Flickr unveiled its new Web site design, showing off high-resolution rectangular photos and a free terabyte of space for users. But the new Flickr still feels like it’s missing something. … Read More
Gap, Walmart holdout in Bangladesh safety agreement following factory disaster
A growing number of major European retailers have so far announced this week that they will participate in a plan to upgrade fire and safety in Bangladesh — including Spanish retailer Inditex, parent company of Zara, British retail giants Primark and Tesco, as well as H&M. The latter being the largest purchaser of garments made in Bangladesh. The agreement, known as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, comes on the heels of a catastrophic incident at the Rana Plaza building, the worst in the history of the global garment industry, which collapsed on April 24, trapping over a thousand workers in the rubble. Labor groups have continued to exert pressure on major American companies, including Walmart and Gap, to take part in the new safety agreement. According to the New York Times, however, both companies have so far refused to sign the new agreement. Gap, which is reported to offer the strongest opposition to the new plan, is said to be concerned that the agreement would entangle the company in legal cases filed by American lawyers on behalf of workers in Bangladesh and seeks reduced legal liability. Walmart, which has been independently conducting factory inspections in Bangladesh since a fire killed 110 in November, has rejected the agreement’s inclusion of “dispute resolution mechanisms”. Europe as a whole accounts for 60 per cent of the country’s clothing exports, according to the Times. Italian fashion label Benetton, British retailer Marks & Spencer and Spanish retailer Mango became the latest European companies to agree to sign a contract that will mandate independent safety inspections of factories, as well as cover the costs of repairs. According to the Associated Press, the new pact also calls for retailers to pay up to $500,000 a year toward the effort, and to halt business with any Bangladesh factory that refuses to make safety improvements.The new agreement would be legally binding, as opposed to Walmart’s independent safety plan announced on Tuesday, which is voluntary and was criticized by labor groups such as the AFL-CIO.”It’s not surprising, and the timing is fishy,” Brian Finnegan, global worker rights coordinator at the AFL-CIO, remarked to the Huffington Post.”The whole point of what we’re doing is to make it binding and enforceable,” he added.Prior to the large factory collapse companies including PHV, which oversees well-known American labels such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod, had already agreed to sign the new safety pact.Bangladesh hosts some 5,000 garment factories and employs 3.6 million garment workers. According to AP that makes the country the third-biggest exporter of clothes in the world after China and Italy.In addition to hazardous working conditions, pay for workers in Bangladesh is severely depressed as a result of government anti-union efforts and the scarcity of employment. Compensation for workers in the country is one of the lowest worldwide, with an average pay of $38 per month.Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium and one of the sponsors of the safety agreement, praised its potential.“This agreement is exactly what is needed to finally bring an end to the epidemic of fire and building disasters that have taken so many lives in the garment industry in Bangladesh,” said Nova.Documents provided to the Times indicate that Walmart had sourced clothing from the collapsed factory through a Canadian contractor. The American retailer, the second-largest producer of clothing in Bangladesh, is considered one of the main barriers to cementing the safety agreement. … Read More
‘Kosovo is Serbia’: Thousands protest implementation of ‘normalizing ties’ deal
Signed in Brussels in mid-April, “the landmark agreement between Belgrade and Pristina” is seen by ultra-nationalists as Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo that declared independence in 2008.The protest was called by northern Kosovo Serb political leaders who also fiercely oppose the implementation of the 15-point pact. Serbia’s Parliament backed the deal in a 173-24 vote on April 26. Protesters gathered at Republic Square in downtown Belgrade at 12:44 local time (10:44 GMT) as a symbolic reference to UN Security Council Resolution 1244. Signed in June 1999 it placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (UNMIK) and authorized KFOR, a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Many of those who attended the rally were wearing flags and chanted “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” and “Treason!” referring to the government, which protesters are calling to reject the Brussels agreement. Banners unfolded above the crowd read “Serbia comes before everything else”, “We will liberate Kosovo”, “Kosovo is Serbia”, and “We will not give up Kosovo”.Reports on the number of protesters vary with local InSerbia news saying up to 10,000 people attended the rally, while AFP reported about 3,000 people.Top officials of the ultra-nationalist Democratic Party of Serbia, the country’s former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, dignitaries from the Serbian Orthodox Church and officials, who strongly oppose the deal, addressed protesters from the stage. “We are just one of you, ordinary Serbs who have been forced by world powers, and recently by our own authorities, to fight and defend the lives of our children, our homes and holy places,” Slavisa Ristic, the Mayor of Zubin Potok, a city in northern Kosovo, said from the stage.He called the Brussels agreement a betrayal of Serbia, adding the government was intent on “selling Kosovo and the Serbian people”, local B92 news reported. After the protest was over at 15:00 local time, demonstrators headed toward to the Serbian Government building, where they chanted “Traitors” and “You sold Kosovo!”They then continues their way towards the Russian embassy, where when arrived they started chanting “Serbia, Russia, We do need Union!” InSerbia news said. The agreement reached during the EU-mediated negotiations between Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic and his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci, provides for the merger of the four Serb municipalities in the north (North Mitrovica, Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic) subject to Kosovo law.This urban district would have powers over economic development, education, healthcare and town planning.Under the new deal, Serbs in northern Kosovo will have their own police and appeal court.Both sides also agreed to not block each other’s efforts to seek EU membership.Prior to the deal, Serbia rejected an agreement proposal because the terms did not “guarantee full security and protection of human rights to the Serb people in Kosovo”.The move is widely regarded as a step towards Serbia’s entry into the European Union. EU lawmakers called on the European Council to grant Belgrade long-anticipated candidate status at a session in March. However, Kosovo remains the main obstacle to accession.Belgrade and Pristina have seen sporadic ethnic tensions over sovereignty, as the Kosovo region has a Serbian population of over 220,000. The most serious in recent years was in 2004, when dozens of Serbian Orthodox churches across Kosovo were set on fire. In 2011 Kosovo Serbs proved their resistance against Pristina’s control, constructing barricades to prevent authorities from entering their enclave in a bid to show their opposition Kosovo’s independence, insisting the province – which has a majority Albanian population – was still part of Serbia. The both sides managed to agree that the border would be jointly policed. … Read More
Nevada state senator comes out of closet during debate
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — As Nevada legislators emotionally debated a move toward same-sex marriage, one lawmaker rose to his feet and declared, “I’m gay.”Nevada state Sen. Kelvin Atkinson says that he quickly picked up hundreds of new friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter.”I never considered myself not out,” said Atkinson, a North Las Vegas Democrat. “I didn’t care who knew, I just didn’t ever think that I needed to make a public statement about it.”However, he was moved to speak out late Monday night after listening to passionate, soul-searching testimony from his colleagues as they debated Senate Joint Resolution 13, which would abolish the heterosexual definition of marriage that’s been in the Nevada Constitution since 2002, when voters overwhelmingly approved the Protection of Marriage Act.”I didn’t think. I just knew it was time,” Atkinson said.Nevada is one of 29 states with a constitutional provision prohibiting same-sex marriage, and SRJ13 seeks to repeal the law and declare that Nevada recognizes all marriages, regardless of gender. It passed the Senate and is now in the Assembly where passage is likely. If approved by legislators this year and in 2015, it would go before voters in 2016.Continue Reading… … Read More
Toshiba’s new Kirabook touts 13.3" 2560×1440 screen, premium design
Toshiba has announced a new premium notebook family whose sole member may be the only high-end ultrabook to offer a 2560×1440 display. Named “Kirabook,” the system is Toshiba's first to ship with an ultra-high resolution PixelPure screen, which is protected by Corning's Concore Glass, can be had in a standard… … Read More
Russia to vote against ‘one-sided’ UN Syria resolution
The draft was proposed by several UN member-states and is expected to be put to a vote shortly, the ministry said on Saturday; Moscow has criticized the resolution for being “one-sided.”The draft resolution blames only the Syrian government for the tragic and bloody crisis in the conflict-torn republic. This is despite the Syrian opposition’s “illegal, including terrorist, actions,” the Foreign Ministry said, adding that many such violations had been confirmed by international organizations.In addition, the draft “completely ignores” the external logistical and financial support that the Syrian rebels already receive.The document is also full of contradictions, the Russian Foreign Ministry explained: It supports the Arab League’s decision to delegitimize Bashar Assad’s government while placing a range of demands on the regime, “which in fact means the recognition of its legitimacy.”Moscow said that this “antagonism” also undermines the mandate of the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, who has been tasked with negotiating with all parties involved in the conflict to broker a political solution.The resolution’s authors seek the General Assembly’s approval for their “unilateral plans on Syria, guided by the sole purpose of the regime change and totally ignoring regional and political consequences of such a scenario,” the Foreign Ministry said.The new draft document is also “practically identical” to two previous UN resolutions adopted in February and August 2012, which only “hampered the crisis settlement process,” the ministry said. Russia has called on the draft’s authors to drop the resolution, and to work with all the parties involved in the Syrian crisis according to guidelines of the June 30, 2012, Geneva Communiqué. “This document remains the only viable platform” for resolving the two-year conflict, Moscow said.Russia, along with China, voted against the General Assembly’s non-binding resolutions in August and February 2012. As with this new draft, Moscow slammed both documents as unbalanced and one-sided.Moscow maintains that the only solution to the violence engulfing Syria is open political dialogue between the opposing sides.“What is going on is a massacre, this is a disaster, a catastrophe. It has to be stopped,” President Vladimir Putin said earlier in April in an interview with Germany’s ARD TV. “It is necessary to bring all the warring parties to the negotiating table. I believe that this is the first step that has to be done, and then it is necessary to elaborate further steps during a discussion, which is important in our view.” … Read More
Tuesday tech deals: 27" Dell UltraSharp 2560×1440 IPS display $560
Dell Home offers its Dell UltraSharp U2713HM 27″ LED-Backlit IPS LCD Monitor for $560 with free shipping. That's the lowest total price we could find by $69, although it was $10 less a week ago. Sales tax is added where applicable. Features include a native resolution of… … Read More
