3:07am

Wed May 22, 2013
Planet Money

Why Apple (And Lots Of Other Companies) Wound Up In Ireland

Credit Andy Wong / AP

Apple was criticized in a Senate hearing Tuesday for using a complex accounting to minimize the corporate taxes it pays. One key piece of the company's tax strategy: It funnels lots of its profits through subsidiaries in Ireland.

Offering low corporate tax rates has been a fundamental part of Ireland's economic strategy for decades — a way to get foreign companies to set up operations in the country.

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3:04am

Wed May 22, 2013
Parallels

West Bank Businesses Seek Growth Amid Uncertainty

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 4:33 am

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry heads back to Israel and the West Bank Thursday for more talks on restarting peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. When he was there last month, he walked away with at least one agreement – to improve the West Bank economy. Here's how he put it as he left Israel:

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3:03am

Wed May 22, 2013
Research News

Quantum Or Not, New Supercomputer Is Certainly Something Else

It's exactly the sort of futuristic thinking you'd expect from Google and NASA: Late last week, the organizations announced a partnership to build a Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at NASA's Ames Research Center.

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3:01am

Wed May 22, 2013
Your Money

Instead Of Snoozing In Savings, Let's Put $5,000 To Work

Credit Robyn Mackenzie / iStockphoto.com

If you have a savings account you probably already know this: Your money there is losing value to inflation. Yields are so low that returns are not even keeping up with the cost of living.

I've been watching some of my own savings dwindle. And that prompted me to take up a challenge: I'm taking $5,000 from personal savings and putting it to work. I'm not a financial whiz, pundit or any kind of guru.

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3:00am

Wed May 22, 2013
Shots - Health News

Boomer Housemates Have More Fun

Today more than 1 in every 3 baby boomers — that huge glut of people born between 1948 and 1964 — is unmarried. And those unmarried boomers are disproportionately women.

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10:04pm

Tue May 21, 2013
Sweetness And Light

Backing Becks: Don't Knock The Soccer Star's Talents

Originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 3:06 am

Credit Fred Dufour / AFP/Getty Images

The most unforgiving criticism in sport is directed at any athlete who fans believe is celebrated too excessively above his true talent level — especially those stars who are gloried because they're such pretty people.

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7:20pm

Tue May 21, 2013
The Two-Way

Why Oklahomans Don't Like Basements

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 8:39 pm

Credit Joshua Lott / AFP/Getty Images

When Randy Keller moved from Texas to the Oklahoma City area seven years ago, he couldn't find the house he was looking for.

"I was moving from Texas, where there are also a lot of tornadoes," says the professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Oklahoma who experienced the 1970 tornado in Lubbock, Texas. "But I just couldn't find one."

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7:19pm

Tue May 21, 2013
The Two-Way

Idaho Terrorism Suspect Waives Detention Hearing

Credit AP

The 30-year-old Uzbek national accused of a terrorist conspiracy in Idaho and Utah waived his right to a detention hearing in Boise on Tuesday, and apparently avoided public disclosure of details of his alleged crimes.

According to a federal court document, an attorney for Fazliddin Kurbanov withdrew his client's request for the hearing. Kurbanov confirmed the decision through an interpreter and agreed to remain jailed pending a July 2 trial date.

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7:04pm

Tue May 21, 2013
The Two-Way

Two Key Candidates Barred From Seeking Iran's Presidency

Credit Ebrahim Noroozi / AP

Iran's powerful Guardian Council has disqualified two key candidates — a former president and a top aide to the current president — from running in the June 14 presidential election.

The Guardian Council, which vets all candidates, approved eight names Tuesday but left out former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was handpicked by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mashaei said he would appeal the decision to the country's supreme leader; Rafsanjani did not comment.

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6:13pm

Tue May 21, 2013
It's All Politics

Former IRS Head To Senate: It Wasn't My Fault

Credit Charles Dharapak / AP

It was the Senate's turn Tuesday to grill the Internal Revenue Service, or more accurately, former agency officials, about its handling of the scandal involving the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

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