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Aeon Credit Service among early top gainers Posted: 19 Dec 2012 06:58 PM PST AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd (ACSB) emerged among the top gainers in the early session of trading on Bursa Malaysia this morning, after posting bullish financial results yesterday. The company, which is involved in the business of credit, surged 12 sen or 0.99 per cent to RM12.20 at 10.26 am, after hovering between RM12.12 and RM12.20. The company's pre-tax profit surged by 41.5 per cent to RM129 million for the nine months ended Nov 20, 2012 from the RM91.16 million recorded in the same quarter of last year. This was due to continued growth in business coupled with an improved cost efficiency from sharp growth in receivables in the year and lower ratio of net impairment. Revenue for the period reviewed jumped by 34.2 per cent to RM335.44 million from RM249.99 million previously. HwangDBS Vickers Research said the results were within its expectations, led by robust loan growth in personal and vehicle financing. It expects the strong growth in vehicle, general and personal financing to continue, with the credit cards business moderating, as a result of Bank Negara's tighter lending guidelines for credit cards issuance. The research house has maintained its "hold" recommendation on ACSB with higher target price of RM11.30 against RM9.80 previously. "This is based on 9.5 times calendar year 2012 earnings per share as we roll forward our valuation base to 2014. "We expect the strong loan and earnings traction to continue, but current valuation which is more than +2SD (standard deviation) above its mean, has priced in the positives," it said. Bernama

MBSB eyes big projects in Sarawak Posted: 19 Dec 2012 07:05 PM PST In line with its business expansion plans, Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) is eyeing several big property projects in Sarawak, including the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak's new campus. Its President and Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman said MBSB, with five sales and service centres in Sarawak, had the necessary expertise and experience to provide property financing services to big scale property undertakings. "The high level of confidence and trust placed in us by depositors, especially in Sarawak, certainly bodes well for the company's expansion plans," he added. He was speaking at the "An exclusive Moment with MBSB" appreciation dinner here last night. UiTM Sarawak's new 404-hectare campus in Kota Samarahan, is expected to accommodate another 4,000 students, in addition to the existing facility. Its permanent campus in Mukah, scheduled for completion in October 2015, will accommodate 2,000 students. Ahmad Zaini is confident of the strong business potential in Sarawak for the company, having opened its first branch in the state in Kuching, 13 years ago. For the first nine months of this year, he said, MBSB achieved a record profit before tax of RM410 million, which was a 26 per cent increase of RM83 million, compared to the RM327 million achieved for the same period last year. He added that a strong growth in deposits at an annual average of 21 per cent for the last three years was also recorded. MBSB, whose largest investor is the Employees Provident Fund(EPF), has 36 sales and service centres and 12 representative offices nationwide at present. Bernama

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White House readies gun-control plan as more children laid to rest - Reuters Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:29 AM PST By Edward Krudy and Peter Rudegeair NEWTOWN, Connecticut | Wed Dec 19, 2012 11:26am EST (Reuters) - The White House was set to reveal the first steps of a gun-control plan on Wednesday as the United States grieved for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in another wave of funerals. The funerals scheduled for Wednesday included those for four children, a teacher and the principal of the Connecticut school stormed by 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza on Friday. After killing his mother at home, Lanza drove to the school and used a semi-automatic assault rifle to kill 20 children and six women. Vice President Joe Biden will lead an effort to craft policies to reduce gun violence in a plan President Barack Obama was to lay out on Wednesday morning. Obama was not expected to unveil policy decisions, but to outline how his administration will proceed, White House aides said. The move could signal that he will make the issue a second-term priority and add momentum to a national debate over tighter gun-control laws. Obama has turned to Biden in the past to take a role in high-profile initiatives, including efforts on a deficit-reduction compromise with congressional Republicans in 2011. The massacre of so many children, all of whom were just 6 or 7 years old, shocked the United States and the world and renewed debate over gun control in a nation where the right to bear arms is protected by the Constitution and fiercely defended by many. Around the globe, newspaper editorials from the Philippines to South Africa urged U.S. gun-control efforts and said they were long overdue. "It takes no great deductive genius to understand the link: a violent individual with a gun will be more able to kill, and can kill more people, than a violent individual without a gun. Elsewhere in the world, tighter gun laws have been shown to save lives," said an editorial in India's The Hindu newspaper. After the shooting spree at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, Lanza killed himself. The family of the school's principal, Dawn Hochsprung, invited mourners to visit at a local funeral home on Wednesday afternoon, though her burial was due to be private at an undisclosed time. Another of the teachers, Victoria Soto, was among those to be buried on Wednesday. Funerals were also scheduled for 6-year-old Charlotte Bacon, 7-year-old Daniel Barden and 6-year-old Caroline Previdi, while the family of 7-year-old Chase Kowalski invited mourners to a public visitation and prayer vigil. The surviving children from Sandy Hook Elementary faced another day at home as school authorities and parents made plans for an eventual return to a different location - the unused Chalk Hill School in nearby Monroe, where a sign across the street read, "Welcome Sandy Hook Elementary!" At Sandy Hook itself, well-wishers and mourners have left tributes such as candles, flowers and stuffed animals. A heavy rain that fell most of Tuesday had soaked many of them and extinguished some of the candles, leaving a smell of burned wax in the air as police continued their investigations inside. They have said the investigation could take months and have revealed nothing yet about Lanza's motive. Well-wishers came to Newtown from as far afield as Iowa. Beth Howard said she had driven 17 hours from Eldon, Iowa, to see what she could do to help. She joined a group of people from New Jersey who decided to bake pies for residents of the town to show their solidarity and support. "It has already made the trip worthwhile," said Howard, describing the smiles she got from local residents. The first of many funerals was held on Monday and two children were laid to rest on Tuesday. Most of the town's schools reopened on Tuesday, but there was no immediate word on when the Sandy Hook students would be back in the classroom. The impact of the shooting was felt in the business world on Tuesday when private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP said it would sell its investment in the company that makes the AR-15-type Bushmaster rifle that was used by Lanza. The powerful gun-industry lobby, the National Rifle Association, broke its silence on Tuesday for the first time since the shootings, saying it was "shocked, saddened and heartbroken" and was "prepared to offer meaningful contributions" to prevent such massacres. The NRA uses political pressure against individual lawmakers and others to press for loosening constraints on gun sales and ownership across the United States while promoting hunting and gun sports. The group, which said it had not commented until now out of respect for the families and to allow time for mourning and an investigation, plans a news conference on Friday. The massacre prompted some Republican lawmakers to open the door to a national debate about gun control, a small sign of easing in Washington's entrenched reluctance to seriously consider new federal restrictions. (Additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis, Edith Honan, Dan Burns, Patricia Zengerle, David Ingram, Chris Francescani; Writing by Claudia Parsons; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Brunnstrom)

Robert Bork, failed Supreme Court nominee, dies at age 85 - latimes.com - Los Angeles Times Posted: 19 Dec 2012 08:12 AM PST Robert H. Bork, whose failed Supreme Court nomination in 1987 infuriated conservatives and politicized the confirmation process for the ensuing decades, died Wednesday at the age of 85.  The former Yale law professor and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit had a history of heart problems and had been in poor health for some time. But Bork was a towering figure for an early generation of conservatives. In the 1960s and '70s, he argued that a liberal-dominated Supreme Court was abusing its power and remaking American life by ending prayers in public schools, by extending new rights to criminals, by ordering cross-town busing and by voiding the laws against abortion. He was an influential legal advisor in the Nixon administration and served as a footnote to history in the Watergate scandal. When the embattled president ordered the firing of special counsel Archibald Cox, the attorney general and his deputy resigned in protest. Bork, who was in the No. 3 post as U.S. solicitor general, then carried out Nixon's order. But Bork's biggest moment came during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. He left Yale and came to Washington when Reagan appointed him to the U.S. court of appeals in the District of Columbia. The job was seen as a steppingstone to the high court. In 1986, Bork was passed over for a younger colleague when Reagan named Judge Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court. A year later, Bork's turn came when Justice Lewis Powell, the swing vote on the closely divided court, announced his retirement. Democrats, led by Sen. Edward Kennedy, launched an all-out attack on Bork's nomination, saying he would set back the cause of civil rights, women's rights and civil liberties. The summer of 1987 saw campaign-style attacks on Bork's reputation.  In televised hearings, the bearded, heavy-set professor tried to explain his views, but he won few converts. The Senate defeated his nomination by a 58-42 vote. In his place, Reagan eventually chose Judge Anthony Kennedy, who was confirmed unanimously. The switch proved to have lasting consequences. Kennedy cast decisive votes to uphold Roe vs. Wade and to preserve the ban on school-sponsored prayers. Bork stepped down from the bench a year after his defeat, but wrote several books renewing his criticism of liberalism. In the past year, he served as a chairman of Mitt Romney's advisory committee on the judiciary and the courts. Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook david.savage@latimes.com

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