By Shadia Nasralla CAIRO (Reuters) - "Gangs of New York" seems a fitting favourite movie for Egypt's new culture minister, a film studies professor who styles himself an outsider fighting to break the hold of a privileged elite over spending on the arts. Artists enraged that he fired the head of Cairo Opera, and fearing Muslim puritans may ban ballet, have barricaded Alaa Abdel Aziz from entering his own ministry.

Foreign direct investment into Arab states rose by 9.8 percent last year despite unrest in some of them but remained well below its level in 2010, when the Arab Spring, a report said on Tuesday. Arab states attracted FDI worth $47.1 billion (35.4 billion euros) in 2012 compared with $42.9 billion the previous year, the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp said in its annual report. But that was 28.5 percent lower than the figure of $66.2 billion in 2010, said the Kuwaiti-based organisation.

The flow of foreign direct investment into Arab states, including those hit by uprisings, rose by 9.8 percent last year despite the unrest but remained well below their 2010 level, a report said on Tuesday. Arab states attracted FDI worth $47.1 billion in 2012 compared with $42.9 billion the previous year, the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation said in its annual report. However, the investment rate was 28.5 percent lower than its level of $66.2 billion in 2010, the year when the Arab Spring uprisings first erupted, said the Kuwaiti-based organisation.

President Mohamed Morsi has replaced 17 of Egypt's governors, including the choice in Luxor of a member of an Islamist party linked to a deadly attack on tourists in the ancient temple city, reports said Monday. Among the new appointees were members of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails, the reports said, in a move that tightens the group's grip on key administrative and security posts. The reshuffle -- which affects all but 10 of Egypt's 27 regions -- comes less than a fortnight before opposition protests demanding the departure of the Islamist president.