BBC News with Charles Carroll.
One of the world's biggest banks, HSBC, has announced the first details of a major cost-cutting exercise. It's to sell its businesses in Brazil and Turkey, reduce its asset base and shrink its investment bank. Kamal Ahmed reports.
“Europe's largest bank has announced that it wants to be significantly smaller. HSBC has revealed that its UK operations will be hit hard as it battles to find over 3.2 billion pounds of cost-savings. Stuart Gulliver, the bank's chief executive, said that it was time to recognize the world had changed, and the growth in Asia had to be the new focus. The bank is selling businesses in Turkey and Brazil, and will look to reduce the value of its risky assets by 290 billion pounds. HSBC also said that it will make a decision on whether it will retain its headquarters in London by the end of the year.”
The Islamic State group has created a network of booby-traps, tunnels and barricades in Mosul to defend the Iraqi city against an offensive by government forces. A BBC investigation into life there one year after its capture by IS has found that the group now controls most aspects of life, from dress codes to schools, which residents say have been used to indoctrinate children. Mahmud spoke to the BBC.
“I came home one day and saw my little brother drawing their Islamic State's flag and humming one of their chants. I went crazy, I took the drawing and tore it to pieces. We immediately removed him from school, as we'd rather he has no education at all than one such as IS is trying to spread. I’ve come to the conclusion that the goal of this organization is to plant the seed of violence, hate and sectarianism into children's minds.”
The Hong Kong government has issued a red alert against travel to South Korea because of the outbreak of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome there. The warning advises against all non-essential travel, and indicates that the authorities believe visiting South Korea could pose a significant threat. The Health Ministry in Seoul says that seven people have now died from the outbreak of the respiratory disease.
A judge in the United States has ordered the release of Albert Woodfox, the last of the so-called “Angola Three” still in prison. Woodfox has been in solitary confinement for 43 years after the killing of a guard at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1972. Richard Hulls reports.
“Campaigners for the ‘Angola Three’ have always maintained there was no physical evidence to link them to the crime and all convictions have been overturned on numerous occasions. In his ruling, the judge said Albert Woodfox's poor health and the length of the time spent in solitary confinement had contributed to the decision to free him. No man in the US has ever spent as much time in solitary confinement as he has. With the exception of a six-month period in a secure dormitory in 2008, Albert Woodfox has spent all of the past 43 years incarcerated on his own.”
World news from the BBC.
In the United States, about 800 people have marched through the Dallas suburb of McKinney demanding the dismissal of a white police officer. Corporal Eric Casebolt was seen in a video pinning a black teenager girl to the ground and drawing his gun on two boys after a disturbance at a swimming pool. He's been placed on administrative leave following the incident.
Nigerian Defense Chiefs are meeting their counterparts from Cameroon, Chad and Niger in Abuja today for talks on how best to tackle Boko Haram. It's the first of such meetings since President Mohammadu Buhari was elected. A BBC correspondent says that if the offensive against Islamists is to succeed, it's vital that Nigeria and its neighbors work well together.
Investigations are continuing into the financial affairs of the former FIFA vice President Jack Warner. Money paid by the Australian FA is part of its bid to win the 2022 World Cup. He is alleged to have ended up his accounts he controlled. Frank Lowy, the man who led the Australian bid, said it was payment to help football development in Trinidad and Tobago, and had not been intended to corrupt. Mr. Warner denies all the allegations.
And a giant balloon has been launched by NASA to test the largest parachutes ever made. Engineers hope the 30-meter diameter chutes will be used one day to bring a flying saucer-type lander safely down on the surface of Mars. Peter Bows reports from Los Angeles.
“NASA scientists had hoped the test would pave the way for astronauts eventually to land on Mars. It was designed to investigate how a large landing vehicle would slow down as it falls through the atmosphere at supersonic speeds. A helium filled balloon carried a saucer-shaped test vehicle to a height of about 37 kilometers and a built-in rocket fired it a further 50 kilometers before the parachute was meant to slow its descent, but it only partially opened, leaving the capsule to plummet into the Pacific Ocean.”