* Some state companies to be granted greater autonomy
* All Cubans to pay income and property taxes
* New cooperatives to divide profits as members see fit
HAVANA, July 26 - Cuba adopted a new tax code this week and said it would loosen regulations on some state companies while turning others into cooperatives, as one of the world's last Soviet-style economies moves in a more market-friendly direction.
By John Hurdle and Eric Eckholm, New York Times, July 24/25, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic Church official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced Tuesday to three to six years in prison.
President affirms right to bear arms but says assault rifles do not belong in the hands of citizens, drawing contrast with Romney
By Adam Gabbatt in New York, guardian.co.uk, July 26, 2012
Barack Obama has addressed the issue of gun control for the first time since the Colorado film premiere shootings, appealing for "a consensus around violence reduction" and suggesting assault rifles "belong on the battlefield".
By Charles Forelle and David Roman, Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2012
LONDON—The ratings firm Moody's Investors Service late Monday dimmed its outlook on Germany, the euro zone's dominant economic power and political force, further exposing the currency bloc's fragility on a day that also saw markets drop around the world on fears about Europe.
Moody's cited the huge potential cost of a euro breakup and, alternatively, the steep bill that would be paid to hold it together.
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s administration, already drawing attention for its focus on secrecy, has now begun editing his record as New York attorney general, sending aides to the state archives to remove key documents from public view.
By Michael Kunzelman, Associated Press, July 24, 2012
NEW ORLEANS — Attorney General Eric Holder will announce a sweeping federal consent decree Tuesday to reform New Orleans's long-troubled police department.
A person with direct knowledge of the plan said the agreement between the Justice Department and the city will be signed and filed in federal court and Holder will speak in New Orleans. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been made public.
Enrollment in nearly half of the nation’s largest school districts has dropped steadily over the last five years, triggering school closings that have destabilized neighborhoods, caused layoffs of essential staff and concerns in many cities that the students who remain are some of the neediest and most difficult to educate.
Wave of explosions and shootings across country kill more than 100 on worst day since withdrawal of US troops Associated Press in Baghdad, July 23, 2012
A string of bombings and shootings have killed at least 106 people and injured nearly 200 across Iraq, officials said, in the nation's deadliest day in more than two years.
By Marjie Lundstrom, McClatchy Newspapers, July 22, 2012
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A prominent neurosurgeon at the University of California, Davis, was banned from performing medical research on humans after he and a colleague were accused of experimenting on dying brain cancer patients without university permission [....]
By Peter Svenssen, Associated Press, July 23, 2012
On Tuesday, Apple is set to report financial results for the second quarter. Analysts are expecting net income of $9.8 billion. But whatever figure Apple reports won't reflect its true profit, because the company hides some of it with an unusual tax maneuver.
Apple Inc., already the world's most valuable company, understates its profits compared with other multinationals. It's building up an overlooked asset in the form of billions of dollars, tucked away for tax bills it may never pay.
By Eric Lichtblau and Scott Shane, New York Times, July 14/15, 2012
WASHINGTON — A wide-ranging surveillance operation by the Food and Drug Administration against a group of its own scientists used an enemies list of sorts as it secretly captured thousands of e-mails that the disgruntled scientists sent privately to members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, journalists and even President Obama, previously undisclosed records show [....]
By Robert Mackey, The Lede @ nytimes.com, July 13, 2012
Ulugbek Kodirov, a 22-year-old Uzbek man who moved to the United States planning to study medicine in New York, but ended up working in a suburban Alabama mall, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison on Friday for plotting to kill President Obama on behalf of a jihadist group in Uzbekistan.
By Saeed Kamali Dehghan, guardian.co.uk, 12 July 2012
A former general of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards has accused the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of having blood on his hands over the brutal crackdown on the opposition, and described government claims that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful as a "sheer lie".
By Barry Meier and Katie Thomas, New York Times, July 11/12, 2012
When a pharmacy sells the heartburn drug Zantac, each pill costs about 35 cents. But doctors dispensing it to patients in their offices have charged nearly 10 times that price, or $3.25 a pill. The same goes for a popular muscle relaxant known as Soma, insurers say. From a pharmacy, the per-pill price is 60 cents. Sold by a doctor, it can cost more than five times that, or $3.33.
SAN FRANCISCO – The Energy Information Administration flung an amazing little factoid out there this week that went largely unnoticed: In April, for the first time ever, natural gas-fired power plants put as much electricity on the U.S. power grid as coal-fired power plants.
