 The US has voted to end corporate tax breaks for some of its biggest firms including Boeing and Microsoft, heading off sanctions from the European Union. The move was part of a wider $70bn (£37bn) tax-cut package put forward by President George W Bush. In a long-running spat, the US and EU had clashed over tax breaks for US exporters, which the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled were illegal. The EU was set to implement retaliatory tariffs on US goods from next week. Brussels had warned that it would slap a 14% import duty on US goods worth some $2.4bn....
http://news.bbc.co.uk
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Editor - 10:17:00 05-12-06
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 Brown and Blair in pensions deal |
A deal on pensions has been agreed between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown following months of wrangling, the prime minister has confirmed. Under the agreement, the link between the state pension and earnings will be restored - probably in 2012. There is understood to be a deal on raising the state pension age to 68 by 2050. More details are being discussed. The move to a more generous state pension was welcomed by shadow chancellor George Osborne. It is understood talks between the prime minister and the chancellor continued until late on Thursday before a deal was reached. The changes will not happen until at least 2012 - two years after the date recommended by Lord Turner's commission on pensions. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4763803.stm
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Editor - 10:14:00 05-12-06
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| Aghan Envoy Says Taliban Strength Growing |
Taliban strength in Afghanistan is on the rise and even with a growing NATO security force, the country's defenses against explosive devices and suicide bombings are severely strained, the Afghan ambassador said Friday. Taliban, which controlled the South Asian country for five years until it was toppled in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, is acquiring more sophisticated weapons and motorcycles from abroad and continues to receive training in neighboring Pakistan, Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad said in an interview. Taliban fighters are crossing the border into Afghanistan 15 to 20 at a time, and are able to kill five or six Afghan police officers, who are trying to make do with old Soviet-era jeeps, with a single mine, Jawad said. ``So what we need and demand is better help for our police forces and also resources to strength district-level administration,'' the ambassador said. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5817779,00.html
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Editor - 10:08:00 05-12-06
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| Charges over Israel assassination |
An Israeli court has charged four Palestinians with the killing of an Israeli minister five years ago. The suspects were snatched by the Israeli army from a jail in the West Bank town of Jericho in March. They are alleged to have shot Rehavam Zeevi, a hardliner who advocated deporting Palestinians from the occupied territories. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the assassination was revenge for the killing of its leader. The PFLP's new leader, Ahmed Saadat - who was captured in Jericho at the same time as the four - is also blamed by Israeli officials for the killing, but they have failed to find enough evidence to link him to the case. However Mr Saadat is due to face unspecified and unrelated security charges in an Israeli military court. Israel has, and is still is practicing Assassination as a Government Policy, so why is it ok for Israel to use Assassination, but not others. If it’s Good for the Goose why not for the Gander?...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4764761.stm
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Editor - 09:54:00 05-12-06
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| Court Considers Wealth As Asylum Claim |
A federal appeals court has ordered an immigration board to consider whether some Guatemalans could qualify for asylum over fear of persecution for being rich. Ruling in a case of a couple whose asylum claim was denied, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said a judge should have considered testimony that they had been threatened with kidnapping and that police did not help them. Jose Godofredo Ucelo-Gomez, 37, and Ana Mariela Espana-Espinosa, 29, say they are not affluent by U.S. standards - he has been a restaurant worker in the United States and she a child care worker - but they say they would be targets in Guatemala. When they applied for asylum, Espana-Espinosa noted that in 1996 her sister was kidnapped for ransom by an organized political gang, shot in the leg and released the following month without a ransom payment. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5817770,00.html
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Editor - 09:43:00 05-12-06
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| Where The Danger Is: Marines In Ramadi Try To Keep Control In Iraq's Most Dangerous Region |
The Marines of Kilo company are under attack yet again. They're on the roof of the government center, and the enemy has just opened up. Small arms fire came in first. The Marines have returned fire with everything they've got. From their posts on top of the building, they defend the government center, now the symbol of U.S. efforts to stabilize the most violent region in Iraq. Three of their positions are taking fire simultaneously. That's something 21-year-old Lance Cpl. Jefferson Ortiz says the Marines quickly get used to. "Every Saturday ... Saturday at the government center right here," he says. "This is our weekend right here. No spring break for us. Just shooting." The deathly whine of incoming rounds is overwhelmed by the thunder of the Marines' guns. Their commander says there must be no doubt they mean business. ...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/11/eveningnews/main1612946.shtml?source=RSS&attr=World_1612946
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Editor - 09:41:00 05-12-06
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| post The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
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