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US and China agree cybercrime truce
Obama and Xi have said they will take new steps to address cybercrime. Speaking at a joint news conference at the White House, Obama said they had agreed that neither country would engage in cyber economic espionage. The deal covers the theft of trade secrets but not national security information. Xi also pledged to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Obama said any escalation in China's alleged cybercrimes against the US would prompt sanctions. "It has to stop," he said. "The question is now, are words followed by action? I hope Xi shows China isn't sponsoring cybercrime.”
China pledges $2bn for developing world
Jinping has pledged to establish a $2bn fund to assist developing countries and to significantly increase investment. Addressing a UN summit on development goals, Xi said investment would reach $12bn over the next 15 years. He also said China would cancel debts to the world's least developed nations, including small island nations.
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VW warned over test cheating years ago
A Volkswagen engineer warned the company about cheating over its emission tests as early 2011. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung says the warning emerged during VW's current investigation into the scandal. Separately, Bild am Sonntag said the internal inquiry had found that parts supplier Bosch had warned Volkswagen not to use its software illegally. Citing unidentified sources, Bild said Bosch had warned Volkswagen as early as 2007 that its software should only be used in company tests and not for normal driving. Last week VW's chief executive Martin Winterkorn was forced out over the scandal and replaced by Matthias Mueller, the former head of Porsche. The company is facing potentially huge financial penalties in the United States, not to mention possible prosecutions and an avalanche of class action lawsuits. Enquiries are also taking place in several other countries. It's not yet clear whether the scandal will spread even wider. Financially the consequences are unlikely to be very pretty. VW has already set aside €6.5bn to cover the costs of recalls, and pay for efforts to rebuild the brand. For a company which made a net profit of €10.8bn last year, that is not an insurmountable figure. However, the real total may end up being considerably higher.
Gates Foundation sues Petrobras
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sued the Brazilian state-owned oil company, Petrobras for investment losses due to corruption. The charity accuses Petrobras of misrepresenting its operations and financial situation to raise billions of dollars. Prosecutors in Brazil are investigating Petrobras executives for involvement in a massive kickback scheme. Petrobras has argued the scandal does not involve the company as a whole. It has said the scandal was caused by contractors, corrupt politicians and a few employees and should not tarnish the company. The Foundation said its portfolio managers had questioned Petrobras executives about its financial data, but were misled in a "series of materially false and misleading written and oral statements and/or omissions by Petrobras." The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also suing Petrobras's auditors, a local affiliate of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which it says played a key role in attesting to Petrobras financial statements.
US Speaker John Boehner to quit Congress
US House Speaker John Boehner will resign from his leadership position and give up his seat at the end of October. He made the decision while praying on Friday morning - a day after hosting Pope Francis at Congress. Fighting back tears, the 65-year-old said at a news conference that "turmoil" over his leadership would do lasting damage to the House. Boehner has been under pressure from the conservative wing of his party ever since he took the job in 2011. He suggested a private moment with the pontiff was partly behind the decision.
Throwing the Book, Several Tons of It, at Brazil's Tax Code
On a continent known for its voluminous tax codes, Brazil stands out, ranking ahead of nations like Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay among contenders for the world's most time-consuming tax regime. Fed up with the gargantuan bureaucracy that requires Brazilians to photocopy, notarize, authenticate and stamp a superabundance of documents related to their life, Vinicios Leoncio is taking aim at a central element of Brazil's red tape: the tax code. Embarking decades ago on a lonely crusade, he began documenting the absurdities of Brazil's methods of collecting taxes. The product of his drudgery might qualify as a conceptual art piece if it were not such an accurate reflection of the anxiety many Brazilians experience when paying their taxes. Measuring 6 feet 10 inches tall, weighing several tons and spanning 41,200 printed pages; his book documenting Brazil's tax rules stands as a testament to a system that seems to have gone berserk. He revels in dissecting what he calls a senseless way of financing government, contending that a convoluted tax bureaucracy limits Brazil's maneuvering room to deal with a simmering economic crisis. "Paying taxes should be a patriotic act, but instead it breeds evasion, corruption and anguish," Leoncio said.
Prosecutors take law to human smugglers, using tools sharpened against mafia
Human smugglers prey on the desperation of people who flee war and oppression. They've made millions moving people across borders, without regard to safety. Thousands have died, locked in packed trucks or trapped in sinking ships. Italian prosecutors are now trying to track and arrest smugglers, arguing that organized criminal gangs who run these smuggling rings are mobsters, and should be prosecuted like the Mafia. Using survivor testimony and wiretaps, six alleged traffickers are now on trial in connection with a shipwreck, in which more than 300 asylum-seekers drowned. An elite prosecution team in Italy, which is known for prosecuting the drug-dealing dons of the Cosa Nostra, has turned its attention to human smugglers.
France launches air strikes in Syria
France has carried out its first air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria. French planes destroyed a training camp in the eastern town of Deir al-Zour A US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq for more than a year. Speaking in New York, Francois Hollande said a political solution was needed to end the Syrian crisis, but President Bashar al-Assad could not be part of it. France now says it has evidence that IS planned terror attacks against it from Syria - making air strikes against the militants legitimate under UN rules on self-defense.
Clinton says she left email determination to lawyers
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she relied on her attorneys to determine which of her emails related to work and which were personal before turning them over to the State Department.
Pope Francis meets US sex abuse victims
Pope Francis says he has met a group of victims of sexual abuse, and said "those responsible will be held accountable". He also promised to "zealously" protect young people. Many survivors of abuse by priests are angry at how the Church dealt with allegations. The Roman Catholic Church in the US has been embroiled in a series of child sex scandals, and US dioceses have made huge compensation payouts to victims.
Facebook pledges refugee camp internet access
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has announced plan, the Connectivity Declaration, to help bring the internet to UN refugee camps. Speaking at a UN forum in New York, he said it would help refugees access aid and maintain family links. He also said Facebook would be part of a new campaign to make the internet available to everyone on the planet within five years. He said the internet could help the UN meet its development goals and lift people out of poverty.
Pro-independence parties win elections in Catalonia vote
Pro-independence parties in Spain's Catalonia region have won an absolute majority in regional elections, near complete results show. With nearly 100% of the votes counted, the main separatist alliance and a smaller party won 72 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament. Two separatist parties joined forces, aiming to secure a majority of seats in parliament. They say this would allow them to unilaterally declare independence within 18 months. But the road ahead is controversial and anything but clear. The central government in Madrid has pledged to block in court such moves.
Ralph Nader's American museum of tort law opens in Winsted, CT
The American Museum of Tort Law, the first law museum in the United States, was designed to empower visitors with knowledge and teach them the truth behind high profile tort cases, Nader stated. It is not mired in legal-speak. Instead, cases are presented in an easy-to-understand format that will become important teaching tools for children. Lawn darts, the Dalkon Shield female contraceptive device, auto industry creations such as the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Corvair, big tobacco's fall from power, hot coffee and flaming rats tell the stories of ordinary people who suffered extraordinary losses before Nader and his crusaders led the fight to make and keep corporate America responsible for altering lives.
Time
Pope Francis Meets America
Newsweek
World Leaders Address Women's Rights, Empowerment at U.N., but Key Countries Absent
Business Week
The Fake Traffic Schemes That Are Rotting the Internet
The Economist
Dirty secrets: scandal in the motor industry
Der Spiegel
Der Selbstmord
L'Espresso
Il vero volto del Casanomica
Can Tehran deliver a solution on Syria?
Al Jazeera, Doha, Qatar
How and why Israel stopped making quality television
Haaretz, Liberal daily, Tel Aviv, Israel
McDonnell to push for Robin Hood tax
BBC News, Centrist newscaster, London, England
Tonight's rare supermoon eclipse brings wonder, not apocalypse
CNN International, London, England
X Factor 2015 hopeful Monica Michael gets a second shot at the Six Chair Challenge
Daily Mail, Conservative daily, London, England
Blood moon to paint the sky red: Stargazers around the world look to the heavens to witness lunar spectacle for first time in 33 years
Daily Mail, Conservative daily, London, England
Catalan separatists on collision course with Madrid after election victory
EuroNews, International news, Ecully Cedex, France
Catalan separatists win majority in key election
France 24, Issy-les-Moulineaux, France
VIDEO: 13 killed, one wounded in car crash in central Turkey
Hurriyet Daily News, (Liberal, English-language), Istanbul, Turkey
'Blood moon' prompts Mormon announcement: This is NOT the end of the world
Independent The, London, England
Cameron pledges GBP 6bn to fight global climate change
Telegraph The, Conservative daily, London, England
Neighbours' 'disgust' at George Clooney's repairs
Telegraph The, Celebrity news, London, England
Land warning issued for Typhoon Dujuan
China Post, English-language daily, Taipei, Taiwan
Volkswagen Reportedly Ignored Warnings on Emissions Cheating
Chosun Ilbo, Conservative daily, Seoul, South Korea
Pope Francis makes historic first US visit
Hindustan Times, New Delhi, India
Elated by Boehner exit, Republican religious right demands rigid 'Value' believer as candidate
Japan Times, Independent centrist, Tokyo, Japan
Barack Obama commits US to blueprint to eliminate poverty
New Zealand Herald, Conservative daily, Auckland, New Zealand
Ukraine President cancels trip over protests in eastern Ukraine
Straits Times, Pro-government, Singapore
Beat the post holiday blues
Sydney Morning Herald, Centrist daily, Sydney, Australia
Money flows with the refugees as life vests fill shops in Turkey
The Economic Times, Business, Mumbai, India
Pope wraps U.S. tour with outdoor mass to hundreds of thousands of faithful
Canadian Broadcasting Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Putin says Russia's aim in Syria is supporting President al-Assad
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
Oil prices fall on slowing global economic growth outlook
Reuters, Business News, New York, U.S
Japan to offer 532.95 million pounds to support refugees fleeing Syria, Iraq - NHK
Reuters, World News, New York, U.S
NDP proposes national cap-and-trade system to fight climate change
Toronto Star, Toronto, Ontario
Deadly clashes in CAR capital Bangui
BBC News, Centrist newscaster, London, England
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