More Icelandic bankers arrested

Iceland’s special prosecutor into the banking crisis has confirmed that raids have taken place today and that arrests have been made. The Central Bank of Iceland is among the institutions under investigation.

Special Prosecutor, Olafur Thor Hauksson told Visir.is that house searches are taking place in at least three places today as part of investigations into the central bank, MP Bank and Straumur Bank.

Stefan Johann Stefansson at the central bank confirmed that agents were in the building conducting searches; and it has also been confirmed that searches are underway at MP Bank and ALMC (formerly Straumur).

An ALMC spokesman said that the premises are indeed being searched and that the bank’s staff members are doing their best to help.

In other news, four people have so far been arrested today in connection with the special prosecutor’s investigation into Landsbanki.

One of the arrested parties is Jon Thorsteinn Oddleifsson, former Landsbanki treasury boss; and it is not yet known who the other three are.

According to Visir.is sources, the arrests concern a brand new section of the wider case against the bank and are not directly connected to searches and arrests made last week.

Origin
Source: Ice News 

BC First Nations Unite to Declare Province-Wide Opposition to Crude Oil Pipeline and Tanker Expansion

VANCOUVER, COAST SALISH TERRITORIES, BRITISH COLUMBIA, Dec 01, 2011 — First Nations, whose unceded territory encompasses the entire coastline of British Columbia, have formed a united front, banning all exports of tar sands crude oil through their territories, and effectively all of BC – whether by Enbridge in the north or Kinder-Morgan in the south.

Several new First Nations signed the Save the Fraser Declaration in a Vancouver ceremony, expanding First Nations opposition in western Canada to more than 130 Nations. These First Nations form an unbroken wall of opposition from the U.S. border to the Arctic Ocean. This is the first time that First Nations have come together publicly to declare a ban on oil tankers and pipelines on both the north and south coasts.

“North or south, it makes no difference. First Nations from every corner of BC are saying absolutely no tar sands pipelines or tankers in our territories,” said Chief Jackie Thomas of Saik’uz First Nation, a member of the Yinka Dene Alliance. “We have banned oil pipelines and tankers using our laws, and we will defend our decision using all the means at our disposal.”

Canada Aerospace Industry: India, China Competition On The Horizon

MONTREAL - Aerospace industry-watchers said Monday that emerging powers like China and India will eventually compete in aircraft manufacturing -- but it might take a while.

The head of one industry think-tank noted that Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, India's state-owned company, is heavily involved in building helicopters and plans to eventually develop its own fighters and commercial aircraft.

But Suzanne Benoit, CEO of Aero Montreal, added that India still has some catching up to do.

"It's not really a commercial company, it's a government-owned company so maybe the pace of development may not be as fast as other airframers," Benoit said in an interview Monday.

"It's not going to happen tomorrow, but you never know in India. The government may decide to put a lot of money into it."

George Soros: Global Financial System In 'Self-Reinforcing Process Of Disintegration'

Billionaire investor George Soros says that the global financial system is on the brink of collapse.

Developed countries are falling into a "deflationary debt trap," in which consumer spending falls, products become more expensive, tax revenues drop, and sovereign debt grows, Soros said last week, according to the Wall Street Journal. As a result, he said, the global financial system is in a "self-reinforcing process of disintegration."

"The consequences could be quite disastrous," Soros, who was born in Hungary, said at the tenth anniversary of the International Senior Lawyers Project.

Concern is mounting that the eurozone may break up because of market pressure on European sovereign debt, which could plunge Europe into a depression and the world into a recession. Observers are already worried that Europe could suffer a recession and subsequent slow growth for several years even if it averts a eurozone breakup, since products would remain expensive in the euro, making consumers more hesitant to buy them and forcing governments to curtail budgets even more as consumer spending falls.

Zuccotti Park Owners, Brookfield Properties, Owe City $139,000

Mayor Bloomberg may have been on the side of Brookfield Properties during the violent raid on Occupy Wall Street in November, but now it's looking like the Mayor will want to distance himself from the owners of Zuccotti Park.

According to the city's Finance Department, Brookfield Properties and its parent company owe $139,000 in unpaid business taxes dating from 2006 to 2009.

Councilman Jumaane Williams, who was wrongly arrested this summer while attending the West Indian Parade, and was arrested again during an Occupy Wall Street protest at the Brooklyn Bridge, pointed out the blatant irony in Brookfield's financial woes:

Occupy Wall Street has been talking about economic disparity...and here's Brookfield Properties, which has worked with the mayor to keep the messengers out, not paying their share.

A spokesman for Brookfield Properties disputed the claims and said the company would be in communication with the city's finance department to work through what they deemed as an error.

Others on the list of city debtors include the Philadelphia Eagles, Rev. Al Sharpton, and the law firm Binder and Binder.

Brookfield, which reportedly owns 6.2 million square feet in midtown and 12.8 million square feet in Lower Manhattan, was at the center of controversy during the city's Occupy Wall Street demonstrations when protestors took over Zuccotti Park to pitch tents for encampment.

At the start of the protests in October, Bloomberg dismissed protestors and insisted that neither Occupy Wall Street nor Brookfield Properties were topics of the Mayor's "pillow talk." However, that quickly changed as protestors gained momentum and national attention, and Bloomberg ordered hundreds of police officers to evict protestors during the middle of the night.

Origin
Source: Huff 

Former Countrywide Whistleblower: Mortgage Fraud 'Systemic'

With mortgage lenders now facing allegations of misconduct on several fronts, a former top ranking employee at a major home lender has come forward saying fraud at her firm wasn't the exception, but the norm.

Eileen Foster, a former executive vice president in charge of fraud investigations at mortgage lender Countrywide Financial, told CBS 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft that mortgage fraud was a common occurrence at the firm. Foster goes on to say that she faced illegal retaliation for filing reports investigating the fraud, alleging Countrywide fired her when she refused to lie to federal regulators on Countrywide's behalf.

"From what I saw, the types of things I saw, it was, it appeared systemic," Foster said on 60 Minutes Sunday. "It wasn't just one individual or two or three individuals, it was branches of individuals, it was regions of individuals."

Countrywide Financial, acquired by Bank of America in 2008, was a central figure in the housing collapse and subsequent foreclosure crisis. Once America's largest mortgage lender, the company has agreed to a litany of settlements since 2008, including a $600 million class-action settlement, an $108 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and the ousting of former CEO Angelo Mozilo, who paid $67.5 million in penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Newt Gingrich vs. Nancy Pelosi: GOP Candidate Fires Back

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich fired back on Monday to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's suggestion that she could reveal information about him "when the time is right" because she once served on a committee that investigated him for ethics violations.

"First of all, I want to thank Speaker Pelosi for what I regard as an early Christmas gift," he said at a press conference in New York.

"Well, if she suggested that she's going to use material that she developed when she was on the ethics committee, that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the House and I would hope that members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it," he continued. "I think it shows you how capriciously political that committee was when she was on it."

Pelosi told Talking Points Memo that she was very familiar with his record from her time serving on the Ethics Committee investigating him.

Iran Revolutionary Guard raises alert ahead of possible strike, report says

Iran's Revolutionary Guard has raised its alertness level fearing a military strike by a foreign power, Western intelligence sources told the U.K. newspaper the Telegraph on Monday.

According to the Telegraph report, the commander of the Revolutionary Guard Mohammed Ali Jaafari issued a command to raise operational readiness, fearing what the report called "potential external strikes and covert attacks. "

Raised readiness levels, the sources indicated, included plans to disperse the country's long-range missile batteries, as well as sending artillery and guard units to "key defensive positions."

The Telegraph report came after American and Israeli intelligence officials told the New York Times earlier Monday that a recent explosion at a military base near Tehran was a major setback for Iran's long-range missile program and completely destroyed the base.

The officials said that surveillance photos showed that the Iranian base was a central testing center for advanced solid-fuel missiles, which are better equipped than older, liquid-fuel designs to carry warheads long distances.

Why the markets can’t run hospitals

“The evidence is very, very clear that the core provision of health services is more effectively done through the public model.”—Roy Romanow, Nov. 27, 2011

It’s an exciting time in the world of health care. Like our neighbours to the south and other developed countries across the ocean, we’re in the midst of another discussion about the future of our health-care system. But there’s one debate that rears its head no matter what decade we’re in: private versus public health-care. After a meeting on the new health accord in Halifax last month, Roy Romanow—the former Saskatchewan premier who led a landmark commission on how to improve the health system in 2002—stated very clearly that expanding “private” care would be perilous. But does the evidence support the mighty Romanow’s claim?

Germany, France ready the strait jackets

Germany and France have agreed on a solution to the European debt crisis: fiscal strait jackets.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy envision automatic penalties for the profligate and debt limits in the constitutions of each of the euro zone’s 17 members. The hope is that this will be enough to convince the European Central Bank that it can step up purchases of European sovereign debt. The central bank is extremely reluctant to bail out governments without some certainty they will start taking budget policy seriously.

So far, so good.

Research by the International Monetary Fund suggests that fiscal rules tend to have a positive correlation with improved budget discipline. This is especially the case when governments lose the faith of financial markets. The promises of European politicians count for little at the moment. They now have to back up their deficit-reduction pledges in writing.

But it’s only one step. An impressive balance sheet isn’t always enough to ward off a financial meltdown.