PETALING JAYA, April 27 — Just the Thai laksa alone with the fish curry was worth my making another trip to Old Siam in 1 Utama last week. I was joined by two friends who happened to be walking past and ... Read More
PETALING JAYA, April 27 — Just the Thai laksa alone with the fish curry was worth my making another trip to Old Siam in 1 Utama last week. I was joined by two friends who happened to be walking past and ... Read More
PARIS, April 27 — Paris St Germain coach Carlo Ancelotti is not 100 per cent sure he will stay at the French Ligue 1 leaders and will not make a decision before the title is decided, he said on Saturday.
French media have linked the Italian coach with a move to Real Madrid if Jose Mourinho leaves the Spanish club at the end of the season.
Ancelotti, whose deal with PSG will be extended for another year when they secure qualification for next season's Champions League, said nothing had yet been decided.
"I told the players not to pay attention to the rumours because nothing is done yet," he told a news conference ahead of Sunday's visit to 16th-placed Evian Thonon Gaillard.
"I can't say 100 per cent that I'm staying. I will make a decision when the league is over although it won't be a free call, because I'm under contract until June 30, 2014 ," he told a news conference.
"Hopefully, you'll have to wait for 15 days to know whether I stay or not," he added.
PSG, who have a nine-point lead and a huge goal difference advantage over second-placed Olympique Marseille before this weekend's Ligue 1 matches, need six points from the last five games to clinch their first title in 19 years.
Victory at Evian would confirm a top-three finish.
The top two teams in Ligue 1 qualify for the Champions League group stage and the third-placed side go into the third qualifying round. — Reuters
NEW DELHI, April 27 (Reuters) - World number one Lee Chong Wei will have another go at winning an elusive Olympic gold medal provided he remains injury-free, the Malaysian shuttler said on Saturday.
Lee lost a second Olympic final to his great rival Lin Dan of China last year and hinted at retirement but his eyes glistened as he spoke about the possibility of being third time lucky.
"Yes, Olympic gold is my dream. I tried my best and twice I lost in the final," Lee, 30, told reporters after cruising into the final of the India Open super series tournament.
"I'll try one more time in 2016 (Rio Olympics) if I stay injury-free," he said when asked how long he hoped to continue playing.
"I'd like to see how my conditions are next year after the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games. If I'm free of injuries, (I'd play) until 2016, one more Olympics."
"Next year, we have a lot of competitions - Commonwealth Games, Asian Games, World Championships and I know Thomas Cup is in India. I hope I can maintain my results and don't sustain injuries because you it's very difficult to recover and get back to court."
Lee carries the burden of a nation that has not won an Olympic gold but he thinks there will be less pressure on his shoulders in Rio.
"Malaysia never won a gold in Olympics. I tried very hard but lost in the final last year," he said.
"I can take it easy in 2016 because I have won the silver two times. There would be less pressure in 2016." — Reuters
A built-in elastic resistance mechanism helps align shoulders.PARIS, April 27 — Neda Naef, founder of UpCouture Paris, came up with the idea of a T-shirt that would encourage people to keep their shoulders straight as she observed some of her friends and family.
A shoulder support system built into the t-shirt
Thanks to an internationally patented elastic resistance mechanism — which works simply through arm movements — the Up T-shirt aligns your shoulders and makes you sit better.
The brand's first model, Lara Micheli (who has also modeled for Paris-based brand The Kooples), has already backed the innovative t-shirt.
A discreet design
The Up T-shirt, made in France out of 100 per cent organic cotton, has a simple fitted cut so that it can be easily worn with a range of outfits and accessories. There are separate versions for men and women and six colors to choose from.
The clip was meant to highlight the ix35's "100 per cent water emissions." — Picture courtesy of Hyundai MotorsSEOUL, April 27 — South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co has been forced to apologise for an advertisement that sought to promote the zero carbon emissions of one of its cars by featuring a man failing to commit suicide using a hose attached to the exhaust.
The ad debacle is the latest to hit the carmaker, the world's fifth largest by sales when combined with its Kia Motors affiliate, after it exaggerated fuel performance figures in the United States, and announced a large-scale vehicle recall this month.
The South Korean company scrambled to limit the damage from the advertisement, which was pulled.
It was made by the European unit of Innocean Worldwide Corp, an in-house advertising firm that is 40 per cent owned by Chung Sung-yi, a daughter of Hyundai Motor Group chairman Chung Mong-koo.
Hyundai Motor and Innocean said they "deeply and sincerely apologize for any offense or distress" that the posting of the "viral film", aimed at a European audience, may have caused.
The YouTube ad for Hyundai's hydrogen-powered car ix35 featured a middle-aged man attempting to commit suicide by sitting in his car with a hose connected to its exhaust pipe feeding into the car's interior.
He failed to kill himself because the car had "100 per cent water emissions," according to the advert.
Holly Brockwell, who identified herself as a digital copywriter in London, wrote on her blog that she felt "sick" after watching the advert, saying her father had committed suicide when she was a child.
"I understand better than most people the need to do ... something talkable, even something outrageous to get those all-important viewing figures. What I don't understand is why a group of strangers have just brought me to tears in order to sell me a car," she said in an open letter to Hyundai and Innocean.
"My dad never drove a Hyundai. Thanks to you, neither will I."
Hyundai, led by chairman Chung Mong-koo, has transformed itself from the butt of jokes to a company that has aspirations to match Germany's Volkswagen AG as it seeks to shed its value-for-money image and move upmarket.
Hyundai's crossover ix35 car, which is sold as the Tucson in the United States, will go on sale in Europe by 2015 as the company seeks to leap-frog its competition in the eco-friendly car segment.
Hyundai is not the only carmaker to have run into trouble over its advertisements. Last month, US automaker Ford Motor Co came under fire for sexist adverts in India, prompting an apology from Ford India and the dismissal of employees at an Indian unit of advertising group WPP. — Reuters
Sir Salman Rushdie, a British Indian novelist and essayist. — AFP-Relaxnews picLOS ANGELES, April 27 — Three decades after "Midnight's Children" catapulted Salman Rushdie to literary glory, a film of the novel feels like "closing the circle" after his dark years in hiding, he says.
But while fatwa-free life is now "pretty good," he admitted there are occasional "slippages" - including during a trip last year to India, the land of his birth, while promoting the movie.
In an interview timed with its US release, he discussed hopes for more film adaptations, Quentin Tarantino's unlikely influence on "Midnight's Children" - and his feelings about Margaret Thatcher as a mother-figure.
The movie tells the story of two boys born on the stroke of midnight, August 15, 1947, at the precise moment India gained independence from its British colonial masters, but then switched shortly after birth.
The 1981 novel won the coveted Booker Prize and launched the Anglo-Indian writer's career - but seven years later the glamorous literary life came to an abrupt stop when Iran slapped a death sentence on him for "The Satanic Verses."
Rushdie recounted his years in hiding in last year's autobiographical "Joseph Anton" - the pseudonym he chose to keep would-be assassins off his trail - which he hopes will be the next book to be adapted for the big screen.
But he was in Los Angeles this month to talk about "Midnight's Children," which came out in several countries including India last year, ahead of its release in the United States from Friday, April 26.
The idea of adapting the novel came "completely spontaneously" from Indian director Deepa Mehta, said Rushdie, who wrote the screenplay and narrates the movie.
At one point he thought of acting in it. "But when we came to actually make the film, I thought, you know, it's distracting, it's kind of stunt casting," said Rushdie, who had a cameo part as himself in 2001's "Bridget Jones' Diary."
He praised Tarantino, who also takes cameo roles, but said: "He's a pretty experienced actor, so it's different" - and admitted that he was having trouble writing a torture scene towards the climax of "Midnight's Children."
"It was a difficult scene to write for a long time, until I thought that the way to write it was almost as comedy. That's where I thought of Tarantino. I thought of 'Reservoir Dogs,' a very, very black comic tone of voice."
The finished work manages to weave the novel's allegorical complexity and strands of magic realism into a coherent and visually spectacular two-and-a-half-hour long movie.
One of the most important places for him to take the movie was his native India, and above all Mumbai, or Bombay, the city of his birth.
"It was extraordinary to show the film to an audience whose history it also tells... It was very moving for me. It felt like closing a circle, to bring that film back to Bombay, to the city from which the novel was born," he said.
But the trip to India - where "The Satanic Verses" remains banned for allegedly insulting Islam - was not without incident.
He was forced to cancel a trip to the eastern city of Kolkata. "Obviously it's very annoying," he said. "The chief minister of Bengal decided in her wisdom to prevent me from coming. It's horrible actually."
Talking generally about his security now, Rushdie said his life in hiding has "been over for longer than it went on.
"That's why, when these occasional kind of slippages into the past take place .. now it really catches me by surprise. Because I'm not expecting it any more. Life is pretty good these days," he added.
Of other adaptations, he said he was "optimistic" that a film version will be made of "Joseph Anton," with a British production company potentially involved, although a deal has not yet been signed.
He has also been writing a TV show called "Next People" for US cable channel Showtime, and hopes one day to see film versions of his children's books, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" and "Luka and the Fire of Life."
"Satanic Verses," however, appears unlikely ever to make the big screen, he admitted. "There isn't a great stampede for the rights, I have to say, so I doubt it."
But in the comfortable surroundings of the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles, he paid an unexpected tribute to Thatcher, whose government provided him with round-the-clock protection against the Iranian fatwa threat.
"Our politics were very, very opposed, and I think that's still true today," he said, but he noted that, on the one occasion he did meet her, she was very charming.
"One of the ways in which she was charming was to be very physically affectionate ... She'd speak to you in a kind of almost aunt-like way. That was unexpected.
"The Iron Lady as your mother .. that was disarming." — AFP-Relaxnews
Clifford reads a statement after leaving Belgravia police station in London December 6, 2012. — Reuters picLONDON, April 27 — Celebrity publicist Max Clifford yesterday became the first high profile figure to be charged in a wide-ranging investigation into a sex scandal that has grabbed front page headlines in Britain in recent months.
Clifford, 70, was charged with 11 counts of indecent assault, prosecutors said, including on two underage girls, after being arrested in December as part of an investigation into sex crime allegations against the late Jimmy Savile.
Savile, one of Britain's biggest TV stars in the 1970s and 1980s, was after his death last year found to have carried out sex crimes on an unprecedented scale over six decades, triggering an inquiry that has snared several other celebrities.
Clifford, whose clients have included "The X Factor" reality TV creator Simon Cowell, is best known in Britain for selling "kiss and tell" stories about the rich and famous to scandal-hungry tabloid newspapers.
"Having completed our review, we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Clifford to be charged with 11 offences of indecent assault relating to seven complainants," the Crown Prosecution Service's Alison Saunders said in a statement.
Clifford, whose alleged crimes were committed between 1966 and 1985, is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on May 28. One of the assaults relates to a girl aged 14, and another to girl aged 15.
Lawyers for Clifford were not immediately available to comment, but a statement from the publicist carried by Sky News said he was living a "24/7 nightmare".
"I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings," he said.
Other celebrities arrested in the Savile probe, codenamed Operation Yewtree, include glam-rock singer Gary Glitter, comedian Freddie Starr and children's' TV show presenter Rolf Harris, who all deny any wrongdoing.
Earlier this month David Smith, a former BBC driver, became the first to have charges brought against him, including two counts of indecent assault, two of gross indecency, and one of buggery, all in 1984, prosecutors said.
Police say Savile committed 214 offences, including 34 rapes or serious sexual assaults, beginning as long ago as 1955.
The scandal forced former BBC Director-General George Entwistle to stand down after only 54 days in the top job. — Reuters
APRIL 27 — For quite a few years now, "the death of film" has been a constant theme in editorials and discussions regarding the future of film as an art form.
The arrival of high-definition digital cameras ranging from professional ones to "prosumer" ones was more or less the beginning of the end for 35mm film stock as more and more film-makers opted for the cheaper, lighter and more flexible digital options.
But what surely sounds the death bell for film stock is the transition from film projection to digital projection in cinemas. So fast is the transition that even here in Malaysia we'll be completing the full transition into digital projection in cinemas by either the end of this year or next year.
Maybe it's the fetishistic nature of cinephilia itself that leads to all this worry about the future of cinema, but to me the death of "film" doesn't necessarily mean the death of "cinema" itself.
While it's true that I'll undoubtedly miss the lovely texture and grain that you can only find on films that are shot on film, going digital still does not and will not kill all the lovely cinematic techniques that make us fall in love with films in the first place.
The biggest proof can probably be seen in the increasingly high-quality. made-for-television movies and series, especially in the last five years or so.
While it's normal to see a TV director make the transition to making feature films for the cinemas, to see things happen the other way around is not so common, mainly because film directors do not see TV as a respectable or classy enough avenue for them to display their film-making skills, but it's becoming abundantly clear that many film-makers nowadays see TV as a truly viable option.
David Lynch's Twin Peaks was probably where it all started, but HBO more or less paved the way, with everyone from Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys) to Philip Kaufman (The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, The Right Stuff) to even Jay Roach (Meet The Parents) making one of their event TV movies and an auteur as highly respected as Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, Safe) making the Mildred Pierce mini-series for them.
It's not even an America-only trend as in Europe we can see examples such as the United Kingdom's Red Riding Trilogy (directed by James Marsh, Anand Tucker and Julian Jarrold respectively), France's outstanding Carlos (directed by Olivier Assayas, who made Irma Vep, Demonlover, Summer Hours) and the one I'd most like to see — Germany's Dreileben (by Christian Petzold who recently made the arthouse hit Barbara, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhausler). Even Japan has seen an established auteur like Kiyoshi Kurosawa (director of the original Pulse aka Kairo, Tokyo Sonata) make the mini-series Penance for TV.
Over here Astro has been looking to jump on the bandwagon as well with its "super telemovie" concept, which in my humble opinion misses the actual point of the trend, which is to give respected and critically acclaimed film-makers (not mainstream ones) carte blanche and a lavish budget to work with.
A TV movie from people like U-Wei Saari or Dain Said would be in line with this global trend, so let's just see if we'll finally get that here.
The biggest sign that auteurist TV is fast gaining prominence is the arrival of two series this year with major auteurist credentials behind them. For the Sundance Channel there's Top Of The Lake by Cannes Palme d'Or winner Jane Campion (The Piano, Sweetie), on which she shares directing duties with Garth Davis and which has been described by some as Twin Peaks meets The Killing.
Watch it and see for yourself why auteurist TV is different (and better and more exciting) than normal TV. Or like HBO likes to put it — it's "not TV."
If Top Of The Lake comes armed with the credentials and prestige provided by Jane Campion's name, then House Of Cards, which is popular US streaming service Netflix's virgin foray into original programming, comes armed with even more guns, the biggest of which is series producer and mastermind David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Social Network).
Yes you read that right, arguably the man when it comes to critical acclaim and box-office clout in Hollywood has gone into TV, and streaming TV at that.
And he even ropes in a few other highly respected film-makers like Joel Schumacher (Tigerland, Phone Booth), James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross) and Carl Franklin (Devil In A Blue Dress, Out Of Time) to direct some of the episodes.
With names like these, and with Netflix reportedly spending US$100 million (RM303 million) for two 13-episode seasons, and the other aforementioned TV series and TV movies also costing quite a pretty penny, it's looking increasingly likely that TV is the next frontier for auteurs looking to create and practise their art without much executive interference, and on lavishly comfortable budgets.
The already on-hand subscribers (both for cable channels like HBO and Sundance and streaming like Netflix) means that there's already a built-in audience, which represents far less a risk than trying to market movies into cinemas, which in turn allows for more risks to be taken creatively and artistically.
This is probably why auteurist TV is looking more and more like a viable option and a win-win situation for not only both parties, but for audiences as well.
Andy West is a sports writer originally from the UK and now living in Barcelona. He has worked in professional football since 1998 and specialises in the Spanish Primera Division and the English Premier League. Follow him on Twitter at @andywest01.
APRIL 27 — What a week of Champions League football.
Surely nobody — and I mean nobody — would have predicted that Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund would beat Barcelona and Real Madrid by a combined score of 8-1. Both games — both performances by the German teams — were sensational.
The most remarkable thing is that their scorelines were fully deserved, with Bayern and Borussia performing at an inordinately superior level to their Spanish opposition in every way.
When results like this occur, it's difficult to immediately know whether they are freak one-offs (or two-offs, in this case), strange anomalies that don't carry any longer-term significance, or whether they are indicative of a wider, more meaningful trend.
In this case, for example, do the results indicate a new supremacy of Germany's Bundesliga over Spain's Primera Division?
It's easy to fall into the trap of excessive knee-jerk reactions, boldly proclaiming that Barcelona's reign as the best team in the world is over simply because they lost one match very heavily.
In truth, nobody knows how much wider significance this week's results will carry. Only time will tell, and all we can do is speculate. But all the available evidence does suggest that Bayern, in particular, are here to stay.
It's easy to underestimate just how big a club the Bavarians are. German football, despite its consistent success at both club and international level over many decades, has always somehow operated on the periphery of the European scene, never quite enjoying the international popularity or esteem of the English Premier League, Italy's Serie A or Spanish's La Liga.
Consequently, Bayern Munich are generally regarded — outside their own country, at least — as a smaller club than they actually are. Ask a casual football fan to name the biggest clubs in Europe, and nearly everyone will list the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Juventus before they think of Bayern.
I was always the same until I spent a year living in Munich and came to realise just what an enormous phenomena Bayern are. Due to the lack of competition they face within Germany, they dominate their country's footballing scene in a way that no other major European club can achieve.
Everything about Bayern is big: their stadium, their training facilities, the media coverage they generate, the size of their fan base and perhaps most of all their mentality. The rest of the world may not do so, but Bayern certainly regard themselves — and always have — as belonging among the biggest clubs in the world.
Now, in playing terms, Bayern are clearly at that level. Pep Guardiola has been recruited with the task of turning them into the best team in the world, just as he did at Barcelona. Ironically, however, they showed on Tuesday that they may already be the best, and Guardiola's challenge will be to keep them there rather than take them there.
He has every chance of doing so, because Bayern's size and stature within Germany means that no other Bundesliga club can ever compete with them over a sustained period.
Bayern simply sweep up the best German talent, as they have done this week by stealing Mario Goetze away from Dortmund, who now face the prospect of losing key players in three consecutive summers — something that would never happen to Bayern, a club big enough to keep any players they want.
Of course, returning to the earlier point, it's important to remember that the season is not over and next week's Champions League second legs may well feature dramatic comebacks by Barcelona and/or Real Madrid.
Even next season, it may well be that Spanish football — Barca in particularly — may not actually be about to lose its position of pre-eminence within the European game. To truly be able to declare themselves as possessing the highest quality football in Europe, German teams will have to dominate the European scene for a number of years, rather than just one season.
Where does this leave English Premier League clubs, after a season which saw none of them reach the last eight of the Champions League? Although this may be exactly the kind of premature conclusion that I've already warned against, I fear they will continue to slip further behind.
Years of mismanagement at the highest level of the English game, with the administrative powers awkwardly shared between the Premier League and the Football Association, are coming home to roost.
A lack of overall direction and strategic national planning means that English teams are gradually getting worse, and I believe they'll soon be overtaken by the rising quality evident in Italy's Serie A to relegate the Premier League to the fourth best in Europe.
But it seems churlish to be talking about any other country at the moment. This is quite clearly Germany's hour: the question is, how long will it last?
KANGAR, 27 April — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin berkata manifesto Barisan Nasional (BN) adalah satu aku janji berbanding manifesto pembangkang yang disifatkannya sebagai "penipuan di siang hari".
Timbalan Perdana Menteri berkata aku janji yang ditawarkan dalam manifesto BN itu adalah yang terbaik dan lebih menarik berbanding tawaran dalam manifesto pembangkang yang dibuat semata-mata untuk menarik sokongan pengundi dan tanpa kajian.
Katanya rakyat mungkin telah meneliti kandungan manifesto BN dan parti-parti pembangkang, namun beliau yakin sebahagian besar masyarakat menerima kenyataan bahawa aku janji BN yang mencakupi 17 bidang adalah yang terbaik.
Mengulas kaji selidik Pusat Kajian Pilihan Raya dan Demokrasi Universiti Malaya (UMCEDEL) mengenai manifesto pilihan raya, Muhyiddin (gambar) berkata ia menunjukkan rakyat cukup prihatin tentang apa yang ditawarkan oleh parti-parti yang bertanding pada pilihan raya umum ke-13 ini.
"Tapi saya nak jelaskan, (manifesto) pakatan pembangkang seimbas lalu macam boleh, tapi kalau kaji dengan teliti (tidak boleh), kajian oleh pakar kewangan yang telah dibentuk oleh Kabinet baru-baru ini, dipimpin oleh Menteri Kewangan Kedua di mana dapatan kajian itu menunjukkan dia (manifesto pembangkang) tak mungkin 'durable' (berdaya tahan)," katanya pada sidang media selepas merasmikan penutupan Minggu Saham Amanah Malaysia (MSAM) 2013 di sini hari ini.
Beliau berkata sekali pandang tawaran pembangkang seperti menghapuskan pembayaran pinjaman Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional (PTPTN), menurunkan harga minyak serta menghapuskan tol dilihat mampu menarik penyokong tetapi sebenarnya tidak dikaji terlebih dahulu.
"Siapa suka nak bayar pinjaman balik, siapa yang tidak suka tol dihapuskan dan harga minyak diturunkan, tawaran sebegitu memang menarik. Secara holistik, yang hendak membayar, menanggung dan mensubsidi adalah kerajaan pusat," katanya.
Beliau berkata untuk menghapuskan tol akan memerlukan pengambilalihan syarikat-syarikat konsesi yang akan melibat kos beberapa bilion ringgit.
Muhyiddin berkata kerajaan tidak boleh turunkan lagi harga minyak kerana subsidi yang ditanggung kini adalah besar iaitu 24 bilion setahun.
Beliau memberikan contoh Presiden Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pernah berkata di Singapura bahawa beliau akan menghapuskan subsidi minyak di Indonesia kerana tidak tahan untuk menanggung kos subsidi, namun katanya kerajaan Malaysia masih mampu untuk menanggung subsidi tetapi tidak dapat melebihi RM24 bilion setahun.
Muhyiddin berkata menurut kajian penganalisis ekonomi, kalau manifesto pembangkang itu dilaksanakan, ia akan meletakkan negara di dalam keadaan yang teruk di mana defisit negara akan meningkat dari 4.5 peratus kepada 11 peratus yang boleh mengakibatkan Malaysia menuju ke ambang muflis.
Sementara itu, Timbalan Perdana Menteri yakin BN Perlis akan terus diberi mandat oleh rakyat pada pilihan raya umum ini berdasarkan sokongan rakyat dan gerak kerja yang sedang dilaksanakan jentera pilihan raya BN.
Katanya, laporan terkini mendapati sokongan di semua kawasan parlimen dan dewan undangan negeri di Perlis kepada BN adalah cukup baik dan yakin sokongan akan terus meningkat sehingga hari pengundian 5 Mei ini. — Bernama
NEW YORK, 27 April — Kira-kira 200 rakyat Malaysia yang tinggal di sekitar Timur Amerika akan melaksanakan tanggungjawab mereka sebagai pengundi di Pejabat Konsulat Malaysia di New York pada Ahad ini.
Konsul Jeneral Malaysia di New York Syed Bakri Syed Abdul Rahman berkata daripada jumlah itu, kira-kira 150 adalah pengundi pos iaitu rakyat Malaysia yang memenuhi syarat kelayakan untuk mengundi di luar negara.
Bakinya merupakan pengundi di bawah kategori pengundi tidak hadir (PTH) iaitu terdiri daripada kakitangan kerajaan yang bertugas di beberapa jabatan kerajaan Malaysia di New York, serta pasangan mereka dan pelajar di beberapa universiti di sini, katanya kepada Bernama ketika dihubungi di sini Jumaat.
Beliau berkata semua persiapan untuk pengundian berjalan lancar dan dua kaunter mengundi akan dibuka mulai 9 pagi sehingga 5 petang.
"Seramai 10 petugas termasuk pegawai di pejabat konsulat dan pejabat wakil tetap Malaysia ke Pertubuhan Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu (PBB) akan bertugas pada hari pengundian selain turut diikuti oleh beberapa pemerhati yang mewakili parti-parti politik," katanya.
Pejabat Konsul Jeneral terletak di dalam satu bangunan milik kerajaan yang turut menempatkan beberapa jabatan kerajaan termasuk Pejabat Wakil Tetap Malaysia ke PBB, Perbadanan Pembangunan Perdagangan Luar Malaysia (Matrade), Lembaga Pembangunan Pelaburan Malaysia (Mida) dan Imigresen.
Dewan utama bangunan berkenaan akan dijadikan sebagai tempat mengundi, kata Syed Bakri.
Sementara itu, difahamkan pejabat Kedutaan Malaysia di Washington DC juga rancak membuat persiapan sejak minggu lepas bagi membolehkan rakyat Malaysia yang layak mengundi pos menunaikan tanggungjawab mereka.
Kira-kira 20 kakitangan pejabat kedutaan itu akan bertugas pada hari berkenaan untuk memantau kira-kira 250 orang yang akan mengundi di pejabat kedutaan itu. — Bernama
The Malaysian Insider :: Food
PETALING JAYA, April 27 — Just the Thai laksa alone with the fish curry was worth my making another trip to Old Siam in 1 Utama last week. I was joined by two friends who happened to be walking past and ... Read More 
KANGAR, 27 April — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin berkata manifesto Barisan Nasional (BN) adalah satu aku janji berbanding manifesto pembangkang yang disifatkannya sebagai "penipuan di siang hari". 
Mengulas kaji selidik Pusat Kajian Pilihan Raya dan Demokrasi Universiti Malaya (UMCEDEL) mengenai manifesto pilihan raya, Muhyiddin (gambar) berkata ia menunjukkan rakyat cukup prihatin tentang apa yang ditawarkan oleh parti-parti yang bertanding pada pilihan raya umum ke-13 ini.