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This report summarizes the provisions affecting charitable contribution deductions of individuals, and then analyzes the incentive such a deduction would create for increased charitable giving beginning with the original proposal for a relatively low cap and then considering other approaches including the current one. It does not attempt to estimate other types of societal impacts. The non-itemizer’s charitable deduction was the single most important tax provision in the original version of H.R. 7. In S. 1924, S. 476, and the current version of H.R. 7, the nonitemizer provision was temporary and had a higher cap (and a floor). The provision affecting rollovers from IRAs, which can also function as a deduction for nonitemizers, is also discussed briefly.

This report provides information about the Corporate "Inversions" and "Expatriation" on Firms That Incorporate Abroad for Tax Purposes where increasing number of U.S firms have altered their structure by substituting a foreign parent corporation for a domestic one.

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Cyprus has been divided since 1974. Greek Cypriots, nearly 80% of the population, live in the southern two thirds of the island. Turkish Cypriots live in the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (recognized only by Turkey), with about 30,000 Turkish troops providing security. U.N. peacekeeping forces maintain a buffer zone between the two. Members of Congress have urged the Administration to be more active, although they have not proposed an alternative to the U.N.-sponsored talks.

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Although hostilities in Afghanistan have not yet ended and the war on terrorism in Afghanistan continues, relief and reconstruction efforts to assist the people of Afghanistan are well underway. International attention has mostly focused on Afghanistan’s short- and medium-term future. While questions continue between the United States and its allies about division of labor, burdensharing, and exit strategies, Congress continues to examine the assistance progress, aid priorities, long-term reconstruction proposals, and the implementation role to be played by the United States. Furthermore, Congress considers the FY2003 funding for Afghanistan inadequate and is calling for significantly higher appropriations. A brief overview of the current situation provides a snapshot of the progress to date and the many challenges that lie ahead.

This report provides FY2002 spending and FY2003 outlook of HIV/AIDS International programs.

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Trade remedies are government measures to minimize the adverse impact of imports on domestic industries. Anti-dumping duties are used to counter the effects of imports sold at unfairly low prices on the domestic market. Countervailing duties are used to counter the price effects of imports that benefit from government subsidies in the exporting countries. Safeguard remedies (also called Section 201 and escape clause remedies) are used to reduce the injurious impact of surges in fairly trade imports.

This report provides an overview of the Cuban economy. Recent congressional interest in Cuba has centered on the partial lifting of trade sanctions on agricultural products and medicine. The 107th Congress may consider further easing of sanctions or other alterations to the trade embargo in effect since 1962. The paper first presents a brief historical overview of the Cuban economy. This history is characterized by dependence on major powers: first Spain, then the United States, and then the Soviet Union. The report then charts the different, and often conflicting, economic policy courses that Fidel Castro has pursued since his rise to power in 1959.

This report reviews the process and procedures that currently apply to congressional consideration of foreign arms sales proposed by the President. This includes consideration of proposals to sell major defense equipment, defense articles and services, or the re-transfer to third party nations of such military items.

This report discusses intelligence issues for Congress including narcotics trafficking, conflicts between Israel and Palestine, in Iraq, and among the former Yugoslav states, and North Korean missile capabilities. Updated February 20, 2002.

We compare the Implicit Monte Carlo (IMC) technique to the Symbolic IMC (SIMC) technique, with and without weight vectors in frequency space, for time-dependent line transport in the presence of collisional pumping. We examine the efficiency and accuracy of the IMC and SIMC methods for examples involving the evolution of a collisionally pumped trapping problem to steady-state, the surface heating of cold media by a beam, and the diffusion of energy from a localized region that is collisionally pumped. The importance of spatial biasing and teleportation for problems involving high opacity is demonstrated. Our numerical solution, along with its associated teleportation error, is checked against theoretical calculations for the last example.

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