Action to protect children from online porn long overdue
Teachers and parents have made teaching five-year-olds about porn part of our national conversation; a sign that action is long overdue.
British shoppers vote Apple best on the high street
The Apple Store has been voted the best shop on the high street in a survey of 11,000 British shoppers.
'Call a spade a spade' - Google under attack
A stroppy session of one of Westminster's most powerful committees and one of the world's biggest businesses is just drawing to close.
Live updates
Apple pay 'an extraordinary amount' in US taxes
Apple said they paid "an extraordinary amount" in US taxes after a Senate committee report claimed the company was avoiding paying billions of dollars.
The technology giant said in a statement: "Apple does not move its intellectual property into offshore tax havens and use it to sell products back into the US in order to avoid US tax.
"It does not use revolving loans from foreign subsidiaries to fund its domestic operations; it does not hold money on a Caribbean island; and it does not have a bank account in the Cayman Islands."
Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to testify and explain the company's tax strategy at a subcommittee hearing today.
Apple 'sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance'
Apple has been accused of seeking "the Holy Grail of tax avoidance" by a US Senate committee.
The technology giant has avoided paying billions of dollars in US taxes by using "offshore entities", according to the report.
The US Senate committee chairman Senator Carl Levin said: "Apple wasn't satisfied with shifting its profits to a low-tax offshore tax haven.
"Apple sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance. It has created offshore entities holding tens of billions of dollars, while claiming to be tax resident nowhere."
Committee member and former Republican candidate for the US Presidency John McCain added: "While Apple claims to be the biggest US corporate taxpayer, it is also among America's largest tax avoiders."
Advertisement
Apple defends US tax record
Apple said in a comment posted online that it does not use "tax gimmicks." It said the existence of its subsidiary 'Apple Operations International' in Ireland does not reduce Apple's US tax liability and the company will pay more than $7 billion in US taxes in 2013.
In submitted testimony ahead of the hearing, Apple said any tax reform should favour lower corporate income tax rates regardless of revenue, eliminate tax expenditures and implement a "reasonable tax on foreign earnings that allows free movement of capital back to the US."
"Apple recognizes these and other improvements in the US corporate tax system may increase the company's taxes," it said.
US Senate questions Apple's 'tax loopholes'
Apple has been accused of employing a group of affiliate companies located in Ireland to avoid paying billions of dollars in US income taxes, a Senate investigation has alleged.
According to the report, Apple is holding around $102 billion of its $145 billion in cash overseas, and an Irish subsidiary that earned $22 billion in 2011 paid only $10 million in taxes.
But the committee said there was no indication Apple had done anything illegal. Many other multinational corporations use similar tax techniques to avoid paying US income taxes on profits they make overseas.
But the report found that Apple uses a unique twist, and lawmakers are raising questions about loopholes in the US tax code.
Yahoo to make photo-sharing site Flickr 'awesome'
Yahoo is set to make photo-sharing site Flickr "awesome" again, as the company revealed it has redesigned the website.
The news comes as Yahoo announced its $1.1 billion (£723m) takeover of blogging platform Tumblr.
Speaking at an event in New York City, Yahoo said it was now offering Flickr users one terabyte of online storage for free, enough to store more than 500,000 images at a resolution common to most smartphones.
The company also revealed the new website will emphasise photos rather than text or white space, creating bigger pictures, shared in full resolution.
UK astronaut set for space launch in 2015
Major Tim Peake is set to become the first British man in space for more than 20 years, when he spends five months at the International Space Station in 2015.
Major Peake, a former army test pilot, said his selection is a "true privilege".
Science Editor Lawrence McGinty reports:
Read: UK's new spaceman describes mission as 'true privilege'
Advertisement
High-school dropout sells Tumblr for $1.1bn
High school dropout David Karp has sold his blogging website Tumblr for $1.1bn to Yahoo! He founded Tumblr in his bedroom in his mother's apartment in 2007 when he was 21.
It had 75,000 users in a fortnight of its launch and now there are roughly 110 million.
It means a $250m (£164m) fortune for the 26-year-old founder, six years after he created it.
US Correspondent Robert Moore reports.
Yahoo 'promise not to screw up' Tumblr deal
US tech giant Yahoo has snapped up Tumblr in a major US deal that will reportedly net the blogging site's 26-year-old founder a 250 million US dollar (£164 million) fortune six years after he started it.
– Yahoo chief executive Marissa MayerPer the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business. David Karp will remain CEO.
Action to protect children from online porn long overdue
Teachers and parents have made teaching five-year-olds about porn part of our national conversation; a sign that action is long overdue.
Read the full storyYoungsters 'need to know how to avoid' internet porn
– Russell Hobby, general secretary of the National Association of Head TeachersThere is no place for explicit materials in the classroom or school, even in the course of teaching about their dangers, but many young people are exposed to such materials on the internet and phones.
In the face of this young people need to know how to cope with and avoid these distorted views of relationships.
