News Stories

[willx]

Agreement Reached to avoid U.S. Fiscal Cliff

Highlights from The Associated Press files:
-Income tax rates: Extends decade-old tax cuts on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
-Estate tax: Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40 percent, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35 percent.
-Capital gains, dividends: Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15 percent to 20 percent.
-Alternative minimum tax: Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000. The tax was originally designed to ensure that the wealthy did not avoid owing taxes by using loopholes.
Highlights from The Associated Press files:
-Income tax rates: Extends decade-old tax cuts on incomes up to $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Earnings above those amounts would be taxed at a rate of 39.6 percent, up from the current 35 percent. Extends Clinton-era caps on itemized deductions and the phase-out of the personal exemption for individuals making more than $250,000 and couples earning more than $300,000.
-Estate tax: Estates would be taxed at a top rate of 40 percent, with the first $5 million in value exempted for individual estates and $10 million for family estates. In 2012, such estates were subject to a top rate of 35 percent.
-Capital gains, dividends: Taxes on capital gains and dividend income exceeding $400,000 for individuals and $450,000 for families would increase from 15 percent to 20 percent.
-Alternative minimum tax: Permanently addresses the alternative minimum tax and indexes it for inflation to prevent nearly 30 million middle- and upper-middle income taxpayers from being hit with higher tax bills averaging almost $3,000. The tax was originally designed to ensure that the wealthy did not avoid owing taxes by using loopholes.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/reports-...#ixzz2Gh0R9wLq

[MrTerrorist]

Sony stops production of PlayStation 2

I wonder how much they cost now?

[Ithekro]

Probably every household in Japan has one already.

[ganbaru]

About 60 crushed to death in Ivory Coast stadium stampede
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...90003Z20130101

Thousands march against Hong Kong's leader
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...90004420130101

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Thousands march against Hong Kong's leader
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...90004420130101

Food for thought : How about Hong Kong becoming an independent state?

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Food for thought : How about Hong Kong becoming an independent state?

How likely is mainland China to allow that to happen?


edit:Though this new anti Leung sentiment doesn't REALLY seem to be about him constructing a basement in his home that wasn't quite up to zoning snuff. It sounds like it's about his ties to communist China. Small things like this sound like they just work up to the perception of mistrust that hong Kong has to the mainland Chinese government.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

How likely is mainland China to allow that to happen?

Looks like we are going to have a really bloody Asia in the next half-century.

[Ithekro]

Speaking of Asia:

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...id=msnhp&pos=1

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers olive branch to South in rare address

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas, technically still at war in the absence of a peace treaty to end their 1950-53 conflict, in a surprise New Year speech broadcast on state media.

The address by Kim, who took over power in the state after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in 2011, appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year editorial published in leading state newspapers.

But North Korea has offered olive branches before and Kim's speech does not necessarily signify a change in tack from a country that vilifies the United States and U.S. ally South Korea at every chance it gets.

North Korea raised tensions in the region by launching a long-range rocket in December that it said was aimed at putting a scientific satellite in orbit, drawing international condemnation.

North Korea, which considers North and South as one country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is banned from testing missile or nuclear technology under U.N. sanctions imposed after its 2006 and 2009 nuclear weapons tests.

"An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south," Kim said in the address that appeared to be pre-recorded and was made at an undisclosed location.

"The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war," he said.

Economic reform?
Kim also called for improving living standards of his impoverished nation, with passages in his speech acknowledging the poor state of the country's economy that has long lagged behind the rest of the region.

But Kim gave no indication whether he plans to introduce economic reforms or allow free enterprise, except to say the economy should be underpinned by science and technology.

"The industrial revolution in the new century is, in essence, a scientific and technological revolution, and breaking through the cutting edge is a shortcut to the building of an economic giant," he said.

The speech avoided harsh criticism of the United States, its wartime enemy. North Korea has used past New Year's editorials to accuse the Washington of plotting war.

In other signs of changes in the country -- at least at a superficial level -- North Korea also had its first grand New Year's Eve celebration, with residents of the capital treated to the boom of cannons and fireworks at midnight.

In Pyongyang, residents danced in the snow at midnight Monday to celebrate the end of a big year for North Korea, including the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung and the first year of Kim Jong Un's leadership. Fireworks lit up the cold night sky, and people stood in fur-lined parkas, taking photos and laughing and dancing with each other in plazas.

High tensions with South remain
The New Year address was the first in 19 years by a North Korean leader after the death of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather. Kim Jong Il rarely spoke in public and disclosed his national policy agenda in editorials in state newspapers.

"(Kim's statement) apparently contains a message that he has an intention to dispel the current face-off (between the two Koreas), which could eventually be linked with the North's call for aid (from the South)," said Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea expert at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification.

"But such a move does not necessarily mean any substantive change in the North Korean regime's policy towards the South," he added.

The two Koreas have seen tensions rise to the highest level in decades after the North bombed a Southern island in 2010, killing two civilians and two soldiers.

The sinking of a South Korean navy ship earlier that year was blamed on the North but Pyongyang has denied it and accused Seoul of waging a smear campaign against its leadership.

Last month, South Korea elected as president Park Geun-hye, a conservative daughter of assassinated military ruler Park Chung-hee, whom Kim Il Sung had tried to kill at the height of their Cold War confrontation.

Park has vowed to pursue engagement with the North and called for dialogue to build confidence but has demanded that Pyongyang abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, something it is unlikely to do.

Conspicuously absent from Kim's speech was any mention of the nuclear arms program.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Speaking of Asia:

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2...id=msnhp&pos=1

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers olive branch to South in rare address

Common enemy : Japan?

[Ithekro]

Unless they can get South Korea away from their American friends, I don't see Japan as a "common enemy" working all that well. Especially with China starting to "loom" in the region.

[ganbaru]

Iran warns off foreign planes during naval drill: report
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...90004O20130101

[DonQuigleone]

It's possible that Kim Jong Un is finding leadership to not be all it cracked up to be. He might find unification with the south an attractive option so long as he can keep himself alive and well heeled.

Though, to be honest, it's pretty hard to know what they're thinking. But it's entirely possible that Jong Un is a lot less mad then his father. Once he has solidified his power (particularly over the military), he might take NK in unexpected directions.

[RRW]

The UK and other European countries must use the money saved by withdrawing from Afghanistan to re-equip their military and help reverse worrying cuts in defence spending, the American ambassador to Nato will warn on Tuesday.

Ivo Daalder said if Europe did not invest in new capabilities, its over-reliance on America would continue at a time when Washington had made the far east and China its new strategic priority.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/de...avings-defence

[Ithekro]

Originally Posted by DonQuigleone

It's possible that Kim Jong Un is finding leadership to not be all it cracked up to be. He might find unification with the south an attractive option so long as he can keep himself alive and well heeled.

Though, to be honest, it's pretty hard to know what they're thinking. But it's entirely possible that Jong Un is a lot less mad then his father. Once he has solidified his power (particularly over the military), he might take NK in unexpected directions.

Or he watched the opening for Homefront and decided to play along.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Common enemy : Japan?

Culture wars -- who can produce the best manga and girl pop idols?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Culture wars -- who can produce the best manga and girl pop idols?

Actually it would be fun to see that happen. Rather than an en-masse aiming of missiles and rhetoric at each other.

Japan might have the edge because they have loli idols, while SK has surgically altered ones. Of course, there will be people with no taste and no long term planning that go for bishoujos instead of lolis.

[Ridwan]

A friend of mine is developing this game.

[willx]

Originally Posted by Ridwan

A friend of mine is developing this game.

Reminds me of an updated and mythologically based "Saint Seiya" ..

The character design art is very pretty though!

[ganbaru]

How far can the Chinese firewall stretch?
http://blogs.reuters.com/stories-id-...ewall-stretch/

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

How far can the Chinese firewall stretch?
http://blogs.reuters.com/stories-id-...ewall-stretch/

Any computer engineer or technician, especially those wearing hats, would tell you two things :

1. Anything created by and for a computer is a system
2. All systems are breakable, none are invincible

Therefore, it is just not foolproof. Cisco must have been laughing their way to the bank for assisting the Chinese government in building the firewall.