WASHINGTON -- President Bush's tax commission has rejected the idea of a national sales tax and has voiced strong misgivings over European-style consumption taxes, drawing complaints of timidity from critics who wanted the panel to scrap the income tax.\n"Apparently they have dismissed out of hand the prospect of fundamental reform," said Leo Linbeck, chairman and chief executive officer of Americans for Fair Taxation, a group advocating a federal retail sales tax. "That's disappointing to me, as you might expect."\nThe President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform meets Tuesday to start wrapping up its work on recommendations for making the federal tax system fairer, simpler and better for economic growth. Its final report is due Nov. 1.\nLast week, the panel's nine members opposed replacing income taxes with a national retail sales tax, voicing concerns about high tax rates and rampant tax evasion.\nWhen it meets again Tuesday, the members will revisit the possibility of recommending a value added tax -- a levy used widely in Europe that imposes a tax on increased value of a product at each stage of production and passed on to consumers.
New chancellor in Germany finalizes Cabinet selection
BERLIN -- Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel completed her Cabinet lineup Monday by naming several key conservatives, including the former interior minister who negotiated the treaty that reunited Germany after the Berlin Wall fell.\nMerkel, head of the conservative Christian Democrats, was forced to divide her new Cabinet equally with the country's other major party, the Social Democrats, under a power-sharing deal that will make her Germany's first female leader.\nThe Social Democrats, the party of current Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, named its selections last week.\nAfter Merkel's selections were announced, the parties met to discuss policy initiatives for the new government. The talks are expected to last weeks.\n"I think they will be tough talks -- but we will conduct them on the basis that we want to reach a target, because we want to turn voters' choice into a government that is capable of action," Merkel said.\nMerkel's nominations included returning Wolfgang Schaeuble to the Interior Ministry, where he served under conservative Chancellor Helmut Kohl and guided the negotiation of the treaty that reunited Germany after the Cold War.\nAs the country's top security official, he will have a leading role in efforts to crack down on supporters of terrorism and Islamic radicals.
sh: Pakistan's quake relief flights resume as rain clears; death toll above 54,000
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan -- A halt in heavy rains Monday allowed helicopter relief flights to resume across Pakistan's quake zone, but fresh landslides hampered efforts to move supplies by road. Officials estimated the death toll could now be more than 54,000.\nPakistan said it was willing to accept an offer from rival India to send helicopters for earthquake relief operations, but without Indian pilots -- either military or commercial. The nations have fought three wars since 1947, but India has sent quake relief aid to its neighbor.
