Mainstream News

Egypt protests galvanized by video of police beating naked man

"Hamada Saber, a middle-aged man, remained in a police hospital on Saturday, the morning after he was shown on television, dragged over naked tarmac and beaten by half a dozen policemen who had pulled him to an armoured vehicle near the presidential palace. Another protester was shot dead on Friday and more than 100 were injured, many seriously, after running battles between police and demonstrators who attacked the palace with petrol bombs." Continue reading →

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Colonial flags fly in Hong Kong as anger grows over Chinese rule

"Sixteen years after Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, public discontent with Beijing is swelling and protesters have been rallying around an unexpected symbol — the British colonial flag. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets in recent months in marches against Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who took over from Donald Tsang last July after being elected by a 1,200-strong pro-Beijing committee. On several occasions the old blue flag, which incorporates the Union Flag, has been flown by protesters on the streets of what is becoming an increasingly divided Hong Kong, both embarrassing and infuriating Beijing." Continue reading →

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Chinese Hackers Could Face Aggressive Action From U.S. Over Cyber Attacks

"The Obama administration is considering more assertive action against Beijing to combat a persistent cyber-espionage campaign it believes Chinese hackers are waging against U.S. companies and government agencies. As The New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported that their computer systems had been infiltrated by China-based hackers, cybersecurity experts said the U.S. government is eyeing more pointed diplomatic and trade measures. The U.S. itself has been named in one of the most prominent cyberattacks — Stuxnet — the computer worm that infiltrated an Iranian nuclear facility, shutting down thousands of centrifuges there in 2010." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChinese Hackers Could Face Aggressive Action From U.S. Over Cyber Attacks

Strict Gun Laws in Chicago Can’t Stem Fatal Shots

"Not a single gun shop can be found in this city because they are outlawed. Despite a continuing legal fight, Illinois remains the only state in the nation with no provision to let private citizens carry guns in public. And yet Chicago, a city with no civilian gun ranges and bans on both assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, finds itself laboring to stem a flood of gun violence that contributed to more than 500 homicides last year and at least 40 killings already in 2013. Some 7,640 people currently hold a firearms permit, but nearly that many illicit weapons were confiscated from the city’s streets during last year alone." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStrict Gun Laws in Chicago Can’t Stem Fatal Shots

Grandmother sues city, police department over flash grenade incident

"A 68-year-old Evansville woman, who was at home with her granddaughter last June when police in SWAT gear tossed in flash grenades into her home and forced their way inside to serve a warrant, has filed a lawsuit against the city and the Evansville Police Department. After damaging the house, handcuffing the woman and her granddaughter and seizing their computers and a cellphone in a search for evidence about threatening Internet posts, it was later determined that someone remotely accessed the home’s wireless Internet connection and the Milans were not involved." Continue reading →

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Your employer may share your salary, and Equifax might sell that data

"The Equifax credit reporting agency, with the aid of thousands of human resource departments around the country, has assembled what may be the most powerful and thorough private database of Americans’ personal information ever created, containing 190 million employment and salary records covering more than one-third of U.S. adults. Some of the information in the little-known database, created through an Equifax-owned company called The Work Number, is sold to debt collectors, financial service companies and other entities." Continue reading →

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Two-thirds of French people agree with labour minister’s statement that country is ‘totally bankrupt’

"Michel Sapin made the gaffe in a radio interview, which left French President Francois Hollande and other ministers racing to undo the potential damage to the country's reputation as a solid economy for investors. It came as several high profile individuals, including the actor Gérard Depardieu, have left the country to avoid punitive taxes. Last week it transpired that Bernard Arnault, France's richest man, had transferred his entire fortune to Belgium, where he hopes to gain citizenship. France last balanced its budget in 1973. State spending accounts for almost 57 per cent of gross domestic product while public debt has now reached 91 per cent of GDP." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTwo-thirds of French people agree with labour minister’s statement that country is ‘totally bankrupt’

Retirement Savings Accounts Draw U.S. Consumer Bureau Attention

"The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is weighing whether it should take on a role in helping Americans manage the $19.4 trillion they have put into retirement savings, a move that would be the agency’s first foray into consumer investments. The bureau’s core concern is that many Americans, notably those from the retiring Baby Boom generation, may fall prey to financial scams. Americans held $19.4 trillion in retirement assets as of Sept. 30, 2012, according to the Investment Company Institute, an industry association; about $3.5 trillion of that was in 401(k) plans." Continue reading →

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Mister Taxman: Why Some Americans Working Abroad are Ditching Their Citizenships

"The U.S. is the world’s only industrialized nation that taxes citizens who live overseas, even if their income is generated in a foreign country and they never return to America. And while high-profile cases like that of Tina Turner or that of Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin catch public attention, the vast majority of expatriates affected by double taxation and increasingly draconian filing rules are middle-class or retired, or those who have never lived or worked in the United States at all, but were born to American parents overseas." Continue reading →

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Why sales is a hot new job

"In theory, people were all going to start doing their buying directly online. No need for legions of salesclerks. Instead, in some ways the Internet is expanding the need for salespeople – particularly those who sell scientific and technical products and services, which can be lucrative. In 2010, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports, these sales engineers earned a median annual salary of $87,390 (including base pay, bonuses, and commissions), making that the highest paid of all sales categories. In second place were sales reps in wholesale and manufacturing, specifically for technical and scientific products, who earned a median yearly income of $73,710." Continue reading →

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