only major silverware is the 1911 FA Cup, is also probably best known for tragedy rather than glory after a 1985 fire at its Valley Parade ground killed 56 fans.

It is not just the football club that has lived under black clouds. The West Yorkshire city has been harder hit than many by the economic downturn, it has higher-than average crime rates and is also still remembered for race riots in 2001.

"Bradford is known for bad things like riots. There are no shops, there's a lot of negative," fan Julia North said after giving her 12-year-old son Liam money to get the club's claret and amber flags.

"It's great there's now something positive."

Thrilled Liam added: "It means the whole world to me. When we beat Villa (in the semi-final) I just went mental."

There is a buzz around the city with stalls selling anything from paper masks with the face of manager Phil Parkinson to T-shirts emblazoned 'Bradford City Giant Killers Marching on Wembley Way'.

One pub near the train station was advertising being open from 0430 on Sunday for anyone wanting ale or food before heading south while the local newspaper is printing cut-out-and-keep posters of the players.

FINANCIAL SECURITY

The cup run will provide the club with a cash injection that would pay one of the Premier League's top earners around eight weeks' wages, but for Bradford, that should mean long-term financial security.

"It's the owners' job and my job to make sure this extra revenue is used to keep improving the structure of the club and make sure our supporters have got a football club in years to come that is going to flourish," said Parkinson.

"That is really important. Much as we are all going to enjoy this weekend, on the back of that it does give us revenue which we wouldn't have expected to make so we are going to have to use it very wisely."

Lying mid-table in the fourth tier, with 44 points from 31 games, Bradford are punching well above their weight with a group of players who have made up for their lack of big transfer fees with a huge show of determination and a slice of luck.

There are no household names, only the likes of striker James Hanson who used to work in a local supermarket and headed the goal that booked the place in the final or Reading reject Carl McHugh who almost never made it as a professional.

Their most experienced player is probably goalkeeper Matt Duke, who made Premier League appearances for Hull City and who has recovered after being diagnosed with testicular cancer five years ago.

Victory over Swansea would earn Bradford a place in the Europa League, their first continental appearance since the now defunct Intertoto Cup in 2000, and a concept that some players could not get their heads around.

"It would be crazy, it would be mental but it would be unbelievable for the club," said McHugh who is taking 111 friends and family with him to Wembley.

"We're going to be underdogs. It's going to take Swansea having an off day and us being right at the top of our game and having a little bit of luck to win it."

The lack of expectation is what forward Alan Connell reckons has been the key to Bradford's successful cup run and that could help them against Swansea.

"I honestly haven't even thought about winning it. It's all a bit of a fairytale," he said.

"Being the underdogs has helped us, we're just very relaxed and very disciplined as a team. We've got a game against 11 players, let's go and play." – Reuters

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The Malaysian Insider :: Features

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Deadly new virus is well adapted to infect humans, study finds

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 01:18 AM PST

LONDON, Feb 19 — A new virus that emerged in the Middle East last year and has killed five people is well adapted to infecting humans but could potentially be treated with drugs that boost the immune system, scientists said today.

Symptoms of both NCoV and SARS include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. — AFP pic

The virus, called novel coronavirus or NCoV, is from the same family as the common cold and as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. There have been 12 confirmed cases worldwide — including in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Britain — and five patients have died.

In one of the first published studies about NCoV, which was unknown in humans until it was identified in September 2012, researchers said it could penetrate the lining of passageways in the lungs and evade the immune system as easily as a cold virus can.

This shows it "grows very efficiently" in human cells and suggests it is well equipped for infecting humans, said Volker Thiel of the Institute of Immunobiology at Kantonal Hospital in Switzerland, who led the study.

NCoV was identified when the World Health Organisation issued an international alert in September saying a completely new virus had infected a Qatari man in Britain who had recently been in Saudi Arabia.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that includes those that cause the common cold as well as the one that caused SARS — which emerged in China in 2002 and killed about a 10th of the 8,000 people it infected worldwide.

Symptoms of both NCoV and SARS include severe respiratory illness, fever, coughing and breathing difficulties. Of the 12 cases confirmed so far, four were in Britain, one was a Qatari patient in Germany, two were in Jordan and five in Saudi Arabia.

POSSIBLE TREATMENT

Scientists are not sure where the virus comes from, but say one possibility is it came from animals. Experts at Britain's Health Protection Agency say preliminary scientific analysis suggests its closest relatives are bat coronaviruses.

What is also unclear is what the true prevalence of the virus is — since it is possible that the 12 cases seen so far are the most severe, and there may be more people who have contracted the virus with milder symptoms so are not picked up.

"We don't know whether the cases (so far) are the tip of the iceberg, or whether many more people are infected without showing severe symptoms," said Thiel, who worked with a team of scientists from the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark. "We don't have enough cases to have a full picture of the variety of symptoms."

Thiel said that although the virus may have jumped from animals to humans very recently, his research showed it was just as well adapted to infecting the human respiratory tract as other coronaviruses like SARS and the common cold viruses.

The study, published in mBio, an online journal of the American Society for Microbiology, also found that NCoV was susceptible to treatment with interferons, medicines that boost the immune system and which are also successfully used to treat other viral diseases like Hepatitis C.

This opens up a possible mode of treatment in the event of a large-scale outbreak, the scientists said.

Thiel said that with the future of the virus uncertain, it was vital for laboratories and specialists around the world to cooperate swiftly to find out more about where it came from, how widespread it was, and how infectious it might be.

"So far it looks like the virus is well contained, so in that sense I don't see any reason for increased fear," he said. — Reuters

Senegal women told ‘all black’ is beautiful — and healthy

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 12:57 AM PST

DAKAR, Feb 19 — Outraged by adverts urging women to bleach their skin, a spontaneous movement has emerged in Senegal arguing that black is beautiful — and to act otherwise is to risk one's health.

A taxi passes by a Nuul Kukk, meaning "all black," citizen's movement poster which reads "Black is so Beautiful!" on October 10, 2012 in Dakar. — AFP pic

The campaign sprang up in response to advertisements that appeared in the capital Dakar last year for a cosmetic cream called "Khess Petch", or "all white" in the local Wolof language.

The posters promised "rapid action" and "results in 15 days". They showed before and after pictures of a young woman who started out black and ended up with fair skin through de-pigmentation, locally known as "kheessal" or bleaching.

"We were scandalised (by a poster) suggesting that black is not beautiful because it recommends that young women should transform themselves in a fortnight," said Aisha Deme, who runs the cultural website Agendakar.com.

"In a spontaneous response, we wanted to elevate the black woman and we launched "Nuul Kukk", which means "all black", the young woman added, a flower pinned in her mass of frizzy hair.

So the campaigners put up their own posters in the Senegalese capital, this time showing a proud black woman. The work was done for free by fashion photographer Stephane Tourne and advertising professionals.

The Nuul Kukk campaign, which is highly active online and has its own website, Twitter feed and Facebook page, features local stars, including the rapper Keyti, the stylist Dior Lo and women's rights activist Kine Fatim Diop.

The campaign is also backed by dermatologist Fatimata Ly, who has been fighting the "kheessal" practice for 10 years as part of the International Association for Information on Artificial Depigmentation.

For Ly, skin bleaching is a public health concern because "in the general population, 67 in every 100 women practice artificial de-pigmentation."

These products reduce the body's ability to "defend itself against (various) infections", and they also "have broader effects on health, such as diabetes and high blood pressure," she added.

'We have to fight'

The skin-lightening phenomenon exists in several sub-Saharan African countries and in the black diaspora. In Senegal, "it is mainly a feminine practice, even if you find it among men in some particular groups, such as performers," Ly said.

Whitening creams, milks and gels contain substances initially intended for therapeutic purposes, such as corticosteroids and hydroquinone, and should only be prescribed by doctors, according to Ly.

"Unfortunately, you can find them all across the Senegalese market. They are products that are very accessible," she said.

At between one euro (RM3.90) and 1.5 euros per product — five or six times cheaper than in a chemist's shop — they are also affordable, Ly said as she showed pictures on her computer of the damage caused by bleaching products, ranging from swollen legs, bruises and open wounds to blemished skin and burns.

Women are nonetheless drawn to the products because they believe they will make them more beautiful, according to researchers and doctors, and Deme says it's an uphill battle to convince women otherwise.

"Today's society imposes criteria for beauty on us... Everybody promotes women with fair skin: the papers, magazines, video clips," said Deme.

"What we recommend today is just to stop de-pigmentation. We should stop importing these products and selling them, so that there are no more scandalous advertisements," she added. "It will take as much time as it takes, it will be long, but we have to fight." — AFP/Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views

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BMW recalls 750,000 cars worldwide

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 08:16 AM PST

The logo of German carmaker BMW. BMW announced that it is recalling about 750,000 cars worldwide over potential electrical problems. – AFP pic

FRANKFURT, Feb 19 – German luxury car maker BMW is recalling about 750,000 cars worldwide over potential electrical problems, a spokesman said today.

The recall affects mainly about 500,000 cars in the United States, specifically various versions of its 1-Series and 3-Series cars built between March 2007 and July 2011 and its Z4 model built between March 2009 and June 2011.

Cars sold in Canada, Japan and South Africa were also affected, the spokesman said.

The recall is the results of problems with a battery cable connector which could break and cause a loss of electrical power to the vehicle, causing the car to stall unexpectedly and even crash. – AFP/Relaxnews

Milan coach says he welcomes Berlusconi comments on team

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:57 AM PST

AC Milan's Mario Balotelli (R) celebrates with teammate Niang during their Italian Serie A soccer match against Parma at the San Siro stadium in Milan February 15, 2013. — Reuters pic

MILAN, Feb 19 — AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri said he welcomed suggestions on team selection and tactics from club president Silvio Berlusconi, adding his team would not be Champions League "sacrificial lambs" against Barcelona.

Former Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi regularly comments on team selection, something which would be frowned upon at many clubs.

His latest idea was that Milan should man-mark Lionel Messi in tomorrow's round-of-16 first leg tie at San Siro."I have sat down and talked to the president about the game," Allegri told reporters. "As always, he put forward his ideas and thoughts, which are sometimes brilliant and well thought out, and they are well-received.

"I will try to put the best formation onto the pitch so we can get a good result, which is what counts," added Allegri.

Milan, who held a firesale of their top players at the end of last season to try and cut costs, are seven-times European champions but are building a new team with young players and are rank outsiders in the round-of-16 tie.

"Milan-Barcelona means we are facing the best team in the world but I do not accept that in the last two weeks everyone has been making us out to be the sacrificial lamb," said the coach.

Milan met Barcelona in the group stage and quarterfinals last season and failed to win any of their four matches, with two draws and two wins for the Catalans.

"In the last two years we have played well against Barcelona," said Allegri, who is in his third season at San Siro and won the Serie A title at the first attempt.

"We know that at the moment they are the best team in the world but we have to try and create the elements to go through to the next round, although we know that whoever they play against they have an average of 65 per cent possession.

"We have to try and limit their possession, making them less dangerous because they are so dangerous when they go forward," added the coach, who is famous for giving little away. — Reuters

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The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz

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Rihanna rumored to play Glastonbury

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 05:25 AM PST

LONDON, Feb 19 — International star Rihanna is rumored to be joining the line-up of this year's Glastonbury Festival in the UK.

The singer of "Diamonds" is rumored to be in talks with the organisers of Glastonbury to play the closing night of the festival, according to a report in Ace Showbiz. NME added that she would, if rumors prove true, be headlining the Pyramid Stage, citing the Daily Star.

If Rihanna does feature at this year's Glastonbury, which takes place June 26-28, she will be joining musical legends such as U2, Morrissey, Coldplay and B.B. King as well as other more up-and-coming artists such as the Vaccines, Laura Marling and Plan B.

See: http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

— AFP-Relaxnews

‘Argo,’ ‘Lincoln’ vie for Oscars crown in open race

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 04:47 AM PST

LOS ANGELES, Feb 19 — Steven Spielberg goes into next weekend's Oscars with the most nominations for his presidential "Lincoln," but the momentum is all with Ben Affleck's thriller "Argo" in the Academy Awards home straight.

And while the Hollywood veteran and the young pretender vie for the Oscars best picture crown, several other frontrunners remain hard on their heels, in one of the least predictable Oscar races in recent memory.

Taiwan-born Ang Lee's 3D spectacular "Life of Pi," Osama bin Laden manhunt movie "Zero Dark Thirty" and romcom "Silver Linings Playbook" could all be in with a chance at the Oscars, the climax of Tinseltown's annual awards season.

Spielberg and Lee are frontrunners for best director, while "Lincoln" star Daniel Day-Lewis is widely seen as a shoo-in for best actor. For best actress the hot money is on Jessica Chastain for her part in "Zero Dark Thirty" or "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence.

But Affleck's Iran hostage drama, despite only winning seven nominations — against 12 for "Lincoln," 11 for "Life of Pi" and eight each for "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Les Miserables" — has a clear edge for best picture.

It has swept up top prizes at a string of key awards shows, including the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Directors Guild of America (DGA), and Britain's BAFTA last weekend.

Affleck has gotten used to making acceptance speeches over the last two months — but he has been tightlipped on his prospects for the all-important 85th Academy Awards, to be held at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre next Sunday.

"I just feel so incredibly honored to be nominated as a producer for this movie. To be here at the big party," he said at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon, the annual gathering of those in the race, held in Beverly Hills on February 4.

Indeed, his best picture nomination is as a co-producer of the film — along with George Clooney and Grant Heslov — rather than as a director, a category in which he was not nominated, in a perceived snub.

Snub or no snub, he will be among presenters at the show, along with a Who's Who of A-listers including Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, and Meryl Streep.

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane will be hosting, a move organizers hope will attract younger viewers among the hundreds of millions watching live around the world.

Other nominees presenting include Chastain — best actress frontrunner for playing a relentless CIA agent on the hunt for bin Laden, in Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow's controversial "Zero Dark Thirty."

But Lawrence, star of the "Hunger Games" blockbuster franchise, could also win the category for her portrayal of mixed-up Tiffany to Bradley Cooper's bipolar ex-teacher in "Silver Linings Playbook."

Cooper is up for best actor, along with Hugh Jackman for "Les Miserables," Joaquin Phoenix for "The Master" and Denzel Washington for "Flight" — but Day-Lewis is widely forecast for a record third Oscar for his "Lincoln" turn.

For best director, 66-year-old Spielberg will be hoping for his first Oscar since "Saving Private Ryan" in 1999.

But he is up against Lee —whose "Brokeback Mountain" won best picture in 2006 — as well as Michael Haneke for his Cannes-winning "Amour, David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook," and Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

Best supporting actor nominees are Alan Arkin for "Argo," Robert De Niro for "Silver Linings Playbook," Philip Seymour Hoffman for "The Master," Tommy Lee Jones for "Lincoln," and Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained."

For supporting actress Anne Hathaway is tipped to win for performance in "Les Miserables" — including her heart-wrenching close-up rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" -- against Amy Adams for "The Master," Sally Field in "Lincoln," Helen Hunt in "The Sessions," and Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook."

The Oscars have a musical theme this year, including a performance by Britain's Adele singing the Oscar-nominated 007 theme tune "Skyfall," as well as by Shirley Bassey and Norah Jones, and Barbra Streisand, in her first Oscars turn since 1977. — AFP-Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Books

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British author attacks ‘plastic’ princess Kate

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:30 AM PST

Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, take their first step as man and wife looking at each other as they come out of Westminster Abbey following their wedding ceremony. — AFP pic

LONDON, Feb 19 — One of Britain's most celebrated authors has launched a withering attack on Britain's Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, branding her a "shop-window mannequin" with a plastic smile whose only role in life is to breed.

In an unusually scathing public attack on a British royal, Hilary Mantel said the princess had no personality, a "perfect plastic smile" and appears to have been designed by a committee.

The writer's comments about the pregnant 31-year-old wife of second in line to the British throne Prince William sharply divided public opinion. Newspapers condemned Mantel's words as "venomous", "cruel" and "staggeringly rude", while supporters said it was a thoughtful analysis of the role of royal women over the centuries.

"I saw Kate becoming a jointed doll on which certain rags are hung," Mantel said in a lecture at the British Museum in London earlier this month in which she spoke about her changing views about the princess.

"She was a shop-window mannequin, with no personality of her own, entirely defined by what she wore. These days she is a mother-to-be, and draped in another set of threadbare attributions."

Mantel, who last year became the first Briton to twice win the coveted Man Booker prize for fiction, referred to the princess's severe morning sickness during the early stage of her pregnancy and said her role was to provide an heir.

"Once she gets over being sick, the press will find that she is radiant. They will find that this young woman's life until now was nothing, her only point and purpose being to give birth," Mantel said in the lecture organised by the London Review of Books on February 4. The literary magazine reprinted the lecture on its website this week.

'MACHINE-MADE'

Mantel, 60, is best known for her historical novel "Wolf Hall", about the rise of blacksmith's son Thomas Cromwell to the pinnacle of power in King Henry VIII's court. Her follow-up "Bring Up the Bodies" recounted Anne Boleyn's fall from grace.

In her lecture, Mantel said the Duchess of Cambridge was "selected for her role ... because she was irreproachable", contrasting her with the "emotional incontinence" of William's late mother, Princess Diana.

"As painfully thin as anyone could wish, without quirks, without oddities, without the risk of the emergence of character. She appears precision-made, machine-made, so different from Diana," Mantel said.

The author's agent was not immediately available for comment. A St James's Palace spokeswoman had no comment.

Reaction on Twitter suggested Mantel had split public opinion. Royal commentator Robert Jobson said the "venomous attack" was "unfair and publicity-seeking". Others agreed with Mantel, saying she had elegantly articulated what many people had long thought about the royals.

The lecture looked at the "fascination with royalty" and the "regal body", examining the lives of royal women and the importance of providing an heir. Mantel compared that to the fuss made about pandas mating in captivity.

"Our current royal family doesn't have the difficulties in breeding that pandas do, but pandas and royal persons alike are expensive to conserve and ill-adapted to any modern environment," Mantel said. "But aren't they interesting? Aren't they nice to look at?" — Reuters

Forgotten work by Japan Nobel laureate uncovered

Posted: 18 Feb 2013 06:09 PM PST

Loneliness and empathy for the weak are strong themes in the story, which was first published when Kawabata was 27. – AFP pic

TOKYO, Feb 19 – A previously unknown short story by Japan's first Nobel Prize-winning author Yasunari Kawabata, best-known for the novel Snow Country, has been uncovered by researchers decades after his death.

Written early in his career, Utsukushii! ("Beautiful!") appeared in April and May 1927 in a newspaper in Fukuoka, western Japan, Takumi Ishikawa of Rikkyo University and his fellow researchers found, Ishikawa told AFP Monday.

Ishikawa and Hiroshi Sakaguchi, publisher and director at a literary museum in Fukuoka, discovered the unrecorded work while looking back through the paper's archives. It was verified as a genuine article by the Kawabata Foundation, he said.

The Kawabata Foundation is a body dedicated to preserving the late author's work, and annually awards a prize named after him.

Utsukushii! is the story of an industrialist who buries a young girl in his disabled son's grave after she suffers an accident while visiting the tomb.

On the common gravestone, the father inscribes: "A beautiful young boy and beautiful young girl sleep together".

Loneliness and empathy for the weak are strong themes in the story, which was first published when Kawabata was 27, immediately after the release of The Dancing Girl of Izu, Ishikawa said.

"It was during the period when many prominent authors sought outlets for their literary products in local papers after major Japanese publishers and newspapers based in Tokyo suffered devastating damage from the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923," he said.

"The story also has a lot in common with his other story that was published in 1954 under the title Utsukushiki Haka (Beautiful Grave)," he added.

Loneliness is a common theme in other stories by Kawabata, whose parents died early in his life, and whose sole carer—his grandfather—passed away when he was just 15.

In the rediscovered story, "you can see the 'sprouting' of the worldview that is evident in Kawabata's later works," Ishikawa said.

Kawabata's works in his later years include Snow Country, The Sound of the Mountain and The Old Capital and have been translated into English.

Kawabata was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1968, the first Japanese to be recognised in the field by the committee.

He committed suicide in 1972, at the age of 72. – AFP-Relaxnews

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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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Religious institutions, beware the scourge of the Internet

Posted: 18 Feb 2013 03:38 PM PST

FEB 19 — The Malaysian Insider had to take down a story a week and a half ago on Malaysian religious authorities spreading hatred against Valentine's Day celebrations — after a complaint was made by said department. It was no big deal, because by the time it was taken down, possibly hundreds of people would have read it.

Out of those hundreds, some would have shared it on Twitter or Facebook, some would have commented on the story, and many more will continue to talk about it off the Net for days to come.

It is the age of the Internet, and what the religious do behind closed doors no longer stays that way.

An article by Valerie Tarico, "Does the Internet Spell Doom For Organised Religion?", describes the situation succinctly. It posits that religions are on the decline all over the world because humans nowadays possess a terrible weapon of reason: the Internet.

Tarico explained that a traditional religion, one which is built on "right" belief, requires a closed information system. The beliefs only work when the adherents believe solely in what they have been taught, with no output outside the closed system.

You can see such system at work in how Islam is practised in Malaysia: Muslims are only allowed to marry other Muslims, and their children automatically become Muslims.

Websites are blocked. Books are banned. Speakers are denied from entering the country. One needs a specific permit or licence to preach. Religious sects other than the "right one" get vilified.

Then there is that ban on the A-word, which goes along with a ban on the Alkitab, the Bible in Malay. Both having their roots in the constitutional — but anciently absurd — requirement that while Muslims can preach to others, non-Muslims just cannot do the same towards their Malay brethren.

Again, no outside information is allowed, just information which has been deemed "correct" by the holy gatekeepers. Because information will lead to questioning, and questioning will lead to a wavering faith, and a wavering faith will eventually lead to abandonment.

Malaysian Islam knows that should it allow its believers open access to everything, it might meet that one end: irrelevance. And that is as good as doom.

In Tarico's article, two out of the six ways the Internet is contributing to the doom of organised religions are by presenting curated collections of ridiculous beliefs, and the kinky, exploitative, oppressive, opportunistic and violent sides of religion.

Perhaps the religious authorities were aware of this, for they realised that everybody with access to the Internet could now know that they were spreading hatred towards something as insignificant as the Valentine's Day behind closed doors.

This hatred, mind you, came just two weeks after a call-of-arms towards "enemies of Islam" in the country. It was followed by another sermon a week after which seemed to backtrack by calling for interfaith tolerance instead.

With the Internet, citizens can find out that the oft-quoted article by one Ken Swieger (sic) deriding Valentine's Day for promoting idolatry was just an online post by a pastor to his Knoxville, Tennessee congregation, the Seventh Day Christian Assembly.

The sermon claimed that the word "Valentine" was used to exalt two ancient Roman deities, Lupercus and Nimrod. Meanwhile, in his article Swiger (the correct spelling) linked the celebration to a pagan festival of intimacy dedicated to a deity called Lupercus, which might be the biblical Nimrod the great hunter, great-grandson of Noah.

He then claimed that the Latin word "valens", meaning "the strong, powerful or mighty one", was the root word for "Valentine", and was in reference to Nimrod, thus making the celebration a "blatant idolatry".

It can be noted here that the supposed research was less than stellar, and an Islamic studies student armed with Google might fare better. If a sermon itself pays this much (or less) attention to facts, what hope do we have for the rest of the teachings?

The mother of irony then — that an institution so adamant of not sharing a religious term with the Christians is using a minor church leader from infidel USA to justify a nationwide crusade.

It is the age of the Internet, of open information available at your fingertips. I will not hold my breath waiting for the religious institution to finally join the 21st century, but I will enjoy seeing them grasp at the invisible doors of the Internet as they attempt to board them up.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

Handball?! When? What? How?

Posted: 18 Feb 2013 03:19 PM PST

FEB 19 — I want to start a campaign. Would anyone like to join me?

I want to start a campaign to make FIFA — football's global governing body — change one of the game's most fundamental laws.

Actually, it's not that strong. I don't want a law to be changed; I want it to be improved. Re-worded. Clarified. Made less ambiguous and subjective.

But which one? Which law of the game is driving me to such desperate (and, let's face it, doomed) measures?

It's handball.

On Sunday night I watched Real Madrid take on lively little local neighbours Rayo Vallecano at the Bernabeu.

For the opening 20 minutes, it was an entirely enjoyable affair. Madrid were in an effervescent mood, sweeping into a 2-0 lead with goals from debutant striker Alvaro Morata and defender Sergio Ramos, but Rayo were also threatening when they attacked in an entertainingly open game.

Then referee Jose Paradas ruined it. Or, rather, Paradas' interpretation of the handball law ruined it.

Ramos had just been harshly booked for an insignificant little foul when Rayo played the resulting free-kick out to their left flank, allowing their winger to advance towards Ramos before delivering a cross towards the penalty area.

Quite reasonably — because he is an athletic human being and didn't have his hands tied behind his back — Ramos reacted by closing down the ball before attempting to block the cross by leaping into its path with his arms slightly outstretched to provide him with balance upon landing.

From a distance of approximately three metres, the firmly struck ball crashed against Ramos' arm. There was nothing he could have done to get out of the way; he had jumped in an entirely natural motion in a genuine attempt to block the cross, and had certainly not deliberately put his arm into the path of the ball to invite the contact.

Good old Senor Paradas, though, did not see it that way. Without hesitation, he ran superciliously towards Ramos, reached inside his top pocket and brandished first the yellow card — Ramos' second in the space of a minute — and then the red card.

Ramos had been sent off, for doing nothing other than performing an act of defensive football which involved jumping. Yes, his arms were somewhat outstretched, but that's an entirely natural physical movement — I know because I've just tried it in my living room.

If you attempt to jump, high and slightly at an angle, with your hands stiffly by your side (go on, try it), the feeling is extremely unnatural and it's difficult not to fall over when you land.

Yet, thanks to Paradas' apparent misunderstanding of the mechanics of the human body, Ramos could play no further part in the game against Rayo and will also be suspended from next weekend's trip to Deportivo La Coruna — a game that could have significant ramifications for many clubs considering Depor's struggle against relegation.

Furthermore, Ramos' absence for the final 70 minutes of the meeting with Rayo meant that the game was ruined as a spectacle.

Understandably, Madrid boss Jose Mourinho reacted with a conservative move after his team was reduced to 10 men, replacing promising young striker Morata — whose debut had provided the game with an interesting angle — and introducing defender Raul Albiol.

Madrid lost their earlier attacking endeavour, retreated to protect their two-goal lead and the remainder of the game provided very little by the way of goalmouth drama.

The red card for Ramos irritated me so much that I decided to seek out FIFA's official laws of the game just to check whether the referee had acted correctly in judging his "handball" so severely.

The laws can be viewed here and although I won't quote its entirety here, the key wording in the section relating to handball (on page 113) is this (my italics):

"Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with his hand or arm. The referee must take the following into consideration:

● the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)

● the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)

● the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement."

That's clear then. Well, about as clear as mud. Unlike the offside laws, which are nicely embellished by seven pages of illustrations to explain possible scenarios, there is no further explanation to help referees understand how they should judge "handballs".

So much of the law quoted above is left to subjective opinion: the referee must "take the following into consideration"... but how? When it comes to "the movement of the hand" or "the distance between the opponent and the ball", exactly what should the referee be looking for? And if the position of the hand "does not necessarily mean" there is an infringement, when does it? And when doesn't it?

No wonder, then, that there's such a disparity of opinion from one referee to another about how they should penalise the act of a ball striking an arm or hand. With the law so inadequate, we can scarcely blame officials for erratically dealing with a situation that isn't properly explained to them by the official laws of the game.

The problem is a particular blight on La Liga due to the tendency of Spanish referees to punish virtually any handball offence with a card. So far this season no less than 16 players have been sent off for receiving their second yellow card for handball, most of them no worse than Ramos' supposed offence on Sunday night.

But it's also a widespread issue throughout the game — witness the furore sparked by Luis Suarez's goal for Liverpool against Mansfield in the FA Cup earlier this season.

And until FIFA decide to act by improving the law and giving better guidance to referees, it will continue. So why don't we all use the contact form on their website to send the message "Please change the handball law because at the moment it's rubbish," and see what happens.

Probably not a lot, but hey, Rome in a day and all that.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

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Nick Xenophon tidak layak jadi pemerhati pilihan raya, kata SPR

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 03:03 AM PST

KUCHING, 19 Feb — Senator bebas Australia Nick Xenophon ialah seorang yang berat sebelah, tidak profesional dan hanya memihak kepada sebuah parti sahaja, justeru itu tidak layak menjadi pemerhati pilihan raya, kata Pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof.

Beliau berkata SPR pernah mengadakan perbincangan dengan Xenophon atas jemputan Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, tetapi perkara yang ditimbulkannya sama seperti isu yang dibangkitkan parti pembangkang.

"Jadi pemerhati patut bebas, tidak berat sebelah, yang tidak betul tegur walaupun siapa buat salah...Bila bias (dia) tidak dapat hendak jadi pemerhati yang adil dan saksama. Dia mewakili parti politik tertentu, (untuk) jadi pemerhati tidak bolehlah begitu," katanya kepada pemberita di sini hari ini.

Beliau sebelum itu merasmikan taklimat ulangan untuk 96 peserta terdiri daripada pegawai pengurus dan ketua pasukan Penguatkuasaan Kempen Pilihan Raya (PP-KPR) Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13. Abdul Aziz berkata sebagai negara berdaulat, Malaysia tidak perlu mengikut telunjuk (individu dari) negara lain untuk melakukan sesuatu.

"Saya percaya negara dia pun (Australia) tidak suka kalau Malaysia beritahu perdana menterinya supaya melantik Malaysia jadi pemerhati atas sebab (kononnya) banyak perkara tidak betul berlaku, itu maknanya kita sudah campur tangan dalam kedaulatan negara lain," katanya.

Mengulas lanjut, Abdul Aziz berkata isu-isu yang cuba dibangkitkan Xenophon adalah isu yang sama yang disuarakan oleh parti pembangkang.

"Untuk makluman, Timbalan Pengerusi SPR Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar pernah mengadakan perjumpaan dengan dia. Pertanyaan serta keraguannya boleh dikatakan tidak berbeza langsung dengan perkara-perkara yang selalu ditimbulkan parti politik (pembangkang), seratus peratus serupa.

"Walaupun sama, kami tetap beri penjelasan kepada mereka," katanya.

Menurutnya antara isu yang dibangkitkan ialah persempadanan kawasan pilihan raya dan daftar pemilih.

"Saya sendiri pernah terangkan isu itu kepada Duta Australia ke Malaysia...beliau faham dan mengatakan beliau tidak bermaksud untuk campur tangan dalam sistem kita, tetapi cuma untuk pemahaman beliau sahaja," katanya. — Bernama

Selangor akur pilihan raya negeri serentak dengan parlimen

Posted: 19 Feb 2013 03:00 AM PST

SHAH ALAM, 19 Feb — Kerajaan negeri Selangor akur supaya pilihan raya negeri diadakan serentak dengan pilihan raya parlimen dan menyerahkan kepada Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) menetapkan tarikhnya.

Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim berkata perkara itu telahpun disepakati semua anggota Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor (Adun) daripada pakatan pembangkang.

"Kami setuju supaya tarikh pilihan raya ditetapkan oleh Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya dan kami tidak keberatan supaya pilihan raya negeri dilaksanakan serentak dengan pilihan raya parlimen," katanya selepas merasmikan Konvensyen dan Pelancaran Pembudayaan SPIES (Spiritual, Physical, Intelectual, Emotional, Social) negeri Selangor di sini hari ini.

Sebelum ini Khalid berkata tarikh pembubaran Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor akan diumumkan selepas sambutan Chap Goh Mei masyarakat Cina setelah mengadakan pertemuan dengan Adun pakatan pembangkang.

Mengulas isu air, Abdul Khalid berkata beliau tidak menerima sebarang aduan daripada para pelabur di Selangor mengenai bekalan air terawat dan menegaskan bahawa jumlah pelaburan asing di negeri ini tahun lepas masih tinggi. — Bernama

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Selasa, 19 Februari 2013