Wombs for Rent in India (RT Documentary)

RTD crew travels to India to investigate its booming surrogacy industry. Surrogacy for profit is a controversial issue, due to fears that it may leave vulnerable women open to exploitation. However, those at centers such as the Akanksha Infertility Clinic in Gujarat are convinced of the benefits for all involved. Dr. Nayna Patel has so far helped over 500 childless couples become parents to their own offspring, while providing surrogate mothers with a life-changing sum of money. 

Apple most valuable US company ever worth $700bn

Apple has become the first US company to be worth more than $700 billion, which is nearly double its nearest rival, Exxon Mobil.

This new high comes after record sales of big-screen iPhones and a fourth-quarter profit that was the largest in corporate history.

READ MORE: Apple posts biggest quarterly earnings in corporate history

Shares in the US tech giant rose 1.9 percent on Tuesday and closed at just over $122, breaking the record for the highest US market capitalization. The company continued its growth streak Wednesday, as the share price rose another 1.52 percent in early trading to reach $123.80. In 2000, it was Microsoft that became the first American company to close with a $600 billion valuation.

Apple’s sales are rising incredibly fast in China, a vast market in which the firm earned $38 billion in 2014, up from $1 billion a few years ago, said Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. He also added that Apple earned $50 billion in emerging markets over the past calendar year.

The record $18 billion quarterly profit was driven by the sale of 74.5 million iPhones.

Apple’s CEO also revealed the company plans to invest about $850 million in a California solar farm to cut its energy bill. The construction of the project, in partnership with First Solar, is expected to start in mid-2015 and finish by the end of next year, Reuters says. Cook called it his company’s “biggest, boldest and most ambitious project ever,” and said it was part of Apple's commitment to clean energy and corporate responsibility.

Shares in First Solar rose nearly 5 percent on the news and continued to rise in after-hours trading.

Read more via RT here

Rope used to hang Saddam Hussein on sale

A piece of the rope that was used to execute former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein has been put up for auction with the latest bid standing at $7 million.

The current owner of the morbid object is Iraqi politician Dr. Mawaffak al-Rubaie, who led the dictator to his death.
Numerous people, including a rich Israeli family, a religious organization in Iran and two Kuwaiti businessmen have expressed a serious interest in buying it, Middle East news website, Al-Araby al-Jadeed, reported.

However, another current affairs website, Middle East Eye, says that Dr. Al-Rubaie wants more cash than the $7 million offered so-far.

Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, was in power for more than 23 years until being deposed from power by an American-led invasion in 2003. Hundreds of thousands of people, including many Kurds and Shias, are believed to have been killed during his brutal rule on account of their political and religious views.

Caleb Maupin, a political analyst, told RT: "This just shows how cheap justice has become when they are selling the implements of execution - profits really dominate everything, nothing is really sacred. If you look at all the countries the US has invaded whether it's Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yugoslavia, which suffered from US bombing, never did they bring stability, never did they bring peace. They bring chaos and destruction. War is really motivated by profits and this is just a further illustration of that."

Dr. Al-Rubaie was himself tortured by forces working for Saddam because of his political beliefs. He believes that Saddam deserved to be executed and he told the Independent in 2013 that he had nothing but contempt for the old man as he led him to the gallows.

“I was hoping to see him show some remorse for the terrible crimes, the hundreds of thousands of his own citizens that he and his henchmen killed. But there was nothing,” he said.

However, the grisly auction has sparked criticism from human rights groups, while one campaigner, Ahmeed Saheed, told Al-Araby-Al-Jadeed that he thinks the proceeds from any sale should be given to the Iraqi treasury.

Saddam was found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal in 2004, although many rights groups including Amnesty International believed the trial to have been unfair.

As many as 206,000 people have died since the US invasion in 2003, and the country is now battling a bloody insurgency, with Islamic State militants in control of many areas of the north and west of Iraq, amid other sporadic acts of violence, bombing and killings between the Sunni and Shia populations.

FULL STORY: http://on.rt.com/cpfj8c