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US
passes $170 billion tax bill
Washington: The US Senate passed a $170 billion
package of corporate tax cuts. The bill would repeal a
$5 billion annual tax break for US exporters that the
World Trade Organisation had declared an illegal export
subsidy. The Senate has voted 92-5 to pass the package
yesterday.
Penalties
on some American exports started at 5 per cent in March
and are scheduled to increase 1 percentage point each
month. In place of the tax break for exporters, lawmakers
created a new tax cut for American manufacturers tied
to the extent that they make their products in the United
States.
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Cuba
says US action prelude to possible invasion
Havana: Cuban officials suddenly halted most of
the dollar sales that Cubans have come to count on and
warned of higher dollar prices for food and gasoline.
The government were freezing most sales in dollars in
response to new US proposals aimed at undermining the
government of President Fidel Castro.
In
Cuba many people depend upon goods purchased at dollar
stores to supplement the subsidized items available at
stores that sell in the local peso. Nearly all gasoline
- and hundreds of other goods - are sold only in dollars.President
Bush has acted on the recommendations by a US Presidential
commission, which are meant to hasten the fall of Cuba's
communist system. President George W Bush has lowered
the authorized per diem amount for a family visit to US$50,
compared with US$164 now.
Bush
retained the US$1,200-a-year limit on dollar transfers
that Cuban-American families can send to the island, but
limited those who could receive the transfers to immediate
family members - excluding even uncles and cousins. Cuban
officials have portrayed the measures as a possible prelude
to stronger US attacks, possibly even an invasion.
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