10-05-2007 16:03

Live from Metro worldwide

Toutes les semaines, Metro France vous présente -en anglais- un condensé de l'actualité des quatre coins du monde et rapporté par les Metro étrangers

METRO HONG KONG

Top taxpayer earning HK$350 million a year 

As revealed by the Inland Revenue Department, the earning of Hong Kong’s top taxpayer is estimated at HK$350 million (US$44.9 million) in the 2006-07 financial year, or over 2,900 times of the population’s average annual income.

The biggest salaries-tax payer contributed HK$56 million (US$7.18 million) to the government coffers last year, meaning that the top taxpayer earned at least HK$350 million  during the year. The latest tax figure is a little more than half the HK$101 million (US$13 million) that the top taxpayer handed over in 2005-06.

None of last year's top taxpayers was identified, but there is strong speculation the top honour went to an investment banker, given the flood of lucrative initial public offerings from the mainland. Chief among them was the listing by China Construction Bank, which raised about US$9.2 billion in November 2005, making it the biggest deal of the year.

According to the 2006 Hutchison Whampoa annual report, group managing director Canning Fok Kin-ning, was paid HK$131 million in salary, fees and bonuses. His tax bill is about HK$20 million, which ranks him number seven or eight on the list.
 

METRO ITALY

Lock it on the web

Rome's “ove lock” bridge has turned to the Web for renewed life after buckling under the weight of its success in the real world. A new website leads visitors to the Milvian Bridge as it was before its now-famous lamppost almost collapsed last month, threatening Rome's most recent romantic tradition. As before with the real bridge, lovers can write their names on a virtual padlock, attach it to the lamppost as a symbol of their undying love, and even throw the key into the Tiber as couples used to. The Milvian Bridge lamppost started bristling with locks in the wake of a successful 2003 romantic book and film, Tre Metri Sopra Il Cielo (Three Meters Above The Sky). Imitating the protagonists, young Romans started writing their names on locks, chaining them round the lamp post and throwing the keys into the Tiber. The craze caught on, and soon people were coming from all over the world, either to immortalize the bridge or their own love vows. The trend dated back to a similar mountain of love locks on Florence's historic Ponte Vecchio, which was controversially removed by order of the mayor last year.
 

METRO HOLLAND

Fuss about dildo for Mother’s Day

An advertisement of an electronics shop for a special ‘Mother’s Day dildo’ caused a big fuss on the Internet. A lot of people think it’s not appropriate that children give their mother a dildo for Mother’s Day. One angry Dutch person, Ramon van de Boogaard, wrote on an Internet forum: “You must have a sick mind to sell a gift like that.” Shop manager Jan Bongers begs to differ. “It’s quite normal nowadays to talk about sex toys. We don’t expect children to see the toy. Besides, it has the funny shape of a smiling green caterpillar.”

 

METRO CHILE

Chile invests 8 million dollars in publicity  

The National Service of Tourism (Sernatur) initiated a campaign to harness the image of Chile abroad with the investment of eight million dollars in publicity and signing a lucrative contract with the Walter Thompson agency who will promote the country all over the world.
Oscar Santelices told Metro that “this budget will be three times greater that the ones in previous years and is focused to attract tourists who will spend money in the country.”  The new campaign would be oriented towards countries located in the northern hemisphere, along with Brazil.
 

METRO SWEDEN

Sweden, the ideal place to be a mother

According to Save the Children, Sweden is the best country in the world to be a mom. The yearly report Mothers Index from Save the Children in the US rate the best and worst countries for mothers and children in 140 countries.
When all factors had been counted, Sweden came out on top, followed by the other northern European countries. What makes these countries stand out are the high values for the health of mothers and children, education and financial status.

 

METRO DENMARK

Small reward for large finding

A thousand Kroner (134 euros), some chocolate and four bottles of red wine. That was the reward given to a sanitation worker on the Danish island of Samsoe. He found a lottery ticket worth 12 millions Kroner (1,610,198 euros). An honest man, he put it in front of the house, where the owner – a shrimper – later found it. The next day he checked the ticket and found out that he had won. The conscientious sanitation worker doesn’t regret that he didn’t keep the
ticket.
“You can’t use the money when the ticket isn’t yours. But you can still dream of what you could have bought with it,” he admits.
 

METRO BRAZIL

As Brazil’s oldest woman, 127-year-old Maria Olívia da Silva is not eligible for her retirement pension of 370 reais (US $185) because she hasn't registered on the National Pension System in Brazil. Every year, since age 101, she is forced to go to the bank agency in person to prove that she is still alive before being eligible for receiving her pension. Maria lives in Astorga, a small town in the state of Paraná, in the south of Brazil.
 

METRO MEXICO

After the bill for gay couples was approved as well as the legalization of abortion in Mexico City, the Federal District’s Legislative Assembly introduced a new proposal seeking for the legalization of euthanasia.
The difference now is that the conservative party PAN – the same who was opposed to the last two proposals – is the one introducing the reform. The "Anticipated Will" Law will allow patients suffering from a terminal disease, to receive a passive euthanasia through a legal document.
The new law is seeking to allow the residents of Mexico City to have a "nice death." The person requesting euthanasia will have to establish legally the motive to stop the treatment necessary to keep the patient alive.

METRO RUSSIA

A monument to student’s record-book to erect in Russia
 
The Moscow government initiated a contest for the best project of a new monument. This piece of art, devoted to the student’s tokens, will be made in the form of a student’s record-book and coin Russian students take with them to the exams as a symbol of luck. Five-hundred students take part in the contest.

How to rewrite history
 
The head of the Russian State Duma (the lower chamber of the Russian parliament) Boris Gryzlov says that he isn’t satisfied with the quality of Russian history textbooks. He admits that “too many facts are disguised and some of the historical events misunderstood”. He sent a proposal to the Committee of Education to review the courses of history and prepare possible amendments.