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Posted: 17 Feb 2013 06:45 PM PST

RHB Research lowered its fair value on APM Automotive Holdings Bhd citing an "unspectacular" earnings forecast and a challenging short-term operational outlook.

The automotive component maker remains reliant on sales to domestic original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and has been struggling to break into regional automotive markets, RHB said in a note on Monday.

The research house said it expected APM to report steady but unexciting results in the fourth quarter of its financial year ending December 2012, forecasting net profit to rise 10.5 per cent on quarter but dipping 11.9 per cent year-on-year.

RHB lowered its earnings estimates for APM by 18.3 per cent to RM123.8 million for 2013, and by 20.2 per cent to RM132.8 million for 2014, after cutting out the wider margins from the weaker Japanese yen and on assumption that APM's customers will claw back gains going forward.

APM shares were untraded on the Malaysian benchmark stock index that was down 0.2 per cent. -- Reuters

Cahya Mata plans plant expansion

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 06:48 PM PST

Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) is considering a "significant" expansion of its cement grinding capacity after deciding to proceed with a joint-venture development of the billion ringgit ferro silicon smelting plant project at the Samalaju Industrial Park in Sarawak.

The company did not state how much additional grinding capacity will be built but it is expected to involve a capital expenditure of up to RM150 million (US$48.48 million).

The expansion will be located at its plant adjoining its clinker plant on the outskirts of Kuching. The company's cement production capacity now stands at 1.75 million tonnes per year from plants in Kuching and Bintulu, and in excess of local demand.

The expansion signals a fundamental change in the cement market in the state and CMS believes the urbanisation and industrial development in the state will drive up demand-Malaysian Reserve. -- Reuters

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WH immigration plan circulating in case Congress talks "break down ... - CBS News

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 08:16 AM PST

(CBS News) The White House immigration plan that would reportedly allow undocumented immigrants to become legal U.S. residents within eight years is being circulated among President Obama's administration in case the bipartisan efforts of Congress to draft a comprehensive reform bill "break down," the president's chief of staff Denis McDonough said today on "Face the Nation."

"We will be prepared with our own plan," McDonough said, in the event that the so-called "gang of eight" senators - including Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. - fail to push their immigration proposals through both the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House.

One major discord from the president is that the senators maintain Congress needs to improve on enforcing current laws and tightening U.S. border control before opening up a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

"There's no evidence that [the group's efforts] have broken down yet," he continued. "We're continuing to support that; we're involved in those efforts by providing them technical assistance, providing them ideas. And I hope that Republicans and Democrats up there don't get involved in some typical Washington back and forth sideshow here, and rather just roll up their sleeves and get to work on writing a comprehensive immigration reform bill."

As laid out in his speech several weeks ago in Las Vegas, McDonough said, Mr. Obama's plan would include four pillars: Continue to strengthen U.S. border security, crack down on employers who hire illegal workers, offer a path to earned citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States and reform the current legal immigration system.

Meantime, McDonough went on the defensive over the White House's response to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans. Last week on "Face the Nation," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. pledged to block confirmation votes for Chuck Hagel and John Brennan to head the Department of Defense and the CIA, respectively, until the president provided details about his actions on the night of the attack.

"We did everything we could that night," McDonough argued, "which, by the way, was borne out by the Accountability Review Board which Secretary [of State Hillary] Clinton stood up to look at this. They said that... the Washington-based effort was a good effort that did everything it possibly could have.

"But the question from the president now is," he continued, "what have we done to make sure that this does not happen again? And he's demanded of us, his team, be that at State Department, be that at the White House or at the Pentagon or the intelligence community, to make sure this never happens again. And he won't put up with it."

NASA: Russian Meteor Nuclear-Like - Daily Beast

Posted: 17 Feb 2013 08:42 AM PST

So the reports of the Russian meteor explosion were not exaggerating: the meteor that hit the Siberian city of Chelyabinsk on Friday was even bigger than originally suspected, NASA said Saturday. The meteor is the largest to hit earth since the asteroid explosion in Tunguska in 1908, which flattened trees over 820 miles of the Siberian forest. NASA officials said the asteroid was 50 feet wide and 7,000 ton and zoomed toward space at a velocity of 40,000 miles per hour—and was momentarily brighter than the sun. On Saturday, thousands of Russian emergency workers cleared the damage from the meteor, with divers focusing on a lake near Chelyabinsk where a hole several feet wide had opened up—but no fragments had been recovered yet.

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Ahad, 17 Februari 2013