The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International Airport just minutes before it was to take off for Paris on Saturday and arrested in the sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the authorities said.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was widely expected to become the Socialist candidate for the French presidency, was apprehended by detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the first class section of the jetliner, and immediately turned over to detectives from the Midtown South Precinct, which covers the part of Manhattan where the hotel is, officials said.
“He is in N.Y.P.D. custody, being questioned in connection with sexual assault of a hotel chambermaid earlier this afternoon,” Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department’s chief spokesman, said Saturday evening.
A spokeswoman for the office of the Manhattan district attorney said that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had not yet been, “formally charged,” in the case, and that he was not expected to be arraigned before a judge until later in the evening.
The apprehension came at about 4:40 p.m., when two detectives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey suddenly boarded Air France Flight 23, as the plane idled on the tarmac, said John P. L. Kelly, a spokesman for the agency.
“It was 10 minutes before its scheduled departure,” said Mr. Kelly. “They were just about to close the doors.” Mr. Kelly said Mr. Strauss-Kahn was traveling alone and was not handcuffed during the apprehension.
“He complied with the detectives’ directions,” Mr. Kelly said.
The Port Authority officers were acting on information from the Police Department, whose detectives had been investigating the assault of a female employee of the Sofitel New York, at 45 West 44th Street, in the heart of the theater district.
Mr. Strauss-Khan, a former French finance minister, had been expected to declare his candidacy soon after three and a half years as the leader of the fund, which is based in Washington, where he was considered by many to have done a good job in a very difficult period of global economic strain, when the bank itself has become vital to the smooth running of the world and the European economy.
His time at the bank was tarnished in 2008 by an affair with a Hungarian economist who was a subordinate there.
The fund decided to stand by him despite concluding that he had shown poor judgment in conducting the affair.
Mr. Strauss-Kahn issued an apology to employees at the bank and his wife, Anne Sinclair, an American-born French television journalist.
In his statement then, Mr. Strauss-Kahn said, “I am grateful that the board has confirmed that there was no abuse of authority on my part, but I accept that this incident represents a serious error of judgment.”
The economist, Piroska Nagy, left the fund as part of a buyout of nearly 600 employees instituted by Mr. Strauss-Kahn to cut costs.
In the New York case, Mr. Browne said that it was about 1 p.m. on Saturday when the chambermaid, a 32-year-old woman, entered to clean Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s room.
“He came out of the bathroom, fully naked and attempted to sexually assault her,” Mr. Browne said.
( Source: The New York Times )
One can use this detailed tutorial if you find an error saying “Another blog is already hosted at this address” while creating a Custom Domain Blogger, After redirecting DNS settings to google like CNAME, A and Host name
Some of you might have encountered “Another blog is already hosted at this address” ERROR while moving your blogspot domain to a custom domain. Just do the following simple steps to get rid off that error!
3. Click on Sites and you will find General and Web address mapping,
5. Now go to your Blogger Dashboard – Settings – Publishing – Custom Domain – then point your blogspot domain to the new custom domain!(Don’t forget to prefix www before your domain name).
6. You all set
Some of you might have encountered “Another blog is already hosted at this address” ERROR while moving your blogspot domain to a custom domain. Just do the following simple steps to get rid off that error!
1. Sign-in to Google Apps account
Sign-in URL – https://www.google.com/a/YOURDOMAIN.com/ or you will find a control panel link in an email when you purchased domain name or you can login in gmail.com with your admin id for example admin@yourdomain.com and your password.
Sign-in URL – https://www.google.com/a/YOURDOMAIN.com/ or you will find a control panel link in an email when you purchased domain name or you can login in gmail.com with your admin id for example admin@yourdomain.com and your password.
2. Now go to Settings last tab in the navigation bar and click on it, you will find a list of services from google like calendar, mail, chat,docs sites etc.. See above image.
3. Click on Sites and you will find General and Web address mapping,Click on Web address mapping See image:
4. You will see a web addresses and delete mapping option, select the web addresses and delete all. see image below
5. Now go to your Blogger Dashboard – Settings – Publishing – Custom Domain – then point your blogspot domain to the new custom domain!(Don’t forget to prefix www before your domain name).6. You all set
After the nuclear deal, India's next big engagement with the US is to rework its two-decade-old tax treaty. And the changes could impact the tax burden of residents - businesses and individuals - in both countries.
The Indo-US double taxation avoidance pact ensures that residents are not taxed twice on the same earnings - by the host country and the home country. The treaty was inked in 1990 after a decade of hard negotiations. Checks are in place to ensure that only genuine Indian and US residents enjoy the benefits of the treaty.
US residents have to report their income from all global sources, including dividend, interest and capital gains, and pay tax on their global income. Indian residents too have to pay tax on income earned overseas. The tax treaty allows residents of both countries to claim foreign tax credit if taxes have already been paid on their gains made in the host country.
The treaty has worked fairly well for over two decades. It has helped bolster capital flows along with transfer of technology and accelerated trade flows. US now ranks fourth after Mauritius, Singapore and Japan in FDI inflows. In the first 11 months of the last fiscal year, FDI from the US topped $1 billion, accounting for over 6% of the total inflows.
The US has also been sharing details on suspected Indian tax evaders, and that too with alacrity, based on specific requests from New Delhi. Clearly, the pact on exchange of information, a component of the tax treaty, has worked effectively.
So, is there really a need to rework the Indo-US tax pact? For India, there are compelling reasons to do so, especially if the government wants to nab tax evaders with assets in the US. The treaty should be strengthened to enable India to secure assistance in collection of dues of Indian tax cheats. The logic is simple: India cannot attach assets that Indian tax evaders may have acquired in the US. The sovereign right to seize these properties rests with the US. India, therefore, wants help in collection of taxes. The US, which has launched a war against tax evaders, may not be averse to the idea.
There are also concerns about entities such as hedge funds in the US routing their investments through Mauritius to escape taxes. But the problem can be tackled only if India reworks its tax treaty with Mauritius to plug its misuse.
India should ensure that it adopts the rules scripted by the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), or the rich countries' club, on exchange of information in the revised treaty with the US. The OECD rules say that a country cannot deny information to another country simply because it is held by a bank or a financial institution. Moreover, it has to share information on suspected tax evaders even if it does not have a domestic interest in the information. Unlike Switzerland, the US has no restriction on access to bank information. It has powers to obtain ownership, identity and accounting information on corporations. But it makes eminent sense to have the OECD rules in black and white in the revised treaty.
The crucial question is whether the review of the Indo-US tax treaty should be limited to exchange of information or should it be a comprehensive one? Ideally, a comprehensive review would be in order, considering that India plans to bring a new tax code next year.
If the US agrees on a comprehensive review, India should bargain for a better deal on fee for technical services. At present, the scope of taxation of technical services in the treaty with the US is severely limited as it is applicable only when technology is 'made available' to the recipient, says D P Sengupta, former joint secretary in the ministry of finance. This means if a US company renders technical services but does not impart technical knowledge to the Indian company, it is exempt from paying tax here. The government loses a significant amount of revenues due to this exemption. A review is, therefore, in order.
Some tax experts say the Indo-US treaty is one-sided. While US companies get a credit for underlying taxes paid by their subsidiaries in India, Indian companies do not get such credit. With increasing number of Indians setting up or acquiring businesses in the US, such a provision will help in minimising overall tax burden on multinationals, says Shefali Goradia, partner at BMR Advisors.
A comprehensive review may not be a cakewalk as US tax treaty negotiators are known to present their model tax treaty on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. In a paper on US income-tax treaties, William P Streng, Professor of Law at Houston Law University, says the model treaty is evidence that the US Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service may be serious about the US bilateral tax treaty network to resolve continuing cross-border tax disputes. Moreover, with the OECD reviewing many tax treaty concepts, bilateral tax treaties could see more refinements.
Transactions have become more complex in a globalised world and India should, therefore, push for more transparency in its tax treaties. The country should also use its software prowess to analyse information that flows into the tax network to master the art of tracking tax evaders.
As a rising superpower, India should renegotiate the tax treaty with the US from a position of strength. Reforms are also a must in the domestic tax law. A simple, clean and transparent tax system with low rates will ensure that India becomes an attractive investment destination for the US and other overseas investors.
--
"Average investors who try to do a lot of trading will only make their brokers rich."
Samir Kumar Shah.
9830405060
__._,_.___
Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a new topic
Messages in this topic (1)
Recent Activity:
New Members 7
Visit Your Group
Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use
.
__,_._,___
 |
| Coach Inc. |
Coach, the U.S. accessories brand, is planning to shift up to half of its manufacturing out of China to escape rising labour costs at the same time as it moves aggressively to expand its sales in the country.
Coach, the U.S. accessories brand, is planning to shift up to half of its manufacturing out of China to escape rising labour costs.
Lew Frankfort, Coach’s chief executive, said that over the next five years the company would cut its China production to 40-50 per cent of its total from 85 per cent at present by opening factories in lower-wage economies including India, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Coach’s plans point to the shift in China’s role from workshop of the world to consumer of first resort. Coach is aiming to make annual sales of $500 million in China within the next three years.
The move is also reminder that while China’s consumer class is expanding because incomes are rising, companies manfucturing goods in the country to meet that demand face the risk of narrower profit margins.
Mr Frankfort said: “We are subject to rapid wage increases in China among employees working in the manufacturing sector, which we support. We work with factories to offset high labour costs through improved efficiency and lean manufacturing.”
But he also said: “We are beginning to diversify production out of China into other Asian countries that are not enjoying that level of prosperity.” He was speaking at conference of the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American group in New York.
The Chinese government is trying to encourage a shift in the economy from being heavily export-led to depending more on domestic consumption. As part of that process, it has encouraged a substantial rise in wages in coastal manufacturing cities such as Shenzhen in the past year.
Li & Fung, a Hong Kong-based consumer goods sourcing and logistics company, said in March that wages had risen by 20 per cent in China this year, heralding “a new era in sourcing with higher prices”.
Coach’s sales in China doubled last year to $100 million and it is aiming to boost them to $500m by 2014 and secure a 10 per cent share of the luxury accessories market.
Coach has nine stores in Hong Kong, 44 in mainland China, and is planning to add 11 new outlets in this quarter.
“We are pacing our growth. We could profitably open twice or three times the number of stores we open each year,” Mr Frankfort said.
It is especially keen to tap into the market for men’s handbags – or “man bags”. Coach says men account for 45 per cent of spending on handbags and accessories in mainland China, whereas they make up only 25 per cent across Asia and 15 per cent globally.
( Source: Financial Times )
Medicare and Social Security, Two of the government's most popular programs for the elderly, will run out of money sooner than thought earlier as a slow-growing economy dent revenues, a report Friday said.
As per the details of the report Medicare Trust fund is projected to exhaust in 2024, earlier than 2029 as estimated last year and Social Security retirement program to exhaust in 2036,not 2037 as previously thought. So far, Social Security appears to be off the table in the budget talks. But Republicans in the House are pushing to overhaul the Medicare healthcare program for future retirees.Their proposal would give the elderly a federal subsidy to purchase medical coverage from private insurers.
On monday, the debate between Obama administration and Republican intensified about to keep running this two costly programs in the United states as there was already a mounting pressure of how to cut spending and decrease budget deficits to reduce debt that set to hit the legal limit of 14.3 trillion.
Ahead of the report's release, Representative Xavier Becerra, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Social Security, said he expected it to show that slow economic growth has hit everyone hard, including Social Security.
But he said program, which was providing benefits to nearly 60 million Americans at the end of last year, should not be brought into the current debate over the deficit.
"There is a growing consensus that Social Security has never contributed a penny to national debt and is not an appropriate target for deficit reduction," he said in an interview.
Republicans argue the change is needed because a recent analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the trust fund will be depleted in nine years.
Michelle Dimarob, spokeswoman for Republican Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, anticipated the trustees' report would show the recession putting a strain on the finances of both programs.
"We have got to demonstrate that we are serious about shoring up these entitlement programs," she said.
If agreement won't reach between two parties or US might not be able to manage fund raising for these programs , it might be an end of these two, Social Security and Medicare programs.
( Source: Reuters )
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc's battle with Alibaba Group intensified on Friday as they issued contradictory statements over the Chinese company's transfer of a major Internet asset to its chief executive.
 |
| Yahoo Inc |
Analysts said the handover of Alipay, an online e-commerce payment system similar to eBay Inc's PayPal, to Alibaba Chief Executive Jack Ma has reduced the value of Yahoo's 43 percent Alibaba stake. Alibaba also operates China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba.com Ltd.
Yahoo said it had been blindsided by the deal, while Alibaba countered that Yahoo was aware of the transaction by virtue of having a board seat, now held by former Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who is also a Yahoo director.
Shares of Yahoo have fallen as much as 14 percent since the company first disclosed the transfer in a regulatory filing after markets closed on Tuesday.
The feud underscores the tense relationship between Ma and Carol Bartz, Yahoo's chief executive since January 2009.
Bartz is under pressure to boost revenue and drive more visitors to Yahoo, which is losing ground to rivals including Google Inc and Facebook. The Alibaba stake is considered one of Yahoo's most valuable assets.
Both Bartz and Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock are in the "hot seat," said Eric Jackson, managing member of the hedge fund Ironfire Capital, which owns Yahoo stock.
"At best it makes it look like Yahoo -- Jerry Yang especially -- has been out of the loop," he said. "The Yahoo board has to be looking into the mirror and saying: 'What do we need to change to make this right?'"
In afternoon trading, Yahoo shares were down 61 cents, or 3.6 percent, at $16.56, after earlier falling as much as 7 percent to $15.96. They had closed Tuesday at $18.55.
BATTLE OVER BASICS
Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba in 2005, but Alibaba has made clear it wants to buy out Yahoo's stake.
"I just don't trust them," Ma told Forbes magazine in its April 11 edition.
Bartz told Reuters in September she has no plans to sell.
Some analysts estimate that Yahoo's Asian assets, including a 35 percent stake in Yahoo Japan Corp, represent at least half the Sunnyvale, California-based company's market value.
Yahoo and Alibaba do not agree on when Alipay was transferred to Ma, or whether Alibaba's board knew about it.
Alibaba said the board was told in July 2009 that the transfer had occurred. Yahoo said the transfer happened in August 2010, giving Ma full ownership of Alipay, and Yahoo did not learn of it until March 31, 2011.
Japan's Softbank Corp also owns a stake in Alibaba. Four directors make up Alibaba's board, including Yang and Softbank founder Masayoshi Son.
"I find it impossible to believe, as a rational matter, that a board member from Yahoo could sit through a proceeding whereby a valuable asset was transferred to the Alibaba CEO, and not object," said Manning Warren, a corporate law professor at the University of Louisville.
In a statement on Friday, Alibaba spokesman John Spelich said directors were "told in a July 2009 board meeting that majority shareholding in Alipay had been transferred into Chinese ownership."
According to Alibaba, the move was necessary to comply with Chinese law, to ensure Alipay could continue operating.
Later Friday, Yahoo stood by its earlier statement that the Alipay deal occurred "without the knowledge or approval of the Alibaba Group board of directors or shareholders."
Yahoo said it is in "active and constructive" talks with Alibaba and Softbank "to preserve the integrity" of its stake.
"It's surprising you can have that sort of communication lapse," said Ken Sena, an Evercore Partners analyst.
David Einhorn's hedge fund Greenlight Capital last week took a "significant" stake in Yahoo, saying its Alibaba interest could ultimately be worth more than Yahoo is now.
LEGAL RAMIFICATIONS
Warren said Yahoo might try to sue Ma under Delaware law, saying Ma would have to show that his acquisition of a major asset from his own company had been conducted fairly.
Meanwhile, if in fact Yahoo had been in position to stop the Alipay transfer, Yahoo itself might be sued, said Mark Rifkin, a partner at Wolf, Haldenstein, Adler, Freeman & Herz.
"It could even give rise to a Yahoo shareholder claim against Alibaba," given the 43 percent stake, he added.
Disputes such as this could dampen U.S. investors' enthusiasm for companies based in China, Ironfire's Jackson said. "I definitely think it can spook people," he said.
Paific Ethanol Inc ( NASDAQ: PEIX ), stock of the company was up 25% in the morning trade after reporting Q1 financial results as company's quarterly performance improved with net sales grew 143% from same quarter of 2010.
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. Reports First Quarter 2011 Financial Results:
Net Sales for the First Quarter of 2011 Grew 143% Over the Same Period of 2010
Total Gallons Sold for the First Quarter of 2011 Increased 44% Over the Same Period of 2010
Adjusted EBITDA for the First Quarter of 2011 Improved to $1.5 Million From a Loss of $6.4 Million in the Same Period of 2010
(GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Ethanol, Inc.(Nasdaq:PEIX), the leading marketer and producer of low-carbon renewable fuels in the Western United States, reported its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2011.
Neil Koehler, the company's president and CEO, stated: "In the first quarter of 2011, we built on the strong foundation established in 2010 as we narrowed our loss from $11.7 million in the first quarter of 2010 to near breakeven this quarter, despite a challenging margin environment. We increased total gallons sold for the seventh consecutive quarter, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate of 66 percent. In addition, our 60 million gallon Stockton facility contributed to our growth in total gallons sold and gross profit. We look forward to building on this momentum into the months ahead."
Financial Results for the Quarter Ended March 31, 2011
Net sales were $173.1 million for the first quarter of 2011, compared to $71.3 million for the first quarter of 2010. Total gallons sold were 84.6 million for the first quarter of 2011, an increase of 25.9 million gallons over the 58.7 million gallons sold in the first quarter of 2010. The increase in net sales was primarily driven by the continued strength in Kinergy's marketing business with a 22% increase in third party gallons sold and a 38% increase in average sales price per gallon. In addition, the first quarter 2011 results include the impact of the Stockton plant being in operation whereas it was idled during the first quarter of 2010.
Gross profit was $2.6 million for the first quarter of 2011, compared to a gross loss of $3.0 million in the first quarter of 2010. The increase in gross profit was attributable to an additional plant being in operation in the first quarter of 2011 versus the same period in 2010. Operating loss for the first quarter of 2011 improved to $1.6 million from $6.2 million for the same period in 2010.
During the first quarter of 2011, the company recorded a non-cash gain of $0.9 million for fair value adjustments on convertible notes and warrants, representing the company's quarterly fair value adjustments. The company anticipates it will continue to revalue the convertible notes and warrants on a quarterly basis for the remainder of 2011.
Net loss available to common stockholders for the first quarter of 2011 was $0.3 million, compared to a net loss of $11.7 million for the first quarter of 2010. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the fair value adjustments on convertible notes and warrants of $0.9 million, improved to $1.5 million for the first quarter of 2011 from a loss of $6.4 million in the first quarter of 2010.
The era of US economic dominance is rapidly coming to an end as an “American Gothic” age sets in and China becomes the new global leader, economic historian Niall Ferguson said.
Four primary factors—some caused by the financial crisis and others stemming from separate geopolitical issues—spell the final stages of the American age, Ferguson told attendees at the Skybridge Alternative Investment (SALT) conference here.
“The big story of your lifetime is that this period of Western predominance came to an end on your watch,” he said. “That happened because the developing part of the world is achieving the Industrial Revolution that the Americans experienced. This period is going to continue until China becomes the biggest economy in the world.”
For Ferguson, a professor of economics and history at Harvard, projections of economic gloom for America are hardly new.
He’s been critical of US debt and the profligate spending that has brought the nation to a budget deficit approaching $1.5 trillion.
He’s not the only one to predict that China is about to overtake the US on the global stage. But in a room full of hedge fund pros, the warnings weigh heavy for an industry just recovering from the financial crisis and the public black eye it sustained during the economic meltdown.
In his SALT presentation, Ferguson used slides to demonstrate a number of economic trends, not least among them the superiority of Chinese students particularly in math, and the nation’s tireless work ethic.
But it is a mix of what he called “Four Reasons to Feel American Gothic,” a message he punctuated with a slide of the famous Grant Wood painting, that pose the gravest threat to US hegemony.
The factors he cited:
The “mother of all Keynsian fiscal binges” in which the government spent nearly $1 trillion on stimulus from which there will be a “hangover” with only the timing at question. “Fiscal gaps this large are really hard to close by means of austerity,” he said. “If you don’t believe me, ask the Greeks, the Irish and the Portugese.”
A “massive monetary binge” in which the Federal Reserve ultimately will print money to the tune of nearly $3 trillion.
An ensuing spike in commodity prices, a process that has gone on virtually unabated since the beginning of Fed intervention and for which there has been a recent pullback. “It’s not just that people in the West get cheesed off and stop believing when the Fed says inflation is low,” he said. “It’s because high prices create geopolitical instability.”
China “is not the Soviet Union,” meaning the nation doesn’t have the same destabilizing economic conditions that brought down the former Communist republic.
In all, the obstacles posed against the US maintaining its global dominance will be too much to overcome, he said.
“The fiscal crisis of the United States is not going away. It is coming here soon,” Ferguson concluded. “The key decisions not just for the next four years but for the next 20 years will take place in Asia, not in the US. Welcome to the future.”
 |
| Osama Bin Laden |
Osama bin laden doesn't have a phone connection or internet connection in computer (That helped CIA analysts figure out there was something fishy about his home: why would a rich person living in an expensive compound not be connected to the internet?) in his compound, so he saved all emails in the flash drives and give it to a trusted person or courier who travel long to go to a cyber cafe where he can use an internet and sent all emails from the flash drives. Laden also received emails by reversed process.
The Navy SEAL team reportedly hauled away 100 flash memory drives after they killed bin Laden. The military has used those to apparently chronicle bin Laden’s dealings with contacts around the world. It isn’t clear if the flash drives were encrypted or not. But as the intelligence experts uncover the email addresses and other electronic details, they can query internet service providers via subpoenas. That could lead to exposure of more agents of Al-Qaeda. The cache of electronic documents is huge, and the AP says the U.S. has hired more Arabic translators to try to get through all of the data.
