Schmidt softens line on tax loopholes
Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, has said he welcomes promises by international leaders to crack down on tax loopholes exploited by the search firm and other multinational internet businesses that take billions of pounds of sales from the UK through overseas companies, which HM Revenue Customs cannot tax.
“Given the intensity of the debate, not just in the UK but also in America and elsewhere, international tax law could almost certainly benefit from reform,” he conceded in the Observer. He said an action plan from the [...]
How to hack a nation’s infrastructure
19 May 2013
Last updated at 19:52 ET
By Mark Ward
Technology correspondent, BBC News
Control systems for dams, industrial plants and building controls are increasingly being found online
I’m watching a live video feed of people visiting a cafe in London.
It’s a small, busy place and is doing a good trade in tea, coffee and cakes. That woman has dropped some money. A child is running around. Later, another customer thinks they have got the wrong change.
Nothin [...]
Officials warn of commuter chaos from Connecticut derailment
By Richard Weizel
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut |
Sun May 19, 2013 7:52pm EDT
BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut (Reuters) – Thousands of Connecticut commuters should brace for travel chaos on Monday as Metro-North workers repair damage on the United States’ busiest rail line caused by the collision of two trains, officials warned on Sunday.
Lengthy detours and hours of traffic backups were likely as many daily train commuters take to the road, officials said. The Friday derailment of a Metro-North passenger train [...]
Do white South Africans have a future?
19 May 2013
Last updated at 19:54 ET
By John Simpson
World Affairs Editor, BBC News
Apartheid South Africa looked after white people and nobody else. Now some of its white communities face a level of deprivation, or of violence, which threatens their future in the country.
Everyone here, regardless of colour, tells you that white people are still riding high.
They run the economy. They have a disproportionate amount of influence in politics and the media. They still [...]
Vargas pitches Angels past White Sox
Anaheim, CA – Jason Vargas hurled seven scoreless innings to lead the LA Angels of Anaheim to a 6-2 win over the Chicago White Sox in the finale of a four-game set at Angels Stadium.
Vargas (3-3) scattered four hits and struck out six to earn his third win in
four starts. Ernesto Frieri picked up his ninth save of the season despite
giving up a run in the ninth inning.
“I was able to get ahead with the fastball early and stay ahead,” said Vargas.
“My changeup command is huge and I was able to catc [...]
Syria may be Obama’s real headache
A trifecta of domestic headaches confronts President Obama these days. They’ve shaken his self-confidence, thrown his second-term agenda off track, and given Republicans seemingly endless opportunities to hammer him.
And yet a fourth headache looms not at home; but abroad, a migraine really, potentially more painful than the rest.
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Unlike the IRS, Associated Press, and Benghazi stories, the Syrian crisis will not run out the media cycle; it’s going to continue to hound the president, threatening [...]
Computer visionary says he knows who invented Bitcoin
The inventor of Bitcoin has been shrouded in a mystery so complete, it’s baffled even core developers for the virtual currency. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonym for the person or group of people who came up with the original idea for the electronic cash system in 2008?
After contributing thousands of lines of code and hundreds of posts on Bitcoin, Nakamoto sent a note to a developer in April 2011 saying that he had “moved on to other things.” Later that year, the New Yorker and others tried to unravel the mystery [...]
Tornado spotted in Wichita, Kan., residents told to take cover
Shalyn Phillips / TVNWeather.com
A funnel cloud is seen in southwest Wichita on Sunday.
People in two states were taking shelter amid wailing warning sirens Sunday as tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down in Kansas and Oklahoma as part of an extreme weather system plowing through the nation’s midsection.
Travis Heying / MCT via Zuma Press
A tornado touches down southwest of Wichita near the town of Viola on Sunday.
The system, which stretched from North Texas to Minnesota, also heaved hail — dime to softball sized [...]
Police killed in fresh Iraq attacks
19 May 2013
Last updated at 19:42 ET
At least three police officers have been killed after gunmen attacked their station in northern Iraq, local officials say.
They say another two policemen were wounded in the town of Rawa, some 260km (160 miles) north-west of Baghdad.
Reports also say another seven policemen died in a separate attack in the nearby town of Haditha.
The authorities have blamed a number of recent deadly attacks in the Anbar province on Sunni militants.
On Saturday, gunmen in Anbar kidnapped up to 10 pol [...]
Cespedes’ homer pushes A’s past Royals
Oakland, CA – Yoenis Cespedes hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning and the Oakland Athletics swept a three-game series against the Kansas City Royals with a 4-3 win.
Leading off the eighth, Cespedes knocked a 1-0 pitch off Kelvin Herrera (2-4)
deep into left center.
Oakland reliever Ryan Cook allowed runners on second and third with two outs
in the ninth, but managed to escape and notch his first save of the season.
Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie and Josh Donaldson contributed with an RBI apiece for
the Athletics.
Oak [...]
Tea Party hopes IRS debacle will give a needed boost
By THOMAS BEAUMONT
May 19, 2013
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., chair of the Tea Party Caucus, center, speaks during a news conference with Tea Party leaders about the IRS targeting Tea Party groups on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Molly Riley, File)
Is the tea party getting its groove back? Shouts of vindication from around the country suggest the movement’s leaders certainly think so.
They say the IRS acknowledgement that it had targeted their groups for extra scrutiny — a claim that tea party activists had made for years — is [...]
Yahoo set to buy Tumblr for rumoured $1.1bn
Marissa Mayer, the former Google executive who is now in charge of Yahoo, is poised to create yet another nothing-to-riches tale in the web industry with the $1.1bn (£720m) acquisition of the blogging site Tumblr.
Mayer called Yahoo’s board together on Sunday afternoon to discuss the firm’s latest attempt to regain its former glamour and reports indicated the board had given its approval. Tumblr was founded in 2007 by David Karp, then 21, in a bedroom in his mother’s apartment in New York. Within a fortnight it had 75,0 [...]