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KL shares open lower Posted: 21 Aug 2013 06:57 PM PDT Share prices on Bursa Malaysia opened bearish in early trading today, led by losses in index-linked counters. At 9.10am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 19.9 points lower at 1,724.95, after opening 17.51 points easier at 1,743.49. Maybank shed 19 sen to RM9.81 while IOI Corp eased 12 sen to RM5.18. Both counters contributed 4.376 points to the index. HwangDBS Vickers Research said the bears may return to the local bourse today with the benchmark FBM KLCI pulling back deeper towards the key support line of 1,720 ahead. Overnight, Wall Street's major stock indices slipped between 0.4 per cent and 0.7 per cent. This came after minutes of the last US Federal Open Market Committee meeting revealed that the policymakers were supportive of a move to reduce monetary stimulus if the US economy improved. Back home, Bank Negara Malaysia revised downward the country's GDP's growth for this year to 4.5-five per cent from five-six per cent previously forecast. "In terms of corporate actions, listed companies that reported below par quarterly financial results last evening included AirAsia and Boustead Holdings," said HwangDBS in a note today. Weaker sentiment spilled over other Asian market as well. Across Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 was 1.10 per cent lower at 13,276.04, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.69 per cent to 21,817.73 and Singapore's Straits Times Index fell 1.20 per cent to 3,071.66. On Bursa Malaysia, the Plantation Index slipped 76.14 points to 8,108.77, the Finance Index erased 201.43 points to 16,250.93 but the Industrial Index was up 3.55 points at 2,944.83. The FBM Emas Index trimmed 129.17 points to 12,028.63, the FBM100 Index fell 125.55 points to 11,763.89 and the FBM 70 Index gave up 105.05 points to 13,797.14. Market breadth was negative with losers outstripping gainers 347 to 21, while 117 counters were unchanged, 1,100 untraded and 18 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 131.095 million shares worth RM133.734 million. Among actives, The Media Shoppe and INS Bioscience were flat at nine sen and five sen, respectively. MAS and Sona Petroleum shed one sen each to 33.5 sen and 42.5 sen, respectively, while Flonic Hi-Tec was 1.5 sen lower at 16.5 sen. Heavyweights, Axiata was flat at RM6.65, YTL Corp shed one sen to RM1.58 and CIMB fell seven sen to RM7.55.-- Bernama

Ringgit opens lower against US dollar Posted: 21 Aug 2013 07:00 PM PDT The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar on weaker demand for the local note, amid improving external environment, a dealer said. The ringgit fell against the US dollar to 3.3150/3180 from 3.2930/2960 on Wednesday. The dealer said investors' appetite shifted towards the greenback following the release of the Federal Open Market Committee's July meeting minutes today. "Federal officials were comfortable with Chairman Ben Bernanke's plan to start reducing bond buying later this year if the economy improves," he added. Meanwhile, Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said Malaysia was expected to maintain a current account surplus this year, and could cope with the current "highly destabilising" capital flows. "This is not a new phenomenon. We coped with it before," she said, adding that the economy was expected to remain supported by strong domestic growth. Sales of Malaysian bonds by foreigners, who held almost half of the country's government debt, could be absorbed by Malaysian institutions including the insurance industry, she said. The ringgit depreciated against the Singapore dollar to 2.5828/5857 from 2.5745/5776 yesterday and was sharply lower against the yen at 3.3861/3899 from 3.3771/3819 on Wednesday. The currency weakened against the British pound to 5.1777/1834 from 5.1601/1658 on Wednesday and fell against the euro to 4.4215/4265 from 4.4083/4133 yesterday.-- Bernama

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WikiLeaks soldier Manning sentenced to 35 years in prison - Reuters Posted: 21 Aug 2013 08:11 AM PDT By Ian Simpson and Medina Roshan FORT MEADE, Maryland | Wed Aug 21, 2013 11:06am EDT (Reuters) - Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history by providing files to WikiLeaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Wednesday. Judge Colonel Denise Lind, who last month found Manning guilty of 20 charges including espionage and theft, could have sentenced him to as many as 90 years in prison. Prosecutors had asked for 60 years. Manning, 25, will be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military and forfeit some pay, Lind said. His rank will be reduced to private from private first class. Manning would be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence, which will be reduced by the time he has already served in prison plus 112 days. Wearing his dress uniform, the slightly built Manning stood at attention as the sentence was read, seeming to show no emotion. As he was escorted out of the courtroom, supporters shouted "Bradley, we are with you." Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, called the sentence "unprecedented" in its magnitude. "It's more than 17 times the next longest sentence ever served" for providing secret material to the media, Goitein said. "It is in line with sentences for paid espionage for the enemy." In 2010, Manning turned over more than 700,000 classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks, the pro transparency website, in a case that has commanded international attention. Defense attorneys had not made a specific sentencing request but pleaded with Lind not to "rob him of his youth." Manning was working as a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad when he handed over the documents, catapulting WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, into the international spotlight. The classified material that shocked many around the world included a 2007 gunsight video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Baghdad. Among the dozen fatalities were two Reuters news staff. WikiLeaks dubbed the footage "Collateral Murder." KEEPING SECRETS The case highlighted the difficulty in keeping secrets in the Internet age. It raised strong passions on the part of the U.S. government, which said Manning had put American lives at risk, and anti-secrecy advocates, who maintained Manning was justified in releasing the information. During a pretrial hearing, Lind had determined that the eventual sentence would be reduced by 112 days because of harsh treatment after his arrest in 2010. He likely will be imprisoned at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. A U.S. rights group has said Manning should be a candidate for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Human rights group Amnesty International called on U.S. President Barack Obama to commute Manning's sentence. "Instead of fighting tooth and nail to lock him up for the equivalent of several life sentences, the U.S. government should turn its attention to investigating and delivering justice for the serious human rights abuses committed by its officials in the name of countering terror," said Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International. Manning's trial at Fort Meade, Maryland, home of the ultra-secret National Security Agency, wound down as U.S. officials sought the return of Edward Snowden. The former NSA contractor, who disclosed details of secret U.S. programs that included monitoring the telephone and Internet traffic of Americans, has been given temporary asylum in Russia. The Guardian said on Tuesday that British authorities had forced the newspaper to destroy materials leaked by Snowden. (Additional reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)

New Details Show Broader NSA Surveillance Reach - Wall Street Journal Posted: 21 Aug 2013 07:38 AM PDT Article Excerpt BY SIOBHAN GORMAN AND JENNIFER VALENTINO-DEVRIES WASHINGTON—The National Security Agency—which possesses only limited legal authority to spy on U.S. citizens—has built a surveillance network that covers more Americans' Internet communications than officials have publicly disclosed, current and former officials say. The system has the capacity to reach roughly 75% of all U.S. Internet traffic in the hunt for foreign intelligence, including a wide array of communications by foreigners and Americans. In some cases, it retains the written content of emails sent between citizens within the U.S. and also filters domestic phone calls made with Internet technology, these people say. The NSA's filtering, carried out with telecom ... Continue reading article with pop up player

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US stocks higher on earnings news Posted: 20 Aug 2013 04:33 PM PDT NEW YORK: US stocks on Tuesday closed mostly higher following some solid retail earnings reports. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.75 points (0.05 percent) to 15,002.99. The broad-based S&P 500 gained 6.29 points (0.38 percent) at 1,652.35, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 24.50 points (0.68 percent) to 3,613.59. All three indices had fallen over the prior four sessions. But analysts cited strong earnings reports Tuesday from Home Depot, Best Buy and others as giving the market "a reason to rally," as Brent Schutte of BMO Private Bank put it. Additionally, stocks got help from bond yields, which retreated from recent peaks. Dow component Home Depot opened higher, but fell 1.2 percent after earnings gained 17.2 percent and the company raised its full-year forecast on the strength of the housing recovery. However, the company's upgraded full-year earnings forecast of US$3.60 per share still lags analyst expectations by four cents. Netflix jumped 5.2 percent after announcing a contract to exclusively stream the Weinstein Company's first-run films starting in 2016. Best Buy shot up 13.2 percent after earnings of 32 cents per share exceeded analyst expectations by 20 cents. Credit Suisse said the report was evidence Best Buy "is moving in the right direction and that management's ambitious plans are beginning to translate into better results." Troubled department store operator JC Penney rose 6.0 percent despite reporting a loss of US$586 million compared with last year's loss of US$147 million on lower-than-expected revenues. On the positive side, the company saw sequential sales improvement through the quarter and expects to see a continued rise in the second half of the year. Bookseller Barnes & Noble sank 16.3 percent after reporting an US$87 million loss for the quarter on lower-than-expected revenues. Comparable store sales declined 9.1 percent. It said chairman Leonard Riggio had suspended a plan to acquire the company's retail business. Popular garment chain Urban Outfitters rose 8.2 percent after profits exceeded expectations by three cents at 51 cents per share. -- AFP

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College baseball player Chris Lane killed by 'bored' teens in Oklahoma - Toronto Sun Posted: 20 Aug 2013 08:26 AM PDT Chris Lane headshot. (ECUTigers.com) Report an error Police allege the life of a 22-year-old collegiate athlete was taken Friday by three teenagers who "just wanted to see somebody die." While jogging down a rural Oklahoma road, Chris Lane, a catcher on East Central University's men's baseball team, was killed in a drive-by shooting. Police allege a trio of teens, aged 15, 16, and 17, are responsible. Lane was shot in the back and left to die on the side of the Duncan, Okla., road. "They were bored and just wanted to see somebody die," Duncan police chief Danny Ford told ABC News. It appears Lane, who police say was visiting his girlfriend at the time, did not know the accused. He died shortly after arriving at a local hospital. The teens have been charged with first-degree murder. Police say there were no witnesses to the murder, but nearby residents heard a gunshot and saw a black car speeding down the street. Thanks to video surveillance footage from local businesses, police were able to support the residents' claim that a black vehicle was transporting the supposed killers. Footage showed the vehicle pull behind a hotel for about 10 minutes following the shooting, and then driving away. Approximately three hours later, police received a call reporting the presence of "three juveniles at a house with guns and wanting to kill somebody." The three teens were found shortly thereafter. Interviews with police, Ford said, revealed the 16-year-old pulled the trigger, while the 17-year-old drove the vehicle. East Central's website lists Lane's hometown as Melbourne, Australia. He was studying finance at the Ada, Okla., school after transferring from nearby Redlands Junior College. "He was an athlete going for a jog like he would do five or six days a week," Ford said of Lane and the shocking murder. "It's wrong and we just try and deal with it the best we can."

Egypt's crackdown weakens, but does not crush resilient Muslim Brotherhood - Jerusalem Post Posted: 20 Aug 2013 08:20 AM PDT A supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood at Giza Square, south of Cairo, August 19, 2013. Photo: REUTERS Until Monday night, Farid Ismail was one of the few Muslim Brotherhood leaders who still answered his phone, even when many of his associates had been arrested or gone underground. By Tuesday morning Ismail was nowhere to be found after the authorities seized the group's chief, Mohamed Badie, overnight. The army seems determined to decapitate the Middle East's oldest and arguably most resilient Islamist movement, to prevent it from preparing a political comeback after President Mohamed Morsi, one of its senior leaders, was ousted on July 3. Badie's arrest means the Brotherhood's most experienced and respected leaders are now behind bars. Others such as Ismail, if he remains free, must now be focused on staying out of jail. The military's strategy appears clear: remove the top of a pyramid-shaped organization in hopes that the rest will crumble. Brotherhood members take their orders from the 120-member consultative Shura Council and 18-member Guidance Office, which send directives down via several layers of deputies. The army's disruption tactics have already paid dividends. The Brotherhood, which for six weeks managed to keep large protest camps going in Cairo to demand Morsi's reinstatement, is now struggling to get people onto the streets. The authorities, meanwhile, have tightened their grip with dusk-to-dawn curfews. "To some extent they have succeeded. Turnout in the street is low," said Khalil Anani, an expert on Islamic movements. "For the short term the Brotherhood has received a major blow." The army-backed administration has indicated it will show no mercy, taking a much tougher line than most past Egyptian governments. The Brotherhood saw its leaders and members locked up over decades, but it never faced such a wave of bloodshed. DEMONIZING THE BROTHERHOOD Security forces killed hundreds of people, forcibly evicting Islamist protesters from the sit-ins on Aug. 14. More died two days later during a Brotherhood "Day of Rage". A spokesman for a pro-Brotherhood alliance said the total death toll among Morsi supporters was about 1,400, considerably higher than an official figure of about 900 dead in the past week, including around 100 soldiers and police. The army has worked overtime to cast the Brotherhood as a terrorist group, a narrative that suggests the crackdown won't end any time soon. Humiliation seems to be part of the strategy. Footage shown on local media within hours of Badie's arrest showed the bearded leader sitting grim-faced on a sofa in a grey robe, hands folded, while a man with a rifle stands by. The general calling the shots, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has taken a more aggressive line against the Brotherhood than Egypt's previous military-backed rulers. He has won wide public support for what he calls a campaign against terrorism. But it is not clear whether Sisi's heavy-handed campaign can succeed in the long term. The Brotherhood has long experience of pressure. Its leaders have endured hardship in jail and bouts of persecution under former President Gamal Abdel Nasser and his successors. In veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak's era, the then-banned Brotherhood also felt a great deal of heat from the state. The movement's Freedom and Justice Party newspaper reported that Mahmoud Ezzat, a former deputy to Badie, had been named temporary leader, suggesting that a contingency plan had already been prepared in case the top man was rounded up. Ezzat, a Brotherhood member since his childhood, is viewed as one of the most influential people in the organization. Sitting in a Cairo coffee shop, Nidal Sakr, a Brotherhood political strategist, glanced at a news program about Badie. "This is nothing new. We have seen it all before," he said, estimating that the authorities had arrested more than 3,000 middle- and lower-ranking Brotherhood leaders across Egypt. CHARITY INFRASTRUCTURE Sakr predicted that the Brotherhood would survive the latest blow, and make it back to politics within two or three years, because it would adjust, as it always has. One key to its survival, he said, may be its vast and highly organized social welfare networks that made it popular in Egypt. If those institutions remain intact, the Brotherhood may be able to weather state harassment in the long term. "The organization is based on social relationships with families, neighbors, schools, hospitals, institutions and orphanages," said Sakr. "If you want to approach the Brotherhood you have to approach society," he said. "In the organizational sense it can be halted. But you cannot take it out of society." The Brotherhood will surely bank on its tightly-knit structures to survive the onslaught from security forces. Regaining public confidence is another challenge altogether. Morsi's year in office convinced many Egyptians that the group was mostly interested in monopolizing power. His failure to fix the fragile economy also eroded the movement's appeal. "People now don't accept speeches from Muslim Brotherhood leaders who are not in prison. Not one of them can walk the streets safely," said former Brotherhood official Kamal Helbawy. The army is trying to capitalize on the public mood, and while security measures may keep the Brotherhood on the defensive, the strategy may ultimately backfire. Without calls for restraint coming from senior leaders like Badie, a younger Brotherhood generation may be tempted to seek revenge as the army and security forces keep pushing. "There is a fierce debate on whether they should resort to force," said Anani, adding that Islamist groups allied with the Brotherhood may also turn violent against the state. "Say there are one million Islamists and 10 percent of them have guns. You are talking about 100,000 weapons."

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KL shares open lower Posted: 19 Aug 2013 07:02 PM PDT Bursa Malaysia opened lower Tuesday, weighed by weaker sentiment in regional equity markets. At 9.11am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 14.7 points lower at 1,763.66, after opening 4.51 points easier at 1,773.85. Japan's Nikkei 225 was 0.65 per cent lower at 13,668.06 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.24 per cent to 22,463.70. Nearer to home, Singapore's Straits Times Index shed 0.49 per cent to 3,157.75. Facing external headwinds, Malaysian equities are set to come under renewed selling pressures today, said HwangDBS Vickers Research in a note today. It said the FBM KLCI may pull back further from the support-turned-resistance level of 1,785 with the next support line currently seen at 1,750. "In particular, sentiment will likely be hit by an overnight drop on Wall Street," added HwangDBS. Key US bellwethers slid between 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent last night amid continuous concerns of a monetary stimulus tapering .by the Federal Reserve anytime soon. Index-linked stocks, Maybank and CIMB which contributed 4.3 per cent to the index, lost 16 sen to RM10.28 and 13 sen to RM7.77. On the scoreboard, the Finance Index erased 151.89 points to 16,763.96, the Plantation index fell 52.64 points to 8,236.72 and the Industrial Index eased 24.22 points to 2,980.39. The FBM Emas Index fell 82.41 points to 12,327.76, the FBM100 Index gave up 82.59 points to 12,050.32 and the FBM 70 Index shed 23.88 points to 14,225.46. Losers outpaced gainers 212 to 67, with 158 counters unchanged, 1,148 untraded and 11 others were suspended. Turnover totalled 167.208 million shares worth RM116.258 million. Among actives, Daya Materials edged up half-a-sen to 36 sen, Luster Industries, China Stationery and Flonic Hi-Tec were flat at 10 sen, 25.5 sen and 20 sen, respectively. Malaysian Airline slipped half-a-sen to 35.5 sen, Maxis was flat at RM7.20 but Axiata slipped five sen to RM6.85, Sime Darby declined three sen to RM9.46 and Petronas Chemicals eased two sen to RM6.60.-- Bernama

Ringgit opens lower against US dollar Posted: 19 Aug 2013 07:04 PM PDT The ringgit opened lower against the US dollar in early trading today, in line with emerging currencies, a dealer said. The ringgit fell against the US dollar to 3.2950/2980 from 3.2845/2875 yesterday. The dealer said the strengthening of the greenback, boosted by high US Treasury yields, shifted investors appetite towards the US dollar. "US benchmark bond yields hit a two-year high of nearly three per cent yesterday," he added. The local currency was traded mostly lower against other major currencies. It rose against the Singapore dollar to 2.5754/5782 from 2.5763/5798 yesterday but fell against the yen to 3.3729/3763 from 3.3629/3663 on Monday. The ringgit was lower against the British pound at 5.1550/1610 from 5.1386/1440 yesterday and eased against the euro to 4.3939/3985 from 4.3769/3816 on Monday.-- Bernama

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Egypt's ex-president Mubarak may be freed soon - USA TODAY Posted: 19 Aug 2013 08:22 AM PDT Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president who was ousted from power in February 2011, could soon be released from detention after being cleared of corruption charges, according to his lawyer and judicial officials. ."All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week," Mubarak's lawyer Fareed El-Deeb told Reuters. Judicial officials, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said there were no longer any grounds to hold the 85-year-old former autocrat because of the expiration of a two-year legal limit for holding an individual in custody pending a final verdict. Mubarak, 85, was cleared of corruption charges related to alleged embezzled funds for the presidential palace, but he is still to face a retrial over conspiracy to kill protesters during the violence that rampaged through Egypt in 2011. Separately, The New York Times, citing state media, reported via Twitter that judicial authorities and security officials in the nation have ordered Mubarak's release. The moves comes as clashes between Egypt's anti-military protesters and security forces, killing hundreds, have raged since Wednesday. At least 25 policemen were killed Monday when assailants ambushed two minibuses carrying security personnel in Egypt's north Sinai Peninsula. EGYPT: Militants kill 25 Egyptian policemen On July 3, Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood leader who was elected to replace Mubarak, was himself ousted from Egypt's presidency.

US faces dilemma over aid to Egypt amid deadly violence - CBS News Posted: 18 Aug 2013 08:13 PM PDT (CBS News) WASHINGTON - The violence is taking place in Egypt. The aid debate is taking place at home. And on Sunday, there were new calls to reassess the American relationship with an increasingly fragile nation. With nearly 900 killed in five days of clashes with the Egyptian military, the calls to end the flow of U.S. money are getting louder. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham believes Egypt is looking more and more like a failed state. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is among those calling for the suspension of American aid to Egypt following deadly clashes in that country. / CBS News "We're gonna have to suspend our aid, because we can't support the reaction of the military," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. Historically the U.S. has been a major sponsor of the Egyptian military. Of the $1.5 billion in aid the U.S. sends Egypt yearly, $1.3 billion is for the country's security forces. It was the military that ousted the elected president, Mohammed Morsi, and is shooting the president's supporters. Middle East analyst Mohsin Khan said even if U.S. aid is suspended it will have little effect. "Egypt needs something close to $15-$20 billion to get by," he said. "$1.3 billion is not that much. They are going to get a lot more from the Arab countries." For decades, the U.S. has relied on Egypt's military to stabilize the Middle East. But the White House faces a dilemma -- preserving the relationship, but at what cost? Of the $1.5 billion that goes from the U.S. to Egypt, $1.3 billion goes to the country's security forces. It was the military the ousted President Morsi. / CBS News "We deplore violence against civilians," said President Obama on Thursday. He cancelled joint military exercises with Egypt and vowed more punitive action if the violence continues. Egypt's military leaders dig in despite deaths Graham: Egypt is turning protesters into martyrs Egypt security raids Muslim Brotherhood homes It is an approach Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he supports. "Looking forward, I think that the approach has to be to condition our future aid on specific steps toward the rule of law and return to democracy," Blumenthal said. But critics of the administration's strategy believe the White House's options are limited. Arizona Sen. John McCain said the Obama administration has lost credibility. "We have to comply with the law," said McCain. "And this administration did not do that after threatening to do so." Meanwhile, the president returns from his vacation Sunday evening. And increasingly there are concerns the lines of communication between Egypt's military leaders and U.S. officials are breaking down.

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Egypt tourism takes massive hit amid unrest - USA TODAY Posted: 18 Aug 2013 07:34 AM PDT GIZA, Egypt — It looked more like a fortified military zone than a top tourist attraction that draws millions of visitors: Metal barricades, tan-colored tanks and men in army fatigues blocked the way to the Giza pyramids on Saturday. "This is the street of the pyramids?" asked Sabr Agaya, who offers camel and carriage rides, in a rhetorical tone. "I can't believe this is the street. Sometimes my head spins." Tourism in Egypt was devastated this week as museums and archaeological sites shut down and violence erupted, propelling looting and sinking the industry. "My business died," said Agaya, standing among a pack of men with no work and a throng of emaciated horses. "No one comes." Violence clawed through the country this week, killing more than 800 people since Wednesday, when security forces cleared two protest camps. At least 173 were killed in street battles that started during Friday protests and took place on major roads across the capital. "We cannot accept any reservations until next Saturday," said Mohammed Sabry, who works in the reservations department at the Cairo Four Seasons, "because as you know, there are bad circumstances around the hotel." Many reservations were canceled at the Mena House Hotel — built in 1869 as a hunting lodge for Egyptian royalty at the foot of the pyramids — said deputy hotel manager Ahmed Salem. He blamed the government-imposed nightly 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and the fact "there is no clear idea about what will happen in the next few days." Last week, two major German tour operators canceled all trips to Egypt after the nation's foreign ministry warned Europeans against visiting popular beach resorts. Other European countries followed suit and on Thursday, the U.S. State Department renewed a warning urging Americans to avoid traveling to the country. A tourist takes a camel ride at the Giza Pyramids in Giza, Egypt, on May 31.(Photo: Hiro Komae, AP) Security forces over the weekend protected the pyramids "not because the area is unsafe," Salem said. "It's a security measure: This is one of the most important places in Egypt." Looters ransacked the Malawi Antiquities Museum overnight Thursday in Upper Egypt's city of Minya. Glass display cases were smashed and hundreds of artifacts were reported stolen. Others were left destroyed on the floor. Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said Saturday that no other archaeological sites were exposed to attacks and that security measures at museums and sites nationwide were boosted, state news agency MENA reported. The fresh hit to the tourism industry began when millions rose up against former president Mohamed Morsi at the end of June. But the troubles date back even farther — to the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak. In 2011, the number of visitors to Egypt dropped by a third from previous year. The industry improved slightly in 2012 and saw an uptick of visitors in the beginning of 2013, according to official statistics, but was far from making a full recovery, particularly in Cairo. The continuing downturn is devastating for many Egyptians who work as tour guides, sell souvenirs like papyrus and perfumes, or offer horse rides into the desert. "I don't have money," said Mahmoud Al-Houry, 21, holding the reins of a horse and hoping tourists would come Saturday. "The horses don't eat." The tourism situation is worse now than it was in 2011, said Martha Kjoell, a Norwegian volunteer who provides medicine and food for horses in Giza. "It's a disaster, really." Most don't have job alternatives: Unemployment is up, the economy has been in steady decline and over the past two years there has been a halt in foreign and domestic investment. "I have a lot of people who come to me and say, 'I can't feed my horse, please help me,' " Kjoell said. Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last SlideNext Slide

Chinese Politician to Stand Trial on Corruption Charges - New York Times (blog) Posted: 18 Aug 2013 08:24 AM PDT By CHRIS BUCKLEY Published: August 18, 2013 HONG KONG — Bo Xilai, an ambitious and divisive Chinese politician whose downfall shook the Communist Party elite, will stand trial on Thursday on charges of corruption, taking bribes and abusing power, state-run news media announced on Sunday. The brief report from the Xinhua news agency said Mr. Bo would be tried in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province in eastern China. But the report gave no other details about the lurid allegations of corruption and a murder that toppled him and exposed bitter contention within the usually secretive Communist Party leadership. Mr. Bo, 64, fell from power last year, upsetting preparations for a leadership transition and setting off reverberations still felt in Chinese politics. Accusations of skulduggery and graft around him and his family have drawn intense attention from Chinese people, and his trial is considered a test of how harshly and candidly the Communist Party elite deals with one of its own. "Politics will determine how Bo Xilai is tried," said Chen Ziming, a commentator in Beijing who closely follows Communist Party affairs. "How much evidence they present will depend on how severely they want to punish him, not vice versa." China's courts are controlled by the Communist Party, and there is little doubt that Mr. Bo will be found guilty after a carefully choreographed trial. His defense lawyer was appointed by the court. But experts have offered opposing views about the likely punishment. A death penalty appears very unlikely, but a prison sentence of 15 years or longer is almost certain, Mr. Chen said. "The central leadership will have weighed up the various pressures — for Bo, against Bo — and come to a decision," he said. "It's not a decision for the court." The political passions evoked by Mr. Bo have made his case a difficult one for the party leadership. If the evidence offered is flimsy or relatively slight, his supporters may accuse leaders of pursuing a political vendetta. But if the evidence is extensive and severe, others will ask why Mr. Bo was allowed to stay in power for so long, and even position himself for possible promotion into the central leadership. An urbane former minister of commerce with a liking for sleek suits and media attention, Mr. Bo was appointed the Communist Party secretary of Chongqing, a relatively poor municipality in southwest China, in 2007. He turned Chongqing into a showcase for a blend of welfare programs, reverent propaganda for the revolutionary past and harsh measures against those suspected of being members of organized crime cartels. Mr. Bo was a member of the Politburo, an elite council with 25 members, and his supporters hoped that he would win a place in the Politburo Standing Committee, the innermost circle of party power. But his critics claim that Mr. Bo's populist facade hid abuses of power and corrupt self-enrichment by him and his family. Mr. Bo fell abruptly from power in March last year, more than a month after the former police chief of Chongqing, Wang Lijun, fled to a United States Consulate. Mr. Wang disclosed accusations that Mr. Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, was involved in the murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who knew the Bo family. And he accused Mr. Bo of trying to silence concerns about the case. Ms. Gu was tried last August and found guilty of fatally poisoning Mr. Heywood in a hotel villa in Chongqing in November. She received a death sentence with a reprieve, meaning the sentence is likely to be reduced to a long prison term. Mr. Bo was expelled from the Communist Party in September, when the authorities began a formal criminal investigation. "We still don't know what specific allegations lie behind the three charges against Bo Xilai," said Li Zhuang, a lawyer in Beijing who became one of Mr. Bo's fiercest critics after Mr. Li was jailed in Chongqing. Mr. Li had worked as a lawyer for a Chongqing businessman accused of running a criminal network. "He could be accused of abusing power by trying to conceal or failing to report the Heywood murder," Mr. Li said in a telephone interview. "From what I've heard, the sums involved in the corruption case are not as much as in some other corruption cases, but I think Bo Xilai's damage to rule of law, private enterprise and justice was much worse than those other cases." An associate of Mr. Bo's family said Ms. Gu's testimony would feature in the prosecution's case, although it was unclear whether she would appear at the trial or, as is often done in China, give written testimony. The associate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect himself from official recrimination, said Ms. Gu might testify about, among other things, a villa in France that could form part of the corruption accusations. Phone calls to Mr. Bo's court-appointed lawyer, Li Guifang, were not immediately answered on Sunday night. Mr. Bo has not been seen or heard in public since March last year, and it remains unclear whether he will contest the charges. But the government is taking no chances by holding the trial in Jinan, a city about 810 miles from Chongqing, where many residents still think fondly of Mr. Bo. Another complication is that Mr. Bo is a "princeling" — the son of a revered revolutionary who served alongside Mao Zedong — and had personal ties with many other princelings, including Xi Jinping, who was appointed Communist Party chief in November. Since coming to office, Mr. Xi has promised to clean out corruption and waste in the party, and to remove crooked officials. A Chinese businessman who is friends with other princelings said some of them had continued to express misgivings that Mr. Bo was being treated too harshly, even if he deserved censure for his mistakes. He spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve his friendships with party insiders.

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