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Mourinho curious about referee chief’s apology for Chelsea penalty Posted: 22 Nov 2013 07:22 AM PST November 22, 2013 Jose Mourinho (pic) has criticised the decision of referees' chief Mike Riley to apologise to Steve Clarke for the decision that denied West Bromwich Albion victory at Stamford Bridge. West Brom manager Clarke and his players were left incensed when referee Andre Marriner awarded an added-time penalty for Mourinho's Chelsea side when the Blues were trailing 2-1 in their recent Premier League clash. Controversy surrounded the decision with Chelsea midfielder Ramires accused of going to ground under an innocuous challenge from West Brom's Steven Reid, although Mourinho maintains Marriner got it right. Clarke confirmed this week he had received a call from Riley to apologise for the decision, prompting Mourinho to question whether the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited had now set a precedent. "I'm curious to know if it was an isolated phone call," Chelsea manager Mourinho said Friday. "I'm curious to know if people see that as a normal situation. "I'm interested to know if that was the start and, from now on, it'll be the same for everybody. I'm curious to know the consequences of it." The Portuguese added: "At least the referees now know one thing: if in a controversial decision - I'm not saying a mistake - that hypothetically favours Chelsea, they know they will be publicly exposed by their boss. "They can make hypothetical mistakes favouring other teams and nothing happens. If, hypothetically, they make a mistake they are publicly exposed by their boss." Referring to other managers who have been on the receiving end of debatable decisions this season, he added: "I'm curious to know if Steve Bruce (Sunderland) got a phonecall. I'm interested to know if Chris Hughton (Norwich) got a phonecall. I'm interested to know if (Swansea's Michael) Laudrup got a phonecall. "Nobody called me to apologise about the fact that it was not a free-kick against West Bromwich ahead of their second goal, or the penalty at Everton that would have been 1-1 for us. "I don't know if (Aston Villa manager) Paul Lambert got a phonecall." Mourinho also condemned comments from West Brom centre-back Jonas Olsson, who claimed the manager called him a "Mickey Mouse player" in the tunnel after the game. "I think giant players, giant coaches and giant clubs don't speak about what happens in the tunnel. The game is the game. The game is finished. "In the tunnel, sometimes, a couple of things happen. A couple of words. Not aggression. Nothing. But giant clubs, giant players and giant managers close their mouth. The next day is another day." Mourinho revealed left-back Ashley Cole is in contention for the visit to West Ham United after a rib injury, but striker Fernando Torres will miss the trip across London. "Fernando is not ready. Not yet. Almost, but not yet. Ashley Cole is selected. He feels it a bit, but we know he'll have pain for a long time. But he's selected." Mourinho admitted to concerns about his side's away form following the recent defeat at Newcastle United. "We have to do better. We had difficult matches away. Our fixtures, until now, were not the easiest, especially when we speak about matches away. "We played against two title contenders. We played against Everton and Newcastle, always difficult stadiums," said Mourinho, whose team are four points behind leaders Arsenal. "We want to do better and we need to get more points from the next five matches away than we did in the first five matches." - AFP, November 22, 2013. Jose Mourinho has criticised the decision of referees' chief Mike Riley to apologise to Steve Clarke for the decision that denied West Bromwich Albion victory at Stamford Bridge. West Brom manager Clarke and his players were left incensed when referee Andre Marriner awarded an added-time penalty for Mourinho's Chelsea side when the Blues were trailing 2-1 in their recent Premier League clash. Controversy surrounded the decision with Chelsea midfielder Ramires accused of going to ground under an innocuous challenge from West Brom's Steven Reid, although Mourinho maintains Marriner got it right. Clarke confirmed this week he had received a call from Riley to apologise for the decision, prompting Mourinho to question whether the head of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited had now set a precedent. "I'm curious to know if it was an isolated phone call," Chelsea manager Mourinho said Friday. "I'm curious to know if people see that as a normal situation. "I'm interested to know if that was the start and, from now on, it'll be the same for everybody. I'm curious to know the consequences of it." The Portuguese added: "At least the referees now know one thing: if in a controversial decision - I'm not saying a mistake - that hypothetically favours Chelsea, they know they will be publicly exposed by their boss. "They can make hypothetical mistakes favouring other teams and nothing happens. If, hypothetically, they make a mistake they are publicly exposed by their boss." Referring to other managers who have been on the receiving end of debatable decisions this season, he added: "I'm curious to know if Steve Bruce (Sunderland) got a phonecall. I'm interested to know if Chris Hughton (Norwich) got a phonecall. I'm interested to know if (Swansea's Michael) Laudrup got a phonecall. "Nobody called me to apologise about the fact that it was not a free-kick against West Bromwich ahead of their second goal, or the penalty at Everton that would have been 1-1 for us. "I don't know if (Aston Villa manager) Paul Lambert got a phonecall." Mourinho also condemned comments from West Brom centre-back Jonas Olsson, who claimed the manager called him a "Mickey Mouse player" in the tunnel after the game. "I think giant players, giant coaches and giant clubs don't speak about what happens in the tunnel. The game is the game. The game is finished. "In the tunnel, sometimes, a couple of things happen. A couple of words. Not aggression. Nothing. But giant clubs, giant players and giant managers close their mouth. The next day is another day." Mourinho revealed left-back Ashley Cole is in contention for the visit to West Ham United after a rib injury, but striker Fernando Torres will miss the trip across London. "Fernando is not ready. Not yet. Almost, but not yet. Ashley Cole is selected. He feels it a bit, but we know he'll have pain for a long time. But he's selected." Mourinho admitted to concerns about his side's away form following the recent defeat at Newcastle United. "We have to do better. We had difficult matches away. Our fixtures, until now, were not the easiest, especially when we speak about matches away. "We played against two title contenders. We played against Everton and Newcastle, always difficult stadiums," said Mourinho, whose team are four points behind leaders Arsenal. "We want to do better and we need to get more points from the next five matches away than we did in the first five matches." - AFP, November 22, 2013.

Adidas extends partnership with FIFA World Cup until 2030 Posted: 22 Nov 2013 06:50 AM PST November 22, 2013 German sportswear giant Adidas said it will extend its long-standing sponsorship agreement with the FIFA World Cup tournament until 2030. "Today, FIFA and Adidas formally announced an extension of their long-term partnership agreement granting Adidas the official partner, supplier and licensee rights for the FIFA World Cup and all FIFA events until 2030)," the German company announced in a statement. Financial details were not disclosed and, when contacted by AFP, an Adidas spokesman declined to divulge the sum of money involved. "Football is very important for Adidas. We're the leading brand and we want to remain the leading brand," he said. The 2018 World Cup will take place in Russia and the announcement was made at a ceremony in Moscow. FIFA and Adidas have been partners since 1970. "This strategic commitment to the FIFA World Cup ensures extensive Adidas presence at the world's most watched sports event until 2030," Adidas said. "Without the support of long-term partners such as Adidas, it would simply not be possible for FIFA to host global spectacles such as the FIFA World Cup and to continue our work to develop football worldwide," said FIFA marketing director Thierry Weil. "Adidas is an integral part of the FIFA World Cup story, quite literally featuring at the heart of the action at every tournament since the 1970 FIFA World Cup," Weil said. - AFP, November 22, 2013.

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Marc Anthony, Draco Rosa grab Latin Grammys in year of comebacks Posted: 21 Nov 2013 09:10 PM PST November 22, 2013 Marc Anthony performs 'Vivir Mi Vida' during the 14th Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada, yesterday. - Reuters pic, November 22, 2013.Two US-born Puerto Rican artists, Marc Anthony (pic) and Draco Rosa, and the Colombian singer Carlos Vives yesterday won the top Latin Grammy music awards in a night that rewarded comebacks and long careers. Top-selling salsa artist Anthony won record of the year for "Vivir Mi Vida" or "Live My Life", a song that talks about moving on from life's difficult moments. It the fourth career Latin Grammy for the 45-year-old, who has also won two Grammys. "This means more to me than ever because I am in a very special time of my life and the words 'live my life' say it all," Anthony told the crowd in Las Vegas where the Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences held the 14th edition of the Latin Grammys. Anthony's recent album "3.0" was his first since 2010 and follows his high-profile divorce from actress and singer Jennifer Lopez last year. Rosa, a pop singer and composer who started out with 1980s boy band Menudo, won the coveted album of the year for "Vida", an album he recorded after receiving a cancer diagnosis in 2011 and undergoing treatment. The album includes a collaboration with fellow Menudo member Ricky Martin. Rosa, 44, thanked people for "for all being there to support me in the difficult moments". Vives, a singer of Colombia's tropical Vallenato style who is making a comeback at the age of 52, won song of the year for the appropriately named "Volvi A Nacer" or "Born Again". Vives picked up three Grammys in total and had led Latin Grammy nominations with five nods, tied with Argentine fusion group Illya Kuryaki & the Valderramas, which took home the Grammy for best urban song. Even the best new artist was on the older side compared to recent years. Guatemalan pop singer and songwriter Gaby Moreno, 31, was recognized as best new artist and thanked her famous fellow Guatemalan Ricardo Arjona with whom she sang the duet "Fuiste Tu" that launched her career. Spanish pop singer and actor Miguel Bose, 57, was named person of the year, the top honor from Latin Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Bose accepted the award from the hands of Ricky Martin and thanked the Academy for the recognition not only for his 35-year career in music but also his activism, including his efforts to bring peace to Colombia in the last decade. On another note of nostalgia, best record and album nominee Natalie Cole again performed a virtual duet with her late father Nat King Cole, only this time in Spanish. - Reuters, November 22, 2013.

HBO adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Last Tycoon” Posted: 21 Nov 2013 06:55 PM PST November 22, 2013 Portrait of Francis Scott Fitzgerald taken in 1926. HBO is developing a series on F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel 'The Last Tycoon', published posthumously in 1941. - AFP/Relaxnews pic, November 22, 2013.The premium channel has drawn inspiration from Fitzgerald's unfinished novel for a new series set amongst Hollywood studio executives in the 1930s. Published in 1941, one year after F. Scott Fitzgerald's death, "The Last Tycoon" focuses on Monroe Stahr, an ambitious movie producer who rises to the top of the business and ultimately defies his mentor and boss, Pat Brady. Loosely-based on the lives of the true-life Hollywood producers Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer, the story was first adapted for the screen in 1976. Elia Kazan directed Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson and Jeanne Moreau in the film based on a screenplay by Harold Pinter. HBO has enlisted Billy Ray, a writer on "The Hunger Games" and "Captain Phillips", to write and direct the series based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel. Chris Keyser ("Party of Five") will be the show runner. F. Scott Fitzgerald has inspired Hollywood for decades. In recent years, David Fincher adapted "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, while Baz Luhrmann directed a new adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. - AFP/Relaxnews, November 22, 2013.

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Flight of Iraqi Christians resumes amid surge in unrest Posted: 21 Nov 2013 08:08 PM PST November 22, 2013 Iraqi Christians attend mass at the Mother of Continuous Aid Church in the ​​Christian village of Ankawa, near the northern Kurdish city of Arbil, on October 22, 2013. - AFP pic, November 22, 2013.Awshalim Benjamin is desperate to leave Iraq, where a sack of faded photographs is all that remains of the happy life he and his ancient, dwindling Christian community once knew. The 74-year-old waits by the phone for the call that will tell him he can finally depart Baghdad to join his family in the United States — and leave behind a 2,000-year-old community that has shrunk by more than half since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. The patriarch of the Iraq-based Chaldean church, due to join other Middle Eastern Christian leaders at a meeting with Pope Francis this week, has urged Christians to stay and has spoken out against Western countries offering visas to the rapidly-shrinking minority. But many still say they have no choice, as their tenuous optimism after a brief improvement in security starting in 2008 has been dashed by a surge in bloodshed this year. "If my chance came, (I would leave) today," Benjamin, a retiree who cares for an ill 33-year-old daughter, said. "When they call me (and say) come, I will leave everything and go." It wasn't always like this. The black-and-white photographs of Benjamin show a handsome young man who played the accordion and enjoyed pole-vaulting. He had a government job, got married and had a family. But now those days are long gone. Christians in Iraq are rarely explicitly targeted — as they were during the height of the country's sectarian bloodletting in 2006-2007 — but the daily attacks and bombings have made life unbearable. "I won't stay in such a situation," said Benjamin, sitting in his home in the south Baghdad neighbourhood of Dura, the plastic bag full of photographs on his lap. "Three days ago, they exploded a car on the street. Such things are making us leave this place." Before 2003 more than a million Christians lived in Iraq. Now there are around 400,000, according to Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako, head of one of the world's oldest Christian communities. Baghdad has seen a dramatic fall in its own Christian population, which at one point numbered 600,000. According to Archdeacon Temathius Esha, an Assyrian priest in Dura, the neighbourhood's Christian population has all but disappeared, from around 150,000 shortly after the 2003 US-led invasion to about 2,000 now. Though home to seven churches — Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac — Dura now has only two priests. Esha's 500-capacity St. Shmooni Church attracted just 20 people for a recent Friday service, and he said only about 150 show up for Christmas or Easter. The priest's own family lives in the town of Ainkawa in Iraq's northern Kurdish region, which has been mostly spared from the violence plaguing the rest of the country. "Sometimes, of course, I feel I want to leave, but it's my job to stay with our people here," the 54-year-old said. "It is my duty to stay here, and to make them (feel), at least, that life will be OK." But when asked if he thought the situation would improve, Esha's only response was a resigned laugh. The flow of Christians out of the country spiked in 2010, when thousands fled after Al-Qaeda massacred 44 worshippers and two priests in a Baghdad church in October of that year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Some 61 churches have been attacked in the decade since the US-led invasion, Sako said, with more than 1,000 Christians killed in violence, albeit not all in targeted attacks. As Baghdad's Christian community has dwindled, the Christian population of Ainkawa has expanded to the point where the once tiny village is now effectively a suburb of the nearby Kurdish regional capital Arbil. One of Ainkawa's three churches holds eleven masses on Sundays, and authorities want to build three more, according to Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda. But he says his flock has little hope of returning to their ancestral homes. "We don't have that much time to think about the golden days and the beautiful memories that we had in Baghdad," said Warda, who grew up in the Iraqi capital. "I would say 99% of those families (who moved to Ainkawa) would not think to go back again... Maybe I am too pessimistic, but the reality is this." Sako, the Chaldean Patriarch, has urged Christians to stay in the country and criticised Western nations for offering priority visas to members of the minority. "This is our land," Sako told AFP. "We have been here (for) 2,000 years, and we have our history, our identity." "We are also Iraqi citizens... and we have a role to play here." Asked what he told Christians who want to leave, Sako said: "I am telling them, you have to be patient and also to have hope in the future." Those words ring hollow for Benjamin. "Let him be in our place, and live in our situation, then let him decide whether we should leave or not — he lives in a very secure place, not like us, in the street," he said. "There were beautiful moments in Iraq, when there was a good security situation and safety... But for now, all those beautiful days have vanished. We live in a prison." - AFP, November 22, 2013.

Shady amphetamine-like compounds found in weight-loss supplements Posted: 21 Nov 2013 04:48 PM PST November 22, 2013 US scientists have spotted an amphetamine-like compound in 9 of the 21 supposedly all-natural supplements tested. - AFP/Relaxnews pic, November 22, 2013.US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) scientists have found some shady ingredients in nine weight-loss supplements currently available on the market. Scientists have spotted an amphetamine-like compound, called beta-methylphenethylamine, in nine of the 21 supposedly all-natural supplements tested. An athlete competing in canoeing qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympics was disqualified after traces of the compound were found in his system. It's the second time in recent weeks that scientists have found the compounds in dietary supplements, but the FDA has yet to issue warnings to consumers, USA Today reports. The research is published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis. The scientists were also concerned that all 21 of the supplements they tested included another drug called Acacia rigidula, described as a "bushy plant found in Texas and Mexico", which appears to never have been tested for safety in humans. "This is a brand-new drug being placed into a number of supplements under the guise of a natural ingredient," Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, told USA Today. "The laws are incredibly weak," he said, "but the FDA is not moving as fast as it could to remove hazardous products." The FDA is currently inspecting weight-loss and energy-boosting products made by a company called Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals of Norcross, Georgia, seizing $2 million (RM6.41 million) in supplements. Another company, iForce Nutrition, lists Acacia rigidula as an ingredient in its Dexaprine XR diet supplements. Dutch officials have also released safety warnings about Dexaprine. - AFP/Relaxnews, November 22, 2013.

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Superman artist, 91, seeks return of JFK comic-book drawings Posted: 21 Nov 2013 07:25 PM PST November 22, 2013 An aging comic book artist is racing against time to recover art he created depicting Superman and President John F. Kennedy for a comic book that was to be published the same month as Kennedy's assassination. Earlier this week, Al Plastino, 91, asked a New York state court to order Heritage Auctions to name the person who hired the Dallas-based business to sell the original artwork, "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy", so he could seek its return. Plastino believed the artwork was supposed to have been donated to the planned Kennedy Library in Boston 50 years ago, the same year Kennedy was assassinated, according to court documents. Plastino was surprised to learn recently that it was scheduled for auction today in Beverly Hills, California. Heritage Auctions has since pulled the artwork from this week's sale, said Heritage spokesman Noah Fleisher. Plastino, of Shirley, New York, is among the most acclaimed and prolific Superman artists from the heyday of comics in the mid-20th century, according to court papers. Plastino wants the artwork returned to him so that it can be "displayed in its rightful place" at the Kennedy Library, and be "his public and lasting legacy to the interested public", the documents said. "Due to Mr. Plastino's advanced age and ill-health, time is of the essence so that this issue may be resolved during his lifetime," the court papers said. Neither Plastino nor the lawyer handling the case for free, Dale Cendali, a specialist in intellectual property with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, were immediately available to comment yesterday. Heritage Auctions has declined to name the person who sought to include the work in this week's auction, called a consignor, unless the court orders it to do so, he said. "Heritage policy is not to publicly discuss pending litigation," Fleisher said in a prepared statement. "I can tell you, though, that our consignor bought the artwork at a Sotheby's auction and we withdrew the artwork weeks ago as soon as we learned of the dispute and have returned the item to the consignor." According to Plastino's court papers, the artwork depicts Superman and Kennedy as part of a promotion of the president's national physical fitness program. National Comics was set to publish the comic book in November 1963, but held off after the president's assassination. It was published several weeks later at the request of President Lyndon B. Johnson, "as a tribute to his predecessor", according to an excerpt from the book's commemorative title page, which was included in the court papers. Plastino thought the donation to the Kennedy Library had been made, but at a comic convention in New York this year he learned of the proposed auction, according to the documents. - Reuters, November 20, 2013.

Late Nobel poet Heaney toasted at literary “wake” Posted: 21 Nov 2013 05:40 PM PST November 22, 2013 Seamus Heaney's poems have been toasted as "reports from the heart" at a literary "wake" for the late Irish poet and Nobel laureate, bringing together poets, writers, actors, singers and the Irish traditional band, The Chieftains. Poets Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley and Bernard O'Donoghue, all longtime friends of Heaney, who died in Dublin on August 30 at the age of 74, read some of his most famous works at the event late on Wednesday. Among them were the harrowing early poem "Mid-Term Break" in which Heaney described coming home from school at the age of 14 for the funeral of his younger brother who had been hit by a car and was buried in "a four foot box, a foot for every year". The Chieftains, joined by harpist Dianne Marshall and Sean-nós - old-style - singer Alyth McCormack, performed a "Lullaby for the Dead", as well as rousing jigs and reels. Irish novelist Edna O'Brien and Irish poet Paula Meehan, who holds the title of Ireland Professor of Poetry, also gave readings. With Heaney's widow Marie and his children attending the sold-out event at the 2,500-seat Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, novelist and literary critic Andrew O'Hagan, who often travelled with Heaney around Ireland and elsewhere, described him as "a representative of poets' power to replenish the imagination and affirm the interior life. "His poems from the very beginning were reports from the heart and, sure enough, they were voicings of a human spirit issuing tolerance and empathy in desperate times," O'Hagan, who served as the anchor for the two-hour poetry reading and musical offering, said. O'Hagan said that in his poems Heaney, who was the eldest of nine children of a cattle dealer and grew up on a farm in County Derry, west of Belfast, "was a voice of the pasture and the inner ear, the bramble patch and lost time". One of Heaney's most famous collections was "Death of a Naturalist", the eponymous poem from which, read by Muldoon, vividly describes a mass of frogs sitting in a pond "poised like mud grenades... "The great slime kings were gathered there for vengeance and I knew that if I dipped my hand the spawn could clutch it". Heaney grew up during the peak of what is known in Ireland as "the Troubles", the three-decade-long sectarian conflict between Roman Catholic Republicans fighting for Northern Ireland's independence from Britain and Protestant Loyalists that left some 3,500 people dead. Heaney was a staunch Republican but opposed the violent tactics of the Irish Republican Army and its splinter groups. His abhorrence of bloodshed came through in readings that provided graphic images of violence and abuse of power. Playwright Simon Armitage read a passage from Heaney's adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon classic "Beowulf" describing the man-beast Grendel slaughtering dozens of men for revenge. Irish-Ethiopian actress Ruth Negga read from his "Burial at Thebes" based on Sophocles's fifth century BC tragedy, in which Antigone bemoans Creon's edict barring her from burying her brother. After an evening that also featured a performance of Heaney's translation of Czech composer Leos Janacek's song cycle "Diary of One Who Vanished", sung by English tenor Ian Bostridge with Julius Drake on the piano, O'Hagan said he thought his late friend would have approved. "At the end he would be embarrassed by it, of course, but secretly pleased," O'Hagan said. - Reuters, November 22, 2013.

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Saman fitnah Wan Ahmad berhubung Projek IC diputuskan 30 Disember ini Posted: 22 Nov 2013 03:15 AM PST November 22, 2013 Mahkamah Tinggi menetapkan 30 Disember depan untuk memutuskan kes saman fitnah Timbalan Pengerusi Setiausaha Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar (gambar) terhadap Timbalan Presiden PAS Mohamad Sabu dan tiga lagi berhubung artikel yang diterbitkan dalam akhbar Harakah pada Februari lepas. Pesuruhjaya Kehakiman Lee Heng Cheong menetapkan tarikh itu selepas peguam Azhana Mohd Khairuddin, yang mewakili kesemua defendan, memaklumkan semua saksi kes berkenaan iaitu empat bagi pihak plaintif dan seorang bagi pihak defendan, selesai memberi keterangan. Terdahulu, Mohamad Sabu atau Mat Sabu, memaklumkan mahkamah bahawa beliau bersetuju tiada bukti lain yang menunjukkan Wan Ahmad terlibat dalam Projek IC di Sabah. Bagaimanapun, katanya, atas dasar jawatan yang disandang plaintif ketika itu, iaitu sebagai setiausaha SPR, Wan Ahmad secara tidak langsung terlibat dalam projek berkenaan. "Saya hanya tahu mengenai penglibatan Wan Ahmad dalam Projek IC atas kapasitinya sebagai setiausaha SPR tetapi tiada rangka masa sehingga bila Wan Ahmad menyandang jawatan itu," katanya ketika pemeriksaan balas oleh peguam Wan Azmir Wan Majid, yang mewakili plaintif. Bagaimanapun, Mat Sabu tidak bersetuju kenyataan dalam dua artikel yang didakwa memfitnah Wan Ahmad dibuat dengan niat jahat untuk menjatuhkan plaintif. Kepada soalan lain, Mat Sabu berkata beliau tidak dapat memastikan sama ada Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) ada membuat pendedahan berkaitan penglibatan Wan Ahmad dalam Projek IC kerana tidak pernah melihat atau membaca laporan suruhanjaya itu. Sementara itu, penyataan saksi beliau menafikan kata-kata yang diterbitkan dalam akhbar Harakah adalah satu fitnah terhadap Wan Ahmad "Kata-Kata itu melibatkan isu kepentingan awam, termasuk isu salah urus tadbir SPR dalam mengendalikan pilihan raya di negara ini secara adil, bersih dan telus, dan juga penglibatan SPR dalam mengendalikan pilihan raya di Sabah yang melibatkan pengundi-pengundi yang diragui status kewarganegaraan mereka," katanya. Pada 5 Mac lepas, Wan Ahmad memfailkan saman mendakwa Mohamad mengeluarkan kata-kata fitnah dalam artikel bertajuk "Wan Ahmad Tak Boleh Dipercayai" dan "Ragu Peranan SPR - Wan Ahmad Omar Mesti Letak Jawatan" dalam Harakah edisi Jumaat 1-3 Februari 2013 selepas ditemu ramah pada 29 Januari lepas. Selain Mat Sabu, Wan Ahmad turut menamakan Setiausaha Agung PAS Datuk Mustafa Ali, pencetak akhbar Harakah, Angkatan Edaran Enterprise Sdn Bhd, ketua pengarang akhbar itu Ahmad Lutfi Othman dan penulis artikel Aziz Muda sebagai defendan. Penyataan tuntutan Wan Ahmad mendakwa defendan mengeluarkan perkataan fitnah bahawa beliau tidak boleh dipercayai kerana terbabit dengan pengeluaran kad pengenalan biru dalam Projek IC di Sabah seperti didedahkan RCI. – Bernama, 22 November, 2013.

Kemelut PAS-DAP di Pulau Pinang akan diselesaikan secara dalaman, kata Hadi Posted: 22 Nov 2013 02:23 AM PST November 22, 2013 Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (kiri) berkata kemelut PAS dengan DAP di Pulau Pinang akan diselesaikan secara dalaman. Gambar The Malaysian Insider oleh Nazir Sufari, 22 November, 2013.Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang berkata kemelut dalaman antara parti itu dengan rakan sekutunya DAP akan diselesaikan secara dalaman tidak lama lagi. "Kita akan selesaikannya secara dalaman dan bukan melalui media. Kita belum lagi menemui mereka (DAP) di sana (Pulau Pinang). InsyaAllah ia akan diselesaikan," katanya dalam sidang akhbar hari ini. Beliau berkata demikian ketika diminta mengulas mengenai kemelut hubungan kedua-dua parti itu selepas media melaporkan PAS umpama boneka oleh kerajaan Pulau Pinang pimpinan DAP sejak pilihan raya umum 2008. Selasa lepas, Timbalan Pesuruhjaya PAS Pulau Pinang Mohd Fauzi Yusof dilapor meminta kerajaan DAP berhenti campur tangan dalam hal ehwal dan pengurusan agama Islam selain menuntut lantikan lebih ramai pemimpin PAS sebagai anggota majlis negeri. Mengulas lanjut, Abdul Hadi berkata walaupun parti itu hanya memperoleh satu kerusi iaitu kerusi Dewan Undangan Negeri Permatang Pasir, namun kerajaan Pulau Pinang tetap memberikan wakil parti itu peranan yang besar. "Saya sangat menghargai rakan-rakan Pulau Pinang kerana memberi tempat kepada PAS walaupun kita hanya menang satu kerusi sahaja. "Peranan yang diberikan cukup besar, cuma terpulang untuk mengisi peranan itu. Sudah tentu ada masalah yang belum selesai," katanya. Beliau berkata meskipun ada beberapa perkara yang tidak sempurna dalam konsep tahaluf siyasi (kerjasama politik), tetapi ia memberi manfaat kepada parti itu. Menjawab soalan tentang adanya anggota PAS yang tidak memahami konsep tahaluf siyasi, anggota Parlimen Marang itu berkata: "Sudah tentu ada perkara yang kita laksanakan tetapi tidak dijalankan sekali gus termasuk tahaluf siyasi". "Kita cuma memerintah tiga negeri dan bukan satu negara. Terlalu banyak perkara dan agenda perlu dilaksanakan," katanya. Dalam pada itu, beliau turut bersetuju mengenai kesediaan Mahkamah Syariah Kelantan untuk melaksanakan hukum hudud. "PAS Pusat menyokong segala usaha kerajaan Kelantan untuk melaksanakan ajaran Islam sepenuhnya walaupun mereka menghadapi masalah dan kekangan berbentuk campur tangan oleh kerajaan pusat," katanya. Muktamar PAS ke-59 bertemakan "Rahmat Untuk Semua" diadakan selama tiga hari bermula hari ini dan dihadiri kira-kira 1,300 perwakilan dari seluruh negara. – Bernama, 22 November, 2013.

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Do lawyers think they’re special? Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST November 22, 2013 Ask Lord Bobo is a weekly column by LoyarBurok where all your profound, abstruse, erudite, hermetic, recondite, sagacious, and other thesaurus-described queries are answered. Free Your Mind! Dear Lord Bobo, what's a "long call" and why is it so important? Shouldn't we save time by just allowing lawyers to file the necessary papers over a counter somewhere? Also, why waste time with those long speeches? (Lawyer-to-be, via email). It was once the case that becoming a lawyer was prestigious, and an achievement on its own. You would be seen to be a person of higher learning. Pupils used to pay their pupil-masters to experience the trade, or at the very least they would work for no pay. Clients used to treat lawyers with reverence, rather than just viewing lawyers as performing some unavoidable administrative function. Lawyers had a special standing in any community. Those days are long gone. Today, you could randomly toss a LoyarBurok cufflink out a window and have a very high chance of hitting lawyer (and not just at Solaris Dutamas). Rumour has it that some local universities pass 90% of the law students a year – which one could either put down to the excellent quality of local law graduates or the low standards required to pass in local universities. We know which one we're leaning towards. Compare this to the notoriously difficult practical exams which foreign graduates have to go through – some graduates have to re-sit these exams more than once – such as the Bar Professional Training Course in the UK, or the CLP in Malaysia, and you see a reason right at the start as to why there is such a drastic difference in quality between qualified lawyers. But it's not just the fault of lawyers, of course. The good work of good lawyers is devalued when clients expect massive discounts and rock bottom prices. The fact is, many clients don't give a baboon's colourful arse whether the standard of work is good or not – they just want things to get done, and to make money. Rubbish lawyers work their connections and get work they cannot do, and get by with delivering poor quality. Anyway, if you treat lawyering like any other job then by all means discard the call ceremony and the speeches that go with it. But if you see it as a profession, an honourable profession, then there is much more that a call provides. A call speech recaps a pupil's journey and affirms the pledge to uphold the Bar's calling in section 42 of the Legal Profession Act (no, it is not "to make as much money as possible"). Because one must be a "fit and proper" person to be called to the Bar, the call is a public testimony of the pupil's adherence to the practise of the law honestly and faithfully in front of his or her family and the Court. It is in the Court's corresponding act before admitting the pupil to repose its faith in the pupil – that the pupil will be guided to do his or her best in discharge of an advocate's work. His Supreme Eminenceness is greatly troubled by the goings-on in Malaysian legal profession, and is sad that recent years in particular have seen so many lawyers flooding the market. Becoming a lawyer should not be easy, and it is far too easy in Malaysia at the moment. While it is good that becoming a lawyer is no longer a privilege enjoyed only by the elite or super-rich, there is a middle ground which must be found, and it should not be so ridiculously easy to qualify to be lawyer. The basic quality standards of legal work must be maintained at all costs. It should be accepted that not everyone is good enough to be a lawyer (and we mean in terms of quality and knowledge, not family background or social status). A holistic review of the profession and law courses is required to bring back the former lustre of the profession. Of course, Lord Bobo knows that this will not happen, and unless something else is done soon to address the problem then unfortunately a "lawyer" will end up being just another job (if it isn't already one). Lord Bobo, why are some lawyers so fussy about dressing conservatively? I read on Twitter recently that a member of the public was asked by a judge to leave the courtroom for wearing a short skirt. Do lawyers and judges think they are more special than the rest of Malaysia? (Fashionista, via email). This is a problem. Lawyers are "supposed" to dress in a certain way because the profession used to be seen as an elitist one. It used to be that only those of "higher learning" or from a privileged background could become lawyers, and appear in court. Only the rich could afford to read law. It all has roots in stuffy ol England you see. Lawyers were therefore asked to wear wigs, gowns and robes to signify some sort of self-importance. While it may be an honourable profession, these lawyers wanted to stand out from the ordinary human on the street to stroke their ample egos. The reason this ridiculous expectation continues today is that some lawyers refuse to move on, clinging onto the lame excuse of "tradition". Those who insist on imposing an archaic dress code do so without realising that the elite class continues to oppress and plunder. Dressing therefore identifies these lawyers with that class while at the same time subconsciously convinces them that they are "above" the rest. Once young lawyers are caught up in the mentality of conformity and discipline, we get what we see today. There is no rational reason to require long skirts or "sombre ties". Lord Bobo does feel sorry for litigation lawyers who are forced to dress like waiters or waitresses every day, condemned to a monochrome existence. Lawyers, like everyone else, should be allowed to wear whatever they want to wear really. It should be left to the individual to decide what is appropriate, and at the end of the day his or her choices will affect how their clients or others view them. Why should young lawyers have to conform to the views of old fuddy duddies who insist that skirts must be below the knee? It has of course been said before by some ignorant folk that lawyers cannot wear overly attractive attire in court (such as short skirts) because it would distract the judges, who would not be able to concentrate. Lord Bobo's view is that those judges should be sent to therapy so that they learn to control their urges, rather than requiring everyone else to dress down for them. It is time for a revolution. Lawyers should move with the times. Free your minds. You lawyers should wear whatever you want. Rock that three-piece suit if you want. Slap on those old-school suspenders. Go with a miniskirt or brightly-coloured top if you so wish. Perhaps if lawyers were allowed to wear short skirts, short pants, and slippers to work they would identify more with the majority working class. Being forced to conform to a boring dress code suppresses people. It stifles minds. It imprisons souls. Hence Lord Bobo has commissioned LoyarBarang.com to bring vibrancy and liberty to the world. You poor lawyers in your black-and-white prisons should look out for our new t-shirts, coming soon! Although Lord Bobo already knows your question before you even knew you had a question, as a practical display of your true desire to have your query answered, His Supreme Eminenceness has graciously allowed you to communicate your questions by either emailing asklordbobo@loyarburok.com or tweeting your question, mentioning @LoyarBurok and using the hashtag #AskLordBobo. Now, what the hell are you waiting for? Hear This and Tremblingly Obey (although trembling is optional if you are somewhere very warm)! – November 22, 2013. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

What’s wrong with incest anyway? Posted: 21 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST November 22, 2013 Zan Azlee is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, writer, New Media practitioner and lecturer. He runs Fat Bidin Media www.fatbidin.com Sex between two consenting adults should not be made a fuss about. A male who is willing and a female who is willing – once they get together, they should be allowed to consummate. It doesn't really matter if it is between a father and a daughter. Both are old enough to evaluate the situation,  and if they feel it is okay, then why not. Yes, you guessed it! I'm referring to that case hot in the media where a father and daughter who have been enjoying a sexual relationship were caught by an uncle. The father is 46 years old and at that age, if he still doesn't have more than enough salt in his system than rice, then I don't know what to say. The daughter on the other hand, already 18 years old when she started the 3-year relationship with her father, is legally an adult. Minors are those who are under 16 years. How can you ever doubt the emotions of love expressed by an 18-year-old girl? Love is a feeling so pure, it should not be curbed and suppressed. As for the uncle who ousted their relationship, come on! Isn't there anything better he can to do with his time other than snooping around people's mobile phone? And, as for the mother, according to news reports, she is said to have been distraught when the uncle confronted her daughter and her husband in front of her. Why does she need to feel distraught? Face the facts lady! There must have been a reason why your husband decided to have sex with your daughter. Maybe she didn't pay enough attention to her husband? Maybe she didn't know how to rub his feet after a tired day at work, or she just didn't know how to rub him anywhere else at all! If we look at the letter of the law, statutory rape is when you have sex, whether consensual or not, with someone who is underage. And if we're still looking at the law, incest is not even stated anywhere. Incestuous rape is punishable by law but remember – she is of age and consenting, hence it is not rape. Anyway, who cares about the law? If paedophiles can declare that their "condition" should be recognised as a sexual orientation, then what is wrong with incest, right? It's like people who smoke cigarettes or do drugs. They are only causing harm to themselves and not affecting others. So let them be. Why criticise something that doesn't cause harm and violence on others? The best thing to do here is to live and let live. I'm sure their relationship will prevail through this challenge. And in conclusion, I'd like to quote my favourite Shania Twain song: "Ain't nothin' better We beat the odds together I'm glad we didn't listen Look at what we would be missin' They said, 'I bet they'll never make it' But just look at us holding on We're still together still going strong." I have a daughter of my own so this is obviously a sarcastic reaction on my point. My hope is that no one becomes desensitised to issues like these. – November 22, 2013. * This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.

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