With "credible" 9/11 threat, NY mounts major operation (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New York police will mount a major counterterrorism operation during Friday's evening rush hour as U.S. officials rush to check credible, but unconfirmed intelligence about a 9/11 anniversary plot, a senior law enforcement official told Reuters.

The operation will involve a "big show of force" which will include officers armed with heavy weapons patrolling subways and stepped up security and bag checks at major subway and commuter train stations, including Grand Central and Pennsylvania station terminals, the official said. Law enforcement agencies in neighboring states were also involved.

While the operation had been planned some time ago, the forces and tactics deployed will be stepped up after local and federal authorities received what they described as "specific and credible" but unconfirmed intelligence about a possible threat to attack the United States by Islamic militants timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

Intelligence about the anniversary threat only surfaced during the course of this week and included possible threats of attacks targeting subways or commuter trains or possible car bomb attacks in New York or Washington, U.S. officials said.

Vice President Joseph Biden said on ABC's "Good Morning America" program on Friday morning: "We don't have the smoking gun but we do have talk about using a car bomb."

One of the officials said the threat is believed to come from militants following an al Qaeda ideology. But it is not certain whether there is a direct connection to what remains of al Qaeda's battered core leadership.

Officials have said that U.S. law enforcement agencies are on the lookout for three possible suspects, though it is unclear how much, if any, precise information regarding the suspects' identities is available to U.S. authorities.

"We have to be concerned. Terrorism is theater and this is a stage, right now probably the world's biggest stage," said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

"We have the opening of the 9/11 memorial, the president and two former presidents here, obviously a lot of high profile public officials will be here, so we have to be concerned," Kelly told CNN.

On Thursday, President Barack Obama ordered a redoubling of U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the face of a "credible but unconfirmed" threat before the September 11 attacks anniversary.

SUSPECTS LINKED TO AL QAEDA

U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the threat involved Washington and New York City, which were targeted in al Qaeda attacks a decade ago this Sunday that killed nearly 3,000 people.

A counterterrorism official said intelligence pointed to possible car bomb attacks and added the threat information came from Pakistan's tribal areas. A manhunt was under way for two or three suspects, who one person familiar with the matter said were suspected of having links to al Qaeda.

But U.S. officials used strong caveats when discussing the threat information privately, with a national security official cautioning that experts thought the threat would ultimately not check out.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stressed at a news conference on Friday that the threat had not been corroborated, even as he announced heightened security measures "some of which you may notice, some of which you may not notice."

Bloomberg asked citizens to go about their daily routines as usual but report any suspicious or dangerous activity. "Over the next three days we should all keep our eyes wide open."

The White House said Obama was briefed on specific threat information on Thursday morning, and said the government had already heightened security before the anniversary.

BACK TO BIN LADEN COMPOUND

Documents discovered in Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after he was killed in a raid in May by Navy SEALs, highlighted his persistent interest in attacking the United States around the anniversary of the 2001 attacks. But it is unclear if the plans ever evolved beyond aspiration.

"As we know from the intelligence gathered following the Osama bin Laden raid, al Qaeda has showed an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11," said Jan Fedarcyk with the FBI's New York field office.

Kelly announced measures including more bag inspections on the subway, more bomb-sniffing dogs on patrol and increased deployment of radiation monitoring equipment.

"There will be increased focus on tunnels and bridges and infrastructure in general, as well as landmark locations, houses of worship and government buildings," he said.

A law-enforcement source played down an ABC News report about missing rental trucks -- saying the vehicles had been recovered and there was no connection to terrorism.

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, Alister Bull and JoAnne Allen in Washington and Michelle Nichols in New York; editing by Anthony Boadle)

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Major Yahoo shareholder calls for new board (Reuters)

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Regulator to sue major banks over mortgages (Reuters)

By Margaret Chadbourn and Jonathan Stempel Margaret Chadbourn And Jonathan Stempel – 1?hr?59?mins?ago

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. regulator will soon file lawsuits against major banks accusing them of bundling subprime home loans into bonds that never should have been sold to investors and causing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lose billions, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The lawsuits by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will deepen the mortgage litigation morass for banks. A spokeswoman for the regulator declined to comment on the pending lawsuits.

The biggest banks are negotiating with all 50 state attorneys general to address mortgage abuses. The banks are looking for a comprehensive settlement that will protect them from future litigation.

Major banks including Bank of America Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co already face potential payouts of tens of billions of dollars to settle regulatory charges of abusive mortgage lending and foreclosure practices, and other investor lawsuits over mortgage debt losses.

These payouts would reduce earnings and weaken capital levels, perhaps harming the ability of banks to lend money and provide much-needed life to a stalled housing market and weakened economy.

The source declined to name the banks to be sued by the FHFA, but The New York Times reported that they include Bank of America, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and others. Representatives of those banks declined to comment.

The banks have been walloped by mortgage losses, but so have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are under government conservatorship after having previously been owned by public shareholders. The two entities guarantee bonds backed by mortgages and are a crucial pillar for the U.S. housing finance system.

The FHFA is charged with protecting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's assets. The lawsuits are part of the efforts of the acting FHFA director, Edward DeMarco, to protect taxpayer funds and would aim to recover billions of dollars which the two government-sponsored enterprises have lost from subprime mortgage bonds, according to another source familiar with the matter.

A BLIZZARD

The blizzard of litigation against banks is hurting share prices in the sector because investors feel unable to estimate with any certainty the ultimate scope of a given bank's legal liabilities.

Bank of America, for example, had intended its proposed $8.5 billion settlement in June with investors in Countrywide mortgage securities to resolve most litigation tied to its disastrous 2008 takeover of that home loan provider.

But many parties are objecting to that settlement, and the deal didn't stop the insurer American International Group Inc from suing Bank of America for $10 billion over its own alleged mortgage securities losses.

Nor did it stop Nevada's attorney general from threatening to withdraw from an $8.4 billion nationwide settlement with the bank. The AG now wants to sue the bank, accusing it of reneging on promises to modify mortgages.

Other banks also face mortgage lawsuits. In May, for example, the U.S. Justice Department sued Deutsche Bank, accusing it of misleading a U.S. housing agency into believing loans it made qualified for federal insurance.

The FHFA's lawsuits would follow an initial lawsuit in July against UBS AG seeking to recover $900 million of losses incurred on $4.5 billion of debt.

The New York Times reported that the FHFA is set to file lawsuits against major banks by Tuesday, before a three-year deadline to file cases expires.

FHFA and various investors have alleged that banks packaged residential home loans into securities sold to investors, after having failed to conduct adequate due diligence, and hiding or misstating the quality of the underlying loans and underwriting, as well as borrowers' ability to make payments.

As more borrowers fell behind or went into foreclosure, the value of securities backed by their loans fell, causing losses for investors.

According to The New York Times, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lost more than $30 billion, in part as a result of these securities.

Banks have argued in other cases that it was the market rather than their own activity that was responsible for much of the investors' losses.

As in the AIG lawsuit, the banks have also sometimes claimed that the investors suing them were sophisticated enough to know the debt they bought had the risks that came to pass.

Losses stemming from the precipitous deterioration in subprime and other mortgages pushed the government to take over Fannie and Freddie on September 7, 2008. Since then, taxpayers have spent more than $140 billion to keep the firms afloat.

(Reporting by Margaret Chadbourn in Washington and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Wilchins, Matthew Lewis and John Wallace)

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Major stock indexes fall more than 1 percent (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks sold off on Friday afternoon with all three major stock indexes dropping more than 1 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 122.04 points, or 1.11 percent, at 10,868.54. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 11.86 points, or 1.04 percent, at 1,128.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 27.20 points, or 1.14 percent, at 2,353.23.

(Reporting by Angela Moon, Editing by Jan Paschal)

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Kvitova beats Sharapova at Wimbledon for 1st major (AP)

WIMBLEDON, England – One might reasonably have expected Petra Kvitova, not Maria Sharapova, to be betrayed by nerves in the Wimbledon final.

This was, after all, Kvitova's first Grand Slam championship match, while Sharapova already owned three major titles, including one from the All England Club. So Kvitova decided to pretend she was heading out on Centre Court to play in the fourth round.

That mindset worked. So, too, did nearly everything Kvitova tried once play began, particularly her big, flat left-handed groundstrokes that pushed Sharapova back on her heels. In a surprisingly lopsided final, Kvitova beat the higher-seeded, yet shakier, Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 Saturday to win Wimbledon for her first Grand Slam trophy.

"I was surprised how I was feeling on the court," Kvitova said, "because I was focused only on the point and on the game and not on the final."

If there were those who wondered how the eighth-seeded Kvitova would handle the setting and the pressure, her coach did not.

Indeed, David Kotyza had an inkling his new pupil possessed the right stuff to win titles shortly after they began working together about 2 1/2 years ago. That's because he was wowed by the several pages of handwritten answers Kvitova supplied for a questionnaire he gave her back then — and has kept to this day.

"I was really surprised about how she thinks about tennis, how clever she is. She told me her advantages, disadvantages, what she has to improve," Kotyza said, then pointed a finger to his temple and added: "Her brain is a big advantage for this game."

When she was a kid growing up in Fulnek, Czech Republic — population: 6,000 — and practicing an hour or so after school each day, Kvitova didn't count on becoming a professional tennis player. She simply wasn't that good, yet. Clearly, she's a quick study.

Before Wimbledon in 2010, Kvitova's career record on grass was 0-4. She is 16-2 on the slick surface since, including a run to the semifinals here last year before losing to Serena Williams.

At 21, Kvitova is the youngest Wimbledon champion since — you guessed it — Sharapova was 17 in 2004. Kvitova is also the first Czech to win the tournament since Jana Novotna in 1998.

Plus, Kvitova is only the third left-handed woman to win the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. The last was Martina Navratilova, who won her ninth Wimbledon title in 1990, a few months after Kvitova was born.

"I'm thrilled for her. She played brave tennis, and she deserved to win. She was by far the better player," said Navratilova, who was born in Czechoslovakia and sat near Novotna in the Royal Box on Saturday. "I don't think this is the only time she'll win here. It's very exciting. A new star."

That last phrase was being uttered by many people around the grounds after Kvitova managed to make Sharapova look rather ordinary.

Consider: Until Saturday, Sharapova had won all 12 sets she played over the last two weeks. But, as Sharapova's coach Thomas Hogstedt summed up afterward: "One played well. The other didn't play well. Maria didn't play as good as she can."

That was, at least in part, Kvitova's doing.

She compiled 19 winners, most by zipping her heavy forehands and backhands from the baseline, where her 6-foot frame and long arms helped her get to seemingly out-of-reach balls.

"She created offensive opportunities from tough positions on the court," Sharapova said. "Sometimes it's just too good."

Kvitova also broke Sharapova five times, anticipating where serves were headed.

It helped that Sharapova double-faulted six times, although at least those were fewer than the 13 the Russian hit in the semifinals.

"She performed incredible. Sometimes, when you don't know what to expect and you don't know how you're going to feel, sometimes you play your best, because you have that feeling of nothing to lose," said the fifth-seeded Sharapova, who was playing in a major final for the first time since right shoulder surgery in October 2008. "She went for it, absolutely."

What really was odd was seeing the experienced and normally gritty Sharapova bothered by distractions such as the swarms of tiny greenflies that showed up Saturday or the occasional clap or yell that came from the stands during points.

Even more stunning was the way Sharapova crumpled at key moments. One example: She double-faulted twice in a row to lose serve and fall behind 4-2 in the first set. Sharapova turned her back to the court and gave herself a little lecture, then smacked herself on her left palm with her racket.

Kvitova — now 4-1 in tournament finals this year — broke again to begin the second set, capping that game with a running forehand that caught the back edge of the baseline. The women exchanged four consecutive breaks in the middle of that set, before Kvitova — not Sharapova — gathered herself.

Ahead 4-3, but trailing 15-30 while serving, Kvitova hit three straight service winners to get to 5-3.

"She served quite hard. Her second serve was pretty big as well. She was going for it, for the second serve," Sharapova said. "I felt like I could have reacted a little bit better."

Credit Kvitova also for being at her steadiest in the most resolve-testing moments. She served out both sets at love, including with a 105 mph ace on match point.

What was running through her head right then?

"I have to do it now," she would say later.

After that last point — one last nerve-free point — Kvitova raised both arms, then dropped to her knees. A raucous celebration ensued in her guest box, including some overzealous chest-bumping that left one man knocked off his feet. Kvitova's allotted seats were completely filled — with her coach, parents, two brothers and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, among others — while Sharapova's section had only her agent, coach, hitting partner and fiance, New Jersey Nets guard Sasha Vujacic.

"When you lose in the final, you feel like the biggest loser in a way, but Maria is on the right track. She's working hard," Vujacic said. "She needed a lot of time to come back, and I think if she stays on the same road, there are many good things ahead of us."

Now there will be similar expectations of Kvitova.

Kotyza, her coach, said Kvitova's best quality probably is that "she's just an ordinary girl. She's standing with both feet on the ground. And I think it's very, very important for ... these matches. Because she's 'OK, just hit the ball, and we will see.'"

Asked after Saturday's victory when she first realized she might one day win a Grand Slam title, Kvitova smiled, tucked some strands of hair behind her ear and replied: "Probably yesterday."

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Follow Howard Fendrich at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich

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