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The US is seeking more than €7.4 billion ($10 billion) to resolve a criminal probe into allegations that the French bank evaded US sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
BNP – the largest publicly traded French bank – is seeking to pay less than $8 billion, the newspaper reported citing people familiar with the case.
Still, the multibillion dollar figure would put the fine among the largest penalties ever imposed on a bank and is far higher than what BNP has provisioned for.
A $10 billion settlement figure would represent a "hit" of around 5 percent to the bank's tangible book value and result in a €5 per share impact on the fair value of BNP Paribas stock, Citigroup analysts said.
The US Justice Department and BNP are reportedly currently discussing whether the French banking giant, as part of its punishment, would be temporarily denied the right to transfer money into and out of the United States – a central part of any foreign bank's business dealings in the US.
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ACN 23 May
Cuban medical cooperation, which began over half a century ago, has been present in about 120 countries with 135,000 voluntary workers, pointed out Roberto Morales, member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC) and minister of this sector.
Morales chairs the 67th World Health Assembly under way this week in Geneva, Switzerland, where he said that at present over 50,000 health professionals are offering their services in 65 nations, 25,000 of which are physicians.
Doctor Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) praised in that meeting the medical cooperation that has increased health indicators in various peoples, in the presence of the 194 representatives of the same number of nations that are members of that international organization.
In statements to ACN, Doctor Jose Luis Di Fabio, representative to Cuba of the WHO and the Pan-American Health organizations, praised these contributions and also described as invaluable the training of human resources, not only for the Cuban people but also for nations in need.
He underlined the training at Havana's Latin American Medical School, free of charge, of some 15,000 physicians coming from the most vulnerable populations of various parts of the world, who after graduation return to their countries to serve their communities
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Following the release of '14ymedio' the new online newspaper published by the infamous internationally funded blogger Yoani Sanchez, RATB reposts an opinion article from La Alborada 27 May
For more information on Yoani Sanchez see Salim Lamrani's excellent '40 questions for Yoani Sanchez'
Vice-president Joe Biden gave Yoani Sanchez an interview (exclusive!) in time for her new venture's debut. Or so it's said: she once published what she said was an on-line interview with President Barack Obama, but it turned out that both questions and answers were prepared at the US Interests Section in Havana and subsequently attributed to Obama, who never was interviewed by Sanchez. The Biden interview may have followed the same route. It's hard to believe the internet maven.
It's not fresh news, either, because, according to Sanchez, the interview took place in April, at least 28 days ago, while she was in Washington. She was saving the article for yesterday.
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www.freethefive.org National Committee to Free the Cuban 5
Yesterday morning, the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT) announced that on April 26, four terrorists who live in Miami were arrested for plotting terrorist attacks on Cuba soil. Their names are José Ortega Amador, Obdulio Rodríguez González, Raibel Pacheco Santos and Félix Monzón Álvarez.
According to the MININT report, the men have admitted that they planned to attack military installations and they had entered Cuba several times since 2013 to plot their actions.
Santiago Álvarez, Osvaldo Mitat, Manuel Alzugaray, collaborators with terrorist Luis Posada Carriles,were directing the plotters
The four men who are now detained in Cuba have admitted to Cuban authorities that Santiago Álvarez, Osvalto Mitat and Manuel Alzugaray were directing their actions.
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Granma Lisandra Fariñas Acosta
Opening minds and breaking new ground
For the first time, Cuba will host the VI Regional Conference of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC), to be held in tandem with the VII Cuban Workshop against Homophobia.
The VI Regional Conference of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (ILGALAC) will be held in Cuba for the first time, on this occasion in parallel with the VII Cuban Workshop against Homophobia.
From May 6 thru 9, Matanzas city’s Plaza América Convention Center will be the venue of this event organized in favor of the recognition of sexual such as freedom of sexual orientation and gender identity as human rights.
National Center for Sex Education (CENESEX) director Mariela Castro Espín said in a press conference that the ILGALAC meetings reflect the increasingly stronger and closes links of fraternity and respect of diversity in the region. “If we fail to develop bonds based on our views to have the political influence we need, we will not make any progress”.
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Message from the National Committee to Free the Five
One of the most significant presentations made at the International Commission of Inquiry in London in the case of the Cuban Five was by Angela Wright of Amnesty International. A.I. has now released its full report, which you can read by clicking here.
A.I.'s thorough investigation reviews the legal history of the case, noting for example that the 3-judge Appeals Court panel, which ordered a new trial for the Five (later reversed by the full Court), decreed that the evidence submitted in support of the motion for a change of venue was "massive".
A.I. puts the spotlight on the fact that Miami reporters who reported on the Cuban Five prosecution in a highly biased and inflammatory manner were on the U.S. government payroll, an outrageous situation entirely unknown during trial.
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Published on May 1, 2014
Plaza de la Revolución (Revolution Square) shuddered again this May as thousands and thousands of Havana residents marched in support of the revolution and for the future of an even better, more efficient socialism even better and more efficient. This year, the march was opened by a block of health workers, demonstrating their centrality to the historic contribution Socialist Cuba has provided to its citizens and the world.
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By Jane Franklin • Published on April 28, 2014
“If only they had waited a few more years! Oh well, nobody pays any attention to dates anyway so we’ll just wing it!”
All three Cuban-American members of the U.S. Senate – Robert Menéndez, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz – wish they could say truthfully that their parents “fled Castro’s Cuba”. The embarrassing reality is that their parents left Cuba while General Fulgencio Batista was running the country after the 1952 coup that overthrew an elected government and canceled an election in which Fidel Castro was running for office.
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www.revolutionarycommunist.org FRFI 238 Apr/May 2014
On 27 January, Cuban President Raul Castro and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff inaugurated the first 700 metre section of a container terminal at the port of Mariel, Cuba, in a ceremony attended by the Presidents of Haiti, Bolivia, Venezuela and Guyana and the Prime Minister of Jamaica. Raul Castro declared: ‘This container terminal, and the powerful infrastructure accompanying it, are a concrete example of the optimism and confidence with which we Cubans see a socialist and prosperous future.’ The heads of state were in Havana for a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (see FRFI 237).
The Mariel Special Economic Development Zone is a 465km2 deepwater sea port and industrial park area in Artemisa Province, 45km west of Havana. The $950m development is intended to ‘increase exports, the effective substitution of imports, [promote] high-technology and local development projects, as well as contributing to the creation of new jobs’, and to stimulate foreign investment in Cuba. Mariel is the nearest port to the US. The Zone will benefit from the expansion of the Panama Canal, to be completed in 2015, and the creation of the transoceanic Nicaragua Canal by the HKND Group, expected to be completed by 2019. With world-leading technology and sufficient depth, Mariel will be able to accommodate huge post-Panamax vessels and act as a transhipment hub for the region.