Town in farewell to murdered April

The devastated family of April Jones will today finally pay an emotional farewell to the murdered schoolgirl – a year after she was brutally murdered.

The funeral service comes five days before the first anniversary of April’s murder and just 10 days after an inquest released her remains to her family.

Hundreds of mourners in the mid Wales market town of Machynlleth are expected to pay their respects to the five-year-old at midday.

A horse drawn hearse will carry the coffin containing April’s remains on a one mile journey from the Bryn-y-Gog estate, where she lived, to St Peter’s Church.

Parents Coral and Paul Jones and April’s sister and brother, Jazmin and Harley, will follow by car joined by mourners on foot. Many people are expected to wear pink, the schoolgirl’s favourite colour.

In a message to be read out at the service, the Bishop of Bangor, Andy John, says: “The Diocese of Bangor is holding you as a family and as a community in its prayers. You are not alone.”

April was taken from the Bryn-y-Gog estate on October 1 last year.

Paedophile Mark Bridger, 47, was convicted of the killing in May after a trial at Mold Crown Court and was sentenced to a whole life term in prison.

He insisted he had knocked down April accidentally in an alcohol-fuelled haze and had no memory of what he did with her body.

Search teams had previously combed the area around the town for more than six months looking for a trace of April without success.

Just 17 tiny pieces of bone, fragments of her skull, were recovered by detectives from the fireplace of Bridger’s cottage.

An inquest into her death, which concluded on September 16, allowed a death certificate to be issued so April’s funeral could take place.

Her family had been denied that right until the inquest concluded after Bridger refused to say what he did with her body.

Reverend Kathleen Rogers will conduct today’s funeral service and said she hopes it will be the start of a return to normality for the town.

“A funeral plays a significant part in the grieving process and the funeral of little April will be even more important for her family as the probability of such a service was very remote until the inquest two weeks ago,” she said on the eve of the service.

“Our prayer is that it will be a starting point for them as they travel the long and painful journey of healing. It will also, I think, give the community permission to bring some sort of normality back to our town.”

Her words came as it was announced that donations made at April’s funeral will be used to sponsor a five-year-old girl in a village in Uganda.

Rev Rogers said the parish would sponsor the child until she finishes her education “in an attempt to see some good out of this tragedy”.

She added: “April’s parents have kindly asked that donations from her funeral be donated to this sponsorship and we are very grateful to them.”

Justin Byworth, chief executive of World Vision UK, said: “We’re privileged that the church and April’s family have chosen to honour April’s memory by sponsoring a child through World Vision UK.

“We offer our sincerest condolences and we express our gratitude that, through these desperately sad circumstances, a five-year-old girl in Uganda will benefit.”

Town in farewell to murdered April

Asda 'Mental Patient' Costume Withdrawn

Supermarket chain Asda has withdrawn an item advertised online as a “mental patient fancy dress costume”, following a barrage of criticism.

The costume, which is designed to look like a blood-splattered straitjacket, was on sale for £20 through the supermarket’s clothing arm George.

Many people took to Twitter to express their disgust at the description, including former footballer Stan Collymore – who has suffered well-documented problems with depression.

He wrote: “Dear ASDA, nice stereotype of “Mental patients”. Something you’d expect from the ###. A f****** joke”.

“Do you actually realise how many people are hanging themselves because of being frightened of the stigma? Wording is CLEAR. MENTAL PATIENT.”

Charity Rethink Mental Illness posted on its Twitter account: “Hi @Asda please explain: ‘Everyone will be running away from you in fear in this mental patient fancy dress’.”

Former spin doctor Alistair Campbell also commented on the item on the social media website, writing: “Look what Asda’s selling… what possesses these people?”

And MP Mike Thornton tweeted: “This is unbelievable!!”

Asda was quick to react to the criticism by confirming the Halloween costume had been withdrawn from sale.

The chain posted on its own Twitter account: “We’re deeply sorry one of our fancy dress costumes has upset people. This was an unacceptable error – the product was withdrawn immediately.”

Asda added that: “We’d like to offer our sincere apologies for the offence it’s caused and will be making a sizeable donation to @MindCharity.”

Asda 'Mental Patient' Costume Withdrawn

Barclays to shut wealth management services in 130 countries

(Reuters) – Barclays Plc will stop offering wealth management services in about 130 countries by 2016 and cut jobs in the unit as part of an effort to rein in costs and boost profit.

“This is part of our new strategy, focusing on reducing complexity and competing where we can win,” a Barclays spokesman said in a statement.

“We don’t expect overall global headcount to change significantly, but some roles will fall away as a result of new segmentation and investment in technology.”

Barclays announced plans in April to restructure its wealth business so it works more closely with retail and corporate banking divisions.

The bank appointed Peter Horrell as the wealth and investment management unit’s chief executive on Monday. Horrell has held the position on an interim basis since May.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Bangalore. Editing by Andre Grenon and Stephen Coates)

Barclays to shut wealth management services in 130 countries

Venezuela's Maduro considers legal action against Airbus over fault in plane

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday said he was preparing legal action against Airbus due to a “serious fault” with the country’s presidential jet following five months of maintenance by the plane maker.

Maduro said he had been concerned about flying in the plane after it returned from maintenance in Paris, and ordered his own technicians to carry out an inspection.

“After 10 or 12 days, a serious fault appeared in one of the wings of the plane. After five months at Airbus in France – my God!” Maduro said during a televised broadcast.

“With the help of an international law firm, we’re preparing legal actions against Airbus of France.”

Maduro last week was briefly denied access to U.S. airspace on his way to China, which he described as an example of “U.S. aggression” against his socialist government.

U.S. authorities, who later approved his travel plan, said he had not been travelling in a state aircraft, which was required for diplomatic clearance. Maduro went in a Cuban plane.

In an address on live TV, Maduro added that he skipped a planned visit this week to New York for the U.N. General Assembly due to concerns about possible “provocations” against him from right-wing American opponents.

Since winning an April election to replace late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez, Maduro has been constantly alleging plots against him from opponents at home and abroad.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Venezuela's Maduro considers legal action against Airbus over fault in plane

Barclays to shut wealth management services in 130 countries - FT

(Reuters) – Barclays Plc will stop offering wealth management services in about 130 countries by 2016 and cut jobs in the unit as part of an effort to rein in costs and boost profit, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing the British bank.

Barclays announced plans in April to restructure its wealth business so it works more closely with retail and corporate banking divisions. Further details on the wealth strategy had been expected.

The bank appointed Peter Horrell as the wealth and investment management unit’s chief executive on Monday. Horrell has held the position on an interim basis since May.

(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in Bangalore. Editing by Andre Grenon)

Barclays to shut wealth management services in 130 countries - FT

JPMorgan in talks to settle government probes for $11 billion - sources

By David Henry and Karen Freifeld

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co is in talks with government officials to settle federal and state mortgage probes for $11 billion (6.84 billion pounds), two people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The sum could include $7 billion in cash and $4 billion for consumers, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations are private.

The talks are fluid and the $11 billion amount could change, the people familiar with the matter said. They said the discussions include the U.S. Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New York State Attorney General.

The New York prosecutor’s office is participating in the talks because it is part of a working group formed by President Obama in January 2012 to investigate misconduct in mortgage securities that contributed to the financial crisis.

JPMorgan disclosed in August that lawyers from the U.S. Department of Justice in the Eastern District of California had preliminarily concluded that the company violated securities laws in the sale or securities backed by subprime and other risky mortgage loans.

U.S. Department of Justice lawyers from other areas of the country and state authorities have been investigating JPMorgan’s liability for mortgage securities sold by two other companies it acquired during the financial crisis, Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual.

The discussion of an $11 billion sum to settle multiple probes was reported earlier by The Associated Press.

The talks to reach a global settlement on the mortgage issues heated up this week after the Department of Justice told the bank that it was preparing to file a lawsuit on Tuesday.

JPMorgan is pressing to resolve its legal and regulatory issues after coming under intense scrutiny since disclosing in May 2012 that it was losing billions of dollars on derivatives trades from its London offices.

JPMorgan shares were up 2.7 percent for the day at the close of New York Stock Exchange trading on Wednesday.

(Editing by Andrew Hay and Grant McCool)

JPMorgan in talks to settle government probes for $11 billion - sources

ICAP fined £54 million over Libor, three former staff charged

By Kirstin Ridley, Clare Hutchison and Aruna Viswanatha

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. and British authorities on Wednesday fined ICAP, the world’s biggest interdealer broker, $87 million (54.1 million pounds) and filed criminal charges against three former employees over the Libor interest rate rigging scandal.

The scandal, which has laid bare failings by regulators and bank bosses over several years, has triggered a sprawling global investigation that has already seen three banks fined a total of $2.6 billion, four other people charged, scores of institutions and traders interrogated and a spate of lawsuits launched.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged former ICAP derivatives broker Darrell Read, his supervisor Daniel Wilkinson, and cash broker Colin Goodman with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud – offences carrying sentences of up to 30 years.

Simultaneously, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority ordered ICAP’s ICAP Europe Ltd unit to pay $65 million and 14 million pounds ($22 million), respectively.

“These three men are accused of repeatedly and deliberately spreading false information to banks and investors around the world in order to fraudulently move the market and help their client fleece his counterparties,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s criminal division.

ICAP called its former staff “rotten apples” and said it would improve systems to ensure compliance with regulations.

A central cog in the global financial system, the London interbank offered rate (Libor) is used as a benchmark against which hundreds of trillions of dollars worth of products, from complex derivatives to personal mortgages, are priced worldwide.

Based on a survey of what banks would charge each other for loans, traders colluded on answers that could nudge the reported rates by amounts that were tiny but translated into big profits.

Even as ICAP settled the civil probes, the firm could still face criminal charges from the Justice Department, which is continuing its investigation.

Multiple other banks and individuals also face potential prosecution for Libor manipulation. “We have a lot more to look at here,” Raman said in an interview with Reuters.

“LORD LIBOR”

ICAP, run by London businessman and former Conservative Party treasurer Michael Spencer, is the first interdealer broker sanctioned in the affair. Firms such as ICAP match buyers and sellers of bonds, currencies and derivative financial instruments, including swaps.

“ICAP and other interdealer brokers are expected to be honest middlemen,” David Meister, the CFTC’s enforcement director, said in a statement. “Here, certain ICAP brokers were anything but honest.”

Regulators and prosecutors painted a picture of brokers acting as conduits at the centre of the scheme, passing information – and misinformation – between banks that contribute to the Libor calculation.

Prosecutors highlighted the activities of Colin Goodman, a cash broker in ICAP’s London office nicknamed “Lord Libor” for his efforts. Goodman was in contact with derivatives traders at other institutions and sent out a daily email to them with “SUGGESTED LIBORS”, prosecutors said.

Those suggestions reflected biased rates, the government said, and were often based on requests by Tom Hayes, a former UBS and Citigroup trader who worked in Tokyo and is also facing criminal charges.

Hayes was the biggest client for ICAP’s yen-based derivatives brokers, which included Darrell Read and Daniel Wilkinson.

Read talked to Hayes almost daily, prosecutors said, and passed on his requests for Libor suggestions to Goodman, since a sizeable chunk of what the ICAP brokers earned was tied to the business from him.

Once in 2006, for example, Read asked Goodman to suggest a high 6-month rate, and promised a curry in exchange. If Goodman could get it above a certain number, Read told him, referring to Hayes: “the trader from ubs Tokyo will come over and buy you a curry himself!”

Even if “lord Libor” was out of the office, prosecutors said, brokers still tried to get Hayes’s requests met. “oh christ…try and bully (Goodman’s) colleague if you can dan…Tom hurting today and needs all the help he can,” Read said in an electronic chat in 2007.

Another time, when Goodman returned to the office, Read told him, “Welcome back M’Lord’ Tom has been like a little lost sheep without you!!”

The conduct stretched into 2010, according to court documents, well after allegations of Libor manipulation had surfaced in public.

Wilkinson – who now writes fiction for young adults, according to a LinkedIn profile in his name – and Goodman did not respond to requests for comment sent via the social media site. Read could not immediately be reached. Hayes’s lawyer, Lydia Jonson, did not respond to a request for comment.

“ROTTEN APPLE SITUATION”

Michael Spencer, who in 1986 founded one of the firms that make up today’s ICAP and has become one of the richest men in Britain, said all individuals linked to the wrongdoing had either left the company or were being disciplined.

“We deeply regret and strongly condemn the inexcusable actions of the brokers who sought to assist certain bank traders in their efforts to manipulate yen Libor,” he said.

But he denied the problems were cultural. “It is very sadly a rotten apple situation here,” he said.

Three banks – Britain’s Barclays and RBS and Switzerland’s UBS – have already paid about $2.6 billion to secure civil settlements for rate-rigging with British and U.S. regulators.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has brought criminal charges against three people, and U.S. prosecutors have now charged five. Prosecutors on both sides of the Atlantic have charged Hayes, who once complained in a text message to The Wall Street Journal: “This goes much higher than me.”

The SFO has said it hopes to charge more people over Libor in the coming months and that it will not hesitate to also pursue senior industry figures or institutions.

(Additional reporting by Aruna Viswanatha and Douwe Miedema in Washington, Tommy Wilkes in London; Editing by Carmel Crimmins, Will Waterman and Ken Wills)

ICAP fined £54 million over Libor, three former staff charged