Global business

Global businessCitigroup agreed to pay $285 million to settle civil fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that claimed the bank misled people into buying mortgage-related investments, which it subsequently bet against. Citi neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

Japan's corporate governance practices were thrown into the spotlight after Michael Woodford was ousted as president of Olympus by the company's board. Woodford suggests that his offense was to ask questions about large payments to a firm in the Cayman Islands. Olympus said he was sacked because of a clash of management styles.

ISS accepted a takeover bid from G4S. With more than 1 million workers, the combined security and facilities services company will be the world's second-biggest private sector employer, after Wal-Mart.

Kinder Morgan agreed to buy El Paso Corp. The $38 billion transaction will create America's biggest operator of oil-and-gas pipelines with assets in all of the country's shale gas projects. Kinder Morgan will sell off El Paso's exploration and production business to help pay for its purchase.

BP accepted a $4 billion payment from Anadarko Petroleum, one of its minority partners in the well that caused last year's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to settle any pending disputes between the two over responsibility for the disaster. The settlement, the biggest yet from one of BP's partners in the stricken Deepwater Horizon well, comes after last month's final report by American investigators, which spread the blame for the accident among several firms.

Liliane Bettencourt, France's richest woman with a 31 percent stake in L'Oreal, lost a three-year legal battle with her daughter when a court found that the 88-year-old was no longer mentally fit to run the family's inheritance. The cosmetics empire was founded by Eugene Schueller, Bettencourt's father, in 1909.

Groupon appeared set to launch its much-anticipated initial public offering, but at a far lower valuation than had been expected when it filed to go public in June. Since then, a number of competitors have jumped into Groupon's market, by also offering steep product discounts via social networking.

Kenya sent tanks and armored cars into Somalia to attack Al-Shabab, the Islamist militia that controls most of the southern part of Somalia except for Mogadishu, the capital. Al-Shabab, which threatened to respond to the incursion with terrorism in Kenya, has recently kidnapped several foreigners in Kenya, including a French woman who subsequently died, and two Spanish medical workers.

Pakistan's army chief, Ashfaq Kayani, was reported to have said that America should think "10 times" before taking any unilateral action in the border region of North Waziristan. Reports say Kayani warned America to focus on stabilizing Afghanistan, instead of pushing Pakistan to attack militant groups.

China again accused the Dalai Lama of encouraging Tibetans to commit suicide. The latest claim came after the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader offered prayers for eight monks and a nun who have set themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule in Tibetan parts of Sichuan province. China said the self-immolations were "terrorism in disguise."