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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

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Now to one of the big sticking points in Washington these days. Much of the debate over impending tax hikes and budget cuts centers on the tax rate for top earners. President Obama argues the tax rate for income over $250,000 a year should be allowed to go up. Republicans say there should be no change in tax rates. When Democrats talk about raising taxes on the wealthy, Republicans hear it as raising taxes on small businesses and killing jobs.

Well, NPR's S.V. Date has been exploring that argument.

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More now on the HSBC case and, more broadly, on what banks are obliged to do and what HSBC did not do. Jimmy Gurul is a professor of law at Notre Dame University law school, used to be undersecretary for enforcement at the Department of the Treasury. Welcome to the program.

JIM GURUL: Thank you.

SIEGEL: And first, someone makes a big deposit at a big bank. What must the bank do and what must it know about that deposit?

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

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And I'm Audie Cornish. It is the biggest penalty ever paid by a bank to the U.S. government. HSBC, a British company, will hand over $1.9 billion to settle a money laundering case. The Justice Department says HSBC violated the bank secrecy act and the trading with the enemy act by doing business with the likes of Iran.

The pretrial hearing for WikiLeaks suspect Pfc. Bradley Manning ended Tuesday, but as The Associated Press reports, the massive amount of documents he is accused of leaking were hardly mentioned.

Instead, the hearing focused more on "a bedsheet noose, confiscated clothes and whether Manning seriously contemplated killing himself with flip-flops or the elastic waistband of his underwear."

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We're going to get a little help now from Ebenezer Scrooge to set up this next conversation.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "A CHRISTMAS CAROL")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Ebenezer Scrooge) I will live in the past, the present and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.

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Dr. Abdul Mawgoud Dardery was elected to the now disbanded Egyptian parliament as a candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party. That's the party aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and with Egyptian President Morsi. Dr. Dardery is a member and spokesman for the Foreign Relations Committee of the party, and he's in Berlin today.

Welcome back to the program. And is it fair to say that you're among the more liberal members of the Freedom and Justice Party?

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Dr. Abdul Mawgoud Dardery was elected to the now disbanded Egyptian parliament as a candidate of the Freedom and Justice Party. That's the party aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and with Egyptian President Morsi. Dr. Dardery is a member and spokesman for the Foreign Relations Committee of the party, and he's in Berlin today.

Welcome back to the program. And is it fair to say that you're among the more liberal members of the Freedom and Justice Party?

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In Illinois, basketball is serious business. It's the home of the six-time champion Chicago Bulls, after all. But this next story is about some NBA-sized players at a small suburban high school. A group of boys from Southern Sudan who attend this school went to court for the right to play on the court. And as NPR's Cheryl Corley reports, they've scored a win.

CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: There's nothing like a good tall tale and this involves some serious height.