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Activists seek transaction tax

ACTIVISTS are pressuring global leaders meeting for the Group of 20 summit to impose higher taxes on financial transactions in order to raise millions of dollars to fight poverty and deprivation around the world.

Groups including Oxfam, the World Wildlife Foundation and others organized events yesterday around the chic resort town of Cannes on France's Cote d'Azur to draw attention to the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions.

Multibillionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates joined the call,,Cheap moncler vests, traveling to Cannes to urge G20 leaders to consider the tax and other innovative ways to help poor nations.

British actor Bill Nighy led an Oxfam news conference promoting the so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions. "I am here specifically to promote on behalf of Oxfam the Robin Hood tax," Nighy said. "A tiny tax, fifty pence, in English terms, on every 1,000 pounds (US$1,596) generated on the kind of casino-style sterile, nonproductive banking that takes place in cyberspace."

New recession or no, rich countries need to keep helping poorer nations,,Cheap authentic nfl jerseys, and countries that have pulled themselves out of poverty should do more to help, too, Gates said.

Gates came to the summit to urge G20 leaders to keep their eyes trained on the longer term.

He championed taxes on financial activity as a way to get the private sector to contribute to helping the poor - a tax that activists hail as long overdue and some European countries are championing.

He acknowledged,Lions jerseys authentic however, that countries are unlikely to agree on a blanket worldwide tax.

"The world doesn't have one government, so you're just not going to have complete alignment on how tax structures work in all the different countries. I hope some countries look at the tax ideas in the report and consider those," he said.

"The key point is that money makes a huge difference. The way aid is being spent nowadays - focused on innovation, on measurement -means that the impact per dollar of aid is much higher than in the past," he said.

He presented an ambitious and unusual report to the G20 leaders at the request of summit host Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.Christian Louboutin shoes

Suicide bombers open way for gunmen

TWO suicide bombers blew up a car packed with explosives at the entrance to a compound housing NATO contractors in western Afghanistan yesterday.Moncler women's jackets

They opening the way for three gunmen to rush in and hold employees hostage during an hours-long gunbattle, officials said.,Moncler men jackets,

Two private security guards and all five attackers were killed during the assault at a compound occupied by Italian troops in Herat province.

A NATO service member, an Afghan policeman and a private security guard were wounded, according to officials. Thirty-one people were evacuated from the site.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, which occurred around 9:30am in Guzara district, south of the provincial capital of Herat.

NATO dispatched a quick-reaction force that included ground troops and aircraft to the scene,,Cheap moncler vests, about a kilometer from Camp Arena, headquarters of NATO's Regional Command West.

The assault came just days after the Taliban launched a two-pronged assault on a compound housing UN and international aid groups' offices in southern Afghanistan.

Five people were killed in the attack, including three people working with the UN's refugee organization.

Yesterday's attack began with a suicide car bombing near the entrance of the compound, on the main road to the airport,Lions jerseys authentic according to Noorkhan Nekzad, a spokesman for the provincial police chief.

The road is a route often used by NATO and Afghan forces.

The violence comes as the US-led coalition tries to speed up the transition of security responsibilities to its Afghan counterparts before the end of 2014, when US and NATO forces are scheduled to end their combat mission and go home or move into training or support roles.

The transfer of security responsibilities in Herat city began in July, and the incident could raise new questions about the ability of Afghan security forces to take on the Taliban.

While NATO's 10-year war against the Taliban has hit the insurgents hard, they continue to be able to pull off headline-grabbing attacks.

Bond set to return in new film starring Craig

JAMES Bond is back, several years after his last screen adventure.

Producers announced yesterday that filming has begun on "Skyfall," the delayed 23rd film in the series and Daniel Craig's third outing as the suave British superspy.

Craig told reporters the movie, directed by Sam Mendes and shot in London, Scotland, Turkey and China, would be "Bond with a capital B."

Craig said he was "tr,Cheap moncler vests,emendously excited" to be stepping back into the role for the first time since 2008's "Quantum of Solace."

Work on the film was postponed, and Bond's future looked uncertain,Moncler women's jackets when studio MGM filed for bankruptcy last year. But MGM's new management and Eon Productions announced earlier this year that the spy would live to fight another day.

Craig will be joined by Spanish star Javier Bardem as Bond's nemisis, while British actors Albert Finney, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw will play as yet undisclosed roles.

Judi Dench returns as spy chief M and the film introduces two new Bond girls - English actress Naomie Harris as a field agent named Eve and French performer Berenice Marlohe as "a glamorous, enigmatic character" named Severine.

"There are lots of surprises," said Mendes, who won an Academy Award for his 1999 film "American Beauty.,Moncler men jackets,"

"I think this has all the elements of a classic Bond movie, including - to quell any rumors - a lot of action."

Some have questioned the choice of Mendes, best known for his stage work and emotionally intense dramas such as "Revolutionary Road" and "The Road to Perdition."

But he and the producers said they did not plan to take the series in a radically new direction.

Producer Michael Wilson said the series had "started down a path" with Craig's first appearance as a gruff, muscular Bond in "Casino Royale" in 2006. "And we are sticking to that path," Wilson said. "An interesting story, well written,Lions jerseys authentic with a great cast and plenty of action

CUBA announced yesterday it will allow real estate to be bought and sold for the first time since the early days of the revolution,Lions jerseys authentic the most important reform yet under President Raul Castro.

The law, which takes effect on November 10, applies to citizens and permanent residents only, according to a red-letter headline on the front page of yesterday's Communist Party daily newspaper Granma.

The brief article said details of the new law would be published imminently in the government's Official Gazette.,Moncler men jackets, Authorities have said previously that sales will be subject to taxes and the rules will not allow anyone to accumulate property holdings.

The change follows October's legalization of buying and selling cars, though with restrictions that still make it hard for ordinary -Cubans to buy new vehicles.

Castro has also allowed citizens to go into business for themselves in a number of approved jobs - everything from party clowns to food vendors to accountants - and has pledged to streamline the state-dominated economy by eliminating half a million government workers.

Cuba's government employs more than 80 percent of workers in the island's command economy, paying wages of just US$20 a month in return for free education and healthcare, and nearly free housing, transportation and basic foods.

Castro has said repeatedly the system is not working since taking over from his brother Fidel in 2008, but he has vowed that Cuba will remain a socialist state.

Cubans have long bemoaned the ban on property sales, which took effect in over the years Fidel Castro came to power in 1959. In an effort to fight absentee ownership by wealthy landlords, Fidel enacted a reform that gave title to whoever lived in a home. Most who left the island forfeited their properties to the state.

Since no property market was allowed,,Cheap moncler vests, the rules have meant that for decades Cubans could exchange property only through complicated barter arrangements, or through even murkier black-market deals where thousands of dollars change hands under the table, with no legal recourse if transactions go bad.

Some Cubans entered into sham marriages to make deed transfers easier. Others made deals to move into homes ostensibly to care for an elderly person,Moncler women's jackets inheriting the property when that person dies.

The island's crumbling housing stock has meant many are forced to live in overcrowded apartments with multiple generations crammed into a few rooms. Even divorce has not necessarily meant separation in Cuba, where estranged couples are often forced to live together for years while they work out alternative housing.

The new law eliminates a state agency regulating the exchange-by-barter of homes, meaning from now on sales will need only the seal of a notary, according to Granma.

Surgery separates conjoined 2-year-olds

TWIN 2-year-old girls who were joined at the chest and abdomen were separated on Tuesday during a lengthy, complex procedure at Stanford University's children's hospital in California.

The operation that gave Philippines-born sisters Angelina and Angelica Sabuco their independence took more than nine hours and a team of more than 40 people.

By mid-afternoon, the girls had moved to their own operating rooms at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital for the second phase of surgery - reconstructing the area where they were connected. Two hours later, they were moved to the intensive care unit, each with a scar stretching from her chest to her belly.

"This is a dream come true," their mother, Ginady Sabuco, said through tears after the surgery was complete. "Words cannot express how the family feels."

Dr Gary Hartman, the lead surgeon,,hair weave, said the procedure went smoothly. "The long-term prognosis is that we should have a happy, healthy set of girls. We don't see any barrier to a full recovery."

Angelina and Angelica moved to the United States from the Philippines with their mother last year. They live in San Jose with their parents and 10-year-old brother.discount fashion jewelry

They had been doing well considering the obstacles. The girls learned to walk despite their face-to-face orientation and could recite colors and numbers.,Jogos Quentes Gold, But Hartman said staying connected would have posed long-term health risks, including increased damage to their skeletal and muscular structure.

The surgery required separating livers,,Cheap moncler vests, diaphragms, breastbones, and chest and abdominal wall muscles.

The children were being kept sedated.