Obama Faces Tough Questions on Malaysia Rights

KUALA LUMPUR — U.S. President Barack Obama is winding down a visit to Malaysia, where he faced tough questions Sunday on political freedoms in the country.  Next, the president heads to the Philippines, where U.S. officials confirm they will sign an agreement to rotate U.S. troops into Philippine military bases.   

After a lavish welcome on Saturday, President Obama on Sunday toured Malaysia's large National Mosque, which sits on more than five hectares and holds up to 15,000 people.

The mosque visit was a gesture of goodwill toward Malaysia's predominantly Muslim population. Obama sought to portray the country as a model of democracy and a model for coexistence between a Muslim majority and the sizable minorities of  Buddhists, Christians and Hindus.

Earlier, Obama held talks with Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak on the third leg of a four-nation tour of Asia - the first trip to the Southeast Asian nation by a sitting U.S. president in nearly five decades.

At a joint news conference Sunday, Razak expressed his gratitude for American help in the search for missing Malaysia Airline flight 370. Obama pledged to continue providing all the assistance possible in the search for the plane, which has been missing for seven weeks.

The two leaders said they had agreed to upgrade upper-level ties to a "comprehensive partnership," and to cooperate on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and the nuclear Proliferation Security Initiative, both of which Malaysia has opposed in the past.

Human rights

Not at the forefront of the president's visit were discussions on what critics say are the Malaysian government attempts to clamp down on press freedom and quash the opposition.  Obama's schedule did not include a meeting with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. The government has for years been pursuing sodomy charges against Anwar in what his supporters say is an illegitimate attempt to keep him from running for office.  

At joint briefing with Razak, Obama was asked why he did not meet with Anwar.  

“The fact that I've not met with Anwar is in and of itself not indicative of a lack of concern given the fact that there are a lot of people I don't meet with and opposition leaders that I don't meet with, and that doesn't mean I'm not concerned about them,"  Obama said.

The U.S. president said he did raise the issue of civil liberties with Prime Minister Najib.   

“What I have shared with the prime minister is the core belief that societies that respect rule of law, that respect freedom of speech, that respect the right of opposition to oppose even when it drives you crazy, even when it's inconvenient, respect for freedom of assembly, the respect for people of different races and different faiths and different political philosophies, that those values are at the core of who the U.S. is but also are a pretty good gauge of whether society is going to be successful in the 21st century or not," said Obama.

On the missing Malaysia Airlines flight, Obama said the U.S. remains absolutely committed to providing whatever resources it can to facilitate the search.

Historical visit

Lyndon Johnson was the last U.S. president to travel to Malaysia in 1966 during the Vietnam War, when the United States was working to maintain support among its Southeast Asian allies against the spread of communism.  Now, Obama has a different challenge in the region:  the threat of China's expanding military and - primarily - its growing assertiveness in the East and South China Seas, where it has competing territorial claims with a number of countries.

Those claims and the threats they pose to regional security are the main theme in the Philippines, his fourth stop on this Asian tour. The Philippines and China are locked in a dispute over islands in the South China Sea.  

The major item on the president's agenda in Manila is an agreement on enhanced defense cooperation to rotate U.S. troops into the country and station them temporarily on Philippine military bases.  It would allow for the largest U.S. military presence in the country since the Philippines ended the leases on U.S. bases more than two decades ago.

The agreement says U.S. troops can come only by invitation of the Philippine government.  But critics say the deal violates Philippine sovereignty and have staged demonstrations ahead of Obama's arrival.

INVESTMENT ADVISORS OPT FOR OPTIONS

Financial advisors are increasing their usage of options both as an investment choice for clients and as a way to hedge client positions.

“We’ve seen a notable increase in trading and inquiries surrounding options and options-based strategies by advisors,” said Dan Carver, options trader at Fidelity Capital Markets.

A 2011 survey by Bellomy Research on behalf of The Options Industry Council (OIC) provided a benchmark measure of options usage among advisors, and insights into how, when and why advisors used options and a comparison of advisors who use options with those who do not.

“The CBOE and OIC have expanded their educational resources over the last few years in response to that,” Carver said. “The OIC in 2012 offered its first conference geared toward this segment of institutional investors and together with ongoing educational support from the industry the conversion rate has the potential to grow further.”

One of the key findings of the survey was that options have gone mainstream. The survey found 48% of advisors reported using options at least once in a client account in 2010 and one-third planned to increase their usage going forward.

“Advisors will generally use options to derive income via covered call writing or for use in protecting a portion of their client’s portfolio,” said Carver. “While some are actively managing client-specific stock risk themselves, others are choosing to allocate to sub-advisors who run a base options strategy, ’40 Act fund, or an active ETF.”

Another finding was that usage by advisors is broad and deep. While covered call writing is the most popular options strategy, the majority of advisors are also using options to hedge client positions or to acquire stock for a client’s portfolio at a specified price and time in the future.

Additionally, advisors that use options had significantly more successful practices. According to the survey, 85% of advisors with books of business over $100 million use options, while only 38% of those with under $100 million use options. Inflows into options strategies were very positive in 2013 despite the steady market run-up.

“Most likely, it’s due to limited expertise in the product compared to equities,” Carver said. “Pension funds are a good example of limited option usage. This is due mainly to pension boards who may perceive options as risk enhancing rather than risk reducing. Pensions represent the largest untapped pool of potential options business.”

Obama: US, Europe Must Act Collectively Against Russia

U.S. President Barack Obama says the U.S. and Europe must act together in levying sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine that he says threaten that country's independence and sovereignty.

The president, speaking Sunday in Malaysia, said the U.S. and Europe must act collectively, showing Russia the world is united in initiating sanctions.

Mr. Obama said a deal had been reached with Russia to de-escalate the crisis, but "Russia has not lifted a finger to help."

On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for Russian support "without preconditions" for efforts to free European monitors seized Friday by pro-Russian gunmen in eastern Ukraine.

A senior State Department official said Kerry delivered his demand in a telephone call to Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Moscow later said it is taking what it called "all measures to resolve the situation," but blamed Ukrainian authorities for failing to secure the safety of the team.

Near the eastern city of Slovyansk, separatists on Friday seized a bus carrying more than a dozen people from the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe .

The German-led monitoring team was acting under the authority of a four-party agreement directing the OSCE to monitor security and human rights in Ukraine's Russian-speaking east and south. The deal, reached in Geneva, was signed by Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union.

Separately, interim Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk told reporters Saturday that Russian aircraft had violated Ukrainian airspace seven times overnight.

For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said its "objective monitoring of the air situation" had not detected any overflight violations.

Meanwhile, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, VOA correspondent Brian Padden says he was confronted by an angry mob Saturday as he tried to cover a rally in front of an occupied building. He says protesters accused him of supporting a "fascist" U.S. government.

Armed pro-Russian gunmen have seized government facilities in about 10 cities in eastern and southern Ukraine, and are demanding a referendum on whether to secede from the country and join Russia.

In a joint statement late Friday, the Group of Seven major economies announced it had agreed to "move swiftly" on new sanctions against Russia because of its alleged interference in Ukraine.

The G-7 nations said they would take measures to intensify "targeted sanctions" against Moscow. A U.S. official said the penalties could take effect as early as Monday.

Chinese Rejection of Some GMO Corn Worries US Farmers

Obama: Congress Needs to Act on Minimum Wage

U.S. President Barack Obama has called on Congress to pass a bill raising the the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The president said in his weekly address "nearly three in four Americans support raising the minimum wage," a move that would affect almost 28 million people across the country. Obama said the average minimum wage worker is 35 years old and works hard," often in physically demanding jobs. The U.S. leader said Republicans in Congress are blocking the wage increase and some want "to get rid of it entirely." President Obama said Republicans have voted more than 50 times to undermine or repeal the Affordable Care Act that provides health care to millions of people. He said Congress should vote at least once to raise the minimum wage for millions of working families. In the Republican address Saturday, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said the federal government needs to get out of the way as small businesses try to plan for the future. Boehner said House Republicans are pursuing economic initiatives that put jobs first.