U.S. Franciscan friars go digital, accept prayer requests via text

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The largest group of Franciscan friars in the United States is offering the faithful a new way to pray in the digital age by accepting prayer requests via text messages.

The Friars of Holy Name Province, who staff 40 parishes and have colleges, soup kitchens and food centers along the eastern seaboard, as well as groups in Peru and Tokyo, are among a few religious groups offering this type of digital service.

Its “Text a Prayer Intention to a Franciscan Friar” initiative, which is described as faith at your fingertips, is a novel way for Roman Catholics to connect.

“People are always saying to friars, ‘Can you say a prayer for me?’ Or ‘Can you remember my mother who has cancer?’” Father David Convertino, the New York-based executive director of development for the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Name Province, said in an interview.

“I was thinking that a lot of people text everything now, even more than email, so why not have people have the ability to ask us to pray for them … by texting.”

The faithful simply text the word ‘prayer’ to 306-44, free of charge. A welcome message from the friars comes up along with a box to type in the request. When the it is sent, the sender receives a reply.

The intentions are received on a website and will be included collectively in the friars’ prayers twice a day and at Mass.

It is one of several ways the friars hope to reach a younger audience, increase the number of faithful and spread the faith. They have already renovated their website and the next step is moving into Facebook and tweeting.

“If the Pope can tweet, friars can text,” said Father David.

The friars also have a presence on LinkedIn and have been streaming some of their church services.

“We’re trying,” said Father David when asked if the friars are well into the digital age, adding that they were “rushing madly into the 19th century.”

Most of the 325 friars, whose average age is about 60, are comfortable with the technology.

“We have a friar who is 80 who was texting today,” said Father David.

The friars are following the example of 85-year-old Pope Benedict, the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, whom the Vatican said had 2.1 million followers on Twitter just eight days after sending his first tweet.

The Pontiff tweets in several languages, including Arabic, and plans to add Latin and Chinese to them.

“We’re really excited about this working,” said Father David, about the new program. “I think we’ll be able to keep up (with all the intentions). That’s what we do, we pray for people.”

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy)

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“Idol” judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj play nice after feud

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – New “American Idol” judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj shrugged off their widely publicized feud on Tuesday as a “trumped-up thing” that was merely a passionate difference of opinion over the TV talent show‘s contestants.

In their first big media appearance ahead of the hit show’s return to Fox television on January 16, the two pop stars showered each other with praise while barely looking at each other.

A day after the airing of an ABC TV interview in which Carey said she hired extra security following threats reportedly made against her by Minaj last year, the “Hero” singer told reporters it was time to focus on the aspiring “Idol” stars.

“This is a very passionate panel. There are a lot of strong personalities,” said Carey, who is reportedly being paid $ 18 million to be an “American Idol” judge.

“The fighting is what it is. This is ‘American Idol.’ It is bigger than some stupid trumped-up thing. It’s about the next superstar … The whole thing is convoluted. It’s a distraction from the show and the contestants,” Carey said.

Minaj, an outspoken 30-year-old rapper, called Carey one of her “favorite artists of all time.”

“She has really shaped a generation of singers and to be on a panel with her where (contestants) all aspire to be Mariah Carey … I feel excited to see them, see someone they look up to so much,” Minaj said.

Carey, 42, recalled working with Minaj in 2009 on an album track, and knowing at the time that the rapper would be successful.

“Nothing to write about now!” quipped “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest.

REVIVING AGING ‘IDOL’ FORMAT

Carey, Minaj and country singer Keith Urban joined “Idol” as judges in September for the upcoming 12th season after the departures of Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler.

Carey, with more than 200 million album sales, and Minaj, one of the most exciting voices in rap, are expected to revive the contest, which last year lost its eight-year crown as the most-watched show on U.S. television to “Saturday Night Football” on rival NBC.

Video of the pair arguing was leaked online from early auditions in last fall, and Minaj was reported to have said, “If I had a gun, I would shoot that bitch.”

“American Idol” executive producer Trish Kinane said the new panel was chosen after fans said they wanted to see judges who were current and talented in their own right.

“They (fans) also wanted honesty, and we very much took that into consideration. They (the judges) are not shrinking violets. They say what they think, and we encourage that,” Kinane said.

“American Idol“, which has produced stars like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, faces growing competition for TV audiences from a slew of rivals like “The Voice,” “The X Factor,” and “America’s Got Talent.” Last year, “Idol” attracted under 20 million viewers, down from the more than 30 million who watched on a regular basis five or six years ago.

But Mike Darnell, reality programming chief for Fox, said the new panel had “re-invigorated the show.”

“Yes, there are too many (talent) shows on the air and they are all taking each other down a bit. But this is still the king of the shows and the only one that makes stars,” Darnell said.

Fox is a unit of News Corp.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Paul Simao)

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San Francisco judge lets medical pot shop stay open

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A federal magistrate judge on Monday ruled that a medical-marijuana dispensary that bills itself as the world’s largest can continue to operate, at least for now, in Oakland and San Jose despite a bid by federal prosecutors to shut it down.

The ruling marks the latest move in a tug-of-war between local and federal authorities over medical marijuana dispensaries and over Harborside Health Center, which was featured on the Discovery Channel reality TV show “Weed Wars.”

Harborside’s landlords are seeking to evict the store under pressure from federal prosecutors as part of the U.S. government’s crackdown on what it deems to be illegal pot shops in California and the West.

But U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria-Elena James ruled that the government, not the landlords, must move to evict Harborside for its alleged violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act.

The landlords “are attempting to use a procedural rule in a civil forfeiture proceeding to bring what amounts to an enforcement action … against Harborside,” the 17-page ruling said. “This is a measure which the Government – the entity charged with enforcing the statute – has elected not to pursue.”

The city of Oakland in October sued the federal government in an effort to allow Harborside to continue selling marijuana to its 100,000 patients. Oakland officials warned that a shutdown would lead to a “health crisis.”

The city expects to collect $ 1.4 million in medical-pot sales taxes this year.

“This is a significant victory for the City of Oakland and its 400,000 citizens, for thousands of cannabis patients, and for the Harborside dispensary,” Cedric Chao, a lawyer representing the city pro bono.

“With today’s ruling, we can develop Oakland’s case in a logical way and tee up the federal government’s actions for examination by the federal judiciary,” he said.

Eighteen states, including California, and the District of Columbia allow medical marijuana.

But U.S. prosecutors argue that federal law takes precedence over state law and sought to shut down Harborside by trying to seize its landlords’ properties.

The judge will continue to hear the federal government’s civil forfeiture case against the Oakland and San Jose properties as well as the city of Oakland’s challenge of the Oakland forfeiture case.

(This story corrects final paragraph to say “civil forfeiture case” rather than “eviction case”)

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Eric Walsh)

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Doesn’t Care About Profit Margins

January in retail is a little bit like the off-season of a professional sports league. Teams dust themselves off from the grueling holiday season playoffs, evaluate their coaching staffs, and assess the balance of power in their divisions. In this month’s period of exhausted self-reflection, one of the industry’s broad conclusions is clear: Amazon.com (AMZN) is on its way to establishing a dangerous dynasty.

Amazon recently said it had its best holiday season ever in 2012, selling 26.5 million products around the world at a record-breaking pace of 306 items per second. Earlier this week, Amazon stock hit an all-time high, buoyed by a Morgan Stanley report that predicted the global e-commerce market will hit $ 1 trillion by 2016, with Amazon poised to capture nearly a quarter of that. The company is madly adding such customer freebies as new movies and television shows to its Netflix (NFLX)-slaying Prime Instant Video program, and its commitment to having the lowest price anywhere is increasingly exerting a gravitational effect on the strategies of rivals.

On Tuesday, Target (TGT) announced a new policy of matching competitors’ prices year-round—a tactic geared toward slowing the emergence of “showrooming,” the practice by which shoppers browse in a store and then buy online, often from Amazon. Target, whose stock is also near an all-time high, is the second-largest retailer in the country, behind Wal-Mart (WMT). But if current growth rates continue, it will soon lose that title to the upstart from Seattle.

Amazon scares everyone. There are multiple reasons, but a big one was summarized by Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos in a Harvard Business Review interview posted lasted week, which ranked Bezos as one of the top executives in the world. “Percentage margins are not one of the things we are seeking to optimize,” Bezos said, employing some Wall Street jargon to make the counter-intuitive point that he does not particularly care about making money. “It’s the absolute dollar free cash flow per share that you want to maximize. If you can do that by lowering margins, we would do that. Free cash flow, that’s something investors can spend.”

Bezos has been reliably saying this sort of thing for years, so let’s untangle it. Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital expenditures, or what’s left over after spending on warehouses, conveyor belts, robots, and data centers for its cloud computing business. Bezos is more concerned with driving cash flow than making money because he believes the opportunity offered by the Internet, and by e-commerce, is massive and still largely untapped. To him, it’s still a land grab. So he’s prepared to cut prices to the bone and add all those freebies to cultivate customer loyalty and drive sales growth. Then he reinvests it all in more low prices and further expansion, driving additional customer loyalty.

If you’re an Amazon customer, it’s a virtuous cycle. If you’re a competitor, it’s the Bermuda triangle of business. Investors, comforted by Bezos’s consistency with this strategy over the years, have so much faith in him that they’re willing to tolerate razor-thin or nonexistent profits in exchange for continued market share gains and a promise of windfall profits someday. And by the way, low margins to Bezos are a competitive advantage. If you’re eking out sub-2 percent profits, which Amazon is doing, your market isn’t very enticing to rivals. When margins are nice and fat, your business is a delectable target.

The strategy manifests itself in Amazon’s constant flood of news announcements. The company just announced plans to build a million-square-foot fulfillment center in New Jersey. It just extended its Prime two-day shipping service to Canada. It acquired shows from A&E Television Networks. We expect that Amazon will soon roll out its Amazon Fresh grocery business beyond Seattle, where it’s been quietly testing and expanding the service for five years. The new fulfillment centers, operating outside such major American cities as New York and Los Angeles, could serve as the centers of a hub-and-spoke logistics network that will allow Amazon to store perishables like fresh fruit. And when Amazon owns a network of vans humming around most major urban centers to deliver groceries, it will be able to pack items such as the most popular DVDs and books and deliver them to customers within 24 hours after they are ordered, just as it does now in Seattle.

That will be hugely expensive for Amazon. Is it a good business? Here’s where the Bezos Doctrine proves powerful. It doesn’t have to be good. It just has to appeal to customers. As long as consumers are consuming and shareholders are buying what Bezos is selling, Amazon looks fairly unbeatable.

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State of Palestine name change shows limitations

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — With U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state in his pocket, President Mahmoud Abbas wants official documents to carry a new emblem: “State of Palestine.”

But scrapping the old “Palestinian Authority” logo is as far as Abbas is willing to go in provoking Israel. He is not rushing to change passports and ID cards Palestinians need to pass through Israeli crossings.

The very modesty of Abbas’ move to change official stationery underscores his limited options so long as Israel remains in charge of territories the world says should one day make up that state.

“At the end of the day, the Palestinian Authority won’t cause trouble for its people,” Nour Odeh, a spokeswoman for Abbas’ self-rule government, said of the need for caution.

Abbas won overwhelming U.N. General Assembly recognition for a state of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in late November, a rare diplomatic victory over a sidelined Israel. The U.N. nod was important to the Palestinians because it affirmed the borders of their future state in lands Israel captured in 1967.

Recognition, however, has not transformed the day-to-day lives of Palestinians, and some argue that it made things worse. In apparent retaliation for the U.N. bid, Israel in December withheld its monthly $ 100 million transfer of tax rebates it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, further deepening the Abbas government’s financial crisis.

Since the U.N. recognition, Abbas has maneuvered between avoiding confrontation with Israel and finding small ways to change the situation on the ground.

Last week, his government press office urged journalists to refer to a state of Palestine, instead of the Palestinian Authority, the autonomy government set up two decades ago as part of interim peace deals with Israel.

Palestinian diplomatic missions around the world have been told to use the new names, including those in countries that did not vote “yes” at the General Assembly, said Omar Awadallah, a Palestinian Foreign Ministry official.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev dismissed the name change as pointless but declined comment on whether Israel would retaliate in any way. “Instead of looking for gimmicks, Palestinians should negotiate with Israel to bring about the end of the conflict,” he said. “That will lead to a situation of two states for two peoples.”

Israel objected to Abbas’ U.N. bid, accusing him of trying to bypass negotiations with Israel on the terms of statehood. Such talks have been frozen for more than four years because Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disagree on their parameters. Netanyahu says he is willing to cede land to a Palestinian state but will not withdraw to the 1967 lines or give up any part of east Jerusalem, the Palestinians’ desired capital.

Abbas has said negotiations remain his preferred choice, and that U.N. recognition was meant to improve his leverage with a far more powerful Israel once talks resume.

Since the U.N. vote, Abbas has shied away from measures that could close the door to talks by upsetting Israel or the U.S., which also objected to his U.N. bid.

Abbas has not taken practical steps toward seeking membership for Palestine in U.N. agencies, something made possible by the November vote, and his security forces continue to coordinate with Israeli troops in tracking Islamic militants in the West Bank.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland expressed U.S. opposition to using the term “State of Palestine.”

“You can’t create a state by rhetoric and with labels and names,” she told reporters. “You can only create a state, in this context, through bilateral negotiations.” Nuland called Abbas’ decision “provocative, without changing the condition for the Palestinian people.”

She said the U.S. peace envoy for the Mideast, David Hale, was headed to the region and would meet the Palestinian leader on Tuesday.

Some countries, such as Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Honduras, have adopted the new name. Others, like Norway, Sweden and Spain, stick to the Palestinian Authority term even though they supported U.N. recognition.

Analysts said Abbas holds out hope that President Barack Obama will get more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his second term and — freed from the restraints of seeking re-election — take a tougher stance toward Israel.

“He still hopes to resume peace talks in line with U.S. efforts,” Palestinian analyst Hani al-Masri said of Abbas.

“Therefore, he is making these slight changes because people expect him to make changes after the U.N. recognition.”

Still, the gap between the symbolic U.N. nod and the reality on the ground remains wide.

The Palestinian Authority administers some 38 percent of the West Bank, but Israel maintains overall control over the territory. Abbas has no say in east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967, or in Gaza, seized by his political rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas, in 2007.

The documents and stationery with the new emblem will be ready within two months, said Hassan Alawi, a deputy interior minister in the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli officials declined comment Monday on whether Israel would refuse to deal with documents bearing the “State of Palestine” logo. However, Alawi said his office was informed by Israeli officials after Abbas’ decree that “they will not deal with any new form of passport or ID.”

Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide, said the new emblem will be used in correspondence with countries that have recognized a state of Palestine.

He suggested that there would be no change in passports or other documents Palestinians need for movement through Israeli crossings.

“As far as the Israelis are concerned, we are not going to overload the wagon of our people by putting state of Palestine on passports,” he said. “They (Israelis) will not allow them to travel.”

Palestinians must pass through Israeli-run crossings to leave the West Bank and also carry an ID card at all times or risk arrest if stopped at an Israeli military checkpoint inside the territory.

The name change has even less meaning for Palestinians in Hamas-ruled Gaza. Israel withdrew from the coastal strip in 2005 but continues to control access by air, sea and land, with the exception of one Gaza border crossing with Egypt.

“For me, it’s just ink on paper,” said Sharif Hamda, a 44-year-old pharmacist in Gaza City. “I wished they would save the money they will spend on this and use it for helping needy families.”

___

Laub reported from Jericho, West Bank. Associated Press writers Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed reporting.

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Live blog: Samsung’s new gear at CES 2013

yep thats how apple works now, but can you stream network flash players thru your i pad via apple tv , answer = no , same with google tv. hook the comp directly to the comp get a wireless keayboard and an air mouse , and fyi windows media player can be streamed wirelessly from any pc all you need is a 50 dollar blue ray player , if you want to stream media from a hard drive wirelessly it just has to be one built to the standard like any wd home drive , but dont go usb get one that connects via gigabit

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NBC chief braces for ratings drop after strong fall season

PASADENA, California (Reuters) – NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said he expects the network’s ratings to slip in the coming months after an unexpectedly strong fall season, though he hopes some coming new shows will break out to help stem the decline.

The Comcast-owned network made a surprise comeback in the final months of 2012 after years in the ratings basement. The network’s viewership jumped 24 percent among the 18- to 49-year-old age group that advertisers crave, the only increase among the four major TV broadcast networks.

Critics are skeptical of whether NBC can stay on top of its competitors through the rest of the TV season. The NBC schedule received a boost in the fall from “Sunday Night Football,” singing competition “The Voice,” and new drama “Revolution.” NFL football games are gone from NBC until next fall, and “The Voice” and “Revolution” will not return until March 25.

Greenblatt said he was “totally prepared” for NBC ratings to decline in the coming weeks. “I think it’s inevitable,” Greenblatt told reporters at a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

He said NBC had a “very robust” mid-season plan that includes new shows such as “1600 Penn,” a comedy about a First Family living in the White House; soapy “Deception” about a murder in a wealthy family; and “Do No Harm,” a thriller about a neurosurgeon.

“I’m hoping that out of this new crop of shows we’ll get lucky,” Greenblatt said.

He said he decided to keep “Revolution” off the air until late March, rather than bringing it back in January, so the rest of the show’s first season can run without being interrupted by repeats.

“It’s a little bit more of a cable model,” Greenblatt said. “If you market properly and have the goods, and then you can run them all in a row without repeats, I actually think that’s the better long-term play,” he said.

When “The Voice” returns, it will have new judges Usher and Shakira in place of Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green. NBC also is bringing back Broadway musical drama “Smash” for a second season starting in February.

Greenblatt began his presentation to reporters and TV critics with a litany of ratings numbers from the fall season, many with double-digit percentage gains.

“I’m going to bore you with some statistics,” he said, “because I’m not sure when I’m going to have the chance to do this again.”

(Reporting By Lisa Richwine; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Review questions blood pressure tests for kids

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite long-standing recommendations that doctors check children’s blood pressure at every office visit, a new review of research says there is not enough evidence to support that guideline.

The researchers say more studies looking at the benefits and harms of blood pressure screening in kids are needed before all doctors are told to do it.

“There is a lot of discussion about screening for cardiovascular risk factors early in life and I wanted to explore this topic more,” said Dr. Arnaud Chiolero, the study’s lead author, from Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland.

Chiolero and his colleagues, who published their findings in JAMA Pediatrics on Monday, say high blood pressure in adults is linked to serious heart problems, and is responsible for more than 7 million deaths worldwide every year.

Less is known, however, about high blood pressure in children and what impact it might have throughout their lives, they write.

For the new review, the researchers developed five questions they felt needed to be answered to judge the role of high blood pressure tests in children, including whether treatment is effective and safe and whether screening reduces the risk for heart problems and death.

Overall, they found that previous studies have tied high blood pressure to signs of heart problems in children, including damage to their veins. Previous research also showed a link between high blood pressure in childhood and high blood pressure in adulthood.

The study also found several gaps in research the authors said need to be addressed, however, including whether or not checking a child’s blood pressure is reliable.

For example, they cited a study of Texas school students that found 10 percent of 10th graders had high blood pressure after one test. After two more tests, though, less than a fifth of that original 10 percent group ended up consistently having high blood pressure.

The team also raised the concern that too little research has been done on the possible harms of testing children for high blood pressure – which can include stress and the possibility of leading to more expensive and invasive tests.

Another question, according to the researchers, is what should be done once a child is diagnosed with high blood pressure?

They write that the first step after diagnosis is typically a lifestyle change that makes the child lose weight and eat healthier. The second step is medication, but they note that the safety of long-term use of blood pressure drugs is still unknown.

“It can be concluded that, for now, there is no compelling evidence in favor of universal blood pressure screening among healthy children,” the researchers write.

They add that the new review is based on a method used by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which issues screening recommendations and other guidelines for disease prevention.

In 2003, the USPSTF said there was not enough information to say whether children should or should not get their blood pressure checked, but the organization is now in the process of updating that recommendation.

The U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute currently recommends that all children over three years old routinely get their blood pressure checked. The European Society of Hypertension and the American Academy of Pediatrics signed on to that recommendation.

In September, a study found about a third of U.S. doctors were not checking children’s blood pressure during office visits (see Reuters Health article of September 18, 2012:)

Dr. Stephen Daniels, co-author of an editorial accompanying the new study and member of the group that issued the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) report on childhood blood pressure in 2004, told Reuters Health that it’s still important to check a child’s blood pressure.

“We know if blood pressure is very high it can cause immediate problems. While high blood pressure is sometimes symptomatic, it’s not always. So it’s important to always monitor it,” said Daniels, chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora.

He added that he also worries about some of the questions the review’s authors posed, including those that would require tracking children through adulthood.

“Our concern is that some of their questions are essentially unanswerable, and that the studies needed to answer them will essentially never be done,” he said.

Another member of the NIH high blood pressure report panel told Reuters Health that she does not think doctors should change what they do based on the review.

“I don’t think this article does much to advance healthcare in any way. In fact, I think it’s regressive,” said Dr. Bonita Falkner, from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Falkner, who was not involved in the new study but chaired the NIH report panel, added that she thinks it is time to review the new evidence since that last NIH report in 2004.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Ms92Cy JAMA Pediatrics, online January 7, 2013.

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Bank of America, other banks move closer to ending mortgage mess

By Rick Rothacker and Aruna Viswanatha

CHARLOTTE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Bank of America Corp announced more than $ 14 billion of legal settlements over bad mortgages it sold to investors and flaws in its foreclosure process, taking the bank a step closer to ending the home loan problems that have dogged it for years.

About $ 3 billion of Bank of America’s Monday’s settlements were part of a larger $ 8.5 billion deal between 10 big mortgage lenders and regulators to end a loan-by-loan review of foreclosures mandated by the government.

Bank of America shares touched their highest level in nearly two years as investors called it a good step toward ending the company’s multiple legal woes. The shares later retreated to close down 0.2 percent at $ 12.09.

Analysts have estimated that Bank of America has paid out some $ 40 billion for mortgage settlements since the crisis began. Most of those losses stem from its 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial, once the largest subprime lender in the United States.

But the bank is moving closer to the day when it can stop worrying about mortgages and start focusing on growth, analysts and investors said.

“It’s a step in the right direction in terms of trying to put these issues behind the company,” said Jonathan Finger of Finger Interests Ltd, a Houston, Texas-based investment firm that owns 1.1 million of the bank’s shares.

Besides the multibank foreclosure settlement, the second largest U.S. bank also announced about $ 11.6 billion of settlements with government mortgage finance company Fannie Mae to end allegations the bank improperly sold mortgages that later soured, and to resolve questions about foreclosure delays.

Bank of America had already set aside money to cover most of those settlements. The deal with Fannie wipes out 44 percent of the buy-back requests the bank faced as of the end of the third quarter. It also eliminates possible future repurchase requests on about $ 300 billion in loans.

Bank of America’s home loan problems are far from over, though. It still needs court approval for an $ 8.5 billion settlement with private investors and it is locked in litigation with insurer MBIA Inc over mortgage-related claims.

The agreement also does not end a lawsuit the U.S. Justice Department brought against the bank last year over Countrywide and Bank of America loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the agency said. The suit accuses Countrywide and Bank of America of causing losses to taxpayers of more than $ 1 billion.

“I think there is still quite a lot of litigation to go, and I don’t think we’ll see the end of this for some time,” said Thomas Perrelli, a former top Justice Department official, speaking of industry wide legal issues stemming from the financial crisis.

BANKS SETTLE

The settlement Bank of America, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co and five other banks entered with regulators pays out up to $ 125,000 in cash to homeowners whose homes were being foreclosed when the paperwork problems emerged.

About $ 3.3 billion of the $ 8.5 billion settlement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will be in cash, with the rest in changes to the terms of loans or mortgage forgiveness.

In April 2011, the government required banks that collect payments on mortgages, known as servicers, to review whether errors in the foreclosure process had harmed borrowers.

The review focused on foreclosures from 2009 and 2010 and looked at processes, including “robo-signing,” where servicer employees or contractors signed documents without first reviewing them.

That loan-by-loan review proved slow and expensive, the OCC said.

The reviews had already cost more than $ 1.5 billion. They turned up evidence that around 6.5 percent of the loan files contained some error requiring compensation, but most of those errors involved potential payouts much less than $ 125,000, OCC officials said.

Other banks involved in the settlement include MetLife Bank, Aurora Bank FSB, PNC Financial Services Group Inc, Sovereign Bank NA, SunTrust Banks Inc and U.S. Bancorp.

Wells Fargo said its portion of the cash settlement will be $ 766 million, which will result in a $ 644 million charge when it reports fourth-quarter earnings on Friday. The bank said it will spend another $ 1.2 billion on foreclosure prevention actions, which will not result in additional charges.

Citigroup, which reports earnings next week, said it will take a $ 305 million charge for its cash payment portion of the settlement, while existing reserves would cover $ 500 million in loan forgiveness and other actions.

Housing advocates said they viewed the settlement as a positive move as it ends a flawed review process and provides some money, if limited, to consumers. But some advocates and lawmakers expressed dissatisfaction with the pact and suggested hearings could follow.

“I remain concerned that banks continue to avoid full accountability, and I believe that borrowers deserve more answers and transparency than the Federal Reserve and the OCC are currently willing to provide,” said Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight committee.

BOFA SELLS SERVICING RIGHTS

For Bank of America, the Fannie Mae deal was the much larger of Monday’s agreements.

Fannie Mae and sibling Freddie Mac essentially buy mortgages from banks and package them into bonds for investors. But during the mortgage boom, banks sold loans to the two companies that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say should never have been sold because, for example, borrowers had misstated their income. The two mortgage finance companies are pushing banks to buy back the loans.

On Monday, Bank of America also said it was selling the rights to collect payments on about $ 306 billion of loans to Nationstar Mortgage Holdings and Walter Investment Management Corp. Reuters first reported on Friday that Bank of America was talking to Nationstar and Walter Investment.

Investors appear to have decided the bank is on the right track as its shares hit their highest level since May 2011 on Monday. When Warren Buffett came to the bank’s rescue in August 2011 with a $ 5 billion investment, he received warrants for 700 million shares of stock at $ 7.14 per share.

(Reporting By Rick Rothacker in Charlotte, Aruna Viswanatha in Washington and Jessica Toonkel and David Henry in New York; Writing by Dan Wilchins and Ben Berkowitz; editing by Jim Marshall)

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Northern Irish paramilitaries hijacking flag protests – police federation

BELFAST (Reuters) – Pro-British militant groups are instigating and exploiting the riots that have rocked the Northern Irish capital Belfast in the past month, a police officers‘ representative said on Sunday.

The violence, which stems from Loyalist protests over the removal of the British flag over Belfast City Hall, is among the worst in the province since a 1998 peace accord ended three decades of sectarian conflict.

Shots were fired at police on Saturday during a third successive day of street battles in which rioters attacked officers with petrol bombs, bricks and other missiles.

Police said on Sunday that 70 people have been arrested, including a 38-year-old man on Saturday on suspicion of attempted murder over the shooting.

Police had said that members of pro-British militant groups helped orchestrate and took part in the first wave of violence in early December. The Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) said the recent attacks showed this was now clearly the case.

“What it quite clearly demonstrates is the fact that paramilitaries have hijacked this flags protest issue and they have now turned their guns on the police,” federation chairman Terry Spence told BBC radio.

“It is very clear that there are leading members of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force), who are exploiting this and are organising and orchestrating this violence against police officers who are out there trying to uphold the law and prevent anarchy on our streets.”

Both the UVF and Northern Ireland‘s other main loyalist militant group the Ulster Freedom Fighters ceased hostilities in 2007 and decommissioned their stocks of weapons following the signing of the peace deal.

At least 3,600 people were killed in the 30 years of violence as Catholic nationalists seeking union with Ireland fought British security forces and mainly Protestant loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.

In scenes that recalled that earlier strife, pro-British loyalists began rioting in early December after a vote by mostly nationalist pro-Irish councillors to end the century-old tradition of flying Britain’s Union flag from the city hall.

“NO STOMACH FOR THIS”

Analysts said that although the violence was worrying, the small numbers of protestors indicated they might unable to develop any strength.

“Clearly the violence is a step up in terms of what’s happened more recently but they’re simply not getting people out on the street,” said Peter Shirlow, a professor at Queen’s University who has spoken with 0protestors in recent days.

“Protestants are annoyed about the flag but they’re even more annoyed about the violence. There’s no stomach for this, that mass mobilisation is just not there anymore.”

The police federation’s Spence said however it was the most challenging time for police in a decade.

Militant nationalists, responsible for the killings of three police officers and two soldiers since an increase in tensions from 2009, have also not reacted violently to the flag protests, limiting any threat to the 15 years of peace.

The British-controlled province’s first minister, Peter Robinson, said on Friday that rioters were playing into the hands of nationalist groups who would seek to exploit every opportunity “to further their terror aims”.

The moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) party said on Sunday that shots were fired using a ball-bearings gun at the house of one its councillors in Belfast, shattering windows.

(Writing by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Europe News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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