Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2015 1:20:27 GMT
Did someone ask how ISIS in Syria might have gotten the material to make "Dirty Bombs"?
Didn't Attorney General Eric Holder orchestrate the ATF gunrunning scandal through Mexico? Wasn't he hooked up with the New Black Panthers and caught rigging votes? Aren't they operating out of China holding them silent hostage? Isn't China being used to base out Las Vegas operations owned and run by a U.S. company operating in China? Maybe it's called "Apple"? Oh yes. Now I remember.
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Mexico: Stolen radioactive material found
By Rafael Romo. Nick Parker and Mariano Castillo, CNN
Updated 7:58 PM ET, Wed December 4, 2013
www.cnn.com/2013/12/04/world/americas/mexico-radioactive-theft/
A pair of thieves in Mexico may have stolen more than they bargained for when they targeted a truck this week.
The stolen vehicle was carrying delicate cargo -- a radioactive element used for medical purposes that also can be used to make a so-called dirty bomb.
Mexican authorities said they found the stolen truck and recovered likely all of the radioactive cobalt Wednesday in a remote area about 40 km (25 miles) away from where it was taken.
The suspected thieves are still on the loose, though authorities expect they could turn up at a clinic suffering symptoms of radiation exposure.
The container holding cobalt was found about a kilometer away from the truck and had been opened, said Juan Eibenschutz Hartman, head of Mexico's National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards.
There was less than 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of the hazardous material inside.
Authorities are guarding the area and have set up a 500-meter perimeter around it, Eibenschutz said. They are evaluating whether any residents were exposed.
Cleaning up the area could take weeks, he said, because they don't have robotic equipment they would need to quickly collect the dangerous cobalt. They're coming up with a plan and considering asking for help from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States or Canada.
The IAEA announced the theft on Wednesday.
Mexican authorities told the IAEA that the truck, which was transporting cobalt-60 from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center, was stolen Monday in Tepojaco, near Mexico City.
An early theory is that the thieves were unaware of what exactly they had taken.
"At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said. "However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged."
But Eibenschutz said the truck wasn't properly set up to transport the radioactive material, since it didn't have a GPS for tracking or other necessary equipment.
Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy and in industrial tools such as leveling devices and thickness gauges. Large sources of cobalt-60 are used to sterilize certain foods, as the gamma rays kill bacteria but don't damage the product, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If released into the environment, the radioactive material can harm people.
And experts consider cobalt-60 one of the "candidates" for making dirty bombs.
Bombs made with cobalt-60 "pose a threat mainly because even a fraction of a gram emits a huge number of high-energy gamma rays; such material is harmful whether outside or inside the body," according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service.
In a speech last year, the IAEA director warned that such a dirty bomb "detonated in a major city could cause mass panic, as well as serious economic and environmental consequences."
Preliminary information suggests that the thieves did not know what the truck's cargo was when they stole it, said Jaime Aguirre Gomez, deputy director of radiological security at the National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards.
The shielding that protects the cobalt-60 is designed so that the radioactive source is difficult to extract, Aguirre said. The casing is designed not to be opened or perforated easily.
The truck and its cargo went missing early Monday after the driver of the white 2007 Volkswagen truck and an assistant had stopped to rest at a gas station, local prosecutor Marcos Morales told CNN.
At around 1 a.m. Monday, a man armed with a handgun knocked on the passenger window. When the passenger rolled down his window, the gunman demanded the keys to the vehicle, Morales said.
Both the driver and his assistant were taken to an empty lot where they were bound and told not to move. They heard one of the assailants use a walkie-talkie type device or phone to tell someone, "It's done," Morales said.
Mexico alerted the IAEA to the theft, following international protocol, Aguirre said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is assisting with the investigation into the stolen truck, Mexican authorities said.
The U.S. government has sensors at border crossings and sea ports to prevent radioactive materials from entering the country. This includes large stationary sensors designed to scan vehicles going through land border crossings as well as pager-size devices carried by agents.
Some of this equipment is sensitive enough that it has been set off by people who had recently undergone radiation therapy, according to a U.S. law-enforcement source.
According to the Congressional Research Service report, in Thailand in 2000, a disused cobalt-60 source was stored outdoors and bought by two scrap collectors, who took it to a junkyard where it was cut open.
Some workers suffered burn-like injuries, and eventually three people died and seven others suffered radiation injuries, the report says. Nearly 2,000 others who lived nearby were exposed to radiation.
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HUH. Suddenly this is a "NEW" thing? Nope. Not new.
By TUCKER REALS CBS NEWS April 16, 2015, 8:49 AM
Radioactive material stolen in Mexico
www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-on-alert-after-radioactive-iridium-192-stolen-from-truck-in-tabasco-state/
The Mexican government has put civil protection agencies in five southern states and some federal agencies on alert following the theft of radioactive medical material from a vehicle on Monday.
CBS News partner network UNO TV reported the iridium-192, a radioactive compound used in mobile medical radiography work, was stolen from a vehicle in Tabasco state, near Mexico's border with Guatemala.
According to the report, the material is classified as Category 2 under the international nuclear watchdog's (IAEA) rating scale. While the iridium-192 was safely encased when stolen, UNO TV said a Category 2 material could cause serious lesions or even death within a day of exposure if removed from its protective casing.
The alert issued to authorities included the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz.
According to UNO TV, the alert called on any local authorities who were to locate the radioactive material not to try and handle it, but rather to establish a secure perimeter around it of approximately 90 feet, and report it to federal officials.
This week's incident was at least the second time in recent years that dangerous radioactive material has been stolen from a vehicle in Mexico.
In December 2013, thieves made off -- apparently unwittingly -- with a container full of cobalt-60, also used in medical equipment, from a vehicle transporting it for safe disposal.
The cobalt, which is a Category 1 source under the IAEA's ranking system and thus more dangerous than the iridium stolen this week, was found in a field abandoned by thieves days later. Several people were treated for radiation exposure after its discovery.
There was no indication as of Thursday morning that the thieves behind the iridium's disappearance in Tabasco were anything other than misguided bandits, as turned out to be the case in 2013, but it will again pique the interest of security forces who worry about criminal and terrorist groups trying to obtain such materials.
In an article posted on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists after the 2013 theft was resolved, two nuclear experts -- one of whom is a former IAEA employee -- wrote that medical sources of radioactivity like cobalt are more dangerous to those who handle them in their undiluted form than they would be "if spread using a radiological dispersal device such as a so-called 'dirty bomb.' Nonetheless, had the Mexican source been used in a dispersal device, the economic consequences could have been extremely significant."
The scientists urged greater accountability by national authorities in reporting to the IAEA incidents of theft like the ones in Mexico.
They also suggested establishing global standards for the transport and handling of radioactive medical materials, saying it "would be an important step toward enhancing the global nuclear security regime," but admitting it was a tall order, "given the difficulty of negotiating and implementing binding international instruments."
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Important Points About Apple:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#2011.E2.80.93present:_Post-Jobs_era
A previously confidential email written by Jobs a year before his death, was presented during the proceedings of the Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. lawsuits and became publicly available in early April 2014. With a subject line that reads "Top 100 – A," the email was sent only to the company's 100 most senior employees and outlines Jobs's vision of Apple Inc.'s future under 10 subheadings. Notably, Jobs declares a "Holy War with Google" for 2011 and schedules a "new campus" for 2015.
[(........The government runs on the Google internet lines, and has annexed google's G-mail along with search histories, et al. Apple winning this war would mean Scientology's Monopoly of the intel mining market as well, NOT a "good" idea.......)]
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were Beatles fans, but Apple Inc. had name and logo trademark issues with Apple Corps Ltd., a multimedia company started by the Beatles in 1967. This resulted in a series of lawsuits and tension between the two companies. These issues ended with settling of their most recent lawsuit in 2007.
Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1–6 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. This Apple campus has six buildings that total 850,000 square feet (79,000 m2) and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos.
[(.......Apple is the main corporation under the direction and probable ownership of Scientology, a Monopoly of gigantic proportions violating EVERYONE's right to privacy by a public corporation, and I have personal experience being violated by these people starting with their theft of MY intellectual property = THE Touchscreen. .......)]
Apple has a satellite campus in neighboring Sunnyvale, California, where it houses a testing and research laboratory. AppleInsider published article in March 2014 claiming that Apple has a tucked away a top-secret facility where is developing the SG5 electric vehicle project codenamed "Titan" under the shell company name SixtyEight Research.
In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus in Cupertino about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the current campus and next to Interstate 280. The new campus building will be designed by Norman Foster. The Cupertino City Council approved the proposed "spaceship" design campus on October 15, 2013, after a 2011 presentation by Jobs detailing the architectural design of the new building and its environs. The new campus is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in one central, four-storied, circular building surrounded by extensive landscape. It will feature a café with room for 3,000 sitting people and parking underground as well as in a parking structure. The 2.8 million square foot facility will also include Jobs's original designs for a fitness center and a corporate auditorium.
Apple's headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are located in Cork in the south of Ireland. The facility, which opened in 1980, was Apple's first location outside of the United States. Apple Sales International, which deals with all of Apple's international sales outside of the USA, is located at Apple's campus in Cork along with Apple Distribution International, which similarly deals with Apple's international distribution network. On April 20, 2012, Apple added 500 new jobs at its European headquarters, increasing the total workforce from around 2,800 to 3,300 employees. The company will build a new office block on its Hollyhill Campus to accommodate the additional staff. Its UK headquarters is at Stockley Park on the outskirts of London.
[(........Didn't all our United States personal and private information databank storage JUST GET MOVED TO IRELAND?? And new tax free business incentives have been offered to businesses moving to Ireland...See Posts Below.......)]
In February 2015, Apple opened their new 180,000-square-foot headquarters in Herzliya, Israel, which will accommodate approximately 800 employees. This opening was Apple's third office located within Israel; the first, also in Herzliya, was obtained as part of the Anobit acquisition, and the other is a research center in Haifa.
[(........No wonder Iran predicted there would be no more Israel within the next decade. With Apple and Steve Jobs hiding out there, no wonder the outbreak of all the violence has been occurring. Israel had best eject them as soon as possible or Israel will be gone, and I'm certain that's what Steve Jobs inteds to do. He is not dead, he's only hiding so he can cause a great deal of trouble and take over the world by controlling corporations, governments, and politicians without getting caught (he hopes). DO NOT let him! He's a total Jerk and he owes me EVERYTHING. His company was going under and losing to Microsoft when he STOLE my intellectual property: The Touchscreen. This is his END of his business 'ventures' CREEPER electronically spying on everyone by breaking and entering total violation of privacy and ILLEGAL........)]
Alongside Google vice-president Vint Cerf and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Cook attended a closed-door summit held by President Obama on August 8, 2013, in regard to government surveillance and the Internet in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA incident. On February 4, 2014, Cook met with Abdullah Gül, the President of Turkey, in Ankara to discuss the company's involvement in the Fatih project. Cook also confirmed that Turkey's first Apple Retail Store would be opened in Istanbul in April 2014.
[(........Possibly the GULEN Movement? Maybe why Turkey is having so much trouble recently! Scientology, Apple, and Gulen Movement are all in it together. One step away from the creation of Scientology's extended arm of ISIS.........)]
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HEADS UP APPLE Inc. POST #1
Matheson US Business Group
www.matheson.com/legal-services/us-business-group
“As a US company moving into Ireland, we found the lawyers flexible and understanding of the particular needs of our business.”
Chambers Europe 2013
Ireland has succeeded in attracting some of the world’s largest organisations to establish operations here. This includes some of the most advanced and leading companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, biosciences, manufacturing and financial services sectors.
There are a number of key reasons:
- Ireland’s low corporate tax rate – corporation tax on trading profits is 12.5% which does not breach EU or OECD harmful tax competition criteria
- regulatory, economic and people infrastructure of a highly-developed OECD jurisdiction
- benefits of EU membership and the only English–speaking jurisdiction in the euro-zone
- as a common law jurisdiction, our legal system is similar to that of the US and the UK
- provision of a specific tax credit for research and development activity
- very limited transfer pricing rules
- an extensive and expanding double tax treaty network with 46 countries, including the US
- we traditionally have had a strong, long-standing relationship with the US
Why Matheson?
With a primary focus on serving the Irish legal needs of international companies and financial institutions doing business in and through Ireland, our clients include over half of the Fortune 100 companies. We also advise 7 of the top 10 global technology brands and over half of the world's largest banks. We are committed to having a strong presence where our clients are located. We were the first European law firm to establish a presence in Silicon Valley (in 1996), and together with our office in New York, we are proud to have the market-leading Irish presence in the US.
Our practice encompasses all aspects of Irish corporate and business law. We only practice Irish law although a number of our attorneys are admitted, and have practised, in the US with outside law firms and in-house. We provide a comprehensive service to an international client base. We have a leading corporate practice and have significantly the largest tax practice amongst Irish law firms. We are consistently ranked as the leading tax law firm in Ireland by all the leading journals including the International Tax Review.
Our US Business Group is a leader in its field, advising many leading US corporations and institutions on the legal and tax aspects of doing business in and through Ireland.
We have extensive experience in dealing with the government agencies and authorities which have a role to play in the establishment, taxation and regulation of different types of operations in Ireland. We have advised both the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA) and the Department of Finance on various matters concerning the legal and tax aspects of Ireland’s inward investment infrastructure. We have also assisted these government agencies in the drafting of appropriate legislation to this end.
We are a full service corporate law firm covering every aspect of corporate, financial and business law. We have the resources to successfully manage and implement transactions according to our client’s requirements thereby helping our clients achieve their business objectives. We are committed to providing clients with advice and assistance of the highest calibre. Our approach in supporting in-house counsel of companies doing business in Ireland, is to ensure accessibility and support at short notice with a particular emphasis on efficient same day response where practicable. We also have offices in London, New York and Palo Alto, California and the interaction between those offices allows us to service the needs of clients across most major time-zones on a real time basis.
Our dedicated US Business Group and our Irish qualified lawyers in the US co-ordinate all of the firm’s US activities.
Our US Business Group is multi-disciplinary, drawing on the expertise of all relevant practice areas including corporate and commercial law, tax law, competition law, employment law, pensions law, property law, construction law, planning and environmental law, intellectual property and information technology law and banking and financial services law. We primarily advise on:
legal and tax aspects of doing business in and through Ireland
legal and tax aspects of restructurings and reorganisation projects involving Irish entities or assets
establishment of operations and related structures in and from Ireland
Corporate and Regulatory compliance services for international clients
- See more at: www.matheson.com/legal-services/us-business-group#sthash.Ak7DEpFH.dpuf
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Ireland
700 US companies now located in Ireland as direct investment soars
Figures reveal how American corporations continued to invest in the Irish Republic even during the recession
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/ireland-attracts-soaring-level-of-us-investment
HEADS UP APPLE Inc. POST #2
Ireland
700 US companies now located in Ireland as direct investment soars
Figures reveal how American corporations continued to invest in the Irish Republic even during the recession
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/ireland-attracts-soaring-level-of-us-investment
Dublin has attracted Facebook and other hi-tech firms.
Photograph: Peter Titmuss/Alamy
Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Thursday 5 March 2015
Ireland has benefited from $277bn (£182bn) of US direct foreign investment in the past two decades – gaining more from American firms than Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.
The figures from the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland go back to 1990 and show corporations continued to cross the Atlantic even during the dark years of the recent recession.
The ACCI’s latest report into foreign direct investment shows that 700 US companies based in Ireland now employ 130,000 people.
The list of major firms operating in the Republic includes Intel, Boston Scientific, Dell, Pfizer, Google, Hewlett Packard, Facebook and Johnson and Johnson.
Four years ago, there were just over 600 American companies based in Ireland, according to the country’s industrial development authority.
The report by Wall Street economist Joseph Quinlan revealed that even in 2013, the first year of a fragile economic recovery, American foreign direct investment rose by 42% to $37bn (£24m). In the same period, total US investment to Europe fell by 19% to $115bn (£75bn).
While big US firms such as Intel have been in Ireland for more than 20 years, several other giants arrived in the Republic when the financial crash occurred in 2008. In the midst of the crash, Facebook established a presence in Dublin and created 250 jobs. Its European HQ is located in what is now known as the Google Quarter in south-central Dublin.
Google and PayPal, which also use Ireland as a bridgehead into the European market, increased their workforces during the worst years of the recession.
At the world web summit in Dublin’s RDS conference centre last autumn, the IDA and the Irish government announced the creation of a further 1,000 technology jobs, the majority of which were with firms from the US.
In February, Apple announced a further major investment in its long-standing Irish operation with the construction of a giant €850m (£615m) data centre in Athenry, Co Galway. The centre is expected to create 300 new jobs and will be Apple’s largest data collection hub in Europe.
Launching the report in Dublin, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, Charlie Flanagan, said the study underlined the strength of the relationship between the two nations.
He said: “The report also indicates a bright future ahead with many US companies planning to grow their operations here; this is welcome news at a time where the latest figures show unemployment down for the 39th consecutive month in a row.”
A major draw for US firms is Ireland’s low 12.5% corporation tax rate and numerous controversial tax breaks. The government has promised to phase out the latter.
The corporate tax rate, which remains a sacrosanct part of Irish industrial policy, has been so successful in wooing US investment that the country’s neighbours across the border want it too. The Northern Ireland assembly passed legislation this week allowing for corporation tax powers to be devolved, with politicians at Stormont aiming for a similar rate.
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APPLE Inc USES AND STEALS FROM AMERICANS, BUT DOES NOT PROVIDE "MADE IN AMERICA" MERCHANDISE.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.…
Labor practices
Further information: Criticism of Apple Inc. § Labor practices
The company advertised its products as being made in America until the late 1990s; however, as a result of outsourcing initiatives in the 2000s, almost all of its manufacturing is now handled abroad. According to a report by the New York Times, Apple insiders "believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products".
In 2006, the Mail on Sunday reported on the working conditions of the Chinese factories where contract manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec produced the iPod. The article stated that one complex of factories that assembled the iPod and other items had over 200,000 workers living and working within it. Employees regularly worked more than 60 hours per week and made around $100 per month. A little over half of the workers' earnings was required to pay for rent and food from the company.
Apple immediately launched an investigation after the 2006 media report, and worked with their manufacturers to ensure acceptable working conditions. In 2007, Apple started yearly audits of all its suppliers regarding worker's rights, slowly raising standards and pruning suppliers that did not comply. Yearly progress reports have been published since 2008. In 2011, Apple admitted that its suppliers' child labor practices in China had worsened.
The Foxconn suicides occurred between January and November 2010, when 18 Foxconn (Chinese: 富士康) employees attempted suicide, resulting in 14 deaths—the company was the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, for clients including Apple, at the time. The suicides drew media attention, and employment practices at Foxconn were investigated by Apple. Apple issued a public statement about the suicides, and company spokesperson Steven Dowling said:
[Apple is] saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn ... A team from Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address these tragic events and we will continue our ongoing inspections of the facilities where our products are made.
The statement was released after the results from the company's probe into its suppliers' labor practices were published in early 2010. Foxconn was not specifically named in the report, but Apple identified a series of serious labor violations of labor laws, including Apple's own rules, and some child labor existed in a number of factories. Apple committed to the implementation of changes following the suicides.
Also in 2010, workers in China planned to sue iPhone contractors over poisoning by a cleaner used to clean LCD screens. One worker claimed that he and his coworkers had not been informed of possible occupational illnesses. After a high suicide rate in a Foxconn facility in China making iPads and iPhones, albeit a lower rate than that of China as a whole, workers were forced to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing that they would not kill themselves. Workers in factories producing Apple products have also been exposed to n-hexane, a neurotoxin that is a cheaper alternative than alcohol for cleaning the products.
In 2013, China Labor Watch said it found violations of the law and of Apple's working condition pledges at facilities operated by Pegatron. These violations included discrimination against ethnic minorities and women, withholding of employee pay, excessive work hours, poor living conditions, health and safety problems and pollution.
A 2014 BBC investigation found excessive hours and other problems persisted, despite Apple's promise to reform factory practice after the 2010 Foxconn suicides. The Pegatron factory was once again the subject of review, as reporters gained access to the working conditions inside through recruitment as employees. While the BBC maintained that the experiences of its reporters showed that labor violations were continuing since 2010, Apple publicly disagreed with the BBC and stated: “We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions".
In December 2014, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights published a report which documented inhumane conditions for the 15,000 workers at a Zhen Ding Technology factory in Shenzhen, China, which serves as a major supplier of circuit boards for Apple's iPhone and iPad. According to the report, workers are pressured into 65 hour work weeks which leaves them so exhausted that they often sleep during lunch breaks. They are also made to reside in "primitive, dark and filthy dorms" where they sleep "on plywood, with six to ten workers in each crowded room." Omnipresent security personnel also routinely harass and beat the workers.
Employee lawsuits at California retail stores
In a recent class action lawsuit in California approximately 12,400 former and current Apple retail store employees alleged they should have been compensated for having to wait in line and for undergoing off-the-clock security bag searches and clearance checks when they left work for meal breaks or at the end of their shifts. The unpaid search practice started in 2009 over concerns of increasing employee theft and the employees claimed the searches were not efficiently conducted. The suit alleged illegal and improper wage practices in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that deprived staff of wages they should have earned during what they contended was compensable time at "work". On November 7, 2015, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order granting Apple’s Motion for Summary Judgment dismissing each and every claim brought against Apple by the employees in this case.
No cold calling agreements in the United States
In 2013 class action against several Silicon Valley companies, including Apple, was filed for alleged "no cold call” agreements which restrained the recruitment of high-tech employees.
>>> Tax practices
Further information: Criticism of Apple Inc. § Tax practices
Global taxes paid by ASI, 2009–2011:
2011 2010 2009 Total
Pre-tax earnings
2011 US$22 billion
2010 US$12 billion
2009 US$4 billion
Total Pre-tax earnings = US$38 billion
Global tax
2011 US$10 million
2010 US$7 million
2009 US$4 million
Total Global Tax Payments US$21 million
Tax rate
2011 0.05%
2010 0.06%
2009 0.1%
Total tax rate pay 0.06%
Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world. According to The New York Times, in the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes. In the late 1980s Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich," which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean.
British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Charlie Elphicke published research on October 30, 2012, which showed that some multinational companies, including Apple Inc., were making billions of pounds of profit in the UK, but were paying an effective tax rate to the UK Treasury of only 3 percent, well below standard corporation tax. He followed this research by calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to force these multinationals, which also included Google and The Coca-Cola Company, to state the effective rate of tax they pay on their UK revenues. Elphicke also said that government contracts should be withheld from multinationals who do not pay their fair share of UK tax. In June 2014 the European Commissioner for Competition launched an investigation of Apple's tax practices in Ireland, as part of a wider probe of multi-national companies' tax arrangements in various European countries.
As part of the Luxembourg Leaks, Apple was revealed to use the Luxembourg tax haven for tax avoidance.
In 2015 Reuters reported that Apple had earnings abroad of $54.4 billion which were untaxed by the IRS. Under U.S. law corporations don't pay income tax on overseas profits until the profits are brought into the United States.
Litigation
Main article: Apple Inc. litigation
Apple has been a participant in various legal proceedings and claims since it began operation. In particular, Apple is known for and promotes itself as actively and aggressively enforcing its intellectual property interests. Some litigation examples include Apple v. Samsung, Apple v. Microsoft, Motorola Mobility v. Apple Inc., and Apple Corps v. Apple Computer. Apple has also had to defend itself against charges of violating other’s intellectual property rights. In October 2015, for example, a jury found that Apple had infringed a University of Wisconsin patent on microprocessor technology.
[(........And now because of GREED, CORRUPTION, PRIVACY VIOLATIONS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFTS, MICROAGGRESSIONS, AND MICROMANAGEMENT, DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST COUNTRIES... you are going to lose it all. I always did prefer Microsoft that somehow kept getting virally attacked while Apple products seemed virtually immune to hacking attempts... it's more than just suspicious. It's ILLEGAL ACTIVITY against competing businesses, among many other violations. ............)]
Charitable causes:
As of 2014, Apple is listed as a partner of the Product RED campaign. The campaign's mission is to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015. In November 2012, Apple donated $2.5 million to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy.
[(...........Didn't gwinnith Pltrow have a little girl and named her apple, and didn't she play the assistant to Iron Man in the movies and eventaully take over running the company, and wasn't Gwinnith Pltrow the one behind the mayor of Baltimore and the utter failed fiasco of their handling of the uprisings meant to become a civil war with the insurgents bussed in from Ferguson.... until I threw her ass out after she brought Sharlplton in because she had been identified? Uh, YES, these people can't seem to tell the difference between movies and REALITY. I remember at the time a sky-writer was hired to write a thank-you message to Gwinnith for her efforts in Baltimore placing Steve Jobs in either Australia or New Zealand underneath the Manuka Honey Bee farms (most likely); and Gwinnith has had the private ear of president obama since before his election to the day it was discovered that the presidential secret service had been infiltrated with people hired by Scientology not security, and those not hired out were being mentally manipulated. ........)]
Didn't Attorney General Eric Holder orchestrate the ATF gunrunning scandal through Mexico? Wasn't he hooked up with the New Black Panthers and caught rigging votes? Aren't they operating out of China holding them silent hostage? Isn't China being used to base out Las Vegas operations owned and run by a U.S. company operating in China? Maybe it's called "Apple"? Oh yes. Now I remember.
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Mexico: Stolen radioactive material found
By Rafael Romo. Nick Parker and Mariano Castillo, CNN
Updated 7:58 PM ET, Wed December 4, 2013
www.cnn.com/2013/12/04/world/americas/mexico-radioactive-theft/
A pair of thieves in Mexico may have stolen more than they bargained for when they targeted a truck this week.
The stolen vehicle was carrying delicate cargo -- a radioactive element used for medical purposes that also can be used to make a so-called dirty bomb.
Mexican authorities said they found the stolen truck and recovered likely all of the radioactive cobalt Wednesday in a remote area about 40 km (25 miles) away from where it was taken.
The suspected thieves are still on the loose, though authorities expect they could turn up at a clinic suffering symptoms of radiation exposure.
The container holding cobalt was found about a kilometer away from the truck and had been opened, said Juan Eibenschutz Hartman, head of Mexico's National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards.
There was less than 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of the hazardous material inside.
Authorities are guarding the area and have set up a 500-meter perimeter around it, Eibenschutz said. They are evaluating whether any residents were exposed.
Cleaning up the area could take weeks, he said, because they don't have robotic equipment they would need to quickly collect the dangerous cobalt. They're coming up with a plan and considering asking for help from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States or Canada.
The IAEA announced the theft on Wednesday.
Mexican authorities told the IAEA that the truck, which was transporting cobalt-60 from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center, was stolen Monday in Tepojaco, near Mexico City.
An early theory is that the thieves were unaware of what exactly they had taken.
"At the time the truck was stolen, the source was properly shielded," the IAEA said. "However, the source could be extremely dangerous to a person if removed from the shielding, or if it was damaged."
But Eibenschutz said the truck wasn't properly set up to transport the radioactive material, since it didn't have a GPS for tracking or other necessary equipment.
Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy and in industrial tools such as leveling devices and thickness gauges. Large sources of cobalt-60 are used to sterilize certain foods, as the gamma rays kill bacteria but don't damage the product, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
If released into the environment, the radioactive material can harm people.
And experts consider cobalt-60 one of the "candidates" for making dirty bombs.
Bombs made with cobalt-60 "pose a threat mainly because even a fraction of a gram emits a huge number of high-energy gamma rays; such material is harmful whether outside or inside the body," according to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service.
In a speech last year, the IAEA director warned that such a dirty bomb "detonated in a major city could cause mass panic, as well as serious economic and environmental consequences."
Preliminary information suggests that the thieves did not know what the truck's cargo was when they stole it, said Jaime Aguirre Gomez, deputy director of radiological security at the National Commission for Nuclear Security and Safeguards.
The shielding that protects the cobalt-60 is designed so that the radioactive source is difficult to extract, Aguirre said. The casing is designed not to be opened or perforated easily.
The truck and its cargo went missing early Monday after the driver of the white 2007 Volkswagen truck and an assistant had stopped to rest at a gas station, local prosecutor Marcos Morales told CNN.
At around 1 a.m. Monday, a man armed with a handgun knocked on the passenger window. When the passenger rolled down his window, the gunman demanded the keys to the vehicle, Morales said.
Both the driver and his assistant were taken to an empty lot where they were bound and told not to move. They heard one of the assailants use a walkie-talkie type device or phone to tell someone, "It's done," Morales said.
Mexico alerted the IAEA to the theft, following international protocol, Aguirre said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is assisting with the investigation into the stolen truck, Mexican authorities said.
The U.S. government has sensors at border crossings and sea ports to prevent radioactive materials from entering the country. This includes large stationary sensors designed to scan vehicles going through land border crossings as well as pager-size devices carried by agents.
Some of this equipment is sensitive enough that it has been set off by people who had recently undergone radiation therapy, according to a U.S. law-enforcement source.
According to the Congressional Research Service report, in Thailand in 2000, a disused cobalt-60 source was stored outdoors and bought by two scrap collectors, who took it to a junkyard where it was cut open.
Some workers suffered burn-like injuries, and eventually three people died and seven others suffered radiation injuries, the report says. Nearly 2,000 others who lived nearby were exposed to radiation.
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HUH. Suddenly this is a "NEW" thing? Nope. Not new.
By TUCKER REALS CBS NEWS April 16, 2015, 8:49 AM
Radioactive material stolen in Mexico
www.cbsnews.com/news/mexico-on-alert-after-radioactive-iridium-192-stolen-from-truck-in-tabasco-state/
The Mexican government has put civil protection agencies in five southern states and some federal agencies on alert following the theft of radioactive medical material from a vehicle on Monday.
CBS News partner network UNO TV reported the iridium-192, a radioactive compound used in mobile medical radiography work, was stolen from a vehicle in Tabasco state, near Mexico's border with Guatemala.
According to the report, the material is classified as Category 2 under the international nuclear watchdog's (IAEA) rating scale. While the iridium-192 was safely encased when stolen, UNO TV said a Category 2 material could cause serious lesions or even death within a day of exposure if removed from its protective casing.
The alert issued to authorities included the states of Tabasco, Campeche, Chiapas, Oaxaca and Veracruz.
According to UNO TV, the alert called on any local authorities who were to locate the radioactive material not to try and handle it, but rather to establish a secure perimeter around it of approximately 90 feet, and report it to federal officials.
This week's incident was at least the second time in recent years that dangerous radioactive material has been stolen from a vehicle in Mexico.
In December 2013, thieves made off -- apparently unwittingly -- with a container full of cobalt-60, also used in medical equipment, from a vehicle transporting it for safe disposal.
The cobalt, which is a Category 1 source under the IAEA's ranking system and thus more dangerous than the iridium stolen this week, was found in a field abandoned by thieves days later. Several people were treated for radiation exposure after its discovery.
There was no indication as of Thursday morning that the thieves behind the iridium's disappearance in Tabasco were anything other than misguided bandits, as turned out to be the case in 2013, but it will again pique the interest of security forces who worry about criminal and terrorist groups trying to obtain such materials.
In an article posted on the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists after the 2013 theft was resolved, two nuclear experts -- one of whom is a former IAEA employee -- wrote that medical sources of radioactivity like cobalt are more dangerous to those who handle them in their undiluted form than they would be "if spread using a radiological dispersal device such as a so-called 'dirty bomb.' Nonetheless, had the Mexican source been used in a dispersal device, the economic consequences could have been extremely significant."
The scientists urged greater accountability by national authorities in reporting to the IAEA incidents of theft like the ones in Mexico.
They also suggested establishing global standards for the transport and handling of radioactive medical materials, saying it "would be an important step toward enhancing the global nuclear security regime," but admitting it was a tall order, "given the difficulty of negotiating and implementing binding international instruments."
© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Important Points About Apple:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#2011.E2.80.93present:_Post-Jobs_era
A previously confidential email written by Jobs a year before his death, was presented during the proceedings of the Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. lawsuits and became publicly available in early April 2014. With a subject line that reads "Top 100 – A," the email was sent only to the company's 100 most senior employees and outlines Jobs's vision of Apple Inc.'s future under 10 subheadings. Notably, Jobs declares a "Holy War with Google" for 2011 and schedules a "new campus" for 2015.
[(........The government runs on the Google internet lines, and has annexed google's G-mail along with search histories, et al. Apple winning this war would mean Scientology's Monopoly of the intel mining market as well, NOT a "good" idea.......)]
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were Beatles fans, but Apple Inc. had name and logo trademark issues with Apple Corps Ltd., a multimedia company started by the Beatles in 1967. This resulted in a series of lawsuits and tension between the two companies. These issues ended with settling of their most recent lawsuit in 2007.
Apple Inc.'s world corporate headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley, at 1–6 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California. This Apple campus has six buildings that total 850,000 square feet (79,000 m2) and was built in 1993 by Sobrato Development Cos.
[(.......Apple is the main corporation under the direction and probable ownership of Scientology, a Monopoly of gigantic proportions violating EVERYONE's right to privacy by a public corporation, and I have personal experience being violated by these people starting with their theft of MY intellectual property = THE Touchscreen. .......)]
Apple has a satellite campus in neighboring Sunnyvale, California, where it houses a testing and research laboratory. AppleInsider published article in March 2014 claiming that Apple has a tucked away a top-secret facility where is developing the SG5 electric vehicle project codenamed "Titan" under the shell company name SixtyEight Research.
In 2006, Apple announced its intention to build a second campus in Cupertino about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the current campus and next to Interstate 280. The new campus building will be designed by Norman Foster. The Cupertino City Council approved the proposed "spaceship" design campus on October 15, 2013, after a 2011 presentation by Jobs detailing the architectural design of the new building and its environs. The new campus is planned to house up to 13,000 employees in one central, four-storied, circular building surrounded by extensive landscape. It will feature a café with room for 3,000 sitting people and parking underground as well as in a parking structure. The 2.8 million square foot facility will also include Jobs's original designs for a fitness center and a corporate auditorium.
Apple's headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) are located in Cork in the south of Ireland. The facility, which opened in 1980, was Apple's first location outside of the United States. Apple Sales International, which deals with all of Apple's international sales outside of the USA, is located at Apple's campus in Cork along with Apple Distribution International, which similarly deals with Apple's international distribution network. On April 20, 2012, Apple added 500 new jobs at its European headquarters, increasing the total workforce from around 2,800 to 3,300 employees. The company will build a new office block on its Hollyhill Campus to accommodate the additional staff. Its UK headquarters is at Stockley Park on the outskirts of London.
[(........Didn't all our United States personal and private information databank storage JUST GET MOVED TO IRELAND?? And new tax free business incentives have been offered to businesses moving to Ireland...See Posts Below.......)]
In February 2015, Apple opened their new 180,000-square-foot headquarters in Herzliya, Israel, which will accommodate approximately 800 employees. This opening was Apple's third office located within Israel; the first, also in Herzliya, was obtained as part of the Anobit acquisition, and the other is a research center in Haifa.
[(........No wonder Iran predicted there would be no more Israel within the next decade. With Apple and Steve Jobs hiding out there, no wonder the outbreak of all the violence has been occurring. Israel had best eject them as soon as possible or Israel will be gone, and I'm certain that's what Steve Jobs inteds to do. He is not dead, he's only hiding so he can cause a great deal of trouble and take over the world by controlling corporations, governments, and politicians without getting caught (he hopes). DO NOT let him! He's a total Jerk and he owes me EVERYTHING. His company was going under and losing to Microsoft when he STOLE my intellectual property: The Touchscreen. This is his END of his business 'ventures' CREEPER electronically spying on everyone by breaking and entering total violation of privacy and ILLEGAL........)]
Alongside Google vice-president Vint Cerf and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, Cook attended a closed-door summit held by President Obama on August 8, 2013, in regard to government surveillance and the Internet in the wake of the Edward Snowden NSA incident. On February 4, 2014, Cook met with Abdullah Gül, the President of Turkey, in Ankara to discuss the company's involvement in the Fatih project. Cook also confirmed that Turkey's first Apple Retail Store would be opened in Istanbul in April 2014.
[(........Possibly the GULEN Movement? Maybe why Turkey is having so much trouble recently! Scientology, Apple, and Gulen Movement are all in it together. One step away from the creation of Scientology's extended arm of ISIS.........)]
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HEADS UP APPLE Inc. POST #1
Matheson US Business Group
www.matheson.com/legal-services/us-business-group
“As a US company moving into Ireland, we found the lawyers flexible and understanding of the particular needs of our business.”
Chambers Europe 2013
Ireland has succeeded in attracting some of the world’s largest organisations to establish operations here. This includes some of the most advanced and leading companies in the technology, pharmaceutical, biosciences, manufacturing and financial services sectors.
There are a number of key reasons:
- Ireland’s low corporate tax rate – corporation tax on trading profits is 12.5% which does not breach EU or OECD harmful tax competition criteria
- regulatory, economic and people infrastructure of a highly-developed OECD jurisdiction
- benefits of EU membership and the only English–speaking jurisdiction in the euro-zone
- as a common law jurisdiction, our legal system is similar to that of the US and the UK
- provision of a specific tax credit for research and development activity
- very limited transfer pricing rules
- an extensive and expanding double tax treaty network with 46 countries, including the US
- we traditionally have had a strong, long-standing relationship with the US
Why Matheson?
With a primary focus on serving the Irish legal needs of international companies and financial institutions doing business in and through Ireland, our clients include over half of the Fortune 100 companies. We also advise 7 of the top 10 global technology brands and over half of the world's largest banks. We are committed to having a strong presence where our clients are located. We were the first European law firm to establish a presence in Silicon Valley (in 1996), and together with our office in New York, we are proud to have the market-leading Irish presence in the US.
Our practice encompasses all aspects of Irish corporate and business law. We only practice Irish law although a number of our attorneys are admitted, and have practised, in the US with outside law firms and in-house. We provide a comprehensive service to an international client base. We have a leading corporate practice and have significantly the largest tax practice amongst Irish law firms. We are consistently ranked as the leading tax law firm in Ireland by all the leading journals including the International Tax Review.
Our US Business Group is a leader in its field, advising many leading US corporations and institutions on the legal and tax aspects of doing business in and through Ireland.
We have extensive experience in dealing with the government agencies and authorities which have a role to play in the establishment, taxation and regulation of different types of operations in Ireland. We have advised both the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland (IDA) and the Department of Finance on various matters concerning the legal and tax aspects of Ireland’s inward investment infrastructure. We have also assisted these government agencies in the drafting of appropriate legislation to this end.
We are a full service corporate law firm covering every aspect of corporate, financial and business law. We have the resources to successfully manage and implement transactions according to our client’s requirements thereby helping our clients achieve their business objectives. We are committed to providing clients with advice and assistance of the highest calibre. Our approach in supporting in-house counsel of companies doing business in Ireland, is to ensure accessibility and support at short notice with a particular emphasis on efficient same day response where practicable. We also have offices in London, New York and Palo Alto, California and the interaction between those offices allows us to service the needs of clients across most major time-zones on a real time basis.
Our dedicated US Business Group and our Irish qualified lawyers in the US co-ordinate all of the firm’s US activities.
Our US Business Group is multi-disciplinary, drawing on the expertise of all relevant practice areas including corporate and commercial law, tax law, competition law, employment law, pensions law, property law, construction law, planning and environmental law, intellectual property and information technology law and banking and financial services law. We primarily advise on:
legal and tax aspects of doing business in and through Ireland
legal and tax aspects of restructurings and reorganisation projects involving Irish entities or assets
establishment of operations and related structures in and from Ireland
Corporate and Regulatory compliance services for international clients
- See more at: www.matheson.com/legal-services/us-business-group#sthash.Ak7DEpFH.dpuf
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Ireland
700 US companies now located in Ireland as direct investment soars
Figures reveal how American corporations continued to invest in the Irish Republic even during the recession
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/ireland-attracts-soaring-level-of-us-investment
HEADS UP APPLE Inc. POST #2
Ireland
700 US companies now located in Ireland as direct investment soars
Figures reveal how American corporations continued to invest in the Irish Republic even during the recession
www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/ireland-attracts-soaring-level-of-us-investment
Dublin has attracted Facebook and other hi-tech firms.
Photograph: Peter Titmuss/Alamy
Henry McDonald Ireland correspondent
Thursday 5 March 2015
Ireland has benefited from $277bn (£182bn) of US direct foreign investment in the past two decades – gaining more from American firms than Brazil, Russia, India and China combined.
The figures from the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland go back to 1990 and show corporations continued to cross the Atlantic even during the dark years of the recent recession.
The ACCI’s latest report into foreign direct investment shows that 700 US companies based in Ireland now employ 130,000 people.
The list of major firms operating in the Republic includes Intel, Boston Scientific, Dell, Pfizer, Google, Hewlett Packard, Facebook and Johnson and Johnson.
Four years ago, there were just over 600 American companies based in Ireland, according to the country’s industrial development authority.
The report by Wall Street economist Joseph Quinlan revealed that even in 2013, the first year of a fragile economic recovery, American foreign direct investment rose by 42% to $37bn (£24m). In the same period, total US investment to Europe fell by 19% to $115bn (£75bn).
While big US firms such as Intel have been in Ireland for more than 20 years, several other giants arrived in the Republic when the financial crash occurred in 2008. In the midst of the crash, Facebook established a presence in Dublin and created 250 jobs. Its European HQ is located in what is now known as the Google Quarter in south-central Dublin.
Google and PayPal, which also use Ireland as a bridgehead into the European market, increased their workforces during the worst years of the recession.
At the world web summit in Dublin’s RDS conference centre last autumn, the IDA and the Irish government announced the creation of a further 1,000 technology jobs, the majority of which were with firms from the US.
In February, Apple announced a further major investment in its long-standing Irish operation with the construction of a giant €850m (£615m) data centre in Athenry, Co Galway. The centre is expected to create 300 new jobs and will be Apple’s largest data collection hub in Europe.
Launching the report in Dublin, Ireland’s minister for foreign affairs and trade, Charlie Flanagan, said the study underlined the strength of the relationship between the two nations.
He said: “The report also indicates a bright future ahead with many US companies planning to grow their operations here; this is welcome news at a time where the latest figures show unemployment down for the 39th consecutive month in a row.”
A major draw for US firms is Ireland’s low 12.5% corporation tax rate and numerous controversial tax breaks. The government has promised to phase out the latter.
The corporate tax rate, which remains a sacrosanct part of Irish industrial policy, has been so successful in wooing US investment that the country’s neighbours across the border want it too. The Northern Ireland assembly passed legislation this week allowing for corporation tax powers to be devolved, with politicians at Stormont aiming for a similar rate.
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APPLE Inc USES AND STEALS FROM AMERICANS, BUT DOES NOT PROVIDE "MADE IN AMERICA" MERCHANDISE.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.…
Labor practices
Further information: Criticism of Apple Inc. § Labor practices
The company advertised its products as being made in America until the late 1990s; however, as a result of outsourcing initiatives in the 2000s, almost all of its manufacturing is now handled abroad. According to a report by the New York Times, Apple insiders "believe the vast scale of overseas factories as well as the flexibility, diligence and industrial skills of foreign workers have so outpaced their American counterparts that “Made in the U.S.A.” is no longer a viable option for most Apple products".
In 2006, the Mail on Sunday reported on the working conditions of the Chinese factories where contract manufacturers Foxconn and Inventec produced the iPod. The article stated that one complex of factories that assembled the iPod and other items had over 200,000 workers living and working within it. Employees regularly worked more than 60 hours per week and made around $100 per month. A little over half of the workers' earnings was required to pay for rent and food from the company.
Apple immediately launched an investigation after the 2006 media report, and worked with their manufacturers to ensure acceptable working conditions. In 2007, Apple started yearly audits of all its suppliers regarding worker's rights, slowly raising standards and pruning suppliers that did not comply. Yearly progress reports have been published since 2008. In 2011, Apple admitted that its suppliers' child labor practices in China had worsened.
The Foxconn suicides occurred between January and November 2010, when 18 Foxconn (Chinese: 富士康) employees attempted suicide, resulting in 14 deaths—the company was the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer, for clients including Apple, at the time. The suicides drew media attention, and employment practices at Foxconn were investigated by Apple. Apple issued a public statement about the suicides, and company spokesperson Steven Dowling said:
[Apple is] saddened and upset by the recent suicides at Foxconn ... A team from Apple is independently evaluating the steps they are taking to address these tragic events and we will continue our ongoing inspections of the facilities where our products are made.
The statement was released after the results from the company's probe into its suppliers' labor practices were published in early 2010. Foxconn was not specifically named in the report, but Apple identified a series of serious labor violations of labor laws, including Apple's own rules, and some child labor existed in a number of factories. Apple committed to the implementation of changes following the suicides.
Also in 2010, workers in China planned to sue iPhone contractors over poisoning by a cleaner used to clean LCD screens. One worker claimed that he and his coworkers had not been informed of possible occupational illnesses. After a high suicide rate in a Foxconn facility in China making iPads and iPhones, albeit a lower rate than that of China as a whole, workers were forced to sign a legally binding document guaranteeing that they would not kill themselves. Workers in factories producing Apple products have also been exposed to n-hexane, a neurotoxin that is a cheaper alternative than alcohol for cleaning the products.
In 2013, China Labor Watch said it found violations of the law and of Apple's working condition pledges at facilities operated by Pegatron. These violations included discrimination against ethnic minorities and women, withholding of employee pay, excessive work hours, poor living conditions, health and safety problems and pollution.
A 2014 BBC investigation found excessive hours and other problems persisted, despite Apple's promise to reform factory practice after the 2010 Foxconn suicides. The Pegatron factory was once again the subject of review, as reporters gained access to the working conditions inside through recruitment as employees. While the BBC maintained that the experiences of its reporters showed that labor violations were continuing since 2010, Apple publicly disagreed with the BBC and stated: “We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions".
In December 2014, the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights published a report which documented inhumane conditions for the 15,000 workers at a Zhen Ding Technology factory in Shenzhen, China, which serves as a major supplier of circuit boards for Apple's iPhone and iPad. According to the report, workers are pressured into 65 hour work weeks which leaves them so exhausted that they often sleep during lunch breaks. They are also made to reside in "primitive, dark and filthy dorms" where they sleep "on plywood, with six to ten workers in each crowded room." Omnipresent security personnel also routinely harass and beat the workers.
Employee lawsuits at California retail stores
In a recent class action lawsuit in California approximately 12,400 former and current Apple retail store employees alleged they should have been compensated for having to wait in line and for undergoing off-the-clock security bag searches and clearance checks when they left work for meal breaks or at the end of their shifts. The unpaid search practice started in 2009 over concerns of increasing employee theft and the employees claimed the searches were not efficiently conducted. The suit alleged illegal and improper wage practices in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act that deprived staff of wages they should have earned during what they contended was compensable time at "work". On November 7, 2015, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order granting Apple’s Motion for Summary Judgment dismissing each and every claim brought against Apple by the employees in this case.
No cold calling agreements in the United States
In 2013 class action against several Silicon Valley companies, including Apple, was filed for alleged "no cold call” agreements which restrained the recruitment of high-tech employees.
>>> Tax practices
Further information: Criticism of Apple Inc. § Tax practices
Global taxes paid by ASI, 2009–2011:
2011 2010 2009 Total
Pre-tax earnings
2011 US$22 billion
2010 US$12 billion
2009 US$4 billion
Total Pre-tax earnings = US$38 billion
Global tax
2011 US$10 million
2010 US$7 million
2009 US$4 million
Total Global Tax Payments US$21 million
Tax rate
2011 0.05%
2010 0.06%
2009 0.1%
Total tax rate pay 0.06%
Apple has created subsidiaries in low-tax places such as the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands to cut the taxes it pays around the world. According to The New York Times, in the 1980s Apple was among the first tech companies to designate overseas salespeople in high-tax countries in a manner that allowed the company to sell on behalf of low-tax subsidiaries on other continents, sidestepping income taxes. In the late 1980s Apple was a pioneer of an accounting technique known as the "Double Irish with a Dutch sandwich," which reduces taxes by routing profits through Irish subsidiaries and the Netherlands and then to the Caribbean.
British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Charlie Elphicke published research on October 30, 2012, which showed that some multinational companies, including Apple Inc., were making billions of pounds of profit in the UK, but were paying an effective tax rate to the UK Treasury of only 3 percent, well below standard corporation tax. He followed this research by calling on the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to force these multinationals, which also included Google and The Coca-Cola Company, to state the effective rate of tax they pay on their UK revenues. Elphicke also said that government contracts should be withheld from multinationals who do not pay their fair share of UK tax. In June 2014 the European Commissioner for Competition launched an investigation of Apple's tax practices in Ireland, as part of a wider probe of multi-national companies' tax arrangements in various European countries.
As part of the Luxembourg Leaks, Apple was revealed to use the Luxembourg tax haven for tax avoidance.
In 2015 Reuters reported that Apple had earnings abroad of $54.4 billion which were untaxed by the IRS. Under U.S. law corporations don't pay income tax on overseas profits until the profits are brought into the United States.
Litigation
Main article: Apple Inc. litigation
Apple has been a participant in various legal proceedings and claims since it began operation. In particular, Apple is known for and promotes itself as actively and aggressively enforcing its intellectual property interests. Some litigation examples include Apple v. Samsung, Apple v. Microsoft, Motorola Mobility v. Apple Inc., and Apple Corps v. Apple Computer. Apple has also had to defend itself against charges of violating other’s intellectual property rights. In October 2015, for example, a jury found that Apple had infringed a University of Wisconsin patent on microprocessor technology.
[(........And now because of GREED, CORRUPTION, PRIVACY VIOLATIONS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFTS, MICROAGGRESSIONS, AND MICROMANAGEMENT, DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST COUNTRIES... you are going to lose it all. I always did prefer Microsoft that somehow kept getting virally attacked while Apple products seemed virtually immune to hacking attempts... it's more than just suspicious. It's ILLEGAL ACTIVITY against competing businesses, among many other violations. ............)]
Charitable causes:
As of 2014, Apple is listed as a partner of the Product RED campaign. The campaign's mission is to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child by 2015. In November 2012, Apple donated $2.5 million to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts after Hurricane Sandy.
[(...........Didn't gwinnith Pltrow have a little girl and named her apple, and didn't she play the assistant to Iron Man in the movies and eventaully take over running the company, and wasn't Gwinnith Pltrow the one behind the mayor of Baltimore and the utter failed fiasco of their handling of the uprisings meant to become a civil war with the insurgents bussed in from Ferguson.... until I threw her ass out after she brought Sharlplton in because she had been identified? Uh, YES, these people can't seem to tell the difference between movies and REALITY. I remember at the time a sky-writer was hired to write a thank-you message to Gwinnith for her efforts in Baltimore placing Steve Jobs in either Australia or New Zealand underneath the Manuka Honey Bee farms (most likely); and Gwinnith has had the private ear of president obama since before his election to the day it was discovered that the presidential secret service had been infiltrated with people hired by Scientology not security, and those not hired out were being mentally manipulated. ........)]