REVNUE WINS BUMPER JUDGMENTS - The Irish Independent is reporting that Revenue has secured almost €320,000 in judgments against two individuals and two companies, according to the latest edition of debt watchdog Stubbs Gazette.
The biggest single collector general judgment is against Tony Howley, described as a 'carpet and flooring fitter', with an address at Breaffy, Ballina, Co Mayo. The €91,800 charge was registered in the High Court on August 5.
The next largest amount awarded in favour of the taxman was €84,100, registered against Balbradagh Developments, of Emmet Street, Trim, Co Meath, on August 5, followed by an €82,300 charge registered against businessman Alfie Fynes, of Notre Dame, Darcystown, Balbriggan, on July 31.
The bumper judgments are rounded up by a €58,300 charge against Southside Contract Cleaners, 48 Townsend Street, Dublin 2.
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NOBEL LAUREATE TO GIVE ITT LECTURE - Institute of Technology Tralee will host a lecture by Nobel laureate Clive Granger, on September 8, 2008, the Irish Examiner reports.
Mr Granger, is a world renowned economist, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.
Clive Granger has been one of the most influential scholars in time series econometrics, the fundamental tool used in economic forecasting.
Along with Robert Engle of New York University he shared the 2003 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (for methods of analysing economic time series with common trends 'co-integration').
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GOOGLE GROVELS OVER GMAIL COLLAPSE - The Independent is reporting that internet giant Google was forced to make a grovelling apology to millions of users of its Gmail email service yesterday, after the system went down for several hours.
A glitch in the Gmail contacts system locked users out of their email, and news of the system-wide failure caused an outpouring of angst on blogs and internet chat sites.
The service was down for about two hours, as Google engineers tried to discover the source of the problem. Many users were furious that the company did not post any update on its corporate blog. 'Maybe the G stands for Gone,' said one.
'We feel your pain, and we're sorry,' said Todd Jackson, Gmail product manager at Google.
'We never take for granted the commitment we've made to running an email service that you can count on. We heard loud and clear today how much people care about their Gmail accounts'.
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UBS EXECS KNEW OF BREACHES - Senior executives at UBS, the Swiss bank being investigated by US authorities, knew some of their bankers had acted in a way that meant they risked breaching American securities laws at least a year before the US inquiries began, according to the Financial Times.
The May 2006 letter, seen by the FT and now in the hands of the US Department of Justice, was written by Peter Kurer, UBS chairman and then the bank's general counsel, and copied to Marcel Rohner, then head of private banking and now group chief executive, as well as Lawrence Weinbach, a UBS director who sits on the board's audit committee.
It was written to Bradley Birkenfeld, a former UBS banker at the centre of US inquiries into whether the bank helped its wealthy American clients evade taxes by transferring their money to European tax havens.
Mr Birkenfeld, who admitted this year to helping a billionaire US businessman evade millions in tax while at UBS, has been co-operating with the authorities.
