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KL shares open higher in early trading Posted: 14 May 2013 07:04 PM PDT Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher in early trading today on active buying interest for local stocks, dealers said. At 9.01am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 2.19 points better at 1,790.62, after opening 4.20 points higher at 1,792.63. Market breadth was positive, with 177 gainers and 28 losers, 108 counters were unchanged, 1,281 untraded and 18 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 103.754 million shares worth RM28.922 million. HwangDBS Vickers Research said Wall Street staged new highs last night, with leading bellwethers surging between 0.7 per cent and 1.0 per cent at the closing bell, amid optimism that growth in the US economy remained intact. "This will pave the way for our Malaysian bourse to resume its upward momentum today," it said. Technically speaking, the research house said the benchmark FBM KLCI could advance towards the psychological barrier of 1,800 ahead. In terms of news flow, it noted that the focus this afternoon would be on the naming of a new Cabinet line-up and the release of first quarter 2013 gross domestic product report by Banak Negara, with one media survey projecting an annual increase of 5.2 per cent. On the scoreboard, the Finance Index gained 4.781 points to 16,866.47, the Industrial Index rose 9.33 points to 2,996.07 and the Plantation Index added 11.319 points to 8,400.06. The FBM Emas Index garnered 21.271 point to 12,370.54, the FBMT100 advanced 18.82 points to 12,161.87, while the FBM Mid 70 Index perked 37.511 points to 14,061.11. The FBM Ace Index jumped 43.45 points to 4,522.26. Among actives, Naim Indah earned 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen, Patimas Computers was flat at five sen, while Ingenuity Consolidated and D.B.E Gurney Resources added half-a-sen each to 12 sen and eight sen. Heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were unchanged at RM10.14 and RM8.47, respectively, Axiata and Sime Darby gained three sen each to RM7.01 and RM9.63.-- Bernama

Matrade to showcase Malaysia in Chennai Posted: 14 May 2013 07:10 PM PDT Malaysia External Trade Development Corp (Matrade) will host a three-day "Showcase Malaysia" in Chennai, south India, from June 20. The event is organised following the success of Showcase Malaysia in Pune, western Maharashtra, India, in October last year. About 40 companies had already signed up to showcase their products from various sectors including furniture, automotive, parts and components, cosmetics and wellness, infrastructure, chemicals and pharmaceuticals and education, franchise and construction services, it said in a statement. For the past few years, Matrade has been bringing Malaysian companies to India to meet the business community there, and many local companies have expanded their businesses into India. With a population of 7.5 million people, Chennai is the fourth largest city in India and offers vast potential for business expansion by Malaysian companies. "The city's economy is estimated to grow to US$100 billion, which is 2.4 times its present size, by 2025 and Matrade is targeting to expand exports to India by focusing on the growing middle-income group and the second-tier cities," the external trade promotion agency said in a statement. Chennai is the base to around 30 per cent of India's automotive industry and 40 per cent of the automotive components industry, which makes it an attractive city for Malaysian automotive and parts and components industries players to explore. Chennai is also among the largest electronics hardware exporting centre in India, accounting for 45 per cent of total exports. With increasing demand in the consumption pattern in many sectors, Matrade is positive that Showcase Malaysia in Chennai will generate positive sales for Malaysian companies, besides creating awareness and visibility for Malaysian products and services among the business community and consumers in India, particularly in Chennai. Matrade said the middle-class group will be the predominant force in the increase in consumer spending and will account for 59 per cent of India's total consumption by 2025. "This will translate into huge demand, particularly for products such as cars, televisions, computers, air-conditioners and microwave ovens," the agency added.-- Bernama

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Russia says CIA agent caught trying to recruit spy - Reuters Posted: 14 May 2013 08:47 AM PDT By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW | Tue May 14, 2013 11:40am EDT (Reuters) - Russia expelled a U.S. diplomat on Tuesday after saying he had been caught red-handed with disguises, special equipment and wads of cash as he tried to recruit a Russian intelligence agent to work for the CIA. The announcement, a throwback to the Cold War, came at an awkward time for Washington and Moscow as they try to improve relations and bring the warring sides in Syria together for an international peace conference. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said Ryan Fogle, a third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, had been detained overnight carrying "special technical equipment", a disguise, a large sum of money and instructions for recruiting his target. The Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul to discuss the case on Wednesday and released a statement demanding Fogle leave Russia without delay. "Such provocative actions in the spirit of the Cold War will by no means promote the strengthening of mutual trust," it said. Russian television showed grainy footage of a man identified as Fogle being arrested, and the state-run Russia Today channel published photographs on its website that it said showed Fogle being detained in a blond wig. In one photograph, a man lay face-down on the ground with his arms being pinned behind his back. Another image showed two wigs, apparently found on him, as well as three pairs of glasses, a torch, a mobile phone and a compass. Also displayed was a wad of 500-euro ($650) notes and a letter addressed to a "Dear friend". "YOUR COOPERATION VALUED" "This is an advance from someone who has been highly impressed by your professionalism, and who would highly value your cooperation in the future," the letter said. "We are willing to offer you $100,000 and discuss your experience, expertise and cooperation, and payment could be significantly larger, if you are willing to answer concrete questions," it said, offering $1 million a year for long-term cooperation plus possible bonuses for useful information. The FSB, a successor to the Soviet KGB, said Fogle worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and that he had been handed over to embassy officials at some point after his detention. The embassy declined comment. McFaul, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, was holding a live question-and-answer session on Twitter as news of the detention was announced, but refused to take questions on the matter. McFaul has frequently been criticised by Russian media for his critical views on Russia and for meeting opponents of President Vladimir Putin. More than two decades after the end of the Cold War, spying - and spy scandals - are still far from unusual. The last major spy scandal was in 2010, when 10 Russian agents including Anna Chapman were arrested in the United States and later deported in exchange for four Russians imprisoned on charges of spying for the West. U.S.-Russian relations had thawed markedly under Obama's first-term "reset" of ties, but have chilled again since Putin, himself a former KGB spy, returned to the presidency a year ago. THAW TO GO ON? Putin has accused the United States of encouraging protests against him, and Russia has ejected the U.S. Agency for International Development and curbed U.S.-supported NGOs in moves it says are aimed at preventing foreign meddling. But both Obama and Putin have signaled they want to patch things up again, and the countries are trying to improve counterterrorism cooperation after the Boston Marathon bombings. FBI chief Robert Mueller visited Moscow for talks last week. Samuel Charap, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Moscow's response would show whether it wanted to continue the recent thaw. "Does the Russian government do what the U.S. did in 2010, and act quickly to defuse the issue, or does it use the incident to escalate tensions? That is the key question now." The Foreign Ministry said the incident raised "serious questions for the American side" at a time when Putin and Obama had "affirmed readiness to broaden bilateral interaction, including ... in the fight against international terrorism". Matthew Clements, Eurasia analyst at IHS Janes, said the row would probably blow over: "On the higher level .... both countries have always been adept at isolating these incidents from wider relations." Alexei Mukhin, director of the Moscow-based Centre for Political Information, said Putin would "make sure that this situation doesn't get out of hand". He said U.S.-Russian ties would be "hard to ruin" because, after the strains of the past 18 months, they could hardly get much worse. ($1 = 0.7703 euros) (Additional reporting by Thomas Grove and writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

IRS chief: Agency lacked sensitivity in screenings - San Francisco Chronicle Posted: 14 May 2013 08:35 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS acting chief acknowledged Tuesday that the agency demonstrated "a lack of sensitivity" in its screenings of political groups seeking tax-exempt status, but he said those mistakes won't be repeated. In his first public comment on the case, Steven Miller said there was "a shortcut taken in our processes" for determining which groups needed special screening. Miller has emerged as a key figure in the controversy over the IRS' singling out of conservative groups for extra scrutiny. President Barack Obama said Monday that if the agency intentionally targeted such groups, "that's outrageous and there's no place for it." In an opinion piece in Tuesday's editions of USA Today, Miller said conceded that the agency demonstrated "a lack of sensitivity to the implications of some of the decisions that were made." He said screening of advocacy groups is "factually complex, and it's challenging to separate out political issues from those involving education or social welfare." "The mistakes we made were due to the absence of a sufficient process for working the increase in cases and a lack of sensitivity to the implications of some of the decisions that were made," Miller wrote. Miller said the agency has implemented new procedures that will "ensure the mistakes won't be repeated." Meanwhile, two Republican governors urged Obama to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the case. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker call the allegations "Big Brother come to life." They want a special prosecutor to find out if any laws were broken and say Obama should fire any IRS employees responsible for the situation. On Monday, the IRS said Miller was first informed on May, 3, 2012, that applications for tax-exempt status by tea party groups were inappropriately singled out for extra scrutiny. Congress, though, was not told tea party groups were being inappropriately targeted, even after Miller had been briefed on the matter. At least twice after the briefing, Miller wrote letters to members of Congress to explain the process of reviewing applications for tax-exempt status without disclosing that tea party groups had been targeted. On July 25, 2012, Miller testified before the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee, but again did not mention the additional scrutiny — despite being asked about it. Miller's op-ed, however, did not address why he did not inform Congress after he was briefed. At the congressional hearing, Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Texas, told Miller that some politically active tax-exempt groups in his district had complained about being harassed. Marchant did not explicitly ask if tea party groups were being targeted. But he did ask how applications were handled. Miller responded, "We did group those organizations together to ensure consistency, to ensure quality. We continue to work those cases," according to a transcript on the committee's website. Earlier, Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., had raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed. Boustany specifically mentioned tea party groups in his inquiry. But in a June 15, 2012, letter to Boustany, Miller said that when the IRS saw an increase in applications from groups that were involved in political activity, the agency "took steps to coordinate the handling of the case to ensure consistency." He added that agents worked with tax law experts "to develop approaches and materials that could be helpful to the agents working the cases." Miller did not mention that in 2011, those materials included a list of words to watch for, such as "tea party" and "patriot." He also didn't disclose that in January 2012, the criteria for additional screening was updated to include references to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by GOP Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, is holding a hearing on the issue Friday and Miller is scheduled to testify. The Senate Finance Committee announced Monday that it will join a growing list of congressional committees investigating the matter. The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see whether they were violating their tax-exempt status. In some cases, the IRS acknowledged, agents inappropriately asked for lists of donors. The agency blamed low-level employees in a Cincinnati office, saying no high-level officials were aware. When members of Congress repeatedly raised concerns with the IRS about complaints that tea party groups were being harassed last year, a deputy IRS commissioner took the lead in assuring lawmakers that the additional scrutiny was a legitimate part of the screening process. That deputy commissioner was Miller, who is now the acting head of the agency. Camp and other members of the Ways and Means Committee sent at least four inquiries to the IRS, starting in June 2011. Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, sent three inquiries. And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House oversight committee, sent at least one. "This was a targeting of the president's political enemies, effectively, and lies about it during the election year so that it wasn't discovered until afterwards," Issa said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning." The fact is this is the kind of investigation that has to be open and transparent to the American people." None of the agency's responses to Congress acknowledged that conservative groups had ever been targeted, including a response to Hatch dated Sept. 11, 2012 — four months after Miller had been briefed. In several letters to members of Congress, Miller went into painstaking detail about how applications for tax-exempt status were screened. But he never mentioned that conservative groups were being targeted, even though people working under him knew as early as June 2011 that tea party groups were being targeted, according to an upcoming report by the agency's inspector general. The IRS issued a statement Monday saying that Miller had been briefed on May 3, 2012 "that some specific applications were improperly identified by name and sent to the (exempt organizations) centralized processing unit for further review." That was the unit in Cincinnati that handled the tea party applications. Miller became acting commissioner in November, after Commissioner Douglas Shulman completed his five-year term. Shulman had been appointed by President George W. Bush. On June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to a draft of the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. At the meeting, Lerner was told that groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says. Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately." However, when Lerner responded to inquiries from the House oversight committee, she didn't mention the fact that tea party groups had ever been targeted. Her responses included 45-page letters in May 2012 to Issa and to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs a subcommittee. Lerner also met twice with staff from the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee to discuss the issue, in March and in May 2012, according to a timeline constructed by committee staff. She didn't mention at either meeting that conservative groups had been targeted, according to the timeline. Associated Press writers Jim Abrams and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this report. ___ Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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Dull data leave US stocks largely flat Posted: 13 May 2013 04:47 PM PDT NEW YORK: US stocks traded largely flat Monday under the shadow of poor Chinese economic data and an only slight gain in US monthly retail sales. The S&P 500 managed to set a new closing record, but only on the back of an almost negligible 0.07 point gain from the previous mark Friday, ending at 1,633.77. The narrower blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 26.81 (0.18 per cent) to 15,091.68, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 2.21 (0.06 per cent) at 3,438.79. US retail sales edged up a tepid 0.1 per cent in April, though that was better than the 0.3 per cent decline analysts expected. In China, industrial output data from April suggested slower growth in the world's second-largest economy. The Dow sagged under the weight of Alcoa, which lost 2.0 per cent, and Intel, down 1.7 per cent. Eli Lilly's 53 per cent rise in first-quarter earnings and improved margins pushed its shares up 2.7 per cent, pulling other big pharmaceutical firms with it: Pfizer gained 2.3 per cent, Bristol Myers Squibb 1.1 per cent, Merck 0.5 per cent, and AstraZeneca 0.5 per cent. Electric sports car builder Tesla continued to power higher, adding 14.4 per cent, putting it up 52 per cent in the past week amid new confidence in its future. Bookseller Barnes & Noble, which picked up last week on reports of a possible buyout of it Nook assets by Microsoft, sank 9.5 per cent after an online report said the deal was off. -- AFP

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Tea party groups want IRS inquiry - Politico Posted: 13 May 2013 07:13 AM PDT Members of a tea party group targeted by the IRS spoke out Monday, calling on Congress to investigate why they were unfairly targeted. "A simple apology on a conference call is not enough by a long shot — Congress needs to investigate this and find out how many more lies the IRS is telling," Tea Party Patriots founder Jenny Beth Martin said on Fox News. Continue Reading An IRS official apologized last week in a conference call for unfairly targeting conservative groups – including Tea Party Patriots — that were seeking nonprofit status. Tea Party Patriot's national coordinator Keli Carender said on CNN that there are still many questions that remain unanswered. "We need to know how did this start? Who started it? Who knew what and when did they know it? How far up does this go? Does it go up all the way into Treasury? Does it go up into the administration? Who — who is a part of this? How are these decisions made? And what is going to happen to the people that did it?" Carender said on CNN. Carender continued: "If there are no consequences for people who abuse their power like this, then it's not going to stop. And it's not going to stop the Tea Party Patriots. It will be some other group that gets singled out. And I don't think any of us want that."

Jurors hung on 2 counts in Philly abortion case - CNN Posted: 13 May 2013 09:18 AM PDT Philadelphia (CNN) -- A judge in the trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell and a co-defendant instructed the jury Monday to continue trying to reach a verdict on two particular counts, an hour after the jury indicated it was hung on those charges. The jury's announcement that it was hung on two counts -- it was not clear which ones, or against whom -- came two weeks after it began deliberations. Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart, before instructing the jurors to continue deliberations Monday morning, told them that their progress to this point shows they're "considering the evidence seriously" and was an "indication of sincerity." Gosnell, 72, faces four counts of first-degree murder, accused of killing four babies by using scissors to cut their spinal cords. Authorities allege that some of the infants were born alive and viable during the sixth, seventh and eighth months of pregnancy. Gosnell horror fuels fight for abortion laws In Pennsylvania, abortions past 24 weeks are illegal unless the health of the mother is at stake. He also faces a count of third-degree murder in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, who authorities say died during a second-trimester abortion. Gosnell also is charged with conspiracy, abortion at 24 or more weeks of pregnancy, theft, corruption of minors, solicitation and other related offenses. If found guilty of first-degree murder, Gosnell, who is not a board-certified obstetrician or gynecologist, could be sentenced to death. Gosnell's co-defendant, Eileen O'Neill, is charged with participating in the operation of a corrupt organization and theft by deception for operating without a license to practice medicine. O'Neill, a medical school graduate, is not charged with performing illegal abortions. Both have pleaded not guilty. 0 Comments » SHARE THIS Print Email More sharing

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AirAsia X eyes up to US$300m IPO Posted: 12 May 2013 07:17 PM PDT HONG KONG: Long-haul carrier AirAsia X, founded by entrepreneur Tony Fernandes, began meeting investors on Monday to gauge interest for an initial public offering (IPO) in Malaysia worth up to US$300 million, according to a term sheet of the deal seen by Reuters. The company and its shareholders are offering 790.1 million shares, with 75 per cent of the offering coming from new shares, according to the terms. The deal is slated to be priced on June 24, with its debut set for July 10. AirAsia X plans to use 44 per cent of the proceeds to repay bank loans, with another 22 per cent set for capital expenditures, the terms said. CIMB, Credit Suisse, Maybank and Morgan Stanley were hired as joint global coordinators on the IPO.-- Reuters

KL shares open higher boosted by gains Posted: 12 May 2013 07:03 PM PDT Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened higher today, bolstered by gains in banking and telco counters, dealers said. At 9.01am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 10.52 points better at 1,782.90, after opening 10.51 points higher at 1,782.89. Market breadth was positive, with 243 gainers and 18 losers, with 133 counters unchanged, 1,196 untraded and 22 others suspended. Turnover stood at 51.107 million shares worth RM31.22 million. HwangDBS Vickers Research said following last week's jump of 77.6 points or 4.6 per cent, the FBM KLCI is expected to remain in a consolidation pattern ahead. It said the benchmark index could oscillate with a slight positive bias today, possibly rising towards the immediate resistance barrier of 1,785. This comes as Wall Street made further gains last Friday, boosted by better corporate earnings, as major US bellwethers rose between 0.2 per cent and 0.8 per cent at the closing bell, it said. On the scoreboard, the Finance Index surged 175.76 points to 16,882.14 and the Industrial Index gained 4.68 points to 2,959.78. The Plantation Index, however, slid 4.0 points to 8,321.50. The FBM Emas Index advanced 69.271 points to 12,281.98 and the FBMT100 rose 68.61 points to 12,088.87. The FBM Mid 70 Index perked 67.84 points to 13,893.80 and the FBM Ace Index garnered 26.60 points to 4,381.87. Among actives, Frontken earned a sen to 8.5 sen, MAS-OR was unchanged at 6.5 sen and Cliq-Energy-Wa 13/16 added two sen to 36 sen. Heavyweights, Maybank jumped 20 sen to RM10.28, CIMB added 12 sen to RM8.41, Axiata gained 10 sen to RM7.03 but Sime Darby lost a sen to RM9.49.-- Bernama

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Turkey Says Evidence Links Syria to Car Bombings - New York Times Posted: 12 May 2013 08:10 AM PDT By KAREEM FAHIM and SEBNEM ARSU Published: May 12, 2013 REYHANLI, Turkey — Turkish authorities said Sunday that 9 people had been detained in twin car bombings a day earlier in southern Turkey that killed 46 people, as funerals were held for at least 20 of the victims in this town near the Syrian border. Speaking at a news conference, senior government officials said that the investigation had linked the detainees, who were all Turkish citizens, to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and asserted that the attack was aimed at disrupting Turkey's unity. The officials did not detail any ties between the suspects and Mr. Assad's government, but said the evidence included incriminating statements made by the attackers themselves. "The incident was carried out by those who have been closely linked with pro-regime groups in Syria," Turkey's interior minister, Muammer Guler, said. "There is no merit in spelling out the names, we know them all." Turkey's government has strongly backed the rebels fighting Mr. Assad. The Syrian government on Sunday denied an involvement in the bombings, and said Turkey's government bore responsibility. "Syria didn't and will never undertake such acts because our values don't allow us to do this," Omran al-Zoubi, the information minister, was quoted as saying in Damascus. The developments in the investigation came as Turkey's government struggled to contain the domestic fallout from the bombings, which were among the deadliest attacks on civilians in Turkey in at least a decade. After the explosions, groups of Turkish youths attacked cars and apartments belonging to Syrian refugees living in Reyhanli, where small protests were also held against the government. Turkish officials, saying they were worried about the integrity of the investigation, banned local media from broadcasting photographs of the bombing sites, in what also seemed an effort to stop the images from inflaming the public. The bombings on Saturday, within 15 minutes of each other, tore through Reyhanli's municipal headquarters and a busy commercial thoroughfare, damaging shops hundreds of yards away. On Sunday, officials said they had identified 39 victims, and said they included 35 Turkish citizens and 3 Syrians. If connected to the Syrian war, as Turkey claimed, the attack would be the deadliest spillover since the beginning of the uprising against Mr. Assad in March 2011. In October, shells fired from Syria killed five people in Turkey, and the Turkish government blamed Mr. Assad's forces. At least 14 people died in a separate episode when a car bomb exploded at a border crossing. As rescue workers in orange jumpsuits combed through the wreckage on Sunday, anxious relatives traveled to Reyhanli's morgue, to try and find information about people who had not been found, or who were still unidentified. They included Ibrahim Yeshar, 30, whose uncle showed a passport-sized picture to news photographers, hoping that someone knew something. Fatima and Mehmet Aldag hobbled past as they left the hospital, with facial scars and other injuries they suffered in the blast. Mehmet said the explosion hit him "all of a sudden," and wounded three other people in his family. It was was aimed, he said, at "creating problems between Syrians and Turks." Turkish officials have been especially concerned with the possibility that sectarian tensions that have come to define the civil war in Syria will spill over the border, and trouble ethnically mixed regions of southern Turkey. There are also fears that the sheer numbers of Syrians in Turkey will stoke resentment: around Reyhanli, some 25,000 Syrian refugees live among 90,000 Turkish citizens, according to local officials. On Sunday, Ibrahim al-Ibrahim, a Syrian refugee in Reyhanli, said he and other Syrians had been sequestered in their homes since the bombings. His windows had been blown out by one of the explosions, a few blocks away. After the bombings, youths threw rocks through the open windowpanes. On Sunday, three young Turkish men smashed the hood and windows of a white van downstairs that belonged to a Syrian neighbor. Mr. Ibrahim said the bombings occurred as he received word that his house in Syria had been destroyed. "I have no house there, and no house here," he said. Turkish officials said the detainees included the ringleaders of the attack, and said that several suspects were still at large. Mr. Guler, the interior minister, said some suspects "were the ones who personally planned, did the reconnaissance and hid these cars." Kareem Fahim reported from Reyhanli, and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul. Karam Shoumali contributed reporting from Reyhanli.

On Benghazi probe, GOP's Issa says 'Hillary Clinton's not a target' - NBCNews.com Posted: 12 May 2013 07:22 AM PDT By Carrie Dann, Political Reporter, NBC News A top GOP critic pushed back Sunday on charges that Republican efforts to investigate last year's Benghazi attack are designed to inflict political damage on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "Hillary Clinton's not a target," said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa on NBC's Meet the Press. "President Obama is not a target." Issa,  who heads a panel probing the assault on the diplomatic outpost that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, said he will seek depositions from Benghazi review board heads Ambassador Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.   The interagency process of modifying talking points in the wake of the attack scrubbed the fact that the incident was "a terrorist attack from the get-go," Issa said Sunday.  "The American people were effectively lied to for a period of about a month," he charged. "That's important to get right." Issa's committee held a high-profile hearing last week on the Benghazi attack. The California Republican claimed Sunday that Pickering - the man who led an independent review of the attacks on behalf of the State Department - refused to testify at that hearing. Pickering flatly denied that he was unwilling to appear. "I said the day before the hearings I was willing to appear, to come from the very hearings [Issa] excluded me from," Pickering told NBC's David Gregory. "We were told the majority said I was not welcome at that hearing; I could come at some other time." Issa said he was unaware of Pickering's late notice, which the ambassador said he communicated through the White House, but added that a private deposition - which he intends to formally request Monday from the ambassador - is the more appropriate way to begin the inquiry. "The fact is we don't want to have some sort of a stage show," Issa said. Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said in a statement that Oversight committee Republicans never received a request for Pickering to testify.  "We challenge him to name the White House official who he was in contact with and the White House official whom he falsely says relayed his interest in testifying to Chairman Issa," Hill said.  Republicans have been dogged in their questioning of the administration's response to the attack, with leaked documents revealing last week that officials at the State Department suggested edits to talking points that erased references to terrorist groups. While Hillary Clinton has stated publicly that she was not involved in that editing process, criticism of the former State Department chief and much-discussed possible presidential candidate has been a strong subtext of the Benghazi debate. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said on Meet the Press that Issa's panel has deliberately put Clinton's ambitions in its crosshairs. "My concern is when Hillary Clinton's name is mentioned 32 times in a hearing, then the point of the hearing is to discredit the Secretary of State, who has very high popularity and may well be a candidate for president," Feinstein said. Likely 2016 Republican candidate Sen. Rand Paul excoriated Clinton in a speech Friday in key campaign state Iowa, saying her role in the Benghazi episode "should preclude her from holding higher office." "I think that's nonsense," Feinstein said of Paul's claim. "And I think the American people will think that's nonsense."  This story was originally published on Sun May 12, 2013 11:28 AM EDT

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Khan, Sharif appear ahead in Pakistan election count - Reuters Posted: 11 May 2013 08:27 AM PDT By Katharine Houreld and Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD | Sat May 11, 2013 12:30pm EDT (Reuters) - The parties of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan appeared to be well ahead of their rivals in Pakistan's election, according to a partial count of votes cast on Saturday. The election, in which 86 million people were eligible to vote, will bring the first transition between civilian governments in a country ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history. Despite pre-election violence, and attacks on Saturday which killed at least 17 people, millions turned out to vote. The partial count showed that while Sharif was in the lead, his party could lose 15 of its seats in the critical province of Punjab to Khan, whose emergence on the political stage has up-ended a system dominated by two parties. Television channels showed Khan's party was ahead in more than 50 of the 272 seats in the election. Khan, Pakistan's best-known sportsman who led a playboy lifestyle in his younger days, is seen by many as a refreshing change from the dynastic politicians who long relied on a patronage system to win votes. His Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) appeals mostly to young, urban voters because of his calls for an end to corruption, a new political landscape and a halt to U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil. About one-third of the country's population is under the age of 30. Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), looked set to win the most seats in parliament but Khan could deprive it of a majority and dash Sharif's hopes of a return to power 14 years after he was ousted in a military coup, jailed and later exiled. The strong performance of Sharif and Khan will likely deal a blow to the outgoing Pakistan People's Party (PPP), placing it third. DISENCHANTMENT Power in Pakistan has for decades alternated between the PML-N and the PPP, whose most prominent figure is President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto. Opinion polls have suggested that disenchantment with the mainstream parties could mean that no one group emerges with a parliamentary majority, making the next government unstable and too weak to push through much-needed reform. Voters were electing 272 members of the National Assembly. To win a simple majority, a party would have to take 137 seats. However, a further 70 seats, most reserved for women and members of non-Muslim minorities, are allocated to parties on the basis of their performance in the contested constituencies. To have a majority of the total of 342, a party would need 172. Pakistan's Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, have killed more than 120 people in election-related violence since April. The group, which is fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government, regards the election as un-Islamic. More bloodshed marred election day. A bomb attack on the office of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Karachi killed 11 people and wounded about 40. In Baluchistan, four died in a gun battle and elsewhere gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire near a polling station, killing two people, police said. Despite the searing heat, many went to the polls excited about the prospect of change in a country that is plagued with Taliban militancy, a near-failed economy, endemic corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure. "The team that we elect today will determine whether the rot will be stemmed or whether we will slide further into the abyss," prominent lawyer Babar Sattar wrote in The News daily. Despite Pakistan's history of coups, the army stayed out of politics during the five years of the last government and threw its support behind Saturday's election. It still sets the nuclear-armed country's foreign and security policy and will steer the thorny relationship with Washington as NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan in 2014. However, some fear the military could step back in if there is a repeat of the incompetence and corruption that frustrated many Pakistanis during the last government. Power cuts can last more than 10 hours a day in some places, crippling key industries like textiles, and a new International Monetary Fund bailout may be needed soon to rescue the economy. (Writing by John Chalmers and Michael Georgy; Additional reporting by Gul Yousafzai in QUETTA, Mubasher Bukhari in LAHORE and Jibran Ahmed in PESHAWAR; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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