More on the Great Tax Race
♦ Luxembourg is set to share currently confidential information about multinationals’ bank accounts, showing how much it wants to shed its image as a tax haven at a time of a political and popular backlash against tax avoidance.
♦ One of the biggest hedge fund service businesses on the Cayman Islands has tried to block sweeping reforms to make the tax haven more transparent.
♦ Jeffrey Sachs writes about how austerity has exposed the threat of global tax havens: “In the new world of austerity following the 2008 crash… they are increasingly seen as a cancer on the global financial system that must be excised.”
The rest of the world
♦ Despite Dutch politics being roiled by waves of populist anger and anti-elitism, Willem-Alexander ascends to the throne amid an outpouring of popular enthusiasm – polls show support for preserving the Dutch monarchy running as high as 85 per cent.
♦ President Hamid Karzai acknowledges that the Central Intelligence Agency has been dropping off bags of cash at his office for a decade: “Not a big amount. A small amount, which has been used for various purposes.”
♦ Reuters takes a look through the confidential report prepared for the Cypriot central bank, which found that the Bank of Cyprus had been willing to invest in risky, high-yield Greek debt in its efforts to offset an erosion of its balance sheet from non-performing loans. The report also alleges that 28,000 files, containing emails from a crucial period during which the Bank of Cyprus spent billions of euros buying Greek bonds, were erased before investigators could copy them.
♦ A singer’s lament for Syria, broadcast on “Arab Idol”, has become a hit in the Arab world.
♦ Bangalore, once an advertisement for a new, confident India, is losing some of its sheen.  Read more