The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now | ||
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1. Hong Kong authorities started clearing on Thursday the main pro-democracy protest site near government headquarters that has block major roads in the city's financial district for nearly 10 weeks. 2. Israel is dealing with the worst oil spill in its 66-year history after a breached pipeline leaked as much as 5 million litres of crude into the Evrona desert reserve and could spread to the Red Sea shore. 3. A US Senate report on CIA interrogations claims that the intelligence agency lied about how Osama Bin Laden was captured in 2011. 4. Google said it will shut its Google news service in Spain due to a new law that requires the company to pay publishers for showing their work. 5. The OEPC decreased its projection for oil demand in 2015 to 28.9 million barrels a day, its lowest level since 2002. 6. Greenpeace has apologised for a placing a banner next to the figure of an ancient hummingbird carved into the ground in Peru, which was part of a publicity stunt to put pressure on the United Nations climate talks in Lima. 7. Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai and Indian activist Kailash Satyarthi received their Nobel Peace Prizes on Wednesday at a ceremony in Oslo. 8. Brazil's National Truth Commission on Wednesday released a damning 2,000-page report on the killings and acts of torture commited between 1964 and 1985 under the nation's military dictatorship. 9. Alan Rusbridger will step down as editor in chief of The Guardian next year, to become chair of The Scott Trust, which owns Guardian Media Group. 10. Northern regions of the UK were pounded Wednesday and early Thursday by strong winds and huge waves spawned by a "weather bomb" storm system. And finally ... The BBC is going to build an insane theme park in Kent, a county south east of London. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Google News to close in Spain due to intellectual property law | ||
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New York (AFP) - Google said it will shut down Google News in Spain because of a new law that will force it to pay news outlets whose content it publishes, partially or in whole. Google News will close in Spain on December 16 because of the law, which takes effect in January. "Sadly, as a result of a new Spanish law, we'll shortly have to close Google News in Spain," Google News director Richard Gingras wrote on a company blog. "This new legislation requires every Spanish publication to charge services like Google News for showing even the smallest snippet from their publications, whether they want to or not," Gingras wrote. "As Google News itself makes no money (we do not show any advertising on the site) this new approach is simply not sustainable," he added. The Spanish measure is part of an intellectual property rights law that was adopted by parliament in October. Google News' closure comes as no real surprise, as the company had made a threat to this effect as the bill made its way through the Spanish legislature. Google argued then, and repeated in its latest statement, that its news site drives readers to Spanish web sites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue. Google is facing pressure from publishers in several European countries, who accuse the online search titan of taking advantage of its dominant position in the market and are demanding payment for use of their content.
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France Is About To Plunge Into Deflation | ||
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French inflation just sank to another five-year low, down at 0.4% in November, compared to the same month last year, leaving France even further away from the European Central Bank's 2% inflation target.. Analysts were expecting a 0.5% figure. But it's even worse than that. France's core inflation is now at -0.2%. It's negative for the first time the country started recording it. It's much harder to blame falling oil prices for that: core inflation deliberately strips out volatile items like fresh food and energy, to try to give an idea of the underlying trend. Here's France's headline inflation tumbling:
BNP Paribas economists had this to say in a note: "Keeping in mind that the annual inflation rate still includes the impact of the early 2015 VAT hike, we should expect headline inflation to fall in negative territory early next year." France raised VAT to 20% from 19.6% in January, the effect of which has kept prices up all year. But from January, that effect will fall away, and combined with falling oil prices, deflation is now looking likely for Europe's second biggest economy. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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