Forums: Use Tax

Republicans used a procedural move Wednesday to halt hearings in the Senate and force Democrats to vote on a series of politically dicey matters relating to the health care "fixes" sent over by the House this week. Senate Republicans said they would insist that no committee meet after 11 a.m., two hours after the Senate gaveled in on Wednesday. The objection was used as part of the "two-hour rule," a formality that requires unanimous consent for the Senate to meet two hours after the chamber has come into session.

JERUSALEM – Restrictions on access to abortion would turn women's bodies into vessels to be "used" by fetuses, according to President Obama's newly confirmed regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein. "A restriction on access to abortion turns women's reproductive capacities into something to be used by fetuses. ... Legal and social control of women's sexual and reproductive capacities has been a principal historical source of sexual inequality," Sunstein wrote in his 1993 book "The Partial Constitution."

Some Muslims have refused to use alcohol-based hand gels to combat the spread of swine flu because they claim it is against their religion. Some of those employed by St Albans Council in Hertfordshire have complained about the antibacterial lotion, which is considered a key strategy in containing the virus.

Is NBC re-thinking its ways to take some viewers away from FOX news?

Record oil prices have failed to temper the enthusiasm of Chinese auto buyers. In 2006, 6.2 million cars were sold in China, enough for the Middle Kingdom to surpass Japan for #2 in total vehicle sales (the United States still sells twice as many). In the first five months of 2008, Chinese auto sales show no signs of decelerating, up 17.4% from the same period last year. The rise in Chinese auto sales has been so dramatic that projections by China’s government for auto sales in 2020 were already exceeded by 2005. Millions of tons of copper, nickel, aluminum have...

Hobbits mastered use of stone tools Leigh Dayton, Science writer October 09, 2007 HOBBITS may have had long arms and tiny brains but our new-found cousins were agile and smart enough to make stone tools used to fashion other tools, probably for hunting and butchering animals. What's more, they did so at least 40,000 years before modern humans arrived on their home island of Flores in Indonesia. The discovery comes from Queensland scientists who have studied wear patterns and residue on about 100 stone tools found with the remains of hobbits (Homo floresiensis) in Liang Bua cave by Australian and...

A draft constitution was previously rejected by French and Dutch voters Legal experts from the 27 countries of the European Union have agreed on a draft reform treaty. The treaty is set to replace the defunct European constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters. Portugal, which holds the EU presidency until the end of the year, hopes to get agreement on the treaty at an EU summit in Lisbon later this month. Possible domestic opposition to the treaty in Poland and Britain mean they may present the biggest hurdles. The treaty aims to streamline the workings of the EU...

Postal companies should be free to compete for customers across the European Union from 2011 as governments on Monday ended a year-long deadlock over opening the €88bn ($125bn, £61bn) market. Only Luxembourg opposed the decision, after concerns from France and Italy were addressed. The grand duchy and 10 other countries in the 27-member bloc won the right to delay domestic liberalisation for two years. The move will, in theory, allow any operator to carry letters under the 50g “reserved” threshold, although powerful incumbents are still favourites to retain the business. The rest of the market has been open for some...

BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - Microsoft suffered a stunning defeat on Monday when a European Union court backed a European Commission ruling that the U.S. software giant illegally abused its market power to crush competitors. The European Union's second-highest court dismissed the company's appeal on all substantive points of the 2004 antitrust ruling. More importantly, it endorsed Commission sanctions against Microsoft's tying together of software and refusal to give rival makers of office servers information to enable their products to work smoothly with Windows, used by 95 percent of computers. It annulled only the EU regulator's imposition of a Microsoft-funded independent trustee...