LA Times News

LA Times News

Cash-strapped Europe nations are not shy about taxing the rich

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 04:52 PM PDT

France has announced a top tax rate of 75%, and even in economic powerhouse Germany there's talk of a higher levy.

UCCLE, Belgium — The 8,500 French residents of this affluent Brussels suburb count the Taittingers, of champagne fame, among their well-heeled neighbors. France's richest man, luxury-goods mogul Bernard Arnault, is shopping for some high-end real estate here too.

As Syria cease-fire looms, so do the doubts

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 05:03 PM PDT

Rebels as well as the government insist the other side not use the truce during the Eid al-Adha holiday to rearm. Few expect the four days to be violence-free.

BEIRUT — The Syrian military said Thursday that its forces would observe a temporary holiday cease-fire starting today, signaling a potential new phase in international efforts to halt a conflict that has caused vast destruction and loss of life and threatened to destabilize the Middle East.

In Egypt, post-revolution chaos stinks, with trash piling up

Posted: 25 Oct 2012 03:57 PM PDT

Garbage heaps have become a never-ending problem in poor and rich neighborhoods.

CAIRO — Trucks haul garbage away, but by nightfall trash bags seem to breed across boulevards and alleys, rising like a foul tide until men and boys, hands quick as birds, scavenge for tin foil flashing in the rising sun.