Zuckerberg now need to give 1 billion Tax Bill

Facebook's stock market debut left founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a paper fortune currently valued at $13 billion -- and a 2012 tax bill of around $1.1 billion.

Zuckerberg's whopping tax hit stems from his move last May to increase his stake in Facebook. On the day of Facebook's initial public offering, Zuckerberg exercised a stock option and purchased 60 million Facebook shares at a "strike price" of 6 cents each.

Even if those shares are never sold, the IRS treats them as ordinary income at the time the options are exercised. The rationale is that such options are a form of compensation, just like regular wages.

For Zuckerberg, that means reporting income last year of nearly $2.3 billion from his stock options alone. Add together the top 2012 federal tax rate of 35% and the top California rate of 13.3% -- the highest in the nation -- and you get a total tax rate of 48.3%.

A Facebook spokeswoman declined to comment on Zuckerberg's taxes.

To cover the giant bill he knew was coming, Zuckerberg dipped into his trove of Facebook stock. He sold 30.2 million shares during Facebook's IPO, taking in $1.135 billion. At the time, Facebook said in a regulatory filing that Zuckerberg planned to use the "substantial majority" of those proceeds to cover the taxes on his stock-option purchase.

Ex US soldier now working with Al-Qaeda

A former U.S. soldier has been arrested and charged with illegally using a weapon on behalf of an al Qaeda-affiliated group in Syria.

Eric Harroun, 30, of Phoenix was arrested Tuesday night by the FBI at a hotel near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia. A Justice Department official tells CNN that FBI agents questioned Harroun at the hotel, then took him into custody.

Harroun appeared Thursday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, and was charged in connection with his alleged use of a rocket-propelled grenade in Syria.

The law used to charge him states, "Any national of the United States who, without lawful authority, uses or threatens, attempts, or conspires to use a weapon of mass destruction outside of the U.S. shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or if death results, may be punished by death."

Harroun served with the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2003. He is not charged with targeting U.S. troops in Iraq.

The organization he allegedly fought with, al-Nusra Front, is one of several aliases used by the al Qaeda in Iraq terrorist organization. The organization claims responsibility for nearly 600 terrorist attacks in Syria, the Justice Department said.

An FBI affidavit says Harroun crossed into Syria in January 2013 and fought against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces. He posted photos and videos of himself on the Internet handling RPGs and other weapons, it said.

The Pentagon declined to comment on Harroun's arrest. However, "It's always a concern when terrorist networks in that part of the world and elsewhere seek to recruit Americans, whether they're in the military or not," spokesman George Little told CNN's Erin Burnett.

"I don't think this is a widespread phenomenon, and most of our people in this country -- and certainly most men and women in the military -- would not consider joining a terrorist network," Little added.

US sends Troops in Congo

The United Nations Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday to deploy about 3,100 peacekeepers to a restive region in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the U.N. announced.The intervention brigade will carry out targeted offensive operations and attempt to neutralize armed groups, the U.N. said in a statement.

The force will be based in the North Kivu province in the eastern part of the country. Government forces are battling a rebel group there called M23.Fighting between the M23 and the army has displaced close to a million people in the province and more than 300,000 in the southeastern province of Katanga, the United Nations has said.

Obama Will visit Costarica in May

U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to Mexico and Costa Rica in May, officials said Wednesday.

The trip, scheduled to take place May 2-4, "is an important opportunity to reinforce the deep cultural, familial and economic ties that so many Americans share with Mexico and Central America," the White House said in a statement.

Economic and trade ties will be topics of discussion in Obama's scheduled meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, the White House said. Mexico's foreign ministry said a wide range of issues would be on the table."The agenda between both countries is broad and directly affects both societies," the statement said. "During the visit, competitiveness, education and innovation will be addressed, as well as border infrastructure, trade, immigration and citizen security, among other issues of shared interest."In Costa Rica, Obama will meet with President Laura Chinchilla and with the heads of state of other Central American countries and the Dominican Republic, the White House said."The trip will be an important chance to discuss our collective efforts to promote economic growth and development in Central America and our ongoing collaboration on citizen security," the White House said.

News Credit: The Look of ''Skyfall" is preferred by the American Society of Cinematographers

Roger Deakins has gained the best feature-film prize from the American Society of Cinematographers on Sunday night for "Skyfall," which means that "Argo" only gone two-for-three on a end of the week of film awards events.


Although "Argo" has won at the Scripter Awards on Friday and the BAFTA Awards previously Sunday,  it was not even selected for an ASC Award, where Deakins' work on the James Bond movie "Skyfall" won out through Danny Cohen for "Les Miserables," Claudio Miranda for "Life of Pi," Janusz Kamninski for "Lincoln" and Seamus McGarvey for "Anna Karenina."

All besides Cohen are chosen for the cinematography Oscar. In Cohen's position, Robert Richardson was selected by the Academy's Cinematographers Branch for "Django Unchained."

bond in skyfall

The success  was the third aggressive ASC Award for Deakins. He also acquired the ASC's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, though he is 0-for-9 in Oscar nominations going into the show of this year.

Deakins was not in presence at the awards. Previously in the day, Miranda won a BAFTA Award for "Life of Pi" but had decided to be present at the ASC Awards instead of the BAFTAs, where "Pi" director Ang Lee approved on his behalf.

News Credit: Blizzard has killed one, left thousands of people without any power

A blizzard supplying hurricane-force winds pummeled the northeastern United States today,which has  killed  not less than one person, leaving behind about 600,000 consumers without having power and interfering with more than nine hundreds flights.

The National Weather Service of United States stated that blizzard alerts were in consequence for the northeastern coast, which  included the New York metropolitan area. This agency said that the situation of traveling will be persisted to be highly dangerous if this is not impossible.
This  thunderstorm was estimated to blend off from west to east into the mid-day. Snow is forecast to overall from 2 to 3 feet in eastern Rhode Island and Massachusetts- said by the weather service.

News Credit: Blizzard has killed one, left thousands of people  without any power

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The mdeia said that the initial death which was ascribed on this blizzard, is  a man in his 70s, who  has killed when a driver missed the  handle of her car and hit him in Poughkeepsie in New York


Electricity providers claimed about 600,000 customers without power throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut as the wet, hefty snow brought down trees.
 Lincoln Chafee, who is Rhode Island Governor  said 180,000 state inhabitants had been left in the dark. National Guard troops were saving stuck motorists, specifically on unplowed on-ramps. He said that this is very much hard to the people to stay off the roads.The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant situated in  Plymouth, Massachusetts, displaced power and immediately shut down later on Friday, but there was no danger to the public, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission mentioned. Hartford of  Connecticut, was covered by 31 inches of snow and St. James, New York, noted 26.5 inches, with more coming down, the weather service stated.

Pedro Segarra who is the Hartford Mayor claimed street-clearing crews had been compelled to postpone operations for the reason of falling snow as 4 inches per hour. "I've never seen snow fall like this all at once," he informed CNN.The weather services stated that this hefty snowfall was supported by winds which has  gusted to 80 miles hourly  at Cuttyhunk, New York, and brought down trees throughout the whole area.This thunderstorm also presented the  possibility of flooding at high wave to places even now retrieving from Superstorm Sandy which was occurred in October.

The governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York and Maine announced states of emergency just before the storm. More than nine hundreds of   flights were stopped.
 Deval Patrick, who is the governor of Massachusetts suspended most car traveling beginning Friday afternoon. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy closed down the state's motorways to all except the emergency vehicles.

The town of Wakefield of  Massachusetts, north of Boston, informed people by   an electronic phone message in order to stay off roads right until 7 a.m. on Sunday.

Amtrak stopped railway service among New York and  Boston on  Friday afternoon.

The town of Gorham, was buried beneath above 31 inches of snow.Philip Gagnon, who is the  chairman of the town council, mentioned that  many roads would not be able to clear  right until later Sunday or Monday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York has proposed persons to rest at home. Bloomberg stated that  he prepared to get caught up on his sleep.

News Credit: Education Minister of Germany is now pressurized to resign

Education minister of Germany is now pressurized to resign right after her university removed her of her doctorate after dominating that she had plagiarised chunks of this paper.

The judgment versus Annette Schavan occurs as a strike to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, who is seeking a winning  a third term in office in federal elections in this September this year.
The academic Panel of  Düsseldorf University identified that Ms Schavan had "methodically and intentionally" passed off her  work of furthers as her individual devoid of adequate sourcing in her 1980 thesis, titled "Person and Conscience." The final decision instigated quick opponent calls for the head of Ms Schavan, who in her capability as education minister is liable for academic specifications.

Andrea Nahles, who is the general secretary of the opponent Social Democrats, mentioned Ms Schavan must "face the implications of her actions," although Green party leader Jurgen Trittin stated that she would  no longer had any trustworthiness as education minister and that her "position was no longer tenable."

Education Minister of Germany is now pressurized  to resign

Mrs Merkel has thus far stood by her unhappy minister. Steffen Seibert claimed the chancellor however had "complete confidence" in Ms Schavan, and included that she was "in very good contact" with the education minister who is now on holiday in South Africa.
Mr Seibert included, however, that when Ms Schavan returns "the two will have a possibility to discuss in peace".

The education minister has been one of Mrs Merkel's most favorite cabinet members, but confronted with expanding calls for her to sack the minister, and conscious of the need to pop any scandal in the bud well in advance of September's political election, the chancellor may well have to jettison Ms Schavan.

She will also be keen to prevent a replicate of the detrimental political results from a previous plagiarism scandal in 2011 which  compelled Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the then defence minister, to give up.

With her political career clinging by a thread Ms Schavan promised to fight on.
"I will not accept the determination of Düsseldorf University and will appeal towards it," she announced, putting that she was thinking about the legitimate action.