Apple facing back taxes running into billions over European commission ruling
Irish officials expect European commission to declare the arrangement with Apple unlawful under state aid rules
Apple could face back taxes running into billions with the European commissionexpected to rule against the company on Tuesday over its arrangements with the Irish government.
A ruling by Margrethe Vestager, the European competition commissioner, could make Apple liable for billions of euros. Irish officials expect the commission to declare the arrangements unlawful under state aid rules.
A decision against Apple and Ireland after a two-year investigation would rebuff US efforts to persuade the commission to drop its interest amid warnings about retaliation from Washington.
The commission has been investigating whether Apple’s tax deals with Ireland, which have allowed the company to pay very little tax on income earned throughout Europe, amounted to state aid.
Kim Jong-un executes two North Korea officials 'using anti-aircraft gun'
This story first appeared in the JoongAng Ilbo and cannot be verified
Senior official in education ministry arrested for dozing off during meeting before being killed
Heesu Lee and Sohee Kim
Two senior North Korean officials were executed with an anti-aircraft gun in early August on the orders of Kim Jong-un, South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing people it did not identify.
Ri Yong Jin, a senior official in the education ministry -- possibly minister -- was arrested for dozing off during a meeting with Kim and charged with corruption before being killed, the paper said. Former Agriculture Minister Hwang Min was purged over a proposed project seen as a direct challenge to Kim’s leadership, it said.
If true, it would mark the first executions ordered by Kim from outside his party or the military, the paper said. A spokesman at South Korea’s Unification Ministry said he couldn’t immediately confirm the JoongAng report.Italy's coastguard: 6,500 migrants rescued off Libyan coast in one day
The central Mediterranean route has witnessed a surge in migrants since the so-called Balkan route was closed. More than 3,000 migrants have died this year attempting the perilous journey.
The Italian coastguard on Monday said it coordinated the rescue of some 6,500 migrants off the coast of Libya, one of the largest single-day operations this year.
"The command center coordinated 40 rescue operations" that included vessels from the EU's border agency Frontex and humanitarian organizations, the coastguard said on its official Twitter account.
The central Mediterranean route has witnessed a surge in migrants making the perilous journey after the so-called Balkan route was effectively shuttered earlier this year.As trial ends, Brazil's president makes one last bid to shape the story
SURFACING MODES OF THOUGHT
Dilma Rousseff was suspended pending the outcome of her impeachment trial, which some see as democracy in action but others decry as an attempted coup.
MEXICO CITY — Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, who was suspended pending an impeachment trial, testified before the Senate Monday in her last defense before politicians vote on her permanent removal from office this week. The proceedings, which have officially been under way since April, have divided Brazilians. For some, this is a coup masquerading as democracy. But for others, it’s evidence of a robust democracy at work, holding the leftist leader, whose party has been in power for more than 13 years, responsible for what they see as bending the law to maintain control.
Ms. Rousseff is charged with breaking federal budget laws in an attempt to conceal Brazil’s economic troubles. She and her supporters contend that manipulating the budget is a common practice used by politicians at all levels of government in Brazil – including by her predecessors, former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
The woman who discovered India's first HIV cases
Thirty years ago, India discovered the dreaded HIV virus had reached its shores when blood samples from six sex workers tested positive. It was largely due to the efforts of one young scientist - but until now, her pioneering work has been all but forgotten.
When it was first suggested she screen people for HIV/Aids, Sellappan Nirmala balked.
It was at the end of 1985 and the 32-year-old microbiology student at the medical college in Chennai (Madras), was looking for a topic for her dissertation.
The idea came from her professor and mentor, Suniti Solomon. Formal tracking of Aids cases had begun in the United States in 1982 and the medical authorities in India didn't want to be caught napping if the disease reached India.
The Big Problem With The Trans-Pacific Partnership’s Super Court That We’re Not Talking About
Financiers will use it to bet on lawsuits, while taxpayers foot the bill.
A secretive super-court system called ISDS is threatening to blow up President Barack Obama’s highest foreign policy priority.
Investor-state dispute settlement — an integral part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal — allows companies to sue entire countries for costing them money when laws or regulations change. Cases are decided by extrajudicial tribunals composed of three corporate lawyers. Buzzfeed, in a multi-part investigation launched Sunday, called it “the court that rules the world.”
Although the ISDS process has existed for years, TPP would drastically expand it. The most common criticisms of the system are that it’s secret, that it’s dominated by unaccountable big-firm lawyers, and that global corporations use it to change sovereign laws and undermine regulations. That’s all true.
No comments:
Post a Comment