1. Two bombs kill at least 16 in Baghdad: police


    “I heard a bomb … I went to the scene to see what happened with some people. Soon after, 100 meters away, a taxi exploded,” Mohammed Khadim, a witness said at a local hospital. “There were casualties lying in the street.”At least 16 people were killed in the two blasts and about 40 more were wounded, police and interior sources said.Sadr City, an impoverished neighborhood in northeastern Baghdad, is the Shi’ite stronghold of radical anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi militia once fought U.S. and Iraqi troops. He is now a key ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the heights of sectarian fighting in 2006-2007, but attacks still occur daily as the last U.S. troops prepare to withdraw from Iraq at the end of 2011, more than eight years after the U.S. invasion.Suicide bombers and roadside blasts killed at least 28 people on Wednesday across Baghdad. The attacks mostly targeted police stations and patrols.At least 10 people were killed on Monday, in three blasts in the mainly Shi’ite Washash district of the capital. The first was followed by two more explosions when emergency services arrived on the scene.The last 41,000 U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw when a bilateral security pact ends but Baghdad and Washington are in talks to decide whether troops stay on as trainers after that.

  2. UPDATE 1-Debt crisis is top risk to German economy - institutes


    * See German inflation dropping to 1.8 pct in 2012 (Adds details, background)By Sarah MarshBERLIN, Oct 13 (Reuters) - The greatest risk to Germany’s economy is a worsening of the European debt crisis which could lead to tighter credit conditions, leading economic institutes said on Thursday in their keenly-eyed twice-yearly report.The eight institutes, which are seen as influential policy advisers to the German government, cut their growth forecast for Europe’s bulwark economy to 0.8 percent next year. In April, they had forecast 2.0 percent.”The debt crisis in Europe is threatening to become a banking crisis which is increasingly weighing on the German economy too,” the institutes said.”The strongly increased uncertainty will dampen domestic demand and foreign trade will probably no longer contribute to the expansion due to the difficult situation of important trade partners.”Germany’s export-driven economy has recovered swiftly from the financial crisis, outperforming its peers and providing a crucial growth engine and anchor of stability for Europe.Recent indicators however show German growth easing due to the global slowdown and the euro zone’s debt crisis. Industry output, orders and retail sales slumped in August.Forward-looking indicators are also gloomy, with business sentiment dipping to its lowest level since mid-2010 in September, and analyst sentiment dropping to its lowest level in nearly three years.However, an unexpectedly strong start to the year will likely compensate for a weaker second half, and the institutes slightly raised their 2011 growth forecast to 2.9 percent from 2.8 percent.They were also more upbeat on inflation, which presented a challenge to the European Central Bank this year as it sought to balance monetary policy for struggling debtor economies and for booming Germany.The institutes saw German inflation dropping to 1.8 percent next year from 2.3 percent in 2011. Data last month showed inflation jumping unexpectedly to a three-year high of 2.6 percent in September.Due to lower inflation expectations and the growing risk of a European recession, the European Central Bank will likely cut interest rates to 1.0 percent, the institutes said.The institutes see unemployment continuing to fall despite the generally worsening outlook. The jobless rate will likely fall to 6.7 percent in 2012, from 7.0 percent in 2011.Germany’s government plans to publish its own economic forecasts on Oct. 20, which will serve as the basis for its November tax estimates and the budget planning.For a factbox on recent revisions to forecasts for German economic growth, please click on

  3. UPDATE 4-US takes action against execs of failed Calif. bank


    * UCB was 9th biggest bank failure during crisisBy Dan Levine and Sarah N. LynchSAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Two former executives of a bank that received a $300 million federal bailout before its collapse during the financial crisis are facing criminal and civil fraud charges for their role in trying to conceal loan losses.Ebrahim Shabudin and Thomas Yu, the former chief operating officer and first vice president respectively at San Francisco-based United Commercial Bank, face four criminal counts, according to an indictment unveiled on Tuesday.The bank’s former chief executive, Thomas Wu, faces civil charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as do Shabudin and Yu.UCB, the ninth-largest bank to fail during the financial crisis, catered to California’s Asian community and expanded rapidly before regulators closed it in 2009.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation also said it is seeking to prohibit 10 former UCB officers from further participation in the banking industry. Three additional officers who cooperated in the investigation consented to prohibition orders, it said.Before his court appearance on Tuesday, Shabudin was led down a hallway in the San Francisco federal courthouse, the last in a line of shackled prisoners. Shabudin was the only detainee in line not wearing a prison jumper.Yu, who appeared in a suit, was not detained during his court appearance.Neither Shabudin nor Yu entered a plea before a U.S. magistrate, and each was released on a $500,000 bond.”This is an ongoing criminal investigation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Reeves said in court.Shabudin’s lawyer James Lassart declined to comment after the court hearing. Yu’s lawyer George Cotsirilos Jr. was not immediately available for comment.The SEC complaint alleges that Wu, Shabudin and Yu concealed loan losses from investors, leading the bank to understate its 2008 operating losses by about $65 million.Wu was chief executive of UCB from 1998 through September 2009, the SEC lawsuit said. He appeared in a list of 25 notable Chinese-Americans recognized in Forbes Asia magazine in 2008.”Hundreds of banks failed in the financial crisis, and the regulators need to blame someone,” Wu’s attorney, Steven Bauer, said in a statement. “When the full facts are revealed, Thomas Wu is counting on our justice system to clear his good name.”United Commercial Bank received a $298.7 million bailout from the U.S. government in November 2008. One year later, regulators shut down the bank and its operations were taken over by East West Bancorp .None of the TARP funds have been repaid, according to the indictment. The collapse also led to a $2.5 billion loss to the FDIC fund that backs customer deposits.The FDIC cited a lack of management oversight as a primary reason for UCB’s failure, according to a 2010 government report.The indictment charges Shabudin and Yu with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, falsifying corporate books and records, and making false statements to the accountants of a public company.Shabudin said in court that he currently works as a consultant for Capco, which provides business and technology advice for the financial services industry. Capco spokeswoman Diana Buxton said in an email that Shabudin has been placed on administrative leave, and that the allegations only relate to Shabudin’s former employer.Yu and Shabudin are scheduled to be arraigned in court on Oct. 20.

  4. Big losses for John Paulson


    Today’s special report “The perils of Paulson” takes a look at hedge fund king John Paulson, who shot to fame by calling the U.S. housing market crash in 2007, and making a lot of money out of it. This year, his funds are not doing so well. This graphic tells the story — while Paulson may have reduced his stakes in the companies concerned, the size of his holdings will have made it difficult to unload in full. Read the story in multimedia PDF format here: http://link.reuters.com/zum23s

  5. Big losses for John Paulson


    Today’s special report “The perils of Paulson” takes a look at hedge fund king John Paulson, who shot to fame by calling the U.S. housing market crash in 2007, and making a lot of money out of it. This year, his funds are not doing so well. This graphic tells the story — while Paulson may have reduced his stakes in the companies concerned, the size of his holdings will have made it difficult to unload in full. Read the story in multimedia PDF format here: http://link.reuters.com/zum23s