中國‧警告美國勿插手西藏事務

（中國‧北京11日訊）在美國表示嚴重關注藏民的自焚事件後，中國週三警告美國勿以宗教事件插手中國內政。

外交部發言人劉為民稱，中國政府極之重視和維護各民族的基本權益，包括宗教自由；中國反對藉以宗教事務干預中國內政。

中國官方《環球時報》週三發表社論，指責西藏精神領袖達賴喇嘛利用自焚事件證明中國宗教迫害。

社論說，達賴喇嘛“把自己當成對付中國的籌碼賣給西方，並利用宗教的名義，把中國境內少數僧人推向殺戮自己生命的極端。”

另一方面，去年10月15日在四川阿壩自焚的還俗僧人諾布佔堆據報導上週在醫院死亡。

挪威西藏之聲電台說，19歲的諾布佔堆本月5日在阿壩一家醫院死亡，他是2012年開始後因自焚死亡的4名藏人中的一位。

（星洲日報／國際）

台灣總統大選‧選情膠著不敢放鬆馬面對最艱辛選戰

台灣總統大選進入倒數48小時，過去政治路途順遂、選舉幾乎從來沒有選輸過的馬英九，今 次相信是他有史以來最辛苦的選戰，小馬哥週四早上西裝筆挺會見國際媒體時雖強調對選戰信心十足，但連日馬不停蹄地衝選戰，穿梭北中南，一天最高跑22個行 程，已無法掩飾他的倦容及日益加深的眼袋。

多以中文回答媒體

著，叫馬怎麼不緊張？在面對國際媒體，馬英九的臉部表情也跟選情一樣緊，不時蹙眉、抿嘴，全程都小心翼翼，遇到聽不清楚或不太明白的觀眾發言時，還兩度問主持人，“我有沒有誤解他（聽眾）的意思？”顯然是怕自己因聽錯了，而說錯話。

雖然台下外媒多以英語發問，本身英語流利的馬英九，除了開場的20分鐘以英語介紹自己任期內的政績及未來的願景外，在後來回答國際媒體提問時，多以中文回答，間中穿插一兩句英文，儘量避免重演之前接受美國媒體訪問時發生的“英語誤解門”。

關鍵時刻，馬英九努力謹守安全線內，凸出自己的強項，強調自己過去3年多改善兩岸關係的成果，以及建立一個廉能政府，不敢再發新論調，也避免攻擊對手。

選擇性回答媒體引不滿

今次選戰打得激烈，備受關注，歐美日韓許多外媒均蜂擁而來觀選，週四的新聞發佈會會場，可說坐無虛席。提問時段，舉手發問的人很多，但時間有限，主持人僅挑了部份人士作答，引發另一些記者不滿，指當局已內定提問名單，有記者更私下抱怨“既然早已有名單，叫我們來幹麻？”。

選戰已進人最後一天，新聞發佈會在國民黨中央黨部舉行，現場維安措施已經升級，記者入內均需要開包包檢查，以防萬一。

【熱點新聞：2012台灣大選】

（星洲日報／國際‧文：蔡思潔）

美國‧易落入恐怖分子手中‧核料庫存設施不安全

（美國‧華盛頓12日訊）美國非官方組織――核子威脅倡議組織（NTI）週三發表一份新的研究報告，指現時在世界各地用來存放核子物料的地點和設施，大多數都不夠安全，令到核子物料可能會落入恐怖分子和不法之徒手中。報告列出朝鮮、巴基斯坦和伊朗為最不安全的國家。

多年來致力監察及研究核擴散問題的核子威脅倡議組織委派一批國際專家，把全球32個國家和地區數以百計用來儲存核武和核子物料的設施，按安全的程度進行分類。

這些設施存放了超過一公斤可以用來製造核彈的高濃縮鈾或钚。

保安多不符標準

報告指出：“有些設施的保安工作做得很好，但很多都不符標準，令到存放在內的核子物料很容易被人偷竊，或被人拿到黑市進行買賣，可能會落入恐怖組織手中。”

專家們把各地的核子庫存設施和地點，按安全的程度評分。最高分的3個國家依次序是澳洲（100分中取得94分）、匈牙利（89分）和捷克（87分）。

朝鮮核料庫存最不安全

被評為最不安全的國家包括朝鮮（37分），專家批評該國政府欠缺透明度，也不遵守核子物料庫存的國際標準；其次是巴基斯坦（41分），主要是因為該國政局不穩定、國內有許多激進和好戰組織，以及官員貪污腐敗；還有伊朗（46分）、越南（48分）及印度（49分）。

5大核子強國的評級處於中遊位置。報告特別提到中國和俄羅斯存在著官僚腐敗風氣。

（星洲日報／國際）

中國下令停售食品‧滿記甜品上榜

（中國‧北京12日訊）北京食品安全監管部門週四下令停售14種不合格食品，當中包括因大腸菌群和菌落總數“不合格”的滿記甜品芒果布丁。

本次北京市工商局公佈的不合格食品名單中，大部份是糕點和甜食類。除了消費者熟知的滿記甜品，稻香緣的歐式蛋糕、聖雪的原味酸牛奶以及綠潤的速凍栗子窩也都沒有達標。

以下是不合格企業和產品名單：

無蔗糖類糕點（一品燒餅）/未標注商標/北京菊花香食品廠

西米布丁/未標注商標/北京空港配餐有限公司

老母雞/金盈/北京口口福肉食加工廠

桃酥（熱加工烘烤類）/未標注商標/北京市寶興齋食品有限公司

軟麻花/未標注商標/北京福元盛食品有限公司

芒果布丁/滿記甜品/北京信恆合豐餐飲管理有限公司；

花色麵包/未標注商標/北京通天釜食品加工廠

雲片糕/未標注商標/北京市綠海食品有限公司

稻香緣歐式蛋糕（奶油味）/稻香緣/北京市榮洲工貿有限公司

小博士麵包/未標注商標/北京麥清香面包坊

原味酸牛奶/聖雪/北京科爾沁乳業有限公司

酸牛奶/未標注商標/北京恆興食品中心

寇比起司（再製芝士）/未標注商標/北京超凡食品有限公司

速凍栗子窩頭/綠潤/北京綠潤食品有限公司

（星洲日報／國際）

中國‧以豬血冒充‧“甲醛鴨血”銷售一年

（中國‧北京12日訊）中國媒體報導，安徽甲醛超標400多倍的豬血冒充的鴨血在市場上銷售了一年多後才被曝光，已經有十餘噸“甲醛豬血”售出。

報導說，2010年10月就有人向安徽省利辛縣公安部門和工商部門舉報，該縣順河路農貿市場內的2名經營戶銷售的鴨血有問題。2011年9月，又有人向利辛縣工商部門舉報“鴨血”問題，並明確指出“鴨血”中甲醛超標。

直到本週二，中國媒體才紛紛報導這起“甲醛豬血”案。

報導說，經公安部門查實，順河路農貿市場的兩名經營戶出售的鴨血，實際上是含有致癌化學品甲醛的豬血。這兩名經營戶被指把廉價購入的豬血放入水池，兌上甲醛浸泡兩三個小時，取出後冒充有光澤的鴨血出售。

媒體還透露，抽樣檢查的結果顯示，兩家“甲醛豬血”製造戶的豬血中的甲醛成份，分別超標422倍和247倍。

中國網民質問，為甚麼在舉報之後一年多，“甲醛豬血”案才被查處。

（星洲日報／國際）

印尼Nike集團‧補發工人百萬加班費

（印尼‧雅加達12日訊）體育用品公司耐克集團（Nike）同意向提出爭議的印尼勞工支付100萬美元加班費。耐克在亞洲設有許多家工廠。

耐克在印尼萬丹省首府西冷一個工廠的4500名工人將得到100萬美元的補發加班費。

工廠兩年沒付加班費

印尼工會在遞交給耐克的聲明中提出申訴說，這家工廠的工人過去兩年近60萬個小時的加班一直沒獲付薪酬。

這次補發加班費的協議是工會和耐克管理層經過11個小時談判後達成的。

工會說，它希望這次為耐克勞工所爭取的勝利結果將給全國所有工廠樹立一個良好的榜樣。

耐克在聲明中說，公司要求工廠管理層在保護工人權益方面糾正現行政策中的錯誤，此外公司將成立一個工作小組，解決工人所表達的不滿。

（星洲日報／國際）

Mitt Romney: Job Creator?

Children 'dumped in streets by Greek parents who can't afford to look after them any more'

Children are being abandoned on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more.
Youngsters are being dumped by their parents who are struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human consequence of the Euro crisis.
It comes as pharmacists revealed the country had almost run out of aspirin, as multi-billion euro austerity measures filter their way through society.

Abandoned: Children are being dumped on Greece's streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them any more (file picture)

Athens' Ark of the World youth centre said four children, including a newborn baby, had been left on its doorstep in recent months.
One mother, it said, ran away after handing over her two-year-old daughter Natasha.
Four-year-old Anna was found by a teacher clutching a note that read: 'I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her. Please take good care of her. Sorry.'

And another desperate mother, Maria, was forced to give up her eight-year-old daughter Anastasia after losing her job.
She looked for work for more than a  year, having to leave her child at home for hours at a time, and lived off food handouts from the local church.
She said: 'Every night I cry alone at home, but what can I do? It hurt my heart, but I didn’t have a choice.' She now works in a cafe but only make £16 per day and so cannot afford to take her daughter back.

Sold out: Greece is quickly running out of medicines as austerity measures start to filter through society

Centre founder Fr Antonios Papanikolaou told the Mirror: 'Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.

'Over the last year we've had hundreds of parents who want to leave their children with us. They know us and trust us.'
- Fr Antonios Papanikolaou

'They say they do not have any money or shelter or food for their kids, so they hope we might be able to provide them with what they need.'
Further evidence of Greeks feeling the pinch of austerity measures is the lack of aspirin and other medicines now available in the country.
Pharmacists are struggling to stock their shelves as the Greek government, which sets the prices for drugs, keeps them artificially low.
This means that firms are turning to sell the drugs outside of the country for a higher price - leading to stock depletion for Greeks.
Mina Mavrou, who runs one of the country's 12,000 pharmacies, said she spent hours each day pleading with drug makers, wholesalers and colleagues to hunt down medicines for clients.
And she said that even when drugs were available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.
Meanwhile, talks about private sector creditors paying for part of a second Greek bailout are going badly, senior European bankers said tonight.
That raises the prospect that euro zone governments will have to increase their contribution to the aid package.
'Governments are mulling an increase of their share of the burden,' said one banker, while another said 'Nothing is decided yet, but the bigger the imposed haircut the less appetite there is for voluntary conversion.'   
A third senior banker told Associated Press: 'Private sector involvement is going badly.'   
There are suggestions in euro zone government circles that ministers are coming to the realisation they may need to bolster Greece's planned second bailout worth 130 billion euros if the voluntary bond swap scheme, which is a key part of the overall package, falls short of expectations.
Stumping up yet more money would be politically difficult in Germany and other countries in the northern part of the currency bloc.   

Fraud, Waste In DHS Program To Protect High-Risk Urban Areas

A scandalous Homeland Security program that allocates well over half a billion dollars annually to help high-risk urban areas protect against terrorism is plagued with rampant fraud, waste and abuse that’s laid out in a scathing federal audit this week.
 Known as the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI), the program provides funding—more than $660 million in 2011—to address the unique planning, organization, equipment, training, and exercise needs of high-threat, high-density urban areas, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This is done by assisting those local governments in building an enhanced and sustainable capacity to prevent, protect against, respond to and recover from acts of terrorism.
An example of how this innovative program is failing can be found in a Homeland Security Inspector General report made public this week by the agency’s watchdog. It focuses on $45 million in UASI funds allocated to Chicago’s Cook County in the last few years to enhance public safety. Local authorities called their UASI-funded initiative “Project Shield,” which was supposed to provide municipalities with the equipment to improve response to terrorist attacks and disasters.
Under the plan this was supposed to be accomplished, in part, by equipping police in dozens of departments with vehicles capable of mobile data transmission of video, audio and text as well as a tower camera. The information, including feed pictures from fixed mounted cameras, was to be shared among 128 suburban agencies in case of a terrorist attack or other emergency.
 Instead investigators who compiled the report after conducting a six-month probe found that a lot of the sophisticated electronic equipment didn’t even work, was missing or was never installed. They concluded that the project was “not implemented effectively” and found that “millions of tax dollars may have been wasted on equipment that does not perform as intended.”
The IG further reveals that the federal funds were not always used appropriately and that Cook County was “not always in compliance with federal regulations, agency administrative requirements and relevant Office of Management and Budget circulars.” That’s because the feds kept pouring money into the initiative without bothering to follow up if it was being properly used.
While this particular audit focused on Cook County, it’s not far-fetched to assume that some of this is going on with other urban recipients of these federal funds. After all, there is no oversight once the cash is doled out. The Cook County probe was conducted only because two federal lawmakers from the state—Republican Senator Mark Kirk and Democrat Congressman Mike Quigley—requested it.

Full-Blown Civil War Erupts On Wall Street – Financial Elite Start Turning On Each Other

By David DeGraw - ampedstatus.org

Finally, after trillions in fraudulent activity, trillions in bailouts, trillions in printed money, billions in political bribing and billions in bonuses, the criminal cartel members on Wall Street are beginning to get what they deserve. As the Eurozone is coming apart at the seams and as the US economy grinds to a halt, the financial elite are starting to turn on each other. The lawsuits are piling up fast. Here’s an extensive roundup:

Time to put your Big Bank shorts on! Get ready for a run… The chickens are coming home to roost… The Global Banking Cartel’s crimes are being exposed left & right… Prepare for Shock & Awe…

Well, well… here’s your Shock & Awe:

First up, this shockingly huge $196 billion lawsuit just filed against 17 major banks on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bank of America is severely exposed in this lawsuit. As the parent company of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch they are on the hook for $57.4 billion. JP Morgan is next in the line of fire with $33 billion. And many death spiraling European banks are facing billions in losses as well.

FHA Files a $196 Billion Lawsuit Against 17 Banks

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises), today filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions, certain of their officers and various unaffiliated lead underwriters. The suits allege violations of federal securities laws and common law in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities (PLS) to the Enterprises.

Complaints have been filed against the following lead defendants, in alphabetical order:
1. Ally Financial Inc. f/k/a GMAC, LLC – $6 billion
2. Bank of America Corporation – $6 billion
3. Barclays Bank PLC – $4.9 billion
4. Citigroup, Inc. – $3.5 billion
5. Countrywide Financial Corporation -$26.6 billion
6. Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc. – $14.1 billion
7. Deutsche Bank AG – $14.2 billion
8. First Horizon National Corporation – $883 million
9. General Electric Company – $549 million
10. Goldman Sachs & Co. – $11.1 billion
11. HSBC North America Holdings, Inc. – $6.2 billion
12. JPMorgan Chase & Co. – $33 billion
13. Merrill Lynch & Co. / First Franklin Financial Corp. – $24.8 billion
14. Morgan Stanley – $10.6 billion
15. Nomura Holding America Inc. – $2 billion
16. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC – $30.4 billion
17. Société Générale – $1.3 billion

These complaints were filed in federal or state court in New York or the federal court in Connecticut. The complaints seek damages and civil penalties under the Securities Act of 1933, similar in content to the complaint FHFA filed against UBS Americas, Inc. on July 27, 2011. In addition, each complaint seeks compensatory damages for negligent misrepresentation. Certain complaints also allege state securities law violations or common law fraud. [read full FHFA release]

You can read the suits filed against each individual bank here. For some more information read Bloomberg: BofA, JPMorgan Among 17 Banks Sued by U.S. for $196 Billion. Noticeably absent from the list of companies being sued is Wells Fargo.

And the suits just keep coming…

BofA sued over $1.75 billion Countrywide mortgage pool

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) was sued by the trustee of a $1.75 billion mortgage pool, which seeks to force the bank to buy back the underlying loans because of alleged misrepresentations in how they were made. The lawsuit by the banking unit of US Bancorp (USB.N) is the latest of a number of suits seeking to recover investor losses tied to risky mortgage loans issued by Countrywide Financial Corp, which Bank of America bought in 2008. In a complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, U.S. Bank said Countrywide, which issued the 4,484 loans in the HarborView Mortgage Loan Trust 2005-10, materially breached its obligations by systemically misrepresenting the quality of its underwriting and loan documentation. [read more]

Bank of America kept AIG legal threat under wraps

Top Bank of America Corp lawyers knew as early as January that American International Group Inc was prepared to sue the bank for more than $10 billion, seven months before the lawsuit was filed, according to sources familiar with the matter. Bank of America shares fell more than 20 percent on August 8, the day the lawsuit was filed, adding to worries about the stability of the largest U.S. bank…. The bank made no mention of the lawsuit threat in a quarterly regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission just four days earlier. Nor did management discuss it on conference calls about quarterly results and other pending legal claims. [read more]

Nevada Lawsuit Shows Bank of America’s Criminal Incompetence

As we’ve stated before, litigation by attorney general is significant not merely due to the damages and remedies sought, but because it paves the way for private lawsuits. And make no mistake about it, this filing is a doozy. It shows the Federal/state attorney general mortgage settlement effort to be a complete travesty. The claim describes, in considerable detail, how various Bank of America units engaged in misconduct in virtually every aspect of its residential mortgage business. [read more]

Nevada Wallops Bank of America With Sweeping Suit; Nationwide Foreclosure Settlement in Peril

The sweeping new suit could have repercussions far beyond Nevada’s borders. It further jeopardizes a possible nationwide settlement with the five largest U.S. banks over their foreclosure practices, especially given concerns voiced by other attorneys general, New York’s foremost among them…. In a statement, Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said reaching a settlement would bring a better outcome for homeowners than litigation. “We believe that the best way to get the housing market going again in every state is a global settlement that addresses these issues fairly, comprehensively and with finality. [read more]

FDIC Objects to Bank of America’s $8.5 Billion Mortgage-Bond Accord

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is objecting to Bank of America Corp. (BAC)’s proposed $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement with investors, joining investors and states that are challenging the agreement. The FDIC owns securities covered by the settlement and said it doesn’t have enough information to evaluate the accord, according to a filing today in federal court in Manhattan. Bank of America has agreed to pay $8.5 billion to resolve claims from investors in Countrywide Financial mortgage bonds. The settlement was negotiated with a group of institutional investors and would apply to investors outside that group. [read more]

Fed asks Bank of America to list contingency plan: report

The Federal Reserve has asked Bank of America Corp to show what measures it could take if business conditions worsen, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the situation. BofA executives recently responded to the unusual request from the Federal Reserve with a list of options that includes the issuance of a separate class of shares tied to the performance of its Merrill Lynch securities unit, the people told the paper. Bank of America and the Fed declined to comment to the Journal. Both could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours. [
read more]

Bombshell Admission of Failed Securitization Process in American Home Mortgage Servicing/LPS Lawsuit

Wow, Jones Day just created a huge mess for its client and banks generally if anyone is alert enough to act on it. The lawsuit in question is American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. v Lender Processing Services. It hasn’t gotten all that much attention (unless you are on the LPS deathwatch beat) because to most, it looks like yet another beauty contest between Cinderella’s two ugly sisters. AHMSI is a servicer (the successor to Option One, and it may also still have some Ameriquest servicing).

AHMSI is mad at LPS because LPS was supposed to prepare certain types of documentation AHMSI used in foreclosures. AHMSI authorized the use of certain designated staffers signing with the authority of AHSI (what we call robosinging, since the people signing these documents didn’t have personal knowledge, which is required if any of the documents were affidavits). But it did not authorize the use of surrogate signers, which were (I kid you not) people hired to forge the signatures of robosigners. The lawsuit rather matter of factly makes a stunning admission… [read more]

Fraudclosure: MERS Case Filed With Supreme Court

Before readers get worried by virtue of the headline that the Supreme Court will use its magic legal wand to make the dubious MERS mortgage registry system viable, consider the following:

1. The Supreme Court hears only a very small portion of the cases filed with it, and is less likely to take one with these demographics (filed by a private party, and an appeal out of a state court system, as opposed to Federal court). This case, Gomes v. Countywide, was decided against the plaintiff in lower and appellate court and the California state supreme court declined to hear it

2. If MERS or the various servicers who have had foreclosures overturned based on challenges to MERS thought they’d get a sympathetic hearing at the Supreme Court, they probably would have filed some time ago. MERS have apparently been settling cases rather than pursue ones where it though the judge would issue an unfavorable precedent

3. The case in question, from what the experts I consulted with and I can tell, is not the sort the Supreme Court would intervene in based on the issue raised, which is due process (14th Amendment). But none of us have seen the underlying lower and appellate court cases, and the summaries we’ve seen are unusually unclear as to what the legal argument is. [read more]

Iowa Says State AG Accord Won’t Release Banks From Liability

The 50-state attorney general group investigating mortgage foreclosure practices won’t release banks from all civil, or any criminal, liability in a settlement, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said. [read more]

Fed Launches New Formal Enforcement Action Against Goldman Sachs To Review Foreclosure Practices

The Federal Reserve Board has just launched a formal enforcement action against Goldman Sachs related to Litton Loan Services. Litton Loan is the nightmare-ridden mortgage servicing unit, a subsidiary of Goldman, that Goldman has been trying to sell for months. They penned a deal to recently, but the Fed stepped in and required Goldman to end robo-signing taking place at the unit before the sale could be completed. Sounds like this enforcement action is an extension of that requirement. [read more]

Goldman Sachs, Firms Agree With Regulator To End ‘Robo-Signing’ Foreclosure Practices

Goldman Sachs and two other firms have agreed with the New York banking regulator to end the practice known as robo-signing, in which bank employees signed foreclosure documents without reviewing case files as required by law, the Wall Street Journal said. In an agreement with New York’s financial-services superintendent, Goldman, its Litton Loan Servicing unit and Ocwen Financial Corp also agreed to scrutinize loan files for evidence they mishandled borrowers’ paperwork and to cut mortgage payments for some New York homeowners, the Journal said. [read more]

Banks still robo-signing, filing doubtful foreclosure documents

Reuters has found that some of the biggest U.S. banks and other “loan servicers” continue to file questionable foreclosure documents with courts and county clerks. They are using tactics that late last year triggered an outcry, multiple investigations and temporary moratoriums on foreclosures. In recent months, servicers have filed thousands of documents that appear to have been fabricated or improperly altered, or have sworn to false facts. Reuters also identified at least six “robo-signers,” individuals who in recent months have each signed thousands of mortgage assignments — legal documents which pinpoint ownership of a property. These same individuals have been identified — in depositions, court testimony or court rulings — as previously having signed vast numbers of foreclosure documents that they never read or checked. [read more]

JPMorgan fined for contravening Iran, Cuba sanctions

JPMorgan Chase Bank has been fined $88.3 million for contravening US sanctions against regimes in Iran, Cuba and Sudan, and the former Liberian government, the US Treasury Department announced Thursday. The Treasury said that the bank had engaged in a number of “egregious” financial transfers, loans and other facilities involving those countries but, in announcing a settlement with the bank, said they were “apparent” violations of various sanctions regulations. [read more]

This Is Considered Punishment? The Federal Reserve Wells Fargo Farce

What made the news surprising, of course, was that the Federal Reserve has rarely, if ever, taken action against a bank for making predatory loans. Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, didn’t believe in regulation and turned a blind eye to subprime abuses. His successor, Ben Bernanke, is not the ideologue that Greenspan is, but, as an institution, the Fed prefers to coddle banks rather than punish them.

That the Fed would crack down on Wells Fargo would seem to suggest a long-overdue awakening. Yet, for anyone still hoping for justice in the wake of the financial crisis, the news was hardly encouraging. First, the Fed did not force Wells Fargo to admit guilt — and even let the company issue a press release blaming its wrongdoing on a “relatively small group.”

The $85 million fine was a joke; in just the last quarter, Wells Fargo’s revenues exceeded $20 billion. And compensating borrowers isn’t going to hurt much either. By my calculation, it won’t top $20 million. [read more]

Exclusive: Regulators seek high-frequency trading secrets

U.S. securities regulators have taken the unprecedented step of asking high-frequency trading firms to hand over the details of their trading strategies, and in some cases, their secret computer codes. The requests for proprietary code and algorithm parameters by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a Wall Street brokerage regulator, are part of investigations into suspicious market activity, said Tom Gira, executive vice president of FINRA’s market regulation unit. [read more]

And here’s part of the Collapse Roundup I wrote on August 25th, referenced in the beginning of this report – as you will see, I would probably make a lot more money as an investment adviser:

Collapse Roundup #5: Goliath On The Ropes, Big Banks Getting Hit Hard, It’s A “Bloodbath” As Wall Street’s Crimes Blow Up In Their Face

Time to put your Big Bank shorts on! Get ready for a run…

The chickens are coming home to roost. Reality is catching up with the market riggers (Fed, ECB, PPT, CIA) and the “too big to fail” banks are getting whacked. Trillions of dollars in bailouts and legalized (FASB) accounting fraud cannot save these insolvent zombie banks any longer. The Grim Reaper is on the horizon and his sickle will do what paid off politicians won’t, cut ‘em down to size. So get your silver stake ready, time to plunge it into their vampire squid hearts….

What about Warren Buffet? He saved Goldman Sachs with a bailout in 2008. Can he save Bank of America?…

Warren’s bailout will help BofA over the short run, but $5 billion is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to their problems. The only thing his $5 billion will accomplish is a temporary run up in stock value so everyone who has been killed on the plummeting stock price can then jump out without complete loss….

Trouble a-comin’…

Goldman Sachs TANKS After CEO Lloyd Blankfein Hires Famous Defense Lawyer

Is the Goldman Sachs CEO facing a new lawsuit?

The market seems to think so. Goldman Sachs just tanked in minutes before the close after news that Lloyd Blankfein hired a lawyer famous for defending vilified execs. It’s back up a bit since dropping over 5%, but the news is still concerning.

It’s unclear whether the lawyer is for him, Goldman Sachs, or both, but Goldman Sachs’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein hired Reid Weingarten, a high profile defense attorney who says “I’m used to these monstrously difficult cases where everybody hates my clients,” according to Reuters.

Reuters says the hire might have something to do with accusations of Blankfein’s committing perjury. Or something else:

One former federal prosecutor, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Blankfein may have hired outside counsel after receiving a request from investigators for documents or other information. [read full report]

Speaking of hiring lawyers…

The Global Banking Cartel’s Crimes Are Being Exposed Left & Right… Blowing Up In Their Face… Prepare for Shock & Awe… BOOM!

Moody’s exposed:

MOODY’S ANALYST BREAKS SILENCE: Says Ratings Agency Rotten To Core With Conflicts

A former senior analyst at Moody’s has gone public with his story of how one of the country’s most important rating agencies is corrupted to the core.

The analyst, William J. Harrington, worked for Moody’s for 11 years, from 1999 until his resignation last year.

From 2006 to 2010, Harrington was a Senior Vice President in the derivative products group, which was responsible for producing many of the disastrous ratings Moody’s issued during the housing bubble.

Harrington has made his story public in the form of a 78-page “comment” to the SEC’s proposed rules about rating agency reform….

Here are some key points:

* Moody’s ratings often do not reflect its analysts’ private conclusions. Instead, rating committees privately conclude that certain securities deserve certain ratings–but then vote with management to give the securities the higher ratings that issuer clients want.

* Moody’s management and “compliance” officers do everything possible to make issuer clients happy–and they view analysts who do not do the same as “troublesome.” Management employs a variety of tactics to transform these troublesome analysts into “pliant corporate citizens” who have Moody’s best interests at heart.

* Moody’s product managers participate in–and vote on–ratings decisions. These product managers are the same people who are directly responsible for keeping clients happy and growing Moody’s business.

* At least one senior executive lied under oath at the hearings into rating agency conduct. Another executive, who Harrington says exemplified management’s emphasis on giving issuers what they wanted, skipped the hearings altogether. [read full report]

Click the below picture for a Wake Up World Only Exclusive Special Offer

BOOM! The SEC Caught Covering Up Wall Street Crimes:

Matt Taibbi Exposes How SEC Shredded Thousands of Investigations

An explosive new report in Rolling Stone magazine exposes how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation’s largest banks and hedge funds, including AIG, Wells Fargo, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and top Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff. Last week, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said an agency whistleblower had sent him a letter detailing the unlawful destruction of records detailing more than 9,000 information investigations. We speak with Matt Taibbi, the political reporter for Rolling Stone magazine who broke this story in his latest article….

KA-BOOM! The Fed And All Their Crony-Capitalist Cartel Members Exposed, Yet Again:

Wall Street Pentagon Papers Part III – Are The Federal Reserve’s Crimes Still Too Big To Comprehend?

Another day, another trillion plus in secret Federal Reserve “bailouts” revealed. Bloomberg News exposes this latest Fed “deal” after winning a long Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) legal battle to get the details on what was done with the American people’s money. Their report runs with an AmpedStatus style headline: “Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2 Trillion From Fed.”

The aristocracy is alive and well… thanks to the Fed, of course.

Keep in mind, this $1.2 trillion is in addition to the $16 trillion the Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit revealed and the over $2 trillion in Quantitative Easing the Fed dished out, not to mention the now continued promise of the Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP). This is also separate from the $700 billion TARP program that Congress approved. This is yet another unknown secret program, throwing another mere $1.2 trillion in public money at the Wall Street elite (global banking cartel), just being revealed now.

Those of us paying attention over the past three years have had Fed crony-capitalism on steroids fatigue for awhile now. Nonetheless, this is deja vu all over again as another mindbogglingly huge story that must be covered comes to light.

Here are the details of this latest revelation:

[read full report]

Speaking of the $16 trillion GAO audit…

BOOM! GAO audit exposed, missing some vital details:

More on how the GAO’s Fed audit failed to disclose some dirty secrets about BlackRock and JP Morgan

In its review of the Fed’s outsourcing practices, it failed to mention the most damaging and suspicious sole-source (no bid) contract awarded to BlackRock, which was for handling the New York Fed’s toxic Bear Stearns portfolio, otherwise known as Maiden Lane. This contract would generate $108,000,000 in fees and was one of the largest awarded during the bailout period, but it might also have saved JP Morgan $1.1 billion in losses from its Bear Stearns acquisition….

Also, BlackRock was also one of the managers of the NY Fed’s separate $1.25 trillion MBS purchase program as part of QE1. Contrary to the lie on the NY Fed’s webpage (that the MBS auctions were conducted via competitive bidding), the NY Fed’s own purchasing manager, Brian Sack, admitted in a paper that, “the MBS purchases were arranged with primary dealer counterparties directly, [and] there was no auction mechanism to provide a measure of market supply.”

Putting it all together, it looks like Jamie Dimon signed off on hiring BlackRock for no justifiable reason to trade the very Maiden Lane portfolio that could have caused his bank, JP Morgan, to lose up to $1.1 billion. And, it was entirely possible that BlackRock saved the portfolio by trading the MBS portion of ML with the New York Fed directly as QE1 was underway. [read full report]

BOOM! Bear Stearns exposed:

Report Says Bear Stearns Executives Sold Illegal RMBS and Covered It Up

Former back office employees from Bear Stearns are coming out of the woodwork to explain how Tom Marano’s mortgage group cheated their own clients out of billions. This week I reported at The Distressed Debt Report, EMC insiders say they were told to make up the classification for whole loans, packaged into mortgage securities, to get them switched out of the trust. By classifying the loans as ‘prepaid’ or having ‘subsequent recoveries’ Bear employees were able to fool the trustee into giving them back loans they were not able to legally service. A move New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is actively investigating now.

In my latest DealFlow story we hear from EMC staffers who describe how subprime loans, that would have been sold by Bear Stearns trader Jeff Verschleiser’s team, never had a proper servicing license in West Virginia when they were packaged into the residential mortgage backed security. In 2003 Bear/EMC put $100 million of subprime loans from West Virginia into a few RMBS transactions. EMC, the banks wholly owned mortgage servicing shop, would service all of Bear’s RMBS after they were sold.

A year latter, when senior executies realized the mishap instead of Bear going out and informing their regulator and applying for a license, they orchestrated a cover up and even threaten EMC employees not to talk about it. [read full report]

The big banks are getting lit up!

You shall reap what you sow.

Karma is a … bit@h. [read full report]

Let’s end with this video. We need to keep in mind that the Federal Reserve has known about all of this criminal activity from the start. Yet, they have done everything they could, and are still trying, to keep this criminal operation up and running. As all these criminal banks begin to blow up, let’s not forget who their central bank is and what they have done to the American people.

Cenk, take it away and drive the point home:

- David DeGraw is the founder and editor of AmpedStatus.com. His long-awaited book, The Road Through 2012: Revolution or World War III, will finally be released on September 28th. He can be emailed at David[@]AmpedStatus.com. You can follow David’s reporting daily on his new personal website: DavidDeGraw.org

Please rate this wake up world post using the stars below. Your ratings will provide us a better understanding of topics that are important to our readers.

We also wish to thank everyone for their continued support of Wake Up World

Florida's Ag Gag Bill Reintroduced

Earlier this year a bill was introduced in Florida by Senator Jim Norman that would have made it a felony to take photos or video of a farm or agriculture operation.
The “Ag Gag” bill was openly supported by Big Ag and directed at both whistle-blowers who go undercover to document the cruelty that animals on farms suffer, as well as anyone who wants to just snap a shot while standing on the side of the road. Those documenting what they saw would have been left facing criminal charges, while abusers would be left unaccountable. Fortunately, the bill never came to a vote and similar measures failed in Minnesota, Iowa and New York.
Sen. Norman has reintroduced this legislation by sneaking similar language into a larger agricultural bill (), which will make it a first-degree misdemeanor to take photos, audio recordings or video of a farm or farm operation without previous written consent.
All of this was done with urging from Wilton Simpson of Simpson Farms, which “produces 21 million eggs annually for Florida’s second-largest egg seller, Tampa Farm Service,” according to the Florida Independent. Simpson reportedly fears activists will gather dirt on factory farms for campaigns that could lead to a ballot initiative similar to California’s Prop 2. Simpson’s also currently running for senate.
Undercover videos from organizations such as Mercy for Animals and the HSUS have played an important role in exposing not only egregious abuse and unsanitary living conditions that farm animals are forced to endure, but have also drawn attention to standard industry practices that don’t seem to fit into the mainstream idea of humane treatment of animals and in some cases have resulted in criminal charges and new laws.
The materials provided by such investigations have opened the doors to otherwise closed facilities and prompt thought, debate and reform regarding the treatment and use of animals in agriculture would have been swept under the rug.
Please sign the petition asking Florida’s senators not to pass this bill in any form.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/floridas-ag-gag-bill-reintroduced.html#ixzz1j4RWDnMD

"Terror" Has Bankrupted Every Nation In The West, Nations Now Collectively At War For Enormous Profits To The Same Banks That BrokeThem.

With that in mind, I've been connecting some dots. You will notice that less than one month after 9/11 fully prepared US forces attacked Afghanistan, one of only 7 nations in the western world without a Rothschild controlled central bank.

A short while after the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq was 'pre-emptively' invaded under the pretext of having Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Iraq was one of six nations left after Afghanistan without a Rothschild controlled central bank.
Its fall left five nations in the world without a Rothschild controlled central bank: Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Cuba and Libya.
We have now crossed Libya off the list, which leaves four:
North Korea, the Sudan, Cuba and of course, Iran which poses “an existential threat” to the only nation in the middle east with a stockpile of nuclear weapons, a nation which also apparently controls American middle east policy!
(I do not include Iceland which has only in the last few months regained its economic sovereignty nor South Africa - now part of BRICS - which also has a sovereign central bank, as they are outside the area of military conflict over oil).
NATIONS UNDER THE ROTHSCHILD CENTRAL BANK SYSTEM
You do not have to connect any dots to see that most of the nations controlled by those central banks are now suffering under the ever-increasing "austerities" of bankruptcy!

What a wonderful system!

Everyone using it is bankrupt!

And those running it are getting richer by the second...

And that, I believe, is the reason that the blood we are seeing in the streets is, fundamentally flowing from a global political activism against the “austerity” of engineered bankruptcy among other more political imbalances like alien colonial or imperial despotism.

The most encouraging thing is that this activism is generating a recovery of personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity right across the globe, challenging by transcending 'sovereign' borders.

“For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive." - Zbigniew Brzezinski, last year

"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately." - Thomas Jefferson, over two hundred years ago.

Well, it ain't happened yet, but we're workin' on it... ed

MORE HERE

Karen Kwiatkowski for congress (a Ron Paul Republican)

Symantec accused of using 'scareware' tactics to sell full-version products

Summary: Anti-virus maker Symantec is charged in a lawsuit with misleading users into purchasing full versions of its software by peddling ’scareware’ tactics.

Security firm Symantec is being taken to court over claims that the company’s flagship anti-malware and performance software suites mislead consumers into buying full versions of its products.
The suit, which seeks class action status, was brought by Washington state resident James Gross. It was filed in the District Court of San Jose, California on Tuesday on behalf of his lawyers, according to Reuters.
The complaint alleges that misleading ’scare’ tactics are being used by Symantec in its Norton Utilities, PC Tools Registry Mechanic, and PC Tools Performance Toolkit products. The claims also suggest the software range always report harmful errors, privacy risks and other issues that exist, regardless of whether they actually exist.

Many ’scareware’ tactics used by online scammers intercept websites and display within the browser a simulation of an anti-virus scan, that invariably tells the user that the PC they are using is infected.
“The software is falsely informing the consumer that errors are high priority and in addition it is falsely informing the consumer that their overall system health and privacy health is low”, the complaint stated.
“The truth, however, is that the scareware does not actually perform any meaningful evaluation of the user’s computer system, or of the supposed ‘errors’ detected by the software”.
One analyst said that the claims would be difficult to prove. Andy Kellett, senior analyst at Ovum, said speaking to The Inquirer: “It’s a tricky one as there are lots of unknowns, how do you prove Symantec is in the wrong?”, adding: “It’s not something that has been done before”.
The news comes only a week after Symantec confirmed an Indian hacker group hacked a “third-party” and acquired source code relating to an enterprise anti-virus solution the company once offered.
While the lawsuit will likely go Symantec’s way, it is nevertheless been a bad month for the security firm.
A Symantec spokesperson said it was “aware” of the allegations made, but declined to offer additional comment at the time of publication.

Occupy San Diego protester gets slammed by cop

9/11 Hijackers Passports were issued by the CIA - US Consulate Whistlebl...

'Obama has no balls to shut Gitmo for good'

Iran: a quickly evolving geopolitical imbroglio – part III

Note from Madison Ruppert: the last post was supposed to go up yesterday but for some reason it disappeared (something which has been happening disturbingly often [at endthelie.com - Ed.]) so it had to be reposted today.

Strait of Hormuz (photo: NASA)

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

Before you proceed with the third part in this fast-moving series, I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with previous events by reading parts one and two.

In the past two days the situation with Iran became increasingly more volatile, all while the American establishment media wastes time distracting the people of the United States with the dog and pony show that is the Republican primaries.

Thankfully, there are plenty of people – outside the limelight of broadcast news – who are covering these dire developments in detail.

However, as I always point out, this is often done in bits and pieces without presenting the whole picture to give readers a true sense of what is going on in the world.

Creating a more complete understanding is exactly what I’m attempting to do in this series, although I cannot possibly cover it all on my own, so if I miss something, please feel free to send me an email at Admin@EndtheLie.com to correct my error.


Despite the constant pressure being put on Iran from the West due to their alleged nuclear weapons program, which the Iranians repeatedly insist is purely peaceful, Iran has announced a new uranium enrichment site.

This site is strategically located underground and has been said to be protected from airstrikes as well as getting the somewhat dubious title of “bomb-proof.”

The Atlantic Wire claimed that this new, supposedly “bomb-proof facility” (which is highly doubtful given that nothing on Earth is truly completely bomb-proof, just as nothing is truly bullet-proof) can not only be used to create enriched uranium for nuclear power generation, “but also as a potential fuel for nuclear weapons.”

This new facility is reportedly called Fordo, near the holy city of Qom and two conflicting reports have already emerged regarding the operational status of the site.


Kayhan daily, the manager of which is reportedly a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported, “Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats.”

However, the Iranian nuclear chief Fereidoun Abbasi stated that Iran will “soon” begin to enrich uranium at the Fordo facility, completely contradicting the report published by Kayhan in a front-page article.

The Associated Press said, “It was impossible to immediately reconcile the two reports.”

While Iran had begun enriching uranium at the Natanz facility in April of 2006, the centrifuges at Fordo are reportedly more efficient and the plant is better shielded form an aerial assault like that which was launched by Israel against Syria in 2007.

In the face of growing threats from the West as the European Union’s Foreign Ministers plan on meeting on January 30 to discuss possibly increasing sanctions against Iranian oil exports, the Iranian government has renewed its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.

The Iranian Khorasan daily cited a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) who said that the Iranian leadership has already made the decision to order the closure of the strait if Iranian oil exports are blocked.

The commander, Ali Ashraf Nouri, stated that the decision has been made by the top authorities in Iran, and it is not the first time Iran has threatened to do so.

However, as the Associated Press pointed out, “this is the strongest statement yet that a closure of the strait is official policy.”

While I believe it is highly unlikely that the Strait will be closed by Iran, the United States seems to be taking it quite seriously.

United States Secretary of Defense ,Leon Panetta, stated that a move to close the Strait of Hormuz would cross a “red line” adding, “We made very clear that the United States will not tolerate the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.”

On the CBS show “Face the Nation” chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey backed up Panetta’s statement in saying, “we would take action and reopen the Strait,” obviously implying military intervention.

To make matters even worse, the British have deployed the HMS Daring, a Type 45 Destroyer which is obviously intended to send a not-so-subtle message to Iran due to their threats to close the Strait, not to mention their large-scale naval exercises and announcement of even more drills focusing on the Strait of Hormuz to come in the near future.

Just like his American counterpart, the British Defense Secretary Philip Hammond has warned Iran not to block the Strait.

The HMS Daring is reportedly equipped with new missile interception technology allowing it to intercept any Iranian missile along with what Haaretz calls “the world’s most sophisticated naval radar.”

Emphasizing the missile interception capability is likely being done because of the recent Iranian ballistic missile tests which occurred in the final stages of their recent 10-day-long naval exercise.

There is also the matter of the increasingly tight relationship between Russia and Iran, which recently became even closer than it was previously.

The Iranian Fars News Agency (FNA) reported that the Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Seyed Reza Sajjadi stated that during a meeting between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, Medvedev proposed replacing the US dollar with the ruble and rial in their trade.

It appears that this is already being implemented with Sajjadi stating that “we have acted on this basis and a part of our interactions is done in Ruble now.”

 “There is a similar interest in the Russian side,” Sajjadi added, pointing out that the Russians oppose unilateral sanctions on Iran made outside the United Nations Security Council.

He emphasized their distaste with sanctions focused on the Iranian Central Bank (CBI) which is what the latest round of American sanctions targeted.

“The move (imposing sanction on the CBI) is unacceptable. Russians have clearly announced that they will not accept these sanctions and Iran’s nuclear issue is resolvable just through negotiations,” Sajjadi said.

Ahmadinejad has been similarly defiant, stating that the central bank would respond with “force” to new American sanctions, adding that the bank was strong enough to defeat “enemy plans.”

This is part of a larger move to separate Iran from the dollar as much as possible, including eliminating the dollar entirely from Iranian oil trade with China, India and Japan.

The latter two countries are quite surprising when one considers the increasingly close relationship between Japan, India and the United States in the West’s quest to extend hegemony over the entirety of the Asia-Pacific region.

One must wonder if the United States would speak out against Japan and India’s trade ties with Iran, or if they will hypocritically remain silent because they are critical allies in the region.

I tend to believe that it would likely be the latter as the United States has a long history of hypocrisy when it comes to foreign policy (and domestic policy for that matter).

We must also consider the fact that Iran is reaching out to form new alliances across the globe, apparently focusing on Latin America and Africa.

Ahmadinejad arrived in Venezuela and is now embarking on a tour of four nations during which he will reportedly be pushing for investment projects like a hydro-electric plant in Ecuador, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg characterizes this as “taking shots at the U.S. in its own backyard, defying attempts to isolate Iran over its nuclear activities” and the friends he is making are not on the friendliest of terms with the American government.

Of course this includes Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Raul Castro of Cuba and this will be his fifth trip to the region since 2005.

However, the moves towards Africa will likely make an even greater stir as the Iranian nuclear chief stated that Iran is prepared to assist “friendly” African nations that possess uranium reserves to establish facilities which can process natural uranium into material for nuclear programs.

Fereidoun Abbasi highlighted Iran’s ability to carry out the entire nuclear fuel cycle from extraction of uranium to fuel production and thus is willing and able to share the technology.

Given that the West is pushing incredibly hard for Iran to shut down any and all nuclear programs, it is unlikely to make anyone happy to know that Iran will be expanding their reach into Africa and providing allied nations with the means to produce nuclear fuel.

With the increasingly rapid buildup in the region and the move to arm Western allies that surround Iran, along with the American-Israeli drills which very well might coincide with the upcoming Iranian drills, it all seems like this situation is making an unfortunate turn.

Again, all we can hope is that those in power aren’t insane enough to engage in a conflict they know full well could – and likely would – spark World War III. 

This article first appeared at EndtheLie.com

FOR RENT: Millions of Americans Homes in Foreclosure

http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=17296