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Ha'aretz Reports Last Pro-Gov Forces In Lebanon Laying Down Their Arms
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06:30 am
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From Ha'aretz:
13:16 Pro-government Lebanese forces lay down weapons in last Beirut stronghold (Reuters) |
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Citi To Sell, Spin Off Or Put $400bn Or More In "Run-Off" Mode
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09:16 am
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Citigroup considers $400bn asset sale
By Francesco Guerrera in New York
Published: May 9 2008 00:41 | Last updated: May 9 2008 00:41
Citigroup will on Friday identify as much as $400bn in non-core assets that could be sold as part of plans to reduce costs and restore profit growth to double-digit rates, according to people close to the situation.
At a long-awaited meeting with Wall Street analysts, Vikram Pandit, Citi’s chief executive, also plans to confirm his pledge, first disclosed in the Financial Times, to cut Citi’s cost base of over $60bn by about 20 per cent.
Mr Pandit is likely to say that about 20 per cent of Citi’s $2,000bn-plus balance sheet consists of “legacy” assets – entire businesses or trading positions outside its core businesses in commercial, consumer and investment banking.
The sale of the assets is likely to take years, and some of the non-core holdings may never be sold, according to people close to the situation. Nevertheless, Mr Pandit’s decision to classify such a large portion of the balance sheet as non-core highlights his determination to root out underperforming businesses.
Under Mr Pandit, who took over in December after the departure of Chuck Prince and other top executives, Citi has sold several peripheral units, including its leasing business and its Diners Club charge card network. It has been reported to be looking at the sale of Primerica, a seller of life insurance and investments.
Analysts have speculated that Citi could sell its retail banking operations in Germany and Brazil, as well as some businesses and equity stakes in Asia.
Citi declined to comment on the analysts’ meeting. People close to the situation said the plans to be announced by Mr Pandit had not been finalised and could change. |
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Office Of Thrift Supervision Waives H&R Block's "Option One" 3% Capital Rule
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04:57 pm
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H&R Block Inc. achieved another goal toward repositioning itself, announcing Friday that the Office of Thrift Supervision has eliminated a financing requirement related to H&R Block Bank.
The OTS previously required Kansas City-based H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) to keep 3 percent of its tangible capital at all times, as long as it owned H&R Block Bank. Tangible capital is physical assets, such as machinery, buildings and land, according to Investopedia.com.
Significant losses from its Option One Mortgage Corp. subsidiary had put H&R Block out of compliance with the rule, and as a result, the company was not allowed to repurchase its shares in the market.
In a letter Wednesday, the OTS said the shutdown of mortgage loan origination and the sale of Option One's servicing rights reduced Block's risk profile for operating a bank. The OTS said it rescinded the 3 percent requirement as of April 30.
"We are elated with the OTS action, which eliminates a significant constraint on the structure of H&R Block's balance sheet," Block Chairman Richard Breeden in a release. "We are now able to plan for the future of H&R Block Bank with much greater certainty and to look at ways to utilize the highly flexible thrift charter to the advantage of our consumer clients without disadvantaging our shareholders." |
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World Shits Collective Pants As Hezbullah Makes Clear The Lebanese State Exists At Its Sufferance
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06:11 pm
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Envoys rush to contain crisis in Lebanon
By Andrew England and Roula Khalaf
Published: May 9 2008 21:42 | Last updated: May 9 2008 23:08
As Hizbollah on Friday seized control of western parts of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, Arab and western officials embarked on a flurry of activity amid fears that the conflict could grow into a wider regional crisis.
A US official said the pro-western government was being undermined by the “criminal acts of an illegitimate armed gang”, in reference to Hizbollah, while the weak Lebanese administration accused the Shia militant group of conducting a coup d’état.
Washington has been a key backer of the government of Fouad Siniora, the prime minister, while Hizbollah is supported by Iran and Syria. The stand-off between the opposing factions has become part of a wider struggle for influence in the Middle East between the US, its Sunni allies and Tehran.
An adviser to Saudi Arabia’s government, which has been a staunch backer of Mr Siniora’s administration, said the events in Beirut had been met “with complete and utter dismay”.
“This is something we will not tolerate and the red line has clearly been crossed,” the adviser told the Financial Times, although it was not clear what measures Saudi Arabia would take. The kingdom and Egypt, the region’s two diplomatic heavyweights, have called for an emergency meeting of Arab League ministers.
At least 18 people have been killed in Beirut clashes over the past three days, which have involved gun battles and rocket-propelled grenade fire. Hizbollah on Friday shut down a pro-government newspaper and television station and tightened its grip on the capital in a powerful display of force. There were also reports of clashes in the north and parts of the Bekaa valley.
Syria described the crisis as an internal affair and Iran blamed “the adventurist interferences” of the US and Israel for the violence. The US and Israel regard Hizbollah as a terrorist group, but it is viewed in the Arab world as a legitimate resistance movement fighting the Jewish state. |
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France & Italy Plan For Lebanon Evac
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07:49 pm
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France plans for possible Lebanon evacuation
5 hours ago
PARIS (AP) — France is creating a plan to evacuate its citizens from Lebanon in case the country's sectarian violence spreads, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Friday.
Kouchner, speaking on France-Info radio, also said that France, along with Spain and Italy, are working on an initiative to bring calm to Beirut. He did not provide details of the initiative.
Kouchner said that France, Lebanon's former colonial ruler, has not yet decided to evacuate its citizens. But, he added, "that does not mean we shouldn't prepare something, just in case."
Italy, too, "is preparing to envisage the worst, that is, an evacuation" of Italians, Kouchner said. Italy is current commander of UNIFIL, the U.N. force in southern Lebanon.
Kouchner reiterated his support for the Lebanese government, called on all parties in the conflict to lay down their arms and denounced Hezbollah's takeover of the Muslim sector of Beirut.
Security officials say at least 14 people have been killed in three days of street battles in the Lebanese capital between the Shiite gunmen and Sunnis loyal to the U.S.-backed government, the worst sectarian clashes since Lebanon's 15-year civil war. |
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State Within A State: Secret Service Divulges Racist Emails Between Leadership Figures From 2003
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08:50 pm
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WASHINGTON – Secret Service supervisors engaged in crude sexual jokes and racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mails disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents.
The filing includes 10 e-mails that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination case. The messages were written mainly between 2003 and 2005, and were sent to and from e-mail accounts of at least 20 Secret Service supervisors.
The e-mails offer a glimpse into the darker recesses of a secretive agency that is known for protecting presidents and other dignitaries but whose culture is regarded as one of the most insular in federal law enforcement.
The disclosure of the e-mails follows an incident last month in which a noose was found in a room used by a black instructor at a Secret Service training center in Maryland. Agency officials said the episode is the subject of an internal investigation.
A spokesman at the Secret Service headquarters in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In some of the documents, the senders of the e-mails are identified by the jobs they now occupy as well as the rank they held when the messages were sent. For example, an Oct. 9, 2003, e-mail referring to a “Harlem Spelling Bee,” ridiculing black slang, was sent by Thomas Grupski, then assistant director in charge of protective operations who, according to the filing, now heads the office of government liaison and public affairs.
A March 3, 2003, e-mail describing Mr. Jackson as the “Righteous Reverend” was passed among several e-mail accounts of Secret Service supervisors. The message is a purported joke about a missile striking an airplane in which Mr. Jackson and his wife were traveling, one that says such an incident “certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”
Another e-mail contains what one official said was a joke referring to interracial sex and is accompanied by a photograph of a black man and white woman, both of whom are nude. E-mails with the joke circulated in February and March 2003. It was sent, according to the lawsuit, from Donald White, who currently heads the presidential protective detail, to Kurt Douglass, agent in charge of the Secret Service office in Cincinnati.
The legal skirmishing in the discrimination suit has heated up in recent months, with federal Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson rebuking the Secret Service for failing to produce documents, and for destroying relevant records and e-mails that she said the agency should have turned over nearly two years ago.
Judge Robinson had ordered the agency to turn over the documents by late March, but the e-mails disclosed in the court filing on Friday were not turned over to lawyers for the agents until late April.
E. Desmond Hogan, a lawyer for the black agents, said the agents were “shocked but not surprised by the late production of significant evidence of racism at high levels in the Secret Service. The government’s delay follows a pattern of the Secret Service stonewalling plaintiffs and ignoring court orders, depriving African-American agents of the fundamental evidence of race discrimination that is key to their claims.”
The discrimination lawsuit was initially filed in 2000, but has dragged on without resolution through years of litigation. The suit was filed by 10 black agents who charged they were unfairly denied promotions to management jobs. The agency employs about 3,200 agents, of whom about 10 percent are black.
Secret Service agents who work in what are regarded as glamorous protective details work long and irregular shifts while others staff a network of 150 field offices in the United States and overseas. Black agents have complained that promotions seem to be awarded on the basis of connections to an old boy network as well as merit. |
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