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Asia’s rich crave Bufori from Malaysia Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:17 PM PDT The global economic doldrums may have weighed on businesses around the world, but in Malaysia a luxury hand-crafted carmaker struggles to keep up with demand as orders pour in from China and the Middle East. Some customers are willing to wait nearly two years for their Bufori vehicle, which costs anywhere from US$150,000-US$350,000 and can contain unique touches at the buyer's request, ranging from built-in vaults to pearl-studded interiors. One such customer is eHong Tan, a Malaysian green technology entrepreneur and tea connoisseur, who asked for her Bufori to be fitted with tea-making and aromatherapy features. "I love drinking Chinese tea. The car allows me to make tea and drink it while I'm traveling," said Tan, adding that both are "unique and satisfying" creature comforts that she had always wanted. The hefty price tag does little to dampen the car's popularity among Asia's rich, whose number of high net worth individuals overtook North America for the first time last year as wealth in Thailand and Indonesia surged almost ten percent, according to the Asia-Pacific Wealth report. Bufori's founder and managing director, Gerry Khouri, said he first started the company in his native Australia in 1987, but decided to move to Malaysia in the early 90s when demand from the region began to jump. In the past three years, orders for his Buforis, which he says is the only fully handmade car produced in Asia, have steadily risen 15-20 percent each year. "China and Middle East are probably our two biggest markets right now," said Khouri, adding that he also gets orders from Southeast Asian countries, Hong Kong, Japan and Europe. "There's a lot of promise here — that's what brought us to Malaysia and kept us here," Khouri said. The country hosts Bufori's only plant where customers can visit to see their cars being made. Showrooms are found in Sydney and Shanghai. "The beautiful thing is I get to see it built from the beginning to end, like watching a baby growing up," said Tan. Khouri, who built his first car in his backyard at only 21, says that while the Bufori kept its trademark classic designs, the cars' performance itself is "in a class of its own". The Geneva, a 4-door luxury limousine with elegant curves and a long running board, is powered by a 6.4-litre V8 engine boasting up to 470 horsepower and 630 Newton meters (Nm) of torque. "These are exclusive, very elite. You've got to be very special to own one of these cars," he said. But Khouri admits that the long waiting list can push some customers to competitors such as Bentley and Rolls Royce. "These cars are made by hand. No machines — look around you, it's just people," he says, gesturing around the 50,000 square foot (4,645 square meter) factory in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur where workers are busy fitting custom-made parts and molding the Bufori's classic body. Upstairs, in the upholstery and interior section, leather is cut and stitched by hand while engineers put together electronic controls. "You can't speed up people like a machine," he added. With around a hundred workers, the factory makes only 60 cars worldwide per annum — a fraction of its 300 target, with the limited workforce and the long hours it takes to complete a car dragging down production. "Our problem is our demand exceeds our capacity. We're not in the situation where we can produce enough vehicles to meet the demand worldwide," says Khouri. "It sounds like a crazy problem to have - but it's serious because we are losing sales everyday." Khouri wants to set up more factories to speed up production but is wary, wanting to preserve the quality. "Bufori cars are very labor-intensive and dependent on people. We might compromise the quality which is something we don't want to do," he added. The Bufori La Joya coupe takes 3,500 man hours to complete while the Geneva saloon needs 9,000 man hours. "That's ridiculous in the overall scheme of things. If you look at a mass producer carmaker, even 50 man hours is taking too much," says Khouri. But customers who chose to be patient have no regrets. "It is worth the wait," says Tan, whose car took 20 months to finish. "It's more than a car. To me, the Bufori is an art." -- Reuters

AIA to buy ING 's Malaysian unit for US$1.7b Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:10 PM PDT HONG KONG/AMSTERDAM: Pan Asian insurer AIA Group Ltd has agreed to buy ING's Malaysian insurance operations for US$1.73 billion in cash, handing the Dutch financial services firm its first deal in a nine-month drive to sell off Asian assets. The sale of the Malaysian unit is expected to be followed soon by the divestment of ING's Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand units, as the bailed-out Dutch financial firm offloads assets to repay 10 billion euros (US$12.9 billion) in state aid received during the 2008 financial crisis. For AIA, the purchase of the Malaysian operations marks its second M&A deal in less than a month, and gives it a leading position in the fast growing Southeast Asian economy. AIA was spun out of U.S. insurer AIG in 2010 through a US$20.5 billion IPO, and Hong Kong-based CEO Mark Tucker has been re-building the business after it lost agents and market share amid AIG's near collapse during the financial crisis. "It's a good deal and they are paying up to buy a good quality business and to expand into a rapidly growing market," said Credit Suisse analyst Arjan van Veen, describing ING's Malaysian business as the "jewel in the crown". AIA said it was paying a multiple of about 1.8 times embedded value for the Malaysian business, compared with AIA's own multiple of 1.5 times. Van Veen said the deal should add 5 percent to AIA's earnings per share. Embedded value is a measure commonly used to gauge the value of insurance companies and includes the present value of future profit from long-term insurance contracts. The deal, which confirmed a report by Reuters on Wednesday, marks ING's first sale after it announced plans to auction its Asian insurance operations in January as part of a global asset sell-off programme. ING originally wanted to sell its entire Asia insurance operation, with a book value of 6.1 billion euros, to one buyer but said it was willing to split up the business if it could raise more money that way. "Today's announcement is the first major step in the divestment of our Asian insurance and investment management businesses and shows that ING continues to make steady progress in the restructuring of our company," said Jan Hommen, chief executive, in a statement. -- Reuters

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US House hearing investigates terror attack in Libya - CNN International Posted: 10 Oct 2012 07:54 AM PDT STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Top State Department official addresses criticism in congressional hearing testimony The Sept. 11 attack killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans Republicans argue President Obama's policies caused vulnerability to such an attack The administration changed description of event from a protest gone awry to a terror attack Washington (CNN) -- At a congressional hearing Wednesday loaded with political implications, a top State Department official will defend the administration's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on the anniversary of 9/11. Prepared testimony made public before the House Oversight Committee hearing showed that Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy will address specific criticism by Republicans of an alleged lack of preparedness ahead of the Benghazi consulate attack and a shifting response by the Obama administration following the assault. "The Department of State regularly assesses risk and allocation of resources for security; a process which involves the considered judgments of experienced professionals on the ground and in Washington, using the best information available," Kennedy's prepared statement said. "The assault that occurred on the evening of September 11, however, was an unprecedented attack by dozens of heavily armed men." U.S. official sought more security for Benghazi post He also will tell the Republican-led panel that initial assessments by administration officials about what happened that night were based on available information that has since changed. Critics accuse the administration of trying to cover up or play down the attack through initial statements that described it as a spontaneous act stemming from protests over an anti-Muslim film rather than a planned terrorist assault. "We have always made clear that we are giving the best information we have at the time. And that information has evolved," Kennedy's prepared statement said, citing remarks by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on September 16 that critics alleged were deceptive. "The information she had at that point from the intelligence community is the same that I had at that point. As time went on, additional information became available." GOP challenger Mitt Romney has made the Libya attack a focus of his criticism of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. With polls showing more people favor Obama over Romney on foreign policy, the former Massachusetts governor seeks to gain ground by arguing the president has made America less influential and more vulnerable around the world. The assault in Benghazi occurred 11 years to the day after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. After initially blaming the violence on the protest over the film produced in America, the Obama administration conceded it was a terrorist attack. In Kennedy's prepared statement, he noted that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed an Accountability Review Board that includes well-known figures such as former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen to report on whether proper security systems and procedures were in place or implemented "Until these investigations conclude, we are dealing with an incomplete picture, and, as a result, our answers today will also be incomplete," Kennedy's prepared statement said. State Department officials: Benghazi attack 'unprecedented' The House panel scheduled the hearing even though Congress is on recess until after next month's election. Also set to testify were Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Programs Charlene Lamb; Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, who was stationed in Libya before the attacks; and Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, a Utah National Guardsman who was leading a security team in Libya until August. Issa's committee had asked Clinton to take part, and she sent Kennedy and Lamb to appear. Democrats accuse Issa of planning a partisan hearing, a similar allegation leveled against the panel for its past investigations of the botched "Fast and Furious" gun-running program and the failed Solyndra clean energy company that received about $500 million in government loan guarantees. On Tuesday, two senior State Department officials provided reporters with the most detailed explanation yet of the attack in Benghazi, telling a conference call that there was no prior indication such an assault was imminent. The officials, who briefed reporters on condition of not being identified by name, said there was "nothing unusual" throughout the day of the attack. What Obama administration has said about Libya attack Stevens held an evening meeting with a Turkish diplomat and then retired to his room in one of the compound's buildings at 9 p.m., according to the officials. The first sign of a problem came 40 minutes later when diplomatic security agents heard loud talking outside the compound, along with gunfire and explosions. Asked whether the attack was a spontaneous assault taking advantage of a demonstration, as originally asserted by Obama administration officials, one senior official said, "That was not our conclusion." The two senior officials offered riveting detail of the attack by what one of them described as "dozens of armed men" who marauded from building to building in the enormous complex and later fired mortars on a U.S. annex less than a mile away. In the havoc at the compound, which had four buildings, Stevens and two of his security personnel took refuge in a fortified room that the attackers were able to penetrate, one official said. The attackers doused the building with diesel fuel and set it ablaze, and the three men decided to leave the safe haven and move to a bathroom to be able to breathe, according to the official. Stevens became separated from the security personnel in the chaos and smoke, and eventually turned up at a Benghazi hospital, where he was declared dead. Hospital personnel found his cell phone in his pocket and began calling numbers, which is how U.S. officials learned where he was, the State Department officials said. The officials echoed what administration officials have maintained since the attack: that U.S. and Libyan security personnel in Benghazi were outmanned and that no reasonable security presence could have fended off the assault. "The lethality and the number of armed people is unprecedented," one official said. "There had been no attacks like that anywhere in Libya -- Tripoli, Benghazi or anywhere -- in the time that we had been there. And so it is unprecedented, in fact, it would be very, very hard to find precedent for an attack like (it) in recent diplomatic history." Romney knew ex-SEAL slain in Benghazi CNN's Jill Dougherty, Elise Labott and Tom Cohen contributed to this report. 0 Comments » Print Email More sharing

Obama, Romney face most narrow electoral map in recent history - Washington Post Posted: 10 Oct 2012 08:30 AM PDT Despite an apparent bounce for Mitt Romney in recent weeks, the fundamental dynamic of the electoral map appears to be locked in for now — with both campaigns focused on the nine states that have dominated for most of this year, according to interviews with strategists on both sides. The Republican presidential nominee has enjoyed some momentum after a winning performance in the first debate that has seemingly put previously written-off states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan back in the mix, according to polls out this week. But the Romney campaign appears to be resisting pressure from supporters to broaden the fight and is not expanding their path to 270 electoral college votes — at least for now.

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Jerry Sandusky gets 30 to 60 years for child sex abuse - NBCNews.com Posted: 09 Oct 2012 08:23 AM PDT Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse, was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. NBC's John Yang reports. By M. Alex Johnson and Kimberly Kaplan, NBC News New in this version: Comments from judge, Sandusky, victims, attorneys and Penn State Updated at 11:17 a.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison Tuesday for abusing 10 boys he met over 15 years through his charity for troubled children. Danielle Leigh, Tom Winter and Michael Isikoff of NBC News contributed to this report by M. Alex Johnson and Kimberly Kaplan of NBC News. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook. Sandusky — who was defensive coordinator and for many years the presumed heir-apparent to legendary Penn State football coach Joe Paterno — could have faced as long as 400 years for his convictions on 45 counts of child sexual abuse. But McKean County Common Pleas Court Judge John Cleland, who was brought in to hear the trial after all of Centre County's judges recused themselves, told Sandusky that at age 68, he would be in prison "for the rest of your life." "The crime is not only what you did to their bodies but to their psyches and their souls and the assault to the well-being of the larger community in which we all live," Cleland said. Sandusky's lead attorney, Joe Amendola, told reporters outside court that he would file an appeal within 10 days, saying he hadn't had enough time to prepare an adequate defense. Four of Sandusky's victims and the mother of a fifth addressed the court, some of them speaking tearfully to Sandusky. They told of how they had looked up at Sandusky as a mentor, only to have him betray their trust. "You were the person in my life who was supposed to be a role model, teach honor, respect and accountability, and instead you did terrible things that screwed up my life," said one of the victims, whom NBC News isn't identifying.  "You had the chance to plead guilty and spare us the testimony," he said. "Rather than take the accountability, you decided to try to attack us as if we had done something wrong." Another said: "I have tried to think of the words to describe how Jerry Sandusky has impacted my life. There are no words adequate to express the pain and misery he has inflicted in the past, present and future. Lead prosecutor Joseph McGettigan applauded the victims' courage to "speak truthfully" and condemned Jerry Sandusky for his unwillingness to accept responsibility. "He promised to be my friend and mentor. Then came the ultimate betrayal and deeds. He humiliated me beyond description." For his part, Sandusky — as he did in a surprise audio statement Monday night on the Penn State student radio station — insisted that "I didn't do these alleged disgusting acts." Saying he had been advised against speaking at length, Sandusky told Cleland that "as I began to relive everything, I remember my feelings. So many people were hurt, and my eyes filled with tears. It was a horrible time in life to witness, to listen to, be a part of." Sandusky said he had "hope in my heart for a brighter day, not knowing when that day will come." "Many moments I have spent looking for a purpose," he said. "Maybe it will help others — some vulnerable children who may have been abused may not be as a result of all the publicity — but I'm not sure about it. I would hope that it would happen.  "I would cherish the opportunity to be a little candle for others as my life goes on as they have been a huge light to me." After the hearing, Senior Deputy Attorney General Joseph McGettigan, who prosecuted the case for the state, called Sandusky's comments "banal self-delusion completely untethered from reality." "It was, in short, ridiculous," he said. Sandusky alleges massive conspiracy Wearing a red prison jumpsuit and appearing notably thinner than before he was convicted in June, Sandusky was transported to Centre County Court from jail in a sheriff's patrol car shortly before the hearing. His wife, Dottie, was in attendance. Jerry Sandusky spoke out from jail on the eve of his sentencing. NBC's Michael Isikoff reports. Sandusky's statement echoed many of the ideas — some of them word for word — that he broached in his surprise statement Monday night, in which he blamed a widespread conspiracy among police, university administrators and the media for his conviction. After the hearing, Amendola alluded to that theory, alleging that there was "an undercurrent" in some parts of state government to bring down Penn State because of the power Paterno had amassed in 46 years as head football coach.  "Folks, my understanding is for years opponents had ongoing battles with the state Legislature over funding," Amendola said. "Penn State always held itself over and above" other state institutions, which rankled some officials, he said. But in sentencing Sandusky on Tuesday, Cleland called that theory "unbelievable."  Related: Full statement from Jerry Sandusky Related: Audio of Sandusky's statement on Penn State student station ComRadio In a statement, Penn State President Rodney Erickson said: "Our thoughts today, as they have been for the last year, go out to the victims of Jerry Sandusky's abuse. While today's sentence cannot erase what has happened, hopefully it will provide comfort to those affected by these horrible events and help them continue down the road to recovery." The statement reflected how deeply the scandal rocked Penn State and Centre County. Paterno, who was a revered figure representing integrity in college football, was fired Nov. 9 amid allegations that he didn't properly report concerns about Sandusky to authorities. He died in January at age 85. University President Graham Spanier resigned in November. Athletic Director Tim Curley is on administrative leave, and Senior Vice President Gary Schultz retired. Curley and Schultz face separate trials on charges that they lied to a grand jury about what they knew. Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com Penn State's storied football program, meanwhile, was fined $60 million by the NCAA and was stripped of all victories back to 1998. More content from NBCNews.com: Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Pakistani Rights Activist, 14, Shot by Taliban - ABC News Posted: 09 Oct 2012 09:06 AM PDT Sometimes, defiance has rosy cheeks. In an attack drawing widespread condemnation, a lone Taliban gunman today approached a crowded school bus in Pakistan's once-volatile Swat region and opened fire. His target: A 14-year-old girl who'd campaigned against the Taliban for the right to go to school. Television footage showed Malala Yousafzai lying on a stretcher and being airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar. The gunman approached the bus and asked whether anyone could identify Malala, according to local police. When one of her schoolmates singled out the teen, the gunman shot her twice, including once in the head. He also shot the girl who identified Malala before fleeing. Malala is in serious condition, while the other girl's condition is unknown. A Taliban spokesman has claimed responsibility, referring to her campaign for the right to go to school an "obscenity. "This was a new chapter of obscenity, and we have to finish this chapter," Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. "We have carried out this attack." The Pakistani Taliban are an offshoot of the insurgency movement in Afghanistan that operates along the lawless tribal belt that straddles the Afghan-Pakistan border. They share the same ideology as their Afghan counterparts, but focus their attacks mainly on pro-Western targets inside Pakistan. Malala's courageous and public stance against the Taliban has earned her widespread acclaim, including being nominated last year for the International Children's Peace Prize. "This was a shocking act of violence against a 14-year girl who has bravely been fighting for her right to education," Amnesty International said in a statement. "This attack highlights the extremely dangerous climate human rights activists face in north-western Pakistan, where particularly female activists live under constant threats from the Taliban and other militant groups." Malala's rise to prominence began in 2009, when she wrote a diary for BBC Urdu under a pseudonym chronicling the oppression she and other girls at her school faced at the hands of the Taliban. At the time, the Taliban had ordered the closure of all girls schools in the region. Her father, who ran a private school, was forced to comply, leaving Malala and her friends with nowhere to study. In all, 50,000 girls were forced out of school in a matter of days. In one blog post titled "Do not wear colourful dresses," Malala wrote about not wearing school uniforms, to avoid being detected by the Taliban. "My friend came to me and said, 'For God's sake, answer me honestly, is our school going to be attacked by the Taleban [sic]?' During the morning assembly we were told not to wear colourful clothes as the Taleban would object to it." Taliban militants first began flooding into Swat in 2007, forcing men to grow beards, prohibiting women from going to bazaars, and whipping and executing anyone accused of so-called immoral crimes. Later, as the Pakistani military undertook an offensive to root out the Taliban from Swat valley -- a picturesque area 100 miles from the capital known for its lush green fields and waterfalls -- The New York times produced a two-part documentary chronicling her exile, and later, the family's return to what's left of their home. Responding to today's attack, Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said in a statement: "We have to fight the mindset that is involved in this. We have to condemn it. "Malala is like my daughter, and yours too. If that mindset prevails, then whose daughter would be safe?"

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Romney promises different Middle East approach - NBCNews.com Posted: 08 Oct 2012 08:56 AM PDT Charles Dharapak / AP Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney \arrives to deliver a foreign policy speech at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., Monday, Oct. 8, 2012. By Michael O'Brien, NBC News  Updated at 12:20a.m.ET: Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of leading a rudderless foreign policy, saying Monday that the threat of conflict in the Middle East is greater than it was four years ago. The Republican presidential nominee delivered a major policy address at the Virginia Military Institute, which was intended to distinguish Romney from Obama on questions of foreign policy, while also casting Romney as a steady, presidential and plausible commander-in-chief for voters.  Recommended: First Thoughts: Has the race changed? The speech focused heavily on upheaval in the Middle East — the attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, popular uprisings in Syria and Egypt, the Iranian nuclear program and America's relationship with Israel — to level the charge that Obama had chosen to "lead from behind" as president. "The president is fond of saying that, 'The tide of war is receding.'  And I want to believe him as much as anyone," Romney said. "But when we look at the Middle East today … it is clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the President took office." Romney essentially argued that, in most instances, Obama had failed to project a clear and coherent American policy abroad. The GOP presidential hopeful suggested that he would use U.S. power with greater clarity, taking a tougher tack versus Iran and working to support allied forces in Syria, where the Assad regime has launched assaults on rebels that have left thousands dead. Much of the speech dealt with the recent outbreak of violence in Libya, where a siege on a U.S. consulate — waged apparently by terrorists — left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is set to deliver a major foreign policy speech today, but as NBC's Mark Murray and Domenico Montanaro report, the policies Romney will propose sound similar to those pursued by President Obama. Romney said those attacks were "likely the work of forces affiliated with those that attacked our homeland on Sept. 11, 2001," reflecting the emerging admission by the Obama administration that the Libya incident was a terrorist attack, rather than a spontaneous protest connected to a web video about Islam, as had originally been thought. Romney's handling of the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack, though, had partly prompted his decision to deliver such a broad-reaching foreign policy address as today's. The candidate earlier had charged the administration with, essentially, siding with the attackers on the U.S. consulate — an argument that was labeled by critics as capricious, since it came just hours after Stevens's death. "I also believe the administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt, instead of condemning their actions," Romney said at the time. "It's never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values." Today, Romney placed blame for the attacks "solely" with those who had launched them, but argued that Obama had nonetheless been asleep at the wheel throughout the crisis. "It is the responsibility of our president to use America's great power to shape history—not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events," Romney said. "Unfortunately, that is exactly where we find ourselves in the Middle East under President Obama." That theme echoed throughout Romney's remarks, which included a vow to tighten sanctions against Iran's nuclear program and reverse a set of automatic spending cuts — which would fall heavily on the defense budget — set to take place at the beginning of 2013, barring action by Congress. Romney also called for a closer relationship between the U.S. and Israel, a hallmark of the Republican nominee's campaign speeches, along with expanded free trade pacts in the Middle East and beyond. Jonathan Ernst / Getty Images From governor's son to presidential contender, a look at the life of Republican Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor also said he would act more forcefully to encourage popular uprisings in Syria and Egypt. Romney said he would "identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values" in Syria, and arm them. In Egypt, Romney said he would try to influence that government's development to support democracy and their peace treaty with Israel. Monday's stagecraft, though, was essentially an effort to offer up Romney as a reasonable alternative to Obama as a world leader, and distinguish the two candidates more meaningfully. There were details, though, that were absent from Romney's speech; he didn't outline the standard by which he would authorize more sanctions or military action versus Iran. And while Romney called Obama's decision to withdraw the last "surge" troops from Afghanistan last month a "politically timed retreat," Romney would only have kept those troops there a few months longer, through the height of the fighting season. Obama enjoys an advantage over Romney on both the question of which candidate would be a better commander-in-chief and which candidate voters trust to better manage foreign policy. Forty-seven percent of voters said in last week's NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll that Obama would be a better commander in chief; 39 percent of registered voters preferred Romney. On the question of who would best handle foreign policy, Obama led 46 to 40 percent. But there are additional signs that Obama faces vulnerabilities. Americans were split, 46 to 45 percent, in disapproving of the president's handling of the situation in Egypt, Libya and other Arab countries that are suffering from unrest. "We just watched what leadership looks like," said Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, in Ohio shortly after Romney's remarks concluded. Still, the election is expect to focus primarily on issues of the economy, while foreign policy takes a backseat to more dominant pocketbook issues. Foreign policy and national security strategy, though, will each be litigated further over the course of the campaign. One of the two remaining debates between Obama and Romney will be mostly dedicated to that subject, and this Thursday's vice presidential debate will pit Ryan — whose expertise rests on budgetary issues, not foreign policy — against Vice President Joe Biden, a former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

US Report Undermines Huawei Expansion Plans - Wall Street Journal Posted: 08 Oct 2012 08:48 AM PDT BY JURO OSAWA HONG KONG—A damning U.S. Congressional report represents one of the biggest threats to plans by China's Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. to expand into developed markets, not only by tainting public perceptions of the companies but also potentially prompting further investigations into their businesses, analysts say. The U.S. is one of few major markets where Huawei, the world's second-largest telecommunications equipment supplier after Sweden's L.M. Ericsson Telephone Co., hasn't been able to expand. Whether Huawei can penetrate the critical U.S. market—a major market for Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks—will determine the rate of the Chinese technology giant's overall growth.

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KL shares open lower on profit taking Posted: 07 Oct 2012 06:45 PM PDT Continued profit-taking from last week has caused share prices on Bursa Malaysia to open lower in early trading Monday, with losses mostly seen in blue chip stocks, dealers said. After 18 minutes of trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) shed 4.39 points to 1,655.84 after opening 0.19 of a point better at 1,660.42. HwangDBS Vickers Research however said the benchmark index could resume its upward movements today after a slight drop to close at 1,660.23 last week. "The key FBM KLCI has been on the rise since two Mondays ago. It climbed a maximum of 55.9 points to surpass its previous record of 1,655.49 and touched a new all-time high of 1,668.32 on Friday. "Technically speaking, the bellwether is expected to pull further away from the immediate support level of 1,655 and head towards the first resistance target of 1,670," it said in a research note today. The Finance Index dipped 37.68 points to 14,643.08 but the Plantation Index rose 13.15 points to 8,185.12 and the Industrial Index earned 0.97 of a point to 2,835.54. The FBM Emas Index fell 21.86 points to 11,238.82 while the FBM Mid 70 Index gained 2.06 points to 12,101.62 and the FBM Ace advanced 18.34 points to 4,308.02. Gainers slightly led losers by 100 to 92, with 116 counters unchanged, 1,339 untraded and 20 others suspended. Turnover stood at 88.83 million shares worth RM38.89 million. Of the actives, Instacom-Warr improved 2.5 sen to 3.5 sen, YTL Corp-Warr and Scomi added half a sen each to 19 sen and 39 sen, respectively, and Instacom rose 14.5 sen 34.5 sen. Among heavyweights, Maybank lost five sen to RM8.94, Sime Darby slipped two sen to RM9.63, while Axiata and CIMB were three sen lower each to RM7.67 and RM7.03, respectively. Bernama

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Clock ticking on election, campaigns look to next debates - NBCNews.com Posted: 07 Oct 2012 09:26 AM PDT By Michael O'Brien, NBC News Mitt Romney is fighting to earn a new look from voters with 30 days remaining until the election, as President Barack Obama looks to close the window on his Republican challenger.  A Meet the Press roundtable discusses the effects the first presidential debate had on polling numbers and the anticipation for the release of updated employment statistics. Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, has hopes of building momentum off of his strong debate performance this week, in which he generally outperformed Obama with energetic and crisp arguments. But a top spokesman for the president vowed Sunday that Obama wouldn't allow Romney a repeat performance in their second showdown. "It's not rocket science to believe the president was disappointed in the expectations he has for himself," former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on "Meet the Press" of Obama's debate performance, which was panned as lethargic and lacking in aggression. Of the second debate, scheduled for Oct. 16, Gibbs said, "I think you're going to see a very engaged president that is ready and willing to call out whichever Mitt Romney shows up." Romney "walked over" Obama in Denver, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one of Romney's erstwhile primary opponents, contended. But Gingrich also acknowledged that the GOP nominee had "changed" from the primary, when he vowed to cut taxes for individuals in all income brackets. (Romney said in Wednesday's debate that, in his reform plan, the wealthy wouldn't end up paying any less in taxes.) Whether Romney has made up much ground versus Obama hasn't yet been fully reflected in polls conducted since the debate. The Republican hopeful entered the matchup trailing the president, and must make up ground — especially in battleground states like Ohio — if Romney is to have any hope of winning on Nov. 6. The former California governor discusses his new book, his various indiscretions and his thoughts on the 2012 race with NBC's David Gregory. "The real question to me, of this campaign, is, can the Romney campaign take this moment and run with it?" asked Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican consultant with ties to Romney. Romney won the endorsement of a newspaper in one such swing state, Nevada, as the editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal said Romney "has the principles and experience needed to put America back on the road to prosperity." But Obama's case for re-election was bolstered Friday by a new jobs report that showed the unemployment rate at 7.8 percent in September, clearing the psychological barrier of 8 percent, above which the unemployment rate had sat for months.  "I think it was a significant help to the president," Gingrich said of that report. Obama's advantage over Romney was fueled partly by improving perceptions of the economy, which could be cemented by the new employment data. If nothing else, the president will have a new cudgel to wield against Romney in their next debate matchup.  Both Romney and Obama will leave it to their running mates this week to carry the banner on Thursday, at the vice presidential debate.  "I know Vice President Biden is anxious and ready to do this," Gibbs said of Biden's impending debate versus Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee. In the meanwhile, both the president and Romney aren't taking the weekend off; instead, they're both on the campaign trail this Sunday. Romney will hold a rally this afternoon in Florida, while Obama attends a "30 days to victory" fundraising concert tonight in Los Angeles.

Awakened in Venezuela capital by reveille, voters head for polls - Los Angeles Times Posted: 07 Oct 2012 08:46 AM PDT CARACAS, Venezuela — As President Hugo Chavez promised, many residents of Venezuela's capital awoke early Sunday to the sounds of "El Toque de Diana," a recorded version of military reveille blaring over loudspeakers. It was literally a wake-up call to vote in Sunday's presidential election. In his closing campaign rally Thursday, Chavez, a former army colonel, said he wanted to roust Venezuelans to vote early so that his "irreversible" victory would be plain by midday. Most pollsters, however, expect an exceedingly tight vote and that the ballot count could extend into tonight's wee hours. Although Chavez leads in most polls, some indicate challenger Henrique Capriles could eke out a victory. In any case, residents in Caracas responded in droves; by 8 a.m., lines a half-mile long or longer were snaking around many of the capital's polling places, a reflection of the significance of the election in this highly polarized country. The nation's 19-million eligible voters face a stark choice. If Chavez is reelected to a fourth term, Venezuela will continue along the socialist path he has charted. The redistribution of the country's oil wealth, housing, ranches and farmland will continue and more private enterprises almost certainly will be nationalized. If Capriles wins, the takeovers will stop and private property will be more respected, although the former Miranda state governor has promised to retain Chavez's social welfare programs called Missions, even seeking to make them more efficient. A Chavez defeat would reverberate far beyond Venezuela's borders. Capriles said he would end $7 billion in annual oil giveaways that Chavez makes to friendly Central American and Caribbean nations, mainly Cuba, and invest the money in Venezuela. The region's political winds might also shift. Many aspects of Chavez's socialism, as well as his populist and autocratic political style, have been emulated in other Latin American countries, including Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and Nicaragua. Chavez also has lavished financial aid on those countries. Even if Chavez wins, some observers think his socialist regime is running on borrowed time, that the former army officer's abdominal cancer will likely kill him or force him to resign over the next couple of years. If that happens during the first four years of a new six-year term, another presidential election must be held, according to the Venezuelan Constitution, a race Capriles or another opponent would be likely to win without Chavez around to galvanize his base of mostly poor voters. Such was the argument made Friday by Barclay's Bank Latin America economist Alejandro Grisanti, in a report in which he recommended that investors consider buying beaten-down Venezuelan bonds. "If Chavez wins, his first order of business may be to choose a successor," Grisanti said in an interview this week. "If not now, political change could come in just a little while." ALSO: Pakistan bars anti-drone rally from reaching South Waziristan Must Reads: Colombian rebels, a salamander and evangelical TV South Korea puzzles over oddball success of 'Gangnam Style' — Chris Kraul Photo: Venezuelans line up to cast their votes Sunday at the Petare shantytown polling station in Caracas. Credit: Leo Ramirez / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images.

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Obama's September Campaign Take: $181 Million - Wall Street Journal Posted: 06 Oct 2012 09:13 AM PDT BY PETER NICHOLAS The Obama campaign collected $181 million in September, significantly topping its prior fundraising record for the 2012 election, as donors energized by the Democratic convention rallied to the president's cause. The total, which includes money raised jointly with Democratic Party affiliates, far surpasses anything Mr. Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney have raised in any prior month of ...

Romney, Ryan throw facts under the bus on Biden taxes 'gaffe' - NBCNews.com Posted: 06 Oct 2012 09:34 AM PDT >>> according to mitt romney , his running mate, paul ryan , is the intellectual leader of the republican party . ryan is also chairman of the house budget committee which make it is all the more bewildering that when he's invited to explain his budget, the one that mitt romney has endorsed, well, mr. ryan appears to lose his voice. however, vice president joe biden isn't afraid to tell a hard truth. >> obama and biden want to raise tacks by $8 trillion. guess what? yes, we do in one regard. we want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy. >> karen finney is an msnbc political analyst and former dnc communications director and hogan giddily is the former communications director for the rick santorum campaign. welcome to both of you. kar karen , to quote jack nicholson in "a few good men" romney and ryan , they just can't handle the truth can they? >> they can't. the level of intellectual dishonesty , i use the wort intellectual half joking, they took the vice president's comments and truncated them without the most important part, which has been the most important part of what the president has been talking about, what democrats have been talking about, and that is the idea that those at the top should be doing their fair share , and that's something that i guess all of the sudden now romney and ryan , they don't quite say it that way, but they're sort of saying, well, we're not going to mess with their tacks but we're going to, you know, help the middle class and we're going to, you know, fire big bird to get it all done. >> yeah, that's right. hogan , biden tells the truth, and ryan calls him out for, quote, dropping the veil and using candor. i mean, it's as if truth has become a four-letter word for the romney campaign. >> well, i wouldn't say that, but, look, i think there was a problem with the romney / ryan pick right off the bat, and that was ryan had a plan that was obviously well-publicized, that was defeated, but since mitt romney was short on specifics in his plan, the media immediately filled in the holes and the gaps in romney 's plan with ryan 's old plan. >> but hogan , i thought -- >> they couldn't answer the question. >> hogan , just before you answer fully though, my understanding was that mitt romney had embraced ball ryan 's budget. indeed, i heard him say that. so i think it's slightly inaccurate to suggest that somehow mitt romney has been separate from paul ryan . he's embraced paul ryan 's budget. >> well, if i'm not mistaken, that, too, was in a primary that in a sense they were asking would you embrace his plan and romney said, yeah, it's a good plan, but as the nominee obviously, you have your own plan. the raub is that plan was a little bit short on specifics, shall we say, and so they filled the gaps smartly so done by the democrats by the way, they filled the gaps with ryan 's plan to try to make romney 's plan appear to be out of touch with the mainstream. >> hogan , hold on though because that's not altogether true because part of the problem that the romney / ryan / ryan / romney however you want to say it, they were asked a very simple obvious question. okay, governor romney , how would your plan differ? crickets. there was no answer. i mean, it was the most obvious question. having endorsed ryan 's plan in the primary, you then bring him on the ticket. it's not an unfair question to say to governor romney and to congressman ryan , okay, so you're saying you're going to have your own plan. okay. how is it going to differ? give us some specifics. >> karen , good luck with waiting for an answer to that. but i'd like you to answer this. the vice presidential debate this coming thursday, the bar has been set pretty high for paul ryan . he's the numbers guy and the intellectual leader of the party, so i'm assuming, karen , that he will just destroy joe biden . >> yeah, good luck with that one, paul ryan . i sure hope he's going to go in there and think he can do that. i love joe biden and this is the guy to take paul ryan down on a number of levels. he's going to have to defend himself and there's going to be plenty of time if he wants to walk through any kind of numbers. i'm sure we can get out a whiteboard and pen and write it down. i'm sure biden will give him all the time he needs to walk through the numbers. there's still a huge liable for the romney / ryan ticket, and that is this issue of medicare and what they would do in these tax breaks , and i really believe that joe biden is going to be able to hold paul ryan 's feet to the fire in a way that we have not yet seen. >> okay, hogan , so karen says that joe biden is going to in about the second round. what's your assessment of the fourthcoming debate, hogan ? >> i'm not sure if it will be the second round but joe biden will definitely throw a whole lot more punches than barack obama did. i'm pretty confident that joe biden will be the attack dog in this. i think he's going to try to pin ryan down on a lot of specifics. ryan had a little bit of trouble answering those specifics in various interviews up until this point. i don't think that's shocking to anybody on this network for sure, but he's going to have -- >> oh! >> he's going to have a chance to look sharp , to look strong, and to answer the vice president and to outline the plan that mitt romney or undergird the plan that mitt romney talked about. the problem is i don't think he's going to be able to levy things and go unchallenged. biden is going to hold his feet to the fire, no question. >> now, let me show you what happens when paul ryan runs out on a sean hannity interview early. take a listen, both of you. >> thank you for being with us, governor romney stays with us. >> thanks. we've got 12,000 people out here excited to see us. >> 12,000 people, we only have 4 million people that want to see you so we're competing. >> did the numbers guy really trade 4 million people and 12,000 and inassault sean hannity at the same time. >> that was a little insulting but sean hannity probably shouldn't have said that. that was slightly arrogant for him to say, too. fox news, no questions, the jumping off point for a lot of campaigns. i remember on the santorum campaign we had to stop an event with 20,000 people there to do a greta interview late at night because we knew the voyeurshu viewership would be more on" that venue. i don't know why he wanted to do that. i'm sure there were people who wanted to pat him on the back. but that's no big deal . he made the choice and he has to live with it. >> hogan , karen , thank you both and have great weekends.

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