Google Avoids $2 Billion In Taxes By Offshoring Profits In Bermuda

Google is the latest multinational to come under scrutiny for skirting U.S. taxes.

On Monday, Bloomberg's Jesse Drucker reported that the tech giant avoided paying $2 billion in global income taxes by moving $10 billion in revenue, or 80 percent of its pretax profit, to Bermuda, which does not have a corporate income tax. Google has nearly doubled the amount of money that it is sheltering in Bermuda since 2008.

1990 IPCC Report Successfully Predicted Warming, New Study Shows

Time has proven that even 22 years ago climate scientists understood the dynamics behind global warming well enough to accurately predict warming, says an analysis that compares predictions in 1990 with 20 years of temperature records.

After an adjustment to account for natural fluctuations, the predictions and the observed increases matched up, the current research found.

Obama Says Michigan Labor Battle About 'The Right To Work For Less Money'

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama weighed in on the contentious labor battle playing out in Michigan, condemning the Republican push to make Michigan a so-called "right-to-work" state as nothing more than a partisan maneuver that will hurt the working class.

"We should do everything we can to keep creating good middle-class jobs that help folks rebuild security for their families," Obama said Monday in a speech at the Daimler Detroit Diesel plant.

Potential for diminished F-35 benefits to industry a time bomb for Conservatives

OTTAWA - Amid the avalanche of figures, statistics, estimates and soothing political assurances coming this week on the Conservative government's troubled stealth fighter program, one report will warn about the lagging benefit for Canada's aerospace sector.

And it could prove more damaging in the long run than the bruising debate about the eye-popping cost of the multi-role fighter, say some experts.

B.C. coal exports are Lotus Land’s dirty little secret

EDMONTON - West Coasters are fiercely proud of British Columbia’s green image.

Environmental activism has long been a key part of the province’s identity and political fabric. Given that, it’s no surprise that many Lotus Landers despise what they regard as “dirty oil” from Alberta’s oilsands and are dead set against any new pipelines that would carry bitumen to the West Coast.

First they demonized the Roma, but I did not speak out because I was not Roma

First they demonized the Roma, but I did not speak out because I was not Roma ...

Martin Niemöller was a German Lutheran pastor who came of age in the first part of the 20th Century and who, when it first came to power, supported Hitler's regime.

At that time, Niemöller was, in the words of one historian, a "typical Christian anti-semite who openly professed his belief that the Jews had been punished through the ages because they had 'brought the Christ of God to the cross.'"

Guardian person of the year: Voters choose Bradley Manning

Forget the Olympics, mummy porn, particle physics, elections galore and the bravery of a young Pakistani girl. The Guardian's 2012 person of the year vote has concluded and the winner, after some rather fishy voting patterns that belied earlier reader comments on the poll, is Bradley Manning, the US whistleblower on trial for leaking state secrets.

It was very much a game of two halves. The overwhelming majority of early votes in the three-day poll went to Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban for defending girls' right to education. Malala, who is still recovering from injuries sustained in October, had 70 percent of votes at the halfway stage with many readers predicting a foregone conclusion. "What that kid did really focussed the world on the evil that these men can do - and what evil all people can do when they feel inclined. But it also showed the courage to pull through and the will of others to not succumb to evil," wrote jamieTWC1.

But in the latter stages, following a series of tweets from the @Wikileaks twitter handle telling followers to vote Manning, thousands of voters flocked to his cause. Manning secured 70 percent of the vote, the vast majority of them coming after a series of @Wikileaks tweets. Project editor Mark Rice-Oxley said: "It was an interesting exercise that told us a lot about our readers, our heroes and the reasons that people vote."

Original Article
Source: guardian
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Rising aboriginal frustration palpable

OTTAWA -- As far as First Nations are concerned, it is fitting that Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Canada had approved the Chinese takeover of two Canadian oil companies from the room on Parliament Hill known as the Aboriginal People's Committee Room.

It was just another sign the natural resources First Nations should be benefiting from were being sold off under their noses without their input.

Devastation in wake of latest Israeli assault: Report back from Gaza

Eman El-Hawi, a smart and perky 24-year-old business student from Gaza got teary when she told our delegation about what she witnessed during the eight days that Israel pounded Gaza. “I saw the babies being brought into the hospital, some dead, some wounded. I couldn’t believe Israel was doing this again, just like four years ago. But at least this time,” she said with pride, "we struck back."

The fight was totally disproportionate. Israeli F-16s, drones and Apache helicopters unleashed their fury over this tiny strip of land, leaving 174 dead, over one thousand wounded, as well as homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and government buildings damaged and destroyed. On the Palestinian side, crude Qassam rockets left six Israelis dead and caused little damage. But for many Palestinians, it was a perverse kind of victory.

Conservative lawyer says voter suppression lawsuit is political 'payback'

OTTAWA — A left-of-centre advocacy group brought legal challenges against the election of six Conservative MPs was looking for “payback” and wanted to advance their “anti-Harper agenda” the MPs’ lawyer told the Federal Court Monday.

Lawyer Arthur Hamilton says the Council of Canadians is the true litigant behind the six legal challenges that claim the results were changed by misleading live and robocalls the applicants say they received in the last election.