Mediaboss Marketing

by Carys Lloyd

YOUNG people will have a passport to exciting new out-of-school-hours learning experiences with the launch of a Childrens University in the Isle of Man.

Childrens University offers all five to 14-year-olds access to a wide range of opportunities and activities that take place outside of the normal school day.

Pupils buy a passport for just 2 and obtain stamps by visiting validated Learning Destinations, both locally and further afield. Certificates chart their progress and are awarded at a graduation ceremony where children wear caps and gowns.

An accompanying E-Passport will even allow children to rate the activities they have attended. It will also allow schools to manage childrens participation in a more efficient way.

Carys Lloyd, who leads Childrens University in the Island, said: Childrens University is about having fun with learning and gaining a real sense of achievement at the same time. Its about giving our children opportunities to choose their own pathways into learning, aiming to raise their aspirations, broaden their horizons and build their confidence and self-belief.

Public Learning Destinations that have been validated so far include Manx Sport and Recreations many clubs for children, run at the NSC and other venues, the Manx Youth Orchestra, which rehearses on Saturdays, has several offshoot groups and enjoys foreign tours, Manx Heritage Foundations Bree, a Manx music youth movement that features a monthly Saturday afternoon music session and regular workshop days and weekends, a number of activities run by the Manx Wildlife Trust and Film School, which is run by Community Arts, DCCL.

Museums and other sporting and cultural activities will soon be displaying the black and gold Childrens University Learning Destination logo.

Attending the many lunchtime and after-school clubs and activities at restricted Learning Destinations, such as participating schools and clubs and societies they belong to, will also qualify children for passport stamps. The Isle of Man Childrens University is a charitable trust funded by a Henry Bloom Noble education endowment, a grant from the institution nationally and sponsorship. Celebrated wildlife artist Dr Jeremy Paul, from Colby, has agreed to be its Chancellor.

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Children’s University is launched in the Isle of Man

30 March 2012

The Austrian national council has recently adopted the governments savings package, providing for savings between 2012 and 2016 of around EUR17.3bn (USD22.7bn) and for additional tax revenues of approximately EUR9.2bn, achieved predominantly by closing existing tax loopholes.

As the government plans to swiftly introduce the proposed tax measures, the savings plan has been split into two parts. The first part, providing for planned tax rises, is scheduled to enter into force from April 1, while the second part, containing a raft of savings measures, is due to enter into force a month later on May 1.

Although the governments revenue-based measures are to be achieved mainly by closing existing loopholes in the tax system, the coalitions savings package also provides for a 25% rise in the countrys existing bank tax to EUR625m a year until 2017, to finance the budgetary costs of supporting and securing the long-term survival of the Austrian Volksbank (VAG).

The savings plan also provides for an early lump sum taxation of private pensions.

Defending the governments plans in parliament, Austrias Chancellor Werner Faymann highlighted the fact that, in stark contrast to many other countries, Austria has been able to stabilize its state finances without recourse to either a rise in value-added tax (VAT) or to a cut in pensions.

Alluding to the fact that fourteen out of twenty-seven European Union (EU) member states have elected to increase VAT, Chancellor Faymann explained that the Austrian government had deliberately elected not to do so as such a measure affects the less well off and families most of all.

During the session, members of the opposition warned that the government would not be able to achieve its ambitious savings objectives. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schuble has finally admitted that plans for an EU financial transactions tax, or indeed for any other European levy, are doomed to failure, and Switzerland is clearly reluctant to conclude a tax agreement with Austria, leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FP) Heinz-Christian Strache pointed out.

Dismissing these claims, Chancellor Faymann underscored the need to generate fiscal revenues from the financial sector, insisting that Austria would continue to forcefully push for the tax.

Austrias Vice Chancellor Michael Spindelegger insisted that the envisaged withholding tax deal with Switzerland would go ahead.

Continue reading here:
Austrian Lower House Backs Savings Package

Increased financial transparency is critical to stem the illicit capital outflows that are crippling Africa. The past month, the spotlight has been on James Ibori, the governor of Nigeria's Delta state from 1999 to 2007, who pleaded guilty in a London court to 10 counts relating to conspiracy to launder funds from the state he governed.

Ibori was accused of siphoning off an estimated $250m and laundering it in London through a number of offshore companies and financial intermediaries to fund his extravagant lifestyle of lavish mansions, expensive cars and private jets. This mode of illicit capital flight is by no means restricted to one rogue Nigerian governor or even African leaders at large, nor is it the most important means by which capital leaves the continent (and developing countries generally) illicitly.

True, $250m from one source is substantial. But this pales into insignificance compared with the estimated $100bn that left Nigeria illicitly between 1970 and 2008, according to Global Financial Integrity (GFI). The bulk of this haemorrhage, contrary to popular belief, is not through the laundering of corrupt money but through commercial activities, and particularly through multinational corporations.

According to GFI's conservative estimates, more than $1.8 trillion left African shores illicitly between 1970 and 2008. Of this, only 3 percent is attributable to bribery and theft by government officials, 30-35 percent results from the laundering of criminally acquired wealth (drugs, illegal arms sales, human trafficking, etc), and the bulk - 65-70 percent - is from commercial activities, especially through trade mis-pricing of goods.

Over the last 10 years, the average annual outflows of this sort exceeded $50bn. This compares with annual aid inflows of less than $30bn. The outflows are largely to avoid or evade tax and to conceal wealth.

This week's proposed change by the chancellor, George Osborne, on how foreign subsidiaries of multinationals based in the UK are taxed, will give even less incentive to keep money in poorer countries. Reform of these controlled foreign company rules in the upcoming budget would strengthen the financial case for shifting money to tax havens by making profits made by multinationals abroad and retained in offshore jurisdictions free from UK tax. This could cost developing countries 4bn a year in lost tax revenue, according to ActionAid estimates.

These outflows undermine the rule of law, stifle trade and worsen macroeconomic conditions. They are facilitated by around 60 tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions that enable the creating and operating of millions of disguised corporations, shell companies, anonymous trust accounts and fake charitable foundations. They allow the likes of Ibori and many multinational corporations to cripple Africa financially and politically.

Given that about 50 percent of global trade passes through tax havens, these jurisdictions facilitate trade mis-pricing by making it difficult for documentation to be traced. Transnational companies have the ability to set up multiple trusts and shell companies in these jurisdictions. This is significant because about 60 percent of global trade takes place between and within multinational companies. Secrecy also attracts criminal activity, and the laundering of corrupt money through concealment of the natural beneficiaries behind shell companies and trusts.

Africa is experiencing economic growth, and for the increasing wealth to be channelled to public services, development and the achievement of the millennium development goals by 2015, it is urgent the problem of tax havens as a conduit for illicit outflows is addressed. The high-level panel set up by the African Union, the African Development Bank and the UN Economic Commission for Africa, and chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, is a significant step forward - and testifies to the importance of this issue for Africa's development. The ball is now in the court of the rich countries.

Charles Abugre is the Africa Regional Director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign (for the MDGs). These views should not be attributed to the United Nations.

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Africa: Could Abolishing Tax Havens Solve Africa's Financing Needs?

28-03-2012 07:37 Check out my blog at http://www.investingwithoptions.com What's in this video: - a quick clarification on the RHT earnings option trade - my analysis of MOS going into earnings - why vol is a buy on the euro (my blog will have trade details) - the internet stocks that are on fire: YELP BIDU LNKD AMZN - the degenerate smallcaps that could follow: YNDX RENN

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IWO Premarket, 3-28 - Video

Chicago (PRWEB) March 30, 2012

Agents affiliated with the RE/MAX Northern Illinois real estate network captured prestigious honors at the Chicago Association of Realtors (C.A.R.) annual awards, which recognized achievements in Chicago real estate sales. In addition, RE/MAX agents increased the number of C.A.R awards they took home at the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze levels by 60 percent compared to their 2010 total.

Linda ODonnell, broker/owner of RE/MAX Signature, 2411 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago, and Robert Padron, broker/owner of RE/MAX Cityview, 6430 N. Central Ave., Chicago, are among just 13 agents honored with the Platinum Level Achiever Award for sales of 180 or more units. ODonnell also earned the Silver Level Achiever Award for sales of $17 to $22 million, while Padron captured the Bronze Level Achiever Award for sales between $12 and $16 million.

A Gold Level Achiever Award for sales between 100 and 179 units went to Angel Aguilar of RE/MAX Platinum, 1931 S. State St., and a Silver Level Achiever Award for sales of 60 to 99 units was earned by Michael Scola of RE/MAX Partners, 6420 W. Cermak Road, Berwyn, Ill.

Bronze Level Achiever Awards for sales of 40 to 59 units went to Maria Rodriguez of RE/MAX Partners, Jack Stempien of RE/MAX City, 6839 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago, Luis Campoverde of RE/MAX Signature, Rita Neri of RE/MAX Vision 212, 1500 W. Chicago Ave., Chicago, Marc Shudnow of RE/MAX 1st Class, 4023 Church St., Skokie, Ill., and Michell Wilmore of RE/MAX City, 7020 W. Higgins Road, Chicago. Hasani Steele, RE/MAX Premier Properties, 1205 N. Dearborn Pkwy., Chicago, received the Bronze Level Achiever Award Teams.

Bronze Level Achiever Awards for residential sales volume of $12 to $16 million went to Kristi Gunther and Marlene Granacki of RE/MAX Exclusive Properties, 2951 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, and to Rita Neri.

RE/MAX agents also captured three other top awards from C.A.R. Mike Kravitz of RE/MAX Premier Properties and John Kubacki of RE/MAX Signature were honored for their achievement in renting residential units. Olivia Marroquin of RE/MAX 10, 5601 S. Pulaski Road, Chicago, was honored as one of the 2011 Rookies of the Year.

C.A.R. also honored those agents who were the top producers in either unit sales or dollar volume in each of Chicagos 77 neighborhoods and six near-west suburbs. Winning in both the unit sales and dollar volume categories in a single neighborhood/suburb were Hasani Steele for Woodlawn, Julie Anderson of RE/MAX 10 for Clearing, Luis Campoverde for Belmont Cragin and three agents with RE/MAX Partners, Alicia Snyder-Poulos for Forest View, Allen Snyder for Stickney and Maria Rodriguez for Berwyn.

Rodriguez and Regina Zak Tomas of RE/MAX City were unit sales leaders for Lyons, while Linda ODonnell dominated units sold in Chicagos Avondale neighborhood.

Among local sales volume leaders, Connie Abels of RE/MAX Edge, 3843 N. Broadway, Chicago, was first for Rogers Park, Julie Anderson led Garfield Ridge and Alicja Grzych of RE/MAX City was the top producer for Englewood.

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RE/MAX Agents Capture C.A.R. Awards for 2011 Success in Chicago Real Estate Sales