Economics for the Intelligent Amateur

(Reuters) – HSBC (HSBA.L), Europe’s biggest bank, said a theft of data by a former employee affected up to 24,000 Swiss client accounts, dealing a hefty blow to the reputation of its private bank.

Switzerland’s financial regulator FINMA was investigating the theft, it said on Thursday, while a source close to the UK’s Financial Services Authority, the bank’s lead regulator, said the FSA was “aware” of the situation.

The bank had previously said “less than 10 clients” were affected after Herve Falciani — a former HSBC computer specialist — stole client data from the bank which he handed over to French tax authorities.

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(Reuters) – London-based oil major BP has agreed to buy Brazilian, Azeri and Gulf of Mexico assets from Devon Energy for $7 billion, as the U.S. producer refocuses on onshore U.S. fields.

The companies said on Thursday that BP has also agreed to sell Devon a 50 percent stake in its Kirby oil sands interests in Alberta, Canada, for $500 million and that the two companies would form a venture to develop Kirby.

The deal gives Europe’s second-largest oil company by market value reserves and highly prospective exploration which will help it meet its goal of growing production at 1 to 2 percent per annum in the next decade.

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Greek public and private sector workers have gone on strike, grounding flights, shutting schools and halting public transport.

The action is the second nationwide walkout in two weeks in protest against the government’s austerity plans, which are aimed at cutting the country’s huge debt.

The government plans to save $6.5bn with increases in sales tax, reductions in civil servant wages and a pensions freeze.

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Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has secured a coalition in parliament and one of his loyalists has been named as the new prime minister.
Parliament approved the nomination of ex-Finance Minister Mykola Azarov as prime minister shortly after the coalition agreement was announced.
Mr Azarov said his priority was to push through a “realistic” budget for 2010.
Mr Yanukovych had been trying to pull together a loyal coalition after winning presidential polls last month.
He has faced resistance from defeated presidential contender and outgoing Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who was forced out in a vote of no confidence last week.

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A Spanish woman kidnapped in West Africa last year has been freed, the Spanish government says.
Alicia Gamez, 39, was “safe and sound… [and] travelling to Barcelona with a family member,” Spain’s deputy prime minister said.
There are unconfirmed reports that an Italian woman reportedly held by the same group has also been released.
Ms Gamez was seized in Mauritania last year and held by a militant group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in Mali.
She and two male Spaniards – all aid workers – were snatched from a convoy by armed men on a road between the Mauritanian cities of Nouakchott and Nouadhibou on 29 November.
The two men are still being held.

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Joe Biden, the US vice president, has said that Israel’s decision to expand settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem “undermines” the trust needed for peace talks.

The news that Israel planned to build 1,600 new housing units came the same day Biden was in Israel to emphasise the US president’s committment to Israel’s security in the face of a possible Iranian nuclear threat.

“It is incumbent on all parties to grow an atmosphere of support for the negotations and not to complicate,” Biden said at a news conference with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Wednesday, after the two held talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

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OSAKA — The first delivery of at least 850 canisters of high-level radioactive vitrified waste arrived Tuesday morning by ship from the U.K. in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, where it will sit in storage for decades before being buried deep underground.

Antinuclear activists argue that with no local government yet willing to host a final disposal site and concern over the international security and environmental risks of transporting so much nuclear waste between the U.K. and Japan, the shipments should end.

About 14 tons of waste in 28 vitrified high-level waste canisters, each of which weighs about 500 kg, arrived at Mutsu Ogawara port at Rokkasho in the morning.

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WASHINGTON (AP) Toyota, dogged by millions of recalls and claims that it still has not fixed its safety problems, took its strongest step yet Monday to silence critics who blame faulty electronics for runaway cars and trucks.

Toyota assembled a group of experts in a bid to refute studies by an Illinois professor who revved Toyota engines simply by short-circuiting the wiring. Toyota’s experts say the experiments were done under conditions that would never happen on the road.

The automaker maintained its assertion that simpler mechanical flaws, not electronics, were to blame.

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(Reuters) – A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with plotting to kill a Swedish man and trying to recruit fighters via the Internet to commit violent attacks overseas, the U.S. Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Colleen LaRose, who also went by the pseudonym of “Fatima LaRose” and “JihadJane,” was charged with conspiracy to commit murder overseas, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, making false statements and attempted identity theft.

LaRose posted a comment on YouTube in June 2008 that she wanted to help “the suffering Muslim people.” She sent emails to unnamed co-conspirators offering to become a martyr as well as to use her American background to avoid detection, according to the indictment filed in a federal court in Pennsylvania.

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A ransom was demanded for the return of the body of Cyprus ex-President Tassos Papadopoulos, which was stolen three months ago, a minister has said.
The body was found in a cemetery in Nicosia late on Monday after an anonymous tip-off. DNA tests confirmed it was that of Papadopoulos.
However, spokesmen for the Papadopoulos family have denied that any ransom demand was made to the family.
Papadopoulos was president from 2003 to 2008. He died in December 2008.

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