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International
Friday, June 13, 2014
BUSINESS
EU takes on Apple, Starbucks tax breaks
Agence France-Presse
BRUSSELS - The European Union launched a probe Wednesday into sweetheart tax deals negotiated by Apple, Starbucks and Fiat with three member states. The investigation will attempt to determine whether such arrangements offered by Ireland, Netherlands and Luxembourg give the companies an unfair competitive advantage and thus amount to illegal state aid. “In the current context of tight public budgets, it is particularly important that large multinationals pay their fair share of taxes,” EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. Apple and Starbucks -- as well as a number of other multi-national companies including Amazon and Google -- have come under intense pressure from politicians and campaigners over their tax dealings. Critics and opponents say the deals allow the companies to move billions in earnings from higher-taxed countries to lower taxed ones, minimising their payments. The probes are far-ranging, including a deeper look into so-called “tax rulings”, where a company negotiates a tax arrangement before choosing where to domicile their activities. “We have reasons to believe that in these specific cases the national authorities have renounced to tax part of these profits,” Almunia said. The investigation will also focus on the use of transfer pricing, an accounting technique where units of a multinational pay ‘royalties’ to another unit of their business. The mechanism -- made possible by care-
fully crafted tax laws in Ireland, Netherland and Luxembourg -- allow operations in higher-taxed countries to post losses, meaning they do not have to pay any tax, while profits are moved elsewhere. Almunia said the various arrangements under scrutiny could amount to illegal state aid that discriminated against other member states. “Under the EU’s state aid rules, national authorities cannot take measures allowing certain companies to pay less tax than they should if the tax rules of the Member State were applied in a fair and non-discriminatory way,” Almunia said. California iPad maker Apple has shifted billions in international earnings through Ireland using such loopholes but Dublin insisted it had not breached EU rules. “Ireland is confident that there is no state aid rule breach in this case and we will defend all aspects vigorously,” a government spokesman said. The probe is a sensitive one for Ireland, which has faced widespread criticism for providing loopholes and benefits to corporations, such as Apple and Amazon, looking to save on tax. With a political storm brewing, Ireland last year closed a loophole used by Apple, but Dublin still firmly defends its low 12.5 percent corporate tax rate.
US records $130 billion budget deficit in May Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The U.S. government’s monthly budget returned to deficit in May after a big April surplus. But the overall imbalance so far is far smaller than it was the same period last year, putting the country on track for the lowest annual deficit in six years. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the May deficit totaled $130 billion after a surplus of $106.9 billion in April, a month when the government usually runs surpluses because of a flood of tax revenues. For the first eight months of this budget year, the deficit totals $436.4 billion, down 30 percent from $626.3 billion for the same period in 2013. It was the smallest imbalance since 2008. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a deficit of $492 billion for the full budget year ending Sept. 30. The government has run a deficit in May, a month when there are no major tax payments, for 59 out of the past 60 years. This year’s May deficit was
slightly lower than the $138.7 billion deficit in May 2013. The improvement this year reflects a stronger economy and labor market, which translates into more income and higher tax revenues. The government has also trimmed spending to gain control of soaring deficits in recent years. Revenues this year totaled $1.93 trillion through May, up 7.5 percent from the same period a year ago. Government spending over this period totaled $2.37 trillion, a drop of 2.3 percent from a year ago. In 2008, the government recorded a deficit of $458.6 billion, which was the record high at the time. But that record was soon eclipsed as the government ran annual deficits surpassing $1 trillion for the next four years. Those deficits reflected a deep recession, which reduced tax revenue, and higher government spending to stabilize the financial system and pay benefits to people who had lost jobs. After peaking at $1.4 trillion in 2009, the deficit has been falling. It dropped to $680.2 billion last year.
British unemployment hits five-year low Agence France-Presse
LONDON - Britain’s unemployment has fallen to 6.6 percent, the lowest rate for more than five years, according to official data on Wednesday that also revealed however a drop in wages growth. Unemployment in the FebruaryApril quarter dropped from a rate of 6.8 percent during the three months to the end of March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement. That had also been a five-year low. At 6.6 percent, the rate was at its lowest level since December 2008. The number of unemployed has meanwhile dropped to 2.16 million people, the ONS added on Wednesday. “Despite all this good news on jobs, pay growth in the UK economy has slumped. Average weekly earnings excluding bonuses rose year-on-year in the three months to April 2014 by just 0.9 percent,” noted Rob Harbron, senior econo-
mist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Analysts said the drop in wages growth would lessen the pressure on the Bank of England to begin raising its main interest rate, which has stood at a record-low 0.50 percent for more than five years. “While the unemployment rate is continuing to fall, there is still enough slack in the jobs market to prevent wage growth from picking up,” said Samuel Tombs, at consultants Capital Economics.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File
In this May 16, 2014 file photo, shoppers walk past a now hiring sign at a Ross store in North Miami Beach, Fla. Different situation happen in Britain. Britain’s unemployment has fallen to 6.6 percent, the lowest rate for more than five years, according to official data on Wednesday that also revealed however a drop in wages growth.
Bali News
International
Bali Post
Friday, June 13, 2014
Pigs and cattle can also suffer rabies
DENPASAR - Some time ago, a pig breeder from Asah Teben hamlet, Datah, Karangasem, complained that his pig died and was suspected of being infected by rabies. When asked for his confirmation on this issue, the Head of Bali Health Agency, Ketut Suarjaya, admitted there had been no reports on the rabies transmission to pigs at the location mentioned. “It should be explored first whether it was really attacked by dog and whether the dog attacking was positive to rabies,” he said when contacted. Nevertheless, according to a researcher from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Udayana University, Prof. Dr. I Gusti Ngurah Mahardika, in Bali other than dogs, rabies had also been found to infect cattle and pigs. “So, if there was really a pig that died of rabies in Karangasem, it was not the first case,” he said. He explained that rabies was a virus that could live in warm-blooded animals. The disease attacking the brain also included in the disease that spread from animals to humans.
The popular rabies-carrier animal (HPR) was dog. In addition to dog, the other rabies-carrier animal included cat, monkey, rat and bat. However, other mammals such as cattle and pigs also potentially get infected by rabies. According to Mahardika, although infected by rabies, the potential of cattle and pigs to transmit rabies to environment or humans was very small because both animals did not bite. “When the virus is reaching the brain, the rabies characteristics are all the
same, ranging from being fierce and liking darkness. The difference is that the cattle and pigs are not biting, but plowing and goring so they have no potential to transmit,” said Mahardika. In principle, he continued, the transmission of rabies virus was the presence of infection and injury. The potential of rabies transmission in cattle and pigs occurred through the consumption of their raw meat, especially for meat in the head. “Rabies virus usually accumulates in the cerebral tissue and saliva,
so the meat in the head contains a lot of this virus,” he said. On that account, he added, it was not advisable for people to process the meat of animal positively infected by rabies, although the transmission potential was small. Infection in animal, he said, was the most feared thing when transmitting to mice and monkeys. But so far, the cases of rabies in monkeys and rats had not been found. “From an ecological perspective, the monkey has a natural instinct to avoid dog denoting a popular rabies-carrier animal. Meanwhile, ecologically mice are rarely associating directly with dogs,” he said. Regarding the possibility of Bali to be free from rabies, according to Mahardika, would remain stagnant and would not be free from rabies
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if people did not participate fully. “If only depends on the vaccination and elimination by the government, the rabies-free Bali will be difficult to achieve,” he said. According to him, the most important step in dealing with rabies was done by each village. Each village had to impose dog maintenance procedures. All the dogs brought in and out of the village had to be recorded and monitored by veterinarian. Similarly, the dogs raised should also be vaccinated properly and there should be punishment for villagers negligent in maintaining their dog declared positive to rabies and bit other people. “When the community has full participation in the effort, it is believed the Rabiesfree Bali will be quickly achieved,” he said. (kmb24)
Bitter gourd to crunchy anchovy
IBP
Challenging food can encourage appetite, spirit and even togetherness. In megibung (shared meals) tradition, it is started by bitter flavor like that of star fruit leaf vegetable. Next, it is followed by other nicer flavor. Meanwhile, this delicacy attempts to present similar flavor with grated coconut spice. It combines distinctiveness of bitter gourd, fried peanut and small crispy fried or grilled anchovy being familiar seafood with Balinese life. As religious community, the Balinese also present this food for elements of their oblation. Some people also called it Bitter melon. It looks like a cucumber but with ugly gourd-like bumps all over it. As the name implies, this vegetable is a melon that is bitter. There are two varieties of this vegetable: One grows to about 20 cm long, is oblong and pale green in color. The other is the smaller variety, less than 10 cm long, oval and has a darker green color. Both varieties have seeds that are white when unripe and that turn red when they are ripe. The vegetable-fruit turn reddish-orange when ripe and becomes even more bitter. is generally consumed cooked in the green or early yellowing stage. The young shoots and leaves of the bitter melon may also be eaten as greens. Bitter gourds are very low in calories but dense with precious nutrients. It is an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and has high dietary fiber. It is rich in iron, contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, and twice the potassium of a banana. Bitter melon contains a unique phyto-constituent that has been confirmed to have a hypoglycemic effect called charantin. There is also another insulin-like compound known as polypeptide P which have been suggested as insulin replacement in some diabetic patients.
IBP/File Photo