Business

More than five years after the 11 September 2001 attacks, human remains from the World Trade Center's fallen towers have been uncovered at the cross of 29th Street and 11th Avenue in New York City. Works from Manhattan's Consolidation Edison found the remains and took them to a natural gas vehicle refueling station, where they called medical examiners to the scene. It is unclear when the remains were found or what condition they are in. An estimated 2,749 people died as a consequence of the September 11 attacks, and family members of about 1,

New Zealand Post has introduced fees for redirecting mail to a new home and also holding mail from being delivered, the fees will be introduced from November 1, 2006, unless the redirector is officially old. The new fees will mean for the first two months you have mail redirection in place will cost NZ$20, instead of the usual free two months. It is double price for international going mail. It will cost $5 for residential users placing a hold on their mail, $10 for businesses per week. Graham Smith, marketing general manager for New Zealand

The leader of the government's political partner, United Future and Revenue minister, Peter Dunne has announced that there will be personal tax cuts to go along with the confirmed business tax cuts in 2008. Peter Dunne's newsletter, sent yesterday, said: "The business tax reduction proposals I announced with Michael Cullen in the Business Tax Review in July will go ahead from April 2008, and they will be accompanied by personal tax adjustments as well, just as we foreshadowed." They would be "the first major cuts by either government since 199

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assured local and foreign investors in the country that the government has placed national security on its top priority as alert levels against possible terror attacks were raised in the capital region Metro Manila and in Mindanao island. Arroyo while speaking before the 8th CEO Forum of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines in Makati City asked for help and more information on any possible terror cells in the country. Arroyo emphasized that, "The strong cooperation between

The New Zealand Labour Party attempted to sell one of their pledge card at online auction site, TradeMe. It only fetched NZ$30. But a similar auction run by Libertarianz leader, Bernard Darnton is fetching in the upwards of $400, however the current bid (at time of writing this was) at $440,000 is probably a fake bid. The pledge card Darnton is selling has described it as being: "Mint condition original 2005 Labour Party pledge card, nicely framed - just like the New Zealand taxpayer." He is selling it so he can raise money to take Labour to c

Over the weekend, millions of Americans faced the new ban of online gambling. The legislation was attached by Rep. Bill Frist to the Port Security bill. Many of the public companies that offer online gambling have been quick to react and give their outlooks on the legislature. Party Gaming and 888 among others have said that they will shut down all U.S. operations if President Bush signs the bill into law. This sent online gambling stocks tumbling with Party Gaming leading the way with a 55% decrease in market value. The people involved are

The microcredit Grameen Bank and its creator, Muhammad Yunus, are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below." Most people were expecting the founder to be nominated for the Economics Nobel prize but the Norwegian Nobel Institute decided to award him the Peace Prize for his attempt to destroy poverty, emphasizing women who have to "struggle against repressive social and economic conditions". Yunus, from Bangladesh, said "We want the same kind of unity in politics like the uni

Mark Andrew Scott, 39-years-old, and his partner, Vanessa Ada Scott, 27-years-old, both pleaded guilty near the end of the hearing to a charge of aggravated robbery and two charges of kidnapping after June 20 when they tried to rob the bank Mark Scott had been managing for a year. Mark Scott, former US marine and veteran of the Gulf War, was the manager of the BNZ (Bank of New Zealand) Wellsford bank in Auckland. During the pre-trial hearing, or more correctly depositions hearing, at North Shore, Auckland's district court, Mark Scott asked ab

Microsoft confirmed today that it will ship Vista, the latest version of its Windows operating system, in Europe and South Korea as scheduled, despite warnings from the European Commission competition committee and Korean fair trade regulator. A press release on the Microsoft website said it had been in 'constructive dialogue' with both bodies. According to Brad Smith, the company's general council, Microsoft has agreed to several changes set out by the EU body. The discussion mostly centers around the inclusion of Google search facilities, Ad

Today the New Zealand Government announced that they had a record surplus of NZ$11.5 billion for the 2005 and 2006 financial year. This amount was $2.5 billion more than the government expected to get, however $1.8 billion of the surplus was because of a change to the recording of the tax take. However the surplus is now going to put more pressure on the government to put tax cuts on the cards. Both the Labour and United Future parties are reviewing cutting business tax. But the National party says that with the big surplus they can afford to

A 13-hour kidnapping of four people by a bank robber in Setúbal, Portugal, ended at dawn Thursday as members of the special operations group stormed the bank facilities. The kidnapping started yesterday at about 1400 local time (1300 UTC), when a 57 year old man attempted to rob a Banco Espírito Santo's bank at the Rodrigues Manito Avenue, in Setúbal. The alarm was given by a man outside of the bank who noticed the robbery. The rapid response by the Polícia de Segurança Pública's (PSP) district command of Setúbal forced the robber to barricad

A new book by Bob Woodward claims that then-CIA director George Tenet gave an urgent warning to Condoleezza Rice two months prior to the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. In a report in Sunday's Washington Post, the veteran of the Watergate scandal details some of the points as he understood them. Tenet and CIA counterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black had, according to Woodward, held a meeting with the national security advisor. Whilst there was no clearly identifiable threat Woodward claims Tenet and Black both suspected "somethin