Closing Tax Loopholes Not Enough to Avert 'Cliff'?

Closing "corporate tax loopholes" sure sounds good to the average, non-corporate American -- so good, in fact, that politicians talk about it all the time.House Speaker John Boehner's fiscal-cliff proposal purports to raise $1.6 trillion in revenue by "clos[ing] special-interest loopholes and deductions while lowering rates."The White House, meanwhile, has complained that Boehner...

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IMF loan to Egypt delayed amid political turmoil

CAIRO (Reuters) - A vital $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan to Egypt will be delayed until next month, its finance minister said on Tuesday, intensifying the political crisis gripping the Arab world's most populous nation. As rival factions gathered in Cairo for a new round of demonstrations, Finance Minister Mumtaz al-Said said the delay in the loan agreement was intended...

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SAF serviceman injured onboard ship berthed at Changi Naval Base

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular serviceman has been critically injured while onboard the Landing Ships Tank RSS Endeavour, which is berthed at Changi Naval Base.29-year-old ME2 Chee Weng Fai Jason, a Weapon Systems Supervisor, was checking on a berthing rope that was being tightened on Monday afternoon when he got caught between a motorised winch and the rope, said the...

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BlackBerry 10 won't be PlayBook redux. Here's why

The PlayBook was a flop, but that doesn't mean BlackBerry 10 has to be one too.(Credit:James Martin/CNET)commentary Research in Motion's BlackBerry 10 is no PlayBook, and that's a good thing. There's concern that RIM's next-generation smartphone operating system may fall flat on its launch, are drawing comparisons to the company's critically lambastedtablet as an example. AllThingsD, citing an analyst...

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N. Korea extends rocket launch window a week

SEOUL, South Korea North Korea on Monday extended the launch period for a controversial long-range rocket by another week, until Dec. 29, citing technical problems. An unidentified spokesman for the North's Korean Committee of Space Technology told state media scientists found a "technical deficiency in the first-stage control engine module of the rocket." The statement didn't elaborate, but said...

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Royal Hoax: DJs 'Shattered' After Nurse's Suicide

The two Australian radio DJs who prank-called the London hospital where Kate Middleton was being treated last week said they were "shattered" and "gutted" after the nurse who answered their call apparently killed herself.Shock jocks Mel Greig, 30, and Michael Christian, 25, cried as they spoke to Australia's Channel 9 overnight in their first public interview since Jacintha...

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Egypt army gets temporary power to arrest civilians

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's government has temporarily given the military the authority to arrest civilians to help safeguard a constitutional referendum planned for Saturday, the official gazette said. The order, gazetted late on Sunday, said the military would support police and liaise with them to protect "vital institutions" until the referendum result is declared. The...

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Frankfurt airport axes 150 flights after snowfall

FRANKFURT: Frankfurt airport cancelled 150 incoming and outgoing flights on Sunday because of snowfall and warned that more cancellations could be expected.Intercontinental, domestic and European flights were all affected at the airport, Europe's third-busiest, and the conditions would delay other flights, a spokesman said.A total of 1,250 flights had been scheduled for Sunday at what...

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Square launches gift cards

Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco in September.(Credit:Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Square, a leader in mobile payments, today launched a gift card service tied to its Square Wallet program and that could be aimed at attracting some would-be Apple Passbook users.The new service appears designed to let anyone purchase a gift card for friends or family at any of the...

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Authors exercise their "write" to self-publish

(CBS News) Even John Lennon - a Beatle - needed a publisher for his first book, "In His Own Write," back in 1964. Today authors nobody ever heard of can publish their OWN work all by themselves . . . IN THEIR OWN WRITE, as it were. Our Cover Story is reported now by Rita Braver: Richard Paul Evans went from a 700-square-foot Salt Lake City house to a much larger one, all because of a little tale...

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