BBC News with Iain Purdon

Top executives of the banking giant, HSBC, have appeared before a US Senate committee and apologized for the bank's failure to prevent money laundering through its accounts by organized criminals, drug gangs and terrorists. Their investigation found that HSBC had allowed its

affiliates

in other countries to move billions of dollars in suspect funds to the United States. Paul Adams reports.

The committee's report paints a picture of a bank unwilling or unable to oversee the operations of its subsidiaries. Its Mexican branch shipped $7bn to the United States over a two-year period, ignoring warnings that this almost certainly included drug money. The bank stripped information from documents to conceal prohibited dealings with Iran.

Safeguards

were ignored in cases involving Saudi and Bangladeshi banks with alleged connections to international terrorism. HSBC has said it will apologize, acknowledge its mistakes and fix what went wrong.

Syria has dismissed reports of a concerted opposition assault in the center of Damascus. The Syria information minister said security forces had engaged opposition infiltrators and denied reports by opposition activists that fighting was going on in one of the streets. Jim Muir has been monitoring developments.

Activist video showed government tanks and troops moving on the main highways into the center of Damascus. The regime is

rallying