Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has described comments by broadcaster Alan Jones as "unacceptable and offensive", but will not rule out future invitations to speak at Liberal Party functions.

More than a dozen companies have pulled advertising from Sydney radio station 2GB after Jones made controversial comments about the Prime Minister's father who recently died.

Jones told a Young Liberals dinner that John Gillard "died of shame" because of what the broadcaster described as his daughter's political "lies".

He has since apologised for the remarks and returned to the airwaves this morning declaring he was wrong.

"Those listening to this program know that when I'm wrong, I have no difficulty in admitting I'm wrong," Jones said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-10-02/abbott-jones/4290912

It's heartening to know that when Jones "knows" he is wrong he will admit he's wrong... The problem is that Jones rarely knows he is wrong when he is wrong most of the time... 

Western companies have always treaded fairly carefully in Saudi Arabia. (When Starbucks opened its coffee shops in Saudi Arabia, it removed the long-haired woman from the logo, keeping only her crown.) But while women appear pretty infrequently in Saudi advertising (and usually in long dresses with head covered), and while Saudi Arabia certainly applies strict rules of gender segregation, Saudi Arabia doesn't actually prohibit the depiction of women in marketing material.

What Ikea had done was a cultural overreaction that caused a fair bit of brand damage in its home country, with even politicians weighing in.

"You cannot remove or retouch women out of reality," Swedish trade minister Ewa Bjorling said.

Normally politicians don't weigh in when a company stuffs up, but Ikea and Sweden have a co-dependent relationship. Ikea is very much a nation brand. The colours of Ikea are the Swedish national colours, the shops serve Swedish meatballs, and designs are in typical Swedish blonde wood.

A visit to Ikea is a quasi visit to Sweden. Their values are akin. Ikea is a brand that prides itself on inclusiveness and social decency. And Sweden is a country that prides itself on its strict gender equality protections. So the airbrushing felt so off-brand, so wrong, that an outcry was warranted - they were told in no uncertain terms that they had not only let themselves down, but their country.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4291676.html?WT.svl=theDrum

One could actually suspect that the "furore" has been deliberately created by the Swedes of Ikea with a longer term view: being prepared to take some flak on the nose but in the process highlight in a reverse way the plight of women in Saudi Arabia in a way that shows the reality of Saudi men rules and the segregation...

Two parliamentary committees are due to question tax officials about how Starbucks has been able to avoid paying tax on £1.2bn of sales since 2009.

MPs said that reports of a Reuters investigation showing Starbucks had been telling investors its UK business was highly profitable, while telling the authorities it was lossmaking and therefore not liable for tax, undermined public trust in the tax system.

Margaret Hodge, the Labour chair of the public accounts committee, is one of several MPs who have called for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to launch an investigation into Starbucks' tax affairs.

Hodge said the head of HMRC and other officials would be testifying to the committee next month and there were "questions to answer" about Starbucks' practices.

There is no evidence that Starbucks has engaged in any kind of wrongdoing, and the company said it paid its tax in Britain to the letter of the law.

Defending the company against public anger at the news of its tax bill, Starbucks' UK managing director Kris Engskov issued a lengthy post on the company's blog.

In an initial version he wrote: "The most important thing to understand is that Starbucks does pay tax in the UK. Indeed over the last three years we have paid over £160m in various taxes, including Pay As You Earn for our 8,500 UK employees, national insurance and business rates."

The post was subsequently changed to remove the reference to PAYE, which is a tax on employees' earnings, not on businesses, but the figure of £160m remained. The company said £87m of that was VAT – which is a tax on consumers.

read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/17/starbucks-tax-avoidance-hmrc-parliamentary-committees/print

Swedish furniture company Ikea says it deeply regrets that it used forced labour by East German political prisoners during the 1960s and 1970s.

Former political prisoners of the Stasi, the much-feared East German secret police, claimed they were forced to work on Ikea furniture.

The allegations prompted the Swedish furniture giant to commission a report, which found that the claims were true and that Ikea representatives were aware of the situation.

Stasi Prison Memorial director Dr Hubertus Knabe says Ikea gave contracts to the East German government and did not ask who was producing its furniture and under what conditions

A victims' group says Ikea was not the only company to benefit from forced prison labour.

Ikea says it deeply regrets the use of forced labour and says it now has one of the most rigorous codes for conduct for suppliers.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-17/report-shows-ikea-used-forced-labour/4377400

Despite reporting decades of miserable results, Swedish furniture company IKEA's Australian arm has earned an estimated $1 billion in profits since 2003, and almost all of it has been exported tax-free to Luxembourg and the Netherlands, reports the Australian Financial Review.

Documents submitted by accounting firm PwC to Luxembourg officials help unlock one of the mysteries of Australian retailing – how the flat-pack giant could lift its sales here by 500 per cent while its profits barely budged.