Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama is poised to quicken the pace of weapons supplies and training to Iraqi tribes, while eyeing a rapid offensive to recapture Ramadi from the Islamic State group.

Obama huddled Tuesday with his national security team at the White House to plot a way forward after the loss of a strategically vital town on the steps of the capital Baghdad.

Following the meeting -- which included the heads of the CIA and Pentagon, National Security Council staff and Secretary of State John Kerry via secure phone link -- officials indicated Obama was ready to ramp up assistance to Sunni tribes that dominate the province around Ramadi.

"We are looking at how best to support local ground forces in Anbar" National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey told AFP, "including accelerating the training and equipping of local tribes and supporting an Iraqi-led operation to retake Ramadi."

Ramadi -- just a 90-minute drive from Baghdad and a gateway to Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia -- was overrun by militant jihadists on Sunday.

The audacious military victory was a major blow in the battle to degrade and ultimately defeat the Islamic State, calling into question Obama's strategy and the authority of his ally, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The White House had earlier described the loss of Ramadi, despite a sustained US air campaign, as a "setback," but played down suggestions that the war is being lost.

"Are we going to light our hair on fire every time that there is a setback in the campaign?" asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

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A member of the tribal groups fighting along with the Iraqi government security forces takes a posit …

- 'No formal strategy review' -

The United States has already agreed to send military advisors to train around 6,000 vetted Sunni tribesmen, who will be armed with assault rifles and other weapons.

It was not immediately clear if the increased pace of training would spell an increase in the number of US military advisors.

But the White House insisted that there was no major shift in policy.

"There is no formal strategy review," said Baskey, indicating that the pace rather than type of assistance to Sunni tribes was in question.

A more detailed announcement could come as soon as Wednesday.

Obama has repeatedly ruled out sending vast numbers of US troops back to the theater of a bloody and unpopular nine-year war that he vowed to end.

Instead, he has promised to support Iraq's struggling army and hit IS from the air.

There has also been support for disparate Iraqi armed groups that have sometimes proven a more potent fighting force than army or police regulars, though not without controversy.

In the north, Baghdad had been uneasy about arms flowing to Kurdish peshmerga fighters, fearing those arms could later be used in the battle for independence.

Meanwhile, many of the Shiite groups that helped retake Tikrit are armed and trained by Iran and their role in campaigns in overwhelmingly Sunni Anbar could risk reigniting a sectarian bloodbath.

Reeling from the worst setback since IS grabbed swathes of territory in June last year, Baghdad and Washington may have few other options.

But the White House wants to see those groups firmly under the command and control of the Iraqi military and is also turning to Sunni tribes, which helped turn the tide of America's own war in Iraq through the "Sunni Awakening."

Iraq's army and allied paramilitary forces have already massed around Ramadi, looking for swift action to recapture the city from IS before it builds up defenses.

"The Iraqi government needs to launch an immediate counteroffensive before (IS) can consolidate its power, both for symbolic reasons and because of Ramadi's proximity to Baghdad," said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks live on television in Tehran June 12, 2009. REUTERS/Caren Firouz /Files

By Parisa Hafezi

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday Tehran would not accept "unreasonable demands" by world powers during negotiations over its disputed nuclear program, and ruled out letting inspectors interview its atomic scientists.

The comments, broadcast live on state TV, were the latest in a series of forthright statements on inspections in the countdown to a June 30 deadline to resolve a decade-old standoff over Iran's nuclear work.

"We will never yield to pressure ... We will not accept unreasonable demands ... Iran will not give access to its (nuclear) scientists," Khamenei said.

"We will not allow the privacy of our nuclear scientists or any other important issue to be violated."

Khamenei, who has the final say for Iran on any deal, last month ruled out any "extraordinary supervision measures" over nuclear activities and said military sites could not be inspected.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been trying to investigate Western allegations that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear warhead. Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful and that it is working with the IAEA to clear up any suspicions.

U.N. inspectors regularly monitor Iran's declared nuclear facilities, but the IAEA has complained for years of a lack of access to sites, equipment, documents and people relevant to its probe.

Western officials say Iran must step up cooperation with the IAEA if it wants to reach a broader diplomatic deal with world powers that would gradually end crippling financial and other sanctions on the oil producer.

"They say we should let them interview our nuclear scientists. This means interrogation," Khamenei said.

"I will not let foreigners talk to our scientists and to interrogate our dear children ... who brought us this extensive (nuclear)knowledge."

Iran has yet to answer questions about two areas of the investigation into alleged research activities that could be applicable to any attempt to make nuclear bombs - explosives testing and neutron calculations.

Iran reached a tentative deal with the powers on April 2 to allow U.N. inspectors to carry out more intrusive, short-notice inspections under an "Additional Protocol" to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. But there have been sharply differing interpretations from both sides on the details of that access.

Negotiators from Iran and the powers will meet in Vienna on Wednesday to try to iron out remaining differences, including the timing of sanctions relief and the future of Iran's atomic research and development program.

Talks between EU political director Helga Schmid and Iranian negotiators Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will run until Friday, with experts meeting in parallel to discuss technical annexes, the EU said in a statement.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in Brussels; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Raissa Kasolowsky)

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (AP) — In a major breakthrough that could ease Southeast Asia's migrant crisis, Indonesia and Malaysia offered Wednesday to temporarily take in thousands of people who have been stranded at sea but appealed for international help, saying the crisis is a global, not a regional, problem.

The reversal in their positions after weeks of saying the migrants were not welcome came as more than 430 weak, hungry people were rescued — not by navies patrolling the waters but by a flotilla of Indonesian fishermen who brought them ashore in the eastern province of Aceh.

One of the fishermen who led the rescue effort said that when he spotted the migrants' green wooden trawler and saw the people on board screaming for help, he began to weep.

"As we came close, I was shocked. I saw them crammed onto the boat. It left me speechless and I broke down in tears as I watched them screaming, waving their hands and clothes," said 40-year-old Razali Puteh. People from the boat began jumping into the water trying to reach him, but the fisherman told them to stay put and then returned with other fishing boats.

"I could not let them die, because they are also human beings. Just like me," Puteh said. "I am grateful to have saved hundreds of lives."

In the past three weeks, more than 3,000 people — Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty — have landed in overcrowded boats on the shores of Southeast Asian countries better known for their white-sand beaches. Aid groups estimate that thousands more are stranded at sea following a crackdown on human traffickers that prompted captains and smugglers to abandon their boats.

The mounting crisis prompted Malaysia to call an emergency meeting with the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Thailand on Wednesday. Malaysia is the current chair of the 10-nation grouping of Southeast Asian countries known as ASEAN.

"This is not an ASEAN problem," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said after the meeting. "This is a problem for the international community."

Part of the crisis stemmed from the stance of ASEAN nations, which until now was to push boats away and not allow migrants to reach their shores, fearing that allowing a few to come in would lead to an unstoppable flow.

On Wednesday, Malaysia and Indonesia "agreed to offer temporary shelter provided that the settlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community," according to a joint statement.

Speaking to reporters in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Anifah said the two countries would not wait for international support but would start giving migrants shelter "immediately."

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said his government was ready to shelter Rohingya for one year, while the Bangladeshis would be sent back home. "A year is (the) maximum," he said. "But there should be international cooperation."

Thailand has said it cannot afford to take more migrants because it is already overburdened by tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar. Its foreign ministry announced it has agreed to provide humanitarian assistance and will not "push back migrants stranded in Thai territorial waters." It remained unclear, however, how it would deal with such people, or where the Rohingya could permanently settle.

The U.N. says the Rohingya are one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Neither Bangladesh nor Myanmar recognizes them as citizens. In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, even the name Rohingya is taboo. Myanmar officials refer to the group as "Bengalis" and insist they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though most have lived in the country for generations.

Over the past few years, Myanmar's Rohingya have faced increasing state-sanctioned discrimination. They have been targeted by violent mobs of Buddhist extremists and confined to camps. At least 120,000 have fled to sea, and an unknown number have died along the way.

The U.N. refugee agency believes there are some 4,000 still at sea, although some activists put the number at 6,000.

Aid agencies praised Wednesday's breakthrough, but said time was running out.

"It's extremely good news coming out of Malaysia," said Joe Lowry, a regional spokesman for the International Organization for Migration. "The problem is that, so far there is no agreement on search and rescue and these boats have got to be found. There's a huge body of water and only a small number of boats, and the more time that goes on ... the more desperate their conditions are going to become."

In another potential breakthrough, Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Thant Kyaw indicated his country would likely join regional talks in Bangkok next week. "We all have to sit down and we all have to consider how to tackle this problem together," he told reporters in Bangkok after meeting his Thai counterpart.

The No. 2 U.S. diplomat, currently visiting Southeast Asia, said he will raise the humanitarian crisis of the Rohingya when he meets with senior Myanmar government leaders on Thursday.

"The only sustainable solution to the problem is changing the conditions that let them put their lives at risk at the first place," Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told reporters in Jakarta.

The migrants brought ashore Wednesday in Indonesia were rescued by more than a dozen fishing boats, said Herman Sulaiman from East Aceh district's Search and Rescue Agency. It was unclear if all the migrants had been on one vessel or had come from several.

An initial batch of 102 people was the first brought to shore in the Aceh village of Simpang Tiga.

"They were suffering from dehydration, they are weak and starving," said Khairul Nove, head of the Langsa Search and Rescue Agency in Aceh province. Among the 102 were 26 women and 31 children, he said.

One of the migrants, Ubaydul Haque, 30, said the ship's engine had failed and the captain fled, and that they were at sea for four months before the Indonesian fishermen found them.

"We ran out of food. We wanted to enter Malaysia but we were not allowed," he said.

Most of the migrants are believed to be victims of human traffickers, who recruit them in Myanmar's Sittwe province and in Bangladesh with promises of safe passage to Malaysia and jobs once they land there. Aid groups say many are held instead for ransom on boats or in jungle camps in southern Thailand.

___

Gade reported from Simpang Tiga, Indonesia. Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker and Todd Pitman in Bangkok, Robin McDowell in Yangon, Myanmar, Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

Major banks admit guilt in forex probe, fined $6 billion

By Karen Freifeld, Steve Slater and Katharina Bart

NEW YORK/LONDON/ZURICH (Reuters) - Four major banks agreed to plead guilty on Wednesday to trying to manipulate foreign exchange rates and six were fined nearly $6 billion in yet another settlement in a global probe into the $5-trillion-a-day market.

Authorities in the United States and Britain accused traders at Citigroup , JP Morgan , Barclays , UBS and Royal Bank of Scotland of brazenly cheating their clients to boost their own profits using invitation-only chatrooms and coded language to coordinate their trades.

The misconduct occurred up until 2013, after regulators had started punishing banks for rigging the London interbank offered rate (Libor), an interest rate benchmark, and banks had pledged to overhaul their corporate culture and bolster compliance.

In total, authorities in the United States and Europe have fined seven banks over $10 billion for failing to stop their dealers from trying to manipulate foreign exchange rates -- used every day by millions of people from trillion dollar investment houses to tourists buying foreign currencies for their holidays.

Wednesday's settlement stands out because Citigroup, JP Morgan, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland pleaded guilty and for the size of the penalties, including a $2.5 billion fine by the Department of Justice, the largest set of antitrust fines ever obtained in its history.

"The penalty all these banks will now pay is fitting considering the long-running and egregious nature of their anticompetitive conduct," said Attorney General Loretta Lynch at a news conference in Washington.

Lawyers said the guilty pleas would make it much easier for pension funds and investment managers who have regular currency dealings with banks to sue the banks for losses on those trades.

"There is already a lot of work going on behind the scenes assessing how claims could be brought forward and those potential claimants will be looking to today's announcement for evidence to support their analysis," said Simon Hart, banking litigation partner at London law firm RPC.

BARCLAYS

Britain's Barclays was fined a record $2.4 billion on Wednesday, underscoring how widespread the misconduct was. Barclays staff continued to engage in misleading sales practices despite Chief Executive Antony Jenkins' pledge to overhaul the bank's high-risk, high-reward culture.

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Logos of Swiss bank UBS are seen on a building in Zurich November 12, 2014. Regulators fined six maj …

Barclays' sales staff would offer clients a different price to the one offered by the bank's traders, known as a "mark-up" to boost profits. Generating mark-ups was a high priority for sales managers with one employee noting, "If you aint cheating, you aint trying."

Barclays fired four traders in the last month as a result of the investigation and New York's Superintendent of Financial Services ordered it to fire a further four who had been suspended or placed on paid leave.

Benjamin Lawsky also warned that he was still probing the bank's use of electronic systems for foreign exchange trading, which make up the vast majority of transactions in the market.

"Put simply, Barclays employees helped rig the foreign exchange market. They engaged in a brazen 'heads I win, tails you lose' scheme to rip off their clients," Benjamin Lawsky said in a statement. "While today's action concerns misconduct in spot trading, there is additional work ahead."

Barclays had set aside $3.2 billion to cover any forex-related settlement and shares in the bank rose more than three percent to an 18-month high as investors welcomed the removal of uncertainty over the forex scandal. RBS shares rose nearly 2 percent.

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 20: U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch announces a resolution has been reache …

In New York, shares in JP Morgan and Citigroup were down 0.7 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.

UBS

Swiss bank UBS , which avoided a guilty plea over the forex debacle, pleaded guilty instead to one count of wire fraud and will pay a $203 million fine for its role in rigging Libor after its involvement in the forex scandal breached an earlier DOJ agreement.

Switzerland's largest bank also had to pay $342 million to the Federal Reserve over attempted manipulation of forex rates.

The U.S. central bank fined six banks for unsafe and unsound practices in the foreign exchange markets, including a $205 million fine for Bank of America , which, like UBS, avoided a guilty plea.

UBS's penalty was lower than expected and this contributed to a more than three percent rise in UBS shares to their highest level in six and a half years.

The global investigation into manipulation of foreign exchange rates has put the largely unregulated forex market on a tighter leash and accelerated a push to automate trading. Authorities in South Africa announced this week they were opening their own probe.

(Additional reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir in Washington, Joshua Franklin and Oliver Hirt in Zurich and Steve Slater in London; Writing by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Jane Merriman/Ruth Pitchford)

Major banks plead guilty to currency manipulation

Four financial institutions have been fined billions for criminally rigging global markets going back to 2007.
Used chat rooms to conspire

by Martin Armstrong, Armstrong Economics

Toronto police identified a body found in the water near as that of missing Morgan Stanley sales trader Murray Abbott. This is by no means the only trader suddenly being found dead. There is a dark sinister force behind the curtain and far too many people are turning up dead. The volume and liquidity collapse is underway and many people who have been in the industry for decades in banks are leaving before the curtain falls down. The other side of 2015.75 may shock a lot of people. The real crisis is the collapse in liquidity and so many in the field are getting very nervous about what is on the horizon.

from Financial Post

Missing Morgan Stanley trader found dead in Lake Ontario near Toronto’s Beaches

Toronto police identified a body found in the water near the city’s Beaches neighborhood as that of missing Morgan Stanley sales trader Murray Abbott.

Police are awaiting an autopsy before determining the cause of death of Abbott, who went missing two weeks ago, Detective Constable Neil Thornton said in a telephone interview Monday. His body was found around 6:40 a.m. floating face down just east of a water filtration plant, close to Queen Street East and Courcelette Road, according to earlier police reports.

Police had been searching the affluent neighbourhood along the shore of Lake Ontario for Abbott, who was last seen April 25. Abbott was a vice president in the capital markets group of Morgan Stanley’s Canadian wealth management division.

Abbott, 36, joined the New York-based bank in 2010 and earlier worked at Blackmont Capital Inc., a Toronto-based brokerage.