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Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein manipulated the United Nations oil-for-food program so that his regime received $1.8 billion in illicit payments, a U.N.-backed independent report said Thursday. The investigation, led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, said kickbacks came from some 66 member states and illicit surcharges came from 40 member states. The report also said Marc Rich & Co. financed 4 million barrels of oil under a 9.5-million-barrel contract awarded to the European Oil and Trading Co. (EOTC), a French-based shell company. "Surcharges were imposed on the oil," the report said, and "Marc Rich & Co. directed BNP...

Image caption -- Former BNP leader Nick Griffin and ex-Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen are among those affected Facebook has imposed a ban on a dozen far-right individuals and organisations that it says "spread hate". The ban includes the British National Party and Nick Griffin, the English Defence League and the National Front. The list also includes Britain First, which was already banned, but this latest action will prohibit support for it on any of the US firm's services. It said it had taken the action because those involved had proclaimed a "violent or hateful mission". "Individuals and organisations...

U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) sent a letter to Bank of the West President and Chief Executive Officer Nandita Bakhshi pushing back on the bank’s decision to no longer conduct business with companies engaged in the exploration and production of coal, oil and natural gas. Bank of the West, headquartered in San Francisco, CA, has 23 branches with dedicated employees who work hard to serve communities and families across Wyoming. In his letter, Barrasso condemned the San Francisco headquarter’s attack on Wyoming’s communities and businesses that depend on fossil fuels for energy security, jobs and economic growth. “This misguided and...

Don King, a senior banker with BNP Paribas, posted a threat for ISIS to rape and behead Melania Trump. Could you even imagine if someone posted this tweet about Michelle Obama or Hillary Clinton? How disgusting.

Britain’s Labour party has “secretly suspended” 50 of its members for anti-Semitic and racist comments, a UK paper said Monday. The report came as Labour chairman Jeremy Corbyn conceded for the first time Monday that the party does have a problem with anti-Jewish sentiment, but insisted that it is “not a huge problem.” A string of Labour politicians have been publicly suspended recently for making anti-Semitic remarks, among them former London mayor and close Corbyn ally Ken Livingstone, who said Thursday that Hitler supported Zionism before he “went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews.” Livingstone, who has refused...

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/andrewalker/2015/11/17/watch-ukip-leader-says-obama-wants-to-kill-britain-through-islamic-immigration-n2082088

David Cameron's second term as British Prime Minister was confirmed Friday after his Conservative Party won enough seats to form a working majority in the 650-member House of Commons. Shortly before noon Friday, London time, the Conservatives, or Tories, had won 324 seats to 229 It would be the first time the Conservatives had won a parliamentary majority since 1992. Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister to win re-election since Margaret Thatcher.

As a public service, here is a brief guide for Americans to tomorrow's British elections. Not that you really need one. The operating principle is easy enough to understand -- like the British taste for delicacies like toad in the hole, bubble-and-squeak and spotted dick. Not to mention specialties like kippers salty enough to make the Dead Sea seem alkaline. As I said, easy to understand. Like the game of cricket, whose rules are as clear to an American as a London fog. Once the election returns are in tomorrow night, it's just a matter of coalition-building, a game that...

Right-Wing Wins British Elections Fri May 3, 3:51 PM ET By BETH GARDINER, Associated Press Writer BURNLEY, England (AP) - The anger that once exploded into riots in this ramshackle northern English town made itself felt again this week, more quietly but with equal power. Voters put three far-right anti-immigration candidates from the British National Party on the city council, prompting outrage in the political mainstream and fear among many foreign-born residents. "A stain on the town," proclaimed the local Lancashire Evening Telegraph. "Good luck to them," said Geoffrey Haworth, a BNP supporter. David John Edwards, Carol Hughes and Terence...

A Labour MP is urging people in Oldham to vote for any party to stop the far-right British National Party (BNP) winning a seat in the local elections. Phil Woolas wants to prevent the BNP winning any council seats at all in the forthcoming poll.The MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he wanted people to vote "Conservative, Liberal Democrat or whoever" instead. Oldham was ravaged by three nights of violence between white and Asian youths last May, after the BNP campaigned in the town ahead of the general election. And in that election, BNP...

The leader of the youth arm of the British National Party has launched an attack on someone that he perceives to ‘challenge his principles’ – his own ‘gay’ dog. Jack Renshaw, a student at Manchester University and the head of the BNP Youth, wrote the Facebook post alongside a picture of Derek the dog, in which he criticised the mutt for ‘licking the (organ) of other male dogs’. ‘I wish my dog would stop licking the (organ) of other male dogs,’ he wrote. ‘I love you, Derek (my dog) – but – don’t challenge my principles because my principles will...

THE American guillotine has fallen. After lengthy negotiations, prosecutors and regulators announced on June 30th the penalties they planned to impose on BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, for evading American sanctions on doing business with Cuba, Iran and the Sudan: an almost $9 billion fine, a guilty plea to criminal charges of conspiracy and falsifying records and a suspension of its right to clear certain dollar transactions. The bank’s dealings with and for Sudan—where Osama bin Laden found refuge and the UN’s attempt to stem the bloodletting in Darfur was resisted—lie at the heart of the charges against it. BNP...

The arrest of Paul Weston, an anti-immigration campaigner in England, for repeating Winston Churchill’s unflattering observations about Islam in a public speech has been reported around the world with headlines from the US to Russia to Japan. Weston, who leads a small party called LibertyGB, was bundled into a police van outside the Guildhall in the town of Winchester, after being arrested for suspected racial harassment. It is a shocking event because to many people overseas, Britain is still a country where there is freedom of speech. But the Weston arrest is only the latest in a series of incidents...

TARP Recipient BNP Paribas got $4.9bn of bailouts from the U.S. Taxpayer - Today, as the WSJ reports we learn BNP Paribas has been funding transactions in Iran, Syria and other countries subject to U.S. Sanctions since 2002. The bank set aside $1.1 billion to settle investigations by the Department of Justice and the Federal Reserve but as the NY Times reports, investigations are playing out on multiple fronts - centering on whether the firm did "a significant amount" of business in "blacklisted" countires (and routed the deals through the US financial system). Via WSJ, “...an internal probe conducted over...

Far-right and opposing groups planned demonstrations for today A total of 31 arrests made so far in London following clashes Soldier Lee Rigby's family have appealed for calm in the wake of his death Ed Miliband signs letter condemning rise in anti-Muslim violence Rival protesters clashed outside the Palace of Westminster today, as BNP supporters and anti-fascist campaigners came to blows. At least one man, a BNP activist, suffered a large cut to the nose after fierce shouting from either side of gated barriers spilled into violence.

NEW YORK -- The Federal Reserve on Wednesday reluctantly opened the books on its monumental campaign to save the financial system in the midst of the recent crisis, revealing how it distributed some $3.3 trillion in relief. The data revealed that the Fed's aid was scattered much more widely than previously understood. Two European megabanks -- Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse -- were the largest beneficiaries of the Fed's purchase of mortgage-backed securities. The Fed's dollars also flowed to major American companies that are not financial players, including McDonald's and Harley-Davidson, through unsecured short-term loans. The measure, initiated in Jan....

British Tea Party launched by Conservative activists to challenge Coalition A British Tea Party campaign inspired by the electoral truimphs of the American movement is launching a series of challenges to the Coalition government. By Jon Swaine Published: 8:30AM BST 18 Sep 2010 Activists are hold a rally at next month's Conservative party conference in Birmingham at which criticism of Coalition policies will be aired. A British division, launched last year by The Freedom Association, has held events including a "Boston tea party" in Boston, Lincs. It has joined forces with the Taxpayers' Alliance pressure group, which is being advised...

May 29, 2008 By Andrew Walden (Hawai'i Free Press) Nadhmi Auchi, seen here with the Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich (middle) at a 2004 Chicago dinner in Auchi's honor arranged by Antonin Rezko (potentially, right)[1]. All three men have been convicted of corruption related charges (Auchi 2003, Rezko 2008, Blagojevich 2009).[2] “A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser (dual US-Syrian citizen Tony Rezko) just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses. The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi,...

A Muslim community leader who falsely claimed he had been kidnapped by members of the British National Party was exposed last night as a suspected benefits cheat who was in this country illegally. Noor Ramjanally, 36, told police that racist thugs had abducted him at knifepoint and threatened him with violence. But his account was exposed as a lie by cameras fitted secretly outside his flat after earlier claims that he had received racist hate mail and that the family's home had been firebombed. Footage revealed that on the day of the alleged kidnapping Ramjanally had left home by himself,...

The UK Independence Party came forth in the overall vote in the 2010 British elections with over 900 000 people putting their trust in the party running on the platform of getting out of the European Union. The British National Party came fifth with over half a million votes. Both UKIP and BNP received zero seats in the British parliament – 0, nada, zilch, none… The hate for the EU is spread all through the Kingdom, but is not concentrated in any particular place so the party can gain a seat in the parliament.... The Out of EU, fiscal...