The government’s $25 billion settlement Thursday with banks over fraudulent foreclosure practices begins a long-promised reckoning with the financial industry over its role in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, officials said. Read full article > >

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Settlement launches foreclosure reckoning

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman abruptly called off a news conference at which he could have provided a crucial endorsement of a proposed settlement with some of the nation’s biggest banks over shoddy foreclosure practices. Read full article > >

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Proposed settlement with banks over foreclosure practices dealt a setback

IT’S BECOMING increasingly difficult to reconcile the Obama administration’s military and diplomatic initiatives on Afghanistan. Last month, the State Department unveiled a “fight and talk” strategy that could involve the transfer of senior Taliban commanders from Guantanamo Bay to Qatar. The aim, officials said, was to induce Taliban leaders to accept what they have repeatedly rejected: talks with the Afghan government and a peace settlement based on the current Afghan constitution, including its protections for women. Read full article > >

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Editorial Board: The administration’s muddled message on Afghanistan

Since it began a decade ago , the federal government’s massive investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks has been plagued by missteps and complications. Investigators initially focused on the wrong man, then had to pay him a nearly $6 million settlement . In 2008, they accused another man, Bruce E. Ivins, who killed himself before he could go to trial. Read full article > >

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Justice Dept. takes on itself in probe of 2001 anthrax attacks

Israel accuses UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of “gratuitous bashing” after he said it was doing “immense damage” to the peace process through settlement building.

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Israel criticises Clegg comments

Israel accuses UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of “gratuitous bashing” after he said it was doing “immense damage” to the peace process through settlement building.

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Israel criticises Clegg comments

Israel charged five Jewish settlers on Sunday with orchestrating a riot in an army base in the West Bank in a bid to foil plans to dismantle illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory.

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Israel Charges Five Settlers With Army Base Rampage

AMMAN, Jordan — No breakthroughs emerged Tuesday from the first meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in more than a year, the foreign minister of host Jordan said, adding the two sides agreed to keep talking. Talks have been stalled since late 2010 over the issue of Israeli settlement construction. Read full article > >

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Jordan says no breakthroughs on substance in 1st Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 15 months

The Federal Trade Commission sent refund checks last month to 75,000 people under a settlement with a Texas firm that allegedly charged them for an online list of work-at-home jobs but then often denied them access and refused to give back the fees. Under the agreement, the firm, Abili-Staff, faced a judgment of $3.6 million. But the bulk of that amount was suspended because the company’s owners could not pay it, court records show. So in the end, each person got an average payment of only $9.70. Read full article > >

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FTC hard-pressed to secure refunds for job-scam victims

Two companies that track traffic on the Web settled a patent dispute last week and hinted at future collaboration at a time when media outlets and advertisers grow increasingly dependent on the Internet to reach audiences and make money. The settlement gives Reston-based comScore ownership of four families of patents that Nielsen Holdings had challenged in March. Nielsen, however, will retain worldwide licensing rights for the patents and acquire about $19 million in comScore common stock with neutral voting rights. Read full article > >

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ComScore, Nielsen settle patent dispute

Washington Redskins left tackle Trent Williams and tight Fred Davis are expected to miss the remainder of the NFL season as punishment for multiple failed drug tests under the terms of a settlement between the league and the NFL Players Association, according to people with knowledge of the deal. Both players, cornerstones of the franchise and two of the top contributors this season, played for a final time this season in Sunday’s 34-19 loss to the New York Jets. The NFL is expected to formally notify Williams and Davis early this week they must serve four-game suspensions for testing positive for recreational drugs earlier this season, according to multiple people familiar with the case. Read full article > >

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Redskins Trent Williams, Fred Davis face season-ending suspensions for failing drug tests

A request by the plaintiffs’ steering committee for a 6 percent share of settlements yet to be paid angers individual lawyers who call it a money grab.

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Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Fighting Over Gulf Oil Spill Fees

The NBA resumed lawsuit settlement talks on Friday at noon with the hopes of resolving the nearly five-month labor dispute in time to start a 66-game season by Christmas. Though the players’ union stopped existing when National Basketball Players’ Association filed a disclaimer of interest and disbanded in order to filed antitrust lawsuits against the NBA in California and Minnesota. Those lawsuits were consolidated into one on Monday and settlement negotiations were initiated a day later. Read full article > >

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NBA owners, players resume settlement talks on Black Friday

With unsettling consequences awaiting them should they fail to reach an agreement, representatives for the NBA and players’ union met again on Thursday to salvage what remains of an already-shortened season. The two sides met for nearly 11 hours a day after a 12-hour negotiating session but were still unable to produce a settlement on a new collective bargaining agreement. NBA Commissioner David Stern spoke with the owners’ labor relations committee and presented a revised proposal that union President Derek Fisher and executive director Billy Hunter said they would have to take back to the player representatives from the 30 teams and review in the next few days. Read full article > >

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NBA, players continue negotiations on Thursday

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Leaders of Alabama’s most populous county on Wednesday voted to declare an estimated $4.1 billion bankruptcy, the largest for a municipality in U.S. history. Two months after it seemed Jefferson County had struck a deal to settle the debt, the commissioners took the action. It came after spending about six hours over two days meeting with its lawyers to discuss legal options. Those options included a Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing and a settlement with creditors on the county’s $3.14 billion sewer debt. Read full article > >

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Ala. county votes to declare largest ever municipal bankruptcy for $4B over sewer, other debt