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MAS in India offers up to 30pc discount Posted: 04 Mar 2013 06:21 PM PST NEW DELHI: Malaysia Airlines is back with its mega air fare sale by offering up to 30 per cent discount for Indian travellers to various destinations in Malaysia like Kuala Lumpur and beyond, such as Australia and New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. The deal offered through www.malaysiaairlines.com is valid for booking up to March 15, 2013 and travel from now until September 30, 2013 from Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. "India is one of the most significant source markets and this is the reason Malaysia Airlines keeps on introducing value added services for avid Indian travellers," Malaysia Airlines Regional Senior Vice President, South Asia & Middle East Azahar Hamid said in a statement. He said this offer is for price-conscious Indian consumers looking for value deals to great holiday destinations. "When the domestic fares are at an all-time high we proudly offer the best for some of the most sought after international destinations like Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and ndonesia. "We want more and more Indian passengers to experience our in-flight services like elaborate Indian cuisine and quality on-board entertainment like the latest blockbusters, popular TV shows, multi-player games and critically acclaimed album releases," he said. An all-inclusive flight to Kuala Lumpur from Delhi is priced at Rs27,842 (RM1,556), from Mumbai Rs23,071 (RM1,289) and from Chennai Rs9,849 (RM550). Fares to Sydney from Delhi are Rs48,190 (RM2,693), from Hyderabad Rs27,584 (RM1,542) and from Bengaluru Rs44,315 (RM2,476). Malaysia Airlines is currently well connected between the five Indian metro cities of New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad with its home base Kuala Lumpur. It currently operates 54 weekly flights from India to Malaysia comprising New Delhi 12 flights), Mumbai (11 flights), Chennai (14 flights), Hyderabad (7 Flights) and Bangalore (10 flights).-- Bernama

KL shares open higher in early trade Posted: 04 Mar 2013 05:58 PM PST Share prices opened higher in early trade today with buying interest seen in most heavyweights led by Maybank, dealers said. After 15 minutes of trading, the FBM KLCI rose 3.55 points to 1,639.53 after opening at 1,637.81. HwangDBS Vickers Research Sdn Bhd said Wall Street was up last night with key equity indices rising between 0.3 per cent and 0.5 per cent amid optimisim that the Federal Reserve would continue to provide monetary stimulus. The research house said the local bourse may however still continue its lacklustre performance. "The benchmark index is expected to gyrate sideways with a negative bias ahead," it said in a research note here. Meanwhile, the Plantation Index improved 19.35 points to 7,869.86, the Industrial Index added 2.5 points to 2,804.79 and the Finance Index jumped 46.65 points to 15,196.5. The FBM Emas Index increased 23.53 points to 11,169.21, the FBMT100 advanced 23.12 points to 11,024.24, the FBM Mid 70 Index rose 22.359 points to 12,272.35 while the FBM Ace Index slipped 3.81 points to 3,952.41. Gainers led losers by 107 to 51, with 87 counters unchanged, 1,398 untraded and 19 suspended. Turnover stood at 57.928 million shares worth RM60.423 million. Actives, Patimas edged up half a sen to six sen, IRM Group shed 2.5 sen to 8.5 sen while Compugates was unchanged at nine sen. Heavyweights, Maybank gained six sen to RM9.11, Axiata Group added one sen to RM6.39 while Sime Darby was unchanged at RM9.19.-- Bernama

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At least 15 killed on Kenya coast on election day - Reuters Posted: 04 Mar 2013 08:00 AM PST By Richard Lough and Joseph Akwiri NAIROBI/MOMBASA, Kenya | Mon Mar 4, 2013 11:39am EST (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed in attacks by machete-wielding gangs on Monday as millions of Kenyans voted in the first presidential election since a disputed 2007 poll unleashed weeks of tribal bloodshed. Voting the tight contest passed off peacefully across most of the East African nation, although many of its 14.3 million voters were caught in long lines. Election officials said there was a high turnout without giving figures. Officials and candidates have made impassioned appeals to avoid a repeat of the tribal rampages that erupted five years ago when disputes over the poll result fuelled clashes between tribal loyalists of rival candidates. More than 1,200 people were killed, shattering Kenya's reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies and bringing its economy, sub Saharan Africa's fourth-largest, to a standstill. Just hours before voting began, at least nine security officers in the restive coastal region were hacked to death in two attacks, and six attackers were killed, regional police chief Aggrey Adoli said. Senior police officers blamed the attacks on a separatist movement, suggesting different motives to those that caused the post-2007 vote ethnic killings that could limit their impact. As in 2007, the race has come down to a high-stakes duel between two candidates, this time between Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the loser in 2007 to outgoing President Mwai Kibaki. Both contenders will depend heavily on votes from their tribes. The United States and Western donors are worried about the stability of a nation that is an ally in the fight against militant Islam in the region. They are also concerned about how to respond to a victory by Kenyatta, who faces charges by the International Criminal Court of orchestrating violence five years ago. "If elected, we will be able to discharge our duties," said Kenyatta's running mate, William Ruto who also faces charges of crimes against humanity. "We shall cooperate with the court with a final intention of clearing our names." Initial provisional results for the presidential race began trickling in moments after polls closed at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT), but it was too early to predict an outcome. Many polling stations will close later because their opening was delayed and some still had long lines. The election commission has seven days to announce the official outcome. Polls suggest there could be a run-off, provisionally set for April. VOTERS WARY The European Union observer mission said turnout was high even at the coast where the attacks took place. "The atmosphere observed is mostly calm," Alojz Peterle, chief of EU Observer Mission and former Slovenian prime minister, told reporters at a polling station in central Nairobi. "People still queue peacefully and patiently. We hope that this peaceful and patience atmosphere will last until the end of the procedure even if it takes longer than expected." One of the attacks on Monday took place on the outskirts of Mombasa and another in Kilifi about 50 km (80 miles) to the north. Senior police officers blamed them on a separatist movement, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC), which wanted the national vote scrapped and a referendum on secession instead. At the Kilifi site, Reuters footage showed a piece of paper on the ground with the words: "MRC. Coast is not Kenya. We don't want elections. We want our own country. But the group's spokesman denied responsibility and said it only sought change by peaceful means. Even before the violence, many Kenyans were wary, notably in hotspots last time. Some shopkeepers ran down stocks and some people in mixed tribal areas returned to their homelands. But broadly the vote passed off smoothly with most complaints related to the long wait or delayed opening of polling stations. "Kenya is greater than any of us. Let the will of the people prevail to avert violence," said accountant George Omondi, 33, in Kisumu, a flashpoint city last time when violence flared after the 2007 result. "We have learnt from the past and should any of the contenders lose, they should accept the outcome." Kenya's neighbors have been watching nervously, after their economies felt the shockwaves when violence five years ago shut down trade routes running through east Africa's biggest economy. Some landlocked states have stockpiled fuel and other materials. Adding to tension, the al Shabaab Islamist militant group battling Kenyan peacekeeping troops in Somalia, urged Muslims to boycott the vote in Kenya and wage jihad against its military. In Garissa, a largely Muslim town with a significant ethnic Somali population, two civilians were shot dead late on Sunday. A bomb blast in the Mandera area near the border wounded four. Officials did not say who were behind the incidents. UNCERTAINTY Voters were undeterred. In the early hours before voting, some Kenyans blew whistles and trumpet-like "vuvuzelas" to wake up voters, and queues formed hours before polls opened at 6 a.m. "Our future is uncertain but we long for peace and victory is on our side this time round," said Odinga supporter 32-year-old Eunice Auma in Kisumu, where violence flared after 2007. "However, should our candidate (Odinga) fail to clinch victory. I'm afraid violence will erupt," she said. Kibaki, barred from seeking a third five-year term, made what he described as a "passionate plea" for a peaceful vote. All the candidates have vowed to accept the result. Although the two leaders are well ahead of the other six contenders, polls suggest they will struggle to secure an outright win, which could make for a tense run-off. A narrow first-round victory for either could spark legal challenges. To try to prevent a repeat of the contested outcome that sparked the violence after the December 2007 vote, a new, broadly respected election commission is using more technology to prevent fraud, speed up counting and increase transparency. To build confidence, Kenya has passed a new constitution since 2007, police chiefs have deployed extra forces to maintain security and there is a more independent judiciary which commands greater respect. Officials have appealed to candidates to raise any challenges in the courts and not on the streets. Even so, Odinga, 68, has lifted a warning flag, telling Reuters two days before the vote that the commission had by "design or omission" failed to register all voters in his strongholds, a charge the commission denies. Alongside the presidential race, there are hotly contested elections for senators, county governors, members of parliament, women representatives in county assemblies and civic leaders. (Additional reporting by Hezron Ochiel in Kisumu, Noor Ali in Isiolo, Drazen Jorgic, Beatrice Gachenge, Yara Bayoumy, George Obulutsa, Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by James Macharia; and Philippa Fletcher)

With the sequester, Obama gets his 'balanced' approach - Washington Post Posted: 04 Mar 2013 07:56 AM PST Congressional Republicans have had quite a comeback. In January, the GOP was forced to vote for a major tax hike with zero spending cuts. Now it is President Obama who has been forced to accept spending cuts with no tax hike. Who says divided government doesn't work? Obama continues to complain the sequester does not represent a balanced approach to deficit reduction, and wants to replace some of the spending cuts with tax increases. But the Simpson-Bowles Commission laid out what a "balanced" approach should entail: $3 of spending cuts for every $1 dollar in tax increases. Well according to Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), by that standard Congress and the president have nearly met that mark. Just a few weeks ago, as part of the fiscal-cliff deal, Congress approved $620 billion in tax hikes over ten years with no spending cuts. That means that to meet the 3-to-1 ratio, we should have a corresponding $1.86 trillion in spending cuts. But the sequester cuts just $1.72 trillion in spending over 10 years, according to Portman's office. That is a ratio of just 2.78-to-1. We would need to cut an additional $138 billion, Portman calculates, in order to meet the 3-to-1 ratio recommended by Simpson-Bowles. If anything, the spending cuts Congress enacted in the sequester are not too deep — they are not deep enough. There is nothing wrong with cutting $1.72 trillion from the federal budget. The problem with the sequester is that the cuts were not targeted — hitting vital programs (like national defense) and wasteful ones with equal force. For weeks, Obama tried to use the indiscriminate nature of the sequester to bludgeon Republicans into replacing some of the cuts with new tax revenues. But his dire warnings that criminals would be set free, teachers laid off, meat inspectors thrown off the job, air traffic controllers forced to abandon their posts backfired. It turned out most of his claims were exaggerated or flat untrue. And the false threats failed to deter Republicans from holding the line and demanding that the spending cuts be enacted in their entirety. Now it appears Obama has backed down. After issuing apocalyptic warnings of the plagues and pestilence would descend upon the land if the sequester took effect, on Friday he declared, "This is not going to be [an] apocalypse, as some people have said." (Some people, Mr. President?) Instead of the end of the world, the sequester is now "just dumb." Well the "dumbness" of the sequester can easily be fixed — and it looks like Obama and Congressional Republicans are going to do that. The New York Times reports that "the president and his Republican adversaries said they would not carry the fight over the cuts into a coming legislative effort to finance the government through Sept. 30, essentially declaring a cease-fire in the budget wars that have dominated Washington since 2011." Instead of using the threat of a government shut down on March 27 to force Republicans to replace the sequester with more spending and higher taxes, Obama has apparently agreed to sign a continuing resolution that locks in the sequester levels of spending and gives him flexibility to choose how and where to cut, so that vital programs are not adversely impacted. What this means is that, by sticking to their guns in the sequester showdown, Republicans have actually forced Obama into the "balanced approach" he called for but did not actually pursue. We are now almost at the Simpson-Bowles 3-to-1 ratio. Unfortunately, Washington is not doing it in a way that promotes growth. The cuts come from discretionary programs, when it is entitlement spending that is driving our long-term debt and deficits. And the revenues come from raising tax rates on small businesses and the wealthy, rather than lowering tax rates, eliminating preferences and simplifying the tax code. Still, keep in mind where Obama wanted to take the country. His original demand in the fiscal cliff negotiations last year was a $1.6 trillion tax paired with a $50 billion spending increase. Instead, a few months later, he got a $620 billion tax increase paired with a $1.72 trillion spending cut. From a conservative standpoint, that may be less than ideal. But for a party that controls just one half of one branch of the federal government, it's not bad. Read more from Marc Thiessen's archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

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