The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Bodies of missing Mexican band members found in well
- IRS can seek UBS records for taxpayers hiding income at Wegelin
- Employers encouraged by proposal to fix U.S. immigration chaos
| Bodies of missing Mexican band members found in well Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:57 PM PST MONTERREY (Reuters) - Police found a dozen bodies inside a well in northern Mexico, some of them members of a band abducted last week by an armed group, a spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon, Jorge Domene, said on Monday. Authorities have identified four of the bodies, including that of a Colombian national. All were wearing jeans and T-shirts with the logo of the music group - "Poderoso Kombo Kolombia." One band member who managed to escape told police that after he and the others were kidnapped, their armed men captors asked them if they belonged to an organized crime gang. They were shot when they refused to answer. It was not clear how the surviving band member escaped or whether he was wounded. Domene said he had fled Mexico after reporting the attack. A total of 18 men, 12 musicians plus staff, were abducted on Thursday at a party in a bar near the industrial city of Monterrey, Domene said. "Presumably there could be more bodies so we will extend the search as far as conditions allow it," he told a press conference. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to reduce criminal violence that spiralled after his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, launched an assault on drug cartels in December 2006. Some 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico since then. (Reporting By Gabriela Lopez; editing by Christopher Wilson) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| IRS can seek UBS records for taxpayers hiding income at Wegelin Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:42 PM PST NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday authorized the Internal Revenue Service to seek records from UBS AG of U.S. taxpayers suspected of hiding their income in accounts with Swiss bank Wegelin.
Wegelin, the oldest Swiss private bank, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court on January 3 to charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret accounts and then announced it would close down as a result. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan granted the IRS's request to issue a "John Doe" summons, which seeks information about possible tax fraud committed by individuals whose identities are not known, on UBS for the names of taxpayers who may have hidden income at Wegelin and other Swiss banks. A UBS spokeswoman declined to comment on the ruling. When the government indicted Wegelin nearly a year ago, it alleged that the bank used a U.S. correspondent account at UBS to handle funds for American clients, a standard industry practice for foreign banks. By covertly transferring money from undeclared Swiss accounts, Wegelin allowed clients to avoid paying income taxes in the United States, the government alleged. Wegelin became the first foreign bank in recent memory to be indicted by U.S. authorities last February, opening a new chapter in a broad probe into Swiss bank secrecy. As part of its guilty plea, the bank agreed to pay $57.8 million (36.8 million pounds) in fines after admitting to helping U.S. clients evade taxes on at least $1.2 billion for more than a decade. It announced on the same day that it would shut its doors permanently after more than 270 years in operation. In 2009, UBS entered into a deferred-prosecution agreement, turned over 4,450 client names and paid a $780 million fine after admitting it provided tax-evasion services to rich Americans. Since then, dozens of Swiss bankers and their clients have been indicted in a crackdown on the practice. (Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Bernard Orr and Edmund Klamann) Copyright © 2013 Reuters | ||
| Employers encouraged by proposal to fix U.S. immigration chaos Posted: 28 Jan 2013 06:40 PM PST LOS ANGELES/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The first big political push for an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws in more than five years holds out some promise for employers who have long complained that the current system is broken and inhibits hiring. From farmers who cannot find Americans to pick their crops to technology firm who need more engineers from abroad, the bipartisan plan from eight U.S. senators announced on Monday offered solutions like a "workable" program for seasonal farm labour and a commitment to "attracting and keeping the world's best and brightest." "We are encouraged by the momentum on these important issues," said Microsoft general counsel and executive vice president Brad Smith. Companies and business groups of all stripes have come out in favour of immigration reform, hoping to tap the immigrant labour force that has long been a key to growth of the U.S. economy. But Smith said Microsoft needs to see the details of the legislation, which has not yet been crafted, and that it hopes the reform will expand the so-called H-1B visa system for highly skilled workers. The government now offers a quota of 65,000 H-1B visas per year, a number unusually met in a few weeks of applications and far fewer than the U.S. technology sector says it needs to innovate and remain competitive. The eight senators said that any immigrant who receives an advanced degree in the United States in science, technology, engineering or math (collectively known as STEM), should be given a green card, shorthand for legal residence and work permit. "It makes no sense to educate the world's future innovators and entrepreneurs only to ultimately force them to leave our country at the moment they are most able to contribute to our economy," the senators said. The proposal from the senators, who include Arizona Republican John McCain and New York Democrat Charles Schumer, goes so far as to offer a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. Schumer said he hoped a bill would pass Congress as early as mid-year. But it also offers provisions to make legal immigration more efficient and to bolster an employment verification system to help companies know if they are hiring illegal migrants. INSPECTIONS TEST COMPANIES While the U.S. government's "E-Verify" program is now only required in some states, a mandatory beefed-up system that takes the burden off companies for detecting fraud in identity documents and places it on the government might be welcomed. A one-step process in which the employer enters data and awaits a government approval "could be a very effective system," said Eleanor Pelta, head of immigration law at the Washington law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Several high-profile companies, including burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc, have been investigated after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) audits turned up problems with their employment paperwork. ICE started investigations at nearly 4,000 workplaces in fiscal 2012. Chipotle moved to E-Verify almost two years ago after ICE audits revealed it had hired hundreds of illegal immigrants. Company spokesman Chris Arnold said that mandating a similar system would be "pretty much moot" for the 1,300-restaurant company. While passage of the proposal into law is far from assured, farm organizations may have most reason to be encouraged, given its emphasis on meeting the needs of the agriculture industry. "I see this absolutely as our best opportunity that we've had in a generation to get ... a solution to our immigration problems," said Charles Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. In the nation's largest food-producing and exporting state, California, farmers said they hoped immigration legislation would catch up to the reality of America's food supply. "Many of the people who tend to the food we eat are not properly documented," said Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation. (Writing by Mary Milliken; Editing by David Brunnstrom) Copyright © 2013 Reuters |
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