James Schnurr, just two months into his job as chief accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stood before a packed ballroom in Washington last December and upbraided a little-known regulator.
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, oversees the big firms that sign off on the books of America’s listed companies. And the board was “moving too slowly,” Schnurr said, to address auditing failures that in recent years had shaken public confidence in those firms.
Accounting industry and SEC defang America’s audit watchdog
Torture by Iraqi militias: the report Washington did not want you to see
Two unpublished investigations show that the United States has consistently overlooked killings and torture by Iraqi government-sponsored Shi'ite militias.
It was one of the most shocking events in one of the most brutal periods in Iraq’s history. In late 2005, two years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, U.S. soldiers raided a police building in Baghdad and found 168 prisoners in horrific conditions.
Many were malnourished. Some had been beaten.
The discovery of the secret prison exposed a world of kidnappings and assassinations. Behind these operations was an unofficial Interior Ministry organisation called the Special Investigations Directorate, according to U.S. and Iraqi security officials at the time.
Another chilling year of killings and attacks on journalists
Fifty-five journalists have been killed across the world so far this year. In purely statistical terms, it signifies an improvement. It is six fewer than were killed last year and 17 fewer than in 2013.
Yet it is further evidence of the incredibly hostile condtions under which many journalists work, conditions that have seen a total of 597 killed over the past decade because of their journalistic activities.
Gun Linked to Paris Attacks Traced Back to Florida Arms Dealer Implicated in Iran-Contra Scandal
A gun linked to last month’s Paris mass shootings has been traced back to a Florida arms dealer.
The serial number for a M92 semi-automatic pistol linked to the deadly Nov. 13 terrorist attacks matched one for a weapon delivered by the Zastava arms factory in May 2013 to Century International Arms in Delray Beach, reported the Palm Beach Post.
Michael Sucher, the owner of Century Arms, did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday and the doors to his shop were closed as TV news crews gathered outside.
James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud'
Mere mention of the Paris climate talks is enough to make James Hansen grumpy. The former Nasa scientist, considered the father of global awareness of climate change, is a soft-spoken, almost diffident Iowan. But when he talks about the gathering of nearly 200 nations, his demeanor changes.
“It’s a fraud really, a fake,” he says, rubbing his head. “It’s just bullshit for them to say: ‘We’ll have a 2C warming target and then try to do a little better every five years.’ It’s just worthless words. There is no action, just promises. As long as fossil fuels appear to be the cheapest fuels out there, they will be continued to be burned.”
'Good without God': Nebraska atheists take over nativity to promote tolerance
When Christmas comes to Lincoln, Nebraska this year, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus will find there is no room in the inner halls of the state capitol – and no manger either.
Instead, there will be an 8ft “happy humanist” next to a “reason tree” dedicated to science and “human intellectual achievement”.
Pesticide In Milk May Be Linked To Parkinson's Disease
A pesticide that was present in milk in the early 1980s may be linked to signs of Parkinson's disease that are showing up in people today, according to a new study.
The researchers looked at Japanese-American men in Hawaii, where the pesticide was frequently used, and found that those who drank more than two cups of milk daily at the start of the study had 40 percent fewer brain cells in an area of the brain called the substantia nigra 30 years later, on average, compared with similar men who drank less than two cups of milk per day.
Climate change means days are getting longer, scientists find
The impact of climate change may appear to be overwhelmingly negative but there is a bright spot for those who struggle to find enough time in the day: melting glaciers are causing the rotation of the Earth to slow thereby lengthening our days, new research has found.
Harvard University researchers have provided an answer to a long-held conundrum over how shrinking glaciers are affecting the rotation and axis of the Earth, calculating that the duration of a day has lengthened by a millisecond over the past 100 years.
NY Senate Majority Leader and son found guilty on all counts in corruption case
The next job Dean Skelos gets for his son will have to be in the prison commissary.
The former state Senate Majority Leader was convicted Friday of bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges for abusing his powerful post to enrich his son. The Manhattan Federal Court jury also convicted his son Adam, 33, of aiding and abetting in the scheme.
The felonious father and son face up to 130 years in prison when they're sentenced by Judge Kimba Wood early next year - the same amount of time former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is facing after his conviction on corruption charges last month.
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