JAPANESE GIRL BAND MANAGER FOUND HANGED IN JAKARTA

Very sad but life have to go on.

JAKARTA – A manager of platoon-sized girl band JKT48 was found hanged in his bathroom at his home in River Park, Pondok Aren in South Tangerang.

“Yes, he is one of JKT48’s managers. He was found hanged in his en-suite bathroom,” said South Tangerang police criminal unit head Adj Comr Ahmad Alexander, as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

The body of the manager, a Japanese man known as IJ, aged 47, was found by his housemaid on Tuesday afternoon.

He was reportedly last seen entering his bedroom at 11am.

His wife tried looking for him later at around 5pm, but could not find him.

She then asked the maid to peek into the room from a window outside the house.

“[The maid] saw him hanged inside the bathroom,” said South Tangerang Police spokesman Adj Comr Mansuri.

His wife and the maid then asked a security officer to break into the room and the victim was rushed to the nearby Premier Bintaro Hospital.

Police investigations are ongoing.

– The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

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APPLE ANNOUNCES RED IPHONES AND A NEW, CHEAPER IPAD

Still not cheap as it is in USD and the RM in Malaysia is on a free slide against the US Dollar. Beyond reach of ordinary Malaysians. Better use the cheap Chinese made phones which are less glamorous brans but more better in applications and freebies on the Internet store

Apple Inc. announced a new, cheaper iPad and Product Red special editions of its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus early Tuesday. All three products will be available to order online and in stores beginning Friday, it said.

Apple’s new iPad, a refresh of its iPad Air 2, boasts a 9.7-inch Retina display, a more powerful (A9) computer chip and a 10-hour battery life. The starting price for a 32-gigabyte model with Wi-Fi is $329, down from $399. An option with cellular service is available for $459.

The new iPad may be part of the Cupertino, Calif., tech giant’s gambit to resurrect tablet sales. At about 24% market share last year, Apple is still the largest player in the tablet game, according to International Data Corp. However, the overall tablet market has been shrinking, with shipments declining 15.6% in 2016 from 2015, according to IDC.

“IPad as a category hasn’t been growing,” said Timothy Arcuri, managing director at financial services firm Cowen & Co. “They’re trying to arrest the multiyear downward trend.”

Arcuri said that as smartphones, including Apple’s, have grown bigger and more powerful, people have increasingly consumed media and entertainment content on them, obviating the need for an iPad. “Unless you can offer it at a super compelling price, there’s not a super compelling use case for it,” Arcuri said. (He pointed out that the iPad Pro, by contrast, offers users a tool for creating content, which they can’t get elsewhere.)

In the smartphone market, Apple continues to do well, with a 10th-anniversary launch of a feature-rich phone expected this fall.

The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus Product Red special editions may be one way to drum up excitement about the iPhone in general, Arcuri said — especially in China, where red is considered a lucky color. In that country, Arcuri predicted, the next generation of iPhones will “sell like hotcakes.”

Sporting a bright matte finish, the red iPhones mark 10 years of Apple’s partnership with Red, a branding campaign that works to raise money and awareness about HIV and AIDS.

“The introduction of this special edition iPhone in a gorgeous red finish is our biggest [Product Red] offering to date,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a news release. “We can’t wait to get it into customers’ hands.”

The Red campaign works as follows: Brands partner to create Red products and pledge a percentage of sales revenue directly to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a public-private financing body that supports prevention, treatment and care of these diseases in more than 100 countries. The Global Fund spends 100% of revenue from Red products on HIV/AIDS programs.

The red iPhones are a special edition of Apple’s existing iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. The regular iPhone 7 has a 4.7-inch screen; its lowest-priced option has 32 gigabytes of memory and costs $649. The lowest-priced red version has 128 gigabytes and costs $749.

Apple would not comment on what share of revenue it contributes to the Global Fund from its Red products, but said it has donated $130 million since its partnership with Red began 10 years ago.

Apple is the biggest corporate contributor to the Global Fund, although private-sector contributions, including those from Red, corporate donations and nonprofits amount to only 5% of its revenue, said Seth Faison, head of communications for the Global Fund.

Arcuri said he didn’t expect the red phones to affect Apple’s bottom line. “The big picture is that Apple is positioning itself as the good guy” in terms of social responsibility, he said. “They already won the high-end smartphone war against Samsung’s Galaxy, they’re ahead of a really big launch.… They’re continuing to try to burnish their image.”

– http://www.latimes.com

NOT SO BRIGHT AFTER ALL: CHINA’S WHIZZ KID JACK MA SINGS PRAISES OF MALAYSIAN ‘EFFICIENCY

Jack Ma is a smart businessman and to survive must massage the ego of the not smart people to get contracts and businesses. In Malaysia is very easy as most of the not smart egoistic people in Putrajaya just need a bit of ego boosting and they are flying in the air in no time. Come on this is Malaysia and land of the original idoits

KUALA LUMPUR – Jack Ma  is impressed by the speed in which the Malaysia’s Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) was set up.

“Malaysia is very business-friendly and much more efficient than I thought,” said the Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman.

Ma said it took only 10 minutes for him and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to agree on introducing the DFTZ when they met in China in November last year.

“My team and I thought – is four months possible? We have been discussing it with many European and Asean countries,” he said.
Ma, who was appointed as the Malaysian Government’s digital economy advisor, also announced that the Alibaba Group has announced would set up an e-fulfilment hub here, among a slew of other efforts, to promote the development of the local digital economy.

He said the e-hub would empower young entrepreneurs and small-and-medium enterprises that want to venture out of the country.

Drawing reference to the Silk Road, which he referred to as the “first globalisation”, Ma said the export of China’s tea leaves were possible as they were placed in containers made of tin sourced from Malaysia.

“Without Malaysia, the Silk Road would not have been as successful as Malaysia’s tin protected the quality of Chinese tea in the 18th century.

“I am a strong believer of globalisation. It is still a baby, but we should give it another 20 to 30 years, making it more inclusive and getting more people involved,” he said.

At the launch of the DFTZ, the Alibaba Group and its affiliates exchanged memorandums of understanding with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC), Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd, CIMB and Maybank.

As part of the DFTZ, the group’s regional e-commerce and logistics hub will be located at the KLIA Aeropolis, which will operate out of the existing 17.5ha LCCT site.

It is expected to be rolled out by year-end, with a formal launch by the end of 2019.

The e-hub, the group’s first outside of China, will function as a centralised customs clearance, warehousing and fulfilment facility for Malaysia and nearby countries.

Ma is scheduled to speak at the Global Transformation Forum 2017 later on Thursday.

– ANN

END OF THE TRUMP RALLY: WHITHER THE U.S. MARKET AS INFIGHTING REPUBLICANS TRIGGER THEIR OWN UNCERTAINTY

Feel very very sad as President Trump was the hope of hundreds of thousands of oil and gas workers to lift the gloom over the oil and gas industry. Started with a bang and now it is a whimper only. The oil rally is fizzling off and again another round of oil and gas retrenchments. Looks like the end of Oil and gas as an economic driver for the oil producing countries. All thanks to the Arabs, the Saudis for tinkering with a system which works and lubricating it with camel dung. Hell is always on fire and to need fire need oil and gas to burn the fire. I think the Middle-East was intend by God to be hell and was given to the Devil to rule the Middle-East. That is why these Arabs are Devil or Satan worshipers and use Religion as a pretext to kill and maimed people. I think the people (Bad people) who are born in Middle-East are at the end of reincarnation cycle and this is the last stop for them and it is Hell ( Middle-East ) 

END OF THE TRUMP RALLY: WHITHER THE U.S. MARKET AS INFIGHTING REPUBLICANS TRIGGER THEIR OWN UNCERTAINTY

At a time when 33% Americans say they would have trouble coming up with an emergency US$2,000, any sign of economy trouble is devastating. For the first time since the U.S. 2016 Presidential Election, markets have slammed the brake for an emergency stop when the Dow Jones dropped 237.85 points, or 1.14%, drop.

The sudden crash, hopefully a temporary one, also saw Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index suffered its worst day of the year Tuesday. It closed down 1.24% or 29.45 points for the first time since Oct. 11, 2016. That’s a brutal plunge of more than 1% after 110 trading sessions. This also means the stock market has ended its longest streak of calm since 1995.

Wall Street experts say the market, which has enjoyed a virtually uninterrupted rise and a nearly 10% gain since President Trump’s election win in November, was dragged down by politics. This time, don’t blame the sore loser Democrats who have been blaming, protesting and bitching about Trump administration since the humiliating loss of Hillary Clinton.

It’s isn’t President Trump’s fault either. Instead, the president’s economic agenda is being bogged down by Republicans. U.S. stocks had enjoyed an uptrend in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election victory on Nov. 8, on the back of hope for a roll out of a raft of pro-business policies, including tax cuts, deregulation and a boost in infrastructure spending.

Controlling the presidency, the Senate and the House since then has made some Republican politicians big-headed. They’re now fighting against their own president. The repeal of Obamacare appears to have hit some snags, so much so that Trump was brought in earlier Tuesday to warn House Republicans of political consequences.

If those Republican politicians can’t fix the Obamacare problem despite controlling both houses, traders worry the same suckers would put more road-blocks to Trump’s other plans. President Trump was so sicked and tired of his arrogant comrades he warned those seeking re-election that their jobs were on the line in next year’s mid-term elections.

The stock plunge is the clearest signal that financial market is losing hopeafter expectations for tax reform, deregulation and more government spending increased dramatically. True, a failure in repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Acton doesn’t mean the Americans won’t get tax reform. But Trump administration has promised that after the health-care act, tax reform would be up next on the agenda.

The Republicans proposes a 20% tax on all imports coming into the U.S., a plan that would generate US$1 trillion in revenue over 10 years. This new income would be able to offset a drop in corporate tax rate to 20%. Still, the sexy plan is clouded with disagreement. The markets are simply exhausted and frustrated of excessive politicking within House Republicans.

In fact, infighting among Republicans is so pathetic that a monthly fund managers’ survey done by Bank of America Merrill Lynch shows only 10% expects to see U.S. tax reform passed by Congress before its August recess. They also believed that the stock market was extremely overvalued; therefore, the markets would find any excuse to sell in a strong wave.

That would explain why the banking sector, led by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo suffered the sharpest retreat. The market selloff was overdue. As emotion kicks in, the fear overwhelmed the greed. Investors, realizing that Trump won’t be able to get everything he wants done as fast as he’d like, decided to sell everything they got.

Still, the selloff could be just a healthy pullback after a strong run for the market. For now, the good news is only a few experts are predicting a correction – which is a 10% pullback from a market high. There’s almost none who sees an emerging bear market, which could spark a 20% drop or more. But everything depends on President Trump and the stubborn Congress.

– http://www.financetwitter.com

What to expect from the Arabs , nothing but stupidity as they are more well verse in the art of hatred , killing , riding camels and destroying themselves than for intelligence

Read original article below

HOW OPEC SHOT ITSELF IN THE FOOT

At the start of March, we showed a fascinating chart from Rystad Energy, demonstrating how dramatic the impact of technological efficiency on collapsing U.S. shale production costs has been: in just the past 3 years, the wellhead breakeven price for key shale plays has collapsed from an average of $80 to the mid-$30s…

… resulting in drastically lower all-in breakevens for most U.S. shale regions.

Today, in a note released by Goldman titled “OPEC: To cut or not to cut, that is the question”, the firm presents a chart which shows exactly how OPEC lost the war against U.S. shale. The cost curve has massively flattened and extended as a result of “shale productivity,” driving oil breakeven in the U.S. from $80 to $50-$55, in the process sweeping Saudi Arabia away from the post of global oil price setter to a mere inventory manager.

This is how Goldman explains it:

Shale’s short time to market and ongoing productivity improvements have provided an efficient answer to the industry’s decade-long search for incremental hydrocarbon resources in technically challenging, high cost areas and has kicked off a competition amongst oil producing countries to offer attractive enough contracts and tax terms to attract incremental capital. This is instigating a structural deflationary change in the oil cost curve, as shown in Exhibit 2. This shift has driven low cost OPEC producers to respond by focusing on market share, ramping up production where possible, using their own domestic resources or incentivizing higher activity from the international oil companies through more attractive contract structures and tax regimes. In the rest of the world, projects and countries have to compete for capital, trying to drive costs down to become competitive through deflation and potentially lower tax rates.

The implications of this curve shift are major, all of which are very averse to the Saudis, who have been relegated from the post of long-term price setter to inventory manager, and thus, the loss of leverage. Here are some further thoughts from Goldman:Related: The Oil Market Is At A Major Turning Point

OPEC role: We believe OPEC’s role has structurally changed from long-term price setter to inventory manager. In the past, large-scale developments required seven years+ from FID to peak production, giving OPEC long-term control over oil prices. U.S. shale oil currently offers large-scale development opportunities with 6-9 months to peak production. This short-cycle opportunity has structurally changed the cost dynamics, eliminating the need for high cost frontier developments and instigating a competition for capital amongst oil producing countries that is lowering and flattening the cost curve through improved contract terms and taxes.

OPEC’s November decision had unintended consequences: OPEC’s decision to cut production was rational and fit into the inventory management role. Inventory builds led to an extreme contango in the Brent forward curve, with 2-year fwd Brent trading at a US$5.5/bl (11 percent) premium to spot. As OPEC countries sell spot, but US E&Ps sell 30 percent or more of their production forward, this was giving the E&Ps a competitive advantage. Within one month of the OPEC announcement, the contango declined to US$1.1/bl (2 percent), achieving the cartel’s purpose. However, the unintended consequence was to underwrite shale activity through the credit market.

Stability and credit fuel overconfidence and strong activity: A period of stability (1 percent Brent Coefficient of Variation ytd vs. 6 percent 3-year average) has allowed E&Ps to hedge (35 percent of 2017 oil production vs. 21 percent in November) and access the credit market, with high yield reopen after a 10- month closure (largest issuance in 4Q16 since 3Q14). Successful cost repositioning and abundant funding are boosting a short-cycle revival, with 0.85 percent of oil companies under our coverage increasing capex in 2017.

That said, the new equilibrium only works as long as credit is cheap and plentiful. If and when the Fed’s inevitable rate hikes tighten credit access for shale firms, prompting the need for higher margins and profits, the old status quo will revert. As a reminder, this is how, over a year ago, Citi explained the dynamic of cheap credit leading to deflation and lower prices:Related: Oil Has Room To Fall As Speculators Bail On Bullish Bets

Easy access to capital was the essential “fuel” of the shale revolution. But too much capital led to too much oil production, and prices crashed. The shale sector is now being financially stress-tested, exposing shale’s dirty secret: many shale producers depend on capital market injections to fund ongoing activity because they have thus far greatly outspent cash flow.

This is the key ingredient of what Goldman calls the shift to a new “structural deflationary change in the oil cost curve” as shown in chart above. As such, there is the danger that tighter conditions will finally remove the structural pressure for lower prices. However, judging by recent rhetoric by FOMC members, this is hardly an imminent issue, which means Saudi Arabia has only bad options: either cut production – prompting higher prices, even greater shale incursion, and market share loss for the Kingdom- or, restore the old status quo, sending prices far lower, and in the process, collapsing Saudi government revenues, potentially unleashing another budget crisis.

– http://oilprice.com

CANNOT EVEN WIN IN YOUR FATHER’S DIVISION IN KELANTAN, YET YOU WANT TO TAKE OVER SELANGOR – AZMIN MOCKS NIK ABDUH

PAS is only surviving because it is on life support from UMNO. The PAS members are deserting the party day by day  and come PRU 14 GE 14 PAS will be no more. It is like a leper now and soon UMNO will ditch it also. If you look at the lost of Nik Abduh , PAS leadership have only 20% of the PAS memebers support left and UMNO knows it well and if tie up with PAS than UMNO will also lose another 30% of their members support as UMNO members hate PAS from the day one for imposing their so called values on the Party loving UMNO members

lebai” (person in skull cap) who aspires to take over reigns of Selangor, yet have lost big in his own backyard.

While he did not name anyone, his tweet came soon after PAS Youth chief Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz told the media that PAS had once supported PKR to lead the Selangor government after the last election, but that sentiment has changed.
Incidentally, Nik Abduh was recently trounced at the Pengkalan Chepa PAS division election when he challenged incumbent Izani Husin as the division’s deputy leader.

Nik Abduh’s father Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was once a long time leader of the Pengkalan Chepa PAS division.

Talk on PAS’ ambitions in Selangor began after a video clip of PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang describing the party’s goal of leading the state governments in Selangor, Terengganu, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan.

The same video clip also depicted Abdul Hadi explaining why some cooperation was needed with Umno to ensure that Islam remains “politically dominant” in Malaysia.

PAS’ former allies PKR and DAP have yet to respond to this development in earnest.

– M’kini

MOTHER OF FAKE DEGREES! BERSATU CANDIDATE FOR PEKAN EXPOSES NAJIB – HE DIDN’T SIT FOR HIS FINAL EXAMS, HOW CAN HE GET NOTTINGHAM UNI DEGREE?

Abdul Rahman Mohd Noor is the Pribumi Candidate for Pekan. He served as the student attache in London and looked after Tun Razak in the last three weeks of Tun’s life in London najib razak was then studying at the University of Nottingham.

Abdul Rahman tells us “hence I am aware that after his father’s death, najib remained in Malaysia without sitting for his final exams in Nottingham”

We have been told that najib attended Malvern College in Worcestershire, England, and subsequently went to the University of Nottingham, where he received a bachelor’s degree in industrial economics in 1974.

If najib razak did not sit for his final examination at the University of Nottingham how then was he able to get a bachelor degree in industrial economics in 1974?

– http://steadyaku-steadyaku-husseinhamid.blogspot.my