Khamis, 5 September 2013

The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro

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The Star Online: Metro: Sunday Metro


Email revealed in City Harvest trial

Posted:

The returns from what are allegedly sham bonds that City Harvest Church invested in was repaid with money from the church, the prosecution tried to prove in court during the trial against founder Kong Hee and five of his deputies.

The prosecution on Thursday produced email between several of the accused to show the "flow of funds" between the church's investment management firm AMAC Capital Partners and glassware manufacturer Firna, which had issued S$11mil (RM28mil) worth of bonds invested in by the church. 

AMAC is run by Chew Eng Han, one of the accused, and Firna is owned by long-time church member Wahju Hanafi.

An email between Hanafi and Chew and another accused Serina Wee, set out the timeline for money transfers from AMAC to Firna so Firna could repay the church's bond investments. 

When asked on the witness stand whether the AMAC-Firna timeline was followed, Hanafi replied "I think almost there" but he added that the plan had come from the accused and he had not asked why they needed it done.

Hanafi also did not know where AMAC had received the money it gave to Firna. 

The prosecution has been trying to show that Firna, AMAC and another company, music production firm Xtron Productions, were all used to illegally channel church funds to Kong' wife Ho Yeow Sun's pop music career. 

The six accused were charged last year with misusing about S$50mil (RM130mil) in total to finance Ho's career and to cover this up.  -The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Teacher gets jail for sexual offences against 14-year-old

Posted:

A music teacher who committed sexual offences against a 14-year-old girl was sentenced to 18 months' jail.

James Rohan Fernando, 25, who faced six charges, admitted to three counts of sexual penetration of a minor between December 2011 and March last year.

A district court heard that Fernando, who was teaching in a private school, came to know the victim through online social network Facebook in 2010. She was then 13.

The victim, who the court heard had been diagnosed with autism since she was a child, accepted his friend request as she badly needed someone to talk to. She subsequently became very attached to Fernando and fell in love with him.

When they met for the first time in Telok Blangah in December 2011, he took her to the highest floor of Block 87 Telok Blangah Heights, and touched her inappropriately.

When the victim told him that they should not engage in any sexual acts if they were to meet again, he said he did not want to meet her anymore. She then relented and agreed to meet up with him.

Sometime in January or February last year, they met a second time. Fernando took her to a multi-storey carpark at Telok Blangah Heights where she performed oral sex on him at a staircase landing. They had sex in the same carpark one evening in March.

The victim's mother reported to the police on March 28 last year after seeing Fernando's many text messages to the victim which were all sexual in nature.

Fernando's lawyer Stephen Wong said his client was truly remorseful. He said given the relationship, there was no manipulation and exploitation on Fernando's part. He has also written a letter of apology to the victim.

He could have been jailed for up to seven years and/or fined on each charge.  -The Straits Times / Asia News Network

Cleaner jailed for beating son

Posted:

A cleaner was jailed for 14 months for assaulting his nine-year-old for stealing S$50 (RM130) from him.

He admitted last month to ill-treating his son by slapping, kicking and punching the boy on the face, body and legs at his home on April 10.

A Community Court heard that the accused, a divorcee, found S$50 (RM130) missing from his wallet that morning and suspected his son had taken it without his permission.

That evening, he confronted the victim who admitted to taking the money only after much questioning.

Initially, the victim said he had bought books with the money, but later confessed that he had spent it on game cards.

The accused, 28, lost his temper and began to hit the victim repeatedly over various parts of his body. He slapped, punched and kicked the victim, who was crying and tried to block the attacks.

The next day after school, the victim did not return home. He followed his friend to the latter's house. He informed his friend's father about the incident and police were called for.

Community Court Judge Lim Keng Yeow, who also ordered that the accused by bonded for S$8,000 (RM20,000) for good behaviour for 24 months, told the accused that what he did were acts of aggression on a vulnerable boy, not acts of parental correction.

"The acts are clearly unacceptable regardless of the wrong you felt he had done," he said on Thursday.  -The Straits Times / Asia News Network

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The Star Online: World Updates

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The Star Online: World Updates


Thailand under pressure to end rubber protest after violence

Posted:

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand faced pressure on Friday to end a two-week protest by rubber farmers after violent overnight clashes between riot police and a group of protesters who hurled rocks and bottles filled with an acidic liquid.

Police fired tear gas to disperse a group of protesters in Prachuap Khiri Khan province on a main road from Bangkok to the southern beach resort region of Phuket. At least 21 policemen were injured, authorities said.

"Acid and rocks were thrown at police, leaving one officer with a serious injury. Orders were issued to use teargas after a group of youths, who were not part of the protest, fired at police," Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok said on Friday.

"The situation this morning is calm and the farmers have dispersed."

Thailand is the world's biggest rubber producer and exporter with around 90 percent of its output heading overseas. The protests have disrupted distribution systems and delayed thousands of metric tons of Thai rubber shipments.

Tens of thousands of farmers in the country's main southern rubber-producing region are demanding greater state support after a slowdown in demand from China and concerns over global economic growth sent prices tumbling to multi-year lows in mid-2012. China accounts for 35 percent of global rubber consumption.

They mainly support the opposition Democrat Party and have accused Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra of supporting rice farmers in her key north and northeastern constituencies through a rice-buying programme, while neglecting rubber farmers in the south of the country.

Earlier in the week, rubber farmers blocked roads and railways and threatened to shut down 14 city halls after the government rejected their demands for price rises.

In a bid to lift prices, the government on Thursday scrapped a tax on rubber exports until the end of the year but the move failed to placate protesters.

Deputy Prime Minister Pracha and other officials on Friday flew down to Nakhon Si Thammarat, the location of a major rally site in the south, to hold talks with protest leaders.

"The Prime Minister wants this problem solved immediately so that the situation in the south returns to normal," said Pracha.

A $690-million rubber subsidy programme that ended in May saw the government buy 210,000 tonnes of rubber at 10 percent more than the daily market price.

The scheme was axed after criticism that it was costly and distorted market prices and industry officials say extending the rubber scheme could cost Thailand more than $620 million.

Protesters have already shot down a government offer to give farmers 1,260 baht ($39.00) per acre of rubber plantations for up to 25 acres of land, arguing that the offer will not help support falling prices.

($1 = 32.3100 Thai baht)

(Reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Jason Szep and Michael Perry)

Suspected U.S. drone strike kills seven militants in Pakistan

Posted:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone aircraft killed at least seven militants in Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal region on the Afghan border on Friday, Pakistani security officials and residents said.

U.S. drones have fired missiles into troubled and inaccessible border areas such as North Waziristan, the main stronghold for militant groups aligned with al Qaeda and the Taliban, since 2004.

Pakistan has been angered by reports of civilian casualties and what it sees as a violation of its sovereignty, and the United States has reduced their use in recent years.

In the early hours of Friday, drones fired two missiles on a compound in the village of Dargah Mandi in North Waziristan, destroying the house and killing seven people.

Security officials said all those who were killed were insurgents. The area where the attack took place is known as a stronghold for the Haqqani network, which regularly attacks U.S. forces in Afghanistan from its mountain hideouts in Pakistan.

U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have fallen significantly over the past two and a half years, totalling 20 this year. There were 48 in all of 2012 and 73 in 2011, according to a tally kept by the New America Foundation.

It is hard to check their impact on both militants and civilians because independent observers and journalists have almost no access to the areas where most of the strikes occur.

(Reporting by Jibran Ahmad; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Australia's opposition blunders on internet policy on election eve

Posted:

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's conservative opposition was forced to make a quick about-turn on its internet policy to rule out more censorship on Friday, in a rare policy bungle on the eve of a general election it is poised to win.

Opinion polls are pointing to a solid victory for opposition leader Tony Abbott, ending six years of often turbulent Labour rule and the past three years of political uncertainty over a hung parliament.

Abbott has run a disciplined campaign, focussing on stability under his Liberal-National Party coalition in contrast to the infighting which saw the Labour Party dump Kevin Rudd as prime minister in 2010, and then recall him in favour of Julia Gillard in late June.

But the opposition's short-lived policy blunder, suggesting a British-style compulsory filter for "adult content", could also signal emerging divisions within Abbott's Liberal Party between social conservatives and free-speech liberals.

"We made a mistake, we acknowledged the mistake. We corrected the mistake. It took about three minutes," Abbott said in his final media conference of the election campaign.

"We do not support internet filtering," he added, saying his plan would allow people to choose to have filters on computers and smart phones if they wanted to block access to pornography.

The latest polls show Abbott's conservatives set to win about 53 percent of the vote, which would give his coalition as many as 90 seats in the 150-seat parliament.

Economists believe a clear result for either party would boost business confidence at a time when the economy is adjusting to lower growth and rising unemployment as a prolonged mining investment boom tapers off.

"Removal of uncertainty is important for investors, businesses and consumers," said Craig James, chief economist at the CommSec stock broking firm. "There are good reasons to expect a stronger Australian economy once election uncertainty is resolved."

NEWSPAPERS BACK ABBOTT

Abbott's campaign has been strongly supported by media magnate Rupert Murdoch and his Australian newspapers, with most of the rival Fairfax Media newspapers on Friday also calling for a change of government.

"A strong mandate at the top, especially for a government getting a grip on its own finances, will be welcome and will lift business confidence," Fairfax's Australian Financial Review said in its support for Abbott.

Murdoch's top selling Melbourne Herald Sun said Abbott "stands ready to seize the day", while his The Australian national newspaper, which once employed Abbott as an editorial writer, said Abbott must be given a strong mandate.

"Tony Abbott presents as an authentic leader possessed of personal and political integrity," The Australian said in an editorial.

Fairfax's Melbourne Age stood out for its support of Rudd's Labour.

"We believe the role of government is to build a strong, fair nation for future generations, and not to pander to sectional interests. It is with these values in mind that we endorse the Labour Party in this important election," the paper said.

Voting is compulsory and about 14 million Australians are expected to cast their ballots.

Rudd used his final campaign news conference to urge as many as 400,000 undecided voters to back his party to protect jobs, health and education services.

"With 24 hours to go, if you have doubts about Mr Abbott's hidden massive cuts to your jobs, your schools, your hospitals, your childcare, your national broadband network, then don't vote for him," Rudd said.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz

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The Star eCentral: Movie Buzz


Taking a new direction

Posted:

Making a concert film was an ear-opening experience for famed director Morgan Spurlock.

Morgan Spurlock turned down Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. But he decided it was best not to say "no" to One Direction.

The documentary filmmaker – best known for casting a light on corporate America and fast food chains – declined opportunities to direct concert movies for Bieber and Perry because he was tied up with other projects. The call to helm One Direction: This Is Us came when he was between films.

"I got a call a year ago and was asked if I had heard of One Direction. I knew all about them because I was in Britain two years earlier filming New Britannia. It was at that time they were exploding. Because I knew so much about them, and after not being able to direct the other concert films, I didn't want to miss this opportunity," Spurlock says.

"Plus, this was a chance to have access to one of the biggest bands in the world and to shoot in 3D." That more people will see the concert film than have seen all his other documentaries didn't escape Spurlock.

Collecting the footage took months. Spurlock travelled with the band carving out interview time whenever the five band members – Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – weren't performing, rehearsing, recording an album, doing press interviews or napping.

"We would grab them whenever we could," Spurlock says. "It gave me a new appreciation and respect for what it means to be a pop star."

The only way Spurlock would agree to make the film was if he got full access to the band members and their lives. His conditions were met and that's why Spurlock was in the middle of the pandemonium when the guys went on a shopping trip and got trapped by thousands of adoring fans outside the door. It's also how Spurlock was able to capture a very tender moment when Malik fulfills a childhood promise to buy his mother a house.

The last five concerts of the band's 2012 tour were filmed for the performance part of the film. Some nights, Spurlock only shot from the audience; other nights his camera operators roamed the stage like a sixth member of the band. Shooting the concerts was full of logistical nightmares, such as a scene in which the band members are carried out over the crowd to a small stage in the middle of the arena. That would have been a tough sequence to film under normal circumstances, but the movie was being shot with heavy 3D cameras.

"It's easier to deal with 3D now because the cameras we shot with were smaller, but still big enough that our steady cam operator was walking around with 100lbs (45kg) of equipment," Spurlock says.

"But the 3D worked great especially with their faces. With a lot of 3D, faces look flat but you can see incredible depth in ours."

There's at least one face you won't see in any dimensions. Unlike his past work, Spurlock doesn't appear in the film. Even with the lack of screen time, making One Direction: This Is Us ended up being a positive experience for Spurlock. Had he not listened to some sage advice, things might not have been so rosy.

"At one concert, the decibel meter with the music playing was between 95 and 100 decibels. When the band stopped, the sound in the stadium from all the screaming hit 110 decibels. When I was walking into my first concert, a security guard stopped me and said, 'You might need these,' and handed me earplugs," Spurlock says. – The Fresno Bee/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> One Direction: This Is Us is now in cinemas nationwide.

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The Star eCentral: Movie Reviews

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Taking a new direction

Posted:

Making a concert film was an ear-opening experience for famed director Morgan Spurlock.

Morgan Spurlock turned down Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. But he decided it was best not to say "no" to One Direction.

The documentary filmmaker – best known for casting a light on corporate America and fast food chains – declined opportunities to direct concert movies for Bieber and Perry because he was tied up with other projects. The call to helm One Direction: This Is Us came when he was between films.

"I got a call a year ago and was asked if I had heard of One Direction. I knew all about them because I was in Britain two years earlier filming New Britannia. It was at that time they were exploding. Because I knew so much about them, and after not being able to direct the other concert films, I didn't want to miss this opportunity," Spurlock says.

"Plus, this was a chance to have access to one of the biggest bands in the world and to shoot in 3D." That more people will see the concert film than have seen all his other documentaries didn't escape Spurlock.

Collecting the footage took months. Spurlock travelled with the band carving out interview time whenever the five band members – Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – weren't performing, rehearsing, recording an album, doing press interviews or napping.

"We would grab them whenever we could," Spurlock says. "It gave me a new appreciation and respect for what it means to be a pop star."

The only way Spurlock would agree to make the film was if he got full access to the band members and their lives. His conditions were met and that's why Spurlock was in the middle of the pandemonium when the guys went on a shopping trip and got trapped by thousands of adoring fans outside the door. It's also how Spurlock was able to capture a very tender moment when Malik fulfills a childhood promise to buy his mother a house.

The last five concerts of the band's 2012 tour were filmed for the performance part of the film. Some nights, Spurlock only shot from the audience; other nights his camera operators roamed the stage like a sixth member of the band. Shooting the concerts was full of logistical nightmares, such as a scene in which the band members are carried out over the crowd to a small stage in the middle of the arena. That would have been a tough sequence to film under normal circumstances, but the movie was being shot with heavy 3D cameras.

"It's easier to deal with 3D now because the cameras we shot with were smaller, but still big enough that our steady cam operator was walking around with 100lbs (45kg) of equipment," Spurlock says.

"But the 3D worked great especially with their faces. With a lot of 3D, faces look flat but you can see incredible depth in ours."

There's at least one face you won't see in any dimensions. Unlike his past work, Spurlock doesn't appear in the film. Even with the lack of screen time, making One Direction: This Is Us ended up being a positive experience for Spurlock. Had he not listened to some sage advice, things might not have been so rosy.

"At one concert, the decibel meter with the music playing was between 95 and 100 decibels. When the band stopped, the sound in the stadium from all the screaming hit 110 decibels. When I was walking into my first concert, a security guard stopped me and said, 'You might need these,' and handed me earplugs," Spurlock says. – The Fresno Bee/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> One Direction: This Is Us is now in cinemas nationwide.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

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Sofia Vergara - highest paid actress on US TV

Posted:

The Colombian star tops the bill for the second consecutive year.

Sofia Vergara of ABC's successful TV comedy Modern Family is the highest-paid actress on US television for the second consecutive year with estimated earnings of US$30mil, Forbes magazine said.

The voluptuous Colombian-born actress easily surpassed Emmy and Golden Globe-winner Mariska Hargitay of NBC's Law And Order: Special Victims Unit and Kaley Cuoco, a star of CBS's The Big Bang Theory, who both tied for second with US$11mil.

"As the reigning queen of celebrity endorsement deals (thanks largely to her bilingual portfolio), Vergara's earnings over the past year reached US$30mil – making her far and away the highest-paid actress on prime time," Forbes.com said.

Vergara, 41, has clothing and home goods lines sold at Sears Holding Corp's retailer Kmart and lucrative endorsement deals with PepsiCo Inc's Diet Pepsi, Proctor & Gamble Co's CoverGirl and others.

Sisters Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian of the E! cable reality series Keeping Up With The Kardashians, shared the No. 4 spot with earnings of US$10mil each along with three other women, including Melissa McCarthy of CBS's Mike & Molly. McCarthy scored a hit on the big screen in Bridesmaids, a film that grossed about US$288mil at the global box office, and in The Heat with Sandra Bullock.

Like Vergara, the Kardashian sisters have a clothing line and other licensing deals.

Forbes compiled the list by estimating earnings for the year to June 2013 from the actresses' TV work, endorsements, residuals and advertising work, and by talking to agents, managers and lawyers.

Amy Poehler, a first timer on the list, was No. 13. The Parks & Recreation star earned US$7mil and also signed a book deal. Forbes estimated that the top 20 actresses and reality stars earned a combined total of US$183mil. The complete list can be found at Forbes.com. — Reuters

Glee's Beatles tribute shows

Posted:

Yesterday and Help are among the Beatles chestnuts to be tackled on the popular show.

Glee returns for its fifth season with a musical tribute to British pop icon The Beatles, and now details are being revealed about the two-part homage to the Fab Four.

Columbia Records said that it will release a soundtrack for the Glee Beatles episodes – dubbed Glee Sings The Beatles – on Sept 24, two days before the Sept 26 Glee season premiere in the United States.

Along with the announcement came a treasure trove of details about the episodes. The first episode, Love, Love, Love, finds the New Directions crew assigned with tackling the Beatles songbook, as Blaine and Kurt attempt to answer questions about their future together.

Meanwhile, Rachel's New York ambitions take an unexpected turn. On Oct 3, the second episode – dubbed Tina In The Sky With Diamonds – will chronicle Tina's bid for prom queen, as she alienates her biggest supporters with her fierce attitude.

Meanwhile in New York, Rachel and Santana take jobs at a Broadway diner in order to make ends meet.

Incidentally, Glee, which has sold more than 55 million tracks and 13 million albums worldwide, has surpassed The Beatles to set a record for most songs charted on the Billboard Hot 100 by a single act.

Here's the track listing for Glee Sings The Beatles:

1. Yesterday

2. Drive My Car

3. Got To Get You Into My Life

4. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

5. Help

6. A Hard Day's Night

7. I Saw Her Standing There

8. All You Need Is Love

9. Get Back

10. Here Comes The Sun

11. Something

12. Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

13. Hey Jude

14. Let It Be

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The Star Online: Business

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Public Bank leads KLCI higher, local funds support

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: Public Bank led the FBM KLCI higher early Friday, as investor sentiment perked up amid a firmer broader market, supported by local funds as foreign institutions continued to exit.

At 9.37am, the KLCI was up 2.5 points to 1,723.46. Turnover was 178.43 million shares valued at RM124.24mil. There were 148 gainers, 112 losers and 172 counters unchanged.

Stock market data showed local funds were net buyers at RM183.90mil while retail investors were net sellers at RM22.3mil and foreign funds sold net RM161.60mil.

Public Bank and Public Bank foreign rose eight sen each to RM17.40 and RM17.42 while Allianz gained 10 sen to RM10.20 and insurer AFG seven sen higher at RM5.13.

Aeon Credit was the top gainer, adding 30 sen to RM15.50 while Pos Malaysia added 17 sen to RM5.16 on dividend hopes.

Euro hit by dovish ECB, stocks await U.S. jobs data

Posted:

SYDNEY:  The euro languished at seven-week lows on Friday in the wake of dovish comments from the European Central Bank, while a jump in U.S. bond yields underpinned the dollar and kept Asian stocks in check.

Investors were also sidelined ahead of U.S. payrolls data that should cement the case for the U.S. Federal Reserve to begin scaling back stimulus later this month.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat in early trade, following a 0.4 percent gain on Thursday. It was on track to end the week up more than 2 percent. Tokyo's Nikkei eased 0.2 percent, but was still up more than 5 percent this week.

The euro wallowed at $1.3118, having slid more than a full U.S. cent to be 0.8 percent lower on the week. Against the yen, it retreated to 131.26 from a near two-week peak of 132.14.

Investors sold the common currency after the ECB said it stood ready to act if needed to bring money market rates down and help nurture a "very, very green" recovery.

ECB President Mario Draghi made those comments as global government bond yields have risen sharply, tracking U.S. Treasuries in expectations for the Fed to start withdrawing support.

Indeed, U.S. 10-year note yields hit 3.0 percent on Thursday for the first time since July 2011, having jumped from near 1.6 percent in four short months and providing a major support for the dollar in the process.

The greenback popped back above 100 yen to return to levels not seen since late July. Coupled with a weaker euro, the dollar scaled a seven-week peak against a basket of major currencies.

Latest U.S. data showed a solid expansion in the services sector, while private employers added 176,000 jobs in August, suggesting that non-farm payrolls could be surprisingly strong.

Some analysts said payrolls in line with expectations of 180,000 new jobs would likely be enough for the Fed to start tapering stimulus at the Sept 17-18 meeting.

"With the release of the non-farm employment change and the official unemployment rate tonight, the prospect of tapering in 11 days time is growing ever larger," said Evan Lucas, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.

Worries about reduced central bank support have weighed on demand for gold and riskier assets, with emerging markets in the targetted by investors.

Indonesia has had to raise interest rates to support the collapsing rupiah currency, while India's new central bank boss this week impressed some with an unexpectedly detailed and wide-ranging plan that saw the rupee and stocks rally on Thursday.

The top five emerging market powers: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) have also pledged to set up a $100 billion fund to stabilise currency markets.

However, it looked unlikely to be in place soon enough to temper the effects of an expected pullback of U.S. stimulus.

The Group of 20 emerging and developed powers gathered in St. Petersburg for a summit struggled to find common ground over the turmoil faced by emerging markets.

"Our main task is returning the global economy towards steady and balanced growth. This task has unfortunately not been resolved," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Leaders at the summit also had to contend with the tough question of whether to support U.S. military strikes in Syria.

There is little in the way of market-moving economic news out of Asia, leaving the focus squarely on U.S. jobs data due at 1230 GMT. - Reuters

JPMorgan To Stop Making Student Loans

Posted:

NEW YORK: JPMorgan Chase & Co has decided to get out of the student loan business, after the biggest U.S. bank concluded that competition from federal government programs and increased scrutiny from regulators had limited its ability to expand the business.

JPMorgan, which already restricted student loans to existing Chase bank customers, will stop accepting applications for private student loans on October 12, at the end of the peak borrowing season for this school year, according to a memo from the company to colleges that was reviewed by Reuters on Thursday. Final loan disbursements are expected before March 15, 2014.

"We just don't see this as a market that we can significantly grow," said Thasunda Duckett, chief executive for auto and student loans at Chase, in an interview.

Not making more loans "puts us in a position to redeploy those resources, as well as focus on our No. 1 priority, which is getting the regulatory control environment strengthened," Duckett said.

JPMorgan's decision comes after Congress acted in mid-2010 to bypass the banks and have the government lend directly to students. The federal government now issues 93 percent of student loans. Banks and other private lenders have also come under pressure from regulators and politicians to offer more flexible repayment terms on student loans.

JPMorgan's portfolio has been shrinking by roughly $1 billion to $2 billion a year since then, and is a small fraction of its assets. The company's student loan portfolio at the end of June held $11 billion - less than 0.5 percent - of its $2.44 trillion of assets. Last year, Chase made education loans to 12,500 people for a total of about $200 million.

Hundreds of thousands of students, however, still look to private lenders when they have exhausted their federal borrowing limit. Richard Hunt, president of the Consumer Bankers Association, said decisions like JPMorgan's show that the government's direct lending policies are leading to "less competition in the marketplace."

He said the government programs encourage students to take on more debt than they can afford because the loans, unlike those made by banks, do not require assessments of the ability to repay.

But many experts have said that the primary problem with student lending lies in how much college costs and in the sheer size of the debt taken on, not in who makes the loans and how they are structured and how much they cost in interest.

Moreover, others may fill in the gap. Other major lenders that remain in the business include SLM Corp<SLM.O>, known as Sallie Mae; Wells Fargo & Co <WFC.N>; and Discover Financial Services <DFS.N>. Both Wells and Discover said on Thursday that they would continue to make student loans.

Danny Ray, president of Discover Student Loans, said although competition from the government has taken business from lending for graduate studies, his bank found more demand from undergraduate students who have already reached their government borrowing limits and are still short of the money they need.

Credit unions could also use exits by banks such as JPMorgan as an opportunity to do more business. Many entered the market in 2010 and have made about $2 billion of student loans since then, according to Paul Gentile, executive vice president of the Credit Union National Association.

JPMorgan's decision follows a broader, ongoing review of businesses amid new regulations, heightened scrutiny and capital requirements.

In July, the bank said it would exit physical commodities trading, as Wall Street's role in the trading of raw materials comes under political and regulatory pressure.

In June, the bank said its private equity unit, One Equity Partners, would become independent, as it increased its focus on client businesses. At the time, a source said the move was also driven by the bank's decision to simplify its operating structure.- Reuters

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The Star Online: Nation

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Busted &#8211; ring that stole funds online

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: A syndicate has raked in more than RM100,000 by using a new modus operandi to hijack its victims' mobile phone SIM cards.

The syndicate uses a software to hack a victim's online bank account and gain access to important financial information.

They would gather the victim's personal details such as MyKad number and then report that the SIM card has been stolen.

The syndicate members would then take receipt of the new SIM card and get the Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) required for the online transaction before transferring the victim's money to an account belonging to another syndicate member.

Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Comm Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said this was uncovered when a 35-year-old administration officer reported the loss of RM5,000 on Aug 5.

"The victim revealed that his SIM card was not working for two days prior to the discovery of the theft.

"We believe this was when the suspects hijacked his SIM card," he told a press conference in Bukit Perdana here yesterday.

He said police investigated the case for about a month before finally tracking down a 28-year-old African man who was the mastermind of the syndicate on Tuesday in Bandar Sunway, Selangor.

"We also detained a man and a woman, both Malaysians, who were his accomplices.

"We believe the syndicate is responsible for 10 such cases resulting in RM100,200 worth of losses to the victims," he said, adding that the African man was out on bail for an Internet scam offence in 2011.

In another case, Comm Syed Ismail revealed that police had busted two syndicates preying on companies dealing with the export of consumer goods.

"The syndicates will intercept e-mail correspondences between a Malaysian firm and a foreign company before hacking the e-mail account belonging to the local firm.

"They would then deal with the foreign company by giving the syndicate's account number. After that, they would just wait and receive the money," he said.

He said eight African men had been detained in connection with the case and their syndicates operated in Damansara, Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur.

Selangor bans all works near rivers

Posted:

SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government has ordered local councils in the state not to approve development projects near river tributaries.

Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said that the prohibition, effective immediately, would give enforcement officers time to inspect factories that were currently operating near the riverside.

"Enforcement must be increased to ensure another water contamination issue does not take place," Khalid told a press conference after chairing the weekly executive council meeting yesterday.

"All relevant parties in the state government will continue to inspect the situation from time to time to ensure that rivers do not get contaminated,"said Khalid.

The move to freeze projects near river tributaries comes after an oil spillage in Sungai Selangor last week which disrupted water supply to several areas in the Klang Valley.

Water concessionaires worked around the clock to clean up the river after four water treatment plants – Sungai Selangor Phase 1,2,3 and Rantau Panjang were shut down.

Khalid urged the National Resources and Environment Ministry to enforce a law under the Environment Quality Act 1974,to make culprits responsible for river contamination pay for the damage caused and the cost for the required clean-up.

The Star had also reported recently about the vulnerability of rivers and the measures that must be taken to prevent their contamination.

State executive councillor in charge of environment Elizabeth Wong said that the company, which caused the oil spillage, did not have the necessary approval to operate a factory.

"I do not have the exact details with me now but the license the owner has does not allow him to run a factory," she said.

On the long standing water restructuring issue between the state and federal governments, Khalid said that he was still waiting for the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry to revert to him for a final meeting.

"There have been numerous meetings at various levels. I am waiting for the ministry to get back to me for a final meeting between the minister and the Mentri Besar," he said.

Preliminary findings unable to pinpoint cause of bus crash

Posted:

KUALA LUMPUR: A preliminary probe by a government committee investigating the Genting Highlands bus tragedy on Aug 21 has not been able to pinpoint the actual cause of the accident.

Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said the committee was not able to determine whether the accident was due to the driver's fault, the bus structure itself, road conditions, the gradient, brakes or tyres.

The report of the probe has been presented to a Special Committee set up to investigate the crash by the Road Safety Department.

The worst-ever road disaster in the country claimed 37 lives and left 16 others injured.

The parties in­­volved also showed a simulation of the accident at the meeting of the Special Committee set up to investigate the crash.

"Representatives of the Special Committee had met the management of Genting Berhad to discuss measures to improve road safety which touched on various aspects including bus operators," he said.

He was speaking to reporters about the progress on the probe after he chaired a post-Cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry here.

Hishammuddin said the discussions were held as the route to Genting Highlands was a private road under the management of Genting.

He said the Cabinet had also agreed to take proactive measures to raise the safety level at accident-prone areas throughout the country, in particular Genting Highlands and Simpang Pulai in Perak.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

The Star Online: Entertainment: Movies

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Taking a new direction

Posted:

Making a concert film was an ear-opening experience for famed director Morgan Spurlock.

Morgan Spurlock turned down Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. But he decided it was best not to say "no" to One Direction.

The documentary filmmaker – best known for casting a light on corporate America and fast food chains – declined opportunities to direct concert movies for Bieber and Perry because he was tied up with other projects. The call to helm One Direction: This Is Us came when he was between films.

"I got a call a year ago and was asked if I had heard of One Direction. I knew all about them because I was in Britain two years earlier filming New Britannia. It was at that time they were exploding. Because I knew so much about them, and after not being able to direct the other concert films, I didn't want to miss this opportunity," Spurlock says.

"Plus, this was a chance to have access to one of the biggest bands in the world and to shoot in 3D." That more people will see the concert film than have seen all his other documentaries didn't escape Spurlock.

Collecting the footage took months. Spurlock travelled with the band carving out interview time whenever the five band members – Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson – weren't performing, rehearsing, recording an album, doing press interviews or napping.

"We would grab them whenever we could," Spurlock says. "It gave me a new appreciation and respect for what it means to be a pop star."

The only way Spurlock would agree to make the film was if he got full access to the band members and their lives. His conditions were met and that's why Spurlock was in the middle of the pandemonium when the guys went on a shopping trip and got trapped by thousands of adoring fans outside the door. It's also how Spurlock was able to capture a very tender moment when Malik fulfills a childhood promise to buy his mother a house.

The last five concerts of the band's 2012 tour were filmed for the performance part of the film. Some nights, Spurlock only shot from the audience; other nights his camera operators roamed the stage like a sixth member of the band. Shooting the concerts was full of logistical nightmares, such as a scene in which the band members are carried out over the crowd to a small stage in the middle of the arena. That would have been a tough sequence to film under normal circumstances, but the movie was being shot with heavy 3D cameras.

"It's easier to deal with 3D now because the cameras we shot with were smaller, but still big enough that our steady cam operator was walking around with 100lbs (45kg) of equipment," Spurlock says.

"But the 3D worked great especially with their faces. With a lot of 3D, faces look flat but you can see incredible depth in ours."

There's at least one face you won't see in any dimensions. Unlike his past work, Spurlock doesn't appear in the film. Even with the lack of screen time, making One Direction: This Is Us ended up being a positive experience for Spurlock. Had he not listened to some sage advice, things might not have been so rosy.

"At one concert, the decibel meter with the music playing was between 95 and 100 decibels. When the band stopped, the sound in the stadium from all the screaming hit 110 decibels. When I was walking into my first concert, a security guard stopped me and said, 'You might need these,' and handed me earplugs," Spurlock says. – The Fresno Bee/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

> One Direction: This Is Us is now in cinemas nationwide.

Scarlett Johansson's new film is disappointing

Posted:

Lots of films have been shown at the Venice Film Festival, but few are memorable.

Scarlett Johansson as a predatory alien in Scotland got a lukewarm reception and a film about mutilation and masochism that is banned in the director's native South Korea roused disbelieving laughter at the Venice Film Festival yesterday.

Booing followed the customary applause after a press screening of Under The Skin, a comeback for British director Jonathan Glazer, starring the Lost In Translation actress. Described as "an undeniably ambitious but ultimately torpid and silly tale of an alien on the prowl" by trade magazine Variety, Under The Skin is one of 20 new films in competition for a prestigious Golden Lion at the 70th annual festival.

Korean director Kim Ki-Duk screened Moebius outside the competition, which he won last year with Pieta, an absorbing thriller about a pitiless loan shark.

For Under The Skin, Johansson as the alien Laura was filmed in real-life settings, including a shopping centre and a street in a drizzly Scottish town, surrounded by members of the public.

"People would take pictures of you with their 'cameraphone' and not help you, all kinds of strange things," Johansson told a press conference. This technique was an "important ingredient" in the film, said Glazer, known for the 2004 picture Birth.

Laura drives around in a white van, stopping to chat coyly with young men in a cut-glass English accent. Her mysterious beauty prompts one of the men she meets to comment, in a strong Scottish accent, that she reverses the trope of the creepy male motorist picking up female hitchhikers.

"It didn't bother me that the dialogue was indecipherable at times" as long as the characters' intentions and behaviour were clear, Glazer said.

Scarlett Johansson in a scene from the sci-fi film, 'Under The Skin'.

Scarlett Johansson in a scene from the sci-fi flick, Under The Skin.

Meanwhile, Kim's tale of sex and pain, which starts with a woman cutting off her teenage son's genitals, is punctuated with cries of agony, rage and arousal, but barely any dialogue. The mutilated young man and his father experiment with masochism and the son develops a relationship with the father's ex-mistress.

"While purporting to explore morality and mortality by tracking its male protagonists' pursuit of sexual gratification, Moebius offers bizarrely cartoonish characters whose erratic behaviour brims on the hilarious," said critic Clarence Tsui in trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter.

Kim has made a redacted version of the film to be shown in South Korea, where authorities wanted to protect people who have not reached "psychological maturity", he said at a news conference.

"The problem of censorship will have to be tackled in the future," said Kim, whose film The Isle made two people faint when it was presented in Venice in 2000. Kim said he is reproached for making violent films that seem to attack South Korea.

"I criticise my country because I love my country. Loving my country doesn't mean that I should stop raising questions or that I should close my eyes," he added. — Reuters

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The Star Online: Metro: Central

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&#8216;Beckham&#8217; key to match fixer&#8217;s pc

Posted:

BECKHAM was the key to unlocking an encrypted laptop seized from alleged match-fixer Eric Ding Si Yang.

Not the retired England football star but a password that was consistently used in the laptop.

Had a more complicated password been used, it could have been "infinitely" more difficult for specialists to crack it, a district court heard.

On the final day of the second tranche of the trial on Tuesday, prosecutors alluded to the lengths that businessman Ding, 31, went to in an effort to conceal his alleged match-fixing activity.

This included using a message "hard disk failure" as a password prompt in the Sony Vaio laptop seized from Ding. Police forensics officer Sim Lai Hua testified: "Without the corresponding password, the computer will simulate a problem with the hard disk."

Deputy Superintendent Sim explained that the operating system partition of the laptop was encrypted using TrueCrypt – a free open-source software.

"I was told investigating officers could not secure the password from the user and as such, I proceeded to use forensic software to crack the password," said DSP Sim.

Ding is accused of bribing three FIFA-accredited Lebanese officials – referee Ali Sabbagh, 34, and linesmen Ali Eid, 33, and Abdallah Taleb, 37 – with prostitutes to induce them into fixing a match.

He faces two other charges, which have been stood down, of perverting the course of justice by concealing a receipt from anti-graft investigators and for failing to give his laptop password to a police officer.

Ding had allegedly insisted he did not have the password and that the machine was broken.

After DSP Sim gained access to the system, a 30GB file named "holiday.dat" in the Videos folder caught his attention.

He tested the "beckham" password on the file, and got through. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Website hacker returns with more rants

Posted:

THE individual who hacked into co-founder of City Harvest Church and pop singer Ho Yeow Sun's website has resurfaced with more rants against her and husband, church pastor Kong Hee. The website listed more details and explained why Ho's website was attacked.

The hacker, who calls himself "The Messiah", claimed he was operating under the Anonymous Collective.

The group has claimed in the past to have infiltrated organisations such as the Church of Scientology and electronics giant Sony.

The website, hosted on a Spanish domain, explained that Ho's website was responsible for safeguarding data of over 5,000 users.

It added that although the hacker initially wanted to release these details – most of which are believed to belong to City Harvest churchgoers – he wrote he has decided it would be too "rash" at the moment.

Church founder Kong and five deputies are currently on trial for an alleged misuse of church funds. Close to S$50mil (RM128mil) was allegedly used to finance Ho's pop career in the United States. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

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&#8216;Beckham&#8217; key to match fixer&#8217;s pc

Posted:

BECKHAM was the key to unlocking an encrypted laptop seized from alleged match-fixer Eric Ding Si Yang.

Not the retired England football star but a password that was consistently used in the laptop.

Had a more complicated password been used, it could have been "infinitely" more difficult for specialists to crack it, a district court heard.

On the final day of the second tranche of the trial on Tuesday, prosecutors alluded to the lengths that businessman Ding, 31, went to in an effort to conceal his alleged match-fixing activity.

This included using a message "hard disk failure" as a password prompt in the Sony Vaio laptop seized from Ding. Police forensics officer Sim Lai Hua testified: "Without the corresponding password, the computer will simulate a problem with the hard disk."

Deputy Superintendent Sim explained that the operating system partition of the laptop was encrypted using TrueCrypt – a free open-source software.

"I was told investigating officers could not secure the password from the user and as such, I proceeded to use forensic software to crack the password," said DSP Sim.

Ding is accused of bribing three FIFA-accredited Lebanese officials – referee Ali Sabbagh, 34, and linesmen Ali Eid, 33, and Abdallah Taleb, 37 – with prostitutes to induce them into fixing a match.

He faces two other charges, which have been stood down, of perverting the course of justice by concealing a receipt from anti-graft investigators and for failing to give his laptop password to a police officer.

Ding had allegedly insisted he did not have the password and that the machine was broken.

After DSP Sim gained access to the system, a 30GB file named "holiday.dat" in the Videos folder caught his attention.

He tested the "beckham" password on the file, and got through. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Website hacker returns with more rants

Posted:

THE individual who hacked into co-founder of City Harvest Church and pop singer Ho Yeow Sun's website has resurfaced with more rants against her and husband, church pastor Kong Hee. The website listed more details and explained why Ho's website was attacked.

The hacker, who calls himself "The Messiah", claimed he was operating under the Anonymous Collective.

The group has claimed in the past to have infiltrated organisations such as the Church of Scientology and electronics giant Sony.

The website, hosted on a Spanish domain, explained that Ho's website was responsible for safeguarding data of over 5,000 users.

It added that although the hacker initially wanted to release these details – most of which are believed to belong to City Harvest churchgoers – he wrote he has decided it would be too "rash" at the moment.

Church founder Kong and five deputies are currently on trial for an alleged misuse of church funds. Close to S$50mil (RM128mil) was allegedly used to finance Ho's pop career in the United States. — The Straits Times/ Asia News Network

Firm denies knowledge of &#8216;secret plan&#8217; by church leaders

Posted:

A GLASSWARE firm and its owner accused of helping six City Harvest Church leaders to misuse church funds denied knowledge of a "secret" plan by several of them.

The state produced e-mails yesterday to try and show that some of the accused had cooked up a ploy to get around the terms of an investment contract between the church and the company, Firna.

The church wanted to invest S$11mil (RM28mil) into Firna bonds.

This was a way of illegally diverting church funds to finance City Harvest co-founder Ho Yeow Sun's music career, the state believes.

In the investment contract, City Harvest had built in a clause to protect itself – it could convert the bonds into shares in the company if the money was not returned when the bonds matured.

Later, however, several of the accused wrote in e-mails of a "secret letter" to be sent to Firna's owners, in which the church would promise to sell back the shares "at a nominal value of US$1 (RM3.27)" if the conversion happened, effectively voiding the protection.

This ploy was needed to get the firm on board with the plan to funnel church funds, the state believes. When asked about this, Firna owner Wahju Hanafi said that he and his father-in-law, co-owners of the firm at the time, did not know of this plan and was not involved in it.

Wahju also maintained that Firna's money had not been used to finance Ho's career, and that it was his own money that was used.

City Harvest founder Kong Hee and five of his deputies were charged last year with misusing about S$50mil (RM128mil) of church funds. — The Straits Times / Asia News Network

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