The Cayman Islands: a favourite haven from the taxman for the global elite. Photograph: David Doubilet/National Geographic/Getty Images
A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.
James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has compiled the most detailed estimates yet of the size of the offshore economy in a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, released exclusively to the Observer.
The Galactic Federation through Wanderer of the Skies
Greetings from the Federation:
While you may not believe so, there is much that is going on in your world toward the results that the divine plan has been anticipating for a long time. We are here to see you through these times of doubt and help you in your mission. We understand the hardship that your memory loss of who you are and where you came from have brought upon you. We care and we are here. While you may not understand all the actions and non-actions that have been played out on the world stage, we say to you that all is proceeding according to the plan that was put in place long ago and you are all on course.
SOUTH AFRICA: The Sheriff of the Court has just served the four major banks, and the Reserve Bank, with a summons from the New Economic Rights Alliance: Case number 27478/12….YEPEEE….
Archaeological "gold mine" illuminates connection between king and sun god.
The Maya sun god as shark-man—one of his several guises on a newfound monument in Guatemala.
Photograph courtesy Edwin Román, Brown University
Some 1,600 years ago, the Temple of the Night Sun was a blood-red beacon visible for miles and adorned with giant masks of the Maya sun god as a shark, blood drinker, and jaguar.
PUBLISHED: 10:42 EST, 19 July 2012 UPDATED: 14:05 EST, 19 July 2012
The astonishing moment when two young mountain gorillas were spotted working together to find and destroy traps in their Rwandan forest home.
Just days after a poacher's snare had killed one of their own, two young mountain gorillas have been spotted working together to take apart poachers traps.
Staff at the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund were stunned when they spotted the plucky young duo, called Dukore and Rwema, destroying a trap in their forest home.
"Ana Maria Martinez-Perez: I have a tremendous faith and love for the universe/God. However, every night, before I go to sleep, I visualize my life the way I desire it to be. Yet, things stay the same. What am I doing wrong? Why, if I'm applying the universal law of creating my life, I'm not seeing the desired results? Love. Ana"