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One of the biggest questions Egypt faces, if it is to embark on a meaningful process of democratic transition, is who will oversee the required legislative, constitutional, and institutional reforms. In other words, how is it possible to create a legitimate, rights-respecting government out of the discredited status quo?

Could the current National Democratic Party-dominated parliament — itself the product of rigged elections — really be counted on to amend the constitution and change laws that have allowed the party to exclude other voices? Could a reconfigured version of the current government, delegitimized by decades of repression, torture and emergency rule, credibly supervise the police and other government agencies in providing security during elections?

Some answers might be found in Peru, which successfully navigated a similar transition not too long ago. After the collapse of President Alberto Fujimori’s mafia-like, authoritarian government in 2000, an interim government led by the president of Congress, Valentín Paniagua, not only oversaw new elections that were widely viewed as free and fair, but also took major steps to re-establish the rule of law and respect for human rights in the country.

The interim government established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that brought to light thousands of abuses against civilians during the country’s internal armed conflict. It also established an office for an independent anti-corruption prosecutor, which exposed the workings of the Fujimori government and brought many of the worst offenders — including, years later, Fujimori himself — to account, in trials that were generally considered fair. After years of systematic corruption, ruling party control of state institutions, and human rights violations, Peru made a clean break with the repression of the past and started a new chapter.

But this successful outcome was far from certain at first. It was only possible because of two key factors: First Replica Tag heuer watches, the total discrediting of the previous leadership. And second, the independence and public legitimacy of the interim government.

The immediate trigger for Fujimori’s fall was a huge corruption scandal, in which videotapes surfaced of his close adviser, Vladimiro Montesinos, bribing an opposition congressman to switch to Fujimori’s side. The scandal came on the heels of large protests over what were widely perceived as fraudulent elections in 2000, as well as increasing public dissatisfaction with the Fujimori government’s corrupt infiltration of every state institution, including the Congress, military and the judiciary, as well as much of the media. Many of his cronies were exposed in bribe-taking schemes. So by the time Fujimori fled, they had also been completely discredited in the eyes of the public.

The public rejection extended to Fujimori’s hand-picked vice-president, who decided to step down after Fujimori’s departure. The US Ambassador to Peru at the time, John Hamilton, said later that he encouraged the vice-president to step aside, even though the United States had been linked to Montesinos and lost much public credibility by backing Fujimori until the last minute.

With Fujimori’s entire network of collaborators suddenly falling apart, the path was clear for Paniagua, next in the chain of succession, to make the necessary changes. Peru was fortunate in that the public and all political parties perceived Paniagua as independent, inclusive and honest. He increased public confidence by staffing his government with highly respected figures, such as Javier Pérez de Cuellar, the Peruvian former secretary-general of the United Nations, prominent civil society leaders who had long criticized the Fujimori government Replica Cartier watches, and respected academics. Paniagua also refused to run for president. Perhaps most important: the members of the interim government were clearly committed to making human rights and the rule of law a top priority, above and beyond partisan interests.

Is a similar path possible in Egypt? That’s not yet clear. While Mubarak and the NDP appear to be thoroughly discredited in the public eye, they are clinging to power. And the official chain of succession appears to be completely in their hands. If the transition is led by Mubarak, or those close to him who have a stake in perpetuating the status quo, the way forward will be much trickier, a constant struggle between those calling for meaningful change and those who would seek to undermine it.

But the events of last few days suggest that Egypt does have many independent voices, willing and ready to come together to pursue a common cause. And should a truly independent interim government — one that is serious about making Egypt a country that respects its citizens’ rights — lead the way forward, Egypt’s democratic transition may have a real chance at success.

Maria McFarland is deputy Washington director for Human Rights Watch.

City travel and shopping go together like frick and frack. But in today’s era of personalization and customization, there’s nothing like tailor-made clothing. I’ve had garments constructed and altered in Amsterdam Replica Tag heuer Watches, New York and of course Hong Kong and been pleased with my unique take-backs to the States. Beyond the usual HK or Milan tailor trek, every true gent knows that getting suited up in London’s Savile Row is the ultimate.

Not too long ago Replica Cartier watches, Rizzoli released a beautiful book called Bespoke: The Men’s Style of Savile Row by James Sherwood, and I had the chance to read it and learn about the pop culture, history and inner workings of Savile Row, and its vicinity (Bond Street, Cork Street, and so on) — in advance of my upcoming trip to London. Check out my short video (below) on Bespoke and Savile Row.

I took a very learned friend to see the New York City Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet Tuesday night, the first of six performances. Surveying the mayhem at the end, he helpfully observed that if Juliet had only taken a sleeping potion she would still be breathing, however faintly Replica Cartier Watches, which should have been noticeable to all, thus saving a lot of bloodshed.

Happily he was not around four centuries ago to make this observation to Shakespeare because somehow, despite this lapse in logic, Romeo has always been one of the Bard’s most popular and powerful plays. Indeed in the 17th century the most well-thumbed pages of the copy of the First Folio in the library at Oxford were those of this early tragedy.

It seems ironic that in the very anti-romantic 20th century the second most popular retelling of this ultra romantic story should have been created in the ultra-anti-romantic Soviet Union, where government agencies existed to root out bourgeois tendencies in art. The most popular 20th century version, of course, West Side Story, was created right here, and the iconic album cover photograph of Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence running down a street of tenements and garbage cans was shot in the very neighborhood that was razed to create Lincoln Center, where the Peter Martins version of the Prokofiev ballet opened Tuesday night.

Prokofiev’s score is a work of soaring passion. I often wonder if Prokofiev had not been lured back to Russia in the ’30s Replica Breitling Watches, after many years of traveling in cosmopolitan Western cities, whether he would have written such popular works as Romeo, Cinderella or Peter and the Wolf. The compositions of his years in the West were avant-garde. Would he have been tempted to write works for “the masses” if he had not returned to the workers’ paradise (where his wife used to reminisce about their days in Paris while she carried buckets of slops in a gulag.)

Martins’ choreography is essentially straightforward. He delivers the moments of passion as well as the abundant moments of wit skilllfully if not with great force. Not surprisingly, some of his best and most vigorous steps are for the subsidiary male characters — Tybalt, Mercutio and Benvolio. These roles were danced with great abandon and finesse by Gonzalo Garcia, Daniel Ulbricht and Antonio Carmena.

Martins made the piece in 2007 on Sterling Hyltin as Juliet and Robert Fairchild as Romeo, who repeat their roles here. The body of the very slim Hyltin still suggests an adolescent (in the play she is 14.) This helps her convey the sense of a youth carried away by things beyond her comprehension. This emotional vulnerability underlines her elegant dancing.

Similarly, Fairchild conveys a youthful impulsiveness and audacity that give his character an emotional force far beyond the dazzling athleticism of his steps.

Veteran NYCB dancers Darci Kistler and Jock Soto were brought back to dance Juliet’s parents. It seems only yesterday that Kistler was the youngest dancer ever to join the City Ballet and the last muse to inspire Balanchine — but in fact that was 30 years ago. The roles of Lord and Lady Capulet are broadly sketched, and Kistler and Soto perform them with great charm.

The set, by Danish artist Per Kirkeby, has a cartoon quality that does not add much to the overall mood. The costumes, by Kirkeby and Kirsten Lund Nielsen, are suitably festive, especially for the children’s ballet, performed with particular verve by students of the School of American Ballet.

Clotilde Otranto conducted the oddly rearranged and truncated version of the score with great clarity. Martins may not have caught all the emotions in the score, but the story, 400 years young, has a power all its own.

Compiled by ABC News Digital News Associates Jacqueline Fernandez, Jayce Henderson and Desk Assistant Amanda VanAllen

2012 ELECTIONS:
ABC News’ Michael Falcone, Emily Friedman, Gregory Simmons and Arlette Saenz: “GOP Candidates Tout Conservative Bona Fides At South Carolina Forum” On a day usually marked by end-of-summer barbecues, five presidential candidates came here on Labor Day for a grilling of a different kind. Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain spent the afternoon in front of a panel of three conservative inquisitors, including Tea Party icon, Sen. Jim DeMint. LINK

Los Angeles Times’ Shane Goldmacher: “Poll illustrates California voters’ anger” California voters are increasingly downcast about the direction of the country, but — like their leaders in Washington — many would rather adhere to party orthodoxy than compromise to address the current economic problems, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Poll shows. The findings offer little guidance for President Obama, who will unveil a jobs package this week that he hopes to push through a polarized Congress. LINK 

PRESIDENT OBAMA:
The Washington Post’s Jon Cohen and Dan Balz: “Obama ratings sink to new lows as hope fades” Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. LINK

The New York Times’ Jackie Calmes: “For Obama, a Familiar Labor Day Theme” Labor Day must seem like the movie “Groundhog Day” to President Obama. On Monday, for a third year he celebrated the holiday that honors workers with union members and their families in a political swing state, promising job-creation measures to reduce a 9 percent unemployment rate and calling on the Republican opposition to “put country before party.” LINK

The Hills’ Sam Youngman and Erik Wasson: “Ahead of Thursday’s job speech, Obama blasts House Republicans” With his highly-anticipated jobs speech scheduled for Thursday, President Obama used Labor Day to fire up his base and put Republicans on notice. Obama, speaking to an estimated crowd of 13,000 on the Detroit River here, offered a slight preview of his jobs speech, castigating Republicans for not signing on to infrastructure spending that he will propose on Thursday. LINK

USA Today’s David Jackson: “Obama asks if GOP will ‘put country before party’” President Obama used Labor Day to offer a preview of his big jobs speech later this week, challenging congressional Republicans today to support items that have received bipartisan support in the past. “We’re going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters in Congress,” Obama told a friendly crowd at a labor picnic on Detroit’s waterfront. LINK

REPUBLICANS:
Bloomberg’s Laurel Brubaker Calkins: “Rick Perry Accused of Distorting Congressional Map as Texas Trial Begins” Texas governor and U.S. presidential candidate Rick Perry is to face allegations in a trial starting today that he intentionally distorted congressional districts with the help of Republican lawmakers to prevent Latinos from winning office in the state. Texas gained four seats in Congress after adding almost 4.3 million new residents since 2000, according to the 2010 U.S. census.   LINK

Politico’s Emily Schultheis: “Romney resists tea party lures at S.C. event” Asked by leading conservatives to join them in embracing hard-line conservative positions, Mitt Romney pushed back — and left them thinking about Rick Perry. The former Massachusetts governor’s more moderate stances are one of his main liabilities in the race for the Republican nomination — and here in this staunchly conservative state that hosts a key early primary. LINK

The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Weisman and Naftali Bendavid: “Romney Stakes Out Centrist Ground” Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, seeking to regain his footing after losing his front-runner position, sought to stake out some moderate ground at a Labor Day candidates’ forum here, pushing back on some of the sharply conservative positions his competitors embraced. On the unofficial launch day of the 2012 presidential cycle, Mr. Romney stood out among a slate of candidates who embraced abolishing the Education Department, privatizing Social Security and ending the Federal Reserve’s role in addressing unemployment. LINK

The Boston Globe’s Matt Viser: “Romney, in S.C., courts Tea Party“ Mitt Romney traveled to this conservative state yesterday and stepped up his courtship of Tea Party supporters Replica cartier watches, as the intensifying GOP presidential campaign entered the fall political season. The former Massachusetts governor, who until now has mostly ignored the Tea Party movement, made an appeal to social and religious conservatives in a state in which politics are guided by both.  LINK

OTHER:
The Washington Times’ Luke Rosiak: “For House, budget cuts hit close to home” The House of Representatives that returns Tuesday is 10 percent leaner than a year prior – the result of a pair of mandates requiring largely symbolic cuts to the way it goes about its business enacted since John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, assumed the speaker’s gavel in January. LINK

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WASHINGTON — Discouraging economic data from around the globe have heightened fears that another recession is on the way.

Fresh evidence emerged Thursday that U.S. home sales and manufacturing are weakening. Signs also surfaced that European banks are increasingly burdened by the region’s debt crisis and sputtering economy.

The rising anxiety ignited a huge sell-off in stocks that led many investors to seek the safety of U.S. Treasurys.

Economists say the economic weakness and the stock markets’ wild swings have begun to feed on themselves. Persistent drops in stock prices erode consumer and business confidence. Individuals and companies typically then spend and invest less. And when they do, stock prices tend to fall further.

“A negative feedback loop … now appears to be in the making” in both the United States and Europe, Joachim Fels and Manoj Pradhan, economists at Morgan Stanley Replica cartier watches, said in a report Thursday. Both economies are “dangerously close to a recession. … It won’t take much in the form of additional shocks to tip the balance.”

The risk of a recession is now about one in three, according to Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Among the worrisome economic signs:

— A survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia shows that manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in August by the most in more than two years. The steep drop, on top of a smaller decline in a New York Fed survey this week, means U.S. manufacturing probably contracted in August, economists said.

It would be the first decline since July 2009 — a worrisome sign because manufacturing has been a key source of U.S. growth in the two years since economists say the Great Recession ended.

— U.S. home sales fell in July for the third time in four months, the National Association of Realtors said. Sales dropped 3.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.67 million homes. That’s far below the 6 million homes that economists say must be sold to sustain a healthy housing market.

Sales are lagging behind last year’s pace — the weakest since 1997. “There seems to be a correlation between the stock market and home prices,” said Andrew Davidson, a New York-based mortgage industry consultant.

— In Asia, Japan’s exports fell for a fifth straight month. The world’s No. 3 economy has fallen into a recession since its earthquake and tsunami in March. Its weakness is contributing to the global slowdown.

— Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in July, mostly due to more expensive gas and food. The “core” price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent. The higher prices add to the burdens for Americans already squeezed by stagnant pay, though economists don’t expect prices to rise much further. And gasoline has fallen this month.

Investors are also growing more anxious about Europe’s sputtering economy and its leaders’ ability to resolve the debt crisis. European bank stocks accelerated their fall Thursday.

European banks are being forced to pay more for the short-term loans they need to finance day-to-day operations. Some with heavy exposure to the debts of Greece and other weak countries are relying on loans from the European Central Bank because other private banks are reluctant to do business with them.

The ECB said Thursday that one bank had borrowed $500 million a day for seven days through the ECB’s dollar lending program. It was the first time since February that a bank had used the program. The bank wasn’t identified.

After all the volatility of the past month, the Dow Jones industrial average has lost more than 14 percent since July 21. That includes Thursday’s drop of more than 419 points.

Some sectors of the U.S. economy still show strength. Retail sales are up. Gas prices have fallen. And job growth has been consistent, though below what’s needed to reduce the unemployment rate.

Yet a consumer survey taken this month showed confidence in the economy fell to the lowest level in 31 years.

Morgan Stanley’s calculation of a one-in-three risk of a new recession hinges, in part, on its expectation that Congress will let a Social Security tax cut, a business tax credit and extended unemployment benefits expire at year’s end. It calculates that the expiration of those measures would reduce U.S. growth by 0.5 to 1 percentage point in 2012.

Jitters over the economy and financial markets may also reduce auto sales. That would be a blow to an industry that reported strong profits and healthy hiring earlier this year. J.D. Power and Associates has cut its 2011 sales forecast last week by 2 percent and its 2012 forecast by 3 percent.

On Tuesday, France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held an emergency meeting to discuss the continent’s sluggish economy and debt crisis. Disappointment in the outcome of the meeting has contributed to the sell-off in European bank shares.

“All we got was more taxes and more bureaucracy and more austerity,” said Neil MacKinnon, an economist at VTB Capital in London.

The German economy, Europe’s biggest, slowed to a growth rate of 0.1 percent in the April-June quarter, after expanding at a 1.3 percent rate in the first quarter of this year. France’s growth fell to zero in the April-June period after a 0.9 percent quarterly rate in the first quarter.

Still, Neil Dutta, an economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said that most of the negative indicators, including the Philadelphia Fed index, reflect sentiment, rather than actual economic activity. Measures of the actual economy, like the number of people seeking unemployment benefits, haven’t declined nearly as much.

The number applying for benefits rose 9,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 408,000. The four-week average, a more reliable gauge of the job market, dropped for a seventh straight week to 402,500, the lowest level since April. The report suggests that the economy is creating jobs but not nearly enough to lower the high unemployment rate.

“We are not ready to say this is the death knell for the U.S. economy,” Dutta said. Still, recession risks are rising, he added.

__

AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit and AP Writer Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.

In the administration’s latest attempt to connect with supporters through social media, President Obama participated in a virtual Google+ “hangout” this evening, answering video questions based on his State of the Union address.

While the president largely promoted his economic and domestic agenda, there was a point where the president’s view of the economic recovery collided with the reality of a family’s personal struggle.

Jennifer from Ft. Worth, Texas, asked the president why her husband, a semiconductor engineer who was laid off three years ago, is still struggling to find a job in his field. Obama, seemingly surprised, insisted that there’s evidence of a “huge demand for engineers.”

“We should get his resume and I’ll forward it to some of these companies that are telling me they can’t find enough engineers in this field,” he said.

Jennifer, however, was not convinced about the high demand the president mentioned.

“I understand that, but… we’re not getting that,” she said.

“It is interesting to me … and I meant what I said, if you send me your husband’s resume Replica cartier watches, I’d be interested in finding out exactly what’s happening right there, because the word we’re getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away,” Obama said.

Despite the well-orchestrated and coordinated video “conversation,” there were also plenty of unscripted moments.

At the end of the “hangout,” the participants in the live discussion were encouraged to ask the president a personal question. Jennifer asked Obama to “give us a little jig, real quick.”

“Oh, no dancing,” Obama said, noting that he does “sing every once in a while.”

Then there were the moments of self-promotion. One young medical student offered to be Obama’s doctor, once he’s done with his training, and a technology expert volunteered his services to the president.

Getting in the last word of the event, one woman shouted “I wrote a book.”

Overall, the president spent roughly 45 minutes fielding questions submitted through YouTube and talking directly with people invited to “hang out” and participate in the live online conversation. The video chat capped a week of social media engagement that the White House planned around the State of the Union.

SHOWS: World News

Replica cartier watches

By Jae Hur and Ichiro Suzuki

(Corrects South Korean group’s share in fourth paragraph of story that ran yesterday.)

Feb. 16 (Bloomberg) — Sumitomo Corp., Japan’s third- largest trading house by assets Replica Cartier watches, said the Ambatovy nickel project in Madagascar will start initial production in March.

The project will begin production next month and will have operation rates above 70 percent by the end of this year, Kuniharu Nakamura, managing executive officer, told reporters at a conference today. The mine will produce 60,000 metric tons a year from 2013, he said.

Nickel, used to strengthen stainless steel in everything from kitchen sinks to aircraft-fuel tanks, has climbed 6.6 percent this year after losing 24 percent in 2011 on concern that Europe’s debt crisis may curb global growth and demand in China may slow.

Sumitomo has a 27.5 percent stake in the project, while Canada’s Sherritt International Corp. owns 40 percent and a South Korean group led by Korea Resources Corp., a state-run mineral explorer, has 27.5 percent.

Nickel for three-month delivery fell 0.6 percent to $19,950 a ton at 5:19 p.m. in Tokyo on the London Metal Exchange.

Separately, Sumitomo plans to increase its assets of resources and energy rights, such as copper Replica Rolex watches, zinc, coal, iron ore, oil and gas to 1 trillion yen ($12.7 billion) in two to three years from current 700 billion yen, Nakamura said.

–Editors: Jarrett Banks, Richard Dobson

To contact the reporters on this story: Jae Hur in Tokyo at jhur1@bloomberg.net; Ichiro Suzuki in Tokyo at isuzuki@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Dobson at rdobson4@bloomberg.net

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Replica Cartier watches

Picture: Daniel Radcliffe Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) held at the Royal Opera House – Arrivals London Replica Tag heuer watches, England ….

By Tal Barak Harif and Michael Patterson

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — Options traders are paying the most in 16 months to protect against losses for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. as the drugmaker faces increased competition once the patent for its top-selling treatment expires.

Three-month put contracts to sell Teva’s American depositary receipts cost 30 percent more than calls to buy them on Jan. 13, the biggest so-called skew since Sept. 24, 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Israel’s benchmark TA- 25 Index fell 0.2 percent to 1,131.30 at the close in Tel Aviv. The Bloomberg Israel-US 25 Index of the largest Israeli companies traded in New York advanced 0.5 percent at 9:55 a.m. in New York.

The median analyst estimate for Teva’s 2012 earnings has been cut to $5.61 per American depositary receipt, from $5.79 at the end of August. Investors are concerned competitors will erode the company’s market share as the patent for its multiple sclerosis injection Copaxone expires in two years. Sales of the treatment, which accounted for 24 percent of revenue in the third quarter, will probably peak this year at $3.8 billion, Teva said on Dec. 21. Sales were $3.32 billion in 2010.

“For Teva, Copaxone was like winning the lottery — they stumbled upon a huge blockbuster,” said Gilad Alper, an analyst at Excellence Nessuah Investment House Ltd. in Ramat Gan, Israel. “Investors need to ask themselves what are the chances that Teva will win the lottery twice in a row. Teva has to be extremely successful to substitute Copaxone.”

The ratio of outstanding puts to call options on shares of the world’s largest maker of generic drugs rose to a four-month high of 0.76-to-1 on Jan. 12, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Teva’s Tel Aviv shares dropped 0.8 percent to 171 shekels, or the equivalent of $44.86. The New York shares climbed 0.1 percent to $44.92.

Undervalued Teva

Teva’s ADRs are valued at eight times the median 2012 earnings estimate of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, compared with an average of 16 times for pharmaceutical companies in the MSCI World Index Replica Cartier watches, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The company said on Jan. 2 that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s Jeremy Levin will replace Shlomo Yanai as chief executive officer after shares plunged 23 percent last year, the most since 2006. The stock is up 11 percent this year in New York and 12 percent in Tel Aviv.

Petach Tikva, Israel-based Teva said yesterday that a problem found with its Allopurinol gout treatment product in Hong Kong was a “single incident” in only one batch of many Replica Breitling watches, according to an e-mailed statement. The defects were found after the drug, used to treat high levels of uric acid in the body, was analyzed at its plant in Hungary, the company said.

“There is clear concern among investors over the slowing industry growth,” of generic drugs, Randall Stanicky, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Corp. in New York, wrote in an e- mailed report yesterday.

Check Point Earnings

Calls give investors the right to buy a security for a certain amount, the so-called strike price, by a set date. Puts convey the right to sell. Investors use options to guard against fluctuations in the price of securities that they own, to speculate on share-price moves or to bet that volatility, or stock swings, will rise or fall.

Three-month puts to sell Teva’s ADRs cost 29 percent more than calls to buy them yesterday.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. gained the most in six months yesterday, rising 7.8 percent to $54.88 in the second-biggest advance on the Bloomberg Israel-US 25 index after Prolor Biotech Inc.’s 11 percent jump.

The world’s second largest maker of network-security equipment, Check Point reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 84 cents per shares, beating the 81-cent median estimate of 25 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Profit increased to $159.8 million from $137.4 million in the year-earlier period, and revenue rose 12 percent to $356.8 million, the company said in a statement published by Marketwire.

Hack Attack

Check Point reported “a very clean and solid quarter alleviating some recent unfounded concerns about product growth,” Shaul Eyal, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, wrote in an e-mailed report yesterday. “The Check Point story remains on very solid ground, and we believe its high-end appliances could become a growth driver in 2012 and beyond.”

Tel Aviv-based Check Point, whose customers include Hewlett-Packard Co., International Business Machines Corp. and Dell Inc., is benefiting from rising demand for corporate security spending. Websites operated by the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, El Al Israel Airlines Ltd., and First International Bank Ltd. were attacked yesterday by Internet hackers.

Israel, whose population of 7.8 million is similar in size to Switzerland’s, has about 60 companies traded on the Nasdaq, the most of any country outside the U.S. after China. the nation is also home to the largest number of startup companies per capita in the world.

Magic, Xfone

The TA-25 Index has increased 4.2 percent since the start of the year. The Bloomberg Israel-US 25 Index has gained 8.6 percent in 2012, outperforming the Nasdaq Composite Index’s 5.2 percent jump and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index’s 3.2 percent climb.

Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. increased 6.5 percent to $6.25 yesterday, the highest level since July 7. The company’s Tel Aviv shares added 1.7 percent to 23.90 shekels, or the equivalent of $6.27, today. The software developer received an order for its equipment from French biopharmaceutical company Stallergenes SA, according to a PRNewswire statement yesterday.

Xfone Inc. surged 18 percent to 46 cents after its Tel Aviv shares climbed 12 percent yesterday. The Lubbock, Texas-based provider of long-distance communications said it expects fourth- quarter fiber revenue to increase 30 percent to $3.63 million, according to a Business Wire statement. Xfone’s Tel Aviv shares rose 7.3 percent to 1.75 shekels, or 46 cents, today.

–Editors: Marie-France Han, Emma O’Brien, Susan Lerner

To contact the reporters on this story: Tal Barak Harif in New York at tbarak@bloomberg.net; Michael Patterson in London at mpatterson10@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Emma O’Brien at eobrien6@bloomberg.net

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