Friday, March 25, 2011
NHK WORLD English: M
Ivory Coast Violence
Ivory Coast Violence Forces Hundreds of Thousands to Flee - NYTimes.com
DAKAR, Senegal — At least 700,000 people have fled their homes in Ivory Coast’s main city, Abidjan, to escape the increasing violence and collapsing economy stemming from the nation’s political crisis, the United Nations said Friday.
NHK WORLD English
More than 27,000 people are officially dead or missing after the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan on March 11th.According to the National Police Agency, 9,811 people are confirmed dead as of 9 PM on Thursday.
The agency says it has received reports of 17,541 people missing.
Most of the dead and missing are from the 3 hardest hit prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima.
G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether
The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States.
Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.
That may be hard to fathom for the millions of American business owners and households now preparing their own returns, but low taxes are nothing new for G.E. The company has been cutting the percentage of its American profits paid to the Internal Revenue Service for years, resulting in a far lower rate than at most multinational companies.
Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore. G.E.’s giant tax department, led by a bow-tied former Treasury official named John Samuels, is often referred to as the world’s best tax law firm. Indeed, the company’s slogan “Imagination at Work” fits this department well. The team includes former officials not just from the Treasury, but also from the I.R.S. and virtually all the tax-writing committees in Congress.
While General Electric is one of the most skilled at reducing its tax burden, many other companies have become better at this as well. Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less.
In a regulatory filing just a week before the Japanese disaster put a spotlight on the company’s nuclear reactor business, G.E. reported that its tax burden was 7.4 percent of its American profits, about a third of the average reported by other American multinationals. Even those figures are overstated, because they include taxes that will be paid only if the company brings its overseas profits back to the United States. With those profits still offshore, G.E. is effectively getting money back.
Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts — from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009.
Yet many companies say the current level is so high it hobbles them in competing with foreign rivals. Even as the government faces a mounting budget deficit, the talk in Washington is about lower rates. President Obama has said he is considering an overhaul of the corporate tax system, with an eye to lowering the top rate, ending some tax subsidies and loopholes and generating the same amount of revenue. He has designated G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, as his liaison to the business community and as the chairman of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and it is expected to discuss corporate taxes.
“He understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy,” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Immelt, on his appointment in January, after touring a G.E. factory in upstate New York that makes turbines and generators for sale around the world.
A review of company filings and Congressional records shows that one of the most striking advantages of General Electric is its ability to lobby for, win and take advantage of tax breaks.
Over the last decade, G.E. has spent tens of millions of dollars to push for changes in tax law, from more generous depreciation schedules on jet engines to “green energy” credits for its wind turbines. But the most lucrative of these measures allows G.E. to operate a vast leasing and lending business abroad with profits that face little foreign taxes and no American taxes as long as the money remains overseas.
Company officials say that these measures are necessary for G.E. to compete against global rivals and that they are acting as responsible citizens. “G.E. is committed to acting with integrity in relation to our tax obligations,” said Anne Eisele, a spokeswoman. “We are committed to complying with tax rules and paying all legally obliged taxes. At the same time, we have a responsibility to our shareholders to legally minimize our costs.”
The assortment of tax breaks G.E. has won in Washington has provided a significant short-term gain for the company’s executives and shareholders. While the financial crisis led G.E. to post a loss in the United States in 2009, regulatory filings show that in the last five years, G.E. has accumulated $26 billion in American profits, and received a net tax benefit from the I.R.S. of $4.1 billion.
But critics say the use of so many shelters amounts to corporate welfare, allowing G.E. not just to avoid taxes on profitable overseas lending but also to amass tax credits and write-offs that can be used to reduce taxes on billions of dollars of profit from domestic manufacturing. They say that the assertive tax avoidance of multinationals like G.E. not only shortchanges the Treasury, but also harms the economy by discouraging investment and hiring in the United States.
Huckabee atop poll of GOP contenders; Palin down - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
Republicans and GOP-leaning independents are more likely to support Mike Huckabee than anyone else in the wide-open field of potential Republican presidential candidates, according to a Gallup poll out Friday.
Gallup listed a dozen potential candidates and asked which one respondents wanted to see as their party's nominee next year. Huckabee came out on top with 19 percent support. He appears to be on the rise - he had 12 percent support last September - even as signs suggest he may sit the race out.
Mitt Romney followed Huckabee with 15 percent support, though he is down from 19 percent last November. In third was Sarah Palin, who also saw her support fall -- from 16 percent last month to 12 percent today.
Buffett Draws Fervent Fans in India With Folksy Advise - NYTimes.com
NEW DELHI — The billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett capped off a weeklong visit to India by doing one of the things he does best, after investing — doling out folksy sayings and sensible advice to an appreciative crowd.
Early release of prisoner sparks Mississippi outrage | Reuters
(Reuters) - The early prison release on Friday of a man who fatally shot a high school valedictorian has prompted a public outcry and plans for protests against Mississippi's sentencing laws.
Joseph Burton Goff served just eight years of a 20-year sentence for manslaughter, shaving off some of his prison time by working on clean-up crews after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
"It is beyond me how a cold-blooded murderer can reduce his time spent in jail by doing things like cleaning up storm debris after a hurricane," Mississippi state Senator Michael Watson, a Republican, told Reuters.
Goff, now 28, was released from a prison in Columbia, Mississippi early on Friday and will remain on supervised release until January 2014.
In December 2001, he fired into the home of 18-year-old Kyle Todd, who was home from college on Christmas break. Hit in the heart, Todd ran to his mother's bedroom and died in her arms.
SC Johnson heir charged with sex assault of child | Reuters
(Reuters) - Samuel Curtis Johnson III, a billionaire heir of the SC Johnson & Son fortune, has been charged with repeated sexual assault of his stepdaughter, officials said on Friday.
The child is now 15, and the alleged assault went on for "several years," according to Racine County District Attorney Michael Nieskes.
Johnson, 55, of Racine, Wisconsin, has been released on a $500,000 bond.
The charge involves 10 to 15 separate incidents, Nieskes said. If convicted, Johnson could serve up to 40 years in prison.
"Obviously, this is a personal matter for Curt, but allegations of this type are always deeply disturbing," said Harlan Loeb, spokesman for the Johnson family. "The family is distraught and hopes for the best for everyone involved."
Japan reactor core m
Japan reactor core may be leaking radioactive material, official says - CNN.com
Tokyo (CNN) -- Authorities in Japan raised the prospect Friday of a likely breach in the all-important containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, a potentially ominous development in the race to prevent a large-scale release of radiation.
Contaminated water likely seeped through the containment vessel protecting from the reactor's core, said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Japan nuclear and industrial safety agency.
Three men working inside the No. 3 reactor stepped into water this week that had 10,000 times the amount of radiation typical for that locale, Nishiyama said. That water likely indicates "some sort of leakage" from the reactor core, signaling a possible break of the containment vessel that houses the core.