Lloyds pays $350m to end US case
UK-based bank Lloyds TSB has agreed to pay a $350m penalty to US authorities over financial transfers that violated US sanctions.
The US Justice Department said Lloyds TSB had acknowledged "criminal conduct" and agreed to forfeit the funds in return for an end to its investigation.
Prosecutors said the bank faked records so clients in Iran, Libya and Sudan could do business with US institutions.
Lloyds TSB said that it had cooperated fully with the probe.
"We are committed to running our business with the highest levels of integrity and regulatory compliance across all of our operations, and have undertaken a range of significant steps to further enhance our compliance programmes," it said in a statement.
Wire transfers
US prosecutors said that the bank's misconduct took place between 1995 and 2007.
"For more than 12 years, Lloyds facilitated the anonymous movement of hundreds of millions of dollars from US-sanctioned nations through our financial system," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Friedrich said.
According to court documents, Lloyds removed information such as customer names, bank names and addresses so that wire transfers would pass undetected through filters at US banks.
This process - known as stripping - meant that more than $350m (£230m at current exchange rates) that might otherwise have been blocked was processed by US institutions.
Lloyds TSB had agreed to forfeit half the money to the US and half to New York County.
In return, the Justice Department would recommend that charges against the bank be dismissed in two years, it said.
Lloyds said it had set aside £180m last year against a possible settlement - before sterling weakened against the US dollar - and it did "not anticipate any further enforcement actions".
The US prohibits certain countries, institutions and individuals from accessing the US banking system, based on its foreign policy and national security goals.
It lifted sanctions on Libya in 2004, but measures remain in place against Iran and Sudan.
BBC
Man set to face charge of raping teen
A 38-year-old man is set to appear in court charged with raping a 14-year-old girl.
The teenager was attacked close to the city centre in the area of Tomb Street and Corporation Street.
The incident occurred on 30 December last.
The man is expected to appear before Belfast Magistrates Court later this morning.
RTE
Man critical after scaffolding accident
A construction worker is in a critical condition in hospital after scaffolding and part of a building collapsed in Co Antrim.
The incident happened on Hill Street in Ballymena shortly before 9am yesterday morning.
The building was a former DUP constituency office that was sold by the party more than a year ago.
The man underwent emergency surgery last night at Royal Victoria hospital in Belfast, where his condition is described as critical.
Northern Ireland's Health and Safety Executive has said it is to investigate the incident.
RTE
South Africa's ANC to announce manifesto
Supporters of South Africa's governing African National Congress are gathering for a rally where its leaders will announce the party's election manifesto.
With elections in a few months time, the ANC face a new challenge from a breakaway party, the Congress of the People.
The ANC's manifesto is likely to signal a shift to the left with greater emphasis on social grants, poverty alleviation, education and employment.
RTE
Five shot outside school in Chicago
Five people have been shot outside a high school in Chicago.
Two men are said to have been critically injured in the shooting in the south side area of the city. The other three are in serious condition.
'It does not appear to be that these (people injured) were students at the school and it appears it is possibly gang related,' Chicago police officer Amina Greer told wire services.
Witnesses told police the gunmen drove up in a sport utility vehicle and fired into a crowd leaving the game at Dunbar high school at about 7.45pm.
'A girl started screaming and then we just started hearing shots,' Robert McCallum told CBS2 news.
'I was the first to jump on the ground because they started shooting our way and everybody piled up on me. Man, it was crazy.'
Police were combing the city's snow-bound streets for the shooters but made no immediate arrests.
RTE
Mideast attacks go on despite UNSC call
Israel has pressed on with its Gaza offensive and Hamas has fired more rockets into Israel today in a two-week-old war that defied international efforts to stop it.
Medical officials in Gaza said the Palestinian death toll had risen to 786.
Gaza's Hamas rulers said more than a third were children. Ten Israeli soldiers have been killed, as well as three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire.
The Israeli military said 15 Hamas militants were killed in a series of 40 air strikes early today that targeted rocket launch sites, tunnels used to smuggle weapons, weapons caches and production facilities.
Palestinian medics said two militants were killed, and one Israeli attack struck the outer wall of a hospital, wounding one worker. Israeli bombings of tunnels on the border with Egypt knocked out electricity in the town of Rafah, residents said.
Hamas fired at least 30 rockets across the border at Israel yesterday and at least another two today. No casualties or damage were caused by today's rocket attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert dismissed as unworkable a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate and durable ceasefire.
Israel, Egypt far apart on ceasefire
Hamas officials in Gaza said they were weighing the resolution but objected they had not been consulted. The group said it had sent three of its leaders from Gaza to Cairo to discuss a separate Egyptian ceasefire proposal.
Diplomats said Israel and Egypt were far apart on the plan.
In a telephone call to Mr Olmert, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed disappointment that the violence is continuing on the ground in disregard of the UNSC resolution, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
UN officials have no direct contacts with Hamas but Ms Montas said the same message would be conveyed to the group indirectly.
Yesterdday, Israel's security cabinet debated for the second time in three days whether to send in reservists for a push into Gaza's towns and cities. There was no word on the outcome.
'I can't go into operational details. The military pressure on Hamas will continue,' said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Mr Olmert.
The UN Relief and Works Agency, which distributes much of the aid in Gaza, kept some of its operations suspended yesterday after the death of one of its drivers in Israel's offensive.
US backs Israeli offensive
UN aid workers planned to resume their movements in Gaza's rubble-strewn streets as soon as possible after receiving Israeli assurances that they were not being targeted, a UN spokeswoman said in New York.
The US, which abstained in the UN vote, offered further public support for Israel's military goals.
'This situation will not improve until Hamas stops lobbing rockets into Israel,' White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.
He said US President George W Bush had voiced his concern to Mr Olmert about the humanitarian situation and the loss of civilian lives during the Israeli assault.
With the Palestinian civilian death toll already in the hundreds, Israeli actions have drawn denunciations from the Red Cross, UN agencies and Arab and European governments.
Hamas wants any ceasefire deal to include the ending of Israel's crippling economic blockade of Gaza and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the territory.
Israel's key demands are for a complete halt to Hamas rocket fire and for international guarantees to stop the group rearming via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt.
UN urges unimpeded aid flows
Mr Regev said talks with Egypt over the ceasefire proposal would continue, but he did not say when.
The Egyptian initiative, also sponsored by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, may be in trouble, however.
'There is a growing sense that the Egyptian-French plan is not going to work,' a senior European diplomat told wire services.
European and Israeli diplomats said Egypt was objecting to proposals that foreign troops and technicians be stationed on its 15-km border with Gaza to prevent arms smuggling.
Instead, diplomats said, Egypt was ready to accept technical assistance for its own forces on the border. Israel says the Egyptians have failed in the past to prevent Hamas building up an arsenal of hundreds of Soviet-designed Katyusha missiles.
The onslaught in Gaza has solid support among Israelis, one month before a parliamentary election. A poll yesterday showed over 90% support among Israel's Jewish majority.
The UN resolution called for unimpeded provision and distribution of aid to Gaza, home to 1.5m people, as well as measures to halt arms smuggling and open the borders.
RTE
