In an audio speech released online a day after the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 strikes, Zawahri said attacks "by one brother or a few of the brothers" would weaken the U.S. economy by triggering big spending on security, SITE reported.
Western counter-terrorism chiefs have warned that radicalized "lone wolves" who might have had no direct contact with al Qaeda posed as great a risk as those who carried out complex plots like the 9/11 attacks.
"We should bleed America economically by provoking it to continue in its massive expenditure on its security, for the weak point of America is its economy, which has already begun to stagger due to the military and security expenditure," he said.
Keeping America in such a state of tension and anticipation only required a few disparate attacks "here and there", he said
"As we defeated it in the gang warfare in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, so we should follow it with ...war on its own land. These disparate strikes can be done by one brother or a few of the brothers."
At the same time, Muslims should seize any opportunity to land "a large strike" on the United States, even if this took years of patience.
The Sept 11, 2011 attacks, in which hijacked airliners were flown into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington and a Pennsylvania field, triggered a global fight against al Qaeda extremists and their affiliates. Almost 3,000 people were killed in the attacks.
In his audio speech, Zawahri said Muslims should refuse to buy goods from America and its allies, as such spending only helped to fund U.S. military action in Muslim lands.
(Reporting by William Maclean; Editing by John Stonestreet)
Twitter takes first step toward going public
Reuters) - Twitter Inc has filed for an initial public offering with U.S. regulators, the company said on Thursday, taking the first step toward what would be Silicon Valley's most anticipated debut since Facebook Inc's last year.
The impending IPO of the microblogging phenomenon ignited a competition among Wall Street's biggest names for the prestige of managing its coming-out party. Goldman Sachs is lead underwriter, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, which is a major coup for the Wall Street bank.
Twitter filed for an IPO confidentially under a 2012 law intended to help emerging corporations with less than $1 billion in revenue go public.
Seven-year old Twitter, which allows users to send out streams of 140-character messages, has become an indispensable tool to governments, corporations and celebrities seeking to communicate with their audience, and for individuals seeking both news and entertainment.
Chief Executive Dick Costolo has for years waved off suggestions it intended to go public, saying the company remained flush with cash. Facebook's mismanaged 2012 debut and subsequent share-price plunge also chilled the consumer-dotcom IPO market.
Facebook, however, has clawed its way back to its $38 IPO price in July, and the stock is at a record high after touching $45 this week.
Twitter, which has been valued by private investors at more than $10 billion, should break even this year and is on track for 40 percent annual growth at a $1 billion annual revenue run rate, Max Wolff of Greencrest Capital estimated.
"It's completely conquered mobile. It has an enormous social network. It's becoming a key utility as a second screen to TV and it's literally the first draft of history," Wolff said.
"Normally a company like Twitter would have been public for some time," he said.
Since Jack Dorsey, Twitter's inventor, dispatched the first tweet from a downtown San Francisco office in March 2006, the service has grown into a worldwide phenomenon with more than 200 million regular users contributing more than 400 million posts a day.
The company makes money by inserting paid, targeted ads that resemble ordinary, user-generated content. Twitter's success with its advertising model created a new paradigm for mobile advertising and prompted Facebook last year to adopt a similar ad product, called Sponsored Stories.
But Twitter was one of the first to prove that in-stream ads could be a viable way to make money in the mobile era.
"There was a lot of concern about whether they'd ever be able to insert advertising into their site," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott. "They've shown it can be effective. They offer in many ways better measurement for marketers than larger companies like Facebook."
JOSTLING FOR ROLES
Wall Street continues to jostle for a slice of its impending debut, sources told Reuters on Thursday.
Technology bankers at major banks from JPMorgan and Credit Suisse Group AG to Morgan Stanley are still vying for roles in the IPO. Several are in informal conversations with the microblogging network's management, said two sources familiar with the matter who declined to be named because it is not public.
A similar race is on around China's Alibaba, which is expected to raise more than $15 billion this year. Bank chief executives such as JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Citigroup Inc's Michael Corbat have made it a point to meet Alibaba founder Jack Ma.
Twitter's debut, though much smaller than Facebook's, could generate tens of millions of dollars in fees from the underwriting mandate itself. Assuming it sells around 10 percent of its shares, or $1 billion, underwriters could stand to divide a fee pool of $40 million to $50 million, assuming an overall fee cut of 4 percent to 5 percent, according to Freeman & Co.
But the benefits for banks that underwrite the deal would likely be far-reaching.
"Some companies will say, 'We liked the way you handled Twitter, and we want to come to you first when we do our IPO,'" said David Menlow, president of IPOFinancial.com.
"It's not only bragging rights," Menlow said. "It's getting through the front door, which will line up banks for other transactions done after that, like debt financings and M&A."
Twitter is allowed to file its registration statement confidentially due to the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, a 2012 law that loosened some of the regulations surrounding the IPO process and other forms of capital raising.
Companies that file under that law do not have to reveal certain details until 21 days before embarking on an investor roadshow.
It could allow Twitter to avoid some of the harsh public scrutiny that other tech companies such as Groupon Inc faced.
Meanwhile, Silicon Valley boosters who were left red-faced by Facebook's stumble are hoping that Facebook's recovery and a smooth Twitter IPO would turn investor sentiment back toward consumer Internet companies.
"If 2012 was the Facebook IPO horror story, then all of a sudden 2013 is looking very nice," said Rick Heitzmann, a venture capitalist at Firstmark Capital, which has invested in consumer Internet companies including Pinterest. "We're now seeing that these are real companies proving they can drive very, very impressive revenue."
(Additional reporting by Nadia Damouni and Nicola Leske in New York and Alexei Oreskovic and Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)
In Silicon Valley start-up world, pedigree counts
SAN FRANCISCO - The notion that anyone with smarts, drive and a great idea can start a company is a central tenet of Silicon Valley's ethos. Yet on close inspection, the evidence suggests that scrappy unknowns striking rich are the exceptions, not the rule. Full Article
Trial puts focus on India's death penalty paradox
NEW DELHI - An Indian judge will announce whether four men should hang for fatally raping a young woman on a bus last December, in one of the biggest tests in years of India's paradoxical attitude towards the death penalty. Full Article
Three dead in Colorado flooding
BOULDER, Colo. - Flash flooding caused by torrential downpours in Colorado has killed at least three people and forced hundreds to flee to higher ground as rising water caused buildings to collapse and stranded cars. Full Article
Egypt
Cairo accuses Hamas of training Egypt militants
CAIRO - Egyptian state television accused Palestinian Hamas of training Egyptian Islamists in how to carry out bombings, putting more pressure on the Muslim Brotherhood, ally of Hamas.
Insurgents including a suicide car bomber attacked the U.S. consulate in the western Afghanistan city of Herat on Friday, police said, and a gun battle was under way. It was unclear whether insurgents had made it inside the consulate building in relatively peaceful Herat, the main city in Afghanistan's west near the Iranian border. Some media reported up to seven people had been wounded.
In Silicon Valley start-up world, pedigree counts
Trial puts focus on India's death penalty paradox
Three dead in Colorado flooding
Egypt
Cairo accuses Hamas of training Egypt militants
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the inaugural awards ceremony for the African conservation charity Tusk Trust at the Royal Society in London. It was the duchess' first official public appearance since giving birth to Prince George two months ago. During the gala, Prince William - Patron of the charity - presented two awards for outstanding achievement in African Conservation - a cause he has embraced and spoken out on. SOUNDBITE: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, saying: "It is a genuine pleasure for Catherine and me to be here tonight at the Tusk Awards for conservation in Africa, for a cause that has never been closer to our hearts than it is right now. As you might have gathered, Catherine and I have recently become proud parents of a baby who has a voice to match any lion's roar. This is actually our first evening out without him, so please excuse us if you see us nervously casting cheeky glances at our mobile phones to check all is well back home." Earlier in the day, his office announced William plans to leave the military - and focus on his charity and royal duties. The new father had been working as a service and rescue helicopter pilot in the Royal Air Force - and is considering options for a future role in public service. He does not plan to go into full-time royal duty - yet.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, are in Geneva for talks on disarming Syria's chemical weapons program. But differences emerged at the outset of negotiations. "This is not a game," Kerry said the option of U.S. military strikes against Syria -- in response to a suspected chemical weapons attack - remains on the table. SOUNDBITE: U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY SAYING: "President Obama has made clear that, should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary to deter and degrade Assad's capacity to deliver these weapons." But Lavrov made it clear Russia wants the U.S. to set aside its military threats, if diplomatic efforts are to succeed. SOUNDBITE: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEI LAVROV SAYING: "We proceed from the fact that the solution of this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic." That sentiment was echoed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He told Russian television he will give up his chemical arms only when Washington stops threatening military action. SOUNDBITE: SYRIAN PRESIDENT BASHAR AL-ASSAD SAYING: "When we see that the U.S. really wants stability in our region and will stop threatening and aiming to attack, and stops supplying weapons to terrorists, then we will consider the process can be brought to the final stage." Washington brushed aside those remarks, and negotiations are set to continue into a second day.
ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) STORY: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the diplomatic effort to avert a U.S. strike on Syria "is not a game," and cautioned that force may still be needed if diplomacy fails. Kerry was speaking in Geneva after much-anticipated talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to consider how to implement a Russian proposal that would place Syria's chemical weapons arsenal under international control, averting a proposed U.S. strike. "Expectations are high," Kerry said. "They are high for the United States, perhaps even more so for Russia to deliver on the promise of this moment." The talks were part of an ongoing diplomatic battle to make headway on the crisis in Syria. Russia's proposal has prompted President Barack Obama to ask Congress to postpone a vote to authorize a military strike. But Kerry reiterated the U.S. position that force might be needed against Syria if diplomacy over President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons stockpile fails.
Meeting with his Cabinet at the White House, President Barack Obama announces a shift in his focus - from a concentration on Syria - to an emphasis on domestic issues. SOUNDBITE: President Barack Obama, saying: "Even as we have been spending a lot of time on the Syria issue and making sure that international attention is focused on the horrible tragedy that occurred there, it is still important to recognize that we've got a lot more stuff to do here in this government." Nats: SOUNDBITE: President Barack Obama, saying on August 31,: "I have decided that the United States should take military action against Syrian regime targets." Obama - had sought Congress' approval to authorize military strikes on Syria - but asked the U.S. Senate to postpone a vote - while the U.S. pursued a diplomatic path aimed to end Syria's use of chemical weapons. SOUNDBITE: President Barack Obama, saying: "I am hopeful that the discussions that Secretary Kerry had with Foreign Minister Lavrov as well as some of the other players in this can yield a concrete result." As Kerry and Lavrov continue talks in Geneva, back in Washington - Obama said he was moving his focus to issues at home - including the budget - immigration reform - and implementation of his healthcare reform legislation. Obama faces challenges on all three domestic issues - with an an end of the month budget deadline in Congress to avoid a government shutdown.
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