OSK-UOB's new fund to capitalise on global energy

OSK-UOB Unit Trust Management Bhd, a subsidiary of OSK Investment Bank Bhd, will launch a fund capitalising on opportunities in the global energy sector.

The open-ended OSK-UOB Energy Fund will be launched on Monday, its chief executive officer Ho Seng Yee said in a statement.

"The energy sector is one that the world can't live without. Best of all, the demand for energy is perpetual. Whether it is conventional energy, like crude oil and natural gas, or alternative clean energy, such as biofuel, wind, geothermal and solar, the demand for all these permeate every strata of society. With such potential and possibilities, this is one sector not to be missed," he added.

Ho said that crude oil prices, which have declined substantially from a high of US$147 (RM538) a barrel in July last year to around US$43 (RM157), will likely pick up as demand from emerging economies like China and India increases. At the same time, supply will be tight with limited access to oil reserves and rising cost of production.

"This ongoing demand and supply play between conventional and alternative energy makes this one sector you should not miss. When demand stabilises and trends up, and with supplies hampered and limited, inevitably, another up cycle will appear," he said.

Ho said the fund's exposure to the global energy sector will be through three underlying assets, namely the JPMorgan Commodity Curve Index Energy Excess Return (index), Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (exchange traded fund) and Powershares WilderHill Clean Energy Portfolio (exchange traded fund), in the ratio of 60:20:20 respectively.

"This fund will benefit and perform with the positive performance of the three underlying assets, which hinges on the expected increase in crude oil prices and deeper growth in the alternative clean energy sector."

The initial approved fund size is 400 million units and initial price, 50 sen per unit. The offer period is from March 23 to April 12.

The minimum investment is RM1,000 and subsequent minimum top-up, RM100

Billionaire Li Ka-shing says time to buy shares, property

Billionaire Li Ka-shing who predicted China’s stock market bubble would burst in 2007, said China will lead a global economic recovery and investors should consider buying shares and real estate.

“China’s economy will be the fastest in the world to recover, but the US economy’s recovery won’t be too late also,” Li, the second-richest man in Asia, said at a press conference in Hong Kong yesterday. “If you have the cash, you can consider buying equities and property.” Li spoke after his Cheung Kong (Holdings) and Hutchison Whampoa posted 2008 earnings, reported Bloomberg.

As Warren Buffett is called the “Sage of Omaha,” Li is dubbed “Superman” by Hong Kong’s media because many investors in Asia look to him for guidance.

Born in Chaozhou in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, he added new technology to turn the plastics company he opened in 1950 into investments in retailing, real estate, ports and energy in 54 countries.

“I am prepared to follow Li’s call,” said Priscilla Chan, a 37-year-old housewife in Hong Kong. “Superman Li has a track record in predicting the directions of stock markets.”

Starting in the late 1950s, Li has bought assets including real-estate during crises such as the 1967 riots in Hong Kong and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

He paid the predecessor of HSBC Holdings Plc less than half of book value for control of Hutchison in 1979.

Stock markets rallied in the US and Asia today. US stock futures rose, indicating the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index may extend its biggest advance since 1991, as investors speculated the Obama administration’s plan to rid banks of toxic assets will spur growth. Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index has advanced 14.5% this month, the most since October 2007. Templeton Asset Management’s Mark Mobius said earlier this week that a “bull-market” rally in developing-nation equities has begun.

Still, Li wouldn’t be drawn to say that equity markets have bottomed out, and he said the global economy is in its worst shape since the Great Depression of 1929-39. Li is No. 16 on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest people with a fortune of US$16.2 billion ($24.43 billion), the publication said earlier this month. This makes him Asia’s second-richest man, behind India’s Mukesh Ambani, whose worth is US$19.3 billion.

Hutchison said 2008 profit fell 42% to HK$17.7 billion ($3.44 billion), exceeding the HK$14.3 billion median of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Cheung Kong’s net income fell 44% to HK$15.5 billion; the median estimate of six analysts was HK$16 billion.

To combat the slowest economic growth in seven years, China has introduced a US$585-billion stimulus package. The spending has put the slowdown under control, People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said yesterday, in an article published on the central bank’s website.

Shimao Property Holdings, which sold the nation’s most expensive home, said March 20 that falling interest rates and the stimulus package have resuscitated buyers’ confidence.

In Hong Kong, the property market will also rebound, said Victor Li, Cheung Kong’s deputy chairman and Li’s elder son. “The supply is small while demand is rising, so if you buy, after a few years, history has shown that you won’t make a loss,” Li said.

Luxury-home prices in Hong Kong, the second-most expensive in Asia, rose an average 2.1% in the first quarter so far, signalling a recovery a report by Centaline Property Agency said on Wednesday. Still, prices are 35% lower than their peak in mid-2008, according to property agency Savills LLC.

“My family has spent the last couple weeks apartment-hunting as we think the market may have almost reached its bottom after falling as much as 30%,” said Jacky Wong, a 38-year-old freelance marketer. “I’m excited by Li’s comments. I will be hunting more aggressively.”

Still, some investors aren’t as optimistic, pointing out that Cheung Kong, Li’s flagship builder, has apartments to sell. “I would be a bit skeptical about Li’s comments as he is a property developer,” said Chan, the housewife. “Of course he wants a bullish home market.”

Albert Chan, a 53-year-old owner of a property design company, also said Li’s comments won’t induce him to add to his equity or property investments. “Unlike during SARS, the current recession is a global one,” Chan said.

Hong Kong’s economy last slipped into a recession in 2003, when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemic kept consumers at home and some companies repatriated foreign workers

ROBERT KIYOSAKI LIVE IN KL 2009

Dear readers,

Here is an opportunity to go and listen to one of the most famous speakers in the world. I personally feel that this man needs no extra introduction. If you don't know who Robert Kiyosaki is, there is also no point for me to elaborate further.

The Author of Rich Dad Poor Dad will be in KL to give a seminar from 22nd to 24th May 2009 at The Mine. The title of the seminar is "Why The Rich Gets Richer and How You Can Be Rich Too"

Personally during my younger days, around 7 years ago, there was Two books that hit the market. The two books were "Who Moved My Cheese" and "Rich Dad Poor Dad".

During that time, I was working as an Accountant in a Multi-National Corporation known as Sanmina-SCI. The company I worked with experienced huge growth and profitability until the dot-com bubble bust where all the technology stocks in Nasdaq crashed like nobody's business!!

Suddenly, what was once a vibrant and profitable manufacturing plant became sluggish.
There was hardly any activity on the production floor and before you know it, the management has started announcing pay cuts for all the employees.

During those few months, the factory which used to have 1000 employees now feels like a ghost town. The once noisy cafeteria was now very quiet and I remember the air was so stale and smell of mold. (The air was stale because management has to switch of the aircon to save electricity cost.)

I can still remember sitting alone in that cafeteria 8 years ago, eating a packet of instant noodles that I cooked at home and brought to office. It was quite dark as the lighting has also been switched off to save cost.

Sitting there alone, eating some tasteless noodles in the dark, I started to think. Is this what I called a dream job?? Few years ago, life as an employee was wonderful. You have colleagues and everyday you wear your tie and go to work. Then suddenly, it all came crushing down.

I spent 3 years in college and finally passed my Chartered Institute Of Management Accountants (CIMA) exams. I thought after I passed my exam and gotten this wonderful job in this huge multi-national corporation, my life will be wonderful.

Boy was I wrong!!! Sitting there alone in the dark, I couldn’t even finish that small packet of noodles. I felt despair and I felt desperate. There is nothing I could do and it wasn’t my fault. I am one of the best employee in my department. I got promoted every year!!! But now, everything is hopeless….

It was then that I realize what Robert Kiyosaki said about having your income coming from the Business quadrant and try not to depend on the Employment quadrant.

This is because the sense of security that a job offers are no longer valid the the 21st century. Last time, people work for the same company all their life and at the end of their career, the company they worked for even gave them a retirement benefit or pension. However, there is no such company nowadays.

The words of Robert Kiyosaki burn in my heart. I was desperate. I am not the kind of person that sits around and wait for the management to do something to revive the company. I know that I need to get out!!!

My opportunity came when the management offers a Voluntarily Separation Scheme (VSS). The company is prepared to pay any employee that offers to resign voluntarily a certain amount of money based on the numbers of years they worked.

Without a doubt, I took the offer. Colleagues in my department was shocked when they finally realized that I took the VSS. Even my boss was surprised at first but deep inside his heart, he understood why I did it.

And the rest as they say is history….

But what I want to say is this…..

I wouldn’t have made that decision nor would I have the courage have I not read the book by Robert Kiyosaki and the book Who Moved My Cheese…

Robert’s book gave me a WAKE UP call…..

Robert’s book also gave me the knowledge of financial independence….

And as they say, Knowledge is Power….and that power gave me strength and courage to leave the “secured” job market to make my own wealth in the business world….

Therefore readers of mine, take this opportunity. Robert will be here during May 09. With the economy facing its worst downturn, please equipped yourselves with all the knowledge that you can find so that you will be able to not only survive this current situation but to actually thrive in it!!!

Best Regards,

Mr. Ciaklat

(For those of you who want to attend this seminar by Robert Kiyosaki, please send your email to me at gp.sarawak@gmail.com and I will send you the details. See You There!!!)

Nik Aziz: Muslim smokers worse than cows

KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Muslims who smoke and try to portray themselves as pious are worse than cows which defecate in the street, Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat said today.

“... a cow which defecates in the middle of the road, (we) cannot take legal action against it because it has no brain and cannot think.

“But human beings, who have brains, for them to do something which is wrong in religion ... when they are in an attire which symbolises Islam, they can be regarded as being more despicable than cows,” he said.

Nik Aziz said that smoking was forbidden by Islam.

Recently, Indonesia’s top Islamic body passed a fatwa, or ruling, banning smoking. Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) has also banned smoking.

Despite the ban in Malaysia, where over half the population of 27 million is Muslim, 50 per cent of the male population smokes, according to World Health Organisation data. — Reuters

What causes stock prices to move?

STOCK investing is perhaps the most talked about form of investing. Stocks create hype because they are volatile and sensitive to various factors. With the current economic landscape and dismal performance of bourses worldwide, we can observe that stock prices are affected on a much larger scale than usual. So, if you are wondering what makes stock prices go up or down, read on to find out.

Knowing the answer to this will enable you to buy and sell at the right time. Unfortunately, there is no one definite answer to this simple question. Various factors influence stock price movements. However, certain primary factors have a major impact on the movement and as an investor, you need to pay attention to these factors as guidance in making the right call to "buy" or "sell".

Demand and Supply

This golden rule of economics holds true even when it comes to the stock market. When demand for stocks is greater than supply, stock prices will go up. This happens when everyone starts to chase after stocks but only very few are willing to sell. This in turn, pushes the prices of stocks up further. On the flip side, when supply is greater than demand, everyone rushes to sell off their stocks, but only a few buyers are interested. This results in stock prices being depressed.

Bearing this in mind, you then need to know what causes the demand or supply to go up or down.

* Economic situation

* Economic situation Stock market performance is actually a leading indicator of our economic situation. This means that the stock market will reflect the market expectations of our economy a few months down the line. As such, if the market expects the economy to boom, you will start to see stock prices increasing much earlier than the actual boom and the opposite applies when recession hits. Bearing this in mind, as investors, you need to be sensitive to signs that provide any form of indication on the future direction of the economy.

For example, when inflation rate creeps up; there is a possibility that the interest rate will go up as well to help cool the economy. The stock market in turn, will react negatively given such an expectation. On the other hand, when the economy is at the bottom of its cycle and the interest rate is lowered to stimulate economic activity, you will see that stock market will react positively to it. This positive reaction is attributed to the expectation that the economy is on the road to recovery.

* Company performance

* Company performanceLogically, the stock price of a company should go up if its financial performance is good, and vice versa. However, you will notice that most of the time, when the financial results are announced, as long as they reflect analysts' expectations, regardless of whether the reports bear good or bad news, stock prices will usually not show much movement. It is only when the results come as a surprise to the market that you will see a blip in the price. Basically, this is because the existing stock prices already reflect the current market expectation. This tells you that you need to pay attention to the company's business fundamentals, as this is the critical factor that is going to influence the company's stock price in the long run. As an investor, you should be mindful of the company's business direction and projects that it is involved in, that have the potential of bringing growth to the business. You have keep a watchful eye on its financial performance and management's strength, in order to make a good investment decision.

* Market rumours

* Market rumoursThis is a major contributor to the stock market's short term volatility. There is a famous saying in the stock market, 'buy on rumours, sell on facts'. Investors tend to over-react or react hastily to the slightest market rumours. Often times, they will panic and rush to sell on negative rumours, resulting in the drop of the stock price. Investors could take the opportunity to buy at that particular time if they know that the company is fundamentally strong and the likelihood of the negative rumours being accurate is low; or the situation is not as bad as it is made out to be. By carefully scrutinising market rumours, you are able to make sound investment decisions instead of just following the crowd, that could lead to dire consequences.

* Political instability

* Political instabilityNaturally, if a country is experiencing political unrest, the stock market will inevitably have to deal with some setbacks. In cases of instability, foreign investors react by pulling out their funds which may trigger panic selling from all parties. You will need to assess whether the unrest is just a short-term event or carries with it a longer lasting impact. This is crucial in assessing your risk should you choose to continue holding on to your position, as opposed to taking quick action to leave the market.

The above are only a few major drivers that will cause the stock prices to move. However, most of the time, the investor psychology effect of over reacting makes market movement more prominent than it should be. One of Benjamin Graham's investing principles encourages us to look at market fluctuations as our friend rather than our enemy, as market movements sometime create buying opportunities for true investors. Therefore, as an informed and knowledgeable investor, avoid getting into "panic mode". Always remember, understand and evaluate the situation by using your own judgement to ensure that you make intelligent investment decisions.

Bailout: Getting Banks to Bite

As the Obama Administration's plans to lift toxic assets off bank balance sheets took form, speculation swirled over whether private-sector investors could be enticed to take part. Now another question is looming: Will the banks participate?

On Mar. 23, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the latest effort by the government to stabilize banks and unlock frozen credit markets. The long-awaited plan would use $75 billion to $100 billion of federal bailout funds—together with an equal amount of private-sector money and federal loans and guarantees that could bring the total investment to $1 trillion over time—to buy questionable, mostly mortgage-backed assets from banks.

The market soared in response, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising nearly 500 points, or 6.8%. The financial industry hailed the plan as a solid fix that could revive a moribund credit market. But while that reaction relieved some of the immediate pressures on Geithner and the Administration, it was hardly unanimous. Critics called it a series of opaque subsidies that, at best, would prop up the banks and their shareholders without doing much to revive lending. And the embattled Treasury secretary clearly knows he faces huge challenges ahead. "One day's [market] reaction does not make a plan," he said, speaking later that evening at a conference on the future of finance sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.

Funds Leveraged Sixfold
In many ways, the plan is straightforward: Private-sector investors will bid to buy a stake in pools of assets—either residential and commercial mortgage loans, or securities tied to a variety of other troubled debt—and their investments will be matched dollar for dollar by the Treasury. Those funds will then be leveraged as much as sixfold through loans backed by either the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or the Federal Reserve.

But the same dynamic that has stymied the normal market for these securities could discourage banks from participating, investors and financial experts say.

At the root of it, banks and investors disagree about what the assets are worth. Investors point to the dramatic collapse of the housing market and rising foreclosure rates, among other factors, that mean many of the assets are unlikely to perform as advertised, particularly as a worsening economy puts further pressure on the underlying borrowers.

Banks on Shaky Ground
Banks note that 90% or more of homeowners are current on their mortgages. They argue that most of the assets will ultimately perform—and thus are worth far more than the discounted prices investors are willing to pay. Moreover, many banks are already on shaky financial ground, and recognizing the assets at a lower value could leave them worse off, and potentially insolvent.

But while the program announced Mar. 23 contains sweeteners to entice investors to the table—chief among them government-backed financing—banks may remain reluctant to sell unless the ultimate price matches or exceeds the asset value the banks have recorded on their books. And Sheila Bair, chairman of the FDIC, made clear later in the day that she expects banks to take a hit: "They will have to take losses to sell into this facility," she said.

In that case, warned one bank analyst who works for an investment management company, "there's no incentive for banks to participate."

VSS Versus Pay Cuts

Dell Malaysia’s move to trim its workforce by offering a separation scheme to the all 5,000 over workers must come as a rude shock for its employees.

It is coming at a time when Malaysia is facing a recession for the first time in 10 years. The voluntary separation scheme (VSS) is part of Dell’s plan to cut 8,800 jobs worldwide or 10% of its global workforce.
The workers have been given until end-March 31 to decide if they want to take up the VSS.
VSS should not be seen as the only option as there are other methods which Dell can use to retain its workers.
The VSS also comes at a time when the PC manufacturer announced that its earnings fell 48% to US$351 million (RM1.3 billion) in the fourth quarter ended Jan 31, 2009 from US$679 million a year ago. Total 4Q revenue fell 16% to US$13.43 billion from US$16 billion.
For the full financial year, Dell’s net income was down 16% at US$2.48 billion from RM2.95 billion. Its revenue was nearly unchanged at US$61.1 billion.
When compared on a regional basis, revenue for Dell’s Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) business recorded the sharpest decline, down 24% on year to US$1.4 billion as shipments fell 19%, mainly due to slowdown in key countries in China and India.
Based on the weakening revenue growth in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, it is not a wonder why it has decided to slash jobs in this region.
The multiplier effect of job losses has greater impact than anticipated, if based on a family of four where the father is the main breadwinner and in an economy like Penang.
Unlike the US with its welfare aid, there is no such provision in Malaysia.
Unfairly, the tax man also takes a slice of the VSS benefits. The government should relook at this and instead forego the tax or stagger it when the affected workers have found a job.
Also, the job loss also means there is no more medical or private hospitalisation benefits for the workers who opt for the VSS.
Government sector employees have life-time jobs with medical benefits and government loans while these do not apply to private sector employees. Hence, it may be difficult for civil servants to understand or grasp with the magnitude of the job loss on a person.
Instead, Dell or other multinational companies should relook at the US experience in VSS and opt for other methods to retain the staff or provide retraining.
Singapore’s CapitaLand opted for pay cuts instead of retrenchments.
All is not lost yet, this will be a very tough year but then again there are other ways to ease the shock of job loss.

Why China Must Save USA?

The debt-ridden US has called on the Chinese government to continue buying its Treasury bills to support its stimulus plan as the world’s largest economy is on the brink of a recession, the worst since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

Already China is the single largest holder of US government bonds and the amount is estimated at US$696 billion as of end-2008. The second country after China is Japan, which holds US$578 billion of US government debt.

Foreign holdings of US Treasury debt at end-2008 was US$3.1 trillion. That is equivalent of US$10.13 million for every one person in the US based on the US population of 306 million.

US President Barack Obama is depending on China to continue to buy its Treasury bills to ensure the US$787 billion stimulus package is implemented effectively.

Shouldn’t China be buying assets in US companies and US ports rather than Treasury bills?

China also did not fare too well in its equities acquisition strategy. It reportedly lost more than US$80 billion of its foreign exchange reserves after buying into equities just before world markets collapsed last year.

The acquisitions were undertaken by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which manages the country’s war chest of nearly US$2 trillion of reserves.

Questions arise whether China should further pump-prime its economy by using its large reserves rather than buying more US debt paper and equities. The issue is becoming more urgent as millions of Chinese are made jobless due to the recession.

There are several questions to be raised, according to an economist friend.

Is it the question of China using good money to chase bad money?

Or is this is a prelude to China’s bargaining chip to force the US to further open its markets to China goods?

Or will China use, or be allowed to use, its funds to buy up strategic industries or assets in the US?

The sum of it all is that desperate times call for desperate measures.

There is no way out for China to extricate itself from the US financial quagmire. It has no choice but to continue to support the US economy by buying more of the debt papers.

That is a major concern as for how long can the US economy rely on selling its Treasury bills to finance its looming debt.

Most importantly, the US must set up a framework to reduce its deficit or make known how long it can sustain its economy this way. So far, there is no answer yet.

A major worry in the US and from onlookers is how the funds from the US stimulus package have been used.

For instance, American International Group Inc., under pressure to reveal how it spent billions of dollars in taxpayer funds since its September bailout, said US$105 billion flowed to US states and banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Societe Generale SA and Deutsche Bank AG.

According to Bloomberg, banks that bought credit-default swaps or traded securities with AIG got US$22.4 billion in collateral, US$27.1 billion in payments from a US entity to retire the derivatives, and US$43.7 billion tied to the securities-lending programme.

Indeed, China’s future also hinges on the US which is its major export market. But China does not have a say how the stimulus funds are used to prop the US economy. That’s a lot of money which China has in the US treasury bills

Investment drought spells fresh energy crisis

VIENNA, March 18 — No sooner has the world recovered from a deep economic downturn than it could face a set-back from surging oil prices, energy leaders warned yesterday, citing a sharp drop in investment in the sector.

Representatives of consumers, producers, national and international oil companies agreed at an OPEC seminar that a weaker oil price had meant delayed or cancelled projects.

“OPEC has about 150 projects. 35 are delayed,” OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri told delegates gathered in the former Austrian imperial palace.

“Projects will decline (further) and we’re going to have a shortage.”

Analysts have estimated the disappearance of credit lines and a US$100 collapse in the oil price since a record hit last July have resulted in a 12 per cent drop in energy infrastructure investment world-wide.

“My feeling is it may be even higher,” Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said.

He said fossil fuels were generally still competitive with oil at around US$45 (RM162), but more expensive projects, such as Canadian oil sands, have been put on hold and alternative energy forms such as solar and wind have become much less viable.

The International Energy Agency, which represents oil consuming nations, has forecast falling oil demand as economic output shrinks, but supply is falling just as fast and the IEA has repeatedly warned of a possible energy crunch in the future.

FALLING FAST

The agency’s Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said slowdowns and cancellations would reduce supply capacity by roughly 1.1 million barrels per day in 2009. Of this, around 700,000 bpd was from postponed OPEC projects, he said.

It was too soon to tell whether this cycle of boom and bust energy investment was more marked than when prices last crashed at the end of the 1990s, he said.

But none of the producers speaking today held out much hope for investing through the sharpest economic downturn in decades and the steepest drop in oil demand since the 1980s.

“If the price of oil remains low for too long, people will not invest. We will not invest,” Nigerian Oil Minister Rilwanu Lukman told reporters.

“Why should we invest in more capacity and more reserves when we cannot produce? It doesn’t make sense.”

At a policy-setting meeting at its Vienna headquarters on Sunday, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to stick to existing supply targets.

Citing the weakness of the global economy, it said it would avoid deeper curbs for now, even though inventories are high, but its ministers have repeatedly said that for long-term investment in incremental supplies a price of around US$75 was needed.

While the producers and consumers assembled today agreed there was a risk to investment with oil at roughly US$45, true to past form, the two sides could not agree on what a sustainable and fair oil price was.

The International Monetary Fund’s No. 2 John Lipsky told the conference he feared the world economy had yet to hit the bottom and his “best guess” was that recovery in economic output might begin some time next year.

In the mean time, lower oil prices, compared with last year’s average of around US$100 were providing an economic stimulus equivalent to around 1.5 per cent of world GDP, Lipsky said.

“The decline in oil prices from the 2008 peak is providing an important element of support for the purchasing power of energy importing countries and economies and that’s certainly helpful in the current context,” he said on the sidelines of the forum.

The flipside is that the quicker the economy recovers, the sooner oil demand rises and, with it the risk of another surge in oil prices. — Reuters

Citigroup stock falls below US$1 for first time

NEW YORK: One US dollar could buy a cup of coffee, a pack of chewing gum, or a roll of bathroom tissue.


For the first time, it could also buy a share of Citigroup Inc, once the world's largest bank by market value, according to Reuters.


The price of a Citigroup share on March 5 fell below US$1 in a sign that investors are losing confidence that the lender, which operates in more than 100 countries, can be restored to health after US$37.5 billion of losses in the 15 months ended Dec 31.


Shares fell as low as 97 cents, leaving the bank with a market value below US$6 billion -- down from more than US$277 billion in late 2006. The decline came even though Citigroup has gotten US$45 billion of taxpayer-funded capital since October, and despite federal efforts to stimulate the economy and lending.


Citigroup was not immediately available for comment.


"It's nothing but bad news," said James Barth, a finance professor at Auburn University and a senior fellow at the Milken Institute.



"One might have thought the stimulus from Washington would have had some positive impact, but nothing is turning around investor confidence. The concern is that there is a point at which the government looks at Citigroup and says, enough is enough."


Citigroup remains part of the Dow Jones industrial average of 30 blue-chip companies.



Naomi Kim, a spokeswoman for Dow Jones Indexes, which maintains that index, said: "We are watching the situation closely." Other banks in the index are Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co.


Vikram Pandit, Citigroup's chief executive, is trying to sell poorly-performing businesses and shed risky debt to cap losses, bolster capital and avoid the potential nationalization of New York-based Citigroup that many investors fear.


The Obama administration and regulators including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have said they do not want the government to take full control of the nation's banks.


In early afternoon trading, Citigroup shares had recovered some losses, and were down 8 cents at US$1.05.



The New York Stock Exchange has suspended until June 30 a rule requiring delisting of companies whose share price remains persistently below US$1.


Citigroup was created in 1998 when Sanford "Sandy" Weill merged his Travelers Group Inc with Citicorp.


Weill then persuaded the government to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, a Great Depression-era law that kept commercial banks from entering investment banking.


The bank was ultimately done in by massive bets on risky debt and securitizations, especially under Weill's successor Charles Prince.These have led to two federal bailouts and a government agreement to share in losses on US$300.8 billion of toxic debt.

The government agreed to swap some preferred shares into common stock, giving taxpayers a potential 36 percent stake. Citigroup has eliminated its common stock dividend. - Reuters

Next generation millionaires to emerge from US economic ground zero

From the ruins of this "Great Recession" will emerge the next generation of millionaires and billionaires, so goes the general belief.

In this Internet age, Malaysians are presented with what is said to be a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to accumulate beaten-down stocks, be it financials in the United States or commodities in Australia.

Never has accessibility been better for Malaysians to do so, in what was once a specialised field and the exclusive domain of fund managers and private equity firms.

With effect from April 1, 2007, resident individuals with domestic ringgit borrowings can invest up to RM1 million equivalent in aggregate per calendar year in foreign currency assets, versus the threshold of RM100,000 previously.

The choices and opportunities have never been wider, given that ordinary working people can now trade and buy stocks halfway across the globe via laptops in their bedrooms.

Citigroup's plummeting to below US$1 (RM3.70) per share last week has stirred the imagination of many people seeking the riches down the road of economic recovery.

Many appear to have grabbed the message of opportunity in a crisis.

Their numbers are not known but apparently, an increasing number of Malaysians are already invested or are waiting for the right time to pounce on down-trodden shares overseas, either via online trading or local stockbrokers.

Retirees and those near retirement age, market players say, should stay away and not indulge in online trade of stock markets abroad on their own, without proper financial advice.

This economic downturn presents a very good opportunity for young professionals to channel a portion of their income towards building their nest egg.

But it cannot be stressed often enough that stock markets, be it Bursa Malaysia or bourses abroad, are risky business, however enticing they may be.

Just last week, even investment guru Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had its triple A issuer default rating downgraded one notch to AA+ by Fitch.

The wannabes, particularly those whose fingers were spared the burns in market crashes past, are advised to exercise caution.

First and foremost, do not even think about borrowing to buy into stocks, say financial planners. While key interest rates are at historic lows, personal loan rates are still very high.

Invest only if there is cash to spare, more so if buying into riskier stocks that may now appear dirt cheap, such as Citigroup, said a fund manager.

With global deposit rates at the bottom, it is understandable that people are looking at investing their money in stocks.

Financial planners and fund managers will tell you that whatever the economic situations, keeping a substantial portion of your money in the bank is always a good idea, in line with "not putting all the eggs in one basket".

A good piece of advice from them has always been to invest in stable, defensive stocks or at least to start off the accumulation of wealth in them, before considering other options.

While the buy-and-hold strategy may not work anymore, it does not mean one cannot ride on the recovery story and stay invested within the next five to 10 years, fund managers say. Just keep track of news and economic cycles.

For the recovery story, analysts have said financials and commodities will lead the way.

Other than the usual unit trust offerings, many brokerage houses, driven by the potential of the new income stream, have promoted their services to allow individuals to invest directly in specific shares overseas.

People are looking at where best to put their hard-earned money. This is perhaps a good time for these brokers to show that they can properly guide their clients and that their services and sound financial advice are needed, thereby building trust and loyalty.

Retails investors themselves must understand that apart from the general pitfalls of stock-investing in overseas markets, the overall risks have greatly heightened. The global economy may yet slip into depression.

Commentators have said the global economy has never been in such a dire strait, complicated by unhindered and borderless capital flows.

The world has just had a glimpse of the face of globalisation. Much more complications and pitfalls lie ahead.

However unlikely it may be, systemic-risk finance institutions in the US, for instance, may yet be allowed to collapse. Investors could also end up with illiquid nationalised or delisted entities.

Meanwhile, the opening up of world markets will present new challenges to the country's policymakers towards making the local bourse more attractive, even for Malaysian capital.

Ineffectual policies will have to go as globalisation catches up in all aspects of Malaysian life, lest the country slips from global relevance.

In the meantime, to the potential next generation of millionaires to emerge from the US' economic ground zero, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) stands — Warren Buffett will tell you that. A few, no doubt, will succeed.
Click Here!

Dividen KWSP bagi 2008 hanya 4.5 peratus?

Berita kurang baik untuk pencarum Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) - kadar dividen bagi tahun 2008 dijangka serendah 4.5 peratus.

Berita itulah yang dimaklumkan oleh kesatuan sekerja kepada ahli-ahli mereka, dakwa sumber-sumber yang boleh dipercayai.

Menurut mereka, kadar itu terlalu rendah walaupun prestasi KWSP adalah baik dalam tempoh sembilan bulan pertama 2008 sepertimana dalam pengumuman keputusan prestasinya bagi suku ketiga tahun lalu.

Setiausaha Agung Kesatuan Kebangsaan Pekerja Bank (NUBE), J Solomon berkata, pencarum mengharapkan kadar dividen yang lebih baik kerana KWSP mendakwa pihaknya telah melabur dengan bijaksana dalam sekuriti jangka panjang.

"KWSP patut berkongsi keuntungannya dengan membayar kadar dividen yang lebih tinggi kerana kemelesetan ekonomi telah mengakibatkan ribuan orang hilang pekerjaan," tambahnya.

Anggota Majlis Eksekutif Kongres Kesatuan Sekerja Malaysia (MTUC), A Sivananthan juga berkata, beliau mendapat tahu bahawa dividen KWSP bagi 2008 adalah 4.5 peratus.

Ekoran itu, beliau berkata KWSP sepatutnya menukar para penasihat pelaburannya kerana kadar dividen tersebut, hanyalah separuh daripada dividen yang dibayar oleh Permodanan Nasional Berhad (PNB)>

UMNO Corrupt

KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — Umno has received a slap in the face just ahead of its key annual meeting, with many voters polled in a survey seeing the country's biggest political party as corrupt and out of touch with the ground.

Respondents to the survey also said that International Trade Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was the best choice for the deputy prime minister's position, a contrast from Umno pundits, who expect another leader to emerge as the new No. 2.

The 1,031 respondents also felt that the views of ordinary Malaysians should be considered while picking leaders in internal Umno polls, going against the conventional political wisdom that the leaders are picked only by party members.

The party's chiefs are currently elected by about 2,500 top Umno cadres in elections that are held every three years.

The survey was conducted last month by independent pollster Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research.

Respondents comprised 57 per cent Malays, 31 per cent Chinese and 12 per cent Indians based on random sampling.

The survey showed that a year after the watershed general election that empowered the opposition, voters were clamouring for a bigger say in how the country's leaders were picked.

“This survey indicates the Malaysian public's keen interest in Umno's election,” Merdeka Centre chief Ibrahim Suffian said in a statement.

“They also have strong views about the problems affecting the party while at the same time harbour high hopes that those elected... will be able to fulfil their wishes.”

From March 24 to 28, Umno will hold its annual assembly, which incorporates the triennial party polls.

Its president and deputy president traditionally become the prime minister and deputy prime minister respectively, and many of its top leaders are Cabinet ministers.

The survey found that 79 per cent of the voters polled wanted Umno delegates to “take into consideration the views of ordinary Malaysians in determining Umno leadership line-up as it influences national politics”, the Merdeka Centre said.

“Why should the power to appoint the leaders who will rule 27 million people be in the hands of such a select few?” asked 43-year-old housewife Connie Wong.

The survey showed that a high percentage of voters have a negative image of the 3.2 million strong party.

A total of 61 per cent of those polled viewed corruption as Umno's most serious problem, while 13 per cent said its second most serious problem was being “out of touch” with the public.

Voters were also worried the party had “weak leaders” and that it was a “weak manager of the economy”.

In a startling reflection of the Chinese voters' rejection of the Malay party, which leads a multiracial coalition, the poll showed that just 1 per cent of Chinese respondents hoped Umno would “continue to lead the country”.

Three per cent of Indian respondents hoped the same for Umno. In contrast, 19 per cent of Malays wanted the party to continue leading the country.

A similar 1 per cent of Chinese respondents said they had hope for Umno to develop the country, yet none expected Umno to “perform well and keep the promises”.

As for the qualities they desired in Umno leaders, 21 per cent of the respondents ranked “being just to the people” or being “close to the people” (11 per cent) as among the most important.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is slated to take over as Umno president and prime minister by early next month.

But the Umno deputy president's post, and hence the deputy prime minister's post, will be decided by the party from among three men.

Umno pundits are saying that Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Ali Rustam is leading in the unofficial count, followed by Muhyiddin and Rural Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib.

But if voters were allowed to make their pick, Muhyiddin would be the outright winner. — The Straits Times

Nagging Wife For Sale

LONDON (AFP) - - A British man fed up with his wife's complaints advertised her for sale -- and got a number of offers.

"Nagging Wife. No Tax, No MOT. Very high maintenance -- some rust," wrote Gary Bates, 38, in a small ad in Trade-It, more usually used to buy and sell cars or household goods.

Bates, a self-employed builder from Gloucestershire, southwest England, snapped after his wife Donna on got on his nerves while she was watching television and decided to place the ad as a joke.

"She was nagging me for doing something small, while she was watching some rubbish on TV. So I just thought I'd put an ad in to get rid of her.

"I didn't think anyone would ring up but I've had at least nine or 10 people calling about her. It's gone mad. There was no one I knew -- just people asking, 'Is she still available?'"

The couple only married last year, and Bates said his 40-year-old wife -- whom he advertised in the magazine's Free to Collect section, along with some of his fishing tackle -- initially gave him "a bit of an ear-bashing."

But he said: "She's seen the funny side of it now though!"

Raising children to be 'money-smart'

IN THE current challenging times brought about by the global economic crisis, it is now even more important to be open with your children about your finances.

Allowing them to learn money management skills can help you reduce your household bills. Bearing in mind how prices of consumer goods keep increasing, you will need all the help you can get from members of your family, no matter how young they are.

So, why not begin with your precious young ones by teaching them good money management habits! Want to know why this is one of the best things you can do for your children and ultimately for yourself and your family? Read on, and you will find out.

Build a solid foundation in life

Let's face it - managing your finances is a necessary life skill, particularly in this day and age where virtually everything requires money.

Unfortunately, when it comes to kids and money, most parents neglect to teach their children about the basics of money management. This is something parents need to work on because just as you teach your children other good habits, such as brushing their teeth and cleaning up after themselves, you can also teach them good money management habits.

What is most important is teaching your children the value of saving money and not spending their savings on an impulse. This is the starting block that will help them establish solid money management habits that will ultimately benefit not just your children, but you and your children's children as well.

As Warren Buffet aptly put, "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago".

Money doesn't grow on trees

Or does it? Why else do banks have branches? - This would typically be a child's sentiment and a disturbing one it is. Kids these days really do believe that money is easy to come by.

Picture this - your son asks you to withdraw more money from an ATM machine when you tell him "No, I can't buy you that new toy because I don't have much money left".

Want to know why he can so casually suggest that to you? It's because he thinks there is an endless flow of cash coming from the ATM machine. That is your more sophisticated version rebutting the ever famous "Money doesn't grow on trees" excuse commonly used by moms and dads worldwide.

Kids naturally go through those stages where they just want this, want that, want more and forget that money has to be earned and prioritised - if people could have whatever they wanted, the world may (or may not) be a better place to live. Once your children hit this stage in their life, you will know it is time to teach them some money management skills.

Instill discipline and save your wallet!

One of the best lifelong lessons that your children can gain from learning money management skills is the art of discipline and we all know how much kids need that! Kids these days are different and many may be shaking heads right now saying that kids now have a mind of their own, not like kids in yesteryears and instilling discipline is easier said than done.


It takes discipline to put aside your hard-earned money - regardless whether from a salary or an allowance - into a savings account or a simple coin box. However, as your children learn the differences between needs and wants, and start saving their money, the discipline gained will spread to other areas of their lives. And ultimately your wallet! They will learn the importance, and have the discipline, to live within their means and reduce the amount of holes they put in your pocket.

Avoid Generation Debt

If your children are now young adults who are still studying in university or are in the early years of their career, then they are part of the generation known as Generation Debt.

If this doesn't sound familiar, then it is because your children have not come to an age where they need to start venturing out on their own yet. But as sure as the sun will come up the next morning, your children will get to that stage in their lives eventually. And when they do, there is a great possibility that their financial decisions will create a spillover effect, that you, the loving parents, will be left to deal with.

Most young adults nowadays enter the workforce with five figure student loans, rack up four figures of stubborn credit card debt, and their savings are miniscule. Add to that the skyrocketing prices of consumer goods and housing and the debt just mounts up.

Therefore, to prevent your children from falling into the same trap as their peers, you have to assist your children in learning how to manage their money today!

Become charitable adults

Money management not only involves learning how to save, spend and invest wisely, it also involves learning the art of giving back to society. This is your opportunity to give your children exposure to charitable organisations and people less fortunate than they are, and a great way to educate the next generation about family values and establishing a sense of appreciation and gratitude for the luxuries they enjoy.

By encouraging charitable action from a young age, your children will eventually become empathic adults who know that their actions can have a positive impact on their surroundings.

You can create an exhaustive list of why it is important to teach your children money management skills.

However, knowing the five reasons mentioned in this article (just in case the reasons mentioned slipped your minds, here they are again: to build a solid foundation in life, because money doesn't grow on trees, to save your wallet by instilling discipline, to avoid generation debt and to become charitable adults) is sufficient for you to begin that process.

"Families function as a child's safety net, but if you do not give that child the tools to knit his own net, so to speak, he may jump into a perilous world with no net at all", says Joline Godfrey

So don't procrastinate! Give your children the tools they need to make their own safety net. Now is a good time as any to start setting your children on the right path for a financially secure future

Malaysian Education System - From Bad To Worst

PETALING JAYA (The Star) : Social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye has defended the use of English in the teaching of Mathematics and Science.

“Why question it now? I am surprised that there are groups who are questioning the policy after it has been in place for six years.

“There is nothing wrong with the policy, although there might be weaknesses in its implementation,” he said when contacted yesterday.

More than 2,000 people marched to Istana Negara last Saturday to hand over a memorandum to the King asking for the return of Bahasa Malaysia as the medium of instruction for Mathematics and Science.

Lee said the argument that teachers were not fluent in English was not justified as it was the execution of the policy that needed to be improved.

“What needs to be done is to address these weaknesses, not the policy,” he said.

He also said global competitiveness was anchored in the proficiency of English, and that the policy should not be regarded as a threat to Bahasa Malaysia as the national language.

“The teaching of Mathematics and Science in English is not a show of disrespect to the national language.

“For the future of our country, we should take steps to improve the standard of English. It’s a good thing for Malaysians to be bilingual.

“Our education system should also not be politicised. It’s not good for the progress and the future of our nation,” he said.

................................................................................
In my personal view, Mr Lam Thye was only half-right. He only spoke about the weak implementation of teaching English for science and maths. Actually, we have a weak education system, full stop.

When we stifled the education system by banning students from thinking that was when our education system started going downhill. The Japanese learn in Japanese, the Thais in Thai, the Indonesians in Indonesian, and so on. If you want to go to France to study you need to first learn French. Has using languages other than English ever been a problem for non-English speaking countries?

However, in these countries I quoted, they allow students to think. In Malaysia, we do not allow the same. We even have laws that make it a crime for students to get involved in politics.

Students must be allowed to think. They must be allowed to dissent if they wish to. Only through activism will students develop. Telling students what they can and cannot think does not help them develop. This is where the problem lies.

They can speak Swahili for all I care. But as long as they are allowed to think and can think for themselves then they can develop into the type of people we would like them to. But to treat students as if they were children would mean they would grow up to become children.

Innovation can’t be stifled. By stifling the freedom to develop means we are stifling growth itself. And that is why Malaysian students can’t develop. It is not about the language. It is about what we have not allowed them to become

Stop wasting time on real estate plays

KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 – Last night, amid cheers from American scientists, US President Barrack Obama revived US government funding for stem cell research.

He also in no uncertain terms restored science as a top priority for America, making clear that it would no longer be subject to the vagaries of religious belief or political ideology.

In reviving the spirits of the US scientific establishment, Obama has probably caused much gloom elsewhere in the world. The flood of research dollars driven to scientists in countries such as the UK, South Korea, Sweden, India and Singapore thanks to the Bush administration, is probably about to dry up.

Malaysia, too, jumped on the bio-technology bandwagon – eventually – with the BioValley, then-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s last Vision 2020 project.

It was to help reverse the country’s brain-drain, and pull in millions of dollars in investment.

But the BioValley remains today, as one influential scientific publication called it in 2005, the Valley of Ghosts.

Unlike Singapore and South Korea, Malaysia was slow to capitalise on short-sighted American policies. While these countries now face tough competition with a resurgent US, they have so much to show for those wonderful Bush years. They have cutting edge laboratories and facilities, and more than that, they have knowledge and patents, techniques and methodologies.

What does Malaysia have? Much like the Multimedia Super Corridor, and Cyberjaya, and probably Iskandar Malaysia, another failed real-estate play, victims of the command-and-control mentality that pervades policy-making.

Today, the second stimulus package will be unveiled. After the let-down of the first stimulus package, it’s safe to say there aren’t especially high hopes riding on this one.

Whatever is announced will probably underline how tight the government’s finances are and how few the options available.

Where did the money go? Aside from salaries for a bloated bureacracy, compensation to infrastructure concessionaires and some really expensive screwdrivers; aside from those, it went into the mega-projects. This is the bitter lesson we must learn.

Each failed mega-project costs money, in development expenditure allocated under each Malaysia Plan, in investment shunted away from more productive enterprises, in speculative real estate plays.

More tragic than that, these failed initiatives are squandered time. The BioValley represents at least five years’ of wasted opportunity, the MSC close to two decades.

Anyone can make more money, but no one has ever bought more time. No amount of money will bring back those Bush years when pharmaceutical companies would have helped us gather knowledge, strengthen intellects and, who knows, maybe even make a crucial breakthrough that would have saved lives.

Those were real years wasted, real lives affected, when Malaysians could have had better jobs, higher pay, and improved living standards, something we could have been truly proud of.

All those corridors and zones and mega-projects are no substitute for clear, fair, competitive and transparent policies, speedily implemented and consistently applied.

All the government needs to do is provide a conducive environment for industries, businessmen and entrepreneurs. They do not need to be forced to buy land. They just want a half-decent chance to invest, to build up a company, to earn a return. Wherever they go, the real estate play will follow.

It’s too late to undo the harm of the Mahathir years. We can’t recreate the lost opportunities, recover the wealth frittered away.

But it’s a good time to make this plea: Unleash us on the economy, set us free. Let the future be up to us

The playboy, the BMW heiress and the sex blackmail

MUNICH, March 9 – The case of a Swiss playboy who allegedly seduced Germany’s richest woman, defrauded her of millions of euros and tried to blackmail her out of millions more by revealing details of their sexual encounters, is to be laid bare today in a Munich courtroom where he is due to go on trial.

In a case that has become known as “the gigolo versus the billionaire”, Helg Sgarbi, 44, could face up to 15 years in jail if he is convicted of the crimes against Susanne Klatten, the heir of BMW and the 55th richest person in the world, and five other women.

Prosecutors claim Sgarbi blackmailed a string of rich women across Europe, including a countess who was more than 50 years his senior, who has since died.

Sgarbi’s luck allegedly ran out when he filmed a sexual encounter between himself and Klatten in a Holiday Inn room and allegedly threatened to send the material to the board of BMW and her husband if she did not give him €49m (£43m).

In a blackmail letter he wrote to her: “While your risk is very high, my risks are irrelevant.”

Despite the humiliation she was forced to endure, Klatten, 46, whose reputation is that of a serious businesswoman who keeps a low profile, went straight to the police, who arrested Sgarbi at a motorway service station in 2007.

Police investigators described Sgarbi as a smooth operator who knew exactly how to win the trust of the women he seduced.

He told them he was a “special Swiss representative in crisis zones,” which enabled him to flit between the women at short notice and with very little explanation. One woman bought wedding rings after Sgarbi proposed marriage, while another took out a high-interest, multi-million-euro loan on his behalf.

But Klatten, a member of the Quandt clan who is worth £9.25bn according to the Forbes Rich List, was allegedly his biggest conquest. They met at an exclusive health resort in Innsbruck in July 2007, allegedly beginning an affair in the south of France the following month, and later meeting in a Holiday Inn in Munich for an intimate encounter which either Sgarbi or an accomplice is believed to have filmed.

In September, investigators claim that Klatten fell for his story that he had injured a girl in a car crash in Florida and urgently needed €7m to pay off her family, which he said he would pay back.

Klatten later told police how she had handed over the money – a cardboard box containing 14,000 €500 bank notes - in the garage of the Holiday Inn.

Sgarbi then allegedly tried to persuade the mother-of-three to leave her husband for him, suggesting that she should put €290m into a trust fund to finance their life together.

Klatten ended the relationship whereupon Sgarbi allegedly demanded that she pay him €49m or he would release the compromising film footage.

If Sgarbi pleads guilty, the trial is expected to end swiftly. If he exercises his right to silence, Klatten, and the other six women he allegedly defrauded will be called to give evidence against him. – Guardian

Freedom Of Opinion In Islam

Freedom of opinion refers to man’s total freedom of creed and thinking, as well as his freedom of declaring and expressing his point of view peacefully, without using a weapon. This definition of the concept of freedom of opinion is taken from verses of the Quran that are concerned with confirming the total freedom of opinion, and the application by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) of these verses in his time with people around him.

The concept of freedom of opinion as applied by the Prophet is mentioned in various verses of the Quran revealed in both Mekah and Medina. The total freedom of opinion and speech is a principle that was guaranteed by Islam since the beginning of the revelation, and applied by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and some of his successors (Caliphs). Yet, this freedom had been forbidden during the time of the Umayyad Caliphate. Then the Abbassids came along and introduced a theocratic concept of governing the state. That concept was justified by religious texts opposed to the Quran, but was mischievously ‘credited’ to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) through so-called Hadith created to justify the actions of the government.

Man’s freedom of opinion is the origin of his existence, God’s creation of the universe, and the idea of the hereafter. This is how far the roots of freedom of opinion in Islam go. And this puts an end to every pretext of people supporting suppression of opinion in the name of religion.

If man wants to be free, he will be, and if he wants to be a slave to another man or any thought, he will be too. What is important is man is able to choose, and through choice, man can use his freedom however he wants. However, man will choose to be a non-believer, and deny his inner instinct and God’s existence when others try to dominate him with their human laws and seize his right of being a non-believer. To this extent, God Almighty created man with free will. And man’s free thought can lead him to deny the existence of God, the Almighty.

God did not authorise some people to punish, in His name, others just because they have different opinions or because they disbelieve in God. And those who proclaim their right to punish others spoil the case from its roots and play the role of God - as there is no god but Him. They dominate what God Almighty wanted to control as He created human mind free without restraints, able to think with no limits, and believe or disbelieve if it wants. They fake God’s religion and assault His powers that He saved for Himself to practice in the Hereafter, on grounds that there is no need for punishment and reckoning in the hereafter, as long as there is a compulsion in faith and religion. They form a bad, extreme, bloody, stubborn and fusty image of God’s religion, and contribute to get most people away from it. This bad image has nothing to do with God’s religion. It is their image and religion that is entirely opposing to God’s religion.

Because they are the real enemies of God, He legislated militancy against them, not to force people to get into Islam, but to assure people’s right of faith or infidelity, as well as their right to get rid of the domination of insincere religious leaders. The insincere religious leaders (priesthood advocates) are those who pretend to be talking in the name of God, and controlling - in His name - people’s minds and thoughts. Islam fought them with the legislation of militancy. Yet the insincere religious leaders of Abbassids and Sheiks succeeded in reversing these concepts and misrepresented Islam.

When we read the Holy Quran we find that God, the creator of the universe, doesn’t want to force people to believe in Him, His books, and messengers. And because God created people with free will, he conducts a dialogue with them to believe if they want to believe, and not because of force and compulsion used against them. As insincere religious leaders refuse to have a dialogue with people, and instead issue decrees condemning them -- because they have opinions that are different with theirs -- as being disbelievers and renegades, God conducts a dialogue with His worshippers, Adam’s sons, to convince them that He is the only God who has no companions.

When we think about the verses of the Quran and look at ourselves, we feel sorry for what some of us, who bear the banner of Islam, do. They impose their own opinions and suppress others the right to express their opinions. Moreover, they offend and hurt these people through deeds and words. And they proclaim these people as disbelievers who must be killed, thinking they are fighting for the cause of God. If they properly considered the verses of Quran, they would find that they are repeating the deeds of the tribe of Quraish at the time of the Prophet (pbuh).

When Will the Bull Return?

The stock market is crashing—slowly, and in plain view of the people who count on it most. The 53% plunge in the Dow Jones industrials since October 2007 has wrecked the college- and retirement-savings plans of millions of investors. It has permanently lowered the long-term investment projections of private endowments and pension funds. It has sent corporate compensation experts scrambling to figure out how to reward top employees. All told, more than $10 trillion of stock market wealth has vanished, and with it the confidence that springs from financial security.

While 17 months may feel like an eternity, it could turn out merely to be a prequel. The questions on the minds of investors, money managers, and corporate executives are threefold: How much longer will the bear market last? How low will the averages go? And when might investors get their money back?

As Warren E. Buffett has said: "Beware of geeks bearing formulas." It's especially difficult to predict the direction of the markets these days because the most popular gauges, from price-earnings ratios to measures of investor "capitulation," have stopped working. The peculiar nature of this bear market limits the kit of useful tools to just a handful of bond market and business confidence indicators.

Those signals, along with interviews with financial historians, market strategists, and economists, point mostly to painful scenarios. Stocks don't seem likely to fall much more from here—but market turmoil could continue for months or even years. Worse, by the time the market revisits its highs, so many years are likely to have passed that many older people will have gotten out of stocks, missing out on the rebound. The flip side is that new money put into the stock market now will likely do comparatively well over the long term. That's welcome news for twentysomethings and executive compensation consultants, but perhaps not for soon-to-be retirees.

SEARCHING FOR PRECEDENTS
History can't provide as many clues to the market's direction as usual. That's because while most bear markets more or less track the business cycle, this one began with a broken financial system. That makes the current bear more like the one that snarled from 1929-32 than others of the past 100 years. But that analogy doesn't fit perfectly, either. "We have no good precedents to help us," says Peter L. Bernstein, a 90-year-old market essayist and financial historian who was a teenager during the Great Depression. "What's breathtaking is the rapidity of the decline and its breadth."

The market anxiety is especially high now because of the raging fire in the economy. "The next six to nine months are going to be awful," says Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute. Waves of corporate defaults, home foreclosures, bank failures, and job losses are still to come.

Of course, the stock market already knows that for the rest of 2009 the economy will be a "shambles," to use Buffett's recent description. Today's low share prices may well reflect that. The Dow Jones industrial average has already fallen through the 7,000 level predicted earlier this year by Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist nicknamed Dr. Doom for daring in 2006 to foretell the credit calamity. That's right, even Dr. Doom was too optimistic.

If recent history were a reliable guide, it would be just about time for the bear to retreat to his den, which nowadays might include a flat-panel TV and leather chair bought at a foreclosure sale. The market's average decline during bear markets since the 1929 market crash is just 30%. What's more, those past bears lasted an average of 13 months, making this one look not just mean but old.

But this is no ordinary slump. Even the most basic market gauge, the price-earnings ratio, which measures a company's share price relative to the earnings it generates, is unreliable. Historically, the overall market has traded at prices that average 15 times earnings, ranging from roughly 8 during the worst bear markets to 25 or greater during bull runs

'Slumdog' becomes millionaire 200 times over

LOS ANGELES, March 6 - The milestones just keep coming for "Slumdog Millionaire": After winning eight Academy Awards, including best picture, the feel-good indie has now crossed the US$200 million (RM720 million) mark in worldwide box office.

As of yesterday afternoon, "Slumdog" had grossed nearly US$217 million from theatres around the globe. It made US$12 million the weekend after it dominated the Feb. 22 Academy Awards, a healthy 43 percent improvement over the previous weekend, and came in at No. 3 behind two movies with strong built-in audiences, "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" and "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience."

By contrast, previous best-picture winner "No Country for Old Men" had a worldwide gross of just more than US$162 million, while Martin Scorsese's star-studded "The Departed" from 2006 made nearly US$290 million worldwide.

"Slumdog Millionaire" tells the story of an 18-year-old orphan who rises from the streets of Mumbai to become the biggest winner ever on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." Director Danny Boyle's film had a budget of about US$15 million, featured no well-known stars and is partly in subtitled Hindi, but it's wowed audiences and critics alike.

Steve Gilula, co-chief operating officer for Fox Searchlight, which released "Slumdog," said he expects the movie will go past US$250 million globally.

"It's extraordinary," Gilula said. "Very, very few films get past US$200 million worldwide."

Comparatively, another small Searchlight movie that made it big, 2007's "Juno," made US$230 million worldwide.

Gilula attributes the global success of "Slumdog Millionaire" to a couple of factors. One is the international nature of the setting, the cast and the Oscar-winning filmmakers - Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy are British, for example, and composer A.R. Rahman is from India.

The other is the attention it got from winning top honors at the Golden Globe Awards, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and Britain's BAFTAs.

"All of that comes together to create a phenomenon," he said. - AP

Kepler telescope to hunt for Earth-like planets

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - NASA is preparing to launch the Kepler space telescope Friday to help answer a question that has boggled the minds of astronomers for centuries: is Earth the only habitable planet in the galaxy?


"This mission attempts to answer a question that is as old as time itself -- are other planets like ours out there?" said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"It's not just a science mission, it's an historical mission."

Kepler will stare at the same spot in space for three and a half years, taking in about 100,000 stars around the Cygnus and Lyra constellations of the Milky Way.

The massive telescope is scheduled to launch atop a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Friday at 10:48 pm (0348 GMT Saturday).

At a cost of nearly 600 million dollars, it will be the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's first mission in search of Earth-like planets orbiting suns similar to ours, at just the right distance and temperature for life-sustaining water to exist.

The telescope will be hunting for relatively small planets that are neither too hot nor too cold, are rocky and have liquid water -- essential life-sustaining conditions -- explained William Borucki, Kepler's principal investigator based at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.

"If we find that many, it certainly will mean that life may well be common throughout our galaxy, that there is an opportunity for life to have a place to evolve," Borucki said.

"If none or only a few of these planets are found, it might suggest that habitable planets like Earth are very rare and Earth may be a lonely outpost for life."

Equipped with the largest camera ever launched into space -- a 95-megapixel array of charge-coupled devices (CCDs) -- the Kepler telescope is able to detect the faint, periodic dimming of stars that planets cause as they pass by.

"If Kepler were to look down at a small town on Earth at night from space, it would be able to detect the dimming of a porch light as somebody passed in front," according to Kepler project manager James Fanson.

This is no small feat.

"Trying to detect Jupiter-size planets crossing in front of their stars is like trying to measure the effect of a mosquito flying by a car's headlight," Fanson said.

"Finding Earth-sized planets is like trying to detect a very tiny flea in that same headlight."

Kepler's discoveries "may fundamentally alter humanity's view of itself," Jon Morse, astrophysics division director at the US space agency's Washington headquarters, told a press conference last month.

"The planetary census Kepler takes will be very important for understanding the frequency of Earth-size planets in our galaxy and planning future missions that directly detect and characterize such worlds around nearby stars."

Ever since astronomers first turned their telescopes to the sky, humans have been searching for other planets. But the small size of planets compared to stars has complicated the task. Only eight planets have been found in our solar system -- Pluto is now considered a mere planetoid.

Since 1995, some 337 planets have been found orbiting around stars outside our solar system, but they are all bigger than Earth and do not have Earth-like conditions that make life possible.

The French-led COROT satellite, which has been in orbit since 2006, has already discovered the smallest extraterrestrial planet so far. At a little over twice the Earth's diameter, the planet is very close to its star and very hot, astronomers reported earlier this month.

Astronomer Debra Fischer at San Francisco State University said that NASA's mission is a cornerstone in understanding what types of planets are formed around other stars.

Information that Kepler will help compile, she said, "will help us chart a course toward one day imaging a pale blue dot like our planet, orbiting another star in our galaxy."

Did Obama Cause the Stock Slide?

At least on Wall Street, the honeymoon is over for President Barack Obama.

Polls still show the President has strong popularity among the general U.S. population, and Obama continues to command power in Congress. But among investors, fairly or unfairly, there is griping that the new Obama Administration is at least partly to blame for the recent slide in stocks. Since Nov. 4, Election Day, the broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index is off about 25%, and since Jan. 20, when Obama took office, the "500" is down 15%.

It's never easy to determine exactly why the stock market moves in a particular direction. Plenty of other factors have influenced stock prices since November. For example, the global economy has slowed further and the outlook for corporate profits has worsened.

But BusinessWeek interviewed a wide array of investment professionals, and many said the first six weeks of the Obama Administration have soured their outlook on the stock market.

Bar Was Too High
It wasn't always so. On Nov. 21, word arrived that Timothy Geithner would be tapped as Obama's Treasury Secretary and markets rallied immediately. The S&P 500 rocketed 15% higher that day and the following trading session.

Stocks continued to climb into January, and even rallied in the week after the inauguration. "Hopes were too high," says independent market strategist Doug Peta. Too many were hoping the new Administration would have "this magic potion to solve our problems," he says. "That was unrealistic."

Proposals for a stimulus bill pushed infrastructure stocks to unsustainable heights. Caterpillar (CAT) surged 39% from the market lows in November to early January. Since then, shares in the maker of construction equipment have tumbled back down again, falling 43%.

Charges of Bungling
Many investors hoped Obama could start to solve the stock market's—and the economy's—biggest problem: the credit crisis. "It was a false hope," says Brian Reynolds, chief market strategist at WJB Capital Group, who believes there is "nothing the government can do to stop the crisis."

Others are more hopeful the government can ease credit conditions, but say the Obama Administration has bungled the operation so far. A Feb. 10 presentation of a financial-sector relief plan by Geithner was widely criticized. Stocks fell almost 5% that day.

Geithner was a "particularly poor salesperson back on Feb. 10," says Marc Chandler of Brown Brothers Harriman, who says he voted for Obama. "The Obama Administration has failed to get ahead of the curve."

Uncertainty Leaves Room for Rumors
A lack of details from Geithner disturbed investors, says Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist at the Hartford (HIG). "Markets need certainty," she says. "The market has been sitting here waiting, waiting, waiting. That allows rumors and conspiracy theories to dominate."

Jerry Webman, chief economist at OppenheimerFunds (OPY), defends the Administration. "I would like to see Administration people more visible" on the issue, he says. But, "the problem is: What do we expect them to say? 'This is a big complicated problem and we don't know where we're going to get the money to solve it'? That would be the truth," Webman says, but it wouldn't make market participants very happy.

Credit issues may be the chief complaint about Obama among investors. But they're hardly the only gripe. In recent weeks, Obama has made clear he intends to keep campaign promises on health-care reform, climate change regulation, and higher taxes for Americans who earn more than $250,000.

Indonesians face jail under tighter polygamy rules

JAKARTA (AFP) - - Indonesian Muslims contemplating an illicit second, third or fourth marriage could face jail under a proposed bill aimed at tightening the rules for polygamy, an official said Monday.

The draft rules being mulled by the country's religion ministry would force Muslim men wanting to take extra wives to get written consent from their existing spouse or spouses, and prove they have the financial means to support them, ministry official Muctar Ilyas told AFP.

"The present wives must sign the letter of consent in front of an official so we know they've not been forced by the husband. We will report men who marry without their wives' consent to the police on fraud charges," Ilyas said.

"Couples must register their marriages in the presence of an authorised religious official. If not, they can be jailed up to three months and fined up to five million rupiah (415 dollars)," he said.

"Women are usually the ones to suffer in illegal marriages, especially if they have children. Without proper marriage documents, they cannot make claims to their husbands' assets for instance," he said.

Opinions are strongly divided on the virtues of polygamy in Muslim-majority of Indonesia. Islam allows for men to take up to four wives.

Asian stock markets tumble on worsening US slump

HONG KONG, March 2 — Asian stocks tumbled today after the US economy withered at its fastest pace in more than a quarter century, heightening doubts that the global economy can recover later this year. Japan’s benchmark fell 4 per cent.

As in the US and Europe, investors across the region were shaken after figures Friday showed gross domestic product in the world’s largest economy shrank at a 6.2 per cent annual pace at the end of last year.

The decline, worse than most economists had expected, was the country’s sharpest since 1982.

Adding to fears that the world economic crisis won’t end anytime soon were more troubling signs that banks may need still more capital to cope with crippling losses.

On Friday, Citigroup Inc. agreed to turn over a huge stake to the US government. And European banking giant HSBC PLC is expected to unveil plans to raise £12 billion (RM61 billion) in a new rights issue when it reports results later today.

Meanwhile, faltering insurer American International Group is expected to get another massive bailout.

“You’re seeing the US is sinking lower and lower, and we’re still desperately searching for a bottom,” said John Mar, co-head of sales trading at Daiwa Securities SMBC Co. in Hong Kong. “It’s death by a thousand cuts, a slow death right now.”

Every major market in Asia convulsed with selling.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average dropped 300.99, or 4 per cent, to 7,267.43.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 490.53 points, or 3.8 per cent, to 12,321.04, and South Korea’s Kospi plummeted 4.1 per cent to 1,019.74. Markets in Australia, Taiwan and Singapore shed about 3 per cent or more.

Equities markets in the U.S. and Europe suffered a similar route on Friday.

In New York, the Dow fell 119.15, or 1.7 per cent, to 7,062.93 — its lowest close since May 1, 1997.

The S&P 500 index fell 17.74, or 2.4 per cent, to 735.09, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 13.63, or 1 per cent, to 1,377.84.

With US futures down, Wall Street was poised for more losses. Dow futures were down 89 points, or 1.3 per cent, at 6,963 and S&P500 futures lost 10.7, or 1.5 per cent, to 723.50.

Asian financial stocks were among the hardest hit. Leading Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dived over 5 per cent. In Hong Kong, shares of HSBC were suspended ahead of Monday's results and expected announcements.

Oil prices weakened in early trade, with benchmark crude for April delivery down US$1.14 at US$43.62. Last week in the US, the contract fell 46 cents to settle at US$44.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currencies, the dollar was little changed at 97.52 yen, while the euro dropped to US$1.2563 from US$1.2668. — AP

Nik Aziz says ‘bumiputera’ term is racist

MARCH 1 – In extraordinary remarks today, Pas spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat said the use of the term “bumiputera” smacks of racism and deprived other races of government aid.

His comments, made in Kota Baru today, will certainly spark debate, especially since it comes from a Malay leader who is widely respected even by his foes in Barisan Nasional and Umno.

In calling the term bumiputera racist, he appears to be drawing a clear line between his Pas party and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) from that of Umno, which has been championing the special rights of Malays.

Nik Aziz’s remarks was made in response over growing criticism from the conservative spine of Umno against comments made by DAP’s Dr Boo Cheng Hau, the opposition leader in Johor.

Dr Boo was reported to have compared “bumiputeraism” with apartheid.

Umno leaders have demanded an apology from Boo, and say his comments were a challenge to Malay rights and the constitution.

Umno’s Utusan Malaysia also described Boo’s remarks as a part of DAP’s agenda to form a republic.

But Nik Aziz was reported by Bernama as saying today that not only did the term smack of racism but deprived other races sharing similar rights and having the same identity cards of government assistance.

“In an election, other races are allowed to cast one vote, so are the bumiputera," he said.

Nik Abdul Aziz said the government should form a body to manage aid for the poor in the country and not cater only for a single group known as the bumiputera.

“I don’t like the (use of the) word bumiputera. What I like is (use of the word) poor, for all races,” he added.

He said the poor, regardless of their race, should be given assistance.

His statement appears to be also in line with Anwar Ibrahim’s concept of “Ketuanan Rakyat,” or supremacy of the people, which has been used to diffentiate PR parties from Umno’s “Ketuanan Melayu,” or Malay supremacy.