QUOTE OF THE DAY
“No one can stop us from casting our vote on election day. We will participate in the election.”
Mohammad Fared, 23, a resident of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Taliban militant attacks on the election commission’s headquarters Saturday in an attempt to scare away voters Article, this page
Cuba OKs foreign-investment overhaul
HAVANA - Cuban lawmakers on Saturday approved a law aimed at making Cuba more attractive to foreign investors, a measure seen as vital for the island’s struggling economy.
Meeting in an extraordinary session, parliament replaced a 1995 foreign-investment law that has lured less overseas capital than the island’s Communist leaders had hoped.
Cuba’s gross domestic product expanded 2.7 percent last year, below targets and weak for a developing nation.
Government officials say the economy needs 5 percent to 7 percent annual growth to develop properly.
Some details of the legislation emerged in official media in recent days. Among other things, it will cut taxes on profits by about half, to 15 percent, and make companies exempt from paying taxes for the first eight years of operation.
An exception will affect companies that exploit natural resources, such as nickel or fossil fuels. They could pay taxes as high as 50 percent.
Meanwhile, many foreigners doing business with the island will be exempt from paying personal income tax.
Investment projects wholly funded by foreign capital will be explicitly allowed in all sectors except health care and education, something that is essentially unheard of today.
In Egypt, 2 to die for tossing 2 off roof
CAIRO - A court in Egypt’s second-largest city sentenced two supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi to death Saturday for throwing two people off the roof of a building during violent protests after the Islamist president was deposed, according to Egypt’s state news agency.
The agency said the court in Alexandria found the men guilty of murdering a child and a young man in the coastal city during mass protests that demanded Morsi’s reinstatement after he was removed from power by the military.
The roof altercation happened July 5, two days after Morsi’s ouster. It was one of the most dramatic acts of violence on a day in which 16 other people were killed in Alexandria.
One of those killed was Hamada Badr, 9, who witnesses said was stabbed and then thrown off the roof. Another man in his 20s was hurled to his death, and Morsi supporters were seen beating his lifeless body.
The father of the 9-year old said the verdict was partial vindication.
“But I want all the Brotherhood leadership tried and sentenced to death,” Badr Hassouna said.
NSA said to keep files on Merkel, others
BERLIN - German magazine Der Spiegel has reported that the U.S. National Security Agency kept more than 300 reports on Chancellor Angela Merkel in a special databank about scores of foreign heads of state.
The magazine said Saturday that the secret file about the surveillance of Merkel was part of a trove of documents obtained by former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden. Other leaders listed in the databank include the heads of Peru, Somalia, Guatemala, Colombia and Belarus.
Earlier this month, German lawmakers agreed to launch an inquiry into surveillance conducted by the agency and other foreign intelligence services, including the tapping of Merkel’s cellphone, which was revealed in 2013.
Twitter wins bid to keep Turkish account
ANKARA, Turkey - In a second ruling against Turkey’s ban on Twitter, a Turkish court has overturned an order for the social media network to remove an account that accuses a former minister of corruption, reports said Saturday.
Turkey recently suspended access to Twitter, which has been a conduit for links to recordings suggesting corruption by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which faces local elections today.
The government then blocked access to YouTube after the leak of an audio recording of a top security meeting where officials purportedly discussed a military intervention in neighboring Syria.
Twitter, which is challenging the ban in Turkish courts, announced late Friday that a court in Istanbul had ruled in its favor over the account that accuses former Transport Minister Binali Yildirim of corruption. It called the decision a “win for freedom of expression.”
Front Section, Pages 6 on 03/30/2014