Screenshots

UPDATED VERSION. AFP quoted Tom Casey, spokesman for the US State Department, as saying this pertaining to "politically-motivated" investigation or "prosecution" of Anwar Ibrahim:

"The main point for us is that the rule of law needs to stand above politics. And we would certainly oppose any use of law enforcement or judicial procedures for anything other than legitimate purposes of the law."

We, too, certainly hope that there's not a sinister pattern here.

Market retreat

Meanwhile, investors are obviously sitting on the sideline to wait out the outcome of two key events:

( 1 ) The meeting between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail at the premier's office in Parliament at 5.00pm. Assurance of Anwar's safety is the only agenda.

( 2 ) Earlier at 3.00pm, Anwar Ibrahim went to the Shah Alam police headquarters to personally lodge a police report against Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan and Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, alleging that they concocted evidence for his corruption and sodomy trials in 1998 and 1999. This is as good as re-opening the 'Black Eye' files.

[ See Anwar's Police Report in full here. ]

By noon, headline index on Bursa Malaysia shedded another 6.81 points to 1,179.76 points -- this is a hairline away, or 6.54 points, from the market close of 1,173.22 points level on the Monday after the March 8 general election.

Midday transaction was thin with only 134.14 million shares worth RM271.07 million changing hands. Tally: 335 losers, 129 gainers, 206 traded unchanged.

The market appears jittery.