WWH/CJE Saturday News Briefs

Standard Chartered inks $340 million deal with NY regulator. No jail! How’s that for in your face corruption?
(Reuters) – Standard Chartered Bank signed a final agreement with New York’s banking regulator to pay $340 million to settle allegations that it hid transactions with Iran from regulators.

The London-based bank agreed in principle to pay the civil penalty last month after its stock dropped amid the allegations and a threat to revoke the bank’s license to do business in New York.

The parties agreed the conduct at issue involved transactions of about $250 billion, Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York state Department of Financial Services, said in announcing the formal agreement.

A criminal investigation into Standard Chartered’s practices is close to being completed and a joint settlement with other New York and U.S. authorities will probably be completed in the next couple of weeks, according to a person familiar with the probe.

“We are pleased to have reached a final settlement with the Department of Financial Services, and we look forward to resolving all outstanding issues with other U.S. authorities related to our past sanctions compliance,” said Julie Gibson, a spokeswoman for Standard Chartered in New York. More…

UNPRODUCTIVE,LAZY,CORRUPT and OVERPAID CONGRESS SKIPS TOWN UNTIL NOVEMBER
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most partisan, least productive Congress in memory has skipped out of Washington so lawmakers can make their case for voters to re-elect them.

The Senate closed the Capitol not long after sending President Barak Obama a spending bill that will make sure the government won’t shut down Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year. The measure passed early Saturday by a 62-30 vote.

Left behind for a postelection session is a pile of unfinished business on the budget and taxes, farm policy and legislation to save the Postal Service from insolvency.

The GOP-controlled House beat its retreat Friday morning after taking one last, futile slap at Obama by passing a bill called the “Stop the War on Coal Act.” The measure, dead on arrival in the Senate, was aimed at boosting the coal industry in its fight against new environmental regulations while hurting Obama’s political prospects in coal states such as Ohio and Virginia. More…

‘Gangnam Style’ dance ends in gang fight
BANGKOK, Sept. 21 (UPI) — Police in Bangkok said a “Gangnam Style” dance competition led to a fight involving gunfire between two gangs of teenagers.

Police Lt. Col. Apichart Thongchandee said the gangs clashed following a dance contest at a Phet Phraram area entertainment venue involving the dance moves popularized in South Korean artist Psy’s “Gangnam Style” music video, the Bangkok Post reported Friday.

Thongchandee said at least 50 shots were fired in the clash between the two gangs, which he said have a engaged in a longstanding feud. More…

Police: Man used woman’s dog to beat her
SANFORD, Fla., Sept. 21 (UPI) — Authorities in Florida said they arrested a man accused of using his live-in girlfriend’s small dog as a weapon to strike her during an argument.

Police said in a report the girlfriend and her daughter arrived at their Sanford home Sept. 13 and the girlfriend said he “freaked out” when one of them tried to smoke crack cocaine, the Orlando Sentinel reported Friday.

The alleged victim said Jones threatened to kill the dog, went outside, pulled it from her vehicle and began swinging it around. When she tried to rescue her pet, Jones to pushed her to the ground and struck her repeatedly with the dog.

The woman said he choked her while she was on the ground. He also allegedly broke the car’s windshield with his fist. More…

Soldiers deployed to outskirts of Mexico City
Up to 1,000 troops sent to patrol suburb of Mexican capital in response to escalating drug-related violence.

Mexico has sent police and military reinforcements to patrol a suburb of Mexico City for the first time to combat a rise in drug-related violence that is beginning to encroach on the country’s capital.

A combined force of around 1,000 soldiers, federal police and local police took to the streets of Nezahualcoyotl from Wednesday this week.

The city of 1.1 million people to Mexico City’s east has suffered from a dispute between two rival drug cartels.

President Felipe Calderon’s fight against drug gangs has overshadowed his administration, and the deployment in Nezahualcoyotl brings the conflict into the home state of his successor Enrique Pena Nieto, who takes office in December.

Calderon has already deployed 50,000 troops across the country to combat violent drug cartels.

The local government’s request for troops in the sprawling Nezahualcoyotl municipality follows the murder there this weekend of Jaime Serrano, a local state congressman and member of Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Rumours of clashes

Rumours of clashes between gangs sowed panic in the suburb last week, causing businesses to close and people to stay off the streets. More…

Share/Bookmark