Today's Top Stories 10-11-11

BLOOMBERG

A group of executives advising President Barack Obama on jobs is recommending an initiative to attract $1 trillion in foreign direct investment within five years and upgrade the nation’s transportation and energy infrastructure.

Herman Cain’s newly energized candidacy is reshaping the Republican presidential primary race and creating a new hurdle for Texas Governor Perry as he tries to catch frontrunner Mitt Romney.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia is nearing an agreement with China to supply natural gas to the world’s biggest energy consumer.

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet warned of threats to the financial system as the conflict among political leaders intensified over how to extricate Europe from the debt crisis.

Indonesia’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than two years to spur growth as the global recovery weakens and inflation slows.

Indonesia’s central bank unexpectedly cut its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than two years to spur growth as the global recovery weakens and inflation slows.

The bond market indicator that has predicted every U.S. recession since 1970 shows the economy has about a 60 percent chance of contracting within 12 months.

Wells Capital Management is among investors buying bonds of localities whose credit ratings have been cut more than two levels in so-called super-downgrades, betting they’ll recover from the worst financial conditions in 26 years and avoid defaults.

Brazil’s retail sales in August fell the most since March 2010, providing further evidence that growth in Latin America’s biggest economy is slowing. Yields on interest-rate futures fell.

Multivitamins and some dietary supplements, used regularly by an estimated 234 million U.S. adults, may do more harm than good, according to a study that tied their use to higher death rates among older women.

AP Top Stories

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama never met to discuss the federal health care law, but Romney's advisers did. New records reviewed by NBC News's Michael Isikoff point out that "White House officials had a dozen meetings in 2009 with three health-care advisers and experts who helped shape the health care reform law signed by Romney in 2006."

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was found guilty of abuse of office and sentenced to seven years in jail, in a trial widely condemned in the West as politically motivated.

Investigators have been infiltrating Muslim student groups at Brooklyn College and other schools in New York City, monitoring their Internet activity and placing undercover agents in their ranks.

Worried about its dwindling numbers, the Roman Catholic church in southern India is exhorting its flock to have more children, with some parishes offering free schooling, medical care and even cash bonuses for large families, church officials said.

A miniature airborne drone has helped archaeologists capture images for creating a 3-D model of an ancient burial mound in Russia, scientists say.

Greece should receive a vital lifeline next month in order to avoid bankruptcy, its international lenders said.

Corporate failures may be about to pick up again, with some big-name companies among those struggling for survival. Companies in a range of businesses, including hair salons, restaurants, renewable energy, and the paper industry, have tumbled into Chapter 11 in the past few months.

President Obama's jobs bill, facing a critical test in the Senate, appears likely to die at the hands of Republicans opposed to stimulus spending and a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Source