Reaction cool to Obama's tax proposals
WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Members of the business community Monday expressed opposition to U.S. President Baarack Obama's plan to crack down on offshore tax shelters.
Obama's proposed changes to the U.S. Tax Code would among other things, remove tax deductions for companies that take jobs overseas and reduce the amount of taxes lost to overseas tax havens.
"His proposals would put American corporations at a great disadvantage, which is a very foolish policy in a competitive global marketplace," Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank, told ABC News.
Internet networking behemoth Cisco said it would be adversely affected if the proposals were enacted.
"If rules are changed on tax deferral and we are taxed in the (United States) on non-U.S. profit, this significant additional U.S. tax would adversely impact our ability to invest and grow our business in the (United States) and to compete against our foreign competitors who are not subject to this U.S. tax," Cisco spokesman John Earnhardt said.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the administration knows it will be difficult to win Congressional approval of the president's proposals.
"I don't think change is ever easy, and I think whenever you're taking on some bigger interests, that mountain gets a little bit steeper," Gibbs said during a news briefing. "But the president strongly believes in the policy that he outlined -- the steps that we have to take to close tax loopholes and ensure some fairness in this process -- is the right policy for America, and the right policy for American business."
Official: H1N1 'not stronger' than usual
WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- The H1N1 flu virus that has spread internationally may be no more dangerous than common flu viruses, a top U.S. official said Monday.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said officials "are cautiously optimistic that this particular strain will not be more severe than a normal seasonal flu outbreak," CNN reported.
"What the epidemiologists are seeing now with this particular strain … is that the severity of the disease, the severity of the flu -- how sick you get -- is not stronger than regular seasonal flu," Napolitano said.
The announcement came as number of confirmed cases of swine flu globally topped 1,085, CNN said. World Health Organization officials say the virus is responsible for 25 deaths in Mexico and one in the United States.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Monday reported 286 confirmed cases in 36 states -- an increase of 60 from Sunday.
Napolitano said seasonal flu puts hundreds of thousands of people in the hospital, and typically kills 35,000 people a year in the United States. And officials said the possibility remains that the N1N1 virus could stage a comeback in the fall in a stronger form.
Asked about assertions by Mexican officials that the H1N1 outbreak may have peaked in Mexico, Napolitano said, "I have no reason to think that is inaccurate."
WHO officials said Monday there were no immediate plans to elevate the swine flu alert to Phase 6, its highest level, CNN said.
41 die in Turkish wedding attack
MARDIN, Turkey, May 4 (UPI) -- Fighting broke out at a wedding in Turkey Monday evening, leaving at least 41 people dead, authorities said.
The Cihan news agency reported authorities said many more people were injured and the death toll could rise. The carnage occurred at a wedding in the village of Sultansehmuz near Mardin along Turkey's southeastern border with Syria, Cihan said.
Citing Turkish media, The Daily Telegraph said the fighting with automatic weapons and grenades involved the families of the bride and groom.
Local media said the families included members of the Village Guard, a state-sponsored militia created to combat Kurdish separatist guerrillas in the region, the British newspaper said. However, it was not clear whether the battle had anything to do with the militia or Kurdish rebels.
Allred petitions court over octuplets
LOS ANGELES, May 4 (UPI) -- California Attorney Gloria Allred said Monday she has filed a petition seeking a guardian to protect the financial interest of Nadya Suleman's octuplets.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Allred filed the petition in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of Paul Peterson, the president of "A Minor Consideration," a non-profit formed to give support to young performers. They argue the mother is exploiting the children.
"Rather than choosing to provide her children with a normal life, their mother, Nadya Suleman, has chosen instead to commercially exploit them," Allred said. "We believe that the babies are entitled to remuneration, since much, if not most, of the compensation appears to be for the use of their images."
Since bringing her eight babies home from the hospital this year, Suleman has allowed them to filmed on the Web site Radaronline, and a photo agency has released the babies' images for sale.
Suleman has reportedly talked of doing a reality television show about her octuplets and her six other children, the newspaper said.
