Egypt's Al-Sisi Vows to Wipe out Muslim Brotherhood

Former army chief and presidential hopeful Al-Sisi vows to wipe out Muslim Brotherhood from EgyptReuters

Egypt's former army chief and presidential hopeful Abdeh Fattah al-Sisi has vowed to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood from the country if he gets elected in the upcoming elections.

Sisi, in his first television interview in this election campaign, has insisted the disbanded outfit "would not exist" if he takes over. The interview was jointly conducted by two private television networks – CBC and ONTV.

He said: "I want to tell you that it is not me that finished [Brotherhood]. You, the Egyptians, are the ones who finished it."

When asked further whether the group would be wiped out, he answered: "Yes, that's right."

The Brotherhood's leader Mohammed Morsi was ousted as president following an army-led intervention when Sisi was the military chief.

"The thought structure of these groups says that we are not true Muslims, and they believed conflict was inevitable because we are non-believers. It will not work for there to be such thinking again."

Since Morsi's removal, more than 1,000 people have been killed in clashes across the country and thousands of Brotherhood supporters have been detained by the interim authorities while branding the group as a terrorist outfit.

Sisi's latest remarks are considered as explicit rejection of any attempts to reconcile with the Islamist outfit, which came to power after the overthrow of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Sisi is widely predicted to win the presidential elections which are set to place on 26-27 May. Sisi, who stepped down as army chief to contest the polls, faces a sole challenger in leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi.

During the interview, Sisi revealed that there were two assassination attempts on him. However, he refrained from divulging specifics of the plots.

Sisi, a self-declared devout Muslim, was somewhat ambiguous when answering whether Egypt would embrace Islam and to what extent if he comes to power.

"The religious discourse in the entire world has deprived Islam of its humanity. In Islam there was a civil state, not an Islamic one," he said.

Abducted Nigerian Girls Face Sex Slavery as Boko Haram Says it will Sell them in Market

More than 200 teenage school girls abducted in Nigeria last month will be sold as slaves, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has said.Youtube

More than 200 teenage school girls abducted in Nigeria last month will be sold as slaves, their captors have threatened.

Boko Haram, the dreaded Nigerian Islamist militant group running a bloody insurgency in the country's north, owned up the abduction and said the girls would be sold in the market place as willed by Allah.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah ... Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions," Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video.

More than 300 students were abducted from an all-girl secondary school in Chibok, in the north-eastern state of Borno, on 14 April.

While unconfirmed reports had already suggested that some of the abducted girls were forced into sex slavery, Shekau said the students "will remain slaves with us".

Boko Haram militants are fighting for the establishment of a primitive Islamist system of society, and its leader's threat inherently means the girls will be pressed into sex slavery in line with the ancient Islamist practice of keeping, or selling, captured women as sex slaves.

"They are slaves and I will sell them because I have the market to sell them," Shekau said, speaking in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria. AFP reported it was not immediately clear where the video was shot.

Dozens of the captured girls have escaped from captivity though the authorities are not able to precisely say how many have returned home to safety.

The girls who escaped had revealed that heavily armed militants from the Boko Haram Islamist insurgent group had taken them from the school dormitory and loaded them on to trucks.

According to various unconfirmed reports, some of the girls -- all aged between 15 and 18 – have been thrown into sex slavery. While some of them have been forced to marry their captors, some others have been trafficked out of the country, probably to Chad or Cameroon.

Boko Haram, which means "western education is sinful," has been waging a campaign to create a radical Islamist caliphate in northern Nigeria, purging the region of the "corrupting" influence of western education.

Girls from various other schools in the area had assembled at the secondary school in Chibok for the annual examinations and the authorities were not able to precisely say how many were abducted.

According to Nigerian police authorities, students from neighbouring places such as schools in Izge, Lassa, Ashigashiya and Warabe had also assembled in the Chibok school; Islamist extremists had forced the shutting down of those schools.

Tensions Grow For India's High-Growth Beef Export Market as Hindu Nationalist BJP Likely to Win

A butcher cuts up portions of beef for sale in an abattoir at a wholesale market in Mumbai.Reuters

India's controversial but significant beef export industry is expected to suffer a blow if the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wins the general election.

India has recently emerged as an international beef exporter, currently accounting for about 20% of global supply. The country sells beef to more than 65 countries, primarily in North America, Europe, the Gulf and south-east Asian countries.

According to the latest meat exports figures from the Ministry of Food Processing, India exported 1.89 million tonnes of beef in fiscal year 2012-2013, a 50% increase over five years. The country is also set to overtake Brazil as the world's largest beef exporter, according to some analysts.

The ever-rising growth in beef exports comes from a country with an estimated Hindu population of 828 million. Most Hindus consider cows sacred and cow slaughter is banned in a majority of Indian states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan. It is legal only in Kerala, West Bengal and the north-eastern states.

The export of cow meat is banned, but the classification of buffalo meat as beef provides a loophole to traders.

While the industry remains lucrative with rising beef prices, the consumption and sale of beef always lead to fierce political and religious debates in the country.

Earlier, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi slammed the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by the Congress party for the "pink revolution", a euphemism for the meat business. He also wants to put a stop to the beef trade.

Modi is known for his strict policies against cow slaughter and pet-friendly projects in the state of Gujarat, where he is the chief minister. He recently announced plans to open a sanctuary for more than 10,000 cows, close to the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi in Gujarat.

Beef traders and exporters in the country are presently worried as the BJP is likely to form the next government in India, according to many opinion polls.

Despite rising appetite for beef especially among urban people in India, BJP's anti-beef manifesto is expected to hit the industry severely.

China National Nuclear Power Eyes $2.6bn Shanghai Floatation

A file photograph of a nuclear power station in Daya Bay, southern China.Reuters

State-owned China National Nuclear Power plans to raise $2.61bn through an initial public offering to fuel the world's biggest expansion of civilian nuclear power capacity.

The listing, if approved by China's securities regulator, could be the largest on the mainland since Agricultural Bank of China's (ABC) floatation in July 2010. However, Guotai Junan Securities could take that honour after applying for an IPO to raise 22bn yuan, Reuters reported.

State-owned China National Nuclear, in a preliminary prospectus on the regulator's website, said it plans to sell 3.651 billion shares, or 25% of its enlarged capital base, to fund projects and top off working capital.

The planned 16.3bn yuan ($2.61bn, £1.55bn, €1.88bn) Shanghai share sale is part of Beijing's push toward cleaner energy.

UBS Securities, Citic Securities and China Securities are the underwriters.

Nuclear Drive

China will beat its goal of having 58 gigawatt (GW) of installed nuclear power capacity by the end of the decade, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) chairman Sun Qin said in March.

CNNC oversees China's civilian and military nuclear programmes.

The world's second-largest economy may build 20 or more nuclear reactors over the next six years, Sun said.

Beijing is embarking on the world's biggest expansion of civilian nuclear power as the regime aims to increase its use of cleaner energy. Simultaneously, the world's most populous nation is looking to expand its power grid by as much as 80% this decade.

China now gets less than 2% of its electricity from 17 nuclear reactors.

Earlier, in March, Chinese premier Li Keqiang said his country would begin construction of a number of hydropower and nuclear power projects.

CNNC in the UK

In December 2013, China Guangdong Nuclear Power (CGNP) and CNNC jointly took a minority stake in the £16bn Hinkley Point project in the UK, in a consortium led by French utility EDF.

Last year, CNNC bagged a contract to build two reactors for the Karachi Coastal Nuclear Power Project in Pakistan. Beijing has committed $6.5bn to finance construction of the $9.59bn undertaking.

China Business Conditions Deteriorate Further in April

A textile factory in Wuhan, Hubei province, China.Reuters

The final reading for HSBC's China manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) survey was 48.1 for April, lower than a flash reading of 48.3, and little moved from March's 48 reading.

The data suggested that business conditions in the world's second-largest economy continued to deteriorate in April. The 50 threshold divides expanding activity from a contraction.

Beijing will release April trade data on 8 May.

Asian Markets

Downbeat PMI figures weighed on Asian equities on 5 May.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng average was trading 1.33% lower while the Shanghai Composite was down 0.08% at 06:58 GMT.

Singapore's Straits Times index was 0.06% lower while Australia's ASX finished 0/08% higher.

Asia witnessed thin trade with markets in Japan and South Korea shut on 5-6 May for holidays.

Hongbin Qu, chief economist, China & Co-Head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC said in statement: "...The latest data implied that domestic demand contracted at a slower pace, but remained sluggish. Meanwhile, both the new export orders and employment sub-indices contracted, and were revised down from the earlier flash readings. These indicate that the manufacturing sector, and the broader economy as a whole, continues to lose momentum.

"Over the past few days, Beijing has introduced more reform measures which could support growth by inducing more private sector investment. We think bolder actions will be required to ensure the economy regains its momentum."

Capital Economics said in a note to clients: "[5 May's] lower than expected reading is a sign that conditions in the manufacturing sector remain challenging.

"Nonetheless, it is the first improvement in the index since October, which alongside the second successive pick-up in the official manufacturing PMI announced last week, suggests that downward pressure on the economy has eased somewhat."

Barclays Capital said in a note: "The final reading of the April global manufacturing confidence, based on US ISM, China NBS and PMI data from most of the regions (some will be released only early next week, due to holidays), showed an unexpected decline in the global index, to -0.28 from -0.23.

"The details reveal no major surprises for the key regions, though; as indicated by our preliminary reading from last week, based solely on the US, the euro area and China, global sentiment seems to have improved in April."

"However, manufacturing activity in Japan (which was not included in the 'flash' estimate, but will be starting this month, with Markit's newly released 'flash' Japanese manufacturing PMI), dropped significantly in April (presumably reflecting post-VAT hike response), which was sufficient to drive the global index down overall," the British firm added.

Government Data

Results from HSBC's survey contradict those from an earlier government PMI survey.

Activity in China's factories was a tad better in April, over March, but export orders dropped, government data showed on 1 May.

The official PMI rose to 50.4 in April from March's 50.3, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, the first indicator of a weak start in the second quarter.

The latest government reading was slightly below economists' expectations but remained above the 50 threshold.

China Busts 'Military Spy Ring' Run by Unnamed Foreign Country

China cracks ‘military spy ring’ run by unnamed foreign countryReuters

China has said it has busted a military spy ring run by 40 people for an unnamed foreign country and has sentenced one of the leakers to jail for ten years.

The foreign spy, surnamed Li, was part of the wider spy network, which recruited Chinese nationals through the internet to leak China's military secrets, said the country's state media.

The suspect is said to have leaked 13 highly classified documents to a foreign spy, who contacted Li and several others under the disguise "Feige" or "Flying Brother" in Chinese.

Citing the department of state security in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, the China News Service said Li had provided internal military publications via the country's National Library for "a long time".

"This presented a grave danger to the security of our country's military," the report said.

He is also claimed to have transmitted a large number of photos of military installations in Guangdong.

The "Feige" is said to have contacted 12 others through a popular social media platform in the same province and more than 40 people across China with a similar offer to provide China's military secrets in exchange for money.

The report has not named the foreign country which reportedly attempted to penetrate China's military secrets.

The latest crackdown follows the release of a report by China's Central Military Commission, which is headed by President Xi Jinping, calling for better protection of classified military documents.