Nadal to meet Monfils in Doha final |
- Nadal to meet Monfils in Doha final
- The zombie lord
- French comic branded ‘trader of hate’ for anti-Jewish humour
- No drugs, alcohol in ‘Fast & Furious’ star’s fatal crash
- Chinese ship used in Antarctic rescue stuck in ice
| Nadal to meet Monfils in Doha final Posted: 03 Jan 2014 04:57 PM PST
Nadal's 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory confirmed him as the overwhelming favourite to take the title and do something he has never done before, win a tournament in the opening week of the year. But Nadal may need to be specially wary of Monfils, whose two wins against the legendary Spaniard have both come here in Doha and who has arrived in the final with the mixed blessing of having dropped only 23 games in eight sets — but with correspondingly far less match practice. "I never win a title in the first week of the season, and tomorrow I have another opportunity," Nadal said. "A lot of times I have tried here so it will mean a lot to me to succeed finally. Hopefully tomorrow (Saturday) I will play good and will play my best match here. I know I will try." Nadal was rarely near his peak and started poorly, losing the first nine points of the match to the German qualifier. He moved sluggishly and made 17 unforced errors with his famous forehand drive in the first set alone. Gojowczyk, who had only previously played four matches on the ATP World Tour and admits to having sought Nadal's autograph at last year's US Open, was patient, methodical, and careful. He was also capable of sudden dramatic changes of pace with which he could hit strident ground stoke winners. "At the beginning my opponent was comfortable with every shot - even if he did play great," said Nadal. "If my opponent is playing too comfortable it is because I am doing something bad. And then I have to analyse myself. "The positive thing is I am arriving in the final without big preparation," he added, referring to the fact that new treatment on his troublesome knees has apparently restricted his off-season training to little more than a week. Nadal hit back to win 13 points out of 17 and take a 4-0 second-set lead. He always seemed the likely winner thereafter but knows he needs to do better to stand a chance of winning the final. "I need to play much better to have a chance tomorrow," he said. "If I don't improve my level of tennis, my level of rhythm, and play more inside (the baseline) my chances of winning will not be big." Monfils hopes to prove that opinion correct. The Guadeloupe-born former world number seven appears more focussed and motivated than for a long time, and has apparently recovered from a wrist problem, the last in a long line of depressing injuries. His 6-3, 6-2 win over Florian Mayer, the conqueror of Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, was however assisted by the German's very evident tiredness after three hard three-set matches in three days. By contrast Monfils was lightning fast and rapier sharp, striking 30 winners and nine aces in a one-sided semi-final lasting less than an hour. He also sounded more buoyant than for some time. Playing against Nadal though will be a different proposition. "But I like it here," Monfils said optimistically. "I like the conditions, I like the balls and the court. The court is fast but I am still able to run and cover it, and I like playing at night time. "There are a lot of French people here and it is a little bit like playing in France. I hope to do well." — AFP  |
| Posted: 03 Jan 2014 04:44 PM PST
The law graduate who subsequently got his second degree in broadcasting runs an events company called Systematic Mutiny on the side. He is currently the community director and consultant of Fried Chillies (www.friedchillies.com) a Malaysian food site. Charanpirabu is also a self-professed foodie and geek. After the Zombie Run, there were many other similar runs. What do you think about that? If they want to copy my idea, that's cool. There were a couple of them actually, and one of them failed. Some were even so bold as to duplicate what I did, doing everything in the exact same manner – from the way I used social media to make it viral, the messages, format, everything! The funny thing is that I have the rights to the name but I don't want to be petty about it. I'll be organising one again next year. I can't say that I'll be the best when it comes to Zombie Runs but I can promise to be different. All this copying gives me the comfort that my idea works. They say imitation is the best form of flattery. You have to combat piracy through innovation and the next Zombie Run will be better. The advantage I have is that obviously they are one step behind if they're copying me. Some of the copycats have bigger sponsors but not everything worked out well. I heard that people stole money and the volunteers ran away. But it doesn't faze me at all. If I can inspire people by taking risks like I did, that's a good thing. I'm very lucky to have a good zombie team behind me. They really fought beside me and I like working with them. You must like zombies very much to create the Zombie Run. What's your favourite zombie movie? I used to like Shaun of the Dead but now my favourite zombie movie has got to be Zombieland. It really showcased how the world would be if there was a zombie apocalypse. I also follow The Walking Dead TV series but am more interested in the comics. I started reading comics since I was seven. My elder sister bought comics for me when I broke my leg then. She got me X-Men and Dragonball. Now I read manga like Attack on Titan, One Piece and for American comics, my favourite has got to be Batman. I've got a huge collection of comics and now I pass it on to my nephews and nieces. They are aged from seven to 10, about the same age I was when I first started reading comics. The current stories are darker and more serious with death and gore. It's a bit too much for kids so I pass them older comics. My nephews and nieces like X-Men because it's about mutants defending humans who hate them and it's easy for kids to relate. Stuff like Batman can get too philosophical. I want to share comics that paint a picture that's clear of who's the bad guy and good guy to my nephews and nieces. You'll be surprised to know that kids are influenced by the cover of the comics. I would encourage them to read the newspapers but most of it is bad news. With comics, you can learn a lot. My nephew became a class monitor because of Cyclops, an X-Man character. He got the idea of working together as a team, something Cyclops is famous for. Do you also play zombie themed boardgames or video games? I do play a lot of video games, all types of games ever since I was three years old. Currently I have Pokemon X and Y on my Nintendo 3DS. I also do play zombie based boardgames. In 2011, deck-building board games became really popular and one of them was Dominion. Actually, my friends and I created Malaysia's first ever board game called Switch. It was featured in Germany's Spiel des Jahres which is a game convention that awards games. The game we created was based on feudal Japan and you had these tiles that can be switched. We spent a year developing the game and I've got to say that it's my favourite. It was published by Outplay Games in 2008 and it was translated into four different languages. You can still buy it in Kinokuniya but we only had 10,000 copies printed. Next year I'll be working on more board games and iPad games. What do you do for a living when you're not organising the Zombie Run? I own Systematic Mutiny, an events company on the side. Right now I'm working at Fried Chillies doing creative consultancy, events and such. Basically, I'm a community director. I've been working there since the beginning of the year. Recently, I just organised a Nasi Lemak event. It is the one and only thing that unifies the different races without sounding like 1Malaysia. We chose 10 of the best nasi lemak sellers (we personally tasted all of them) and awarded them. We want to make people happy through food. I hope to elevate Malaysian food to the next level making it as good as spaghetti, pasta, pizza and other popular foods. Prior to doing this, I was one of the founders of EPIC Homes, a collective that helped build houses for the orang asli community. What's your favourite food to eat and to cook? Of course, Maggi mee would be the easiest to cook but I would have to say that I love my mom's egg curry. Whenever we have a Deepavali celebration, it will run out really fast. I learned how to cook the egg curry from my mom but it just doesn't taste the same. When it comes to cooking, your love really matters. A simple dish would taste good if you make it for someone you care about and pour your love and soul into it. You can actually feel the care put into it. So what can we expect at the next Zombie Run? This year we had people from as far as Europe joining us at the Zombie Run. We want to take it to an international level, maybe work with airline companies to have packages. I plan to fine tune the mistakes of the last event, removing dangerous elements. The competitive mindset of the participants is contagious and the kiasu attitude injures everyone else. We will refine the strategy for people like this because we don't want them to injure other people using underhanded methods. As long as nobody gets hurt, that's the most important thing. The mechanics will change, some things will be taken out and we will have a proper structure and a team. The first Zombie Run was an untested idea and sponsors didn't want to take risks. To organise the event, I had to collaborate with people through relationships I have and leverage on social media. I had no money to advertise for the event. But it was in big demand and we had people below the age of 18 wanting to join. Parents wrote to me asking to allow their younger children to join in but we couldn't do that because it might be dangerous. Perhaps the next event, I will find a way to let people watch the Zombie Run without participating. Find out more about Zombie Run Malaysia on https://www.facebook.com/ZombieRunMalaysia This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on January 3, 2014 |
| French comic branded ‘trader of hate’ for anti-Jewish humour Posted: 03 Jan 2014 04:39 PM PST
Dieudonne, the burly and bearded comedian known by one name, is no stranger to controversy. But in the last month, his increasingly vitriolic brand of humour targeting Jews has set him at odds with the French interior minister himself. Fed up after the 47-year-old joked about "gas chambers" while talking about a Jewish journalist, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said he is examining options to try and legally ban performances by a man he brands as a "little trader of hate." On Friday Valls vowed to ensure that Dieudonne would have to pay some 65,000 euros ($88,500) he has run up in fines. Since 2000, Dieudonne has been fined seven times for defamation, insult, hate speech and racial discrimination. "All the services of the state must be mobilised so that Dieudonne, who is trying to organise his bankruptcy to avoid paying fines, is obliged to pay them," Valls said. Officials in at least two cities where Dieudonne is set to perform during a January tour, Metz and Nancy, have also said they are trying to ban his show. The threats are a far cry from the 47-year-old comic's early career when he teamed up with Jewish comic Elie Semoun in sketches that mocked racism and slavery. The controversy comes at a sensitive time for Paris. In a New Year's address, President Francois Hollande pledged to be "intransigent" on racism after a provocative salute popularised by Dieudonne shot into the news again, along with debate on the acceptable limits of free speech. This came after racial jibes earlier this year against the country's black justice minister and the 2012 killing of Jewish children and a rabbi by an Islamist gunman in Toulouse. The French-born son of a Cameroonian father and a white mother, Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala fell out with Semoun in 1997 after a very successful partnership. Semoun now accuses Dieudonne of stealing his ideas and transgressing all borders of decency and good taste. In a public letter, Semoun said his childhood friend was now "living in a world of hatred". As Dieudonne veered to the far right, he cosied up to National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and became politically active in what he calls anti-Zionism, even standing for European elections in 2009 on an anti-Zionist platform though he won little over one percent of the vote. He visited Iran and professed admiration for its leaders, described Holocaust celebrations as "memorial pornography" and made "Heil"-like signs in televised sketches. 'He says things others want to say' Dieudonne regularly decries what he calls the "domination of Zionists" in Western societies, saying the horrors of the Holocaust are given too much focus to the exclusion of other crimes, like slavery and racism. Yet his shows at a small theatre he owns in Paris attract packed audiences. His fans include youths of Arab and African origin as well as members of the far right. "Dieudonne is clearly very popular," said Jean-Yves Camus, an expert on the far-right who tracks videos and social media. "It's difficult to give numbers but he has thousands of followers in the country." Dieudonne "says things which some people want to say but cannot because of legislation banning the denial of Holocaust and anti-Semitic speech," Camus told AFP. "The more he says things that break the law, the more popular he gets," he added. "It seems that with the economic crisis and the political problems in France there are some people who blame Jews for everything that is going wrong and see a worldwide Jewish plot." Dieudonne's comment in December aimed at Jewish radio journalist Patrick Cohen at a show in his Paris theatre created a furore. "When I hear Patrick Cohen speak, I tell myself, you know, the gas chambers... Shame," he said in comments filmed secretly then aired on French television. Other videos show him saying, "The biggest crooks in this world are all Jews". He also directed a film entitled "L'Antisemite" whose screening at the film market in Cannes was cancelled by organisers at the last minute. It was Dieudonne's trademark gesture, an inverted down-arm salute seen as Nazi-style, that again shot into the limelight after his friend French football striker Nicolas Anelka used it to celebrate a goal in Britain. Dieudonne insists the gesture is not anti-Jewish and merely reflects his anti-establishment views. But the on-field gesture sparked a media storm and Anelka agreed not to perform it again. — AFP |
| No drugs, alcohol in ‘Fast & Furious’ star’s fatal crash Posted: 03 Jan 2014 04:36 PM PST
Both Walker, 40, and Rodas, 38, tested negative for alcohol, and drugs including cocaine, opiates and marijuana were not detected, said the report from the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The report included an early account of the accident from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, dated December 1 - the day after the crash, saying the Porsche Carrera GT driven by Rodas was traveling at "an unsafe speed, approximately 100+ mph." But a sheriff's spokeswoman said the investigation into the accident has not been completed and there was no definitive finding on the car's speed. Both deaths were ruled accidents. Walker died from "combined effects of traumatic and thermal injuries," and Rodas from "multiple traumatic injuries," the report said. Walker was in the process of filming "Fast & Furious 7" at the time and production was halted a few days later. Universal Pictures said last month that the release of the seventh installment in the highly lucrative franchise would be pushed back by nine months to April 2015. Walker will appear in the film. — Reuters |
| Chinese ship used in Antarctic rescue stuck in ice Posted: 03 Jan 2014 04:34 PM PST
The Xue Long, which on Thursday used its helicopter to ferry dozens of passengers on the stranded Russian ship Akademik Shokalskiy to the safety of an Australian vessel, has been unable to free itself, authorities said. "Xue Long's attempt to manoeuvre through the ice early this morning was unsuccessful," the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement. "Xue Long has confirmed to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority it is beset by ice." Speculation about whether the Xue Long was stuck had mounted for several days given the ship had hardly moved after its failed attempt to cut through the ice to reach the Shokalskiy. By late yesterday, officials said the Xue Long had reported that it had concerns about the heavy ice that surrounded it and would attempt to free itself early today. AMSA said while this attempt had failed, the master of the Chinese ship had confirmed that the vessel was safe, was not in immediate distress and did not require assistance. "There is no immediate danger to personnel on board the Xue Long," AMSA said, adding that the vessel had food supplies for several weeks. The Shokalskiy remains stuck in ice 100 nautical miles east of the French Antarctic base of Dumont d'Urville with 22 crew on board. Several attempts by icebreakers to reach the Russian ship failed, including by the Xue Long and the Australian Antarctic supply ship the Aurora Australis, while poor weather initially delayed helicopter rescue plans. The 52 scientists, passengers and journalists on board the Shokalskiy who were helicoptered off the ship are now on the Aurora Australis, which had been asked to remain on standby in the area to help the Xue Long. However, AMSA said today the Aurora Australis was now free to continue its journey to Australia's Antarctic base Casey, where it is due to deliver supplies before heading to the Australian city of Hobart. "The masters of both Akademik Shokalskiy and Xue Long agree that further assistance from Aurora Australis is no longer required and they will be able to provide mutual support to each other," AMSA said. ― AFP |
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