Web-connected libraries for Africa: the dream of digital knowledge for all
A decade ago, Brewster Kahle, philanthropist and founder of the Internet Archive, created the first digital bookmobile: a complete printing press in the back of a car. With a power source, satellite internet connection, printer and binder, the vehicle and its descendants subsequently printed thousands of public-domain books where they were needed most, such as in rural areas without internet connection, including schools and refugee camps across Africa.
In 2003, it was estimated that less than 1% of Africa’s population had access to [...]
U.S. state cancels subsidy for investment from Pakistani company
By Susan Guyett
INDIANAPOLIS |
Sat May 18, 2013 5:49pm EDT
INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) – Indiana has canceled subsidies for a planned $1.8 billion fertilizer plant in the state because of concerns that a Pakistani company involved in the project makes products used in improvised explosives that kill and injure U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Midwest Fertilizer Corp, which has sought to build the plant in southern Indiana, is 48 percent owned by Fatima Group, which produces a calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer i [...]
Trainee lawyer was denied permanent contract when she became pregnant
A trainee lawyer is in line for compensation from a top City law firm after winning her case for discrimination after she missed out on a job because she was pregnant.
An employment tribunal found that law firm Travers Smith denied Katie Tantum, 33, a permanent job because she became pregnant in the final stages of her £42,000-a-year contract.
A hearing will be held in June to determine what level of compensation Tantum, who is the daughter of a former MI6 Middle East director, should receive.
Nigel Mackay, who represented the Cambridge g [...]
Jail sentences for Lulzsec hackers
16 May 2013
Last updated at 10:19 ET
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LulzSec hacker Jake Davis: ‘The internet is a world devoid of empathy’
British hackers who were behind a series of high profile cyber-attacks in 2011 have been sentenced.
The four men, Ryan Cleary, Jake Davis, Mustafa al-Bassam and Ryan Ackroyd, were part of the Lulzsec hacking group.
Cleary was jailed for 32 months, Davis for two years [...]
More than a dozen injured as car plows through parade in Virginia
By Gary Robertson
RICHMOND, Virginia |
Sat May 18, 2013 6:40pm EDT
RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – A car driven by an elderly man who may have lost consciousness plowed through a small-town parade of hiking enthusiasts in southwestern Virginia on Saturday, injuring more than a dozen people, some seriously, authorities said.
The incident occurred in the Appalachian town of Damascus at the start of the annual Trail Days festival, as the main street was filled with hikers making their way from one end of to [...]
Russian cult film director dies
18 May 2013
Last updated at 18:39 ET
Alexei Balabanov is seen here at the Venice film festival in September
Alexei Balabanov, the Russian director whose gritty crime films caught the wildness of Russia’s early post-Soviet years, has died at the age of 54.
Russian media, quoting his family, say he suffered a seizure and did not recover consciousness at a sanatorium near St Petersburg.
Balabanov made 16 films over nearly a quarter of a century.
Crime films such as the Brother series, and the Chechnya action film W [...]
Schmidt defends Google in ‘immoral’ tax row
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has defended his company’s financial affairs after a Commons committee branded the internet giant devious and unethical for sheltering its multibillion-pound profits from UK taxes.
Writing in the Observer, Schmidt said his company’s accounts were complicated but complied with international taxation treaties that allowed it to pay most of its tax in the United States.
Schmidt said that he understood why Google’s apparent sidestepping on UK taxation had generated controversy and calle [...]
Republican cites IRS scandal in close Virginia governor’s race
By Gary Robertson
RICHMOND, Virginia |
Sat May 18, 2013 6:08pm EDT
RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) – Virginia Republicans on Saturday formally nominated Ken Cuccinelli for governor in the nation’s marquee 2013 political race, and the conservative attorney general wasted no time reminding voters of the scandals facing President Barack Obama.
“I am not a true conservative because I have not been investigated by the IRS,” joked Cuccinelli, referring to the controversy that has engulfed the f [...]
Ed Miliband vows to curb corporate tax avoidance
Ed Miliband has vowed to rip up the rule book as prime minister and go it alone if there is no international consensus to tackle multinationals engaging in massive tax avoidance.
In an interview with the Observer, the Labour leader urged David Cameron to find agreement at the G8 summit of leaders next month around an ambitious agenda forcing corporate giants to pay their fair share.
He said that, if Cameron fails, he himself as prime minister would unilaterally act to make multinationals operating in the UK more transparent about the mone [...]
Bradley remains in charge despite late bogey
Sat May 18, 2013 6:20pm EDT
(Reuters) – Former champion Keegan Bradley stayed on track for a wire-to-wire victory at the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas, despite bogeying the par-four 18th for a third day in a row on Saturday.
Three ahead of the chasing pack overnight, the 26-year-old American ground out a two-under-par 68 in tricky scoring conditions to end the third round with a slender one-shot lead at 13-under 197.
Bradley came desperately close to finding water off the tee at the last, pulling [...]
Fury at corporate tax avoidance leads to call for a global response
Huge orange and green cranes hover over a vast building site at King’s Cross, London. Over the next three years, 2.4 acres of this site will be transformed into a million square feet of an 11-storey headquarters for the internet giant Google, no doubt chock-a-block with colourful Big Brother-house-style sofas and surreal chill-out zones that mark out its other 70 offices in 40 countries.
The property deal is estimated to have cost around £1bn and was heralded by the site’s development consortium as the “most significant [...]
Two-thirds of voters say PM should ‘listen more’ to backbenchers
Over two-thirds of voters believe the prime minister should “listen and pay more attention” to the views of his backbenchers, amid the row within the party over Europe.
An Opinium/Observer poll found that 67% of respondents believed David Cameron should listen to what he is being told rather than enforcing his own views.
The Conservative party is in turmoil over Britain’s continued membership of the EU with Cameron being bounced into offering a bill legislating for a future in-out referendum last week.
Yet just 20% said [...]