ANTIQUES SHOPS

* Deutsche Bank probed by German regulator BaFin -sources

* UK's Serious Fraud Office could yield criminal prosecutions

By Jonathan Gould and Kirstin Ridley

LONDON/FRANKFURT, July 6 (Reuters) - A global investigation into manipulation of interbank lending rates widened on Friday with Britain's fraud squad taking up the case and sources telling Reuters that Germany's markets regulator had launched a probe into Deutsche Bank.

Authorities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Canada are examining more than a dozen big banks over suspected rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor). Britain's Barclays has so far been the only bank to admit wrongdoing, agreeing last week to pay a fine of more than $450 million.

The rate-fixing scandal has exploded into the front ranks of politics, especially in Britain, where politicians say the bankers responsible should end up in jail.

Barclays CEO Bob Diamond was forced to resign this week and told a parliamentary committee that some of his firm's former staff could face criminal charges.

The Libor rates, compiled from estimates by large banks of how much they believe they have to pay to borrow from each other, are used to determine interest rates on trillions of dollars worth of contracts around the world.

Germany's BaFin regulator has initiated a "special investigation" into Deutsche Bank, a process which is more severe than a routine investigation initiated by a third party, two sources said on Friday. The sources included a banker and a regulator, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.

In Britain, the lack of criminal prosecutions of the rate fixing has been one of the issues infuriating politicians, after e-mails were published showing bankers boasting of fiddling figures and congratulating each other with offers of champagne.

Britain's Serious Fraud Office said in a brief statement that its Director David Green had decided formally to accept the Libor case for investigation.

CALLING LAWYERS

The SFO will now assemble a case team to pursue an investigation - although it could take years. A spokesman noted that its remit would not be confined to Barclays.

"We don't mention Barclays in our statement, just Libor," the spokesman said.

A source close to the SFO and familiar with its Libor case file said: "A lot of people will be calling around to find lawyers."

The SFO considered launching an investigation into Libor last summer but dropped the plans in September, in part for budgetary reasons, said the source, who spoke on condition he would not be identified.

The SFO has been criticised in the past for failing to achieve convictions in high-profile fraud cases. It gave no further details of how it would conduct its probe.

News of a "special investigation" in Germany also raises the stakes. Deutsche Bank said earlier this year it was cooperating with authorities investigating accusations of manipulation of Libor, the only German bank to make such a disclosure so far.

One of the sources who disclosed the investigation to Reuters said the results were expected in mid July.

The bank declined to comment on Friday but referred to its quarterly report, which said it has received subpoenas and requests for information from U.S. and European authorities in connection with setting interbank rates.

BaFin declined to comment specifically on whether it was probing Deutsche Bank but said it was in looking into suspected manipulation of Libor rates by banks.

"We are making use of our entire spectrum of regulatory instruments, so far as this is necessary," a spokesman said.

Deutsche Bank has disclosed that it is cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the European Commission on Libor. These inquiries relate to periods between 2005 and 2011.

As the credit crisis intensified between 2006 and 2008, allegations started mounting that Libor no longer reflected the real cost banks were paying for funds. Authorities have been examining whether traders tried to influence the rate to profit on bets on the direction it would go.

The daily Libor poll asks banks at what rate they think they will be able to borrow money from each other in 10 major currencies and for 15 borrowing periods ranging from overnight loans to 12 months.

The rates submitted by banks are compiled by Thomson Reuters , parent company of Reuters, on behalf of the British Bankers' Association. (Reporting by Jonathan Gould, Alexander Huebner, Philipp Halstrick, Myles Neligan, Kirstin Ridley and Steve Slater; Writing by Edward Taylor and Alexander Smith; Editing by Peter Graff)

* Borrowing at lower rate than rate paid on debt purchased

* Disclosure seen as warning sign to investors ahead of IPO

* Some fans have for years been very critical of Glazers

By Paritosh Bansal and Greg Roumeliotis

NEW YORK, July 7 (Reuters) - Manchester United's filing for an initial public offering of shares in the United States is shedding fresh light on the way its owners, the Glazer family, both borrowed from and bought debt in the English soccer club in recent years.

American entrepreneur Malcolm Glazer and his six children, who took control of the English soccer club in 2005 after a bitter takeover battle, have in the past been criticized by fans for saddling the club with too much debt, amid fears that it didn't have as much money as some rivals to compete to buy and retain top players.

Now the filing shows that the Glazer family was not only borrowing from the club - which describes itself as one of the most popular and successful sports teams in the world - but that at least one son also bought the club's debt, earning a higher rate of return on that money than the family was paying on its borrowings.

"The historical dealings between family members of the company are something for investors to be aware of before they decide to invest in the IPO," said Thomas Conaghan, an attorney at McDermott Will & Emery, who represents companies in IPOs.

He said that such sweetheart related-person transactions -while legally permissible - may not be in the best interests of the club.

It was not clear why the Glazers borrowed from the club rather than from other family companies or banks in 2008 or what they used the funds for. The family has a diverse portfolio of interests, including U.S. shopping mall owner First Allied Corp and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an American football team in the NFL.

Other experts emphasized that the Glazers were well within their rights since they own the company and it was not publicly traded at the time of the transactions.

"It is important to realize that it is not uncommon for private companies to make loans to owners," said Campbell Harvey, a professor of international business at Duke University.

However, Manchester United is no ordinary private company. The club, f ounded in 1878, boasts a global fan base of 6 59 mi llion, many of them following the sport with almost religious fervor. The disclosure may help reignite the debate that became extr emely hea ted at the time when the Glazers first took control of the storied soccer club after a passi onate drawn -out battle, which saw the family's patriarch Malcolm Glazer facing protests from Manchester United fans.

Manchester United spokesman Philip Townsend declined to comment on the IPO or the G lazer family's private affairs. The timing of the IPO is unclear.

Buccaneers' director of communications Jonathan Grella, who has spoken on the G lazer family's behalf i n the past, could not be reached for comment. The public relations firm that the club has hired for the IPO in the Uni ted States, S ard Verbinnen & Co, and the lead underwriter for the IPO, investment bank Jefferies Group, both declined to comment.

DEALINGS WITH THE GLAZERS

At the height of the global financial crisis in December 2008, the six Glazer siblings - Avram, Joel, Bryan, Edward, Darcie and Kevin - got 10 million pounds ($15.5 million) in loans for at least five years from the club "for general personal purposes" - or abou t 1.6 7 million pounds each - and paid an interest rate of 5.5 percent, according to Manchester United's filing with the U. S. Securi ties and Exchange Commission this we ek.

In November 2008, commercial banks on average charged an interest rate of 11.44 percent for a two-year personal loan, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Manchester United said in its filing that it believed "the terms of the loans were at least as favorable to us as compared to terms that we would have received in connection with a loan to an independent third party."

Then between October 2010 and January 2011, one of the sons, Kevin Glazer, members of his immediate family, and a Glazer family company bought $10.6 million of Manchester United senior secured notes in the open market that paid an interest rate of 8.375 percent. The notes "were acquired for general investment purposes," according to the SEC f ilin g.

It was unclear precisely which other members of the family, apart from Kevin Glazer, were involved in that transaction, or what funds they used to make that investment.

In April 2012, Manchester United paid the Glazers a dividend of 10 million pounds, which was used to repay the loan it had made to the family.

To be sure, the Glazers injected 249.1 million pounds into the company in November 2010, which the company used to repay another expensive loan. Lower debt would tend to make the company more palatable for investors in an IPO.

The filing doesn't reveal how the Glazers funded that capital injection, whether from their own resources or through more borrowing. Moreover, that was after the family had levered up Manchester United in the first place, loading a soccer club that was once debt-free with huge amounts of borrowings to fund their 790-m illion-pound takeo ver in 2005.

Manchester United still has a debt pile of 423 million pounds, which it plans to reduce through proceeds of the proposed IPO. However, the cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet dropped to 25.6 million pounds at March 31 this year from 150.6 million pounds on June 30, 2011.

Soon after taking over the club in 2005, another son, Joel Glazer, told the club's television channel MUTV that his family wanted to develop Manchester United as "a great club."

"Judge us over the long haul. Don't judge us on a day or the last several months," Glazer said at the time.

Voters will choose a 200-member assembly which will elect a prime minister and cabinet before laying the ground for full parliamentary elections next year under a new constitution.

Candidates with Islamic agendas dominate the field of more than 3,700 hopefuls, suggesting Libya will be the next "Arab Spring" country after Egypt and Tunisia to see religious parties secure footholds in power after last year's uprisings.

But the credibility of the vote will be wrecked if armed militia with regional or tribal loyalties discourage voters from turning out, or if disputes over the outcome degenerate into pitched battles between rival factions.

"The election will go ahead tomorrow and all the Libyan people need for it to go ahead," Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib told a news conference in the capital Tripoli on Friday.

The greatest threat comes from the eastern region around the city of Benghazi, cradle of the NATO-backed uprising that ousted Gaddafi nearly a year ago but which complains of neglect by the interim government in Tripoli in the west.

"There is no doubt there could be a civil war between us in the east and the west," Hamed al-Hassi, a former rebel who now heads the High Military Council of Cyrenaica, the name of the eastern region, told Reuters.

"The country will be in a state of paralysis because no one in the government is listening to us," said Hassi, whose group is charged with securing the east but has fallen out with the government over representation.

On Friday, local armed groups shut off half the North African country's oil exports to press their demands for greater representation in the new national assembly. At least three major oil exporting terminals were affected.

"The strikes will continue for 48 hours if the government does not respond positively to their requests," said a note to oil companies from shipping agents.

"NO SECURITY"

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in a square in central Benghazi late on Friday, saying they would boycott the vote in protest at the fact that the east had been allotted only 60 seats in the assembly compared to 102 for the west.

In the latest attack on election authorities in the east, a helicopter carrying voting material had to make an emergency landing near Benghazi on Friday after being struck by anti-aircraft fire. One person on board was killed.

"There is no security in this country," Emad El-Sayih, deputy head of the High National Election Commission, told Reuters.

Concerns exist elsewhere. In the isolated southern area of Kufra in the Saharan desert, tribal clashes are so fierce that election observers will be unable to visit, and some question whether the vote can proceed in certain areas there.

In Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, a former fishing village on the southern rim of the Mediterranean Sea, the mood ahead of the polls was restrained, with some saying they would not vote.

"They should take care of us first, look at our homes," said Abed Mohammed, a resident of District Two neighbourhood which saw some of the heaviest fighting and where Gaddafi was believed to have hidden before being captured and killed.

"We are not against elections in the future, but first things first," he said.

Yet many Libyans are eager for a first taste of democracy and will be heading enthusiastically to the polls.

While analysts say it is hard to predict the political make-up of the new assembly, parties and candidates professing an attachment to Islamic values dominate and very few are running on an exclusively secular ticket.

The Justice and Construction offshoot of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood is tipped to do well, as is al-Watan, the party of former CIA detainee and Islamist insurgent Abdel Hakim Belhadj.

Parity rules for the new assembly mean there are many female candidates. Yet many of their campaign posters in Tripoli have been defaced, underlining the ambivalence felt by some in Libyan society about a greater female role in politics.

"Politics is a new field for men and women in Libya," said Lamia Busidra, 38, a leading candidate for the al-Wattan party in Benghazi. "The qualifications are there, women can do it, they just need the confidence in themselves to do it."

Early partial results after polls close at 8 p.m (1800 GMT) on Saturday will give some guide to the make-up of the assembly but full preliminary results are not due until Monday.

(Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in Tripoli and Taha Zargoun in Sirte; Writing by Mark John; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Ralph Gowling)