New tax rules will slow, not halt, inversion deals

The White House has announced a crackdown on tax avoidance deals known as inversions. The practice involves a US firm merging with a firm in a country with a lower tax rate and has become popular over recent years. But Obama said new treasury department measures would make inversions less attractive. Those include making it more difficult for an inverted company to access money made outside the US. One way inverted companies do that is by making loans between foreign units and the US business. The benefits of so called hopscotch loans will be removed, according to today's announcement from the US Department of the Treasury. The treasury department is also strengthening the requirement that the US owners of the new inverted firm have to own less than 80% of the new entity. It says that will mean some inversion deals "no longer make economic sense".

New Jersey court rules GPS tracking unconstitutional

A divided New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday ruled that requiring a sex offender to wear a GPS tracking device after he has completed his sentence violates the federal and state constitutions. The 2007 Sex Offender Monitoring Act (SOMA) requires the states highest-risk sex offenders to wear GPS monitoring constantly. However, because plaintiffs offense was completed before SOMA's enactment, the court ruled it would violate the ex post facto clauses of the US Constitution and the New Jersey Constitution. Delivering the opinion of the court, Justice Albin stated: "A well-established principle of ancient origin is that the legislature cannot increase the punishment for a crime after it has been committed."

Vatican arrests ex-envoy over abuse

The Vatican has placed its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Jozef Wesolowski, under house arrest on charges of sexually abusing children. The former archbishop was defrocked in June after a Church tribunal found him guilty of abusing Dominican boys. He will now be tried by a Vatican criminal court, becoming its highest official to face abuse charges there. Wesolowski, who is originally from Poland, served as a papal envoy to the Dominican Republic for five years.

Brazil refuses to join pledge to end deforestation

Brazil has refused to sign up to a pact setting a deadline for ending deforestation entirely by 2030. The US, Canada and European Union nations were among 30 states that agreed to halve forest loss by 2020 and work towards a 2030 goal. But Brazil, which owns the largest continuous rainforest on the planet, refused to sign because it could contravene national law, which allow for managed felling. The Brazilian environment minister, Isabella Teixeira said, "unfortunately, we were not consulted."

Air France abandoning Transavia plans

Air France has dropped plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline, the government has said, following a week-long strike by its pilots. Alain Vidalies, transport secretary, said that "the Transavia Europe project has been abandoned by management". The dispute was over local employment terms, which can be less generous at European hubs than at core Air France operations.

Federal prison population drops

The federal prison population is projected to fall by more than 12,000 inmates over the next two years, as policies that reduce sentences for nonviolent offenders spur the first such drop since 1980. The projected decline comes on top of a 4,800-inmate reduction in the prison population during the 12-month period that ends Sept. 30. That would leave about 215,000 inmates in US federal prisons. Throughout his six years in office, AG Eric Holder has made it a priority to reduce what he views as overlong prison sentences and an unnecessarily high incarceration rate.

Israeli court orders shut down of detention center for African migrants

The Israeli High Court of Justice on Monday ordered a detention center used to detain African migrants who had crossed illegally and were captured in the Negev Desert to close. The decision annulled the government's Law for the Prevention of Infiltration which permitted the state to detain undocumented immigrants for up to one year in "open" detention centers that could only be locked at night, and further required undocumented immigrants detained at the center to register three times per day and prohibited them from seeking employment.

Bin Laden son-in-law jailed for life

Osama Bin Laden's son-in-law, who was an al-Qaeda spokesman, is sentenced to life in prison for terrorism-related charges in New York.

Spain scraps tighter abortion law

Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy drops plans to limit abortion to cases of rape or where the mother's health is at serious risk. The proposals had drawn widespread opposition and prompted dissent in Rajoy's Popular Party, despite being part of its election program in 2011. The government will instead seek to stop 16 and 17-year-olds having an abortion without parental consent.

Even when abortion is illegal, the market may sell pills for abortion

An ulcer drug is dramatically changing the face of back-alley abortions in developing countries and cutting the rate of maternal deaths. Misoprostol is widely available even where abortion is banned. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration approved misoprostol for abortions in the US, but only in conjunction with another drug called mifepristone. The combination has come to be known as the "abortion pill." It's also become the most common form of medication abortion in the US, Canada, China, India and much of Europe. Misoprostol has the advantage of being widely available even in places where abortion in a medical facility is not. It's also made the legality of abortion less of an issue. Even in El Salvador, forensic investigators who gather evidence against women in abortion cases say they can't detect whether or not the woman used misoprostol to terminate her pregnancy.

Ukraine rebels declare early vote

Rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine say they will hold elections on 2 November, in an apparent show of defiance towards the government in Kiev. Ukraine's parliament passed a bill last week granting three-year "self-rule" to parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, with elections on 7 December - a decision condemned by some MPs as "capitulation". In an apparent rejection of the terms of the "special status" law offered by the Kiev parliament, the leaders of the self-declared people's republics of Luhansk and Donetsk said on Tuesday that they would set a preliminary date five weeks earlier, on 2 November. They both aim to elect a Supreme Soviet (parliament) and their own leaders.

Google must improve search settlement or face charges, EU's Almunia says

Google must improve its proposal to settle European Union concerns over its search practices or face formal antitrust charges, the bloc's competition chief said, even as he rejected calls to break up the US search giant. In a sometimes-heated exchange with European Parliament lawmakers, Joaquín Almunia defended his agency's handling of its investigation of Google, which has yet to yield results after almost four years and three attempted settlements. A hard-fought deal announced in February, initially backed by Almunia, collapsed this month following a wave of criticism from senior European politicians and powerful publishing houses. The commissioner has admitted that a final decision on the case will now fall to his successor, former Danish economy minister Margrethe Vestager, who will assume the post in November, when the current commission's five-year term ends.

Imperial labels Labour tobacco tax proposal 'unjust'

One of Britain's largest cigarette companies has labelled Ed Miliband's plans for a new tax on tobacco as "unjust and just a bad idea". Imperial Tobacco, whose brands include Golden Virginia and Lambert and Butler, said the policy would drive consumers "into the hands of criminals" offering cheaper products. Labour said the proposed tax would raise £150 million a year for the NHS. The announcement comes at a time of rising profits for tobacco firms.

France court rules UBS must deposit guarantee of 1.1 billion euro in tax probe

A French appeals court ruled Monday that Swiss bank UBS must deposit a guarantee of 1.1 billion euro in an investigation of charges for aiding in tax evasion for wealthy French customers. In July UBS was put under formal investigation for allegations of laundering the proceeds of tax evasion. French judges requested the payment amount on grounds that it reflects the size of the fine UBS could pay if found guilty. The bank appealed in July and had already paid a guarantee of 2.875 million euro. UBS considers the legal basis and sum calculation to be "deeply flawed."

Cross-border swap dispute risks trade war, CFTC says

US and European regulators risk a permanent breakdown in financial markets if they can't end a dispute over transatlantic oversight of the $700 trillion swaps industry, Commodity Futures Trading Commission said. The US agency should retract some of its overseas policies to boost coordination with Europe and prevent a trade war that would imperil economic growth. The CFTC and European Union regulators have struggled to align swap-trading rules after the 2008 credit crisis, when largely unregulated trades helped fuel the meltdown. Regulators sought new rules to reduce risk and increase transparency by having better data on the market and by requiring most swaps to be guaranteed at central clearinghouses and traded on exchanges.

German prosecutors charge Deutsche Bank executives

Jürgen Fitschen ?and several former leaders of the bank have been accused of colluding to give false testimony in a long-running lawsuit over the collapse of a bank client's media empire?.

Facebook and OkCupid's psychological studies were illegal

"What Facebook and OkCupid did wasn't just unethical. It was illegal." So says James Grimmelmann, a law professor at the University of Maryland who's taking aim at the social media sites for conducting psychological research on its users without properly informing them. Now Grimmelmann is calling on Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler to force Facebook and OkCupid to stop conducting tests on Maryland residents. Facebook created a firestorm earlier this year when it acknowledged it had published a scientific paper on mood manipulation based on a secret experiment it did with some users' newsfeeds. The experiment, conducted in 2012, hid emotionally charged content from nearly 700,000 English-speaking users' newsfeeds to try to learn whether emotions were contagious on the network. Turns out they are; "sadder" newsfeeds made people more likely to post sad things, and "happier" newsfeeds made people more likely to post happy things.

• Daily Press Review

Obama vows more strikes on ISIL in Syria
Al Jazeera, Doha, Qatar

British parliamentary candidate suspended for anti-Israel tweets
Haaretz, Liberal daily, Tel Aviv, Israel

Jihadist fight 'may take years' - US
BBC News, Centrist newscaster, London, England

My son was 'gasping for breath'
CNN International, London, England

Stephanie Pratt puts humiliating 'betrayal' by George Gilbey behind her
Daily Mail, Conservative daily, London, England

Roy 'Chubby' Brown given GBP 50 parking fine as he presents GBP 5k donation to hospital
Daily Mail, Conservative daily, London, England

French court rules in favour of adoptions rights for lesbians
EuroNews, International news, Ecully Cedex, France

UN summit pledges $2.3 billion for nations at risk from climate change
France 24, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France

Ankara on alert as 200,000 Kurds arrive
Hurriyet Daily News, (Liberal, English-language), Istanbul, Turkey

Postcard from... Berlin
Independent The, London, England

How not all of Barack Obama's climate change 'facts' in UN speech stack up
Telegraph The, Conservative daily, London, England

Rosamund Pike denies that David Fincher sent a private jet for her
Telegraph The, Celebrity news, London, England

Ukraine's uphill battle against graft as election looms
China Post, English-language daily, Taipei, Taiwan

Park Tae-hwan Disappoints in Men's 400-m Freestyle
Chosun Ilbo, Conservative daily, Seoul, South Korea

Ebola cases to explode without drastic action WHO
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, India

Sardar Patel University professor booked for sexual harassment
India Times, Conservative daily, New Delhi, India

Republicans use terror threat against Dems
New Zealand Herald, Conservative daily, Auckland, New Zealand

Ukraine President cancels trip over protests in eastern Ukraine
Straits Times, Pro-government, Singapore

Miss America's ugly secret
Sydney Morning Herald, Centrist daily, Sydney, Australia

NYC mayor steps onto bigger political stages
Taiwan News, English-language daily, Taipei, Taiwan

Republicans use terror threat against Democrats
The Economic Times, Business, Mumbai, India

Obama's UN speech expected to touch on ISIS, Ebola, Ukraine
Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario

U.S., China vow climate action, Canada seeks 'fair' deal
Globe and Mail The, Centrist daily, Toronto, Canada

Liberty Reserve Brought Down By 'Joe Bogus': How The Feds Arrested Arthur Budovsky
International Business Times, Business news organization, New York, U.S

Climate Change an 'Existential Threat' for the Caribbean
IPS Latin America, International cooperative of journalists, Rome, Italy

Air France abandons Transavia Europe plans: minister
Reuters, Business News, New York, U.S

Air strikes in Syria hit Islamic State-held areas near Turkey border - monitor
Reuters, World News, New York, U.S

Tory defends lead against Ford
Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario

Ebola death rates 70% - WHO study
BBC News, Centrist newscaster, London, England
____

How are we doing?

We would like to hear from you how we perform. What you like and what we should change or add… Send us an email; we aim to please!

Tell your friends and associates…

to subscribe to Migalhas International! www.migalhas.com

Express yourself

Want to share your opinion, your experience, your questions? You are welcome to do so. This forum is yours. Please contact the editor: [email protected]

Events

We welcome information about your events or conferences to come. Please contact the editor.

Sponsors

Become a sponsor. Spread your name in the business and legal spheres around the world in Migalhas International.

Subscription

To subscribe:  Register your name and your address at https://www.migalhas.com

To unsubscribe:  Send your name and e-mail address to in the subject line.  We will remove your name soonest.

Address changes:  If you want to continue to receive Migalhas International, please make sure we have your current e-mail address.

Contact

Michael Ghilissen, editor:[email protected]

Miguel Matos, publisher: [email protected]

Please feel free to send your comments, questions and suggestions to the editor.

Your comments

We always welcome information, articles, testimonials, opinions and comments about something you've read in Migalhas International. Please forward your contributions to the editor.

Confidentiality

When you add your name to Migalhas International, you can be sure that it's confidential. We do not share, trade, rent or sell this list.  Our "privacy policy" contains no fine print.  No one gets our list.  Period.  Your e-mail address is safe with us.

Sharing Migalhas International

If you'd like to share this Migalhas International with friends and colleagues, feel free to forward this issue including the copyright notice.  Or, invite them to subscribe so they receive their own Migalhas International every week. 

Sources

The content of the Migalhas International newsletter is edited for purposes of news reporting, comments and education from several sources, including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The London Times, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine, The Financial Times, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Google News, International Herald Tribune, Paper Chase (jurist.law.pitt.edu), The World Press Review: https://www.worldpress.org, Forbes, Fortune, Time, Newsweek, Harvard Business Review, American Bar Association, American Lawyer Media, FindLaw.com, The National Law Journal, Reuters, Associated Press, Internet Business Law Services, Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado do S. Paulo, Lexis Nexis, West Law, CNN, The Globe and Mail, The Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia and more.

Fair use notice

This newsletter contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of legal, environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material in this newsletter is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. 

The messages that appear in this newsletter are for informational purposes only. They are not intended to be and should not be considered legal advice nor substitute for obtaining legal advice from competent, independent, legal counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.

Transmission of this information is not intended to create, and receipt does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. The information contained on this list may or may not reflect the most current legal developments.

www.migalhas.com

Copyright 2014 - Migalhas International