Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened slightly easier, in early trading, on mild profit taking activities in selected heavyweights and index-linked counters, dealers said.
After 40 minutes of trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) eased 2.26 points to 1,667.14 compared with Monday's close of 1,669.4.
The local bourse was closed yesterday for the Christmas break.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said trading would be quiet today following the absence of visible market leads.
"With some investors still away on holiday, the benchmark index may back off from its immediate resistance barrier of 1,670 amid thin buying interest," it said in a note.
Meanwhile, major equity indices on Wall Street lost ground, slipping between 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent, during the half-day trading day on Christmas Eve due to slow progress in budget negotiations.
The research house said that essentially, US lawmakers were facing a year-end deadline to avert the effects of fiscal cliff.
Back on the local front, the Finance Index declined 36.91 points to 15,216.05, the Industrial Index edged down 0.02 of a point to 2,743.72 and the Plantation Index slipped 9.09 points to 8,010.57.
The FBM Emas Index was 9.75 points lower at 11,286.31, the FBMT100 dropped 10.67 points to 11,148.18 while the FBM Mid 70 Index rose 8.85 points to 12,128.33 and the FBM Ace Index was up 11.11 points at 4,196.93.
Advancers led decliners 119 to 102, with 154 counters unchanged, 1,274 untraded and 26 others were suspended.
Volume stood at 94.232 million shares worth RM47.369 million.
Among actives, Asia Media Group shed 2.5 sen to 21 sen but Permaju Industries added 4.5 sen to 41.5 sen while Sino Hua-An rose two sen to 15.5 sen.
Heavyweights, Maybank eased one sen to RM9.06, CIMB lost seven sen to RM7.57 while Sime Darby and Axiata were both unchanged at RM9.39 and RM6.62, respectively. Bernama
The ringgit was lower against the greenback, in early trade, on lack of commercial demand for the local unit, dealers said.
At 9 am, the ringgit was traded at 3.0675/0705 against the greenback from 3.0630/0660 on Monday.
The local market was closed yesterday for the Christmas holiday.
However, the ringgit was mostly higher against other major currencies.
It rose against the Singapore dollar to 2.5074/5117 from 2.5100/5127 and was marginally higher against the yen at 3.5999/6043 from 3.6279/6323 on Monday.
The domestic note appreciated against the British pound to 4.9473/9536 from 4.9590/9651 and was up against the euro at 4.0436/0481 from 4.0484/0533, on Monday. Bernama
Storm clouds are seen on the east coast of the United States in this NASA handout satellite image taken at 1415 GMT, December 25, 2012. A strong winter storm was expected to bring a white Christmas morning to millions of Americans Tuesday - but also high winds and even the risk of tornadoes for some.
Credit: Reuters/NASA/NOAA/GOES Project/Handout
WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 25, 2012 11:41am EST
(Reuters) - A major winter storm brought a rare white Christmas to the southern U.S. plains on Tuesday, contributing to a 21-vehicle pile-up that shut down a major highway in Oklahoma.
The storm system surging east from Kansas and the Texas Panhandle includes the threat of tornados and severe thunderstorms along its southern fringe, from southeast Texas to Alabama, the National Weather Service said.
The storm is expected to bring blizzard conditions and 6 to 8 inches of snow as it strengthens and moves northeast into the upper Ohio River valley through southern Missouri and Illinois, it said.
Freezing drizzle overnight led to 10 separate collisions on Interstate 40 at Oklahoma City just before 3 a.m., said Trooper Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.
The 21-vehicle pile-up included three tractor-trailers and shut down the westbound lanes for about five hours, she said. Twelve people were taken to hospitals, and troopers are checking on the severity of their injuries.
In a rare taste of Christmas snow, Oklahoma City is forecast to get 3 to 6 inches of the white stuff on Tuesday. The city's biggest Christmas snowfall was 6.5 inches in 1914, and measurable amounts have been recorded only a handful of times on the date.
Several flights were canceled at Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport on Monday ahead of the storm, but conditions on Tuesday morning were good, the airport said in a statement.
Ahead of the storm's path, parts of eastern West Virginia are under a winter storm warning. Ice accumulations of up to half an inch are expected in higher elevations, the National Weather Service said.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Merry Twitter Christmas from Pope Benedict XVI. Over the holiday -- including Christmas Eve Mass and his solemn speech to the world on Tuesday, the pope sent off another tweet on his personal account.
For the 14th posting at @pontifex, he answered a question about his favorite family Christmas tradition. Benedict, who has his brother Rev. Georg Ratzinger staying with him over the holiday, replies about a beloved Nativity scene, commonly called a crib.
"The cribs that we built in our home gave me much pleasure. We added figures each year and used moss for decoration."
Earlier on Christmas Eve, the Vatican unveiled an immense manger scene with 100 terra cotta figures. The crèche was donated by corporations and private donors after the exorbitant costs of prior manger scenes was exposed in the documents stolen by the pope's butler.
Monday night, at the end of the two-hour Christmas Vigil Mass, he was brought on a rolling red rolling red platform to see a statue of the Christ child set in a Nativity scene on a side altar within St. Peter's Basilica.
And a shy smile appeared on his weary face..
But even as the world took note of his waning physical strength, Benedict's Vatican is now moving into energetic use of social media.
Although various Vatican agencies and the pope himself have been on Twitter since 2010, it was the announcement this month of the pope's personal account -- and a call for people to send him their questions about faith and tradition -- that caught fire.
He now has 2.3 million followers @pontifex where his tweets are released in eight languages.
Four firefighters were shot — two fatally — after responding to an early morning blaze on Monday in Webster, N.Y., about 12 miles northeast of Rochester, officials said.
The Webster police chief, Gerald L. Pickering, said at a news conference that the firefighters were "fired upon by one or more shooters."
The scene of the fire, which continued to burn through the morning as it spread to several houses, remained "an active crime scene," Chief Pickering said, though officials said there was no further shooting.
Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester said two firefighters were in "guarded condition."
Evan Dawson, a reporter for WHAM-TV in Rochester, said on Twitter that relatives of one firefighter said he had been shot in the back and seriously injured but was expected to survive.
The firefighters were from the West Webster Fire Department, about four miles from the blaze.
Chief Pickering said that, with authorities establishing and investigating the crime scene, "it took a while to make it safe" for firefighters to move in and combat the flames.
The site of the fire, Lake Road, runs along a narrow spit of land that divides Lake Ontario from Irondequoit Bay. Houses near the affected area are detached wood-frame homes with yards, across the street from the lake.
Michael D'Amico, a contractor who has lived on Lake Road for 20 years, said residents were evacuated to a school. "We still can't go back," he said.
He said four houses had burned so far. The area is home to many summer houses, he said, but some people lived there year-round.
"A lot of times I get woken up by gunfire, but I don't think too much of it," Mr. D'Amico said, noting that the area often attracted duck hunters.
"Usually the gunfire comes from the lake or the bay," he added. "This was from further down the road."
In a recent letter, an individual expressed his doubts that Jesus Christ ever existed and recoiled when anyone wished him a "Merry Christmas."
My first inclination was to feel sorry for this person. However, feeling sorry for someone is only an inward expression and does no good for the person who has doubts. I then decided to do something more practical - to pray for him.
I'm relatively sure that this person would take exception to this and scoff at the idea of being prayed for. If we were face to face he might even tell me not to do that. He might even laugh at the very thought of being prayed for, or someone interceding for him with Jesus.
Just the same, I did that and invite others to do the same. He's not alone in his doubts that Christ ever existed. There are many like him who refuse to acknowledge Jesus Christ. However, these "many" acknowledge His existence every year of their lives simply by abiding by the calendar that is based on Christ's birth.
So this Dec. 25 (which is a day set aside to celebrate Christ's birth), the whole world will once again acknowledge Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Christmas story will be told again and again by many who do believe in this Man who changed the world and the lives of untold millions of believers.
By His very existence, Jesus has made it possible for us who do believe, to have an eternal presence with Him and God the Father. Jesus has changed the world as He has changed individual hearts, bringing peace and joy to the recipient.
So whether this person who wrote the letter disparaging Jesus and His birth likes it or not, I am praying that God will soften his heart to receive the true Gospel message of Jesus' birth, death, resurrection and eventual return. Merry Christmas.
Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher, continuing its rally from last week, with buying interest by fund managers in selected heavyweights and index-linked counters, dealers said.
After 15 minutes of trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) advanced 8.39 points to 1,667.24, pushed by gains mostly seen in Petronas Gas and Sime Darby.
Petronas Gas jumped 7.225 per cent or RM1.38 to RM20.48 and Sime Darby rose 11 sen or 1.176 per cent to RM9.46.
The Finance Index improved 44.721 points to 15,236.32, the Industrial Index gained 53.66 points to 2,770.98 and the Plantation Index increased 14.92 points to 7,994.44.
The FBM Emas Index jumped 46.93 points to 11,284.1, the FBMT100 was 50 points higher at 11,146.6 and the FBM Mid 70 Index rose 26.5 points to 12,116.25 but the FBM Ace Index eased 1.61 points to 4,199.09.
Gainers led losers 86 to 80, with 105 counters unchanged, 1,375 untraded and 31 others were suspended.
Volume stood at 36.756 million shares worth RM27.842 million.
Among actives, TH Heavy Engineering shed half-a-sen to 56 sen, TH Heavy Engineering-WA slipped one sen to 34.5 sen while XOX was unchanged at 21.5 sen.
Heavyweights, Maybank added one sen to RM9.05 while both CIMB and Axiata rose two sen each to RM7.65 and RM6.59, respectively.
Meanwhile, Tradewinds, Tradewinds Plantation and Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) have requested for suspension of trading today pending an announcement of a material corporate proposal.
It was reported earlier that Tradewinds might privatise both Tradewinds Plantations and Bernas and streamline all its commodity-based businesses under one listed company. Bernama
The ringgit was lower against the US dollar this morning on lack of interest for riskier assets ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays.
At 9am, the ringgit was traded at 3.0700/0730 against the greenback from 3.0585/0615 on Friday.
However, the ringgit was mostly mixed against other major currencies.
It eased against the Singapore dollar to 2.5117/5145 from 2.5064/5098 but was marginally higher against the yen at 3.6349/6397 from 3.6359/6407 on Friday.
The local currency appreciated against the British pound to 4.9565/9629 from 4.9688/9749 but was down against the euro at 4.0438/0484 from 4.0418/0467,previously. Bernama
The National Rifle Association stood firm in its opposition to any new gun laws on Sunday, as one of its top officials blasted an effort by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to re-institute an assault weapons ban.
Feinstein, D-Calif., has promised to introduce legislation when Congress reconvenes next year that would reinstate an assault weapons ban that Congress passed in 1994 but which lapsed a decade later
"It's a phony piece of legislation and I don't think it will pass for this reason : It's all built on lies," said NRA Vice President Wayne LaPierre, in an interview on NBC's Meet the Press.
The comments from LaPierre follow his group's call on Friday for more armed guards in schools.
"We're going to support an immediate appropriation before Congress to put police officers in every school," LaPierre said on Sunday.
About 70% of public schools don't have police officer and almost 60% don't have any security staff. Those with police tend to be big and urban schools, according to a USA TODAY data analysis.
The NRA proposal has been criticized by some Democrats and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, who question the wisdom of putting weapons in an educational environment.
But in a separate interview on Sunday, Asa Hutchinson, a former Congressman from Arkansas who is leading NRA's push for putting armed guards in schools, defended the proposal.
"Let's compare this back to the federal air marshal program on airplanes," Hutchinson told ABC's This Week. "There was intense debate that on airplanes, guns have no place, and yet we have a federal air marshal program that I helped to oversee, and which has provided a deterrent. It has increased the safety of the airlines, and it's not like it's an armed camp when you go on the airlines."
LaPierre and the NRA were pilloried by some news organizations following their comments Friday, with the conservative New York Post disparaging LaPierre as "gun nut" and a "loon."
The interview was the first by LaPierre since the Newtown, Conn., tragedy. He echoed remarks he made in an event Friday billed by the NRA as a news conference -- though he took no questions—in which he charged the media and anti-gun lobbyists are intent on blaming guns whenever there is a tragedy.
"I know there's a media machine in this country that wants to blame guns every time something happens," he said, adding, "I know there's an anti-gun industry in this town.
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's opposition said Sunday it will keep fighting the Islamist-backed constitution after the Muslim Brotherhood, the main group backing the charter, claimed it passed with a 64% "yes" vote in a referendum.
The opposition alleged vote fraud and demanded an investigation — a sign that the referendum will not end the turmoil that has roiled this country for nearly two years since the uprising that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak. Many Egyptians, especially the tens of millions who live in extreme poverty, had hoped the new constitution might usher in a period of more stability.
A heated political debate over the past month leading up to the referendum at times erupted into deadly street battles. There were no mass opposition demonstrations on Sunday after the unofficial results came out.
Renewed violence and political tensions have further imperiled Egypt's already precarious economy, reeling from dwindling resources and a cash-strapped government whose plans to borrow from the International Monetary Fund had to be pushed back because of the turmoil.
The finance ministry said Sunday the budget deficit reached $13 billion in the five months from July-November, about 4.5% higher compared to the same period last year.
Official results of the referendum are not expected until Monday. If the unofficial numbers are confirmed, it will be a victory Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who is from the Brotherhood.
But the opposition allegations look likely to prolong the fight. Beyond allegations of fraud, the opposition will likely challenge new laws issued on the basis of the constitution as well as Morsi's economic policies.
"The referendum is not the end game. It is only a battle in this long struggle for the future of Egypt," said the National Salvation Front, the main opposition group. "We will not allow a change to the identity of Egypt or the return of the age of tyranny."
The opposition claims the new constitution seeks to enshrine Islamic rule in Egypt and accuses the Islamists of trying to monopolize power.
Critics say it does not sufficiently protect the rights of women and minority groups and empowers Muslim clerics by giving them a say over legislation. Some articles were also seen as tailored to get rid of Islamists' enemies and undermine the freedom of labor unions.
The latest political battle began with Morsi's Nov. 22 decrees that gave him powers to protect the Islamist-dominated panel writing the constitution and dismiss the country's top prosecutor, a holdover from the Mubarak era.
Although Morsi subsequently rescinded the powers that gave him immunity from judicial oversight, his decision to replace the prosecutor general was viewed by many in the judiciary as trampling over their powers. Hundreds of prosecutors held a rally Sunday demanding the new, Morsi-appointed prosecutor general quit, days after he retracted his resignation claiming it was rendered under pressure.
The prosecutors said in a news conference that they will be on strike until he quits.
Scores of lawyers who support Morsi's decision held an earlier rally, demanding that the top prosecutor stay, and accusing the opposition of being "thugs."
One major concern in the aftermath of the constitutional turmoil is Egypt's deteriorating economy, which has been battered by the two years of turmoil and taken an added hit from renewed violence recently.
Adding to the anxiety, state television reported on Saturday amidst voting on the referendum that the central bank governor had resigned, then retracted the report. The governor turned up at a meeting of the government's economic team Sunday in an apparent attempt to quell nervousness over the state of the economy.
The government stressed the urgency of stability.
"The financial and economic situations are dire," government spokesman Alaa el-Hadidi said, according to comments published by the state news agency MENA. With the referendum behind, el-Hadidi said economic policies must be at the center of attention, adding that the government will work to improve the investment environment to attract foreign investors.
The government had to postpone a request for $4.8 billion of IMF loans, putting off unpopular tax increases and reforms to after the referendum for fear they would only stoke political tensions.
A day before the official results of the constitution are expected, the opposition front said it filed complaints to the country's top prosecutor and the election commission asking for an investigation.
"The results of the referendum are for sure because of the rigging, violations and mismanagement that characterized it," the National Salvation Front said.
It alleged the vote was marred by lack of complete judicial supervision, which led to overcrowding that pushed down the voting rate. It also charged there was interference by those who were supposed to be supervising the vote, with some instructing people to vote "yes." Many judges who traditionally supervise elections boycotted supervising the vote.
"We don't think the results reflect the true desires of the Egyptian people," Khaled Dawoud, the front's spokesman, told The Associated Press.
However, the Brotherhood insisted violations were limited and should not affect the referendum's integrity.
The Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood's political arm, said it hoped the passage of the constitution would be a "historic opportunity" to heal Egypt's divisions and launch a dialogue to restore stability and build state institutions.
If the violations are considered serious enough, there could be new votes in some areas that alter the results slightly.
The referendum was conducted in two stages with the first vote on Dec. 15 and the second on Saturday. The Muslim Brotherhood and some media outlets have accurately tallied the outcome of past elections by compiling numbers released by electoral officials at thousands of individual polling stations shortly after voting closes.
Turnout for the vote was 32% of Egypt's more than 51 million eligible voters, according to the Muslim Brotherhood. That was significantly lower than other elections since the uprising ended in February 2011. The opposition has pointed to the low turnout as well as allegations of violations in the voting to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the referendum.
The Brotherhood said 64% voted "yes" to the constitution in a tally of both stages of voting. For Saturday's second stage only, the Brotherhood said 71% of those who voted said "yes" with 99% of polling stations accounted for.
As expected, it was a jump from the first round of voting when about 56% said "yes." The provinces that voted in the second round were known for being a base for Brotherhood supporters.
Only about eight million of the 25 million Egyptians eligible to vote in the second stage — a turnout of about 30% — cast their ballots. Some 32% of eligible voters participated in the first round.
The Front said that regardless of the results, it welcomed the participation of many who rejected the constitution and refused to consider it a vote on Islamic law. The group vowed to continue to "democratically" work to change the constitution and praised the high turnout of women.
The Islamists say Islam is core to Egypt's identity and they view the constitution as a foundation to move forward, elect a parliament and build state institutions.
The new constitution will come into effect once official results are announced.
Once that happens, Morsi is expected to call for the election of parliament's lower chamber, the more powerful of the legislature's two houses, within two months.
The opposition said that even though it is challenging the results of the referendum, it will continue to prepare for the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Until the lower chamber is elected, the normally toothless upper house, or Shura Council, will have legislative powers.
On Sunday, Morsi appointed 90 new members to the Islamist-controlled Shura Council as part of his efforts to make the council more representative. The new appointments included at least 30 Islamists and a dozen Christians. They also include eight women, four of them Christians.
The opposition front said it did not want its members nominated to the Shura Council, now made up of 270 members.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(CBS News) On Friday, as funerals and memorials continued for the victims of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Conn., the National Rifle Association made its first public comment on the tragedy.
NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre rejected calls for more gun restrictions, and instead stated that "gun-free" zones made schools less safe by inviting criminals with guns into unprotected areas.
LaPierre insisted, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
LaPierre went on to add, "When it comes to our most beloved innocent and vulnerable members of the American family -- our children -- we as a society leave them every day utterly defenseless."
Lapierre's comments also drew quick reaction from politicians, many of them sharply criticizing the gun lobby's response.
But the reaction to the NRA's public stance was more tempered in Newtown, Conn., as parents grapple with finding a resolution that will protect their children at school.
"There are some people I am sure who will say, 'Let's put more policemen in our schools, or bullet-proof doors or windows in our schools," Andrei Nikitchyuk, the father of a third grader who survived the Sandy Hook school shooting, told CBS News' Elaine Quijano. "What I could tell them would be, 'Do you really [want] to have a shootout in our schools like the OK-Corral, in our schools?'"
But another Sandy Hook parent says the NRA's rallying cry for such school security measures is a step in the right direction.
"We are a nation of strong opinions and strong beliefs," said Desiree Vaiuso, whose daughter survived the shooting. "And some of us are changing our minds."
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