The Times Of India – Morgan Stanley Considers Shutting Offices, Cutting Staff : Sources – 9 August 2012

NEW YORK: Morgan Stanley under fire to boost profit margins in its retail brokerage arm, is considering closing brokerage offices, laying off support staff and requiring some branch managers also to generate revenue as advisers under a cost-cutting drive, three people briefed on internal discussions said.

The Times Of India – Spanish Judge Hits Out At US Over WikiLeaks Case – 2 August 2012

MADRID: A controversial Spanish judge criticised the US investigation into WikiLeaks today, saying that the grand jury process which could lead to charges being filed against the secret-spilling site’s founder is undemocratic.

Baltasar Garzon, a human rights lawyer best known for indicting former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, recently agreed to act as an international coordinator for Julian Assange, the embattled WikiLeaks founder.

The Times Of India – Swiss Bank Come Up With New Safe Haven – 2 July 2012

(According to industry sources, bankers are telling their rich clients that Switzerland’s pacts with India and other countries do not apply to the safe deposit boxes. )

NEW DELHI: Amidst a global crackdown against alleged black money in secret Swiss bank accounts, their bankers are selling a new safe haven idea to their rich clients from India and other countries — the high-value 1,000 franc notes to be stored in safe deposit boxes.

The Times Of India – Pope’s Butler Arrested In Vatican Leaks Scandal – 25 May 2012

VATICAN CITY: The butler who serves in the apartments of Pope Benedict was arrested on Friday in connection with an investigation into leaks of confidential documents, a senior Vatican source said.
The source confirmed reports by Italian media about the identity of the person. “It is very serious,” the source said.

Vatican spokesmen said earlier on Friday that a person in possession of confidential documents had been arrested but that they could not disclose his position or identity until they were given permission from Vatican investigators.

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The Times Of India – Obama Choose Camp David For Intimate Meetings With G-8 Leaders – 18 May 2012

WASHINGTON: The gathering of G-8 leaders is the biggest gathering of foreign leaders at Camp David, the scenic presidential retreat in the picturesque Catoctin Mountains of Maryland, which has been witness to several historic moments in the past.

Of course, what was the process followed to allot the cabins to the visiting dignitaries would be a classified one, said the US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, but he did not expected that G-8 Summit would be the biggest gathering of foreign leaders at Camp David.

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The Times Of India – Eurozone Fund Approves Next Greek Bailout Payment – 9 May 2012

BRUSSELS: The eurozone’s bailout fund has approved the release of the latest batch of (euro) 5.2 billion ($6.7 billion) in aid to shore up Greece’s finances only days after the nation’s chaotic election outcome.

The European financial stability facility announced late Wednesday that (euro) 4.2 billion will be disbursed on Thursday already with another (euro) 1 billion to come next month depending on Athens’ needs.

Embattled Greece needs the funding from the EFSF to help balance its massive bond-swap losses.

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The Times Of India – US Documents Allege Massive Money Laundering At HSBC – 3 May 2012

NEW YORK: In April 2003, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and New York state bank regulators cracked the whip on HSBC Bank USA, ordering it to do a better job of policing itself for suspicious money flows. Staff in the bank’s anti-money laundering division, according to a person who worked there at the time, flew into a “panic.”

The US unit of London-based HSBC Holdings Plc quickly rallied. It hired a tough federal prosecutor to oversee anti-money laundering efforts. It installed monitoring systems for operations that had grown unwieldy during the bank’s US expansion. The aim, as HSBC said in an agreement with regulators at the time, was to “ensure that the bank fully addresses all deficiencies in the bank’s anti-money laundering policies and procedures.”

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The Times Of India – Occupy Wall Street Protesters Take To New York Streets – 2 May 2012

NEW YORK: Occupy Wall Street protesters took to New York’s streets on Tuesday in the highlight of a plan to mount a “general strike” across the United States.

Small groups of protesters held simultaneous demonstrations outside a string of Manhattan corporate institutions including the Time-Life building and McGraw Hill publishers in the Rockefeller Center neighbourhood.

Others were targeting Bank of America and HSBC branches, others Disney and The New York Times. “Prosecute the fraud” and “Jobs now,” read two protest placards.

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The Times Of India – Malaysian Police Free All 471 Protesters Arrested During A Demonstration – 29 April 2012

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police on Sunday said all 471 people arrested during a demonstration for free and fair elections, including a senior opposition lawmaker, have been freed.

“We have released all of them,” national police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf said, adding that the MP had been identified as Tian Chua from Anwar Ibrahim’s Keadilan party.

Security forces would decide later whether to file charges against the demonstrators, he said.

Police fired tear gas and chemical-laced water Saturday at thousands of protesters calling for clean elections after some breached into the Merdeka (Independence) Square which had been declared a banned area for demonstrators.

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The Times Of India – Dalai Lama Eyes Reform In China, Fearing “Revolution”- 17 April 2012

HONOLULU (HAWAII): The Dalai Lama has said there are hopeful signs that China will push through political reforms in China and Tibet in order to avoid another “cultural revolution.”

But the exiled Tibetan leader warned that there were still “worshippers of the gun” in Tibetan areas of China, where more than 30 protestors — many Buddhist monks and nuns — have set themselves alight since March 2011.

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