Tensions rise as Iraq seeks Sunni VP arrest

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi authorities issued an arrest warrant for Sunni Muslim Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi on Monday for suspected ties to assassinations and bombings, a decision likely to fuel sectarian tensions after the U.S. troop withdrawal.

The move risks unraveling Iraq's fragile power-sharing deal among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs who have struggled to overcome tensions just a few years after sectarian slaughter drove the country to the edge of a civil war.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Major General Adel Daham, told a news conference confessions by suspects identified as Hashemi's bodyguards linked the vice president to killings and attacks on Iraqi government and security officials.

"An arrest warrant was issued for Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi according to Article 4 of the terrorism law and is signed by five judges... this warrant should be executed," Daham said, waving a copy of the document in front of reporters.

The political struggle between Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his Sunni rivals in the country's delicate power-sharing deal has intensified during the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops nearly nine years after the invasion.

The ministry showed taped confessions, aired on state-run Iraqiya television and other local media, of men it claimed were members of Hashemi's security detail. The men said they had been paid by his office to carry out killings.

The three men shown on television detailed the assassinations they were told to carry out by Hashemi's aides including planting roadside bombs and driveby shootings of security and government officials.

One man said he was handed $3,000 as a reward by Hashemi himself.

But the identity of the men could not be independently confirmed.

Hashemi, who could not be contacted for a response, was in Kurdistan, a semi-autonomous enclave in the north, Kurdish political sources said. Kurdistan has its own government and security forces, making Hashemi's immediate arrest unlikely.

In a statement earlier on Monday, Hashemi accused Maliki's government of "deliberate harassment" after his plane was delayed for three hours at Baghdad airport. He had been heading for the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya to meet the Iraqi president.

Security forces arrested three Hashemi bodyguards on their way back from the airport, the statement said, adding military forces surrounding Hashemi's house for weeks had been beefed up.

"The vice-president has been very patient and is waiting for a reasonable explanation from the government parties concerned," the statement said.

DEEPENING CRISIS

Fearing a deepening crisis that could push Iraq back into sectarian turmoil, senior Iraqi politicians were holding talks with Maliki and other leaders to contain the dispute.

The U.S. ambassador in Iraq was in contact with senior Iraqi leaders, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said, without providing details on which figures or the matters under discussion.

Violence has ebbed sharply since the peak of attacks in 2006-07 when suicide bombings and hit-squads claimed thousands of victims in tit-for-tat killing between Sunni and Shi'ite communities.

But sectarian tensions are close to the surface and still color many aspects of Iraqi political life.

The completion of the U.S. withdrawal on Sunday left many Iraqis fearful that a shaky peace deal between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunnis might collapse and reignite sectarian violence.

Maliki over the weekend asked parliament for a vote of no-confidence against another leading Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, who is deputy prime minister, on the grounds that he lacked faith in the political process.

Hashemi and Mutlaq are both leaders of the Iraqiya bloc, a secular group backed by minority Sunnis, which joined Maliki's unity government only reluctantly and recently boycotted parliament sessions after complaining of being marginalized

Many Sunnis, who were in power under Saddam, feel shunted aside by the rise of Shi'ites after the invasion. Already some Sunni-dominated regions in Iraq are seeking more autonomy from the central government, chaffing against what they see as an increasingly authoritarian tack taken by Maliki.

(Additional reporting Kareem Raheem; Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Serena Chaudhry/Maria Golovnina)

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Zynga seeks lower IPO value in tough market

(Reuters)- Zynga Inc is seeking a more modest valuation than Wall Street expected for its initial public offering, hoping to attract investors after a series of Internet stocks fell below their IPO price in recent weeks.

The social games maker, known for Facebook games like "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars," plans to sell 100 million new shares between $8.50 and $10 each, which will raise $925 million based on the midpoint of the range, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

The deal values Zynga at as much as $9.04 billion, about a third less than the $14.05 billion valuation that the company cited in a filing two weeks ago.

"Given what's transpired in the markets over the several months and overall macro uncertainty, it seems like Zynga is trying to take a practical and prudent approach to the deal to make it seem more appetizing to investors," said Robert W. Baird & Co analyst Colin Sebastian.

Shares of high-profile Internet companies such as Groupon Inc and Pandora Media Inc have crashed below their IPO price, casting a shadow over other Web startups hoping to tap public markets.

At $925 million, Zynga's IPO would still be the largest from a U.S. Internet company since Google Inc raised $1.7 billion in 2004. Zynga is selling 11.1 percent of diluted shares in the offering.

The IPO has been hotly anticipated because it would be the first chance for most investors to get a piece of Facebook's growth, since the vast majority of Zynga's games are played on the social network. Facebook plans to go public in 2012.

But analysts say Facebook's user growth is slowing, and that has a knock-on impact on Zynga.

"The exponential growth with Facebook gaming we saw in the last two years is not going to happen and is definitely slowing," said Interpret analyst Michael Cai.

A Zynga spokesman declined to comment the IPO.

GROWTH CONCERNS

With more than 260 million monthly active users, Zynga publishes free games and makes money from selling virtual items -- such as tractors and weapons -- that players then use in games.

On average, less than 3 percent of Zynga's players pay for its games, according to M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon. "It remains to be seen how sustainable Zynga is with their conversion rate so small," he said.

The company is profitable, unlike Groupon and Pandora, but earnings are volatile because it has to spend on coming out with new games. Zynga reported a 43 percent drop in net income in the September quarter to $13 million, even as revenue jumped 80 percent to $301 million.

While Zynga's valuation has been cut from earlier estimates, Zynga would still be among the largest publicly traded U.S. game developers after it debuts on Nasdaq under the "ZNGA" ticker.

Video game developer Activision Blizzard Inc currently has the industry's highest market value, at $14.2 billion, followed by Electronic Arts Inc, at $7.7 billion.

Zynga Chief Executive Mark Pincus and Chief Financial Officer David Wehner will lead a roadshow to investors beginning Monday, with stops in cities including Chicago, Boston, New York, Denver and San Francisco.

Pincus, who started many companies before he founded Zynga, will hold a class of shares with 70 times more voting power than the common stock that will be sold in the offering.

Such concentrated voting power is rare and could put off investors, said Lise Buyer, founder of IPO advisory firm The Class V Group.

"Future shareholders should assume Zynga won't listen to them," Buyer said.

HAUNTED MANSION

In a video for the roadshow posted on the Web, Zynga executives showed off items that players can pay for, such as an airstrike in a game that cost 50 cents and a haunted mansion for $7.

The company also has a "highroller" membership that cost $5 a month for fans of its casino games -- a subscription model, if it takes off, would offer steadier growth potential.

"There are a lot of areas of growth for Zynga and we are aggressively executing in each area," Chief Operating Officer John Schappert said in the video.

To find new users, the company is focused on bringing its games to smart phones and tablets and away from Facebook, where it pays a 30 percent cut to have its games.

"Zynga rides on top of Facebook but Facebook is much larger and supports many other businesses besides Zynga like advertising shopping and search," said Pidgeon.

While Zynga was one of the first companies to build games for Facebook, it will be tougher to crack the mobile market, which is becoming crowded with deep-pocketed rivals from Walt Disney Co to Electronic Arts, analysts say.

Zynga aims to set its IPO price on December 15 and the stock is scheduled to trade on Dec 16.

Based on a fully diluted share count of 904 million, which includes existing shares and stock options, the IPO price values Zynga at $7.7 billion to $9.04 billion.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in New York and Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Dave Zimmerman)

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.