Suicide bomber kills 7 outside Iraq ministry (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? At least seven people were killed when a suicide car bomber hit Iraq's interior ministry on Monday in the latest attack since a crisis erupted between the Shi'ite-led government and Sunni leaders a week ago.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought the arrest of the Sunni vice president last Monday and asked parliament to fire his own Sunni deputy, triggering turmoil that threatens new sectarian strife just after the last U.S. troops withdrew.

The blast occurred when the bomber drove his vehicle into a security cordon outside the ministry in central Baghdad, detonating an explosion that left dead and wounded on the ground and set fire to nearby vehicles, police said.

A senior police source said authorities believed insurgents were targeting the interior ministry because of the announcement of the arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, charged with running death squads.

Taped confessions of suspects the ministry said were Hashemi's bodyguards were aired on state-run Iraqiya television and other local media on Monday and linked the vice president to killings and attacks on Iraqi government and security officials.

"This is a direct message to us because we are the ones who arrested Tareq al-Hashemi's network and we are the ones who should preserve security in the country," said Ali al-Quraishi, a police lieutenant who monitors checkpoints around Baghdad.

The attack on Bab al-Sharji street followed a wave of explosions on Thursday, including one suicide car bomb and multiple roadside bombs, in mainly Shi'ite areas across the capital in which at least 72 people were killed.

Seven people, including five policemen, were killed and 34 others, including seven policemen, were wounded in the attack on the interior ministry, police and hospital sources said.

"When I went outside I found my colleagues, some of them were killed, others were on the ground, many cars were burned, the policeman on the watchtower looked like he was killed when he was hit in the head," Zaid Raheem, a police guard, said.

The ministry said in a statement that a suicide car bomber had attacked the entrance to its headquarters and killed 3 people and wounded 33.

Hashemi has left Baghdad for semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, where he is unlikely to be handed over to central government officials immediately.

The turmoil threatens to scuttle an uneasy power-sharing government that splits posts among the Shi'ite National Alliance coalition, the mostly Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc and the Kurdish political movement.

CABINET MEETING

A weekly cabinet meeting, expected on Tuesday, is seen as the key test for how the crisis develops, and tensions could rise further if government ministers from Iraqiya decide to boycott the meeting.

Iraqiya lawmakers have already suspended their participation in parliament, which is in recess, though a statement from the party on Sunday said it was willing to take part in talks to try to solve the crisis.

Maliki has warned Hashemi's Iraqiya bloc they face exclusion from power if they walk out on his ruling coalition.

The Sunni minority have felt marginalized since the rise of the Shi'ite majority after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, and many Sunnis feel the political deal has pushed them aside.

Turmoil in Iraq would have a wider impact in a region where a crisis in neighboring Syria is taking on a more sectarian tone and Shi'ite Iran, Turkey and Sunni Arab Gulf states are jockeying for influence.

U.S. officials, diplomats and Iraqi politicians have been in talks to end the dispute that threatens to push Iraq back into the kind of sectarian violence that took the OPEC member to the edge of civil war a few years ago.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke on Sunday with Maliki and Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani about the spat, urging dialogue among leaders, and expressing condolences over violence in Baghdad.

Biden played a diplomatic role during the U.S. military's departure from Iraq, travelling to the country and discussing signs of rising sectarian tension with Iraqi leaders.

U.S. forces withdrew fully from Iraq after almost nine years on December 18.

(Additional reporting by Suadad al-Salhy and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111226/wl_nm/us_iraq_violence

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Christmas Day Blast: Knocks For President Jonathan Over His Insensitive Comment

May we use this medium to apologize to our numerous readers that sent us links and update about the senseless bomb blast that ravaged Nigeria on Christmas day. We are so saddened about the occurrence, and we chose to not spoil your day with the bad news.

Ten hours after the unfortunate incident, Nigeria?s president Goodluck Jonathan summoned the courage to speak about the situation and here is what he has to say:

?The issue of bombing is one of the burdens we must live with until it fizzles out.? (So it has to fizzle out and not tackled?)

Many prominent Nigerians have condemned the incident and here is one that really touched us the most:

Dear Mr. President,

We should say Merry Christmas but we are not your government, we are not in the business of deception. After almost ten hours of gathering your thoughts to speak on the bomb blasts that rocked the nation yesterday, you still fell short of your own very low standards.

What did you intend to say when you said Bomb Blasts are a burden we must live with? Why do you bother to budget over a trillion for security if we must live with the burden of insecurity? How come you are still a president? We do not blame you, we blame our older ones who were stupid enough to think that where you come from and your religion was all you needed to be a competent president.

They are crying now. We all cried yesterday on the darkest Christmas day of our short lives.

While we cried and left Christmas postponed for another year, we watched as you danced your life away like there was no tomorrow. Is it true that all you care about is the fact that you are the president so whatever can happen should happen. Last night we prayed for you. We prayed that the white men should be able to make common sense so that we can budget for it and then you will have it in abundance. As it is, it is obvious sir that you are grossly lacking in common sense.

If you weren?t, you would never come out to tell a mourning nation that it should get ready to live with the burden of destruction and insecurity. That was utterly insensitive and even the dumbest of our mates, fellow Nigerian children would never descend that low to an unprecedented level of cluelessness.

We understand this is not a sane country, if this was a sane country, your ilk will not be in a job. Your security chiefs, yourself and your cabinet would have been throwing resignation letters left right and centre. But then, here is a place where people are satisfied with just being in positions that they are clueless about what to do in such positions does not matter.

?

Mr. President, Boko Haram defeated you in 2011. What plans are you making for 2012? Do you realise they have since improved while your security tactics remain stop and search? Do you realise they are far more coordinated than ever before? Have you thought of engaging more intelligence in curbing this menace instead of just mere brute? Yes, you have issues with concentrating for long, why not budget for a concentrator? That way you are conditioned to at least focus on being the president of Nigeria instead of our national chief chef? You are wondering where that came from? It came from cassava bread sir. You chose the menu for 2012 but we hope you realise that Boko Haram certainly has a menu.

Please Mr. President, they will look to attack again in the New Year, do what you have never done before, get your security chiefs to prevent that by all means. Contrary to your assertion, we are not prepared to live with the burden of bomb blasts. Get yourself to work and stop excusing your inability to deal with Boko Haram on the premise that they are a necessity. What is that? If you cannot lead and be a president, help yourself and resign. Please take your vice-president along. You are a twin set of incompetence.

This letter has been written with kind words, not because we are in the mood to be nice to you but because we are children and respect is a value we want to live with but our lack of it sometimes is a burden you must live with as long as you force us to live with your Boko Haram burden.

We wrote you a letter on subsidy yesterday but we figured it would be better to send this before you get our other letter. As long as your cluelessness reigns supreme in this country, we will always remind you of our angst and stake in this nation. It is not by force to live in Aso Rock. So if you must, do the right things, say the right things and learn to get the basic things right.

The Bomb Blasts darkened our Christmas but your response dampened our mood even further. This is not the way to lead a people. If you need help, we will nominate one of us to offer you words of wisdom for free. As it is, you look overwhelmed by the mere job of providing security for Nigeria let alone the other duties you swore to carry out for Nigeria.

Action point: Sack yourself sir, and take Arc. Namadi Sambo along. It is a good place to start.

We are sure this letter is not written by children, but whosoever wrote it conveys the mind of many hurting Nigerians home and abroad.

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Source: http://www.gistexpress.com/2011/12/26/christmas-day-blast-knocks-for-president-jonathan-over-his-insensitive-comment/

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Audi CEO: Auto industry faces tougher year in 2012 (Reuters)

Ingolstadt, GERMANY (Reuters) ? The automotive industry faces a tougher year in 2012 than it has done this year, Audi (NSUG.DE) Chief Executive Rupert Stadler told Reuters in an interview for release on Sunday.

"But this should not be a reason to fall into pessimism," he said, adding that the automotive industry will continue to grow over the next 10 years thanks to the enormous appetite for mobility among people in developing economies.

Stadler also denied speculation in the German media that he might be a successor for Audi parent Volkswagen's (VOWG_p.DE) CEO, Martin Winterkorn, when he steps down at the end of 2016.

He said he expects China's automotive market to grow 8 to 9 percent, with its premium segment expanding 20 percent or even 30 percent, though he did not give a timeframe.

Audi is the market leader in the luxury segment in China, well ahead of German rivals BMW (BMWG.DE) and Daimler AG's (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes.

Stadler, who has set a goal of making Audi the world's top premium car maker by 2015, told Reuters carmakers have a better chance of growing in the premium segment because emerging markets like China will produce a crop of millionaires in dollar terms.

Audi is aiming for the top position in the United States, which has the world's biggest premium segment at nearly 2 million cars, he said. The company currently runs behind both BMW and Mercedes in that market.

He said a new production plant there would help, but it was still unclear where the facility would be based.

He noted that wages in Mexico were cheaper than in the United States, where parent Volkswagen already has a factory. But he said if Audi were to join the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, "the investments would certainly be somewhat less," although exporting cars out of the United States would have high customs fees.

NO VW PLANS

Asked if he would like to be the successor to VW's Winterkorn, Stadler replied: "No," adding he wanted to remain at Audi.

"I have many things to do here," he said.

Like Ferdinand Piech, the current supervisory board chairman of Volkswagen, Winterkorn was Audi Chief Executive before becoming head of the executive board of Europe's biggest carmaker.

Stadler has been Audi CEO since 2007 and last year became a Volkswagen board member. Unlike Piech and Winterkorn, who both studied to become engineers, Stadler graduated with a business management degree.

Volkswagen works council head Bernd Osterloh told a German newspaper the company could miss its internal outlook for vehicle sales in 2012, without saying how much growth the company expects.

"The reason would be weakness in southern European markets," he told Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published on Saturday.

"But in exchange, we have good chances of selling more cars than before in Latin America, North America and Russia," he said.

(Writing By Marilyn Gerlach; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Mike Nesbit)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111225/bs_nm/us_audi_ceo

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Job growth is lifting hopes for consumer spending (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Consumer spending and incomes barely rose last month. Business investment has slowed. New-home sales remain dismal.

Despite all that, some economists say a brightening job market is lifting their hopes for 2012. More aggressive hiring, the thinking goes, would fuel enough spending to boost the economy.

Economists point to another drop reported this week in applications for unemployment benefits, the third straight decline. Applications are now at their lowest level since April 2008. The trend is signaling that layoffs have all but stalled and that employers may be ready to step up hiring.

Unemployment, after hovering around 9 percent for more than two years, dropped in November to 8.6 percent. Employers have added at least 100,000 jobs each month from July through November. It's the best such streak since 2006.

Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said he expects the economy to grow at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the current October-December quarter. That would be the best performance in a year.

More jobs would mean more income. More pay tends to raise consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of the economy. Companies then have reason to increase hiring to meet stronger demand.

"We are hopeful that the plunge in jobless claims signals exactly that," Shepherdson said in a research note Friday.

Chris G. Christopher Jr., senior economist at IHS Global Insight, noted that many households are still struggling with slight or no pay increases.

"But gasoline prices have been falling, and that is giving them more money to spend on other items," he said.

The government said Friday that consumer spending rose just 0.1 percent in November, matching the increase in October. Incomes also rose a scant 0.1 percent.

Modest as they were, economists said the figures at least signaled that incomes and spending aren't stalling.

Healthier economic data in recent weeks have helped make the prospect of another U.S. recession seem more remote ? as long as Europe's debt crisis doesn't trigger a catastrophe that infects the global economy.

Some economists trimmed their forecasts for growth based on the weaker-than-expected consumer spending data for November. But they said they still expected the economy to expand at a solid annual rate of 3 percent in the current October-December quarter. It would be the best showing since the spring of 2010.

"We are seeing some momentum going into the new year," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial. "At least we are not in a tight spot where we are still worried about relapsing into recession."

Hoffman said that a major source of uncertainty for 2012 was removed this week with Congress' agreement to extend a Social Security tax cut for 160 million workers ? for two months, anyway.

As part of the deal, Congress also renewed benefits for the long-term unemployed. If that hadn't happened, millions of unemployed people would have begun to lose weekly checks averaging about $300 ? the main source of income for most of them.

And if the payroll tax cut and the long-term unemployment benefits hadn't been renewed for 2012, economists said the modest growth of around 2.5 percent they expect next year would have been a full percentage point lower.

On Friday, the government also released a cautionary report on U.S. manufacturing. Companies' demand for long-lasting manufactured goods rose by the most in four months in November. But so-called core capital goods, a gauge of business investment spending, dropped for a second straight month.

Still, analysts said that with demand for items such as autos still strong, they expect further gains in factory orders and production.

In a third report, sales of new homes rose 1.6 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 315,000. Even with that small gain, 2011 is likely to end up as the worst year for new-home sales on records dating to 1963.

More significant for the economy was Friday's report on incomes and spending in November. The scant income gain reflected a decline in wages and salaries. They are the biggest component of incomes.

The sluggish rise in spending was held back by a 0.3 percent drop in spending on non-durable goods such as food, clothing and gasoline. Spending on durable goods rose 0.8 percent. The gain reflected solid auto sales in November.

Spending on services rose a modest 0.1 percent. This category includes such items as medical treatments and rent, The consumer spending report covers all items that households buy, including services, which make up about two-thirds of spending.

After-tax incomes showed no growth in November. The savings rate dipped to 3.5 percent of after-tax incomes, the lowest rate since late 2007. That shows consumers are having to tap their savings to finance their spending because of the weak income growth.

The best antidote for that would be an increase in hiring now that fewer people are being laid off.

"The jobless claims data point to stronger jobs growth emerging," said John Ryding, an economist at RDQ Economics.

___

AP Economics Writer Derek Kravitz contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_on_re_us/us_economy

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