RIM unveils software system for BlackBerry, PlayBook
“We’re giving developers the tools they need to build
richer applications, and we’re providing direction on how to
best develop their smartphone and tablet apps as the BlackBerry
and QNX platforms converge into our next generation BBX
platform,” RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said in a speech opening
the four-day event.
Murdoch’s Sky closer to Australia TV tender win-report
The extension of the tender in July coincided with the
mobile phone hacking scandal sweeping over the Australian-born
Murdoch’s News Corp. empire in Britain and a row with
Australia’s Labor government over alleged political bias in
reporting.The Australian newspaper, owned by Murdoch, said the
independent panel, made up of Treasury, Finance, Foreign Affairs
and Communications department bureaucrats, had recommended the
overseas service be taken from the public-funded ABC and awarded
to Sky News.The Sky News Australia bid was thought superior by the
four-member panel because of the network’s plans to establish
special programming for services to China and the Middle East,
the paper said.Sky News Australia is a 24-hour cable and satellite news
channel, with Murdoch owning a third through his stake in BSkyB,
along with Australia’s Seven West Media Ltd. and the
private equity-owned Nine Entertainment Co.A spokesman for Communications Minister Stephen Conroy
declined to comment, saying the tender process was still open.Conroy, who will decide on the tender, can now ask for more
information from the panel before taking the issue to Prime
Minister Julia’s Gillard’s cabinet with his recommendation.Conroy was earlier this year critical of News Corp’s
Australian arm, News Ltd, accusing it of biased treatment
targeting the minority Labor government. News Ltd, which denied
the allegations, controls 70 percent of Australia’s newspaper
readership market.($1 = 0.969 Australian Dollars)
UPDATE 1-Buffett tells congressman he paid $6.9 mln taxes
By Ben BerkowitzOct 12 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett paid $6.9 million in
federal income taxes in 2010, the billionaire investor said in
a letter to a Kansas congressman that adds fuel to the debate
over his proposal for higher taxes on the rich.The figure represent 17.4 percent of his $39.8 million in
taxable income, a percentage he has repeatedly said is too low
compared to what his own staff pays.Buffett caused an uproar in August when he said the wealthy
should be subject to a higher rate of tax. The White House has
co-opted his call into a “Buffett Rule” that would raise levies
on the richest people.Following Buffett’s suggestion, Republican congressman Tim
Huelskamp of Kansas sent the “Oracle of Omaha” a letter in late
September calling on him to release his tax returns.Huelskamp sent Buffett a second letter reiterating the
request earlier this month, and promising to release his own
returns if Buffett would as well.Buffett, the chief executive of the conglomerate Berkshire
Hathaway , responded in kind on Tuesday, according to a
copy of the letter. Buffett did not release his full return,
though, as many have called for him to do.In the letter, Buffett reiterated what he saw as the
inequality of his paying a rate in the teens when most people
who work for him pay a rate in the 30 percent range.But what he told Huelskamp he also wanted was for other
ultra-wealthy Americans to release their own returns — in
full, rather than the limited data Buffett himself shared.”If you could get other ultra rich Americans to publish
their returns along with mine, that would be very useful to the
tax dialogue and intelligent reform,” Buffett said. “I stand
ready and willing - indeed eager - to participate in this
exercise.”Buffett went on to suggest a method to get reticent moguls
to release their returns, among them Rupert Murdoch, whom he
has repeatedly challenged on the subject.”Having the ‘favored 400’ make their tax returns public -
even if only code letters were attached to the various returns
- would be a big step in informing legislators and the public
of what needs to be done,” Buffett wrote.Huelskamp, in a statement Wednesday, slammed Buffett’s
letter as inadequate and again called on him to either release
his full returns or voluntarily give more tax money to the
federal government.”Mr. Buffett still refuses to release his tax returns. What
he does disclose may be accurate, but it is incomplete and it
fails to explain how he shelters millions of dollars in income
from taxation,” Huelskamp said.
