The ringgit opened slightly lower against the US dollar, in early trading Thursday, on weak demand from investors, a dealer said.
At 9.19am, the ringgit was quoted at 3.0475/0505 versus the greenback against Tuesday's 3.0410/0440.
The foreign exchange market was closed on Wednesday for Labour Day.
The dealer said investors' interest was more in favour of the US dollar due to lack of clear market direction for the local note.
"Most investors preferred to keep safe assets like the US dollar," he dealer added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded lower against other major currencies.
The local note weakened against the Singapore dollar to 2.4704/4748 from 2.4633/4678 on Tuesday and fell sharply against the euro to 4.0160/0209 from 3.9702/9751 previously.
It depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.1301/1345 from 3.1139/1185 yesterday and declined against the British pound to 4.7419/7472 from 4.7120/7182 on Tuesday.-- Bernama
Short-term interbank rates are expected to remain stable today as Bank Negara Malaysia intervenes to mop up excess liquidity from the financial system.
The central bank estimated today's liquidity at RM35.571 billion in the conventional system and RM15.465 billion in Islamic funds.
Bank Negara will call for four Al-Wadiah tenders, namely RM1.6 billion for seven days, RM200 million for 14 days, RM700 million for 28 days and RM1.7 billion for 36 days.
The central bank will also conduct a RM10 billion range maturity auction programme for between five days and 92 days, as well as, a RM400 million repo tender and a RM150 million Commodity Murabahah Programme for 14 days.
At 4pm, Bank Negara will conduct up to RM25.2 billion in conventional overnight tender and a RM11 billion Al-Wadiah overnight tender.-- Bernama
Three additional suspects were taken into custody in the Boston Marathon bombing case, the Boston Police Department tells FoxNews.com.
Police would not confirm when the suspects were taken into custody, and referred further questions to the FBI.
Prior to the latest development, authorities had named only brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as suspects in the April 15 bombing at the finish line of the world famous race.
Two of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's UMass-Dartmouth roommates, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, are from Kazakhstan and faced an immigration hearing this morning, sources said. Sources told Fox News they face obstruction charges in connection with the bombing. The identity of the third suspect is unclear.
Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov are suspected of taking computers and other equipment from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's apartment and trying to dispose of it after the bombings, sources told Fox News.
Police did not confirm the gender of the third suspect. More information was expected to be provided by the US Attorney's office later Wednesday.
Three people were killed and more than 200 injured when the pair allegedly set two bombs, at least one of which was made from a pressure cooker packed with explosives and shrapnel, amid the crowd.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died April 19, after a shootout hours after authorities showed the brothers on surveillance video and named them as suspects. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, is in a prison hospital after being wounded in the shootout with police as he and his brother made their getaway attempt. He is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, a crime that carries a potential death sentence.
Authorities have searched the Rhode Island home of the parents of Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow.
The first chops, to the forehead, did not go through the bone and are perhaps evidence of hesitancy about the task. The next set, after the body was rolled over, were more effective. One cut split the skull all the way to the base.
"The person is truly figuring it out as they go," said Douglas Owsley, a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution.
In the meantime, someone — perhaps with more experience — was working on a leg. The tibia bone is broken with a single blow, as one might do in butchering a cow.
That's one possible version of an event that took place sometime during the winter of 1609-1610 in Jamestown. What's not in doubt is that some members of that desperate colony resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.
That cannibalism occurred during the colony's "starving time" was never actually in much doubt. At least a half-dozen accounts, by people who lived through the period or spoke to colonists who did, describe occasional acts of cannibalism that winter. They include reports of corpses being exhumed and eaten; a husband killing his wife and salting her flesh (for which he was executed); and the mysterious disappearance of foraging colonists.
The proof comes in the form of fragments of a skeleton of a girl, about age 14, found in a cellar full of debris in the fort that sheltered the starving colonists. The skull, lower jaw and leg bone — all that remain — have the telltale marks of an ax or cleaver and a knife.
"Historians have to decide whether this type of thing happened," said Owsley, who has examined thousands of skeletal remains, both archaeological and forensic. "I think that it did. We didn't see anybody eat this flesh, but it's very strong evidence."
James Horn, head of research at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and a historian on the colony, said the discovery "adds a significant confirmation to what was reported to have occurred at Jamestown." Further, it's the only physical evidence of cannibalism in any New World colony, though, as with Jamestown, there are written accounts of the practice in others.
"I tend to be sparing in the use of words like 'unique.' But I think this is one of those finds that literally is," Horn said.
About 130 people inhabited the fort in November 1609. By spring, there were about 60. The girl, most likely a maidservant, though possibly the daughter of a colonist, was one of the casualties.
Her bones were unearthed last August in a part of the fort still under archaeological excavation. About 18 inches of fill remain in the cellar; it's possible more of her skeleton will be found. Enough of her skull exists, however, to imagine what she might have looked like, using CT scanning, computer graphics, sculpture materials and demographic data.
The bones, the reconstruction of her head, and the story were presented Wednesday at an event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. They will be displayed at Jamestown.
The starving time nearly ended the colony, which was riven by internal dissent, under frequent attack by Powhatan Indians, and short of food almost from its founding in 1607.
U.S. President Barack Obama says the U.S. will "rethink" its options for dealing with Syria if it can establish that the government of President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against its people.
President Obama repeated to a news conference Tuesday - 100 days into his second term - that the use of chemical weapons would be a "game changer," but he said he needed to get all the facts.
Speaking at the White House, Mr. Obama said as early as last year, he asked the Pentagon, military and intelligence officials to prepare for him what options might be available. But he refused to go into detail about what kind of military actions might be involved.
He said the U.S. is already "deeply engaged" in trying to bring about a solution in Syria.
Boston bombing
President Obama says Russia has been "very cooperative" with U.S. authorities since the deadly twin bombing earlier this month at the Boston Marathon, allegedly carried out by two ethnically Chechen brothers.
Obama said suspicions still remain between U.S. and Russian intelligence and law enforcement agencies that date back 20 to 30 years to the Cold War, but he said relations are continually improving.
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin is committed to working to make sure Russian authorities cooperate fully with the Boston investigation.
On Americans' response to the bombings, he said one of the things he has been most proud to see is a sense of "resilience and toughness."
He said Americans are not going to be intimidated and will continue to live their lives, while doing everything possible to prevent future attacks.
Budget woes
President Obama says there are "commonsense solutions" to the United States' budget and economic problems, but that he cannot force Republicans to embrace them.
Obama told reporters at Tuesday's news conference that he can urge lawmakers to take steps to solve the nation's budget problems, but ultimately, they themselves are going to have to say they want to "do the right thing."
He said Congress is not fixing spending and that lawmakers are choosing between "pain now and pain later."
Guantanamo
President Obama says the Guantanamo prison should be closed.
Speaking to reporters at a White House news conference, he said, "Guantanamo is not necessary to keep America safe ... it hurts us in terms of our international standing. It is a recrutment tool for extremists."
He added, "The notion we are going to keep 100 individuals in perpetuity in no man's land ... is contrary to who we are and contrary to our interests."
When asked about force feeding of hunger strikers at Guantanamo, he said, "I do not want these individuals to die."
FBI agents are conducting interviews about the relationship between Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, his wife, Maureen, and a major campaign donor who paid for the food at the wedding of the governor's daughter, according to four people familiar with the questioning.
The agents have been asking associates of the McDonnells about gifts provided to the family by Star Scientific chief executive Jonnie R. Williams Sr. and actions the Republican governor and his wife have taken that may have boosted the company, the people said.
Among the topics being explored, they said, is the $15,000 catering bill that Williams paid for the 2011 wedding of McDonnell's daughter at Virginia's historic Executive Mansion. But questions have extended to other, previously undisclosed gifts from Williams to Maureen McDonnell as well, they said.
The interviews, at which Virginia State Police investigators were present, began in recent months as an outgrowth of a federal investigation of securities transactions involving Star Scientific, which produces a dietary supplement called Anatabloc. The company disclosed that probe in a regulatory filing last month, saying it had received subpoenas from the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Now, federal officials are trying to determine whether to expand that investigation into a broader look at whether McDonnell or his administration took any action to benefit Star Scientific in exchange for monetary or other benefits, according to the four people familiar with the interviews. It is unclear whether the probe will be broadened.
U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride declined to comment, as did spokesmen for the FBI's Richmond division and the state police.
Tucker Martin, a spokesman for McDonnell, a possible 2016 presidential contender, said, "It is the policy of the governor's office to not comment on any possible investigations."
Jerry Kilgore, an attorney for Williams, also declined to comment.
McDonnell previously has said that he and his wife have known Williams for about five years, that they consider him a personal friend and that the first family's efforts on behalf of Virginia-based Star Scientific are typical of what any governor would do to promote the state's businesses and products.
But the FBI interviews represent a potential escalation of the growing controversy about McDonnell and his wife's relationship with Williams, which has consumed the state capital in recent weeks.
Williams and Star Scientific have given McDonnell and his political action committee more than $120,000 in publicly disclosed campaign donations and gifts, while the McDonnell family has received other benefits, such as a vacation at Williams's lake house in western Virginia.
The McDonnells have taken actions to promote Star Scientific, including allowing the company to hold a 2011 luncheon marking the launch of Anatabloc at the governor's mansion.
The focus of the FBI interviews has been to determine whether any of those actions constituted a quid pro quo — McDonnell using his office to promote the company in return for anything of value for him or his family — people familiar with the questioning said.
Business Times : latesthttp://www.btimes.com.my enTuesday, April 30, 2013, 08.16 AMRinggit opens sharply higherhttp://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430101245/Article/ http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430101245/Article/Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:12:45 +0800The ringgit opened sharply higher against the US dollar spurred by higher buying interest as investor confidence in the country's economy grew higher, a dealer said.
At 9.29am, the ringgit was quoted at 3.0295/0315 versus the greenback against yesterday's close of 3.0315/0345.
The dealer said investors' focus was shifted towards the local note as the Malaysian economy was well on track to achieve 5-6 per cent growth this year.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mostly higher against other major currencies.
The local note weakened against the Singapore dollar to 2.4560/4578 from 2.4557/4583 yesterday but rose against the euro to 3.9653/9688 from 3.9673/9719 on Monday.
It rose sharply against the Japanese yen to 3.0888/0918 from Monday's 3.1006/1043 and appreciated against the British pound to 4.6912/6949 from 4.7046/7108 yesterday.-- Bernama Short-term rates to remain stablehttp://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430101454/Article/ http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430101454/Article/Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:14:54 +0800Short-term interbank rates are expected to remain stable today as Bank Negara Malaysia intervenes to mop up excess liquidity from the financial system.
The central bank estimated today's liquidity at RM34.044 billion in the conventional system and RM8.705 billion in Islamic funds.
Bank Negara will call for three Al-Wadiah tenders, namely RM2.05 billion for seven days, RM1.2 billion for 14 days and RM700 million for 28 days.
The central bank will also conduct a RM9 billion range maturity auction programme for between two days and 92 days, as well as, a RM200 million Commodity Murabahah Programme each for 10 days and 36 days, respectively.
At 4pm, Bank Negara will conduct up to RM25.1 billion in conventional overnight tender and a RM5 billion Al-Wadiah overnight tender.-- Bernama KL shares opens easierhttp://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430094208/Article/ http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430094208/Article/Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:42:08 +0800Bursa Malaysia opened easier this morning despite the positive overnight performance posted by Wall Street, dealers said.
After six minutes of trading, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 3.3 points lower at 1,704.67, after opening 2.61 points higher at 1,710.58.
Market breadth, however, was positive with 61 gainers, 41 losers and 105 counters unchanged, 1,402 counters untraded and 35 others were suspended.
HwangDBS Vickers Research said Wall Street's barometers climbed between 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent as sentiment was boosted by better housing data and expectations that the Federal Open Market Committee would reaffirm their monetary stimulus measures when policymakers meet today and tomorrow.
"The positive external vibes could pave the way for our local bourse to show an upward bias today.
"On the chart, the key FBM KLCI may pull away from the psychological mark of 1,700 points, possibly advancing towards the resistance threshold of 1,720 points ahead," HwangDBS said in a note.
On the score board, the Finance Index increased 1.73 points to 15,913.2, the Plantation Index rose 7.99 points to 8,064.57 but the Industrial Index fell 17.36 points to 2,828.38.
The FBM Emas Index erased 15.51 points to 11,634.17, the FBMT100 lost 16.39 points to 11,475.29, and the FBM Ace Index slipped 5.17 points to 3,963.7.
However, the FBM Mid 70 Index gained 5.92 points to 12,850.53.
Turnover stood at 16.526 million shares worth RM23.958 million.
Among actives, Kumpulan Hartanah Selangor rose 3.5 sen to 67 sen,
SapuraKencana gained two sen to RM3.12, Pelikan added 1.5 sen to 53 sen while Censof was flat at 46.5 sen.
Heavyweights, Maybank improved three sen to RM9.57.
Both, Axiata Group and Petronas Chemicals shed one sen each to RM6.76 and RM6.48, respectively, CIMB Group slipped two sen to RM7.70 and Sime Darby eased four sen to RM9.40.-- Bernama S&P 500 closes at recordhttp://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430101016/Article/ http://www.btimes.com.my/articles/20130430101016/Article/Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:10:16 +0800NEW YORK: The SandP 500 index ended at an all-time high on Monday as growth-oriented stocks, including energy and technology, lead the way to the index's sixth rise in the past seven sessions.
Stronger-than-expected housing data also boosted the market, as did Italy's formation of a new government, ending months of uncertainty and raising hopes for new policies to promote growth in the euro zone's third-largest economy.
Pressure has grown on the European Central Bank to lower interest rates with the euro zone mired in recession. Money market traders are evenly split on whether the ECB will cut rates at its meeting on Thursday, according to a Reuters poll.
Wall Street followed European stocks higher as Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta urged a focus on growth policies and away from austerity measures in his inaugural speech.
"After the election there was a lot of uncertainty about whether Italy could form a government, so now there is not only a great deal of relief over that, but also expectations for additional monetary policies from the ECB," said Alec Young, global equity strategist at SandP Equity Research in New York.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 106.20 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 14,818.75. The Standard and Poor's 500 Index was up 11.37 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 1,593.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 27.76 points, or 0.85 per cent, at 3,307.02.
The US Federal Reserve will also meet this week for a two-day session beginning on Tuesday. The Fed is expected to maintain its stimulus policy. Data on Monday showing muted inflation gave the Fed room for accommodative measures.
Also lifting markets was Apple Inc, which jumped 3.1 per cent to US$430.12 after taking initial steps for what would be its first debt sale. Technology stocks rose 1.7 per cent, making the sector the best-performing on Monday.
Among energy shares, Chevron Corp rose 1.1 per cent to US$121.32.
A report showed contracts to buy previously owned homes rose last month to their highest level since April 2010, showing underlying strength in the housing market recovery, even though the pace of sales growth has cooled in recent months.
The SandP 500 closed just barely above its previous record hit earlier this month of 1,593.37.
"The market's trend continues to be higher, but it is still attractive at these valuations," said Young, who has a 12-month target of 1,670 for the SandP.
About 71 per cent of New York Stock Exchange-listed companies closed higher while 65 per cent of companies traded on the Nasdaq ended in positive territory.
Volume was light, with about 5.10 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.36 billion shares.
Moody's Corp was the SandP 500's top percentage gainer, jumping 8.3 per cent to US$59.69 after the company settled a lawsuit alleging that it had misled investors about the safety of risky debt vehicles it had rated.
McGraw-Hill Cos, whose Standard and Poor's unit said it settled similar suits, rose 2.8 per cent to US$53.45.
Roper Industries Inc fell 3.8 per cent to US$118.68 after reporting first-quarter revenue that missed expectations, though it raised its full-year profit outlook.
Of the 274 companies in the SandP 500 that have reported earnings to date for current season, 69 per cent have beat analysts' expectations and 43.2 per cent have reported revenue above expectations.
The second half of the earnings season may not be as strong as the first one, data showed.-- Reuters
NEW: More details of investigation could be unsealed as soon as today, officials say
Magistrate orders James Everett Dutschke held without bond
Dutschke is charged with possessing and using ricin as a weapon
He is accused of sending letters containing ricin to President Barack Obama and others
Oxford, Mississippi (CNN) -- The Mississippi man accused of making a potent toxin found in letters mailed to President Barack Obama and other officials will be held without bond pending a preliminary hearing later this week, a federal magistrate ruled Monday.
Federal authorities arrested James Everett Dutschke, 41, Saturday on charges of possessing and using ricin after initially charging -- and then clearing -- another man with whom Dutschke has sometimes feuded.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit, his hands and feet shackled as he entered the room, Dutschke told Magistrate S. Allan Alexander that he understood what he had been charged with.
His attorney, George Lucas, told Alexander that they had not yet had time to go through the complaint.
Alexander agreed to order Dutschke held without bond on the grounds that he could be a danger to the community or could try to run. She set his preliminary hearing for Thursday.
Both Lucas and Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar declined to comment after the hearing.
While the snappy eight-minute hearing produced no new details, the public could learn more about the accusations when the criminal affidavit in support of the complaint is unsealed. That could happen as early as Monday, according to the court clerk and a U.S. attorney.
Dutschke's arrest was the latest head-scratching twist in what could be a tale of small-town intrigue that blew up to become international news.
The letters -- sent to Obama, Wicker and Holland -- arrived April 16 and touched off anxieties in Washington and elsewhere in the wake of the bombing of the Boston Marathon. The two incidents were unconnected, officials said.
Before police settled on Dutschke as a suspect, they took into custody a Corinth, Mississippi, man named Paul Kevin Curtis, who makes his living impersonating Elvis, Buddy Holly and Randy Travis.
Curtis vehemently denied sending the letters, said he was framed and identified Dutschke as a potential culprit.
Dutschke used to work for Curtis' brother at an insurance company, under the direction of Curtis' ex-wife.
Curtis has said that while Dutschke worked for his brother, the two talked about collaborating on the publication of a book but later had a falling out.
He has accused Dutschke of stalking him online, a claim the latter has denied.
In an April 22 court hearing before the charges were dropped, Curtis said he was being framed and identified Dutschke as a potential culprit.
Dutschke told reporters last week that he did not know Curtis well.
"He's just a little nutty," he said. "I don't have a relationship with him."
The ties that bind II
So where do the lawmakers fit in?
Dutschke can be linked to Sadie Holland through her son, Democratic state representative Steve Holland.
Dutschke failed in a bid as a Republican to unseat the younger Holland.
As for Curtis, Sadie Holland presided over a 2004 assault hearing involving Curtis, who says he has been in jail "over 20 times," but never convicted.
And Sen. Roger Wicker?
Dutschke said he once met Wicker.
Suspect No. 1
The letters read, in part: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance."
They were signed "I am KC and I approve this message," a source told CNN.
Each letter had a Memphis, Tennessee, postmark and no return address.
The very next day, authorities arrested Curtis.
His attorney, Christi McCoy, said he'd been framed by someone who used several phrases Curtis likes to use on social media.
The FBI said the letters tested positive for ricin, a toxin derived from castor beans that has no known antidote.
The very next week, authorities dropped the charges against Curtis after they said they had new information.
"I think now, how many people are thrown in jail because of circumstantial evidence and someone can frame you that easily," he told CNN last week after being cleared.
Suspect No. 2
The feds then turned their attention to Dutschke.
Agents searched his residence and former martial arts studio. Dutschke told CNN affiliate WMC-TV that he agreed to the FBI search "to help clear my name."
"I had absolutely nothing to do with those letters," he said.
Early Saturday, he was arrested without incident at home. He was charged with possession and use of a biological agent as a weapon in connection with the letters.
More trouble
This isn't his only brush with the law.
Dutschke faces molestation charges in an unrelated case.
According to a grand jury indictment handed up this month and obtained by CNN, Dutschke is accused of molesting three girls under the age of 16. He has repeatedly denied the charges in interviews with local media and pleaded not guilty in court this month.
Dutschke closed his tae kwon do studio after the allegations were made public.
Dutschke was previously convicted on indecent exposure charges in another case and sentenced to 90 days in jail.
A song in his heart
As for Curtis, he told CNN he's "just glad it's over."
When he learned Dutschke had been arrested, he took a deep breath and felt like "a weight had been taken off."
"I just want to return to my kids and my music," Curtis said.
During another interview with CNN last week, he said the public attention could "thrust him into the limelight."
And then, at the urging of reporter Chris Cuomo, he burst into song.
A rousing rendition of Randy Travis' "On the Other Hand."
CNN's Vivian Kuo reported from Oxford, Mississippi; Rich Phillips and Alina Machado from Booneville, Mississippi. Ed Payne wrote from Atlanta. CNN's Chelsea J. Carter and Dana Ford contributed to this report.
CINCINNATI A student at an all-male parochial high school pulled out a gun in a classroom Monday morning and shot himself in an apparent suicide attempt, police said.
The youth was taken to a hospital, and there appeared to be no threat to other students at La Salle High School, a private school west of Cincinnati that was immediately put on lockdown as a precaution, police said.
At around 8 a.m., "a student produced a gun inside one of the classrooms and shot himself, and we're dealing with that now," Green Township Police Chief Bart West told reporters. School officials said the shooting was during the first class period of the day.
West said the student apparently was trying to kill himself, but he had no other information on why he fired the shot. He said authorities weren't aware of any threats made concerning the school or any other students. Authorities said all other students were safe.
Students, some in tears, gathered in the school gym, and school officials said they were organizing an orderly dismissal as parents came to pick them up.
A school official said counselors were meeting with students, and officials were talking to students to try to learn more about the student who fired the shot.
"We just ask that you pray for him and his family," said Greg Tankersley, La Salle's director of community development. "It's a tragic situation for this young man."
He said the youth was "fighting for his life." A message was left at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center about the student's condition.
Dispatchers told CBS affiliate WKRC that a number of students at the school called 911 to report the shooting. One of the students who called 911 told dispatchers that the shooting happened in a third-floor classroom.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese sent additional counselors to the school, he said, and a priest went to the hospital where the student was taken. Tankersley said he wouldn't release other information about the student at this point.
In the aftermath of last year's fatal shootings of three students in Chardon High School in northeast Ohio and December's Sandy Hook Elementary shooting rampage in Connecticut, most schools have taken steps to increase security. In Ohio, that's included taking shooting prevention and response training courses offered by the state attorney general and updating safety procedures with police.
"We always have concerns about school security," West said, but he added that La Salle "did an excellent job" in responding Monday. He said township police had met recently with school officials to review their safety plan.
"We're going to go back and look at everything," Tankersley replied when asked about a gun getting into the school. But he added that Monday's top priority was the condition of the wounded student and the well-being of the others.
Police are on the scene after a La Salle High School student reportedly shot himself in front of a classroom of students.
SAN FRANCISCO: LivingSocial, the second-largest daily deal company behind Groupon Inc, said on Friday it was hit by a cyber attack that may have affected more than 50 million customers.
The company said the attack on its computer systems resulted in unauthorised access to customer data, including names, email addresses, date of birth for some users and "encrypted" passwords.
LivingSocial stressed customer credit card and merchants' financial and banking information were not affected or accessed. It also does not store passwords in plain text.
"We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue," the company, part-owned by Amazon.com Inc, wrote in an email to employees.
LivingSocial does not disclose how many customers it has.
However, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said "a substantial portion" of the company's customer base was affected. LivingSocial is also contacting customers who closed accounts, because it still has their information stored in databases, he added.
The attack hit customers in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Southern Europe and Latin America. Customers in South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand were not affected, Weinstein said.
"In light of recent successful widespread attacks against major social networking sites, it's obvious that these providers are simply not doing enough to protect their customers' information," said George Tubin, senior security strategist at Trusteer, a computer security company.
The attack comes as LivingSocial struggles to handle a decline in consumer and merchant demand for daily deals. The company raised US$110 million from investors, including Amazon earlier this year, but was forced to make large concessions to get the new money.
Amazon invested US$56 million in LivingSocial in the first quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, which also revealed the company had a first-quarter operating loss of US$44 million on revenue of $135 million.
LivingSocial said on Friday it was beginning to contact more than 50 million customers whose data may have been affected by the cyber attack.
LivingSocial told customers in an email that they should log on to LivingSocial.com to create a new password for their accounts.
"We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)," LivingSocial chief executive Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote in the email.
The ringgit opened sharply higher against the US dollar, in early trading Monday, prompted by encouraging buying interest, a dealer said.
At 9am, the ringgit was quoted at 3.0274/0335 versus the greenback against Friday's close of 3.0340/0370.
The dealer said investors' interest were spurred by market talk on monetary easing in Japan and Europe which was expected to boost demand for emerging-market assets.
"Investors also shifted away from the US dollar after the giant economy posted a weaker-than-expected first-quarter Gross Domestic Product growth of 2.5 per cent on Friday, below expectations of three per cent," the dealer added.
Meanwhile, the ringgit was traded mixed against other major currencies.
The local note strengthened against the Singapore dollar to 2.4490/4540 from 2.4559/4597 on Friday and rose against the euro to 3.9503/9583 from 3.9715/9763 previously.
It depreciated against the Japanese yen to 3.1000/1000 from Friday's 3.0591/0624 and declined against the British pound to 4.6913/7008 from 4.6602/6657 previously.-- Bernama
A Mississippi man was charged Saturday with attempting to use a biological weapon after a ricin-laced letter was sent to President Obama. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
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TUPELO, Miss. — What looked at first like classic terrorism — poisoned letters sent to the president and other public officials — now seems more likely to be the product of a local feud between two not-so-good-old boys straight out of a Faulkner story, albeit with Facebook pages.
In the past week, the FBI has arrested Kevin Curtis, released him, and then, on Saturday, arrested his online sparring partner, Everett Dutschke.
Each has accused the other of trying to frame him as the sender of ricin-tainted letters that, coinciding with the Boston Marathon bombing, reminded a jittery nation of the deadly anthrax attacks that followed 9/11.
Dutschke faces a federal charge of producing and possessing a biological agent for use as a weapon, U.S. Attorney Felicia Adams said Saturday. The charge can result in a life sentence and a $250,000 fine. Dutschke is expected to appear in court Monday.
A terrorism motive, at least, might have some logic. But the story spinning out in this city of Elvis Presley's birth is as implausible as an Elvis sighting.
Who knows what The King would have made of Curtis and Dutschke? But William Faulkner, the Nobel laureate who lived down the road in Oxford, would have appreciated their Southern Gothic obsessions and secrets, their eccentricities, their capacity for vendetta.
Curtis, 45, is a sometime Elvis impersonator with bipolar disorder who has long warned of a seemingly imaginary underground traffic in stolen body parts at the hospital from which he was fired as a janitor.
Dutschke, 41, is a blues band front man, martial arts teacher, failed political candidate and indicted child molester. He's also a former member of Mensa, the society for those with high IQs.
If the sender of the ricin letters did come from Tupelo or environs, it would be the biggest crime here since the gangster Machine Gun Kelly robbed a local bank in 1932. Most people don't know what to make of this case, other than they don't like the attention.
Tupelo is known worldwide for Elvis, says local resident Carley Johnston, "and we want to keep it that way.''
Another perspective is offered by Curtis Wilke, a former national correspondent for the Boston Globe who teaches at the University of Mississippi.
"I've thought, 'God, I wish I were still a reporter; it'd be fun to cover this story.' " Wilke says. "Neither of them seems very sophisticated. Make a weapon of mass destruction from a bunch of beans?''
Ricin is a potentially lethal poison made from castor beans. Earlier this month, letters with grains of it were mailed from Memphis to President Obama, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who is from Tupelo, and an 80-year-old local judge, Sadie Holland.
Terrorism experts have warned about ricin in aerosol form, but the FBI says this ricin was crude, as if the beans had been mixed in a blender. And Judge Holland's son says she sniffed the letter with no ill effects.
Investigators immediately focused on Curtis, because the letters contained phrases like ones he often used online, including, "I am KC and I approve this message.''
He also had a possible motive. Holland had sentenced him to six months in jail in 2004 for assaulting a musician in his band (who also happened to have been an assistant district attorney).
Things looked so bad for Curtis that his brother issued a statement that Kevin sometimes failed to take medications prescribed to control his psychiatric disorder. "I was trying to help him legally,'' the brother later told the local Northern Mississippi Daily Journal.
But when the FBI searched Curtis' home, they found no trace of castor beans or anything else to corroborate the circumstantial evidence. The telltale phrasing, Curtis' lawyers pointed out, could have been written by anyone familiar with his online rants.
Nor did Curtis seem a likely chemist. When questioned by the FBI, "I thought they said 'rice,' " Curtis told reporters. "I told them, 'I don't even eat rice.' "
Before they set him free, agents asked Curtis: Is there anyone who'd want to set you up?
Enter Dutschke. He and Curtis, who share an interest in music and tae kwon do, first met in the mid-2000s. Curtis saw in Dutschke, who was then putting out a newsletter, a publisher for his book about trafficking in harvested human organs. He even had a title: Missing Pieces.
When this didn't come to pass, the two began to squabble. There was a physical confrontation at a buffet restaurant, after which they took things online.
Curtis, convinced Dutschke was spying on him, says he set a trap. He claimed on his Facebook page that he was a member of Mensa.
Dutschke, a proud Mensan, took the bait, denouncing Curtis as a liar and threatening to sue.
This was in 2010, after which Dutschke has said he had nothing to do with Curtis.
If Dutschke sent the ricin letters — even before his arrest Saturday, he had said he's innocent — he could have been killing two birds with one stone.
In 2007, he ran unsuccessfully for the state Legislature against Judge Holland's son Steve, the incumbent. Dutschke liked to compare Holland to Boss Hogg, the corrupt county commissioner on The Dukes of HazzardTV series. Once, at an event where the candidates were speaking, Judge Holland got up on stage to rebuke Dutschke and demand that he apologize.
After Curtis was released and before he himself was arrested, Dutschke told the Associated Press that he had no quarrel with Sadie Holland: "Everybody loves Sadie, including me."
Last Tuesday, when Curtis was freed, the feds rousted Dutschke from bed and searched his house. They also sealed off a shabby commercial strip where his former martial arts studio was located; investigators in hazmat suits carried material to a mobile lab they'd set up outside.
The studio had closed after Dutschke was charged earlier this year with fondling several girls who'd been students there. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $25,000 bail. He'd previously been convicted of indecent exposure in a case involving a minor in his neighborhood.
FBI agents arrested Dutschke around 1 a.m. Saturday at his one-story brick house in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Tupelo. FBI spokeswoman Deborah Madden said he was taken into custody "without incident.'' She referred questions about specific charges to federal prosecutors.
It's hard to say whose image has fared worse — the FBI's or Tupelo's, a city of 37,000 proud of its reputation for tolerance and a certain elegance.
When Curtis was released, the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson editorialized that "America got a good lesson in 'innocent until proven guilty.' "
"It's bad publicity,'' says Dick Guyton, a resident for all his 73 years and director of the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum. "And people don't think too much of Mississippi to begin with.''
Sid Salter, a veteran political analyst in the state, disagrees: "The notion that the ricin case 'reflects' on Mississippi at all is ludicrous. It's like suggesting that everyone who lives in rural Montana bears some sort of corporate guilt for the Unabomber.''
But Wilke, a native Mississippian, says "the woods here are full of colorful characters like them,'' referring to Curtis and Dutschke. "Maybe that's why we've produced so many great novelists.''
Contributing: The Associated Press; The (Jackson, Miss.)Clarion-Ledger
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